Jewelry Display

I love all three of my jewelry holders that sit on top of my dresser, but this little lady is my favorite.  I see these types of jewelry stands in stores all the time, but they usually have metal arms and too much bling on the body for my taste.  I found this very simple one and spray painted it white.  It can't hold a huge amount of jewelry pieces, but I still love it for its sophisticated simplicity.  It also allows my jewelry to speak for itself, and stand out as its own style of decor.

Architectural Salvage

Can you guess what my new swimming towel rack is made of?  It's a 6-ft long piece of aqua beaded board trim.  Cool, huh?  I purchased this piece a couple months ago, with absolutely no idea what I wanted to do with it.  This goes against my own personal rule of antiques shopping:  Only buy if you know where it's going to go.  I violated this no-nonsense rule simply because of the color of this piece.  And the fact that it was only $8!  As soon as I brought it home, however, I knew exactly what it was going to be....a towel rack out by our swimming pool!  I simply added 5 vintage wire hooks, got my husband to attach it to the pool deck, and now we're in business!  It's already gotten quite a bit of use, and I just love the pop of aqua color out on the deck.  Functional, yet beautiful, no?

Organize with Style!

Does anyone else have trouble corralling keys, cellphones, purses, etc at the end of the day?  I personally do not have this problem, but my husband does!  There is absolutely no telling where his keys and cellphones (yes, he has two) will end up after he gets home from work.  To try to keep us from searching for his lost sundries every other day, I think I've finally come up with a way to keep these things organized!  I found this cute little candy dish at my friend's yard sale.  It was already painted aqua, which, of course, I love, and it had just the right number of sections.  One for wallet, one for keys, one for cellphones.  Now, the occasional garage door opener, fishing lure, shotgun shell, shoelace or coin might find its way into a section as well, but that's okay!  The point is, all items are corralled into a specific place.  My husband can just drop his items off here when he walks in the door, and then knows where to find them when he needs them.  By the way, this candy dish is located on a counter right inside the doorway he enters when he gets home from work - this makes sure they don't get misplaced between the door and the dish!  Don't be afraid to get organized - but be sure to do it with style!  Remember...no plastic containers!

Shades of White

Last time I posted about my love for white furniture.  The danger of having too much of one color in one room is that you might think it would be too monochromatic and boring.  Not so, if you mix shades of that color, varying textures, and imperfections.  Take this desk area I have in a corner of my living room.  Everything is white, but it's not monochromatic at all because of all the variations.  The mirror is bright and shiny white.  The desk is a more muted white and is distressed.  The corbel and nameplate are very faded white - so much so they both look slightly gray - and are obviously very worn with peeling paint.  The chair matches the desk, but the khaki seat breaks up the color.  Add into the mix the vintage fan, and the fabulous look of all white is anything but boring!

White painted furniture

I know, I know, you've seen pictures of my dining room before...but not with this much white furniture!  As you've probably guessed by now, I have a love affair with white distressed furniture.  I could paint everything in my house white, and practically have by now.  I made a poor decorating decision about 1 and 1/2 years ago and painted my dining room set black.  Now, I love black too, but not with the white furniture that was already in my dining room.   As you know, painting a dining room set is no small feat, so I lived with the black for a while.  I finally decided I couldn't take it anymore, so painted it white yesterday.  And I love it!  I love it with the burlap runner.  I love it with the other white furniture, and I even love it with the fabric on the chairs.  Just another example of how a simple coat of paint can make such a drastic and wonderful change in a room!

Herb Garden

This is my herb garden.  Not as impressive as most, I realize, but it is cute!  I've always wanted to grow herbs in a sunny kitchen window above my sink.  The only (slight) problem is....I have no sunny kitchen window above my sink.  But I do have space for something, so here in my herb garden!  I've had this lovely wall pocket for almost 11 years (given to me by my twin sister for being her matron of honor...super embarrasing term, alas, but I was already married), and recently spray painted it aqua.  It resided in my bathroom for a while, but I could never find something appropriate to put in it.  White toilet paper just didn't look right - go figure!  So, I moved the piece to the wall above my kitchen sink.  My first thought was to plant cilantro, but it needs full sun.  I ended up with mint only because it was the only herb I could find that only needed partial sun.  Good thing I love to put fresh mint leaves in my tea!  To situate the plant just right in the pocket, I slipped it inside a gallon ziploc bag.  Then I wrapped it in burlap.  Voila!  Instant herb garden, and it's cute!

Mystery Piece

Any ideas on what this gorgeous piece of carved wood is exactly?  I have to admit, I would not have known if I wouldn't have been told by the person I purchased them (I have two matching pieces) from...they are piano legs!  Pianos carved in this ornate manner are extremely old, and I am proud to have a set of these beautiful legs in my home!  My sister had to point out to me that I am displaying them upside-down...but I think they are more sturdy this way since they are not attached to a very heavy piano.  These pieces stand on either side of my tv cabinet, and help make it appear wider since the tv on top is so wide.  I am very happy with these pieces, and after thinking about it, have decided they are probably the oldest things I own!

Furniture Groupings

I love my furniture grouping along one wall in the living room.  Since my living room walls are a blue, blue, blue (see past post), I'm trying to stick to neutral furnishings and accessories.  Neutral, however, does not mean boring or plain!  Most of my furniture in this room is white, then I have black, pewter and red accents.  I've mixed up fabrics in the room - particularly on the throw pillows and throw blankets - with stripes, solids and floral patterns.  And I truly love the khaki-colored upholstered chairs!  Even though my chairs don't match (and, honestly, I don't want them to be too matchy-matchy), the common colors and height among them (and the table) help tie them all together.  The same idea goes for the accessories...they aren't matchy-matchy, but the focus on the same colors help tie them all together - including my favorite vintage globe!

A little bit of Easter...

With the exception of Christmas, I'm just not much of a holiday decorator anymore.  And my Christmas decorations even get fewer and fewer every year.  I love holidays and the meanings behind them, so the issue for me really is focusing on those meanings not the actual decorating and cleaning up afterwards!                                          Easter being only a few weeks away, I decided it was finally time for me to get a few things out.  The first thing out was this little egg wreath for my front door.  I've considered making my own egg wreath out of blown eggs and a grapevine wreath.  However, several years ago I actually blew out 4 dozen eggs to dye and will NEVER do that again.  I felt like I blew my brains out.  Really.  So, now I resort to just buying cute egg wreaths instead! 

These cute little eggs were a gift from my sister.  I seriously did have to talk my son out of taking bite of one of them! 

So, moral of the story is to go ahead and put out a few decorations, but only as a reminder of the tree meaning of the holiday - not as a distraction!



Black or White?

I just purchased this white tall pedestal table yesterday - I love the curvy legs and round top!  I have been needing something tall and skinny to place next to this armoire in my living room.   The armoire is the tallest piece of furniture in this room, and is obviously quite massive, so I needed something next to it to make the armoire seem slightly smaller.  I also needed something curvy to make up for the boxy appearance of the armoire.  I think those goals definitely been accomplished, and I like the pop of color from the sap bucket and red flowers.  However, I'm thinking this might be too much white?  Originally, I planned to paint the table black, but then I thought keep it white, and now I'm thinking black again?  What do you think?

Flowering Trees, Part 2

I just had to post about flowering trees again because of the sweet story behind this photo.  We have a beautiful crab apple tree in our front yard, and we have just been waiting for it to bloom this spring!  After I had an absolutely terrible day at work roday involving certain 8th graders, my sweet daughter picked this blossom for me and put it in a tiny vase - knowing it would cheer me up!  And it did.  It doesn't take much to put my heart back into the right spot!  Thank you Emma!

Flowering Trees!

Flowering trees - what better sign of early spring do we have in Northwest Arkansas?  I absolutely love all the Bradford pears, forsythias, and crabapple trees blooming right now.  But I especially love my tulip trees!  We have two in our back yard, and I could have about twenty more.  I love their bright and bold splash of color in the yard, especially after a drab winter.  I also love to cut branches off my flowering trees to bring inside as the first touch of spring color in the house.  Let spring begin!

Collections

Both of my kids are wonderful naturalists, and collect 'treasures' from the outdoors every time we go anywhere.  As much as I love this hobby of both of theirs, I absolutely deplore the displaying of these treasures.  It's messy, dusty, unattractive and utterly impossible to keep clean.  Until now.  Recently we (as in my husband) ripped out the carpet in both kids' rooms and replaced it with a wood laminate (post coming about that later!).  While the floor renovation was going on, I took advantage of the chaos to slim down my kids' collections.  Only with their permission, of course.  Then, on to ideas to corrall the stuff.  My daughter and I, armed with our 40% coupons,  visited Hobby Lobby.  In the glass aisle, we found many gorgeous containers (with lids to keep out dust) to keep her wonderful finds in.  The key is to get as many of the small things inside enclosed containers, so only the big things are left out.  That way, when it comes to dusting...yes, I said dusting...it is much easier to do!  So, I no longer cringe when my kids pick up rocks/acorns/cicada shells while we are hiking.  Now I know they are going to a more organized and beautiful space!

Displaying Flowers

As I've posted before, I absolutely LOVE flowers, especially when displyed in an unconventional vase - such as this ironstone pitcher.  My wonderful husband gave me roses for Valentine's Day - aren't they gorgeous?

I love the look of roses, but not the knobby, thorny stems and sharp leaves.  The blooms, to me, should be the focal point.  Therefore, why even show the stems?  To get this effect of just the blooms showing, cut the stems so that the roses are just slightly peeking above the rim of your vase.  I always cut them slightly longer at first, so I can re-cut them a few days later to encourage longer lasting flowers.  The final effect is stunning as you focus solely on those beautiful blooms, and their unique container!

Blank Slate

I am so excited about this huge canvas I picked up this past week!  Now comes the big decision of what to paint on it and where to put it!  And it's not actually canvas covering the surface, it's a pale, neutral fabric - even better.  My first thought was to paint a huge chandelier on it, or maybe monogram an 'S' on it, or possibly a close up of a flower?  You have to realize I'm not even a painter, but I figure I can project an image onto it to trace, then paint.  Of course, my son (who is the true artist in the house) thinks he should be allowed to paint a battle scene on it and put it in his room.  Hmm...I'll have to put some thought into that one.
Anyway, before I decide WHAT to paint, I need to decide WHERE to put it.  That will take some time.  I can envision this sitting on the floor leaning against the wall, or hanging on a wall. The trouble is, it's so big that I'm already limited as to where I can put it, and I'd have to get rid of something I already have to make room for it.   If I put it in my dining room, then a painted chandelier would look amazing.  But, if it's in a different room, another object might be more appropriate.  Auugghh, decisions, decisions.  So, this huge beauty just may have to hang out for a while before I do anything with it.  If you have any amazing ideas for me, pass them on!  I'll be sure to post about it again once it's finished!

White Frames, Part 2

You may remember several months ago I posted a blog about these three white frames leading up the stairs to my bedroom.  I wasn't sure what to put in them, so they hung empty for a long time in the stairway.  After a family photo shoot this past fall, I finally have filled these frames!  Since these frames lead up to our master bedroom, I decided to fill them with enlarged (16x20, 11x17, 16x20) prints of my husband and myself.  We hadn't had pictures taken of just the two of us professionally for over 14 years - WAY too long!  My husband absolutely hates having his picture taken and I have a bad reputation for blinking at the worst possible time when having pictures taken - so needless to say, finding a good picture of us together is tough.  However, our photographer did a fantastic job and got several great shots of the two of us.  So, I had them enlarged, but then had no backing or glass.  Remember - these were completely empty frames.  So I headed to Hobby Lobby's framing section and purchased (on the cheap, of course) cardboard backing with clear plastic to cover the prints.  Yes, I said plastic.  It's so much cheaper, and when they are hanging on the wall, you can't even tell the difference between that and glass.  So, even though I loved the frames empty, I love them even more filled!  If you need empty frames - I've got lots at my booth at The Rose!  (please excuse the shameless plug of my business!)

Oh so blue...

Whew!  It's been a while since I've posted - sorry!  But, as you can see from the above photos I've been a bit busy.  My big project over Christmas break was to paint my living room.  This room was the last room in my home that I hadn't painted yet and it was way overdue.  I was seriously procrastinating doing it however, because it's 400 square feet, has two walls that lead up a staircase, and both the barnwood trim and the ceiling would need to be painted too.  With a long New Year's weekend at home, I had run out of excuses and just needed to get it done.  The barnwood trim was first.  It's not my favorite style of trim, but it was already there and nice and thick.  Plus, replacing it would have meant involving my husband, and well, he's not a big fan of projects I dream up for him.  So, I left it there and covered it with no less than 3 coats of bright white paint.  Things were looking up - this totally brightened my room and I loved it right away!  Next came the ceiling - I'm sure I don't need to mention that I absolutely hate to paint ceilings.  Did I mention this was a big room?  But it was quick and done in one day, and brightened the room even more.  Next came the walls.  I'd wanted blue walls forever, and we thought we had picked out a nice, sedate neutral blue with touches of gray and green in it.  Wrong.  But I didn't realize until I had it on 1/2 of the room just how wrong I was.  Then I thought it would look better after it dried.  Then I thought it would look better after two coats.  Wrong.  I was completely disappointed in the color, but my husband said it wasn't too bad, and it definitely looked better with my very neutral furnishing and decor back in place.  The problem is that with the white trim and ceiling, the room is SO much brighter than it had been, and in daylight the blue is too bright.  Way too bright.  But, in dimmer light, it's fine.  So, we're living with it - mainly because it's so much work to paint over it!  But, I have come to like it, even though it's a shock to see it in the morning light!  As I mentioned, I tried very hard to stick with very neutral decor for the room - white, black, gray, khaki and a little bit of red.  These colors help tone down the blue quite a bit.   I plan on adding a few more black and red touches over the next couple weeks, and eventually replace the leather chair and ottoman.  I never run out of projects!