Bon Anniversaire

Mon cheri et moi are celebrating our 10th year anniversary! We are leaving for Sonoma County in Northern California - this is THE WINE COUNTRY region of California and is being compared to Provence, France. We shall see...I'll be off for a while!

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Aren't the photos above from Sonoma County absolutely DREAMY???
We're driving our little brown Audi.
Au revoir for now!

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I also want to thank another dear friend Cielo from House in the Roses for featuring my dining room on her weekly "Show Off Your Cottage Monday." She's having a special "Show Off Your Room Monday" so check out all the other beautiful rooms she posted from other blogs as well.

Easter Wishes

Happy Easter everyone!

How about some pink champagne...

And fluffy cupcakes for Easter Brunch?

The rosemary sprigs above are from my garden lining up my fence along with the lavenders.

An Easter inspired tablescape I had set up with lots of yummy goodies!

Don't these jelly beans look so scrumptious?

Remember my favorite...french macarons? Well these are the candle version - so cute!!!

Easter spells out beauty, the rare beauty of new life. ~S.D. Gordon

Linking this post with the wonderful Ms. Tracie for Cottage Flora Thursdays

Master Bedroom Redeux

It was really flattering receiving lots of questions and emails complimenting my master bedroom after it was published recently in Romantic Magazine. The truth is, I have been wanting to redo the master bedroom, so a week after the photo shoot, I've started changing things around.

Here's the before-

And now, this is how it looks -

Not a dramatic change, but the sheets, the canopy, the window treatment are all new. Also, I added more shutters, so that back wall is mostly shutters.

I really love this fabric called "french script"

The french lavenders are all from my garden. I was told that lavender is a good cure for sleeplessness, it relaxes the mind and body. So, I usually have them around the bedroom or even tuck dried lavender inside my pillows.

The best thing about my master bedroom is that it opens up to my back garden.

This hammock is where I take afternoon naps during the hot days of summer.

Linking this post with:

Kathleen's White Wednesdays


Cielo's Show Off Your Cottage Monday

I Smell Like Dirt

Love this saying: "In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt." ~Margaret Atwood


Ahhh oui mesdames, mon cheri and moi have been getting our hands and fingernails dirty indeed. These last two weekends, we have been enjoying lots of sunshine that we literally smell like dirt and sweat working in notre jardin.

First, we hung two of these old chippy, flaky and rusty doors -

Next, we put together two of these raised garden kit, as I'm sloooowly removing my front lawn.

Then, I found these super cute plant markers, perfect for the garden boxes

And VOILA! After seven days...from seeds to seedlings

I'm loving these bachelor buttons!

Believe it or not, when we got rid of our sidewalk lawn, I wouldn't have thought, all these California native wildflowers would thrive.

And these were all from seeds that I scattered just around three months ago.

Here are a few more happy vegetation replacing the front lawn

And of course my lavenders are just growing like crazy!!!

Finally, happy to announce that our property is now a "certified wildlife habitat" from the state of California. Haha! It's really not a big deal...it just means that our garden provides food, water, cover and a safe home for wildlife to raise their young. Remember the hummingbird family that survived in our avocado tree? That's what it's all about!

Linking this post with my friends:

Debra from Common Ground's Vintage Inspiration Friday

Tracie's Cottage Flora Thursdays