I Am Getting Inspired!!

Since the weather is changing to a nice summery warmth my mind is going to my backyard.  I truly love my backyard, but as with any area in one’s home it can always use a little sprucing up. I keep a file of backyard inspiration images that attracted my attention for various reasons. As I have told you before the back of my home is painted a different color than the front. The front of my home is soft yellow, white with small amounts of black. In the backyard I used cool greens and blue. I wanted a cooling down effect with our hot summer temperatures. Let me show you some of the images that are inspiring me right now.

So cool and crisp looking. Notice the boxed pillow frame in the stripe.  I am going to remember this as a fun look for pillows inside or outside.

White wicker looks so crisp with the addition of the cobalt blue stripe.

I like how this long narrow space was divided into two sitting areas. If this had cobalt blue pillows I think it would have such a lush cool affect.

Candlelight always makes everything look inviting to me.  If you add stripes to the mix it becomes perfection. In all of these pictures I am visualizing my blues and greens in place of the colors that are pictured.

 

Love,love,love this door. I am going to try and figure out how to incorporate it on my fence gate in the backyard.

 

I know, I know this is not an outside area, but their is so much inspiration for me in this picture. I love the large  almost monogram looking print on the back of the chairs. The blue hydrangeas and the white porcelain pieces made me think of my window box that is cobalt blue and it has green ferns and white hydrangeas with tips of blue in it. The black legs of the chairs and the black table reminded me of all the old black wrought iron gates in my backyard leaning against the cool green walls. You see there are lots of places to get inspiration for the outdoor spaces in your home.

This is perfection to me. I just purchased some cobalt/navy cushions with off white cord welting for my white wicker. The flowers on the table are like what is in my window box. Oh how I would love a lamp out back, I am working on that idea. I am also going to add a couple of blue and white porcelain pieces with my cobalt and green pots. I love it when it an idea starts to come together after being in my brain for so long.

I loved this image for the use of boxwoods and water features. I have to have water features in my yard. I do have a pool so that is a feature in of itself. We have connected a fountain to the pool that floats in the middle and adds a nice ambiance when there is no swimming going on. I also have a small bubbler in my yard that I will share with you on another post that is so easy to make. You can do it in a couple of hours. Now that is the kind of DIY project I like. No paint involved, just water, rocks and plants.

A couple of other elements in this image that I love is the lantern and the overhang on the door. I also like the outdoor shutters. I have shutters that my honey made for me to go with the window box.

I hope you are all having a wonderful Memorial Day weekend in your backyards. Whether it is with friends or family, or if you are planting or barbequing have a great time!!

 “Enjoy the Process”

Of: Making your backyard your very own sanctuary.

Happy Memorial Day!!

Kathysue

Will you Eat off of Plastic ??

I know that sounds like a strange question doesn't it?  I have an aversion to eating or drinking out of plastic. It is one of my quirks. With the summer weather upon us we will be spending more time out in our backyard where our pool resides.

With pool weather comes barbeques and drinks outside. To prevent broken glass from being stepped on plastic seems to be the most logical idea.

I went looking around on Google and I actually found some great looking plastic dishes. Here are just a few of the ones I found…….

This fun set of black and white can be ordered on line, here as well as these colorful dishes below.

 

The next three plates are all by Thomas Paul and you can get them on his website as well as many other patterns.

If you are a lover of Thomas Paul and classic black and white try these wonderful designs he did for Target here.

These come in such great colors and designs from here

More fun colors from Target!

How would you like to add your own monogram and design your own plates .You can do it here at La Plates

These brightly colored plates are on sale right now at Pier I

So after looking at just some of the possibilities I think I am changing my mind about plastic dishes or Melamine, to call them by their proper name.

I do have some pretty precious plates in melamine. My three sons drew on these plates as a gift for me when they were in Kindergarten. I have used them with the grandkids from time to time. Pretty precious drawings by some pretty precious hands.

"Enjoy The Process" Of: Finding Pretty in Plastic.

Kathysue

BTW: I was in TJ Maxx today and they had some wonderful leaf patterned dishes in Melamine. Check it out!

They arrived! Here Is A Sneak Peek!!

Yesterday the big brown truck stopped in front of my house!!! Up walked the man in the brown clothes with the brown package. It was a large round, soft package. I was so excited because I knew it was the “Cushions”! I could not get the wrapping off quickly enough. I squealed and did a happy dance.  I took the cushion outside to my porch and placed it in the chair. It is the perfect fit! Whew! That is a good thing. I stepped back and took a look to get a view of the whole picture. Perfection!! It looks just like I wanted it to look. Here is a sneak peek of the cushion….

I promise I will show you the complete porch. I just have some sprucing up to do. I have some flowers in the pots that need to be changed out to some fresh flowers. I was just so excited I had to come here and share with you all. It is so fun to have like minded people that get as excited as I do about the little details of decorating our homes. I just love blog land and all you wonderful creative minds out there. Thank you for letting me share in my excitement with you throughout the week.

“Enjoy the Process” Of: Seeing a plan come to fruition.

Kathysue

Something New To Me!!

I was feeling a little under the weather this weekend. I did not feel like doing much since it appears I have a touch of something that is trying to take me down!! I could not seem to wrap my mind around blogs, reading or even writing the last few days so that left TV. Thank goodness for the DVR! I started watching my Candace Olsen episodes. On one of the shows she was doing a bathroom. Bathrooms are by far my favorite room to design. A lot of what she was doing I had seen before. She was working with a mosaic tile. I have almost the same mosaic tile in my bathroom, but I do love it so I was interested in seeing what she was going to do with it. They started applying the tile to the walls and they picked out a beautiful marble stone floor. I have seen all of this before, or so I thought!

They showed the finished wall tile and to my surprise the most subtle beautiful pattern emerged. Boy was I glad I remembered seeing the manufactures name. Bisazza Tile. Make sure you click on the link to go and see there amazing website. Here is the pattern that Candace used and some other patterns that caught my eye. They have even more so go to their website for a lot of eye candy.

The pattern on the left is what Candace used Hearts in Bianco. This is not her bath but it is the tile pattern from Bisazzo website. What you are about to see is done with tile. It is not a wall covering. You are about to see some amazing tile designs, Enjoy!!

Be still my heart! I love, love this!!

Can you believe these amazing tile images? I can just see some of these as  a whole wall or even as a framed panel in a shower to cut down on cost. I just had to share these with you. I had never seen them before and I do love a pretty bathroom.  Any bathroom would become more than pretty with the addition of these tiles.

“ Enjoy the Process” Of: Discovering new design elements.

Kathysue

Bring In Some Loveliness

If you have read my blog for very long it is no secret I am a big fan of Eddie Ross. To tell you why would probably take too long. In short, he is one of the most endearing young men I have met in a long time. He has so much talent and I believe has the ability to bring the “Lovely” back into our homes.

He just did a post on an article that was in the Home section of the Chicago Tribune Sunday paper. The title is Lost Luxuries. Eddie talks about ways to bring back luxuries into our everyday life. You must go and read the article. I was so taken with it I did not want it to end. I could have read a whole book with his wonderful ideas. I won’t talk about what he wrote, you must go and read it on his blog post here.

The article did get me thinking about some of the things that I like to do to bring back the Lovely or as he put it, “Lost Luxuries” back in my home.
It is never the over the top things that we do that seem lovely but the simple things that make ourselves and others feel special.
At the end of his post he asked what are some of the things we do in our own home or lives. I thought I would share a few with you here on my own blog.

 

I always drink out of pretty glasses even if it is a glass of water. I try to have a lemon or a lime slice to add to it. There is nothing prettier than a glass full of ice with water and a pretty little slice of yellow or green citrus floating in the liquid.

  I try to keep fresh flowers in my home. I make sure I have at least two areas where I can display fresh flowers. Even in my bath I have a very small bud vase on the sink with a flower or two in it. It does not always have to be flowers either. A few stems of fern or greenery can add freshness to a room.

I spray all of my beds with a Lavender linen spray. I like the one made my Scentennials.

In the evening and I must admit even during the day I have ambient lighting. I use small refrigerator bulbs 7watts each in my lights that I like to keep on. If you ever come to my home you will notice the lamp light on the porch is always on.

Candles, I love candlelight. I use unscented votives and sometimes in the evening I will have one little votive by where I am sitting just because I think it is lovely.
Music is always playing in my home . I like soft background music, you know the kind you can hear gently but nothing ever to loud.
I did a post when I first started blogging that I called A Sense-sational home that mentions these. If you have time you might enjoy reading it also.

I hope after reading Eddies wonderful post and reading my post that was inspired by him you go away with wanting to bring back the Luxuries or loveliness to your home.

" Enjoy the Process" Of: Bringing some loveliness back into your home.

Kathysue

The Fabric has been Chosen!

I actually brought home three samples of fabric. One was a green and white damask, one was a stripe with greens and pinks with an overlay damask print in cream, and the last one was a soft off white with varying sizes of green stripes. I lived with the samples for a few days and made my decison. The pink and green was actually the perfect colors and pattern, however, it just said too much. It kept saying, "Look at me,look at me." I was tired of looking at it within the first hour. I wanted it to be a quiet soft look.  The damask had too much yellow base in the green. The soft green stripe won!  Stripes afterall are  a consistent pattern in my life. The color was perfection and it went well with some damask green and white pillows that I already in my wicker chairs in the living room. I also have some silk green and cream curtains in the room. So here is the winner………

I fell in love with this trim. It is not the conventional gimp that might be on a chair like this but I like a little whimsy in my life and this just called out to me. They only had enough to do the chair and  it was discontinued, so I felt it was just meant to be for me to buy it.

The chair has been gutted, fluffed and puffed, stapled and tacked. This is what it looks like now…………………………….

Here is the fabric draped on the chair. I really like the way it looks, so soft so pretty. It is like a diamond matelasse’ on the background with the stripe overlay. Simple, soft and lovely.

This is a picture of the damask pillow and the silk drapes that are already in the room. It is an unfinished room but it does have a garden room look to it because of the great light that comes through the bay window. Rememer this room has vanilla icecream walls with white molding and a green ceiling. Here is a picture of the ceiling so you can see how it all ties in together……….

This mirror is reflecting the ceiling. Now it is onto the part I have been waiting for, putting on the fabric. Wish me luck!! To be continued……

“Enjoy the Process” Of: Seeing a project unfold.

Kathysue

Oh My! What Have I Started!!

I mentioned in my DIY project post that I had two small projects, the frames, and one bigger project, the can of worms. Well, I decided I could freshen up an antique rocker in my living room. Eventually, if I ever get to do my living room I would like four matching chairs with a large table in the middle. This room was called the quiet room when my boys were growing up. It was used for reading and playing the piano. My lady friends and I sit in there and have had great conversations. Back to the rocking chair. I sat in this chair and rocked each one of my Grandbabies and we have read books in that chair. I checked on having it re-done, but it would cost more than the chair was actually worth. It looked like a simple job, NOT!! Here is the chair………..

You can see it is mahogany and it is a simple upholstery job. There are  springs in the bottom and one had broken through the bottom, time to do something about this.

Hubby and I flipped the chair over and took a peek inside to find old springs and webbing that was coming loose. We proceeded to replace the webbing and sew each spring to the new webbing. I will not even bore you with these details but let me say three trips to the store and two days later, the chair has new insides.

We proceeded to strip the fabric and stuffing. Inside we found old cotton batting and even horse hair, so we know this chair is really an old rocker. We proceeded to paint the chair in a gloss white to freshen it up ala Brocade style………….

How do you like my work bench? It actually worked quite well. You can see the old burlap backing and the cotton wadding. They had taken an old piece of fabric to cover the springs. It still had a covered button attached to it, which I thought was kind of funny. There were three different fabrics on this chair. The gold damask that you saw and a soft pink embossed fabric that looked like it was from the forties, and than a tiny floral print on black, I bet it looked really pretty in that fabric. Here are a few more pictures of what was inside……………..

There were a bazillon tacks and staples to be taken out of the rocker, borrrrrring!

You can see just a bit of the pink fabric and below is a bit of the small floral print.

You must understand, Hubby and I do not know what we are doing at all on this chair. At this point we are both wondering what the heck have we done!! Now on to the fun part, choosing the fabric!!! To be continued……..

“ Enjoy the Process” Of: Taking apart an older piece to try and make it new and fresh!

Kathysue

DIY is NOT! My Middle Name

I have learned a lot of things through the process of blogging. One of the most recent lessons was…… Do not post on a project until it is at least near completion. Case in point-my porch. I am use to taking my time on projects.  You know me, I am the girl that is constantly saying, “ Enjoy the Process.” What I realized through my “ Enjoying the Process,”is that I made my readers wait to long for the final outcome.

With that being said, I did a post a week or so ago on Spring Fever. Well, during my feverish two weeks.(yes it only lasted 2 weeks and the illness has left me, depleted) I did do a few little projects. No, that is not true, I did two little projects and one that turned out to be waaaaay bigger than I originally thought.

The two little projects consisted of an original oil painting done by Dorothy Spangler and a rather ornate gold frame. This painting is full of bright Springy colors and was given to me as a gift from a very dear friend.
During my Spring Fever time I got a bee in my bonnet that this frame would look much better in white. I thought a soft white would look nice.  I read a lot of DIY blog post out in blog land and they do all kinds of wonderful projects. Surely I can spray paint a picture frame white.  If you read my Brocade post here, you know that their wonderful pieces done in white have always inspired me.
Well, I purchased the paint taped off the oil painting verrrrry carefully and began my project. I primed and began spraying. Everything was going along smoothly(including the finish) until all of the sudden I started seeing little tiny, tiny specks of paint that appeared to be dust caught in the spray paint. I stopped what I was doing and had to get Hubby to rescue me. After sanding between coats and putting a coat of gloss on top, thanks to him I now have a fresh looking ornate picture frame and a nice white frame for an antique mirror. I can show you the mirror and the picture frame but the other, bigger project is not quite done. Here is the before………….

BEFOREI love this original oil painting with its bright Spring colors but the frame looked a bit tired so after the spraying and painting it now looks like this………….

AFTER

I love how it now stands out in the room as a fresh bouquet of Spring flowers. The wall color is actually the color of vanilla ice-cream so the new color on the frame looks really nice.

Now for the little antique mirror that I bought at a garage sale. A couple was selling their grandmothers belongings. She had some beautiful pieces that I will share on another post. This is a small oval mirror. I like the way it turned out, but I needed to adjust some of the objects around it to make it work in the space better. More on that later! Notice how I do one thing and then it leads to another, Oh my!!

BEFORE

Here it is sitting in my wicker chair. I just noticed this is a great picture to show my ceiling treatment. It is a soft celadon green with white moldings. The chandelier is a 1930’s crystal piece . I love to add a little architecture to my suburban California ranch. Okay back to the mirror. Here is a close-up of the top detailing……….

This is all carved wood so it is pretty ornate.

AFTER

You can see that I need to put some white candles on the low boy underneath this piece. I am not sure what I will do exactly, but trust me when I make the change you all will be the first to know. For those of you who love antique clocks, this is a beauty. She is red marble with a bronze statue and has a wonderful porcelain face with numbers in the same color as the marble and in the center a lovely iris. This is one of my favorite pieces in my home.

A closer look at the now painted detail.

I realize that spray painting a couple of frames is no great shakes for most people but unfortunately it is kind of a big deal to this not so DIYer.

I am very pleased with the results and I think they add a fresher look to my living room. Now on to the “Other” bigger project. Boy, have I opened a can of worms,Yikes!!

“Enjoy the Process” Of: Giving something old a fresh new look.

Kathysue