Decorating our Granite Cottage

After waiting  7 weeks, our shipping container filled with our furniture, dishes, clothes, and relatives' golf clubs finally arrived! I was so excited to decorate this place!  

Last weekend we unpacked everything and organized clothes, kitchen, etc. This weekend we finished hanging pictures and plates, and put the final items away.

Welcome to our home!

T.V. Room

This is our "TV" room.  Only one of the living areas has a TV hookup, which gives me an excuse to have a formal living area, which is fun!

Front Hall

This is the hallway entering from the front door/front vestibule to the upstairs, kitchen, TV room and formal living room.

Formal Living Room

This is our formal living room.  It is full of floral and toile fabrics, cottagey furniture and of course, Spode plates.

Ironically, I always tried to accumulate things with an "English cottage" style in Oklahoma.  I think it fits in really well here.

Dining Room

This is a view of our dining room from the formal living room.  Luckily, it fits our huge harvest table.  I can't wait to have lots of company come and have a big dinner here!  I love this space!

Kitchen

This is our black and white kitchen.  I love the light that comes into all of these rooms and the French bistro set my parent's gave me for college graduation matches great!  (Those are the same chairs that you'll see at the Cheesecake Factory - I ordered them surplus from their supplier).  Carrara marble pieces are from a nice little company in Guthrie, OK.  

I painted a menu chalkboard out of an old cheap picture from Big Lots before we moved here. 

Thankful that my Mother stressed that I needed to buy tons of baskets before moving to Europe because they don't have much built in storage.  Thank you, Mom - it is coming in handy!

Teacups from Aunt Sharla and my new Cath Kidston teapot!  I will not be leaving the UK without an entire set of Cath Kidston dishes.  Her stuff is adorable!!!

3rd Bedroom/Closet

The upstairs spare bedroom/closet....this would be a tight fit.  We may use the TV room as a second guest room since there is a bathroom downstairs too.

Guest Bedroom

Dedicated guest room.  Thank you for the wreath, Emily O.!!

Master Bedroom

Back Patio & Garden

Finally, I am excited to fill these pots with colorful flowers and shrubs.  Glad I shipped these pots - planters are expensive here!

Dreaming of sitting outside in the summer with a glass of wine or cup of coffee and looking at the flowers.  It's the simple things!

A Scottish Hoedown! (aka a Kayleigh)

Last Friday night, my lovely colleagues invited Jared and me to go to a Kayleigh at the Aberdeen Music Hall.  We were in for a real treat!!

A kayleigh is a lively Scottish dance that they do a lot at weddings and parties (while drinking heavily). My coworkers had grown up practicing these dances for exercise in gym class - trust me they are a real cardiovascular workout!

Wikipedia's definition of a kayleigh: In modern usage, a céilidh or ceilidh /ˈkeɪli/ is a traditional Gaelic social gathering, which usually involves playing Gaelic folk music and dancing. It originated from Ireland andScotland, but is now common throughout the Irish and Scottish diasporas

Luckily, my co-workers were very helpful in telling Jared and I when to spin, do a do-si-do, change directions and then run with our arms locked together over a line of 30 people hunched on the floor!  Some of the moves were a little frightening, but we had a blast!  Jared can cross, "dance the River Jig" off his life bucket list :)

We will definitely be attending more of these!

People wear kilts to these Kayleighs!

My fabulous coworkers and their boyfriends!

The room is spinning :) Thanks for all the help, Roslyn!

A Weekend in Paris

Jared and I spent this past weekend enjoying all things French: art (even their airport restrooms are creative!), food (croissants, baguettes, and fine cheese), lounging in parks, and walking to wherever we wanted to go.  

Here is a picture of the Eiffel Tower from the window of the Museum Orsay. I loved seeing the Monet and Renoir paintings at this Museum, which was actually a grand train station in the 1800s.

Definitely needed a cappuccino or espresso every afternoon - walking 15 miles in one day (no joke) can get tiring. The cafes were busy from 4-8 pm serving crepe snacks, coffee and cocktails.  Since they won't serve you dinner at a restaurant until 7 pm, afternoon crepe snacks are essential!

A picture of Notre Dame (Our Lady).

Beautiful Orchid shop I spotted on one of our walks - "Orchid House"

A view of the River Seine around Sunset.  The colors of Paris are like a painting.

Croissant breakfast near Gare St. Lazare.  The orange juice they sell in all the coffee shops and cafes is amazing because it is literally just fresh squeezed juice. They have these giant machines that crush tons of oranges to make yummy juice. I would love to make our own too.

We visited the Louvre.  Jared made sure we saw every room...I had no idea that France had so many artifacts from ancient Greece, Egypt and Italy; complements of Napoleon!

Apparently the Louvre is opening a branch in Abu Dhabi, my childhood home. It looks really cool!

 

Afternoon espresso and macaroon from none other than McDonald's!  Wish they had this on the menu in the States.

We walked from the Louvre to Luxembourg Gardens and Palace, which is the home of the French Senate.  Chilling in parks or at a public monument seems like a French way of life.  We enjoyed it too!

These clever metal chairs were in all the different public parks.  I liked this reclining version.

That night we ate at a fantastic pizza place called St. Lucia on the Left Bank by Rue Bonaparte.  And I quote Jared's exact words, "I think this is the best pizza I've ever had."  This farm boy sees most food as fuel and is pretty indifferent to taste in general.  I was glad to see he enjoyed what Paris had to offer!

We enjoyed seeing everything lit up at night.  Very romantic city.

We ventured to the Arc de Triumph to snap a few shots, and then we headed to the Eiffel Tower.

We ate lunch at Cafe du Marche on Rue Cler, a lively  Left Bank street filled with local Parisians.  Thanks for the tip, Rick Steve!

Cheese shop on a side street off Rue Cler.  There is a great appreciation for fantastic food in this country: bread, cheese, pastry, meats, fruits, everything is gourmet for these folks and we loved it!! :)

I was inspired by all the yummy fresh food we had, so on Sunday I actually planned a menu of meals for the week (first time ever)! For Sunday dinner, we had Cobb Salad, which appeared to be a regular fixture on the Parisian bistro menus.

Tonight we made Cheve Chaud, a salad with grilled goat cheese on toast.  I know it may sound strange, but it's actually really nice.

Can't wait to visit Provence and Normandy too!