The Coastal Living Collection By Stanley Furniture

I love the beach cottage look.

I also love pastels.

So when I was out shopping for furniture for the house in Hooterville and saw the beach cottage-inspired collection of furniture Coastal Living magazine and Stanley Furniture have created, I almost flipped!

There are 14 different (yummy) colors and finishes, all organized into three color palettes. 

You pick the piece(s) of furniture you want, select the color(s)/finish(es) and the result is a very personalized look for your room!

Isn’t this dining room  just exquisite in these colors?

  

 

Normally, I’m not gung ho about wood grains but I thought this finish called “Boardwalk” was exceptionally pretty.  I’m contemplating getting the  TV console (but not the upper hutch) in the above photo in “Boardwalk” for the family room.

I loved this gorgeous bed in the lime green called “sea grass”  (although I think it looks more yellow than green in this photo).

 

I had a chance to see the bed in person in the aqua color called “Sea Mist” and I loved that too!

In fact, I love the aqua and lime green together so much that I am mulling over some ideas about ways to incorporate lime green with the aqua in the master bedroom at the house in Hooterville. 

Hmmmm….if I only had a beach cottage instead of a horse farm in the country, I would truly love a whole house full of this beautiful furniture collection.  There wasn’t a single piece (or color) I didn’t like.

If you want to see more of the Coastal Living Collection, or find a retailer near you that sells it, you can go to the Stanley Furniture website.

Disclaimer:  I have absolutely no affiliation with Coastal Living or Stanley Furniture,  nor have I received any compensation from them  to mention the Coastal Living line of furniture here.

Jolie’s Little Filly (& the Blog Birthday Giveaway Winner)

For those interested in the house in Hooterville  decorating posts, I promise they will resume shortly because I do have some new things to show you.

However, for now, I hope you will indulge me while I show you a few  more photos of the sweet little foal that was born at our farm last Friday night.  I really do kind of feel like a proud grandma!  ;)

 

 

Any concerns we had about the possibility of the mother,  Jolie, not allowing anyone to get close to her foal were unfounded.  She is being an awesome, attentive mother but still allowing us to pet and get to know her baby under her watchful eye.

I love these next three photos of Daughter meeting the foal up close and very personal.

  

Jolie will only reluctantly let me briefly touch her nose so I was surprised when she even allowed me to come into the stall to get acquainted with her baby.

We were having  a lovely little visit…

 

until she stepped in closer to me and…

She didn’t have her foot just propped up on mine…she was standing with her full weight on it which resulted in an UGLY  grimace of pain  on my face until I could push her back enough to extract my foot.

Jolie is part draft horse so the foal is big and estimated to weigh  at least  125 pounds .

Ouch.

Daughter is having a hard time deciding on a name for the foal (which is  a girl) so I told her I would ask my readers.   There is no prize involved but if anyone has any ideas come to mind, Daughter is open to suggestions.

********************

Also, a  sincere thanks to all who stopped by to congratulate me on the first birthday of my blog and enter my blog birthday giveaway.  It really has been a fun first year as a blogger.  I’ve said this before but  I really and truly appreciate everyone who takes time out of their busy day to visit, especially with all of the wonderful blogs to chose from in Blogland.  

To see the winner of the giveaway

CLICK HERE

She selected the 3 in 1 gift card, good for purchases at  HomeGoods,  TJMaxx  or  Marshalls and I hope she enjoys her mini shopping spree courtesy of My Cottage of Bliss. 

 

There’s a New Baby at Windswept Farm!

Not quite four hours ago, around 8:35 p.m. (Eastern time) Friday night, Daughter’s PMU rescue mare, Jolie,  had her foal. 

I was a little disappointed that I wasn’t at the house in Hooterville at the time so I didn’t get to witness the birth  but Daughter emailed me one of the first photos of the  foal, taken right after she was born. 

The picture was taken with a cell phone so the quality is not very good but I’ll get more photos this weekend and share them in a few days, along with the winner of my blog birthday giveaway. 

EDITED TO ADD 2 NEW PHOTOS THAT WERE JUST EMAILED TO ME:

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie Or In Other Words…Watch Where You Step!

We haven’t actually “officially” moved into the house in Hooterville yet so we have the TV temporarily set up in what will eventually be the office.  It’s a rather small room with dimensions of approximately 10 feet x 14 feet.   

The other night I got up to leave the room and I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw this  obstacle course of sleeping dogs I had to navigate just to get to the door! 

 

That’s Jasmin on the right, Bo at the bottom of the photo, and the “rescue” Shepherd my daughter adopted several months ago, Logan, is on the left.

German Shepherds are great, loyal, family-oriented dogs and these three are no exception.  No matter what we are doing, they are ALWAYS close by…

even if we are just watching TV.

A Birthday Celebration Giveaway!

The first birthday of my blog is coming up on May 8th. 

 

I am amazed how fast this first year of blogging has zipped by.  Quite honestly, before I started my blog I had serious doubts if blogging was for me and whether I would even make it through the first month of being a blogger, as you could probably tell if you ever read my first post. 

One year later and I’m actually still here!

To celebrate, I want to have another giveaway.  During this past year,  I have held 4  giveaways with 6 prizes  but the gifts have always been of my choosing.  This time, I would like the winner of my blog birthday celebration giveaway to pick their own gift so I’m offering a…

 $25.00 gift card

And…

 I want to allow the winner to chose which store they want it to come from!

 

You have THIRTEEN choices:

(or 15 if you count the 3 in 1 card of TJMaxx, Marshalls & HomeGoods)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

Since we all have different and varied likes, wants and needs, I tried to cover a wide variety of retailers. 

So, how did I do?  Think you could find something to spend a $25.00 gift card on at one of these stores? 

Uh huh, that’s what I thought!  ;)

If you would like to be  entered into the giveaway, I am not asking you to do a single thing except…

leave  a comment on this post telling me which store you would like to have the gift card from

AND

what you think you would most likely spend the gift card on.

 

Anyone who has at least one of these stores in their area is welcome to enter.  If you don’t have a blog, please be sure to leave your email address so I can contact you if you win.  If you would prefer not to publish your email address in the comment section, feel free to forward it to me via email at:

mycottageofbliss@yahoo.com

You have until midnight (eastern time) on May 7th, 2010 to enter.

On May 8th, my blog’s first birthday, a winner will be randomly selected and I will send them a $25.00 gift card from the store of their choice.

Let the party begin!

**Disclosure:  I have no affiliation with any of the above companies nor have I received any compensation from them for mentioning them in my giveaway.  In addition, none of the above companies have contributed one single cent to the giveaway prize; it is funded solely by me.

Modular Home Decisions

When we bought the house in Hooterville, one of  our goals  was to put a modular home on the property so Daughter could have her own residence. 

I had never actually been in a modular home before so when we went to the model center, I was really impressed how NICE they are!   For the most part, they look like a regularly constructed houses.    There are even models that are 2 stories or have 1 or 2 car garages.  The prices are surprisingly affordable too.

For the past several months we have been waiting for a long list  of county permits to be approved before we could actually proceed with having a modular home built on our property.  At this point, we have jumped through enough regulatory hoops  that construction of Daughter’s modular  home will likely start very soon so recently, she and I went to pick out the carpet, tile, paint colors, cabinets etc.

This is the floor plan of the model she liked.  It’s 1800 square feet,  3 bedrooms, and 2 baths.  Although it is considerably larger than she needs right now, it’s big enough for her to “grow into” if she should get married and have a child or two.

The photos below are pictures I took of the MODEL, not her actual home (or furniture).

As you come in the front entry, the living room is to the right.  The built-in entertainment center is included and she liked it in cherry, as shown.  She has chosen a different shade of beige carpet.  That open door to the right of the entertainment center leads to the master bedroom and bathroom.

Instead of this terracotta color, she picked a pretty sage green for her accent wall.

 

This view is looking back across the living room to the dining room, which is to the left of the front entry.  You can also just barely see the kitchen in the back.  I was really impressed with  all of the architectural details that are put into these  homes  like the beams,  pillars, and even crown moldings.

 

Standing in the dining room, this would be the view of the kitchen.   This kitchen is  bigger and laid out much better than the kitchen in the house in Hooterville!  Daughter liked the cherry cabinets and black appliances.  However, she selected a lighter, creamier tile for the floor and backsplash areas, and  a slightly lighter countertop.

Across from the kitchen island is a  built-in desk/computer workstation.  To the left of the desk is the doorway into the laundry room.

The laundry room is a very nice size.  Behind that door is the hot water heater and storage.  Again, her floor tile will be a lighter beige and she also chose a lighter beige wall color.  (There are only a few “standard” carpet, paint, tile, cabinet etc. options available, unless you wish to pay extra for “upgrades.”)

Looking back across the laundry room into the kitchen.  This bench area will be great when she comes in from the barn.  She can enter through the back door (on the right) and sit down to remove her dirty barn boots.  She also has a place to stash her purse, and hang her coat or rain jacket in inclement weather.

The master bedroom is a generous size…slightly bigger than 14 feet x 14 feet, which is larger than any of the bedrooms at the house in Hooterville! 

Although it doesn’t really look like it in this photo, the master bedroom  walk-in closet is very spacious.

The master bathroom is quite nice too.  It has double sinks, lots of  storage, and a deep soaking tub.  I can’t say I would particularly like to be seeing myself getting in and out of the tub in that big mirror directly over the tub though.  (YIKES!)  There is also a walk-in shower to the left, across from the sinks.

This is the guest bath.  Again, she chose the lighter floor tile and wall color.  In addition, she opted to have all white tiles in the shower as opposed to having the double row of contrasting tiles.

Since we embarked on this  journey of buying the “Hooterville” property six months ago,  there have been several times  I have wished we could have just bought TWO modular homes and not had to worry with the extensive renovations which need to be made to the house in Hooterville. 

How about you?  Would you ever consider living in a modular home?