Thursday, August 23, 2012

Tile Bathrooms

What to do with bad tile colored bathrooms. I spent one morning
at The Designers Market going threw every wallpaper book they
had looking for a pretty wallpaper that had the colors of the wall

to wall peach and terra cotta tiles in my half bath. I found this pretty York coral
wallpaper with the light peach background,  peach and white coral stripes that add

a light feel of coming and going to make the room appear bigger. I switched the light
fixture from a Hollywood bar to a softer look with the tulip three arm down fixture.
Removed the glass sliding door at the shower and found a pretty white pique fabric
shower curtain at TJ Maxx. Next job for this room is to replace the flooring and the
toilet.

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Greek Key Pillows

My latest find on Etsy.  Greek key pillow covers from Karn Larkin
of Elemen O Pillows. Don't they look gorgeous in the window of
my store?

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

The English Garden

When I was first married, Ellie was one years old, my ex
husband and I built our own home for ourselves on his 300
acres family farm. The house is almost 6,000 sq. ft. and is
brick in the shape of an "H" with a beautiful Southern wrap
around porch. We started with, or should say I, small beds
around the house. What I could afford was too small scale
for this monster of a house so we hired landscape architects,
three to be exact, until we finally did a large scale plan for the
whole yard.


I wanted a four square English garden with stone pathways and bordered by rose gardens with
landscaping all around the house and backyard fence. I wanted plantings that a would allow




me to see color all year long. The gardens fell behind after I left in 2006 and very little
was done to maintain them. Most of the flowers were choked out by dead leaves and
weeds. My daughter, Ellie, has been asking me to help her bring the beds back for a
while now. Last Sunday I drove back to the farm to help her with the beds, it was a lot
of work, but actually a lot of fun. Even Edmund came over to help hall of the debris pulled
out of the garden. Afterwards we sat up on the porch for some wine, the big people only,
prepped by my ex.



And a picture of Ellie as we were finishing up. I will go back in the fall and help divide
up the hosta, liriope, etc. and moved somethings around to better places. I also plan
on bringing her somethings in my own garden to add to the blank places to make the beds
look fuller.  I did end up getting poison ivy on my hand, still well worth the bonding time!

Monday, August 13, 2012

I Love Etsy!

I love Etsy, the old, vintage items and the new created items.
Every thing arrives fast and in mint condition. No guessing and
no bidding. I recently to make some changes to my bedroom.
I was not happy with the dull black and white plates that I had
hung over my dresser. To boring. I went on Etsy and searched
for vintage leaf plates. See what I got, and I am definitely going



to add more around the old Italian mirror. I love the gold edges, very feminine.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Dining Room Before And Now After



A picture says a thousand words, I think that's how it goes. The peach is gone from
the room. I have a Kravet/ Laura Ashley fabric coming today for a new table topper.
The peach is now for sale in my store. I realized that the proportions in the room were
all wrong, the chest of drawers was to small for the mirror above it. The portraits of my
children were just to big for the room, so I cleaned it up a bit. And what till you see

the floors. I switched out the paintings in the living room for the portraits in the
dining room, I now will have to do some work in the living room, not sure what to





do with those big portraits. The room looks twice as big and bright and yellow!!!!
I purchased the sideboard at auction for $300.00 bucks, plus a trip to Alexanders
Auction House in Richmond  and lunch with my children on the way back. Table
toppers to come.