High Point Market.. part six.. great accent pieces

Great accents can make a room.  Think outside the box, go with fish, skulls, whales, dogs, pineapples.  Add a playful unique object to your room as a conversation piece.  As Dorothy Draper said, "I always put in one controversial item, it makes people talk."

Have fun with your interiors.

Be Inspired. Be Bold.

peace&love

Rebecca

High Point Market.. part five.. wood, leather and gold

Wood, leather and gold are popping up everywhere.  They are great elements to incorporate into any room.  From traditional applications to unique and innovative, have fun with these products.

Gold painted wood. Phillips Collection.

Rustic wood flooring.

Cowhide and leather chair with a hint of gold. Arteriors.

Sleek mid century modern tables and chairs.  Ion Design.

Bench made out of straw molded in polyurethane.

Blown glass formed to the organicism of the natural wood. What I C 2.

Raw wood table paired with a leather chair.  Classic. Furniture Classics.

Wall of wood.  Home Trends & Design.

A pop of geometric gold.  Madera Home.

Wood tiling table top.

One of my favorite leather chair, so cute and petite.  Four Hands.

Gold base and rustic wood table top.  Artilia.

Blocks of wood.  Asian Loft.

Raw wood chair.  Asian Loft.

Wood table top with a hint of gold.  Nuevo

Be Inspired. Be Bold.

peace&love

Rebecca

tale of a turquoise bathroom

Turquoise is one of my favorite colors, next to my number one favorite color Red.  For me, it is the perfect bathroom color.  There is always lots of natural sunshine streaming in through the sunlight making it a cheery place to be.  The turquoise also makes my eyes sparkle so that doesn't hurt.  I have been collecting objects and little treasures for the past couple years from my travels and ended up with a mix of metals, wood, and artwork.  Turquoise lays the perfect complement for these colors and materials.  The mix of metals, woods and stone adds variety and interest to the space.  I have also included some of my own artwork which adds more personal value to the space.  Let this inspire you to search for your own little treasures at home or on adventures and mix them into one cohesive space.

A vintage gold pineapple candelabra from my adventures in Boston sitting above a Holga picture I took of a palm tree down in Charleston.  Gold pineapples are becoming one of my favorite accent pieces, its just fun!

A silver outlet plate handcrafted from Arizona.  Its rustic and delicate and adds a nice touch to the room.

A stack of design magazines, kept the issue with the turquoise lettering on top.

A whale print from Etsy and a pop of green and life with a potted plant.  The whale is one of my favorite mammals so what better place than to display it in a bathroom.

Switched out some of bath pulls with these cut stone pulls from Anthropologie.  I always find unique finds in Anthropologie in their discount bin, the doorknob is also found there.

One of my litho whale prints.

A boot from Texas hangs above a Van Gogh print that rests against the wall.

Who wants to be neutral when you can be bold.  If you are surrounded by your favorite color you will always love your room!  Don't shy away from color.

Be Inspired. Be Bold.

peace&love

Rebecca

Going for the Gold.. Party Decorations part two

An Olympic part needs an Olympic menu.  I continued with the Olympic theme by using the colors of the rings as a backdrop to highlight this delicious menu.  To make it fun and festive, I paired event names with the dish names.

The Menu
Alpine Skiing Swedish Meatballs
Pigs in a Bobsleigh
Speed Skating Shrimp Taco Bites
Freestyle Skiing Caprese Tortellini Salad
Biathalon Caramelized Onions with Goat Cheese Bites
Luge Asparagus Wrapped in Ham
Ice Hockey Hummus
Skeleton Bread Stick Twists

Nordic Combined Cupcakes
Gold Medal Almond Meltaway Cookies

White Russians

I filled cups with colored candies to represent the Olympic rings.

Shrimp Taco Bite Recipe

Caprese Salad Recipe

Asparagus, blanched, and wrapped with ham.  Needed a smear of dijon mustard and a thinner slice of ham, or prosciutto.

Whole Foods Hummus, the best hummus!

Everything Twists.. always a hit

1 1/2 tablespoons sesame seeds
1 tablespoon poppy seeds
2 teaspoons caraway seeds
1 1/2 tablespoons dehydrated chopped onion
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse sea salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
one 14-ounce package all-butter puff pastry, thawed if frozen but still cold
1 egg beaten with 1 1/2 teaspoons of water

1. In a bowl, mix the sesame, poppy, caraway, onion, salt and garlic powder.
2. Line 3 baking sheets with parchment paper. On a floured surface, roll out the puff pastry into a 14x11 inch rectangle.  Brush with egg was and sprinkle with the seed mixture.  Cut the pastry crosswise into 3/4 inch thick strips.  Twist the strips and transfer to the baking sheets, leaving 2 inches in-between.  Freeze until firm, 30 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 375.  Bake the twists for 20 minutes, until golden.  Switch the pans top to bottom and back to front halfway through baking, until golden.  Let stand until cool enough to handle, about 10 minutes.
**The unbaked twists can be stored between layers of parchment paper and frozen for up to 1 month.
foodandwine.com

Chocolate Cake Recipe
Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting Recipe  This frosting was one of the most delicious frostings I've ever made!  Definitely worth the three sticks of butter!!

Almond Meltaway Cookie Recipe

Not Pictured from the this Olympic Sized Menu

Alpine Skiing Swedish Meatballs- from Ikea, still the best Swedish meatballs I've had.

Pigs in a Bobsleigh- Mini Hotdogs wrapped in crescent rolls.  Bake at 375 for 12 minutes.

Biathalon Caramelized Onions with Goat Cheese Bites Recipe.  I've made this multiple times and its always a hit.

Make sure when creating your menu to be well balanced in your food choices.  I like to have one meat, one seafood, a bunch of veggie based dishes, keep it savory and bite sized.  And have some delicious desserts to leave your guests with something sweet and memorable!  

Be Inspired. Be Bold.

peace&love

Rebecca

Going for the Gold.. Party Decorations part one

I'm decorating for an Olympic party and I decided to go for a gold medal theme, along with the Olympic Rings color theme.  Naturally I started with a hand full of pom poms, gold coins and some skewers.  I created some great drink stirrers of different heights, gold coind on toothpicks for cupcake toppers, and they also look pretty cool just chillin in cups as decorations.  Depending on your color scheme, you can apply these same crafting principles to any party theme.

Stay tuned for the rest of the Olympic themed party decorations.

Be Inspired.. Be Bold. 

peace&love

Rebecca

Tis the Season to Decorate

Need some last minute decorating ideas?  Here are some simple ideas with objects already in your house!  And don't forget the gold spray paint!

For this holiday season I wanted to create a winter wonder land inside.  I picked  a color scheme of white, gold, silver and browns (with touches of green).  I had fun mixing colors and textures, shiny and rustic, living with dead (or dried).  Here is what I came up with..

 On this windowsill I mixed different floras, a green poinsettia (it had survived from last year!), a white poinsettia and some cacti with some freshly cut pine branches.  I kept the vases simple, clean and crisp by using tall glasses and a salsa jar wrapped in twine.  Go through your cabinets and find glasses of all shapes and sizes and start filling them with cut branches and flowers.

 At another window I followed with the same theme mixing succulents and a white poinsettia.  Here I filled a glass with small gold ornaments.  As you will see I went a little crazy filling jars and glasses with random objects, but its a fun way to get a pop of color into a room!

 Next to my white poinsettia I have two glasses filled with gold light bulbs.  I took the burnt out light bulbs from our outdoor lighting and sprayed them gold.  They also look nice unsprayed and you can mix and match depending on your color scheme.  Some years I do all red and others all white and sometimes all the colors!  I also have a square glass container filled with small pinecones that were sprayed gold and sprinkled with gold glitter.

 I'm loving my mantle this year.  It was one of the first of the decorations I put up and it acted as my inspiration for the rest of the decorations.  It is the mixing of natural and sparkly that I wanted to capture through out the house.  In every arrangement I tried to include a living green element with a gold, glittery, sparkly element.  And the conch shell just tops it off!

 I also went a little crazy with the garlands.  I used a lot of gold and silver garlands mixed with some hand made garlands.  Here I took the gold painted light bulbs and put some wire on them to make them into an ornament, then tied them to a piece of twine, and voila, a garland!  All these supplies I had lying around and almost anything can be made into a garland with some wire and string!

Don't forget to string some lights throughout the house.  On a snowy winters night, its nice to turn off all the lights, plug in all the strands of lights, and the perfect mood is set!  I also have pinecones scattered throughout the house.

I hope this sparked some inspiration for your holiday decorating.  It's the holidays, why not go big!

be Merry and Bright.

Be Bold in your Designs.

peace&love

Rebecca