Decorating the French Chairs

I'm reminding you again to visit my Pinterest since I have almost 8,200 photos there in one place for you to see. Most of them have not been put on here yet. I know you'll enjoying seeing them.
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My granddaughter showed me the most amazing video the other day and I just knew I was going to share it with all of you. It's about 8 minutes long but well worth watching. I found it just incredible that someone could do makeup like this. And the model is also gorgeous! Of course, it would take me about 2 years to even try to get this look. :-) But it's up to you if you want to watch it. Fascinating though and I always like to share things I find interesting with all of you.

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Love Bunny is a camper, a scouter, a retired Marine (as I've mentioned many times before), a definite leader of men and a natural-born leader even if he doesn't see himself that way. He is. He's made a decision to not be as active in the Scouts as he used to be because of his age. He supports the Scouts vigorously, however.

When we lived in California, he was a Scoutmaster and a truly magnificent one. If you want your boys to grow up to be men, he's your man. He treats them like men and not baby boys. So I thought I'd mention a few things about him pertaining to this.

Every year in California he would take them on a 50-miler hike. Now, he's really good at this. When he'd go off on those hikes in Yosemite, I'd go up the Pacific Coast Highway 1 to a B&B and spend time or fly back to visit my mother and sister. That was before I gave up flying!

Anyway, one year while on the 50-miler he invited a friend from work. The friend wasn't particularly a camper but he thought he could handle it thinking what fun it would be. (FUN?! A 50 mile hike?!!) Hubs had told him about washing dishes. Hubs is shall we say fervent about washing dishes in the wilds. You use boiling hot water for washing and boiling hot water to rinse and I mean RINSE well. He told his work friend how to do it properly. Well, he didn't rinse the soap off well enough and there was diarrhea among the men the next day. Needless to say, hubs was angry, very angry. You do NOT want your men to have to suffer this while on a 50-mile hike, trust me. He told the man he wasn't doing it properly and if he didn't do it properly he was going to get another duty less desirable. The man was not happy but he never got asked to go again with hubs on a camping trip.

Then there was the night hubs woke up to a bear in his face. The bear had put his teeth through a Tupperware container with coffee in it never thinking the bear would be able to smell it. Hubs jumped up and alerted—screamed—for all the boys and men to be alert. The mama bear wouldn't leave because her cubs were up in the trees. Someone hadn't put their packs up the proper way while camping on a hike. They learned a lot from that experience. They came to love hubs and gave him a great tribute when we left to move up here. A lot of men think they are leaders but truly aren't. Hubs is just the opposite. He doesn't see himself that way as it just comes natural to him. He truly is a great man.
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Since they were having a sale on these hydrangeas and peonies, I went back to Michaels and bought a few more. I like the fullness of all of them in the drawer on this coffee table. Plus these pink hydrangeas are the most beautiful shade of pink I've ever seen in this particular artificial flower.

Peonies are one of my favorite flowers also. These are shades of pink and a bit of yellow thrown in, yellow being my favorite combination with pink.

I am trying something on these chairs in the way of decoration but while it looks gorgeous, I don't think it's going to be functional if someone sits there. The extra heavy boas would not be comfortable for someone's back while sitting in them. So I'll figure out another way to put them on without wrapping them around the back.

I love the elegant look though. I'm such a froufrou girl!

The little rose I put on this one is one I made from ribbon.

I think it's a wee bit small so I'll either make a bigger one or switch it out with the hoards of others I have.

So this is what I finally did. The boa tied on with twist-ties through the cane and not the least bit invasive to someone sitting on these chairs. The seats are next in line for their ruffled covers.

I love these paper roses on there. I simply wove their teensy stems through the cane and tied them to it. Not even visible or pokey to anyone sitting in them.

The rest of the photos are ones from the internet, not mine. Isn't this lamp darling? Looks like dotted swiss fabric with crochet edging. Sweet!

It's hard for me to pass up tiny shoes since I have 2 great granddaughters who have tiny feet.

Just a quiet vignette with pink threads and pink bottle.

Isn't this a clever idea? Just having dried roses falling out of a pretty jar.

I'm always a sucker for pretty dishes with flowers on them.

A pretty little cottage with pink blossoms blooming in the yard.

And a thatched roof in a bigger cottage in the UK.

A pretty place to dream does NOT have to be huge with expensive furniture. Look how quaint this tiny area is. Adorable.

And talk about cute!!! Making some of these for a tea-drinking friend would be a terrific idea. They are genuinely cute!

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Tidbits:
Our state is #1!

"A" states are here.

There are no "B" states so let's go to "C" states and what they are #1 in:

California:
Roller coasters
Air pollution

Colorado:
Flu shots
Cocaine usage

Connecticut:
Dentists visits
Electricity consumption
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Linking up with SSS and NMH.

Trip To Washington

 On our recent trip over to Washington state to visit our granddaughter, her hubby and their two girls we had to drive 2 vehicles. We were delivering the sofa with the green and white ticking stripe slipcover I had in our family room to her. Their family room hide-a-bed was trashed by th' cats. So hopefully this one lasts longer. I'm running out of sofas!

Anyway, hubs drove his truck and I drove our Camry. We made it through a small part of Idaho, all of Oregon and just inside the Washington state line the tarp ripped. (Now, let me say here that if hubs had followed my advice on wrapping the sofa in a plastic drop cloth before putting on the heavy blue vinyl drop cloth we wouldn't have spent the better part of a day vacuuming and using a lint remover all over the sofa to get the teeny tiny bits blue stuff off.) Snicker, snicker!

Anyway, I was lead car keeping him in my rear view mirror at all times. We would have forgotten to do the same, trust me. When I didn't see him in my rear view mirror I called him on my cell and asked where he was. I was pulled over to the side when I did this. He told me what had happened and tied it again and then caught up with me. He took the lead for a while then.

Soon it started to rip completely off. We finally got to a WM store in Yakima, WA, and I went in and bought another tarp. He tied it even tighter and we made it to their home. Remember, it was raining and a bit of snow in the Blue Mountains so we had to have a cover for it. But let me tell you, that blue polypropylene is a bugger to get out of sofa fabric.

Then it became dark—foggy—as we came within about 50 miles of granddaughter's house. I turned on my lights but they didn't light up on my dashboard. I panicked, phoned hubs in back of me and told him to get in front and see if he could tell if they were on. He said, "They're faint, but on." I made him stay in front so I could see his tail lights. It gets pretty dark on the back woodsy roads of Washington when we got off the freeway. But the lights did come on just before we got there. I think it's a sensor in there that won't turn on until it gets to a certain degree of darkness but let me tell you I was panicking. I don't drive much at night at all so I wasn't really familiar with the lights. But I always fret when we travel. I like being home in my own house. But granddaughter and her family came over several weeks after that so we got to see them again.
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I just thought these pretty blues would delight you.

Though I didn't make this mosaic, I thought it beautiful enough to show you.

I have a pair of cowgirl boots broken in to where I love wearing them. They're slouchy now with a true cowboy heel, which is my favorite type of heel and I love them. I wear them with long dresses to church.

Another place to dream.

We all wish for a place to have inside for our gardening or snow days or just puttering, but few have one as nice as this.

Eye candy.

Yes! A beautiful pink house.

Fruit with flowers always makes a pretty table setting. I once used artichokes as a table setting.

A good way to keep your Popsicle when it's really hot out.

Cute wall sconce.

A place for gardening. Heck, I'd like it for my living room.

Wonder if it's all edible.

Little box covered with sea shells.

I loved the lace cover on this vintage table.

This looks like a showroom, but that bed is really stunning.

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Tidbit:
A Cinnabon study found that the scent of cinnamon causes mall shoppers to be more polite.
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Guess What I Found Recently!

For about a year I've been looking for some different dining chairs.

We bought our solid oak table in the early 80s in California. It is 42" square claw feet legs but has 2 leaves with it. We got six chairs and the table for $1,400 at that time which would be several hundred dollars more at today's prices. It is solid oak with a brown stain, which I've grown very tired of and want to paint. The problem is I don't want to do the grunge work of sanding. I've done that and refuse to do it again. That's a tough job.

The chairs that came with it were more a country look, which suited me at the time; they don't anymore and I've covered them with slipcovers I made several years ago. I wanted a new look.

So I went on a quest to find some french chairs. I do like that look. I did an internet search every couple of months to see what was available but nothing I liked or wanted to pay a high price for.  Then, lo and behold, while checking Craigslist recently I came across a table, 6 chairs, a beautiful hutch and an Aubusson rug. I didn't want all of those things and really didn't want to spend a lot of money. So I emailed the seller and we agreed upon a price for 2 chairs. I didn't want her arm chairs and 2 chairs needed the cane seats fixed. So we made an appointment to see the chairs.

Have you ever actually been inside a gated community of million dollar homes? I never had. I've been in some exquisite homes but nothing like this neighborhood in Eagle, an upscale suburb of Boise. When we moved to Idaho in the 90s we could have gotten a new home there for $159,000. Not any more. These homes were definitely upscale. Beautiful inside also.

Anyway, the woman and her hubby were gracious and we bought the 2 chairs pictured below. She buys and resells furniture and these she got at a store in Palm Springs, California, with which I'm familiar. These are very good chairs. I'm thrilled to have them and at a price that was extremely good because at Ethan Allen, my favorite furniture store along with Thomasville, I would have started at about $700+ for upholstery of my choice for similar chairs. I am very pleased with my chairs. It gives a totally different look to the dining room.

The two chairs.

Design on chairs.

Cane seats and backs.

Nice and tight.

The backs.

Gorgeous legs with bracings, which shows it's sturdy.

Just a lovely silhouette with the curved legs.

This is what I'll be making for the two I bought.

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Don't you just love this bright pink fence?!

Sweet pink vignette with peonies.

Some old ephemera.

A beautiful shuttered home with an English garden.

The way I like froufrou!!!

Now this is my kind of hammock. Slather it with fluffy ruffled duvets, pillows and cushions. Ummm-hmmm.

I've seen 2 cookies lately that are the most gorgeous ever. This is one set. I'll show the other later with another post.

An antique sign, pink table, pink upholstered vintage chair, pink cushions and a flowered lamp. My kind of decoration for a living room.

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Tidbit:
Oprah Winfrey sleeps on Frette bedsheets, which boast a very high thread count and sell for thousands of dollars a set. They are exceptional sheets. Looking at the website recently, I could have gotten a set marked down to $1,372.00 from $2,745.00 and that's just plain white 100% Egyptian cotton. It does have delicate lace around the top sheet and the pillow has an edging of lace and an inset of lace. Made in Italy. Oh, I guess you know by now I won't be purchasing them any time soon, right? ;-)
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Driving In Snow

Snow has been sugaring our yard the past few days. It does look like a winter wonderland, only I hate driving in snow and ice. I've been doing it a few times these past couple of weeks because I need to be able to do it in an emergency, but I'm driving Love Bunny nuts. We are making a trip over to Washington in a few weeks to visit granddaughter, her hubby and the girls and we knew it'd be snowing somewhere along the way so I had to be prepared. But when we first moved up here, I'd never been in snow to drive; after all, we've lived most of our lives in California.

Well, the first 2 years up here I had 2 accidents in the snow. One was where I was driving Love Bunny's truck and hit a road post and destroyed his passenger side door. You know how well that went over, right? He had broken a couple of ribs a few days before so I had no choice. I needed to go somewhere. I had to drive. Plus I skidded out several times. So I gave it up as we've not had much snow here for a lot of years and it melts pretty fast. It was time, however, to give it a second chance. I probably have a reputation in our city as the slowest driver in snow but at least I'm safe.
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Another beautiful lamp and shade in this vignette.

Wonderful place to stroll.

Cute little vignette.

More eye candy for ya.

Wonderful outdoor living area.

Italy!

Another beautiful area of a lovely room.

Charming old home.

Pretty way to display fabrics—with folded roses sewn together.

I'd love to visit this cute cafe.

Another pretty setting with roses.

French vignette.

How lovely would it be to live here, almost like a castle.

Pretty entry way.

Another beautiful window surrounded by roses and lace curtains inside.

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Tidbit:
In 2006, a London fashion show called "Naked Fragrance" had nude models wearing different brands of perfume, walking in front of a blindfolded audience.
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