Home Updates, Accessories & Tours

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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A Wardrobe Idea…

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Good Morning,

Goodness gracious! It has been so cold here in Indy. We got down to negative temperatures! Burrrr! I sure do miss my morning walks, but it has been much to cold outside! I am still getting over a cold and trying to learn to listen to my body. So going for a walk in cold temperatures is not ideal. 

My organizational projects are still going on in my home. I have so many ideas on how to transform my spaces, but my husband is not on board with some of them. I really want to paint my cabinets, but he does not. I am trying to come up with other ways to brighten up my kitchen so we will see.

I recently had an idea about my closet space. I shared this on my recent YouTube video which I will post below. So I am trying to use my space more properly and the last thing that I realized was I need an area to hang my daily outfit. I had a hook in my closet on the wall, but I was hanging my robes on it, and I realized that this was not working. So I moved my robes to the back of my closet door and decided to purchase a vintage door knock as a hanger for my daily outfit. 

 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley 

 

What I ended up finding was this gorgeous vintage key hook from an Etsy shop called BespokeOnBrookline. Now she only had one which is another reason why I purchased it right away!

It looks so classic on my wall! As soon as I opened the package, I squealed a little. I just loved the way it looked and it was the perfect size. 

 

 

After hanging it in my closet I thought one of my pictures in my storage closet could look wonderful in the space as well. So I hung this photo with lots of names of flowers called “Summer” above the hook and I could not love it more. The gold frame and the gold key hook practically match one another. 

 

 

I share a small video of the hook on my YouTube channel and I found a few on Etsy. You can view one here, here, here, and here. I hope you all have wonderful weekend! I am hoping to get some blog posts done, finish organizing and decorating my home. I actually just hung some of my vintage plates in my closet and family room. I will share those soon! 

 

 

 

My Visit to the RH Indianapolis

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Good Morning Everyone,

“Taking a deep breath”…. let 2024 begin! I still don’t have my word for the year, but I think it will come to me very soon. I will not rush it. I know that I want to work on my schedule this year and try not to be so busy. That is at the top of my list. Organization is still at the top of my list as well. I have already started with a few small things.

I am hoping that more “elegant adventures” will be coming down the pipe this year. I visited a lot of beautiful places in 2023. I hope that the Lord will allow me to see more beautiful things. I do have an upcoming work trip to Viriginia in July. I am looking forward to that. I hope to slide in a historical home tour and maybe some antique shopping before I began my busy week there. 

My husband and I recently got to visit the former estate of philanthropist Christel DeHaan. No one was sure what was going to happen to this beautiful Palladian inspired villa, but I am happy to report that RH has taken over and I could not be happier!

 

photo credit: RH.com

I still can’t believe that this estate is here! The rumor is Ms. DeHaan lived her with just her staff. If that is true, that is incredible! This property is about 42,00 square feet. It is so big! 

 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley

This was me and my husband approaching the property from the somewhat long drive to it. This house was located pretty far from the busy street on Michigan. I hope you got to see my reel on Instagram about it. 

 

 

Valet parking is available, but we decided to park the car ourselves and walk up to this beautiful villa. 

 

 

 

Walking in we were greeted by a wonderful team of hostess. They provided all the information we need to guide ourselves through the 42k square feet and helped us with drinks and reservations!

 

photo credits: Mrs. Shockley 

 

I was trying to listen to the hostess as she was explaining everything but I could not take my eyes off of the entryway. I loved the antique inspired statutes and marble floor. I just kept thinking is this original to the home or no?

 

 

These gilded mirrors… oh my!

 

 

photo credits: Mrs. Shockley 

 

These hallways. For just a short moment I pretended that I lived here. I looked to my right and pretended that my English garden of roses was there and that I was on my way to my room for a cup of tea.

 

 

Of course, I could not resist talking a selfie in these gorgeous, gilded mirrors! I was very comfortable and felt put together. If you like my faux fur scarf you can shop a similar one here. My wrap you can find a similar one here, my shoes are from Ann Taylor (last season) and my tote is the On the Go by Louis Vuitton. 

 

 

Each room was decorated with simplicity but lots of elegance. 

 

 

My husband and I wanted to try a drink and decided to get the RH bellini with peach puree and prosecco. It was marvelous! So good!

 

 

Walking around the gallery….

 

 

Another elegant bedroom 

 

 

After walking around we sat down for our dinner reservations. I got the rotisserie chicken salad with butter lettuce, lemon and, chives. The taste was really good but I wanted a few more veggies in my salad. I LOVED the sweet potato fries with the rosemary aioli. So good! My husband got the filet with truffle fries. 

 

photo credits: Mrs. Shockley

 

We had a really wonderful time and plan to return in the spring. We want to venture outside a little more and see the gardens in bloom in the spring. If you live in Indy I would encourage you to go and see the property! It is truly a dream. I know that some of my friends from the Guild want to go for a visit so I might be returning with them. 

Have a wonderful day!

 

 

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