♥ A Cozy Christmas Tour (The Cedar Loft) ♥

The Cedar Loft is the name we lovingly gave to our little cabin above the carport/garage.

It was a labor of love, but it was so worth it! It’s our little getaway that’s about 20 feet from our backdoor to the stairs leading up to our little cabin loft.

So today, that’s the cozy Christmas tour I’m sharing with you.....The Cedar Loft.

We’ve spent four nights last week out there. It was so snug and cozy. We enjoyed Christmas movies and (way too many) snacks. :) When we were “moving things back downstairs”, Luke remarked, “It’s sad to leave”. He's right. It really was a fun stay, especially since Jason was off work those four days.

The Christmas décor up there is very simple. It’s a good thing I like simple, I suppose, because simple also fits our budget. :)

So, come on in and enjoy your visit!

 

Jason made the TV cabinet.  It's one of my favorite pieces of furniture.

We made all the decorations on the tree (with the exception of the beads)....prim candy canes, twig stars, and rag garland.

I found the little log cabin at a thrift shop.   

The stockings came from Dollar Tree.  I tea stained them to make them look old and well loved.

Thanks so much for stopping by!  :)  I'll be back tomorrow with more Christmas pics.  I hope you're not getting tired of them!  I just took too many to put on one post.....it's much easier split up into separate posts! 

♥ Tammy ♥

Summer + Cousins = Fun!

Growing up, I always looked forward to the times we would go to Indiana and I would get to spend time with my cousins and have sleepovers at their house……or the times they would come to see us! We stayed up all hours of the night, told ghost stories, rode each other on the handlebars of our bikes, and stayed outside a lot! We have great memories!

Now all of us cousins are grown up and our kids are looking forward to spending time together every summer. Now they’re the ones making memories. I had so much fun watching them and hanging out with them.  And it's amazing how much each one of the girls look like their mother!  Wish I had a picture of all of us when we were little to compare!

The week before the 4th of July, Emmalee, Jessica and Tiffany came and stayed for about six days until we went to Alabama (and took them home). Well, all of them stayed six days except Jessica who went home earlier for a cheerleading camp.

The funny thing is the whole time they were here, we stayed up in The Cedar Loft. That’s SIX people in 600 square feet. :)  But you know, we really enjoyed it! It felt like we were on a vacation in a cabin, and I guess they might have thought we were crazy staying out there the entire time when we had a bigger house a few feet away!  :)  I also learned I could live in a small space and be happy!

So the girls did all the stuff girls do – they texted each other…………… when they were 2 feet away from each other.

Jessica, Tiffany and Joy - cell phones were never too far away! 

 

They played board games and giggled.

Jessica, Tiffany and Joy

They goofed off.

L to R - Tiffany, Jessica, Joy & Emmalee

They stayed up late.

They made silly videos.

They sang to the top of their lungs....and they danced.

They swam.

And while they swam every.single.day., I enjoyed a dry view perched high on the porch of The Cedar Loft (they were merciless on that lower deck, I tell you)! 

And they included Luke. Bless their hearts. And he enjoyed every single minute of it!

Tiffany, Emmalee, Joy & Luke

They made me laugh…..alot! I really enjoyed it and I know Joy thoroughly enjoyed having them here. (And so did Luke). 

We hope it’s a summer tradition, because summer + cousins really does = FUN!

Goodies for The Cedar Loft

I always have mixed feelings when all the Christmas decorations come down. It’s sad to see it all go because I just love everything Christmas and the cozy feeling that it brings to our home. But then on the other hand, it’s always nice to get that open clean slate back again.

So, it was especially exciting to me when a package arrived last week from Fed-Ex. I knew it was coming but I just can’t help it. I still get so excited when it has my name on the package. Our friends, Kim and Chuck, who were with us in China getting their daughter, Shiloh, at the same time we were getting Luke (and who we spent a lot of time with) sent it. Actually, Chuck is the one into antiques and “junk” (as Kim calls it). :) And since they were our first guests in The Cedar Loft, he thought of us when he came across these. And I’m so glad he did. Look what I got!

The salt and pepper shakers will be perfect for the little kitchen. And I love this hanging matchbox holder. I remember my grandmother had one similar to this. Chuck was a little concerned because it had a dent in it. But that just gives it more character! I love it. Thanks so much Chuck (and Kim for being a good sport with the “junk”). :) I love everything! And we look forward to seeing you guys this spring!

So now with these new goodies, I have something to jump start decorating my clean slate in The Cedar Loft. Now, let the hunt for bargains begin.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day! :)

Christmas in The Cedar Loft

Time slips by, doesn’t it? Well before Christmas arrived, I thought I’d share a few pictures of our very simply decorated Cedar Loft. Especially with it decorated for Christmas, I feel like I'm in Little House on the Prairie. It feels warm and cozy. :)

Still no curtains there above the bed, but hopefully that will come sometime after Christmas. It’s always a good thing to have something to which I can look forward.

Jason made the pegboards for me a few weeks ago, which made the perfect spot to hang some primitive stockings. I saw some of these stockings over on Tammy’s blog (A Primitive Place) and loved them and how economical they were too! The stockings are $1.00 Christmas sock/stockings from Dollar Tree which of course had to be tea stained to give them an instant primitive/old look.

We’ve used this Christmas tree a little bit of everywhere in our home, but mostly on the front porch with only twinkling lights. This year it was given a place of honor in the little alcove of the dormer window……a perfect spot for it.

We made everything on the tree except the cranberry beads and the star on top. I really wanted it to be an old-fashioned tree with everything handmade.

The candy canes began as the pack of 6 that you can purchase at Dollar Tree for a $1.00. They are wrapped in strips of tea stained muslin and homespun. Love those!

And oh how I love these little twig stars. I saw these on Pinterest (so many goodies on Pinterest), and knew I would love them on our tree in the loft especially. Well they turned out just as I envisioned them, but they were little boogers to make. Thank the Lord Jason jumped in and practically took over this project, bless his heart. It was difficult holding all the pieces together to get them tied appropriately. I do love them though! And since we have plenty of twigs in the yard and I already had the jute, they didn't cost me anything. :)

The garland was made from tying strips of homespun together and knotting them.

I would have liked to dry oranges to add to the tree, but my to-do wish list became longer than my time.

A little Christmas in the kitchen area:

Joy has always set up the village. She loves arranging it. We decided to put it out in the loft this year. She set it up with a little help from Luke.

This is my favorite little scene of the village.  Of course, I love the log cabin and the people enjoying the simple moments.

We couldn't forget the bathroom. Got to have something Christmasy to look at when we're in there. :)

I'll be back with a few highlights of Christmas in our home.....not alot, just a few favorite photos to share. It's time to start baking. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Fresh From the Workshop (to The Cedar Loft)

If you heard squealing Monday evening, that was probably me! I knew my carpenter was working on a carpentry project that I requested of him (a TV cabinet for the loft), but without my knowledge, Jason finished it and snuck it up to The Cedar Loft. He summoned me up to the loft, and there it sat…..in all its glory! And it looks so perfect there. It was one of those pieces that was just meant to be, so in character for that space. You know how you envision a piece of furniture in a spot? Well this went far beyond my expectations! Can you tell I love it? :)

I had shown Jason a few cabinet ideas that I found online and in Country Sampler magazines, and told him I would like a “sort of mix” of those. I “turned him loose” on it. I so trust his judgement, because he knows me now. I say now when it comes to building furniture for me because it did take awhile to get the distressed idea through to him, but once he got it, he really got it! He even added some of his own creative touches that I didn’t show him!

The panels on the front of the door were his idea! I love that!

Instead of using antique glazing on the green (it's actually called Brown Moss), we had agreed upon sanding and rubbing on stain. We decided on red oak stain.

The ends being "paneled" was his little addition and I love it!

Monday night, after calling us up to the loft, after a while the kids fell asleep on the couch. Jason and I just sat there staring at it. Is that silly or what? Do you do that? I do that with my Christmas lights and décor. I like to turn off the lights and just sit back and enjoy it. And that’s exactly what we did with that cabinet. We didn’t even have the TV on. We just snuggled up on the couch and admired his handiwork. :) And it’s all his handiwork. I didn’t have one hand in the building of it. I just told him what I wanted, and he built it. I’m so grateful that he enjoys building what I dream up!

I just love that little indention of the wood near the left knob!

We just got the 40" flat screen LCD TV a couple of weeks ago. Jason started on the TV cabinet right about then, but has only been able to work here and there after work and a little on the weekends.

 I’m really thrilled because now we can enjoy our Christmas movies in The Cedar Loft if we want! I’m still working on adding some Christmas decorations up there. Hopefully in a week or so, I will have it to the point of sharing more pictures of the loft decorated for Christmas.

He made sure I had a shelf to display rustic/prim decor....even though it's on a very low wall!

This is absolutely one of my very favorite pieces Jason had made for me. I really love my red stepback cupboard in the kitchen and the navy blue sideboard/buffet in the dining, room, but this definitely rates right there with those.

Now for the next projects……….pegboards and a cupboard for the kitchen in The Cedar Loft. That would make a great Christmas gift, don’t you think?  :)

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**Dianne (a reader of my blog) left a comment asking if I could recommend more movies, possibly from instant streaming Netflix that were family friendly. I didn't have a way to contact you, Dianne, so I decided to post it here. I would love to do that. I will try to put together some sort of list and post that as soon as I can get it all together. I am not sure if you were speaking of movies in general, or just Christmas ones. I am assuming movies in general. If you would let me know for sure, that would be helpful! Thank you for your comment! I love hearing from you! **

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Thank you for stopping by today! I don't know if I can hold out to 500 followers for a giveaway.....I want to do a Christmas one, so I might just have to do that real soon! :)

A Bench Makeover

My mother’s friend, Ms. Sally, gave Mama a bench that has been stored above the garage that is now The Cedar Loft. Since she had not done anything with it, Mama graciously gave it to us to be used in the loft. Thank you, Mama!

I forgot to purposely take a photo of it "before", but I found one in a shot that I took of the general loft area before we got started on it:

We finally got around to giving it a makeover! Jason used the sprayer and painted it the same red (heirloom red) as the kitchen cabinets in the loft. I then distressed it with my favorite antiquing glaze and then we gave it one layer of polyurethane to bring out the distressing.  Actually these pictures really don't show the distressing that well.  It shows up much more in person.

Here's the bench now:

I love all the little dings and dents in it. I think they show up a little more with the polyurethane. Actually, I think those dents are kind of special. Ms. Sally’s daughter, Tracy, was a friend of mine through school. Ms. Sally says that bench sat in their hallway near the telephone and those dents came from all the times her three kids sat on the bench talking on the phone.

When I first saw the bench, I knew it would be perfect placed at the foot of the bed for additional seating space for the small loft. I love the way it looks there.

Every little detail that we add just seems to more character to The Cedar Loft. It is coming along slowly now, but we will eventually get it the way we want it. In a way, not being able to do it all at once is a blessing in itself, because it gives us something to look forward to. And that’s always a good thing!

Thank you so much to old and new followers, for your visits and your comments. I’m thinking about a giveaway when I hit 500 followers, which means I need to give my carpenter some ideas too. Thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderful weekend!