DIY - Kitchen Cabinet Hardware Part I, Selection

Welcome back to Quince Cottage!
Today we're talking about a design detail that seems small, yet plays an import role in the overall look of your home. In our followup post (aka Part II), we'll be giving you tips for successful installation.
Knobs and pulls come in many sizes, shapes, styles, and materials. The selection can seem overwhelming. We scoured home improvement stores, specialty hardware stores, and the internet, looking for the ones that best suited not only #QuinceCottageStyle but also our budget.
We love the play of sparkle against rustic, so we chose two different knob/pull styles for our kitchen.
Here's the agrarian-industrial pull. The two part construction gives it a really authentic look.

Amerock Pull from coolknobsandpulls(dot)com

Amerock pulls © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Amerock pull © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

And here's the blingy glass knob from knobdeals(dot)com. They are real glass, which DOES make a difference, both in feel and appearance. They were definitely worth the princely sum of $3.95 each!

Glass knobs © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Glass knob © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

We just love this look! It plays really well with our island pendant lights too, don't you think?

Island Pendants © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Here's a closer look at those beauties.

Island pendants © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

And here are two views of our kitchen's off-white cabinetry...

Our kitchen © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Our kitchen © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

And one showing our charcoal gray island...

Our kitchen © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Yes, that brick backsplash/wall isn't quite complete, it needs mortaring, but when it's done, we'll blog all about it!

And in case you were missing the doggies, here they are taking a break from supervising the neighborhood...

Daisy and Buster © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Thank you for stopping by, we hope you'll come again soon!

Quince Cottage Style mixes old and new, rustic and opulent. 

Our goal is simple - make our new subdivision house look inviting, beautiful,

and as though it wasn't born yesterday.

DIY - Pillow Talk & End o' Summer Decor

Glad to see you here at Quince Cottage!

What's your favorite season? Ours is autumn. Crisp, sunny days, spectacular foliage, pumpkin everything!
It's still August, we know, but with all the stores trotting out their fall goods, who can blame us for wanting to get a head start? It began with an Instagram #mantel challenge. Speaking of Instagram, we'd love you to follow us there.
We're very fond of our mantel and were at risk for committing the sin of "overgramming" it, so we needed to change things up for the challenge. First we did a little home-shopping and then we hit Michael's for some faux-liage to arrange in our milk glass urns. We got those urns at a wonderful consignment shop in Raleigh called Inspirations. If you're in the area, check it out!

Anyway...here's a photo of our summer mantel

Quince Cottage Summer Mantel © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

And here's one of our late summer-early fall mantel

Quince Cottage Fall Mantel © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

A couple of close ups...

Fall Mantel Detail Left © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Fall Mantel Detail Right © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

And then the mantel thing led to a pillow thing. Yes, Rhiann doesn't like sewing, but she was fairly pleased with the way her summer porch pillows turned out, and this encouraged her to tackle living room pillows.
Fall says earthy natural colors, nubby textures, homey coziness. With that in mind, we hit WalMart (ticking fabric at about $7 a yard), Mill Outlet Village Fabric in Raleigh (Jacobean floral and wheaty linen, both on clearance for under $7 a yard), and TJMaxx where we found the black and cream striped dishtowels we used for the smaller pillows ($3.99 for two towels).

Here's a closeup of all the fabrics.

Swatches © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Something learned during the summer pillow-palooza is that by doing front and back in different fabrics, you can get a lot of different looks using the same collection of pillows.

With four different fabrics, we got four different combinations.

 Quince Cottage Fall Pillows Combo 1 © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Quince Cottage Fall Pillows Combo 2 © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Quince Cottage Fall Pillows Combo 3 © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Quince Cottage Fall Pillows Combo 4 © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Which combo do you like best? How do you decorate your home for fall? We'd love to hear!

Quince Cottage Style mixes old and new, rustic and opulent. 
Our goal is to make our new subdivision house look inviting and beautiful,
 and as though it wasn't born yesterday.

Daisy and Buster are ready for some cooler weather, and so are we!

Buster © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Daisy © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Things That Should Never Have Been Made?

We love antique stores, consignment shops, and flea markets. Do you? We just never know what we might find. Sometimes we're a little sorry we found it. Sometimes we wish later that we'd bought it. Here are some of those things. We'll let you guess which one(s) we regret not buying.

Selma Antique Store © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Apparently this was the Fry Guy from McDonald's. Somehow I never knew about him, despite how ubiquitous Mickey D's is.

The note wasn't necessary © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

A friend told us this was made out of the butt end of a deer. Okay. But where did the jaw and teeth come from? Those were definitely of genuine animal origin and I've seen enough deer to know that's NOT how they're made.

Shriner Raleigh Flea Market © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Zombie Shriner, anyone? Anyone? At least we prefer him to the symbol of racism standing behind him...

Face Jug © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

These face jugs actually have a long and interesting history in the South. Some say they were made to scare children away (from the moonshine). If this was in your house, do you think your soul might be sucked into the neck of this jug? Yep, that's what I thought too.

Ram © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Sorry for the poor quality of this photo, there were at least six dogs and four cats milling around in this antique store and they were quite distracting (see photos below). But, we didn't want you to miss seeing this ram-thingy with droopy crocheted horns.

Cat © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Dog & Camo Guy © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Pretty snazzy camo overalls, eh? Bet you wish you had a pair.

And then there was this...

Bucking Goat © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

The item above had a hefty price tag ($950) and a story to go with it. According to the sign, the only other such Bucking Goat is in a museum in the Midwest and they were used in a Masonic initiation ritual. Don't believe us? Feast your eyes...

I know, I know, you can't unsee that. Sorry. (Not sorry).

And here's a cookie jar we spied recently at a Raleigh antique store. I actually don't think it's even close to being an antique, but dang, it sure would keep the kids (and most adults) away from the cookies, don't you think?

Clown Cookie Jar © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

I will say the clown led to a pretty hilarious thread on my personal Facebook page...

Thank you for stopping by Quince Cottage. 
Did you guess which item we were sorry we didn't buy? 
Leave a comment and we'll tell you if you're right.

Healthy Homemade Pet Treats

Welcome back to Quince Cottage!

As you may remember, we wrote a post a while back about dogs and allergies. Yep, both Buster and Daisy are allergic to numerous foods. At least that seems to be the most likely cause for their itchy ears and paws (Daisy is "itchier" than Buster).

Since we can't give our dogs any old dog treats (for instance dog treats made with chicken, beef, pork, wheat, soy, corn, dairy...) we are pretty limited. But we DO love our dogs and want to reward them: for listening, for ignoring other dogs on walks, or just for being cute. Seriously, how could you look at these faces and NOT want to give them something yummy?

Buster © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Daisy © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

We had been buying packaged dried sweet potato treats, but at $9 a bag, even when we broke each large piece into several smaller ones, they were pretty expensive. So, we thought why not make our own dried sweet potatoes? After all, here in North Carolina we're in Sweet Potato/Yam Country! There's even an annula Ham and Yam Festival in a nearby town.

We bought a very basic Presto dehydrator at WalMart for about forty bucks. Two large sweet potatoes, sliced thinly, fill up four trays. If you want to try this yourself, briefly blanch the sweet potatoes after slicing to keep them from turning black. Buster and Daisy usually score a few slices of sweet potato that don't even make it to the boiling water. You can also bake the sweet potato slices on a cookie sheet for a long time in a very slow oven, of course. The dehydrator is just more convenient for us.

Dehydrator © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

The treats keep nicely in a baggie and are light weight, making them ideal for taking on walks. You could certainly make meat jerky treats, apple jerky, banana chips etc. for your faithful canine friend. Just be careful not to give them raisins or any other food that can poison a dog.
Here's one of many lists you can find on the interwebs...

Sweet Potato Dog Treats © Rhiann Wynn-Nolet

Hope yall come back and see us soon! 

We have some yummy recipes up our sleeves (one is a Shrimp & "Faux" Grits)

and we're also in the midst of some 

fabulous DIY projects we'll be sharing in the near future.