Welcome Home

Hi Everyone.

I wanted to share some of my trip to Michigan.  We visited the south western part of Michigan.  Little quaint towns along the coast of Lake Michigan.

Terry and I love this area and continue to make trips to this area.  It is about 2 hours from our home here Illinois.

The beach towns have lots of cute shops and wonderful restaurants.

This area is where one of my favorite shops is called the Found Cottage.

Not only is there the Found Cottage but about 6 more wonderful shops in the area.  There are also lots of antique shops along the routes too.

I am going to list a few of the shops and show some pics of the shops for you to see.  Warning this is a long post.

I found lots of treasures to bring home.  Our car was packed with only a few inches to spare lol!

This is the back hatch open of our SUV.  Yep we have three chairs, a coffee table, a couple of large art pieces and many more smaller treasures.  That car was packed.

Here is a side view.  As you can see there is stuff all the way to the ceiling of the car.  I think poor Terry thought if I bought one more thing he would have to be riding on the roof of the car in one of the chairs we purchased like the Beverly Hillbillies!!!!!

Here are some of my favorite shops that I found lots of great treasures.

I will start with my favorite shop.  The Found Cottage.

Look at that great piece of chippy loveliness!

Love these cute mitten pillows.  I grew up in Michigan and loved that my home state was shaped like a mitten.

I love all the beautiful and inspirational signs like this one.  I actually found a great one that came home with me that I will share with you on my reveal of the living room.

The next shop after The Found Cottage was the Artisan Market.  This is a brand new shop that is under renovation.  They are adding a cafe along with a  dozen or so more vendors.  This is going to be a great place in the next few months when all the renovations are done.

Next was Cheryl's Cottage Home Shop.  Cheryl sells a lot of clothing but also has  eclectic home and garden items.

Next up was The Painted Farm Girl.  Don't you love this old vintage truck.  It was parked out front of the shop.

Sorry about the quality of the pics they were all taken from my cell and with the funky lighting in a lot of these shops it was hard to get a picture without a lot of glare.
The Painted Farm Girl's shop has a lot of farm house decor items along with garden items and unique furniture items.

A lot of the furniture in her shop is re loved from other pieces into new pieces of furniture.

Next on the route was the Rustic Corner.  What a great shop.  Full of cottage, farmhouse and shabby chic decor.

The Re Inspired Treasures is another one of those shops that when I walked in I could feel my heart beat just a little bit faster!  So many unique items.  I did a little shopping damage in this store!!!!

I took Terry to this fun place to eat right across the street from Re Inspired Treasures.  It is named The Old Goat.  You can see the goat on the top of the building.  There is a lot of home grown spices and greens up on that roof.

The inside of the cafe is eclectic and just gives off a fun vibe.  The old goat uses only locally grown produce and they have local cultures from the area influence the foods they prepare.  Every day they have different choices on the menu along with the usual favorites.

Terry had one of the best hamburgers he said he has ever had.  The bun was homemade and the burger had pickled onions along with a pepper jelly and several spices and two types of cheese.  He said the flavors all together were so yummy.

I had one of the favorites from the menu.  The pierogi's.  These are made fresh daily from three polish women that live in this area.  I have to say they were soooooo good.

Just a great little place to have lunch.

I like to eat at the local places like this when I go on vacation.  I try to avoid the chain restaurants.

We had the best time this past week.  The weather was beautiful everyday.  It was so nice to come back to the cottage at the end of the day and enjoy the spa hot tub under the stars and trees.

The little cottage called the Quaint Cottage was so charming and romantic.  Such a wonderful place to unwind and relax.

So if you are ever in that area of South Western Michigan you must stop in these cute towns along the coast of Lake Michigan.

Some of the towns we visited were South Haven, Grand Haven, Holland, Hudsonville and Grand Rapids.  All these towns are within a 10 to 20 minute drive from each other.  The beaches were quiet and so pretty.  Their season really starts the first part of May.  So it was nice to not have crowds to deal with.

Thanks for hanging in there with this long post.

My slipcovers are on their way.  Yeah then I can show you the reveal of the living room changes.

Have a great weekend.

Hugs,

Kris

  PS:
I have said this so many times,  some of our hearts that meet in blog land unite in a magical way.
I have found some wonderful friendships during my time of blogging.  I love that you can really come to know someone through written communications and sharing stories of our lives. 

  With this said I received a very special gift from a blogger that has become a great friend and soul sister.  We were born only a few days apart back in April of 1958.  We both are turning the page to a new decade of turning 60 and new adventures.

Anita sent me this very special gift and beautiful card.  It was wrapped in beautiful tulle with sweet flower petals.  The beautiful card was designed from a watercolor painting of Anita by a german artist and blogger friend.

This gift was just  magical to open.

Anita knows my love of angels and she gifted me this one.  Anita also gave me permission to paint her white!!! I will have to keep her for awhile and then I will know if I will paint her or keep her just the way she is.

Her sweet curls and beautiful wings make my me smile.  Thank you sweet friend for sharing your friendship and heart with me always.

New Chandelier

Hi Everyone.

Thank you all so much for the birthday wishes.  So far so good as I am now 60 years old!  Nothing fell off my body on my birthday so it is all good lol!!!

I am hoping turning the page from a decade in my 50's to now entering my 60's will be as wonderful.

I am getting ready to head out tomorrow on our trip to Michigan.  The forecast is looking great.  High 60's next week.  

For all you southern girls I know that sounds cold but to us in the Midwest that feels very warm.  You put on sweaters when it is in the 60's we fling open windows lol!

As some of you know I am working on a new living room project.  One of the new things I wanted to do in the living room was add a chandelier.

The hunt has been on for sometime to find just the right one and stay on a budget.

That has been a challenge.  The chandeliers I loved were very very expensive.  Every time I would find one I would look at the price tag and it would be $400 dollars and up.  I cannot believe how much chandeliers have gone up in price.

After striking out at a great antique shops and markets I was getting weary I would never find a sweet chandelier for my new living room decor.

Last Weekend after striking out at a very nice antique market with lots of chandeliers,   Terry and I stopped into a resale shop on the way home.

When we walked in the door right away there was this chandelier that grabbed my attention.

Here is the chandelier.  It was gold!  So of course it got painted white.  No surprise there!

The great part of this find was the price. 

I was almost afraid to look at the tag knowing what the cost of the chandeliers have been priced in our area.  

 Terry looked at the price.  He had this look on his face.  I said oh probably expensive right?!!  

He looked at me and said the tag says $46.  I said no way you must have read it wrong and it says $460.  

So I took a look.  Nope it was marked $46.  I even had the sales girl come over to verify the price.  She said it is $46.

It was one of those "Start the car moments!"

We could not get that chandelier into the car fast enough.  I said lets go before they figure out they made a mistake!!!!

The new $46 chandelier is hanging over my island in the kitchen.  The chandelier I had over the island is now hanging in the living room.  We did a little switch a roo!

Here is the chandelier that was over the island.  I now have it hanging in the living room.
I had found this chunky vintage frame and thought the chunky chandelier would look better.

So this one is now in the living room and I am almost done with this room to have a reveal.  Just waiting on some slipcovers to come in.

I wanted to show you this angel.  I found her at Tuesday Morning for $20.  She was gray and not too pretty.  I brought her home and gave her a new coat of white paint.   Great score on the price and all it took was a little white paint and here she is all pretty and serene.

Have a beautiful week ahead.  I hope to find some new fun treasures on our trip to Michigan.
xoxo
Kris