Our new additions

I thought I'd share with you our new additions to our family...meet Oliver and Wilbur!

They have brought some fun back into our home after losing Ozzy.  He was my cat...always there to greet me in the morning ready for some lovin'....how I miss him so.

This is Wilbur....

He has 8 toes on both of his front feet and is called a taradactyl cat.   He looks like he has mittens for paws.  We have fallen in love with him!  He is a little firecracker...darting all around, flopping and flipping like an acrobat!

While he's sleeping, you can do anything with him....he's just the cutest little thing!  

His little paws are too adorable!  He loves to nestle in your hair and get under your chin to sleep.  Such a sweetheart!  

Lots of  cat naps for this little guy since he's a little firecracker!

Now meet Oliver....

He's the lover if you can get him to sit still long enough from playing with Wilbur.  He actually meows and begs to be held when he's in the mood.

He's really backward and so, so sweet.  I caught him yawning and thought this was too adorable not to show.

He has to take little cat naps too from all of his jumping...he loves to pounce!

There's just something about a kitten napping that's so relaxing...

They both came from different mommy's and weren't too smitten with each other at first.  Now they are inseparable!  Both are unique with their markings...and their eyes!  They both stare at you and seem to be studying our expressions...God love 'em!

So between painting the deck and playing with these little guys...I have been super busy!  

Here's a little peak at what the deck is looking like.

Still more painting left to do, but I am really happy with how it's turning out.  The rain this week is really messing up my plans...but at least I have some company with Oliver and Wilbur while everyone is at school and at work. 

Happy Mother's Day to My Momma

Another Mother's Day is here and I cannot say enough how happy I am to have such a mom as I do!  

She is the one I call twenty million times a day just to chat, I send her photos through fb just to share what I have done and she is the one I go to with all of my problems.

We've had our fair share of heartaches, trials and tribulations...but let me say that now our love is as strong as it could ever be for each other and it has all been by the power of my wonderful and loving God!

 I honestly don't know what I would do without her in my life.  

So I say to my Momma....

~Happy Mother's Day to you~

You are my Mother's Day present for sure!

Thank you for being my MOM!

XXXX Love you bunches OOOO

Melanie

The Winner Is....

What a fun giveaway this has been...so many sweet comments!  I never dreamed that so many would really want to enter and win like you all have.  Thank you all so much for playing along!

For this being my first ever giveaway I am just amazed...thank you all!

Now on to the winner...

Kris from Junk Chic Cottage!!!

Happy Mother's Day to you, I so hope you enjoy your little Mother's Day Present from me.  You are such an inspiration to all of us with your beautiful home.  I am looking forward to seeing how you use these in one of your bedrooms.

Kris, if you could send me your address, I will mail out on Monday.  

~ENJOY~

Hugs, 

  ~Sweet Melanie~

~My Little Mother's Day Present Giveaway~

I have been wanting to do a giveaway for some time now...but it always seems that time just gets away from me.

So, I made my mind up to just sit down and finally do it!

Mother's Day is coming up, so what better time to give a sweet present away than now?  

I've thought about doing my lampshade slipcovers, but then I worried that someone would have to go buy a new shade for it to fit since I do a custom fit to certain shades.  

Now that isn't a giveaway is it when you have to go buy something to use it with?!

Then I thought about doing something in my most favorite color PINK....but not everyone can use that color.

So..... shopping one day I ran across these little dish towels and table runner.  My fist thought was "now, this will work!"  The pillow was a previous purchase that never got used and I thought it looked perfect with them.  

Sorry, no home made things made from me this time....but these are absolutely adorable!  They can be used in so many different ways.  As placemats,  a bench seat cover, the dishcloths could be sewn into little pillowcases...the list goes on...

So I hope you all will participate!

There are a few things that I would appreciate that you do to enter.

1.  Share on your blog, Facebook and Twitter.

2.  Follow and like  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Sweet-Melanie/284956784895551?ref=hl

And last but not least...leave a comment here on my blog so I can help one of you to win!  You must leave a comment or I won't be able to include you in the giveaway.

The deadline to enter will be 5-11-13 and the winner will be announced on Mother's Day!  So make sure you check back to see if you have won....my little Mother's Day present  to you all!

 

P.S. Sorry the giveaway is limited to the US because of shipping rates.

The Porch is DONE

I've been working on our porch...cleaning, sewing, rearranging, planting....

A little painting....and this is what I am finally pleased with!

Each year I always try to make it cozy and welcoming...well this year was a little special.  This is my first summer where I am back to normal, or better yet, way past better than normal!  Last summer was a little tough, I didn't quite have all of my strength back to lift, move, paint or plant like I have this year.  I am so very thankful that God has blessed me with my health!

Facebook Yardsale has been really good to me  lately.  I had purchased a few Shabby Chic items and got this beautiful quilt...it was a twin and needed a little TLC.  I had it laying on our sofa until I finally made the decision to make that first cut....I am so glad I did because it is exactly what I needed for making the slipcovers for all of the furniture and pillows.

I also made cord cozies for the swing chains...so much prettier don't you think?

We love this swing....there is always a nice breeze blowing and this is such a nice spot to just relax.

The scenery is so pretty...

I had made the black and white ticking cushions yesterday and was getting frustrated...it just wasn't what I had wanted.

My youngest daughter gave me the idea for cutting up the quilt after making the cord cozy...she said it looks like roses and that I needed more pink.  If it were up to her, she'd have me get the pink paint and paint everything.  Thank you Hannah for the vote of more PINK!

I found these hanging bags of impatiens at our local Farmers Market and knew I had to have them!

They were perfect for hanging in between the windows.

I am just so pleased with how the porch turned out this year!  I usually add a rug but Gabe is loving the porch too and I really don't feel like sweeping dog hair up all SUMMER long....so no rug.

So there ya have it...a nice little spot for relaxing and enjoying SUMMER!

I love to SEW

I started the day out planning on making a slipcover for this little chair.

I had bought it with a few other things from fb yard sale.  It was black, so I spray painted it white of course....

Then I recovered the seat.

But we all know that it wasn't finished...it needed some lace to go with those pretty curvy curves the chair had.

So this is what I made...

I think it turned out C-U-T-E!

Once I start sewing, I want to just keep on, so I walked through the house looking for something else to make.

I saw the dress form that I had just painted.  Hannah had wanted it as soon as she saw it painted.  She thought it was so pretty...but to me it was just too bare.

I am loving all of the lace and ruffles...who knew I would ever like lace?!

Hannah loves bustles, so I tried making it a little poofy  in the back.

Perfect...I hope she likes it when she comes home from school.

Hope you all are having a 

Blessed Day!

I'm off to do some more sewing, that is if I find something else to get my hands on..wink wink

Everything is getting so green

Getting ready for Summer is always a task...the pollen is always a pain and the animals are giving me quite a run for my money on cleaning up hair.  I usually make new covers for my pillows each year, but now with Ozzy...I am rethinking that.  

But, on another note...I did find some really beautiful brackets and couldn't pass them up.

A lady was selling these on Facebook Yard sale, she had 12 of them still in the box brand new.  Just the exact amount that I was needing for our porch and then some.

There are rules you have to go by when buying from these sites.  First one to say "want" gets first dibbs unless they say "pass".  Another lady had stated that she wanted but the seller changed the price and  I was second in line.  The other lady said pass and guess what?!!!

They were mine!

So...when my wonderful husband came home, I was able to sweet talk him into us putting them up.  

If you all are anything like me, I just can't wait, I have to do it NOW!

Once we figured out how we were going to cut them to make allowance for the trim, it was easy peasy!

I decided that I wanted some for the plain garage door...now I want to do something up above in the middle.  Still thinking on that one...

Then I wanted them for this arch that my MR. built for me a few years ago.  I want to stain this white a little later when I have more time.  Maybe a taupe, who knows with me...I'll figure it out soon enough.

After we did all of our work, I knew that my ferns that I usually get every year would finish off the look I was going for.

And once again, I just couldn't wait.  Bright and early, I went to our Farmers Market and found these beauties!

Then off to my eye appointment.  I hate having to go somewhere else when I want to go home to work on something!

 I have plans for the stairs...I hate that lattice...always have!  But that's for later.

Don't the ferns just look lovely with the brackets?

Every one that I hung, I got more and more excited...invisioning how our porch was going to look.  I want people to feel welcome when they come for a visit, so it's always important to me on sprucing up the porch.  Plus we spend a lot of time out there just relaxing, so it has to be comfy for us too.

That's why I love the sign at the top of the swing....I want people to feel welcome.

I love my wicker, but little Ozzy is picking one chair and he's gonna get it if he doesn't stop!  Can you see it?  Little stinker....

Everything is getting so green...

I need more pink and white geraniums, so it looks like another trip to the Farmers Market for me.

Who know's, I may buy more ferns...

I'm going to see if the MR will go up over head and try to hang the swing from the rafters and get rid of this frame.  It takes up so much space.

I have so many plans for the porch, but I just had to share what I've been working on for the past couple of days.

So that's it for today...hope you all are having a wonderful and blessed day.  

I know I sure have!