Tag: <span>white</span>

I needed a little Christmas…

December 15, 2014 by Cynthia Leave a Comment

Glittery little wreath ornaments on an old, mottled mirror.

Getting in the Christmas spirit has been a little hard this year. I am firmly ensconced in what I affectionately refer to as the size 7 shoe box apartment while the renovation is going on.

About the only thing I could think of to make me feel a little better about it was to do some nominal decorating for the holidays. Something that was enough to make me smile, but didn’t require a lot of effort and could be accomplished on a small budget.

I hope you find some inspiration.

Always,
Cindy

A pensive looking Samantha curls up on the bed for a nap.

Little Annie in her favorite spot.

Simple ironstone basin set on top of a fresh greenery wreath.

Vintage, hand blown ornaments in a wire basket, setting softly on a wreath on my coffee table.

A lovely mid century lamp on an antique textile with a lovely holiday candle for aroma and ambiance.

Keeping it simple with a wreath hung above the bed.

A little nook in my apartment with a simple wreath, some candles and a lovely quilt with lovely festive colors for some contrast.

Filed Under: Holiday and Seasonal, My Home, Uncategorized Tagged With: antiques, christmas, cottage, country, decorations, fresh, greens, holiday, white, wreath

The Prettiness of Ugly

December 14, 2014 by Cynthia Leave a Comment

-- Download The Prettiness of Ugly as PDF --

We are at a bit of a standstill with the renovation until we get our permits approved. So when I went by the house this weekend, I didn’t expect much would be different. And I was right. But what little had changed was choice indeed.

The six or seven layers on the kitchen floor were pulled up and to reveal original hard wood floors. They don’t look especially great right now, but everyone loves a Cinderella story and these little ugly ducklings have a shot at becoming pretty. What a sweet surprise!

My contractor believes we can salvage the floors in the kitchen. All the floors will be refinished in a honey pine tone. They will be a nice, warm contrast to the exposed ships lap on the walls which will be painted white as part of the renovation.

The top half of the picture shows the newly revealed kitchen floors, the bottom have of the pic are the floors that were already exposed.

The top half of the picture shows the newly revealed kitchen floors, the bottom half of the pic are the floors that were already exposed which are in serious need of refinishing.

Here is a general sense of the feel I am going for:

A simple palette: white walls with pine flooring. This will make the house a canvas for my antique pieces.

Filed Under: Discoveries, My Home, Projects, Uncategorized Tagged With: antiques, cottage, farm, farmhouse, floors, honey, honey pine floors, house, interior, pine, remodel, renovation, white, wood, wood floors

A Lovely Mess

December 7, 2014 by Cynthia Leave a Comment

-- Download A Lovely Mess as PDF --

The last few weeks have been stressful, to put it mildly. Closing on the loan, packing, moving and settling in to a tiny apartment. It’s fair to say that I am a nester and being in limbo is not my strong suit.

I needed to see progress on my house in order to feel like this is all for something. In this case, moving forward, or progress begins with stepping back and deconstructing.

Week #1 has begun with demolition. And it’s a lovely mess. I am beyond thrilled to see that under all the sheetrock was ships lap. Original to the house and of its time, it really needs to shine. We are keeping it exposed for the renovation and will eventually paint it. We’ll harvest, patch and repair where we need to and fill the whole house with it. Wood walls. Warm, comforting wood walls. What a simple path to happiness.

Here are the pictures from the first week. Please join me on this journey.

Always,

Cindy

Filed Under: Before 'n After, My Home, Projects Tagged With: antique, cottage, deconstruction, design, planking, renovation, ships lap, walls, white, wood

A Country Christmas

November 28, 2014 by Cynthia Leave a Comment

-- Download A Country Christmas as PDF --

Tin Lanterns with the twinkly of real candle light.

Tin Lanterns with the twinkle of real candle light.

For the first time in twelve years, I won’t be decorating my little cottage for Christmas. So I thought I would dream a little bit and bring you Christmas style from others. These have a strong Scandinavian influence which is no accident…it’s my favorite Christmas style; simple and restrained.

I hope you find some inspiration.

Always,

Cindy

A simple tree in an old galvanized bucket. My favorite kind of tree stand.

The beauty of the red barn with bright white trim just sings Christmas.

White table with a smattering of red for the Holidays.

Save for some candles, a plain tree that looks just lovely.

Lovely tree sculptures seem simple and are pretty as well.

Classic Swedish grey with high contrast red for a stunning display.

A few berries in a bucket and simple garland swag across the window.

Unfussy, barely there Christmas style looks effortless.

A simple make-do heart wreath from garland.

Simple. Simple. Simple.

Traditional candle chandelier.

Country stairs simply adorned that say “Welcome.”

Filed Under: Holiday and Seasonal, Uncategorized Tagged With: antique, christmas, cottage, garland, green, holiday, red, scandinavian, star, tree, white

Outside, Inside

November 27, 2014 by Cynthia Leave a Comment

-- Download Outside, Inside as PDF --

Farm table loaded with treasures.

Part of my renovation includes editing my furniture and collections. Replacing old pieces with different ones that will fit the space better and not having quite as many antique small wares.

To that end, I had a tag sale. As usual, I tapped my good friend Vince Maggio, merchandiser extraordinaire, on the shoulder to help me sell my goods.

What struck me when he was finished merchandising everything is a) he made them look better on my lawn then they ever did inside my house and b) the outside looked better than the inside.

I think if I pay attention to how he does it, I can learn how to arrange things better in my home, when the renovation is completed.

Bravo, Vince…thank you for your hard work and efforts, it helped make the day a smashing success and everything went gone, gone, gone.

I hope you find some inspiration.

Always,

Cindy

Some great lanterns headed for a good home.

The art of arranging is re-arranging. When something goes, everything gets refreshed.

Simply framed; stunning when grouped together.

Filed Under: Antique Finds, Uncategorized Tagged With: antique, antique chair, basket, cottage, farm table, hutch, sale, small, tag, wares, white

Utter Simplicity

November 26, 2014 by Cynthia Leave a Comment

-- Download Utter Simplicity as PDF --

Plant stand, turned upside down shows old wear and tear.

Hello Old Friends,

It has been a while! I have moved out of my house for the renovation and am firmly ensconced in my new digs, although I am not fully settled in. More about that in another post.

For now, I am posting something I should have posted this summer but didn’t have the time. Some of you will remember an upside down plant stand for a vintage ice bucket champagne holder. I walked by it one day and thought “wash stand with vintage towel” so I grabbed some cotton twill and fashioned a towel holder and used a lovely old mirror and voila.

I hope you find some inspiration in the simple things.

Always,

Cindy

Stunning on it’s own, as is.

An old ironstone pitcher, basin and vintage towel casually slung with a towel bar fashioned out of make do cotton twill.

Using things I had, around the house just as I found them.

Filed Under: Antique Finds, Uncategorized Tagged With: antique, chippy, cottage, ironstone, mirror, old, plant stand, towel, vintage, white

It’s been a while, old friend.

June 24, 2014 by Cynthia Leave a Comment

A constant rotation of vintage items make them seem fresh when the context of seasons change.

Folks…I have been remiss in posting lately. Life is very busy right now and now that I have (finally) chosen a contractor for my renovation, the next month will be off the charts busy between closing, packing, storing and finally, a tag sale to get rid of many things I don’t want or won’t have a place for, post renovation. Then I move into a rental cottage and hopefully, it will be somewhat less stressful once the work starts.

For now, however, I am just trying to keep things easy at home. Where as this time of year, I would be doing a lot of things to the exterior of the house for the summer and also creating a lot of craft projects, I am purposely foregoing all that to keep life simple. So it is easy, breezy summer for now.

I have just added a few summer touches to the house.

I hope you find some inspiration.

Always,

Cindy

I just love vintage alabaster lamps because they easily fit the neutral palette and are still very reasonable priced online and in antique stores.

A table with a canvas top was the perfect size for my found vintage, European bulb trays. A very rustic and rough hewn element against the more refined alabaster lamp and vintage white pedestal pottery.

My design books are never very far away.

Vintage tin with a bouquet of dried, white berries and pencil starfish with tarnished German Glass Glitter.

Vintage Ironstone Pitcher and basin with a vintage, hand embroidered linen runner. Perfection!

Vessels with maritime rope with mercury glass globes

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: alabastar, antique, breazy, cottage, glass, ironstone, lamp, mercury, starfish, summer, vintage, white

Ah…Finally. The Plans & The Look.

April 21, 2014 by Cynthia Leave a Comment

The Look. Besides the natural light…the most striking thing about this picture is the extraordinary use of the batten board walls. I will be using the batten board sheeted material which is generally used for exterior siding.

White and Light. While this design shows white walls and ceilings, my walls will be white but the ceilings and the floor will be anchored with raw pine. Much to think about!

Folks, my posting has been pretty spotty lately. It’s mostly because I have packed up a lot of my DIY tools and supplies in anticipation of my upcoming renovation. To that end, we have a ta-dah moment. We have two things: The Look and The Plans.

The Plans are completed and embedded below. My wish list is about a page and a half long, but here is a condensed version:

Add a fireplace
Change the front door from two French style doors to a single door
Deck the back yard
Gut the kitchen
Insulate all the exterior walls
Update electrical
Add a bathroom upstairs
Add a dormer to the upstairs bedroom bringing it to code and allowing it to be counted as square footage
Build out the garage
Replace all sheetrock with horizontal wood planking
Update bathroom fixtures in current bathroom
Interior/Exterior Paint
Etcetera, Etcetera, Etcetera

Thank you for stopping by. I hope you find some inspiration.

Always,

Cindy

Here are the drawings:

Main Living Floor Plan

Second Level Floor Plan

Filed Under: My Home, Projects, Uncategorized Tagged With: antiques, batten, beadboard, board, coastal, cottage, remodel, siding, white

Transitional Vignettes

March 4, 2014 by Cynthia Leave a Comment

An old lab beaker with thick glass that diffuses the candle light.

Spring can’t get here soon enough. This weekend, Saturday was a lovely 78 degrees and the next day, Sunday it didn’t get above freezing. Since hunkering down and staying in was the best option, I refreshed some of my interior vignettes. If you look closely, you will see a number of antiques and vintage items that used for my holiday decorations. Change the context a bit and it looks more winter-into-spring than Home for the Holidays.

One more thing. My followers and regulars have probably noticed I haven’t posted a lot of blogs that feature crafting projects, which tend to be my more viewed postings. It’s because my crafting supplies have been packed away in anticipation of my renovation. Instead you’ll see a lot of features about cooking, antique finds and when my renovation gets started, I’ll copiously document the process and share it with you.

Speaking of which, I am waiting on drawings for the renovations as we speak. If I had to guess, the renovation will get started late next month or early May. While I am anxious to get started, it is more important when I finish. I want the work to be complete for the holidays, so there is time. Mostly, I want to enjoy the process and not be so anxious about it which is how I feel about most projects. I’ll keep you posted.

In the mean time, I hope you find some inspiration with the latest pictures from my home.

Always,

Cindy

xoxo

Textural elements with a tarnished tin vessel and a vintage paper accordion vase cozy

a variety of neutral toned items arranged on a shelf.

Starfish on a bed of moss that is the color of driftwood.

An old column base, alabaster lamp and a German glass glitter starfish

Mercury glass globes in an old ironstone bowl with linen slipcovers in the background.

Mercury glass globes on a bed of packing hay in an old ironstone bowl with linen slipcovers in the background.

An old lab beaker with thick glass that diffuses the candle light.

Old tin forms in the form of circus clowns in pointy hat that are treasured items passed to me by my mother.

Filed Under: My Home, Uncategorized Tagged With: alabaster, antique, cottage, country, glass, lamp, mercury, neutrals, spring, tarnished, tin, white, winter

The Christmas Haus 2013

December 15, 2013 by Cynthia Leave a Comment

Fresh Greens in an Enamel Pitcher

I make a promise to myself every year: I pick a weekend to do my decorating, inside and out and what doesn’t get done on that weekend, doesn’t get done. This was the first year I kept that promise and it is largely because I kept things simple: fresh greens tucked here and there, a smattering of twinkly lights, my favorite Trapp Holiday candles and a few groupings of my favorite vintage ornaments. I found it refreshingly stress free…and that really was the point of the plan. Now I can coast and focus on baking!

When the weather improves, I’ll share photos of the exterior. For now, here are some vignettes from inside my home.

I hope your find some inspiration.

Always,

Cindy

xoxo