A Kitchen To Love

A creamy palette adds charm to a remodeled space.

This kitchen is new but feels original to the home. The old-meets-new design was achieved with sage-coloured, Shaker-style cabinets, a tongue-and-groove ceiling and vintage-look hardware. A footed cabinet houses the appliances, and sets it apart from the rest of the room. Meanwhile, the paneled dishwasher to the right of the sink cleverly masquerades as drawers. Photo Source I think this kitchen is amazing, don't you?

Boathouse with Unique Exterior Sliding Doors

You know how much I love to blog about sliding barn doors so I was really blown away by the genius design of this Hood Canal Boat House. The building is only two doors wide and the tracks extend beyond the building like wings so doors open completely allowing full access to the inside. What a great idea! Click here to see all of the wonderful full-size photos of this 2008 project by the Pacific Northwest Architectural Firm Bosworth Hoedemaker. I'm giving this project two thumbs up.

Your Dose of England for Today

"Milldale Cottage, Peak District National Park, England." I know you all love this little cottage as much as I do, right? The photo by Johnny Fez is very painterly, isn't it? via

William Arthur Ward Illustrated Quote for Monday

Pretty soon we will be seeing oak seedlings everywhere. The acorns have been buried all winter and are about to spring forth very soon. Gardeners who plant their gardens from seeds can relate to this quote by William Arthur Ward (1921-1994). I scanned the acorn from The Royal Book of Crests, one of the antiquarian books in my collection. 

Dreaming of England . . . Again

Awaiting teleportation to: The Dovecote in the Pigeon House Garden at Rousham Park House near Bicester Oxfordshire photographed by ©Paul Felix

Audrey Hepburn Illustrated Quote for A Sunday

Isn't it wonderful that Audrey Hepburn was brought up to put others first? What great parents she must have had. We still miss her loveliness, don't we?
 

Piggie Licks the Oatmeal Pan

Here is our house guest with his head in the oatmeal pan. Webster usually gets to lick it but he has generously allowed Piggie the opportunity because he doesn't think 'The Pig' gets to do this at home and we have a total lack of pieces of food dropped on the floor for him to forage. He has 4 juvenile owners who drop and spill things all the time. This will have to be Piggie's snack replacement here at the cottage. We have a very rainy Sunday today. Enjoy your day whatever the weather.

Rossetti Oil painting: 'The Day Dream' in The Victoria and Albert Museum

The Day Dream painted in 1880 by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood painter, artist and poet. The sitter for this painting was Jane Morris, the wife of William Morris, who often posed for Rossetti. At the time this was painted Rossetti was involved in an illicit love affair with Jane. He shows her sitting in the branches of a sycamore tree and holding a sprig of honeysuckle. This sweet-smelling climbing plant symbolized the bonds of love for the Victorians, and Rossetti may have included it here as a subtle reference to the relationship between artist and model. Rossetti was also a poet, and the title relates to his poem of the same name which ends:

She dreams; till now on her forgotten book  

Drops the forgotten blossom from her hand.

 This painting is in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.