Hooked on TURQUOISE, slipcovers...

just to name a few things. Julia at HOOKED ON HOUSES is having her first HOOKED ON FRIDAYS party. Thank you, Julia, for hosting this fun event. I'd like to give a hint at what my newest project will be by showing what I'm hooked on.

I love the colors turquoise and aqua. Must tell you about these exciting blogs.
Erin at House of Turquoise is so inspiring. Her blogs just won the TEN BEST PICKS to CLICK from the Washington Post. She also does blogs for other colors. Her shopping blog Everything Turquoise is a great source if you are looking for a specific item. Check out all her beautiful color blogs for a mega dose of inspiration!

SOUTHERN LIVING's January issue has this lovely article about slipcovers....in turquoise colors, so now I'm really fired up.

I want to sit in this room, it's so inviting...

How lovely!

So now a little TURQUOISE TOUR of my home.

This is my DINE ON THE BAYOU hand painted dinnerware for 12 by artist Susan Lumpkin. It's so perfect for my home as we look out at Rotten Bayou. Bayous are full of egrets ...

and alligators. I hear them bellowing in the Spring every day.

Serving pieces and pot holders in turquoise....

My Christmas platter "DINE ON THE BAYOU" style...

in my bedroom, drapes in dupioni silk and a glazed pot...

a tassel here...

and here...

Sferra sheets, so smooth and comfy...

pillows on my bed...

Vietnamese pottery in turquoise...

stuff on my bathroom vanity...

turquoise in my Christmas decorations...

and my turquoise chest...

Make sure you check Julia's party today to see what others are hooked on.
So what are you HOOKED on?

Redoing window treatments

I've got some problem windows that are only a problem when it's fall & winter since Katrina took away 25 trees on my lot that used to block out the sun. This kitchen window below is a huge glare problem. There was a 200 year old water oak in front of window. Water oaks don't lose their leaves completely till March, so for 14 years this was never a problem. I don't want to hide the pretty trim around the window and I still want to be able to look out that window. I bought a long piece of plastic molding, which I can easily shape to the half circle of the window. Attaching it is my dilemma as well as making a commitment to fabric. I plan to make a balloon type shade that can be raised or lowered.Below, this 17 foot expanse of windows has blinds. It was never a problem with too much sun those 14 years before 2005. Now in the fall & winter, even with blinds closed, the glare is horrific. If I could just cover a couple of these windows a little more, but also be able to look out when needed to see my pond.

My plan is to find some type of 16foot + length of solid PVC tubing...I hope, I hope... to go across this expanse. Above transom windows. On rings, so the panels slide easily. Remember these stationary balloon puff thingies from my TV room? Never put them back up.

They are bronze colored dupioni silk, and consist of 2 180" lengths, folded in half and made into stationary balloons. Now I've taken them apart, cut the 180" ft lengths in 2. I bought white lining material, plan to sew all together. I've got to find a long fringe, at least 5 " to attach to bottom of panels as I need more length to cover the transoms.

When finished, I should have a 90" wide panel at each end of above room. Each 90" panel will cover 2 windows. And block out a little more sunlight, I hope...I hope..

So for the past 3 years, I've been saying I need to do something to fix these problems. The time has come, I'm on a mission. Please give me any advice, thoughts, tips, or better ideas to fix these problems!

One more room repainted

This room has been one of those everything rooms: desktop, elliptical, TV, sofa...the sofa hubby or I stretch out on to watch TV in the night when we can't sleep. Close the door and the TV doesn't wake up the lucky sleeping spouse. Banished the elliptical to the garage, couldn't dust around it. Plus we can sweat that much more riding it in garage! Ha....garage is likely 100 degrees.The room color is not true...way too dark....something funny with my flash and I'm too lazy to fix the picture. Had to keep desktop and all the mesy cords.

Below is better color of walls. Enjoying the light coming in.

My file cabinet....threw some Parakeet Green on it...

Valances were Pre-Katrina and high enough that they didn't flood. But sofa & rug are new and they really don't look right with treatments. Not putting them back up.

They are silk dupioni, definitely a mistreatment with straight pins still in it. I think I want something different. Don't want the room to be too dark. Actually enjoying not having any treatments up. Don't worry, I'll change my mind one day and do something different.

Door to keep the late night TV noise out. Screaming Meme....will you come and put that beautiful black paint and gold swirls on my armoire like you did for someone else? I'm so jealous!

I want to slip this sofa. I'm growing tired of it after 2 1/2 years. Told you I'm so fickle.
Plus seeing things in pictures makes me see things that I don't normally see....way too much red going on.

Cheating mistreatments

In this bedroom (son's old room), I took 2 twin sheets, Ralph Lauren's Charleston for a quick mistreatment. No cutting involved for the sheets....just needed to cut the lining material. I did cheat with a little sewing....used black dupoini silk to line. That extra material gave the stationary balloon-style treatment a nice pouffy look.

Sewed on the little white rings in the middle of the back. Pulled a string through rings and tied tight for for butterfly wing look.

Hot glued on some beads...

My best mistreatment trick....straight pins....these helped to hold the sides up. they can be easily adjusted to control length of balloon treatment.

So there they hung for a couple of years. Since I've been painting every room this summer, I'm switching and recycling window treatments. Took apart one of the balloon treatments, let it hang for a quick shower treatment. Problem is, what do I do with matching balloon puffy thing?

Son's old room now has the gold silk dupioni curtains from dining room. Many more mistreatment's needed here at this house. Making myself finish all the painting before I start more window treatments.
Check out the redone bath here: http://fabulousfluffstuff.blogspot.com/2008/08/im-still-here.html#links

The newly painted dining room

A while back I decided to lighten all my rooms just to cheer me up! Actually, each room needs a lot of sanding due to a bad floating job of the newly installed sheet rock after Katrina. So what better time to change wall colors. This new shade is Sherwin Williams Celery SW 6421. The new color that I've chosen to replace the Dromedary Camel (a lovely dark, rich gold color) is SW 6113 Interactive Cream. It is still in the gold family but about 4 values lighter.

Banished are the gold dupioni silk drapes....I'm studying up on ever so slight touches of British Colonial influences that I can add. One of my ideas to infuse the tropical British Colonial into the living room and dinning room is sewing white linen slipcovers for a few chairs. More on that later.

In picture below, you can see the older, darker shade of green in the entry hall that I've loved for years.

Below are a few of the samples I've collected so far for either new "mistreatments" as Nester would say, seat cushions or dining chair slip covers. I've got a bolt of white linen material, trying to decide where to use it.

Well, back to sanding and painting. I plan to do one room at a time. Should take me a year!!!

Undies Matter

This nice little cherry chest survived Katrina. Obviously, all parts were solid wood. Funny story, this came from that Clock Company in Fairhope, AL. It was a kit and we purchased that kit I think maybe 28 years ago. We paid a lot of money for us at that time. Maybe $400.00 I've painted it different colors through the years to match where ever I thought it needed to be. Then I've stripped it back to the beautiful cherry wood. Like a tried and true friend, it looks beautiful today, and everything it held within it's drawers was taken out and salvaged. Word to the wise, be careful when buying new furniture.

This is my most favorite purchase after Katrina. It is a Gentlemen's Chest on Chest from

http://www.johnrichard.com/. I bought it from a great new furniture store that opened up after Katrina. It is a George II style, burl walnut chest on chest, with heavy cornise mould and ogee bracket feet. The lights and darks in the wood are beautiful. It is very tall, I have to get my step ladder out to get to the 2 top drawers. Johnrichard makes beautiful things, I would like to special order some more items. They have a factory in Greenwood MS, which is about 5-6 hours from us. But they only sell their items through design shops, furniture showrooms, or interior designers.

This armoire belongs to the Princess. When her fiance gets back from Iraq, they'll move it as well as her High Boy. I had a beautiful Yew wood chest from Drexel Heritage that sat in that spot. I paid good money for it, assumed it was all solid wood. Well, low and behold, it had particle board parts in the drawers. It held my unmentionables. By the time we came to open the drawers, they were so swelled up with my undies that we couldn't budge the drawers. The chest was thrown into one of our many Katrina trash piles with my unmentionables inside. .. .The worst thing was that I had only packed enough undies for 3 days when we evacuated. We were living at Mr's work, traveling back to flooded house every day to throw things out. Mr's company sent tractor trailor loads of every possible item that we could use. It was in a huge warehouse, mostly on pallettes or in boxes. Sorta like Costco or Sam's but worse. But thank God, it was free, no one had money for weeks. Even if you had cash, there was no where to spend it for many weeks. So I "shopped" for donated undies, so greatful to everyone all over our great USA for the donations of the much needed items so we could live. There was no way to wash any of these clothes for at least 3 weeks, I prayed that they were clean before I wore them. But guess what, at that time it did not matter. I've realized that when your every day life is a moment to moment, no-control situation....get down on your knees and thank God for your blessings!!!!! Lesson learned...undies matter, what you think are your most prized possesions for your beautiful home...DO NOT.

I bought this "Accents Beyond" cherry chest in Mobile, AL last year. On it sits 1 of a beautiful pair of lamps that I bought from Up Town, a new shop in Bay St Louis, MS that opened up after Katrina.
These silk duponi drapes are really a wash of pale aqua/goldish-green. Not sure why they look so dark in pics. I had run the pic/fix from Adobe when I added pics, but maybe that was a mistake. Even my bedroom looks blueishhh.....which it is not. I need to work on this.

With an attempt to be a better blogger while learning how to, I hope I can take you on this tour. As you all know, with 4 feet of water certain things like mattresses, bedding, and chests of drawers filled with clothes had to be thrown out. 2 years ago, I never thought I would have what we do now. The pencil post bed survived. Any quality wood especially things with legs made it. I love this bed, we bought it 20 years ago. It is from Hickory Chair, still looks good despite Katrina and Son who at 2 years of age took a nail file and left his mark on the post that is on my side. Now, when I see those lines, that made me see RED 18 years ago, I see wonderful Son that now makes me PROUD. The new duvet cover is from Restoration Hardware.

Lamp Pairs

This is a pair of lamps in guest room/daughter's room. Curtains and bedding new since Katrina.