Cozy!

Let's pretend we are Alice in Wonderland, and when we jump down the rabbit hole (fabulous red wine in hand), that we end up here, in a Hartley Greenhouse. It's warm and snuggly, a life-size, velvet-lined jewelry box that we can spend the weekend in watching the snow fall.
And because Alice is always dressed for the occasion, this is what we (um, I mean Alice...) would be wearing.

Ralph Lauren's creamy cashmere caccoon concoction. Ahhhhhhhhh. A girl can dream.

This lovely is at ralphlauren.com and is on sale for $139 (down from $398.) Meaning we should buy the good wine.

Whose chairs are these?

I did a quick research session when I began wondering why we monogram things - I just put big, fat "Z"s on my dining room chairs, not because I want to make sure guests know those are my chairs, but because a monogram has come to signify taste and class. But, alas, my wiki research says the 17th century masses started monogramming things because monarchs did. All of us Southern monogram-addicts are a sham! Apparently we're just trying to appear regal and tasteful. Come to think of it, when we say something is "classy," we're deeming it acceptable because someone in a crown likes it. Oh well, won't keep me from put Z's on anything and everything. But I do love the idea of a monogram on a chair back, it's the unexpected things that we notice and remember.

Blue skies, even on cloudy days

Thought I'd give a sample of my pale blue ceiling, I'm loving it. Seeing it completed reminds me that a room generally has 4 sides. We spend hours choosing rugs, but many times ignore the ceiling. The blue reflects beautifully on sunny days, but also brightens rainy days. Now if only that rug would come...

Got the itch to entertain

Isn't it the little things that we can love the most?  Little touches can make a huge impact!  Last night it came to me that I just had to monogram the backs of my dining rooms chairs.  I was born in the South, meaning I can justify monogramming just about anything.  So why not?  A few minutes spent on the Leontine Linens website will have you wanting your name (or anybody's name) on everything you own.  And these precious cocktail napkins with the teal monogram have me ready to re-open the dining room after a post-holiday entertaining hiatus.  

January is a great time for Feathering the nest

I'm not usually January's biggest fan.  The excitement of the holidays are over, and we're left with cold days and dark afternoons.  So this year I started some of the projects that had been on my 'home-to-do' list for months.  I had been picturing my entrance hall ceiling painted a pale, cool blue.  That happy, soothing blue you see on ceilings in old Southern verandas.  2 hours later on a cloudy Saturday, my ceiling was blue.  But I couldn't stop there, and had to order this bargain from overstock.com.  So start that project, sometimes the smaller the better, because there's nothing like instant gratification to keep you going down that list.