The B Farm

Once upon a time, we bought a farm with a small ranch-style house. It needed cleaning and paint and some updating - which we've been steadily doing for the past 6 years, getting it ready for the some day move there full-time day. In the meantime, we enjoy getting away on weekends and occasionally a week at a time.  One space I've struggled with is the living room - it's tiny...11x14' tiny... with a huge angled fireplace that eats up lots of space. I call it cozy and I've done my best using second hand finds to make it comfortable BUT the decor has never felt quite right. I rearranged the furniture several times and finally hit upon what I feel was the best layout. And yet it still felt off. So I enlisted the help of my friend KariAnne of Thistlewood Farms. She's brilliant. We talked and discussed my likes and all and she came up with a wonderful plan. Use red. Lots of it. With wood accents. And a bigger rug. With a touch of blue. Here's the mood bo

So here we are on the last 4 days of our Scotland Trip. It was fabulous, breathtaking, and beauty-filled. A really wonderful trip. Just a few of the Scotland Castles: Stalker, Urquhart, Inverness, Dunnottar, and Edinburgh Once again, I have lots and lots of pictures so please enjoy! The gorse was in full bloom, covering the countryside.  Leaving Oban, we headed up toward Inverness which was our next stop. We were headed into the mountains and of course, it was raining on and off. One of the first things we saw was this small castle - Castle Stalker. You can read about it here:  http://www.castlestalker.com/wp/ We found a spot to take pictures of it. Then we jumped back in the car and headed on. We passed through lots of pretty scenery...somehow I didn't get a picture of the mountains with snow still on them. They were so pretty shining in the sometimes sun. We got stuck in a slow moving line of traffic...finally passed 3 semis with windmill parts on

Last time, I told you about the first part of our trip to England/Scotland. I ended the first post with our trip to Bramall Hall. Read it here . We saw lots and lots of sheep - love the stone wall fences After eating supper in the town of Bramhall, we headed to Kendal to our B&B for the night. Hillside B&B was charming and Richard, the host, was so nice. Me in front of Hillside B&B The flowers were beautiful growing out of the stone wall in front of the B&B. Bruce  We had a beautiful room that looked out over the street. We slept well that night! The next morning, we got up, ate breakfast, and headed into town to walk around. We saw this coffee house: Isn't the sign the best? A view down one of the streets: We enjoyed seeing the different shops. The town was so quaint and beautiful. I really liked the bookstore window. Afterwards, we packed up the car and headed into the Lake District to go see Beatrix Potter's farm. We