Lavender Fields

Special Friends

We are lucky that we get to meet so many wonderful people either from coming into our store or from our online store. After we were featured in the May 07 issue of Romantic Homes we received an email from Pat who designs beautiful pillows for her business - Mr. Tweed's Whimsy. Pat emailed us after reading the article and seeing the picture of Terri lounging on the sofa with pillows. Here is the photo that was featured in Romantic Homes that made Pat contact us:

                   

                                             

Pat named her business after her Scottie dog Mr. Tweed.  She named the business after him because he has always shown an interest in wonderful fabrics and tapestries - and how luxurious they feel. Here is a picture of Mr. Tweed enjoying his pillows.

            

Here is a picture of all three of Pat's scotties. Higgns, Alfred and Mr. Tweed.

                      

After a year of emailing and occasionally talking on the phone Pat came to visit us this past weekend. She drove 9 hours to come meet us, see our shop and stay at our home. We had a wonderful two days of talking, taking walks through a local field of wildflowers (we both share a love of gardening), visiting a nursery to select some new plants for my garden, and eating in our local restaurants. Pat really enjoyed sitting on the porch swing with Terri. Our visit was special and I am so grateful for Romantic Homes for letting me have the opportunity to have wonderful people in my life such as Pat.

You can visit Pat's shop to see her wonderful selection of pillows. We also sell her pillows in our shop and have some on our website. Pat's pillows will be featured in one of the next issues of Romantic Homes magazine. Check your magazines soon!

                      

As Seen in Romantic Homes August Issue

It was nice to see two of our new products featured in the August Issue of Romantic Homes Magazine. The pink crochet throw is beautiful and a big hit in the store.

                      

We just love the Company C Cluny Cornflower Rug. It has a beautiful lace print.

                                    

Both the the throw and rug are featured on page 96 in the August Issue of Romantic Homes and are in our store and ready to ship.

Three cheers for red, white and blue

I love collecting Americana. This is one of my favorite holidays.

                         

Here are some of our best selling Americana products.

The America pillow was just featured in Country Home Magazine.

                     

A great Stars and Stripes bucket for summer entertaining. Fill with ice and cold drinks or just a fun place for flip flops.

                

Flag Porch Pillow. A fun pillow for a porch swing or rocker.   

                                          

The Scent of Summer

The scent of summer...sand, sea and suntan lotion. Here are a few of our favorite summer scented products.

Beach in a Can Suntan Scented Candle
The sun's hot the water's warm,

Change your home into a wonderful beach house retreat no matter where you live with the Beach Days products.

Beach Days Dish Soap

Beach Days Sheet and Clothing Spray

 

New Porch Swing

We have been saving up for a new Nantucket porch swing. We decided to  hang it with rope instead of chain and added Taylor Linens Blue Shore Rose pillows.

This is Terri's favorite spot in the house. She can sit on the swing for hours.

A few of our favorite things....

Everyone is always asking us what our favorites are and that is the hardest question because we love everything we sell. I decided to select just a few of our favorites today to share with you.

Dash and Albert Sail Stripe Rugs. A new introduction available in pink, green and blue. They brighten a room instantly.

Beach House tub. Fill this great tub with flip-flops, beach toys, cold drinks. A favorite find...

Slipcovers...You can never have too many. Perfect for outdoor parties, porches or to give your dining room a new look.

Terri...Oops...She snuck in but she is our favorite find. We rescued her from a shelter and she rescued us. Visit your local shelter to find your best friend.

Bedroom Makeover Contest

We are exited about our new Bedroom Makeover Contest. One Winner will receive one bedroom makeover, which will include Pine Cone Hill complete bed set, decorative pillows, lighting, a Dash and Albert rug, wall art and accessories. [approximate retail value: $3,000.00.]

We already started to post photos for voting. It is not too late to submit your bedroom. But don't forget to vote.

View Photos and Vote

Door Restore

Finally!! This project seemed to take forever. We found the door at the Brimfield Antique Market a year ago and we had to have it for our bedroom/office door. The door was perfect as is. We just cleaned it up and had a carpenter hang it for us. It took longer than we expected because every other project seemed to come first.

We decided to have our favorite artist Jennifer Lanne paint us something special to go in the center where there was once glass. The canvas is double sided. I surprised George by having Jennifer paint in our house.

 

Here you can see the door all finished. This side faces our office which we are planning on remodeling this summer.

Here is the side that faces our bedroom. I love the French Country look on this side. We finished it off with reproduction hardware. Now we cannot wait to get working on our bedroom and office. We plan on installing wood floors, all new walls and ceilings and then of course my favorite - selecting all the furniture and bedding. This will be a fun summer!

Here you can see what the old door looked like. We are going to eventually replace every new door in the house with old doors.

Mudroom Makeover

I was always fond of mudrooms. My house did not have one so we decided to turn the hall that leads to my side door into our mudroom.

Come on in and let me show you what we did....

We had a carpenter install beadboard on all walls. I love the way the beadboard gives everything a nice clean look. My inspiration for this room was a english cottage garden. This door leads to my garden which hopefully one day soon will be filled with flowers.

We had a custom shelf built and installed glass flower knobs. It took me forever to find the right knobs and I would not settle for anything that did not have a garden feel to it.

I have a thing about plain doors. I find them too boring. I need some detail. I love Cath Kidston and decided on using wallpaper for the panels.

My sister gave me this great old print for Christmas and I was just waiting for the perfect place to put it. The print has a little girl holding a cat with the caption "Taking the wanderer home". The crazy thing is it looks just like me as a child and my cat now. The print is very special and I love that I see it now every day.

Visit our home makeover section for more images and to see the before photos.

From Drab to Fab

I decided to makeover my pantry closet. It was never a priority since eventually we will be remodeling the kitchen but since the pantry will stay as is I thought it was time. I am not a person that has clutter but for some reason everything makes it into the pantry and it bothered me every single time I opened the door. We do not shop at big box stores and buy oversized groceries so there really was no need to keep this for food storage. The only food I store there is pet food and some cereral.

The closet before was so drab. A taupe was on every wall, shelf and even ceiling. I decided to paint it a fresh green. I was able to donate most of the stuff in the closet. Here it is before:

 

We had a lot of fun kitch that we collected over the years and also from having a vintage store on the New Jersey shore we certainly added to our collection. I thought this would be the perfect place to display it. Most of it was packed away or hidden in closets where we could not enjoy it. Here it is after:

I found these great New Jersey towels that I stuffed away in a drawer. I am going to hang them on the inside door so I can enjoy them.

This was a funny find. It was with my mother's things. A vintage market minder. You simply slide over the category you need to shop for. The craziest thing is they have Cigarettes on the list.

Another thing I love I found with the clutter is my Aunt Bee's Mealtime in Mayberry book. My sister gave it to me for Christmas one year since we loved the show. It is filled with pictures from the show and receipes like Pa's Potato Salad, Goober's Chocolate Milk Shake and Bee's Fried Chicken and Cream Gravy.

By the time George closed the store and came home I was covered in paint and the job was complete.