Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Gardening

Below are some pics of my little cottage house on the outside. I spent 6 hours on Sunday pulling weeds, prunning, planting and watering. I love flowers and color however due to having so many large Oak Trees on my property, nothing will survive for too long. This was something I learned after trying for over 3 years and a whole lot of beautiful flowers & cash went bye-bye!

So I went to Lowes on a whim and they explained to me that if a plant dies, within 1 year of purchasing, you can either get your money back or exchange for another plant. Volia!!! I'm back in business, without my money going "out the window."




Monday, August 31, 2009

PDC The Boutique Design Ideas

Sunday's are "Nephew" days as well as clean up days. I didn't have the heart to move them for the pic. :) So here is my living room, too hot today to open the curtains. But like I mentioned before, by selecting a large couch to fill the entire space and keeping the colors light, I was able to give the feeling of a open large space.
Warning: pics are so out of sequence. Ok so here is Nigel. Nigel loves to ruin all of Mommies expensive pillows.

Here is my fireplace. Plates and Artwork are from PDC The Boutique.


Media Center, that I mentioned in last blog. To the right I have stacked a few treasures I found in London. The top plaque is handmade and represents our family crests, the bottom yellow & gold plate is from The Buckingham Palace. The set is used by the Queen herself and I scored #120 of only 500 sold. Yay! In between and behind are books with famous sayings, A Gucci catalog, lol, a book of The Windsor Castle (that's the name of it!!!) and other inspiration pieces.







Like I promised, here are clearer pics of my previous attempt. Please note, my husband made the bed today in this guest room. Teehee.


The quirky dog pillow, keeps it light and fun. Pillow sold at PDC The Boutique.


Instead of a "board," I decided to hang some of my favorite things and experiences.


The stairwell like I mentioned before, is one of my favorite things in the house.


This is a "hot" new way to showcase your books...I love books!! Collecting books can be pricey at times, most of these books in this pic were less than a dollar each at a thrift shop. (how many times can I mention the word "books" in two sentences) :)




This console is located in my living room. Again, it's best to show your personality here and there. I have my wedding photo (shot in my backyard) surrounded by the Rat Pack. Below there is another black and white photo of the Godfather. :) Photos bought at a local fundraiser in Lodi, CA



















Saturday, August 29, 2009

Two Pugs in a Blanket

Awwwhhh! Here is Roxy and Nigel, Sleepy on the couch.

Friday, August 28, 2009

The start of PDC design tips...

Here are just 4 quick pics of my house (taken from my blackberry so not the best clarity) but a great start! Here is a pic below of one of my favorite things about my house...the custom stairwell. In the living room, I had an issue with not having the right space to put a media center so I made the random cubbie space the place! By painting it a dark color (chocolate) and matching my massive buffet (converted to a media center) I was able to make it look as if it were built for the TV and not the other way around. It's the same concept of wearing the dress and not letting it wear you!
The other side of the room (remember my "issue") was that I did not want to cover my beautiful cobblestone fireplace. So I had my couch custom made by having them remove the back of it just so, ahhhh, now you can see it. The room was narrow, so to fix this I did a few things. I one, added a sectional purposely that large to fill the space entirely. I opted for a monochromatic look so I painted the walls a white (satin finish) a bright white on woodwork (high gloss). By mixing paint finishes you can create subtle texture throughout the room. My couch, fabrics are a creme color to ad to the openess I was going for. The focus was enhancing the structure of my house.

Below is one of my guest bedrooms, my favorite so far because it was a "mosh posh." What I mean by that is I mixed everything from Ikea, Target, Ralph Lauren, Ross, PDC The Boutique, Anthropologie, Potterybarn, antiques, vintage! By using most of what I already had, it only ended up costing me $500.00 to design.



I will upload more photos of my house....stay tuned.


Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Friday, August 14, 2009

PDC The Boutique Photos

Just got word from my web designer (Teejay) today (August 31) that he is still working on my online store. So it's still TBA.

Here are my photos for my home page on the website...hope you love it!