f a v o r i t e   h o u s e   f r i d a y

{one day early}

and......best rooms of fhf  2011

I have my day booked up tomorrow so I thought I thought I would share my fhf pick one day early.

listing here

Now, this home isn't making huge design statements. In fact, it looks like it was probably professionally staged-too clean, and minimal furniture {but eclectic mix to appeal to a broad group of buyers}.
What do you think, staged?


*fhf favorites from this home are*
-the bathroom, this is a dream bathroom to me, it gets an OMG from me {I desperately want to add some color in there though}
-white walls and unpainted wood {even though if I moved in, the first thing I would do is probably paint all the wood}
-the kitchen is clean and pretty {unlike mine at the moment}, but what I really like are the chairs in the kitchen nook
-I like the grey-brown carpet, totally kid and pet proof. We have creamy white carpet that we put in our upstairs one year ago and it is already not looking so great {but I do have two kids and three cats}
-Sweet little playroom in the kids room, super cute door.























And now.....my picks for best rooms of fhf 2011

Chevron Entry
post here



Love This Table
post here



Yes Dining Room
post here



Red Table Dining Room
post


Fresh Living Room
post here



Vacation Home Living Room
{I wish!}
post here




Modern Cottage Living Rooms
post here





Rustic Living Room
post here



Farmhouse Kitchen
post here

The Floors, The Ceiling!
post here



Dream Kitchen
post here



Kids Rooms
post here





Organized Playroom
{I need this}
post here



Sweet and Simple
{I don't think kids actually play here}
post here


Reading Room
post here


Favorite Exterior
post here



I had fun going back to look at these homes, some I hadn't looked at since I posted them.
2011 had some pretty great houses for sale, can't wait to see what comes up for sale in 2012

w a l l   c l o c k s

{the bigger, the better}

I get a lot of emails about my entry wall clock. I scored this clock at the Goodwill, at least three years ago. This is probably in the top three of favorite things I have found at a thrift store. It was new in the box, so I grabbed this baby before anyone else could buy it, paid for it and hung it first thing when I got home. 

I know that this clock originally was sold at Target. I looked online and at the store and I haven't been able to find this exact clock anywhere.

But there are so many great clocks out there, that will give you a similar look.

Here are some of my favorites.

Simon Wall Clock

buy here

{my favorite by far, I want this clock!}






Harrington Wall Clock
buy here





Grandiose Wall Clock
buy here

{this clock is huge in person 42 X 42}

Lille Tin Wall Clock

buy here


Cafe Wall Clock
buy here




Paris Hotel
buy here



Bold Paris
buy here


You could also make a large  wall clock, by buying a clock kit and using a square or round table top, painting the numbers, or gluing on wood/metal numbers.
That would be cute, right?!
I wish I had time to do this project, but maybe in the next few months I will attempt it.
Has anyone done this? Send us a link so we can see!

c h e c k i n g   i n 

{and a table for sale?}

First off, I wanted to say thank you, thank you for your sweet comments on the last post. I think from now on I am going to try to add a little more of my life on this blog and not just decorating and furniture redos. 

We had a great holiday here, but to be honest I am kind of relieved it is done and now we can relax. 

I am totally over going shopping, being around crowds, and eating and drinking too much.

I am in detox mode this week. 

Today I am heading up to Seattle to go to the Nutcracker with Camden while the boys stay home. Since I will be gone most of the day, I got up early to snap some shots of what I have been up to the last few days.

{that is why the shots are kind of dark, sorry!}

I have been moving tables around again, shocker! I will do a whole post on this next week but here is the  lowdown.

It am moving tables around again because:

 1. I needed a bigger table in my kitchen for all of my sewing, crafts {I need to spread out}. 

2. The kids outgrew the little kids table and chairs/bench in our family room. I am very sad about this. I knew this day would come. But the good news is that I am taking the kids table and chairs/bench to the new shop and it will either be for sale or as a play table for kids while mommies shop.

{Square oak table from kitchen moved into family room and painted. Also, you can see I am in the process of deciding on fabric for new pillows and Cooper has taken over the new table with his legos}

3. The big black table in the dining nook was too big for the space and now is in the kitchen. I bought a trestle table and I am in the process of painting it white and finding four matching chairs.

So, as I was moving all of these tables around and painting, I painted a coffee table for the shop. I wanted it to look fresh and beachy, so I decided on using the same color as my coffee table {BM, Covington Blue}.

This morning at seven I set it up to photograph it to post for sale, but now I like it! The scale is much better.  {I should never stage things in my own home, I always want to keep the pieces!}

So.....if someone wants to buy my old coffee table {the big blue one with chunky legs},  I might switch them out.

I haven't decided which will be for sale. If I keep the newly painted one, I will add casters to the bottom to raise it up a bit. 

Hmmm... which should I keep?

y o u    a r e   w h e r e    y o u    b e l o n g

I have been writing and rewriting this post in my head for a while. I didn't really know where to start, and truth is, I don't talk that much about myself here on this blog. Yes, every once in while, I will let it be known that I had a crazy week and I took on too much. But I don't share with you all my extreme joy, worries, frustration, and sometimes envy. So I am going to let it all out in one post. 

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 To be honest, I just don't always feel comfortable talking about myself, and I think, am I going to want to delete this post tomorrow? 

I will start with my feelings on the blog. 

I am so appreciative of the readers that consistently read this blog. I look back on a year ago and this little blog has come a long way. The readers, comments, and sweet emails really keep me going and want to continue with this everyday. 

There is also a hard part {maybe just for me} to having a blog. Is it just me or does it seem like the "big bloggers" all seem to know each other? I get envious of this. I am not sure why. Truth is, I use this blog to connect with you and as a way to show my work. I do not have sponsors, nor do I have the time to devote to doing a unique blog post everyday. I am trying to just to keep up with my everyday life and my painting. So when these little thoughts creep in and get me down, I have to think to myself, "I am given only what I can handle and I am given a lot, so get over your negative thoughts Alison!"

With that, it will be fun to see where this little blog goes over the next year. Even if it is just to see how many different times I rearrange my living room in 2012.

Now my business. 

I sort of fell into this business. It really has always been a passion of mine to paint furniture. 

A few years ago, I went back to work. I felt it was time, the kids were three and six, and I had an opportunity at the agency I worked at pre-kids. It was great to get up everyday, wear something other than yoga pants, commute with my husband, and have extra income. 

But I was really sad working outside of my home. I hated getting the kids up early and bringing them to daycare in the dark.  I worked an hour away from home, and I never got to go to school events. But once I went back to work, I felt stuck. We needed my income. 

Then about two years ago I had an accident. I cut the top of my foot on a glass hurricane {I dropped it on my foot},  ended up with two types of infection, and I cut through a ligament. I spent three days in the hospital, came close to losing my foot {or even leg}, a month in physical therapy to use my foot again, and two months of IV antibiotic treatment daily at the hospital. During all of this I had to give up working. If it wasn't for the accident I would still be working outside of the home, maybe not at that job but some job. The accident let me be honest with myself and my husband. I hated working so far from my kids. 

But I need to work. My family needs my income. It is really hard to live on one salary these days. I painted a few pieces and sold them, and thought "I can do this!" So I started The Modern Cottage Company.

source

I started selling right out of my living room. Keeping my house clean for people coming over was too hard, so I set up shop in my studio. This was working fine except I was growing and needed more work space and space to store inventory. That is when I considered selling at an antique store. The day I was going to go sign the lease on my booth I got a call from Spaceworks Tacoma, the day! Spaceworks is an organization that gives artists and small businesses a six month, rent free lease on a space to fill empty store fronts. It helps the artists and it helps the city from having empty storefronts. I applied for this a year before I got the call, and I actually forgot about my application.

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So I have six months to see if I can make this little business work outside my home. Can I actually do this? I am about to find out.

It is really really scary because, other than custom pieces I haven't made any money in the last two months while stockpiling for shop. I haven't posted or sold anything for sale since mid-October. I am hoping {and I  do lots of praying} that I can pull off running a shop, I have six months to try! I believe I was planted here and I need to give my best shot.

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Looking back every turn in my life has led me to something good, even when it didn't seem like it at the time. So going forward I know that even if this doesn't work out, it will lead me to where I need to be.

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I hope you all have a wonderful holiday. 

l o v e   o r    h a t e   i t

I was searching for a fhf house today and I came across this listing. I was about to pass by it because, well, you can see from the pictures that it is a bit eccentric, eclectic, wacky. I kept coming back to this house and wanting to look at the pictures again. 

Look past some of the wackiness and there are some real jewels in this home.

First of all, I love the outside, so traditional. If I was bold enough I would paint our house all white.
{It would be hard for me to convince Saint to paint the house white}

Then you step into the foyer.

The mix of traditional, with modern, and primitives....fantastic.

Cool wallpaper too.


There are so many elements going on here. But it you took out some the furniture {just not my thing, except maybe the console table and chaise, I could work with those} and just looked at the color palette, I could move in.


 This is my favorite room in the house {or maybe the entryway is....I can't decide}



Not much to discuss in the kitchen. I have to say I hate the bistro table as an island, it looks like it came out of Pizza Hut {sorry!}


Pretty much the only thing I like in this room is the couch and chair. Oh, and the windows, great windows.

 Bonus to this home...there is a large garden, a barn, and a carriage house.









So what do you think? Love it or hate it? Look at the pictures again. I will be moving in and decorating this house in my head all day.