A few of my favorite things

Maybe it is due to my lack of employment or perhaps due to my need for change and creativity I find myself looking for homes for sale. I love to look at the older homes (the ones that need a ton of renovating) and i find myself always thinking about what I could do to these homes. It has become a favorite past time, my husband indulges me and on his day off we drive to see these homes and he listens to me talk about them the whole way (what amazing patience). Currently I am in love with a 4400 square foot, 130 years old home in Mariah Hill Indiana. Half and hour South of here it would be a perfect family home! It is really amazing and full of rustic detail. I just love it.

Last night I laid awake deep in prayer when it suddenly dawned on me... This home where we live now is perfect. My three bedroom two bathroom home is perfect for us! My husband and I have worked sooo hard to make this home comfortable and an expression of our personal style. So I decided that good therapy for me was to go through and pick out some of my favorite things about this house! I picked my top ten favorite things about this home that we have built!

First is our dog Chipper. He is a Wheaton Terrier and he brings so
much joy and playfulness to our lives. Also he does not shed!

Second is this lamp that my mom designed and my dad made years ago. I love how it looks at night when the whole kitchen is dark!

Next is our Patio! Patrick and I spent so much time tiling this patio. The slate tiles were my birthday present this year and I just loved how they turned out!

This is my great Grandmothers mahogany table. Patrick and I spent so much time refinishing it and it makes my so happy every time I see it. (Sorry about the picture)

This lovely piece is an antique dresser my mother and I pulled out of the trash. After several days of hard work and some new old porcelain knobs from the Architectural Salvage Yard I think it is so beautiful and looks great!

This is absolutely one of my favorites, these are the towels i had made before my wedding with our new monogram. I just love that every time I look of them it brings me back to the time before the wedding when I was so excited about being Mrs. Rice! Also the picture above is of my great great grandparents John Swartz and Anna Coffman Swartz. My grandfather gave me this picture and I will forever treasure it!

This lovely room is Patrick's man office. Yes ladies that is a real (dead) mounted fish. Some battles are not worth the fight. I set out to make this a masculine formal space and Patrick loves it, so its fine with me. I love the molding we added to the walls, the silk curtains with the tassels I added all by hand, but mostly i love the way the panels puddle onto the floor. Which not only looks opulent but provides a wonderful resting place for a certain pooch!

These photos are my favorite part of the office. I found them pouring through bins of old photos at the Louisville Peddler's Mall. Their vintage photos of Rail Road stuff. They were absolutely perfect for his office and if you look closely you can see that one of the pictures was taken on the Indiana 62 line where my husbands still works today!

Another corner of my living room is filled with two more favorite pieces. My leopard chair and my toile lamp. Well I find the chair absolutely beautiful and whimsical and it looks great where it is! I love the lamp because I made the shade. I had to tea-stain the fabric and sew it together, but i think it turned out really cute!

My last favorite thing is my flower bed. Besides my avocado growing project i have always had a bit of a black thumb, well not here. My purple petunias have taken off and exploded into a web of beautiful strong flowers and the bunny sitting in the mulch was an Easter gift from my wonderful husband!

This house has been a wonderful house for Patrick and I to learn in. We have grown in so many ways since we bought our first home! We became responsible home owners, gardeners, tile installers, decorators, and we have learned so much about each other along the way. For all of that I will be eternally grateful to this little home!

A house is built by wisdom and becomes strong through good sense. Through knowledge its rooms are filled with all sorts of precious riches and valuables.

Proverbs 24:3-4