Mid week musings.......

Hi, hope your week is going well. I was at the beach for a few days to visit a friend and it was a nice getaway, unexpected, which are often the best kind! The weather was a "10" but today, we are in the throes of a serious heat wave.....about 100 degrees as a heat index and high humidity, only good news is its supposed to break late Friday. I tend to wilt in this kind of weather.
 I mean I love summer, don' t get me wrong but I love 75 -80 degrees, zero humidity, slight breeze in the air topped with a perfect sunset....now that's my kind of summer weather! A few things to cover today...first I know everyone loves to know which rooms take the top prizes for my weekly Which would you choose. So here's the top four from last weeks, featuring an assortment of gorgeous powder rooms. Happy that my personal faves made it to the top spots! I will show results for this weeks Which would you choose next week......


                                                         1st place with 25 votes

2nd place with 20 votes

3rd place with 16 votes

And tied for 4th place with 14 votes each

I have spoken often about all the perks and wonderful gifts that blogging has brought me, many friendships, knowledge on things that even a top school couldn't possibly provide....really an entire world of possibilities. Its quite a phenomenon when you think about the connections you make on a daily basis with people all around the world that you would otherwise never meet. After the "Teddy ordeal' the outpouring of support from my readers and fellow bloggers was truly just beyond, beyond what any words can fully describe. 

So, I nearly fell off my chair when one of my readers contacted me, who happens to be a painter and wanted to paint Teddy's portrait. She was so touched by what he had gone through and felt inspired to paint him. I was touched far beyond what I can convey on this blog and eagerly awaited the Teddy portrait to arrive. What I guess i wasn't anticipating was what a magnificent work of art I would be receiving. I was floored when I opened the most exquisite dog painting ever! And to boot, it was like I was looking at Teddy in his sweet little eyes, her ability to capture his face, his gentle and curious eyes and funny little expression is not something just any artist could do. So with her permission I am sharing with you this beautiful and treasured work of art as well as the heartfelt letter that accompanied it and you know it brought  tears to my eyes! Best part of this for you, all you pet lovers out there, is that Mary paints on commission! I know after seeing this you will want to have your own faithful companions painted too....so her contact information is at the bottom of the Teddy painting. Ready? Feast your eyes on this........

I couldnt' wait to rip off the wrapping!

Seriously...how AMAZING is this!!!!!! I cannot wait to get it framed and its going to go right in our library where we can cherish it always and always. THANK YOU MARY!!  I know many of you will want your own pet masterpiece after seeing this.  

The talented mastermind behind this exquisite oil on canvas is Mary Casey. She does not have a website but does have lots of pictures of her work that she can send you. Mary's email address is mcaseyart20@gmail.com.

For anyone who missed my temporary living room reveal, you can click here to get all the details how this room came to be and here's a few pictures......

And at night.....

While out in the Hamptons I snapped a few pictures (though few is a relative word..lol)  that I think speak so well as to what the Hamptons is all about, or at least what I personally love about the Hampton's. Can there ever be too many hydrangeas? I don't think so! So here's a few pics from my little excursion, I always am sure to have my camera close by as there are always so many fabulous "photo ops"!

I always get carried away when taking pictures of beautiful hydrangeas...how stunning are these!

For about two hours, I experienced true perfection. Ever had a moment in life where you felt like it was "as good as it gets"? Well, this was Nirvana! I walked down the path and for what seemed like miles, I only saw one or two people in sight, just the glistening sea, acres of white sand and me and my chair! The perk was my phone doesn't get reception so no distractions!! It was hot but I was so blessed because on this day, it felt like there was a 50 foot fan blowing and it was really breezy so I had the heat from the sun and a cold breeze on the other side of me......bliss I am telling you!

One man fishing.......

See that house? That's "bad boy Madoffs" old house, new owners have it now and have totally renovated it. Don't know if I could live in a house that belonged to such an evil man!

My little beach chair waiting for me.......

And theres my son and his friend off for a jog, yes, I should have joined them but I was just way too relaxed with my magazines and my chair.....

Ahhhhh....just looking at these pictures makes me feel relaxed all over again. I am my happiest by the beach, this could be because I spent a lot of my childhood in California and Hawaii so I am a "beach girl" at heart. It is always where I feel my most relaxed, happiest and at peace. How about you? Does the beach seduce you too?

So that's about it for today.......off to Philadelphia tomorrow for the weekend. So this is it until later Sunday or Monday as I will have limited access to my computer. Wishing you a wonderful weekend! And thank you Mary Casey again!!!!!!!

A living room is born.......

Hi there, you might be really surprised when you see this long post, and frankly no one was as surprised as I was! So here's the deal, we (my husband and his brother)  were given the opportunity to purchase a large container of furniture, but had to buy it "all or nothing" and as it came. It was mostly from Kindel, and to anyone who knows furniture, you will recognize them as being a definite Rolls Royce in the furniture biz. My husbands brother is actually the one who was most interested as he is moving into his newly renovated house in about a month, and doesn't want to wait the typical 3 to 4 months for custom furniture on order. So.....while he finished his renovation,  we happily  put most of it in our living room and we are dividing up the pieces. He is keeping most of the upholstered pieces so in the meantime, we  are "housing" most of the furniture for him until he is done with his own renovation project.

This was a total win/win for both of us. It allowed us to place the furniture exactly as we have it laid out to see if the layout does indeed work as we were hoping and sure enough it does! While the pieces are not all the exact size/shape of what we are ordering it really gives life to the room and certainly allows the room to take on a whole new perspective. We added our own pieces from the old house, some of which were in storage like coffee tables, end tables,some art,etc.....and of course my blue and white and for a temporary setup I must say it came out quite beautiful, if I say so myself. You really forget just how much a room can transform with furniture and all the bells and whistles. This is far from a done room, but it gives you an idea.  Naturally I just have to share this with you because we all love a good transformation. Lots of pictures, many might even appear to be the same thing and I took some of these at different times of the day.   So here we go.....enough of my talking!

I took a lot of pictures at different times of day and using a few different settings on my camera, the first "batch" used the active-D switch and I think I like it a lot for during the day shots, it gives a really crisp clarity to the shots........and theres A LOT of pictures here! (you know I get carried away).

Finally got to hang a few of the brackets I so love (kind of makes me wish I was selling them again...am a BIG fan of brackets)!

Took the pillows from my window seat just to see how pillows would look, will not be here permanently but they certainly work temporarily!

Coffee table, all tables, and the antique botanicals are ours

So excited got to hang my brackets!!

These are gorgeous antique botanicals bought at an auction about 5 years ago..definite keepers!

Love the later afternoon sun...........

And at night........

This batch was taken last night with a few small things added.....

The ship painting my husband just put there..its going in our library. The mantle is from the original house and we just have it propped there because its a heck of a lot better than looking at a blank wall! We are still figuring out the mantles for living/dining.

Well.......looks a whole lot different than that big empty room huh? I really love how warm and inviting it feels now....I have to say I keep finding excuses to go in there and just sit and stare! Its so exciting to have furniture in there. In about a month or two, it will be going to his living room but its nice to have a somewhat finished space even if temporarily and it is especially great getting to do a "trial run" of this layout and getting total certainty that the layout works. Now we are totally confident about moving forward. All of our tables, chests and coffee tables we will use with the new furniture and of course the rug is staying too. Will keep you in the loop as our final living room comes together in the coming months but thought I would share this fun "project" with you! Wishing you a great day and thanks for stopping in!