Colby's Sleepover and Matthew Mead's new magazine

Look how cute Colby looks posing with Sylvia!

You may know that Sylvia belongs to my son Justin and daughter in law Madison.

Well they are off on a well deserved trip, and I am the go to dog sitter.

Colby has been an over excited pup wanting to have a friend forever,

and so it took a few days for him to calm down.  

This was day one...it makes me laugh out loud. I think Sylvia's facial

expression is the same as mine!! Colby was relentless in his pursuit and 

I think for the first day I carried her around, hoping he would relax.

He finally did, and it was sooner rather than later.

Today I was preparing a blog post for our new Christmas tree from 

Tree Classics in our family room (which I rarely photograph).

Sylvia toddled into the room right past my tripod and struck a pose.

Then Colby followed, as he usually does, and he struck a pose beside her.

It was so cute.  Goes to show animals will figure out how to be friends,

even if one is bigger and stronger and more rambunctious than the other.

When Colby was a tiny pup it was a lot easier to avoid him...

but not anymore! But maybe this ten day sleepover did the trick.

As I write they are both napping in my living room. Sweet!

I wanted to give you an alert about Matthew Mead's latest publication, 

its due on newsstands December 5th.  

Upstyled Home by Country Sampler.

Lots of quality content in here, AND no ads, as usual.

What you will find are House Tours that you haven't seen anywhere else,

including the one and only Sandra Kelly's Gustavian style home.

I went to video tape behind the scenes of Matthew shooting this home, and we have

it on our YouTube channel.  The link is on the sidebar if you want to see it, 

under Decorating Videos.  This house is totally my style, and I loved getting to see

Sandra's home in person.  If for this house alone, I would recommend buying this issue!!

Of course there is a ton of other stuff, including a house made from a barn, and it had 

gorgeous big wing chairs covered in black and white toile. Ok, HELLO.

Ideas galore and DIY crafts and upcycled projects too, which is basically my middle name.

Upcycling stuff is taking everyday things and remaking them into something else

or using them for some other purpose.  I think most of us are UPCYCLERS!

Speaking of magazines, this is one of the images you will see in Romantic Country,

spring issue 2017 which features my living room on the cover.

On the inside is a story of my home, and it is really a love story of me and Dave

and how we made our house a home.  I loved how Sandra Soria, the writer of 

my feature, pulled it together.  It is out on newsstands now, so if you are out looking

for Matthew's Upcycled Style, look for my issue too.  

By the way, that bench was how I actually met Matthew.  He was selling it,

and I ended up buying it. And then we became friends!

I will be sharing my family room Christmas Tree next week, and I 

have to tell you, it is WONDERFUL having two trees in our home!