~ Custom Needlepoint ~

My dream is to have my friend Sarah make needlepoint seat covers for my kitchen chairs. She made this seat cover for the chair above. Her love of all things tartan is represented in the background. This is one of the first pieces that she did designing her own interpretation of a plaid turned into needlepoint.
On this pillow you see the plaid used on a larger scale.
This little lumbar pillow was made to rest on the back of the chair but today is being used to spread the pattern of the chair around our living room.
Last Saturday at a local craft fair I bought these three pieces from Miss Sarah. Aren't her cards cute?
Here they are in their new home. These pieces have a special place in my heart because before they came to Greenbrier to live they were in Summerhill. Summerhill was the little duplex cottage where our family had the lower unit and Sarah's had the upper unit. We shared our duplex for 12 years until we sold it in 2006. These pieces will remind me of all the fond memories of our time at Summerhill for ever more.

One of these days I will try to share photos of Sarah's doll house of a home that is chock full of her tartan needlepoint work. If you are a fan of the English Country look you will love her home that has continued to evolve over the past 20 years. The custom work that Sarah has created to adorn her cape cod cottage will amaze you and if you think the color Hunter Green is over, prepare to fall in love with it all over again.

Hugs,
Sue

~ English Country ~

Do you sometimes walk around your house and think, what was I thinking? Well, I do too. Walking around the hall up stairs this morning getting ready to start the day I took note of all the disparaging colors and thought, this has got to change. But, then on second thought consoled myself with the knowledge that somehow even with the pink and red, French and English, oak, maple, mahogany and orange cherry this is home. This is a home where each and every thing tells a story or recalls a precious memory. So, the deer hunt pictures that represent a long line of deer stalkers in our family sit on fussy French toile wallpaper that represents the spring we spent in the south of France visiting the vineyards that provided the grapes for the wine that was imported for the wine business that was housed in the basement of one of our companies.
For years I collected old deer hunting pictures and had them framed in gold frames like were seen in English Country books. The addition of deer plates and 3-D items like this deer head hat rack added dimension to the groupings. In our old house we had other pieces that filled our family room but many of those have moved on to Dana's house.
This old demi-lune table made out of who knows what sits at the top of the oak stair way. It works because the rounded edges prevent nasty bruises when rounding the corner from the bedrooms. It matches nothing but its shape makes it work. The stacking boxes on top of it hold John's old family pictures that were passed down to him when his mom passed away 4 years ago.
The wall at the end of the hall holds family pictures that are badly in need of updating. This little shelf is right outside my laundry room. The little lady on a ribbon has a pair of scissors attached to her that I use to trim loose threads from freshly ironed items.
This book by Caroline Seebohm and Christopher Simon Sykes is one of my favorites and when I get to thinking that nothing matches around here I pull out this book and enjoy seeing all the things that are plunked down together and form a cozy mish-mash of loveliness.

I love this picture of the pure white stair case and hope one of these days to give our oak stair case this same treatment.

Did you all have a good weekend? We had fun up north with Kyle and Carrie on the boat. Hopefully Carrie will e-mail me some pictures because I forgot to take my camera.