New Things, Old Things, Blue Things, A Poll and A Giveaway

O mon Dieu! I seriously have the case of ADD - attention decorator's disorder. Are you one of those who gets bored easily with a certain part of your home and always itching to change something? C'est moi...that's me! I made un petite change to my dining room which now looks different from what was published in Romantic Country Magazine recently. This is what it looks now.

I found this old grayish blue salvage door and I just couldn't resist it's decaying beauty.

Then I found these pair of blue shutters, they're new. J'adore the upper metal part and thought the three pieces together looked well - a combination of old and new.

It was still missing something though, so I added this "oeil de beouf", a quintessential french mirror, which I already own and was in mon boudoir.

Voila!

Here's another new and old combo that looks good together. My two vintage milk bottles which I often use as fleur vases, and my new mini vintage inspired milk bottles in a metal carrier.

I think they alll look wonderful together!

Here's the before photo of my dining room as shown in RC magazine and photographed by none other than Mr. Mark Lohman.

Here's what it looks like now - well, at least for a few days.

Can you believe June is here??? My birthday is coming up so I've decided to celebrate and give this item to one of my lucky followers. There are 6 mini milk bottles (or test tubes look alike) inside a metal carrying case.

Hmmm, let's see...to enter this giveaway; 1- just leave me a comment here, and/or 2- talk about this giveaway on your blog, and/or 3- become my newest follower. For an additional chance to win, click on my boutique tab (under my header), view the items I sell in my space, and let me know your thoughts whether or not I should open up an online shop by joining the poll I've set up on the right side of my blog. Leave a separate comment by clicking here, to let me know that you joined the poll. Of course, merci beaucoup for participating in this giveaway.

Hope these instructions are ez enough and you'll help me decide whether or not I should expand mon petite shop by selling smaller items online. Poll and giveaway ends June 15, 2011.


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Hydrangeas and Blue French Enamel Lavabo

My young hydrangea shrubs in mon petite jardin are happily blooming this season. Yeay! I must have done something right. I planted two colors last year - white and pink. Also, someone told me that if I add acidic fertilizer to pink hydrangeas, they will turn blue but not sure when to add the fertilizer, before or after they start to bloom. Has anyone tried that yet?

I thought the white hyrangeas are cute placed on my blue french enamel lavabo which I purchased in Chelsea Antiques during my recent vaca in NoCal.

It was "l'amour" ar first sight as soon as I saw this piece. At first it was just a quick glance, then I glided towards it closer, circled around, checked out the price tag and "walked away." Oui, bien sur I walked away coz she's priced a bit high. Strolled around the entire shop and bought a few items, but no, I did not pick up this piece. I even felt good as I was walking out of the shop without her - BUT - oui BUT - that "Tiffany" blue color kept haunting me. "When will I ever find something like this again, I asked mon cheri?" So we searched google in our iPhones, and true enough, this is a rare piece, circa 1920's. Et voila, she went home with moi, including her rust and dust.

So pretty and worth every penny!!!

Next week, I will be sharing mon potagerie (veggie garden's) first crop of the season. Here's my first strawberry, tiny and pretty in pink!

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Courtney from Feathered Nest Friday

Tracie from Cottage Flora Thursdays

and a new linky party this week - Friday Pretties

Visual Merchandising

"Visual Merchandising" is an art form that I have yet to learn and master. Perhaps one of the best example who knows a great deal about visual merchandising is Anthropologie. Just look at this amazing display -

Why am I concerned about learning the art of visual merchandising? Well, the exciting news is that my space in Olde Ivy Antiques has now doubled. The challenge is merchandising it well, so my goods look attractive enough to those who visit it and buy a piece or two for their homes. Here's my new space - it is bigger, but given some considerations and limitations, I can only do so much. Any thoughts?

Speaking of beautiful spaces and someone who is a talented and seasoned stylist, I visited a blogger friend's space (whom I admire) at Country Roads. The lovely Kate of Salvage Dior and moi finally met. She is one of those women who instantly makes one feel comfortable! We hugged as soon as we met and immediately we were chatting like we're best buds. She gave me some suggestions about what I could do with my new space. I picked up a few things from her and this hutch is one of them -



It's now in Marie's Maison, I changed the knobs and voila!

Thanks for checking out my new space at Olde Ivy's and appreciate any comments or input you want to share on how it could look better. Au revoir for now.

Wicked Plants - Consider Yourself Warned!

Mon petite jardin is nothing to be proud about in its current state. We've had so much rain here the past three days that everything is overgrown and messy.

(click on all photos below to enlarge)

I need to do some SERIOUS pruning which is a gardening chore I always put off. All my shrubs are needing some TLC.

Even a fave plant of mine, the foxglove is also asking for some love. Which brings me to the meat of this post. I learned something about foxgloves and other plant favorites of mine during my recent visit to San Francisco's Conservatory of Flowers.

No, not this conservatory, although this was inside the real conservatory.

I'm talking about this conservatory!

They have a truly wicked and most informative exhibit while we were there. It is called "Wicked Plants" - plants and flowers that are toxic (sometimes deadly) but at the same time very common around us. It shows the botanical rogues and assassins

Foxglove, again one of my favorites, turns out is pretty toxic when ingested

And so are delphiniums, angels' trumpet, oleander, sago palm and a lot more plants and flowers that we can pretty much find in our own neighborhood and worse, our own backyard.

This special exhibit is presented so well, like an eerie Victorian Garden, it was hard for me to leave. I mean as soon as you walked in, you were greeted by this, a gramaphone playing old songs from gang and horror movies from the good ol' days. It's really brilliantly done!

I also love how they used these old fashioned signs

Lastly, here's a very cute part of the exhibit. A bottle collection that keeps the seeds and mushrooms of the poisonous plants.

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