I Want Him So Bad...

I just fell in love...

Isn't he fabulous!!!  I want him so bad.  Come to me Wet Dog Tile and make my me swoon each time I walk into my kitchen too.

Take me away in daydreams everytime I look at you.

There are lots of murals to choose from.

So many ideas for using you.

For all you non-beach lovers, he's got brothers.  I love the colors in this fish.  I'm crushing on him too.  I look at these guys and see friends like Julie at Mamawj's Moment Away and her grandson Gage.  I know they would love him as much as I do.

You make me want to come home Wet Dog.

This backsplash made me think of my friend Deb at Dragonfly Treasure.

A New England seashore border if I've ever seen one.

There are so many more to choose from.  There are mermaids, crabs and lobster, sea turtles, moose and fall leaves.  Lots of naturalistic style tiles.

I love this company's name almost as much as I love their tiles. "Wet Dog Tile Co."  So cool!

Here's what I found out about them as I was drooling like a Wet Dog.  
Wet Dog Tile Co. offers a diverse collection of individual tile pieces, called “Friends”, as well as one-of-a-kind borders and murals that can easily be customized. Creating these beautiful and unique tiles is not our only passion here at Wet Dog. We believe all dogs deserve happy and loving homes, so a portion of every Wet Dog sale is donated to local and national rescue organizations.

1. Partnering with local shelters and also the Great Dog Rescue of New England, a portion of all Wet Dog's proceeds are donated to help rescue animals from abuse and neglect as well as the so called, "Death Row" of  high kill shelters in the south.  Through these organizations animals are offered a second chance in finding a happy and nurturing, and hopefully forever home.  When you purchase a tile, every piece from its hand carved mold to its finely articulated hand glazing is being crafted for the dual purposes of creating a long lasting, one of a kind, functional work of art for your personal and public space, but is also easing or eliminating the suffering of a most deserving animal.

Hey check that out!  I didn't even know they were a New England company when I said their tile reminded me of a New England seashore!  I was right on the money.  It's good to read the fine print.  I started sharing because I love the beauty of their product, only to find out they have a beautiful heart too.  No wonder Wet Dog Tile stole mine.

*By the way I didn't receive any compensation for this post.  I solely wrote it after stumbling upon a picture and becoming enamored with them.  You know I couldn't keep him to myself. :)

As for me I just like the simple beach shore the best.  He captured my heart and now I can't get him out of my head!

**P.S  This is your last chance to enter the Honeywell True HEPA Allergen Remover Air Purifier.  It ends tonight Jan 23rd @ 11:59pm.  Click HERE to enter.

Hugs Y'all...

Again the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind.

                                                                         ~Matthew 13:47

5ab2b1cde98dad9ed7a7e9b60d322543fec9b373e4c442ac33

Decorating with Old Glory for the 4th of July

With things a bit busy around here I haven't even had a chance to share my 4th of July Porch.  I always feel a big gush of pride when I'm able to hang up my red, white and blue buntings.  It says summer's here and there's nothing else like the 4th of July anywhere else in the world!

I've pressured washed the porch and it's all fresh for summer.

My red rockers look like they were painted just for the celebration.  These have gone from natural to yellow, to black, to red.  I'm debating whether it's time for a change again.  I hope to get some #paint soon and get the porch brightened up.

 I did repaint a few pieces already, like this little side table.  I made this simple little flag pillow last year.  More about that in another post.

 My former neighbor gave me the cute little bench before moving earlier this year.  She told me sweet memories of her children play driving a car on it and then her grandchildren doing the same.  I sanded and painted it with plans to stencil a phrase across the back.  That will happen soon.  The tin buckets above were from the dollar store a couple of years ago and I just got those painted in time for the 4th.  Notice my little white star on the back of the bench.  It's a carpenters wooden folded measuring tape.  It folds into the perfect star.

I found both of these lanterns in two different thrift stores last year.  One was from Ikea and the other from Big Lots.  Identical - who knew.  A little paint and another patriotic item for my porch.

The pillow was a zero cost diy project.  I took some linen like fabric that I had on hand cut 2 squares to the size I wanted.  Painted them and stitched it together.  I'll have a post about both pillows up soon. If you can stitch a straight line you can make these pillows.

I love the candle light as the sun goes down.

Well that's my little spot of Americana.  I hope you enjoyed your visit and that you'll be back soon.  I'd love it if you'd leave a comment.  They make my day so much brighter.

Hugs Y'all...

Tracy 

I Love to Win + I Love Creativity = Remodelando la Casa

I want to show you my newest object d' art.

 

Do you love it as much as I do? And best of all I won it! Winning's always fun but it's even more fun when it's something beautiful to look at.

I won this over at Remodelando la Casa.   As soon as I saw it I knew where I was going to put it.  We have a large built in T.V. cabinet that separates the foyer from the living room.  I already had a couple of vintage globes on top and knew this piece would be perfect up there with them. 

I found Cristina's blog not long ago. Lucky for her readers and even luckier for me, she had recently been to the flea market.  She found not 1 but 2 of  these cool globes.  One was used and she loved the patina.  The other was still in the box and now it's resides at my house!  Yippee for me!!! 

Let me introduce you to Cristina. She's full of creative ideas and she likes to share them, like all us bloggers do. Christina stays busy updating here plain builder's house into the home with a traditional-modern feel, as she puts it. Best of all she creates all this style with the word budget in mind. She's also considerate enough to provide lots of tutorials so we can get our creative groove on too.  Just look at this easy to make wreath she came up with.  You'll be surprised by what she made it from.

She really had done everything from crafting to pulling out the big tools, and building her own custom hood range and adding elegant crown molding to her kitchen cabinets.  A must see.  Just click here or on any of the pictures to view.

Just look at this last minute art she created.  So smart and easy - we all can do it!  Oh' all the possibilities.....

Stop by and visit Cristina.  When you do please let her know I sent you.  Oh' yeah, I might as well apologize for your housework not getting done.  I'm sure you're going to be there awhile.

Have a blessed day ya'll....

Interior Design Inspiration at the Loveliest Blogs

I found a new blog the other day while searching for decorating inspiration.  What in the world did we do before blogging came along?  Now that I think of it, the world was a much smaller place when I was a child.  Decorating had it's value and place at our house more so than that of my Grandma and other older relatives, where decorating was a second or after thought to necessity and purpose.  Decorating was limited more to the geographical area's where we lived too.  And why wouldn't it be?

Television had only become a staple in every home in the 50's, not much before I had come along (did I really just say that?)  What a way to start my day!  There was no HGTV and even the "women's" talk shows spent more time on pleasing your husband and being a good cook, housekeeper and mother then they did on decorating.  I know, I totally veered off where I was going.  Oh' well, that's the upside for me being my on editor.

I want to introduce you to Michelle @  Hello Lovely Inc.  She's been blogging since 2008 and she's describes herself better than I ever could, so I'll let you just read her about me description.

"I'm Michele. I'm a mom, wife, and writer. Hello Lovely Inc is a collection of inspiring finds, creative ventures, and encouraging words. It's a place where I share dreams and rants and wishes. It's a place for room porn and to laugh (especially if you appreciate one-off humor). Besides a passion for creativity, my sensibilities lean toward beachy, romantic, tranquil, quirky, ethereal, meditative, and soulful.

After graduating from Northwestern University, I earned a master's degree in counseling at the University of Missouri-Columbia. A freelancer contributing regularly to more than 80 parenting/family/women's magazines, I also edit and write press. I love books, baking, creating art, design, and nesting. "

Michele's blog is lovely, indeed!
This is the post that I fell in love with.  She highlighted a beautifully decorated cottage interior designed by decorator Mabley Handler. 

I had already started picked my colors and starting painting when I found Michele's post and was happy to see that it had a color palate so close to mine.  Though my newly painted living room is not exactly like this, it's similar.  If you remember, we did not want to repaint all the molding in the rooms again, but I did (something I had to ease Neil into) want to lighten it up.  So our walls are now a creamy white to blend with the khaki (for lack of a better word) trim.  We have greenish/brown sofas and I'm wanting to introduce blue and beach colors without replacing those pieces. 

I wish I could say this was my room below but....ha, you know that's not true.  I am excited about the new colors and how much lighter my room feels.  And yes I will get around to posting pics soon.  We repaired sheetrock and painted 3 rooms so far with more to go.

If I was being a critic the only thing I would change is the kitchen color.  It's a little blah for me.  I love the flow of the entry hall and the living room and I get that she's keeping the flow going in the kitchen but I think a little more color to excite the eye would have been nice. 

Now this is the color I have been wanting in my bedroom and bath for the longest time.  I love the soothing pallet.  The palest of blues.  Was Ms. Handley stalking my dreams?  I've been in love with the fan coral, like the one framed above for over a year.  I love the white but I also love the colored coral as well and have been keeping a watch out for some to frame.

The bedding is the perfect cottage bedding to me!  It just takes me back to all our vacations growing up that were spent at the beach cottage.  The lamps are so vintage cool.  I'm already thinking about how easy those would be for all you diy lovers and copy cats like me to duplicate.  I love their shape.  The shades are what gives them the pop but I'm not really digging the gold and lacquered look.  I do love the aqua, just not the lacquer look of it.  Of course we all love the bead board and that headboard is perfect.  I'm wanting those pillows and that coverlet something awful.  Simply put....Gorgeous. 
To see more beautiful pictures of these rooms just click here.   Michele has tons of eye candy for you at hello lovely, inc.

Just my style.

Have a great day ya'll.

Hugs.....Tracy :)

Quote of the Day

be joyful always. 

pray continually.

give thanks in all circumstances.

                                       ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:16.18



With This Tool I Just Might Be the Next Decorating Guru!

I have found the coolest tool for decorating.  I've been looking and sweating over wall paint colors and inspiration rooms verses my sofas and the trim work and ceiling color that I don't want to change.  Well, I think this is going to make the job a whole lot easier.


With the Color Palette Generator from CSS, you can link up a photo from online or even upload your own photo.  Then the magic happens.  It will generate a color palette for you!  How simple is that?  It takes all the guess work out of it for you.  I mean really have you ever tried to choose a blue or a green for example?  There's the warm tones verses the cool tones which are so totally different.  


Why hadn't anyone told me about this before?  Like a half-a-head of hair ago.  Here's an example. 

You just link a photo of a room or anything else you like and like magic you get a customized color palette.

This is just the coolest thing since sliced bread.  You can use it to help you choose blog page color layouts and so much more.  I'm doing the happy dance in celebration!!!

I'm Ready For a Change

Do you know what happens when you start a project and it never ends?  Well, I do! 

By the time you get even close to getting where you want to be, you realize you're kinda over it.

But every time  I think of changing it, I look up at the crown molding.  Never, ever has painting been something I longed to do and believe me I've done more than my share.  I just have this problem.  I like change.  But back to those moldings.  That's a lot of taping and painting.   

I'm really wanting to go to lighter, brighter colors, cooler, more coastal colors.  Something in a pale gray with white trim.  But it can't be as simple as all that for me.  I'd have to paint the walls, and the trim and the ceiling.  We painted the ceiling in a lighter coordinating shade to the wall colors.  It's really beautiful and when we first chose it, it was perfect for that warm Tuscany look that I longed for.  But these are warm colors which are perfect for a cozy winter palate but like I said there's no way to just change the walls without painting the trim too.  Oh' and that's not to mention the wide layered floor trim moldings.

And take a look at the color of my sofas, well okay you can't get see the true colors.  They're prettier and a little darker olive green with golds and plums in the pillows.  They're too new to get rid of, as if that as even an option.  Not really wanting slip covers either.  I do like slip covers, I'm just not wanting them.  Plus the rug has a pale green/gold olive with white.  That would be another change.  When I bought this I kept saying I wanted to go neutral, so that I could change pillows and things when the seasons changed and have I could have a new look.  So what happened there?  Where did that plan go? 

So what about y'all?  Are you making any changes for the new season?  Do you have any money saving tips or idea's?  How would you handle a burning desire for change on an almost nil budget?  Let me know, I'm really wanting to hear what y'all think.  

By the way are you reading this FrogTape, Valspar paint, and Lowes or Home Depot?  I'd love to review your products! 

Quote for the day:

Even if you fall flat on your face at least you are moving forward.
                                                     ~Sue Luke                  

Have blessed and fruitful day y'all.  Hugs...Tracy :)

Guess What I Did With This

A tiny wallet, a need for wall art, expensive taste, can't paint but have a creative spirit. What does this mean? It means that it adds up to the old adage - necessity is the mother of invention - and thank goodness for the hardware store. It means that I can't go to the Bombay store. What now? Oh yeah, what about all those pretty wallpaper samples at Lowes! Okay now what about frames? Lets see think cheap but remember it can't look cheap. It's not trash day no chance of seeing something fantastic on the side of the road. How about Big Lots -no, how about Family dollar - no. I don't want to waste gas going all over town. Not enough money for TJMaxx, Marshalls or Home Goods, which I personally love. I've got it Freds. Freds always has something. It might not be what your looking for at the moment but they always have something decorative that can be used somehow.

That's right I now have art work that only cost approximately $2.00 each for a total of $6.00. I took the wall paper border that they allow you to have free samples of and cut them into individual pieces to fit in the frames and TA-DA you have gorgeous new art! Could it get any simpler. The wallpaper has a nice texture that gives it a much better look than just a piece of paper. My little wallet is saved, I feel like I created something even though I'm most definitely not an artist, and my wall makes me smile every time I walk by.

I would love to see your money saving and creative decorating ideas. Please share them with me. I'd love to show them here.

Blessing to you all dear friends.....Tracy :)