10/29/13

All the Way with Boothbay Gray!!!


Well the process has begun. The primer and paint have been purchased; the room has been cleared; the breakfront was unloaded; the cobwebs were wiped away, and now the only think left is to wash down the walls and do whatever patching needs to be done!

Can you tell I am both excited and nervous at the same time. We have had this red dining room since March of 2003...almost 11 years, and now I am doing something so completely different it makes me a wee bit scared! No correct that...a lot bit scared!!!


So far so good with Mr. Rosemary Lane...he hasn't really complained at all about loosing the red room that he loves so much. I think he may be ready for a change as well in this room.


Although the red was nice for the holidays!


Gosh can you believe that all came out of my hutch and breakfront? Geeze oh man I have a lot of weeding through to do before I load that puppy up again!


So the commitment has been made and now it is time to follow it through! I have a gallon of primer and a gallon of color...both from Benjamin Moore. I am hoping this will be enough to cover over the red. Still undecided about what I am doing below the chair rail...to keep it Boothbay or to go with the Bone color I plan to use on the trim.

I suppose I will have a better idea of which way to go once I start rolling on the new color. As for right now I am going to wash down the walls and then I plan to grab a little lunch!

Ciao 4 Now!!!

XO

10/27/13

The Kitchen Buffet Dressed for the Autumn


I love redecorating with items I already have in the house. It feels like I have a brand new whatever whenever I find a new spot for any of my old house decor items. Last spring I decided to take the freebie mirror my sister gave me which was in the upstairs hall, and hang it above the buffet in the kitchen. While I do love the look I have to be very diligent about keeping the kitchen island clear, otherwise the mirror will reflect whatever is on the counter, and if it's a mess it feels like I have twice as much of a mess. 


So today when I took the fall wreath off of the front door to make way for the Halloween wreath, I got the idea of hanging it on the mirror in the kitchen...and I have to tell you that I love it! The wreath partially hides the image of the counter without totally losing all of its beautiful reflective quality, and gives me a great spot to display seasonal wreaths!


This fabulous mercury glass and jute lamp I picked up at Home Goods last fall for about $35. A steal right?


And those beautifully graceful thrift shop swans, which were part of my fall mantel display, made their way into the kitchen after I decorated the mantel for Halloween.



I added a little bling in the way of a single silver candle holder and by placing a hurricane glass around it.




I adore my country white plates from both Phaltzgraff and the Christmas Tree Shop.


A couple of faux pumpkins in two different textures were added to the vignette and voila...it was done! I kept if very simple this year but did incorporate some pops of orange.


Hope you are enjoying a relaxing weekend and wishing you an autumn bountiful with God's blessings.

XO
Update: Today I was moving more of my fall items around and decided to add the little rustic looking "FALL" banner I made to the vignette...what do you think?



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10/23/13

"The Witches Spell" ~ Halloween Mantel


    "Round about the cauldron go:
    In the poisoned entrails throw.
    Toad that under cold stone
    Days and nights, thirty-one
    Vicious venom its sleeping got,
    Boil it first in this charmed pot!"


"Double, double, toil and trouble,
Fire burn and cauldron bubble."


"Fillet of a marsh snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake:
Eye of newt and toes of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork and blind worm's sting,
Lizard's leg and owlet's wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble."



    "Double, double toil and trouble
    Fire burn and cauldron bubble."




    "Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,
    Witch's mummy, guts and gullet
    Of the fed salt-sea shark,
    Root of hemlock, dug in the dark,
    Liver of blaspheming Jew,
    Gall of goat and slips of yew
    Felled in the moon's eclipse,
    Nose of Turk and Tartar's lips,
    Finger of birth-strangled babe
    Ditch-delivered by a slag:
    Last, a tiger's entrails.
    Our pot will create what entails."



    "Double, double toil and trouble,
    Fire burn and cauldron bubble."

    "Cool it with baboon's blood,
    Then the charm is firm and good."



    "Oh, well done! I commend your pains
    And everyone shall share in the gains.
    And now about the cauldron sing,
    Like elves and fairies in a ring,
    Enchanting all that you put in."



    - poem by William Shakespeare, MacBeth
    (Mantel by 21 Rosemary Lane)
XO
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10/20/13

Football in Pink ~ Kids Supporting Breast Cancer Awareness


As I am sure you are all aware, October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month. This month of awareness was established in 1985 to promote mammography and to educate both women and men on the genetic and environmental risks of developing breast cancer.  This year the NFL has partnered with The American Cancer Society in their "Crucial Catch" campaign. To show their support of this cause, during the month of October NFL players, refs and cheerleaders are sporting that glorious pink which is the banner color for breast cancer. 



Well in our neck of the woods the area feeder football teams along with the high school teams have decided to join the NFL in getting the message out there about breast cancer awareness and to show their support of the cause. This past weekend the teams strutted pink socks with pink wristbands.


There's my Michael (number 21) about to make a tackle! Go Mike!!!


 The back of each boy's helmet has been adorned with a pink ribbon.


OK so here is the nurse in me coming out. I had to do a little digging but I wanted to at least give you some statistics.

According to the site breastcancer.org, 1 in every 8 women will develop invasive breast cancer during the course of their lives. The greatest risk factors are that of being a women and aging. And according to the CDC  breast cancer is the MOST common cancer among all women regardless of race or ethnicity.


The good news is that death rates from breast cancer have been on a steady decline since 1987 (breastcancer.org), with larger decreases in those women under the age of 50. This is believed to be due to the ongoing education of women with regard to breast cancer awareness, treatment advances and early detection through screening.

To read more about breast cancer, what it is, its occurrences, risk factors and treatments, you can go to the American Cancer Society's Facts and Figures by clicking here.

Have you had your yearly mammogram yet?

Wishing you great health and much happiness.
XO 

10/17/13

Finalizing Decisions Before Re-Decorating the Dining Room

My goodness it has been a bit crazy around here lately with all of the kid's activities, getting Halloween costumes together, house guests and the usual laundry, house cleaning...well I don't have to paint you the picture, you know the drill.

However in the midst of the craziness I did manage to nail down the colors I want to paint my dining room. 

So hopefully by the end of the month it will be
good by red...


...and hello to...

(Drum roll pleeeeeeease)


Benjamin Moore's 
Boothbay Gray 
and 
Bone White!! 

Wohoooo!!!
( I hear you all ooo-ing and ah-ing)

Now I know Mr. Rosemary Lane is going to miss his red room, but I am really looking forward to making this space much brighter with the new color. It's just that I'm not sure weather I want to paint the wall below the chair rail in the gray like in the picture above...OR...paint it in the bone white and have the hubster put up more wainscoting.

Mmmmmm....what do you think?

In the meantime I have been perusing through my Country Curtains catalog, and so far for drapes I am contemplating this print...


It is called Jacobean Floral and it's a new pattern from the Country Curtain people. I have never gone this floral before so that is pretty much why they are still in the "contemplation" stage right now. I do like the colors in this pattern, and thinking ahead I can pull out the orange tones and use them to decorate for the fall, the green can be use to accent the room for Christmas, and the lighter yellow-like tones for the spring!

So here I stand with just a couple more decisions to make, and then it is full steam ahead!!! 

What's your latest room re-do?

Hope you are enjoying a lovely day!!

XO

10/10/13

The Charming Homes of "Bewitched"


I love celebrating Halloween and I love celebrating with fictional witches. I have hats, brooms, spell books, potion bottles and so on, all of which I use to decorate for All Hallows Eve. Where does this obsession with witches come from you may ask? Well, in short, it came from my love of the t.v. series Bewitched, one of my all time favorite shows while growing up in the 60' and 70's. Suburban housewife Samantha Stephens tries to maintain a so called "normal life", but with the wacky cast of characters barging in with all types of crazy spells, goof-ups and trickery, every episode was truly a joyful half hour diversion for any child! 

You can only imagine my excitement when Columbia Pictures released their 2005 movie version of Bewitched. Of course I ran to see it with my sister Kim who is even a bigger fan of the show than I am. We liked the film, it was fun and quirky with a great cast, but what we loved even more was Isabel Bigalow's charming cottage home! So I decided to write a post to compare these two delightful homes.

Remember the exterior of the Stephen's home? 
(Note...Although the series home was referred to as being somewhere in either Connecticut or New York state, I never remember seeing any snow and winter scenes seemed to be reserved for only the Christmas episodes.)


And here is Miss Bigalow's abode which is set in the Hollywood area of California.


I adored the open floor plan of the Stephen's home, with the large living and dining spaces that flowed together along with that fabulous center room staircase. However the decor of the living room, entry way and dining area did go through several changes over the years in the Stephen's home. One thing that stayed the same was the brick wall surrounding the fireplace. 
Bewitched, the series, ran from 1964 to 1972.

Below is the 1964 living room.



Here it is a few years later. Notice the brick behind Endora is no longer white and book shelves have replaced the built in decorative shelves.


In the early 70's the Stephen's living room went through yet another transformation with new furnishings and a third new look for that brick fireplace.


Kristen Chenoweth greets Isabel with a gift basket filled with Bewitched t.v. series paraphernalia...the basket was accidentally delivered to Kristen's character Maria, Isabelle's next door neighbor.


Isabel is a young witch who no longer desires a life with magic and decides to move out on her own in order to find true happiness in the mortal world. Below is her living room. Notice the set designers have a white brick fireplace. Now this one is just stunning.


Enter Aunt Clara!!!


I love this sweet little sofa love seat...it's just darling!!!



Now let's take a look at the kitchens. Samantha certainly has some state of the art appliances.



As a child I loved the fact that Samantha always had flower pots on her window sill.


But again by the 70's the kitchen took on some new cabinets, wallpaper and where the heck did the spiral staircase come from?


"Calling Dr. Bombay. Dr. Bombay come right away!!!"


(Note...during my research I did find out that in the spring of 1970, one of the sound stages at Columbia Pictures Studio caught fire and portions of the Bewitched sets were damaged, most notably the kitchen. So while the cast and crew were filming the Salem Saga on location, the kitchen was redesigned and rebuilt!)

Now lets take a look at Isabel's dreamy kitchen. I am so loving those gorgeous archways and that chandy!


How about that wall of doors and windows which lead out to the patio?


  


The bedroom is up next! Remember those old headboards with the book storage? Mr. Rosemary Lane threw his out right before we got married...I wonder if it belonged to the show's set at one point?


And the 70's once again saw updated decor...much more streamlined wouldn't you say?


Isabel's bedroom...cozy!



Darrin and Samantha enjoying a lovely meal out on their back patio...this must have been during the pre Tabitha days.


Enter Aunt Clara...this time she fell through the roof of the gazebo.


Now let's take a look at Isabelle's gorgeous back patio.



Here are a few interesting things about some of the original Bewitched cast that I discovered while poking around the Internet. Agnes Moorehead died 2 years after the last season of Bewitched aired. She was 74. Sixteen years later Moorehead 's mother passed away...she was 106. David White who played Larry Tate Darrin's boss, was on the show from it's first season to last. He passed in 1990, just two years after his son John was killed in the explosion of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbee Scotland.

And just 3 years before Elizabeth Montgomery died, she did this her last interview with John Tesh. Click here.


I hope you enjoyed this little comparison of the Bewitched homes. No matter the home one thing is evident, both are definitely charming and completely magical in their own right!

XO 

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