My Marble Entry!!

When I posted my guest bathroom many of you mentioned that you would like to see the rest of the entry hall. I thought I should show you my entry. So here is a little peek of what you are about to see!!
I am such a tease!! I promise there is more to be seen. I am also going to join Emily Clark for a “Reader participation Post” on, you guessed it!!

Entry Halls

I would like to thank Emily Clark for doing a, “Reader Participation Post” on Entry Halls today. Be sure and visit her blog to see more of her readers entries. You will love Emily’s blog it is one of my daily reads. Shall we begin the tour of my entry?

Welcome to my home. As you step up to my porch you will see a full glass French door with sidelights. I had to convince both hubby and my contractor that this would look great and give me the look I wanted. I Won!!  Come on in!

As you enter you will be stepping into my entry hall. It is not very large 6x12, but plenty big for a little California suburban ranch. You will be stepping onto a Carrera marble and absolute black granite floor. I waited for over 20 years for this floor and it was well worth the wait. I chose to border the floor with the granite and add only a few diamonds to add a little drama.

In this image you can see the door and the wainscoting done by my hubby. Since it is a little California Ranch I wanted to add some character with molding and wainscoting. As you look straight ahead you will see the hall closet. The future plans for this door is to put mirror on a French door to mimic the front door. This is on my someday list!!

If you make a left you will see the guest bathroom where I did a black and white checked floor, a real dream come true for me.

You can see in this picture how the floors join and why I chose to use a border to tie it all together.

This is the entry looking from the step-down living room. In this picture you get a clear view of the floor and all the moulding work my hubby has done for me.

In this picture you also get a good view of the hall table. It is an antique French piece with a black marble top that has veins of gold and white. I was told by my marble man that it is no longer quarried and it is pretty valuable . He offered me 3 times the price I paid for the whole table. It has an iron base with metal decorations that have bits of old paint still showing. It is a favorite of mine.

You can see the table top in this image. The hall mirror is also an antique.

This is a close up of the corbels and moulding from the living room side. I picked up the sage green color of the wallpaper and put it on the ceiling. The walls are French vanilla and the moulding is Swiss coffee white.

We added the ceiling medallion and a light fixture that resembles something from the forties.

This is taken at night I love the way the floors glow.
(sorry for the blurry picture)

Future Plans are:

• 
  
  change overhead lighting and add sconces to the side of the mirror.
• 
  
  New wallpaper (shhh! Hubby does not know about my plans yet)
• 
  
  Mirrored French door for the hall closet

So you can see with some planning and waiting you can get what you want, eventually!! It only took me twenty years!!

I hope that you have :

“Enjoyed the process” Of:

Touring my entry hall

Kathysue

While Thriftying I ran Across A Few Things!!

I know that there are sooooo many out in blog land that love to go thrifting. My friend Deb at Confessions of a Plate Addict is a master at this process. I like that she calls it, “Good-will Hunting.”  She makes me laugh all the time with her wonderful sense of humor and darling Southern accent.

I love to go thrifting but I must admit I am a mood shopper and I have to be in the mood for the hunt. When I am in the mood I do have a good time. I have picked up a few treasures in the past and since I just did the post on Carolyne Roehm’s Tag sale I thought I would share a few of the treasures I have picked up.

The white ironstone platter is a medium size and I bought two of them. I use them all the time, they are the perfect size. The jade green bud vase which has a lot of blue in the green was originally from Gump’s in San Francisco, it still has the tag on it. I use this in my guest room, it is the perfect color for that room.  The black candle holder is very old and I think it is actually part of a set. You remember how they use to have the clock and the two pieces on each side that matched the clock. I decided it would make a great candle holder for my winter look.

 

There is an affluent area in Northern Calif., Los Altos they call their Goodwill GW’s and that is exactly what is on the sign. I remember going in thinking it was a boutique and as I walked back further and saw some of the signage used inside I realized I was in an up-scale Goodwill so ever since I decided I would refer to it as GW’s.

I love this small little picture. The glass is domed and it has little brass balls around the glass. I just fell in love with it. I have placed it in a vignette on a wall next to my bathroom, you can see the bathroom here.

This last piece is a milk glass rose bowl that I purchased at a thrift store. I love the way it holds roses or in this case Alstomeria. It forms a perfect round bunch. It is sitting on a piece of Carrera marble circle that I use frequently when I serve cheese. These are just a few of my  little treasures. I am usually pretty selective in my buying. I do enjoy the thrill of the hunt!! Do you?

“Enjoy the Process” Of:

Treasure hunting at Thrift stores, Flea markets, Garage/Tag sales!!

Kathysue

I am linking to Rhoda's Thrifty Treasures at
Southern Hospitality

The Day I Knew the Price of Freedom!

Sometimes I think we forget to celebrate our Freedom on the Fourth of July. You know we all get excited about family gatherings, fireworks and wonderful food and drink. I wonder how many of us ponder the idea of Freedom and how much has been sacrificed over the years so that we may enjoy our lifestyle in the United States.

I remember the first time I really felt the twinge of how important our Freedom is and how we often take it for granted.

We decided to visit the East coast right after 9/11. I know many were frightened to fly at that time, but Hubby and I were not. We all knew the price of freedom on that dreadful day but it really hit home when we got off of the plane late one night in Baltimore, the airport was fairly empty, but what I was about to see when we got off of our flight will forever remain in my memory.

As we de-boarded there were armed guards in full gear lining the halls of the terminal. I got big tears in my eyes because at that very moment I knew the meaning of freedom. A bit of ours had been taken away. No longer were we free to come and go. No longer were our concerns just about what food or movie we would see on the plane. We  as citizens of this wonderful country were about to be scrutinized, guarded, our every move watched very closely. The carefree excitement of going to a new and exciting place had been taken from us.  I had always been able to fly to whatever destination I wanted to fly too and there were never armed guards watching me but now there were. A piece of our freedom that I had never thought of as a freedom before had forever been changed.

I can think of one freedom I am doing right now!! Blogging and communicating to all of you, my wonderful readers. Oh how sad it would be if this freedom could be taken from me. You see how easy it is to take freedom for granted? We go about our daily business without much thought to activities that we just automatically partake in. After that day in the airport I don't  think I will ever take my life here in the United States for granted ever again.

Now that I am older and wiser I look at life from a different perspective and I realize Life and its Freedoms in our beautiful country are precious and should be valued and honored.

On this 4th of July try to take a moment to think of the daily freedoms we take for granted and give thanks to God and those that are guarding our freedom here and abroad.

Happy 4th of July!! Let Freedom Ring!!

“ Enjoy the Process” Of:

“Enjoying our Freedom !”

Kathysue