The Witch Is In

The Witch in in or I may say witches.   

They are on the mantel(s)....

and swinging from the chandelier.

They have accidentally landed in the chandelier.

They are coveting their pumpkins.

They are passing out treats.

They are hogging the table top...

 and getting comfortable with the table top.

They are even waiting to scare you in the shower.

But, come along, the menu is made,...

the table is set,....

  the brew is aglow,....

 and the salad is smiling.

It is time for a Witches' Feast.

Fun scenes from a Witches' party.  This is not my home but, I get exclusive rights to the publishing of this shindig each year.  

Happy Halloween!

Sherry

 Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

Table Top Tuesday  at A Stroll Thru Life

Tweak It Tuesday at Cozy Little House

A Return to Loveliness  at A Delightsome Life  

Halloween at TCOH

Here is a quick flick of the last three years of The Charm of Home Halloween decor,

for all of you Halloween lovers out there.   If the link above doesn't work for hand held devices you can click here.

Sherry   
I will link this to:

A Return to Loveliness  at A Delightsome Life

Table Top Tuesday  at A Stroll Thru Life

Tweak It Tuesday at Cozy Little House

Fall Nesting Roundup at The Inspired Room 

Clients' Family Room & Dining Room; "Before" & 2 years "after"

A couple of years ago, I met Aimee & Dave and wrote about their design plans & project here.  With life being so busy for me (& them! :) I never ended up taking pictures of their finished space.  It's always been one of my favorites because they were willing to take some BIG design risks!!!  We finally got together & I snapped a few quick pics to share.  We started working together when the home was still under construction & looked like this:

 Now, a couple years later & lived in and loved, it looks like this: 

  The orange floral sofa was thought about - long & hard- by all of us.  It was a really bold move by Aimee & she is still totally loving it so I am so glad she took the risk!!!  Walking into the room with this sofa in it made me smile instantly.  It's soooo much fun and just so pretty in person.   You might remember the design plans & the VERY rough skectches I made, helping Aimee & Dave visualize what their space would feel like: 

 

This is how the actual space looks now:

 

 

They've kept the center of the plan fairly open for the kids to spread out & play on the floor.  We still have plans to swap out the sunburst mirror with an Audobon print and move it to the bedroom.

 

Here's a close-up of the super-comfy velvet chairs with a peek into the dining nook in the kitchen:

 

 

I didn't get a good pic of the 19th Century barley twist table with original needlepoint insets that I'd found for them but here's an old photo I took of it before it went in.  THIS THING IS INCREDIBLE:

 

 

It sits between the two velvet chairs.

 

 

I love the lamp by Haeger Potteries atop the media cabinet:

 

 

 And then here's the kitchen dining nook when it was under construction: (hey! looks like how we're living at our place right now!! ;) ;) 

 And here it is now, truly being used:  

 The custom parsons dining table is by The Lorimer Workshop in Rhose Island.  (They're amazing.)  I loooooove the kids artwork collection simply taped to the wall!!  (You may have noticed a few other artwork walls in the other shots too ;)  They can add the collections whenever they want.   And finally, here's one last pic of the family room with Aimee & Dave in it.  (They are STILL the cutest!! :) 

 I'm so thankful to have such wonderful clients like them who have let me into their homes & lives!! 

If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.

Sweet Fall

With a severe drought in our area, I really wondered what the leaves were going to look like this year.  They were beautiful!  Probably brighter that I had ever seen them.  Nature has this beautiful way of kissing summer goodbye before winter in fall.

Sherry

I will join:
Mosaic Monday at Little Red House

Home Sweet Home #90

Hello and welcome to Home Sweet Home! Just a quick recap on what I was up to this week; Jack starred in my Steampunk Halloween table. 

Still loving the black and white theme, I created a Victorian Tea for Halloween.

Going on my son's suggestion, I created these Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes for a fall treat.

Now I would like to highlight some of the posts that caught my eye last week.

Jody & Stan of Rooted in Thyme have used tarnished silver for a beautiful vignette.

Pollyanna at Pollyanna Reinvents created a Steampunk'n!  Way creative and way cool!  Loved this! 

Bella of Bella's Rose Cottage showed off a lovely hydrangea wreath she made from the flowers in her garden! 

Sue at Sullivan and Murphy had a creative idea for her cloche. 

Kelly at Eclectically Vintage showed off her Kids Bathroom/ Laundry Room Combo.  Such a cute remodel!

Many great links every week!  Keep it coming!  Thank you to everyone who joins me at Home Sweet Home!  It is wonderful to have you here!

Sherry

Follow me on Twitter  
Follow me on Facebook 
Follow me on Pinterest 
Follow me on Hometalk

I will join these ladies today:
Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground 

Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage

Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Home and Garden Thursday  at A Delightsome Life 

Inspiration Friday  at The Picket Fence
Passion Parade Link Soiree  at Petites Passions
Fridays Unfolded at Stuff and Nonsense 

I have a SPECIAL REQUEST of you, if you visit Home Sweet Home and would like to PIN the great post you see here! Please pin from the ORIGINAL SOURCE and not my blog.  If it is my original photo you can pin away, I won't mind!

 Guidelines for Home Sweet Home Party:

Attention: To link up with inlinkz you must have a permalink back to this party in your post or they will not allow you to link.  

Link up anything in your home or garden.  I love seeing neat shops too!

My button is on my sidebar for the party, if you want to use it.   If you are new here I hope you will become a follower. Please don't link up more than two posts.  No Etsy link ups or direct advertising, please.  Please visit some of the other blogs and get some great inspiration.  Thanks.:)

Now let's see your beautiful homes!

A Client's Home Office Before & After

Since having Luke (our 5 month old) and unexpectedly selling our house & moving to a new one a couple of months ago, I've felt like time has truly been passing at the speed of light.  It's been a whirlwind.  I don't think life ever really slows down but I think it might calm a little once our house is through construction.     Since being in such a busy phase, I haven't had the chance to take many photos of finished projects to share...

 

Before Luke was born, I began working with a client who occasionally works from home and wanted to have her office redesigned.  The project was installed when I was around 9 months pregnant & when I was able to visit afterwards, I had my brand new baby with me so there wasn't time to take pictures.  I received the sweetest thank you card in the mail from her last week that she'd made from photos of the office & I just had to share! 

 

Here's what the loft office looked like when we started:

 

 

My client has very defined tastes and she's a minimalist.  I think she's also the neatest person I've EVER known.  (I'm seriously envious of how perfectly she keeps her home/ office.)  She likes her spaces to feel clean & open & airy & natural and loves a warm modern feeling.  We decided to reuphoster a pair of her existing chairs & to change out pretty much everything else. 

 

Here's what it looks like now:

 

We used a glass table between her reupholstered chairs so that the view from the new daybed to the living room below would be unimpeded.  To make the daybed exactly as my client wanted it, she & her (SUPER-handy!!) husband actually cut down the legs of the daybed for a lower/less traditonal vibe and painted the feet.  We used some of my fern star linen for throw pillows on it. 

We used a lot of glass & metal throughout the space but the live edge desk is one of my favorite pieces in the room.  We had it made by the Lorimer Workshop. It's a live edge top on metal legs.  I love it juxtaposed against the white leather & chrome chair.

I'm off for an installation (so be sure to check out instagram where I'll be posting photos of the project) but hope you enjoyed & thank you so much to my client for sending me the photos!!




If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

I am happy to join Sandi at Rose Chintz Cottage today for a new party she will host weekly, called Home.  

Home is a new party to share what you do to make your home the heart of your environment.   

One thing I try to do, is cook to the kid's taste.  They are not that easy to please on a weekly basis; as many mothers know and struggle with this.  But, this week I hit a home run, so to speak, with these cupcakes.  I was looking through a cookbook and one of my sons picked it up and said he would like it if I made something like this cupcake.  He thought it would taste good.  I made them and took it one step beyond the recipe by looking up a vintage recipe from the 1920's that made the cupcakes from scratch.   I have here two versions of the recipe a modern version that is semi-homemade and the original recipe that I have modified to make these cupcakes.

 

These cupcakes would make a nice treat for Trick-or-Treaters you know or just for your family at this time of the year.

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes (Easy)

18 1/4 oz. pkg. of spice cake mix 

15 oz. can of pumpkin

3 eggs

1/3 cup oil 

1/3 cup of water

16 oz. container of cream cheese frosting

Combine cake mix, pumpkin, eggs, and oil in a large bowl.  Blend with an electric mixer on medium speed for two minutes.  Spoon batter into 24 paper-lined muffin cups, filling each 3/4's full.  Bake at 350 degrees for 18-22 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.  Cool in pans for 10 minutes; remove and cool completely.  Spread cupcakes with frosting.

Yield: 2 dozen

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes (from scratch)

2 cups plus 1 tbsp of all-purpose flour

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. ground cloves

1 tsp. allspice

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1 tsp. baking soda

2 cups brown sugar, packed

3 eggs

1/3 cup of oil

1/3 cup of water

15 oz. can of pumpkin

16. oz. container of cream cheese frosting

In a large bowl mix flour, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, and baking soda then  set aside.  With an electric mixer cream brown sugar, oil, and water.  Add eggs in one at a time mixing well.  Add pumpkin and mix well.  Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and blend on medium speed for 2 minutes or until batter is smooth.  Spoon batter into 18 paper-lined muffin cups, filling each 3/4's full.  Bake at 350 degrees for 22 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.  Cool in pans for 10 minutes; remove and cool completely.  Spread cupcakes with frosting.

Yield: 18

In both recipes I just used ready-made frosting.  Most things I like to make from scratch to eliminate as many preservatives as I can.  So, did the kids appreciate them?  I hear this is their new favorite cupcake and they are ready for me to make another batch already.  Cooking for the children and getting this kind of reaction is one thing that makes my Home.   

Enjoy!

Sherry

I will link this to: 

Home at Rose Chintz Cottage

Foodie Friday at Rattlebridge Farm

On the Menu Monday at Stonegable 
Rooted in Thyme Simple and Sweet Fridays
Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style
A Pinteresting Party  at Tutus & Tea Parties

Victoriana Tea

While I had the Steampunk look going for Halloween, I decided to create a very lady-like tea from the Victorian-era with a little Halloween added. 

I have used this china cup quite a few times.   The structures of the Kew Royal Botanic Gardens in England are depicted on it and it is made by Creative Tops, Inc. 

 Sherry

 I will link this to:

 Tea Time Tuesday at Rose Chintz Cottage 

A Return to Loveliness  at A Delightsome Life 

Tea Cup Tuesday at Martha's Favorites

Tea Cup Tuesday at Artful Affirmations

Table Top Tuesday  at A Stroll Thru Life

Tweak It Tuesday at Cozy Little House

Tuesday Cuppa Tea  at Antiques and Teacups