Saturday, October 30, 2010

It's Pink Saturday!



Hi Fellow Pink Saturday girls,

Its been a while since I came to the party.  Life has just been rather crazy, but I'm sure any woman reading this can relate.  Anyway, I thought I'd share with you something pretty and pink from my neck of the woods.  This fabulous antique silk petit point and jeweled frame purse is something that I purchased a while back.  It is such a stunning piece, I just had to show it to you.  It is pristine and oh, so pretty, with its little personalized initials showing it was "For MR From JP".  Someone must have really cared for the person they had it made for.  There is not a stitch missing and THAT FRAME!  Oh my... Anyway, I kept it for a few weeks before I sold it over at Our Cottage Garden because I just needed to love on it for a while before it found a new home.  I hope you enjoy it.  Of course, I would be remiss in my shopkeeping duties if I didn't mention that we have new listings of beautiful vintage things EVERY NIGHT at Our Cottage Garden.  Pop on over and check it out sometime.  You'll be glad you did! 





Once you are finished ooohing and aaahing over this divine purse, go on over to Beverly's at How Sweet the Sound and see the plethera of other Pink Saturday posts.  And get a cup of coffee or tea and settle in...you are gonna be there for a while absorbed in a pile of pink goodness and some very nice ladies.  And by the way, October is Breast Cancer Awareness month.  Don't forget to take care of "your girls".

Also, check back here on November 1st.  I will be having a wonderful giveaway that you won't want to miss.

Until next time,
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Wednesday, October 27, 2010

White Wednesday Pumpkins and Such...


I decided to come on over and join the party for White Wednesday with my front parlor's primarily black and white Halloween decor.  I have to admit, I LOVE Halloween, but the orange isn't my favorite.  I mean, it is cute, but it doesn't really go in the all white and pastel room.  SO, I use a little natural decor and a little purchased decor and it all works.  Enjoy the photo mosaic I made and when you are done, pop on over to see Kathleen at Faded Charm for lots of other wonderful white posts.



Until next time,
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Sunday, October 24, 2010

The French Inspired Home


Pardon my gush, but I am a huge Carolyn Westbrook fan.  She has a style that is so...well...ME.   Her beautiful love of antiques and vintage charm with an elegant but very inviting vibe just speaks to me.  Nothing ever looks too precious, but it is fabulous and sophisticated.  I thought her first book, The Carolyn Westbrook Home was amazing, so when I saw that she had a new one coming out titled The French Inspired Home, I couldn't get over to Amazon fast enough to pre-order it.  Well, it came not too long ago, and I was not disappointed.  In this delicious feast for the eyes, Carolyn shows many beautiful interiors, and they run the gamut from the white slipcovered sofa, beautiful chandelier, and statuary which many of us think of as the quintessential French inspired interior to a more masculine library with deep colors and antlers.  The point is, they are all French INSPIRED, showing how you can take whatever you have and add a few signature pieces to give French flair.  Now, don't get me wrong, these interiors are not DIY deals.  But if, like me, you are by necessity a DIY'er, you can glean loads of great information and ideas for vignetting and making your own home look like a million bucks.  You can get your copy of Carolyn's book here.    For now, scroll down and get a little taste of this new book that you need to get on your bookshelf.


















all photos from The French Inspired Home

Carolyn has a blog of her own, so if you stop by to say hello, please tell her you saw her book spotlighted at my place.  Thanks for coming over today.  Have a great week!

Until next time,







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Wednesday, October 20, 2010

What's in a name?



It all started innocently enough.  I saw the beautiful antique grain sack pillows out in Blogland and swooned.  I bought one.  It was even more wonderful in person.  Being given to excess as I am, one simply wasn't enough.  I searched out my own grainsacks.  I found a couple with my very own initials.  How could I resist?  While I was at it, I found even more truly wonderful sacks.  You know you save on shipping if you buy more than one thing, right?  Yeah...so now it seems I am, at least for a time, in the antique grain sack pillow business.  I have been keeping my sewing machine running since August as time has permitted and now have all of these divine pillows with a few more yet to be made.  How to sell them...hmmmmm....BFF bought two before they were even finished.  She is my greatest supporter. Thanks Heather!  I sell antiques and mosaics on a website, Our Cottage Garden.  Somehow, the pillows didn't seem to fit the look over there.  I said to myself, "Self, you could open an Etsy shop.  Lots of bloggers have Etsy shops, why not you?"  OK, I am not a newbie to online selling, I can do this.  What do I call it?  When you have 5 million shops, you need a name that is catchy, not hard to remember, and somehow gives an idea of the feeling of the items you sell.  My blog name is French Laundry, that would be a logical choice.  But the grain sacks are German.  And the feeling I get when I look at them is more rustic and simple than the feeling I get when I think French Laundry.    You can't change your user name once you select it on Etsy, so you want to choose wisely.  You can make your shop name anything you want, but the guides tell you that it is confusing if you have a different user name than your shop name.  Certainly don't want to start out behind the curve.  "Farmhouse" comes to mind,  but with a refined touch. Thinking ahead, I'd like to offer antique white ironstone, cool metal pieces, and, of course, THE PILLOWS.  After more pondering and head scratching and agonizing (come on, you know you would do the same thing....you wouldn't be reading decorating blogs and artistic blogs if you didn't have a "thing" for details), I decided on.......TA DA!




This is the banner I designed. I won't even start on how much I had to agonize over that...I mean, do you know how many fonts there are?  Does anyone else feel like the font choice is a critical piece to anything you do?  OK, maybe that's just my OCD thing.  Then the pictures...well, suffice it to say that it took a while.   The banner may change down the road, but for now, I'm pleased.  I hope you will stop by and check out the shop.  I will be adding more pillows soon as well as some other things, hopefully over the weekend.  Thanks for all of the positive comments on my new look.  I really appreciate it.  You guys are such great encouragers.

Until next time,
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Sunday, October 17, 2010

CH CH CH CH CHanges...



Hello sweet blogger friends!  I have so sadly neglected my blog over the last 6 months or so...partially because I have been busy with this:
Bella, the Yorkie, aged 4 1/2 months.  She is such a sweetie, but it is really like having another baby.  If anyone has any helpful hints on the potty training thing, please send a comment my way.  She just can't seem to wrap her little brain around the fact that the entire house is OUR kennel and we don't do our business on the floor.  Ugh...

Then, there was some of this:

With these wonderful fellas:

 Can you guess why they call this Lily Pad Lake?


I took a little time off from work and cosmetically redid a downstairs bathroom.  I painted the walls, added some pretty baseboard molding which was SO much better than the rubber institutional "am I in a prison?" stuff that was there before, made a shower curtain because of COURSE nobody on the planet seemed to have a ready made one that I liked, and I made a great shelf using some old architectural salvage that had been in my basement forever, just waiting for this project to come to the top of the to do list.  The shelf was my favorite part because it allowed me to display my favorite blue and white transferware which had been waiting patiently in my cupboard to be put out for view.  I love it.  Next on my list is to replace the vanity and the light fixture, but it will have to wait for another time when time, energy, and money prevail.




I decided years ago that I wanted to slipcover my living room couch in white denim.  This summer, I finally took my money that I had saved and had it done.  I also had a white denim slip made for my bench ottoman and had a pair of yard sale chairs redone in a fabulous taupe on cream toile.  This, of course, led to wanting some pillows made out of the incredible antique German grain sacks which have been all over the blogging world.  I made a few for myself to accompany the reproduction one I got from Jeanne d'Arc Living.  This then led to a rather major obsession acquiring several antique grain sacks and sewing more and more and more pillows to sell on Etsy.  I'll give you the heads up when I actually get them listed.  I am very excited since I think they turned out very nice.


Then, I guess on top of everything else, I have just been feeling restless about my blog.  I have loved its look for the last couple of years, but I've been wanting to redo it in the last few months.   I've been putting it off and putting it off since it seemed a little daunting.  Tonight was the night that it finally happened.  I really like the look of it, I hope you do, too.   I admire you blogger gals that shake up your look periodically.  I may at some point have to get more fancy, but for now, this will have to do.

If you are still reading this and you haven't totally lost interest, thank you.  I am always amazed that anyone would be even remotely interested in what drivel I might post on my little piece of cyberspace.  I will try to be more faithful with my posts since I do enjoy it once I get off of my rear end and do it and it is a great incentive to see what that Canon Rebel can do.  

Until next time,


P.S.  Not even 24 hours have passed and I have yet again updated my look.  So funny but when  I started blogging a couple of years ago, your blog design was all about the bells and whistles...pretty backgrounds, gadgets, and gizmos.  Now its all about the pictures.  SO, we have come full circle and are looking for the clean, uncluttered look of the page that allows the photos to shine.  Ah well, like I said in this post title, "CH CH CH CH Changes"!





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