Live like You is LIVE!

live like you blog

One thing about blogging is that you meet so many like minded people that you would have never met otherwise....and my friend Jill Sorenson is one of those bloggers.   Her blog is called Live Like You . I found her blog the very day I decided to paint my happy chair and my wing chairs...her blog gave me the courage.  She is awesome like that and gives you the courage to use color and just do it! 

Not only is she an amazing designer and blogger, she has opened an online store called Live Like You that is a one stop shop to creating a collected feeling for a room.   The store takes into accounts all budget levels AND styles, AND she offers green alternatives to new items!  (you KNOW i am a fan of that!) 

Please go by and check out the site it is one of a kind online shopping experience.

AND she is offering a discount

 AND, as if it didn't get any better....

check her out at 1:00 on the NATE BERKUS show!!!  

Does this look familiar?

plus my "design" bag, and all of my park folding chairs.

yes, that table road shotgun!
(and halfway home I get a phone call that my child was sick at school, so I had to squeeze the poor sick girl into the car and make my way home....just a little blip in the auction trip!)

 The transportation of the goods.....on a recent trip to the auction house....without the trailer, a very messy car, and one child... I was surprised at just how much I had bid on (this was an online auction, can we say DANGEROUS!) 

Anyhoo, I just wanted to show you how a mom with one kid in the car manages to get all of her finds home....it is serious business!

This my friends is what my husband dreads when I pull in the driveway, because HE is the one that gets to help me unload it all....I KNOW he is secretly proud:)

To all of my "collecting" friends out there....does this look familiar????

Should they stay or should they go???

my beautiful fern and egg prints.

I have been collecting things for my booth for a while now.   Sticking to the policy that I only buy what I love...well the problem with that is, that I if really love something, I want to KEEP it.  I am selfish that way...not wanting to share the goods.  Ya'll, seriously, This MIGHT be a problem.   I am opening a booth to FIND and SELL, not KEEP.

These little numbers have been sitting in a nice pile next to my computer, staring at me, pleading, please put us in your bedroom....we would be so pretty there.  And those little eggs, yeah, you guested it, they want to go in my guest bedroom. 

I have always LOVED the fern prints (you KNOW I love the color green), and the eggs are growing on me. 

Sooooooo the question remains...

Should they stay or should they go...to a new home?????

(surely I will find some ferns and eggs for a steal of a deal somewhere else...) SURELY...sigh:):)

Smoke and Mirrors.

Seriously, do you have to sit right in the middle of my picture...I say.  I love this spot, he says.
BTW: He groweled when I tried to move him....enter people food, he moved quickly:)

 I have been asked on numerous occasions, "does your house always look so good"?  Is it EVER messy? Well I have to let you in on a little secret...NO and YES.  I am just like every other mother, trying to juggle it all, and the piles of laundry add up and the kids rooms are disaster areas, and, and and...YES, IT GETS MESSY...BIG TIME! 

However,  there are a few things that remain true....I DO like having fresh flowers around...it hides the mess (doesn't it?) I DO try to pick up in the evenings, to allow myself a glorious 30 minutes of living in a picked up house...And there is a HUGE difference between TIDY and CLEAN!   Please, please, please don't look at my baseboards.

Another thing I love is creating vignettes, styling and taking photos of them.  Which normally end up on this blog...I think it is fair to let you in on the big secret.... a lot of these vignettes include moving all mess just inches away from the lens of the camera!  For a recent "shot" that I was creating for an upcoming ad, I had to tear apart a section of my house.  The dining room.

I actually have a funny story, I texted my sister a photo and she said "I WANT THAT STARBURST MIRROR!"  Does the store give you a discount?"  And I sent her the following photos and said, " the starburst is in my DINING room, smoke and mirrors, my dear!"

This my friends is the mess behind a good photo.

Little boys mind...
Oh, dining room in another spot...must use it for a emergency vehicle party! Perfect parking garage!

Just a mess, why do I do this to myself!

Smoke and Mirrors my friends.

So when you all see the perfect magazine photos, or photos on blogs.... just remember what is behind the scenes.  Much more like "real life".  But it is fun to pretend that this is the way my house looks.

Just wanted to disspell the myth that I might be neat freak, soooooo untrue!

Happy Monday!

Making me blush:)

I woke up blushing this morning...The secret is finally out...for those of you wondering about my Guest for coffee the other week.   I had an article written about me in a local weekly magazine called the FreeTimes, in the online section Abode.  You can read about it here.  (they are having a little technical difficulties with the images) so if you haven't seen them already you can see them here and here.

Got TONS of things to do today...spending lots of time arranging and rearranging the house, fluffing, froufing, stepping back fluffing some more.

Just had to share why I might be walking around with a little glow today!

Here is some perfectly blushspiration...

via glamour junkie

feeling like I have some shoes to fill.

via the neotraditionalist

via eclectic interiors

Have a great Thursday, my dear friends!

Lucite around the table...LOVE!

via David Bromstad
(BTW: one of my favorite projects he has done)

via Lisa Sherry Interieurs

via designchic

via athomeinarkansas

via decorpad

via love, life, lace

via decorpad

desire to decorate

via copycat chic

via Perch

Don't you think the lucite option would be fabulous in a small breakfast room/ sitting room.  I think the see through quality really makes a room feel bigger....and when space is at a premium it just might be the ticket.  Not to mention that you can find them for $66.99 apiece online...including a cushion that can be covered!!!

"No way!" you say,  "yes way!" I say!

stackedchairs4less

Even just having a couple mixed with other chairs would be so nice!  Just a little bit of the unexpected.  You know that is what I am all about!

Happy Hump Day!

Fun and Exciting things happening....

The Collected Home..a little photoshoot that I set up for an ad..
would you like to see those little pillows in a store?

 ell, if anyone has bothered to check out THE COLLECTED HOME over on etsy lately, you will see that there is sadly no product...no stuff=not so "collected", right?.  WRONG!

Hold the phone people, lest you worry your pretty little heads.  I have not jumped ship! Very much to the contrary...I have been "collecting" up a storm...for a little endevour that I will "see" so much more of my efforts, and get my name out there locally.  You see, I have found that I am not very good at the etsy site, b/c the work of taking photos, posting, mailing, etc. (not that i really did much of that, these things were what was holding me back from pulling the trigger wholeheartedly.)  Best laid plans.  I spend an exorbidant amount of time on the computer as it is. (ask my husband, sometimes he thinks I am married to the computer and not him:)   I need to be out and about, maybe seeing where my finds land....maybe helping a family make their home all it can be in the process.

Anyhoo, back to the endevor at hand.  There is a very nice consignment store in town, that will remain nameless at the moment...I have to build some suspense:), that has invited merchants/designers to carve out a little nook in the space.   I was asked, and was obliged to take part!...and am pretty excited about it!  You see I DO have a lot of stuff, and I WANT it all to go to good homes, and I FEEL the need to share it with other people.  I don't SEE myself stopping anytime soon.  The journey begins...or another part begins, I am really excited.  Going to be a busy month....oh, is the month almost over.  GEEZ!  I better get to work!

So stay tuned, my friends.

BTW: I am so thankful to this blog and all of the wonderful people I have "met" in blogland.  I wouldn't have the courage to start something if it wasn't for all of your amazing support.    THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU from the bottom of my little ol heart:)

Silhouette Pillow....how to.

My Silhoutte Pillow

I have had this idea in my head for a while...and finally just decided to do get it done. With minimal sewing and cutting skills, even the most novice sewer can accomplish it.



Materials:
A pillow form
A piece of burlap
A piece of drop cloth (I have a lot of scraps from various projects)
Rick-rack (ribbon, or cording would work as well)
Colored Felt
Scissors
Needle
Thread
A printed out Silhouette of your choice aproximate size 5 X 7 (would keep it a fairly simple silhouette) 
(You can find them online, or if you have a good one of a family member it would be much more personal)

Step one
 
pin the silhouette to the felt

 Step 2
Cut out the silhouette

Don't worry I ironed the burlap after I snapped the pic:)

Step 3
Center the Silhouette on burlap (I used a temporary spray adhesive, but you can pin it as well.) 

sorry for the blurry pic, you can kind of see the image

Close up of what  the stitch should look like.

Step 5
Tack the silhouette down with a simple in and out stitch (I don't know the official term for this stitch)  But I just went in and out where the long stitch is on the other side of the fabric.


Step 6
Now just sew the pillow like you normally would.  I didn't take pictures of this process, but if you need to know how to sew a pillow, there are a TON of great tutorials online. 

There are so many ways you could customize this pillow...with ruffle trim, with a colored or geometric fabric on the back, with flange, etc, etc.

Happy Hump Day!

Randomness from Metrolina!

My finds!

Yesterday I was lucky enought  to steal away to Charlotte with my friend Sandy...to the Metrolina Spring Extravagaza! (for those of you that don't know it is a huge antique market, that they have on the first weekend of every month,  and 2X a year they have an extravaganza where there are tons more vendors)   The weather was beautiful and there was inspiration around every corner.

I woke up this morning still thinking about a couple things that I was like "I will be back to get that"!  But before I knew it it was 4:00 and time to leave.  I don't even think we scratched the surface.  But it was a so much fun, and something I REALLY want to try  to do every 1st weekend.

Anyway, for those of you within driving distance I HIGHLY reccommend it.

Here are some random shots I took of things that struck my fancy.

such a pretty blue...ya'll know how much I love dishes!

For the Biology and flower lover...flower lover I am, biologist I am NOT, but I could pretend for this beauty...
This is one that got away!  I love all of the colors!

They just don't transport things like they used to...I could think of lots of uses for these.

More on this later.....

This wedgewood china had the prettiest color yellow...

A beautiful vinyette of paintings...From The Pink Party Dress.  Turns out the owner, Cameron, and I have bid against each other in a couple of auctions....she has a few pieces that just slipped thru my fingers:)  She is from Columbia too.  Amazing style, you must check her out.

I couldn't resist this shot..that said.....these tables TOTALLY stress me out. ...but I bet there are thousands of things ready to be recreated from all of this jumble of beads...there might even be a diamond...so, dig, dig, dig!

These industrial beauties.  There is just something about them...

accidently chopped off the nose...but can't you just see this in some lucky girls bedroom?
The paint and patina are so pretty.

My friend and I both spotted these behind a table at the same time....looked at each other and said
"Do you see what I see????" and ran to fondle the corbels.  Something about them just strewn on the straw was so cool.  They were GORG!

Turns out there was a moment when we thought we needed a truck!

those flecks of paint...to Die for...oh, and I think we snapped this photo because the door was FINALLY shut!

because trying to get this into the back of my friend, Sandy's car, was well...comical!  She pushed while I pulled, no mas....we pulled it back out....we tried different angles, we thought, and we we thought, we manauvered...20 Minutes later....the frame and  I were wedged in the car...and this girl is not as limber as she used to be:)  But it all worked out.....we will just keep that little scrape on the top of the cloth ceiling to ourselves:)

Did anyone else find any goodies this weekend????

Happy MOnday...Spring Break 2011  Whoo, Hoo!  I will be spending mine...restyling, re-furbished, re-doing, and entertaining my kids....my how things have changed!