Beginning the Kitchen Reveal

I'm so excited to finally reveal the first part of our new kitchen!  Those of you who regularly read my blog have seen pictures of this cabinet in various stages of construction, but this is the first time I've shown the finished product.  We waited so long to be able to have our kitchen re-modeled, and then the actual work itself took four months; our contractor was working another job during the week, so he could only work at our house on weekends.  The cabinet and tile man and the granite guys were able to work during the week, so eventually, it all came together.  I've been doing the happy dance for weeks now.  :)

Hendersonville, North Carolina

Well, it's Friday folks, and it seems that Friday is almost always my travel post day.  You might think, in reading my blog, that all we do is travel -- or that we travel a lot.  Not so.  We have been fortunate enough to take some big trips, which I'll be sharing on my blog in the future.  We usually go to the beach once during the summer and to the mountains for about four days during the summer.  And speaking of the mountains, that's what I'm writing about again today.  Last week I shared with you our trip to the Blue Waters Mountain Lodge, in the western North Carolina mountains.

Liebster Award

My sweet friend, Rose H. of Second Hand Rose, in the U.K., has given me the Liebster Award.  Thank you kindly, Rose.  Rose has such a cute blog; she loves to thrift shop, like most of us here in Blog land.  She finds the most wonderful bargains in Staffordshire, England, where she lives.  Please stop by and visit Rose; you'll be glad you did.

I'm supposed to tell you eleven things that you may not know about me, so here goes.

1.  I love history and attended a Renaissance Fair in North Carolina several years ago (kind of nerdy, I know).

2.  Books are one of my very favorite things in life, and I love to read and collect them.

3.  I worked four years at a bookstore during my twenties.  The pay and the hours were not so good, but it was a great experience for me.

4.  I met my husband at said bookstore.  :)

5.  Our current home was hit by a tornado during our second year of living here.  We had to move out of it for eight weeks while it was being repaired.  Before that happened, I was NEVER afraid of storms, but now they make me a tad nervous (especially when there's a tornado warning issued).

6.  Scottish Terriers are my favorite dogs.  I have had three during the course of my lifetime.

7.  I took four years of French in school, but don't remember a lot of it.

8.  I loved to play the piano for many years when I was growing up.  I still love it, but am VERY out of practice.

9.  My son hates for me to play the piano.  My stopping and starting over (hence the out-of-practice thing) drives him crazy.  :)

10.  I'm seriously afraid of spiders -- a real arachnophobe.

11.  I'm a big Lord of the Rings movie fan (not very girlie, I know).


I'm passing this Liebster Award to eleven other bloggers, who like me, have less than 200 followers.  I hope you'll take a few minutes to visit their blogs; they all have some neat things to share!

Living With Thanksgiving

A Southerners Notebook

The Writer's Reverie

Two Tumbleweeds

Southern Gnome

Minerva's Garden

Applejack Lane

Just Grand

Time Was Antiques

Helen's Decor

Blue Mountain Rise

Thanks again, Rose, and thanks to everyone for visiting House at Forest Manor.


Denise

The Blue Waters Mountain Lodge

In July, I wrote a short post about our trip to the mountains of western North Carolina, but I wanted to share some more details and pictures of the trip with you.  Our destination was the small town of Robbinsville, NC -- more specifically the Blue Waters Mountain Lodge on Lake Santeetlah.  I wrote about the Blue Waters last year, and you can read that post Here.  I took lots of pictures of the interior of the lodge last year; I'll try not to repeat those this year, because I have some new things to show you.

The Blue Waters Lodge is aptly named because this is the view directly across the street from the lodge.

Mom and Dad's Porch

I want to share some pictures of my parents' screened porch with you.  Every time I visit them, I find my eyes straying in that direction, because the porch just beckons you to come out and sit...for a few minutes or a few hours.  Of course, during the very hottest part of summer, it doesn't get used as often.  Most of us gravitate towards the air-conditioned house when it's so hot and humid outside.  But in the spring, fall, and early summer, there's no better place to be.

My parents had their home built about eight years ago, with a screened porch opening off the great room.  But after living there for five or six years, my mom and dad realized they just weren't thrilled with the look and feel of their porch.  It felt too dark, and didn't really flow with the warm whites and cream colors in the adjacent great room.

August Note Card Party

Hi Dear Readers!  It's time once again for the monthly note card party hosted by Vee at A Haven For Vee.  You're all invited to join in the party by sharing just four of your images that you think would make pretty or interesting note cards.  Your images must have already appeared in one of your previous posts.

Here are my note cards titled "Birds, Blossoms, and Butterflies."

 Chickadee on Backyard Bird feeder

Queen Anne's Lace

Roadside Daisies

Tiger Swallowtail and Turk's Cap Lily

The first image doesn't have a lot of color because the photo was taken in winter.  You can see that post Here.  The last three images were taken along the roadside on the Cherohala Skyway a few weeks ago.  The images actually appear in mosaic form in this post.

Thank you for your visit and your interest in my blog.  It helps me stay inspired.  The butterflies will soon be gone for the season, so I hope you'll enjoy them while they're here.  Until next time...

Denise

Let's Go To London!

In the spirit of the 2012 Olympic Games, I'm introducing a new Olympic event.  It's called the Touring/Sightseeing/Eating/Shopping-in-London event.  I'm not very athletic, but I think this is one "sporting event" that I could medal in!  I've been training for quite a while now, and I'm ready to compete.  :)

Okay, actually, I'm ready in spirit, but the economy and the value of the dollar just aren't cooperating.  So, in addition to watching the games on the telly, I've pulled out my pictures from our trip to England in 1999 and I'm re-living the experience (as best I can remember it, that is).  It's amazing how much you forget after 13 years.  This is Part One of my travel series on England.  You can click on the links to see Part Two and Part Three.

A lot of things have changed since 1999, to be sure.  A new princess, the Chunnel, and a new skyscraper in London (the tallest in Europe standing 1,016 feet high).  But it's still fun to look back at our time there.  We were in England for a week, but we only spent one day in London.  My husband was there on a project for work, so we stayed in a small village near his company facility.  I still feel so fortunate that I was able to tag along with him and see the sights.