Have a wonderful Holiday and holiday inspiration

I want to wish you all a really wonderful holiday and I hope you get to spend time and laughs with you loved ones! On Monday I’ll be leaving for Spain to see my boyfriend, Chris, where I’ll be staying for a month, a week of which I’ll be in Morocco. I will do my best to update you with photos! Thank you all so much for your ongoing support and again, have a great holiday!

Love all the reds!
via Room Envy

What do you think of the post-it note Christmas tree? You could write sweet messages on them!


via Living Etc.

This mantle is GORGEOUS!

What a great room to curl up with your honey on Christmas Eve!
via BHG

via BHG via Decorpad

And the winner of the All Modern carafe is…

Siobhán! Congrats to you!

Thanks to all for entering. Siobhán, please email me at [email protected] with your shipping address and a telephone number for the shipping company.

Favorite images from my favorite blogs

A little eye candy for you. Hang in there – the holiday is almost here!

via Grey Likes Weddings

The above image=heaven
via Souvenirs of a Girl

via My Romantic Home

This bed is soooo pretty.

via Homebug

This actually really makes me yearn for summer evenings.
via A Fanciful Twist

A tour of my Brownstone studio apartment

I was really flattered when Marcela of Deco and Design asked me for a little house tour. Unfortunately since I am currently “without house,” I had to send her photos from a very cute studio apartment I lived in a couple of years ago. It was on the ground floor of a brownstone in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Park Slope. I was even lucky enough to have my own little backyard. When I signed the lease on this apartment is when I really started to get interested in interior design. I had no idea how to decorate a studio and finally didn’t have any roommates and could decorate how I wanted. Most of my furnishings are hand-me-down or cheap finds, as my entire budget went to rent on the place. So, really, this apartment was my first stab at decorating.

You can read her post on my apartment here.
MOSTRÁ TU CASA – LA CASA DE ASHLEY

The apartment had a lot of charming little built-ins, like the pantry above – and the desk and shelves below


The apartment did have a separate eat-in kitchen, which was really nice.

I was always changing things around as you can tell

This is the cooking area. The counter had been covered in a hideous, old, stained yellow laminate, so I went and bought some cheap textured drawer liner and resurfaced the counter for less than $14. It help up surprisingly well. No air bubbles or leaking into the seams or anything.

A non-working fireplace in my living room/bedroom.

I loved the shutters, hardwood floors, and tin ceiling.

Sorry another blurry shot – this cupboard was also built-in.

So, I know it’s not much, but I love looking back to it!

Gorgeous, Glamorous, and Casual!

A casual base with touches of glamor is how I prefer to dress – on the rare occurrence that I leave my house and need to look presentable. On the farm I spend my days in old jeans and sweaters because I don’t worry about them getting muddy or ripped or succumbing to any other sort of farm-induced damage. But, every now and then I need to feel like a girl again and get a little dressed up and go out. I’ve liked Ann Taylor Loft for a long time, and I’ve really been liking their Holiday ’09 collection.

The plum of this scarf is my new favorite color. I thought this tweed jacket was really cute, too.

They have so many soft sweaters in their “lounge” line, I would wear them throughout the day even when I wasn’t lounging


Some cute looks from their lookbook




Unfortunately a lot of the cute stuff I saw in their store is nowhere to be found on their site

What do you think of Ann Taylor Loft?

From my library: Speed Decorating by Jill Vegas

I really like the tips in “Speed Decorating: A Pro Stager’s Tips And Trade Secrets For A Fabulous Home In A Week Or Less,” and the pictures are mighty cute too!


Two lovely entryways – check out the wood “bottles” to the right of the red secretary.

Five Musts For A Great-Looking Entry

1. Clutter-free surfaces. Get rid of boxes, shoes, anything that doesn’t belong in the space.

2. Brilliant light. Replace any burned-out or too-dim bulbs. Clean and polish light fixtures.

3. A nice-looking floor. Vacuum and mop the floor. Replace the doormat if it’s dingy. If the floor’s condition is really bad, buy some floor polish and buff out scratches, or buy some carpet tiles (FLOR brand is an example) and make a runner to hide them.

4. Clean walls. Get rid of scuff marks (a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser is great for this), or touch up the paint in spots to hide them. If the walls are in really bad shape, repaint.

I really like how the side of this settee is just a bare wood.

What a dreamy reading nook!

A sweet little writing area in the bedroom


I love this bathroom! “A bathroom adorned with unique accessories and artwork feels comfy. Here, botanical prints, a fern in a simple vase, and a vintage map makes this room memorable.”

Anyway, I’m sure you can see why Speed Decorating is a fav. new addition to my humble library!
All photography by Michael Grimm<

Kindred Spirits Christmas Countdown on “Live Creating Yourself” – featuring Yours Truly!

I want to thank Alaina of Live Creating Yourself for being so kind as to think of me to fill out her Christmas Questionnaire.

The lovely collage she made of images for Decorology

These were the questions:
1. My home isn’t decorated for the holidays until…

2. My holiday spirit soars when I hear the song…

3. If I had to be anywhere but home on the holidays, it would be…

4. (if applicable) My favorite Decorology holiday blog post was…

5. My favorite non-Decorology holiday blog post was…

6. The number one gift on my wish list this year is…

I’ll share a few of my answers here but you have to go to her blog to see them all. I promise it will be worth the time as she’s featured a lot of AMAZING talents in the Kindred Spirits Christmas Countdown. I promise you won’t leave uninspired!

1. My home isn’t decorated for the holidays until… there are string lights strewn about and candles in the window. I love the soft glow – it’s instantly comforting.

3. If I had to be anywhere but home on the holidays, it would be… in Segovia with my boyfriend where he’s teaching English this year!

4. My favorite Decorology holiday blog post was… this post – “Happy Holiday pics” – from last year.
Read the rest of my answers here!

A personal post: Remembering Cody a year later

A year ago today the saddest event of my life took place. My 8 year old Australian shepherd, Cody, succumbed to lymphoma, just a month after his diagnosis and after one round of chemo. His weight had dropped down from 40lbs to 25lbs in just a few months. He went from a happy, lively deer and chicken chaser to unable to walk in just a few months. It was a terrible thing to watch this terrible disease defeat this poor innocent little boy, and we couldn’t explain to him why he had to go to the vet so often and why he had to take so much medicine that just made him feel worse. It didn’t take Cody long to find out that the cancer medicine made him even more nauseous and tired, so he refused to take it.

Cody was ambitious when he chose his stick for playing fetch

Checking on his chickens

A couple of weeks after his death I joined up with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and ran a marathon in order to raise over $5,000 for cancer research. Many of you reached out with encouraging words and donations and I cannot possibly express my gratitude.

Cody loved vacationing at the Outer Banks with us. He made them the most fun vacations ever.

This year I’ve donated and asked my family in lieu of gifts for me to instead make donations in Cody’s memory to the Morris Animal Foundation Canine Cancer Campaign. I also want to remind everyone to stop and be grateful for the family, friends, and pets that make their life what it is, and the past friends, family, and pets who may no longer be around in body but whose memory comforts us in tough times. Reconnecting with family and friends is what the holidays are all about.

What I love about Christmas is that my parents and all of my sisters and I are all together again in the same house, just like we were as kids. The yummy baked goods my mom makes are great too, but it’s my family that I couldn’t live without. Wow, I’ve really rambled on here! I guess I’ll just end by saying that maybe today, in memory of Cody and all the loved ones we’ve lost, to remember how important friends, family, and pets are – not new clothes or shoes or electronic gadgets – but the people and animals who love you. Because I cannot remember the material gifts I received 9 years ago, but boy do I remember the day we brought baby Cody home and he joined our family.
I truly wish you all a very, very happy holiday.


The day we brought him home.

Last minute gift ideas for everybody!

Time is running out my friends! Here are some last minute goodies I think would make good gifts!

Stocking Stuffers:

Drink Me Tags.com

For her:

This gorgeous clutch is only $12! From Toon Designs on Etsy

A charming Dahlia sash from EmersonMade.

For the pooch:
A Michael Vick chew toy!
Gift Genius

For the little people, adorable Nightmare Snatchers

via Spiderbite Boutique on Etsy

For him:
The “cable box,” for cord control

Period houses galore – people who live in centuries old homes

I literally stumbled across the site, Period Properties the other day, and down the rabbit hole I fell! It’s like flipping through a fairy tale and seeing how people – rich and poor, lived hundreds of years ago. The catch is people live there now, have tried to preserve the character of the home, and tell their renovating stories.


unreal



I could totally call this cottage my own 🙂






My mother would love this room!

So – what do you think? Could you live in a home this old and so historically decorated?