Inspired

I was inspired to post this picture of my dining room after seeing a fabulous dining room makeover at Reese & Marie. Soon I will post more photos of my home that capture it's "open living" concept.

Happy Saturday!

A Favorite Friend

Meet my friend, who helps me immensely with my too often decorating indecisiveness.

In my home pictures often go up in one place, are then rearranged, added to, rearranged again and then moved altogether. This leaves my walls looking abused by all the nails I have pounded into them. Thank goodness for wall patch, it provides an instant "fix" and removes the guilt of my indecisiveness. And given that most of the walls in my house are in the creamy white family, sometimes I don't even paint over the wall patch, yes I don't!

For example, remember the arrangement of pics in my new and improved bathroom?

After looking at their symmentry (there is such a thing as too symmetrical) for a few days, I had to rearrange. Below is the new and improved version, wall patch and all.



Off to rearrange....Have a great weekend everyone!

For the love of.....

I thought it would be fun to start a series called "For the love of..." and feature something in my home that when I walk in the door makes me happy just because it's there (besides my family of course!).

I just very recently started putting original art in my home. One of my first blog posts was about the new nest painting I received as a gift from my parents. I had always had lots of botanical prints and black and white photography on my walls but found REAL art hard to incorporate.

Recently, through blogging I found the blog of artist Janet Hill. Her mostly petite and a few not so petite paintings really captured my attention. Why?

Many of Janet's works feature cozy home interior scapes. Many of the rooms I would love to live in and much of the furniture I would love in my home. Another favorite subject of Janet's to paint is clothes, she paints the most beautiful "girly" wardrobes and shoes. The photo above is title "The Reader" and is one in a series of paintings of women holding books and wearing the most beautiful clothes and shoes!

Each day, at about the same time, Janet posts an original painting for sale in her Etsy store. Warning! They are scooped up fast! I have been lucky enough to have fast fingers a few times (ok, maybe like 6 times). Grouped together, Janet's paintings are one of the things that make me happy when I walk into my living room.

How do you incorporate art into your home? Do the pieces in your home have a story?

Bus Driver...Move that Bus!

It's done! I am very pleased with the results. I am happy to share some pictures with you - finally! Waiting for the new Pottery Barn sconces really delayed the reveal, so I was relieved when they finally showed up last week and my husband was able to install them over the weekend.



Our home was originally a 1920's lake cottage that had endured some "interesting" renovations in the 1970's and 1980's. About 3 years ago, a talented neighbor of ours purchased the house and proceeded to gut it and bring back it's original 1920's character. He wisely chose old cabinets to serve as bathroom vanities and just dropped in sinks. We purchased the home about 9 months ago and have steadily made cosmetic changes. I loved the "look" of this cabinet but just felt the red paint did not fit with the goregeous subway tile and overall character of the house. The cabinet lost it's dated red look and I painted it a greyish, taupe-ish color. Then I applied a brown glaze over that and then proceeded to apply about 15 coats of wax on top. By the way, waxing/buffing furniture is a great upper body workout!



It just would not be a room in my home without a couple of nest prints - these I bought inexpensively on Ebay a few years ago and had them framed. They are vintage.



I added a Dundee Marmalade jar to hold my girls' toothbrushes and a vintage stand mirror I got at a flea market many years ago.



And finally, a bit of inspiration for my girls as they get ready for school in the morning!

In the past, I had always done my children's bath for children. This time, I decided to grow it up a bit. My girls are 10 and 6 and I think they don't need a brightly colored, just for them bathroom anymore. Plus, we live in a cozy home that I believe flows better when the colors and look are cohesive.