Entertaining: Turn On The Music and the Bubbly!

Entertaining?  Well, here's what I have in mind for entertaining Mr. & Mrs. Claus should they happen to be guests stopping in at my house over the weekend.


1.  Chairs to have a nibble in: I think those two chairs up there would be only fitting for Santy to take a rest in.  {They are from my jellybeans project}.  Oh, and I'm setting out Eleanor's famous cookies for him too.  {Call us if you'd like to place an order for your special guests too.}

2.  A Monogrammed Package:
  
3.  French Music: French Musician Coeur de Pirate...she's dreamy.

4.  Berry, Berry Bubbly: 
Ingredients:
4 raspberries
2 blackberries
2 teaspoons sugar syrup
splash of vanilla flavored vodka
1/3 cup of champagne

*Make a simple sugar syrup by combining equal parts sugar and water in a saucepan over medium heat until sugar has completely dissolved.

Recipe

Makes one cocktail.
Muddle the raspberries and blackberries in a large glass.
Add the sugar syrup and vanilla vodka.
Turn a smaller cup upside down and fix over the large glass to form a shaker. Shake until mixed.

Pour into serving glass and top with champagne. 

images by nathaliebearden.com/ 
image of coeur de pirate {unknown, and would really love to know who photographed this!}
marthastewart.com
justataste.com/


Cheers and Bottoms UP!


xo
sharon

Summer Updates

Hi there! I just restocked the foyer at Staxx! That's a good feeling.

Starting off the summer with some little mixers...You know how I love mixing old with new, high with not-so-high. Bold colors and fabrics. This patio set aint no dime a dozen set. A few weeks ago, I hit some sales with my friend. We saw this set and thought it was la couture from the get-go. Sadly it had already sold. Two days later, I walked into a flea market and there it was again. For sale. Bought, painted, and recovered it w/Intense Teal. That's the name of the paint. This is one of those intense things that's kinda hard to part with. Meaning I really like it a lot. $350.

I've been doing chair-care on some chairs. I have a weak spot for uniquely-shaped, orphaned ones. Pictured here: A dusty, musty pink chair that is in the process of being lacquered in a high gloss white and then embellished with oxidized mirror plates into those geometric side panels. I can't decide whether to go bold with the fabric or to keep it simple. What are your thoughts? A clean linen, or a big, bold print?

These other two chairs, which have identical twins... will be headed to staxx shortly, too.

Family Updates:
Summer is flying by. All are well and growing. Lots of soccer and swimming. Love my Louis in his uniform. Love my Charlie in his, too. Eleanor is sixteen and driving. Syl is two. Oh, how I live for them.

Business Updates:
Work is really growing. I'm in a good place. Turning away a few projects to focus on some wonderful new opportunities. Excited. Nervous...when am I not? Confident it's going the right direction...Yes. Upcoming magazine publications, too.

So far, I've not seen any wedding pictures from the weddings I've done this year. It's really hard not to get antsy on this. But, last weekend's wedding that I coordinated and designed has already been submitted to 417 Bride, by the photographer, Katie Day. Now, that's fast!! It was immediately picked up by the magazine. I hope to see some some and be able to share some here, shortly!

Hope all is well, with you all this summer! And let me know, if you can, which fabric I should choose for the chair. Always love hearing from my readers!

xo
sharon

Good Bones with a Lotta Heart

My client's bedroom is still four to six weeks from full installation. But...I just had to share this sweet little candy-cane treat with you that is sure to be The statement piece when you walk into her room.

These theatre seats are going to be for a young gal who lives, eats, and breathes theatre. She's fifteen, hip, stylish and fun.

When I found these conjoined twin seats at the local flea market, they were in green muckiness form with a whole lotta rags-to-riches potential.

Statement Piece: (It's the one thing that I build a room around and it's usually where I start the process) What does a statement piece have to have for me? For me, it must have great bones aesthetically and structurally. Unusual or uncommon lines in a piece can really add to the Wow Factor that every room needs and should have. Coincidentally, these theatre seats not only have a distinct and unusual frame, but they also happen to have great meaning and symbolism for my client as well...which makes this an even stronger personal statement piece for my client. ( I call this good bones with a lotta heart). I cannot wait for the moment she walks in to see these chairs in her finished bedroom!

I decided to lacquer them in a high gloss white to make them more current day/modern. The red velvet was found at a local wholesale fabric store and then I used my great upholsterer who always does a superb job for me!

I now need to top off this post with a run to the coffee ethic to grab something else that has my heart. I'm needing one of their lovely lattes. Please take a moment to read about their sweet renewal and reusing ethic... even if you don't live here, it's worth the stop. They definitely fall into the category of good bones with a lotta heart! Currently they are in the works to open up shop in other larger cities.

Have a lovely start to your week!

x's and o'sies,

sharon

Classic Meets Edgy {Red+Black+White)

13 more days til Bright Star shows at the Moxie!!! Can't wait to see the movie based on the romantic poet, John Keats' life. The tale of love entwined with death and rapture with sorrow, will surely be one that is filled with beautiful, rich, and "dark-chocolaterie" imagery. I am so drawn to this Classic Meets Edgy look for fall right now.

I've been procrastinating on getting started on painting silhouettes for one of my client's bathroom installations...here's where I've lost myself today instead: another artist's work where Classic Meets Edgy: designer M.S. Corley. He recently created some book covers for the Harry Potter books, along with several other series, i.e. A Series of Unfortunate Events, among others. These books are sure to become classics, but before they do, I guess so many years have to have passed before they are classified as such. M. S. Corley is an artist ahead of the game and so he made the covers to look like Classic Penguin Books. Time will tell if the publishers will use these. But I have to say that I fell in love with their classic, yet edgy look. What do you think?

I found a sweet little blog which was recently launched... bird and banner. It offers custom event invitations for weddings and such. That's where I found the cute window image that was taken in Copenhagen.

The mailbox and canoe paddle are ours. Will placed the canoe paddle right by the front door a long time ago (right before summer)...which was so cute to me that he did that. I captured it today on camera before fall/winter come 'round and then the paddle will become a rake, then snow shovel. (Seasons changing cause pause)

Here's one of my stumble/rumbles I had over the weekend:

While I was out East of town last weekend, I drove past a yard sale that had a few french-looking chairs outside...I did a quick u-turn to discover twelve red, velvet-cake like chairs in pretty darn good shape. Before I could even ask the owner if he would take less than the asking price, (I usually always do this)...he offered them to me for half price @ $10 a piece if I would take all of them! Well, not having any cash on me, I tried to offer my gps system as collateral because I knew if I didn't secure them, that someone would come along while I was fetching cash, and offer full price, if not more, for these little red dream cakes! He said it wasn't necessary, but I still sped away with a coffee-gurgling body to the bank and back.

Sure enough, when I got back the guy said he could've sold them and asked me if I had a sister! (in my head I'm rolodex-ing my sisters and/or cousins who have very similar tastes to mine). He told me that while I had run to get the cash, a gal who looked a lot like me, was fifteen steps behind me, and wanted these exact chairs BADLY. He said "The gal" quizzed him a bit on who was purchasing, and they both came to the conclusion that the "purchaser" (me) HAD to be one of her five sisters. We had a small goose chase of phone calls to match up sister to sister to chair fiasco. It was sister Lizzie.

We had a good laugh/rumble too. Love your style, Lizzie!

Baby syl in her new striped shirt from the baby gap.

Have a great week everybody! I'm ecstatic about having 10 followers now! Others, oh won't you please jump on board this ro-ro-row your boat?

x's and o'sies,

sharon