Saturday Spotlight: Life Behind The Blogger

 Saturday Spotlight: Life Behind the Blogger is a feature done each Saturday that introduces you to a blogger you may already know or a new blogger for you to get to know. This feature gives you a peak into the personal life of the blogger.  Getting to know the special person behind the beautiful blog.

There is so much talent and inspiration in blogland so enjoy getting to know these talented bloggers each Saturday.

Gay from Canterbury Cottage Designs
February 21st

This week I am introducing you to Gay Van Beek from Canterbury Cottage Designs Blog.

I found Gay and fell in love with her beautiful blog and wonderful style not to mention she writes for my favorite magazine Romantic Homes!!!!  Please take a minute and get to know Gay on a more personal level and then check out her beautiful blog.

Thank you Kris for inviting me to be a part of your fabulous Spotlight Series!

Hello, my name is Gay Van Beek and I am the name and face behind 

Canterbury Cottage Designs.  

The cute little furry guy in the photo is Riley, my

ever-faithful companion for the past 12 years,

I've been married to my husband John for almost 27 years and

we have two children - my son Alex is 24 and my daughter Julia is 21.

I am a proud mom and we all have each other's backs, always.

Canterbury Cottage Designs began in 2001 

when I started selling vintage and antique items on eBay.  I loved the "thrill of the hunt" 

and was very passionate about the quality and type of antiques that I offered

to my customers.  I sold for about 9-10 years and can honestly say it was

a wonderful experience and I loved every minute of it.  I made so many friends 

and mentors- some who are my best friends today.

This was all done "back in the day" as they say, before blogs, Instagram,

Twitter, and Pinterest.  I am not sure how we all survived!

I decided to take off the next few years so that I could be more

involved with volunteering at school while my kids were in

High School.  After they graduated I wanted to get back into

the business - but in that small span of time so many things

had changed.  The electronic world had exploded - but all for the better. 

It was time to learn the ropes and catch up with

the rest of the world.  

I wanted to keep the same name I had began with for two reasons;

I liked it, and it was unique.  I researched the world of blogging 

and, with the encouragement of my family and friends, 

decided to take the plunge and start my blog in September 2014.  

Shortly thereafter I was offered a wonderful opportunity - 

 to write for Romantic Homes Magazine.  

My column is called "Details" - please check it out if you get a chance.

Those are my pink wellies on the cover of the March issue. 

My aesthetic is simple and clean - not too fussy and not too trendy. 

I do love an all-white decor but I also love color and try to incorporate it 

in my home through accessories and flowers.

One thing most people do not know about me is that I am an absolute

health-fanatic.  I love cooking and I read and research food blogs just as much as I 

read design blogs.  I try to incorporate new dishes into my diet each week

and have a huge notebook book full of tried and true tested recipes.  I firmly

believe that our health and well-being is based on what we put in

our bodies and how much we move every day.  

{this is my very popular Fall Detox Salad}

Please visit my blog at www.canterburycottagedesigns.blogspot.com.

Thanks again Kris for this wonderful opportunity.

Thank you Gay for letting us know more about you.  Please hop over to check out Gay's beautiful blog.

Have a great week end.

Kris

:)

Happy Thursday, Thank You's and Stay Tuned!

Happy Thursday.  We are at record lows here outside Chicago.  Man you cannot even describe what it feel like to go outside today.

Remember those brain freezes you get when you drink something cold really fast.  Well that is what your skin and brain feel like to step outside today.  They are saying warm up by the week end.  Ohhhhh I hope so.

Just wanted to say Thank you in this post to a couple of really sweet bloggers.

First is the Lovely Michelle from Petite Michelle Louise Blog.  Michelle is so sweet and talented and has a great Etsy Shop.  My hubby bought me one of her sweet treasures as a surprise for Valentine's Day.  I wanted to show it off.  Thank you Michelle for making this beautiful vintage piece and thanks to my hubby for thinking this perfect for me for Valentine's Day.

Isn't this so sweet.  It is made out of an old door knob.

I am keeping it close to me by my night stand.

Love this so much.

Next Thank You is to Jann from Have A Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson.  She sent me a cute Valentine's Heart and cute little scrabble letters on tags.  If you have not met Jann you must hop over to her sweet blog and get your daily cup.  Jann is too sweet and I love this little surprise I got in the mail today.

Is this not just the cutest valentine's Heart and so me.  Jann I cannot thank you enough.  I just love this.

I hung it on my old picket fence.  Sooo sweet.

You meet just the sweetest peeps in blog land.  Jann I loved my little surprise in the mail.  Came at a perfect time to lift my spirits.

Hope where ever you are you are keeping warm.

Here is a sneak peak at the wall in the kitchen.

I know I know it is scary and looks like Grandma's Basement.  Trust that I have done some magic to this faux brick wall to have it come into the 21st century and give my French Farmhouse Kitchen some character.  Stay Tuned to see what this transforms too!

Have a great rest of the week and wonderful week end.  Spotlight on Saturday with a really sweet blogger you are going to love getting to know.
Kris
:)

New Project in the Works

I am starting to feel my decor groove coming back.  With Terry home and captive until he finds another position in the Fire Service,  I am putting him to work!!!!  He said he loves having a project to take his mind off finding a new job.

Like I have always said I have a man with tools and he knows how to use them lol!

So here we go.

When we moved up here and sold our house and down sized to this little house I did not have room for my dining set and gave it to my daughter when we moved.

This dining room set was the first real wood furniture Terry and I could afford and I loved this set.   I was happy to give it to my daughter to have when we moved.  My daughter and son in law just bought a new home and will not have a formal dining room.  These new homes are more open concepts now.  So I did not want her to give that china cabinet away so I inherited it back.

Well...... that started a whole new transformation in my kitchen.  I am making room for that cabinet to come back into my french farmhouse kitchen.

I thought I had a  good picture of the whole long wall in my kitchen before we took everything down.  Nope this is the most current pic I could find.  Anyway you get the idea of what the long wall in the kitchen looks like from this picture.

Everything came off the walls and shelves.

Took down the cabinets and shelves.

Took the shelf bar that ran across the wall.

Yep looks like a garage sale with all the stuff from the kitchen wall area piled into my dining room.  This is the only part of re doing something I hate.  Having everything everywhere!!!!

So day one is done.  We have  spackled and primed and painted the wall in the kitchen.

Stay tuned to see the finished wall with the new china cabinet.  Just hope my vision of this cabinet  and new wall design I have in my head will come out the way I have it envisioned!!!

My daughter has primitive decor in her home so the china cabinet was painted black so it will be re loved with paint back to white.

Hope to have the reveal soon.
Stay tuned!


Please come back Saturday for Spotlight I have a really wonderful blogger for you to get to know.  She is a celebrity in her own right with having a column she writes for Romantic Homes.  She is special and so so sweet you won't want to miss meeting her.


See you Saturday and maybe Sunday I will have the reveal of the new kitchen wall and china cabinet.
Kris
:)

Happy Sunday Hugs and Thank You's!

Happy Sunday.  New Week and renewed spirit.

I just want to thank all of you for your loving support and prayers as Terry and I transitioned this past week to a new journey before us.

As painful as this past week was while he began the transition and said good bye from a job he loved.  We know that the road ahead is going to be a better journey for us now.

We are so blessed to have the support and love of our family and friends.

I am slowly getting my decor groove on again!!!!!  I have some new decor projects to begin and I am slowly working my way back to blogland.  I have missed all of you and I am excited to finally feel some kind of normal beginning back in our lives.  We still have an uncertain road ahead but I believe with our faith and love and support we will once again find true happiness and Terry will find a place in the fire service where his integrity, commitment and experience will be truly valued.

I cannot thank all of you enough for the many emails I received this past week of support and love.  Thank you to each and every one of you.

I got my hair colored by my daughter to lift my spirits. With wind chills below zero and the high only being 10 degrees I felt my hair needed a little summer!!!!  Cannot take a selfie to save me lol!!!!

During all the crazy sadness of last week I got this lovely gift in the mail from sweet Linda at Itsy Bits and Pieces.  Linda knew I am a nurse and she had found these tongue depressor jars on one of her junkin trips.  I said to her how cute would those jars be filled with suckers aka yummy tongue depressors!!!!

So Linda packed up the jar and these oh so cute altered bingo cards and shipped these lovely treasures to me.

Suckers make the cutest tongue depressors!  I am looking for those looped handled flat suckers we use to get at the doctors office when I was a kid.  How cute would those be inside this jar.  Back in the day when they use to give you a sucker or lollipop after seeing the doctor.  If any of you have seen those flat suckers with the white looped handles let me know I am on the hunt!

Another treasure I found a while ago was this old record box at Mark's Room 363 Shop.  Yep remember 33 and 1/2 and 45 records.  Well this box was used to hold them.  Boy I am really dating myself with this post lol!!!!

This box did not have a handle anymore but no worries I had this old door knob and it fit perfectly.  I might shabby it up just a little more on the handle.  Just seems a little blah to me.  Maybe some dark wax.

This record box has lots of fun details and chippy goodness. Look at those sweet claw feet. This started some new change ups in my living room.  More to come soon on some changes in this room.  Stay tuned!

Thank you all again for your support and love.  I know Terry and I will get to a better place soon.

Have a wonderful start to the new week.

Kris

:)