A pretty bouquet

 I saw this sign at the grocery store this week ...

It was in front of their floral department. Nice!

I love having flowers in my house - they bring in a little bit of happiness. And they are nice to come home to after a long day of work. 

I sure am enjoying the flowers left from the wedding last weekend! And I am excited that another weekend is almost here ...
Happy Friday everyone!

Why they mail out catalogues

It completely irritates me how many catalogues I get in the mail almost daily. I have tried to stop many of them - but they keep on coming. Most of the time I just take them directly to the recycle bin but last week a couple caught my eye ...

ducduc for Nod

I love the Land of Nod and have always appreciated their clean lined furniture at reasonable prices and I am SUPER excited to see that they just partnered up with ducduc! I can't wait to design another nursery!

And these lottie dots decals ... I can definitely see these as a jumping off point for a fun room!

The other catalogue that surprised me was from Pottery Barn. I don't think I get more of any catalogues than I do from PB. They must send them every other week and I get them all (PB, PB Kids, PB Teen, Bed and Bath...) times three. Eesh. Usually I don't even look at them. But last week I got a new one that caught my eye... Pottery Barn DORM:

I'm glad that I looked inside!

PB Teen has always been a go-to place to get inexpensive colorful rugs and curtains - and not just for a teen room. 

Peyton Rug Navy | 8x10 $599 | PB Teen

 

Hi Sugarplum blog

Click here to see how Cassie from Hi Sugarplum, used pillows from PB Teen in her home.

And I am loving the new "dorm" bedding in fun, crisp colors and patterns. I'm so glad I discovered the new collection - you got it right with this one, PB.
(Hmmm. I guess that's why they mail out the catalogues!)

Vignettes

I was trying to find an image to help a client visualize an idea I had that she was struggling with and in the process came across some great inspiration. So much that I had to create a new pin board.

via

Christine Dovey | via

I have always liked shiny objects but I used to be an "all silver" girl. Not any more.

images

Thoughts on Love

We went to a lovely summer wedding last night and as I witnessed the bride and groom's love and joy for each other it reminded me of how sweet new beginnings are. And how love is such a beautiful gift and something to be cherished and never taken for granted.

{the cake was made by the bride's cousin who is a high school student - wow!}

{Congratulations Melissa and Blake - may your love grow deeper every year}

"Dear Friends, let us love one another, for Love comes from God. " - 1 John 4:7

"To love another person is to see the face of God"

- Les Miserables | Victor Hugo

photography - mine, quotes here 

Work | Play

work

play

I had a very productive work week and I am looking forward to a fun weekend. Hope you are too! Happy Friday everyone!

A perfect vacation home

How was your weekend? Did you take a long weekend after the 4th or did you do what I did and work?  I had one of those boy-do-I-wish-I-was-still-in-my-30's kind of a grueling day Friday getting that vacation rental ready. You may recall I mentioned it here, that Allison my new assistant and I would be getting this home ready for the vacationers who will be arriving today. The clients live in a prime location on the water which makes the home perfect for a vacation rental, but the house needed some help with editing and styling to make it vacation ready.

The view from the front of the house

It was the first day of work for my new assistant Allison and she was amazing. She told me she was a fast learner and she was. I could never have accomplished half of what I did without her ... and we worked hard! I have been working solo for so long now, bringing in my sister once in a while to help with installations or hanging artwork but generally doing everything myself. It is a whole new ballgame for me to learn to delegate - I am so used to being a one-woman-show - but I am super excited for what I will be able to accomplish with her help.

We spent the first part of the day working outside on the upper deck arranging furniture, moving potted plants and umbrellas around, putting on seat cushions and placing pillows. Poor Allison was the one who got to run up and down the three flights of stairs to grab whatever I needed.  When we finished, we moved inside where we removed some of the client's more personal or fragile items and moved furniture around to make the house feel more spacious. I didn't take many photos because I left my phone in the car by mistake and after we were done I used Allison's phone just to get a few photos for the client so she could replicate where things were if they got moved around later.

There was an overflowing bookcase in one room that we weeded out and re-arranged. It will be accessible for the vacationers in case they want to borrow a book to read. We also removed framed family photos and fragile and irreplaceable items to pack away while the house is being rented. That left some empty spaces. 

On the dining room hutch, I used the new space to make a breakfast prep area to take the burden off of the crowded kitchen. We removed fine china and crystal and gave the hutch a more casual look filling it with some eclectic pieces that we didn't want sitting out to get accidentally broken. We took another cabinet that was full of glassware and filled it with snacks for the vacationers - their own little "mini-bar".

I made a tag for the mini-bar snack cabinet.

We moved side tables around, put down area rugs over stained carpet, rolled fluffy white towels and tried to make the house look and feel as perfect as we could make it.

I think it is refreshing that this house isn't your typical coastal style beach house. It very much reflects the style and flair of the client and is filled with things she loves and has collected over time and travels. It is colorful and whimsical and I love that. We painted her front door bright yellow and the upstairs exterior doors red. I think that anyone coming in to stay here will feel at home and comfortable. 

My goal for the client was to make her home feel welcoming and the guests feel pampered. I wanted to add some inexpensive but special touches that would make this rental feel special and unique. I made some tags to put around the house and a notebook filled with instructions for the house and places to visit in town. I thought it would be fun to make a letterhead and some stationery and note cards. 

To make the letterhead, I started with an image I found online. It was a photograph of a botanical print from a book and so I didn't think it would breach any copyrights to use it. 

This was my original image. I found it here via Pinterest

The first thing I did was take out the color and lighten it. I thought it would make a nice watermark. Next I made a heading playing around with various fonts and colors. I printed up some extras for them to use as stationery if they want and used the same image for the tags.

I played around a little more ... I could do this kind of stuff all day long!

Thankfully I had this little girl here for a visit this weekend - she makes it really easy to put work aside and play!

Happy Monday everyone!

Sunday ramblings

I believe in love and positive thinking and hope. I want to live in a world where everyone is happy and kind and people are accepted for who they are and not expected to be the people others wished or needed them to be. A world where judgment doesn't exist and understanding and forgiveness rule. 

I love inspirational quotes (if you don't believe me you should check out my Pinterest page - most of my pins are quotes). 

But I am not really seeing that world. Not in our families and not even in our churches. Oh, we might talk a good talk but in the end there are just so many hurting people. And what I have noticed is that most of the time the reason they hurt is because of people. People let us down. They don't fulfill our expectations. They hurt our feelings. They exclude us, are too busy for us, don't understand us. They say mean things. They don't love us. They don't know how to love us. Especially the ones we want to love us the most.

And I am reminded how important it is that we love ourselves first and more than we need other people to love us. That we need to understand ourselves first before we can expect others to. And that in order to do that we must be aware of what our needs and expectations, our weaknesses and our limitations are. We need to understand ourselves first before we can expect someone else to.

I think that when we value ourselves first, others will value us as well. When we love ourselves, learn to nurture ourselves, are gentle with ourselves ... others can too. And when we understand fully who we are and what our greatest needs are, we will be able to surround ourselves with the kind of people that we need to walk next to us and stop expecting things from people who can't.

We need to live and breathe love. And grace. Towards others of course, but also towards ourselves. And we must learn to forgive. We need to forgive ourselves for not being perfect and forgive others for not being perfect too (and for not giving us what we need). We have to stop judging and comparing ourselves to a standard that is self-imposed or culture / society based. And maybe focus a little more on the One whose love never fails. 

"Praise the LORD! He is good. 

God's love never fails,

Praise the God of all gods.

God's love never fails."

-Psalm 136: 1-2

images via