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Home Sweet Home #115

Hello and welcome to Home Sweet Home!  This week I took a picture of A Little Vignette I had in my kitchen window to share with you.

I re-posted A Mother's Tea from two years ago. 

I went about town this week and took some pictures in Spring Blossoms.

I introduced a new sponsor Wholeport.com online craft supplier.  They are now sponsoring a Craft Party Thursday giveaway.  Where you can take any craft supply you purchase from Wholeport and create a craft and enter to win $30 of craft supplies in Craft Party Thursday.

There supplies are of nice quality and very reasonably priced.  Check them out.

 I would like to highlight another sponsor.  Vision Blinds is a family business that has been operating in the UK for over 100 years.  They supply the finest quality window blinds, awnings, and conservatory blinds.  They also have a line of  Perfect Fit blinds by Louvolite® and cane furniture.  Visit this sponsor to take care of your window fashion needs.

Now, I would like to feature some of the great blogger's post that caught my eye from last week's Home Sweet Home.  

Lani of Simply Fresh Vintage shared some Vintage Tablecloth Love.  So many inspiring ways to sew up vintage tablecloths!

Manuela at A Cultivated Nest showed several ways to decorate a tin can.

Anjana from At the Corner of Happy and Harried shared this recipe for Vegetable Stew with Coconut Milk.  If you haven't given coconut a try yet you should try it.  I have been on a diet that is anti-inflammatory for allergies and it works for many illnesses (almost all modern illness is based in the immune system and is from inflammation in your body).  Coconut is my favorite thing in the world right now.  It is healthy and it is good for you.  I had to share this simple stew recipe, a winner with a coconut milk base.

So many great post each week and so many talented people!   It is really hard to feature a few! And, remember to be featured you must have a link back to the Home Sweet Home party.   Thank you to everyone who joins me at Home Sweet Home!  It is wonderful to have you here!  

Sherry

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I will join these ladies today:
Be Inspired Friday at Common Ground 

Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage

Home and Garden Thursday  at A Delightsome Life 
G' Day Saturday at Natasha in Oz  

Guidelines for Home Sweet Home Party:

Attention: To link up you must have a permalink back to this party in your post or you won't be featured.

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, delicious recipes, crafts, or whatever makes your home special!

 *If you are pinning a post submitted here, please pin from the original site. 

 

Wholeport Craft Party Thursday: Win $30 in Crafting Supplies

Let me introduce you to Wholeport online craft supply.  Wholeport provides a  wide variety of online crafting supplies with affordable prices.  Many of the women behind Wholeport are talented crafters and artist themselves.  With the discovery that there was a need for crafting supplies sourced from around the world they created Wholeport.   

With categories such as baking supplies, soap making supplies, jewelry making supplies, craft paper, fabric, lace and more.   Wholeport has something for every crafter.  The prices are very reasonable and the supplies are of very nice quality.  I am eager to order lace for a project.  They have nice cotton lace very reasonably priced.

Hand made soap stamp.

Enter Wholeport's Craft Party Thursday to win free crafting supplies.  When you purchase craft supplies from Wholeport, you can load the photo of the finished product up on their website and enter to win $30 of free crafting supplies.  So shop and enter Wholeport's Craft Party Thursday to win free crafting supplies.  This week's giveaway is $30 worth of baking molds.

Wholeport.com is a sponsor of The Charm of Home.

Sherry

The Dandelion- Beauty, Love & Health

{Botanical.com}

With Spring here, one of my favorite weeds starts going wild, the dandelion.  The pleasure I get from this...

...far outweighs my annoyance with the yellow flowers trying to take over my lawn. 

Yesterday afternoon, I got the sweetest knock on my office door.  I looked outside to see Christian (5) with a bouquet for me.

Like so many weeds & wildflowers, the smell of dandelions instantly brings me back to my childhood.  It makes me so happy to watch my boys enjoying the nature around them and having fun with plants & flowers & yes, of course, weeds.  Even the baby has fun with them...

{Louie, 11 months}

Christian made him a pile to play with and he loved throwing them around on the patio last night.

Justin (3) below, hanging out in my flip flops with a dandelion:

I'm not sure there's much that makes me happier than getting "flowers" from my little guys.  

Dandelions also have medicinal properties and can be eaten. 

Here's some info I found on the LeafLady about it:

"Suppose your doctor tells you, on your next visit, that he has just discovered a miracle drug which, when eaten as a part of   your daily diet or taken as a beverage, could, depending on the peculiarities of your body chemistry: prevent or cure liver diseases, such as hepatitis or jaundice; act as a tonic and gentle diuretic to purify your blood, cleanse your system, dissolve kidney stones, and otherwise improve gastro-intestinal health; assist in weight reduction; cleanse your skin and eliminate acne; improve your bowel function, working equally well to relieve both constipation and diarrhea; prevent or lower high blood pressure; prevent or cure anemia; lower your serum cholesterol by as much as half; eliminate or drastically reduce acid indigestion and gas buildup by cutting the heaviness of fatty foods; prevent or cure various forms of cancer; prevent or control diabetes mellitus; and, at the same time, have no negative side effects and selectively act on only what ails you. If he gave you a prescription for this miracle medicine, would you use it religiously at first to solve whatever the problem is and then consistently for preventative body maintenance?

All the above curative functions, and more, have been attributed to one plant known to everyone, Taraxacum officinale, which means the "Official Remedy for Disorders." We call it the common dandelion. It is so well respected, in fact, that it appears in the U.S. National Formulatory, and in the Pharmacopeias of Hungary, Poland, Switzerland, and the Soviet Union. It is one of the top 6 herbs in the Chinese herbal medicine chest.

According to the USDA Bulletin #8, "Composition of Foods" (Haytowitz and Matthews 1984), dandelions rank in the top 4 green vegetables in overall nutritional value." 

It can be drunk as a tea but at home, we eat the leaves in salads, which are really bitter and take some getting used to.  I can't explain it, but it's the type of food that you can really feel is having an impact on your digestion.  (Like mint tea or tomatoes.)  When I eat dandelion salad, I almost feel hungrier afterwards & feel like it's kicking my metabolism into gear.  (This is where my family usually rolls their eyes at me with the "That's just Lauren" crazy look, but I can honestly feel that it's good for my body.)  While the claims made on the LeafLady are pretty amazing and I'm sure it wouldn't work to that extreme for most people, I do strongly believe in dandelion's health benefits.

The first time I made it at dinner, my husband literally said "This is disgusting."  (...After all of the training of trying to get our kids to say, "I'm not really a fan of this" when they try a food they don't like.  Go daddy!! ;) 

But, I'm more of the "You'll get used to it" type of person, so I kept making it.  Now, he honestly loves it and it's almost weird.  It's definitely an acquired taste, so if you do try it, be ready to try it more than once.

Because it's so bitter, I HAVE to have our Maestranzi Oil & Vinegar dressing:

Fillipo Berio Olive Oil (a pretty good amount)

Balsamic Vinegar (only a little)

Salt & Pepper- more than you think... The mixture should taste salty

Onions- Sliced very thin so they get all sogged up with the dressing

Toss the dressing with the onions & let sit for at least 5 mins.  Then, toss in your dandelion greens and FOR REAL- let them sit for at least 30 mins, if not more, so that they really absorb the salty-oniony oil.  This takes out a lot of the bitterness.

If it doesn't sit a while, the salad will pretty much just be bad.

Then I add in any extras I'm in the mood for- shredded parmesan - ALWAYS

and then things like scallions or walnuts or tomatoes... or whatever else floats your boat.

{Image from Tammy's Kitchen with a recipe for dandelion salad -i haven't tried it- here}

...So, with all of this about picking & eating and loving dandelions, I'm off to work on a new textile design.  Wish me luck!!

Hope you have a great day and are enjoying Spring!!  Let me know if you have any good recipes for dandelion salad!!  (I tried one at a restaurant once with LEMON!! OMGoodness!!!!!)



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

Spring Blossoms

Spring could easily be a time for fairies.  Everything has exploded in blooms.  Even the grass; which would normally not be magical, looks as if the fairies have been tending garden here.

Here is my town's most famous resident, the albino grey squirrel. He comes down from a tree to investigate what sort of magic has been at play.

This is one of my favorite spring flowering shrubs the flowering quince.

So many beautiful blossoms all blooming at once due to the long winter.  Has spring's magic been at work in your neighborhood?

 Sherry
I will link this to:

Rooted in Thyme Simple and Sweet Fridays

Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style 

Home at Rose Chintz Cottage
What's It Wednesday at Ivy and Elephants 
Country Whites Weekend at The Country Farm Home

Mother's Tea

I have a little set of china I picked up at Goodwill for $5 (for 13 pieces).  I have been trying to decide what each piece was meant for. 

There is no maker's mark on the bottom, but they look a little Japanese.  I put this little cup in this "saucer" and it looked very much like a tea set.  But, I am not sure.

What do you think?  Does it pass for a tea set.

  Whatever it is, I used it for a little Mother's Day tea for me.

I am loving the pattern and colors on it.  Thanks for viewing my tea!

This was a re-post from 2011.  I knew this spring was going to be crazy busy and it is!

Sherry
I will link this to:

 Tea Time Tuesday at Rose Chintz Cottage 

A Return to Loveliness  at A Delightsome Life 

Table Top Tuesday  at A Stroll Thru Life

Share the Shelter at A Sheltering Tree  

Homemaking Linkup at Hope In Every Season  

Nifty Thrifty Tuesday at Coastal Charm

Thrifty Things Friday at The Thrifty Groove 

Ceiling Fans & Eye Candy

Ceiling fans are no-nos to many a decorator.  I'll be honest, I generally try to avoid them whenever they're not needed for comfort to get the opportunity to bring a great light fixture into a space.  

{One of my favorite Cottage Living Houses with a ceiling fan on in the pic }

Men seem to looooove ceiling fans.  (Stay tuned for my upcoming post "What {Most} Men Love.") I've scared plenty of husbands with the removal of a ceiling fan but many have been reassured that if things get too hot, they can always bring in a cool vintage-style floor fan, like the Allaire from Restoration Hardware:

In all of my ceiling fan replacement-experiences, I think I've yet to hear of anyone actually bringing in a floor fan...  except me!!  I have a thing for fans and tend to leave the AC off longer (because having open windows makes me really happy) than I should, so people would wilt in our house if we didn't use fans.  In my new house, especially, fans are pretty much a necessity.  

We have lots of massive windows and skylights letting in a ton of sun and pretty much baking us inside.  Additions were also added previously & the owners at the time didn't do a very good job of making sure the new spaces would heat/cool adequately.  (Fixing this kind of thing is really just  SO FUN!! $ $ :/  )   Add to all of that the fact that our AC is BROKEN right now (shouldn't normally be an issue in April but we've had highs or almost 90 already this year!!) and I really have ceiling fans on my mind.  In the Fall, we replaced the ceiling fan in our breakfast room (see above pic of our house "BEFORE"  in the background) with this one from Restoration Hardware:

I love how it's ended up looking and -of course- feeling when our AC stopped working.  I should mention that it's a LOT lighter & more silvery than pictured here.  Definitely a galvanized steel finish, but fresh and bright, not moody like in the photo.

In our bedroom, (BEFORE photo, below) we still have the ceiling fan that was here originally. At first I thought I'd replace it with a light fixture but we love sleeping with our patio door open (We've knocked out the entire wall you see below with the windows on it & replaced it with a massive glass door, which opens to out little garden.) and I've been absolutely LOVING my ceiling fan at night.  So... we're replacing the original fan with a new ceiling fan and I'm on the hunt.  I love the Restoration Hardware one we selected for the breakfast room so I might go there again and possibly paint it black.

  So... even though ceiling fans are a typical designer "no no," I have to say that they do give a house a certain type of feeling that I really love.  Tom Scheerer - who is probably my absolute favorite interior designer- uses them in his work a lot.  His projects feel fun, fresh, laid-back, cool, relaxed and totally down to earth.  There's an authenticity to his work that really resonates within me.  Some of the homes he's worked on feel so perfectly "undecorated" which is the best type of design to me.  I can appreciate a perfectly pulled together room -and even go gaga over them- but I truly love and get excited about the more imperfect spaces.  

Here are a few (okay way more than a few) examples of Tom Scheerer's work so you know what I mean:

The bones of the homes he works are typically so interesting.  There's an age and a patina to the houses themselves.

He might even love botanicals as much as I do:

So many of the elements he uses are unexpected:

I can't imagine pitching this flag idea (above) to a client but it's perfect!!!  His work inspires me to think a bit more outside of the box.

This living room, below, is such perfection to me:

I could move right in.  When I first saw my new house, I thought about that room.

In his work, I've noticed lots of photos of great transitional spaces.  Hallways and stairways are often overlooked due to budget constraints and priorities being elsewhere, but when I look through his work, the hallways seem to lead you through the story of the home so perfectly.  It really shows how important these often-overlooked spaces are:

Love this stairway shot:

...And the foyer, below, is so down-to-earth and inviting.  It really feels collected as most of his work does.

This bedroom, below, is such a great mix.  It's got more going on than a lot of what I've shown does, but I just love it.  His style is just so much fun and so fearless.  His spaces feel happy, which isn't always "in," especially not right now, but it's the type of spaces I strive to create, and he does them so perfectly.  There's a cheerful clutter to this pretty room that I love.  It's the epitome of "charming" to me...

This room, below, is a little "cooler" (both in color scheme and in style) but it still has a that great relaxed-collected feel:

...So... now that you see how crazy I am about Tom Scheerer's work, you can see how ceiling fans might have grown on me:

I think about the vibe in the room above more often than I should.  I just love its simplicity and the cool vintage island feel it has.  Tom Scheerer seems to have quite a bit of work in the Bahamas and I find myself just wishing we could go on a vacation in one of those homes.  (He did India Hick's guest cottage there!!) 

 Ceiling fans definitely affect the vibe of a space.  To me, they make a room feel more summery, a little lazier in a way.  A little more relaxed and they call to mind vacation or "island time."  They make me think that the windows are open and that relaxing is going on.  I don't associate ceiling fans with suits and work, but more with bare feet and fun.  They don't work in every house and with every type of architecture- especially in DC-  but it's the feeling I'm after in our place, which is sort of contemporary-natural, so I'm excited about that.

Here's another space that's really inspired me.  (Remember Justin's old nursery with the blockprint-inspired canopy we made?}  I'd never noticed the ceiling fan until now:

Ceiling fans almost always look great on porches:

When are you not relaxing or having fun if you're sitting on a porch??

And, in the photo below, the ceiling fan is just one of the many clues that the home is somewhere wonderfully warm:

 A lot of his fans are black and I love the contrast here:

Something like that would be great in my bedroom.  

This modern fan, below, just seems to disappear, which is perfect for this room, which actually does feel a little but more "put together" than some of the others.  If you mentally take out the fan, you can see that the formality goes up a hair...

And finally, one of my favorite spaces, check out this dining room:

The fan becomes this interesting sculptural element that again, plays up the island location of the home.  It's the perfect example of functional beauty and appropriateness.  

...So.. and I know it's a fairly controversial topic ;) ;) ... what are your thoughts on ceiling fans?

Does location matter?  When are they appropriate?  Are they ever okay?  Love them or hate them??

ps- I am SO in the mood to go somewhere tropical for a project after these pics!! Anyone need a decorator??

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