Home Wong Nga and Black Cty: August 2011

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

The Gypsy Wagon

I made a beadboard sign for a dear friend of mine, and she posted about it on her blog! Isn’t this the most amazing chicken coop you’ve ever seen?? And it’s CUTE! Who knew chicken coops could be cute??

Thanks, Rachel!

Hello everyone,

We have been enjoying some beautiful sunny weather here so I want to spend as much time out in the garden as possible so lets enjoy our tea in the garden again.

I am setting the table for you!

A beautiful peach colored bouquet,I picked just for you!

A soft peach teacup with some beautiful Graham Thomas roses.

I love my hats and these delicate gloves belonged to my husband's aunt.

How about a nice light dessert with your tea-it is called Lemon Fool.

Sweet cherubs among the bouquets.

The daylilies are beautiful aren't they?

Lets sit for awhile and enjoy the sunshine in the garden over a nice cup of tea!

I am joining Between Naps on the Porch for Tablescape Thursday today.

Thank you for all your lovely comments on my Misty Morn and welcome to all my new followers.I hope to have more time for visiting soon. Wow! can August possibly be over already???

Take care,

Carolyn

We paid a visit to our favorite pumpkin lady, Lynne Bonnell, the other day and picked up some new pumpkins for the season. Can you believe its that time already? They always go fast, so hurry in to pick out your favorite ones!

FAMILY TROUBLES !!!! ..........

Things don't always run smoothly in families do they ? All is obviously not well with our grandson.........he is unemployed, sleeps all day and, his mother just tires herself out, feeding him, washing his clothes and pandering to his every whim. The last straw came when our daughter-in-law sent us this photograph of him and said that he has put on his hoodie and is ready to riot ..........

Just what is happening to the younger generation ?!!

There is simply no comparison between buying your groceries in a supermarket and buying them fresh from an open air market - especially when the sun is shining, the air smells good and all the summer fruits are out on show.

I always return from the weekly market with a spring in my step - stimulated by the beautiful colours, the gentle bustle and the friendly banter between vendors and clients.

Clients dress nicely to go shopping, they often meet up with old friends, share a coffee on the market square, their overfilled baskets sitting at their feet.

In France, when you go to le marché, you know you will find good quality produce, fresh, often sold by the producer directly.

For the vendors - who work hard on their farm all week - it's a highlight too, not only do they make some money, they also interact with their clients and catch up on the latest news and gossip in town.

Freshly roasted chicken yummmm! soooo difficult to resist when you're already hungry for lunch!

I love the way that in the middle of the fruit and vegetables you'll find hats, baskets, saucepans and even fabric.

Clients are encouraged to taste, and often extra pieces of fruit, or bunches of parsley are added to the basket. I know this is a commercial gesture , but I always think the vendor looks like a n artist putting the finishing touch to a work of art, as he offers a lemon or a bunch of herbs.

So now you know one of my remedies for feeling lazy or energy-less
- a trip to a local market. 100% guaranteed result.

Toile and Ticking

I love the combination of toile and ticking stripe. So, when I went looking for an affordable fabric to buy to make my bedroom curtains with, I looked for gold ticking stripe.

I already had the toile part covered (no pun intended). My quilt is a gold toile.

To make thinks a little more French Country and just a wee bit over the top, I am adding a gold and red rooster pattern toile as an attached valance along with a red and gold fringe. The red and gold rooster fabric is actually curtains that I had in my dining room of my other house. You can see them as curtains on this post, here. There are only 4 panels so there were not enough to use as curtains in my bedroom, plus they were too short. So they will be reworked into valances and more.

You can see there is already an accent pillow on my bed with the red and yellow rooster toile. I might add that rooster toile to the lampshades on either side of the bed. I think I might also make pillow shams with the gold ticking stripe.

Mr. Comforts of Home has hung the curtain rods. The ticking fabric arrived today. So tomorrow I sew!

Welcome Home,

Penny

Oscar loves books (Almost as much as I love a good Ikea hack.) Every night he goes around his room picking up book after book and putting them on our lap to read. We know that it is likely a stall tactic, not wanting to go to bed, but we can't help but find it really cute. Over the last week I made some forward facing bookshelves out of Ikea Spice Racks for his room. I simply sprayed them white and ta-da! They were done. The two shelves hide behind his door in his room and he can now pick out his own as the shelves are at his height.

Originally seen on Mon Petit Amour Blog, Idea from Domestic Simplicity

Hi everyone, the link party is back! Since my three children are ALL in school full time, I thought I am going to have a set schedule and be able to work on my projects.... well, I am not there yet. Seems like there is always something that needs to be taken care of or places to go. I actually haven't had that much time at home so far.

I am really looking forward to start cleaning and de-clutter the house. Ahh... I am dreaming of clean and organized space. I know once it is all done, I can work more effectively. Right now, all the fabrics are scattered all over the place and it is hard to find the ones that I am looking for. I bought this special display shelf (the kind that spins) at Border’s store closing sale. I am filling it with fabrics and it is so awesome! I am often squealing with joy while I am filling the shelf and spinning it. I am also keep bugging my husband saying; "Look, look, isn't this SO amazing!?"

Of course I know he couldn’t care less, but being a supportive hubby he usually says, "yeah, that is awesome" or "I am glad you found that" but because I bug him so much that the answers have become "u-huh" or just a glance and nod (oh, wait I think I do that to my kids sometimes).

Well, in case you are wondering what I have been up to, that is part of it... (BIG grin on my face)

I have been planning something special for you, yes, my beloved friends!

September 20th is my 3rd blogaversary, and I am going to do a month long giveaway. At the beginning of each week I will post a giveaway item and announce the winner at the end of the week. How does that sound? Isn't it so fun? I am still trying to decide on a few details, but stop by sometime to make sure so you won't miss the giveaways!

As you have been reading this post you might be thinking "when is she going to announce the winner for the giveaway?" Sorry, I dragged enough... the winner is...

jamie (The Pinterest Project)

Congratulations!! Please email me with your shipping info, so I can send you the amazingly pretty Monaluna fabrics to you. Enjoy!

OK, are you ready to link and share your fabulous projects?

1. Please post something YOU made. It doesn't matter if it is crochet, quilt, clothing, anything would be fine. I want to see it! If you use someone's idea or patterns please give them the rightful credit.

2. Link to your specific post, that way it is easier for everybody to find and read it.

3. Please grab the "Tea Rose Home" grab button, and link back from your post. If you can mention the party in your post or place the button on your side bar, that would be great! I want more people to have a chance to come and show off their creation.

<center><a href="http://tearosehome.blogspot.com"><img border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5462799092490427250" style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 126px; height: 160px;" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHA1Y3e8436nZvEAbFSLbjc96IlUlfua-zm3HLrEk8wOcmDu7rtB5aUbeM7KHX-A3lxmUNWmy0NtsfO-IXrRZ1GUEKB68Eib49R0FPw0jq81WBxGYcLCIkv_yT_UGQyCysfRkz7wH3S08/s200/GrabButtonLinkParty.jpg" /></a></center>

french, feminine and chic

With the change of seasons, my redecorating time of year is approaching and I'm looking for ideas at the moment, scouring magazines and blogs for interiors I like.

This one slowed me down. I spent a long while looking at how the girl has achieved an interior that feels pared down although there are plenty of collector bits; that feels feminine; that feels modern although the flat is early 19th century and there are plenty of brocante pieces used.

I'm loving the colour scheme, adore the bathroom - who wouldn't?! - admiring her use of huge Venetian mirrors and definitely envious of the lack of clutter... sigh ...

How comfortable would you be here?

PS. Great excitement here today as the new computer arrived YAY!! The handover however has not been totally seamless, and some people are having trouble leaving comments or sending me mails. Please persevere, and if you need an urgent answer from me by mail, you could always message me on fb for safety! Merci!

all photos thanks to journal de la maison

Restitution

Have you ever screwed up? I mean, really screwed up…on something that didn’t belong to you?

It’s one thing when a project of your own goes south. That’s bound to happen once in a while, and it’s no fun…but what about when it happens on a project that belongs to someone else?

Well, those are the days when you just wish you never got out of bed!

You can see where this is going, right?

All I was supposed to do was a simple refinish job on a table top while my friend was between houses. There weren’t even any legs to worry about. She just wanted to resuscitate her hand-me-down table and give it a few more years until they could afford a new one. Easy enough….so easy, in fact, that I called in one of my handy-dandy short helpers in to do some sanding for me!

Remember this guy with the mischievous smile?

Turns out he could have used a little more supervision on the sanding process, ‘cause this is what we ended up with:

Let’s look a little more closely, shall we??

Yep. All those arrows point to spots where he sanded right through the veneer into the plywood base. Ack!

We all know it wasn’t a great piece of furniture...

…but it wasn’t MY furniture to wreck!

It wasn’t fun for my boy or me to confess our mutual misdeed to my friend, although you couldn’t have asked for a more understanding listener. Since these weren’t the types of flaws one can hide on a stained table-top, I could only feel better about offering to replace the table. Strictly to ease my conscience (and trust me, it was a battle), my friend agreed to accept this table that I had waiting in my garage “in trade.”

It’s solid oak, and I liked the legs! Plus, it has a leaf.

(You can see I already had sanded the table top in this picture.)

After looking at some pictures of other tables I have refinished, my friend chose a lightly-distressed black base and a dark stained top (like this one).

Her new house has dark, reddish-brown wood floors, so I tried to give the wood top that tone, by using alternating layers of English Chestnut and Antique Walnut stain—two each.