Labor Day begins the winding down of summer. I’ve come to think of Memorial Day and Labor Day as a set of spiffy bookends supporting the May to September romance we have with summer, the summer vacation, and vacation photos.
A summer vacation was not to be for me and Dave the Builder due to obligations, project deadlines, and ch-ch-ch-ch-changes (a tip of the hat to David Bowie) in our everyday life.
So it goes.
All good things come to those who wait to hit the holiday road in the fall. Fall will be here soon as will cooler temps, seasonal colors on parade, festivals and gumbo good times.
Grab a to-go pumpkin latte and call me a happy traveler.
A simple solution to alleviate vacation withdrawals is to live the moment vicariously through vacation photos delivered to my inbox from the merry band of traveling Millennials aka our son and his wife, nephew #1 and his darling family, and nephew #2 and his beloved.
Our son and daughter-in-law traveled to the United States for a twelve day trip to discover the sights, sounds, and highlights of the Black Hills of South Dakota, Mount Rushmore National Park, Badlands National Park, Aspen, Denver, Fort Collins, and Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Mount Rushmore National Memorial
They called one evening and while we were talking I heard the roar and rev of motorcycles.
Is that motorcycles I hear?
Yes it is.
Have you ever heard of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally?
Needless to say, it was quite a noisy conversation.
Our son on tap and taste duty at the New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins, Colorado.
There would be more pictures, but the newest addition to their family, Dallas, chewed through both of their laptop charger cords.
Two observations:
Puppies gnaw and chew on cords, belts, purses, shoes, furniture.
A mother who bites her tongue and does not remind her son if the cords were not left on the floor for the puppy to get to in the first place you wouldn’t have this issue deserves a medal, or at the very least a vacation.
This weekend marks their first wedding anniversary. To mark the celebration, they are traveling to Minneapolis to dine in style, see Taylor Swift in concert, and shop for new and replacement electronics, chargers, and devices.
Speaking of weddings, the next round of vacation photos are from nephew #2 and his beloved’s trip to Bethesda, Maryland and Washington D.C. to attend a friend’s wedding and reception held at the Congressional Country Club.
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier atArlington National Cemetery
The Korean War Veterans Memorial
Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum
Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
Nephew #1 and his darling family make a Florida vacation a yearly event. Joined by our niece-in-law’s parents, sister, brother, their spouses, children, and a pair of aunts and uncles, the group travel by air and land to Perdido Key for a week of family fun in the sun.
Twelve adults and six kids (including two babies under one) require a lot of stuff. With a two day start, our nephew drove his loaded to the gills SUV from Missouri to Florida to meet the crew.
Sun, beach, water, sand, rinse and repeat floated everyone’s boat. The Places In The Home side of the family leans more towards the mountains and the west coast, but know well the appeal of the Florida Gulf Coast.
Nephew #2 and his beloved ended up having a two for the price of one vacation. The second part of their vacation found them on beach time in Orange Beach, Alabama.
Toes in the sand without a vacation care in the world until company arrives.
Winter, spring, summer, or fall- vacation photos place you in the moment and serve as a wish you were here postcard. As the sun sets on summer 2018, we hope you have a wonderful Labor Day holiday weekend.
Today’s A Most Fetching Design Friday features impressive images from the design portfolios of T.S. Adams Studio, Architects and Residential Designer William T. Baker.
Striking images from design portfolios gifts the house and home enthusiast designs to admire and interiors by which to glean inspiration from.
Although many decor accessories and furnishings know no season, particular colors, textures, and patterns do in fact typify a particular season. There’s something so fall about a wild turkey illustration, antique copper water cooler, and a rustic painted hoop back bench chair inspired by an 18th century Hickory original design.
The Delia 8-Light foyer pendant in bronze and the Currey & Company Beesthorpe Lantern in golden Pyrite Bronze-finished wrought iron possess the qualities of well designed jewelry- fashionable, brilliant, and graceful.
Inspiration is everywhere, and the architecture of the Louisiana low-country serves the architectural detailing of this William T. Baker designed home. Seeing as I have a strong affinity for Louisiana architecture and herringbone brick floors, this image immediately caught my eye and my heart.
I hope you enjoyed today’s A Most Fetching Friday featuring a selection of impressive images from the design portfolios of T.S. Adams Studio, Architects and Residential Designer William T. Baker.
Conversations, estimations, and prognostications for the upcoming LSU Tigers football season have gone from a meow to a roar.
Football fans- this is not a drill.
If you haven’t scouted the recipes, planned the menus, decorations and tailgating tablescapes ideas we’ve got something to talk about as well.
Football fans and the tailgating nation from conference to conference, division to division take their football and tailgating times serious.
Football fans here in the South surely do, and come rain, sunshine, humidity or hurricane, we let the good tailgating times roll.
Tiger Stadium
Tailgating planning and execution is a process that rivals that of an elaborate dinner party.
The selection of a tailgating tablescapes theme and the perfect decor accessories and tablewares can be an entertaining success from parking to parting.
The Local Palate
Tailgating has come along way from the hibachi and red Solo cup days, not that there’s anything wrong with that. Tailgaters decked out in team attire and colors believe in getting the party started early in game day style.
In case you haven’t heard, football is a religion in the South.
Legions of faithful shall we gather at the stadium gather together to get the pregame ritual kicked off in true tailgating style.
If real estate is all about location, location, location tailgating tablescapes is all about display, display, display.
Pitch your tailgating tent in a prime location, hang a focal point chandelier, and proceed to impress the crowd with your tailgating tablescapes skills and style.
Begin by dressing the table in whatever choice of table linens fits this weeks theme.
Burlap is the tailgating accessory that consistently tops the tailgating tablescapes must have table linens list because of its durability, versatility, and its inexpensive price tag.
There’s no crying in football or spilled chili, dip, gumbo, cocktails, etc…
Spills happen.
If a stain should occur, cover it up with a serving tray or platter for the duration of your tailgating soiree (a hosting trick).
Between tailgating times, head over to a fabric store or online retailer to pick up or order a couple of more yards of this tailgating friendly fabric.
I really like this artificial grass table runner option.
Decorating your tailgating tablescapes with pieces in team colors, seasonal accents, and holiday du jour decor never fails to impress the crowd. My game changer tablescape works with a casual yet elegant theme.
It brings a bit of juxtaposition to the tailgating tablescapes mix with stoneware plates paired with inexpensive faux wood chargers.
Wreaths make fantastic candle rings for tailgating tablescapes, and when football season is over you can use these for home for the holidays decorating.
Birch slab round tree slices, woven trays, and baskets make the extra point as serving pieces and decorative additions for the fall football tailgating tablescape of it all.
Natural Wheat Stacks make the starting lineup for fabulous tailgating tablescapes accessories.
Good look, great height.
Easy to work with centerpiece options include a team mascot figurine, collectible helmet, and a bronze poly-stone football player sculpture.
Arrangements of fresh or faux flowers and plants of the season set a festive and colorful scene.
Crotons, hydrangeas, garden mums, marigolds, branches, decorative feathers, dried lotus pods, magnolia leaves and sunflowers give a festive nod to fall and transport well.
Vases and containers can be as simple as a collection of empty vegetable-sauce-bean cans to dollar store metal vases with rope accents to craft pumpkins to a football cut to accommodate a can in which to house fresh flowers.
When selecting vases and containers, I keep ease of transport, the unique factor, and avoid breakage at all times in mind.
These versatile and sturdy crates add just the right amount of vintage to the look and ease to tote, travel, and tablescape.
Chili and chilly is a delicious tailgating combination for fall game days.
A woven crate basket can pull triple duty as a tailgate supply tote for a hot chocolate with all the fixings, turned upside down and used as the aforementioned fixings display, and holder of fleece throws in seasonal or team colors.
I like items that pull double tableware duty.
Is it an urn for a fall foliage centerpiece or is it a stylish beverage tub?
Tailgating recipes for barbecued anything, Creole seasoned popcorn and lemonade with a kick, cold or hot dips, salads, sandwiches, soups, stews or chili, and tasty tailgating appropriate desserts always satisfy a hungry tailgating group.
A sugar mold also makes an excellent condiment holder.
Gumbo or deer chili served with homemade buttermilk cornbread with pork cracklin’s has Louisiana c’est si bon written all over it.
Toups’ Cracklin’s
Ingredients
5 pounds skin-on pork belly
4 cups lard
Peanut oil, for frying
Cracklin’ Spice (recipe follows)
Directions
Place pork belly skin side up on a cutting board, and cut into 1-inch pieces.
In a large Dutch oven, place lard and pork belly. Do not layer pork belly in more than 3 layers. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring frequently; reduce heat to medium, and cook, stirring frequently, until skin blisters and turns golden brown. Transfer pork belly to rimmed baking sheets, and refrigerate until cold.*
In a large Dutch oven, pour oil to a depth of 4 inches, and heat over medium-high heat until a deep-fry thermometer registers 380°. Add pork belly in batches, and fry until puffed and golden brown, about 2 minutes. Let drain on paper towels, and liberally sprinkle or toss with Cracklin’ Spice.
It dawned on me last week as I was dusting (the all things house that make a home chore I love to hate) the bookshelves in the not ready for blog sharing time den could greatly benefit from an update-an edit-a rearrange.
That started a I’m tired of-I’m bored with-I don’t like that chain reaction.
An inspection of shelf, space and tabletop ensued, and the conclusion reached is I’m ready for a rearranging home decor accessories change.
Did you hear that?
That’s Dave the Builder breathing a sigh of relief as I assure him no painting, wallpapering or furniture moving will be involved in this most current update to our decor.
Oh, it’s coming, but more on that down the redecorating road.
It’s amazing how easy it is to stave off decor staleness by simply rearranging home decor accessories upon the shelves and tabletops of home sweet home.
I’m decorating to the oldies with the soulful sounds of Dionne Warwick and The 5th Dimension.
The music is from 1967, but the look in this traditional ranch doesn’t have to be.
I’m doing my decorista best to de-1967 this traditional ranch one project, one space, one rearranging home decor accessories at a time.
Stained woodwork works for some spaces, but this den is not one of those spaces.
Dave the Builder suggested I give the stained woodwork a chance.
I did and have for eight years.
Eight years.
That’s a lot of mulling it over.
This future project is on the fast track to the back burner due to prior “real job” commitments.
Dave’s schedule is full through October, and although painting the den bookshelves tops my at home project list, Dave’s projects pay the bills.
Good and stylish things come to those who wait.
Isn’t that how the saying goes?
New cabinet hardware is a must, and let me tell you why.
Changing out cabinet hardware is an inexpensive update, an install I am ridiculously brilliant at, and delivers instant visual gratification.
Move it here, move it there.
Take a look at the look created.
Assign each shelf a focal point accessory and work from there.
To the left, to the right, to the center-no two shelves or vignettes are created equal.
Style each shelf with objects of varying sizes and heights to create flow, balance, and to perfect the art of visual interest.
Feature items close to your heart, interests, and memories.
The rule of you effectively applies to decorating and should be beautifully evident throughout your home.
Farmhouse style has transitioned somewhat to include an element of modernization, and this development piques my interest to give voice to personal interpretation.
Modern farmhouse style builds upon the cornerstones of farmhouse style, finding a nuanced direction toward a curated reinterpretation of the traditional foundation through balance, harmony, layers, and visual engagement.
Throughout my childhood my mother and grandmother would decide on a whim to load up the Lincoln and point the hood emblem west to Texas.
No trip to Texas was complete without an adventure on the way to my great-grandparents house.
Over the Louisiana bayous and down the Texas farm-to-market roads, to great-grandmother’s house we go with a Glen Campbell 8-track in the Philco ever gentle on our minds and nary a seat belt fastened or care in the world.
Now Bryan! Now Cameron! Now Heidenheimer and Temple!
On, Belton! On, Killeen! On, Hewitt and Waco, too!
Ever the curious adventurer, my grandmother could scope out a farmhouse among Texas Bluebonnets like nobody’s business.
She was farmhouse when farmhouse wasn’t cool.
Her antiques radar was fine-tuned to treasures ahead- a skill I’ve proudly inherited.
Protesting proved pointless, learning from an early age to never question the motives of a native Texan whose eyes have seen the glory of a Texas farmhouse, a hole-in-the-wall junk shop, or fields of blooming Bluebonnets.
Undeniable is the obvious correlation between my personal style interpretation of modern farmhouse design and the farmhouses, antiques shops, and the fields of Bluebonnet dreams waltzed across Texas all those years ago.
Antique pieces are well represented in many of the photos as it is what I consider the standard decorating accessory that beautifully complements and stunningly creates visual contrast to define modern farmhouse style.
Now more than ever I am convinced the nouns of our lives, the people, places and things that leave a lasting impression play a significant role in our personal style choices.
The tops and shelves of farmhouse and modern farmhouse style sideboards and accent cabinets are made for housing distinctive wares and decorative accessories.
Today’s A Most Fetching Friday shines a nightlight on the importance of a tranquil bedroom where mind, body and eye benefit from quality downtime and restful style. I’ve discovered the antidote to the energy draining, oppressive and tedious days of summer- retreating to a tranquil bedroom where I check stress, devices, and the general noise of the day that grinds the gears at the door.
What design elements constitute a tranquil bedroom for one may not for another.
In design and in the pursuit of tranquility, personal preference makes the world go round.
Count me among those that unwind by watching television before bed. Dave the Builder yammers wonders aloud how I can include watching television in my downtime is the right time viewing routine.
To quote a line from Sex and the City (a late night viewing favorite), “I love it, it’s my thing. Let it go.”
When designing and decorating the master bedroom with tranquility in mind, a serene and calming color palette is conducive to a relaxing atmosphere.
Dave and I often play the what would you buy if you won the lottery game.
When I do win the lottery (the power of positive thinking) fresh flowers will grace the accent, dining, vanity, and bedside tabletops throughout Casa de Places In The Home.
In the meantime, the markdown sections of grocery store floral departments beautifully and affordably allow me to indulge my penchant for keeping an arrangement of fresh flowers on the bedside table.
Small touches such as fresh flowers instill a curated quality to your bedroom oasis and give a weary eye a colorful place to land.
The tranquil bedroom decorated by Brannan Geary is a Southern charmer.
The classic Colefax and Fowler fabric Bowood, stunning window treatments, and fresh flowers beautifully demonstrate how the use of classic patterns, soft color palettes, and antique furnishings frame a tranquil bedroom.
I do love a tranquil bedroom that is calm, cool and collected.
This lamp is one of a pair that belonged to my grandmother.
The pair of vintage porcelain lamps in the Brannan Geary decorated bedroom inspired me to head to the Hopefully Classic storage closet to retrieve these vintage porcelain lamps with the express purpose of reintroducing into a calm, cool, and collected bedroom.
I hope you have a most fetching Friday and a lovely weekend- one that presents an opportunity at the end of the day for you to retreat to and rest and relax in a tranquil bedroom.
Our 4th of July celebration finds me taking a few minutes between festivities to wish you all a Happy 4th of July while I enjoy a cup of tea and some quality keyboard time.
I love the lead up to the big celebration, but life, like decorating and design, is all about balance.
We’re about to get this patriotic pops party started in bing, bang, boom fashion, and I bet you are doing the same at your own Happy 4th of July celebration.
Tradition rings red, white, and blue true in a patriotic color palette.
Variations and creative interpretations of the patriotic color palette allow for fresh takes, takes primed for impressing the eye of the new traditional loyal.
Drum up the drama and set off the visual fireworks in shades, hues and tones of regal reds, shades of white, and brilliant blues.
A space defined, detailed, and draped in an updated interpretation of the classic red, white, and blue color scheme pops the color in new traditional style.
Don’t shy from purchasing a lamp(s) with a shade that does not float your boat or without a shade at all.
Celebrate your independence from the unremarkable, run-of-the-mill, and lackluster by creating a custom piece by replacing or purchasing a shade(s) suited to your taste, color preference and the canvas of the space.
Plans for our grand old flag pop and splash style 4th of July bash are coming together.
Traditional Home
You would think color palette inspiration is what I gleaned from the country French aesthetic of this Charles Faudree decorated bedroom.
Oh, it catches my eye and pops the patriotic palette, but what speaks 4th of July to me is the blue and white plates on the wall.
More on that further down the post.
Old Glory proudly welcomes visitors and the 4th of July to Places In The Home.
I never shy away from an opportunity to add a pop of color to interiors or exteriors.
Displaying the American flag and decorative throw pillows in red, white, and blue brilliantly colors my world in true patriotic style.
Our usual cast of characters made an executive holiday decision to hold our 4th of July bash at my brother’s house.
I voted for our 4th of July holiday to look a bit more like this…
but the majority ruled for our grand old flag pop and splash style 4th of July bash to be a home for the holiday celebration.
Relocating our 4th of July bash to my brother’s house puts us closer to the lake and his pool.
Now that’s smart party planning.
My new waterproof bluetooth speaker will make its inaugural debut. It’s not a party without the grooves and tunes of summer.
My Dad was a Veteran and a proud American.
His love of country was rooted in the American flag.
He fought for it, he never shied from his pride in it, and at the end of his life the American flag honored him.
In honor of my Dad, Veterans, and the military servicemen and women who serve our country, our flag flies for you.
What would a 4th of July tablescape be without a red, white and blue centerpiece?
I’m supplying the vase which is actually a cookie jar sans lid and the American flags.
Whatever greenery or flower I can find in blooming abundance in nature’s floral department (the yard) will be the center of centerpiece attention.
I happened to notice how full our neighbor’s magnolia tree is at present, and with their permission to “get all you want whenever you want” I’m thinking a bouquet of magnolias is where this centerpiece is going.
I’m staying true red, white, and blue with the party palette, but the 4th of July patio table will be set with vintage blue and white plates in various china patterns.
Summer sweet corn grown in the fields along the bayou is on the menu.
Some want it roasted.
Some want it cut off the cob and Southern fried with home grown tomatoes and sautéed Vidalia onions.
Some want it boiled, or as it was put to me, the way nature and the farm to table gods intended.
Summer sips, snacks, sweets, sides and sizzle simple is on the menu.
Dave the Builder will lead the barbecue pit crew, I’ll handle the sides, my brother is in charge of beverages and appetizers, and Mama Places In The Home is on dessert detail.
From planning to preparing to plating, our grand old flag pop and splash style 4th of July bash is a family affair.
We’re ready to go 4th, color our world and our holiday, and party in patriotic style.
We hope you all have a fantastic 4th of July.
If things don’t get planning and preparing crazy around here, I’ll pop in with a post next week.
