Living Life Southern Style: Cottage Dreaming

As a little girl, I dreamed of what I am sure every little girl dreams of: a playhouse. I had a cousin that had an A frame playhouse complete with sliding glass doors, very chic and modern in the 70's don't ya know! Whenever I visited her I always wanted to play in her playhouse. She would reluctantly agree, but our play in the playhouse was always short lived. I would leave wondering how in the world you could have such a cool house and not want to play in it all the time. To her, it was the norm; To me, it was the proverbial grass is greener scenerio It was a dream.

When Mini was born, one of the first thoughts I had was that at some point she would have a playhouse. So I clipped some pictures of adorable playhouses and began dreaming. We built our house in the year between Mini's first and second birthday, and by the time her third birthday rolled around I couldn't stand it anymore. It was playhouse time.

The grandparents and uncles pitched in to build Mini's little house. First change in plans was that she would outgrow a standard playhouse size house so we would built a house that was shed sized. I was all for this because I could just picture loft beds for her friends and slumber parties, so larger was better.

So we completed the playhouse and Mini "moved" in. It is pretty plain, just some white paneling with a border on the walls and a painted floor with pink stenciled hearts. I found a little kitchen set at a yard sale and moved a little table I had painted for her room to "her house". It was so cute and perfect. I could just imagine being her age and spending hours in my house playing with my dolls and cooking in my kitchen. I mean, she had a little plastic china set and a selection of "fake" food pieces and boxed food for the shelves. She was excited to play there for about a week and then she said it was too big. What, too big? I guess for a little girl it was big but that is a good thing, right? Guess not. Mini had no interest in being out in the house alone. I could understand this as we brilliantly built the Mini's house on the side of our house that I could not look out and easily see her. So when I was working in the garage or yard I would encourage Mini to play in her house. She would wander in and out of it for a half hour or so and then she was done.

Mini's house (officially name Miss Mara's) did rally when Hope was in 1st - 3rd grades. She had a friend that was just pushy enough to demand they play house/school/hospital in the house whenever she was visiting. They did art projects and played music on Mini's electronic keyboard/drum set (thankfully there was a playhouse when that toy came along). I would see pictures from coloring books and notes taped to the windows. I do think they had lots of adventures in Mini's house, but it was pretty short lived. By 4th grade the friend had discovered boys, and, since Mini had a teenaged brother, she failed to see the allure in this and the friend's visits became less and less frequent. Thus Mini's house stood quietly in our yard. Not only quietly but sadly. Life got busy and I haven't maintained the house as well as I should have. The window boxes need to be replaced and the house itself needs a fresh coat of paint. I managed to re chaulk the windows and paint the porch railing before Christmas but haven't managed the whole house repaint yet.

Miss Mara's with a bit of Christmas Decor

Miss Mara's then became Miss Mara's Storage Center, we accept all junk. Currently abiding in the playhouse is all the play kitchen stuff, electronic instruments, assorted other toys as well as bicycles, some yard tools and a couple of 6 ft. toy soldiers. Oh boy, isn't it amazing how quickly you can accumulate stuff in a space you don't visit daily?

For a while now, Wonder Hubby and I have being talking about adding double doors in the rear that would allow us to turn this into a yard tool shed and store the mowers and such. Well, truth is Wonder Hubby is talking about it, me not so much. I keep seeing adorable garden cottages and then I start to think (always a dangerous thing) and I start to visualize (getting scarier), And then Wonder Hubby starts to worry, holding onto his wallet and trying to hide the checkbook. Then, in a flash, he knows it is hopeless to fight and climbs aboard the next nutty project train. We just arrived at the station to board the train this morning! hehehe

One of BDJ's high school teammate's parents live about a half mile from us and I have been ~~noticing~~ shamlessly lurking about watching as his mom transforms her yard into a beautiful garden area complete with her Garden Cottage. Yesterday she posted some pictures of it on Facebook, love...... I thought a tour of Connie's garden cottage on this dreary January day would be fun..so here we go.

I look forward to driving by Connie's Cottage every day and ~~glancing~~ hanging out my car window gawking! I mean since she is always adding or changing it, I have to keep up, right?

This porch has "Sit and Sip Mint Tea" with me written all over it. Hope I get invited over to do just that! Let's head inside.

I absolutely adore this paint color. It is just perfect for a garden cottage. Do you see the hardwoods? Wow, this isn't your average cottage. Connie recyled the floors and french doors when she updated her house, smart girl isn't she?

Isn't this chair too cute? I am not sure why she ever leaves her cottage :) This would be the perfect spot for dreaming up new garden projects. The yellow side table makes me smile. I like how the floral rug ties it all together. Can I move here?

So many pretty goodies here.

Love the way Connie used the crate as a side table, perfect for a garden cottage. I can't wait till spring to see what she has up her sleeve next. Thanks, Connie, for the tour!

This morning I announced to Wonder Hubby that Connie has hardwoods in her cottage and he said he knew I was going to say that (boy he thinks he knows everything) and that we should get to work on Miss Mara's Garden Cottage! Yippeee!

I have been tooling around finding pictures and ideas instead of working on the 2,321 unfinished projects I currently have going. Here are some of the beauties I found.

http://www.sunset.com

I love all the windows and the river rock border. I would love to have roses growing on my cottage like this....Wow!

View of the exterior of the shed.