Venturing out with my sweet Dad ~

 

Our goal with our new home is to make it beautiful!

Dad wants to do it for my precious mama and also for my husband and I.

It makes us happy knowing she's looking down from Heaven smiling!

We have a very ugly concrete retaining wall behind our pool

(which is still non-operational) that needs to be covered.

We were looking for something evergreen and beautiful.

We ended up buying a couple of pots of Star Jasmine and

will attach plastic fencing to the wall for it to grow on.

We will of course need more plants but it's a start!!!

The concrete wall is the last photo...

We visited The Plant Emporium in Griffin, GA and

Collier's Greenhouse in Jackson GA.

We will see how this plant works to do the job we want!

The ugly concrete block wall:

I'm so sorry for all of the photos but it was so beautiful
BOTH nurseries were!

I enjoyed a wonderful day with my daddy

and we stopped to have dinner together
before heading home.

Treasure your moments together, always.

Hugs and love,
Dawn

Some just have "the touch" ~

When I visited Scott's Antique Market Friday,
I found a few spaces that truly made me stop dead in my tracks.
I talked to the dealers and asked permission to photograph
their beautiful vignettes and told them I would love to post about them!
Here is the first one for you viewing pleasure:

Amy of Hive for The Home

Beautiful, wouldn't you say?

You can visit Amy HERE to say hello!!

Another space was Jill's.

I've always loved her taste.
She used to sell at Lakewood Antiques South and

now sells at Scott's!

Here is Jill's website ~ House About It

if you'd like to pay her a visit!

GORGEOUS!
Don't you just love their style??

They both DEFINITELY have "the touch" ~

I hope you are having a wonderful, relaxing Sunday sweet friends,

hugs and love,

Dawn

Ready for a field trip?

Today Emily and I were ready for a visit to The Plum Tree in downtown McDonough, Georgia. Oh. my. goodness....Cindy has it looking so amazing! I had to take the camera because I KNEW it was going to be wonderful and it WAS!

Take a look around and tell me if you don't agree ~ click on any photo to enlarge and examine things closely. And she'll ship small things if you see something you can't live without!

What did I find? A wonderful old Physics notebook with handwritten notes (I promise to share a few scans with you!) a small French book, another baby dress to alter and the new issue of Romantic Homes....oh, and a Warm Home Heritage Candle....my fav! It smells likes cookies are baking all the time!

Wishing you a wonderful Saturday sweet friends,

xxoo, Dawn

My wanna-be lightbox plusa couple of garden inspired ideas ~

I thought I'd give you an idea of what I'm working on. Well, for one several orders that I have for artwork, but also I'm trying hard to create a well-lit environment to take photographs. I've used foam core boards, cut openings in the boards and taped in vellum to soften the light. My problem is that I don't have the correct wattage for the bulbs (they need to be "outdoor cool" too) and really I don't have enough lights period. I'll get it right soon I hope!!

I've decided to document several of my art projects with step-by-step photographs, typed instructions and also the images to use in the project as well. I'll combine all of these into one tutorial file that will be soon available for purchase! I'd like to start another blog just to list these on . . . does this sound like a good idea to you? What's so wonderful about these instructions is that I can email them quickly so you can get started right away!!

Can you get what my first tutorial is going to be?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A few more neat ideas from one of my notebooks ~

First, a spray paint technique to duplicate aged iron. What's good about this is you can't really mess it up! It's supposed to be irregular looking.

I love urns. They're always elegant and gorgeous to me. This is a great idea. I've seen them filled with ice and used as drink chillers too. How beautiful to use several large urns at a wedding filled with ice and small water bottles!

I love the garden bench brought inside the house. It's unexpected... Plus look at the shutters behind the desk to display things on. A calendar and inspiration board would be perfect on those.

How about this garden gate displayed on a mantle! This is beautiful to me. And the table created from glass and a birdbath. Once I made one of these to sell in the antique store but used a giant concrete urn, filled it with crumpled paper, topped it with sheet moss, a bird's nest and little eggs. The glass was placed over top! It really turned out pretty and just the right height for an end table.

Just a few photos to get you thinking!!

Have a great Thursday!!

xxoo, Dawn