Our Blue, Nest and Egg Powder Room

Since I posted pictures of the Queen's powder room it motivated me to get busy in my own. Powder rooms are such fun little spaces to decorate. Their small size alone allows you to be a bit more extravagant than you might be able to afford in a larger room and to use more color or pattern than you would in a room where you spend more time and may tire of all the busy decor.
The first project in fluffing up was to polish the silver which is a chore that I really enjoy because for just a bit of effort you get such instant gleaming results. Many people shy away from using silver because you do have to polish it or you end up with a very unkept appearance but with care it can add such sparkle to a dark spot that for me it's worth the effort.
This old print of a blond lady in a pretty blue dress holding a book is on a wall across from the mirror.
The water stains on this box didn't detour me from picking it up at Marshall's in the clearance section because I thought it would be useful to hold TP in tucked inside a cupboard.
All through our house we have a lot of found items that were bought for very little that we mix in with a few good pieces. This little needlepoint rug is one of those pieces.
If you read Life At Home often you have probably seen this little wall bracket that came from Franks Nursey's clearance section years ago and got a sprayed on coat of white paint. There are two of them on a wall by the sink that hold very inexpensive blue and white vases that have roses on them.
Another better quality piece that I got with my employees discount when I worked for Particia Wood is this hand made waste basket with the 3-D bow and hand painted plate with sprigs of lavender sitting on ivy and roses.
One of my most prized antique blue and white pieces is above the mirror with two smaller Asiatic Pheasant plates on either side of it. It might seem weird to have plates in a powder room but the pheasants on it kind of lend themselves to the bird and nest theme in there.
These three shallow bowls are from England but my old eyes can not make out the rest of the wording on the beautiful stamp of an urn with a bee skeep in it on the back of them. They are above the mosaic mirror below.
This mirror was a show gift from the Atlanta gift mart many years ago. The cost of having one made with mosaic all the way around was prohibitive so I asked them to just do the top and they kindly did a little painting around the rest. Unfortunately, I can not remember the show room where it came from. If you are a fan, like I am, of mosaic work Penny, at Lavender Hill Studio, does the most beautiful pieces that one day I hope to commission a piece of, you might want to visit her lovely site.
Here is my old silver tray set up for the convenience of guests that visit with Lady Primrose's Tryst cologne and hand cream in the monogramed silver lidded pot. The other jar is another piece that the owners left from our old house that holds individually wrapped Life-Saver mints.
This lamp with birds in flight included in the toile frabric is lit at night for guests convenience also.
These Robin's Egg soaps in the jar with the nest and eggs on it make it easy for guests to grab a fresh egg of soap if they need one.
Finally, a couple of years ago when we were on a road trip with friends up the eastern coast of Michigan on our Harley's we spent some time in a cute resort town where I picked up this little bird bell with three robin's egg blue eggs in it. It caught my eye first because it had a bird on it but the real decission to get it came when I decided it would be just the piece to tie my navy blue pieces in the powder room to the more blue green in the background of the wall paper that was about to be installed in there.

I am not a real interior designer, as many of you can tell from the riot of outlandish colors and patterns that have found their way into the ever evolving Greenbrier, but several people have asked me to share decorating tips so I hope you don't find my tour to be anything other than what it was intended. Homes are personal to all of us and a way to express our love and concern for our families and friends. Blogs seem to have taken over as a place to get decorating ideas that was once held by magazines and so many of you have given me so many wonderful ideas for making our house our home that I thank you all and hope you enjoy visiting here at Life At Home. Not that I'm bashing magazines, I still have my favorites and many of the contributors are also bloggers that we all love to visit, I love you all.

Devoted Dads!

How sweet is the lovely contrast of a delicate infant and the arms of a strong man? Some times Fathers get, what seems to be, too little respect for the role that they play in families. While scrolling through pictures this morning looking for something to share with you I came across this series of photos that just melted my heart and made me think about how I praise God for Fathers that so unselfishly provide for their families, not only material necessities but real hands on help at home to the people that they love.

In Jesus name I pray dear heavenly Father that you would hear our prayers for blessings on all the Fathers of the world that give so much to their families that enable them to live beautiful lives of service to you. All glory and honor are yours.

From all of the above service and so much more,

You get this sweet picture of a happy little family.

Thank you John, Dad, Bernie, Aaron, and Doug for all that you do for your families that so often goes unmentioned. Your unselfish devotion to your homes and families is a shining example to the younger ones coming up. To all the rest of you Dad's out there ~ Blessing to all of you from all of your Wives and Daughters!

The Queen's Tracey Porter/MacKenzie-Childs Inspired Powder Room

While up north a couple of weeks ago after dinner with friends we went over to the Queen's and I finally got a few pictures of her powder room that I have been wanting to share with all of you.
Her whole house is adorable and will be on the local womens club house walk the first week of May. If you are in the area I highly recommend you stop by and take a peek for yourself.

Who Knew Horchow Had Doors?

Today while checking my e-mail I came across a message from Horchow that is offering a 20% discount off anything on the entire site today only. Well, I clicked on the site to see if I had any thing sitting in my cart awaiting a sale and I did not so I took a minute to look around just to get inspired to get busy around here this morning and came across a section in the furniture area that said doors. Who knew that Horchow had doors?
The discount would have to be more like 80-90% for us to actually entertain the idea of replacing all our doors, but they are pretty aren't they?

My camera is around here some where but I can't find where I put it when we got home from up north. It will turn up when I get going around here, the pictures didn't really turn out all that great any way.

Well I better get busy. We have Mom & Dad, A & A and the Grand's, and Kyle & Carrie coming down to help me celebrate my birthday this weekend. On Sunday B & C and their 4 little's will be here for a week. All this company is just the excuse I have been looking for to put off the Spring Cleaning.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter from our house to yours.

Link To An Interview With Charlotte Moss

Here is a link to an interview you might enjoy on About.Com with one of my favorite designers Charlotte Moss from Victoria Magazine's book Designers In Residence. In the interview she give some ideas on decorating.

All photos are from the above link

Spring Cleaning & Gratitude

Seems like there is a lot of Spring Cleaning going on in blog land which makes me think Greenbrier could do with deep cleaning. The task, however seems a bit much. How on earth do you reach the top of these huge windows? We had all the curtains down last March when we had this room painted. Do I really need to drag out the ladders, that I don't even know if we have, to tackle cleaning the top portion of these blinds that are huge dust magnets? There are several other rooms that could be done first, why do I focus on the one room that will be the hardest to do?

The answer probably lies some where in the fact that I fell asleep on the couch last night catching up on all the political action that I've gotten behind on the last few months and didn't actually get into bed until 2:30am. Today I have a head ache and very little energy to do much of anything. No sense starting any big project today any way on Good Friday with the Easter weekend coming up. Guess I'll visit a few blog friends then spend some time in the Word and focus on the real reason for the season.

Have a blessed Good Friday dear readers as we contemplate our gratitude for our Lord's sacrifice of his only son on the cross today so that we might have salvation. Sort of makes a couple of dusty blinds pretty insignificant in comparison.

Happy First Day of Spring

Well, I left my camera up north so the pictures that were promised will have to wait until after Easter. The picture above is my kitchen window garden that is right above my sink. It is such a fun place to put little flower groups. The tulips are in a vase that Meagan gave me as a thank you gift that makes tulips very easy to display and really stretches the impact of just a few flowers. Thank you Meagan.

Hope you are all enjoying this lovely first day of spring.

It has been a busy time here up north with family. Seeing the Grand's, that I hadn't seen while Aaron was in the hospital, was delicious. For St. Partick's Day I fixed a big Irish dinner of corned beef, cabbage, potatoes & carrots that every one seemed to like.

Today I head home for a few days but will be back up for Easter. It just took about an hour to upload the pictures above, which aren't even the ones I was hoping to share with you, so when I get home I'll add a few more of family, friends and a fun bathroom picture or two from the Queen's house in the next few days.

Aaron is doing well and still working hard at his rehabilitation and is working toward seeing a Dr. in Boston that may be able to help him with his eyes. We continue to pray for his recovery and thank all of you that are doing the same.

Hope all is well with you and yours and that you are enjoying this Easter week.

Thank God For Little Boys

Nolan James arrived at 9:55 am on Thursday, March 13. He is the sweetest little guy that barely makes a peep. We think he is smiling in the picture above.

Trading Treasures

We had a lovely day here at the lake yesterday. Aidan spent the day at home with me and Aunt Dana and Blake came over for coffee and play time with the boys. A & A took the girls to school and Aaron went to physical therapy where he had a good work out, which always makes him happy and give him extra energy.

We did the usual housekeeping routines of making beds, laundry and meal preparation. Meal prep was eased in the afternoon when Angie's friend Lisa and her two boys came by and brought us a delicious Mexican casserole, tossed salad and desert plate for dinner. Thank you Lisa! The children had fun playing in the basement while we visited with Lisa.........until we heard shrieks from Taylor reporting that they decided to take all the Styrofoam out of the boxes by the back door waiting to be broken down for trash and broke it into little pieces to create a lovely snow storm all over the basement. Ah, life at home~~~

With extra time in the afternoon Angie worked on organizing cupboards in the kitchen. The cupboard organizing resulted in a few pink and green things that don't quite go with her decor any more but will work well at Greenbrier ;) Between friends a family we often pass items back and forth that work for one place or the other and I highly recommend the practice. It is a fun way to still enjoy seeing your treasures and not have them stuck away in a box somewhere cluttering up your storage spaces.

We are standing by waiting for baby Moore's arrival any day now. Aunt Carrie took Chinese take out to share with them last night which was so sweet and gave Dana some extra time in the afternoon too. Thank you Carrie.

Jill and the boys stopped by last night to return Aidan's car seat. Thank you again Jill for all your help these last few months. We all so appreciate it.

We are praising God with all of you for bringing Aaron through this ordeal and continuing to pray for his further healing. We thank you all again from the bottom of our hearts. We pray that you have a blessed day at home or where ever the good Lord places you today.

Hugs,

Sue

PS Carrie brought me the dipping spices in the picture above, thanks Carrie. All the pink and green looks pretty cute in Ta's room but after the Styrofoam incident amoung others that occur on a regular basis in any household with little ones, Grama will use them for safe keeping until she is ready for them ;)

Good morning from A & A's Kitchen

Angie's strawberry collection
Over the kitchen sink

Good morning from up north. Hope you all had a good weekend. We had a good time here with family and a few of Aaron's friends that stopped by to cheer up Aaron who is getting a little board while waiting for his strength to be regained. Rachel took the family picture of us below. A & A's neighbor Tony brought over a delicious beef stew and Dana made a roast with all the fixings that fed us all on Saturday night, thank you Tony and Dana.





The time change made for a groggy morning here as everyone got ready for school. Aaron's busy weekend made his a bit slow at getting ready for todays rehabilitation work out at physical therapy. His blood pressure and heart rate were good when Angie checked it over the weekend so hopefully he will be able to do his full workout this morning.





This week John and Kyle are off to Las Vegas for a contractors convention. The rest of us will be here waiting for baby Moore to arrive, no pressure Dana ;)





Thank you all for your prayers, visits, calls, comments and e-mails that Aaron so enjoys. He is still a bit surprized at the out pouring of concern for him but I can't tell you how much it means to him and how it brings such a smile to his face and really helps him pass the time while he waits for his eyes to heal so that he can drive again and regain his physical strength.



Much love and God bless,

Sue

Welcome Home Aaron

Thank you Rachel for taking this picture of all of us.

Giving Thanks From Aaron

Good Morning. I just wanted to stop by and thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers while I was in the hospital. It is very humbleing to realize that there are so many people that helped me get through this ordeal. I will never be able to repay your generous prayers and out pouring of support from such wonderful people.

I am begining to work three days a week in physical therapy, and all though it helps, I am still struggling with keeping my heart rate and blood pressure down. The doctor put me on a medication to lower both of them and so far I've been able to tollerate it. I am working with eye doctors to help improve the comfort of my eyes. It will be a while before they are back to somewhat normal conditions. We have faith that it will work out.

We will be meeting with a nutirtionist to try to continue to keep my health in check. The doctors say that I should try to continue to live a healthy lifestyle to keep my immune system functioning as well as possible.

Again. thank you all for your support for me and my family. We are home now and would love to hear from you.

Thank you and God bless,

Aaron

Pink Roses

Costco Roses In The Dining Room

Tea Pots, Cake Stand and Kitchen Window Garden

Well, I'm up way too early. Today we head up north and I was too excited to sleep any longer. John will meet me at A & A's after he gets out of work later today. I'm going this morning to avoid the potential bad weather that may develop later today. We need to have two cars up there because he will come home Sunday to leave for a business trip on Monday and will be gone until next Saturday. Since he will be gone next week, we decided it would be a good time for me to visit family and friends that I haven't seen in a while.

So far there is not really an agenda for the week ahead but I hope to get in time with all the kid's and the Grand's, a visit with my parents and my sister, maybe lunch with the girl friends and maybe even be available if baby Moore decides to arrive any where near his due date of March 14th.

Aaron says that he wants to help me give you an update on his condition so we will be working on that to post and I am taking my camera and hope to get into the guest house that Dana has been working on that you can get a sneak peak of here and post pictures of its progress.

Thank you all again for your continued prayers for Aaron's recovery. He is working very hard to regain his strength against some very difficult odds but we continue to have faith that all things are possible with Christ who strengthens us.

Much love and God bless,
Sue

Keepers At Home

This little picture above is of some of my favorite things that are on top of our tall dresser in our bedroom. There is a bigger picture of the bedroom back a few posts. All of the furniture in it is from junktique shops. The bed is from an auction that I went to as a drive by. I told the country auctioneer how much, which was not much at all, that I would pay for it and then left to run some erands. When I stopped back after running my errands the bed was propped up off to the side and he told me that I had won it. You just never know when you might get a good deal.

The dressers and desk are from an old shop from down here that Sarah and I used to stop into when we were in the area before I moved down here. I had been looking for old Federal Style furniture to go with our bed and finally found it some 120 miles from home. Transportation is alway an issue when you find a great deal miles from home so I've learned to always factor that into any decision to buy something big before actually deciding to get it. We eventually managed to get it home, I really can't remember how, but it has worked for us for many years.

The little green compact in the left corner of the dresser was a gift from Kyle and Carrie that they gave me at their wedding, it is one of three that don't show up in this picture and I have fond memories of each one. One of the other ones is a silver heart compact that has mirrors in it that Dana got for me for Valentines Day years ago when she was working as the manager of the handbags department at Neiman Marcus just after she graduated from college. The other one is also a mirrored one with the Eiffel Tower on it that Sarah tucked into a gift.

The little pink and green books are propped up by a pair of book ends that were left in our old house by the previous owners. The green dogs were bought new for the living room but during the decluttering made their way up to the bedroom and are very happy there as is the green ceramic melon. The covered lamb box holds safety pins. The pretty little lady statues that have their arms and other bits glued on them because they were much loved are Dana's that I used to buy for her when she was a little girl. Judy used to buy the big ones for her daughter and I thought that was such a sweet idea that I adopted the practice on a smaller scale for Dana. I wonder if Staci still has hers or if they are at Judy's house like Dana's are at mine?

Any way, I got on this subject after reading Lady Lydia's post about "Contentment At Home" that you might enjoy if you have a few minutes. Blogger is being touchy about when it decides to let me post pictures. My plan was to post semi-finished closet cleaning pictures this morning but the above picture popped up and it made me think about Lady Lydia's post so I wrote about this instead. When I start writing posts I really never know where they might lead me.

God bless you all and I hope you are content with what ever and where ever your day may lead you.

Hugs,
Sue

Aaron Up Date

There seems to be quite a few of you checking in to see how Aaron is doing. For the sake of his privacy I have been reluctant to post much. Stevens-Johnson Syndrome & TENs is a very complicated condition with so many variables that it makes it also complicated to comprehend for all of us and most of all Aaron and the care takers that are working like crazy to get him through this thing.

I can say that it is so good to talk to him. He is so cheerful and optimistic. Angie and him are on the road most days either at a doctors appointment or at physical therapy. The other day they even tried to visit Dana after their appointments but couldn't get up her icy drive way and a passerby had to rescue them from their car that slide backwards into the ditch half way up her driveway and take them home.

This weekend John and I are going up north on Saturday to spend the night with them. Maybe with his help we can post a little update from his house. He so wants to thank all of you that so faithfully prayed for him these last few months and is praising the Lord for hearing your prayers.
Thank you God for hearing the prayers of your saints. All glory and honor are yours dear heavenly Father.

During Aaron's time in the hospital I prayed for God to give me the words to communicate what was happening to Aaron that would give Him the glory for answering our prayers. He did give me the words that touched all of you with encouragement to pray and many of you have said that you are giving God the glory for hearing your prayers and we all join you in praising His mighty name for His faithfulness.

The body of Chirst is a powerful group, empowered by the Holy Spirit to seek and find and we are told to ask and that if you do you will receive. Many times we don't receive exactly what we were asking for but the Lord hears us and answers in ways that we may never no until we meet him in heaven but he does answer.

Those of you that do not have a personal relationship with Christ that have followed along on this journey with Aaron I would encourage you to take the first step to developing one by asking Him to come into your heart. Ask him to show you the way, to forgive you your sins, and to put faith in your heart to believe that God sent his Son to die for you so that you may have everlasting life in his presence. God loves you as much as he loves Aaron and wants to hear from you. Please won't you call on him today? If you do tell, a Christian friend so that they can help you take the next step to finding the peace, love and joy that only God, through Christ our Lord, can bring. you.

Picture above is from www.eyesofthelord.com

Pretty In Pink and Green

Essentially Lilly A guide to colorful entertaining
Lilly Pulitzer and Jay Mulvaney

www.alexandrea-womens-childrens-clothing.com

www.brides.com

Into The Closet

Happy first day of March! Even though it is still freezing here and we have a fresh blanket of snow covering the ground the sun is shining and you can see, if not feel, that spring is not far off. This morning I flipped my calendar to the new month and am very happy to put this last winter behind us.

When spring is on the horizon it is time to head into the closets to freshen up the chaos that seems to have crept in over the winter when it is so cold that we only make quick trips in to grab something to keep us covered and warm. Things get put away in a hasty manor with no rhyme or reason. With the sun shining in over these past few days it has been a bit warmer and more conducive to spending some time sorting and fluffing things up so that is what I've been doing.

There is still a long way to go but it is fun to dig into what has been stashed into the corners or under the racks and anticipate the coming mild weather when we can spend a little more time putting together outfits instead of dressing to protect us from the weather.

Above is a picture of my pink & green junk jewelry drawer that puts me in a spring frame of mind. Hope you all have a good weekend and that the sun is shining on you what ever you are doing today.

Hugs,
Sue