Fairy Garden

Fairy Garden!

Fairy Garden

The first Fairy Garden attempt!

This last weekend we decided to make a little fairy garden centerpiece for the patio table. We selected a theme of a sleeping fairy with a color scheme similar to what we have with the patio decor in aqua blues and greens.

We purchased all the fairy accessories from a local nursery, but I have included some links to a few online fairy garden accessory resources. I have not purchased anything from any of them, but thought you may find them helpful if you don’t have a garden center or any other sources near by. There are also plenty of ways to make fairy homes and such from items you can find out in nature as well. (read more)

Tiny She Shed

She Shed Decor Inspiration

With the upcoming shed renovation I have been doing a lot of online research for ideas of how to personalize the Shedquarters for Bohemian Cottage. I thought I would share with you here some of my favorites. You can see them all on my Pinterest board for Artist Studio, which is half of the intended purpose of the shed, along with running a business and relaxing too of course.

Tiny She Shed

Love the window boxes and color of this tiny shed. Source House Beautiful.

Some of the ideas that I am considering for decorating are to paint the sky mural on the pitched ceiling like I had at my old house and to finally add the 2 crystal chandeliers! So far I have one of the chandeliers and it gives off wonderful light with LED bulbs. I think I will keep the walls fairly subdued in color, like an off white or a tea stained parchment sort of color to give it a vintage look. I was considering doing a floral mural too. (read more)

How to level a shed

Leveling the Shed

Leveling the Shed

Concrete elephant feet and HiLo Jacks

We undertook the biggest challenge on our shed-o-vation yet- Leveling the Shed. The concrete below the shed has severely cracked and is sunk in, thus resulting in the shed being wayyyy out of level. Tom decided the best plan of action would be to use hiLo jacks to lift it, and then concrete elephant feet and half lap joints. He took his time to carefully cut all of the joints and boards by hand. Tom has been studying hand woodworking for a while now. We joke around that he is becoming a ninja elf since he likes the Japanese art of woodworking best. He sure was earning his elf ears that weekend! (read more)

She Shed in painting in progress

She Shed!

This is the front and main entry to the shed, IT was a sad little shed before…

For the entire year of 2016 you may have noticed I have been MIA! haha! Mia as in missing in action. There are many reasons I took some time off from the blog and the development of the business aspect of Bohemian Cottage. After my mom died in January of 2015, I had a really hard time focusing. I struggled with depression and and grief and that lack of focus eventually lead to less and less time devoted to the things I love, like cooking and sharing recipes, gardening, writing…Then my Dad announced in the fall of 2015 that he was going to move in with us! I had encouraged him to move to Colorado for many years, and he finally came to a place where the timing was right for him. Well, as you can ascertain from the pictures of some of my decor projects and parties the cottage was very small for 5 people! My Dad was shortly after his announcement of moving in with us, in a pretty severe motorcycle accident. He ended up in the hospital with a fractured skull, broken collar bone and lots of cuts and bruises.  He also sold his house to someone he knew, so he had to be moved out within a month! Smash cut to a few weeks later, Tom and I are there helping to pack up all of his belongings and driving him out here. He had to sleep on an air mattress for 5 months poor guy! (read more)

Gift Wrapping with recycled Christmas cards.

Gift Wrap with Recycled Christmas Cards

Gift Wrapping

This handmade card is so perfect for adorning a small gift.

Gift bags are so easy and convenient to throw a gift into with a little tissue paper and instantly without much effort you have a pretty gift ready to give. The only thing missing is the satisfaction of tearing into that beautiful gift wrap and discovering the very present you were wishing for under that lovely wrapping paper. It seems that everyone has there style of opening gifts. Some love to carefully open the box from the ends, making sure not to tear anything, while others rip open the wrapping so fast you end up with shreds of paper everywhere. I am somewhere in between.With the popularity of gift bags, the wrapped gift is not as popular it seems. Don’t get me wrong, I love an easy and beautiful gift bag! This year I had started saving boxes for wrapping some gifts in, and bought some new paper, and we had a ton of left over ribbon from last year just waiting to adorn a pretty wrapped box. The girls love to wrap presents, so they were a big help this year with that process. I came across a big stack of Christmas cards from years past, too pretty to throw away, but not really having a use anymore. I thought it would be a great idea to use them to trim our packages. (read more)

Thanksgiving Table Decor

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving Table

Our humble Thanksgiving table

There are so many great blog posts, articles, even entire books dedicated to the biggest food event of the year, Thanksgiving. At our house we usually keep it very traditional, serving pretty much the same meal every year. With so many resources about entertaining and menu planning and recipes on Thanksgiving out there, I just wanted to share with you some of what I am truly Thankful for.

Thanksgiving Table Decor

Thanksgiving Table Decor

When my grandmother hosted it at her house, she managed to make the entire meal herself and every year, it was impeccable and exactly the same. Some of it was a little…different. Like lime jello salad with shredded carrots and pineapple. Without fail, it was always on her Thanksgiving table. Along with the cornbread stuffing and turkey giblet gravy with chopped up hard boiled eggs in it and tamales. The tamales became part of the tradition over time due to living in Arizona. It was one of 2 meals of the year that were served in the formal dining room with the fancy china. Christmas was the other meal served in there. Of course my brothers and my cousins and I were all banished to the “kids” table. That is where all the fun happened I’m sure!  I am thankful for those family traditions that helped to form who I am today. (read more)