Beautiful, M3D!! I really love the new shades you've found for the barley twist lamps. The fabric detailing on them is wonderful! The Ironstone plates are so pretty and what a steal for only $3.75 each. You have such a good eye for decorating!
Lynn

Aha! I was just thinking about you this morning, missing your posts, and pics of your pretty home. Lovely arrangement, per usual. Speaking of spring and your home, I have a request: Please post photos of spring when it arrive in your yard. I think you have a creek, too? Should be beautiful. Do you get azaleas and dogwood that far north? Guess I'll have to wait until May for spring pics from up there.:>)

Stunning as always.

Simply the best! I can't get over your sheer talent for the mix-and-match, balance and color in your arrangements!

Brillant! And my DH admires the lovely clock! :)

Jan

Hi, leahcate,

You may need to wait til June at that rate we're going! Yes, I have a small river in my back yard, and I have planted some azaleas, but I don't have any dogwoods.

These first two pics were last June, and show part of my front yard and the river out back. The white shrub is an azalea, and a Purple Passion rhodo in the foreground. The third pic is a mostly shade area beside the garage, and I love that Nova Zembla rhodo color! I do only perennials, so you don't always see a lot of color, but lots of varying greens and textures.

And just a couple of day lilies in Late August..

Absolutely. Stunning. The scale is perfect and I like how the entire mantlescape complements your paint color!

Love your gardens! I wish I had more shade because there are so many shade plants I love. Although I do have azaleas, rhododendron and dogwoods.

I have a lamp that has one of your silk shades on it! I'm going to look for some type candlesticks to do lamps for my mantle too. I love yours. Great idea - spraying the flowers.

Lovely as always.

tina

my3'dogs: I love your mantel. Do you have other pictures of how you change it seasonally? I would love to see them.

You really got a bargain on the plates. The antique store around here charge a min of $25 ea for transfer ware plates like that. I want to start a collection of white ironstone plates, but I can't afford the prices I find locally and on ebay.

Now about your gardens - they are to die for! I am landscaping challenged but I love flowers. I paint them since I can't grow them and lilies, tulips, and irises are my favorites. I am so jealous that you have all this natural subject matter in your back yard!

artlover, I am SO lucky to have this yard, and I appreciate it every day. It's a lot of work for one person, but a labor of love.

I just started decorating my mantle seasonally last fall, believe it or not. I had done a simple Christmas garland in 2006, but not much again til last fall.

Here was the first, with faux garland, a cone and nut garland, tiny white lights and some of my glass ornaments. Above it, I had an oil painting of a Brittany, the breed of dog I am 'mom' to three of.

This was fall 2008, and most things are from CL or eBay, as usual. Vintage or antique 95% of the time!

Holiday 2008 after trying some more Christmas-y ideas that didn't look like what I wanted. And then this AM, I put together what you saw up at the top!

How very lovely!

Thank you for the spring 'preview'. Having that creek, and all you have done with a large property just amazes me. Yes! I should think a lot of work for one woman! You have my admiration for your talents at arranging/making a beautiful home, and also for your workhorse stamina! Of all the pretty pics, the one I just love is the pups by the fire. If you have the full shot, or even if not, I think I'd frame it!

all of them are beautiful but i esp like the first one on the top of the page..and i love the gardens..make me really yearn for mine to bloom

Hang on now; tell us more about this Glossy Wood Tone spray that made the silk hydrangeas look dried! I like that idea.

Now, I can't decide whether I like Holiday 2008 mantle or this latest one best, but I wish you'd come over and dress mine! (I have a similar "dogscape" near my fireplace, but mine are bulldogs!)

HI, sueb20!

That spray is called a 'floral tool' and can be bought at most craft stores. You'll likely see it in the paint section with some other colors..I like the Glossy Wood Tone best.

It was just an idea I had to take the 'heads' of the hydrangeas, which were green, and make them look a bit more realistic and 'dried' appearing by spraying them lightly with the spray. It's quite sheer when done in a light hand. It worked like a charm. The stuff smells to high heaven, so if you're in a climate where you can do it outside, I would.

My3dogs, wow, your mantle is just gorgeous! Lovely work! Love the dogs too!

I am in Phoenix and now at 7:21 pm we are at 80 degrees. That is higher than our usual temperature. It's just been wonderful weather here in the winter. It was hard coming from Wisconsin to adjust since the bad season here in Phoenix is summer while the other 3 seasons are good. The garden shops are filled with flowers including roses. This is the time to plant here.

Sometimes we have people drive down from Prescott or Flagstaff, both of which get cold and snow because of the higher elevation. Two years ago Mesa AZ got a touch of snow. The kids loved it since we don't get snow here very often at all.

So I think I will change my front door wreath to the forsythia one rather than the eucalyptus with pine cones I have on there now.

My3Dogs, I didn't think you could make a better change from those "winter mantle" CL lamps, but your spring edition-- barley twist with ebay silk shades are simply scrumptious! Enjoy thoughts of spring as we get through this March NorEaster!
Carol

How beautiful! Everything.

Where else do you post garden pictures? I'd love to see more of your drool worthy space. :^)

I love what you've done. The fall and holiday mantels were beautiful also. I'm going to have to try some of that spray on some silk hydrangeas.

Just gorgeous! As always! Especially your pups! We are having snow today too! Wish it was as much as you all are getting! But I am enjoying looking at your photos and drinking my coffee and watching it snow.

My threedogs, Your decorating is marvelous as usual, however, your yard is outstanding.
I showed my head groundskeeper and he said, Oh wow!
He's a gardening nut, and wants to know what state you live in? He wants to move next door to you!
He said he could go right from gardening to fishing!
Have you ever put in Purple palace? We have the red kind and it looks like a little shrub with red oak leaves.

Joann

Your the queen of creativity, my3dogs! As always, your latest vignette is beautiful, unique & very special.

Thanks, Joann! I'll trade my yard for his woodworking skills!

I'm in Maine, next to our largest city of Portland. They refer to us as the southern coastal area. Today, we're getting a walloping of snow.

I bought several new huecheras last year, and I think Purple Palace was one of them. I discovered a local grower who grew all of this own perennials in his incredible property. Sadly, it was his last year, as he was finding that the Home Depots and Lowes were taking so much business away. I have several huecheras, including Lime Rickey and a Caramel one I bought last year that has rusty orangey leaves. I'll be looking for them all when this darn snow finally melts. In this shot from last August you can see the Caramel and a Lemon Frost lamium in that front border.

I also LOVE pulmonaria, and have several of them also. My trees have grown so that what used to be sun gardens are now mostly shade. The front yard gets sun in the later afternoon.

This is at the end of my driveway turnaround. I have many beautiful hosta and I love Solomon's Seal.

It is beautiful!!!!!!! It just gets better n' better!!!!
Thank you so much for posting.

Lovely, as always, my3dogs. You really have a gift.

PS: Would a candle holder/lamp tutorial be a possibility??
Thanks,
J