~ Decorating with Rusty Old Things

Sometimes you don't know exactly how or when you started to really love something. It's that way with rust. Without a doubt I spent many hours with cleaners, navel jelly, sandpaper and whatever to get rust off of something that I wanted to paint.

When I saw this lock and the sister one that I found at the same time, I knew

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~ Decorating with Antique Blue Bottles on The Mantel

 Although I seldom decorate with pink, sometimes it just fits the mood. This time of year when there are flowers outside, it is so enjoyable to have them inside as well.  So many times I look for something different

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~ Home Office with Black Cabinet Built-Ins & Desk

A home office can be simply a tiny corner set aside for paying bills or copying recipes, or it an be a major design element including an entire room.

Recently Sweet Daughter purchased a large white desk so that she could create her much needed home office in an alcove of her den/family room. Since she knew this was what she wanted for sometime, I was busy looking for ideas of combining bookcases with desks to show her.

The picture above (photo by The Decorated House) of a  home office is from a showhouse a couple of years ago. Aren't those cabinets beautiful? Painted black with wire inset in the doors, this is storage with style. My daughter chose white instead of wood or black to keep the room lighter since gets less light than the rest of the house. She does not have enough room for full double door bookcases like the ones here, so we have been hunting for ones that are less than 20 inches since her desk is a large 63 inches. It had to be that size because she wanted a built-in file cabinet drawer. She did not think she wanted any doors, but with have Cody Bear in the house and therefore doggie hair, I'm tying to convince her to have at least the bottom half with a door and then leave the top for books and display. It has taken quite a while to find the right desk at a good price.


My own art room - studio has been in-the-making for such a long time, I wonder if it will ever be "done" and cleaned up as well as truly organized. Older homes usually have such deficient closet space and that certainly contributes to the problem of not enough storage when you are artists or someone who loves to create things.

Some of the pictures I have found online of  Home Offices & Studios  are here on Pinterest. There are so great ideas even though I need more inspiration and energy to get it done!

See Y'All Soon~

~ Bedroom Inspiration - Pretty Red Chest Style Nightstands

Aren't those chests pretty as nightstands? How easy it would be to make something just as stunning by painting a small chest or dresser that you were lucky enough to find at a thrift store or garage sale. This is such a charming bedroom created for a fundraiser showhouse. Simple design, no excess accessories. In our bedroom we have larger chests like these to help with the lack of storage. Works out really well.

See Y'All Soon~

~ Succulent Dish Garden ~ How-To, Tutorial

We are still working outside right now, and one of the last things to do is to freshen up some of the succulent dish gardens, or make new ones. My love affair with many of these succulents continues. I guess I just never saw many of these in my early years of gardening or plants like mother-in-laws tongue didn't hold much interest for me.

So even though this is a repeat, you might enjoy it again, or for the first time.

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Making a succulent dish garden

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~ Living Rooms ~ Which Would You Choose?

Aren't these two living rooms both beautiful and interesting?  When they first started appearing around the web, it made me take a closer look since they had different elements that I too really liked. The spaces may be very different in size in real life, but I'm only looking at what we see in the photos. 

The first picture is House Beautiful magazine chatting with designer, and Euro Trash owner Annie Brahler, who shares how she used gold accents, restored antiques, and large mirrors when decorating her Jacksonville, IL home.

 

 The second photo is from Sally Wheat Designs. We can look into the rooms from a similar entry point, and see what might have been the same space decorated by two different designers. Both spaces have light neutral walls, and wood floors with a natural rug, a very simple color palette, and gold accents. A simple and well used plan for good reason. The first house is a Victorian as opposed to the second one which is not as old. But you could easily visualize swapping the furniture and think that is the way each designer might have decorated the other space,  at least from the way we are seeing the rooms from the photos. The Victorian room might be much larger since the fireplace is probably centered between two windows.

 I've seen people on-line swoon over both of these pictures. How nice that we are all so different. Which one is more to your liking? Does one just suit your style perfectly, or you like something(s), or don't like something(s), from each one? 

See Y'all Soon~

~ Happy Mother's Day!

Wishing you a wonderful Mother's Day

See Y'All Soon~

~ Update the Instant Garden ~ Fast Growing Summer Border ~

Click on link for an update on The Instant Garden.

(The last post didn't update in feedburner.)

The above picture is for semi-shade summer gardening,

with lots of watering.   

See Y'All Soon~

Donna

~ Instant Garden ~ Fast Growing Summer Border ~ Update

Here's an update for 2012:

This proved to be really a perfect little spot of flower garden. As had been the case previously, the Purple Coneflower did very will for about half the summer. As before, the combination of very dry to very wet with a short span of days, was too much for it. At least in this particular spot, though I have tried it in other places of the yard as well. So this year I probably opt for getting that same color with another flower and getting the look of the flower with an African Daisy.

Of course the Pentas, Purple Buddy,  Bush Daisy, Purple Fountain Grass, and Purple Heart did exactly as expected. They can take the heat with good watering, the bloom all summer long. The Mystic Spires Blue Salvia also lasted the the whole summer into fall. It is considered an annual but many slavias come back or re-seed. This area received not tender loving care over the winter, and the salvia did not come back. But it probably would have if it had been better care during the winter.

For 2012, I will definitely be using the same flowers that I mentioned above that did so well. That border was planted in the heat of May and somehow it happens to be May already! Time to get to it.

Here is the original post with before and after shots. The flowers have been in the ground a couple of weeks at the most in the pictures. The biggest difference was the green sweet potato vine took over everything, much to my delight. 

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 When we began redoing all of the backyard in the fall 2010, the best thing to do was concentrate on shrubs and the foundation things that would be there for a very long time. It was a good idea. The only problem was that the whole area had been flower beds with no grass before we made a very big change to the backyard. I really missed the punch of color and flowers.  As the warm weather came around we were shopping for  mulch and rocks and of course you guessed it .... those little lovely flowers kept jumping out and saying buy me, buy me. I missed the flower beds, but I was trying to fight the addiction for them. Not very well though.

So as not to get too carried away, I removed just three sections of landscaping in three different areas, two in sunny to very sunny and one in semi-sun environment to make way for 3 small flower areas. I had just found an article that I had saved from P. Allen Smith about a fast growing border. It was just too much encouragement to resist. Especially when I saw his background included one of my favorite plants of color, the Purple Fountain Grass. So off I went to look for a few good flowers

I haven't had great luck with the Purple Coneflower in the past. We can get days and days of rain, and I think it just doesn't like wet feet. Of course I bought it anyway, because I can't resist a pretty face.

The yellow Bush Daisy over on the right and in the middle of the bed, is a very easy one to grow. The tall Mystic Blue Spires Salvia has the most fabulous true blue. More blue than many of the salvias I've grown before.

That bright green Marguerite Sweet Potato Vine always does very well. It can take the heat and sun as long as it has plenty of water, which can mean daily if we have no rain that day. The Blackie Sweet Potato is in another area, although it is the perfect companion color with the lime great. Instead I stuck some Purple Heart in for more purple color.

Most of these were purchased in gallon size pots, expect for the Pentas and Purple Buddy. It's an instant garden for someone who can be a bit impatient this time of year of color. It also is fast growing and will be much more filled in within a short time.

Now to keep them all alive and watered through the long hot summer! None of these should need replacing though. They all should make it through this year and into next if they are tended to. Just more time out watering every morning.
(Read at the top for update.)

See Y'All Soon~
Donna

~ Antique Book Pages Idea ~ DIY

A simple stack of antique books can be used in so many ways to add texture and interest to you rooms. I know so many people love antique books. But they can be expensive. Here is very easy and cheap - frugal  way to dress up very inexpensive book pages for a lovely display.

As you can see from the side, these actually are very old, antique books. They were found with their covers either gone or falling off. The pages are aged, foxed and naturally antiqued in color. But you could used ready to discard, almost old books that you could age yourself.

The trick to have an "antique book stack" is what you put on the very top. 

I used an antique book page and printed some of my own art on it. Of course you could use a copyright free, old graphic that you might find on line. It would look best if you had one nice antique page to put on top, but you could also do creative aging to a newer page using coffee, tea or baking in the oven.  Tie it up with with rustic twine, velvet or lace or whatever suits you!

See Y'All Soon~