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I want to share ways to create a signature style in home design for others by offering ideas and pictures as examples.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

(eye) Candy and Cancer

Sooooo, let's talk some "Ccccccsssss", eye candy, chemo, and cancer.
Here is what cancer and chemo can do to you.

  
But the tumor is living in me so I have sort of learned to accept it and it has just become a part of me.

But it is not like a cozy place to be and it is not my friend.

House Beautiful,  1999 Glamour issue, showed John Rosselli's ability to create a cozy  place.  His farm dwelling has gateleg tables stacked with books and candles.

  
                                                         Love, love, love, this table!


                           I feel the warmth that I don't feel from my cancer.


 
                                     Thibault Jeanson was the photographer. 

So now this is what I looked like before the cancer and hope to look like again some day. Because I am hoping my surgeon tells me tomorrow morning that he can cut that lung lobe and tumor out. That would hopefully give me 5 more years of life.

 

                              So here comes the Glam. Photographed by Susie Cushner!

These pictures make me think it might be possible for me to feel human again.





Wish me luck.
later.

Saturday, September 4, 2010

A Warm And Cozy Home

The "Skirted Roundtable Blogsite" recently discussed different shelter magazines and pretty much left Traditional Home Magazine out in the cold by indicating it was not as up scale as House Beautiful, Veranda and Elle Decor. Sure did make me sad because I love Traditional Home Magazine. If I were going to pick which magazine would be most likely to do a one page spread on Joni Webb's daughter's new bedroom, it would be  Traditional Home magazine.

Why? Because to me the magazine exudes a cozy, homey, warmth. The magazine just invites you into it's homes and makes you feel like you belong there, having coffee or being served dinner. It is a great escape from reality. One can visit the magazine and believe one could achieve a home just as beautiful. 

Joni Webb just did a post on her Cote de Texas blog site about rooms that were decorated in such a classical way that they are timeless. A good example is a home in Chicago, featured in the May 1999 issue of Traditional Homes magazine.

     
The furniture in the home was done in muted colors with a jewel box effect.



I just feel like I could plop down in the over stuffed settee and sip that cup of java. This home displays people's collections of all kinds. That is what makes it a real home and not just something that is staged!
  
  
                         That fireplace would go hand in hand with that java.


                           I cannot get enough of the orange/apricot color.


Imagine having your kitchen run the length of the back of your home. And at one end there is a sitting area surrounding a beautiful antique desk.

 

       I like the open kitchen concept, white cabinetry and the skirted round table.

The dining room table is also round. The floor is limestone with terra cota inlaid marble. The drapes are hung opera style to allow light to come in through the transom and French doors.  

The Master bedroom is understated and quiet. 

The guest bedroom has great built-in bookcases.

So I ask you, doesn't  Traditional Home magazine show off beautiful, inviting homes? 

later

Sunday, July 11, 2010

The Ultimate Francophile


Pictures are not always worth a thousand words. I think there are times when we can appreciate someone's words every bit as much as we can pictures. Traditional Homes magazine's May 1999 issue featured a story  about a couple that in essence is a story that froze their lives in time, because we do not know if they are still living their dream life.

Their name was Powers and the wife, Bonnie was the ultimate Francophile in my book. Her husband  was a OB/GYN and a lover of wine. Bonnie embraced his love of wine. The author of the article, Doris Athineos, did such a fine job writing this piece that I would rather quote her as much as posssible than paraphrase. She deserves the credit. The photographer was Jenifer Jordan and she did a great job on the pictures.

When Bonnie's husband began collecting Burgandy, Boedeaux, and Provence, she wanted to be a good French chef.  At the time, she was 35 years old and had two young daughters. "To some, that would have meant a few cooking lessons at Le Cordon Bleu.  But Bonie studied French history at the University of Dallas, where she earned a bachelor's degree in 1990. She had to have a sense of the French before she could do a good job on cooking. After that, she could speak francais with the kind of accent that would elicit praise from French waiters and shopkeepers."


"Visiting Bonnie Powers in North Dallas didn't require a passport, but it should have. The flavors, fragrances, and colors of Provence would come alive in the French country-style farmhouse that Bonnie built and named Le mas aux volets verts (the house with green shutters). She made sububan Dallas feel like the South of France-even before the Cote du Ventoux would begin to flow. Her secret was to stir the senses the way a sous chef does roux. Bonnie was quoted as saying she "believed French life was all about wonderful tastes, smells, and colors, like the the warm, doughy aroma of freshly baked baguettes."

       
"In the kitchen cabinet were six different kinds of salt (La Fleur de Sel was her favorite) and sugar in different flavors and colors. She had two refrigerators for condiments like black olives with herbes de Provence, the cognac hard sauce, the tapenade, and green pepper corn Dijon mustard. A dozen copper pots dangled from a pot rack overhead.

   

"They decided it was more practical to live year-round in a Provential-style home in Dallas than part-time in France. Bonnie, with the help of builder, Chuck Shaw, designed and built a honey-colored stone mas that was inspired by the centuries-old farmhouses found in the Vaucluse area of Southern France. Austin chalk stone was too gray. Provencal  colors were seen throughout the V-shaped house. To mimic the honey-colored stone found in southern France, the Powerses carted rocks from the Arbuckle Mountains in Oklahoma, just north of the Red River. The shutters were painted turquoise, because Provencal farmers were convinced that the color kept flies away."   


"Bonnie gathered potatoes, tomatoes, onions, and garlic from her potager. A sample menu  was Troucha (a Swiss chard omelet appetizer), ragout d' agne au aux artichants (lamb stew with artichokes), and pommes au Muscat de Beaumes de Venise (Provential-style baked apples) with lavender madeleines. For ten years, Bonnie kept a planning menu so her guests were never served the same thing twice. 

 

"A pottery-shard inlaid tabletop by Robert Bellamy sat amid echinacea, English daisies, and steel blue echinops."
  

"Aromatic herbs dominated the wild garden known as the garrique. A melange of minty hyssop, rosemary, sage, and thyme added a spicy bouquet. A pebble path would alert the Powers when visitors arrived."


A wisteria basked in the sun.

A Doric column found in the South France.


Bonnie stated, "Hardly anything she grew was for show. She indicated she used everything in her garden." "She said you could almost eat the whole yard." 


She set a beautiful table.

 

"In the couple's bedroom was a memory board with souvenirs from trips to Provence and Pais. The walnut hunt board, known as a gibier. was found in an antiques shop in Dallas."

   

To me, the neatest part of this story is that Jim and Bonnie made annual pilgimages to Paris. Bonnie zeroed in on the history of appartments and hotels they planned to stay in. The Dictionnaire Historique des Rues de Paris gave the history of every street in Paris so that you could figure out exactly who lived at a certain address as far back as 1550.

I don't know about you but I am a hopeless romantic and I pray this couple is still living the charmed life!

later. 

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

A Fabric Re-Do

What a difference a little fabric can make. My diningroom/breakfast room chairs are covered in an orange and gold fabric. My table is the Ballard Design sculptured ancanthus leaf table.



                             The drapes are cream silk with orange embroirdered flowers on them.


The orange and cream flowers on the hunt table in the diningroom pulled it all together.

  

My livingroom, that flows into the diningroom, had ocean blue drapes and matching blue throw pillows. I forgot to take a picture of the blue drapes before I took them down. But the blue pillow in the picture is the same color as the drapes were.

   
  
                     And here are my new custom Liz Claiborne Breda Orange/apricot velvety drapes!


     Here is a pic of one of the throw pillows. My camera is not showing how rich and beautiful the color is.


This is closer to the real rich color.



xoxo,
later

Friday, June 18, 2010

Not Gone Forever







I recently read a blog that said if you do not blog for a whole month then people will think you have shut down your blog. I have not blogged for a month but I have not shut down my blog. I was taking chemo and was totally convinced I was dying. It does that to me every time.

I have some little critters that take it upon themselves to nurture me and love me. They are more like people than critters to me.



Their names are Honey, Sugar and Precious. Honey looks like she dipped her nose in the milk bowl and no one cleaned it off. She is very sensitive to people's feelings. She follows you to the restroom and sits behind the toilet and waits until your nausea passes and makes sure you are ok. 

Sugar is like a 5 lbs. bag of sugar....just pure love. She came from an abusive home. So if you put her on her back she will stay there until you move her. She loves to have her belly rubbed. She just loves being loved period. She hides from strangers and cowers under furniture and barks.

Precious...oh yes, the man who sold her to us tried to warn us about her. She weighs 2.5 lbs. and when she looks at you it is like she has piercing eyes that look right through you, indignantly. She is a lover and she has no idea how small she is. Precious speaks to people and believes she is speaking English. If she wants something that does not belong to her, she will growl, grunt, gruff and bark loudly until she gets her way.



Precious has delicate bones. Everything about her is so tiny. But the intense personality is what makes her so precious so it was not difficult to name her. She is what she is!

And below is Sugar posing!


So what is up with the flowers? Well there is a wonderful grandaughter living with me. I have had her with me almost all of her life. When the chemo started to make me ill, she just took it upon herself to water the flowers as well as care for me totally. She never in the past, ever liked my caring for flowers. So this told me she not only loves me but appreciates beautiful things in life.

I am trying to view all the blogs I have received which is considerable because I follow lots of bloggers. But I hope to post again soon. Here is wishing all of you a great day!

xoxo,
later.


Monday, May 3, 2010

"Some Things Will And Won't Join The Dance"

The title of my post is a quote from Barry Dixon. I just love it because when you are decorating or better yet re-decorating a home this is so true! These pictures are of a home in Maryland featured in the April 2008 Veranda magazine. The photographs were taken by Tria Giovan.

Whether we act as our own interior designer or retain a designer's help, we have to make the decision as to what pieces of our furniture will make the cut and which will go by the wayside. The last time I did this before I sold my home, I found that I cound use most of my furniture once I had the pieces re-upholstered.   


These neutrals are beautiful and calming.


I love the rectangular ottoman.





I found a fabric almost identical to the damask of gold and salmon color on these chairs in the swatches book from my upholsterer's for $34. a yard. It was an outdated swatch book but since the upholster had already quoted it to me, he sold it to me taking a loss on his fabric.  That being said I realized I could cover an Italinate chair and a barrel chair in that same fabric and have them blend together beautifully.

 

Who would not give their eye teeth for a bookcase and antique settee like this?



How do you view the color in these pictures? To me it is an orange color. 


I would never come out of that bath tub...no way!


Well, maybe I could be convinced to leave the bath to sleep in the bedroom above. 


Note the cloches, jars and jugs.



I wonder how many square feet we are talking about here?


And I wonder how many rooms there are here all totalled?


Front view of the house.



And the rear view of the house.
later.

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