Wrapping up 2010

To late to wish all a Merry Christmas , but how about a happy New Year! We had a lovely Christmas with both family celebrations and friend celebrations. What a sad thought to take down the trees, put away the decorations and go back to regular music on the radio. I love Christmas and longingly look forward to next year. A few looks back..

Still more to be thankful for

Its past Thanksgiving but we have much to be thankful for this week. My children, Myself ,and our young friend survived a car wreck that could have easily taken our lives. We were hit by a driver that went through a stop sign at 55 and sent us into a spin that took out a light pole, lg tree and left us in a tree orchard. Jaws of life were used to get us out. We are very sore but back to crafting and setting up the new business. Seems there are always surprises that keep us knowing what is truly important in this life.
The new store is up and running and filled with gift items and holiday decor for the home. Please stop by and check it out when you are in the Eugene area. Store is locatewd in the Barn at Glory- days Antiques in Springfield.

With Thankful Hearts

While cleaning up the house from piles of fabric and sewing scraps, I reflect on the things I am Thankful for; A healthy body, wonderful children, a caring husband, faithful friends, a warm house and a God who has blessed us fully and continues to restore. This has been a tough year in many ways and with out going into details, I have much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.

Blending business with pleasure

Today was the start of a new venture. My friend Kimberly and I have talked and dreamed of how we would love to find a store that was full of things we love, the kind of place that has usable , lovely items made from natural fabrics, European linens, wonderful scented items like soaps and potpourris. And of course displayed in wonderful old cupboards . You probably guessed, we have decided to open our own business, 1000 sq feet, located in the back of an already established antique mall. The best thing is we don't have to be there all the time. The wonderful ladies that own the store do the selling and we just get to fill it with all the things we love. Today was the first day and we will be restocking daily. If you get a chance come by and visit.

Fall has arrived

I haven't posted in ages as life has been so very busy. On my last post we were spur of the moment ripping out the carpet and laying wood floors. This of course had a snow ball affect and caused me to start cleaning, sorting and redoing other areas as well. I ended up selling most of my furniture and gathering new pcs which I like much better. The closing of our store also created an avalanche of items to deal with. After several sales and goodwill trips, I am finally closing in on that chapter.

Back after a long blogging break

My kids helped with the ripping out of the yucky carpet
even grandbaby Maya
created a huge yardsale
My kitchen piled up high with mess


This has been a year that has stretched me in ways I didn't know were possible. I Took on an Antique store/Tea house last September, went through some intensely hard family issues and am giving up the store after a year to be home with my family.This will be my last week running the store and then the task of clearing it out and cleaning out the building awaits. All that to say blogging has been way down on the list of priorities. There is a light at the end of this tunnel. As dim as it still seems. I am looking forward to being creative again. Looking forward to quality time with my family,appreciating the people in my life that have been rocks through a very hard season of my life. You know who you are-Thanks!!!
Preparing for the store /closing sale started a snowball affect in our home. We decided to part with lots of furniture pcs we didn't really love and switch out for new (to us) pieces. After moving out pretty much all our furniture, it seemed like the perfect time to rip out our atrocious dirty carpeting. We have had a pile of pine flooring sitting in our shop for five years just waiting to be put in . We decided to spur-of-the moment do it. Wow what a difference. I stayed up late and stained it and I love it! Just wish it were through out the whole house.

A Fun Garden show in Brownsville

We have had the pleasure of putting some of our goods in a fun Garden sale at the Ata Vista Farm in Brownsville. This wonderful historic Estate is A fabulous place just to view. It is immaculately cared for having been built in the 1870s. If you have a chance to go for a country drive this week, the sale goes through the weekend. There are some really beautiful handcrafted and vintage items for sale. here are a few items we brought up.

This Week is Our Garden Sale!

Colby Cottage welcomes you to our Spring Garden Sale! This week is the week, weather permitting, we will be opening up the outdoor garden yard and filling it with statuary, birdhouses, arbors, and various other garden decor and flowers. The sale starts Friday, April 16th at 10:00 am. We will be serving treats and lemonade and you may also be welcome to order tea or coffee drinks! Please join us and hope for lots of sunshine!

That's right, we even have blueberries!

Feel free to stay a while and have a cup of tea!

Our living room gets a"Goodwill" makeover

It all started with finding a (new to us) couch at Goodwill.This replaced a pitiful couch that we got at a garage sale for 18.00 last summer. Long story, but we sold our other couch on craigslist thinking we were getting a different one. The dream couch we thought we were getting fell through and we were stuck finding whatever we could to sit on. The new couch is leather and a good color for our large family who like to get dirty. However it had issues. I had to do a major repair job underneath before we could use it, thus the 145.00 price
Somehow the couch clashed severely with our lemon yellow -suppose to be cream wall paint. I have hated it for three years. I decided a gallon of paint was a good investment so we chose a putty color. I love it!!!.
Next hideous curtains must go... Found some long creamy linen ones and they are awesome. Notice the curtain rod and glass knobs. This was re-purposing from stuff out in our workshop. I'm on a tight budget and I quite liked how they turned out.
Last a large coffee table fresh from Goodwill today finished off the new look.

Thought I'd share a little secret

Yes I'm back at the Monticello in Portland. I just couldn't stay away! The gals oops, and guy (sorry Hunter)that work there, are so incredibly great and I really missed everyone. Anyway to make a long story short I'm back again as of this week. Thankyou Joyce and Kelly for having me:).
As you can see my space is smaller than the last but as usual, I was able to pack in alot. My whole life is a bit cluttered right now so it fits right in. I had fun putting the background up in the booth ,thinking I would come really prepared, I arrived with four drills, all of which proved to have dead batteries within about five minutes. Such as is my life as of late. Oh well finally got it together and built character while in the process.

In the midst of change some things stay the same

One of those things is the quick passing of time. It continues to pass ever so quickly and here we are in a new year and I was just getting use to writing 2009. I have gone through some big changes around here recently and time has been precious. Blogging has not been priority but I did want to mention how much I am honored to be again at the Monticello Antique Market this month . I am in the front window and of course it is nearly impossible to get good pictures through a window, but here is my attempt. As always this is a wonderful store and ever changing .Try and stop by as there are lots of wonderful items.