Cabins, Cottages AND Summer Homes: Bernard S. Mason and Frederic H. Kock

This Goodwill find was $2.99.  It's copyrighted date: 1947.
You can read or listen to this book for free on this website:
https://archive.org/stream/cabinscott00maso.
The illustrations are SO COOL! See below. It looks like Bernard is the author, and Frederic, the illustrator. They have several books in the same genre...all vintage. This second on Amazon, there's a used copy going for $8.00 http://amzn.to/1r1MxTT.

I'm very familiar with the term "Cabin". "Cottage" and "Summer Home" aren't typical terms I hear or use often, except when I'm browsing Trulia: http://www.trulia.com; They often use "Cottage" to describe homes for sale; most of them are out of my price range, and are located in highly desirable Phoenix neighborhoods, such as Encanto.  So I guess, by "browse" I really mean "drool".  I think it's neat though because with all this Mid-Century Modern stuff going on, it's refreshing to see the Cottage style, still in style, still going strong.  There are tons of Houzz articles on Cottages.
I took a Houzz Quiz about what style of house I should live in, fully expecting Cottage or Ranch but apparently...I should live in a Colonial Revival type house...who would've thought?

http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/29914917/list/houzz-quiz-what-style-of-house-should-you-live-in

An article in Houzz by Becky Dietrich defines a Cottage as any single-family home with square footage around 1200.

http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/27105525/list/8-benefits-of-cottage-living.

I agree that that is one of the things so charming about cottages, is their small footprint; They're all about quality over quantity...and they're so darn cute!!


As far as Summer Homes go: Wikipedia says they are vacation homes people have "For relaxation in warm weather" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_house.  Ah! No wonder, this concept has eluded me!  From where I hail, surviving the "warm" weather with some grace, is a mark of heroism.  As a native of Phoenix, AZ I take pride in being one of those people who says: "You're complaining about 100 degree weather; try 118".  My husband can recall the exact circumstances surrounding the record breaking 122 degree temp on June 26th, 1990.  Somehow we all survived; yet this is coming from someone who owns an "I survived the Great Phoenix Haboob, July, 2011" T-shirt.  I guess we all need something to complain or boast about.

Although, not to minimize the dangers of the home of the Phoenix Suns. Skin cancer is a major problem and issue, which I know personally.  I'm a skin cancer survivor and still don't utilize sunscreen like I should.  Sad face.  I digress.

So, I think the point I'm making here is. When I win the lottery, I'm moving to a cottage in Encanto, donating resources to skin cancer research, and buying a cabin in the high country.  I might as well rip the Summer Home pages out of this book for their beautiful illustrations and make them into art.  I can live vicariously through those who need a break from the cold...not that I envy freezing temps...that's why I live here! Sheesh!

Pottery Barn Kids: Christmasy

I found this at Savers for $2.99.  It's bright red, metallic, organizing-ness called to me.  I love Christmas so the free Christmas stickers were a bonus.  It hails from Pottery Barn Kids.  I tried to  find one in the internet-sphere but could only find more pail-like or felt containers from Pottery Barn.  By the way, eBay, has a lot of Pottery Barn items and it's not too hard to find PB paraphernalia in thrift stores. 

At first I used this bucket to hold CD's.  In fact, I'm sure that's what Pottery Barn had in mind when they created this red CD holder.  I don't use iTunes and we have a large, 1991 Boom Box which is such a space hogger, by the way, but I refer to it to justify the CD reference. Anyway, now it holds random, small games and dice.  The Boom Box is now hogging up room in the office/junk room.  My desire is that it would end up at Savers but my husband won't get rid of it because "It still works", which I translate to mean that he has an emotional attachment to it and even though he's an iTunes pro, will continue to hoard any kind of sentimental "working" technology. Well, now it's the office's/junk room's problem.  Good riddance; The game room will miss you but will find a way to move on. 

Warren Kimble: American Cow

I found this in a three tiered wood frame at Savers.  It's heavy-weight paper glued to some very thick cardboard.  I didn't buy it for the artwork; I bought it for the frame and this came free.

Until today, I never bothered to look up the artist, Warren Kimble.  Okay, not to be dramatic but he is one of my new favorite artists!

Art.com carries his work: He does a lot of animals and scenery.  It's all so beautiful and idyllic!


 http://www.art.com/gallery/id--a1660/Warren-Kimble-posters.htm?RFID=571502&domain=com&keyword=Warren+Kimble&KWID=872167935&CTID=2123158260.

Check out this Daschund! http://www.art.com/products/p1445229036-sa-i4155431/warren-kimble-good-dog-iii.htm.

You can check out his stuff on Google Images too: Here's one from Google Images:

Here's his website: http://warrenkimble.com/about-warren-kimble/.