Blog Love - Dreamy Whites

I want to know...How do I make my house look like Maria's? Maria of Dreamy Whites, that is. If you've never visited her beautiful blog before, now is the time to make yourself a cup of tea and settle into a cozy spot for a few hours of delightful reading and eye candy!



Sometimes my own house seems so dark and not very fresh, and I'm dying to make it look and feel radiantly bright without making it feel sterile. Maria has figured how to do that and I just love her style!



Ahhhh...there is that blue that I love so much. Lately I've been second guessing my decision to introduce this color to my own home, but when I see photos like this of Maria's blue cupboard, I fall in love with it all over again!


See her use of pink in the peonies and green in the chairs {and the green in the first bedroom photo}? Soft pops of color like this is what make her mostly white home work...


And oh my goodness! This is her daughter's bedroom! Can you believe she found those beds for just $100 for both of them together? My girls don't have headboards yet because I'm just waiting to find a pair of gorgeous beds like these!


A charming mantel vignette... I love how the flowers here look just like the flower pillows in the photo above.


And a different mantel vignette using more green. Her entire living room lives up to her blog name - DREAMY!


I've been worried about how softer colors might look with my red cabinets, but Maria successfully uses both colors in her home. Check out the red in the french linen table runner - and the red used in the toss pillows on the bed {again in the first photo}.





And another thing that I learned while reading Maria's blog? She lives in a newer triple wide modular home. That just goes to show you that you don't have to live in a hundred year old farm house to make it look like you do! So enjoy your visit with Maria at Dreamy Whites...I know I did!

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This Saturday I had the privilege of spending the afternoon with Layla of The Lettered Cottage and Rhoda of Southern Hospitality! We went junking at the the Nashville Flea Market and what fun! My camera battery died very early in the day and I didn't get tons of photos, but I'll share them with you soon. In the meantime, check out Layla's flea market post as well as and Rhoda's! {P.S. Wow, that peasant top and skirt I wore on Saturday added about 15 pounds! I hate how some outfits look better in the mirror than in reality, lol! Ah, but I think I would have worn a feedbag just to have an opportunity to hang out with those two creative gals!}

Flights of Fancy and A Fun Online Yardsale

{Me...dreaming about not being responsible...}
I would like to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart for all the love and heartfelt messages left for me and my family regarding the passing of our dear dog, Cara Bella. So many of you have been there yourselves or are nearing that dreaded time - and you are right - it is just unbelievably hard to part with these sweet ones that have brought us so much joy. Please know how much your comments mean to me and how I wish none of you ever had to experience this kind of loss.

On a much lighter note, here at home we've survived school shopping, the first full week of school, and three different class orientations. Can I tell you something? I dread back-to-school time! On one hand, I welcome a few hours of quiet here at home every

Wouldn't it be so nice if we could just throw responsibilities to the wind and tuck ourselves away in some quiet, magical place where life demands nothing of us but the reading of a good book followed by a nap?

day, but on the other hand, mannnnnn, I hate being on a schedule and routine is such a dirty word to me! Getting up {on time} between 5:15-5:30 am everyday, making breakfasts and lunches, shuffling groggy kids out the door {on time}, getting the three of them to two different destinations {on time}, and picking them up from two different locations {on time}...it never seems to end! I would never survive in the real world, would I? I know, I know - it's what responsible grownups do and I would be perfectly fine with it all if it weren't so darned scheduled and the same everyday. It is this time of year, between homework and making dinners and doing laundry and turning off that annoying alarm clock that I start to feel really flighty. No, not abandon my life as I know it kind of flighty {ok, maybe just a little}, but Wouldn't it be so nice if we could just throw responsibilities to the wind, and tuck ourselves away in some quiet, magical place where life demands nothing of us but the reading of a good book followed by a nap kind of flighty. I realize that summer break just now ended about two seconds ago, but a girl can keep dreaming, right?

Speaking of flying away to some dreamy nest, have you ever seen Sandra Foster's {My Shabby Streamside Studio} cozy little 8 X 14 Victorian cottage in the Catskills? Oh, it's so sweet, you'll want to take a bite! Here are a few tempting photos, but please visit Sandra at her blog to learn more about her tiny, charming retreat and to see more delicious photos. *sigh*



















Great. I'm feeling flighty again!

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But before any of us "take off", you should know that our dear Deborah at The Fairfield House is hosting a very creative link party this month - August 14th through 21st. If you love having or shopping at yard sales head over to her place for the Neverending Cyber Highway Yard Sale! This is your chance to either host your own online yard sale and link up to her party or enjoy browsing all the other participating blog sales. It was my intention to join up by having a blog sale here at Twice Remembered, but I forgot about how busy the first couple of weeks of August are for me with the dreaded going back to school activity. I might still be able to join later in the week...we will see! I know Deborah has worked really hard in pulling this together and I think it's a fabulous idea!