8th OY!! VEY!! Q&A Tuesday!!!

Welcome to the 8th Q&A part of OY!! VEY!! Q&A Tuesday!!!

This is how it works.....

On the first Tuesday of the month

You ask some design questions,

and I answer them for FREE!!!!

Just remember-----

YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR.

(Just sayin')

So ask your question at the end of this blog post.

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Today I am going to stroll back down

Memory Lane

and show you guys the cabin that 

put me on the map!!!!!!! 
The following pictures are from Traditional Home Magazine, that I scanned into my computer, which is why the images are crappy.....

This was my tiny cabin on

 Lake Sunapee in New Hampshire.

When I first bought it, it tried to kill me.

I'm not kidding!!!!!

The first summer I lived there!!! 

first I got giardia.......

according to Wikipedia.....

Giardia lives inside the intestines of infected humans or other animals. Individuals become infected through ingesting or coming into contact with contaminated food, soil, or water. The Giardia parasite originates from contaminated items and surfaces that have been tainted by the feces of an infected animal.^[3]

The symptoms of Giardia, which may begin to appear 2 days after infection, include violent diarrhea, excess gas, stomach or abdominal cramps, upset stomach, and nausea..........

Up heah, in the north, we also call it

BEAVER FEVER

because beavers can be carriers, and they infect the water.

DON'T DRINK THE WATER 

FROM THE

 SHALLOW PART OT THE LAKE!!!!!

Which is what I did.......

Sunapee is a class A lake, which means the water is reservoir quality.

But don't drink the shallow water.

so one of the first things I did was put in an atesian well!!!!! 

THEN.....

I slipped on the wet stairs running down the outside of my cabin and broke my coccyx.

It's seemed like anything associated with my tush was sore.
I gots to tell ya,
there's something to say about the pain of a lower GI
when one is recovering from a broken tailbone.
OWCH!!!!
BUT I owned this little slice of heaven for 17 years.....
and we learned to care for each other.
I certainly threw enough money at it.....

It was perched on the steep windward side of the lake

, 
looking west over Mt. Sunapee.
THE SUNSETS 
WERE
GLORIOUS!!!!

and even on the hottest of days, there seemed to be a breeze.

(I had to use the collage part of PicMonkey to put pictures that were a double spread into one shot...)
(Oh, the problems of being a published designer)
 (sigh...)
This was the way I set up the living room the first couple of years I had the joint.
Unfortunately, I don't have any shots of how it ended up.
IT HAD CABBAGE ROSES OF COURSE!!!!
And draperies.
That were made out of cabbage roses!!!!!
I used the same fabric that I used on a cape code showhouse.
I blew up a detail of the fabric from 
ANOTHER
Trad Ho story of that showhouse room, 
which I will share more of sometime!!!

This was the story that caused Steven Tyler and his wife Teresa, to give me a call.
They had a house across and down the lake.

We were BOTH way younger then!!!!!
(That's me on the left.....)
This cabin also brought me to the attention of one of the guys who started Nike.
So.....
this little house acted as my design 
PIMP!!!!


I  realized I didn't share that much, but it's dinner time, and if I don't cook it, it won't get cooked.

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Now for this months Q&A

This is a question and answer party!!!!!

Only questions, please you guys. 

If it isn't a question, I'm taking the @#$ link down.

 link up to the "party" by linking a particular post's url, add your question to the end of your post with a link back to my blog. My button is on my sidebar. 

It looks just like a button!!

For those of you who don't have a blog, you can email pictures with questions.

email me at:  betsyspeert@gmail.com.

If you just have a question, with no pictures, leave it in the comment area, below.

IN ORDER TO GET AN ANSWER, YOU GUYS BETTER BE A FOLLOWER!!!!!

It's easy, just click on the blue box at the right; over the pictures of my members.

I would also love it if you became a subscriber.

I will then post your pictures with my suggestions and answers on the following Tuesday.

I may not be able to answer all the questions.

If there are a lot of them, I will choose the ones most likely to interest the other folks in the class.

So link up below!!!!!

Click  "Click here to enter"

Latah Gatah

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Fake Hydrangeas Rule Big Time!!

I think this may be the last post on this room.

I say "may" because I've been known to add more posts on a space 

AFTER

I think I'm done......

Sooooooo.....

Today I want to talk about how I filled in the empty area at the end of my living room.

I had a pair of French wire zinc urns

 that I had used in a vignette

 at the Boston Flower Show 

a gazillion years ago.

It was like a mini decorator showhouse.

It was invitation only.

Only the top designers were asked to participate.

I AM VERY SNOOTY!!!!!

Anyway, 

(where was I????, oh yeah, the urns.....)

So I got this pair of urns,

And for the display I filled them with lemons.

Tres Chic!!!!!

Well in my house, I don't do chic, so I had to come up with something else!!!

So when I lived in Watertown, I stuck them in my backyard in my perennial flower beds.

I planted annuals in them.

The squirrels kept knocking them over, 'cuz they were hiding their

 nuts in the dirt, and the damn things would fall over.

But I loved my squirrels, so I suffered through the design indignity of it all.

(I had actually trained them

 to eat out of my hands,

 but that's a whole 'nother story!!!!)

(The squirrels, not the urns. Urns can't eat...jesh!)

(WHERE WAS I????)

(Oh, yeah, decorating.....)

So when I moved to my condo, I had this pair of URNS!!!

What to do with them????

I had been to Restoration Hardware, which is known for having some 

BANGIN' GREAT FAKE FLOWERS!!!!

They had 

WONDERFUL

silk hydrangeas. 

SO I BOUGHT A BUNCH, NOT KNOWING WHERE THEY WOULD GO, OR HOW I WOULD USE THEM!!!!!

So, 

I stuck them in the wire urns.

They looked 

fabulous!!!!!

But I couldn't see them, 'cuz they was sittin' on the floor.

I set one on a little table in front of one of the windows, 

AND LOVED IT!!!

So I realized, I needed to find a pair of 

pedestals!!!!!

So of course!!!!!

I looked on ebay!!!!!

I knew I wanted unpainted wood, because they would flank the painted blue bookcase, and I wanted the contrast.

I am so happy with the pair I found.

I love the impact they make on the room.

And the urns looked great once I washed the squirrel dirt off them!!!

I do have a weakness for flowers in trumpet shaped objects.

I found this yellow vase in my wanderings.

Was going to sell it, but it got stuck in my house.

It mysteriously got too big to fit back out the door.

So

unfortunately

I had to keep it.....

It sits by my front door, and rests on the table that holds my ipod.

It can be glimpsed from the living room.....

I filled it full of fake flowers that I found in Flerida.

I stuffed packed them in my carry on when I came back up to Massachusetts.

Talk about a gorgeous fake!!!!!

I had to buy them, even though I didn't have a good place to display them.

White flowers actually look better in this vase, 

but sometimes you gots to go with what 

makes your heart 

sing!!!!!

Later Gator

Partying at:

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Toss Pillows are DA BOMB!!!

Class.....

Today's lesson is about the importance of

TOSS PILLOWS

A room without toss pillows, is like an outfit without accessories.

It may be very nice, 

But dere ain't no WOW factor!!!!!

Let us examine my living room.......

Now here's the room without the pillows or sofa throw....

Here's more of an overview without any pillows.....

When I got to this point on my living room design, 

my neighbors didn't understand me when I told them....

it wasn't ready for publication, because the last layer hadn't been done.

It needed toss pillows!!!!

From this.....

To this.....

from this.....

to this.....

It's important to bring color and pattern up onto the upholstery pieces, especially if you're going to a white slipcover look.

Otherwise, you'll end up with a cold and sterile (sort of) environment!

Throws over the back of the sofa are a nice way to bring in some color, and they serve a purpose for those colder days.

So let me take you on a tour of

 the pillows 

that I made with my very own 

little

hands!!!!!

First up!!!!!

I made the blue ones with little roses from a quilted flowered throw that I bought at the Christmas Tree Shop.

For those of you who live in other parts of the country, and don't know the joys of a

truly amazing BARGAIN!!!!!!!

The Christmas Tree Shop is not just a store that sells stuff for Christmas,

OTHERWISE.....

I would be a very sad little Jew!!!!

It's open ALL YEAR!!!

(yippee!!!!)

And it sells anything and EVERYTHING!!!!!

I liked the color and the pattern was a good scale. 

I wanted a smaller scale rose, to act as a foil against my big cabbage rose fabric.

(don'tcha know?????)

I sewed a second row of stitches 1 1/2" in from the outside seam to create a flange around the perimeter of the pillow.

Because of the thickness of the quilting, it created an really nice detail.....

The pillow in front of it was made from a scrape of the cabbage rose fabric inset inside a frame of decorative tape.

I already had the pillow made from before. It was just the white with the green trim.

SO TO BE VERRRRRY CLEVER!!!!!

I appliqued the rose fabric onto the white fabric, without even taking the cover off the pillow......

I still need to sew this pillow.....,

Right now, all I have is the fabric wrapped around an uncovered pillow form.

Maybe I'll get to it this year.....

It depends on whether or not my house will be photographed for a magazine.

I swear, the only way I ever get one of my houses completed, is to meet a  

publishing photo deadline.

It's kind of like.....inviting folks over to visit, just to force yourself to clean the house!!!!!

I made two other pillows using some left over trim from an old job.

I box pleated the tape to create a tailored ruffle effect.....

And lastly........

These two were created for a show house I did 

ages and ages and ages

ago.....

The R&R stands for 

Rest and Relaxation.

It was a show house on Cape Cod

I designed the needle point!!!!

and needle pointed the canvas!!!!!

But had my buddies at Drape It sew the pillows for me.

This was before I bought a sewing machine 

that didn't have a fit about its tension 

every time I tried to sew something!!!!

So, that's my pillow tutorial today students.

Don't forget to do your homework!!!!!

I want you to write 400 times in your notebook.....

TOSS PILLOWS ARE DA BOMB!!!!

Later Gator

Partying at:

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