Shady business

These lamps came in for consignment this week.  I fell in love with them.  However, when I put the shade on them, I fell in "maybe a little like" with them.

These lamps are a great illustration on how just changing a shade, and usually the harp, can make such a difference.  The old shades were humongous and blocked the pretty top of the base.

So, simply using a couple of consigned shades, I made a new, more up-to-date lamp.  I changed the harp to a smaller size.






Look at the difference in the size of the two!
                                 

Now, these may end up at my house---maybe.  Need to find a pair of matching shades, BUT am now thinking that the shade on the lamps I am replacing would work.

Stay tuned-------

                                                               Karan

Sweet Home Alabama Part 2

You may have noticed a little lack of blogging around here lately - but don't be afraid, we've not abandoned our effort to provide you with a glimpse into our corner of the Earth, we just traveled back to Karan's home state of Alabama.  We spent most of our time in Birmingham visiting with our dear family that we don't get to see often enough.  

We had to start out trip off with a visit to one of our all time favorite comfort food spots, The Greenbrier Resturant or as we call it "The Catfish Place." They've got simply the best hushpuppies and fried catfish on the planet. Good thing we packed the Tums.

We also spent a good deal of time visiting with the menagerie of animals that live with our family in Birmingham.  I've always wanted backyard chickens so imagine my delight at getting to meet Beyonce and Billie and check out their amazing coop!

Beyonce

Getting to know Billie

They provided us with fresh eggs every morning and a lot of entertainment! They live in a pretty posh spot if you ask me. I also got a chance to meet Lindy, the hedgehog. She's pretty cute and her quills were a beautiful ombre!

It was so fun for the animal lover in me!  Stay tuned for other ways we spent our time during our visit!

Allison

Tough Love Fallout--Dining Room

The final phase of the 'tough love' visit from our friend, Giggi, was the dining room.  I didn't really change a lot in there because I have what I have in the way of furniture.  BUT, the surfaces were in desperate need of some love.

The side board still had a couple of Christmas items.  They had landed there and hadn't moved.  I was tired of my typical 'more is more' look, so I tried to pare down a little.  Here is the sideboard before.  Yep, those are frosted cherries.  Definitely needing some spring.

Here is the new, fresher sideboard.

Snowball viburnum, eggs, rabbits---much better for April.  BTW, if you have one of those large silver platters that have the wells in them, they are great to use as a 'base' for a display.  I love this one because it is heavily accented on the sides and is footed.  

Next was the table.  Now for true confessions.  My dining room table is always full of stuff---and not cute stuff.  It may be stuff that needs to go to the basement but just hasn't been taken down yet.  Or, it may be stuff that I haven't quite decided what to do with it.  Regardless, there is always a pile.  Therefore, I decided that MAYBE if I set the table, maybe I would/could keep it straight.  Here is table now.

Except, I didn't like just the plain placemats.  So, I added a salad plate from my grandmother's handpainted china.  That looked too plain, so I added the rabbit placecard holders.  Better.

Still have to work on the radiator cover and re-do the china cabinet.  There's a little leftover Easter and Christmas there too.

Maybe I can get it done before fall :)

Historic Virginia Garden Tour---Before and after

The Garden Club of Virginia annual Historic Garden Week hosts garden tours throughout the state during the third week of  April each year.  Member clubs in the different cities and localities in the state host these tours.  

This year's local tour was in the Brandon Heights area of Newport News.  There were six homes and St. Andrew's Episcopal Church.  Each home is filled with beautiful flowers reflecting the interiors of the individual home.  St. Andrew's was decorated as if a wedding was taking place.

My club, the Hampton Roads Garden Club, was in charge of arranging and hostessing at three of the homes.  Tuesday is arranging day.  Well, as usual, the weather wasn't our BFF.  Cold and misty which is kind of okay unless your assignment is to do the outside.  Donna and Sidney drew that straw!

Inside, we decided, re-decided, tried, re-tried and worked until we got it just like just like we wanted.  





























Oh, and did I mention, the street in front of the house where we were working and the house next door have been torn up for OVER A YEAR!!!!   I mean really---I think they just enjoy playing with those large toys.  

Today (Wednesday) is tour day---which started off cold and foggy. Fortunately, by 10:30 the sun began peeking out.  It has turned out to be a lovely day. We even spiffed up the shop with fresh flowers and cookies. Actually, the cookies were just a good excuse to have something sweet around :)

Here are a few shots of the finished flowers in place.  Everyone did a superb job!















         

Springing spring!

Well, since it's mid-April and the outside of the shop looked like an abandoned shanty, it was time to do something about it.  There were still the dead leaves from fall all piled under the bench and window.  Peeling paint----pretty tacky of us. 

So, never taking the fast way out, I decided that the doors needed to be re-painted as well as the bench.  We sit back from the street, so it can be hard to find us.   Brighter doors will help.  Then we had a shop meeting outside to decide the bench color---turquoise was the overwhelming choice.  I started painting thinking 2 coats will be enough.

 

 



Wrong---three coats and I quit.  Who would have thought that green would be so hard to cover?  The bench took 4 cans!  So much for a quick color change.

 








Next was a stop to McDonald's Garden Center (trying to support those local small businesses!)  Was going for color that would draw your eye as you were driving down the road at 25+ mph.  Orange, yellow, pink and lime fit the bill.

I tried planting up the sign post this year.  Will see how long it is before we forget to water and they turn brown---not something you can see driving by.











Here are the final pictures.  We are pleased.  Now, just look for the turquoise bench!

 

Freshening Up

What is it about Spring that makes us want to throw open the doors and clean everything from top to bottom? Probably the thick coat of pollen that is covering absolutely EVERYTHING this week in Virginia.  

                                     

Mom decided it was time to freshen up the front of the shop and she has been hard at work, repainting the front doors, sweeping out all the accumulated leaves, replanting some fresh annuals. Rearranging all of those pots out front must have roused the snake that was probably living right outside of our door escaping the midday sun. One of our customers said, "Um, a snake just came in through the front door." After a few moments of panic, I ran up to check it out. And sure enough a snake was cooling down on our tile floor behind the door.
We like to think of ourselves as tough women.  We move furniture, load cars, mess with electricity and tools and look darn good while we're at it.

                                                     

But we draw the line at snakes.  We know it was just a harmless garter snake, eating bugs, good for the ecosystem, blah, blah, blah.... Not a single one of us wanted to extricate it from behind the door. So I ran next door and got our neighbor, Bob Hilling of Trophy World.  Bob grabbed a broom, removed the snake and relocated him to an undisclosed but faraway location. He's really our hero.  Needless to say, it took us awhile to get our pulses under control after our unexpected visitor slithered in. 
Stay tuned for before and after pics of the front of the building - and we promise no snake pics!

                                                               Allison

Fabric shopping

One of the fun things about helping people with their homes is shopping.   It's a wonderful  excuse to go out and search for items, fabrics, whatever.  One of my favorite places is Artee Fabrics and Home.  Their first local store was in Virginia Beach.   This past fall/winter, they opened a store in Yorktown/Grafton (in the space where Art's Upholstery was for all of you locals.)

                                    

Now, there are lots of things I love.  Fabric is one of them.  I feel like a kid in a candy store and want to immediately go home and rip out everything I have with newer, better fabric. You are likely to recognize some of the fabrics from catalogs and magazines.  They are actually a mill store.  The company manufactures fabrics for several high end companies.  They also manufacture finished product for Ballard Designs.

They have tons of fabrics which are arranged by color and type.  

Almost everything is on racks, so there is no rooting around all of the bolts standing up on their end.  They have a sale section in the back of the first floor (that's right--there are two floors of goodness), full of all kinds of fabrics and trims that are still viable for today's colors and styles.





       


I could probably get lost, but not to worry---I would just follow the path of drool that I left along the way!  

So many beautiful things.  Not only fabrics but trims, accessories, even custom furniture.

They even have the burlap bags that are so popular these days----for a dollar each!  Hard to beat as well as hard to find.

Stop on by to visit them.   They also have a Facebook page and a website www.ArteeFabricsAndHome.com for more information.   Jerry, the manager, splits his time between the two stores, so you may or may not run into him.  Tell them we said hi!



                                                                                      Karan