Decorate Your Porch With A Flag For Memorial Day

Don't forget to hang a flag somewhere for Memorial Day. The one hanging on this porch is perfect. So is the hammock.

Directions for Hanging an American Flag.

Click orange square to subscribe via feed reader or email.

Serene Getaway House in the Forest

Serene Getaway House in the Forest | Interior Designs And Home Ideas: Allandale House is a modern serene getaway home in the forest. Based on the classic A-frame, the extreme modern version of the cabin was constructed for an idiosyncratic connoisseur and her family. The vacation home is small, but contains enough storage space for collections of rare artifacts, books, wines, and stuffed animals, including forest dwelling elk and birds.

Click on the link to see more views of the inside and outside of this interesting house in the forest. I would require at least one very comfortable chair and ottoman and a reading lamp to go with all those books. The kitchen isn't even pictured. These people probably just read all the time and eat wild mushrooms from the forest floor.




Click orange square to subscribe via feed reader or email.

Windmill Love

Who doesn't love a good windmill photo?

Click orange square to subscribe via feed reader or email.

Catskills Fishing Cabin Becomes Sophisticated Retreat

Turning a Fishing Cabin Into a Sophisticated Retreat A publicist makes over a cabin with a mix of global influences and an indoor-melting-into-outdoor style. View New York Times Slide Show to see the transformation from a dark, paneled Catskills fishing cottage to a bright and open weekend retreat.




Click orange square to subscribe via feed reader or email.

Cherry Blossom Cottage

Oh My Goodness! Isn't this Cherry Blossom Cottage the sweetest thing you've ever seen? I had a very nice day yesterday. Hope you did too. My open house wasn't swamped with lookers but I had a very good book so I didn't even care. I haven't seen the movie yet.

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
When we first meet 14-year-old Susie Salmon, she is already in heaven. This was before milk carton photos and public service announcements, she tells us; back in 1973, when Susie mysteriously disappeared, people still believed these things didn't happen. In the sweet, untroubled voice of a precocious teenage girl, Susie relates the awful events of her death and her own adjustment to the strange new place she finds herself. It looks a lot like her school playground, with the good kind of swing sets. With love, longing, and a growing understanding, Susie watches her family as they cope with their grief, her father embarks on a search for the killer, her sister undertakes a feat of amazing daring, her little brother builds a fort in her honor and begin the difficult process of healing. In the hands of a brilliant novelist, this story of seemingly unbearable tragedy is transformed into a suspenseful and touching story about family, memory, love, heaven, and living.




Click orange square to subscribe via feed reader or email.

Life Is Good

Don't you love this hand-drawn font by Camila Drozd? Great message too. Have a wonderful Sunday. Wish me luck at my Open House.




Click orange square to subscribe via feed reader or email.

The Skeleton Armchairs of Vincent Price

The Skeleton Armchairs of Vincent Price:
Here's the auction house description: Hand-carved of hardwood; these chairs were apparently modeled after a rare 18th-century chair which sold for over $100,000 at a New York auction. By oral tradition, they were part of a set custom-ordered by actor Vincent Price. However, Price died before they were delivered. In any case, they make a wonderful conversation piece! Excellent condition. Each measures 54' x 24' x 24'.

I think I'll pass on these chairs offered by Heritage Auctions. I don't think they "go" with the decor of my cottage.




Click orange square to subscribe via feed reader or email.

Interior Design in Children's Illustrations

Baby Eats At The Table

I picked up a great little book with wonderful illustrations at a garage sale this morning. I'm always impressed to see the great care that goes into getting the design of the room into children's illustrations. Reproduced from Le Journal de Bébé first published in Paris in 1914. Don't you love the wallpaper, chandelier shade, potted plants, and table cloth? Simply a wonderful composition I think. Great dining room too.




Click orange square to subscribe via feed reader or email.

Life's Little Instruction Book | Volume II | Page 12

Southerners have always done this.

Click orange square to subscribe via feed reader or email.

Belton House - Lincolnshire, UK

Belton House is a country house near Grantham, Lincolnshire, England. The mansion is surrounded by formal gardens and a series of avenues leading to follies within a greater wooded park. Belton has been described as a compilation of all that is finest of Carolean architecture, the only truly vernacular style of architecture that England had produced since the time of the Tudors. The house has also been described as the most complete example of a typical English country house; the claim has even been made that Belton's principal facade was the inspiration for the modern British motorway signs which give directions to stately homes.

Have a wonderful weekend. A lady gave me 3 beautiful peony plants if I would dig them up yesterday at an estate sale nearby. Of course I said yes and they are already in the ground. They are exactly like the one I photographed recently at a friend's house. I also got a snowball bush, at least that's what I think it is. It's covered in buds that should pop open any day now. It might be a hydrangea; I must identify the leaves when I get more coffee into my system. I was outside until after 9pm last night planting everything. They don't even know they've been moved. So happy!!!




Click orange square to subscribe via feed reader or email.

A View in Ireland.

I've never been to Ireland, have you?




Click orange square to subscribe via feed reader or email.

Chives in Bloom | Make Some Flavored Vinegar

My chives are in full bloom as you can see from a photo I took earlier this week. I think I should make some flavored herb vinegar.

Chive Blossom Vinegar

2 cups white vinegar
2 cups freshly packed chive blossoms

Bring vinegar just to boil, but do not boil. Pour over chive blossoms. Let stand in a crock or large glass bowl or bottle in cool, dark place for one week.

Strain vinegar, discard blossoms.

Transfer to bottles and add sprig of fresh chive blossom to each bottle.

Great gifts from the garden.

Click orange square to subscribe via feed reader or email.

Sliding Barn Doors Used Inside

This is probably about the 4th time I've featured sliding barn doors used as an interior feature. I always stop to look at photos of them when I'm browsing blogs. I forgot to make a note of the source of this photo for these new doors that maintained the look of their barn/carriage house origins. It's a lovely Friday morning so far. I'd better get my outside work done early because I think it's going to be quite warm. Have a great weekend, Rosemary

Sarah Jessica Parker: Audio Guide at The Met

Sarah Jessica Parker becomes audio guide at The Met:
Those who visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art during its exhibition titled "American Woman: Fashioning a National Identity" will be greeted by a familiar voice. Sex and the City star and self-confessed fashionista Sarah Jessica Parker has taken on the role of audio guide for the Costume Institute's annual fashion exhibition at the museum. The exhibition runs through Aug. 15, 2010.

Visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Web site to hear a sample of SJP’s audio narrative--go to the bottom of the page.




Click orange square to subscribe via feed reader or email.

A Cheerful Kitchen

I like this happy kitchen a lot, don't you? Those upper windows are especially pleasing. We have bright sun at the cottage today after a week of dreary weather. Enjoy your day, Rosemary.





Click orange square to subscribe via feed reader or email.

Taking The Cat To The Vet

You can't back out now. It's going to be all right.
Don't worry. I'll be there when she wakes up.




Click orange square to subscribe via feed reader or email.