Tybee Island, GA…..Cottage Bliss

In my last post I told you I would tell you how we knew Jensen Cottage was the place we were supposed to stay.

We walked in the back door and turned the corner, and this is the first thing I saw….
A PINK Kitchen Aid mixer! Now how many places are going to have a pink mixer?! If you all know me, you know I <3 pink!

My hubby came in behind me and this is what he saw…

Timothy’s Earl Grey Tea. (Timothy is my hubbies name, and his favorite tea in the whole world is Earl Grey)
Now how funny is that?! I’ve never seen Timothy’s teas before, so we just knew we were supposed to be right there, at that very moment.

After we had our “Aha” moment about being there, we went on in and were amazed at the quaintness of our cottage! I felt like I was stepping back in time, but with wonderful modern amenities.

I just loved this…

The original cast iron tub, and those tiles….oh how I love those tiles!

Each door still has the old glass door knobs….don’t you wish houses came with these now?…

I love all the wood planked walls and ceilings…it’s given me some inspiration for a room in my house…just trying to get up the nerve to tackle it. :0) 
Oh..I have to tell you a funny story that happened while we were there. See the sofa in the picture below? (you can only see the arm of it) The first night we were there, my two boys slept in the same bed….well my oldest woke up to his brother’s head on his stomach, so he decided he’d just sleep on the sofa the rest of the week.  The last day we were there, I was cleaning up a little before we left, and looked under the sofa to see if we’d left anything, and discovered it was a sleeper sofa! My poor son had been sleeping on a sofa when he could have turned it into a bed! LOL  We got a serious giggle out of that one.  He said the sofa was so comfy he didn’t even care. :0)

I wanted to bring this piece home with me….I love the bin pulls, the chippy paint and just the overall feel of this beauty.

I know one thing….this house may have been built in the 20’s, but it sure had wonderful amenities!  High end appliances, pottery barn dishes, and any kind of pots and pans you would need to cook a gourmet meal!  We did cook there too!  We would eat out at a nice restaurant for lunch, while the prices were cheaper, then cook a meal at night while we relaxed in the cottage. 

My son thought the picket fence gate was cute…it opened up into the dining room…………he kept closing it the whole time we were there. :0)  (my hubby was checking out the artwork above the fireplace in the living room) lol

While my son was lovin’ the picket fence gate, I was lovin’ the lantern light fixture in the dining room. (and there’s those planked ceilings again…swoon!)

Here’s where we spent a LOT of our time………….

Yep, the beach!

Blessings!
Missy

Technorati Tags: tybee Island,mermaid Cottages,beaches,kitchen aid,where to stay in GA

Mermaid Cottage Vacation, Tybee Island

I HAVE to tell you what an amazing vacation we just had!  First I have to thank Layla Palmer, from The Lettered Cottage, for pointing us to the most wonderful little cottages on earth!  I love you Layla! I’d also like to give a shout out to Diane and Denise from Mermaid Cottages, two of the nicest ladies you’ll ever have the pleasure to speak to…thanks gals for such a wonderful week!

Our family has been wanting to get away on a vacation for quite some time, but we haven’t been able to make it happen.  Thanks to some great friends and a long car trip, this year we got to go!  We left on August 11th and used some of my hubbies Hilton points to stay in Asheville, NC…which was the halfway point to Tybee Island.  We had our free continental breakfast the next day and his the road to this fabulous destination!…

Don’t ya’ just love that sign?! 

We drove a little bit farther into Tybee and were greeted with our wonderful little cottage!  Here she is….

We stayed in the Jensen Cottage….she was built in 1920 for the Jensen's when they were married. The current owner is only the 2nd owner of this little gem, and she is precious!

There were so many wonderful things to see before we even went in the door…….

The side yard, complete with a koi pond!

Koi fountain…

Beautiful Adirondack chair…so welcoming!

and my, oh my…check out the HUGE screened in back porch! I spent a LOT of time out there!…………..

Here are some more shots of the back yard…

Be still my heart…hydrangeas!

There’s just something about old signs…..just look at that aged wood!…

Doesn’t this just say welcome home….

and this just made me giggle…..who wouldn’t love riding a purple bike to the ocean!! ……

Here’s that wonderful screened in porch…see how huge it is! I lit those candles and laid on that sofa more times than I wanna confess!……Oh, and they had all kinds of magazines to choose from too!

This little sign on the porch summed it all up for me…..

I’ll show you the inside of the house on my next post, so stay tuned!  You have to see why, the minute we walked into the house, we knew we were supposed to stay there!  I’ll show you next time!

Hugs
Missy

Technorati Tags: Tybee Island,Mermaid Cottages,best vacation getaways,Jensen Cottage,Ocean vacations

Things you don’t know about me…

Happy New Year!

Can you believe it’s 2012 already…time goes by so quickly and the older I get the faster it goes.  Does it seem that way to you too?

I thought, to start off the new year, I would tell you some things about me that you don’t know.   Not sure anyone will be interested, but these are things that made me who I am today, so you might know me better if you read them. :0)

In the hospital where I was born, I was the last baby to be born there.  There was a set of twins, then me….then the hospital was torn down and I believe there’s a Kmart there today. lol 

I was pretty poor growing up, but I don’t think I ever knew it, my parents always tried to make my childhood special.  I remember my daddy coming home one day with a box…it was a baby alive doll box.  I thought it was just a box because I wasn’t used to getting toys out of the blue, but my mom and dad took their last $10.00 in the bank and bought me that doll.  I kept it for a LONG time, but if you remember baby alive dolls, you could feed them real food….let’s just say I fed mine and it didn’t come out, and baby alive doll food stinks when it’s left inside the doll.  YUCK!  

I grew up in a little house out in the country…..we had an outhouse, a smokehouse, a pigpen, (with a pig named Arnold),      a garden, a well and a pond.  I remember one time I was playing with dish liquid, trying to make bubbles,  and I spilled the bottle and it came within inches of dripping in the well…oh boy did I get in trouble!  I would have ruined our drinking water if it had gotten in the well….. God was looking out for me even then! lol

I learned how to ride a bike when we lived in that house.  A purple bike with a banana seat and a high back.  It looked sort of like this, but with a high bar in the back…

I had to learn how to ride my bike in the grass….with a hill….and a fence.  I can assure you I hit the fence more times than I can count trying ride around the house and flying down the hill. I finally figured out how to ride my bike and ran in the house exclaiming, “I rode around the house nine times”!  I was so excited.  

I recently went back to the old farm to take pictures of the house, but it had been torn down and big barn is there now.  I sat in the middle of the road and cried…..it’s hard to see your childhood home torn down.  BUT our pond was still there.  I had a pet duck that used to swim in the pond…my dad was skimming rocks in it and hit the duck in the head by accident. I thought sure he had killed it because it’s little webbed feet went up in the air and it was down head first in the pond. I suppose it was just addled a bit, because it eventually came back up and was ok.  I sure have a lot of good memories of that old place! One summer we had a chicken disappear, we couldn’t figure out what on earth happened to her. One day she came strolling back to the farm with a trail of baby chicks behind her….now how fun is that?! I kind of miss living on a farm.

We eventually moved from there into a trailer park….my mom made it into the prettiest home.  She has a knack for that.

I made a lot of good friends living there….one of which was a boy named Michael Todd Johnson.  We got along really well (ok, most of the time), but I remember one day he stepped on my foot with football cleats on and cut my foot open. I mean really OPEN.  He picked me up and carried me to Mrs. McCall’s house….she was a little old lady that lived in the park, she used to be a nurse, so she cleaned it up and put steri-strips or butterfly bandages on it.  He apologized to me for years for doing that…I still have a scar.    Ok….you remember I said Michael Todd and I didn’t get along ALL of the time?  Once before school, he took my umbrella at the bus stop, and was poking me with it..then he hid it and wouldn’t give it back.   I can’t believe I’m telling you all this, but I punched him in the nose….he went home with a bloody nose and missed school that day.   He never took anything of mine again, and we were very good friends for years!  LOL  Oh…and I’ve never punched anyone in the nose ever again!  :0)

We lived in that trailer park from the time I was about 10 until I was 15.  I met my hubby (TJ) right before we moved from that trailer park into our first house…a real house that was ours.   I remember he came over to visit us in the trailer and we already had everything packed up…I think he thought we were REALLY poor because when we eventually got moved into the new house, he looked really surprised to see pretty things all set up in the house.   I only lived in that house for a short time because my hubby and I were married young.  I was only 17 and he was 19 when we got married.   We had our first son 3 1/2 years later, and 2 more sons later on.   We’ll be celebrating 27 years of marriage on Valentines Day….I told you time goes by fast.  Now here we are celebrating New Years Day 2012…not sure where all those years went, but I know I enjoyed every single one of them. 

I am so grateful to have a nice home and beautiful things now, and to have a husband that goes to work every day to provide for us. I guess I just wanted to start off this new year with a grateful and happy heart while reminiscing about what’s made me who I am today.

I hope the new year holds peace, prosperity, health and happiness for each one of you!
May God bless you in this new year~!

Missy

Technorati Tags: 2012,Happy New Year,vintage baby alive,banana seat bike,farm animals

A Perfect Day

On Friday my little man and I went to Evan’s Orchard after we finished homeschool.  I have purposely scheduled our Friday’s on the light side, so we can spend some time doing some fun things together.   Here was our day in pictures…..
What a beautiful, picture perfect day this turned out to be!…


We started out with a fresh, homemade apple pie and an Ale81! (for those of you that don’t know…Ale 8 is a ginger based soft drink made only in KY…and for years could only be purchased in KY…I think two other states sell it now) :0) 


OH MY was this yummy!


It didn’t last long!!…


Farmer Brown.. :0)



These were the friendliest baby goats! They would come right up to the fence and let you rub their cute little heads…I could have given this one a smooch he was so cute!!


Our orchard has lots of fun stuff to play on in the playground area….it’s $5.00 to play as long as your heart desires.   With perfect blue skies, low 80’s and no humidity, we stayed a LONG time! :0)


I told my little guy I wanted to try out the sports mode on my new camera and asked him to jump….we cracked up when we saw this picture because it looks like he’s levitating in the air! LOL


I told him to try one more time….this one is much better! (he even smiled!) lol




This was a new addition to the orchard this year….a whole bin full of corn!  This looks like it would be fun for little kids to play in.



This is where Carson spent much of his time! This tube was hanging from ropes and I would swing him back and forth while he tried to crawl around inside the tube.  It was nice and cool in there too!


See, here’s the outside of the tube hanging from the ropes..he crawled all over it, inside and out!



These things are called Rat Races….he loved going up and down the course in them.  He couldn’t really race anyone because we were the ONLY people there! We had the whole play area to ourselves….talk about the perfect day!



We also got to pet the bunnies….some very friendly animals at the orchard!


Well that was our day!  How did you spend your weekend?
Hope it was fun!
Hugs
Missy

Technorati Tags: Orchard,farm animals

Where to go on a mini vacation….. :0)

Hey guys! Sorry I’ve been missing in action on here the last few days, but I hitched a ride with my hubby on a business trip.

He had to go to Toledo, Ohio for work, so the kids and I went along for the ride.  We stayed in the Hilton Garden in Levis Commons….a very quaint little place to stay!


This was the view outside our hotel room window, isn’t it cute?!


We enjoyed playing the gigantic game of checkers outside our hotel…..made me feel like a big kid!


We shopped……


and shopped……



and shopped some more!  (don’t ya love that sign!)



We completely enjoyed the views…..



We stayed from Tuesday to Saturday and on the way home, we went HERE!!!…………. My very favorite store in the world! (well that and TJ Maxx) lol



We stayed so long, we ended up eating dinner.  I got the swedish meatballs and taters…yum yum!



We had a really fun time…….no cooking, no cleaning and no laundry…who could ask for anything more!

Hope ya’ll are having a great day!
Stay tuned to see what else I have finished on my laundry room…it’s getting closer to the big reveal!

Missy

Technorati Tags: IKEA,IKEA's swedish meatballs,where to go on vacation,Levis Commons,Toledo Ohio,business trip,shopping,Kirkland's