Posts that inspiring an elegant life

Thriving is Elegant…

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Good Morning and Happy 2022! 

Do you remember my post in December called “Word of the Year”? Did you pick your word yet? My word is trust. I need to trust the Lord more. I am not good at it. I have several reasons why but that is another blog post. Have any of you picked up the January/February issue of Victoria magazine? Oh it is good but then again they always are. 

 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley 

 

I picked up my issue a few weekends ago and have been savoring it ever since. Sometimes I read the “Reader to Reader” section and sometimes I don’t. For some reason, I read this month’s section and I am so glad that I did. 

A lot of readers were giving their hopeful expressions for the new year. Two of the letters that were sent in captured me. One reader wrote:

“The other day, I was going through my stash of inspirational greeting cards when I ran across one that a close friend gave me years ago. The purple-and-gold note has a saying from Maya Angelou emblazoned on the front: “Surviving is important. Thriving is elegant”. This sentiment resonates with me, particularly now as I am looking to make some big changes in my life. I am setting “Be Elegant” as my theme for 2022. That phrase will remind me to move beyond mere survival thinking and, hopefully, will motivate me to become a woman of style, and grace, to flourish, to grow, to succeed, and to live life to the fullest”.  ~ Jacquie Koewler (Redmond, Washington)

Now, how great was that? I marked this in the magazine and plan on absorbing this myself. I have never heard of this quote before from Maya Angelou but I can assure you it will remain in my mental rolodex from here on out! Maybe I should change my word of the year to this quote for the year. 

I just loved this letter from Jacquie and will be keeping it close by. Another item that I wanted to share that I found in this month’s magazine was the Antiques and Garden Show in Nashville, Tennesee. I really want to attend this! I spoke to my husband about it and we are trying to see if it will work with our schedules and finances. Did you see who the speakers are?

Well for starters Martha Stewart is one! Oh my gosh! I have been wanting to meet her for years. Bunny Williams is also a speaker as well as Alexa Hampton and Christopher Spitzmiller. There will be antiques and gardens and it would just be a dream to me. It really would. Of course, I will keep you all updated if we make the trip. 

Let me know in the comments below if you have ever heard of this quote for Maya? Have a great Monday!

 

 

 

 

My Tour of the Lilly House

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Good Morning Everyone,

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! My Christmas was good. I was exhausted on Christmas Eve. I did all of the cooking and decorating so at the end of the day I was really tired but we enjoyed ourselves. This should be a light work week (I hope). We don’t have any plans for New Years’ Eve. I just plan on making my cheeseboard, opening a glass of wine, and enjoying a quiet evening. 

I did want to share my recent home tour. I have been wanting to visit this home for quite some time. I took the afternoon to tour the Lilly House. 

 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley 

 

It is a two-minute walk to the house from Newfields. The house is on the property. The Lilly family donated the house to the museum. It was made a National Landmark in 2003.

 

 

The whole time I am walking up to the home I am daydreaming that it belongs to me!

 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley 

 

It truly is my dream home. I have always wanted a home that looked just like this. So this home sits on 26 acres and has a beautiful water view in the back that I did not get to see. It was built in 1913. 

 

 

They had it decorated for the holidays. There were Christmas trees everywhere!  This is what it looked like when you walked in.

 

 

I loved these chandelier lamps. I would love to have one for my dresser. The ornate vintage mirror was gorgeous as well. 

 

 

I walked into the study and this room was filled with Christmas trees. And look at the ceiling? All of the wonderful details!

 

 

Oh my goodness this was the next room and you guys know that I LOVED the chinoiserie wallpaper! I think this was added some years later. 

 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley 

 

Okay, now I just learned about Nancy Lancaster’s yellow room. This color reminds me of that? What do you all think? 

 

 

I was told that the furniture is original to the home. How great is that?

 

 

This tree was mostly decorated with peacocks. They looked as if they were homemade because they were made of felt. 

 

 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley 

 

I loved the mural painted in this hallway. The Chinese lanterns made it fun!

 

 

I then walked into the dining room. I wish I would have gotten the details about this room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The butler’s pantry! I have always wanted one of these. I got upclose to see if I could get pictures of the china.

 

 

 

 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley 

 

 

I believe this was the family’s china. I loved all of the prints here!

 

 

 

Here is the kitchen. I don’t believe it has been updated. I read the card about the room but I can’t remember the last time they updated the kitchen. It may have been in the 60s. 

 

 

 

Here is the other side of the kitchen. I believe the desserts were fake but still lovely and added to the Christmas decor!

 

 

 

This was the second entryway in the home. I loved this area and the chandelier. They did not let you tour the upstairs so I was bummed about that but so happy that I got to see the home. I did learn that Lilly House was designed by Landon’s brother-in-law, Lewis Ketcham Davis, in the French Château style. The house is positioned on a bluff overlooking the White River, taking advantage of expansive views to the west.

The house includes a service wing, pavilions on the east and west with access to balconies from the second floor, and a large terrace atop a garage and service area. While occupied by the Landon family, the main floor originally included a music room, library, sunroom, living room, dining room, kitchen, and porch. The second floor was made up of private suites, bedrooms, bathrooms, the servant’s suite, and a study. A third-floor ballroom was also present in the Landon home and was used for storage during the Lilly’s occupancy (from Wikipedia).  At that time the estate also included a formal garden, greenhouse, tennis court, and several outbuildings. If you want to read about the history of the Lilly Manor you may read it here. 

I hope you all enjoyed this beautiful home tour. I do hope that I can tour more homes like this in the future. If you miss my home from this past spring you may read it here.  Have a wonderful Monday everyone!

 

 

Weekend Christmas Events

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And Good Monday Morning Everyone!

We are just a few short days away from Christmas! I can’t believe it’s this week and honestly will be over so soon. A new year will be beginning and so will all of the promises of a new year. I think I shared this before that I never make new year resolutions. I just don’t see the point for me. If I need to make a change just do it now. I don’t see the point in waiting for a new year to start. 

I did want to share my weekend with everyone. On Saturday morning my family and I headed to the L.S. Ayres Tea Room for our annual brunch. This year they made some changes. We were told that it went to “buffet style” and honestly when I heard that my heart fell. I hate buffets. I am just being honest but all I see in my mind when I hear that word is people breathing all on the food, putting their grubbing hands everywhere, and thinking about how so people just don’t wash their hands. But when we walked into the room I was pleasantly surprised….

 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley 

 

The entryway did not change much and that beautiful piano was still there….

 

 

Beautiful isn’t it? I still don’t know much about it. Maybe I will get info on it next time. 

 

 

 

I did snap a photo of this. This is a photo of some of the original staff. This photo was taken in 1905!

 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley 

 

So when we walked in we were shown to our table and we sat down and ordered our drinks. After that, we were directed to the buffet line. The room was not crowded and the food was completed covered with servers behind it! I was so relieved. No one could touch the food, you were able to select what you wanted and could go back for seconds. There was a glass shield over the area of the food. I mean you could not even breathe on it. I was so happy! I know that sounds bad but some people are just gross. 

I selected the tuna tea sandwiches, some chicken salad, ginger peach tea, and chicken velvet soup of course. I shared the recipe for this soup and it is the most viewed post on my blog! They also had this wonderfully soft pumpkin bread. Oh, it was so delicious! I should have gotten the recipe for that. 

 

photo credit: Mr. Shockley 

It was a wonderful lunch with a beautiful atmosphere that we all enjoyed! On Sunday afternoon my daughter and I went to see the Nutcracker at Newfields. It was really nice this year and we sat in the balcony which wasn’t bad but we have decided to try another Nutcracker next year. I hope you all enjoy your Christmas holiday with your family this week. I will be taking the rest of the week off from the blog and I will see you all next week!

Merry Christmas!

 

 

 

 

 

Mrs. Higgins’ Room Tour

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Oh goodness, it’s only one week until Christmas! I can’t believe it! We still don’t have snow here in Indy but there is a rumor going around that we are expected to have some this weekend. It has been so warm here which has made the holidays a little sad to me.

For this week I have been trying new recipes. I have been bringing my own salads to work this week for lunch and making my own dressing. It has been delicious! I have also been adding apples with roasted chicken (my chicken from home) and that has been a wonderful combination. I wanted to try and make Nicolas Fairford’s cranberry sauce. Seeing that on those turkey tea sandwiches that he made had my glands salivating. Oh yum!

In today’s post I wanted to talk about the Mrs. Higgins home in My Fair Lady. 

 

photo via Pinterest

 

I adore this room. Whenever I watch this movie I replay this part over and over so that I can get a glimpse of the details. I learned that the room was decorated by Cecil Beaton. I believe he was inspired by C.F.A Voysey. I also believe that there is a little bit of William Morris inspiration as well. 

I love the chairs, table, just everything about this setting. I still can’t believe that people actually lived this way…. 

 

 

I paused the movie at this point and tried to take in all the details. I looked at the wallpaper, the blue and white dishes at the top of the cabinetry. Just look at the cabinetry! It’s timeless. I see cabinets in homes on Pinterest like this now. Oh and did you get a peek at the chandelier? It’s blue and white!

 

 

I tried to take up-close photos of the movie. There are so many wonderful details in this room. How about that beautiful brown wood floor? 

 

 

Oh, I did notice this section in the room as well. This beautiful white secretary desk with a stunning blue and white chair! I couldn’t find any information on this furniture. I think the lamp might be Wedgewood. It sure does look like it. 

Let me know in the comment section below if you know anything about Mrs. Higgins’s room. I would love to know what you love about the room or dislike. I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday. 

 

 

 

 

A New Pen Pal

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Good Morning!

I’ve got a busy day today! Of course, I have to head into the office and have my normal workday but I made an appointment to meet with our Indiana Department of Revenue to make sure that I am all ready for the upcoming tax season for my boutique! This will be the first year that I file returns and pay sales tax for the boutique and I want to make sure that everything is in order. I am really excited about this meeting. I always enjoy things like this. I just hope that I get a “seasoned” individual that can answer all of my new business owner questions. 

Later on this week I will begin wrapping presents for family, friends, and staff. I will be finishing up my Christmas Eve dinner list and I plan on writing my pen-pal for the first time! 

I mentioned it before that I was a part of Jennifer from The Daily Connoisseur Chic Society. I love being a part of this group and I do enjoy the Zoom calls we have. So Jennifer had a pen-pal sign up recently and I signed up to receive a pen pal. Well, I was assigned to one recently and I wanted to have some new customized stationery to use when writing her. So where do I head to? Etsy of course!

 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley 

 

I ordered this set from Chickadee Cottage Company on Etsy. This is called the stationery letter writing pen pal set. You can customize it to your preference. You pick the color of your envelopes and the color of your letters and font. I love the way my set came out!

 

 

I can’t wait to start writing her! I will be sending my first letter this week. I hope everyone has enjoyed this post and let me know in the comments below if you have a pen pal. I haven’t had a pen pal since 5th grade! My teacher at the time Mrs. Belmont became friends with another teacher in Phoenix, Arizona and they came up with the idea of their students becoming pen pals. I thought it was great! I wish I would have stayed in touch with her. My pen pal’s name was Victoria. Classic right? Have a great Monday everyone! 

 

Oh, I almost forgot! The boutique’s new plus-size arrival is ready. I decided to name this dress Maxine. The Maxine Balloon Sleeve Midi is super soft, comfy, and is the PERFECT mauve pink. It’s available in 1x, 2x, and 3x! 

 

This post was not sponsored.

Please note: some links are affiliate links and if you make a purchase through this link, I will receive a small commission for referring you to the product. Thank you so much in advance if you decide to make a purchase through my link.

 

The Chinoiserie Scarf

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Good Morning Everyone!

Yesterday was a wonderful day in the office. I treated the staff that I supervise to a small Christmas luncheon! I made reservations at Capital Grille in the Conrad Hotel and it was amazing! The food was exceptional. I ordered the roasted chicken breast with mushrooms and parmesan risotto. It was so delicious. I am still thinking about the risotto!

Last week one of my glamour wishlist items arrived. A few weeks ago I shared my glamour wishlist and this item was on it. I saw this chinoiserie scarf and had to order it only it was sold out!

 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley 

 

I tagged the company in one of my posts in my stories on Instagram and they reached out to me and told me that they had a limited stock and that I could order one! I shrieked and ordered one right away! Once it arrived I could not get over the customized packaging. It came beautifully wrapped in this blue paper. 

 

 

It had my name on it! Now, how wonderful is that?

 

 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley 

 

Once I opened the wrapping I just stared at the scarf. The illustrations and colors were so exquisite. It is made from 100% Italian silk from Lake Como (a dream destination for me), and is a timeless design. The illustration was inspired by the Renaissance and did you look at the tag? It’s thick and is tied to the most beautiful blue velvet ribbon. 

 

 

I ADORE this scarf! I have tied it to my bag and have been carrying it all week. It’s stunning as a bag scarf! I think luxury and beauty should be everywhere. Put it anywhere you can. Life is so short and many of us have learned this past two years. Enjoy your beautiful things and use them! Have a great Wednesday!

 

 

This post is not sponsored. 

 

 

 

New Fabric Purchase

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Good Morning Everyone,

I don’t want to complain but I am ready for some much-needed time off. I feel like I need another week of staycation! But as I look at the coming weeks things will start to slow down here soon. Honestly, I just want to sit in my bed, look at design books all day and watch my My Fair Lady with a cup of tea! 

 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley 

 

Okay, so today’s post is going to be a quick one. I was on eBay recently just looking around. Well, I was inspired by some of my favorite antique Instagram accounts to look for certain items. The first item has been this china pattern called pink Minton Cockatrice. I actually found some sets on eBay. The next has been chintz patterns. I started watching the pattern above about 2 weeks ago and it had quite a few bids on it. I only bid on the last day and at the last minute. I mean I literally wait until there are 30 seconds left and then I give my highest bid. It has worked for me on numerous occasions.

That is what I did for this fabric. I gave my highest bid and won! I was really surprised that I won. I am always apprehensive when I see that someone has set up automatic bids because you don’t know what their threshold is. But I won…. 

So now the question is what do I do with it? When I saw this pattern I thought, oh pillow covers. Now I am thinking pillow covers and maybe an apron. What do you guys think? What should I have made with this gorgeous fabric? Let me know in the comments section below. Enjoy your Wednesday!