Easter in the Farmhouse

I've had so much fun making things and decorating the farmhouse for Easter.

My fabulously talented friend Kim Saulter made the beautiful rose topped cake.

I made polymer clay Easter Eggs... that's about the extent of my abilities with clay!

The bunny tin was asking to be made!

Overflowing with pretty coloured eggs!

Dyed eggs for breakfast at the farmhouse.

The little hutch dresser was too tricky to photograph in the farmhouse.

So I put it in the real hutch dresser. 

It looks like it belongs right there amongst my ever growing collection (it's not hoarding if it sparks joy, right??) of vintage pastel coloured china.

It's autumn here in New Zealand.

These are the last of the summer roses from my garden.

The chick tablecloth was a very lucky op shop find.

Once again the chick cookies got baked...and eaten!

I hope you're all having a lovely (and pretty!) Easter.

Flowers in the Farmhouse!

One of my followers on Instagram (where I post more often) asked me for another blog post...so here I am!

I've been making a lot of roses lately. 

Not a favourite thing to do (time consuming and very fiddly) but well worth the effort!

And I made a little iron table to go in the Farmhouse lounge. 

The trim on the edge of the table is a metal piece that came off a trinket box I bought years ago. 

I had to turn my craft studio upside down to find it...which led to me having a huge clean out...I can now say there is no need for the crew from 'Hoarders' to visit me any more!

I've been using the rose making tutorial from Lea Frisoni's book. 

Love these colours together!

Paeonies for the dining room.

Roses for the master bedroom.

Woodland themed bouquet! 

Renovating the kitchen renovation!

The trouble with taking so long to renovate the farmhouse is that I get new ideas and feel the need to change things that have already been done...*sigh*

Which is why I've just spent a weekend making (what I hope are) improvements to the Farmhouse kitchen.

I would LOVE to have a marble bench top in my real kitchen but as that is a hopelessly expensive dream I suddenly decided I should have a go at painting a marble bench top in the farmhouse.

Before & After

I have to say I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out!

I looked at several online marble painting tutorials (there are a few different methods out there & I combined them all) and then just got my paints out and went for it.

The floor in the kitchen has always annoyed me. 

When I originally stained it, it turned out too orange so I darkened it as best I could at the time. However, I've learnt a little over the years and decided now was a good time to have a go at lightening it.

I may think I've learnt something over the years but in reality I'm not so sure.

First I tried the 'short way' and painted the floor grey...but that didn't bring me any happiness.

I soon realised the only way to fix it was to try the 'long way' - sanding each individual little floorboard...I can't say the sanding was a pleasure but I am now happy with the result!

I'm sure you'll agree the light floor makes a huge difference.

Next I decided the walls were too boring...they needed some 'texture' (yes I may have spent too much time watching Joanna Gaines on 'Fixer Upper').

So...newly 'textured' walls!

Happiness!!

The tiled backsplash also had to go...Someone once left a comment on a picture of the kitchen saying 'clean the tile grout'  I guess they thought it was a real kitchen LOL!!!

I've added a shabby old PINK (the world needs more pink!) door with a vintage glass drying rack...because who wouldn't want one of those in their kitchen, right???

Feeling happier now!

I built a copper rangehood (well, I made a rangehood from cardboard and painted it copper!)...and there's a light (I can hear Brad and Janet singing that!) in the rangehood and the oven...going overboard with lights in this room.

Kim's cherry pie is baking!

I'm in the process of filling the little pantry.

Fun!!

Spectacular cupcake made by Kim Saulter

Now it might be time to finish the Farmhouse before kitchen needs another renovation!

There are so many more projects around here that need my attention.

Lighting the Farmhouse kitchen

I made these tiny mason jar lights for the kitchen a very long time ago. 

Figuring out how to install them has taken some time!

I've coloured the jars slightly aqua.

There's also a light in the pantry - which is still waiting to be filled.

I had installed a little chandelier above the dining table but I was never thrilled with the way it looked.

Someone was throwing out this metal lamp shade. 

I transformed it into a verdigris copper light fixture.

There's still a lot more to be done!