HUH!?

Have you ever had a moment where you just stand there, slack jawed, wondering where the time went? I have no idea where the end of last week or this past weekend disappeared to, but I know it did so swiftly. Wowza! But, I think I'm back on firm footing ... note, I said I think!

This week I will share my 100th book review! Can you believe it!? 100!?!? HOLY CROW! It's so exciting, and I'm just trying to figure out which one will get the honor. Look for that coming soon!

Also, I'm back in the Cross Bottle Guy studio working on fresh new work. So excited about that.

I'll have some updated shots of the bedroom (I made a couple of changes) by the end of the week!

Book Review: Jane Packer's Flower Course

I've always been an advocate for fresh flowers in the home. Whether it's a simple vase of tulips you pick up for $7 at the grocery store, an elaborate florist bouquet you receive as a kind gesture, or something handpicked from your own flower garden, corralled together in your favorite container - there is something undeniably brightening about those petals. Frequently, I will go to my local Trader Joe's and pick up a mix of things for under $20, and come home to work a little magic and create a florist inspired bouquet of my own. That's when having books like Jane Packer's Flower Course comes in handy! 

Jane Packer Flowers is one of London's best-known elite florists. The bouquets are distinctive, elegant yet refreshingly modern. The prestigious company supplies flowers to hip boutique hotels, designer stores, and offers a highly regarded four-week career course to students who are lucky enough to travel to London and learn from her genius. In this book, published by Ryland, Peters and Small, Jane Packer covers the same ground as you'd find if you took her course, helping to make you a much better floral arranger! From party and wedding flowers, to small arrangements and floral gifts, to dried hangings - it's all here in beautiful step-by-step photography and easy to follow instructions! Let's take a look: 

Honestly, the book is a must for anyone who enjoys beautiful flowers and DIY floral arrangements. It's an impeccably detailed resource for getting it right, each and every time, and bridging on what great skills you already have - to make you a more confident and well-rounded floral designer. And really, who doesn't want to be the envy of all of your friends when you can make $18 worth of flowers from Trader Joe's, look like a $250 bouquet from the local high-end florist and design shop? Give it a look, and grab a copy for yourself via the Amazon link below: 

Quick Little Trip ...

Scott and I whisked ourselves away this weekend for a little vacation in the Brandywine Valley. It was much needed, trust me! If you read the blog with any regularity, you know I love the Brandywine Valley, that beautiful, Eden-like area where Philadelphia meets Delaware and Maryland. We had a reason to go, Patti LuPone (broadway legend) was performing her show "Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda ... Played that Part" at Longwood Gardens, but our only reason for staying the long weekend was exploration, relaxation, and restoration.

We started at one of my favorite stores in Glen Mills, Pa, Terrain at Styers. Terrain is the brainchild of the Anthropologie brand. A store devoted to gardening and plants, it's a nursery done only the way that Anthropologie could possibly pull off. Unique, one-of treasures are mixed with hand crafted soaps and beauty products, plants and gardening equipment strewn about the lush pebble carpeted grounds with glimpses of fine upholstery, art, and home décor through every window and open door. It's a magical place, and I'm constantly and irrevocably inspired every time we visit:

 

Next we headed off down the road for a little antique store shopping. There are 4 antique stores on Baltimore Pike, all of which carry a variety of things and operate in a Co-Op format with vendors renting small spaces and filling it with literally, whatever they want. Sometimes it's good - and sometimes it's not.

 

At one of these antique stores, a large open air porch wraps the entire house turned shop, and I couldn't resist playing Alice when I saw this awesome oversized chair:

 



How fun is this? I don't think it's for sale, because it's been here every time we stopped in to the store. Architectural fragment litters the porch, everything from windows and doors, to fireplace surrounds and columns are ripe for the picking. Inside, I thought this little sign was brilliant for the baker or cook who likes a little whimsy:

Keep Calm and Add Butter

 

 

Next we checked into our hotel, unpacked our bags, and then headed back to Longwood Gardens for a quick spin around the gardens before Patti's show. (I'm totally on a first name basis with her!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

I even got inspiration for our kitchen remodel from the antique kitchen on view in the home turned museum of Longwood Gardens' creator and benefactor, Peirce duPont.

 

 

Then we headed over to the stage, to grab our seats before Patti came on to perform. Now, if you know anything at all about her, you know that pulling your camera out to take pictures while she's on stage is begging for an embarrassing invitation to leave, so I left my phone tucked neatly into my white pants, and enjoyed the concert! She's an amazing performer!

 

 

The next day we headed into Baltimore, but before getting there, we stopped off at Ladew Topiary Gardens by recommendation of my friend Amy. It was lovely!

 

 

It was a lovely garden, and the weather couldn't have been more perfect. The inside of the Ladew house is spectacular, a home I could move right into without changing a thing! Unfortunately, they do not allow interior photographs. Next we headed down to Baltimore, and to the National Aquarium. I'm a huge aqua-nerd, so, anytime we are near an aquarium of any repute, we go.

 

 

While it was a lovely aquarium, the highlight had to be the introduction to Calypso, the 490-pound green sea turtle missing its left, front flipper. Found off the Long Island coast in 2000, the turtle was just 6-pounds when rescuers nursed the now mammoth turtle back to health. The missing left flipper, lost to a severe infection when Calypso was found, doesn't even seem to bother Calypso. We had a great time, but so far, nothing has compared to the Boston Aquarium.

 

We headed out to the harbor, strolling around the water and even taking a hike up Federal Hill to appreciate some of the architecture and available real estate!

 



 

We headed into the shops along the harbor, including the candy shop where they had laughable, oversized portions of popular candy bars, including my favorite: Sweettarts!

 

 

I didn't have any, but I had to take a picture in jest. As night fell, we took one more leisurely stroll around the harbor, before we headed back to the hotel.

 

 

 

The next day, we headed off in a northerly direction to Philadelphia. We had been to Philadelphia before, of course, but I wanted to run into IKEA quickly, and it's a great city.

 

We of course, made a stop at the Philadelphia Museum of Fine Art, where I ran those steps like a champ, showing Rocky a thing or two in my burlap Toms. Then we walked around the area, finding our way to Fairmount and the Eastern State Penitentiary, now a museum. They were closing up for the night, so we didn't get to tour - something I'm sure we'll make plans to do next time, but the restaurant across the street was intriguing.





 





Situated perfectly inside of an old firehouse, Jack's Firehouse was a visual delight. Dark and moody, the food was amazing. I had their pulled pork piled high on corn chips seasoned with a blend of powdered spices, and their bone-sucking ribs. If you're ever in the area - I highly recommend it! After dinner, we went to the King of Prussia mall for a little retail therapy, and then back to the hotel.

 

The next day we were heading back to CDLV, but before we did that, we stopped off at Winterthur to make use of our Member passes. I could tour the house over, and over and over again. And have! In fact, blogging about it several times, here and here and here and here. This time we did a short tour, the introductory, which is free to members and takes about 45 minutes. On this tour, you get to see my favorite room in the house:

 

 

The Chinese parlor. This room was created around the wallpaper that Mr. DuPont found in Paris, although the paper had been hand painted in China. He brought the paper back to this house in the Brandywine Valley and had his architect create the room, size, height, and coved ceiling around the exact size available from the purchased paper. The rest of the room is filled with fine early American antiques and slipcovered furniture. You can see better pictures of this room, and read more history from the links above.

 

We got home last night, late, and fell into bed. Today started like any other day before we snuck away. Full of things to do, and people to see! If only we could afford to live like tourists 365-days a year!





Lewiston Tour of Kitchens, 2014

I hope you're liking Color Outside the Line's "new do" so far. More changes and improvements are in the works! Today, I wanted to share with all of you some of the photos from the 2014 Lewiston Tour of Kitchens. I had the great pleasure of working with a wonderful home owner this year, my last with the tours, to make an already beautiful home really shine for the more than 1400 patrons. If you're not familiar, the tour showcases 6-7 homes each year in the Village and Town of Lewiston, New York. It's an upscale little place just north of Niagara Falls, where I live.

Each house is paired up with a designer (or two) and a local Lewiston restaurant. Tickets are $27 and you get to browse through private homes and enjoy samples of the food d'jour.

The home I was luckily assigned was (and is) beautiful. Built in 2013, the house has very little mileage on it, and therefore just about everything was as shiny and pristine as it was when first installed. The cabinets are all custom, finished in two tones - a satin finish ivory with a burnt sienna glaze, and a gorgeous walnut.





As you can see, there wasn't much for me to do in the kitchen. My design skills were really left to the other areas of the house. But I did supply Linda O'Connor with Summertime Blooms with the basket to create this amazing, completely edible center piece for the island. Packed with herbs, spices, and vegetables, this tabletop garden was the hit of the show. Linda does amazing work, and did all of the flowers throughout the home and on all of the tables. If you're local, and would like to have her do custom work for you, you can call her at Summertime Blooms: 716-791-3369.

Linda has over 2-acres of beautiful flowers that she grows each year, so you're not only buying from a brilliant artist when it comes to floral arrangements, but a local farmer. So, again, if you're local - get in touch with Linda. From one arrangement to fill your home with beauty, to a full-scale wedding, Linda's your gal!

Most of the time, when you work on a home that is occupied, you're having work around furniture that exists. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's not so good. Lucky for me (and Linda) our homeowner had great taste, and beautiful furniture that was perfect. All it needed was a few finishing touches. The birdcage (isn't that fantastic) was a piece that I bought for the show. We needed that "wow" factor upon entering the house and this did it. It perched perfectly upon the existing console table of the homeowner, and the stools below were a purchase she made at my suggestion.

The homeowner and I had worked together on curtains for the dining room, and continued that pattern into the living room with pillows made from the same fabric for the sofa. Again, here I just brought in accessories for the shelves, tables, and made slight styling improvements.

The house sits on a large lot, and was built with light in mind. The light these rooms get is enviable for anyone! Once they were styled and ready for the tour - I didn't want to leave. 



Even the puppy was impressed with the new comfort all the accessories had added to this room.





The dining room is not a formal space. It's adjacent to the kitchen, and provides wonderful family style seating for impromptu meals.



More gorgeous flowers by Linda at Summertime Blooms. Here, napkins from the same fabric banded in a bright turquoise pull sit atop blue and white plates. Cloches, covering salt wells filled with turquoise chocolate mints make for a beautiful presentation. The flatware is bronze and teak from Thailand.

And here, the new curtains warm up the space along with the seagrass rug that we added under the table. The outside spaces at this house are really amazing, and is where the family spends most of their time during the summer ... one look at their outdoor living room and there's no need to wonder why.

A large salt water pool beyond and a beautiful outdoor kitchen are also outdoor amenities that I unfortunately couldn't photograph prior to the tour ... I know, what was I thinking? You ever wish you could trade houses, but have the current owner keep the payment? Yeah ... me, too!