Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Our small piece of paradise and how we decorate!

Hi There,

I thought I'd share some photos of my favourite place in the world, the cottages that belong to my family and my husband's family on the Severn River. Since Rachel and Hale came along I ha
ve been the luckiest person in the world and have spent my entire summers on the Severn River with the kids.
Someone asked me recently if my home was stuffed with paintings, LOL, well not really but there are lots of paintings at the cottage and these are just a few of my favourites.
The one at the top of the page is a painted screen at my Mother-in-law's cottage. I love painting screens, it is so much fun! Once painted you only see it from one side, it provides privacy because you see the painting but not really much inside! From inside it is just a normal screen and you can see out perfectly. You can see Rachel inside in the photo sitting in front of the woodstove.
LOL, I love this painting! It was a Christmas gift to my sister Kari and her husband a few years ago. They have decorated their cabin in an 'Elvis' theme and actually named the cabin "Graceland"....trick is they only decorate with 'tacky' Elvis stuff....So hard when all the Elvis paraphernalia is all so classy and lovely....giggle...they have a whole shelf full of 'Elvii' isn't that the plural of Elvis????


Ok, if wasn't clear earlier, it's going to become very clear very soon that we all have a bit of a weird sense of humour! My sister Jodie painted my Mom a rock garden next to the outhouse....she actually painted flowers on the rocks. LOL, well at least we don't have to water them!


Kari and Jodie love signs, and this is the 'waiting in line' spot on the path to the outhouse....when both my sisters and parents and all of our families are up at the same time there are 14 of us sharing one outhouse.....grin....might as well have fun while you wait!

This is the play structure we all built one summer for the kids. Between my parents have 3 granddaughters aged 8,9 and 12 and 3 grandsons all aged 11. What a crazy crew...my sisters and I all have one boy and one girl and all 3 of us had a baby boy the same summer. My son and my nephew are only 1 day apart and my other nephew was born 9 weeks later! Every year we have the 6 of them together for a week for 'cousin camp' it is a ball! This pirate ship was built from "the scrap crap, lumber pile"...LOL every cottage has one, it is a neatly piled stack of odds and sods that isn't good for anything but too good to throw out.

This is Blake's and my bunkie. It is a 12' x 12' cabin that 4 of us and a golden retriever sleep in. I decided that since we couldn't afford nice siding I'd faux paint some! LOL The door isn't real, it is just paint on the outside wall but it has a real handle and real hinges. LOL, my cousin actually pulled on it 3 times to open the door as I patiently explained it wasn't real! too funny!

This is the front!

This is a painting I did for my Mom and Dad one Christmas. It hangs over the entrance to our kitchen cabin.

This is a fun 'junk box' I painted with fishing lures. It holds everyone's car keys every weekend...the odd rolaid....elastics and other stuff you never knew you needed.
The kitchen is so much fun! Kari, Jodie and I painted all the cupboard doors one year for my Mom for Christmas....Each door is a little different. You often hear things like "where are the garbage bags?" and the inevitable reply, "try the loon or duck cupboard".....LOL


It is only appropriate that the raccoon peaks his head out of the garbage cupboard under the sink! LOL

Kari and Jodie painted chipmunks and strawberries on the other cupboards.

Everyone has their own coffee mug with their name and a lion painted on it!


My family's cottage is called Lion's Head Point. Jodie painted these for Mom and Dad for Christmas....do you see the theme here????? LOL

This was a fun stencil we did on the wall.

Here we have a woodpecker and 2 field mice.

A chickadee and another mouse. (silly mice, like them in a painting but not in real life! LOL)

A hummingbird.

Another woodpecker and some dragonflies.


Jodie did a mural on all 4 doors, it is awesome, a great blue heron, frogs and a saucy snapping turtle.

We have no hydro at the cottage and so we own 2 1950's (I think!) propane fridges. I painted the front of this one with a picture of our outhouse.
This one has a painting of our kitchen cabin from the river.
Well that's it for now! Hope you enjoyed a glimpse into our crazy cottage. It is a fun place where we all laugh and enjoy and don't worry about high end decorating! as is probably painfully obvious!!!! LOL

5 comments:

  1. I just loved your photos Georgia. I have heard so many stories about the cottage and now I know what it looks like! I can tell how much you love being there by the amount of paintings - every one of them a labour of love I'm sure. Enjoy the summer!

    Lynn A.

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  2. WOW, Georgia. Do you ever get time to just have fun~~~painting all the time! Great photos~~~~thanks for sharing.

    Louisa , BC

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  3. I can definitely see the family personality coming through. It must be great to be together with so many other nuts.

    Luv ya,

    Bobbie (One more sleep!)

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  4. Hi Georgia,

    How fun it must be at your cottages! Loved the pictures of the paintings. Thanks for sharing them with us.

    Cathy

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  5. I would love to come to your cottage. All of your paintings are so cool! What a great place to regroup! Thanks for sharing!

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