Pretty.M.F.Awesome.

Less is more (especially when you're crunched for time and were suppose to be out the door 10 minutes ago).  I'm leaving you with an image I can't get unburned from my retinas. I want it all, now, especially those **&%@  shutters and skylight. 

Found it on Porchlight Interiors,

who found it in British Homes & Gardens.

Need a copy of that issue in a bad way.

Love?

Have Ya Seen This???

Hey everyone, I want to introduce you to new blogger Hallie from Small But Mighty Interiors. She contacted me to show me the great job she did on her faux malachite table. (PS- I love seeing your projects, it makes my day!) Well, I checked out her blog and  I was super excited to see this

DIY she did.

Hallie fell in love with this lamp...

seriously who wouldn't?!

Well, she took her love to a whole new level and did something about it.

She made her very own ostrich lamp...

See....

Amazing, right?

She has a detailed DIY here and used the drabs (darker feathers) to do hers.

Go check it out and say hello and see what else she is up to!

Giant Shell Mirror DIY & a THANKS!

I have give a HUGE thanks to Linds over at Everything LEB for featuring a slew of my DIYs and Marcy at Stylesson for featuring my porch. I am totally flattered by the love, thank you ladies!

While on the topic of DIYs, I have a more detailed explaination on how I made the giant shell mirror from my last post and where to find some...

What you will need:

Hot Glue gun

Round or Octagonal Mirror

Enough shells to surround mirror's edge

Piece of plywood cut 2-3" bigger than mirror

Spray paint to paint plywood and shells (if so desired)

Drill to make hole to hang mirror

 I had found 8 of these giant scallop shells I found for $10 last summer  at a yard sale I *think*.  I found more here  and here cheap. The big ones are called Irish Baking Scallops if you want to Google.  I had no idea what I was going to do with them, until I came across this octogon mirror I had as well.  I played around with them and was digging the patten the negative space made.

 I had this fantastic design in my head so I cut a 17" octogon out of plywood and glued it all together and had a big FAIL.

It all fell apart. The shells only have a few points that make contact,

and the hot glue wasn't strong enough. 

I decided to spray the shells gold and try something else...

TAKE 2:

I kept the octagonal plywood, but cut it down an inch so it wouldn't show.

I realized the shell's clasp was about the same size as the edge of the mirror. They wouldn't lay flat  all together, so they would need to go on in two layers.

I hot glued them in close to the  mirror. The first 4 lay flat at every other edge of the mirror, then 4 at an angle on top.  To my surprise it held.  The upper layer got glued along the clasp and at the points it touched the neighboring shell.  I drilled a hole near the top of the underlying plywood to hang it from.

 Finished this mirror is 24" around, but  I think this can also be done with smaller shells and a round mirror.

Also someone had asked where I got my mosquito netting for my porch curtains... IKEA- 2 enorous panels for like 5 bucks... I used 6 panels and sewed them all together so there were no open seams (lesson learned from last year, those sneaky bugs slip in through the cracks), so $15 total for curtains, and $30 for 2 IKEA wire cable systems to hang them.  Super cheap!!!

My favorite "room" of my house

Its not technically in my house, its my covered porch.  I had a great balmy Easter and spent most of the day puttering in my yard and fixing up my porch.  We live in this space once the weather warms up, so we want it to be as multifunctional as possible.

Its right on the back corner of my house and gets a great breeze from the ocean down the street.

I hung my mosquito netting back up (I HATE bugs).

I also found a home for my cool lantern.  I was editing my inside and most of it came out here.

Note the rug from my kitchen.  I just couldn't handle cleaning it constantly with all my kids spills.

Where I lounge with a mag and mojito...

I hot glued this mirror together out of some giant scallop shells I sprayed gold and a random octagonal mirror...

Now, if only the weather would warm back up I could enjoy this space!

Home again, Home again jiggity jig

sorry, thats the best I got.

After being away from my house for a week it looks completely different, like I have a new set of eyes.

 I think I need to so this more often, because I can see it more clearly and I can tell what needs editing so much easier. Its kind of like when you are making a painting (and I highly recommend everyone try making a painting once in their life- all you nonbelievers will be surprised), when you step away and come back with fresh eyes you can see what needs fixing.

 

My god! I was way too immersed here, I have some work to do.

Way too many projects, patterns and colors going on at once.

Time to reel it in.

Anyone else get vacation eye?

Wrapping it up...

I'm heading back to Boston today. I can't believe how fast this week went! My mom is doing great and we got a lot of projects accomplished. We switched up her room a bit and made some new pillows, nothing major. 

Check out the built-ins my father made. My mom will dream up a project and he'll build it for her. I have some other cool things he built at the end of this post.

I wish I came down earlier because she has been spending all her time in this room recovering.

She had been loving this fish print, but it was too dark of an orange (see it before here), so we took regular paint and painted over parts of it with more of a coral...

And it became the inspiration for her new summer scheme. We added the shams I found at Homegoods, and made the center pillow and a couple others for the chairs in the room.

The fish can be flipped over to the same fabric as the center pillow if she gets tired of it.

 OK, back to my dad and his carpentry skills.  My parents bought this house back in 1972. It was a tiny starter ranch that has since undergone 4 additions and complete renos of every room. I remember not wanting to go to 1st grade and crying at school to my teacher that I needed to stay home and help my parents dig a foundation. She must have thought my parents had a child labor camp, but I loved construction and our house was always a mess of spackle and studs.

This was my sister's bedroom. My kids sleep here when we stay over and love the built in bed...

My mom would find images, tear them out and then give them to my dad to build. I love how the bed has two closets on each side for extra storage and a built in hanging fixture. It is very cozy, and a great place to curl up with a book (or play cars).

 He also made these bookcases in my mom's office...

If you notice my mom has plants everywhere. She has a super green thumb (which I did not inherit) and her yard is amazing. My favorite planter is this bowl of succulents in the corner of her office...

I'm also jealous of her shell collections...

My mom and I definitely have different decorating styles, but we both love to create and have our spaces be works in progress.  We both love the thrill of the hunt, and can be dangerous together.  We also both get bored once a room is "done", its terrible.

 

My parents both encouraged me to do what makes me happy and make mistakes, one of the best things a parent can do.  I have learned so much from them and its been great to spend the week catching up and having lots of laughs.

Well I'm off to go pack the car up! Have a great weekend!

Flower power

I saw the above peony mural in this months Martha Stewart, and I liked the giant scale and the simplicity of just one big flower. I was amazed to learn this was a vinyl stick-on mural you could buy from Murals Your Way for $11 a square foot.  (30% discount if you use  code MARTHA)

The actual artwork is by talented artist Eric Beare.

I also found this giant yellow peony...

source

I'm not naturally a florally person, but at supersized proportions I really like it.

Check out this wall...

iwantiwantiwant

Bold, not a cutesy floral in any way.

Part 2

I'm back and had some time to look through the rest of the Taylor Llorente site from my last post. My gosh there was a lot of stuff! So for those of you that can be bothered with links, here is what you missed...

This chair is my new favorite.

 This one reminds me of a baseball glove for the hand chair.

I like this piece, just not the feet.

(Hey Bri, I think thats Bob's rich horse cousin up there.)

And lastly lighting.

This was my favorite because it was quirky...

I'm actually mentally exhausted from looking at so much stuff.

Pathetic.

Hex tufting, I like.

This is a quick post, I only have a minute but wanted to share these pieces I found on Taylor Llorente (great site with lots of cool stuff to drool over).

I really like the hexagonal tufting, almosted looks faceted.

Speaking of faceted, I'll always appreciate this...

And some more great pieces. A different spin on a poof. Would love this in a different fabric...

cool, cool

Go here to see more, I didn't even get to the accessories and lighting section.

cool stuff

I can't take any credit for this post. I found all these lovely images thanks to Daniela at Aesthetic Oiseau and her post about Buck House. In a nutshell Deborah Buck is fabulous and has a fabulous NYC shop filled with lots of fabulous stuff... for the in depth version read Daniela's post.

See...

Mmmm...

I like.

She also has a beautiful little section called "Designer's Eye" where she makes up these wonderful little vignettes of her wares.

Pretty pictures...

Very much digging this idea and all of her cool stuff.

This got me daydreaming...

about my dream warehouse and several million $$$...

I would entertain myself for hours putting together all the great stuff I've hoarded and collected (massive amounts now with the mills, I'm talking my own private 1st Dibs)...

I'd be drinking cognac, wearing a crazy hat, saying "yes" to sequined pants,...

pretending I was this lovely fantastic cuckoo bird...

and I mean cuckoo bird in the best way possible.( XO, love you Kelly.)

In the mean time I'll just keep rearranging my furniture and lusting over pretty pictures.