Indoor Gardening

The Window Garden

From left to right is my flat leaf parsley plant that I use in cooking. The little plants are from the grocery store and planted in the blue & white cache pot from the resale shop up north last summer. The next one is my philodendron cuttings set in water so they will root. They are in a little pink glass from Anthropology's and when they sprout their new roots I'll transplant them into something else. Up next is an outdoor geranium in a little ruffled blue & white cache pot that just keeps perking along. The green pitcher is where I keep my dish scrubbing brush but I took it out for the picture ;) Next to it is a bundle of tiny pinks (carnations) that I picked up last Monday that gets shuffled around and picked apart to use other places. Behind the pinks in the same vase is a small branch I found outside that had berries and leaves on it that I thought was so pretty. I brought it in and stuck it in the water along with the pinks. Well, what I found out is that the leaves fall off leaving just the berries. I'm so excited to know this, it doesn't take much to excite me. One of these days soon I'll go out in the yard and cut more branches that might have berries on them to use for holiday arrangements.

Never a fan of carnations, the pleasure this little bouquet has brought me is surprising. The ruffled edges of each petal is so intricate and adorable. The staying power of these work horses can not be over stated, they look as fresh as the day they came home last Monday and the price is very reasonable. In my sage green twist vase they grace this end table with simple beauty beside the needlepoint coasters.
Hopefully I can keep this little collection of violets and what ever that yellow thing is going in the living room. The sun this room gets should be good for the violets if I can figure out how much water they require before I kill them off. This pot doesn't have a drainage hole and I forgot to ask for the plants to be put in a separate liner, they may need transplanting.
The white roses in this centerpiece are fading but the larkspur and carnations are still OK after a week on the dining room table.
Absolutely Beautiful Things had a picture on her blog that inspired this arrangement in my foyer. Her picture was on a crisp white surface and had pretty white shells and petals in the glass footed dish creating a pretty vignette. When I saw her photo it inspired me to go collect the items from around the house that were similar to the ones in her shot, the pink votive candle from the Pottery Barn outlet, the Aromatique's glass dish and the Lady Primrose like silver topped rose bottles, and make a little table scape. The ABT photo had gorgeous Star Gazer lily's in the little vase but my budget alternative was to use a few sprigs of my pinks bouquet from the window garden and put them in one of the hob nail vases from Kyle & Carrie's rehearsal dinner with strips of tape creating a tiny grid to make the blooms go farther. Although no where near the quality or crisp beauty of the ABT vignette this one adds that little bit of cluttered beauty, that I can't seem to get away from, to the foyer.

Hope you enjoyed this indoor garden tour.

Greenbrier

Since we moved here I have been trying to think of a name for our house but nothing seemed to work until the other day when I was puttering in the guest room getting ready for my parents visit. While restocking the supplies like TP, toothpaste, deodorant, fresh soap and the like the thought came to me to put new robes for the guest rooms on my wish list. From there it went to having the rooms be stocked like a resort hotel then on and on as that goes.............Well from that puttering came the idea to get the robes from The Greenbrier hotel because I remembered that they had big green G's, which is the first letter of our last name, on them and the monogram would be a nice touch.
Then I started to remember my trip to The Greenbrier many years ago and thought about their use of bright colors balanced with a lot of white just like we are doing in this house, so maybe we could borrow the names for our much less grand, but never-the-less similar, at least in future direction, interior style. I really don't think they would mind and we do have plenty of green outside, OK not many other similarities but what the heck, Greenbrier it is.

The robes cost a bundle so will most likely be put on the back burner but out of my puttering came the name for our house, how divine, as Candice Olson would say. Hope everyone has a good weekend and fits in a little time for puttering, you never know what may come from it.

Pretty Pages Plus!

The clock is ticking and I need to get ready to head up north but before that I wanted to share something with you. Grace left me a comment about the planner pages at Brocante Home. On her recommendation I took a look and have been whiling away far to much time on this fabulous website of Allison's. It is chock full of fun useful information presented in the most beautiful way. It may not be every ones cup of tea, but what that is truly fabulous really is, viva la differences. I'm probably late to this party, but for those who enjoy this sort of thing and have never been to Brocante Home you just might fall in love.

Allison offers free planner pages that you can download that are so pretty and easily integrate with the FlyLady system. The site takes a bit of navigating but is well worth the effort if you have some free time. I could go on and on about this talented lady but time is running out so go take a look if you like my shower is calling me to get in and get going.

The Deluttered Dining Room Mini Tour

This room is hard to get a clear picture in because of the light that shines in here but I gave it my best shot and I hope you enjoy the little tour. The picture in the middle is from my cottage, the little bow hook above it extends the boundaries of the grouping a bit which I thought it needed. The sepia toned prints on either side of the main picture are matted in a very pale blue gray that helps lighten up the grouping. The frames are very chippy so I touched them up with some gold paint that I found in the basement, far from perfect. The two little asymmetrical prints on top are old, the one on the left of the girl holding the kitty was from the previous owners of my old house that was left behind by the Dr. that was going into a nursing home and his family didn't want many of his and his wife, who preceded him in deaths, possessions. Very sad but a good reminder to not get too attached to our worldly possessions. Any way, I have kept this sweet picture for years and am happy to be able to have her finally seeing the light of day again.

The white fresh flowers were chosen to lighten the room. With the intensity of the wall color in this room it needs plenty of white. Crystal seemed fitting with the lighter more classic look that seemed to develop as I was rearranging. The crystal lights on the buffet, that are also old pieces that I had rewired years ago, complement the chandelier and the addition of my favorite crystal vase and a bowl, that Mom got me for Christmas years ago, bring some sparkle to the room.

Hope you enjoyed the little tour and thanks for stopping by.

Sorting and Clearing, Before Pictures

For the past month things have been moved around so much here that John says he feels like he's coming into a different house every night. He seems to be tolerating it well and pitching in when a strong arm is needed. As long as he gets a nice hearty hot dinner he seems to remain a happy hubby.

The sorting and clearing started in the dining room. The motivation was two fold, one to get rid of the fake flower arrangements, and two to clear the decks for the holidays. This morning I took pictures of the finished product but my computer wants to reload all 170 pictures instead of the three that I just took and I have no patience or skill to wait or figure out how to only upload the current ones so the reveal will have to wait. Don't get too excited though. The new look is very sparse and in need of those fresh flowers that motivated me in the first place.

My vision of fresh flowers everywhere began when the garden was still full of lush blooms waiting to be picked and lovingly arranged in pretty containers in the house. Well, of course now we have had a fairly harsh frost and there is nothing suitable for display............I have had some luck with my green plants which is astonishing. There is nothing exotic in here, just the plants that I have picked up at the grocery store and divided to make other plants, some out door plants that I have brought in, and today I hope to transplant some of the ivy from my containers outside into a pot that is waiting in the living room.

All of the pictures and accessories in these pictures have been moved either to the basement, upstairs to our bedroom that needed some sprucing up too, or into the kitchen. The plates came off the wall in anticipation of being put into service feeding our holiday guests. Years ago when Martha Stewart was featuring Wedding Band dishes in many of her layouts Maurine and I ran across a huge box of it at a junk shop that I feel in love with. We used to have this thing where as we were shopping around the holidays if one of us saw something we couldn't live with out we would buy it for each other for our Christmas presents. Well that particular year Mo scooped up that box of dirty old china and gave it to me for my Christmas gift. Every few years I seem to feel the need to simplify and out comes the Wedding Band dishes. This year they just seem to fit with the more classic look in the newly decluttered dining room. It is such fun to recall old memories while bringing out different things to dress your home with each season.

It is a good thing to declutter but I am a firm believer in having good storage and keeping it organized with things like dishes, linens, containers for plants, rugs, pillows and wall decor to change around when the mood strikes or the seasons change. Most of my favorite things are far from valuable and have come from junk shop but they bring such joy when they are brought out again after resting in their storage spaces.

FlyLady Control Journal

Here is the notebook that I have housed my Control Journal in for years and my copy of Marla Cilley's book Sink Reflections.
If you click on this picture you can probably see the sections.
These are my really old cards that I used for more than 20 years before FlyLady came into my life. Pretty simple system that worked for me as a young Mom. Some of the daily cards had to be replaced over the years when they got used for scrap paper by the kids or chewed up by the dog. I love the Friday card where Kyle left me a note saying that he was staying at Alex's again.

John is working today so I plan to tweak my routines a bit and will post them later. Hope everyone has a good weekend.

FlyLady

Does anybody else use the FlyLady system? Since 2001 I have been devoted to Marla Cilley's system of home management using baby steps to overcome chaos. She has a free Internet site that is very user friendly . Her book Sink Reflections was published in 2002. In it she starts out introducing the new Flybabies to her Buzzzzzz Words which includes the words CHAOS which is an acronym for Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome, and Fly & Flying which means Finally Loving Yourself!

You start our with Babysteps where she describes her Internet mentoring system which is not all about cleaning but your first Babystep is starting out with a shiny sink. The next BabyStep is choosing your clothes for tomorrow where she insists that you also include putting on your shoes first thing in the morning.

Once you master the above steps she takes you to getting rid of clutter and introduces you to her next Buzzzzzzzzzzz Word, the 27 Fling Boogie which becomes your tool to declutter your house 27 items at a time. This section is huge since she firmly believes and I concure that you can't organize clutter. Even though it is hard to let go of it you must persevere and get it out and she has many suggestions to ease the pain of parting with our clutter.

The next phase is all about setting up routines starting with the most important bedtime routine then the morning routine. Later I'll post mine that I constantly tweak to accommodate life's ever changing situations. The main premise is to get the things that must be done daily into a routine that allows you to get it over with in the most efficient way possible to give you time to concentrate on the rest of your life knowing that the basics at least will aways get done.

All of your information is then stored in what she calls your Control Journal. This is probably the most useful thing that I have in my home. If I ever had to evacuate for any reason this would be one of the first things that I would grab to take with me.

Next comes the Basic Weekly Plan where every day has a purpose. Monday: Weekly Cleaning Chores, Tuesday: Free day, Wednesday: Making lists and planning next week, Thursday: Grocery and errand day, Friday: Bill paying and miscellaneous day.

Zone cleaning is introduced so that you never have to do spring cleaning again. Chores are spread out over the course of a month and divided into five areas of the house. This is where things get a bit more advanced but so well worth the effort.

The FlyLady system tackles laundry, meal planning, dealing with paper clutter, vacations, the holidays, moving, and the needs of the entire family weather your are a SAHM, SAH?, or a Payroll She, another one of her BuzzzzzzzzzzzzzzWords.

I'll post pictures of my Control Journal and routines later. I love Marla and her crew and highly recommend their free service to anyone that would like to create more time for living their lives free of CHAOS.

Found Item

Last night while cleaning out an old cabinet I came across this sweet little watercolor that Dana painted many years ago.

Tracey Porter

Last night we had our first frost and the dahlias that would have been lovely in the living room did not survive. The thought of these sweet pink babies scumming to Jack Frost was more than unbearable, so in they came.
A few months ago there was a post on this blog that has been deleted, but it talked about the green linen Laura Ashley fabric that will one day be turned into curtains for the kitchen and great room and upholstery for our sofa and love seat. Well a seamstress and upholsterer has been located and the time is drawing near.

During the fall cleaning and organizing that has been taking place around here this sweet little Tracey Porter piece that has been holding keepsakes in my bedroom closet made its way down stairs to the kitchen setting off the predictable chain of events.
The red is on its way out to make room for the blue and green with touches of pink in the kitchen. The green linen curtains won't be far behind. The pink will be kept to a minimum because of the color of the wood cabinetry that is not nearly as orange as it appears in photographs but the orange tone is still there. With time it is deepening to a warmer fruit wood tone but a bit of pink goes a long way. We have the same issues with the oak stair case but that is another post all together. When looking at all the old homes in my English Country books they have these beautiful sturdy woods that have mellowed to such charming warm tones which reminds me to not be so picky and just carry on. God willing, we will be around long enough to see the transformation.

Tracey Porter has a new blog on her website that you might enjoy. When I had the store Tracey Porter's items were some of our best sellers. We sold her dishes, lamps, small furniture, pillows and rugs like crazy. One of our best customers and my good friend had her powder room painted by a local artist to resemble the end covers of one of her books that is fabulous. Maybe if we ask nicely Sheryl will go over and take pictures to share with all of us of Cindy's amazing Tracey Porter powder room. Tracey herself would approve.

Home Office Project

How to make a home office functional and attractive for a couple to share? That is the question. Last week John declared that all the junk in the office had to go, which means he is ready to tackle the project. This week I dismantled and cleaned out everything and last night we headed out to look at furniture.

First we went to Art Vans but my contractor husband didn't like the quality of the pieces that Dana had suggested that we look at. All righty then, off we went to another furniture store, me thinking that when he sees the prices he will reconsider the AV pieces that were really cute. Wrong, he made a beeline over to the most beautiful grouping that I knew looked familiar to me. It turns out that it is the exact brand that we both admired in the Horchow catalogue that was featured in a room that at the time we thought would be a nice way to add interest to the office by adding the white wainscot ting and painting the walls that blue gray. They gave us all the size and price information and home we came to make sure it will fit properly. Well, we are still working on that but this has been such a good lesson for me.

As a woman of a certain age and experience I often think that I have it all figured out which is so wrong on so many levels and I repent of it and ask God to help me with that struggle. Here again is a perfect example of his merciful guidance. God has more in store for us than we could ever imagine for ourselves. If we will obey and let him lead things will work out better than we could have figured it out. That AV office furniture would have been just fine but I let John lead as the head of our household, which is often so hard to do, but praise God, my good turned out to be His better and best. Thank you heavenly Father for your Word that guides me.

Who knows if the furniture will work out and frankly I don't care. A table, chair, the computer and my books are all I really need but the good Lord is in charge and for that I am forever thankful.

Scalamandre Dining Spot ~ not my house ~

New York Social Diary

The New York Social Diary has some interesting articles about homes and their owners. This bedroom of Betty Sherrill's was one picture that caught my eye. There are also stories about Charlotte Moss and Carolyne Roehm with beautiful pictures of their homes that you might enjoy.

Paneled Rooms On The Internet

Louis XV Living Room

Louis XV Foyer

Cherry Living Room

Molding Detail

Did you know you could have a paneled room designed on the Internet? The idea of a beautifully designed pine paneled library has always been appealing to me. Scouring books on classical architecture and sketching well proportioned rooms used to be a pleasant past time. With the dawn of the Internet the thought of trying to figure out how to have people send me their room specifications and I would in turn create a lovely arrangement for them weighed heavily in my mind.

Well that time has come and gone. If you don't keep up with those skills they quickly fade form memory. The only thing I still remember, which is probably not even true to classic design is that the cornice, forming the transition between wall and ceiling should be one fourteenth the dimension of the entire height of the wall and that a well proportioned room should be twice as long as it is wide, three quarters as long as it is wide or two thirds as long as it is wide. Again, real decorators or architects will probably find error with these simple rules of thumb that I have carried with me over the years, but as a general principal they have seemed to work for me.

The paneled rooms above are from the website Architectural Paneling, Inc. They say on the site that "You can send or fax your floor plan with ceiling height and functional requirements, as well as any style preferences you may have to: Email: apaneling@aol.com". They will design and build you the paneled room of your dreams.

Dramatic Master Suite

In contrast to the calm serene feel of the Arcadia cottage common areas, the master suite reflects the vibrant personalities of the owners. The clear, deep green is punctuated with black and the abundance of white lightens the mood.

Guest House Before Construction Tour

This week the construction of the guest house finally is getting started. Here are the before pictures that I talked about sharing a couple weeks ago before the computer problems.

Sun Porch

Living Room

Hall

Kitchen

Dad has already firmed up the drooping bead board ceilings in most of the cottage. Dana has done the design layout on her computer for her Grandpa and the builders started on Monday implementing the plan.

This week she figured out the name of the consignment shop up north, Now & Again, and called them to reserve an old center island for the kitchen which is a pretty apple green with white trim and a maple butchers block top. The floor in the kitchen will be apple green & white and the cupboards will be white. She is using white subway tile for the back splash with a basket weave design over the stove that has bits of the green in it.

For the bathroom she chose an aqua mosaic glass tile combination for walls and the floor. It is a small room so she is going with a corner shower stall and pedestal sink and a little linen closet for storage.

In the living areas she is doing a white or pale color background and refinishing the wood floors in a walnut color. We have been picking up old furniture here and there as we go to furnish it.

Hope you enjoyed this little before tour of Mom & Dad's guest house. I will post pictures of the progress and our furnishing finds as we go along. As I am reorganizing here at home I'm setting aside several items that will work with the furnishings like my Jadite collection of apple green dishes. It looks like they might finally have a good home.

Fresh Flowers

One of the things that started my project was the desire to put away some of my silk flower arrangements that were starting to look tired and add real plants and fresh things from the yard. We will see how that goes. I've never had that much luck with plants but now that I'm home more there will be more time to tend them.

Keeping It Real

Looking at beautiful pictures of homes is inspiring but the reality of those beautiful homes is that it takes many homemaking skills to keep them that way. There are meals to be prepared, laundry to gather, sort, wash, dry, iron, put away............and on it goes to make them function to meet the needs of the people that live in them. If a project is taken on outside of the normal routine that it takes to make a house a home a whole new can of worms is opened. Case in point, the pictures that you see here. And now I have to run to get to the the dentist in 15 minutes...........

Something's Gotta Give Inspired Cottage

Here are a few more pictures of the cottage on Lake Arcadia that Sheryl so beautifully wrote about a couple of weeks ago. Our friend Maurine loves the movie Somethings Gotta Give so when it came time to redo their cottage they kept that movie in mind as their inspiration. This cottage is in no way a copy of the SGG house but the feel is there. They spent more than four years designing this very personal summer home to include the things that they love and to reflect Mo's gift for impeccable housekeeping and organization.
Isn't this a pretty cupboard in her kitchen? She has three recycle centers in here, 2 in the kitchen itself and another in the service area that Sheryl wrote about.
This little screened in porch is just off the kitchen. The green painted floor draws you outside through the French doors. There was another little white wicker chair in the seating area on the right but we drug it outside for more seating on the deck. Notice the little lamp on the table on the left. All of the light fixtures in here are from thrift or consignment shops. She did not want any harsh overhead lighting but rather preferred old sconces and lamps that add to the charm and ambiance through out the cottage.
These two chairs in front of the entertainment center are on swivels and upholstered in durable indoor outdoor fabric. The black entertainment center has two pull out refrigerated drawers for ice and cold drinks. She has accented the calm colors in the common areas of the cottage with black by using black hardware for the door knobs and hinges as well as on the entertainment center.