Quote of the Month...

The Book of the month on my Living Room Table.

From the Design Book of the Month...Celerie Kemble's To Your Taste.

If anyone noticed... I added a quote on my header.  This is one of my favorites from a designer that I REALLY admire, Celerie Kemble.  Whenever I am having a moment of design insecurity, (don't we all have these moments) I remember this quote. 

"Don't let a fear of being tacky render you tasteless."

I surely don't want to be "rendered tasteless:)  I think you do have to take risks in design...sometimes it is a huge payoff, and sometimes you think, ""oh dear, what was I THINKING!!!"  But, how would you have known otherwise?

I also love design books, and I spend many a day at Barnes and Noble (in the kids section with my kids happily playing with the train table, and me with no less than 5 magazines and a few books) checking them out before I buy.  I would like to beef up my design library, so I thought that doing a Design book of the month would be fun. (and little splurge for myself.)   I will pull a favorite quote from my book of the month, and then do a post each week about the designer and their rooms. 

Do you have any favorite design books that you would like to suggest?

Have a great Tuesday.

Fresh Toile

free downloadable toiles from Wren Design

Did you know that this year is the 250th birthday of toile? I didn't know but I learned it from Wren .  In honor of this very special occasion, she created two toile patterns (including “Darling Toile,” blue and "south african" pink) in honor of her native South Africa for the design magazine Visi. They’re free for download from this link.  Isn't that so nice of her??? When I think of toile I think more feminine type decor, but this is totally rough and tumble cool.  She is a great designer, and you must stop by her blog AND she has a etsy shop.

I am not a super "toile lover" but I think these patterns might just be swaying me.  Here is some more toilespiration. 

by French fabric makers Manuel Canovas 
This orange, brown, and white is an updated colorway, and we all know I have been into orange lately.

Traditional Home April 2010
(Quadrille fabric pattern “Paradise Background”)

eclectic bathroom design
Isn't the red just awesome.

traditional bedroom design
Very calming tile bedroom.

And here is an interesting take on toile.  With an needle and thread Historically Innaccurate Decorative Arts  Richard Saja  takes traditional toile fabric and embroiders modern day icons such as UFOs, bunny eras and Mohawks over the toile design.  Really creative.  And if you look at it in the context of the toile design, can be quite humorous.

Happy Monday.

A Birthday Luncheon

Design by Moi, photo by Gretchen Opgenorth

LOVE planning parties!  It is one of my favorite things to do...and I am so happy to finally be settled enough in the new house to feel comfortable planning them again.  Imagine my excitement when I was asked to help host a friend's 40th Birthday Luncheon, at MY house.  A LUNCHEON, my favorite.  Having visions of a beautiful tablescape, china, linens, flowers, and yummy food....Bliss:)

Oh, and the little push a impeding party gives me to finish all of the projects I have stacked up.  (my husband calls me a crazy woman when I host things like this, I just call it INSPIRED)  So here is the first step to the party.  Invitations.  They just went out yesterday.  Let the party planning begin.

Do you like planning parties as much as I do???

A weekday flower arrangement

There are many things that make me happy, and flowers are one of them.  I try to pick up fresh flowers once a week at the market.  It is amazing what you can do with the grocery store flower bundles.  I think  $7.99 for a few days to a week (depending on the freshness of flowers) of happiness is one of my best expeditures:)  It always makes me sad when I see these bundles of flowers just plunked into a tall vase, choking the elegance that even a mum can have.  With a little creativity, and looking at containers in your cupboards/china cabinet: in a new way, YOU can do this too. (no floral foam involved:)  here are a couple of tips to make your flower arrangement last.

I was really drawn to the dark pink gerber daisy, and yellows.  It is a sunny yellow kind of week.

Right when you get home, snip the ends of the arrangement (VERY IMPORTANT) and put in tepid water.  NOT ice cold, or hot just tepid..  these 2 things allow the arrangement to drink the water.  Also, do you see the packet in the background???  They put that in there for a reason USE IT.  If you don't use it you can use a couple of drops of bleach.  kills the bacteria and makes the flowers last longer.

if time allows let the flowers drink for at least 30min if not longer.  I kept these drinking for a little while...(many other things to attend to.) I even had a friend come over and say, "what pretty flowers on your countert"  I said "come back later and see what I do with them, they are just drinking now.:)  (the lemons were just on the countertop, no use for them in the arrangement this time.  but they would be pretty in that vase, no?

This was a happy accident.  2 of my gerbers broke when taking out of the sleeves...impatient me.  So if you want the long elegant look, BE CAREFUL when taking gerbers (or any other flower)  out of the sleeve.

I used a silver (and a little tarnished) sugar bowl for one of my vessels, the mums and daisies look so pretty, something about that yellow and silver...

also used a piece of my pink depression glass, it is a little compote.   And I elevated it with a little stand that I have.  

 A couple more tips.

Just because there is a long stem, does not mean you have to use it, cut the flower down short, it is the pretty part anyway.

leaves harber bacteria, don't let leaves touch the water.

Notice there was a bit of greenery that I did not use.  Just because it is there doesn't mean you have to use it either:)

oh, one more thing.  freshen the water in your arrangement, don't think the flowers like that stinky water, you can eke out a day or so more in prettyness.

Anyway, there you have it. 

Have a great day, and next time you are at the grocery store, pick up some flowers, I bet they will make you happy too:)

The Modern Farm Table

via Woman's Day Specials Remodeling Makeovers Magazine

as anyone else noticed this table popping up all over the place.?? The Modern Farm Table...I might have one myself for the back porch....



True to form I FOUND this on the side of the road right around the corner....you just never know what you might find on the side of the road...and I am surely not afraid to make a fool out of myself getting it in the car.

My Black Laquered soon to be stripped Modern Farm Table. Notice it has already started being stripped.
I put in on the porch to see if it would fit, and I think it will work.  Will have to find new chairs

I am not the type to let something like this go....I mean even if I can't use it....I mean it is a handmade, hand signed, (a little plaque on the leg with a signature) PARSON's Table.  Even if I only use it outside in the garage.  I tried to lift it myself, but this baby was heavy!   I rushed home, screeched to a stop, thankfully he was in the yard, grabbed my husband and said "TABLE" get in the car.  (in our neighborhood, things don't sit on the side of the road for long, I have missed out on things, just by going home to get my car before!) He knows me pretty well, and if he didn't help me, there would probably be scratches all over the back of my SUV from me trying with all of my might, before I dragged it around the block. (when I get my mind set on something, by hook or by crook, I am going to have it...but in this instance I have no idea how I would have gotten this home without him:))

The table has been sitting in the garage, partially stripped, and now it is coming to life.  This is my project of the week...hopefully I will get it done...and we will have something to replace the awful patio stuff on the porch right now. (ie a table that goes with those aweful chairs...which might just need slipcovers)

via designsponge  I can't wait to set my table, these Modern chairs are the perfect juxtoposition.
Isn't that a pretty runner?

e15′s Bigfoot table

via DecorPad (Viva Terra)

Hopefully I will have the finished version by this weekend.  Bye for now...I have stripper that needs to be reapplyed:)

What time is it????

via etsy and Albertine Press...
I think this image is really pretty, and the letterpress work is fabulous.

It is MONDAY and  is it REALLY time to get up?  And so it goes, the next 13 years of my life.  I am sure I will get used to it, I am actually getting a TON done.  I look at the clock at 9am and say, 'wow, look  what I have accomplished already.

Some Clockspiration for your Monday.

via etsy and Making Time Etc.   I really love these plate clocks. 
Since you can buy the mechanisms the possibilities are endless.

via etsy and Decoylab (one talented graphic designer Momma)

another Decoylab creation.  AMAZING!!!

Sasa Clock

The concept:  The time is read from the color coded necklace. Each bead represents a 5 minute increment. As the wheel turns, every 5 minutes a bead drops down the cord. Orange beads represent hours, gold and silver beads represent noon and midnight. To tell the time, simply find the gold or silver bead, count the orange "hour" beads and then the blue "minute" beads until the last one to have slipped down the cord. In the full length image shown here, the time is 2:55pm.

Can be had from Heads Up Company

Have a great Monday.  I am trying:)

Sunday Yardwork.

Paintings by one of my favorite artists Kelly Reemtsen.  I absolutely adore her work.

Today is yardwork day...planting season is right around the corner, so we must clean and prepare and weed, so that SOMEDAY we might have a beautiful garden.  You have to start somewhere.  I will probably just be weilding a shovel and hose, a little afraid of the chainsaw (that would be husband's department!)  Have a great sunday.

Antiquing=RELAXATION

On the corner of Huger and Blossom Streets...a MUST see if you are in Colatown.

ntiquing to me=relaxation.  I have friends that go to movies by themselves to relax, or read a book, or go to coffee, which are all nice things....but antiquing is my form of relaxing.  Even in this heat, and we all know that antique stores don't have the best ac, but it is well worth it.  It isn't even that I HAVE to buy something, it is the inspiration, the "what would I do with that" ...that feeling just makes for a creative outing.

This is my favorite shop in Columbia...lucky for me it is right down the street:)  It has EVERYTHING, and just boatloads of inspiration.   I would have taken more pics but I was called away to pick up a child from daycare....s'ais la vie:)

Look at all of the architectural salvage. If you want it most likely it is there.  Great marble pieces. 

if antique bikes and tricyles or signs are what you need they have it hanging from the ceiling....just a reminder when antiquing  ALWAYS LOOK UP, you never know what is hanging around up there!

Been looking for a birdcage to transform into a light fixture...hmmmmm

Too bad I don't have an enormous foyer, or dining room with high ceilings b.c this could be way cool!

If anyone ever wants company on an antiquing trip...please call me, you can be sure I probably need a little relaxation!


Oh and if you want more antiquesiration....visit EDDIE ROSS's amazing blog, he is the guru when it comes to transforming antiques into beautiful pieces.  He is someone who is bringing to light what I have always known..."One person's junk is another person's TREASURE." (you just have to have a discerning eye:)

 

Oooo la, la...

The other day I dragged the kids on a Flea Market trip...I hadn't been in a while and needed a fix. (those of you who frequent flea markets and auctions know what I mean:)  I tend to just do a sweep on these trips, no lolly gagging just in and out...especially with a 3 and 5 year old.

Since I have been doing this for years, I have trained my eye to get the good stuff.  And it is ALWAYS hit or miss.  Sometimes you find nothing, that is all well and good, because the next time you just might find something awesome.  I really was looking for lamps, no lamps, but I DID stumble across these.  

Set of 4 french wrought iron patio chairs, and base.

AREN'T THEY FAB!!!!  So french, so sexy...I can't stand it.

I cannot wait to get my hands on them to fix them up... I have dreams...BIG dreams.   A good cleaning, paint job, and some fabulous fabric will make a room shine.  I see this with a glass or dare I say Marble top, like this lovely.

Actually, I really don't have anywhere to put them, so if you know of anyone...they would be great on a patio or in a breakfast nook.  I just couldn't pass them up.  The base and chairs are really heavy.  They just don't make furiture like this anymore...

Till next time....