Romantic Country Rooms #4

Aren't these rooms lovely also? Girls, look at some of the ideas in these room, adapt them to your homes and run with it.

Pair a red and white check chair/sofa or cloth with a kilim rug and some old pottery found at a garage sale. Do NOT be afraid to mix several patterns in a room. I think it's dramatic when done.

Or look around your house or your mother's or grandmother's house for some old furbelows (trims) and bibelots to showcase in your homes. Showcase them magnificently!

Add drama with a bold color somewhere in a room.

Or find what you might consider an ugly oddity and showcase it. I'll bet you it will grow on you. That has truly happened to me.

While I absolutely love pink and most colors associated with reds, I'm not averse to other colors, especially yellow. Yellow is a cheery color when you have a dark house. Nuuuuu, I'm not changing my walls from pink to yellow, but I truly LOVE pink and bright yellow together. I guess the owner of this room does too because she pairs those bright yellow walls with a red/pinkish sofa on the left.

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Unveiling the Living Room Now

Now, you know I can't stop once I'm on a roll, right? Okay then, once I put the covers on I noticed that there was a bit too much white in the room in that area. I love white and love those curtains, but it needed some color behind that sofa. I then put up the curtains I talked about here. I like it much better and will even more once I can get that Solartube in the ceiling. (I'm saving for it!) But before I show you the big photos of the sofa I thought I'd show you the fabric, texture and makeup of the slipcover up close.

So here is the room now. The curtains have a color in them that makes the red Thomasville chair go with it even if the photo looks odd. Colors aren't exactly true on monitors as much as in person.

And I also put this pillow that I bought at Ethan Allen 15 years ago back on the sofa. I like a mixture of pillows on my sofa and don't think it's too formal to put on there. Even if it is formal, I like it and that's what matters. :-)

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Lorena's thumbtacks

My birthday was recently and a sweet friend gifted me with these adorable handmade roses thumbtacks and magnet for my fridge. I absolutely love receiving things like this in the mail. It just makes my heart sing, lifts me up and gives me joy to know someone is thinking of me. Are they not gorgeous?!

Then of course I had to show you where my little ribbon tree is in my house. That's not to say it'll stay there forever, but for now, this is where I'll display it. And yep, I put it inside a little box that has a faux fern in it. I just like doing things differently and that give me eye candy for my soul. :-)

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Napkin Rings for Pink Saturday 9/25/2010

Happy Pink Saturday. Click the icon below to be taken to Beverly's other participants.

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I've collected napkin rings for 25 years at least. I simply like the look of them all gathered in a bowl for visual effect or as I like to call it eye candy since I'm a very visual person anyway. So after hunting in the garage attic for our garage sale in mid June Love Bunny found them and brought them down to sell. I held them back to perhaps put them on eBay or my selling blog La Maison Rose. I truly cannot abide Mr. LB selling them for 50¢ for dozens of them like he did my other thing—pillows and shabby chic storage boxes. Does this mean I have "separation" issues?!

I have rabbits, teddy bears, roses, Christmas, fabric ones, rooster, some purchased in Ireland, simple wooden ones, silver, masks, a few plain ones, some seashell ones and many that just touched my heart at that particular time.

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Showcasing the New Slipcovers and a Peeve

I finally received my new slipcovers! Now remember, these were made for another Ethan Allen sofa with the same style as my 15 year-old sofa I bought from them that they don't make any more. They just happened to have the same sort of style with an inch or two difference. This was the post where I first introduced the difference in styles. It fits almost perfectly but remember it was only $400.00 and it was custom made for the other sofa that was just a tad shorter. I'm well pleased with it. I can wash it but I don't think I'll ever have to wash the main section, just wash the cushions if they get dirty from visiting kids and grandkids.

Here I'm just starting to put them on.

I realized after taking this photo that I had knocked the ribbon tree over.

Here I uprighted the ribbon tree but the photo lighting is not as good or accurate as the above photo.

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While I'm sitting here blogging I want to add one more thing to this post. Another lovely blogger put her thoughts on her blog and gave me permission to quote her. They also struck a chord with me so here they are:
I've spoken about there being room for all types of bloggers out there. But I have one more thing to say about blogging that has to do with basic good manners. House/cottage, nesting, crafting, creative blogs are, by their nature, more cozy and welcoming than are political blogs, for example. I spoke of those bloggers who get hundreds of comments and never return the favor. I realize that keeping up with hundreds of comments on each post is impossible. We're all busy and sometimes it takes a while before we can return the visit. But when several comments are made over a long period of time and no effort is made to respond, whether by email or a visit to the commenter's blog, well, that sticks in my craw. It's rude and there is no room for that. I know it has happened to all of you. It certainly has happened to me. Those are the blogs I stop visiting.

So here's my suggestion: If your blog has become so impossibly big that you can no longer take the time to communicate with your readers who are, after all, the reason you have become so popular, then perhaps you should stop blogging. Because you've already lost the heart and soul of what made your blog so attractive to begin with.

I agree with this wholeheartedly. When I see so many ads, the heart and soul isn't there anymore.
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