Flaunt Your Red Party!

Nancy from Southern Lady/Home Is The Hearts Nesting Place is having a Flaunt Your Red Party today. So after viewing all of my red in my home, head on over to Nancy's for a list of all of the participants! You can click on the pictures to enlarge them.

A red toile lampshade with black velvet ribbons sits on my studio desk.

My red hutch in my dining room.


Red toile and red checked bedding in my master bedroom.

Red transferware mosaic table in my eat-in kitchen area.

Red snow covered pillows on my front deck.

Red toile and black checked pillows next to a sweet yellow pillow with red roosters.

Red tole trays in my bedroom next to red toile curtains.

A black chandelier print with red background hanging on my studio wall. The print is by Theresa Sheeley

Red roses in a red transferware mosaic silver pitcher.

Thanks for stopping by to see my red today! Please let me know you stopped by with a comment. And don't forget to visit Nancy to see all of the other wonderful red posts today!

Welcome Home,

Penny

A Day Antiquing

On Tuesday I did two favorite things....I met another blogging friend and we went antiquing! Gretchen has a blog called Bird Nest Cottage. She lives in Greenville, SC and I live in Hendersonville NC. We are only about an hour away from each other. The first time we met was a few months ago. I drove to Greenville and we went antiquing. This time, I was the host and Gretchen came to my home town.
We started at one of my favorite places. I mean, with a name like NEEDFUL THINGS, how could you not want to shop there? It is two stories tall and filled with wonderful things.

Next, we went downtown for lunch at a great restaurant called Never Blue. They have tapas, salads, sandwiches soup and so much more. As you can see, we ran into some Red Hat ladies there.

I love their bar area. It is covered in mosaics! Click on the picture above to enlarge for detail.

Are you wondering what I bought while antiquing? My quest was for some blue covered vintage garden or flower books. Remember this post?

Well, I found some great ones and also some with red covers too!

Hope you all are having a great week!

Welcome Home,

Penny

White and Green = Spring

As you might have noticed, my red transferware mosaic table in my kitchen nook gets a lot of vignette changes. It is the one area of our house that I walk by a hundred times a day.

I saw something similar to this picture below on a Swedish blog. I am not sure which one. While out on a walk through our property, I found some wonderful moss growing. I picked up a few inches of it and brought it home. I filled the lion bowl with potting soil and tamped the moss in place. Now I just water it when it feels a little dry. So simple but it feels like spring!
This is a vintage cheese dome that I found at a thrift store. It didn't have the bottom to it, so I paired it with a silver plate with cute feet. I found these alabaster eggs on Ebay.

I bought this pear at Pier 1 about 8 years ago. I actually have several pears and apples that I bought at the same time. I have used them many different ways.

And last but not least, this sweet bird and nest are from Kathy at Kathy's Cottage. I bought them from her last year. They are my favorite part of this vignette.

Do you have an area that you rearrange on a regular basis?

Welcome Home,

Penny

A Little More Country French, A Little More Tuscan

Our supply of drinking glasses, were slowly shrinking. We were down to just a few and they were getting that cloudy etched look from one too many times in the dishwasher. So the other day I was wandering around Pier 1 and found these. Click on the pictures to enlarge for detail.

ROOSTER glasses! Aren't they great? They are just perfect in my country French/Tuscan home.

And speaking of Tuscan, look at this wonderful petite painting I purchased from Jen at Sanctuary Arts at Home.

Look at the wonderful quote she painted on the back. It is perfect for me, living in the mountains.

She included these pretty pomegranate note cards too.

Jen has a lot of really cute petite paintings for sale at her ETSY site. And they are at such a great price too!

Welcome Home,

Penny

Old Fashioned Gardening

While visiting Kim at Daisy Cottage blog over the past two years, I really enjoyed seeing all of the vintage books she collects and displays in her home. So this past year whenever I am in thrift stores or the antique malls, I look at the vintage books.

I decided to stick with one type of book. I chose Gardening. And I am only buying the ones with covers in the colors I use to decorate my home. Reds, yellows, greens and something new, Blue. I decided my home needs a little blue. So I will be adding blue in different ways over this next year.

Edited: Mimi Sue pointed out the blue book said Wildfowler not Wildflower. I didn't realize that when I purchased the book - I thought it said wild FLOWER..lol. Turns out this book is about hunting wild fowl! Well, I am off to the thrift/antique stores looking for a blue FLOWER book. :-)

Speaking of old fashioned gardening. This is a picture I took this past summer in one of the courtyards at the Biltmore Estate. They are a great source of inspiration for the garden. Head on over to my Home Goods post for more on gardening inspiration. I would love it if you left a comment while there :-).
Welcome Home,
Penny

Dreaming

Dreaming.....

Dreaming of when summer is here and I can see real geraniums. Until then I will be content to gaze at this oil painting in my foyer. I picked this pretty painting up at a local antique mall about 2 years ago.

P.S. My friend Natasha in Australia from Artistic Creations by Natasha Burns is holding an auction of some of her beautiful work, the proceeds going to the Red Cross Bushfire Appeal to help the terrible devastation from that massive fire. Please go bid if you can.....

Welcome Home,

Penny

I'm A Copy Cat.....(or Kitty)

I admit it. I am a copy cat...or copy Kitty. As in Kitty Bartholomew. Remember Kitty? Back in the good old days of HGTV? When they used to have a lot of wonderful decorating shows about cottage living and country living? Here is a picture of Kitty below, sitting in her living room. This picture is from the book Kitty Bartholomew's Decorating Style. You can purchase it from her website here. Click the pictures to enlarge them for better detail.
See the lamp table next to her chair? I LOVE that. I have been looking and looking for a vintage lamp table. All I could find for the longest time was gold ones with glass table tops....Then finally I found one! It came without a shade, and needed some tender loving care.

Here it is! I found the shade at Ballard Designs on sale.

I think if you compare it to the one that Kitty has, they look similar, don't you? She has a different shaped table and her shade is a tiny bit different, but the look is very close.

I also switched out the finial to this cute little rooster one.

The other lamp and table that used to be on that side of the couch has been moved down to the other end and I think it looks great there.

So call me a copy "Kitty", I don't mind. Someday I hope to have my couch and chairs slip covered too.

Welcome Home,

Penny

Signs of Spring

While I was out running errands today, I decided to stop into a little consignment shop. Look what I found! This wonderful Lions Head Tureen made in France! I had been looking for one for ages. I have 8 matching soup bowls and every time I saw a matching tureen it was way to expensive. This exact same tureen sells at Williams Sonoma for $139.00. I purchased mine today for $32.00.
Here it is again with a couple of the soup bowls I mentioned. You can click on the pictures to enlarge them.

I had this beautiful hyacinth sitting on my kitchen counter and dropped it into the tureen....I love the way it looks!

I wanted to share with you a great magazine. This is the British Edition of Country Living. It is filled with wonderful English gardens, homes, decorating ideas and more. See the cute white cups with the spring bulbs planted in them on the cover?

I know a lot of our magazines we loved have ceased to exist. Do you have any favorites that you still receive? I would love to know about them!

Welcome Home,

Penny

A Thrifty Time

This past Monday Diane from Lavender Dreams and I went thrifting! We had such a wonderful time. We live in the same town and have met through our blogs. Diane brought me to a few thrift stores I didn't even know about! Click on the pictures to enlarge for detail.
Here is Diane in the picture above. See that birdcage behind her? She is going to do something wonderful with it and I can't wait to see it when it is done and placed in the perfect spot in her home.

Here is a shot of part of the first store we went to. I LOVED the huge worn table in the front of this picture. I could just see it in the middle of my dream French Country kitchen.

This is what I purchased at the store. A big pile of vintage blue willow dishes. The smaller ones were $1 each and the larger dinner plates were $2 each. You know I will be making something special with these at Lavender Hill Studio!

I wanted to thank everyone for your participation in the poll. I enjoyed listening to your comments about what you like to read about on my blog too. Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

P.S. I have a new post up on the Home Goods Blog. Please stop by there and leave a comment too, if you have time. Thanks!

Welcome Home,

Penny

Knock, Knock

This is the door knocker on my front door, very French Country! When setting up this second blog of mine, I did so with the idea to create a blog that would be about The Comforts Of My Home. I wanted to welcome all of you, my sweet blog friends, into my home.
In order to make my home as comfortable for you as possible, I am conducting a survey between now and Feb 7th. You can participate by checking the boxes on the Poll at the top of my side bar. I am leaving this post up until the end of the survey. Please vote....and have a fabulous week!
Welcome Home,
Penny