CHERUBS IN THE MIDST.....

I happened to mention in an earlier post that I love to collect Cherubs..... Angels, too.  But, since this is the Season for Love with all of its Cupids and Cherubs, I thought I would take a little trip around my house and just see how many I have.  It's funny, when you start looking, you realize just how much your collection has grown.  There are several others sprinkled here and there in the garden.... resting on rock walls or sleeping amidst the plants, but.... since it's freezing outside I thought I would just share my indoor collection, and save the outside Cherubs, Garden Angels and Fairies for warmer days.... 

Let's start here with the tiniest one.  This little friend I stumbled upon in a shop while on vacation in Palm Beach.  It is a wine stopper, and since I so love my glass of wine after a long day, he's kept very busy keeping the bottles fresh.  Isn't he just the cutest?

Next, is another tiny cherub perching on a shell in my conservatory.  The shell is filled with glass seashells, starfish, and other sea creatures....

Next is a tiny Cherub which was a gift from my Mom.

Look closely.... she's sucking her thumb.... a favorite

pastime of mine when I was a tiny Cherub in my Mom's

eyes....

This sitting Cherub is perched at the base of a Grandmother clock in my foyer.

This one sits on top of a bookshelf.

Remember these?  This vignette was featured at Christmas.  See the tiny

Cherubs on top of this family photo.  This was a photo taken at

my son's engagement party last September.  One day

I will do a post about the house in the background....

 it belongs to the man that I am dating......

And last, but not least.... this huge wall hanging that sits over

my tub.  It looks like it's made of stone,  but ..... surprise

it is as light as a feather it's made of that faux stone...

I've fooled many people.... especially 

the man that hung it for me! 

 

Love.....Love....Love

What do you love to collect?

HORMONES....... ANYONE?

BIO-IDENTICAL  VS. HRT

Has anyone been following the shows on Oprah with Robin McGraw (Dr. Phil's wife) and  her newest book "What's Age Got to do With It",  Dr. Christiane Northrop "The Wisdom of Menopause" and tonight's show with Suzanne Sommers and her newest book "Breakthrough".  I would love to have an ongoing discussion with all of you ladies out there in Blogland..... What are YOUR feelings regarding the debate,  Bioidentical Hormones vs. HRT (synthetic hormones)  Anyone with any positive or negative experiences you would like to share with all of us that may be sitting on the Perimenopausal/ Menopausal Fence?  

Younger ladies.... join in as well!  

Let's Chat!

P.S. Oprah's live webcast with Dr. Northrop that aired this evening can be downloaded for free starting tomorrow by going to Oprah.com.  It was extremely informational and should be viewed by all women of every age.

TIME TO WAKE UP......

Please let it be Spring......

BUY, BUY......

I'm off to the New York International Gift Show!

 I'm going to "shop till I drop"

Need anything from the market?  :)

See you in a few days!

 

                 

GOOD-BYE SANTA....

~Hello Cupid~

Hearts and Flowers....

Love is in the air at Meadowsweet!

~Love for Sale~

~Cherub~ $110

All because ...... $21

Heart Wreath~ $45

~Heart Wreath~

$52

~Love Bunches~

$12

MY CONSERVATORY...... BUILDING A DREAM

It was at an orchid exhibit at the New York Botanical Gardens where I was first bitten by the conservatory bug!  As you may know the magnificent Botanical Gardens are known for their grand conservatories.  Though it was a really cold and windy day when I was there for the orchid exhibit, inside the conservatory was tropically warm and the smell of the plants was intoxicating!  So began my dream to someday have a conservatory albeit a much smaller one, but a conservatory nonetheless,  where the feeling is always tropical, no matter what the thermometer says!

This shot is how the house appeared from the outside before construction began. The conservatory was constructed off the back of the house.  These windows would be replaced with French doors leading into the conservatory from the living room.  The project took two years from start to finish with all of the necessary permits, plans and manufacturing.

Finally the day arrived,  and so did a huge back hoe to dig the foundation, followed by the cement truck.

The foundation of the house also had to be broken through to create a crawl space under the conservatory foundation so all of the air conditioning ducts could be fed through.

The project remained like this for a few months while waiting for the structure to arrive.  The conservatory was manufactured from mahogany and shipped over from Ireland.  It then sat at the piers waiting to go through customs.

I never took photos of all the stacked pieces after they were delivered, so there is a gap in showing the construction.  But here are some shots of the final outcome.  This is the sideview of how the conservatory sits to the side of my patio.  It has French doors leading onto the patio as well.  I also found a company that manufactures retractable screens, so on a lovely spring day, I pull the screens down from their rolled up mechanism and it become much like a screened in porch..   The doors have retractable screening as well.

And finally the finished project.  The roofline has a lovely decorative piece that sits across the top.  For some reason it is not visible in this picture.  

This is the view from the conservatory and throughout the back of the house.  The stonework was another major project the first summer I moved in.  I wanted something that looked old with a Tuscan feel.  The stone walls are constructed from granite.  The roses are carpet roses in deep pink that spill down the walls from early summer until fall. Giant sunflowers and Endless Summer Hydrangeas serve to cover the stark white vinyl fence.  Fences are nice for privacy, this fence is my neighbors choice, but my intention is to hide the starkness of it by creating a natural screen.  The huge slab of slate shown in the corner of the picture where the gravel is, is a fountain where the water spills over that slate and gathers in the gravel where underneath a huge pump is housed to gather the water and recycle it up and through the garden again.

Just looking at the flowers makes me long for those summer days in my garden!  It snowed AGAIN today! 

GIVEAWAY!

BLOGAHOLICS ANONYMOUS.....

OK, So we admit it..... We're addicted!  

Now it's your turn....

Come on admit it, you're addicted, too!

Leave a comment to be entered into the

TOTALLY ADDICTED GIVEAWAY!

A copy of Artful Blogging Magazine

A winner will be picked in a random drawing on Sunday night!

ADDICTS ONLY..... PLEASE!

Spread the word!

HEAVENLY FRIENDS.....

SNOW ANGELS......  

AND...... SNOW ANGELS

SNOW DAYS........ and Play Dates

So, here we are in the midst of a snowstorm..... a day that I often wait for, when the snow is falling so heavily and the only thing to do is stay home and tackle those projects like straightening out my drawers or closets. Maybe even unpack some of those boxes that are stored down in the basement from when I moved into this house 3 years ago!  I always have great plans for days like these, and yet, somehow I am never in the mood to organize when the day finally arrives.......

So, come on guys....... let's go outside and have some fun!

  
There's always another day!

                                                                                                            

BLOGAHOLICS ANONYMOUS AND A TOTALLY ADDICTED GIVEAWAY....

 
Hello!  My name is Carol, and I am a Blogaholic!  Yes, that's right.  I am totally addicted.  I think about blogging morning, noon and night.  I wake up in the morning,  and the first thing I do is check my blog to see who visited.  I can't eat without thinking about all those blogs featuring delicious foods like Once in a Blue Moon, or Cuisine Kathleen.    I can't look around my home or even my garden without seeing an opportunity for something to blog about.  I can't even leave my house without taking my camera..... just in case!  I dream of words like widgets and gadgets!   It's driving me crazy........  But, it's a great crazy!

The good news is..... I know I'm not alone!  Come on, admit it!  It's OK!  We're all addicted!  And what a great addiction it is!

To celebrate this wonderful addiction,  I'm having a Giveaway! A blogger's paradise..... A copy of Artful Blogging! Have you seen this magazine?  I think you'll love it as much as I do!  

Are you addicted? Do you know someone who is?  Tell me.... tell the world..... trust me you'll feel better!    I'll pick a random winner on Sunday, January 18th.   Now, where was I?....... Oh yes..... back to the sidebar!

                                                                                      

                                                                                                          

DREAMING OF SUMMER DAYS......

 Let me tell you the story about this little summer house.

I live in New York, on Long Island.  One of our favorite things to do, is to take a drive to all the charming villages on the eastern end of the island, better known as the Hamptons.  In every season, there is always something fun to do.  There are all the well known extremely expensive boutiques, lovely wineries and restaurants, huge homes on the water.  So much to see and do.  I even rubbed elbows with Richard Gere one summer day! Unfortunately, he didn't recognize me....... :)

Very often we would pass a winery,  where out in a field sat this charming little house.   I would always wonder why it was there.  One day, my curiosity got the better of me, and I stopped to inquire.  They told me it was owned by a nursery further east on the island.  That was that..... or so I thought.  

Several months went by, and again we passed the winery, but this time, my little house was no longer there.  I panicked, and told Jack that we must go find out what happened to it..... somehow I felt a strange attachment to that little place.

We found the nursery, but my little house had been dismantled and stored away in their warehouse.  I found out, that it had been manufactured in England and these small structures were called summer houses.  

Well, time passed, but I never forgot my little summer house.  Then one day, this past summer we came upon another house, a vacation house that sits on a quiet lagoon in Westhampton Beach.  What a perfect place to bring my little summer house to sit on the edge of that charming lagoon, and serve as my potting shed next summer.  

I haven't gotten a chance to use it yet, as it was just brought to the site and reconstructed just as the weather was turning cold.    I dream of the summer days ahead planting flowers around it, and potting away the days with my hands in the soil and dirt under my nails...... ahh, now that's  heaven!

I'll keep you posted!

                                                                                 

                                                                                                            

WHAT'S OLD IS NEW AGAIN......

Aren't you always amazed when all of the Christmas decorations come down, how the house feels strangely empty? For approximately eleven months out of the year our homes look one way, and for a short month or so, they are decorated a different way, yet, when it all comes down it feels different.  It's during this time,  that I crave a little something new.  I stumbled upon this antique brass lantern in a design center yesterday, and instantly new that I could give it a new home in my foyer. It fits perfectly against the steep wall of the stairway. So, typically one thing leads to another......

This lamp was originally in its place..... So now.....

It sits in the dining room  window on this sweet little round table along with some chubby partridges that I keep out all year.  I love to collect chubby birds...... (I wonder what that means!)

These upholstered chairs usually sit at each head of the dining room table, but I love how they look flanking the small round table and framing the window.

 I love to create a whole new look just by changing a few things around.  It is so easy to get stuck in one look because that's the way we're use to seeing it.  It's usually after the holidays when the house feels empty that I am inspired to shake it all up and change it around.  So, if you're tired of the same old, same old...... look around and shake it all up!  Chubby Birds..... I'll save that for another post!

                                                       

                                                                  

BYE, BYE, CHRISTMAS.......

Hello!  All Shiny and New......

After spending a lovely few days celebrating the new year with family and friends out in the Hamptons, as much as I hated to leave, it was time to come home and get to work undecorating.  It is always so much more fun decorating for Christmas, but I must admit, I love the feeling of taking it all down, neatly packing it all away in their big plastic bins, and tucking them neatly downstairs until Christmas comes around again.  

When everything was neatly packed away, the vacuuming and dusting completed, it was time to put my new favorite thing to the test..... the Shark Steam Mop!  Have you seen this?  I couldn't wait to see how it worked on the hardwood floors!
It passed the test!  My floors are squeaky clean and looking all shiny and new again~ I am on a steam clean craze..... watch out everyone I'm on a roll.......