Candlelight Vignette

Cold winter days and nights led me to create a candlelight vignette...my collection of glass candle holders, some old, some new, and white candles occupy my vintage buffet in the living room. I love the round mirror above the buffet, but I will tell you that it is hard to hang any artwork around it...What I have right now are some leaf prints in spectacular mirrored frames and I like how it looks, but, it's a good size wall, and really could stand some additional artwork.

This lamp I love, I know it is a little different, yes it is vintage, and if you could have seen the condition it was in when I saw it sitting atop a shelf in one of the most atrocious thrift shops I've ever been in, and to look at it now after all the TLC...well you'd love it too! I call it my beehive lamp.


I love curly willow and because of the vaulted ceilings in the living room, I can stand the height, the vase is from Z Gallerie (love that store!)

I've had these candle holders for a while, from Target

The tall candle holders are from my workplace

Are you sick of seeing my bowl of pine cones yet !?! I really love the pine cones here in Missouri, they are so different from the pine cones I'm use to in NC.

Thanks for coming by! I hope you are inspired to try a candlelight vignette to get you through the cold winter months ahead!

Head over to Grits and Glamour to see all the wonderful Tabletop Vignettes! Thanks for hosting Barb!

Design Idea File

Do you have a design idea file? I have both a virtual design file and a literal one. The virtual one is a lot easier to "file things" but I still like the good ole' fashion cutting pictures out of magazines. I will admit though the magazines are becoming fewer and the cutting even less....on to the web I go in search of pictures of what style I can possible pin down and make my own. I'm not sure if pictures are going to help me, but it seems to help me narrow the gap in figuring out what I like. (I have scanned these pictures from Traditional Home and Aidan Gray Home ...click to enlarge)

Take this room for example....there are a lot of elements I like about this room, not all, but a lot. The furniture is divine, I love the color and mix of pattern. I love the zebra rug, I personally think that it adds a lot zing to this room.

Do you want to know what I don't like about the room or is that too critical? Ok, I'll tell you, and I'll be gentle...

I dislike the little valance thingys and think that the straight panels would have been sufficient, oh, and I'm not crazy about the bookcase, which is obviously the focal point, whoops!

Now I love everything about this vignette. The fabric on that chair is really wonderful, not to mention the style of the piece. The table, lamp and silk drapes are poetry....I could see myself reading a good book and sitting my hot cup of coffee right on that table...yep. I can see it.

What I like about this kitchen is the brown, black and cream color pallet, the subway tile, the carrera marble, the island stools, and that cute little polka dot pitcher! I think that the lamps are a bit much, perhaps that is just styling for the magazine, but some vintage pendant lights hanging over that island would be awesome, or maybe they thought that too predictable. Honestly, the task of hiding the cords would probably drive me insane.

In this scan, I love the color of the wall and the use of the louver doors. That long pillow looks great too...yes, I see napping to be done here!

I love a lot of the elements of this room, the barn board ceiling treatment, the color pallet again, the mix of color and pattern, really great. Here I like the bookshelves and I could put those to good use! For some reason, what throws the whole room for me, is the brass pot with the dried hydrangeas, not sure about that...hello 1980!

Love the graphic nature of the wall art here. The tufted linen slipper chair is amazing and can you love the modern shade on the architectural lamp any more? Nope. Didn't think so.



Love this whole kitchen...

Ok, from just these seven pictures, I think it's safe to say I like:

-Cream, brown, black, and grey color pallet

-Mixing of fabrics, textures and pattern

-graphic elements

-architectural pieces

-seemingly, tufting {who knew?}

Yes, I believe I could do my whole house with these elements and be perfectly, wonderfully, elated!

Thanks for stopping by!

Winterizing and Accessorizing!

It is definitely winter around here! Hope everyone has had a great first week of 2010!

I'm linking up with Melissa @ The Inspired Room for Winter tips for your home

What better way to winterize your home, than with winter accessories!

In this case, I used what I call my snowy branches, in a tall white glass vase, that just suggest winter without being over the top. I also like using suggestive artwork, like the winter tree print. I keep color to a minimum, and use a lot of white and black. The other artwork, in black and white, is a glimpse of the seasons ahead...

Another winter tree print and more white vases. I love the driftwood and manzanita branch, just more natural elements to add texture.

I love using snapshots of my boys as an art installation, repeating the frames make a big impact. These are 12X12 floating frames, I cut white card stock for the matting and printed these right here at home. Nothing super expensive.

Thanks for stopping by to see my tips on winterizing your home!

Thank you Melissa for hosting!

I'm Still Here

Thanks for stopping by!

I'm trying to adjust to it actually being 2010, getting some much needed things done around the house done and wishing I had a cleaning lady! :)

I haven't had a chance to do any real posting, but I hope to get back in the swing of things very soon. Some fun things are happening around the web and I can't wait to get my toes wet!

Thanks for staying with me, I see some new little faces on my side bar and thank you!

I have been trying to set some goals for 2010, career and home-life related, and for some reason, I feel like I'm being rushed into making some big overnight, over-the-top changes, like if I don't set a goal and achieve it NOW the whole year will be ruined. Know what I mean?

What I have come to the conclusion is: That I want to make changes and goals at my own pace and take the time to achieve them. I don't want the pressure of quickly deciding on goals, quickly writing them down with the proverbial "check box" next to it, and we're off to the races. I know. Strange. But it's not a race.

Just thought I'd throw that in!

2010 is going to be a great year ! I can't wait to see all that is achieved, at your own pace, of course! :)

Hutch Makeover

Thanks for stopping by!

This puppy is 3 years in the making and it's finally done! Well almost...I am still nickel and diming the hardware BUT I only have 5 handles to go!!! I love the almost final result and hope you do too!

This is the only "before" shot I could find, from a few years ago...displaying my Christmas Village during the season ....A typical 70's walnut 2-piece hutch/buffet with gold filigree glass, brass hardware, and closed storage on the bottom. My dear MIL bought this for me soon after we moved into our house. I was thrilled about this...I knew it had potential! Plus we hardly had any furniture!!

(That's not an issue now...:)

It stayed walnut for a while.........................then I painted it black and distressed the edges.(I sometimes struggle with painting perfectly good wood)

Pardon the clutter, I was in the midst of something there....not sure what!?!

It stayed black for a while......................

I really didn't like the gold-patterned glass...I thought I would have the glass replaced, but after testing, I found that I could get the gold off with steel wool...Yeah!

Thank Goodness, that pattern was very distracting! A little elbow grease and I didn't have to spend any money replacing glass!

OK, now stay with me here.....I had an idea.

Because the hutch is a little short and squatty, I wanted to build something to sit on top of the buffet part and allow the hutch part to sit on that to have more height and presence. Did you follow that? :) OK, great idea, how does one do that?

???

Well...you ask your engineering-minded husband, that's how!

Enter: Justin

Justin built me something , with cubbies, for some wooden box/basket things that I had ...Confused? Me too!

I can come up with the ideas, but I can't execute them, I have no carpentry skills whatsoever...

I don't have any pictures, he built it while I was at work....but here is what it looks like:

See the cubbies? I bought those wooden boxes at Walmart a while back. Justin was able to build the add-on based on the size of them...I still don't know how he did it!

He trimmed it out and I painted it black. We took the the apron (?) off the top and added recycled molding.

Can you tell how much taller it is? It's really nice now. I was going to paint the molding, but I thought that it related well with the boxes, and the inside of the hutch, and I like the contrast too. At this point I was pretty happy! The box/baskets are going to hold a lot of stuff!!

It's time to fill it!

I used the infamous Gibson dishes and a lot of my other things too.

I love my green and white!

I began thinking the boxes look plain, they were functioning great, BUT I can't leave anything alone... so this is what we did next...

He attached handles to the boxes!

Looks better!!!

See the handles on the bottom I still have to replace? I'm working on it! :)

Well, that was a big one...thanks for sticking with me during ALL those pictures! I love the result and as soon as I get those handles for the bottom she'll be perfect!