I'm Shopping For...

 Yesteray I was thinking about how difficult it's been for me to find time to blog lately and how so much of my time spent at work entails looking for the "perfect something" for a project.  We look at sooooooo many different pieces before selecting the actual piece to present in a plan & eventually install in a room.  I have been having a bit of trouble keeping up with blogging lately because of life/ work and was thinking if I could show you more of what I'm doing at work and get some work done in blog posts (and let the blog posts do double-duty! ;) then I could  be around a little more & share more with you. 
So... I was thinking of yet another very irregular blog series I'd like to start called "I'm Shopping For..."  where I can share what I'm currently looking for.  (I'll try to post these once a week aroudn the middle of the week, but you prbably know me well enough by now so don't hold your breath every week;) When I posted the pics of my boys bedroom the other day, a lot of you asked about the swing arm wall lamps we're using so I thought I could start with that one. 

So in the first "I'm Shopping For..."  is swing arm wall lamps.

I wasn't even looking for the lamps when I came across this image on pinterest from Domino Magazine a couple of months ago:

I knew I needed wanted something pretty much exactly like this somewhere in our house.  I had been thinking about doing wall lamps in our new office or in our boys' room above their beds...

...so I got excited and started "shopping."

I didn't have to look long at all & found them on my first stop.  We bought a pair of these by Visual Comfort:

{The Boston Functional Library Two Arm wall Light}

{I loooove Visual Comfort and they also sell all of their lighting retail at Circa Lighting. }

We got them in the hand-rubbed antique brass finish:

I do like to look around for other options before making a purchasing, just in case I find something better, so I also looked at these from Shades of Light:

{Shades of Light}

It's pretty in their "Olde Brass" finish:

**Update-  my friend Paloma from La Dolce Vita (who is also the Director of Marketing for VC) let me know that these lights are in fact the Visual Comfort lights being sold retail.  (I had thought they were just straight up copying!!! hahaha)     

Anyway...  I was definitely looking for the pivot to be on the vertical, but here (below) is one with a linen shade.  I thought about switching it up to a textured linen one:

{Found at lampsbeautiful.com by House of Troy}

...But ended up sticking with the Library Lamps from Visual Comfort. 

I also came across this pic just now which shows them (or something just like them?) above a bed in brass & I love it:

{www.atticmag.com}

...And now I can't wait to get them up!!

Since I found the piece I was looking for at my first stop, this was a fairly quick "shopping trip" but as you'll see in future posts, I'm not always so lucky!

**UPDATE***  I had another thought... if anyone knows of similar products, it would be great if they could list them with links in the comments section for people who are searching for similar products.  Laurel-Dawn of Abode Love just used some similar fixtures by Rejuvenation in a beautiful salon project recently!  (be sure to check it out!!)

Hope you enjoyed and have a great weekend!!

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

Home Sweet Home #48

Hello and welcome to Home Sweet Home!  I truly am so humbled by the recap post last week.  Some truly, amazingly, talented individuals out there.  

January is a time to reflect and plan for the coming year.  I have been working on my goals for this blog in 2012.  I thought while I was sorting that out I would try my hand at making these burlap roses.  So, I created this little wreath.  I got my instructions on how to make the roses here.   Although my roses don't look like any of these.  I think I am a little intimidated by these year end post, they are really awesome.

Here are the year end posts I would like to highlight from last week.

Kristine at Lakeshore Cottage Living has moved into this home in 2011 and did a recap post with all of her remodeling.  It is such a beautiful home, I love the finishes she picked out so much I couldn't just highlight it with one picture.  

Andrea at the  Opulent Cottage also had a recap post showing off the way she framed out this builder-grade mirror with moulding and medallions.  She had me with the trays and towels on display also!  Love this.

Cindy at Beaux R'eves  created a really nice New Year's tablescape.

Jill at Feathers & Flight created another New Year's tablescape called "Time to Remember."

And then, the recap post that was so amazing was by Rene at Miss Gracie's House.

Rene not only reflects on vintage decor, white, and  her daughter's vintage themed wedding.  She let us in and shared life with us too.....in such a beautiful way.   

Thank you to all who join me at Home Sweet Home!  It is awesome to have you here!  

Sherry

I will join these ladies today: 

Inspiration Friday At The Picket Fence
Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground 

Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage

Fridays Unfolded  at Stuff and Nonsense

Potpourri Friday at 2805

Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Open House Party at No Minimalist Here

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.  During the holidays, I'll 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!

Progress in My Boys' Bedroom

Over the holidays we did a little bit of work on our boys' (Christian-4 and Justin-2) bedroom.  We moved Justin to his "big boy bed" and it's been a bit less than smooth at nighttime.  He started climbing out of his crib a little while back & after whacking his head on the floor a couple of times, we knew it was time to switch him out of the crib to a bed.

{Putting together the new beds}

The boys' room is teensy and we recently reduced the size of the closet so that we could fit two twin beds in the space.  We have no room for extras in here, and instead of dressers, both boys have drawers for clothes under their twin-sized trundle beds from Ikea:

The closet is directly to the left of where I was standing when I took the pic above and it used to take up more than half of the left wall.  You can see in this before pic that the chaise could just fit sideways in the nook: 

The room feels so much bigger now and here's a pic of how Justin's twin bed fits in the new larger nook:

{right now the bedding is just in cream & I'm adding Euro shams and quilts at the end of the beds for some color...  }

The striped rug just happens to be in here right now & we plan on replacing the carpet with seagrass because there is a hole in it from where we removed the old closet.  (Justin's bed hides it nicely in the meantime.)  I'd like to layer a big cowhide in here for a soft play spot.

Below is Christian's bed on the other side of the room.  The art is up over here and I wrapped fabric around a Euro sham (in my Filigree Chevron in Autumn} & tossed fabric (Fern Star in moss) at the end of the bed to get an idea of how it will feel with the pillows and quilts.

I did a lot of thinking on the Ikea beds.  Christian originally had a similar black Ikea bed in his other bedroom and we really liked the clothes storage & trundle bed feature.  (They can get their own clothes out & help put away the clean ones because the drawers are right on the ground= awesome.)  Christian's black bed took up a bit more space (both visual space & physical space) as it had side & back rails and two of them would really cramp the new bedroom.  The two new beds together were also $100 less than the 1 black bed with rails so we ended up saving too by not having to buy another black bed.   (It took all day to put them together btw...  we love Ikea's wordless directions ;) 

I've thought about adding upholstered headboards to the beds in my filigree chevron fabric (and leaving out the Euro shams) but the arrggggg window isn't centered so the headboard would overlap the window.   I'm playing with ideas for shapes that might suit it better but I'm not sure it's worth the hassle...  That left bed does look especially lonely though.

We're installing these fixtures (by visual comfort) above both boys' beds so that will help:

...Except they're in burnished brass:

...And artwork & color on the bed will do a bit more to add interest...  I think I'll wait & see how it all looks installed before I make any headboard decisions.  The globe mobile is a Christmas gift to the boys from my good friend Elise, who also owns the Design Center of Northern Virginia.

{Justin is thrilled to be hanging out on his big brother's bed while he's at preschool... ssshhhhh!}

We keep their toys & books in this oragngey-reddish piece I found years ago (for around $27) at a thrift shop:

{Again, I love how they boys can clean up on their own - okay with me telling them over and over and over- and we have baskets for toy storage underneath.}

...Anyway, there are still a bunch of details to finish up before I'm really in love with it, but the boys are thrilled with their new room for now.  We're hanging the rest of the artwork & lighting this week and I'll be sure to keep you posted!

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

If you are interested in any of the fabrics mentioned, please visit my online fabric store http://www.purestylehome.co/

Slow Cooker French Dips

We had these Slow Cooker French Dips on New Year's.  They were perfect in the crock pot and everyone thought they tasted really good.  I have tried French dips before but this recipe was better.  Recipe source was the Tasty Kitchen.  

Ingredients

1 medium yellow onion

10 ounces, fluid beef broth/stock

1/4 cups Low Sodium Soy Sauce

1 TBSP Worcestershire Sauce

1 TBSP Grainy Mustard

3 pounds Chuck Roast

Salt and pepper

6 sandwich rolls

6 slices of Provolone Cheese

1. Slice onion into 1/4 inch rounds.  Keeping rounds together, place in the bottom of a slow cooker.  
2. Add beef broth, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, and mustard in the slow cooker. 
3. Salt and pepper both sides of the roast and place on top of the onions and liquid.
4. Cook for 6-7 hours or until the roast is fall-apart tender.
5. Once cooked, transfer the roast to a platter and shred.
6.  Remove onions from au jus sauce and remove any excess oil on broth.
7. Now return meat and onions back to the broth.  Leave it in crock pot for 1 hour on warm setting.
8. To assemble split the rolls and place under the broiler until just browned, about 1 minute.
9. Remove tops from baking sheet.  Scoop beef out of juice and place onto bottom halves of rolls with onion (if desired) and cheese.  Place back in oven again until cheese begins to melt.  Top your sandwiches with tops and cut in half for easier eating.  Serve with a small side of au jus sauce.

 *Note: The sandwich pictured above was not toasted.

Serves 6

Enjoy!

Sherry

I will link this to: 

Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

This Chick Cooked at This Chick Cooks
Friday Food at Mom Trends

Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum 
Wednesday Show Off  at Elna-Sudden. 
What's It Wednesday   at Ivy and Elephants  
And, here is a new link party where you can link up crafts, recipes, and your own link party.
Overflowing with Creativity Party  at It's Overflowing

The New Year...

Happy New Year!  Hope you had a great time over the holidays...  We relaxed as much as possible and it was amazing.  We took a last-minute trip to Williamsburg & Christmastown at Busch Gardens and the hilight of the trip was hanging out in our suite overlooking the river with a fire & my husband, while both kids took a nap at the same time.   Heaven.

I have to be honest, that I am not ready for the real world to start again. :) 

But cheers to a wonderful 2012 to us all!! 

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

The Year in Tea

I thought it might be nice to do a review, but I don't refinish many pieces of furniture.  The one thing I have been doing a lot of though is tea.  I started the tea posts for my Mom who always wanted to have tea time.  We don't live close but, I thought I could share some cyber tea.   The tea above was a French inspired tea, inspired by Carolyn Westbrook's book The French Inspired Home. 

A vintage Valentine table for February.

An Irish tea for March.

April seemed like a perfect time to get out the Limoges.

A Lily of the Valley tea for May.

My High Tea was in honor of Britain's Royal wedding of Prince William and Catherine.

A little nautical tea for July.

A quite tea for me in August.

Contemplating back to school in September.

A fall tea for October.

Blue and white for November.

And, one of my favorite props for December, my Dad's teddy bear.  

Have you been making plans for 2012?  I have been contemplating new ideas.  If you were to look to the end of 2012 and pick out 12 photos for the year in review, what do you want them to be?
 Sherry
I will link to these lovely blogs, go and visit:

Table Top Tuesday  at A Stroll Thru Life

Tea Time Tuesday at Rose Chintz Cottage

Tea Cup Tuesday at Martha's Favorites

Tuesday Tea for Two at The Plumed Pen

Tea Pot and Tea Things Tuesday  at The Silken Purse

Tea Pot and Tea Things Tuesday at Breath of Fresh Air

Tea Cup Tuesday at Artful Affirmations

Tea Party Tuesday  at Sweetology 

A Return to Loveliness  at A Delightsome Life

Friends Sharing Tea  at Bernideen's Tea Time Blog