A Green & (Blue &) White Party

The past month has been a flurry of activity.  I took 3 weeks off work with headaches as they have been debilitating lately.  Shortly after that, my dear Mom came for a visit.  I will share photos from our trip to Victoria soon.

After delivering my Mom to the airport for a 6 am flight on Saturday (really), we came home and prepared a birthday bash for David. I thought I would share some photos of our little party.  I had a crushing headache the entire day (sorry to sound like a broken record) but did take pleasure in taking some pretty photos for you after neglecting you for so long...!

I set a simple table, using leftover ribbon lengths to tie my (very old and soft) linen napkins:

The plates are Haviland Concorde:

The silverware is my favorite pattern, Danish Princess:

I brought some hydrangeas in from our garden (sideboard) and dismantled a grocery store bouquet to make two more arrangements, including a low one for the table.

I am going through a green and white phase:

I have been trying small arrangements for the table:

And using my pottery collection as containers:

The salad/dessert plates (a gift from my mother) are also Limoges and are very old.  They are quite fragile.   I love using them for dessert.

The next day, I moved the flowers to the living room, to sit next to the beautiful little blue and white Chinese bowl (*love*) my mother bought me in Victoria.  
The new chair, which arrived last week, sits in the background:  

Nothing beats a party as an excuse to buy some flowers and make your rooms look pretty (even if you are feeling supremely crappy): 

We are off to Paris on Wednesday for 10 days.  I hate flying (I get migraines and nausea..how wonderful!), so I am both dreading and highly excited for our trip.  I am not over-planning this time but have a few goals, like hitting all three flea markets I love (St-Ouen, Vanves and Place d'Aligre) and the Orangerie. 

Mostly we'll go where the wind blows us.

And I am reading restaurant reviews...

More soon.  Blessings, Terri 

The Art of Display

I am a work-in-progress when it comes to the art of display.

Some days, styling comes easily to me and I can whip together a pretty vignette in no time - related objects just seem to jump out at me! On other days, nothing looks good. But as Malcolm Gladwell pointed out in "Outliers", most of what we call "genius" comes after years of hard work (this is how I console myself).

I am slowly studying, practicing, and learning the tricks. The easiest one is to use a common palette (in this case white):

Trays are wonderful, as they help to corral your unrelated "smalls" and elevate them in importance! The little horse tray says "TROT" below the image!

Grouping related things (theme or style) is the next trick, using odd numbers. In this case, my theme of pretty elegant things (crystal, porcelain, flowers) are grouped in a set of three on the tray. The botanical print in the background relates to the flowers in theme and also to the colour palette (white, green, brown). Notice there is also black script on both the clock face and the print, which subtly relates them too!:

Layering in taller pieces is the next step (like adding the green urn). This is usually where my vignettes deteriorate as I simply don't have enough stuff to put together (and have a serious lack of tall things)!

Adding something whimsical to the vignette also makes it eye-catching, like the pretty little horse tray I bought at a flea market in Paris.

The biggest secret of all seems to be trial and error and having a lot of beautiful stuff on hand to create unique, layered vignettes. Some of you are so good at it (like Steve and Trina). It certainly doesn't hurt to have a beautiful character home as a backdrop, but honestly, I think they could make anything look good!

Happy styling! Do you have a hot styling tip to share with me?

Pretty Silver & Such

I recently purchased an assorted lot of old silver-plated flatware at an antique shop.

I'll post photos of my favorite pieces soon - there are some *beautiful* patterns and a nice variety of very interesting serving pieces.

One of my favorite patterns is this one:

The pattern is called Danish Princess (1938) by Holmes and Edwards. I think it's very charming with its acanthus-like motif:

Now I'm definitely on the hunt for more...!

With Christmas put away, I finally reorganized the dining room!

To cleanse my visual palette, I've gone with a decidedly all-white look for a while:

I did pull out my favorite blue silk pillow for a dash of colour on a side chair (to accompany our lovely Al Barker seascapes):

I never tire of these stormy scenes:

So that's my little interior update!

After a very mild Christmas, it is suddenly growing cold here with snow on the way.

I'm going to hunker down and rest tomorrow (headaches are still brutal) and dream of my next project...

Moments in the Bedroom

Hello darlings! I thought I would share some of my favorite decorating moments in our master bedroom (in case you thought I meant something else...). We don't sleep in this room in summer as it can be warm (and nobody here has air conditioning), but sleep instead in our cool downstairs guest room.

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I really adore certain elements of this room, like the silk-linen-wool blend drapes I had custom made right after we moved into the house. I also love the tiny Florentine mirror I picked up at a favorite antique shop:

The bedroom isn't large, so I needed a narrow console table to place against the wall opposite the bed. I found this gorgeous asian altar table quite unexpectedly at a consignment store - it's one of my favorite things in the house:

An antique (1915) Doukhobor fruit-gathering basket sits on the floor

This table serves as a prominent place for my "to do" list. A tray on the table corrals pens, electronics, and papers of pressing importance.

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At the other end of the table are a few favorite objets. The bronze cat statue acts as a paperweight. A cream porcelain bowl holds business cards, loose buttons and papers. The ikat bowl, in my favorite gray-brown colour, is from Anthropologie. The photograph, a favorite of mine, captures a lonely copse of trees in northern Italy:

Before I move on, I must show you my wonderful new giant canvas bag (from Restoration Hardware, $39 on sale). I LOVE matching my wardrobe with my decor (which David says I do already, as I dress mostly in beige and white and blue). This bag is perfect for lugging things to and from the car, and carrying yoga and gym gear:

The bedding in the background is new and very inexpensive (labelled simply "100% cotton"). I usually buy higher quality bedding but could not pass up this delicious duvet cover and pillowcases, with their lovely neoclassical chevron/leaf pattern:

Excuse the green sheet - my previous very soft, very old fitted white sheet just ripped down the middle!

I usually only have a thin quilt on this bed, but have now added the duvet for evening naps and for when we sleep here when we have summertime guests.

I posted my side table before, with its neoclassical theme:

I hope you've enjoyed your visit...!

Tablescapes

Tablescape: An artfully arranged collection of objects placed on a table (or other flat surface) for decorative purposes.

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I love "tablescapes" and if you're reading this, chances are that you love them too. 

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Since I was a girl, I've been arranging my things to look more beautiful.  Every little precious object that seemed unique to me was collected and arranged on my night table, dresser, or window ledge as a girl.  I was a self-taught stylist, arranging old things, my mother's jewellery and ornaments, and organic things from the outdoors (like leaves and branches).  I would photograph my arrangements with my little Kodak Disc camera (the one with the round negative), and change them around on a regular basis.  I was constantly "dusting my dresser" and re-arranging everything.  You'd think I would have realized sooner that I had a bona fide decorating addiction. 

I had a beautiful and very old pressback chair in my bedroom, from my Grandmother's house.  It was the nicest piece of furniture in my room, and together with an old orange crate my Dad gave me, it became the central player in many early tablescapes and roomscapes.  These dreamscapes were inspired, no doubt, by "Country Living", the only decorating magazine I could find at my local drugstore, and upon which my teenaged self was utterly dependent (along with Duran Duran).

Tablescapes have evolved from the wee collections girls (and some boys) arrange on their dressers.  Decorators everywhere create painstakingly perfect tablescapes of rare objects, arranged and rearranged with obsessive care.  But there is nothing more beautiful than a casual collection of simple things that doesn't look too contrived nor too carefully curated.  

A highly organized tablescape can look refined and elegant, even with simple elements.  Symmetry and tasteful flowers makes this tablescape all the more regal and formal-looking.

Kitchen tablescapes evolve haphazardly and can be beautiful too.  I love looking at the food and table styling in magazines like Cooking Light, to which we subscribe.  The patina of copper pots and a weathered countertop create a perfect backdrop for a tablescape of classic kitchen objects.

I like very lived-in tablescapes.   I don't arrange my house too carefully, except for my sideboard, which is the most static display space we have.  Even it changes every couple of weeks, but my other tablescapes change almost daily as I move things around.  I am constantly moving books, candles, and flowers, and switching decorative objects from one spot to another.  It is almost compulsive.  Even at 11:00 at night, I sometimes leave my bathroom for bed, carrying a little object to another part of the house. Please tell me that you do this too...

I don't like overly contrived arrangements, but when you have beautiful artistic pieces, it's hard not to let them hold court and have a surface all to themselves!  The problem is, a too-perfect tablescape doesn't invite real life - like keys and gloves, newspapers and our copious electronic devices - to share space with the decorations.  Life must be allowed in, even if it means forcing it into baskets, trays, and pretty bowls in strategic locations!  

Tablescapes are best when they evolve and are not-quite-perfect all the time.  

Which also leads me to think of the thousands of tablescapes and roomscapes that we all see but that no one else ever sees - the way the light falls across your newspaper on a Sunday morning, with your coffee grounds in the bottom of your mug, and your egg shell still sitting in your bowl.  For me, I notice that I like my house best on nights when we have dinner parties and the guests have gone home.  Then, I sit with my last glass of wine, listening to classical music in the soft spell of candlelight and look at the debris of a beautiful meal on the table and feel spiritually full!  There is something about partaking in a lovely meal with good company that makes the table and the house almost more beautiful after the meal than before, because now it is imbibed with experience.

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 I see these ever-changing landscapes in my home and they make me very thankful for the beautiful stuff of life that only I can see.  

Next time I will post about designer Vicente Wolf who is, in my opinion, a master of the artful  tablescape.

Thanks to Shoot Factory for all photos except the 1st, 3rd and 4th photos from House Beautiful.