Evening light is beautiful in “The Library” as the living room is now affectionately called. The bookcases are coming along, the corner hutch is filled, and the mantel is decorated for summer.
But today is all about reading, ethereal light and tea…
Victoria is my favorite magazine of all times ever since my sister-in-law Linnea left a few issues at my mother and father’s new home then in the early 1990’s. I came to visit and found something I didn’t even know I was looking for ~ ethereal photography in a magazine fresh and light and utterly beautiful.
The Library bathed in sunlight is the best place for reading in the late afternoon with its ethereal lighting. Beautiful light ~ a bit overblown but the light changes rapidly as the sun continues its descent beyond the oaks and fence and neighboring home outside.
Capturing a bit of the essence of Victoria’s now retired photographer Toshi Otsuki was the ideal for me…
Just beyond crickets are beginning their evening song. The robins snack at the birdfeeder just hung beyond the windows and Mr. Squirrel scoots around picking up fallen treats along the ground.
Peaceful and airy and dressed in white ~ the Golden Hour has come and one must capture it as best one can…
“Take a break,” the tea table calls to me.
“Come read a bit and let your heart be free!”
Pulling up a chair I do sit for a bit thumbing and revisiting
Old Friends…
Sip by sip the tiredness washes away on the dust particles floating by in the waning light.
To be lost and forgotten in a world of one’s imagination…
I often think of Paris and how I missed an opportunity to go and
visit The City of Lights when I was an exchange student to Germany back as a young 19 year old and new to college
and to life…
Paris is still on my bucket list of places to visit with its
Arc de Triomphe, all the bridges leading over water into
the heart of the city, and let’s talk about the architectural
detailing and wrought iron railings on balconies!
🙂
So while I may never have been to Paris or to any city in France ~ a girl can dream… and create a home while waiting that has a little French charm in it instead.
😉
Bring in some lovely wicker and woven baskets and find
a long baguette basket or two at your local thriftshop
to give your kitchen some Parisian flair.
Here I’ve added this small square basket to hold our napkins
and it is often dressed up with various linens to make it
even prettier.
Beautiful soaps on display still in their wrapper-jackets
tucked in a lightly gilded Haviland Limoge dish will add a
friendly European touch dressing up
one’s powder room.
I also like to display gifts around my home as in these small
jars of bath salts.
When left open they add a lovely scent to the room
infusing a bit of roses to clean the air.
The one jar displaying Handmade with Love was created by
Laura Ingalls Gunn who writes the blog Decor to Adore.
Here is the link to her post about creating these
sweet rose scented bath salts.
And speaking of roses…
Go anywhere in France and rose gardens will be found!
This rose garden was one I visited last fall while out visiting
Biltmore Estate.
Truly a remarkable take on a garden worthy of King Louis XV and Versaille or Malmaison and filled with David Austin roses which
were breathtakingly beautiful in their cooler weather
October bloom.
A French style garden wouldn’t be complete without somewhere
comfortable to sit while admiring those roses so be sure
to bring in a pretty metal bench.
My inspiration were those benches seen in the movies
that fill the parks in Paris and in New York City’s
Central Garden.
Turning our attention back indoors
What speaks to me of Paris are caned back chairs and twinkling chandeliers with their brilliant pendants casting their sparkling rainbows on floors and walls.
Outdoor cafés have the cutest caned chairs dressed in haute couture
black and white weavings.
While we can’t always change out our furniture whenever
we feel the urge to do so
we can take what we have and give our chairs a makeover
with some paint and a fabric cover refresh.
Mirrors
The City of Lights also includes fantastic mirrors in every chateau or estate and this beauty {currently with our storage in California} came home with me from Northern to Southern California
for my birthday one year.
Pier mirrors which are fairly tall mirrors are very Parisian and
so de rigueur.
Gilded mirrors like this one at 4 1/2 feet tall really help bring
that French European feel to a room.
Plus they are quintessential to adding light to darker rooms
hallways and to areas that just need a bit more sparkle.
🙂
A tablesetting out of doors set for Valentine’s Day this past winter.
Lighting
Chandeliers and table candelabras are truly something we
can all find inexpensively at our local thriftstores and add such French drama to our homes.
In our current home ~ our 41′ fifth wheel travel trailer
which I call our Prairie Home ~
we have hung up a chandelier as I needed some sparkle
and “pretty” where there was none before.
Just a little bling in any home whether small or grand definitely reminds one of Paris and its grand chateaus with their
spectacular lighting…
Furnishings
Although right now this lovely armoire is sitting in storage
it used to grace our upstairs hallway in our Big House.
With its large beveled mirror and carved “mermaid” along its bonnet top, an armoire is a perfect piece of furniture for holding large amounts of bed linens, quilts and the like.
In our next home it will either live in our master bedroom
and be used for holding clothing ~ as probably was its
original intention ~ or may hold a smaller television and
equipment inside and live in our future dining/living room.
Plus if the one you find is in rough shape and the marquetry
and veneers can’t be fixed ~ it’s an easy job to sand it
and paint it from top to bottom.
However a fabulous armoire is used, it is a magnificent
French addition to one’s home and equal to any task
beset before it.
Lastly to add a little Parisian-French flair to your rooms
bring in some Old World styled paintings.
This cutie was found while thriftshopping in England about
10 years ago and with its pheasant scene
and antiqued gilding
this little painting brings in more of that je ne sais quoi
that speaks to
our French-loving hearts.
Sharing with
Paris in July ~ Thyme for Tea
Wonderful/Wordless Wednesday ~ Oh, My Heartsie Girl!
Style Showcase ~ Shabbyfufu
Feathered Nest Friday
Sweet Inspiration
Thursday Favorite Things ~ Follow the Yellow Brick Home
The Rose Garden ~ a version worthy of Versaille in France.
I kinda complained to my
next door neighbors a couple
of weeks ago
that
since moving to Texas I hadn’t
really been anywhere fun
so…
We made a plan to go down to the
Fort Worth Botanical Gardens
this past Thursday…
Springtime for me is all about gardens
so visiting the botanical gardens
is just about as high as
I can get on my list of fun things to do!
Luckily my neighbors and
their daughter and granddaughter
love gardens as much as I do, too!
Potted plants ~ planted with a mass of one plant {like this one} or with a main plant and then underplanted ~ are mini gardens with their own micro-climates. Stunning and sooo simple ~ just Johnny Jump-ups.
It was a match made in Heaven!
And these gardens don’t disappoint…
We enjoyed passing wildflowers blooming
along the freeway medians
as we made our way down to Fort Worth.
Quietly bright ethereal Iceland Poppies ~ sunny side up eggs in the sunshine!
Turns out the botanical gardens are free
except for a small entry fee ($7.50) to visit
the Japanese gardens and another small fee
(I want to say it was $2.00 or $4.00?)
to go into the Conservatory, but we didn’t get to see in there.
It was closed for repairs.
🙁
Not to worry! There was much to see out
in the rest of the park!
My neighbors in a small allée of wisteria vines clamboring up and over enornous arches ~ on my next garden’s bucket list!
At 110 acres and 22 specialty gardens,
the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens
are spectacular in spring
but I can
imagine them in all seasons.
Can you imagine the trees around the park
blazing in the fall?
There are all kinds of oaks, elms,
and maples galore ~ and
all would come into their element
in autumn.
Heading from Versaille to Monet’s gardens in Giverny… that’s what the lily pond reminded me of… sigh!
Maiden fern peeking out of crevices between stonework ~ lovely and cool under the canopy of trees above.
Spectacular water features,
plants potted up or set into curving planters,
large fields of deciduous and evergreen trees
create vignettes everywhere one looks or
passes into another
“room.”
Part of those 22 gardens…
There’s so much to take in, to learn
from visiting a large
park garden like
Fort Worth’s Botanical Gardens.
Here the takeaway is to plant pansies in massive
drifts of not just a few plants
but thousands!
Everywhere we went over the whole park
pansies were the mini stars of this time
right now at the gardens.
I knew this post was going to be long
as I took about 225 photos…
I’m thinking I’ll break this up and share the
Rose Garden and the
Japanese Garden
in a separate post.
It wouldn’t do those two gardens
justice
if I didn’t…
A beautiful Easter lily ~ perfect for this time of year!
{loving the black & white awning over the front door!}
I brought home two French cookies called
biscuits or galettes
and an enormous rocky road cake for
our family to try.
The cake was wonderfully chocolatey and these cookies were light and buttery! Perfect with a cup of tea…
Then I found these sweet little paper blocks with
French wording on them over at
Joann Fabrics.
In April, our son and his university track and field team flew out to California for several college track meets and I stayed at the Holiday Inn Buena Park. Out in their back garden courtyard, I found this lovely sitting area. More French-inspired etherealness!
Here are a few more pieces I think of when thinking of…
French style… More from Joanne Fabrics. 🙂
Target also has new Shabby Chic items in their bedding department and I always find French~ inspired goods there! Baskets are also big again this year and Target has a bunch!
This chandelier I found on Pinterest, I think.
Years ago I found a similar one in an antique shop in Idaho.
It was about $100 and a little smaller
but the same glass~style bobeche candle drip~catchers…
{I knew I should have bought it then!}
Of course we couldn’t leave off roses!
Makes me think of Empress Josephine’s garden
and the hundreds of rose bushes
she had surrounding her
La Petite Malmaison.
You can click on the link above to visit there…
😉
Redouté was her botanist and would paint the roses
he pollenated and grew there,
those that we see forever blooming
in his watercolor prints and paintings…
Lastly, another shot of these ethereal purple blooms!
I know there are many types of lavender
and
being in California most of the time
and never having been to France,
{though I almost got to go there for a weekend when I was 19
and an exchange student to Germany!}
I’m not sure if this is a type of lavender or not.
There are tiny lavender bells on this flowering bush
Happy New Year to you! My husband and I have been visiting with family just for a few days over the New Year’s holiday. The day after driving up Highway 99, I invited my nephew to go thriftshopping. Turns out it’s something he likes to do!
We visited several thrift stores throughout the suburbs of Sacramento. He found books and record LP’s to enjoy,
and I found a bunch of fun silver-plate and solid silver
goodies! But that’s another post!
😉
As we were out and about, we came across a consignment shop called Sunrise Consignment Center and we turned into the driveway…
The antique mirror that I was considering. Most likely manufactured by the same company as the one we have over our family room fireplace.
This is a really nice consignment store
with lovely period and reproduction pieces!
My husband found an antique miner’s or jeweler’s scale, possibly for weighing gold, today when we went back to look at the shop.
This area is where the California Gold Rush of 1849
began of course so it’s nice to see that you can still find
a “little gold” and antiques around from California’s earlier days!
Some other things at this shop were nice decorator pillows and furniture that is higher-end, clocks, vintage violins, and garden patio sets. My nephew also found
an vintage Coca~Cola dispensing machine he would like to have had. I found several hutches and armoires,
buffets and French coffee tables, and several
French-style gilded mirrors!
My birthday is in a few days so I talked with my husband later in the afternoon about the two mirrors.
It’s not always in the budget to purchase such a lovely piece, but it’s also often true that lovely pieces aren’t always to be found, or for a good price.
So…
He asked me to draw up where this mirror would go.
I thought it would be lovely
up on the wall of our staircase.
He was afraid it was too big.
I created the “mirror” then cut it out to fit on the wall ~ I had forgotten that! Lol!
He needed to see it. Would I draw it for him? Of course! 🙂
The first sketchings are above, top.
The second drawings are more to scale with measurements given over the phone of the landing’s wall by our daughter, who was at home that day from work, are below that.
Thank you, Amy!!! :X!
Our mantel mirror at home over the fireplace ~ it used to be in the dining room. The five antique rose-strewn bowls arched over the white mirror there are set to go around this mirror.
Ultimately, it was the larger pier mirror I hoped would come home with us. Both were beautiful and the other one would be lovely inside our maison. It came down to already having one so similar.
Will share this mirror again when it’s mounted in its new home. 🙂
Sharing with:
Centerpiece Wednesday @ thestylesisters.blogspot.com *still when I was just learning about link parties… ;)*
So glad to be sharing with you! I hope you have a great year this year!
