Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Merry Christmas From Our Snowy Cottage to Yours!

 Hello + Hello!
Hoping you are thoroughly enjoying your
Christmas Season this year?
Are you getting enough rest?
Making time for the little things with your kids?
Riding slowly past all the pretty Christmas lights?
If not...remind yourself to do so ok?
That's the important stuff...the little things...the memory making.
>>>>>--------------->
Speaking of memory making....
we are so happy that we were blessed enough to get a little
snow this week!
(Maybe you saw my previous snowy black and white photo post?)
When you don't get much snow where you live...
this is a real treat!!
 



It was so wonderful....
Frosty even decided to make an appearance!
Praying you'll be able to experience a wonderful day
 filled with glorious
sssnow...snoW....snOW....sNOW.....S N O W !!!
(Just watched "White Christmas"....can you tell?)
It was a good day.
Memories were made & hearts were warmed.
>>>>>--------------->
So...
a very
 Merry Christmas
to you and yours,
&
may your days be filled with the wonder of the season!
xx
The Brinks

Friday, December 20, 2013

It's a Marshmallow World in the Winter.....

 Hello + Hello!
" Oh it's a marshmallow world in the winter....take a walk with my favorite girl..."
My favorite girl happens to be:
Olive.
 
She's my 11 year old
Fox Terrier.
(Also known as: Olive....the other reindeer.)
 
>>>>>--------------->
 
We had a nice little walk through the garden
this morning in the first snow we've had all year!
Gosh is was so pretty!
Olive becomes young again when it snows...
come to think of it,
so do I.
While the boys worked at building
Frosty...
(more on that another day)
Olive and I had a good time admiring little spots in the yard
that happened to catch our eyes....
 








It was awe inspiring, relaxing & joyous all rolled into one.
Hope you can get a little snow in your life this year...
I know I'm the better for it!
T.
xx

A Grandiflora Party...

Hello + Hello!
Oh it was a glorious party....
T.
xx
 

Thursday, December 5, 2013

My Home is Open to the Public this Saturday & YOU'RE INVITED!!!

 
  Hello + Hello!
Long time no post!
Yeah....I've been a little behind on blogging lately...
BUT
for a great reason....and ultimately an even BETTER cause.
My home,
amongst 4 other amazing homes
will be on tour this Saturday December 7th from 1-5.
It's a benefit tour for
which is a very worthy adoption agency
who works with
people both locally and abroad.
If you want more details you can head right over to our shop blog
to find out more about tickets & special discounts we are offering to
ticket holders the day of the sale only.
 
I've quickly uploaded a very few photos of my home
FROM LAST YEAR
 via my  
feed.
 
After all.....
....I didn't want to spoil the fun for what my home looks like this year,
as there have been many changes and additions to the decor
as you can probably imagine!!!
My hubby and I have been working very hard on a tight time schedule
&
an even tighter budget
to make our home festive with
second hand treasures,
Christmas décor
&
good old fashioned talent
to bring you the
charming-est
Century Old
1913
Christmas Bungalow
you have ever seen!
LOL!!!
So,
if you're local...
come on out for a really fun day
touring not only my cozy cottage....
but
FOUR
other homes
decked out for the Christmas Season.
YOU WON'T BE DISAPPOINTED.
Both of my sisters'
(also current & former owners at Grandiflora)
homes will be on tour, as well
as another gal who's hubby is a home designer/contractor...
as well as
Tami's sweet stone house, just down the road from me.
See more of her home story on her
I
hope you can be a part of this wonderful tour
for a wonderful-er
cause!
;)
Hugs,
Trish


Saturday, December 29, 2012

Holiday Blues?

 Hello + Hello!
How are you my lovely friends?
Are you doing ok with Christmas being over?
I know that every year at this time I go through a bit of withdrawal....
I simply LOVE Christmas time
&
frankly it's kinda hard to let it go.
I have slowly been going around the house gathering up decorations
 to be stowed away for another year.
I have yet to take the tree down...it just smells so sweet right now as it's finally
beginning to dry out.
Ohhhhh welllllll.
I will get it done sooner or later.
 Instead I decided to take a quick break from un-decorating to list a few new products online.
Above you see a beautiful new/vintage wallpaper that I'm
selling over on Etsy in my shop
I simply love the older graphics of vintage wallpaper and the hand blocking that was often used.
This powder blue beauty is so lovely for this time of the year....
I think this sweet treasury below is awesome as well:
 
...you can find it here.
I hope you will get over the holiday blues with me.
I'm sure once I get the Christmas decorations stowed away...
I'll be fine again....after all, there is a New Year to begin!
Cheers,
T.
xx

Monday, December 24, 2012

Although It's Been Said.......

 Hello + Hello!
I wanted to stop by and wish you a very MERRRY CHRISTMAS!
Here are a few chalkboard signs I made as gifts this year for my
employees...wish I had had the time to list them online,
but with all that was going on at the shop
it just didn't happen.
SO,
I thought I'd share them with you here anyway....
 I just love Christmas time don't you?
Ahhhhh.....
Well,
I'm going to leave you with our personal
Christmas Card Photo from 2012....
It's been a WONDERFUL life this year!
From Cabo San Lucas Mexico to the chilly lakes of the Pacific Northwest
we lived
LARGE
had
FUN
&
LOVED
life
TOGETHER.
Family is such a blessing...and we are thankful for eachother.
May the Lord of life bless you richly in the year ahead;
&
may you remember the real reason for the season.
 
With Love,
T.
xx


72 December Instagram Favorites



 Hello + Hello
&
Merry Christmas!
Just wanted to drop by my blog and say hi!
I've been a busy girl this past month with all that has to happen with owning a retail shop during the holiday season.
But,
I've always got my Droid with me wherever I go....
and therefore am able to capture little daily lovelies.
Here are just a few of my favorites...
yes...72 is a few.
LOL!!!






It's been a fun December so far with lots of crafting, baking, decorating & much much more!
I hope you are enjoying your
Christmas time as much as I have been.
So excited to go to Church tonight for our
Christmas Eve Service!!
I love EVERYTHING about gathering with those who love Jesus!!
Hoping you're well, and a Merry Christmas Eve to YOU!
Trish
xx

Monday, December 10, 2012

Welcome to my Studio Tour; a Before & After Affair

 Hello + Hello!
How are you all doing today?
I hope you are well?
I was wondering if you'd like to go on a little tour of my colorful studio?
Some of you know that I took this room over from my husband after our kiddos were born and we needed the space throughout the rest of the house for bedrooms.
( My craft space was once on the second floor and was first inhabited by Tristan and
then was taken over by Elliot.)
Chad used this room like a den for the computer and his guitars among other guy stuff.
It was a quite a ManCave in olive green, persimmon orange and black!
(Think cozy Starbucks colors from 2000)
As you can see it was dark, dark, dark!
(Pardon the pre-digital snapshot.)
Wish I could show you the rest of the room....but alas...we must move on.
>>>>>--------------->
As our needs have changed over the past 10-12 years here in our
cozy cottage bungalow....
I realized I wanted a space where I could still be on the main floor of the house,
&
yet be out of the mainstream walkways.
(ie: NOT WORKING AT THE DINING ROOM TABLE.)
I needed a room to create in and do business in.
Voila!
(After 4 years of hard work and rearranging....)
My new studio does all those things and more!
I need to say this:
I am very thankful to my hubby for all the help, support and generosity of giving up this space for me. He realized how important it was for me to have a work space of my own.
(Fortunately we have a larger basement, and he's happy to have much of that space for his things.)
 
Light filled and cheerful is what I was going for here.
I was also craving a feminine touch.
Living with one man and 2 boys doesn't allow for much in the feminine colorways.
The poor boys endured many of these items in our living space
 as they waited patiently for this room to be done.
But,
as soon as it was....the pink all came to live in here!
I love it!
(I think they might too!)
 I can store my hoards of vintage hangers here... 
 ...store my funky collections too!
 I had been collecting bins and containers for years!
It was wonderful to finally begin to find organization in all my chaotic cardboard boxes.
I tried very hard to purge as best I could as I was filling every bin.
Admitting that I still have all my vintage stock in plastic tubs in the basement would be the right thing to do here.
Anyone who has Etsy shops filled with vintage goodness knows that you still need a storage area for all the goodies whether they are listed....or are awaiting their debut online!
Mine are exquisitly shelved and stored in new storage containers awaiting their happy homes.
 Here's a happy little white feather tree with some Christmas spirit!
The funky old pj's were found thrifting....
I couldn't pass up the adult full sized hot pink footie pajamas!!!
Someday they will be a photo prop...just you wait and see!
Here's a shot of the swanky hot pink neglige'
See!
You just never know what you might use old junk for...this is a perfect
Bachelorette Party card!
So you see....collecting junk can actually be useful!
C'mon....work with me here people!
LOL!!!
The
"work table"
was once one of the two doors to this room.
I just plopped it on top of the two rolling rack storage bins from the craft store and made do.
I don't need the door to the hallway anyway...so why not?
It was a way to save some cash and get funky creative all at once!
The scene on this worktable changes with the seasons, or the work I'm doing at that moment.
I also had fun with my wall space!
This photo (above) was taken to show how you could use
washi tape to enliven a boring cork board.
I'm so happy to have two windows and two doorways to let lots of light into the studio!
I also have a fair amount of wall space to work with for artwork and shelving.

 The artwork and what-nots change frequently as I find new goodies thrifting etc...
the jadite green rocker above was used with both my little boys
(now 6 & 9)
as they were babies being nursed or rocked to sleep.
It holds a special place in my heart.
>S I G H<
This fun deer head was silver and sat around at our shop poking shoppers with it's antlers.
I guess folks just weren't interested....or not "getting it"...
SO,
I took him home and doctored him up with a
vintage fabric mod poded makeover!
He now lords proudly over the studio
making sure nothing but good times and whimsy would be had by all who enter the space!
Thank -you
so much again for visiting with me here on the blog.
I always appreciate your visits, comments & questions.
I hope you enjoyed the tour of my
creative space....
May it inspire you to make a space of your own, whether it be big or small...
all creative space is worth working for.
Believe me, after 4 years of picking away in my free time on this...
I'm happy to say:
"It was totally worth it!"
Cheers!
T.
xx