Louise Townsend

What a magical home we will visit today.  When I happened upon a few of Louise Townsend's photos, I could feel my heart beating faster and my stomach got butterflies.  Louise lives in England in a area that is so visually enchanting you wonder how such a place could really exist.  She writes, "I was born on one side of Dartmoor and now live on the other. Having graduated with a first in Textile Design from Chelsea College of Art and inspired by my Devonian surroundings I print in a studio here on the farm. I draw, mark make and print textiles onto natural fabrics."

 Louise shared she has always loved florals.  She "was inspired by her grandmother who seemed to bring the garden inside with different flower fabrics in each room.  Never overwhelming, just pretty with a wonderful eye for colour, not a neutral in sight!  Her father was in the Navy so they moved around a lot as a family, so she loved living here for twenty four years and bring her family up on one place.  She feels they are very lucky and knows it's a special spot."

Her home, especially this room, this blue painted room made me gasp out loud.  The flowers and produce were grown on her property.  The views from her home are remarkable.  I hope you enjoy the tour.
































Louise referred to this following photo as "pug hot water bottle."
















































Yes, that's her husband.....

















You can visit Louise here.



Jan

Flower Grid

There is a table set for today.  Peachy pink roses and vintage candlesticks paired together on a table with cabbage plates sitting on top of white plates with a gold accent.  This all resides on a white tablecloth.  Grocery store flowers were brought up a notch in the pretty department by using a grid over the green vase.  You can use floral tape or household tape.  You just tape it in straight lines across the mouth of your vase.  You will want a vase that is wider at the opening.  Then you cross over the lines again with tape making a grid much like the lattice you see in this photo!


It makes your flowers stand up much better and you have control over the overall look.

The wisteria bush in the backyard came in handy as I added wisteria leaves and pods to the flowers to bring more natural interest.




I was trying out the flowers on our unfinished table on the porch as well.


It was fun to put together the flowers with the tape.  It gives you many more options and you don't have to have bunches and bunches of flowers to do it.


If you are like most people you want have pretty flowers without spending a fortune.

But it doesn't hurt for them to look like you did!









And here's a great Southern Living video explaining it in much more depth and detail.

Jan



http://www.theboondocksblog.com/home/sweet-inspiration-link-party-7

Tones for Home

It's everywhere now.  You can't be on Pinterest long before seeing lots of painted furniture.  For many pieces, it's their salvation and they would otherwise probably wouldn't be given a second chance of living in our homes.  On the other hand it is so easy to be swept away into the painted furniture abyss.  I read somewhere that brown makes one think of home, where they spent their childhood.  I had never thought of it before but I did save a bedroom that reminded me of my childhood home.  There was the brown wood furniture and neutral tones that were used in our home.  Do we return to the colors we grew up with?  Or is it just an emotional reminder?  Is it just a sign of maturity?  Living in a house filled with blonde wood tones, I find myself craving a darker tone of wood.  Except for a very few pieces there are almost none in our home.  Either way, I think we should count to twenty sometimes before we paint our lovely browns.  They can be the essence of what makes us feel at home.

Two colors that soothe and say home are the brown wood tones and a little green.  This will make you stop in your tracks.  Absolutely amazing!



Traditional Home - The walls were achieved by "appliquéing real pine cones, acorns, hickory nuts, sweet gumballs, and honeysuckle vines onto them. The lower walls resemble ornate paneling; the upper walls’ fluid floral designs suggests the patterns from crewelwork."




bardesinteriors.com


A lot of brown in this room and look at that mirror!  Looks terrific in this setting!



Traditional Home




Linda L. Floyd Interior Design



Kitty Bartholomew cited a study that showed green made one less homesick when away from home.  Good enough for me!


indiajane.com





franciehargrove.com





Traditional Home




Traditional Home



Cozy and airy at the same time.


Architectural Digest




tartanscot.blogspot.com




Jan

Rose Garland

When you want to make a very pretty table, go buy yourself a few dozen roses.  They don't need to match but just get along.  Colors that are in the same family are appealing to the eye.

Branches from the yard, I turned the leaves over to the underside to use them.  The color of the leaves on one of the bushes is silvery on the back and it pairs well with the roses' colors.  There is some wisteria vine added.  You can tie the ends together with florist wire or even left over trash bag and bread loaf ties.  Just be sure to overlap with your greenery so the twist ties don't show.  It's a beautiful look that doesn't have to cost much.














White tablecloth makes sure the roses are not overlooked.





















Jan




http://www.cozylittlehouse.com/2016/05/tweak-it-tuesday-193.html
http://www.astrollthrulife.net/2016/05/317th-inspire-me-tuesday.html
http://www.theboondocksblog.com/home/sweet-inspiration-link-party-7

You Felt Thankful

A blogger's job is to photograph something in the best way possible and bring out all the beauty that is there.  It's a great place to go to get ideas for doing something different in your home or to be inspired.  However with the huge amount of blogs and images everywhere it can be overwhelming.  It can make you feel less than enthusiastic about your home.  The role of blogger taught me to appreciate things that I had admittedly, never noticed before.  There is so much beauty all around us everyday but we don't see it.   Taking lots of photos of nature, flowers and my home taught me to be grateful for my home and everything surrounding it.  It made me more thankful for living in an area where we have an early Spring every year (if we don't get blown away by a tornado).  Everything has flaws, that definitely includes my home and yard, but there are certain angles that can be captured by a camera that brings out the beauty.

Usually you see only a part of the picture that is being shown on a blog.  You don't see the things that may have been on the tables that was picked up and put away before the pictures were taken.  You don't see the masses of flowers and produce that were bought to bring the room to life in magazines.  The one thing that always, always brings a room to life is people in it.  I am usually amazed at the difference in the room with someone in it.  You can see the scale much better and the colors used.  And things usually look so much better in person than on a flat screen or photo.

If you aren't feeling real excited about your home, I want you to do something.  Pretend you are throwing a party.  That's right!  You know when you are having company over you have your home looking it's best.  Put that energy into your home but instead of buying extra food go buy some flowers and fruit.  Throw those apples in a large bowl and they will look great in your kitchen or in your family room.  Or you could clip a few green branches from outside and put in a large vase with water.   If you need more color go pull out a quilt or throw and throw it over the corner of your sofa.  Have any books in the house?  Stack a few on the coffee table.  If you have pillows be sure and have them out for color and interest.

This is when you need to start taking photos of the room, now that you perked it up.  Take lots and lots of photos!   Take them in the daytime.  You need as much natural light as possible to get the prettiest pictures.  Get out your cell phone or camera and take pictures of your house with it looking it's best.  Take a lot of pictures.  I want you to enjoy this.  Then when you don't feel so good about what you have, go look at your photos.  When you look back at your photos I hope it brings back that sense of pride that you felt when you took the photo.  It's wonderful to appreciate what you have right now.  If your photos don't come out perfect that's okay, because you know how it felt when you were taking them.  You felt thankful.  You did not care about what someone else has or what the latest trend is.  You will feel contentment.  It does take practice.  The more you do it, the more your eyes will open up and you will be excited by what you see!









My twin blog, justjanblog.com is locking up so today we are enjoying justjanblog.blogspot.com!



Jan


 http://www.astrollthrulife.net/2016/05/317th-inspire-me-tuesday.html
http://www.cozylittlehouse.com/2016/05/tweak-it-tuesday-193.html

Southern Table

I hope you are doing good today, honey!  Come here, I'm gonna hug your neck!  There is a pretty table outside for us.  Come on back and have a seat on the porch, I will bring our tea out.  Supper will be ready soon.  I have been 'fixin' some fried chicken livers, potato salad and squash and they are almost ready.  There's coconut cake for dessert.



Facebook is a lot like beauty shops or at least the way beauty shops used to be.  You can read your locals discussing other locals or the past.  It can be such an interesting read.  No doubt that Southerners have their of characters.  This is one conversation that 'could have' taken place.



"My story with Mr. Sam Johnson comes from back in the day when I had a little videotaping business.  Rachael Rayborn asked me to film the outside of some of the homes that were on the Tour of Homes (the annual Tour of Homes was a very important event and you could not miss it) for that year. The last home on my list was the Sam Johnson house. But the address was listed as South Washington.



As I drove around I could not find that address on South Washington. In fact South Washington just ran into a dead end.




As I drove down South Randell Street, I saw Mr Sam in the yard with a couple of fellows that were doing yard work. I stopped and asked if he could direct me to Mr. Sam Johnson's house. He said " I am Sam Johnson and this is my house."







I told him that I was pleased to meet him and that my list had the wrong address.



He said " No, that's the right address. I lived here with my two sisters and my sister never liked living on Randell Street so she just changed it to Washington Street."




"He said that the post office always delivered their mail even though his sister had changed the address on her own."




"I've always thought that was the most amazing story. I'll never forget him."



True Southern characters!





Jan