Remission Is Such A Beautiful Word

Happy Day when we adopted Mr. Cooper from the Rescue in Ohio back in April of this year.  Our granddaughter Abby came along for the 5 hour ride to Cincinnati to adopt Cooper.  She wanted to come along and sit with him in the car so he would not be scared.  That teddy bear on the walk is from his foster mom that cared for him until we could adopt him.  He still has that cute bear and every once in awhile pulls it out to play.  It was so sweet that he had a good place to be until we could arrive to adopt him.  Thank you Diane for giving him love until we could bring him home.

  Shortly after he "rescued us" we found out he had aggressive terminal cancer.  No chance of cure but there was a medication that had proven in 60% of dogs with Cooper's cancer to slow the growth and help the dog into remission.  We are blessed to find out this medication is showing promise for Cooper.

The picture above is Cooper after his surgery to remove the cancer back in April of this year.

A little back story.  We were heart broken when we suddenly lost our female basset hound Libby this past winter.  Then Cooper this big lug of fur and ears came into our lives by pure accident.  He needed to be rescued and we needed to be rescued.  

When we found out he had terminal cancer that was not curable after we adopted him,  we thought how can this be?  We just found him and rescued him and love him.  How could this now happen?  It did not make any sense.


Now it does.  He was brought to us to love and give him the best possible life and he healed our hearts and gives us such prospective on life.

He teaches us that each day is truly a gift to be cherished and to make the most of it even on the hardest days.
There is always something good to each day. Sometimes we have to stop and just appreciate the small blessings in each day.

This little man is now in remission from his cancer.  We are happy the cancer medication is working to slow the growth and keep him in remission.  So we will love him and care for him and cherish each new morning he wakes with us. 
A prognosis of only weeks to live when we got him from the rescue back in April,  I am happy to say we are now going on 6 months.
I am a big believer that love releases those good endorphins that help in recovery and healing of health issues.

Cooper knows he is loved and spoiled and that gives him the will to keep going.

Thank you for all your prayers, thoughts and good wishes for us and Cooper.  We continue to keep hope alive that he will get many more months with us.

Not sure who really rescued who!!!!!

Have a great week end.
Hugs,
Kris

  

Fall

Hello Everyone.  Hope the week is going great for all of you.

The temps here are finally feeling like true fall. 

I started some decor inside.

I do not do a lot for fall but wanted a little bit of the season throughout the cottage.

While I love fall it was sad to see my summer lounge chair through the window with the cover and cushions off  and put away for the season :(.

I will start the tour in the kitchen.

Chippy bench with Harvest blessings and cloth pumpkins I have collected through the years along with the two cute sweater pumpkins I just got from Celeste.

With my love of neutral I do not do a lot of traditional fall colors but stay with the creams and whites and soft golds.

My bike and boots with some fall decor.

The little witch mouse gifted from Judy.  She has her own little pumpkin patch to play.  Notice the spider is gone from her hands and little pumpkin there now.  Noooo spiders allowed lol!

Fall On Top and Inside Of China Cabinet

I put a bird cage filled with white pumpkins and cream hydrangeas along with cream colored fall flowers in the bird house.  Soft colors for fall here in the cottage

A new gather sign I put on my china cabinet door.

The coffee table needed a little fall added too.  White tray filled with fall straw, pumpkins, feathers and wheat.

Have you tried the 1803 candles.  Oh my gosh they are the best smells you can get in a candle.  My friend just gifted me this pumpkin cornbread and it is fabulous.  Makes your house smell so good.
They have several scents.  Love them all.  I have found these at a couple of shops I frequent but you can find them on line here. I did not get any compensation for showing these candles just love them and wanted to share.

Garden angel with white pumpkin

Sweet angel with fabric pumpkins on a platter for a centerpiece on my dining table.

I just love adding a new sweater or fabric pumpkin to my collection each year.

Watering can with faux fall flowers, grateful sign and angel with a few more sweater and fabric pumpkins.

This is why I have not gotten to the outside for fall just yet.  My flowers while beginning to show signs of summer ending,  still are trying to hang in there.  

The temps here outside Chicago are beginning to cool down and feel more like fall so it will not be long before I can start the outside decor for fall.

Have a great rest of the week.  Terry and I are headed out for a week end get away in Michigan.

We rented a small cottage on the lake in Saugatuck, Mi. and there are rumors of cute shops and good eateries in that area.  We just need a little escape from all the stress these past months.  We will celebrate our 35th Anniversary too.
So enjoy the rest of the week and also the week end.
Hugs,
Kris

PS: Cooper Duper is enjoying a nap with the cool breeze coming in the door today.  Love my little photo bomber:

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Refrigerator Up Do

Hi Everyone.

I am going to show you how I am starting to up date builder stock appliances when you do not have new appliances in your budget.

Until Terry finds a new job we are on a very tight budget so the builder stock appliances in this town house will have to stay for awhile.  

I thought with very little funds, some creative decor crazy and Terry and his tools,  maybe we could make these appliances look nice and more up to date.

This post is going to be about the Refrigerator Up Do!!!

Remember my post on re purposing Terry's grandmothers cabinet to the empty open space above the refrigerator.
You can see that post here.  I wanted the refrigerator to blend more with the above cabinet.

The refrigerator is just a simple side by side refrigerator.  Nothing  fancy about it.  We actually bought this when we moved in.  The  refrigerator left here was not working and I did not have a budget for all new appliances.  We just wanted to get something simple and white to match the other white appliances.  

We went to the Sears Outlet and found this Kenmore.  I have never been to a Sears Outlet before and a friend told me she got some great deals on nice appliances there.  This Kenmore premium side by side was originally $1800 marked down to $1100 and the day we went in they had an additional 50% off.  So that refrigerator was $550 out the door.  So if you need a temporary fix or top of the line appliances for not a lot of money.  Check out the outlet if you have one near you. They carry all brands from top of the line on down.  

 They are marked down sometimes just because of a ding or dent.  This one had a dent on the side but it is up against the cabinet so you do not see it.  This also came with all the warranties since it is a new appliance and never used.   It is hit or miss at these outlets but sometimes you can really score.  So this refrigerator will be good until we can budget for new appliance down the road.

So we began this refrigerator make over with taking off the handles.

We found this very inexpensive trim at Home Depot.  

Here is the trim put on the original handles.  Terry wet the trim and then attached and molded it to the handles.  Pretty clever.  Now I could use the original handles and just dress them up a little bit.

Now even with the refrigerator having a cabinet feel and the new trim pieces it still felt ho hum to me.  

Yep!  It needs something on that long door to feel finished and tie into the cabinet above.  So........

Added a  trimmed out chalk board.

So the refrigerator has trim and a new chalk board to give a little character.  So for less than $30 I have given the refrigerator a little face lift.  After looking at this refrigerator for a little bit I still felt it needed the trim to stand out more!
Yep! I got the eye roll from Terry when I said that out loud!!!

So we brushed on the ebony stain and then wiped it with a cloth to give a vintage gray effect to the trim and door

So now the refrigerator has a little more gray in it that brings out the trim and off sets the refrigerator from the light gray walls.

We had enough trim pieces to trim out the pantry door too.

Adding a little bit of inexpensive trim to the stock pantry doors just took it up a notch.  It gives a more finished look to boring flat white doors.  

I decided the pantry door too did not stand out on it's own with the new painted trim.  So out came the stain and after we stained it and rubbed it out we added a white wash treatment

This is an up close picture of the pantry door.  You can see the texture the stain gave to the white paint. 

I did the same stain treatment to the pantry door and trim as the refrigerator.  Again good pictures during a cloudy day are a challenge.  Sorry this looks a little washed out.

Now I am on a roll.  Next challenge the dishwasher.

Hope you have a great start to the new week.  Our temps here in Illinois have dropped to the 70's.  Just beautiful open the windows weather now.  I know fall is on its way.

Kris

:)