Home

Oh, Dear Friends...

How can I tell you all how grateful & overwhelmed I am by your amazing & gracious thoughts, prayers & sweet comments? You will never know how very much they have meant to me. One night, after a particularly bad day at the hospital, my sister & I laid on my hotel bed & read them all. It brought tears to our eyes to know that so many lovely hearts were sending us & our Daddy, their strength & love to get through this tough time.

Thank You!

My poor Dad is having such a hard time recovering from this. His injuries are so severe, that there is hardly a place on his body that isn't in pain. I really do like his doctor & believe in what he has been saying...that even with a man in as good of shape as my Father is, an accident like this shows your age. We just have to give his body the time it needs to heal & be patient. {unfortunately, my family has a genetic flaw when it comes to this trait}

With my sisters keeping watching over Dad, I was able to come home for a couple of nights & I'm sooooo happppy to be HOME! I don't know if any of you are like me, but I always have an on going list in my head of things I need to get done in order for my house to be JUST RIGHT. It's too small, so I want to add a 3rd bedroom & 2nd bathroom. I want a nice big deck built off of this room, so double french doors can open out onto it & we can sit outside & drink wine in the evening admiring our beautiful view. I'd also like to have a charming gazebo & a lovely little garden there to add ambiance to this imaginary space & the list, I'm sad to say, goes on.

Leaving the hospital, I was giddy with the idea of going home. After having had such an emotional & stressful few days, my mind was transfixed on getting up the mountain & feeling the cool mountain air. Following the road that leads to my house, the list in my mind disappeared & when I finally got HOME, it looked simply 'PERFECT'!

These pictures are of a small vignette I've been working on in a corner of my bedroom to use as a work space or computer desk or whatever it turns out to be. Before the accident, I had just finished recovering the garden chair. The desk is an old sewing machine table, I found the mirror at the Senior Thrift Store across the street from my shop & the hand craved, wooden angel came from the little antique store next door.
My house is filled with wooden angels. They are my guardians, my spirit guides, my signs of faith & they are the one's that kept my Daddy alive on that wet & foggy morning. I can't wait to come home & find the perfect place to hang up this one in honor of my Dad's gift!

XOXO

Pillows, Pillows & More Pillows

I'm in love with PILLOWS right now! Maybe it's because it's spring & I'm nesting {literally} or maybe it's because after doing the bathroom, I'm obsessed with finishing my bedroom make-over or maybe it's simply because I've been going to some of the most posh, chic interior design shops in LA...but right now, all I can think about is PILLOWS!

Now, I have a couple of these from Pottery Barn & adore them in my living room.

And this one from Pottery Barn is a 'Must Have' on my to-get list! {but they've been sold out of these the last few times I've gone, I hope beyond hope I might still get a hold of one}

This is Rachell Ashwell's favorite design at Shabby Chic Couture, the Union Jack pillow & I must admit to you, they are fabulous!

And BURLAP...what about BURLAP! The texture & neutral color with the wonderful graphics & text on them...I LOVE these pillows from Mothology. {& that messenger bag is toooo cute}

And here's a few of my favorites from etsy. I adore these pillows on the settee made by Jolie Marche, I could decorate my entire bed with these.

Petit Coterie has some gorgeous french inspired pillows too, I just love the touch of blue down the center of this one & since it's 'Good To Be Queen', the crown does seem fitting! So friends, if you have a FAVORITE pillow or a Great line that I should check out, please share with me cuz as you can see, I am still on the hunt for the PERFECT PILLOW!!!

XOXO

Disclaimer: Yes, I know there are a lot more important issues to be concerned about in the world then pillows, but, I DO Love them so...

LA, Pom Pom Interiors & A Give-away

I'm back friends & here are the pictures from my day of shopping at Pom Pom Interiors in Los Angeles & let me tell you, it was even better then I could have imagined. I started the morning at their shop on Melrose only to find out that their main shop was on La Brea & was 7,500 sq ft of yummy vintage, shabby chic deliciousness...a dream in cream for sure!
The whole store was set-up in a wonderful 1920's California bungalow that you meandered in & out of rooms of, through courtyards, down hallways, looking at every inch trying to take in all of it's rich fabulousity!
After browsing thoroughly & changing my mind at least a dozen times, my two 'MUST HAVE' items were...a 2' dress form & stand that I had to have for displaying necklaces on at my shop & a burlap purse with a french enamel number 30 on the front. I ADORE them Both!!!
Now, to make a short story long here's the REST of my day. Parking in LA is in a word a 'NIGHTMARE'! There IS NO parking in LA & if your lucky enough to find an empty space, you then have to deal with parking meters that just happen to take a lot of change that a person like me who lives in the mountains & has no parking issues never seems to have. So.....on a little side street right next to Pom Pom, there were 2 parking spaces. I pull up to the 1st one. I grab all the change I have in the car which is $1 in dimes. I get out, go to the meter, get ready to put it in & realize the meter is blinking "FAILED", "FAILED", "FAILED". Thinking maybe this is an error, I decide to put a dime in to check, it's not an error & now I'm down to .90 in change. Should I move? Is this my fault that the meter is broken? I couldn't get a ticket because their stupid meter is broken, right? I move to the other space begrudgingly while trying to remind myself that I'm going to have my FABULOUS day in LA, so BE happy!
Putting my remaining change into the new meter, I now see that you get 6 min. per dime...shoot I'm down to 54 min. to shop, I can do this. Into divine Pom Pom I walk, now I'm happy. I am transported to another place & time, I'm on a heavenly journey in search of the perfect items to bring home with me. I relish in my $120 purchase, a splurge for me & skip joyfully back to the car. {well, not skip..sort of waddle} I arrange my packages carefully in the back of the car, jump in & start her up, look at my watch & note that I'm perfectly on time for my Paramount Studio tour, look up & notice someone has put some trash on my windshield, I hate that..damn LA! Yeah, you've got it...that's exactly right. It wasn't trash, it was the very thing I had tried so hard to avoid in the 1st place...the dreaded $60 parking ticket. I hung my head in shame & disbelief. Now, if I had stayed at the 1st meter, would I not have gotten a ticket because it was broken? If I had not wasted one of my dimes, would I have been back in time? How did my $35 studio tour turn into a $180 adventure? And what was the actual price breakdown of my 2 purchases? Anyone who comments & gets this RIGHT will receive one of my Vintage Fabric Flower Brooches just because if I'm giving it all away, I might as well give it to my friends right!!!

The moral of all this...even when an adventure goes bad, the story can still be good! PS: No tour, I just wasn't in the mood.

XOXO

Now, Dreaming of Bedrooms

With my bathroom finished, now my mind wonders to a fabulous, lush bedroom make-over. To awaken in one of these divine, vintage inspired rooms would be a 'Dream'.

I love the color of this wall as a softer compliment to the dark brown bathroom walls & the crisp whites against the shabby tan is just yummy.

I think the brown & white toile could be a lovely accent.

Love the Love!

And I really like the idea of the dark iron bed & mirror frame to help pull together all the browns I have going. My biggest challenge is trying to work within the confines of my shoebox size bedroom...a new adventure begins, again!

"To sleep, perchance to dream-
ay, there's the rub." Hamlet

XOXO

No Friday Flea, But How About Chocolate Brown Walls?

Hi Best Buddies...I hope the sun is shining in your part of the world, finally it's out here, I have the front door open & I can hear the birds chirping with glee, yeah!!! The house is uncommonly silent. Courtney & Kai are down in Huntington Beach until Sunday, hubby is off working in LA for a few weeks, so I have the house to myself which is wonderful & weird all at the same time.

So in celebration of this rare occasion, I decided to pass on Friday Flea {which is almost like trying to kick crack cold turkey} & do something I've been wanting & needing to do for 4 years...paint my bathroom. It's been a dingy white forever, but the one thing I've always loved is it's beautiful, fresh white trim. Thinking about color choice, the main thing I knew I wanted was something dramatic that would really pop all that wonderful white.

I called my sweet friend Victoria & told her I was thinking about painting the walls chocolate brown or a dark cranberry & she thought it was my winter gloom talking & maybe I should rethink these color choices. So, I did rethink it...but I kept coming back to brown. I could see myself getting tried of a rich cranberry after a while, but brown can be fabulous like brown & white transferware dishes, I adore those.

So off to Ace Hardware I went to buy my painting supplies. I settled on the color 'Beautiful Brown Eyes' {now who wouldn't like that} & I've been a painting mamma jamma ever since. I have a couple more second coat areas that need to be addresses, some dry time & then to get in there & hang everything backup, but by tomorrow I will take some pics & post my 'New Bathroom Makeover', I hope you all love it...I can tell already I do!

My usual disclaimer: {I by no means am a professional painter, in fact I kinda suck. I'm afraid to paint to close to the ceiling, so that will have to wait until I have an epiphany} See you here in the morning & until then..have a magical day!!!

XOXO