Searching for tips, tricks, and general cucumber information, I ran across a line or two of pickle humor and thought it sweet and dilliciously delightful.
Many of us are still in full summertime mode and loving every minute of it. Skipping the best of one season to leapfrog to another runs the risk of taking all the fun out of seasonal updating and decorating, and we certainly don’t want that to happen.
Small touches make a big impact to your dominant décor style accomplishing the intended purpose of seasonal decorating- to create standout statement vignettes, spots, and corners ready to capture the eye and the essence of the current season.
Shipping delays, supply chain snafus, Halloween candy shortages (say it ain’t so, Hershey’s), and price increases all around breeds an earlier than normal buy it now while it’s available and affordable retail response.
Granted it’s seasonal updating and decorating we’re talking about and not meat and potatoes (and fuel) concerns, but we decoristas do find so much joy in the time honored tradition of seasonal updating house and home and porch and patio for each new season.
Here’s my it’s only August but I’m getting ready fall décor preview complete with first impressions, must have classics, and the splendor of the season plan to bring it home.
Developing, baking, cooking, and tasting new recipes spotlighting seasonal spices and seasonings rich in flavor and fragrance is one of the very best parts of the fall festival.
Beat butter, sugars, and salt together until light and creamy. Beat in the egg and vanilla until combined. Fold in the flour.
Divide the dough in half, shape both halves into disks, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 400°F. Grease (or line with parchment) two baking sheets.
Flour the work surface. Working with one disc of chilled dough at the time, roll it out to approximately ¼” thick.
Lightly brush a coating of flour onto both the dough and the springerle mold. Press mold firmly into the dough making a deep impression. Remove dough filled mold and cut around the design with a knife. Place each cut cookie on prepared cookie sheet.
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly golden around the edges. Allow baked cookies to cool either on cookie sheet or wire racks.
Store cookies in an air-tight container. Cookies will keep for 1 week.
Feast your eyes on two recent additions to my cookbook collection purchased in anticipation of fall’s arrival and the recipes it will bring to the table.
Newsflash: gone are the days of basic and boring dorm room decorating ideas and décor choices.
These dorm room decorating ideas feature tasteful and dashing furnishings, accents and accessories that come together to transform an otherwise nondescript space into a chic oasis of comfort and personal style.
My dorm and townhouse roomies and I kept close company with throws and blankets. The degree of cozy rises to a most comfortable level making for a happy dorm-apartment-condo-townhouse environment.
Ions ago when I was at LSU in the dorm my roommate and I used round 3 gallon ice cream containers you could get for free at your local Baskins-Robbins for wastebaskets.
DIY project days gone by consisted of discontinued wallpaper rolls, glue, decorista determination, and a little help from our friends Ernest and Julio Gallo.
Coastal home décor accents and accessories exemplify summer centric chic, centric if you will to the we’ve been having fun all summer long style reflecting the elements of a relaxing day or evening at the beach.
Before we get going with the main event I must disclose this post started out with me just updating a few items, links, and sources, and well, here we stand with an entirely new post. I hope you enjoy!
Streaming smooth jazz smooth wave complete with the sounds of summer tunes and sea waves on a Saturday afternoon sets the tones and tunes to a coastal pictorial.
Even though at present it’s just too hot to do anything remotely close to a real day at the coast, the sights and sounds do put me in a sourcing coastal home décor accents and accessories state of mind.
The mix and the mingle of antiques with new traditional and modern decorating styles layers a space with character, amplifies the charm quotient, creates contrast, and promotes focal point magic.
Coastal home décor steps into the spotlight in the spring through summer season, but is never out of season to the legions of decoristas who realize and embrace this perennial favorite decorating style.
New and vintage mid-century furniture is on-trend, and this pretzel rattan chair is a wonderful example of a classic design and style befitting a coastal castle.
The Chatelet extendable trestle dining table offers European appeal in farm to coastal detail.
Hardwood solids paired with pecan, walnut and maple veneers replicate a provincial patina, making this a dining table contender for the casual yet elegant coastal dining room.
Seashells typify coastal areas, and a striking display of gathered shells from the shore or from the shelf housed in a decorative bowl or urn planter in coastal home décor fashion draws the eye.
It transcends a passing trend and consistently ranks as one of the most popular interior design styles.
Tasteful and timeless coastal home décor accents and accessories accentuate the casual, comfortable, fun, elegance, and seaside sophistication associated with classic coastal style.
Watermelon is the fruit of green, red, pink, white, orange, yellow colors, distinctive pattern lines, and delicious possibilities.
Funny how the unofficial official fruit of summer inspires the theme of watermelon home décor accessories, stylish accents of the season, delectable recipes and color palette choices.
I knew I wanted to do a post featuring the colors of a ripe, delicious watermelon when I saw the image below.
Although not in watermelon pattern, these perfectly paired accent chair cushions immediately draw the eye in with the fresh, crisp and bright apple-green material and white rope trim.
Credit the accent pillow in Romo’s “Tulipa Coral” fabric for taking this tiptoeing through the tulips palette to color perfection heights.
As it goes in the home décor and retail world we decorate and accessorize in, there’s times when the decorista must engage in decorative interpretation and in the style of implementation.
Chic in the style of watermelon home décor pieces in color rich combinations of green, red, pink, white, yellow, and orange accent and accessorize please the eye and emulate the primary characteristics of the unofficial official fruit of summer.
The Sugartown watermelon purchased this past weekend “produced” a sweet summer treat and a taste for sweet summer themed décor inspiration.
BHG – Photography Blaine Moats
Watermelon Sorbet
Ingredients
1 lime
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
1 cup frozen raspberries
12 ounces chopped watermelon (2 cups)
Directions
Finely shred 2 teaspoons peel from lime. Juice lime (2 tablespoons); set aside.
In a medium saucepan stir the sugar and water over medium heat until just simmering, stirring to dissolve sugar. Remove from heat. Add raspberries and lime juice.
Stir to thaw.
Place raspberry mixture and watermelon in a food processor or blender. Cover and process or blend until smooth. Press mixture through a fine-mesh sieve; discard seeds. Stir in lime peel.
Transfer mixture to a 2-quart rectangular baking dish. Cover; freeze until firm (4 to 24 hours). Transfer to a chilled bowl, breaking up if necessary.
Beat with an electric mixer on low to medium speed until smooth and lightened in color. Return to dish.
This watermelon printed midi skirt does not exactly qualify as home décor per se, however, it does make a summer chic style statement for spring into summer entertaining.
Any way you slice it, watermelon home décor accessories, refreshing treats and summer entertaining wares make for a unique, fun and summer festive addition to the party.
The countdown to a three day celebration of summer, fun, and freedom 4th of July party ideas is on.
Allow me to take this opportunity to thank the calendar year for gifting us a three-day weekend for holiday fun in the summer sun.
Count that as 4th of July party ideas gold!
Fine and Yankee Doodle Dandy for the 4th, a fresh flower haul from the farmer’s market truck mixed with clippings and cuttings from around the yard pops the colors of the season.
It’s been so flipping hot of late I haven’t been firing up the grill, stove or ovens very much.
Dave the Builder continues to inform me we have central air conditioning, but it does make a difference in the late afternoon when you’re cooking-baking-grilling.
Light fare with an emphasis on easy, fresh, and cool suits the summer in all of us.
Have you noticed how much a jar of Duke’s Mayo is going for these days?
Psst…. the digital coupon gods at Kroger are granting shoppers a coupon for Duke’s mayo this week, so let there be homemade potato salad on the 4th of July dinner table.
Always on board for trying new recipes, I ran across this recipe for No-Mayo Potato Salad with Herbs from FoodieCrush.
Elvis the King’s Jungle Room has been in the spotlight of late vis-à-vis the buzz surrounding the upcoming Baz Luhrmann film, Elvis.
Certain spaces and certain clients call for over the top flamboyant chic when designing and decorating residential and commercial properties, and not all residential and commercial spaces are created equal.
As it appropriately calls for, there’s spaces and places where understated style simply will not do.
Ostentatious interior decorating and design elements has a standing relationship with grand scale museums, historical homes, architectural marvels, Las Vegas and hooray for Hollywood interiors.
Some exquisite.
Some gaudy.
Some remarkable.
Some unsightly.
What is it they say about beauty being in the eye of the beholder?
Celebrities love to dial up extravagance in a manner befitting a true Hollywood story and Elvis the King’s Jungle Room.
You live what you know as some would say, and if flamboyant is just another day at the office it becomes the rule versus the exception.
Liberace
March 29-30, 1977 made hometown history much to the excitement and disbelief of the masses. Elvis Presley scheduled not one but two nights to perform live in concert in Central Louisiana at the Rapides Parish Coliseum.
Papa Places In The Home scooped up tickets for our entire brood (8), and the excitement level was off the charts.
Ours was an Elvis house.
We loved the music, the style, and the voice.
On January 14, 1973 the Curtis Mathes was tuned to Aloha from Hawaii.
For no one in my nuclear family to utter a word for over an hour proved how captivated we were.
Daddy surprised my mother with a trip to Las Vegas complete with her chance to see Elvis live at the Las Vegas Hilton.
Vegas was a different beast in those days, back when $100 bills in the palm of the showroom captain, the original ticket master, got you the best seat in the house.
While waiting to be seated my dad struck up preshow conversation with the couple standing behind them. Two husbands determined to please two wives devised a you put up one hundred and I’ll put up one hundred plan.
Remember it’s 1974.
Two Ben Franklins got them seated “right on the stage” as my dad used to say.
Daddy was more excited for my mother to see Elvis up close and personal than actually seeing Elvis perform.
As the story goes Elvis, with scarf in hand and enough charisma to light up the Vegas Strip, stood in front of mother not once, not twice, but three times for her to respond.
Mesmerized by this larger than life being looking her directly in the eyes, the woman could not move.
Daddy kept nudging her and telling her, “honey, stand up” and although she wanted to she just couldn’t.
Never one to be star-struck before, she insists she wasn’t that night as well.
Over the course of a 30+ year span of trips to Vegas my parents met and mingled with celebrities and cultivated life long friendships with several.
Yes, that’s Dan Tanna himself, the beloved Robert Urich who was one of the aforementioned friends from my parent’s Vegas days.
She really can’t explain it nor does she regret it. It was one of those in the moment moments that came and went with nothing more than a memory for the souvenir books.
Most, if not all, design and décor features at Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley, stand in a time capsule- as it should be when you think about it.
From the articles, books and interviews I’ve read referencing the interior spaces of Elvis Presley’s Graceland, his personal design style preferences ranged from his idea of elegance and beauty to flash and kitsch.
Iconic spaces left suspended in a style of the times state challenges the design and decorating side of my brain to a round of how exactly would I redo-remodel-rearrange-reimagine-replace-rethink the design without compromising the original scheme without insulting or diminishing the core concept.
Although my design and decorating services have not been engaged by famous architects, heads of Hollywood studios, hoteliers or the fine folks at Graceland, a decorista can ponder can’t she?
Tiki tacky crosses the mind, but the rule of what speaks to you is what you should surround yourself with, for whatever reason or season, applies here.
Placement adjustments, furnishings tweaks here and there, subtraction of the outdated coupled with the addition of updated décor pieces go a long way in accomplishing a visually pleasing refresh.
Western International Trading Co. (Witco) carved wood décor and home furnishings in tropical and Hawaiian inspired style was super popular from its beginning in the late 1960s though the late 1970s.
Today’s Fetching Friday introduces family to family. After all, followers, friends, and family are one in the same here at Places In The Home.
Late one night this week in a part exhausted-part heat overload-part what in the heck did I just do haze I did something to cause my pictures/download files to jump from recent to long time ago status.
The result is a blast from the past pictorial scroll.
Family means the world to me; the memories perhaps even more.
Scrolling from one founding generation to the latest you will meet the family.
Why is it that in almost every photo of my maternal great grandparents, regardless of how young they actually are in the photo, they look old?
Hard times I suppose physically aged them far too soon, but those hard times is what made these two forever young at heart and the absolute anchors of our family.
Mama and Papa were native Texans with all that that implies. God fearing, hard working folk of life loving character, I was fortunate enough to learn by their extraordinary example and to have them present in my life until my late teens.
He was full of life, innocent mischief, and a walking encyclopedia of facts and anecdotes of old Texas.
Mama Two (what I called her) was a force of calming nature small in stature and large in heart.
Mamaw never met a lake, creek, river, pond or fishin’ hole she didn’t love. Dead of summer in the South and the woman was stylishly decked out in long pants and long sleeves with a color-coordinated umbrella in hand.
Sunshine she loved, but skin cancer rays were persona non grata.
Many a family member, friend, and neighbor reaped the benefits of her late summer afternoon fishing sessions- a delicious treat we could bank on.
Tomboy in a dress- that was the description my mother bestowed upon herself, never shy to climb a tree, barrel race, or fight the good fight when and if her baby brother (the precious and precocious blond boy to her left) needed assistance.
Daddy came from humble beginnings, and remained just that, humble, all of his life.
He moved mountains (or so we thought) for all he knew and loved, never met a stranger, and put his love of family as priority number one.
Parents to two who always knew how fortunate we were and are to call them Mama and Daddy, our house was the one all the friends wanted to be at, holiday central for family and friends who were/are family, and a place proud to call home.
“Everyone needs a house to live in, but a
supportive family is what builds a home.”
—Anthony Liccione
Dave the Builder joined the family in the early 80s and it’s been a party ever since.
Our heart and soul, Jackson is the light of our lives.
Ollie comes in a close second.
Three generations of cousins, three times the love.
“The love in our family flows strong and deep, leaving us memories to treasure and keep.”
—Anonymous
Happy Friday, family!
Show & Tell
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Antiques partner beautifully with traditional and new-traditional pieces and patinas.
So sea chic!
Liberace
