Thursday, February 26, 2009

FRENCH COUNTRY HOME

I know I posted this on Thursday, but I would like to direct everyones attention to Hooked on Houses Friday feature where we all post about what we are "hooked" on this week . I am definitely "hooked" on this house
that we saw on Multiple Listing Tour yesterday. I am so ga ga over this house I cannot even see straight. The pictures are from Realtor.com and do not in any way portray the gracious splendor of this house nor the attention to detail. It is as if Charles Faudree, Pierre Deux ( I know he is a company, not a person) and Ralph Lauren sat down and put this house together over some wine and cheese. Definitely not Miller Lite and Lil Smokies!

Entrance

Details of millwork
In case you missed it...LOL

Living Room
Dining Room
The most darling powder room!

Family room...part 1
Part 2, what a shame the fireplace has never been used.
Entrance to the basement "work out room" Love that color blue and the distressing

Perfect guest room...so very soothing and lavender scented..happy dreams mon cheries

Edited to add: The house is in Wrentham Massachusetts and is listed for $839,900. Please feel free to call me for any showings!

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

ROOM MAKEOVER WITH STEPHEN SAINT- ONGE

I just got an e-mail from Better Homes and Gardens asking me to promote their Room Makeover Contest with the winner receiving a room makeover by none other than the great Stephen Saint-Onge. I love his work, very fresh and modern but also very traditional. A great look for any home. If you would like to learn more about the contest check out this link BHG.com/savemyroom. You could win the makeover and have your room featured in the November issue of Better Homes and Gardens and on the BHG website. Wouldn't that be a great way to wow your Thanksgiving guests!

Later,
Janet

PS. Thanks for the offers of Faebook friendship. You can find me at Janet Bishop-Magina

Monday, February 23, 2009

FACEBOOK

I am joining the 21st Century, kicking and screaming all the way. My Real Estate office is encouraging everyone to join Facebook as a way of networking and I am clueless. I have joined, but find it rather humiliating to send requests to my children to "become their friend" or ask them to be my friend. What if they say "no"???? Just a thought. Once I get friends..I have 2 already (aren't you impressed ?) I have no idea how I am supposed to go about networking with them. Any clues? Think I will go buy some nice wine...OK, cheap wine, but with a nice bouquet and good legs.

Later,
Janet

Thursday, February 19, 2009

HEADER

I changed my header because I just couldn't stand that snowy picture one more day. I have had it with snow and bad weather and I am way more than ready for spring. When will it be here??? This is New England so it could be a couple of months away, but have I mentioned that I. am. ready??

For Christmas our boys got together and got us a flat screen TV....32" of flat screen TV. I went kicking and screaming into the latest technology ( complete with DVR), and I had to rearrange my Living Room to accommodate the change, but I am finally OK with it. I bought that new russet/brick color wing chair to fill in the corner where the former TV in an old oak Army locker was. No one seemed to understand that I needed height in that corner. Why do men just not get that whole height, scale, visual weight thing? They just laugh hysterically at me. Ahhh...life in the Testosterone Temple.

Later,
Janet

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

FRUGAL VS SPENDTHRIFT


I grew up with very thrifty parents. My mother came from a middle class background, her father being a postal employee and later the Postmaster of Montpelier Vermont. My Dad was raised by foster families in Northern Maine. Both were born in 1917 and came of age during the Great Depression so I guess being frugal just comes naturally to them. Growing up we had the Helene Curtis Shampoo with Egg pictured above, but my Mother always cut it with water so we didn't waste it. Regular milk was cut with powdered milk and I rarely remember having orange juice unless it was at someones house. When our towels got frayed the edges were cut off and re-hemmed. My mother made most of my clothes and I longed for store bought clothes like my friends had. My Dad had a variety of jobs as I grew up and he worked very hard to make sure that my brother and I had everything that he didn't have as a child, especially stability and a sense that we were loved unconditionally.

I bring this background up because in these trying times people are turning to thrift to help save some money and to give them a feeling of doing something to stave off the uncertainty. Since spending the last couple of months donating tens of thousands of dollars of clothes and home goods to charity I am even more aware of not spending on unnecessary items. I have always loved to shop, but I don't part with money easily. I love to look and look and touch. I am a very tactile shopper, but now I go into my favorite shops and I look and look, but the temptation to buy is not there. Then I received the MacKenzie Child catalog and I was appalled. I love all their wares and I know they are expensive because they are mostly hand painted, not mass produced in China. But who in the world would pay $325. for a MacKenzie Child charcoal grill? It appears to be a less than $100 Weber grill with the lovely Courtly Check pattern. People...charcoal grills sit out in bad weather ( I know, mine is out on the snowy deck as we "speak"), they are meant to get dirty. Yes, you can wipe off the outside to keep some of the crud at bay, but this is the ultimate guilt inducing grill. It just boggles my mind!



Okay, done now! Later I will tell you how I spent virtually the same amount of money but got something that will last for years and years as long as the cats keep their little claws out of it, and it looks so good in my Living Room.

Later,
Janet

PS. Thanks to Andrea for remembering Desert Flower, now I can rest peacefully until I try to remember something else that just eludes me. Sad to say it happens fairly often these days.

PPS. Please don't feel sorry for me and take up a collection to buy me the grill...I love my yucky old black, non-guilt inducing one just fine!

Monday, February 16, 2009

YOUR ASSISTANCE, PLEASE


Okay girls, those of you of a certain age will certainly remember Jean Nate and that crisp summery fragrance that we splashed on after a bath. You can smell it now, can't you? I am thinking 1967 give or take a year or two. About the same time there was another line of products ie: lotions, powders etc that was pink and I didn't like the smell at all. I thought it was called Desert Rose, but I can't find anything to verify that and it is making me crazy. Does this happen to any of you...your mind just becomes a giant sieve when you need to retrieve something oh so important, like the name of a lotion that you didn't even like forty plus years ago? If you think of the name of it please let me know. Barring that I am sure my mother still has some in the back of the bathroom closet and to answer your next question...no my MIL did not have any. Her ten tons of lotions, potions and powders were much newer, thank you very much.

Later,
Janet

PS. I did find some Tweed bath powder at the MIL's and that was another scent that never did much for me.

Friday, February 13, 2009

CLEAN BILL

I went to the Doc's for a follow up yesterday and I guess I am as good as I am going to be. My finger still "triggers" occasionally, but I am not in pain any longer. My left thumb that was also bothering me is just some arthritis. The Doc told me I could have the joint rebuilt from tendon in my arm if the pain is too much. I think NOT, thank you very much. It just bothers me if I turn my thumb in some funny way or sometimes just aches...I will just deal with it. My friend Jano was commiserating with me about how things just don't fully come back at our age and we just have to get used to them being "almost". Since the House From Hell is mostly packed up (there is just the Christmas stuff for my SIL to go through) I am hoping that I will not overuse my hands anytime soon. My stepson and his girlfriend have decided to buy the house so they will get to do all the painting and carpet removal. This has taken a big weight off Bob's shoulders; now we just have to pray that they keep their jobs and that the interest rates don't go much higher.

Other than that, Bob and I are planning a vacation for early May which I will talk about later. It almost seems boastful to be talking about a trip when so many people are hurting right now so I will keep it under my hat for a bit longer, but I am excited.

We have had a couple of warm days lately ( 65 degrees one day) and a lot of the snow has melted. I was finally able to shovel the front steps and take the Christmas greens down from the door, lol. What snow is left is extremely ugly and harboring a lot of trash etc.; I hate to say it but we probably need some clean snow to make it look pretty again. Somebody slap me for even thinking such a thing, but face it, it is only mid-February and there is a lot of winter left.

Happy Valentines Day everyone...hope you get some pretty flowers and tasty chocolate. That reminds me that I could use some chocolate about now, but alas I don't have any...drat!

Later,
Janet

Friday, February 6, 2009

LAMP TWEAKIN'


FROM THIS (ain't it purdy??)



TO THIS
all with a couple of coats of brick red craft paint and some of that bronze metallic paint used as a glaze. Voila...new lamp.



No *before* of this lamp, but it was a WalMart special from my Staging Stash....flat black. Once again the metallic bronze to the rescue. I gave it a good coat with a small brush on the kitchen counter. I never prepare for these projects, lol and then took it down cellar and sprayed a light coat of black around it and it looks pretty good if I do say so myself!

Even better is the feeling I get when I finally do something semi-creative.


Later,
Janet

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

FAVORITE HERB

Tarragon is my favorite herb. I love the minty, anisey flavor on or in chicken, eggs, green beans...you name it. It reminds me of France...more about France at another time. Each season I try to grow it, but it seems to just sit there in the sunshine and refuse to grow very much. Must be doing something wrong.

So what is your favorite herb?

Later,

Janet