Cottage Style Altered Art

Do you remember the sweet painting below that I bought at Goodwill last year? I liked it, I really did! But with my new found love of robin's egg blue, I just couldn't make the dark green and yellow background in the painting work for me. What to do?



With a little paint and a lot of nerve, I tackled the background myself. I also painted the frame a dark, chocolate brown.



I'm no artist but I know that it lacks the same depth, shadow, blending, and texture the original painting had, and I may continue tweaking in future...you know...as I save up a little more creative nerve:) For now, I'm just going to enjoy my new cottage style "altered art"!

Cottage Living Room Decorating - Adding Softness with a Touch of Romance

We've been working on the kitchen so much over the last year that it's become a rare thing for me to post anything that's not kitchen related, so I thought I'd give you all a break from all things "cottage kitchen"...Today we're going to venture into the living room and see what's changed in there over the last year!

(living room before photo, right)Has this ever happened to you? For years, you are a renter who must suffer through living with white or beige walls - and then finally you are a homeowner. You tell yourself that *never* again will you have white or beige walls and before you know it, your new home looks like the inside of kaleidoscope...and you love it! I do believe this is what happened to me after buying our home a few years ago. My living room has been I don't know how many shades of yellow, and at one time I very briefly had a red accent wall. You may as well have been in McDonald's and I never even bothered to take pictures of that design blunder! At some point I decided that all four walls should remain yellow and after I finally found the right shade, I was quite pleased for a year or so. I think then, too, my own personal cottage style was still in development and I was going for more of country farmhouse style look.

The more I researched the many different cottage styles, however, the more I realized how much I loved (and needed) a very simple, soft, and romantic color palette. (See what I mean here in this beautiful blog!) I'm not talking about pink or other pastels...I mean whites and beiges, the colors that I told myself I would never use again in my own home! But balanced out with a few sparing pops of color here and there - dark brown to black accents and the red kitchen cabinets, white and beige can be very pretty and restful! So, last month when we painted the kitchen, we also repainted the living room the same beige color. It's called Malted Milk from Valspar at Lowes. (photo, left)

As far as remodeling goes, we haven't really tackled the living room yet other than remudding the walls, painting them, adding window trim, and giving the fireplace a makeover. One of the major things to be done to living room includes replacing the ceiling. Hubs wants to reinsulate up there which involves tearing out the old cottage-cheese laden ceiling and replacing it with a tung and groove ceiling like we installed in our kitchen. We will also be adding hardwood floors (we still have the painted white subflooring), tearing out an unused coat closet to add some space for a secretrary style desk, replacing the front door, installing baseboards (you can see from the photos that we are still baseboard-less!), and *maybe* adding beadboard around the perimeter of the living room to about the height of the just below fireplace mantel. (I don't know...what do you think about that?) So lots of work to do in here down the road.

I've decided that the cottage look I'm going for is more of European country / farmhouse cottage style, leaning heavily toward a romantic French flavor. Perhaps like an artist's countryside retreat... can you picture it? Oooh la la!

I thought I'd highlight a few of the projects that I worked on recently for the living room. Do you remember this table? It was actually a small dining room table that I bought at Goodwill for $10. Well over a year ago, I had hubs cut it down to coffee table height and then I primed it. And it sat primed in our living room for a very, very, very long time. The photo of our yellow living room above shows the table in it's primed state. Would you believe that last month I finally actually painted it and distressed it? (Someone please tell me that it takes you a year to paint your furniture, too!) We love having this oversized coffee table - it's great for games, food, or just propping your feet up on! So be on the look out for those small dining tables at thrift stores...it's amazing how a little paint and a saw can transform them!

I love displaying my favorite pages of my favorite books, especially art and poetry books. To counterbalance all the white going on the room, I'm trying to infuse some darker accents like the mirrors, lamps, candlesticks, and the wooden box. I think I need a taller something for the coffee table...hmm....

I bought the white end tables at the Nashville Flea Market a few years back. They were already painted white! Oh, and go ahead...help yourself to the bowl of...books!

What's up with all the mirrors, Kim? Yeah, I have a lot of them. I picked up all those circular mirrors at Old Time Pottery several months ago for $1.99 to 5.99 per mirror - not bad! It wasn't until last month that I finally hadsomething hanging above the sofa in the 4 1/2 years we've lived here! The big white mirror I found at a yard sale last year. You've seen it before when it was gold - remember? It was always my plan to paint it white and distress it and I'm happy to say that I got around to that project last month, too. I may end up adding some old white plates to this mirror grouping, too. The pillows are just standard sized pillows (like the ones you sleep on) covered with decorative cotton pillow shams. I've been on the lookout for a very long time for the perfect throw pillows but haven't found them yet. These pillows, though, work great! When we lounge on the couch, we use these pillows and really get comfortable! When the shams get soiled, I toss them in the wash and they are as good as new again.

First let me say that you are indeed seeing those two white partridges again, hehe. They somehow end up in all my little photo shoots. They are like the Where's Waldo of my cottage world...look hard enough and you'll always find them:) But the jewel of this photo is the teacup and saucer! Oh.My.Goodness! When I found these along with about 11 other cups, a few saucers and bowls, and a small cream pitcher, I just about kissed the nearest Goodwill associate. You better bet I rooted around for half an hour to find more pieces but alas, no large plates or sugar bowl or anything else. I did find out that this sweet pattern is called "Millbrook" made by Independence Ironstone. What I have is old (lots of crazing) but not too old - this particular pattern dates back to the 50's or 60's. I'm going to make it my goal to pick up pieces here and there online (they aren't that hard find!) and slowly build my collection. I never thought I'd fall in love with and collect a particular china pattern! I guess the problem was that I just never found the right one. Thank you, Goodwill!

The entryway into the kitchen was very stark and I wanted to come up with a way to soften it a bit and add a little more interest. Here in the background you can see the almost sheer cotton curtains I hung and swagged behind this large ivy topiary, another Goodwill find. If I remember correctly, the pot was purple but I painted it out in white. One advantage to having the topiary here is that it prevents the kids from running through the curtains like they would sheets on a clothesline on a warm summer day:)

This photo gives you an idea of how the entryway to the kitchen looks now with the romantic curtain addition. I purchased those curtains, perfect condition, at Goodwill, too. They are the Shabby Chic brand by Rachel Ashwell. The wall with the white chair would be a great place for' something interesting. For now, I'm pleased to have this open space. I bought some good canvas a couple of months ago to create my own floorcloth and I'm thinking this stretch of space would be the perfect location for it. I just need to come up with a design...still thinking about that one! Oh, and meet my corgi, Cara Bella:)

Let me preface the following photos by saying that I hate the giant elephant in the corner - that huge TV. I enjoy having a large screen but I hate the fact that I can see it. Do you know what I mean? How I'd love to have a cabinet in which to hide it away...or a sleeker flat screen, or better yet, another room entirely for the television! Unfortunately, I have none of those and there is no getting around the fact that I have to decorate with the said elephant in the corner. Add to that, our living room is really small and there really is nowhere else in the room to move it. *sigh* So there it is. Let's just pretend we don't see it. I don't see it. Do you? I just moved the loveseat in front of the window a few days ago. Originally it was perpendicular to the couch, but I needed a change.

On the floor leaning against the wall is my growing collection of frames and mirrors. The large white one was originally gold. I think I want to make that one into a chalk board and just lean it up against the island in the kitchen. And I can't believe I finally have curtains up in the living room! The are long linen curtains from West Elm. I bought them a couple of years ago on Ebay - new and still in the package - for a fraction of the cost of buying them retail! It took me a little while to collect all four panels from various sellers, but as you know, I don't get in a hurry very easily:) As for the little round table, it was stained a honey color but I sanded it down, primed, painted, and distressed it. (I bought it at Wal-mart on clearance at a great price for solid wood...actually, I bought two!)

This is another Goodwill mirror. It's one of those heavy duty plastic mirrors that was originally gold. I removed the mirror, sprayed it with a dark brown paint, sanded it just a bit, popped the mirror back in and voila! Say hi to Penelope my beagle warming herself in front of the fire...

I hope you enjoyed this recap of my recent living room changes. Though we still have a lot to do renovationwise in here, it's been fun working on these smaller decorative projects for a change:)

I hope everyone is staying warm and dry!

~Kim

A Few of My Favorite Things

Even in the midst of remodeling chaos, there are some things around here that continue to make this place feel like "home". I've always loved the giant canvas that sits atop our mantle. The flowers and colors are so alive and are a great pick-me-up:) A few have said that perhaps the piece is too large for the space but that has never mattered to me. I could lie on the couch and stare at it all day and never get tired of looking at it.

Because we don't really yet have any bookshelves (gasp!), I do a lot of book stacking here and there and I love how some of my favorite books coordinate nicely with the canvas, which brings me to another favorite - old books! Not all of the books here are old, but how I do love finding a great old book! Do you every open them up and just smell them? So I'm always on the hunt for old books that pertain to gardening, housekeeping, music and other titles that interest me.

Atop this particular stack of books is my pair of birds, partridges I think. I picked these up at Goodwill months ago. The first time I saw them, I carried them around in my cart and ended up putting them back as I was already buying loads of stuff that day (sound familiar?). But when I went back to Goodwill, they were still there so I brought them home. Actually, I think when I saw them next, I could only find one of them, but then the *next* time I went, they were together at last. I love these little birds:) One looks like it had been broken and glued back together, but that's ok. I just like how they look like they belong together and love each other and are up there on that big stack of books by all by themselves but huddled together. One is a little bigger than the other, so perhaps they are mother and child. I keep them facing each other as they are extra sweet that way.

As you can imagine, I've been incredibly busy. I do really hate that word and wish that I could remove it from my vocabulary. I ended up having an extra week to fill my candy order so I'm very much relieved by that because between school shopping and the kids actually going back to school this week, it has been crazy around here trying to get back into the school routine, attending all the orientations (one on Tuesday and two tonight!), and other little things that I just didn't have to do during the summer. The week after next should be much easier as all three kidlets will be in school all day long and I won't be picking up my kindergartener in the middle of the day as I am now.

I did make extra boxes of candies with the large order I've had to fill so that I could go ahead and post them to my shop, but I had some requests for those boxes - which means they won't be going in the shop afterall. I want to apologize to all of you who have written and who are waiting for them to be posted online - but I will be making new ones again starting next week and won't fill any other requests locally until I have items online. Thank you for your patience!

Hope everyone is doing well and staying cool! We're having a major heat wave here - got up to 104 yesterday! Whew!

Crazy Summer

Good afternoon! I'm still alive and kicking here at the old Twice Remembered Cottage, but summertime has brought with it much activity that has kept me away from the computer for the most part. I've noticed over the years that this is how goes for many bloggers during the summer - kids are out of school, trips are planned, and the days are spent either go-go-going or being completely relaxed and lazy at home. I've been all of the above:)

In my last entry, I wrote about how I was laboriously removing paint from my backsplash. Well, it may not surprise you to learn that I've changed my mind about the distressed backsplash look. If you remember, I was on the fence not too long about whether to leave the "freshly painted" look or to go with the aged and distressed look that would require removing much of the paint. After seeing and studying the two "looks" side by side for quite some time, I've decided that the distressed brick just looks too busy with pattern on my countertop. For me, there's just too much going on. Now, if my countertop was more of a solid color, I think it would look great. So...it looks like it's the crisp, freshly painted look afterall. I just have those spots that I've already distressed to repaint, then the backsplash is DONE. I have those wrought iron brackets to install but I have to think if I want to leave them off white or paint them more of an oil-rubbed bronze color.




I bought a little piece of art recently (haven't hung it yet) but I thought it looked so pretty against the painted brick backsplash. This is what really sold me on the idea that the solid white looked better to me. And I love how the red in the art, the cabinets, and my "faux" candy seem to work well together.

In other kitchen news, I found some old-fashion curtains for the kitchen window! Of course, I got them at Goodwill. They are actually 84 inch long curtains that I just doubled over the rod - this created a fuller effect. I found some oil-rubbed bronze tension rods last week that will look much better than the standard white one that I'm using. If I would have known I was going to find these curtains, I would have picked one up...I'll just have to make another trip to Old Time Pottery:)

Next month with my *all* my children going off to school, for the first time in 12 1/2 years, I'll have hours each day to myself. You know, I've been feeling pretty anxious about that! It's like a graduation of sorts for me - graduating from one stage of my life to the next. I want to devote two to three of those days each week to my ministry, one to volunteer at the kidlets' school, and the other days will be for me to work on crafts, (such as the faux candy in the photos above, etc.,) for my online shop. I don't know how the shop will work out - whether I'll want to stay online with it or just create things for local craft fairs or flea markets. So many decisions... Do any of you have an online shop? How is it going? Do you use Ebay or Etsy or just your own website? Any tips and suggestions would be greatly appreciated! I set up a Twice Remembered Cottage Etsy shop to get the feel for it, but I'd love to know what your experience with it has been...

Speaking of appreciation - *I* appreciate all the mail I've been getting and your lovely commnents in my last entry! Thank you! I said in my last comment that I'd answer many of your questions in my next post, but I went ahead and emailed them personally. If I forgot anyone, please let me know! One of the questions I've been getting is about my shop, when it opens, and if I'm selling more of the faux candies. Sometime in August is my goal...I'll have some items to sell including faux candy. Thank you for your interest!

Now, you see those beams in the kitchen in the last photo? I am determined that those are going to be primed this week! Today, hubs and I (okay, just hubs) will be filling in any seams with wood filler and tomorrow he'll sand so that I can prime. It really should be against the law to have to work on remodeling projects during the summer:)

Cottage Charm Give Away Day Drawing Near! + Brick Backsplash Update

Only four days left till May 26th - the day where all of us participating in this cottage themed giveaway will announce the winners of our drawings! There is still time to enter your own giveaway and/or to sign up for all the giveaways being held. I said below that I would add giveaway links to the the list until noon central time on Friday, but I won't be home until late afternoon, so I'm extending the deadline (to be added to the main giveaway list) until 6 pm central time on Friday, May 25th. So check out all the other great cottage charm giveaways being held from now until May 26th! If you want details on participating yourself, click here. I hope you all have had as much fun with this as I have! I will do another "Cottage Charm Give Away" the last week in May next year, too, so mark your calendars - you've got plenty of time to plan, hehe! This has been a blast!

Well, just one more step and I'll be finished with the backsplash. I still need to paint, which I really wanted to do days ago but our weekend was super jam packed with activity. So yesterday was going to be THE day to paint, but I had to first wait until the dishwasher repairman came and went (I didn't want to have a mess pulled out while he was trying to work). So I waited and waited and waited and waited. He never showed. Turns out, he had to cancel our appointment but instead of calling me to let me know, he called hubs work number and left a message. Hubs didn't get the message until late in the day...grrr! Why they called hubs - who is always on the go at work, I don't know. But an entire day was wasted here and by the time I knew the repairman wasn't coming, it was time to cook dinner. *sigh*

The backsplash may already *look* painted but it's not. I overgrouted (rubbed a thin layer of grout over the surface) the bricks to see if I'd like the color and look. If I liked it, I was going to seal it well and leave it "as is", and if the grout started to wear off over time, it would slowly expose more of the brick color. Turns out the color is a little too bright of a white and also, the grout on the surface of the bricks wears off pretty easily - I'm not sure how well a protective finish would work after several scrubbings. So now I think I'll go through with a wet washcloth and wipe down any grout that comes off easily, let it dry, and paint it a creamy white called "Honey Milk". I think I've mentioned it's the same color as the appliances. But from the photo, you can still get an idea of what the backsplash will look like.

I went to Hobby Lobby the other day to get a couple of pretty cast iron off-white brackets to place below the ends of the upper cabinets. There were tons of them back a couple of months ago and I had several in my buggy at that time. But I decided to wait since I wasn't yet ready for them...I was trying to be patient:) Wouldn't you know, when I went on Friday they only had *one* left of the kind that I was looking for. I was very disappointed, but I know something else will come up.


I did find these cute nursery rhyme prints at Kirkland's Home. I thought they were Kate Greenaway prints (she was a childrens book illustrator in the mid 1800's - I collect her books!) but turns out the artist is someone else who lived during the same time. I was sure fooled! I love them though I don't have a nursery to put them in:) These may even end up in the dining room one of these days as they look really nice with the red and green and off-white. Whimsical to say the least! (click photos to enlarge)








Oh! And by the way...the countertop really does look so much better to me now that the backsplash is in! It doesn't seem as dark as it seemed at first - thanks for the encouragement to wait until everything is in place before deciding that I don't like it!

Well, Hello, Mr. Tax Refund... We've Been Expecting You!"

"It's so good to see you again! But tell me, how long are you planning on sticking around? Every year it seems that just as soon as you get here, you disappear just as quickly as you arrive? Why is that?"

Every renovator out there knows the answer to that question. In our household, anyway, our tax refund money is spoken for a whole year in advance. Last year, we bought flooring for the kitchen, living room, and hallway - and pine planks for some of the ceilings. We really wanted to get a new washer and dryer as ours are very, very old and cantankerous. Our washer literally tries to escape from the laundry room every time we use it. Seriously. One morning I'm going to wake up and find it eating breakfast in the kitchen. But...our refund budget didn't allow us to buy a replacement washer and dryer last year. You can bet, though, that it was at the top of our list year!

Though I've been really excited about getting a new washer and dryer, I was less than excited about actually shopping for a set. Because our old set is so...old, anything - anything at all will suit me just fine. As long as it's extra large capacity and front loading and stays put, I really don't care what we buy. Hubs, however, being the great researcher and comparison shopper he is, put a lot of time and energy into finding just the right washer and dryer at just the right price. He really knew better than to try and take me comparison shopping with him. All the numbers, the models, the features just totally overwhelmed me. Like a moth to light, I was only interested and drawn to the shiny and colorful models (figures). I nearly swooned after seeing the Wild Cherry LG washer and dryer. *drool* I just wanted to hug that washer and dryer in all it's red and chrome goodness. But even I knew that paying an extra $300-$400 for a color other than white just wasn't making practical use of our tight budget. I told hubs to just buy whatever he wanted. He ordered a white GE and it will be delivered on Saturday - yee haw! Our old washer is going to a bachelor friend. His current washer has gone through a form of appliance menopause (it no longer has a spin cycle), which means he has to wring out his clothes before putting them into the dryer - ugh!

The rest of our tax money this year will go to buying solid wood interior doors, oil-rubbed bronze knobs, and hardwood flooring for the kids' rooms. I was really hoping we'd have enough to go ahead and get the flooring for our masterbedroom, too, but it may have to wait until next year.

For any of you that live in the South East, it may be worth your time to take a trip to Southeastern Salvage Home Emporium in Chattanooga, Birmingham, Chesapeake, Cincinnati, Mobile, or Shreveport. They have the best products and prices for home building and renovating materials. At Lowes or Home Depot, we were looking at paying between $165 - $200 per solid pine six panel wood door. At South Eastern Salvage, we'll custom order our doors and they'll make them for us out of solid Brazilian Pine - for $98 any size! They come with hinges that match the oil-rubbed bronze finish knobs I want to use. To get that particular finish at Lowes or Home Depot, we would have been charged extra. Their oil-rubbed bronze door knobs are from $4 to $12 each and you just can't beat that! So we're pretty excited about this resource. We bought our porcelian tile for the bathroom there a while back and saved heaps of money.

I promise that the next entry I make will be the one about our "Ugly House Vignettes". You may want to skip it if you're especially sensitive to such disturbing viewing material, lol. It sure ain't gonna be pretty.

By the way, the Carl Larsson painting at the top called "An Evening by the Lamp". I love it because it pictures a small space packed with homey furniture, especially the extra large coffee table filled with newspapers, books, and other things. That's the way our coffee table stays, it seems! The next painting is called "Cottage in the Snow". Just lovely!

Off to work on some craft projects now!

Meet Carl Larsson - My New Favorite Artist

**Edited to add: View pages and pages of Carl Larsson's artwork here. I've linked to a few paintings in a paragraph below as well.**
I admit it...as much as I love color and creativity and expression, I'm really, really , really picky about the art that I display in my home. The color and style has to be just right and the mood the piece of art creates is just as important. Because I am so picky, I don't have very much art in my home:( But let me tell you, that will change once we are past all this dreadful remodeling because I have discovered a very talented Swedish artist, Carl Larsson (1853-1919) that has absolutely captured my heart.

Many of you may have already heard of him, but it wasn't until last night when I found a book about him (under piles of kids books at Goodwill) that I was introduced to his work. The book I found has little text and is filled with about 30 of his paintings - full 8 X 11 inch pages with no printing on the backs of them (perfect for pulling out to have matted and framed!). OH MY GOODNESS! No other artist that I know has captured most of the things that I hold dear in my life...home, children, simplicity, creativity, color...From what I've learned, he and his wife Karin (who was also and artist and textile designer) have been called the creators of Swedish design. Their colorfully and imaginately decorated small two story cottage really stood out among the very prim and proper Victorian homes of the time. According to the official Carl Larsson website, "Carl and Karin formed and furnished this house according to their own very special artistic taste and also the needs of their growing family."

They had eight children and really treated them much differently than Victorian children of the time were treated. They were the children of artists, so I would expect that to be true! "Meals were important to the Larsson family. The adults did not eat by themselves; they wanted the children around them. This surprised a number of visitors who were used to adults and children having separate lives. There are stories of the merry dinners, of gossiping with the neighbours over coffee and of card games during the dark winter evenings. Carl and Karin had brought home to Sweden, the French habit of remaining a long time at the dinner table for conversation."

If you look on his website, you'll see a few photos of their sweet little home. It is left today nearly exactly the way it was when they lived there. In the dining room, you'll find red chairs. "In our day the bright colours in the Dining Room may not seem so sensational. But contemporary writers had a lot to say about the "raw" colours, and indeed about the red chairs the Larssons had ordered from carpenter Arnbom in Sundborn." I read also, that just because a piece of furniture had been made in 1694, that didn't stop him from painting it - which during that time, just wasn't done! I have a feeling that color ran through his veins.

His paintings that I love so are the ones from his family life...just simple yet very detailed vignettes around their home. It is kind of eerie and surreal, in a way, to view his paintings and then view actual photos of their home because nothing really has changed. The rooms are the same - the furniture, the walls...everything. The only thing missing from the photos are the children and his wife that now only live in the rooms of the paintings.

"In the summer of 1894 it had rained for six straight weeks. "I went about in an insufferable mood", Carl Larsson wrote. Karin then suggested that he should sketch a few pictures of their home to cure his impatience." So this is how it all began - this series of books about his family and home. His books have been called the "Internet" of their time because they are so real and raw and gave a real view into their family life.

And, oh, how the colors are exquisite! You see, all the colors in his paintings are the colors that I long to incorporate into my own "cottage" - the reds, the greens, the yellows, and even some blue. So you can understand why I fell in love the moment I found this book hiding under a pile of books at Goodwill.

There is a painting, "Homework" of his children sitting at the table doing homework, another - "The Kitchen" portrays two of his girls in the kitchen churning butter while their kitten plays in the corner and the breeze blows up the sheer curtains on the open window, "Flowers on the Windowsill" pictures a daughter watering plants on the windowsill with mother's ball of yarn and knitting needles on the table, one of "Breakfast Under the Big Birch"...the whole family, including the dog, eating together at a big table outside, one entitled "Brita's Forty Winks" - the baby sleeping under a cozy red blanket in her cradle, "Shelling Peas" - the children helping with food preparation, one called "When the Children Have Gone to Sleep" which pictures Karin and Carl enjoying quiet time by lamplight, he reading the paper, she working on her needlework, "Hide and Seek" shows one of the adorable children at play, "A Lazy Corner" - I just want to curl up on that sofa!

There are so many of these sweet and charming little vignettes - I could just fall over! You know how in our time, we go about our homes clicking photos of our family and this and that, and are eager to share them with others? Well, that's what Carl Larssons paintings were all about. And I just can't wait to display them in my home...just knowing that this precious family and all the painted vignettes actually existed - and somehow still exist through the paintings.

I want to share some of these paintings with you but have run out of time! I'll have more later...until then, enjoy learning more about Carl Larsson on his website:)

A Quick Note...

Somehow I've managed to get this lousy cold *again*. Let's see, a very rare whole day to myself because the three kidlets are out of town with the grandparents and I'm home sick with a cold and screwy plumbing, thus dishes and laundry piling up, a toilet that shouldn't be flushed, and no way to get to a shower because my mode of transportation (our minivan aka funmobile) went with the kidlets.... Good old Murphy and his law.

I have most of the rooms cleaned out and reorganized at least. What's left is the office/playroom/sunroom (where our computer resides) and the kitchen. I've hauled all the baskets of toys to the living room to be sorted and culled tomorrow (Saturday) and this will also give be a good chance to scrub the tile grout in here before bringing everything back.

Today on Ebay, I bought a huge Kim Parker print called 'Urban Garden'. I just love her work:) I just want to fill the house with cheerful pieces like this. I will probably have to make a frame for it. It's 35 X 35 inches and I would want a shabby looking, distressed white frame with white matting. If you click the link to the right that says "Shop My Ebay Favorites", then click on "Kim Parker Art" or "Ballard Designs", you'll be directed to some more of her stuff. The Ballard link will have other pieces of art by various artists as well.



Well, I must get to bed as I'm sure it's Saturday by now. Eese, I will be calling you to see I can borrow your shower- thank you!:) Jeff will be working on the plumbing again. The fun never stops, does it?!!