For The Love Of Organic

About a year ago I joined the organic revolution. After years of eating processed foods and getting sick at least once a month, I was sick of being sick. On top of this, I was only 21 years old and felt like I was in the body of a 91 year old. I always felt tired, bloated, just plain blah. One day I decided I needed to make a change, so I visited the nearest Sprouts Farmers Market and loaded up on TONS of fruits, veggies and non-processed meats. I began to search recipes for hours to find healthy, easy dinner options. Literally I eliminated ALL processed food out of our diets. And a magical thing happened ... I stopped getting sick. A year later I have yet to get sick and have more energy than ever before!

What started as eating local and organic foods has transformed into incorporating various other organic items. Recently my mom introduced me to the bath and body products of Sweet Harvest Farms. This company hand makes a variety of lotions, lip balms and my personal favorite, soaps. For several weeks now I have been using the Raze acne and blemish soap on my face. I was skeptical that a homemade product could work as well as my prescription strength product, but I decided to give it a try ... and I LOVE the results. My face is more clear and brighter than ever. I am obsessed!!! I also have started using the Decadent Dog bar shampoo. Kirby has been getting weekly baths with this soap and his coat is visibly shinier and he smells wonderful! For those of you who have been to my mom's online store you already know of the adorable products that she carries. (For those of you have haven't I encourage you to take a look!) Well, recently she began to sell these incredible soaps!!! Go take a look over at katiesrosecottage.com and enjoy these amazing organic products!

As for me I will be out of town for about a week. My incredible husband surprised me with a cruise that I will be enjoying with my cousin and aunt come Saturday!!! I hope everyone has a wonderful week!!!

Stephanie

It's Amazing What A Little Paint Can Do

I can't believe how long it has been since I've last updated!!! In the last few weeks I was required to increase my hours at work after accepting a promotion and Noah once again headed back to school to finish his final year of his bachelor's degree. In the end this means that working on the house has had to slow down quite substantially :( Even with the slow down we have been able to accomplish a little bit of painting to spruce up some of our antique finds.

This first image is the before of a giant mirror Noah and I added to our bedroom wall. The bathroom in the house is teeny tiny, and the bathroom mirror is even smaller. Noah decided a girl couldn't do without a decent size mirror, therefore he took me to Kirkland's and purchased me this massive 6 ft. x 4 ft. beauty. Unfortunately, the finish didn't quite match the cottage look we were going for. My mom recently discovered Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint and graciously offered to let me use the white paint with a dark wax. Here is the result ...

The vintage finish was the perfect touch to the frame and now the mirror fits perfectly in our new home!

This entertainment center is actually an antique dresser my mom had purchased years ago. She was hoping to one day re-do it and put it in her own home, but after it sat in her workshop for several years she gifted it to Noah and I. Noah covered the dark wood with some white and we had the perfect place to put his new tv. Plus I can hide the dvd's in the drawers!

When moving into an old home you face the problem of not having any form of a pantry. Therefore, we began to search the aisles of antique malls and pages on Craigslist for a makeshift pantry. We found this old cabinet on Craigslist and talked the family into letting us purchase it for only $100!!! The cabinet which was sitting in the family's barn is made out of old weathered wood and chicken wire. Noah also painted the cabinet white and we have a precious pantry!

We still have quite a bit to paint (doors, baseboards, cabinets, etc, etc) but at least this is a start! About a week ago my mom and sister also came over and helped me begin to decorate. Although I know what I want in my new cottage home, I am horrible at placing it perfectly on the wall. Here are a couple of their creations:

This first one is the beginning of our blessings wall. If you didn't read my past post, we painted one whole wall in our kitchen with chalkboard paint. Noah had come up with the idea to write out many of the things God has blessed us with. Since my sister's writing is gorgeous I had her begin writing out our blessings :)



The final picture is the main wall that you see when you first walk through the front door. The clock I got at Ross for only $15 and the windows were also from my mom's shop. The sign I created out of old hymnal pages. You can read a tutorial on how to create the simple sign at her blog, www.katiesrosecottage.blogspot.com in the archive of July 18, 2011.

Have a great day!

Stephanie