My sister is looking for a new paint color for her family room.  

She has a dark leather couch and some light wood.  She 

also has a beautiful wool rug that has a bit of orange. 

 This photo above is from Martha Stewart Living.  The 

website did not mention the paint color, just that it was a 

grey brown.

  I also found this from dearlillie.blogspot.com.  This room 

has some dark and 

light with a touch of orange maybe taupe would look nice.

Thanksgiving courtesy of Pottery Barn Kids

Unfortunately, Halloween is over and I will need to take down all the decorations associated with the holiday.  I just received my Pottery Barn Kids catalog.  I thought this garland was so cute, but it is $49.  I think I will make my own version to replace the emptiness after the Halloween decor is gone.

Our family was able to visit some of our great friends this weekend. They had just purchased a 1960's split level.  I fell in love with their house.  One of the best features of this home, besides the floor plan, are the large picture windows.  The view from their kitchen is similiar to this picture of the mountains.
She asked me for some advice about what she could do with her home.  I have been looking online for her style which she said is more cottage.  So here it is modern cottage ideas for your new home! Courtney, I hope you like them and it gives you some inspiration.






Sara Richardson Design

Glass banister

Modern furniture mixed with cottage fabric

Straight lines with mirror and glass

Clean with cottage style backsplash

Modern fixtures cottage cabinet

Modern art and lamp with vintage pieces

Better Homes and Gardens

Modern light and chairs in a cottage style kitchen

Warm floors and white paint are cottage the filing cabinet is modern

Everything in this room looks cottage except the addition of the coffee table.

A set of  tables give this room its modern feel.  The plantation shutters still look modern in this mix of furniture.

Halloween

Simple white pumpkins from the grocery store are my favorite fall decoration and I don't even have to store them.  These oversized paper pom poms are from a wedding.  I was helping decorate a backyard for a Saturday wedding.  The budget for the decorations was $0.  The colors she chose were black and white.  I thought newspaper is black and white and free we could make Martha Stewart pom poms.  I asked if I could have them back after the wedding hoping to find a use for them for Halloween.  I hung them in my kitchen and linked them together with paper chains.  The cost of this project was less than $2.  Here is the link to the pom poms.

The new closet is complete!  I was able to throw out those awful closet doors. The backpacks and coats are getting putting away (most of the time).  The colors are a little crazy.  It reminds me of my Mom's kitchen from the 70's.  She had her appliances in the green color of the bench and an orange and brown wallpaper.  Complete with orange curtains with pom pom fringe.  Everything always comes back in style.  The paint was selected from HGTV's new line at sherwin williams.

Mudroom Inspiration

Martha Stewart Living always has the best ideas.  I love the look of this beachy mudroom.  Our house is filled with closet doors that glide back and forth.  They are awful, never install these doors in your home.  They break all the time and they are terrible for kids.  In our kitchen we have a closet that holds the trash can, vacuum, mop, broom, coats, mittens and backpacks.  After finding this photo, I have taken off the doors to the closet.  Relocated some of the cleaning items and added a bench and 5 hooks.  I am just waiting for my numbers to be printed and I will post the new closet space.  In the meantime, enjoy this beautiful image.

Photo courtesy of Martha Stewart Living

New York City is a great place for incredible food.
 If you were able to watch the Next Food Network Star this season you might have seen the episode at Chelsea Market.  My husband and I tried all the favorites from the show.  Dickson's Farmstand Meats was serving $5 hot dogs when we first came into the market.  I know, hot dogs!  I don't like hot dogs either, but people were lined up out the door to get one.  We split a hot dog.  It should have been given a different name than "hot dog".  This meat concoction was amazing. 

 The next thing we ate was a pear, gorgonzola crepe from Bar Suzette.  I have not tried to remake this crepe, but I did remake the nutella with banana crepe.  If you have never made crepes before try this crepe recipe.  Spread your crepes with the nutella and serve it to your kids.  They will love it.

Grand Central Terminal,  NYC

I recently was fortunate enough to visit NYC for the first time.  One of the first places we visited was Grand Central Terminal.  Inside the terminal are great shops and restaurants.  One of my favorite stores is Penzeys Spices.  I used to live 5 minutes from the factory.  I really miss being so close to this fabulous store.  The store began as a family business.  There is a little store in the village of Wauwatosa, WI called the Spice House.  The mom and dad are the owner of this store, the son, Bill is the owner of Penzeys. 
 If you want an incredible pepper blend try the California Pepper made by Penzeys it is wonderful on everything. I grabbed a large bag of it at Grand Central Terminal. 

A simple table setting for our last summer dinner party.

There are several blogs that are using paint chip cards for place cards.  I have collected about 300 of these paint cards.  I just can't resist taking them from the Martha Collection at Home Depot.  I used my silver I purchased for $30 at an estate sale.  My mother's goblets and layers of vintage table cloths gathered from thrift stores.  The giant candle holders are from Real Deals.  The chairs where from Savers and the bench and napkin rings were from a friend.

Gift Ideas

I found this cute little pot of begonias at the health food store.  They were for my friend for her birthday, so I wanted to dress them up.  I had this can ready to go into my recycling bin.  I wrapped it in scrapbook paper and added a ribbon and a circle tag.

Welcome back to school!  The kids and I hosted a Sunday dinner for some family friends.  I used reds for color.  The placemats were mixed with chalkboards that I found at a thrift store and red and white check wipeable placemats from Pottery Barn Kids.  A few letter balls, rulers, pencils and a teacher's apple complete the theme.

                                             The main floor of the house