A Snowy Morning

I was so looking forward to seeing the "S" monogram boxwoods in my front yard get their spring trim soom, but this morning we woke  up to winter weather storm advisories.  Looks like it may be awhile now before yard maintainence commences.

Leader Dogs For The Blind

We just got word that the puppy we are going to raise for Leader Dogs For The Blind is ready for us to pick up.

We had a choice of a Black Lab and a Golden Retriever/Lab mix.  John chose the later.  We don't have any idea what color it will be but I'm sure we will love it regardless of what color it is.

Next Sunday we pick her up.  You can bet I will post pictures....We are very excited to be able to help Leader Dogs For The Blind by raising a puppy up until the age of 1 when it will then go into obedience training and become avaliable for a client in need of assistance if the dog qualifies.  There are strict guidelines that need to be adhered to.  John has been studying them and will be the dog whisperer.....I will be the dog petter.

Inspiration From Tina

Oh I love this photograph enlargement feature on blogger......Are there any other neat features that I missed out on while I was away from blogging that you can think of?  Do share if you get a minute...

Well, do you all know Tina at The Enchanted Home?  She has a dream house that she has been building and she has shared the journey with her blog readers.  She is more than generous with sources for all kinds of construction items including right down to cabinet hardware.  She has broadened my base of reference in decor.  For example, before Tina I would have been more than happy to have a cute bathroom with maybe a little wallpaper.  Post Tina, all I can think of while doing the bathroom up north is floor to ceiling marble...You should see the beautiful marble variations Tina shares on her blog that she is using in her house.....Well, my little place up north is getting a very scaled down version of http://theenchantedhome.blogspot.com/2012/02/random-musings-on-saturday-afternoon.htmlbut I am loving the wallpaper that she is thinking about using in her kitchen powder room and may use that as inspiration for our guest bathroom.  

So, this morning I go to The Enchanted Home blog for my morning dose of gorgeous and was inspired to change thing up a little bit here at our house.  Tina put some big blue and white urns on her island that I thought looked great so I went around the house and found a pair of urns to put on our island too.  What do you thing?

Hum,,,not sure what is going on with the link feature here but I hope you can find your way to Tina's from this long underlined link that inserted itself into this post.????  

Estate of Grace

 Tory Burch's new Southampton House.  Have you seen it yet?  I believe these photographs of it are from Vogue Magazine.  Come on in and look around.

 The house with an avenue of sugar maples leading to the main entrance.  Isn't this just gorgeous????

 The solarium which I think was coordinated by Bunny Williams husband John Rosselli.  Gorg

 Hummmm, I think I just learned about a new blogger feature.  Something popped up under this picture and showed a number of sizing options.  I clicked on ex large and this is what I got.  Cool.  Anyway, it also deleted the picture of a table in the pool house, but moving forward.....The huge picture above is the formal approach to the wood paneled library.

 Here is Tory in her dining room with custom designed panels. 

 One end of the formal ball room enlivened by Tory for her modern lifestyle.

 A bedroom featuring two of my favorite things, Imari ironstone, and floral wallpaper and upholstery from Colefax & Fowler.

Finally a relaxing picture of the trellis pool house and the swimming pool.

I went back up in this post and found out that if you click on a picture that bar will appear for you to enlarge your blog pictures.  Very nice feature blogger!  Thank you.

50 classics for your closet

Via Matchbook ezine, page 38, matchbook's february issue.

This list has been pinned and repinned all over Pintrest.  The first time I saw it I glanced through it and thought to myself that I am pretty well covered in the classics department.  I thought I would post it on here to help with my spring cleaning and to record what I have and where I need to fill in. 

 Starting with footwear, I pulled out all the ballet flats I could find from around the house.  Seems like I have quite a few ballet flats....Above is the curated version.

Here they are lined up on the top two shelves of my shoe rack in our closet.  The next item on the footwear list is loafers....hummmm, a couple of shelves of loafers also made it back in the closet.  Most of my sandals are at the cottage and the few I have here are lined up around the perimiter of the closet on John's side.....He loves that of course.  The next two selves are sandals and black pumps...The tall boots are in another section of the closet but I have not gone through them yet.  Here in Michigan we generally wear boots only in the winter.  This winter has been the exception and my boots have gotten very little wear.  I need to keep that in mind when I begin to go through them to make sure I don't get rid of too many pair.

Spring Cleaning Inspiration

Isn't this cupboard with a window into the pantry adorable?  It belongs Ruth Ann who blogs over at Warm Pie Happy Home.  If you are in need of a little inspiration to get motivated, a visit to Aunt Ruthie might be what will do the trick.

Warm Pie Happy Home

She is not right out there with pictures of her fabulous farm house but if you poke around her posts that are listed on the right side of her blog and down a ways from the top you will come across some great inspiration for your house, your tummy, and your soul.  The posts are kind of arranged according to the season.  I just went back today, after seeing her pantry posted on Pintrest, and look for some of her spring posts and was richly rewarded by the wisdom, industriousness, and humor of Aunt Ruthie....that is what she calls herself....

So, if you are not familiar with Aunt Ruthie or have not been over there in a while, like me, then you might want to stop by and look around.  Tell her I sent you...then come back here and tell me what you think ;)  

Blue and White Lamps

Here is the close up of the blue and white lamps.  They are the gourd shape that you are seeing a lot of these days.  Also imbeded in the blue and white pattern are a pair of kissing fish making them subtly beachy.

Thank you Dana for the great find and for bringing them up north to me.

Party

I tried on Saturday to upload this picture with no luck.  My blogger skills are definitly rusty. Anyway, here is a picture of the table set without silverware yet but I wanted to at least get some kind of picture before the party got under way.

See the two lamps on the buffet.  Dana picked them up for me at the Mt. Pleasant TJ's.  Tomorrow I will have close ups of them and details.

Hope you had a good weekend.

Party Preps

 Starting to get ready for the birthday party Saturday night.

 Fluffing the petal, leaves, and buds on the poppy napkin rings is a step that takes faux flowers from frumpy to fab.

 I found these poppy napkin rings and dish towels at Sur La Table the other day when I stopped in after getting my hair highlighted and trimmed.

I am hoping they will form the base of a cute tablescape for Dana's party.  She loves poppies and navy blue so I think she will like it.

 I

I also ironed the Chicken apron that I will wear to keep my party clothes clean.  Dana loves Roosters too so the theme is set with a couple of things she likes.

It is raining up here right now ;(  Hopefully it will stop soon and cool back off so we don't loose all of our snow for the skiers on Saturday.  Thanks for stopping by.  It is good to hear from you.

  

Two Days In A Row

 Well, two day in a row of blogging.  Maybe I will get back into it....too soon to tell I suppose.  Anyway, we left home today for up north at around 9.  It was a nice sunny day to make the three hour drive up 1-75.  We stopped at Birch Run for a quick run through the Ralph Lauren store and a break at the 7-11.  I needed a couple of tops to fit my ever expanding body.  I quit smoking in November and am giving myself until March 1 to not worry about the weight I gain..... March 1th can not come soon enough!!!   

I always loving coming into the Condo.  It is so different from our house, very neutral and calm.   We have not done much decorating yet but have painted, upgraded a few appliances , and cleaned like crazy.  The condo is small but I will try to post progress here as we go along.  Three of the pictures above came from our local antique shop that I love call Dunnagain's here in Boyne City.  The two on the left are prints framed in old gold frames and the one on the right is an old oil painting.  They all are pictures with lakes in them.  The oil painting on the left under the little oval print is one the I got from an antique shop in New Orleans in the late 70's.  I wish I knew more about this nice little oil painting.

Well I'm off to check out Pintrest to see what I missed today.    

Happy Valentines Day!  I'm celebrating by getting out a few Easter goodies for the house, down loading pictures to my lap top, and updating this blog.  I see a few of you over on Pintrest but often feel like I want to say more than I can say in the comment section so I'm going to try to jump back into blogging and see if I can even remember the basics.

Quite a bit going on around here since I last blogged.  I left you with a couple pictures of Dana's cottage.  It is coming along and they have hired The Cottage Company out of Harbor Springs to draw up some plans for them to give it a bit of a face lift and to maximixe the space to accomodate their family.  Should be a fun adventure to follow.  She has a lot of her ideas pinned on Pintrest in her cottage board that you can take a look at to get an idea of the direction she is going with the updating if you enjoy that kind of thing.  You might be able to get there by clicking HERE.

Since the kids seem to be setting up housekeeping of one sort or another in the northwest lower penninsula of Michigan we decided to take advantage of the buyers real estate market and we made an offer on a condo around the 4th of July and the sellers accepted our offer. 

There is our prize....far left, ground floor, and steps from the beach. 

There is soooo much inspiration on Pintrest that I think it is hard to narrow down your choices but it is an invaluable resource none-the-less and I am totally addicted.  Pintrest has my head spinning with ideas to update our new/old place. For now we have painted the whole inside with a fresh coat of Benjamin Moore White Dove.  I wanted the color of an LL Bean canvas tote, the White Dove seemed like the closest match and it turn out to be just what I was looking for.  You can have a look at my inspiration board on Pintrest by clicking HERE if you would like.  I have so much pinned there and probably won't use any of it but it sure is fun to dream....

Thanks for stopping by if you have found your way back here after such a long absence by me, the negligent author of this blog.  Are you on Pintrest?  Has it replaced blogging for you?  I hope not....If I can get a grove going here I hope to get back into.