Saturday Spotlight: Life Behind the Blogger

Susan from Must Love Junk, and myself (Kris) Junk Chic Cottage 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 Susan's and my blog.

Saturday September 28th
Sandy: For the Love of White

Happy Saturday everyone.   I have the great pleasure this week to introduce you to a blogger that shares my love of white in her decor style.  Her name is Sandy and she has the blog For the Love of White.  Sandy's blog was one of the first blogs I started to follow.  I love her talent and her sweet love of life and her family.  It shines through in her blog.    She is creative and inspiring and a big lover of pets.  Her family is beautiful and her furry family is adorable.  So please get your coffee and sit back and be wowed at meeting this beautiful and talented blogger.

First of all, I want to say that I am honored to be asked by Kris to be part of this Saturday Spotlight on a blogger! I think it is such a great idea, and I so enjoy learning more about the personal life of other bloggers.

I am a 49 year old Wife, Mother, and Homemaker. I am a stay at home Mom due to the fact that one of my 4 children is very disabled and he needs constant care. He had a stroke while I was pregnant with him and his identical twin brother. I adore all my children and wouldn't trade being a Mother for anything in the world!

I married my husband 17 years ago. He is 10 years younger than me, which used to seem like a big deal but now I sometimes feel younger than he does. He is a very hard working man and great with being supportive of all my creative endeavors and helping out with the kids

Being creative has always been something that brings me much satisfaction. When Janae (my oldest) was a baby I was really into designing and making mohair teddy bears.

When Jerry and I were first married and only had Janae (born a product of my first marriage) we had so much fun showing cats. Jerry and I are both huge animal lovers.

Cat showing was fun because we traveled a bit, and we did well with our beautiful silver persian kitties. But after the kids started coming along we stopped showing cats because we were so busy with the kids.

As you can see we really had our hands full...literally!

For 20 years I owned a Dairy Queen which was an exhausting 20 years!

 

Unless you own something like a Dairy Queen it is hard to understand how much work it is. We sold the Dairy Queen in 2007...and though I loved many of my Dairy Queen years, it is the best decision I ever made. I got my life back! I will always be a fan of DQ though :)

When the kids were small I knew I had to get away from them a little bit and so I started scrapbooking.  I went to crops as a way of getting a little time away from the house. Scrapbooking ended up being a big thing for me--I became a contributor to a couple different magazines, I was on design teams, and I taught scrapbooking classes.

I so love all the many scrapbooks I have of the kids now.

As I mentioned before my husband and I are both big animal lovers..and so are our kids.

We have 3 dogs...Daisy, Dafney, and Duke.

Last year we rescued a litter of kittens that lost their Mother at 2 weeks old to a coyote. We kept 2 of the kittens, Phoebe and Fez.

We recently adopted Sophia from the shelter. I couldn't bear for a shaded silver persian to be homeless!

The kids also have a love of hamsters. We love all creatures, great and small.

My best friend is my oldest daughter. How wonderful is that? Her and I enjoy all the same things and I thank God everyday for the relationship I have with her.

At 24 years old she owns her own beautifully decorated home and our family's love of animals has not been wasted on her! She is also the best pet photographer I have ever seen.

 She also has a wonderful blog you can visit here...http://notsoshabby-shabbychic.blogspot.com/

All my kids are growing up on me!

Chantel

Gage

Wyatt

My kids are my greatest creations!

I love my blog..it has been such a great way for me to document my life, share my love for decorating and crafting, and keep in contact with the rest of the world! I hope you will visit me...http://www.loveofwhite.blogspot.com/

My little house brings me much joy.

Thanks for taking the time to read about me!

Thank you so much Sandy for being in the Spotlight this week.  It was so much fun learning about you and your beautiful family.

Now that you have gotten to know Sandy please hop over to Susan's blog and meet her Spotlight Blogger Dawn from Creative Cabin.

Have a great week end

Kris

:)

Junkin week end and some small office change ups.

Hi Everyone.  Happy Thursday.  Just a post to show you a change ups in my office area.  I am heading out tomorrow for a little week end away with the hubby and some Junkin so I am excited. 

I did a small change up on my mantel for fall.  I found my Harvest Blessings sign while digging in my storage cabinet.  I dried a few hydrangeas and added them.

It is all about storage when you live in small spaces.  The area in the back of my dining room was a closet at one time and now is my office.  I am not only a door hoarder but a magazine, decor books hoarder too.  I need lots of storage for my magazines.  This chippy bench I got some time ago and added the wire baskets to fill with magazines.

I love to use unique pieces to store things.  I have had this hand painted Love Letters box for many years.  My husband writes me the most beautiful poems and I had those stored in here for awhile but now I have them in a nice book.  So this box is great for storage of my love of magazines!!!

I used a curtain rod and hung vintage door knobs on the ends and then fed these little wire baskets through the curtain rod.  This gives me visible storage of my tags, ribbons etc.

This is one of my all time favorite storage things in my office.  This old dress mannequin which is made from chicken wire and hung on an old dress/butler valet from the Hilton Hotel in Chicago 1932.  Love this piece.  It is a fun visual and a great way to hang important things on.

Dress Mannequins make the best storage.  This one I actually scored at HomeGoods and I use it to hang my handmade flowers etc.

When I had Jane from Blondie's journal over for lunch she brought me this beautiful bird cage memo board.  I love it for storage of my flowers.

I showed you this a few posts ago.  Using wine racks for storage of your magazines.  I am such a magazine hoarder that I have to come up with creative ways to store them.  This works great and you can actually see each magazine and you do not have to dig through a pile to get to the one you want.

This is the old kitchen cabinet I got at the flea market.  It was torn out of an old farmhouse they were taking down.  I love the chippiness to this cabinet and it hold a lot of stuff.

Just a sneak peak of a few doors ( I know shocker that I am showing more doors!!) that are being made into something fun.  I am working on this project now and hope to get it completed soon.  I cannot wait to show you what they will become.

Have a great rest of the week.  I am excited to leave tomorrow afternoon with the hubster to our fun week end away.  I hope to find lots of treasures to show you.
Do not forget to tune in on Saturday for Spotlight.  Susan and I have a couple of really special bloggers to have you meet and learn more about.
Happy Week end.
Kris
:)

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Happy Fall, door hoarder status and wild turkeys running around your neighborhood!!!!

Fall is in the air.

Hope you all had a great week end.  We had gorgeous weather and our granddaughter for the week end so it was fun.

I want to show you some changes I made in my office this week end.  Not too many changes with having a 3 year old running around!!!!

Here she is being so Downton Abby!!!!

After lunch we needed to get a princess Belle costume.  My granddaughter said "MiMi I need a Princess Belle costume" and well, I had to agree.

She loved her new outfit and wore it all day and when we went to dinner she still wanted to wear it.

Here she is with Bop (that is what she calls grandpa).

Then we laid on the drive way and drew outlines of ourselves with chalk.  This is Abby's outline.

Here is Bop aka grandpa.

Here is MiMi.  Having a 3 year old is like having the Energizer Bunny all week end.  We had a great time with her but MiMi needs a nap!!!!

Now on to the office changes.  I love using these old wine holders for magazines.  Much more organized than laying in piles everywhere and I can see them without having to go through a pile.

I also wanted to show you a special door I found about two weeks ago.  Yep, another door!!!!

I gave Anne from White Lace Cottage a couple of my old doors and felt good about letting them go to a new home.  Then I thought to my self, there, see you are not a door hoarder you gave two beautiful chippy doors away.  I was feeling pretty good about this and then I saw her, a door, all chippy and vintage and screaming to me out of the corner of the booth she was stuck in.

I had to go over and see her.  She had a tag on her that said she was from a 1930's Chicago office and it was love at first site.

She was green but I changed that up quickly with some Annie Sloan paint  Old White.  Look at her pretty etched glass window and the vintage words private.

I felt like she was out of an old Dick Tracey movie.  Love that frosted etched old glass.

I hung her in my office.

For now she is hanging behind my desk.  I am loving the history that this hung in a Chicago office suite in the 1930's.  She is so full of charm, history and just enough chippiness.
Now I have to find things to hang on her.
Door Hoarder status back in tack!!!!!
My friend said she thought this door would be so cute on a bathroom.  Hmmmmm when I redo my hall bath I may have to think about this.

Oh one more thing!!!!!
I had to share these pictures with you.  It was too amazing and funny not to show you.

My girlfriend and I were out to the Vintage Market in Rockford on Friday and we were driving through Rockford we looked over and saw these three huge turkeys just running around.  I wish I could have gotten their picture when the had their feathers open.  They were magnificent.  At one point before I could get the camera out they were on a front porch with their feathers fanned out and they were so beautiful.  My friend and I both thought when we first saw them on the porch "oh wow look at those life like turkey decorations on the porch".

 Nope not decoration but the real thing.

We were not sure if they were wild turkey's or if someone owned these.  It was right in the middle of a subdivision of homes.  Not farms where you would maybe see turkeys roaming about.  I am not sure if someone had these in their yard and they escaped but they were were running around.  They seemed to like this church.  Maybe they were stopping in to pray they will not be someone's Thanksgiving dinner!!!
On that thought I will say have a great week.
Kris
:)