Sunday, February 28, 2010

A New Home: Little Cottage By the Canyon

Hello Friends!

My husband Preston and I have just moved into our very first house together--we've lived both the apartment lifestyle and with our parents for quite some time, but we are so happy to have found the perfect little place to settle into.

We wanted so much to find a little cottage where we could cultivate a simple way of living--a sweet little space to dream, cook, sing, and play together. I wanted it to have a wonderful yard where we could plant lots of wild and beautiful things and for it to have the perfect spot for our raised bed vegetable and herb gardens in the spring. I wanted it to have lots of natural light streaming in through the windows, and for it to be in a wonderful neighborhood with easy access to nature.

I did a lot of visioning and dreaming for this home over the last year, and finally, there it was.

Our house is a little brown cottage with shingle siding (my favorite) and rusty orange trim. It has hardwood floors throughout the living areas and in the bedroom, and tile in the kitchen and bathroom. It has little nooks and built-in shelves perfect and ready for decorating. It has a cozy fireplace and lots of cabinet space in the kitchen. Off the bedroom it has a walk-in cedar-lined closet. Older style windows wrap pretty much around the entire house, and there is a perfect little nook in the front of the house where I am putting together my art studio space. And my favorite parts? The yard and the location.

Our yard is surrounded in tall privacy fences most of the way around making it feel cozy and secluded. The front yard is grass as far as I can tell (there has been lots of snow cover) and along the fence there are built-up stone flower beds. (Or at least that is what I will make them into!) As you walk toward the back you can hear the chickens next door clucking! I love chickens and we were both very excited when we realized we had feathered neighbors! Some features I love about the back yard: lots of little nooks and crannies to plant and grow things up, two super tall pine trees right in the center of the yard, and the very most magical thing is in the very back of the yard if you open the picket fence gate, it leads you down a little staircase. About half way down to the right there is a deck! Scrub oaks surround and shelter it and it looks over the creek that runs down from the mountain across the street below. At the bottom of the stairs is a door to our quirky little garage. We are only about 5 miles from a couple of great Natural Foods Grocery stores and other conveniences and only 2 doors down from a little local coffee shop--the perfect place to go to take a break from all the unpacking!


Cheyenne Canyon is a beautiful area, tucked up right at the base of the mountains and if you drive about a quarter mile from our house, you enter North Cheyenne Canyon Park. I'm excited to go running and biking in the canyon regularly!

And so I am excited to share with you as we begin to put together our special little space. Right now we are still cleaning and unpacking quite a bit, and its not quite ready for a housewarming, but day by day we are beginning to see that it is just the most precious little place and we are just loving caring for it together!


So I thank you for reading my blog, and I welcome you into my world of creating, and living as we begin this new journey in our lives.


Love to you,
Abbey

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Welcome to Our Cottage...

Welcome to our new little love cottage. Its still very much winter here, but I can feel a whisper of spring every once in a while through the tall pines...

Here is a view of the front yard from our doorstep. You can hear lots of birds singing in the trees high above...


This is the side of our house and a door off of the kitchen... from this spot you might hear chickens clucking from their coop next door...



Here is the backyard right now. Just wait til you see what I have in store for it come spring! :)


These are my two pines. They are so tall and perfect. I can't wait to get to know them better!


Down the back stairs, you can see our little deck! Imagine when the scrub oaks are all green! It will be so private and secluded. A wonderful little sanctuary to listen to the creek and hide in the shade! A secret little world...


Here is what you can see when you are on the deck. That little bridge crosses over the creek. In the summer months, you can hear the creek flowing...



The back stairs...


Our little kitchen...


This is the front of our living space. To the left you see my creative-nook-to-be!



Here is the living room. I love the ceilings!



And, the bedroom. It is all windows. I LOVE it! Natural light is so important to me. It makes me feel like I live outside. It gets me back to my roots. Thanks for looking around!

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

A Little Introduction

Hello and welcome to my friends and fellow travelers and explorers who journey with me upon this beautiful earth at a most important time.

I wish to welcome you to the beginning of my blog and invite you inside my world to share with you here the little corners and great spaces and sweet moments of my life.

I live a creative life with my intention and purpose centered in Love. I'm an artist, I'm in love with nature and outdoor adventure, gardening, and caring for spaces. To learn a little more about me you can read my profile.

I plan to use this blog to give you a peek into my world of artistic creation through photographs and writings so you can see the progress of my creative process as I work on projects for my Etsy shop Love's Garden and for other venues I'm involved in. I also plan to share with you about my journey in vegetable and herb gardening as spring nears. I'm vegan leaning towards the raw and living foods lifestyle and my husband and I cook all sorts of interesting and sometimes amazing food and so I'll also be posting recipes when we make something worth sharing. If you are interested in reading about healthy living and bringing balance and awareness into your lifestyle, my sister Annie is the author of a wonderful blog documenting her journey: Delicious Wellness. My husband and I are in the process of moving right now into a cute little cottage, (its our first house together) and so, seeing that I have a passion for homemaking and decorating ;), I am excited to post a lot as we create our home together, so you'll get to see our progress as we make its cuteness our own.

So I invite you to be a part of this journey, and I thank you for taking the time to read my writings. I wish you much joy on your journey, too :)

Until next time,

Abbey
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