i love ball mason jars, especially these blue ones my grandmother gave me. i was just given a whole case of the clear glass ones that i will use for beverages, but i use them for hundreds of things like cotton balls, buttons, lightening bugs, bottle tops, wooden spools, seashells, flower vases... a friend gave me the idea of putting camp paraphernalia in them for the guest house, you know, like collections of girl scout badges or fishing lures. fun!

i was informed that from now on the acquired trailer would be referred to as "the guest house" and it will have a "camp" motif. so now I can’t get the disney movie “the parent trap” out of my head. i am going to watch it for decorating ideas and i may even hang this picture in one of the bedrooms. my mother and i love this movie, so it just seems like the perfect design inspiration. i have to go to home depot to pick out flooring and to restoration hardware to choose the paint. i think i will create a design board just like on the hgtv shows. i saw an old pine oar at lucketts that would look great on the wall. i just want one or two great outdoor items to set the theme, the rest will be clean and simple. any ideas?

i kind of have to laugh that i even have a "dream fence." am i getting old? but i have a fence guy coming out this morning, so i have been searching for some ideas. i came across this fabulous fence from walpole woodworkers. i have never seen anything like it. i was thinking more like a white picket, but this one has really gotten my wheels turning.

about fifteen years ago, my mother bought this house in the town she grew up in. it is a retreat home for her in an historic area near mountains and a large lake. this past week, while we were visiting, she was given the opportunity to purchase the rest of the lot which had been divided when she first purchased the home. so today she owns all of this land's original structures, some dating back to the late 1800's, including the original brick house, an early 1900's addition with a covered porch, a summer kitchen, a barn, a double wide trailer and two wells.

all of this information brings me to my BIG project. along with my grandmother and my mother, i am going to fix up the trailer. my task is to make it 'fit in' to the property grounds on the exterior, while making it a cozy dwelling on the interior. first step: paint it white.

just north of lucketts in frederick, maryland, i found a great new store called the nest. here, i fell in love with this french sofa. i could never buy it, it would make me a horrible hostess. i would never want anyone to sit on the beautiful blue and white fabric. i think i will just blow up this picture and hang it in my living room. there it will remain in this perfectly clean state. that way, no stress.

i'm back from my voyage. it was a WONDERFUL trip, but it is nice to be home! lucketts did not disappoint. they have this new design house that they rennovated and decorated with fabulous finds where everything is for sale! i was expecting new things, of course, but a whole new building...it was such a treat!

while i was away, i was presented with a new project...it is BIG and i am so excited to share all about it. but right now, i have a lot of laundry to do!

i leave tomorrow for my ten day trip. as i mentioned, i will go to the luckett store in leesburg, virginia and some other favorite antique places. before i go on shopping treks like this, i like to pull out my favorite things to see where i am going with my current tastes. this helps keep me on track with my purchases. i am definitely in a blue phase even though i will be forever true to antique cream. i actually think i will bring this little wooden box full of some of my favorite things and shop with it. can you see the seersucker flower pin with the brown button, i love it with the old box and the floral teacups. i have a thing for buttons. especially old wooden ones. the blue paint in the jar is from french general - a great store to make you feel like you are antiquing right from your own home! i can't wait to share what i find on my trip. have a great week!

this is what i love. right here. this is me. all i want. antiqued cream on cream, imprinted floral pattern, natural fibered recycled paper, soft, feminine, peaceful. and is it just a piece of wrapping paper. i want it everywhere. all over my walls, floor to ceiling. you can only buy it at my local paperstore in a 2 x 2 pre-cut piece. i want it as wallpaper! i am determined to figure out how to use this in a BIG way. wrapping paper - ha!

i read this design blog the other day where the home decorating professional spoke of how her innovative approach to design incorporates all of the senses. she admitted this was not a new concept, but that she was the first to name it. now i forget what she called it, something like "holistic design." when i was in real estate we used to bake cookies and play classical music so that the house was more than just visually inviting. i guess that is when i learned about this holistic design approach myself, but really isn't it just common sense? i mean everyone knows a stinky house is unpleasant...and who doesn't enjoy music in the background? so this "holistic design" term just makes me laugh. it reminds me of a professor from my mat program who said, "there is nothing new under the sun in education," then would quickly add, "but a lot of new names for things." so call it euphemisms or marketing, if you can just sit around and make up new names for stuff, you can look really smart.

here are some of my favorite home fragrances:


1. pina colada candles (made by a friend) yankee candle's pineapple flavor is also a treat!
2. the body shop coconut body butter (rub a tiny bit high on your front door before guests arrive) it's a great summertime scent!
3. all method products - i use these cucumber wipes in my bathroom and grapefruit wipes and sprays in my kitchen.
4. renuzit citrus spray - i use this upstairs in the kid areas.
5. downy dryer sheets - they come in several varieties, i love the lavender. my house smells really nice when i am drying clothes. i also have tucked some sheets under the seagrass rug where my dog sleeps.

ever since target was created, i have avoided wal-mart. because target doesn't have a goldfish department, i think it smells better. but the other day, i took my children to wal-mart to find some melting craft beads that are not available at my fragrant little target. as i browsed the craft section, i took a look at the fabrics. i found this vinyl lace:




i do not always wait for my dishes to dry completely in the dishwasher, so i have found the wood in my cabinets is getting worn by the water droplets. i am hoping that lining them will help them to last a little longer, and it is so pretty this way! it will take me the rest of the summer to measure and cut, but i have already done a few heavily used areas.

who's there? buster. buster who? buster had a cupcake on his head and he smashed it all up.

ok. sorry, i couldn't resist. my son is three and i hear this same joke at least five times a day. every single time he tells it, he thinks it is hilarious. so i just had to share. funny, no?

i posted this picture of my front door to show you what i have done. the door was painted gray when we moved here. but, my house is a farmhouse style and in keeping with farmhouse tradition, i want it to be a knotty pine wooden door. so, i have attempted to make my aluminum door look like wood. i had the house painters paint it brown, then i stained it with walnut polyeurethane. i added a restoration hardware knocker and after all of my hard work...voila...i still hate it. so, now i can't decide what to do, go back to gray? my house is white with gray shutters. i've thought black, white, maybe even a berry color, but you know how i don't like too much "pop." i'm just stumped.

his:

i can't remember where i got the idea, but my kids have their own mailboxes. they are located just outside their bedroom doors. my son's is a black home depot box that i painted white and my daughter's is from pottery barn. i usually put stickers in them or real mail from their grandmas. when they are playing "house," my children will try to stuff them with anything that will fit.

today i am going to work on my front porch. i was seriously tossing and turning last night trying to figure some things out. i feel like it hasn't been right since we have moved in and it bothers me sooo much...i will take some pictures and explain later.


hers:

the lucketts store in leesburg, virginia is my disneyland. i am going on my summer trip north next week and i will be sure to stop by to see what is new there. i never have enough room in my truck to fit everything i want. check out their website luckettstore.com.

i went to my favorite local nursery today and picked out these babies. they are just the sweetest things. i hope i can take good care of them. i'm a little nervous. for now, i am really going to enjoy them.

i have a blue refrigerator. i bought it myself because my husband just thought it was too crazy to support the idea. of course, it has grown on him. actually, i get more comments from men about it then from women. i think because it looks like a nostalgic old car. it is even painted in car paint, which i learned when i tried to customize my color - i had to go to auto body shops to view paint samples! which was not fun, as i was lugging two babies all over town to do it. but i love the soft blue color, so well worth it i guess.

when we bought the frig, my cabinets were white, but we moved a year ago into a home that had dark wood kitchen cabinetry. i lived with them for almost a year because everyone just gasped when i would say i was going to paint such beautiful wood. but i held true to my beliefs, and several months ago the cabinets turned into a soft gray/green (martha stewart quill to be exact). my refrigerator has a very funny photogenic self, it always looks bright blue so the pictures against the cabinets are not flattering. but in real life, the blue and gray/green are very nice together.

unfortunately (or fortunately?), as painting always tends to do, i think now i need to change the color of a few adjacent chairs and change out the curtains that come so close to it to make it right. i will have to show a before/after photo when i get it just so...