Henri Hopper

Lola and I came across Henri Hopper's blog and she loves him! don't you think they would make a great couple? :o)

Kitchen Lust

I've been in dream house mode lately.... I am in love with those "farmhouse" sinks! I saw they sell them @ ikea (white ceramic) for about $300... I just think they are soooo spectacular--- I also love the architecture of the kitchen in the other picture-- I wouldn't say that this is exactly what I want-- but it's definitely inspiring to say the least!

Retro Chic "old look new style"

I am in LOVE LOVE LOVE with Orla Kiely's clothes/ bags/ stationary/ kitchen/ living room--- basically everything she makes! I don't own anything yet but I intend to! If I had a few g's to spare I'd spend it here... it's retro chic inspired without being too convoluted.

HUBBA HUBBA

Just wanted to share with you this AWESOME dress! I'm going to one of my best friend's weddings this weekend and needed to find a dress! I came across Miss Braches, INC and fell in love with this dress! she custom made the dress for me in a week! I tried it on as soon as it got here and it fit perfectly! I LOVE it!

Building a room CEILING!

ok This was a really long journey for this. In the center of the room we need a recessed ceiling! That's right recessed. Now I need to clarify that I want the shape of the recessed part to be much like the picture-- EXCEPT we aren't going to ruin our design with all of those recessed lights! In the very center of this ceiling is going to be our chandaleir-- now we can have rope lighting hidden at the top that would put out a soft glow around the top of the ceiling if we needed that (we don't want the rope to be seen--we just want to see a soft reflection of the light off the ceiling.

Now the even trickier part! in the recessed part of the ceiling I want it PAINTED-- painted in such a way I can't find any examples of this. But here in lies a lesson! I couldn't find a picture of a ceiling with the paint that I want on it-- but that doesn't mean that I have a bad idea or that it shouldn't be done. When you can't find your inspiration in an obvious way you need to think outside the box. So what I wanted was a light french blue (very faded) ceiling (remember this is only in the recessed part) with a gold diamond pattern over the top (again very light and airy)-- well I couldn't find this-- so I found inspiration in a tie-- and a pattern on the floor-- the tie is more for a color reference (though slightly off what I really want) and the flooring is more for the pattern (the light wood being the gold and the darker wood the blue).



And to cap it all off-- MOULDING! Wow! How beautiful is this?

Building a room 4th installment

ok so originally I had this in mind for the room--- white wainscoting, elaborate chair rail and then a french blue for the wall color--- I've been searching for the french bed I have in my mind and haven't found one that quite fits the bill--- soooo in my search I came across this bed! it's an antique and absolutely beautiful.
It's so beautiful-- so we're going to use it in the room-- but this causes a problem because we don't want a blue bed with a french blue walls.--- so the new thought is this shabby chic french antique bed-- with "tea stained" colored walls above the white wainscoting now this solves our problem with the color of the dressers and floors-- we're going to go with the dark mahogany colored floors and the white dressers-- to make update this look we are going to utilize my favorite rug from anthropologie I have in a previous post (so you don't have to hung I'll include it).
See how great these colors are playing off each other-- it's updated french chic! Even the pattern in the rug plays really nicely off the pattern of the upholstry of the bed!

Now comes the really tricky part. We need a chandaleir-- crystal and preferably french inspired-- but the tricky part is that you are already making a beautiful room with a lot of statments-- you don't want to get too crazy with the light fixture or you'll outdo all the work with selecting items that pop to move your eye around the room-- in short we want interest but not too much interest!This is the Chandaleir I found. What I love about it is that it looks like it's dripping crystals-- the only thing that needs to be changed is the crystals need to clear and the base white!

Now on to the ceiling-- I'm having trouble finding what matches what's in my mind (what else is new)-- so I'm going to leave you with this post until I find it-- or something comprable!

Building a room PILLOWS

I would pop the room with color in a delectable pillow like this one by Meringue Designs now what I would do is either place this on the fabulous Martha Stewart Settee OR place it on the bedding (tbd).











I think this Green pillow would be nice to pop off the settee-- this one would go on the bed itself.
I found this pillow on etsy.com by Sun2Create
I chose this pillow because it's going to not only pop the settee but it also pulls in the french style.


Lastly for a bit of whimsy (and to add some "french blue") we have this fabulous fun pillow by Maries Cosy Cushions. It's fun and remains sophisticated while helping to ground the room.

Building a Room Continued

I keep going back and forth on the dark furniture vs the white-- I actually own the low dresser and would really like to pick up the lingerie chest and the piano key chest! I'm going to have to think on this room and figure out which way I want to go with finishes. I would imagine if I did white furniture -- I'd want a deep dark mahogany floor. All of the dressers are Stanley Furniture.

The top image of the settee is actually from Martha Stewart-- I think it would make the perfect accent to this room (or any room for that matter)-- I LOVE LOVE LOVE this piece!

Building a Room

Ballooning Over Paris"

This is an idea I have to build or "design" a complete room virtually with objects I find on the net or in magazines. I was inspired by an image I saw of a canvas print you can order on allposters.com. Now I normally have a very mod inspired taste-- but I think this would be a perfect design for either a baby's room or a shabby chic guest room. Right now I know where I want to go with the design for this room but I want to hunt down pictures to convey my ideas to you! I'll start with posting the inspiration and continue adding to this room as I go!

Lola the French Bulldog

This is my super sweet French Bulldog-- her name is Lola! She's about a year now-- but this is my favorite picture of her!

My Dream Ring BLING!

I LOVE this ring! I'd like to pull together some money to purchase this beauty! Perfectly chic--

Eye Candy Chair

My new FAVORITE shop!

One of my friends recently introduced me to a shop down town Cincinnati called "High Street" -- it had the most beautiful and unique items in it! Please visit the shop virtually if you don't have
the opportunity to do so in person!

One thing I was introduced to @ High Street was Lodis brand purses! I fell in love immediately!

If I had $900 dollars!

If I had $900 this is what I would buy! It's from one of my favorite stores-- ANTHROPOLOGIE!
The most shabby chic, yet retro rug I've ever seen-- it's a nice progression from a traditional rug! Simply FANTASTIC

It's a MOD thing

I simply LOVE Mod/retro furniture! Particularly Eames and Knowles type furniture! I drew inspiration from my love of mid century modern and the new fashion print series I've been creating! This is a spin off in the direction of delectable design!

Please let me know what you think!