Home Updates, Accessories & Tours

The Breakers

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It’s Wednesday already and today I will be volunteering at Dress for Success. I’ve got some clothes that I need to drop off. I am having one of my “massive purge” feelings. I love these but also hate them because it’s usually a year later I began looking for whatever I got rid of and then I totally regret it. 


It takes a few weeks for me to move on and then I feel good about my closet being “lighter”. Well, the word is getting out in my office. How I adore elegance and beautiful things. Oh boy, I have some co-workers giving me the stare down but no matter I will keep moving forward.


One co-worker, in particular, shared how she went on a historical home tour in Rhode Island. It piqued my interest so she came to my office to tell me about it. Oh me, oh my. I now want to take a tour of the Breakers!























photo credit Annie Spratt 






I have never heard of these homes before and was very grateful that my co-worker shared her experience with me. I quickly hoped on the website and learned about all of the homes on this fabulous tour.


The Breakers were these massive homes that were considered to be “summer cottages” in the 1800s. Can you believe that these homes were considered to be summer cottages? Nuts!!!


























photo credit Marjorie Bertrand 





The Preservation Society of Newport County has 10 homes listed on the website as apart of the tour. My friend said that you could buy a ticket to tour all of the homes and even see the gardens. Sounds like an elegant dream to me. 


It should be no surprise that most of these homes have a connection to the Vanderbilts. I toured the Biltmore Estates in 2016 (see here if you missed it)























Photo by Jessica Fadel on Unsplash


I think taking a tour of the Green Animals Topiary Garden would be fun. I know our daughter would love to see this. 


I am thrilled to learn about more places that my family and I could possibly tour. Well, maybe just me. I have already thought about how I could add these to our time when we visit New York again. 


If you have visited the Breakers please let me know in the comments section below. I would love to hear about your experience and your time there. 











A Charleston Home Tour

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Good Morning All and Happy Friday,



I’ve got a busy weekend planned. I am putting up my Christmas trees! Yes, I know it is early but I must get a head start because I put up about six and I want to enjoy them for more than a month. So I will be starting that this weekend. 


We also have Monday off for Veterans Day (thank you to everyone for your service) so I will be using that day to run some errands. There is a new consignment store that I wanted to visit so we will see how that goes. I’ve got to return some purchases at the mall and Von Maur’s beauty week starts so I may take a peek at what they are offering. 


Today’s post is a beautiful home tour from one of my favorite bloggers. I follow Gal Meets Glam (Julia Engel)’s blog and website religiously. I have been such a fan of her style and home decor for about six years now. 


I saw this home tour on the Southern Living Magazine website recently and just became enamored with all of the inspiration from the home. Even if you don’t like everything about it there is still so much decor inspiration to pick from it. 







Gorgeous curb appeal!!! I love the splash of blue on the home. See….serious home decor inspiration!





They have a beautiful wrap around porch. She and her husband always do a great job of decorating their outdoor space. 

Image result for gal meets glam home porch tour 



The breakfast nook area is bright and inviting and the butler’s pantry area is something that most of us will kill for! 
Now the kitchen is spacious, full of color, and simply stunning. But… there is a but for me. I am not a fan of the light fixtures. I am a vintage chandelier kinda girl but as I stated above, you don’t have to like everything about someone else’s space. You can just use it as inspiration. 
southern living charleston home
These chairs are my favorite thing. They have the chinoiserie look and they are just classic!
Related image

Now, this photo is from a couple of years ago. I remember seeing this peony on her wall and thinking, “I must have it”. I asked her and she said that it was made by an artist in San Francisco named Tiffanie Turner. Here is her website if you are interested. 


Doesn’t this look like a wonderful retreat? I only dream of having bed linens like this. I am working on it but they are quite expensive. I’ll get there. 

I don’t want to show all of the pictures so if you wish to see the rest of the tour click on the link above to view and take it all in. 

Home tours are so wonderful. It’s amazing how someone else can decorate their home in a way that you would have never thought of. Enjoy your weekend!

(photos via Gal Meets Glam.com)


Floral Wall Decals

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Hello and Good Morning!


Thank you to everyone who reached out and gave wonderful comments about my bag. I really appreciate it! I hope you guys enjoyed the Youtube video as well. 


Before I jump into today’s post I just wanted to share how some porn people are back on my blog again! Geez… I got some new followers on Bloglovin and they all have these Russian porn sites connected to their names. Some guy named Jake, some person name Gion, and some person name Claudia. All have some porn connection. Yes, I am calling you out. Get off my page! I don’t want your support. Go away!!! Now back to my regular program. 


Today I wanted to share a small recent project that my husband and I attempted to do. A few weekends ago we took a visit to Ikea which most of you know I am not a huge fan of. My step-son had never been and we wanted to take him for a visit. 


I looked at a few things and I must say that I do like a lot of their kitchen setups and huge islands. I wrote about some of my favorite things here if you wish to read it. 


Ikea is a great place for college students or for couples or individuals who are just starting out. I think that their kitchen basic utensils are wonderfully priced and have great quality. 


When we were there last week we decided to just look around. I saw a few things but then I found these wall decals and thought, “this might be a good way for me to get wallpaper”!

These peony decorative stickers looked so great at the store. I thought about how I would love to have them at home. 

So we purchased about three and brought them home and began to piece them together. You have to come up with your own combination. Each peony is in pieces but it gives you the opportunity to create the size and variation that you want. 



They were bigger than expected. 


And the verdict is…..no. Here is the thing. I don’t think that they are ugly. They are quite lovely but it’s not the look that I am going for. I really want some wallpaper and I really want chinoiserie. 

These for some reason to me just look really cheap in this area and I think that they would be great in a college dorm room and a girl’s bedroom at home. That’s just my opinion. 

If you are interested in these I provided the link above. Again, Ikea is a great place for affordable home decor but not if you love antiques. 


Thanks for reading!
(photos via Mrs. Shockley)


A Provence Tour

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It’s Friday and I am feeling inspired. Tomorrow the St. Joan of Arc here in our city is having it’s Annual French Market. I just learned about this about a month ago. Those Facebook event calendars are a great resource!


I have been viewing some of the photos from the past events and trying to get a feel for what the environment may be like. This year I made a goal to attend more events. So far so good. Today’s post is a beautiful home tour of a property located in Provence.


I can’t tell you how many times I have dreamed of visiting Provence. I mean I think about it almost daily. I recently read about Sharon Santoni’s Italy tours.  I showed my husband the information and we both think that this is perfect for us. You have someone with you the entire time you are in Provence, and they take you antique shopping, there are flower arranging courses, and I mean the list just goes on and on. I told my husband this maybe the best route that we can take to go to Provence. It would be a dream for me.


Okay back to this beautiful home tour that I found on Traditional Home.

How would you like to walk up to this beautiful door? This door was made by a company in Provence and the stone has been dated back to 1699! How wonderful is that?
The couple has this beautiful iron day bed outside. It is being used as a bench. I never would have thought of that but how chic. Look and are those climbing roses?




The french tapestry is of a antique cartoon and the chandelier was designed by friends who used Italian artifacts. 



The couple had the floors made with creamy Jerusalem stone. I actually like the green pillows. They give the room a pop of color but still in a subtle way. 

French artisan assisted in helping to get the Provencal details right. Glazed cabinets and limestone counter-tops along with this stunning French range hood complete this elegant kitchen. 
Oh my goodness! I adore this 19th century Provencal boiserie.

What a beautiful room. Couldn’t you wake up to this? The painting is of Madame Le Fevre Caumartin and is a copy. The room is decorated beautifully and not over done. 




I hope that you enjoyed this beautiful home. If you wish to read the original article you may read it here. There are more rooms to explore and gain inspiration from. I hope you all enjoy your Friday and your weekend! 





(photos via Traditional Home.com)

Our Painted Room

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Our room before 

Well Hello Everyone!


I am very excited this morning. As most of you know my bedroom, master bathroom and our daughter’s room was painted this weekend. Oh my gosh, it has been a long wait but my husband and our good friend Rob got it done Saturday morning. 


I wrote about the paint colors in 2017 so this has been in the making for a while. 


I made sure that I stayed out of the way. I was invited to a purse/truck party on Saturday morning. There were vintage Louis Vuitton’s and Gucci’s available. I did not purchase anything. I was not emotionally ready to spend over $1,000 and I am glad that I didn’t. 


After
When I came home it was almost finished so I just waited downstairs and relaxed. I think it turned out great! It is pretty close to the color that I originally picked out. 
It’s funny the color is called excalibur gray.  It’s interesting how they name colors now. 
It definitely has a purple tone to it. I was trying to talk my husband into a pink blush but that didn’t go so well. I think down the road I will end up getting it. 

I do love my new paint color and will enjoy it. Our daughter’s room was painted a sky blue and she loves it! I would post a picture but her room is a mess. Teenagers! I hope you all have a great Monday and thanks for reading!


(photos via Mrs. Shockley & Pinterest)

Beautiful Cupboards

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Good Morning Everyone, and happy Friday! It’s been a long week for us. We had to adjust to a new schedule because I now have to have our daughter at school by 7:50 instead of 8:30. Huge adjudgment! 

Today I just wanted to share a simple post about beautifully decorated cupboards. Most of you have read about my cupboard update back in 2017. I can’t believe it’s been that long already. 

These cupboards were a few of my favorites on Pinterest.
I even love this small dish organizer. This would be great for an apartment or even a college dorm if your young adult is chic!

This is my favorite out of all of them. Of course, I love the blue and white but I also love seeing the napkins at the bottom and the fresh floral arrangments. So beautiful!
The gold pieces in this are lovely also. I am so drawn to order. Especially, order in the home. I love seeing it. It is inspiring, needed, and celebrated. If you love organizing and cupboards you should watch this Martha Stewart video about cupboard organizing. 

Again, I hope you all enjoy your weekend and I will see you all next time!


Thanks for reading!





(photos via Pinterest)



Summer Candle Love

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It’s August 1 and my daughter’s first year of high school has begun. Sighing… I can’t say it enough. This year is moving too fast.


There have been so many things going on. I’ve been doing so soul searching about my career and trying to re-group and ask myself questions about where I want to go in the future.


It hasn’t been easy but I am hoping that the Lord will shed some light on my career journey soon. It’s Friday and I had some new candles delivered yesterday. Oh my gosh, you guys, I have found the perfect rose candle for me.

It’s called ballerina rose from Bath and Body Works. It is perfect. The notes are rose petals, peony blossoms, summer greenery, and essential oils. It reminds me of fresh-cut roses from Yankee Candle.





My second favorite has been the new gingham scent which has notes of freesia, white peach, and fresh clementine.





And my last favorite has been the freshwater & aloe scent. It has notes of water-flowers, aloe blossoms, and ozonic accord (not sure what that is but it smells good).




But I have a feeling that ballerina rose will be my summer favorite and maybe even a fall favorite. It is that good! I hope that you all can get to the store and check out these scents. I will share my July favorites next week. That month flew by so quickly. I will have to do a mental review to remember what I used the most. Have a great weekend!








(photos via Mrs. Shockley)