~LOOKING AHEAD IN A NEW DIRECTION...~

I've always believed when one road ends, it's time to look ahead in a new direction.  As my hubby and I work on the last leg of our kitchen remodel, so comes the welcomed opportunity to return to creating, designing and decorating around the things I love.

Those things, too, have changed over the years.  Nothing truly stays the same for long, does it?

When I first started blogging it was all about my passion for painting cottage pink roses, my faith, selling my wares, the re-telling of precious tales about my Miss K (back in 2009 she was a wee girl of only seven), my Mr. AGPMan and the simple, sometimes complicated story of living our lives inside our La Chaumière de Briarwood...  Next month we will have called her home for 23 years~

As the years have pressed onward, so have we! Our lives are constantly evolving...new job in January 2014 for my hubby and with it came fresh opportunities to enjoy the things we've been blessed with.  I'm so grateful for a peaceful home, good friends and for over-the-top projects that are coming to an end.

Still...there are always things to do!  This morning as I surveyed my studio I realized she is in dire need of a facelift...  She needs to be de-floofed, cleaned up and returned to a more manageable space.  I continue to love all things vintage, I'm just working at achieving a bit more scaled back and refined look all across my home.  Our kitchen renovation has taken all of our focus for so long now and today I'm actually excited about paying some attention to the other rooms in our home...

This past weekend my Mr. AGPMan drove down to Dallas for the summer Wholesale Market.  Came back with wonderful ideas and tons of inspiration.  The talent behind the showrooms is simply incredible...  All the pictures I've shared with you (except the candles) are from one of my favorites...

Anyway...just wanted to say HELLO, catch you up on a few things and also say that LIFE IS STILL GOOD! 

Blessings and love to you...

~STILL SWINGIN' THE BRUSH...~

 ~MILK & CREAM SIGN~

During our kitchen renovation I've tried really hard to keep up with my business!  I've managed to continue to restock my local Booth, but my website has suffered terribly for a long time...especially so since Christmas.  With the completion of our remodel on the horizon (thank you, God!) I've had a chance to sit down for a bit and take stock in what I do...why I do it...and if changes are in order, prepare for them as well.

 ~BOULANGERIE BAR STOOL~

Things are always changing, aren't they?

My Mr. AGPMan and I are seriously considering doing something new that relates to selling my wares beyond my booth and online.  Not sure just how things will play out...but, at the very least it's exciting to consider something fresh and different.  As our plans unfold I'd love for you to tag along...

~MAIZE & BLACK~

It means lots of French Farmhouse style complements, furniture and bits of lace and finery.  I'm eager to get started.  I also want to revamp my blog and my website...but, that's going to take some big help from the Mr. and the Mr.'s son! :)

~FRENCH SIDE TABLE~

Yesterday I worked on more Signs, a sweet bar stool that needed a transformation and also a charming little side table I picked up at the local thrift...  All of them will be offered somewhere...Booth, Etsy and/or beyond!

~GREAT VINTAGE GRAPHICS~

More soon.  Thank you so much for stopping by...

~OLD FRENCH SCRIPT~

Love to you~

French Farmhouse Kitchen Renovation Almost Done...Yeah!

For all you peeps that don't do Facebook I'm sharing with you today what I posted over there...  The pocket door off our kitchen that leads to a small foyer. laundry room and downstairs bath is finally framed out and painted.  It seems sooo weird seeing things finally coming together after living with rip out and reconstruction for so long...

Here's a photo that was taken about two months ago.  At this time we were still customizing the pre-fab cabinets we purchased...still a long way to go.

Here's an early, early shot of when we were still tearing things out!

The French door I shared at the top is now in the place of the pate rack...in other words the door seen on the right was repositioned to the left side of the kitchen!

Here we are after the cabinets have been customized.  Still installing hardware and painting the ceiling and walls!!

 Hanging plate rack in a different spot!

Loving how this rack looks today...

This is going to go somewhere!

What do we have left to do?  The back splash which will be distressed (stained) and painted shiplathe and the wood flooring...

Then our reveal...

I can't believe it!

Long, grueling journey.  Glad it's almost over!

Love to you~

An Old Plate Rack and Farmhouse Signs...~

We are counting the days down on our kitchen renovation and I am one happy girl!  Not to sound overly dramatic here (as if I could EVAH be THAT!), I'm tellin' you the truth when I say NEVAHHH EVAHHH again! Nope.  Nevahhhh.

Worked on this wall and my Mr. AGPMan finally got my plate rack hung.  I love this piece so much and have had it almost 20 years.  I snagged it at a Spiegel auction in Tennessee back in 1997.  I almost sold it a few times, but in the end I just could never let it go.  It fits perfectly on the wall beside the pantry and the entry into the kitchen.

Finished a bunch of Farmhouse style signs for my website and also the one you see above.  I decided to keep this one for myself!  Here are a few I uploaded today...

 

 I love the virtuous woman passage from Proverbs.  One of my favorite designs!

 

This Chocolat Lombart sign sold earlier today.  Simple and uncomplicated design transferred onto a vintage hand-cut arched sign.

This one was fun to do!  Lots of distressing and aged with a waxing cream!

Pushing towards our final reveal in August...that is IF our wood flooring comes in when it's supposed to and we can get it installed without any problem.  Since it was discontinued we had to hunt for a bit to track it down.  That means a better price, but we now have to find a reputable wood floor installer that we can trust...

Hope you are all well and had a wonderful day yesterday celebrating the men in  your lives!

Be back soon with more kitchen pics from our La Chaumière de Briarwood!

Love to you~

~HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!~

My precious Father passed away about sixteen months ago...this is my second Father's Day without him...

Today I'm celebrating his memory and his legacy of faith and love.  Miss you, Daddy.  I'll see you again one day~

Ever grateful for my hubby, Steven (my Mr. AGPMan), for being such an amazing husband and the incredibly loving, supportive and faithful Father he's been to our two children...

I have so much to be thankful for.

Blessings to you as you celebrate with those you love!

Love to you...

~DISPLAYING A VINTAGE BED IN A SMALL BOOTH SPACE!~

Yesterday and today I worked really hard at my booth located in Serendipity Market in Edmond, OK!  These days it's always challenging to come up with something new and different as there is so much retail competition out there.  Temporary shows are springing up everywhere and that makes having a great looking booth more important than ever!  It's also easy for me to get bored with my booth decor if big pieces (like furniture) don't sell sooner than later.  So changing things up is both good for my customers and for my own peace of mind!

Vintage Head-boards/foot-boards are always difficult for me to display because my booth isn't all that large and setting up a bed with a mattress is out of the question...  So, my Mr. AGPMan fashioned a "short bed" by crafting shortened rails for display and then added a "top" made of plywood to look like a mattress.  The bed is actually about 1/3 the length as a standard full sized bed...

I thought you'd like to see what it looks like.  The bed is painted a very, very muted pink and finished with a dark wax...  It's perfect for my space and great for displaying soft and squishy feather pillows! The vintage/antique gentleman's chest next to it is painted out in the same lovely shade!  I love it!

It's hard for me to believe we are already halfway through June!  In just a few weeks we'll all be putting out our Fall decor and that just seems impossible.  

It's been fun getting back to blogging again.  Thank you all so much for peeking in and being so kind.  In somewhat of a small way I feel like I'm getting my life back again.

Blessings and love to you~

 

~A NEW FRENCH STYLE "BAKERY" SIGN...

 Well...after a bit of a fiasco (I'll share more about it later) with our paint color of choice for our kitchen, we are finally on the other side of swinging a brush and pushing a roller...

Can't begin to tell you how happy we are to be done with PAINT!  I'm sick of it!  Beyond sick of it!  So...today I did something FUN!  Not that painting isn't fun...it is~  Just not when you have a bajillion cabinets to do and walls a ceiling as well...

 Anyway~yesterday while moonlighting up at SERENDIPITY MARKET (where I have a booth), I purchased a Palm Tree picture from a dealer who is closing her booth (always sad to hear that!).  I brought the oblong/rectangle piece home and painted it up in my favorite shade of soft white...

Worked a wee bit of magic on it by distressing the front and adding letters that spell out

B*A*K*E*R*Y

Not sure where I'm going to put this sweet little creation...but I'm sure I'll find a spot.  Can only go one or two places!  :)

Be back soon with more pictures of where we are in the process!

Love to you...

 

~ARE WE FINALLY PAINTING OUR KITCHEN....? YES WE ARE!!!~

 ~VINTAGE FRENCH POCKET DOOR~

As I type this out my Mr. AGPMan is pushing me out the front door to go and pick up our wall paint from Sherwin Williams...color of choice:  CREAMY

 ~BEFORE PAINTING CABINETS~

After living in a state of kitchen remodel/renovation and construction for so very long, getting to this point seems surreal.  

It does.

~VINTAGE POCKET DOOR WITH FRENCH GRAPHICS~

We purchased this old pocket door from Goodwill over a year ago...  I still have to age and distress it, but I love how the old images look on the painted panes of glass.  We have very little open wall space with all the cabinetry, so being able to do something unique on the door has made it interesting and fun...

~GREAT PRICE!~

Sometimes Goodwill has the best prices...sometimes not!  We definitely got a good deal on the door at $14.99...

I'll be back in a few days with pictures of the kitchen painted...  The light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter!

More soon!

Love to you...

~LESSONS LEARNED...ONE PETAL AT A TIME...~

~PERFECTLY PRESERVED HYDRANGEA~

It's so good to be back doing something I love...something I loved for a long time.  It's funny sometimes how unforeseen experiences can help return us to the very things we once had a great passion for...

Losing my cousin to cancer last month has helped me refocus on my life and I'm so grateful for the opportunity to once again find my voice~  I think I lost it for a while and if I'm being honest with you, a really big part of me wondered if I'd ever find it again. 

 ~HYRANGEAS FROM ZION~

Kathy's treatment led my Mr. AGPMan and I to Zion, IL, about three months ago and while I was there I noticed more hydrangeas than I'd ever seen in one place.  The weather was crisp and cold and snow was still on the ground.  The flowers had dried on the vine and I was sure that before long they'd be chopped down by some well-meaning groundskeeper if i didn't gather them up while I had the chance. Kath and my Mr. AGPMan waited in the car and I roamed the hospital grounds...

~BEAUTIFUL GROUNDS~

And so, while they looked on, I snipped away at every single Hydrangea that had weathered the blistery winter storms of northern Illinois.  By the time I was finished I had removed every single tattered bloom from the property...about 175 of the most beautiful dried Hydrangea flowers I'd ever seen. 

Did I ask if I could take them?  

No.

~TATTERED BLOOMS for a TATTERED SOUL~

I figured no one but some crazy woman from the state of Oklahoma (with a pension for such flowers!) would be interested in what most people view as 'dead flowers'.  The people there at the Cancer Treatment Hospital weren't interested in gathering flowers I can assure you.  Every single care-worn face I saw was a person just trying to get well...stay alive...and survive their latest round of chemotherapy.

 ~BEAUTIFUL KATHY~

Kathy was different than other patients my hubby and I saw.  She was so joyful and funny and thought that cutting down all those flowers was hysterical!  When I got back in the car she said "there's no room for you, Beck!  Only your flowers!!!" 

Had it not been for Kathy's thinning snowy white hair and swollen cheeks, you'd have never known she was ill.  She'd been diagnosed with bladder cancer a few months before and sought out treatment in Zion...it was there they gave her, and us, the greatest hope for her advanced cancer~

 

~KATHY and I in ZION~

I was more than honored to be a care-supporter for Kathy on the two separate trips I made to Zion.  The first time my hubby and I made the twelve hour trip by car (which is why I was able to haul all those flowers home!) and three weeks later I flew back to Chicago to meet up with Kathy and her big sister Cindy.

 ~KATHY, CINDY & I in 2005~

 ~COUSINS BEING COUSINS (KATH & I ARE ON THE LEFT)~

~BROWNIE GIRL SCOUT HELPERS~

It was on my 2nd trip to Zion that Kathy was told she would most likely succumb to her cancer.  The chemo wasn't working and her tumors were growing...

As I said goodbye to Kathy and Cindy a couple of days later the shock of her terminal diagnosis still hadn't completely set in.  We were dazed, confused and in total disbelief.  What we didn't understand then was that Kathy had less than five weeks to live.  She passed away on May 13, 2015 at the age of 56.

I returned from California about a week ago where Kathy's life was celebrated during a beautiful service attended by many loved ones and friends.  I ordered Hydrangea flowers for her family, one for each member, to be planted in their private gardens in Kathy's honor...

 ~SHARING MEMORIES~

Getting back to, well, breathing easy has been difficult.  Still...it's been during my greatest bouts of grief over losing Kath that I've been able to hear again the sound of my own beating heart as it keeps in time with hers...  

~IN KATHY'S MEMORY~

This past week while working on our kitchen renovation I was out tinkering in our garage and I found packed away, to the credit of my hubby, the dried Hydrangeas from Zion.  I had completely forgotten about them.  The perfectly preserved blooms rescued from a tiny little town far, far away home had found their way back into my life...

 

~CINDY, KATHY and ME~

Laying on top of the flowers was the card Kath had left for me...

It said this:

"To Beck...Thank you for sharing your heart with mine.  May you again find a way to share it with the world.

I love you the last #...  Kath"

Love to you...