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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!

 

 

  • this post is not sponsored; affiliate links attached 

 

Christmas Happenings…

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It’s the end of the year already and here shortly I will be sharing the top posts for this year. But I just wanted to say thank you! Thank you to all of you who are STILL reading the blog. My 10-year anniversary for the blog will be coming up soon and honestly, I am surprised every year that I am still blogging.

My blog and/or website has truly been a blessing for me. I really needed something other than my job and this blog has given me new friends, and new opportunities! I do love it and hope that you still enjoy reading it and being inspired. 

 

photo credits: Mrs. Shockley

 

I really enjoyed the Christmas decor around my home. I look forward to going out in about a week and looking for decor that might be on sale. Especially at the antique stores.

 

We had our Guild luncheon and it was a lot of fun! I love seeing the Woodstock Country Club all decorated and festive. It is truly a beautiful place. 

 

 

I had to sneak in a “bathroom selfie”. The wallpaper in this room….. I just love it! We had a speaker at our luncheon this year and I will be sure to share her in another blog post. 

 

 

 

I was on the decorating team this year and it was a lot of fun being there early to help set up the dining room for our luncheon. This year we kept things simple and added poinsettias, velvet fabric, glitter ornaments, and vines. I will tell you this, I learned a lot working with these ladies about affordable decor options. Our favors this year were these cute compact mirrors that we ordered from Amazon. 

 

 

photo credits: Mrs. Shockley

 

After the luncheon I decided to go on over to the Lily House and tour it again. Truth be told this is my dream home and I have it saved to my wish list gallery on my phone. I can’t get enough of the chinoiserie walls and beautiful fabrics. 

 

 

This hall is always fun to walk down. The beautiful lanterns are the perfect pop of color in this area. And the floors don’t disappoint. 

 

 

This is the dining room in the Lily home. If you missed my tour of the Lily house you may read it here. This past weekend Lauren and I went to see the Nutcracker as well. My husband and I went and toured the new RH Indianapolis gallery and a good friend of mine took me to tour the Columbia Club downtown. I will be sure to share these elegant adventures in the days to come. Until then have a Merry Christmas and don’t forget to shop the boutique. The BLKFRIDAY23 code is still available, and you get 20% off the entire boutique when you use it! Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Branding Project Complete

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Good Morning Everyone!

I had a wonderful 5 days off for the Thanksgiving season! Goodness it was really hard to return to the office this week. In the next two weeks I am going to be planning 3 holiday luncheons. Out of the 3 luncheons I am the lead of 2 of them! I don’t know what I was thinking!!! But I do enjoy being on teams just not the lead so wish me luck.

Today I wanted to share my branding project that I started in late August. I shared about this project in early October and we just wrapped up everything. I am still shocked that I took this step in my blog and small business. I just felt like having a custom logo for my brand would help me keep the vision in front of me. 

After sharing my thoughts with Mary on Pinterest and having our Zoom meetings we finally nailed down what I wanted for A Home for Elegance.

Crest via MK Design

 

It all started with this crest. I love it so much! When I spoke with Mary it seems as though she could read my mind. I think she looked at my website, Instagram page, and immediately knew that a crest would suit my brand and she was right. 

So this crest, as I previously mentioned, was sketched by hand for me. Mary knew that I loved chinoiserie and I told her that I wanted to incorporate that in my logo somehow. 

 

 

I now have this logo in lots of different colors. 

 

 

Another feature that was created and included in my brand package was my brand colors! This is my color palette for my brand. I just love everything about it! Beautiful pinks, blues, greens and creams. 

 

 

This is one of the secondary logos. It has the name and the crest in the background. It also had the tagline and the year that I started the blog. So creative. 

 

 

These are samples of my new logos. I have my main logo, crest, and do you see my hummingbird logo? I have a hummingbird logo! You may have noticed it on my website’s home page. 

 

 

Above are more samples of my crest and logo in my brand colors. So beautiful and elegant! I love seeing my brand in this way. 

 

And last but not least, is my new chinoiserie pattern. That’s right Mary created my very own chinoiserie pattern that I can use for my brand projects, and I thought about using it to create my very own silk scarf. What do you all think? A silk scarf with my chinoiserie pattern?

I am looking forward to using my new logo, colors, and patterns. Having this for my brand is a dream and I look forward to what the Lord will allow me to do in the near future. Thank you all for your support since 2014! 

 

My Christmas Decor Inspiration

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Good Morning,

Thanksgiving is next week… all I can say is wow! So far I am ready. I have a few more things to get for dinner but other than that we are ready. My house is completed decorated for the holidays. I am going to try to go and get more velvet ribbon and vintage ornaments so stay tuned.

My inspiration for this year is the photo below. 

 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley 

 

I saw this photo in the Victoria Magazine 2023 calendar. Once I saw it, I knew that I wanted to incorporate some of the details of this photo into my own Christmas decor. Then I found the vintage ornaments that you see in the corner of the photo at the antique store and knew that they were a perfect fit for our tree.

 

 

I love how our family tree turned out.  I am so glad that I got these vintage ribbons last year. It makes me want more of them so the hunt continues. You can see our Mouse King from the Nutcracker and many other vintage ornaments that I have found over the years.

 

 

I am so pleased with my white tree this year. I scaled it back a lot. I threw out a lot of ornaments that just didn’t suite it well nor me. I tied velvet ribbon on some of the branches and added my ornaments from the Enchanted Home. My tree urn is so wonderful! I am so glad that I ordered it. I loved gathering some of my blue and white vases along with my Santa and nutcrackers from the At Home Store. I think it looks lovely. 

 

 

This is something new. I moved this photo here because I felt like this spot needed something more. I also liked the fact that my bar cart was under it, so I decided to decorate everything on the cart this year. I loved the way it turned out. I added some champagne buckets and filled them with faux poinsettias, pine, pink roses, and green hydrangeas. Adding the garland around the artwork was a nice touch I believe. Seeing my sitting room in the distance made me smile. 

I hope this provided some inspiration for you. I hope you all enjoy your weekend! 

 

Tips for Antique Shopping

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Good Morning Friends,

I feel like I got a lot accomplished this past weekend. It could be because I got an hour back. Boy does that help A LOT! I did do some fabulous antiquing. A few shops in Franklin, Indiana had an early Christmas sale, so I went down and purchased a few things. I will share those in a later post. 

Today I wanted to share a few tips from Ajiri Aki recent book called Joi. I have been reading this book slowly on my lunch breaks and I am being honest, this is a wonderful book to read if you really want to know how the Parisian’s live. Ajiri has created such a beautiful, wonderful life in France. I envy her antiquing opportunities that she has there but let’s get into her tips for antiquing! 

photo credit: Mrs. Shockley 

 

  • First tip is to, “use your imagination”. Look beyond what the object once was and imagine how it can serve you today.  Oh my goodness! I use this tip all the time when I go antiquing. I immediately think, “okay where can I use this. Where will this fit in my home. Will this be beautiful and useful”. Thinking about antiques in this way can help you to find those treasures. 
  • Find perfection in the imperfect. The imperfect bits give antiques character and make them unique. Of course, it’s important to inspect pieces before you commit- especially textiles. But embrace the patina on copper or silver objects; even small chips on ceramics are okay. These are signs of use. Plus, you can reupholster or polish any damage or imperfections you don’t want to live with. 
  • Don’t be afraid to ask for a better price. In France, you ask, Est-ce que c’est possible de faire un petit prix pour moi? Which literally means, “Is it possible for you to make the little price for me?” It’s a cute and polite way to ask for a price reduction. They expect you to ask- in fact, most items are priced with wiggle room in mind. And if you buy a few things from the same vendor, they’re likely to give you a bigger reduction. I do this all the TIME! Sometimes I get a deal and sometimes I don’t.

 

Some of my antiquing finds…

  • Don’t let an item be the one that got away. Know what you want to pay for something, but if you walk away from it, understand that the object might be gone forever. I used to worry that I was being scammed on prices. Now I know what I am willing to pay for something. There are items I sold to others that I wished I had kept for myself, and I may never find another like them. I know now that if it’s something that brings me great pleasure to use and own, I will willingly pay a pretty penny for it.  I don’t know how many times this has happened to me and I have gone back to look for that piece and it is GONE! Antiques usually don’t stay. Especially if they are priced well and if they are in good shape. My recent Rose Canton jars were a recent “walk away” item. I walked away from them but then got home and realized that I may NEVER see TWO of them together again! So I went back and got them! NO REGRETS! 
  • Educate yourself. The internet is full of articles on how to identify silver-plated versus sterling, porcelain versus stoneware, earthenware versus faience, transferware versus hand-painted. I don’t think one is better than the other, but just knowing the difference will help you feel more confident in the market. Bonus: I also think it’s fun to educate yourself about the different styles and their iconography and ornamentation. It makes spotting something more exciting. Also, collecting art books or visiting museums and chateaux will help you learn what you like and train your eye to seek certain things. I have heard the express “train your eye” for beautiful things more than once. Learn what you like. Then seeing quality will come to you. 

 

Some of my lovely finds…

 

You should definitely order this book. Not only are the photos good but you can just read the honesty in Ajiri words. She really does love living in Paris.  I am enjoying this book so much. She had more tips but you will need to order the book to read the rest. Have a great week! 

 

  • this post is not sponsored.

 

Tips from Joie by Ajiri Aki, page 188

 

Ideas for Hostess Gifts

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Hello and Happy Friday!

Hello extra hour back! Goodness it has been so dark in the mornings! I have switched up my workout routine. I stopped doing my morning walks this week because it was still pitch dark at 7:00am! No thank you!

This weekend should be quiet. Just my regular errands and I really want to go down to Franklin and visit the FrenChic antique store. It is calling my name!

With the holidays close by I was recently thinking about hostess gifts. I found this article called, “25 Brilliant Hostess Gifts Our Editors Love to Give and Receive”. When I saw it, I thought, I wonder if I could find these gifts but cheaper?

First on their list was a really expense tortoiseshell vase. The price was $135. I found this one below for only $6.29! Pretty fantastic!

 

photo credit: World Market. com 

 

Next was a lime basil diffuser from Jo Malone. Now I love Jo Malone but know how expensive they can be. So I found this lime zest diffuser from Nest for only $60! And Nest fragrances smell wonderful! You can’t go wrong.

A set of napkins are always a good gift. I found this botanical set from Williams Sonoma for only $49.

 

photo credit: Sephora

They mentioned getting someone olive oil. I am a little unsure about picking olive oil for people. I know I have my favorite oil that I like to cook with but I thought that this set would be a really nice gift instead. This cutting board would be a perfect gift as well.

 

photo credit: Amazon 

 

Want to give a pampering gift? I have heard good things about Ahava bath salts. This gift is very affordable on Amazon! You also cannot go wrong with CHOCOLATE! Get your hostess a Harry & David chocolate truffle gift set. I know I would love to get it! I found this one on Amazon.

 

 

I know that I have always loved these soap and lotions sets from William Sonoma. They have lots of scents and this winter forest set is on sale!

 

photo credit: William Sonoma 

 

One of the last things on their list was a cake stand and honestly, I have never thought about gifting a cake stand but if I got one, I would love it! So, I found this one on Amazon under $50! It’s timeless and classic!

 

photo credit: Amazon 

 

I hope you all enjoyed these hostess gift suggestions. Please let me know in the comments section what your best hostess gift was! I would love to know. Have a great weekend!

 

  • Affiliate links attached 

 

 

 

 

 

A Home for Elegance on Pinterest

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Good Morning!

Today was a really nice day. I got to work from home and then go and volunteer at Random Acts of Flowers. It met some wonderful ladies, made about 5 bouquets for some patients and had a great time! Volunteering is something that I enjoy a lot. Especially, making flower bouquets! 

Today is actually Halloween and I always love seeing our small kids run around with their creative costumes. I have my candles burning and it is a very cold day. I hope you all got my latest newsletter. I was sharing my new boutique arrivals and the new business Pinterest page for A Home for Elegance.

 

 

I have thought about creating a page for the blog for some time now and just thought that maybe it would be a waste of time until I found out how many people actually shop on Pinterest and read blogs! I know that I am one of them and have discovered lots of wonderful things and people on Pinterest. According to Pinterest they have a whopping 80 million followers! I thought this would be another good place to find other like-minded people who would love the blog and maybe the boutique. 

 

 

I intend on only have a few categories to start. A board for my home life, elegant antiques, blog posts, boutique dresses, accessories and boutique store front inspo. Of course, my dream one day would be to have a small suite for women and girls to come by and shop. I hope that is in the Lord’s will. Follow along if you want another place to get the blog posts as well. Thank you all for following and have a great and safe Halloween!