On Order in Our Homes

For those of you who don't know or realize it, I have a Pinterest page with over 10,400 images. All "eye candy" you would love to see. I post often there. Go visit it. I don't really like tooting my own horn but I will here: In just 6 short months, there are over 6,600 followers there so you know the images are beautiful. Your choice. But if I were you, I wouldn't miss them. ;-)
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As Alexandra Stoddard says: Everything in our surroundings speaks for us, and if we accept living with a vulgar design we must pay for it. Caring about aesthetics increases your sensitivity. The more we care about the small details, the more in tune to beauty we become, and the more we realize how seemingly insignificant items affect us. You discover that by taking care of every inch of your surroundings you let your eyes wander and not be caught short. We're free to open up to all there is in our surroundings. I get enormous pleasure and comfort from orderly, harmonious, attractive surroundings, and I feel unhappy and disturbed when things are out of place, out of scale or in bad taste. Let your eye be the judge. Train yourself to see things with caring perception. [This is me in a nutshell as I'm obsessive and compulsive about order.]
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I've been buying sparkly lemonade in pretty bottles simply to have the bottles and the stoppers that come with them. I love pretty bottles to put in fizzy lemonade to drink out of stemmed glasses. We drink out of our stemware/crystal glasses a lot. It gives me a feeling of elegance that I love, plus hubby is the first one to grab the glasses so I know he likes the romantic, elegant feeling also. Men do have that side of them, ya know. ;-)
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She who leaves a trail of glitter is never forgotten.
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Just a yummy room for a photo shoot but I'd have to paint those walls for sure!

Huge lovely old home .

Lots of plant elements here. Maybe it's a store but I sure do like the wall hangers and tables.

A dreamy bedroom that is very close to my own.

Wouldn't you just love this on your front porch?!

Bouquets of gorgeous pink roses and tulips.

There are times when I love the quaintness of old kitchens and this is one I definitely like.

Perfection.

Beautiful brick-paved walkway and a bench among garden flowers.

This looks like such a fun room!

Pretty cobbled street in a foreign country. Love how their hydrangeas are growing on the street.

I can't resist pretty table settings with lace and flowers.

A crafter's room? Lovely.

A store with a gorgeous headboard for sale.

This woman is definitely bold with her home. Lovin' the blue stripes and the candy colors of the room.

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Tidbit:

The world's windiest place is Commonwealth Bay, Antarctica. Winds regularly exceed 150 miles per hour.
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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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Random Thoughts 6/22/12

Random Thoughts:

My son's friend was married to a Russian woman briefly several years ago. I think it was one of those mail-order bride situations. Her parents came over to visit them in Southern California, first visit ever, and they were stymied by all the food and food items available as well as the orchards. They couldn't believe the orchards in Southern California didn't have fences around them. (Now, we're talking S. Cal here, where most people have a few trees in their backyards even.) Anyway, they were aghast at the plethora of orchards. They said in Russia all the orchards had fences around them and if you tried to pick the fruit, you'd be shot as there were sentries posted. How awful that must be. They even "sneaked" into an orchard and pulled a few oranges off to eat while visiting. So if you ever think about living in the eastern European countries, think of what you'd be missing.
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My hubs' brother and his family lived in Italy for several years. Their apartment came with walls. That's it. No cabinets, floors, sinks, toilets, etc. You got walls. When they moved into the apartment, a window was broken. It took months to get another one. You don't just walk into Home Depot and get one. You wait and wait and wait. I think they were happy to go to Belgium after that. ;-) But I haven't heard the Belgium stories either.
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Living in actual cowboy country I made this observation: Cowboys don't whistle at women; they nod when passing. Yep, they sure do. Cowboys are the last true American men, in my opinion.
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A couple of weeks ago, I read about a woman on American Idol who didn't win. (Having had no television for over 25 years, we have never seen AI.) But her reaction was: I have absolutely nothing. Seriously, how ungrateful can a young person be? What does it say about our society when a very young woman laments that she has nothing?! She lives in the best country on the face of the earth. She has some talent or she wouldn't have been a contestant on a television show. She has the ability to set her own fate. She could get a job!! She's alive and breathing. I'm sure she has food provided to her by her mummy and dada. In the photo accompanying this story, she had on a very pretty dress. What does she mean she has nothing? How tragic she must be.
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The above young woman sounds like a few other people I know who have upgraded basic stupidity to disability level.
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Now on to some beauty:

What the woman who lives in this home did to her sofa is fantastic. Just adorable. Of course, I love that style.

More white slipcovers in this cute living room.

How clever to display your roses and carnations in a button jar.

I’d love to have a bathroom with a shower that didn’t need a door or shower curtain. This color is beautiful also.

Tiny office but it’s enough. Very clever and so attractive you don’t have to hide it. Looks to be a closet turned into an office.

More lovely blossoms surrounding this entrance to several apartments.

Another unique birdhouse. I plan on getting some more done in the next several weeks.

Another clever and innovative homeowner using a basket to hold towels. Look at the sprigs of evergreens in her toilet tissue.

Pretty porch done on the cheap it looks like. Cute and cozy.

And yet another pretty sun porch to laze around on.

This homeowner likes exactly what I do also. Lots of cushy seat pillows and roses everywhere I can find a spot to put them.

This is a miniature garden. I’ve never done one but they are cute if you like tiny things.

Another clever idea for a laundry room. I don’t think I could stand doing laundry in a dreary room or area. I did mine just like the rest of my home—pink with roses border and pictures hanging in there.

Another tiny fairy garden. Cute!

I like the wallpaper and the curtains best. But the whole room is lovely.

Somebody’s eye candy in their studio. ;-)

A crown someone made. Why don’t you make one to put around your living room or wherever you choose. I have one in my bedroom on a shelf, but I am going to bring it out into my living room so everyone can see it.

Cakes we love to look at and not even eat. This whole setting is just adorable.

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Hydrangeas

I'm doing something just a tad different in our family room entrance so I brought a mosaic from the entrance to the family room to the entrance to the house. Ever changing, as I've said before.

I had to show you the hydrangeas and roses once more. I thought they had finished blooming but not so. They were planted a couple of years ago and didn't really take off well until this year. Each year they keep getting bigger and bigger like those we had in California. They struggle but I do believe they'll bloom in abundance in the next couple of years. Isn't this bloom gorgeous?

This one on the other side of the plant is withering slowly—playing out its existence for the year.

See how much thicker it's getting.

Again, the opposite side is dying its natural death.

And the roses. I didn't think this bush had that much left in it after Love Bunny's severe pruning thinking that the season was over for it, but I was wrong. (Yeah, let LB know I was wrong! He'd croak for sure.) :-)

Another bush has burst forth in all its glory also. We are truly blessed this year with roses.

And the hostas and day lily are flowering also.

Would you just look at how wonderful God is to bless us so abundantly with this marvelous garden area.

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