taking a dip in a serene little pond

Since we've been back from our little vacation (which I have yet to share photos of, so sorry!) I feel like I'm on a treadmill that's going a wee fast for me to stay on it comfortably!  I've had these photos of calm and soothing interiors and I've decided to put them all here in one place.  I can look at them and go to my "happy place"! LOL  I love the soft blue that these photos all share.  And, YES, it's almost like taking a dip in a secluded and serene crystal blue pond!  It's amazing to me how the color of a room can change it's feeling and YOUR FEELINGS too.  When the twins were little, we had chair rail in the family room (Before you turn away in disgust, this was about 12 years ago. Enough said).  I had the brilliant idea to paint below the chair rail a gorgeous DEEP RED called Kilim Red by Ralph Lauren.  It was pretty at the time but we quickly realized it wasn't the best idea to have red in a room with a couple of toddlers/preschoolers.  We quickly repainted it to a soothing muted sage green. Ahhh, MUCH better!

blue bird cabin



Pretty Posies and Paper Trails




Mary MacDonald



Yousef dot Com



Paper Bowls and Lemons

One last little bit of news (yes I'm going to mention Scentsy!) This month if you have a $35.00 order, I'll give you a bar of the scent of the month, SILVER BELLS! It's dreamy good!

Christmas shopping or AKA: one for you, one for me!

For some reason, this year I am totally on the ball with my Christmas shopping.  I'm not telling you that so that you send me hate mail, I swear. This is the first time ever that this has happened and YES, I am waiting for the world to stop spinning or some other cataclysmic event!  Anyway, while shopping, I've been checking out Overstock.com .  Coincidentally, Overstock.com contacted me and wants to offer a 10% DISCOUNT TO MY READERS! YAY! Isn't that the coolest? I'll post it at the end of this  They already have super low prices so this is such a COOL bonus!  I already used it and ordered my husband a London Fog wool winter coat for work!  It was a STEAL!


I do have to say though, while checking out the goodies on over there on Overstock.com, I've found all KINDS of goodies that I'd like to have for our house!  I totally would love to shop and do the "one for you, one for me!" How fun would that be!  I've totally fallen for industrial style stools and check out these
Tabouret industrial stools The other day, they were on sale for $79.00 for 2!  I want these stools so bad! I think they'd be so cool against my Dove Grey island and I like that I could slide them under the overhang when not being used. Not that I'm still not in love with my stool-bench but that was a temporary fix. And the black would compliment our black painted cabinets.


I'd also LOVE to get this old world style faucet for our powder room.  The one we have has definitely seen better days!

I'm totally in LOVE with this petite chandelier, I think it would be FABULOUS in our master bedroom redo!  It's swoon-worthy!


How about you, is your shopping done? Started?  What are you swooning over right now?


Here's the OVERSTOCK.COM DISCOUNT CODE  ?121728? Share with me the goodies you purchased with this great discount!  Thank you to Overstock.com for offering this to my Whimages friends!

One last thing, don't forget to enter to win the SCENTSY plug in warmer and scent bar from Shari over at Little Blue Deer Plus read her latest post, the photos are to die for! I don't know where she gets these great photos but the inspiration is almost overwhelming!

Bedrooms, Little Blue Deer and a Scentsy GIVE AWAY

A couple months ago, I came across a wonderful blog  called Little Blue Deer that I somehow had missed in my wanderings.  Seemingly, everyday the super design savvy Shari posted inspirational photos that practically made me fall off my chair in a SWOON.  Then through a couple emails I realized that Shari was just as FAB as her blog! Well, here's some exciting news... 
Sweet Shari from Little Blue Deer is hosting a GREAT Scentsy give away for me, so go check her out for her FABULOUS blog and enter while you are there! 

The finishing touches are sort of coming together in our yellow and grey master bedroom.  I REALLY want one of these great GHOST chairs but that's not happening anytime soon.  I LOVE the images that Shari posted today of the lovely golden hued rooms.  This pretty bedroom below is from Decorpad . 

I'll be back in a couple days or so with some FUN vacation photos!

Warm Neutrals

Hi there!  It's Shari here from Little Blue Deer!  I am so happy to be guest posting for Robyn while she is off on her much-deserved vacation to Disney!  I live in Savannah, where we have been experiencing record warm temperatures this week, which has left me pining for fall, so I am sharing some gorgeous fall neutrals with you!  Hope everyone has the most fabulous Halloweekend!  If you like what you see, be sure to stop by and visit me at Little Blue Deer!  

Guest Blogger...Vinyl LOVE!

Hey guys, my name is Missy

 and I'm hopping over from My Cottage Charm to do a guest post for Robyn, so she can spend some time with her family.

So here we go!

I got a Cricut not long ago, but

I also just recently bought some software to go with it

so I don't have to buy cartridges anymore!

(unless I just find one that's to die for....which could be next Thursday knowing me!)

:0)

The software is called Sure Cuts a Lot 2,

if any of you are interested

in knowing what it is.  You can take images from the internet

or scan them into your computer and load them on this software. 

You just buy a usb cable to hook up to your cricut and tell it

to cut from your computer......

OH the ENDLESS possibilities!!

Anywho~!... I decided to go beyond paper cutting and

went straight into the world of vinyl!

(and can I tell you I am totally addicted!)

This is my first project.....

I took my boring little cream colored lamp shade and

turned it into this.....

Now it's my, oooh la la, monogrammed lampshade!

I just LOVE it!

See how the light just glows from behind the lettering?!

Oh happy day!

Seeing as this was my first attempt at

vinyl, I wasn't too sure

about it sticking onto a fabric

lamp shade, but it's held on just fine!

I am addicted now....is there a vinyl anonymous out there?

Since my lampshades, I now have monograms in vinyl on

my phone and laptop and have several more things

waiting to be cut!

:0)

Addicted I tell ya!

Thanks for checking out my newest project

and for letting me pretend to be Robyn for a little bit!

:)

Have you guys been doing anything new?

HUGS!

Missy

door knobs and a winner!

I have a little secret. SHhhhhh.  I'm going to share it with you but don't tell anyone, okay?  Here it goes...I'm more than a little in love with glass and Chrystal door knobs!  I wish my whole house had them!  I do have one on my pantry door and we all know that booger gets opened a million times a day.

We are STILL working on our bedroom, so no reveal yet. You know the bedroom I've talked about ad nauseum here and here and here  and a couple other places too. BUT it is painted the LOVELY twilight grey by Behr.  And we do have glossy white crown molding now. PLUS, Matt put these two FABULOUS old Chrystal door knobs up as curtain tie backs!  He hid the bolt with grey conduit pipe! He's a clever fella!  I think they are so pretty but I can't decide if they should have the ribbon or not have it.  WHAT DO YOU THINK?  I originally wanted grey velvet but I haven't been able to find any.

Almost forgot, I hope you ALL went over to My Sweet Savannah's and put your name in to win.  Melaine picked a winner for my SCENTSY  give away. Congratulaions super sweet MEG from Instead Of Sheep.  Go check out her blog and I'm LOVIN' the font in her title. It's charming just like the blog!  Meg won a  SCENTSY wall plug in and 2 scent bars from my site.  You may not have won but you CAN still take advantage of the October promo I'm having until 6:00 tonight est.  If you spend $50.00 I'll GIVE YOU A FREE PLUG IN WALL WARMER! Whoooo Hooo!  So buy a couple gifts for people on that long list you have and give yourself one for free, whooooopeeee. 

Scentsy Upgrade

I thought I should let you know that on SUNDAY, the super SWEET Melaine of My Sweet Savannah, is hosting a GREAT Scentsy giveaway.   Melaine is just about the sweetest blogger with the most inspirational site that you'd ever want to visit.  She's super busy doing a market this weekend but on SUNDAY, she's doing my FUN GIVE AWAY!  The prize is a PLUGIN warmer of your choice and whichever 2 scent bars you choose!  We were going to do it today but the SCENTSY site is down today and tomorrow for a cool upgrade.

So the door to the Scentsy site (including mine) won't open today or tomorrow but will re-open Sunday!

Don't forget I have an AWESOME OCTOBER promotion, if you spend $50.00 I will GIVE you a plugin and scent bar!  It's only going to run from Sunday till Wednesday the 27th.  I'll be out of town after that.  So if you want some FREE goodies, here's your LAST chance to get that 20 dollar value FREE!  Come on back on Sunday and CHECK out MY SWEET SAVANNAH's GREAT GIVE AWAY!

Displaying photos

First off, pretend these photos are straight and dusted. Okay, thanks.  Now, this is one of the photo walls in my family room. The other is in the reading nook.  FUNKY JUNK Interiors is having FRAMES as her Saturday night special, I'm a bit late to the party. I hope that's okay!  I wanted to show you mine and then a couple others.  EVERYONE has some great ideas at the party, so check it out!  Most of the photos on the chest don't count because they are on canvases without frames but I love them still! ;-)  One of my favorite frames are the "floating" frames where the photo floats between two pieces of glass and the wall color makes the matt around the photo...mine are from Target. I heart Target....sigh.

This middle shot is from Southern Living and is a GREAT example of how to do a picture wall and see if you'll like what you have before you commit by putting nails in the wall!  The last one is so stark and graphic and I LOVE it a lot.

That black chest has been with us since before we married.  Everyday on the way to work when I was younger, I'd pass this little antique shop.  One morning the elderly owner was dragging this chest outside to put it on display in front.  I slammed on the breaks (well there was a RED light too) and then quickly turned into the 2 car parking lot.  He was asking $100.00 which I did NOT have so I begged him to hold it till the end of the day.  I went to work and begged my DAD to spot me the money!  I loved it that much!  It's been with us ever since that very night.  We have been married 17 1/2  years and I got it the year before we were engaged.  It's been all over our house and even used as the changing table (with a pad on it ) for all three children.  I still love it!

By the way, you may notice that pretty little Scentsy warmer on the chest. Right now it smells deliciously like

warm, freshly baked cranberry muffins. Mmmm.  Don't forget I have a SCENTSY special for October.  If you spend $50.00 I will give YOU a FREE wall plug in and a scent bar!  That's a $20.00 value, so you can buy a couple presents for the holidays and GET SOMETHING FUN FOR YOURSELF!

LOOK for another SCENTSY give away, this time on FRIDAY AT My Sweet Savannah!  Melaine was so SWEET as usual and is going to do a give away for Whimages on her FABULOUS BLOG!  Don't forget to check it out on FRIDAY!

Goodies from NOUN

I am blessed to have a sweet neighbor and dear friend just a few houses down named Julie.  Julie is often my junking/antiquing partner and is just about the best cook I know.  If Julie sends you something she made, you KNOW you will love it and devour every delicious morsel.  Julie just happens to have a sister who happens to have a FABULOUS, incredible, unique and lovingly put together store in Portland Oregon called NOUN .  It's a "persons place for things".  This incredible boutique is owned by the obviously ultra talented Stephanie Sheldon and her husband Thomas.  With out fail, if I fall in love with something Julie has on or has artistically styled ( BECAUSE this MOMMA has got some design talent all her own!) in her home, it often has come from Stephanie or NOUN .  Stephanie has her own popular little place on the web called GRAMMAR GIRL.  I'm telling you all of this because just recently sweet little Julie hopped on a plane and flew across the country to spend time with her sister.  Sisterhood ROCKS!  While there, Julie did a little NOUN shopping for me.  Before I get to that, I'd like to share a little more about the store.  Imagine walking into this wonderful, whimsical little world called NOUN , and everywhere you look there are wonderful treasures to behold that each have a story, or carry the nicks and bumps that go along with having lived a loved and good life.  There are
also trinkets and art from local artists that you can't get anywhere else!  In addition, amongst all of this GLORY, you catch a whiff of something delectable.  Sniff, SNIFF.  "mmmm, is that CUPCAKES, I smell" you wonder to yourself.  The renowned Saint Cupcake has a satellite store RIGHT THERE IN NOUN!  I think I would  feel like I'd just died and gone to the perfect shopping girls heaven. Re-newed and re-loved goodies and CUPCAKES all in the same happy store!

 About my Noun goodies, I couldn't wait for Julie to get back from her trip, not just only to see her happy face but to see what she brought back for Whimages~!  As you may know, we recently purchased a new OLD beat up industrial cart, aka: a coffee table.  I'm looking around for the perfect tray, or box or antique wire basket (what I really really want) to live on top of it and corral junk. Which is actually remotes and magazines and the kids empty boxes of gum and wrappers that they don't think I see.  Well, in the mean time Julie brought me back this DELIGHTFUL apple green divided bowl that Stephanie got at an estate sale. SCORE no. 1  She also got

this SWEET little piece of ceramic painted bird art that can be used as a coaster or art OR both!  Score no. 2 Julie was a little worried about bird overload but I've been doing birds before birds were the thing.  In fact I wanted to be an ornithologist and go to Cornell but then I realized math may be involved and my dream slipped away like a puff of smoke.  Back to the Noun goods...she
also brought back this FABULOUS AND INCREDIBLE piece of fabric collage art that I want to marry because I love it so much.  It's so pretty and is stretched on a lovely canvas and SIGNED by the ARTIST, Anna Joyce! Score no. 3!  GO ME!  I'm a lucky lady to have friends like this!  I don't do a lot of fall decorating but little Miss red breast is JUST perfect for anytime of year!  BTW, pretend those smudges on the mirror are not there, okay. Thanks.

For some behind the scenes action...This morning while photographing my NOUN lovelies, this  scene unfolded in front of the fireplace.  I love Peyton's completely WILD mane of hair in the morning!  I also LOVE how my doggies just LOVE my kids!

What are YOU loving right now?

Have you SEEN THIS? GAWWWWSH....oh me oh my!

October/November Lonnymag.com


You simply MUST click to make it larger!  FABULOUS LITTLE DETAILS!  Thank you Susan from Shandells for pointing it out!  I'm so in LUST with Eddie's lamp shades, that I want to redo my dining room!  ...and the gold details, and THAT PHEASANT!  You know with my Delft blue walls I might be able to pull this off!  I NEED E and J tell me what they think! LOL

And the winner is...

RANDOM.ORG - Integer Widget

I do not know why on this green EARTH, I can't figure out HOW to post that random picker thingy.  So you have to take my word for it. ;+)  But I'm nothing if I'm not honest! 

THE WINNER IS.... (drum roll please from my husband)


#42 Kristy from SoSoBella!  

YaY, WoooHOOOOO, yippee, (picture confetti and streamers here)

The website is Our Scentsy Site so you can pick out your goodies!

I'm so excited for you!  Send me an email and robynlbedsaul@gmail.com and tell me which PLUGIN and which scenty bar you choose! Yay!

Later today I'm going to post about the uber fab store NOUN and some FUN goodies I got from there.  It's ACROSS the country but I'll tell you how I got them!  Stephanie from NOUN shares space with St. Cupcake...mmmmm!

Here's a random pic, 'cause you need one with a blog post, right?

Here's Ms. Macy Mae looking all DIVALICIOUS!  I love this girl! Sometimes we even put bright pink lipstick on that pretty pouty bottom lip. She thinks she's so GAWWWGEOUS!

Flea Market Finds Friday

 Whenever I have a collection of something, I like to use the ODD NUMBER RULE.  Many things in life look nice to us when they are symetrical.  There are studies that show that babies prefer peoples faces that are symetrical.  Luckily this doesn't usually apply in design.  It is usually better to have 1,3,5 or 7 of a grouping, making it visually more pleasing to the eye.  Of course this gives you a GREAT big EXCUSE to buy more than one of something but we won't go there!

 Ever since I saw a friends collection of antique alarm clocks a few years ago, I've been dying to get my own.  There is something whimsical about them but still really graphic.  I also love to think of  who these clocks may have woken for many years!  The clock on the left is 125 years old!  That's a little of bleary-eyed mornings!  The one on the far right is just from the 40's but I love it's very graphic face.  They are all set to 5 because that's our family number and as the saying goes, "It's 5 o'clock somewhere!".

I've finally given up summer and have embraced FALL with a few goodies here and there.  Fall flowers are fun to display.   I have admired this BROWN canning jar forever at my favorite little antique/junk shop for about a YEAR.  BOB set it aside for me so that one day I could get it.  He let me borrow it for my GIRLS NIGHT IN  (WITH THE HUGE SCENTSY GIVEAWAY) last week because I LOVE the color of it and thought it went great with the grocery store flowers I bought.  Incidentally, in the pic, they are a week old, so I went through and re-arranged them and took out the tired

blooms.  I actually like this looser arrangement!  Sorry for the poor pic, that's what happens when you take your blog photos at 6 in the morning!  I'm really going to have a hard time giving it back.  But it's okay, I have it on lay away!  Bob says he has a whole "Robyn Shelf" that you can look at but you can't buy because he's saving it for me!  That's a good friend!

I also have been slowly collecting these plates for the dining room. They are all also from BOB . The collection is not quite done.  I REALLY want an oblong platter to put above the mirror but I couldn't wait any longer and I had to get them hung!  I LOVE the "grill" plates at the bottom.  They are in the A and B pattern of blue willow but are actually RESTAURANT WARE. How cool is that!  That's why they are divided.  It's not like they are very rare but I love them.  I also have a brown transferware one in my foyer that's divided AND has the restaurants name on it!   

These are a few of the acquistions from recent trips to the flea or antique market.  Sometimes it's difficult being patient to finish a collection (if a collection can ever really be finished!) but it's worth the wait!

 Don't forget the SCENTSY GIVE AWAY in the last post! It's a GOOD one and it ends on Sunday.

By the way, you may notice those pillows in the built in that I talked about in the "pillow post" recently.  I'm really loving the fluffy cream round one with the stark lines of the gingerbread brown with the ric rac.  It makes me think of Christmas cookies! ...always dessert on the mind!

Hey, go check out all the pretty fall goodies at the link party at TWIG!

Pillow Problems and Scentsy Parties!

CHECK BACK LATER TODAY FOR A BIG SCENTSY GIVE AWAY!!!!! YOU do NOT want to miss this! Whimages is now a SCENTSY representative!

 I have a total love hate relationship with Pier 1 and parties.  It NEVER fails that just a few months after I pay off my Pier 1 credit card, a.The pillows I currently have have been washed 2 too many times and I need new ones or b. I'm having some kind of party and  need some kind of stuff  often involving pillows. Pillows are like like the icing on the cake of decor! Speaking of icing...that top pillow is a new LOVE and it reminds me of gingerbread cookies with sweet royal icing, perfect for the holidays, and NO calories!

 This chair and PILLOW are from the perfect PIER PLACE and I've had them several months. STILL LOVIN' THEM!

 The fuzzy cocoa brown pillow is also from Pier 1 and the DELIGHTFUL birdie pillow that I have some weird  and probably unhealthy attachment to that forbids my children from touching it is from Target.

 LAST but not least, this wonderful little FLUFF of LOVE (that is a bit camera shy and didn't show up well) is SO VERY soft that you find yourself touching it and petting it for no reason. It is so SQUISHY-SQUASHY! I kid you not, handsome husband, who has PLENTY of testosterone and showed PLENTY of it during that WILD RAVEN VS. Steelers game, fell asleep on the couch cuddling it like his favorite childhood stuffed animal. I. Will. Hunt. You. Down. If. You. Tell. His. Friends. I. Told. You. That. I believe that is one little tidbit we shall keep amongst ourselves, okay?  I'm linking this to the Saturday Night Special party over at Funky Junk where you may find other pillow obsessed individuals!

On Friday, I had some girlfriends over for a little girls night in.  That little party MAY have involved Cotton Canditinis, Pomtinis and Green Appletinis.  It also definitely involved SCENTSY. (BTW, Callie has a Scentsy plug-in in her room as a nightlight with the scent called Sugar, mmmm, her room ALWAYS smells like yummy cotton candy!) I fell so deeply in love with the plug in I won from The Lettered Cottage that I decided to share the love and have a party.) I LOVED the party so much I decided to share the fun and have WHIMAGES join SCENTSY as a representative!  WHOO HOO!  So if you decide that you'd like to have some of  THIS FABULOUS SCENTED GOODNESS let me know at robynlbedsaul@gmail.com!  THEY are fabulous, wonderful and economical gifts for the holidays!  My party will be open till about lunch time on Monday, here's the link, Scentsy Party .  I REALLY love the combo packs where you get a warming unit of various sizes and 3 different scents or a full size, a plug-in and 3 or 6 different scents, it saves you BIG money and you can keep one and give one as a gift! Isn't that a fun way to shop? One for you, one for me! ;-) The scents last 80 hours!  Believe the hype by the way...I'm DEEP in love with my goodies and my husband or kids will turn them on if they are not already on!  Obviously the entire family loves it! That's COOL!
Please note, while proof reading this, which I'm not very good at by the way, I see that it is more than obvious that if you did not know I have a sweet tooth, it is very evident now! I mentioned sweet things like a bazillion times.  Bye, sweeties!

Yellow and Grey...a prelude

I'm blogging from far off exotic places today!  Two wonderful places in Italy!  Oh, if I could only ACTUALLY be there...

Welcome friends old and NEW!  Two fabulous blog friends have asked me to guest post for them. Zaira is from Italy and is a lovely girl who's posts are always filled with inspiration!  Eri is from Farara, Italy and is a sweet and lovely girl that also inspires me and lifts my spirits with every post!

I have a blog that is as RANDOM as I am, called Whimages...the blog .  I'd love for you to visit me because I love meeting new people!  It's taken me forever to figure out a post that would do both of them justice because I love these girls.  I don't know if this post gives it to them but it's all I could come up with!

You may remember that several months back I was gloriously lucky enough to win a fabulous Annette Tatum duvet cover.  Matt and I chose the Brocade Pearl pattern which is a lovely soft dove grey brocade on one side and a sweet whipped butter yellow stripe on the other.  Matt has been busy painting our room a fabulous grey and putting up glossy white crown molding.  As a prelude to the reveal, which will still be a bit away, I thought I may tease you with some fabulous rooms in this color scheme.  Oh, and by the way, Houzz has announced that grey and yellow is passe', however I've had sweet whipped butter walls in my foyer and kitchen for about 14 years. So Psssmph! And I do mean that in the most pleasant way because HOUZZ is so very near and DEAR to my heart!



unknown source ...but I LOVE this room!



unknown source...looks so Swedish Clean!

photo from Habitually Chic

Cayla's Corner

unknown source