Welcome Wagon Friday 6/25/10

The rain is tap-tapping very lightly (and oh, so sweetly) on my roof. We have had very hot temperatures here and little rain to speak of.

My outdoor spaces are covered in Crepe Myrtle blossoms, sodden and messy. But I will not not mind cleaning it up, as the rain is so needed and the sound on my roof always provides music to my ears.

I will say that I feel somewhat “vindicated.” An odd word to use, I suppose. By Cath Kidston’s “In Print” book. Andrea sent it to me just a week or so ago.

Why, you ask, this feeling of vindication? Well, I have the predilection of adding quilts to the surfaces of most anything. The back of a couch or chair, for instance. Or a table.

And I rarely see decorating books currently doing this. Or even blogs. (Please, if you use quilts in this way, send me the link!)

Once while visiting my oldest daughter in another state, we were discussing the predicament of her rather “brown” living room. She has a lovely home, but, unlike her mother, seems a bit afraid of color.

I suggested she throw some of the quilts I’d sewn for her over the couch or hang one on the wall, as I’m prone to do. She gave me this slightly baffled look. “Mother,” she said. “I can’t hang a quilt on the wall.” But why, I of course asked her. “I just can’t,” she said, and that was the end of that.

Of course that was before patchwork quilts became popular at Pottery Barn. She may be changing her tune.

The moment I felt “vindicated”, for wont of a better word, was when I read the chapter on Patchwork in Cath Kidston’s book.

“Patchwork quilts,” she writes, “I find irresistible. For years they have been a minimalist’s nightmare, being evocative of cute country cottages.”

She goes on to say that she finds them ideal for throwing over the backs of chairs or sofas to brighten up a bland room.”

YES!

You can ask my pets why soft patchwork is so important in our home’s decorating scheme. But they’re likely snoozing away on one of the quilts, and don’t want to be bothered by such inanities.

And speaking of color, look what just came in the mail. Kathy from Sweet Up-North Mornings sent me this gift, because she knows how much I love the color red. Thanks, Kathy!

So now for this weeks Welcome Wagon Friday selections.

A Breath Of Fresh Air is Mary’s blog. She wrote Across The Pond for three years. She is a transplanted Brit whose 47 years of journeying back and forth across the wide Atlantic Ocean has kept her busy, and made her life interesting. Mary recently returned from a trip to Africa, and has delightful photos of this beautiful place. And, I might add, all of which are truly phenomenal.

Fern Valley Farm is Elissa’s blog. She lives on a beautiful island in Maine. (Be still my envious heart!) She strives to create a home for her family that is not only beautiful, but a comfortable and relaxing retreat. She loves creating, decorating, gardening and learning. All on a budget. (Oh my, we love the sound of that!)

Cabin And Cottage is Jacqueline’s blog. She also has a shop in New Mexico by the same name. She has a penchant for showing scenes from movies in her sidebar, which I find brings back memories of some of my very favorites. One of which is “Places In The Heart” with Sally Field. I will never tire of that one from the 1980s.

In her first post back on April 4, 2010, Jacqueline writes: “Of all places to celebrate things quintessentially cottage, our town is one of the least likely. We have neither the classic architecture, nor the picture book garden.”

She goes on to say: “But cottage revolves in every direction: from rustic to romantic, classic to modern, country to city, all American to European (we love French), east coast to west, and everything in-between.”

I couldn’t agree more, Jacqueline!

Please stop by and visit these blogs to welcome them. Tell them that no matter where they might live, we want to embrace them into the fold and take a peek inside their homes.

Perhaps a pitcher of iced tea or a bottle of wine will sweeten the visit. (And maybe you shall go back home to your own blog just the slightest bit tipsy!)

Technorati Tags: Friday Featured Blogs,Welcome Wagon Friday,Cath Kidston book,Decorating with quilts

The Colors Of My Day

When you peek into someone’s home, you pick up on so much of what that person is about. You get insight into their personality by the colors scattered about the house. The way things are arranged.

What they choose to leave out for all to see. And what they hide behind cupboard doors.

What they read.

What holds their treasures.

What they choose to display on their walls.

And what color those walls are painted.

These objects I scatter about the room are all precious to me in some way. This is what surrounds me on this Saturday. What colors surround you?

Technorati Tags: Decorating with color,patchwork quilts

Blue Decorating & Terminix Is On The Job

Yesterday I received this lovely, thin quilt on a wonderful online sale at JCPenneys. Love that place for quilts! It’s a very good thickness for summertime. I got the shams to match.

It’s going to be 100 degrees tomorrow. And 101 the next day. So I’ve decided to “bring on the blues” in my house. Maybe it will make the weather a little more tolerable outside if I’m soothed by blues inside.

The blue and white pillowcases, above, were an eBay buy a few years ago. The cat pillow, below, is one I appliquéd and sewed a long time ago.

If you look below, you’ll see that I also appliqued and quilted two cat wall hangings.

The Terminix guy came this morning. He brought two of these black boxes, seen below. (Looks rather CIA-ish, doesn’t it?) The plan is that the rats go inside and eat the poison. The rat will then seek water (naturally, I have the convenient pond and waterfall). He said they might be coming from the water drain across the street at the bank.

One of the boxes is placed outside my fence in the alley, and one is perched underneath a birdhouse.

I told him I see them running along the fence at night, peeking out from my sun and red mirror. He goes over and pulls this sun away from the fence just a bit, and a little nest falls to the ground.

So I decided I’d better call my elderly neighbor in the garden home next to mine, and tell her there are rats in the neighborhood. In other words, keep your garage door closed and watch out for the snakes they might attract. She said she’d already seen them in her little flower gardens, and had taken down her birdfeeders. (Don’t you know the poor birds have to pay the price for this!)

I told her she would see the black box behind my fence, and not to be alarmed by it. I was afraid someone might think a terrorist had left the nondescript black box there. (Yes, I know I have a rather vivid imagination. But you never know.)

I can just envision police cars surrounding the alley. A bomb squad alerted. They might even think the big bank across the street is the actual target. (Seeing as how people aren’t thinking too kindly of banks right now.)

Now wouldn’t that turn my hopefully ordinary June into something exciting?

Well, to me it doesn’t really seem all that far-fetched, and I’ll tell you why. A few months ago there were arsonists burning churches in this and surrounding towns. One Sunday I’m in the midst of a decoupage project, and the doorbell rings. I go to the door to find an ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms) agent standing there. They ask me to come outside. So there I go with my hands outstretched due to the decoupage glue all over them.

There is a church about a block south of me. The agent tells me that someone had broken in the church the night before, but had been scared away. They wanted to know if I’d heard anything (like the alarm) the night before. I tell them no. This is before I learned that my neighbor Ken had already been interviewed by one of the many agents scouring the neighborhood. And he had obligingly told them, “Go ask Brenda. That woman can hear a mouse dropping on a cotton pad.” (Gee, thanks Ken, I said to him later.) The agent tells me the church break in has marks of the same “MO."

My house is the first garden home on the street. I stood outside my fence (with Modge Podge drying on my hands), and watched as they went about picking up bits of trash in my yard. Thinking the suspects could have thrown trash with their prints on them out their car window.

The agents used gloves and put the trash in evidence bags. Then stuck little orange flags in my yard to show exactly where they’d taken the debris from.

I didn’t write about all this because an arrest wasn’t made for awhile. But not much later two young men were arrested. The alleged arsonists, that is. And they’re now in jail awaiting trial.

So from that experience, I know very well how exciting ordinary life can suddenly get in my neighborhood. One minute I’m working on a decoupage project. And the next I’m standing out in my yard with dried glue all over my hands, watching them pick up tiny pieces of debris in my yard. Leaving orange evidence flags in their place.

Technorati Tags: Decorating with blues,Terminix,rats,reflections

The Many Personalities Of My Couch

Above is my couch and coffee table in August 2009. I went through my photos this morning out of curiosity. It seems that my couch has multiple personalities.

Here is my couch in November 2009. Notice that the quilts and pillows are different. And the coffee table has been changed to a bench that I bought about that time at the antique mall.

(No, one of the personalities is not Sybil. That would be Nola with her newly acquired menopausal symptoms. That I myself have been dealing with for five years. Nice, Nola. Here I thought you understood what I was going through. And you thought your symptoms were merely of a milder nature and duration. Dear Reader, if you think that is too much information, just wait until you hit 50. Bless your poor little naive heart.)

Here is my couch on Christmas Eve of 2009. All dressed up with yet another quilt.

And then presto change-o, the very next month it looks different. With the addition of more pillows. (Around then I bought the red and beige shams at Penneys. And it is obvious I really like them. Because they seem to have “staying” power in these photos.)

I’m showing you all this, because you don’t have to own slipcovers to make your couch look different when you get bored with it. You can simply “dress it up with quilts.”

March of 2010: I’ve taken the quilt off the seat cushions. And changed the quilt on the wall behind it.

Moving right along… I’ve changed items on the bench. Tucked a black bench underneath. And brought some other pillows back in. Charlie added himself.

And now we’re up to today. May 20, 2010. My mood has changed yet again.

I’ve added the beige quilt to the seat cushions. And brought in yet another red and muslin quilt for the back cushions.

I get bored with the same couch. But of course I’m not going to go out and buy a new one. I can’t afford to do that. So I have many “costumes” to keep me happy. Endless costumes, in fact. The only limit is my imagination and the number of quilts I own.

I do the same thing with this chair I bought at the consignment shop. Add a quilt and some different pillows and you have a whole new look.

It’s highly likely that in a few days I will be back here with things rearranged on the tables. Or there will be some other changes to the scene. Because when I get in the mood for change, it is usually contagious.

And the new Pottery Barn catalog just arrived via mail. Browsing this seems to always make me itch to change something. Does that happen to you?

Technorati Tags: Changing the look of furniture with quilts,decorating,quilts on walls

Reclaiming My Chair

I bought this chair at my local consignment shop several years ago. It was meant to be my reading chair. But alas, the cats took it over. It was forever covered in cat hair. I cleaned it up the best I could every week. But, who wants to sit and wonder if you have cat fur on your behind should you decide to go out? So I gave up the battle.

Until yesterday.

I’m not saying I won’t lose the battle to my two cats again. But last night I dragged the chair back into my garden room. I cleaned it with my little super-duper Dyson vacuum. I used the lint brush roller. Like to have choked to death.

I went through my stash of quilts and pillows and “dressed it up” a bit. I figure it’s easier to wash these. And so for now, I once again have a reading chair.

But this morning I saw white fur on it. So I guess it will be our shared chair. Sigh…

This morning Charlie and Abi are at the groomers getting spiffed up themselves. They’ve gone to Susan for over three years now. All I have to say is, “Do you wanna go see Susan?” And they become instantly maniacal and start jumping around like crazy. I don’t know if this means they want to go. Or are just excited because they know there’s no getting out of it.

Which means I got to enjoy my morning cup of coffee without dogs in my lap. You know I’m nuts for all my pets. But why don’t they have a Mother’s Day out for dogs? Maybe that’s something to think about. We loving pet moms need a little break too.

My favorite teddy bear sat next to my desk in her black chair and kept me company. She was such a good, quiet girl.

I pick the rowdy ones up pretty soon. They’re only there for three hours.

Maybe I’ll just sit down in my mostly fur-less chair and read a magazine until then.

Technorati Tags: Decorating,pets,quilts