Happy Friday!

Hello everyone!  I hope you've had a good week and are looking forward to the weekend.  We have and we are.  :D  As I write this, it's started to thunder outside (just as the weather forecast predicted) and apparently we're in for a weekend of rain.

I hope you all had a good Easter.  It's been over a week since I've posted, and I thought I'd fill you in a bit on what's been happening around here.  First of all, we are loving our new floors and carpet; I'm so thankful we could get those done.  They've made such a difference in our home.  We ordered a new rug to put under the table in our kitchen eating area.  We've never felt the need for one there before, but we really do now.  First of all, we want to protect the wood floors from the chairs being scooted in and out from the table, and secondly, we feel like a rug would add a nice touch of color to the floor.  After much thought and consideration, I decided on a braided rug, as I felt it was more suited to the decor and style of our kitchen.  I just couldn't get on board with the more contemporary styles for that particular room.  While the kitchen doesn't really have a "country" vibe, it does have a cottage feel to it.

This is the rug we chose.  It's called, appropriately enough, "Carolina Sky."  The company we purchased it from is Stroud Braided Rugs, and they're right here in North Carolina.  We have another rug company here, Capel Carpets, which has been here a long time and has a good name.  They carry braided rugs, as well as fine woven rugs (Persian, oriental, Aubusson, etc.)  However, their prices are more than we want to pay, so I started looking around online, and was excited to see another braided rug company so close to us.  Their rugs definitely aren't cheap (whose are?) but we felt their prices were better for us, and they have good review online.

Here's a closeup of the pattern.  I thought (hoped) the blue and yellow would look good in our kitchen.  We received the rug about two weeks ago, and we were happy to see that the colors and pattern are just perfect, but the rug was too small for our area.  The table and chairs fit on the rug, but when you slid the chairs back, the back legs ended up off the rug.  We just hadn't measured correctly; this was our first time to order a rug like this, so live and learn.  Luckily, the company accepts returns with a full refund on standard sizes, which is what we ordered.  We sent the rug back, ordered a larger size after learning the best way to measure, and paid the difference on a larger rug.  I hope we'll receive it within a couple of weeks.  I can't tell you how disappointed I was when I realized the first one was too small.  😞

In other news, the goldfinches are now sporting their bright spring and summer colors.  They've been visiting our mixed seed feeders every day.  These pictures were taken on today's date in 2016.

This goldfinch is perched on a thistle sock, purchased at our local Tractor Supply Store last year.  It was filled with Niger Thistle seed and was quite popular with the goldfinches.

It's not the prettiest feeder I've ever seen, but the goldfinches didn't seem to mind.  Aren't they bright and pretty?  That's the female looking straight at the camera; she's not as bright as the other two.

source

I'm currently watching this 1995 BBC mini-series version of "Pride and Prejudice."  I've wanted to see this for some time, and after seeing the costumes at Biltmore House a few weeks ago,

 we ordered the DVD from Amazon.  Since it's over 20 years old now, we got a great price on it.  :)  I've seen the 2005 movie version with Keira Knightley and Matthew MacFadyen but had never seen this version.  The verdict so far -- I LOVE it!!

Thank you for visiting here and have a wonderful weekend!

Hugs,

Denise