Saturday Morning Gather – #1

gath•er: to come together or bring together into one group, collection or place.

Welcome, and happy Saturday!!

If you are new here, welcome! I’m so glad you’re here.

And if you’ve been around a while, I want you to know how much I appreciate you following along and supporting my blog. It truly means so much, and I am grateful!

I’ve been thinking about a weekly newsletter for quite a while. I wanted a way to share what’s been going on at VH and also share some of my favorite finds from the week.

Sometimes, I run across an amazing tablescape, a wonderful home decorating idea, a great recipe, or a fabulous DIY and think how fun it would be to pass those things along to YOU.

And all of a sudden one day it hit me, “GATHER” summed up what I wanted to do. Gather things I had seen that week, and Gather with you to share!

So, grab your favorite morning beverage and find a cozy spot and let’s take a look at what’s been happening this week.

807 Cottage

this is what the house looked like when we bought it

First up, a little update about our Airbnb cottage. In case you didn’t already know, my husband and I own a home that is an Airbnb rental, in the small town where we live.

In June, we came across a little house in a small town about 10 miles away and decided to purchase it for another Airbnb guest house.

I named it, 807 Cottage, because that’s the street number of the house and my vision is that it will be a cozy little cottage when we are done.

It needed some work, so right after we closed in mid June, we got to work.

We pulled all of the carpet out of the bedrooms and hallway, and pulled up vinyl flooring in the kitchen and bathrooms. The living room and dining room were original hardwoods, so we left those.

I started shopping thrift stores, estate sales and garage sales and purchasing furniture to repaint to use in the cottage. And my husband started adding a shower to a 1/2 bath in the home.

In the meantime, I repainted all of the interior walls white. It was a dingy tan color and needed a little brightening up. Honestly, I went with a white because it kept me from having to tape off all of the trim and ceilings because they were already white.

I still can’t believe the difference the white paint made!

Since then, we have added wood laminate flooring, added a hallway (this was part of adding the shower), painted the exterior brick, made and hung cedar shutters on the front of the house, added more insulation to the attic, put in a french drain in the backyard, and regraveled the driveway.

We have done all of the work ourselves with the exception of laying the flooring, and the plumbing and tiling of the shower.

It has been so much work, but it is looking great and I can’t wait the share the entire process with you, very soon!

on the blog

Last week on the blog, I shared a super fun tablescape idea for your football season get togethers. If you missed it, you can see it here.

affiliate links are used for your convenience. You can read my full disclosure here.

You can pin the image to refer back to later. It would be a fun idea for a Super Bowl party next year too.

And in case you didn’t already know, I have a group of other blogger friends that I do a virtual dinner club with every month. We choose a theme and each of us creates a tablescape around that theme. We share our tables on the last Thursday of the month and then share a menu for the theme on the last Saturday of the month.

Be sure and keep an eye out for that! There is some wonderful creativity from this group and some amazing recipes.

We will have lots of holiday inspired tablescapes and menus coming up in the next several months.

in random news

There is a red wasp nest somewhere in my house!! In the past couple of weeks, my husband and I have found about 10 red wasps either dead, or flying around in our bathroom, master bedroom or right outside the bedroom door in the living room.

I have looked everywhere and CANNOT find it!

some of my current fall favorites

I’m loving all the natural and woven pumpkins, like these….

and I love these linens and table decor for my fall and thanksgiving table…..

and these cute fall pillows…..

and look at these other amazing things I found

take a look at these 21 amazing fall decorating ideas


this pumpkin spice golden milk latte

how to create a beautiful gallery wall


how to make these adorable twine pumpkins


and this adorable DIY fall wreath

I hope you have found some inspiration here at our gathering today!

blessings, and have a safe and blessed holiday weekend,
michele