Home Updates, Accessories & Tours

An Entryway Refresh

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Good Morning Friends,

The crisp mornings and cooler air feels so good right now! This past weekend was spent in the greenhouse. I threw out plants, cleaned out containers, swept, and re-arranged the space. I feel like it is ready for the autumn season. This weekend is our HOA sale and I am hoping that the rain will hold out. I have quite a few items to sell. 

The St. Margaret’s Guild season is about to begin. We had our fabulous luncheon on Tuesday to start the season and it is always a good time to see the ladies. We do have our next show house lined up for next year! Yay! 

Friends, I can’t seem to stay off of FBMP. I stumbled on a recent find and could not resist it. I have been wanting a vintage secretary for quite some time but they are so expensive! I have envisioned having one in my entryway. 

 

 

So when you walk into our house this is the entryway. I must admit I have always hated it. My husband purchased this shelf-hook combo at a garage sale about 15 years ago and I hated it then! I have always felt like this was not inviting and it appears to be cluttered. It has taken me years to get this shelf-hook removed and clear out the area. I desperately wanted a refresh! It has looked the same since we have moved in the house!

 

 

The first thing that I knew that I had to do was find a hoodie hanger replacement for my husband. He grabs these on his way out the door and it would nice to also have a location for guests to hang their coats so I found this coat rack on Amazon and it works perfectly. I also have my blue and white umbrella holder which looks so chic in this area along with my vintage garden stool. 

 

photo credits: Mrs. Shockley 

 

This is my newest FBMP find! The gentleman originally wanted $80 but then said that I could take it for only $50! I was so HAPPY! Now it does need a glass shelf inside and there are some scratches but I don’t mind those little things. I think its a beautiful piece that I can enjoy for years to come. I placed my white arm chair there so that I could see what it would look like if I were to write there. 

I did end up using my desk to write some pen-pal letters and to journal. It was wonderful. The desk is right by the front door so I could look out and enjoy the sunshine. I am still on the hunt for a china buffet table for my bedroom. I will be using it as a t.v. stand so the hunt continues. 

I am loving this FBMP era that I am in. I do enjoy a good antique hunt and have been really blessed to find so many wonderful pieces for my home. Since the children are practically adults and we have no dogs, I feel like I am in a time in my life where I can bring in beauty and I will to the best of my ability. 

If you have been reading my blog for a while I would really appreciate it if you would share my blog posts with your friends! It helps me reach other beautiful, like-minded people such as yourself and spread the things that we love the most! Share it on FB, Instagram or Pinterest. Not on any of these platforms? Send an email with a link! 

The boutique’s Chinoiserie Silk Scarfs are still on sale! Order one for yourself and one as a gift! Enjoy your week. 

 

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The Vintage Birdcage

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Good Morning Friends,

I feel like a new woman. I changed around my office and I swear it feels like a completely different space. I told my husband that I need a refresh in this house. I am going to be replacing all of my curtain rods here soon and hopefully buying some new curtains. I got a new office rug, a new lamp, and I moved around some art work on the walls. I now love going into my home office again. I knew that I was due for a change because I didn’t enjoy going into my office space. Not a good sign. But now the space feels new. Sometimes that is all we need. A little change. 

With this new office change I have also been going thru cabinets and drawers. I feel like we needed to purge some things as well. I will be going thru my closet here again soon and getting things ready for our neighborhood HOA. I am trying to encourage my husband…. wish me luck. 

New antique items are being added to my list. I really want to change up my entryway as well. I have so many ideas for my home. Purchasing antiques and furniture with a little more substance is where I am headed and trying to stay. 

 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley 

 

I spotted this vintage birdcage at an antique months ago. The owner of the store told me that this gentleman sells lots of items on FBMP. I found him and began following him. The original price was $220 and I did not want to pay that.

 

 

A few more months went by and I saw that he dropped the price about $100! A part of me wanted to purchase it then but something on the inside told me to wait a bit longer. Now this birdcage is really big! I loved the color, and the details. It reminded me of a Victoria greenhouse honestly. I thought it was stunning. 

 

 

Then one weekend I was on my phone checking for other antiques when I got an alert that he dropped the price to $80! What a steal. I immediately reached out and asked if I could purchase it. He said of course and met me and my husband at the antique store. He is quite the collector. He goes to estate sales all the time. I have no idea where he finds these sales! All I ever find is junk! We asked him if he knew anything about it and he said no. He didn’t know the year or what the history was. I really wish he knew the details. That would have been the wonderful part about this purchase. I love learning about antique pieces.  

I hope to have this piece for years to come. I think having a few “whimsical” decor items in your home makes life interesting. This is definitely one of those pieces for me. I hope that my “future” grandchildren adore it and that it will always remind them of me. 

 

 

 

 

My First Plate Wall ~ Home Decor

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Good Morning Friends,

Goodness, it is still hot here but it is August. My David Austin roses are doing so well. They are blooming beautifully!

 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley

 

Oh my goodness! I am so happy! My English Garden dreams are coming into fruition. I have always wanted an English inspired garden. I will be going to Costco to try to find another trellis here soon. 

Okay friends. I have finished my plate wall for now. I want to add more plates, and I am on the lookout for some smaller ones to add but for now the project is complete. If you recall the room below was the inspiration for this. 

 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley 

If you want to read more about this room, you may visit my blog post here. 

 

 

Now it took me a few weeks of searching Poshmark, Ebay, and antique stores to find plates that I liked. Honestly it was harder than I thought! Everyone is keeping their “grandma” china and selling it. I hardly found anything in the Goodwill stores here in my city. Those locations were filled with junk! It blew me away! 

Only two of my plates were found at the antique stores the rest were from Poshmark!

 

 

If you recall the blue and white plate on the far left was a plate at the showhouse this year. I did the Google lens feature on my phone and found it online. There was a seller on Poshmark that had two. I purchased both of them. The bottom middle plate was plate on the wall in the room designed by Jenni Egger. I found that on Poshmark as well. It was called the Andrea by Sadek Japan Buckingham Porcelain Floral Paisley dinner plate. There were quite a few on Poshmark. 

 

 

This is the right side. Some of the small plates are on this side and they were found on Poshmark as well. 

 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley 

 

I found this plate on Poshmark and I was not sure what it was going to look like in person. When it arrived and I saw this, I went on the hunt to find a second one! It’s stunning. It’s made by Asahi Japan. I have never heard of it but it’s stunning. 

 

 

This plate was another favorite. As I mentioned it was at the showhouse. It’s called the 222 Fifth Avenue Adelaide Dark Blue and White Dinner plate. It’s very affordable and should be easy to find. 

 

 

Despite the searching and looking this was so fun to do. I did find a new Instagram store called Tulip Home Design. I purchased one of my plates from there as well. Now I am thinking about adding about 8 desserts plates to the wall, but I want them to be a set. I think that would bring a cohesive look to the collection. The plate hangers that I used are from Amazon and came in a pack of 12 with different sizes. They were so easy to use. 

Let me know in the comments section below if you have a plate wall or you are considering creating one. I would love to know.

I was going to wait to share this news, but I am too excited! Sarah Flint has changed the brand ambassador program, and it is a good change! Now when you use my NEW code SF-SHOCKLEY-15 you get 15% off of your purchase and that means ANY purchase! You can use my discount code on all items including accessories! All you have to do is spend $230 or more and you can use my code and you can use it MORE THAN ONCE! Now how great is that! 

I am thrilled about this change! So I hope that you can order your dream shoes or scarf, or belt soon! 

 

 

 

The Guild- Show House 2024

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Good Morning Friends,

This past weekend was actually a good one! My family and I attended the Indiana Peony Festival, got to tour a new Victorian Airbnb, and had brunch with some friends. The weather was perfect and so were the peonies. I also made time to just sit. I have been craving some porch time. So, I carved out about two hours on my Sunday to just sit on the porch and read. It was so wonderful! This week I am taking two extra days from the office. I need it! I want to get some house chores done. I really need to get my new vintage plates hung on my wall. I am about done with purchasing them and can’t wait to share my end result. I was inspired by the showhouse to do the plate wall and hope that you all enjoy this year’s home. 

 

photo credit: St. Margaret’s Guild 

 

This year’s showhouse was called the Sylvan House and was located in the Northern Estates in Indianapolis. It was built in 1927 was about 9,000 square feet! It was a huge house! One thing that I loved that we were able to do was keep the original floors. Most of the floors in the home were the original floors. How wonderful is that! We had 21 different local interior designers all assigned to different areas in the home. 

 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley 

 

Now I did not take photos of all of the areas. I really wanted to enjoy the showhouse this year. This was the foyer. It was designed by Julie O’Brien Design Group, and it was the “koi fish” room. Designers Megan Watson and Joel Contreras created a hand painted mural with 3D fish. It was quite incredible. 

 

 

Now when I saw this area I gasped. Of course, this spoke to my “grandmillennial” or “granny chic” style that I have! This space was designed by Jennifer Eggers who also invited me to her recent tag sale. 

 

I spoke with Jenni about her space, and she told me that this space was inspired by an English country home. She had the couch reupholstered and the plates were found at different antique shops. I actually managed to find a few of them and will be hanging them in my sitting room very soon!  

 

 

Off of Jenni’s lounge area was the powder bathroom where the original tile was kept, and Thibault wallpaper was added. I actually love the chinoiserie fishbowl sink! Jenni said that she found this on Amazon!  

 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley 

 

Woosah! I was actually a docent in this room twice! It was wonderful. It was the sunroom and greenhouse. I wanted to take a bunch of photos but then I decided not to. I wanted to enjoy the space. This sunroom was actually orange previously, so I was happy to see that Monica Due from Cornerstone Interiors painted this room a beautiful green color. The floors were original, the table was vintage, and the ferns were real. All of the rugs from the showhouse were from a company called Joseph’s. The greenhouse was original to the home from 1927 and was still intact! It was so beautiful. I could see myself having tea in the sunroom and having my English flower garden in the greenhouse. The greenhouse was decorated by Allisonville Home & Garden by Sullivan. 

 

 

Vintage inspired plates made another debut in the sunroom. I used my “Google Lense” on my phone to figure out what these were, and I managed to find a few. I will be sure to share them soon. 

 

 

As you went upstairs this was the guest bedroom suite. It was designed by Stacy Thompson of Compass Design, LLC. I loved the bed linens from Parkside Linen. The chinoiserie prints were wallpaper I believe from Thibaut Honshu. 

 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley

 

Attached to the guest bedroom suite was a guest bathroom. The tile was original, and I was glad to see that Stacy worked with it. I think that the wallpaper in this room was a 1920s Japanese inspired Thibaut Honshu wallpaper. 

 

 

Now down the hall was my favorite room of all, and it was the master bedroom designed by Sassy Green Interiors. That name should sound familiar because it is the same interior design firm that I did my first collab with last month.  

Maryellen and Christy told me that the lush woodland landscape in the window was the inspiration for their design. Their bed linens were from Parkside linens and Schumacher. The antiques were from Architectural Antiques of Indianapolis which I hope to add to my radar to visit soon! I loved the Schumacher damask fabric draping over the bed. 

 

 

This was the office area in the master bedroom. The Babylon willow wallpaper was from House of Hackney was supported by deep greens and soft neutrals. 

 

 

This was to the left of the master bed. I loved the double vintage lamps. These sold at the showhouse. 🙁 

 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley 

Another focal point in this room was the double chaise lounge chairs and this beautiful painting. This painting was done by local artist Deb Slack. 

 

 

Across the hall from the master bedroom was the summer sleeping porch room. This photo does not do this space justice. This room was decorated by Blake Richardson of BWR Home. I actually got to speak with Blake about this room. The centerpiece of this room is the vintage Chinese wedding bed that he found in an antique store in a corner in pieces, with dirt all over it! Now what a find! 

 

 

This is the other side of the summer sleeping porch room. These chairs were another centerpiece. Can we talk about the color? How bold and grand! The walls were covered in curated statement art pieces and custom furnishings. 

I am already looking forward to the next showhouse. I can’t wait to see what the designers will come up with next. Another great part about this organization is that all of the money from our showhouse ticket sales goes to our charity Eskenazi Health. 

And I have news… 

Speaking about all these chinoiserie pieces in these homes, the boutique has a new chinoiserie item! 

 

 

The Chinoiserie Silk Scarf is available to purchase! It is 100% silk and measures about 53×53 inches.

 

 

I also have it in blue. They are the perfect addition to any elegant woman’s wardrobe. The Cameo Blush earrings are also on sale for only $10! Order a scarf and a pair of earrings for your events this summer!

 

 

 

My First Elegant Tag Sale

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Hello!

We had a very busy weekend. We had to move Lauren out of her dorm room and then move my step-son out of his college apartment. Busy, busy! Then we had to go back to campus and attend his graduation which was a wonderful thing! I still can’t believe that he has graduated, and our daughter has finished her first year of college already. The time, the time….

The show house will be wrapping up here soon. There is always a lot to do and a lot of parties. This week I had to attend a private party from one of the interior designers and I finished my last show house shift! Rick had to help me because there were a lot of shifts this year.

One of the perks of being in the Guild has been meeting some of our local interior designers. This is my second year with the Guild and this year I got to meet several designers. With that came invites and one of the invites that I got was to a private tag sale!

I have never gone to a tag sale, so I was so excited to get this invite!

 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley 

 

The tag sale was at Jenni Egger’s Interior Design office. I love that fact that her location is in a historical home near downtown. How great is that?

 

 

 

Now Jenni had two tag sales going on. She has two design studios, but both were in these gorgeous historical homes. On the invite it told you which sale had what. There was a tag sale for the grandmillennial and then a tag sale for the minimalist people! Loved the idea. So of course I went to the grandmillennial sale. 

As soon as you walked in you saw this beautiful emerald green vintage inspired couch, artwork, gorgeous chandelier, and rugs. 

 

 

This was one of the sets of chairs that I was eyeballing. I did think about purchasing a chair for my home office, but I left it alone. Needlepoint chairs with caning…. lovely!

 

 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley 

 

There was lots of porcelain, china, pillows, and silver. There was something in every corner of the home. I had to walk around a few times to take everything in. 

 

 

I did spot this unique and chic ginger jar. It was blue and white, but I loved the florals on it and knew I had to take it home. For only $20, of course!

 

 

There were also linens, and pillow covers. I found this pillow cover and thought it would be perfect for my bedroom. I paid under $20 for it.  A steal!

I had such a great time at the tag sale and hope to be invited to more. These events have been so wonderful to attend and to experience. Life has truly taken on a different form this season in my life and I am here for it! Elegant adventures continue!

Also the boutique is having a sale! Use code MTDY20 for 20% off your entire order. I sold a lot of dresses recently, so my inventory is low! There are only 3 of the Belle Rose Maxis left! 

 

Experiment with your Home

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Hello!

I completely forgot to tell you all that last Saturday my family and I went to Cincinnati, Ohio to do a little shopping. I found out that Frontgate, Ballard Designs and Grandinroad had an outlet store! I have always wanted to visit Ballard Design so when I called and got their location they told me about the other two stores. We also stopped by the Cincinnati outlet mall as well. I will be honest, I wasn’t a fan of the stores, but it was nice to see the quality of the inventory up front. What scared me away was the prices. Everything was still too high! I feel like you mind as well order online. But that is just my opinion you can check it out on your own. 

Home decor has been on my mind a lot lately. I am always looking for inspiration. I was at the showhouse recently and saw some of the rooms. I cannot wait to share the beautiful rooms with you here on the blog soon. 

I also read this recent magazine article in Victoria from Courtney Davey at Tuft and Trim. 

 

photo credit: Tuft & Trim

 

Courtney Davey’s Instagram content and blog is one of my favorites. I love the floral print couch in the photo above. That is my inspiration for my new FBMP find. One part of the article that I loved was the encouragement to experiment with your home. She said…

Don’t Be Afraid to Experiment

Trying something new with your home décor doesn’t have to be daunting. “If you don’t love it, change it,” says Courtney. Move furniture around, hang things on the walls, try a new paint color and see how it looks. Sometimes you have to put a style choice to the test to discover whether it works in your space. “I always have a wall repair patch kit and spare paint on hand for an easy fix,” the designer continues. “I think there’s so much pressure on getting it right that it holds people back, but if you just go for it and keep a flexible mindset, it’s amazing what you can create!”

I could not agree more. There are a lot of new ideas that I have for my home and reading this passage has inspired me to move forward in my home decor ideas. 

 

 

photo credit: Tuft & Trim

 

I hope this post has inspired you to give your home ideas a try. We are only going to make this journey once. Enjoy your home and your space. Stop decorating your homes to sell them. Add color and beauty! Have a great weekend. 

Easter is fast approaching! The Belle Rose Maxi and Gatsby Pearl Necklace are on sale! Get both for only $40 (plus shipping)!

 

 

 

The Blue Lady Project

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Hello!

I had a nice quiet weekend which was a nice beginning to the month of February. Lauren was home for the weekend, and it is always a good thing to catch up with her. She is feeling a little overwhelmed with her Math class. I hated Math as well when I was in school, so I get it. The good thing is she only has to take one Math class for her entire college career. I told her get through it, so you can move on, and focus on your other studies. It’s incredible to think that she only has 3 months left in her freshman year of college! Incredible! It went by so fast. She is definitely looking forward to summer break. 

I am still working small projects around the home, and this was a project that I have been thinking about doing since December. 

 

 

A few of you may be familiar with my blue lady portrait that I found at an antique store a few years ago. I absolutely adore this print. It is called the Sound of Music by Joanne Pemberton Longman JPL 1969.  I saw that another influencer had the same print in her home and I loved how she has it styled with a hanging ribbon.  

You may recognize the big floral print that I have behind it. It is from a set that I owned some years ago. I just kept the frames for a project such as this. I used the first frame in 2018 for my magnolia framing project. I was saving the second frame for a future project. 

When I was taking down my Christmas decor a few weeks ago, I was looking at my blue lady portrait and saw how bad the frame looked that it was in and thought, I need to re-frame that. That’s when I remembered my second gold frame. 

 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley 

 

I could not wait to take it to Michaels. It took us a little while to pick out the background. I went between green, blue, and white but in the end we ended up choosing the light green. It picks up the color of the dress beautifully and gives it the perfect pop of color. 

 

 

It took them about a week to finish it and it was still $50! Wonderful right! If you have some projects that you want to get re-framed, try Michaels. I would encourage you to go to the antique store or Goodwill to get a frame to keep the cost down, but it is quite affordable if you have your own frame. I think she looks so beautiful now. I feel like I have restored her!

 

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