Botanical Business

We were in Highlands/ Cashiers, NC for Father's Day this year when mom and I were doing a little shopping, and stopped in a shop called White Rabbit Botanicals. The entry is lined with plants, arrangements, and planters- a very inviting facade. The lady that owns this shop does the "botanical compositions", consisting of greenery, rocks, moss, etc. and sells them prearranged or in pieces so you can make your own. She had so many clever and beautiful arrangements, so I took a picture of a few...

I love the little house in the last one! I think these are great ideas for gifts for that person that has everything- to buy from her or make on your own. I even ended up leaving with a couple of plants and a planter to make my own.

She also carried these great bird vases, which mom and I loved... as well as a great selection of unique planters, glass domes, fun calendars, and Cavallini products. I always love seeing what Cavallini comes out with each year.

Stop by there if you are in the area- its such a charming shop and a great source for some pretty house plants!

Bathroom Inspiration

As I mentioned yesterday, I have made a couple purchases to get started on the bathrooms...

A light for our bathroom...
And a faucet that will go in both bathrooms...

I couldn't handle the gross bathroom pictures being the first thing to show up on the blog, so here are some beauties for you:

I've been going through pictures to find some inspiration for how to redo the bathrooms. While neither of them will be as beautiful as these, they do have many desirable elements. We'll have the same look in our bathroom as the top picture- pedestal, glass shelf, mirror. I really want to do the guest bath in a gray color, with some pieces of my favorite color as accents.

LOVE the floor- and really all of the marble in this one- and the wall color! From here.

Love this shower curtain idea! More pretty gray... Venetian mirror, marble, sink- all so beautiful! Image found here.

This one tops the list as my favorite- more of that beautiful marble with the blue green paint color. I saw it on Things That Inspire blog. The rest of the house is here. So many pretty images from it!

Out with the Old

We will be working on a project this weekend...

Our master bathroom is going to get a little TLC. The bathroom is super small- as in too small to be able to position myself to get it all in a picture, but we are going to do our best to make it better. Will has already taken out the old vanity and sink, which left a lovely gross mess that involves who knows what. Gross. It's all clean now, don't worry.

The sink isn't even that dirty, it just won't come clean after a certain point...

You can see the remnants of the wallpaper that was behind the medicine cabinet. I'm not sure of the name, but the previous owners did save us some should we need to touch it up. Any takers? You can't see it up close, but it is floral with lovely shades of green, blue, burgundy, and rose colors.

Now for the exciting part... That vanity is now in the dumpster, a pedestal sink, new faucet, wall cabinet, light fixture, and mirror and shelf have all been purchased and are ready for install. On Friday, we are having a company called Unique Refinishers come to refinish the tile to a lovely shade of white, so that we'll have something neutral to work with. After that, we'll repaint and retile the floor and it will be all new!

Blast from the Past

You know those items that bring back random memories instantly- memories that you would rather not remember because they were so embarassing?

Growing up, I was always pretty clutzy. My list of stories of me falling, running into things, spilling things, etc. is a mile long. Granted, having a friend named Sarah, that aided in clutzy moments occurring never helped anything, but i did eventually forgive her :).

Enter random memory of today, brought to you by western booties. I was online this morning, looking at fall boots, and spotted the beauties above. They reminded me of the glory days. I went to a small private school until high school. In the mornings, our parents dropped us off at the top of the driveway and we had a little ways to walk to get to our classroom building. One morning, I was running late as normal and exited the car swiftly, grabbed my backpack, and started running to get to the classroom before the late bell. I was wearing leggings, a Hanna Andersson dress, and western booties. First point- I was acutally wearing western booties... and I thought I was really cool. I know you can see this coming, but because I was running and the booties were newer, the lack of traction made me slip on the pavement and fall, face first. Scratches everywhere, hole in the leggings, all the goods. So, not only was I now physically and mentally disheveled, but I was indeed late to class and was able to enter the classroom as an obvious victim of a fall on the pavement. I know that falling and scratching yourself is on the bottom of the list of embarrassing moments, but in middle school, those things can be traumatic. Thank you, western booties...

Have a Seat

I finally got around to taking pictures of the chairs. It has been so nice to have the additional seating with a little punch of pattern.

The pair of chairs are on the left side of the couch- defining the "den" area of the multifunctioning room. I also found some pillows- French grain sack from Ballard outlet and a new cowhide ottoman and pillows from Scotts. The one that I had to reupholster was too large for the space, so this ottoman really helped the area not seem so crowded.

Here is a view of the finished room. The picture quality is just not good- I'm dying for a "real" camera! We also finally got the curtains hung and a light fixture (eventhough the fixture is hung too high- fixing that soon). Voila! Glad to be "done" with this room!

MESS

This is the face of a guilty dog...

Will and I went to a birthday party last night and were welcomed by this lovely mess... He also peed TWICE in the house- one being the lovely spot in the top left corner of the pictures. Jackson is seven years old- meaning, he is not a puppy and should not be doing these things. He has stayed in the house plenty of times when we are gone, and as long as the food is off the counter, he never causes any messes until now. Seriously?! I think he has lost his priveleges to be inside while we are gone for a little while...

The start of my love...

I wrote about my love for birds and their homes in my previous post, but felt the painting that started it all deserved its own post.

A couple of years ago for Christmas Will gave me this painting for Christmas. It is by an artist local to Atlanta, Jennifer Tanksley.

We first saw it after going to an art show at Northpoint Church featuring a group of artists under the name "Rendered." Their website explains "Rendered is a... ministry dedicated to encouraging artists to glorify the Lord visually through their artwork. God-glorifying artwork has vast potential to worship the Lord, communicate truth and minister to people. Rendered helps artists to recognize and respond to this unique and powerful calling."

The art show was pretty amazing. They had all of the artwork displayed along the walls and each person attending was given an ipod that contained a video of every artist telling about their paintings- their inspiration, how it came to be, and the materials they used. My favorite thing about any form of art- whether it be music, a painting, a sculpture, etc.- is to know the story behind the masterpiece, and hearing some of these stories made me want to cry, smile, and just be in awe. It was so neat seeing how God has used them and their talents to glorify Him.

Well, one of my favorite artists of the night was the lady that painted the painting above. I first fell in love with it because of the birds, the colors... the obvious things. But then I heard the story of the painting and it sealed the deal. Watch the video here. Her story makes the painting all the more beautiful.

She has a blog showing some of her artwork. You can visit it at http://jetstudio.wordpress.com/.

If you want more information about Rendered and to see the works of the other artists, visit http://www.x31art.com/gallery.php. There are so many beautiful pieces to see!

Nesting

I ordered a present for myself with my birthday money from Etsy a couple of weeks ago and it just came in and I am so excited!

It is a nest print with a French proverb translating- "Little by little, the bird builds its nest." It came from this seller on Etsy. It came unframed, so I just need to frame it and find the perfect spot for it.

I have a love for birds, nests, and all that entails, so when I saw this print I fell in love. Not only was the design wonderful, and the colors my favorite, but it was so applicable for this time of life... building a nest- a home and safe haven. I just love fun and unique finds!

Speaking of birds and homes, I made some pillows for our sofa in the sitting room off of the kitchen in this fabric. It is definitely a knock off of something designer, but I loooved it when I first saw it, so I bought a sample and went with it. The pillows are nothing special, but I think I love the fabric even more now that it is actually being used.

It came from this website- a great source for inexpensive fabrics. They have many great designs to choose from. I ordered 4 different samples at one time and love them all. I do not have enough money to be a fabric snob, and while I do appreciate nice fabrics, these seem to fit my phase of life and needs. The quality is really good so I recommend to check it out.

Fishy

Our trip to Amelia Island was a great getaway- full of relaxing, sunbathing, playing with Channing, and for the boys, fishing. They went out two days and had a pretty successful time.

The first big catch was a redfish- too big to keep, so they had to throw it back.
Will said they caught a few little sharks, one being this hammerhead. Apparently they had another BIG one on the line, but after fighting it the shark took off and unraveled about 500 yards of line in about 15 seconds. I think its best that thing didn't hang out around the boat any longer.

They also caught about 30 blue crabs and feasted on them for dinner. The rest of the pictures are on my other computer so I'll upload those soon. And please excuse Will's hair in hte second picture- its not always that fluffy. Who cares about your hair anyway when there are fish to catch!

Favorite Color

So, I have a favorite color...

These are a fraction of the images I have saved to my computer with color falling into the soft blue-green color. I can't get enough of it!

A Phoebe Howard room- I believe this is from her shop.
One of my new favorite bedrooms...

Tying with this one, my "old" favorite bedroom...

This was from Ballard's catalog- I just love the color combo

I found this picture and was tempted to change all of my paint colors. I decided I would wait til I could really spend the money to do it right.

I need to post more house pictures. The den/ living room area is actually quite different now that we got the chairs, a new ottoman, and pillows. We need to hang the curtains, and then it will be as complete as it is going to get for now.

Tomorrow we are leaving for Amelia Island for a long weekend and I am so excited! I need a tan in a major way, so hopefully I'll come back at least a shade darker. Any good reads you suggest?