Back around 2002/2003, I lived in Massachusetts. I’ve been fortunate to live quite a few places, and for the most part, I’ve enjoyed everywhere I have lived. Massachusetts was more challenging for me. My “southernness” made me feel like…”a whore in church!” Really!  Excuse my French!

In spite of this, there was one thing I loved during this time. Snow. We had an extremely snowy winter in Massachusetts. After a sad day of worrying about my mother in Virginia, worrying about how my dogs were barking in our overly-tiny, overly-expensive yard, longing for that yellow house on the hill in Mendota…thinking about this…..

I’d just ache to be in Mendota, Virginia. I’d turn on the back porch light and watch the snow fall. I’d cry until I became distracted by the beauty and magic of snowflakes.

Tonight it is October, and we have a forecast of snow in Virginia. I’m hopeful that some time tonight, one of my “dear girls” (Gracie or Luckie Dog) will wake me..or maybe just the excitement of the possibility of snow will wake me…and I’ll turn on the porch light and see snow falling. If that is the case, I’ll sit in a chair and just watch it.

This time, there will be no tears.

Maybe I’ll wake up to this…

I hope your life is as good as mine.

Present day….I’m continuing working on my house…updating it…and attempting to use what I have. This will save me money, but it will also keep a piece of furniture out of the landfill.

I’ve wanted a chair and ottoman for the master bedroom for a long time. We have an office upstairs that I’ll be reworking in the spring of 2013, and I found the perfect chair and ottoman in that room. However, it is the wrong color. I thought about having it reupholstered, however, my cats and their desire to sit on everything in their path…Yikes! I decided to have it slipcovered.

However, I can’t sew. If you’ve read this blog in the past (for instance…here), you know that I’m hopeless at sewing.   If only I could!    I have read numerous blogs, tutorials and videos about how to slipcover furniture.   I considered it, but my husband accurately told me “you can’t sew….in fact…you stink at sewing.”

I asked around and received the name of Danette Mayfield. Danette is from North Carolina but she makes the trip over to the Tri-Cities every so often for both slipcover and upholstery work.

I called her, sent a picture of my chair and ottoman and got her price.  I already had the fabric.  She was very reasonable.

She came over two weeks ago. Here she is…

I don’t know what I expected with the slipcovering.  She took the creamy white twill fabric that I had and cut it to fit the furniture right on the spot. How smart!

The room is a wreck.  We have paid no attention to this room in years.  When our doggies became too feeble to go up the stairs, we quit going up the stairs.   Annie is already gone, and Luckie and Gracie are 14.    It is bittersweet to know that we’ll be using the room again in the near future.

Thank you Lord for the 14 years of sweetness.

Danette was fast.  I felt comfortable with her, and, in fact, left for breakfast while she continued working.    She’s a doggy person, too, and she had her border collie with her.   I took a picture of her dog but it didn’t turn out well enough to include in this post.

Danette said she’d be back in a couple of weeks with my slipcovers for the red ottoman and the red chair.  They’ll be moving to the master bedroom all happy with their creamy white twill look.

I’m off to look for snow.

I took some pictures of my new/old end table that I painted with the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in “Duck Egg”. It’s a blue/green and looks very good in our master bedroom.

I hummed this song while working on the table…”Songs sung blue…everybody knows one…”

I think the next line is…”Songs sung blue…every garden grows one…”

The table is distressed and “chippy” looking which I like. I am no furniture finisher, but I am happy with the outcome of the table. I love it that I never had to prime or sand anything. Just slapped that paint on!

I know I have droned on about my old/new end table for days. Ahhh…it’s done (at least for a while…I may stencil the top but that’s for another day)! I’m not keeping the lamp that is shown in this picture. It came from Target, and I like it but I think I can find one I like better. In fact, I’m leaving in just a few minutes to return it and continue my lamp search.

Do you remember? “Old Yeller!” Ugh…

Back to present day…I like books on my end table. Have you ever heard of Miss Read? My sister, Pat, and I collect them. Very good “falling asleep” reading!

On another subject, the 2013 Mendota Cemetery Quilt took its first baby steps this morning as Chris Schazenbach, Linda Stock, Margie Dean and I went and purchased the fabric. I can’t wait to share the name with you!

Until then…XXOO

Whew! It was a work day today! Did I tell you I’m working about three days per week at my friend’s business, About Face Aesthetics, Skincare and Weight Management? We are in the business of making people look and feel better. Who wouldn’t love a job like that?

And…I sent my friend, Sue, out to find the drawer pull for my end table. Here’s what came home. For $2! Love it.

Now the downside of working today is that I did not have good light to take a picture of the end table that I painted with the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.

I’ll be including that in tomorrow’s post.

Until then, XXOO

So if you’re reading my blog regularly, you know that I have been working on an Annie Sloan Paint Project.    I had every intention of getting it close to completion today, but I didn’t get that done.   Instead, Sue (a friend staying with me a couple of weeks) and I started down the road, and I wasn’t really sure where we were headed.  Home Craft Days at Mountain Empire?  Gate City?

As we headed out of Mendota, we passed this…the Mendota Baptist Church.

This is the church of my childhood, and many of our social activities revolved around the church.   My mother, Vivian Barker, was president of the “Training Union.” I have no idea what a Training Union actually did but we were there on Sunday evenings for the Training Union. Mrs. Virginia Shankle was the pianist in the morning, and Jack Nickels was the pianist during the evening. Jack played “by ear” and Mom said that he played fast and made her want to dance.    Can you imagine dancing at a church in Mendota in the early 1960’s?  Shameless.

Back to present day!

Sue and I  parked in front of the church and entered my friend Katie’s store (which is only open when she wants to open it!)  She and her daughter, Dawn, were getting things together for a booth at  Home Craft Days. I knew they were busy, yet I also knew they wouldn’t mind if I slipped in. We are lifetime friends. I’ve known Katie all my life, and I’ve known Dawn all her life.  She’s a grown woman now, but I held her when she was  just days old.  Here’s the inside of the store…

Mendota Store

When I look at that table, I imagine a time when Katie retires that we might share tea there.   Maybe our sisters will join us?  Wouldn’t that be nice?

Look what I found….

I bought it!

We headed off to Gate City!   This means we’ll be traveling into Scott County, Virginia, on the A. P. Carter Highway.

I know what you’re thinking…God’s Country.  You could be right!

Gate City is the county seat for Scott County, and it’s an authentic downtown. In larger cities, town centers are built in weeks, but in Gate City, the town center is real.    This picture was taken on the main street which is called Jackson Street.    

There seems to be a spirit of renewal. I think loft apartments would be great in Gate City, and there may already be a few. Oh look! My True Love (Lowe’s) has been here! Sigh.  Wonder what this will be?  Do you know?

 We decided to eat at the Family Bakery.

In September, Mike and I attended our friends’ daughter’s wedding. The Family Bakery catered the reception meal, and it was delicious.  They took special efforts to ensure everything was perfect.  For instance, the corn pudding was from corn cut off the cob the night before.  It would have been so much easier to use frozen corn, but they opted to use fresh.  I had seconds! 

The daily menu, however, is lighter than the catering menu. Sue and I split a Reuben sandwich and tomato bisque soup. I had a red velvet cupcake. This is a great place to get that red velvet fix without eating a whole cake!

There is wi-fi and a place to sit and surf the internet. I like Panera and Starbucks, but this is definitely better.  There are reminders of faith and family on the walls and comfortable seating.  

Cute fall decor and and I could not resist buying a dishtowel.

Here’s another…

Thank you for reading RiverCliff Cottage and traveling down to Gate City with Sue and me. Why don’t you comment about it? I’d love to hear from you!!

I have a guest house apartment that I treat like a doll house. It’s fun to make changes, add something here and there, and try different things in this space.

Earlier this year, I set aside a portion of one of my final paychecks from AGC and purchased hardwood flooring for the kitchen and bedroom of the guesthouse. We compared prices with all of the stores that carry hardwood in the area. Finally, we finally purchased our hardwood at Home Depot. (Why Lowes…why did you forsake me???) We ended up with a Bruce prefinished hardwood, and Mike did the installation himself. Slow but steady. He did it!!

Here’s what the kitchen dining area looked like before the hardwood was installed.  It actually looks fine, but the vinyl was cracking.

Here’s the same area after the hardwood was installed this weekend.   We installed our old kitchen light from our house over the kitchen table.  Mike did this as a surprise.   I like it!

I love my dollhouse!