Monday, August 15, 2011

Rose Cottage~La Maison Des Jardins~

I thought I would share my favorite home improvement project we did here..
I recently saw the Reader's Digest Website...
I grew up w/ a copy on my mom's bedside table.. or our coffee table~
I read Points To Ponder~How to Increase your wordpower..
All the little stories..

It was there with Jergen's and Pond's (which I just bought again to smell like my mother:) )


It's changed a lot now and they have Home Improvements.Tips..Ideas..etc..It makes me want a subscription again while I slather on the Jergen's.

I thought I could share one..of our home improvements..
My favorite..

Many of you know of my fondness for Small things.. Victorian Homes,Gardens etc..


When we moved here 10 years ago.. Jacques knew he needed another little garage:)

Garage..no no..A Potting Shed,..and with a name..

2 names.. La Maison Des Jardins...AND Rose Cottage.

Where he could keep his big John Deere tool..and I could keep..my smaller tools..


I found a photo in a book..and Jacques improved on it by adding the back section ..He drew all the plans and apart from having a cement floor poured and my darling son-in-law helping with the roof trusses..we built it ourselves.



He could store all the larger things at the back and enter through double doors..I could use the front..

He modeled it after our own home..


It turned out perfectly.To us..The boys like it too..I keep their smaller gardening tools in the front section and bubbles etc..


We've added gardens all around..

and I tend to change them ..


Most of the time.. it's a mix and match cornucopia of all things bright and beautiful..Tomatoes too!



The window box is beneath an old window we salvaged:)


I've grown all kinds of things in that box..some things grow well..others not~:)

But all in all it's a perfect meeting place for orphan plants..and veggies.. and children..


I love it..I hope that doesn't sound bad..but I do.

Enough to try and paint it..in my journal..one of them..you know which one..by the way that little watercolor journal is getting fuller and fuller:)


I hope it looks a bit like it..I asked Lucas what it was and he said: " Your house!"

Well..close..:)


In early spring it looks a little less floriferous..but the flowering crab frames it well:)

I think all the boys have been intrigued and wandered in:)


It was fun for me to cath up on Readers Digest..

Go look for yourselves..and see if it brings back memories..

and new ideas~ and Home Improvement Tips~








37 comments:

  1. It looks simply perfect to me...like a little fairy house!
    I love it!
    L~xo

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a wonderful gardening shed! It's perfect!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Just beautiful -- and so is your journal painting.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I'm envy with green!! You're a gardener too?? You just have the king midas touch on everything you do. Most of my flowers have died, can I blame it on the hot summer??? Love your garden house, garden, painting, everything!! :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. It is perfect. Way to go, Monique et Jacques!

    I ran over here as soon as I saw it come up in reader. Send it to Fifi?
    xoxo~Tracie

    ReplyDelete
  6. So pretty....a real little fairy cottage.
    The gardens around it are beautiful.....and so is your painting of it.
    Shel xx

    ReplyDelete
  7. i have always loved EVERYTHING you do~

    ReplyDelete
  8. Monique, you are full of surprises! I loved this and I love your little cottage. So sweet and pretty! xxoo

    ReplyDelete
  9. A beautiful and inspirational post, but then everything you do and post is wonderful......

    Atmospheric photos and guess what? My parent's cottage in England is called Rose Cottage!

    I love your cottage, everyone should have a cottage at the bottom of the garden!

    Karen

    ReplyDelete
  10. how beautiful to live in fairy land! so enchanting.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Your garden looks beautiful and like a gorgeous suntrap in the summer. I love the window box - all the colours are so pretty.

    ReplyDelete
  12. So, so charming Monique. Just like you and Jacques.
    Sam

    ReplyDelete
  13. You.. all so sweet...
    Believe me not all my flowers are looking terrific this summer..So much drought..then I overcompensate the pots..:(

    even the grass as I mentioned has a shabby chic jute like quality in spots..mostly the front..
    Anyways..no excuses.
    I am tickled pink9Or yellow..) you like it.
    Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  14. What a lovely spot! The gardens surrounding it are quite spectacular. I can see why your watercolor notebook is filling fast--what a treasure it will be.

    Best,
    Bonnie

    ReplyDelete
  15. Comme c'est beau!
    Your own private little cottage/hobbyshop in your back yard. With those flowers an trees it is the perfect corner to sit and have a cup of tea and enjoy your latest issue of Reader's Digest. Lovely post Monique.
    Rita

    ReplyDelete
  16. What a pretty little cottage! I would love to have that in my garden. And, I, too was raised on Reader's Digest.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Nana!!! You've been keeping this little treasure a secret!
    How precious!!!
    And good grief you are talented in so many ways and have such a pretty life.
    My mother also had Readers' Digest and Jergens...how funny...also a glass of tea with lemon ALWAYS in her reach. Was your mother a nurse, by chance?

    ReplyDelete
  18. Good morning..no..my mom was first an artist..studied at Beaux Arts in Mt..the married.. the rest is history..in her 50's ..early 50's..she started teaching speedwriting at Sylvia Gill College..she was also a translator.

    We never thought of my mom as a career girl.
    She was a great mom and wife.
    She would be in her 90's.
    Things were so different then.
    She passed away at 56.
    I would have loved to see her paint.
    Thank you.
    Many of our moms had the same likes:)

    ReplyDelete
  19. Re your question on my blog: The boys are 32 and 34. Goodness, when did that happen? I have one lovely DIL. One son lives in Oakland, CA and the other in Massachusetts. We live near Chicago. Lovely places to visit but I miss them terribly. Seems as if they started school one day and graduated from college shortly thereafter!!

    What a treat to shop with your young grandsons and then bake them cookies.

    Best,
    Bonnie

    ReplyDelete
  20. Love it - I wish I had room in our yard for a charming garden cottage for storage and a little tea party etc... I love your painting journal so beautiful - what a great treasure that will be for your girls and grandkids. Love all your pics in this post - just beautiful!!!
    xoxoxo
    Evi - still pregnant... and hoping to be induced this week so I can finally hold my sweet baby boy.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Absolutely enchanting! I adore the color and your wonderful bicycle outside. I think your watercolor is exactly like the cottage. How fun for you and for the whole family. I think something like this is just magical for children!

    Yes, I remember Reader's Digest. I remember my dad sitting around the dinner table teaching us obscure words from there - for some reason I remember the night he taught torrid and florid.

    ReplyDelete
  22. It looks absolutely magical…a place where the imagination can run wild and possibilities are endless. Thank you for sharing it with us.

    ReplyDelete
  23. It's wonderful to see that darling Rose Cottage again. You are so lucky to have so much sun around yours - ours is covered by huge Maple trees. So much for the green house I had planned so many years ago for 'my side' of ours :)

    Lovely painting of it too! Before you know it you will need more journals :)

    ReplyDelete
  24. I can see why you love it! What a wonderful place to build memories for the little ones. A place to plant flowers and seeds of love.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Magical. All of it. Especially YOU.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Your yard and gardens are beautiful, Monique. My girls had a little play house when they were little and they still talk about it today. Charming in every way.

    ReplyDelete
  27. oh gosh it looks marvellous such a beautiful green oasis you have. Everything here right now at the near end of winter is brown and cold I long for spring time and some green.

    ReplyDelete
  28. The front is not an oasis..Too much sun and drought.But it has been a beautiful summer.. one of the best in years I would say weather wise for outdoor activities.
    Thanks everyone for your nice comments..~
    Soon Australia will be in Springtime again:)

    ReplyDelete
  29. You know how much I love your beautiful Rose Cottage already ~ I wish I could live there! :D You and Jacques, what a great team . . . artistic and so creative. *heart*

    I'm green over your lush, thick lawn ~ it comes back like that after all the snow you get?? Not here, we struggle to encourage it ~ and we get nowhere near the amount of snow as you do... but we have the Fir trees all around which provide nice shade, but a challenge to the grass.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Your photos are absolutely gorgeous...and so is that little cottage!

    ReplyDelete
  31. Oooooh, just fantastic, Monique! I could stare at these images forever! All of them :)
    Did you change the font of your blog? I find it a bit difficult to read, anyway, just my opinion...
    Big hugs, and thanks for sharing beauty!
    Monica x

    ReplyDelete
  32. Thanks Monica I did..You know what? I'll change it back right now:)

    I am trying to redecorate:) It's not working..
    Thank you everyone:)
    I wish my cottage had a bed and was shabby chic inside..it's just shabby:)

    ReplyDelete
  33. This is exactly what we need and I ahve been wishing for for YEARS! I love the SIZE aof your cottage and the 2 different entrances, PERFECT!!!! XO, Pinky

    ReplyDelete