Nell Hill's Open House ~ Part One

Can you guess where I went on Friday? Can you guess who I met?
Oh my Heavens above, it is me and Mary Carol Garrity author, decorator most fantastic and owner of Nell Hill's!
~*~
It was a summer open house at Nell Hill's and her private home this Friday. Mom, Lindsey and I drove 2 1/2 hours to go visit.

We stopped in at the store first, and then boarded a huge air conditioned tour bus that drove us to her home.
Let me tell you, I was so excited
when I spotted her standing at the top of the stairs to welcome us in.
~*~
Mary Carol, is one super sweet gracious gal.
So warm and welcoming, an absolute doll!
Would you like to see a little bit of what I saw?
~*~
~ Part One ~
A Tour of Mary Carol Garrity's home

Isn't this just beautiful.
I love the columns and the urns full of ferns.


Her beautiful front door.
Do you remember this from her books?
I love the topiaries in the black urns.
(I'm going to paint mine black, too!)
The wire birdcage that decorates the door was for sale in her shops!

To the left of the front door was this beautiful outdoor seating area.
The wicker was painted a dark turquoise and the iron chairs and table were black.
The urn has ivy planted in it and white taper candles.
See the stone riser, they were everywhere, and were for sale in the store for only $14.
Of course, I had to have one of those!

How exquisite are these windows?
You can never have too many moldings can you!

In the foyer, to the left was this little seating nook.
She has used shutters instead of blinds on most of her windows.
Look where she placed this mirror, it is in between two windows!

This is the pretty scene you see when you first walk in the front door.
If you have her books, then you have definitely seen this before.
She has prints everywhere!

This is the living room, and you will probably recognize those butterflies and bookshelves.
She tucks little tables almost anywhere.

The dining room.
The topiaries are in little french pots that were for sale in the store.
Lots of layers and lots of green moss and silver. She elevates everything on pedestals.

The screened in back porch.
You have seen this beautiful painted piece of furniture many times in her books.
See the topiary in the white vase, I bought one just like it!

Another corner of the back porch. Isn't it lovely?

Outdoor refreshment area.
What a beautiful way to ice your beverages.
Gorgeous hanging baskets of ivy and candle chandeliers.

Stepping down from the back porch was the hidden dining room area.
Most of these items were for sale in the shop. Doesn't this just make you want to have a garden party?

An outdoor seating area.
Love the balustrade with the ivy and clematis clambering over it.
An urn with ivy on a little black table.

Walking down the garden path, back to the front of the house.

Getting ready to walk past the garden gate.
I think we all need one of these in the garden.

This was the first stepping stone as you would enter the garden from the front.
How whimsical!
~*~
Hope you enjoyed these pictures.
I sure had fun taking them to share with you.
I have even more to share next week of the store.
Now I am off to wallpaper the chicken coop.
How's that for a tempting ending so you will return for a visit!
~Jill~

Geese and Gardening

Life in Hickory Hollow...

This past weekend we had beautiful weather! Beautiful weather for getting out and getting some projects completed. We have had to do a bit of work in the garden, actually a lot of work. The soil is just not rich enough for anything to grow very big. We bought bales and bales of peat moss and tilled it in the soil. This fall it is going to get a manure and lime treatment. These cute geese were hanging out by the pond all Sunday morning. I crept up pretty close to get these pictures to share with you.

Visitors...

We have also had a couple of unwelcome visitors. Doug had to shoot a big snake down at the pond shortly after I had taken these pictures. It was about 4 feet long and as big around as a man's wrist. He couldn't tell if it was poisonous or not and we couldn't risk the kids getting bit. Now, I am not a big on guns type of gal, but I was pretty relieved that we owned one and my husband knew how to use it. I am absolutely, positively, skin crawling, jumping, yelling scared of snakes....even little garter snakes!

Another unwelcome visitor has been the deer. Humph...they are not so cute anymore...they have tried to prune all my Cleveland Pear trees that line the driveway into topiaries! I am not thinking they are cute in the least...they have also eaten the new leaves of my raspberry and blackberry bushes and have tried even more topiary art on the fruit trees.
BAD Deer....very, very BAD DEER!

The Stone Nest...
We have a Killdeer couple that have made a nest of stone, smack dab in the middle of the driveway. There are 4 little stone colored eggs in the middle. The comical act of these two was pretty funny about 2 weeks ago...they pretend that they are injured to lure you from their nest. We call it "hurt wing". Here we are a few weeks later, and they aren't so cute...and they are getting a bit aggressive. We have been driving out and around the nest so we won't disturb them. Now as we come down the drive they run at us! We pull over to the side and ask her everyday if she could just get on with it, so we can have our driveway back! I will let you know when the BIG day arrives...personally we can hardly wait!

In the Garden...
So far in the garden I have planted 9 Big Boy tomatoes, 9 Celebrity tomatoes, 2 Brandywine tomatoes, 4 Cherry tomatoes, 4 banana peppers, 4 green peppers, 4 jalapeno peppers, 4 Italian Basil plants, 4 Siam Queen Basil Plants, 3 rows of Blue Lake Green Beans, 28 cucumber plants (yep, you read that right, 28 plants germinated from the seed), 4 cantaloupe plants, 4 watermelon plants, 4 zucchini plants, 4 yellow straight neck squash plants. We are getting ready to plant corn later this week. My potato plants are up, but not just real big. I have been Miracle Growing everything, and they look a bit better. I am hoping to be able to can spaghetti and salsa this fall! I will take some pictures of the garden later this week to share with you.

and the Chicken House...

We have really been working hard on the chicken house...Doug put on a new roof, and I have finished painting the outside. It is soooo cute! I even added a hanging basket and potted up some plants to sit on the little front porch. I will share some of those pictures with you too! I am hoping to be able to finish the inside with the wallpaper this week. Doug and Tyler are almost finished building the nesting boxes! I think I have decided that we will get 8 hens. I am going to get a couple that lay the pretty pastel eggs. If you are in the neighborhood in the next few weeks, come on by for a slice of quiche made of farm fresh eggs!

Thank you everyone who so diligently follow this gal, who doesn't quite so diligently post! My goal is to post at least once a week this summer. We are really working hard to get our place up and going so we can have bountiful harvests later this summer!
I seem to be over the bloggers block...now I just need to find a bit of time, to visit all my blogger buddies!
~Jill~

P.S. I am addicted to watching the Bachelor/Bachelorette shows...why, I don't know...it is so silly, but this girl loves a good romance, I guess now matter how fake it is...anyway... I like the pilot so far for Jillian!

My Fountain Courtyard

I finally found some inspiration
and here I am this morning with a new look and a new post!

All before 10:00!
What do you think of the new look?
It is a bit more classic and hopefully I won't be so inclined to redecorate once a week.

Now on to the fun stuff
~*~
My new courtyard fountain and landscaping...

While looking a couple of weekends ago for a fountain locally, we learned about a place in Southern Missouri that makes their own fountains. We found out the name of the business and drove down last weekend. They had over 80 fountains up and running. Beautiful things...Grecian ladies with urns, balustrades, bird baths anything your heart could desire in concrete!

The couple that owns the business were so very helpful. But, they asked me all sorts of questions that I couldn't answer. "How big is the area, how long is the sidewalk, how tall is your roof, how tall all your windows?" Hmmm...well I really don't know, probably about yea high and this wide. They wanted to make sure that the fountain would not over power the space or look dinky.
It didn't take me long to find this one, and I think it is perfect!


Bob still has to come back and do some odds and ends. My front door still needs to be stained walnut and the pillars painted. We only have a week and half left of school, so we will have the whole summer to frou frou!

Now I am off to go teach this afternoon,
but I certainly feel better, having everything in it's place again!
~Jill~

AWW SHOOT!

Have you ever had just the sudden URGE to redecorate?
You decide, say, to redo the living room...
pull the furniture all around...
some of it you slide into the kitchen,

some of it you carry out to the hall,

roll up rugs, remove all knick knacks,

because while you are "redecorating" might as well clean, too!
Well, I got the URGE to redecorate my blog...

Hmmm...I'm going to do a Nell Hill look,

today I am going to spend hours on the internet looking for free backgrounds,

I am going to fart around with margins,

change the font and the colors make a beautiful new header...

and I came up with NOTHING!

I didn't like a thing I came up.

Now, I'm tired and my cyber house is in disrepair.
I had a beautiful post planned showing your my new fountain.

Alas...photos are still on the camera.
I've brought back the chickens for a bit...
until Iget inspired for my blog background...

So for now, I have pushed the furniture back into the living room,

and didn't even dust!

Humph...
and would you just look at what I did?
A post with no pictures.
How sad is that?

Maybe inspiration will hit soon!
I have some great things I want to share with you!

~Jill~

Fountain Search

The blogger's block is still here. And I am telling on myself....I haven't even looked at the computer in about 2 weeks.

Lindsey has started playing softball and I have volunteered to be an assistant coach. Bet you didn't know that I played softball since I was 5 years old and continued playing until I was about 19 years old! I dug out the old ball glove and have been literally having a "ball" ever since!
My official title is outfield coach/pitching machine operator!

I've also been substituting a lot at school, 4 days just last week. There isn't going to be any classroom teacher openings this next year, but maybe next year I will have a room of my own. I have already been dreaming of how I am going to decorate my classroom. Can you believe it...ME dreaming of decorating something! I am daydreaming of a cute country school look with a Debbie Mumm schoolbus lamp, willow baskets of apples and country plaid curtains. Debbie Mumm has even created school bulletin board borders and calendar sets. It is taking every bit of will power not to start stocking up!

In between all this madness we managed to get our driveway pad poured, curved sidewalk and a back patio. Doug and I did a bit of landscaping out front, planting barberry bushes, hostas and ferns. I am on the lookout for an outdoor concrete fountain. We went on a huge drive yesterday but didn't find anything that struck my fancy. I just called a place in Kansas City and they have a huge selection, the lady on the phone told me I needed to get up there in a hurry though. With Mother's Day quickly approaching...they sell out FAST!

Okay...I gotta go!
My heart is racing...and I think I need to strip out of these jammies and jump in some sort of vehicle and head out to find my fountain....I am afraid they will be all gone by the time I get there. This is sort of like the rummage sale panic I experience every Saturday morning!

Okay...
I will try to write something more often!
If I don't get beaned in the head by a softball!
~Jill~

Dining Room Design

I have hit blogger's block! I haven't posted much lately because I can't seem to come up with anything to blog about...I seem to have exhausted the gardening subject for now. So I thought to myself, what is it that I really like to see when I visit other blogs. I really like to see how they have decorated their home. I love to take the tour. That got me to thinking that I haven't shared many pictures with you of my dining room, and I have added some Nell Hill touches recently.

~ Visiting the Dining Room ~

A little corner decorated with finds found at garage sales, thrift stores and the flea market. The lamp came from Hobby Lobby and the wool rug I found at Lowe's. The little table was my Grandma B's.

I made this monogram G picture
using a frame from Dollar Tree and some scrapbook paper.

Here we are in the dining room peeking into the kitchen.
Love how the gold and the red flow so well together, they are the colors in the dining room upholstery. Underneath this new wall pocket, I would like a little chair with a stylish monogramed throw pillow!

This is a new dining room addition. I found the wall pocket at the flea market and added the ivy. In this picture you can see the paint color more correctly, it is reddish bittersweet. A friend of mine named it Rusty Pumpkin. The walls do look a bit orangey in these pictures, but it really isn't orange, all the light that comes from the big dining room windows makes it take on this orange hue.

I knew I just needed something on the other side of the windows, so last week I was scouting out plates to hang on the wall. This was definitely a Nell Hill inspired shopping trip. After looking around about 40 different booths, I found the perfect stack of plates for the perfect price! I wasn't sure about the turquoise color on the plates, but I thought they might just play beautifully with the wall color.

A closeup of the plates, all four are the same design.
In another booth, I found a matching bowl.

A very grand tassel found a home decorating the handle of the china cabinet, I found her at the flea market last week too!
Inside the china cabinet are silver and white dishes that I have been collecting through the years. I recently started picking up affordable silver serving pieces.
Victoria magazine has always been my inspiration for gorgeous serving pieces, especially their more vintage issues of the 1980's.

Just this past weekend, I served Cherry Preserves in this darling silver and crystal bowl. Isn't that spoon so very cute and dainty.

Here is a closeup of the dining room fixture. It coordinates with the foyer's fixture. The balls that look gilded are actually a metallic green with a crackle finish, the shades are an amber.

Looking into the dining room from the foyer. When I first got this grape ivy plant it was in a little 4" pot. He is just going bananas. A friend of mine in Colorado gave me the metal trellis. One day, I got the idea to stick it in this urn to give the ivy something to curl its tendrils on. I went out to the woods and found some moss and have placed it on top of the soil, I really like that conservatory/Mediterranean look!
~*~
Hope you have enjoyed visiting me and my dining room.
I'm hoping blogging inspiration will come back and I will have more interesting things to share!
~Jill~

Fabulous Finds...

I love hydrangeas and have been on the lookout for several months trying to find some pretty silk ones. I grabbed this basket right up when I spotted it! I really loved the muted colors and what a bargain at $3.

I have been playing around and haven't yet decided which room to keep them in.

I haven't really decorated much for spring.
I was inspired though, by all the pretty apothecary jars on different blogs, to make a little bird filled one for my coffee table!

I have been giving this little cabbage set the eye, for quite some time. This whole set was just $4. Lucky for me, he was in a booth that was pretty much off the beaten path at the flea market, so he waited patiently until I decided that yes, he must come home with me! This was someone's ceramic project in the 1970's. Isn't it amazing how some things really don't go out of style? Cabbage style dishes are all the rage! I think he is quite adorable with the matching salt and pepper shakers. They even have real vintage salt in them!

Not too far down from the cabbage tureen I spotted this cute print, also for $4.
It looks so French, ooh la la...
and looks wonderful above my whirlpool tub.
Looks like a French Soap label!

At the Salvation Army store I found a roll of Waverly red and white grape toile border for .50 cents. No plans for it yet, but I am sure I will think of something!

~*~*~*~

I am so ready for it it be warm and sunny!
I am so ready to put on my gardening overalls and putter in my plants!
Soon...we will get to go to Lowe's and buy all the picket fence for my kitchen garden!

It was dry enough a couple of days ago for us to finish putting in most of the spring garden. We planted radishes, green onions, lettuce, turnips, beets & peas. I went to Wal-mart yesterday and they had pack of 9 tomatoes for $3. I bought a pack each of Celebrity and Better Boys. Eighteen tomato plants, that's a good start! I am already thinking of fresh salsa. Doug said these were the littlest tomato plants he has ever seen. Right now they are sunbathing on my back step! Grow little tomato plants, GROW!

I also bought a jiffy pot that had 4 Basil plants in it for $3. Basil is just about my most favorite herb! Basil is kind of a tricky herb to try to dry and preserve because it can turn black. But I have had pretty good luck freezing the leaves whole and then giving them a rough chop before adding them to spaghetti sauce. Hmmm...I am also thinking how yummy basil is with a thinly sliced tomato on a slice of crispy french bread!
~*~*~*~
Hope everyone enjoys a beautiful weekend!
We are going to see Disney on Ice tomorrow!
I can hardly wait!
~Jill~