Saturday Spotlight: Christine from Little Brags

Hi, everyone!   Kris from Junk Chic Cottage and I wanted to do a regular feature on our blogs, something unique that hasn't been done before.   So we came up with an idea to 'spotlight the real life behind the blogger' in a more personal way.

There is so much talent and inspiration in blogland, and we thought it would be fun to bring you a closer look at the person behind the blog.

Every week on Saturday we will spotlight a blogger and have them tell us a little bit about themselves and their blogs.  You will be able to see and read about each of the bloggers on both Kris's and my blog. 

      

Today I'd like to introduce you to Christine from Little Brags. Christine has a comfortable, rustic style that I love and a great, upbeat attitude! I also love seeing pics of her adorable bunny-he'll make you smile!
Please sit back, relax, and enjoy getting to know Christine better.
First off, I want to give a BIG thank you to Susan from Must Love Junk and Kris from Junk Chic Cottage for inviting me to be featured here today!!!!!

Hola, I'm Christine from Little Brags. I started my little blog a little over a year ago, after discovering so many wonderful blogs through Pinterest. I was quickly drawn into the beautiful and inspiring land of blogs. I really had no idea what I was doing, I was just so inspired and I wanted to improve our home and share my journey along the way. Here is a little glimpse of my style ....

INSIDE

I really don't know what my style is called "exactly", since I love so many things...But I definitely love rustic accents throughout, nothing too formal. One can never have enough old crates, string lights and lanterns...lol 
Outside

So, what can I say about myself? I was born and raised in Germany. I moved to the US in 1993 at the age of 19 to get married to my husband of 20 years. We have one little 8 year old boy who is truly a gift from God. Here is our little Family of three.

Family

We live in a little subdivision on the outskirts of Olympia, WA in the beautiful and wet Pacific Northwest.

I am a Bookkeeper for a local Real Estate Company that is owned by my husbands Mom and Dad. Since I work for Family I have been blessed with flexible hours. I am home early enough to pick up our son from school every day and I was able to work out of our home a lot through the first years and avoid the "Day-Care thing".

We also have a little fuzzy rabbit and a tortoise. Sadly, we just lost our sweet sweet Newfoundland Bruce this year. He was almost 12 years old and we miss him much!

Pets

Thanks so very much for coming over and reading about me.

I tried to keep is short and sweet....I know how overwhelming ones inbox gets with blog posts to keep up with.

If you liked my style, please come visit me at Little Brags 

You can also find me on 

Facebook  Pinterest  Bloglovin

 Hometalk  Google Plus

xoxoxo Christine

Christine, thanks so much for sharing with us today! Please visit her blog Little Brags, then head over to visit Kris's blog to read more about Theresa from The Old White House!

Have a great day :)

A New Chair and a Catnap

(Thank you to Revisionary Life for featuring this post!)

I was out shopping with my mom recently when we spotted this fun chair.  I had to have it!

I love everything about it...the chippy paint, the stenciled bee on burlap, and the checked print.

I brought it into the house, and while trying to decide where to put it, someone wasted no time in taking it over! (Bob)

When I finally chose a spot for it to 'land' (at least for now) someone else immediately took it over! (Bo)

I guess it's been approved as a pretty comfy chair! :)

I've been changing things up a bit, and this is an area that has been recently 'freshened'...it's part of our living room and part of our front hallway.  Kind of confusing, I know, until you see it.

The first of my changes was bringing this ladder draped with vintage linens down from our master bedroom.

I then hung my new set of antlers above it.

Then I brought over the drop leaf table that was is the center of the hallway.

I kept the birdcage here but added the topiary in a bucket...

...and placed this basket underneath the table...

I thought my new chair would be a welcome addition, so I tucked it into the corner...

...and I think it complements the ensemble nicely!

Now I just wonder if I'll ever have a chance to sit in this cute chair...?

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Have a wonderful day :)

I'm sharing at these great blogs:   thoughts from alice
                                                  Coastal Charm
                                                  Revisionary Life

Saturday Spotlight: Olive from Olive Out

Hi, everyone!   Kris from Junk Chic Cottage and I wanted to do a regular feature on our blogs, something unique that hasn't been done before.   So we came up with an idea to 'spotlight the real life behind the blogger' in a more personal way.

There is so much talent and inspiration in blogland, and we thought it would be fun to bring you a closer look at the person behind the blog.

Every week on Saturday we will spotlight a blogger and have them tell us a little bit about themselves and their blogs.  You will be able to see and read about each of the bloggers on both Kris's and my blog. 

      

My guest for today is Olive from Olive Out.  She is a true kindred spirit with her love of vintage items and staying true to her decorating style.  On her blog you'll find evidence of her amazing green thumb, see her fun vintage finds, and read about her sweet cat and dog.

Please sit back, relax, and enjoy getting to know Olive better!

Hello y'all. I'm Olive from Olive Out. I have been happily blogging for four years. I had not one iota of knowledge about it when I started and simply dived into the deep end of the blogging pond. I have learned from all of you as I went along. I have much that needs doing and much that I absolutely ignore. 

I am a retired R.N. I worked in a large university teaching hospital for twenty five years. Nursing enriched my life greatly. It also made me kind of crazy.  A teaching hospital is nonstop chaos. You have to be an adrenaline junkie to make it in that environment. One burns out fast. I burned out fast. 

As part of that university system I also worked for the Department of Corrections in two state prisons. I retired at age forty-five with a full retirement because I had the years to do it. Thank God. I have sweet, sad, and scary stories to tell. You can read some of my stories, personal and professional, in my Hold Everything Lightly Series.

This charming, beguiling, and wonderful man is an enormous blessing to me. We recently celebrated our tenth wedding anniversary. We are incredibly thankful to have found each other at our advanced age. He enjoys Olive Out nearly as much as I do. He reads every comment and goes to many of your blogs. We spend a lot of time on our yellow house and on my antique booths.

This is South Korea Girl, or CC to many of you. She is our smart college age daughter who will be returning from a semester in South Korea soon. She also followed that by an internship there. She had been living with a missionary couple. Now she is living with a Korean family from the church. CC's faith in God has deepened with this trip. The Korean language is her minor. She has studied Korean for almost two years. No doubt she will be returning to South Korea. If only she would do all my tech work for the blog.

I propagate my own hydrangeas by the layering method. 

It sounds difficult but is very easy.

I am obsessed with transferware. 

I have a growing gallery wall.

I  love thrifting like my cat loves milk. I have been a thrifter since I was a teenager. We have two houses. An old old one and a yellow house which for now is our second home. The yellow house and it's garden appear on the blog. We furnished the yellow house almost completely with second hand finds. I hardly ever buy new items. An item with patina means much more to me. Saving money means quite a bit too.

After completing the decor of the yellow house (which is never done…wink), I could not stop thrifting.  I had been a pretty large consigner therefore it was not a big leap to go into an antique booth with my business partner (and dear friend). Beth and I now have four antiques booths and would like to have more. They keep me quite busy but I love the work. The joy of the hunt is thrilling. Ya'll know, right?

I especially enjoy working in my flower garden. I may not be an expert at gardening but my soul is certainly soothed and bathed in peace in that garden. There are always flower pics on the blog.

We have two fur babies. Shelley, a male German Shepherd and Gremmie a gangster dilute calico female cat. 

We three are at their service at all times.

Please come see me at oliveout.com .

 I would love to chat with you.

Thank you Susan for giving me this moment on Must Love Junk.

Olive, thank you so much for sharing with us!  Please visit her blog at Olive Out then pop over to Kris's blog to read about Melissa from Shabby Love!
Have a wonderful day :)

Spring Mantel 2014

(Thank you to Thoughts From Alice for featuring this post!)

Hi, everyone!  Although we've still had snow as recently as last week, it's officially spring so I'm going with it!

I've really been loving soft greens and blues lately; they feel so fresh and 'spring-y' to me. So for my spring mantel I decided to add some color!  I took my inspiration from these botanical prints that I got a couple of months ago.  You may remember them from here.

I kept them in this chippy frame, but displayed them a bit differently than before.

From my basement I unearthed this stash of little glass bottles that I've had forever, and grouped them in front of the frame.  The aqua blue and green ones add such a pretty hint of color.

To the left I stacked some old books and topped them with my silver candleabra.  Next to that is a green seltzer bottle...

To the right I placed my silver monogrammed sugar bowl...

to which I added some moss and faux blue and green speckled eggs.

Next to that I placed my large silver urn...

...which is holding a topiary.

I kept up the burlap banner, and here is the finished mantel...

I tried to tie the colors together in a subtle way...

...so that the effect would be calming but still say 'spring'.
I love my neutrals, but this feels like a breath of fresh air to me!

Now I just wish that the weather would say 'spring' too! ;)

Thanks so much for stopping by...have a wonderful day!

I'm sharing with these great blogs:  My 1929 Charmer
                                                    thoughts from alice
                                                    Coastal Charm

Saturday Spotlight: Stacey from Poofing the Pillows

Hi, everyone!   Kris from Junk Chic Cottage and I wanted to do a regular feature on our blogs, something unique that hasn't been done before.   So we came up with an idea to 'spotlight the real life behind the blogger' in a more personal way.

There is so much talent and inspiration in blogland, and we thought it would be fun to bring you a closer look at the person behind the blog.

Every week on Saturday we will spotlight a blogger and have them tell us a little bit about themselves and their blogs.  You will be able to see and read about each of the bloggers on both Kris's and my blog. 

                                                               
                                                               

Today I'd like to introduce you to a sweet blogger, Stacey from Poofing the Pillows.  She has a fun, fresh style and on her blog she invites you to follow along on her decorating journey.
Please sit back, relax, and enjoy getting to know Stacey better!

Hi Susan! Thanks for inviting me over now give me a second to calm my nerves! 

I said yes to this and then got really scared! 

It's easy to show pictures of my house and talk about it but me? Yikes!

Actually you'll rarely find me without my husband, Paul, by my side. 

We've been married 26 years and he's my favorite part of life!

We met in a neat way...when I graduated from college I was offered a job in

a small town in Texas that I'd never heard of in my life. That's where I met Paul. 

He didn't live there but his grandparents did. It was meant to be. ♥ 

We were married on Valentine's Day a year after we met.

We moved to the wonderful windy state of Oklahoma and lived there 23 years before

 moving back home to Texas almost 2 years ago.

Talk about an adjustment!!

We have two sons; Spencer is 24 and Tanner is 22.

I'm so proud of them that it can't even be put into words!

Blogging is strictly for fun in my book.

I've been blogging for several years at Poofing the Pillows.

It's a way to connect with other people who love their homes as much as I do.

When you visit my blog/house you'll immediately see that we love red.

I've used it for years and probably always will.

You know how certain colors can evoke good feelings?

Red does that for us.

Gardening is big for us too. We love a good project!

Somebody once commented that gardening is our love language.

I never would have thought of that myself but it couldn't be more true!

The yard at our last house was pretty wonderful but it took 11 years to get it there and then we moved.

The yard at this house is a flat out blank slate and we have a serious drought going on. Ugh!!

But some day maybe we can make our blank slate look like the last one.

Man how I miss that yard!

And we love good food. :)

My husband travels a lot for his job so we try to eat well when he's home.

He loves home cooked food. 

Our lives are far from perfect though I don't dwell on those parts on the blog.

We have health issues with several members of our family and 

the normal stresses that everyone experiences. 

In fact, if you and I had coffee we could talk about perimenopause, cancer, Alzheimer's, kids, etc.

You could say that my husband and I are the definition of sandwich generation these days.

To be honest, blogging is where I kind of forget those things and just play house.

I would love for y'all to visit.

Thank you Susan for having. 

Stacey :)

Stacey, thank you so much for sharing with us!  Please visit her at Poofing the Pillows, then head over to Kris's blog to read about Kim at Tidbits and Twine!
Have a wonderful day :)