A Few Blogs to Check Out

I've had a cold for the past few days and have been spending WAAAYYY too much time in blogland.
(If you have a cold and are a little muddled--more muddled than usual in my case--blogland is a pretty fine place to camp out.)
So, I thought it would be a good time to share a few of the New Places I've Been.

Conspicuous Style
by Stacy in Marshfield, MA
I pinched this pict of Stacy's living room because I had a brainstorm yesterday (while sitting in my very disgusting living room) about buying four slipper chairs and a round coffee table and giving my 25 year old sofa to Goodwill.  See, I told you I was in a muddled state.  This picture has white shelves--I have white shelves--looks good to me.



Confessions of a Plate Addict
I'm pretty sure Debbie is from Georgia--not that it matters. Anyway, she's a retired French teacher with a sense of humor and she takes nice pictures. If you're into French Things--you should pop over for a visit.




2805
Honey over at 2805 is another good photographer. She's been in France lately.




Elly's Kleine Idylle

Elly has started "following" my blog. So I clicked on her link and was transported to
THE NETHERLANDS!  Ain't the internet great.
Here's her summer house.
When--not if--you visit Elly be sure to click the translator button or else you'd better bone up on your Dutch.
I love her style.



When you visit, please leave these girls a kind comment--I'm sure they'll appreciate it.

Later,
Patti

Wordless Wednesday

Patti

House with a Beachy Vibe

In Honor of Beach Season I dug around in my listing archives to bring you this

Wonderful California Style home .

(For those of you who don't know I am a Realtor.)

Of all the listings I've had this one stands out as "Best Decorated".

It helped that the owners were from California. She's a decorator-- and an art teacher.

He's super handy and did all kinds of things.

The house isn't officially Old--it was built in the mid '80s in Alpharetta in North Fulton County--about 45 minutes north of Atlanta.

But its absolutely Pretty.

Ready to have your socks blown off?

Please notice the french-y painted dressers, stenciled dining room, heavy crown molding...

Little tidbit, the mirror over the mantle was so heavy they didn't want to take it down and move it so they left it.
I need to take a lesson in arranging shelves from this pic. She made the slipcover on the sofa. ...sigh...

The paint colors weren't the same in every room, but they were so similar you just floated from room to room.
Look closely at the mullions in the windows. They're painted dark brown. She said that's a trick to lead your eye outside to the view.
It worked on me.  I want to do that.

Note: lack of clutter. It's clean and inviting and not bogged down with collections and things to dust. Less is better!

For all you with 1980s style oak cabinets: these are the originals, they were painted and lightly glazed. The panels were removed in some and beaded glass added. Those "boxes" were lifted up and reinstalled--one was offset from the wall--just put a 2X4 behind it and screw it back in, a shelf was added under one cabinet with the corbels and the microwave under the other.

The owners did all this themselves--GENIUS!!!

This is a sitting room off the master bedroom. (master is on the main).

She needed something beachy over the bed so she just whipped out the painting. umm, umm, uuummm

Don't you just covet these night stands?

They didn't get around to renovating the master bath, but truthfully, I don't think most people noticed.

One of the upstairs bedrooms was used as a den/tv room.

Unique beds were in the secondary bedrooms.

The screened porch...

with a door to the patio.

I just loved this house!

Hope you enjoyed the tour.

Be inspired!!

later,

Patti

Partying With:

Tables in the Garden

With outdoor dining season upon us here in Atlanta, it's time to get a little inspiration.

I've saved some pics of tables from the recent Garden Tours and am linking to a few other blogs for variety.

Sit back and enjoy.

If you read my second post on the Gardens for Connoisseurs Tour you saw this gem.

The next tables are from the Artful Garden Tour. 
The pottery was hand crafted by Tina Cox. It's lovely.

 

Tina put the tables together, too.  She was on hand to talk about her work. What a great gal, very down to earth and easy to talk to. Tina sells her work one weekend a year--in November--she sells everything she's made that year in that one weekend. Then she goes back to her studio and starts working on pottery for the next year.

(Terry over at The Architecture Tourist did a post about her studio in 2009.)

The tumbler here is from Matt Janke. He does some wonderful blown glass pieces.

Linking to:

 

Later,
Patti

Alas, My Puny Little Garden

 It's still so sad. 
When we moved I dug up a lot of plants and crammed them into pots where they stayed for over a year. Back in March I started working on this little plot.  So many of my old favorites didn't make it, but a few uber hardy things did.

Bad as it is, its much better than this time last year.  Here's a "before" pic from last summer when we moved the magnolia.  Things were totally a mess: the house wasn't finished, we couldn't even get a mower back here.

It's nice to look back and reflect on how far we've come.

Whew.

later,

Patti

Shelves instead of Kitchen Cabinets?

My neighbor across the street is redoing a her house.  I should say the Couple across the street are redoing Their house. He's quite a handy guy and is putting in a lot of sweat equity.

Of course with Pretty Old Houses sometimes the kitchens aren't Pretty, just Old.
Such was the case across the street. It was old and small.  But after the Handy Hubby knocked out a couple of walls it's on it's way to being bigger and Pretty.

They're debating the cabinetry and thinking of using shelves instead of upper cabinets.  I think there's a lot of merit in that.  In preparing this post I searched around online for some inspiring photos and found some inspiring blog posts--so instead of recreating...

Here are some posts and photos I like.

This kitchen seems small but is full of style. The brackets that hold up the shelves are really important--these are quite nice.

view source

I love the color of this shelf from Southern Living. The idea is very applicable for the house across the street. Their kitchen window is too close to the corner cabinet to fit a real cabinet.

View the Southern Living post here.

The next post by "Knight Moves" is about her dream kitchen.  I like how this girl thinks.
View it here.

If you want a few more ideas or just want to see some more pretty kitchens, check out these posts, too.

jpm Designs

Coco Cozy

Remodeling Guy

Hope you enjoyed a little tour of blogland and maybe picked up an idea or two.

Later,

Patti

Linking to:
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia: Tuesday's Treasures

2011 High Museum's Artful Garden Tour

Hello Everybody,

This time of year is Garden Tour Season in Atlanta and I'm almost "toured out"-- Maybe overstimulated is more the correct term.  Yesterday we went on the High Museum's Artful Garden Tour.  This tour is unique in that it features artist and art on display in the gardens.  Both large and intimate gardens are included--often these gardens are designed and maintained by the homeowners. Of course sometimes the homeowner is a garden designer which is even more interesting.

Enough chit chat--let's get started.

The first house is popularily known as "The Flower House." It's on Habersham Road in Buckhead, a somewhat busy street of Mansions.

This is the back of the house.  Why didn't I get a pict of the front?

The White Garden is one of many garden rooms in the two and a half acres.  You got that didn't you? Two and a half acres on Habersham Road in Buckhead.  I still liked it.

This garden has awesome bones. It's a rectangle with the fountain focal point in the center axis. Plantings are a little wild and spill out over their borders.  As I sat on the bench and really looked closely, I realized that the plants are very balanced and rhythmic but their growth habits soften the lines. This was so inspirational for me.

The White Garden would be enough for most of us, but wait, there's more.

Now on to the next stop--well not really, this is a very edited version of the tour. Please let me know if you'd like more photos--I have plenty eye candy to keep the diehards happy.

The next garden is over on Oakdale Road in Druid Hills.  It's small and intimate and a plant lovers dream.
An added plus: The garden comes with a very Pretty Old House.  Check out the tudor details in the gables and the original (I think) metal casement windows.  If you squint you can just make out the handles in the middle of the windows.

This is what I call curb appeal.



The gardener/homeowner does an excellent job of mixing color and texture with this Japanese maple, autumn ferns and delicate ground cover.

How's this for foundation plantings?  Look at the right corner--see the purple plant growing on the brick? That's loropetalum with creeping fig behind it.  A quick word about creeping fig--don't do it. That stuff grows like kudzu and sends out little aerial roots that help it stick to surfaces--it's a bear to get off the windows.  It might look quaint, but steer clear.

On the other side of the stoop...

The "Back Yard" with a pea gravel path...

After touring this garden I was waylaid by an Estate Sale down the street. More on that later.

The last garden in this post is in Ansley Park.  It featured my favorite piece of art.

And the pool wasn't too shabby either.

Behind the pool was a bit of inspiration for my back fence--if I ever get one that is.
A cryptomeria screen is planted along the fence line with a row of Annabelle hydrangeas and autumn ferns in a bed of lirope.  Real simple, real easy, real pretty.

 Well dear readers that's all for today's Artful Garden Tour.

THE END.

Patti