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Garden, Home & Party

~ My love of gardening, making home comfortable and entertaining friends and family.

Garden, Home & Party

Monthly Archives: March 2014

{Home} Be careful what you wish for…refinishing wood floors

26 Wednesday Mar 2014

Posted by Karen B. in Decorating, House and Home, Kitchen

≈ 42 Comments

Tags

hardwood floors

As a homeowner, I have always kept a ‘to do’ list of projects that require attention. About the time you feel like you’ve got everything in order, something will pop up that needs to be repaired or replaced.  I know you know this if you’re a homeowner.

Garden, Home and Party: Wood floor refinishing

On that list, for the past few years, refinishing our wood floors has been right at the top.  The wood floors are in every room of the house except the bedrooms. Fortunately, our house is small.

A week before Thanksgiving we noticed that the floors in the kitchen, going out to the side yard, were buckling slightly.  Long story short, we discovered our ice maker had developed a pin hole in the line running to the ice maker. Who knows how long it had been spewing this tiny spray of water?!

With “the holidays” around the corner we got our bids and told Cooper Floors we’d be ready to start the renovation by mid-January.  I’m thrilled with the result, and thanks to our sweet friend’s, Gretchen and Stu, we were able to stay with them the 4 days during the work of sanding, staining and sealing, making the experience pretty painless {thank you, Gretchen and Stu}.

The kitchen floors had to be replaced but our floor guy made sure it was interwoven with the existing floors so the new wood, compared to the old wood, isn’t noticeable.  All of the floors were sanded down to bare wood and stained and sealed in the end, giving us essentially new floors everywhere.

Garden, Home and Party: Wood floors refinished

Garden, Home and Party: wood floors

It’s been awhile since I’ve shared pictures of our house so I thought I’d share the kitchen, where just a couple of months ago, there was chaos and construction, at least where the floors are concerned.

{I hope to get pictures of each room to share with you this year.  It requires some planning to dress each room for a photo op.  This may take more time than one might imagine}

As you can see, our kitchen is fairly compact but it works well for us.  We remodeled it 10 years ago…I still can’t believe it’s been that long.

Garden, Home and Party: wood floors 2014

Essentially a galley kitchen, it’s easy to maneuver when cooking.  It is a one-man kitchen, extra bodies tend to bump into one another.

Garden, Home and Party: wood floors 2014

My nod to spring (below).  I collect bird’s nests once the owners vacate the premises (when I can find them).  The quail eggs are real but store bought.  The Halcyon Days enamel egg is the first Easter egg I bought when I began collecting these boxes…that year Mr. B and I had gone up in a hot air balloon…this egg will be a reminder of that fabulous adventure.

Garden, Home and Party: wood florrs 2014

Garden, Home and Party: wood floors 2014

The nest in my antique French scale is not real, but the little wren keeping watch over the eggs was hand carved by my dear friend’s dad {Linda (Bainbridge Island) and Gretchen (Irvine)}  Linda and Gretchen are sisters and they have adopted me as a sister, which is special since I’m an only child. 🙂

Garden, Home and Party: wood floors 2014

Confession:  Since our kitchen is short on counter top space I’m hoping that somewhere down the line I can get the new Nespresso Vertuoline, which would streamline our coffee counter.  We’re big fans of coffee…so we have a drip coffee maker and a Breville espresso maker.  The Nespresso Vertuoline does both all in the compact confines of a beautiful machine.  I only wish this was a paid advertisement for Nespresso!

Garden, Home and Party: wood floor 2014

I must say, the best thing in my kitchen is the Viking Stove. I honestly didn’t realize there was any difference between one stove or another until we bought this hard- working lovely.

Garden, Home and Party: wood floors 2014

Garden, Home and Party: wood floors 2014

Garden, Home and Party: wood floors 2014

The black piece at the end of the kitchen is our pantry.  The woman who helped with the design of our kitchen recommended creating a pantry that looked like a piece of furniture.

Garden, Home and Party: wood floors 2014

Garden, Home and Party: wood floors 2014

Garden, Home and Party: wood floors 2014

Here’s a close up of the floors, our large dog has broken them in getting up to chase something outside…we need to buy her some booties.

Garden, Home and Party: wood floors 2014Do you have any major projects on your list for this year?   I hope to take pictures of some of the other rooms in our home and share them with you this year.

{Home} Rustic, the new elegance?

19 Wednesday Mar 2014

Posted by Karen B. in Decorating

≈ 30 Comments

Tags

rustic

Garden, Home and Party: Rustic

I have zeroed in on my personal style preferences where home design is concerned.  Still, I can be stopped in my tracks when I spot a room, or the details therein,  that I love.  Recently, I stumbled across a series of rustic images on Pinterest.  I had fun searching out additional images for this post.

rus•tic  adjective  1. of or relating to the countryside; rural.  2. constructed or made in a plain and simple fashion, in particular.  synonyms: plain, simple, homely, unsophisticated

This cabin might be an example of crossing the line between rustic and primitive…

Garden, Home and Party: Rustic

{via}

This one?  Maybe, but I sure love the setting.  You know how I love tree houses.

Garden, Home and Party: Rustic

{via}

There is something so striking about a lot of what would be called RUSTIC style.  Sometimes there’s a fine line between rustic and primitive and maybe I’m not so enamored of the primitive side of design, but plain and simple can often lure me in. More often than not, I find rustic furniture and small architectural details left in a rustic state a look I could not only live with, but be quite content.

There’s a rustic look to the wood on the walls in this space.  The simplicity of the table and chairs, the bell jar lighting and the open-air feel are inviting.

Garden, Home and Party: Rustic

{via}

Talk about kicking ‘it’ up a notch with the rustic look…I love this metal(?) vintage door used for the closet.  There’s got to be an interesting story behind this selection.

Garden, Home and Party: Rustic

Garden, Home and Party: Rustic

{unknown}

I can imagine a wooden tub in a cabin or second home somewhere…a back to nature getaway.

Garden, Home and Party: Rustic

{pinterest}

True confession, the image below, while it has a chippy armoire, the only truly rustic piece is the coffee table.  I love the fireplace and charcoal gray velvet sofa so I had to include this room.

Garden, Home and Party: Rustic{pinterest}

This tub might be more comfortable, the sides have been adorned with reclaimed wood but the tub is a either porcelain over cast iron or acrylic-like.

Garden, Home and Party: Rustic

{via}

The floors are very rustic in the bedroom below, too rustic?

Garden, Home and Party: Rustic

Garden, Home and Party: Rustic

{pinterest}

Garden, Home and Party: Rustic{pinterest}

Thoughts?  Am I taking the year’s personal goal of “simplicity” too far?  

~Spring is only two days away!~

{Garden} Arbor Day, for the love of trees

12 Wednesday Mar 2014

Posted by Karen B. in Gardens, House and Home

≈ 16 Comments

Tags

Arbor Day, trees

Garden, Home and Party: Arbor Day

 {I realize I’ve been on a bit of a flora and fauna kick of late…I get this way when spring is upon us, I’m antsy for Spring’s arrival, how about you?.}  

It’s Arbor Day {week} in California, March 7-12.  Does it seem odd to anyone besides me that Arbor Day {week} is held on different days, depending on the state you reside in?

Bottom line, I’m a huge fan of trees, always have been.  I grew up living on a 4 lane street lined with Maple trees.  It would have been ideal had it been a 2 lane road but I do recall loving the trees and the seasonal change to the landscape they brought.

When my landscape partner and I started our Blooming Borders business some years ago, we found ourselves waging battle (always subtle and subdued) with our clients to keep the trees they had.  More than once we lost the fight and we were sad to supervise the removal of old Sycamore or Alder trees—taken out to allow more light into the yard or to avoid the “messy leaf cleanup” in autumn. Many in our community keep their trees trimmed to roof height to comply with the community Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions (CC&Rs). This rule usually stems from view issues of one kind or another.

Our son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter recently moved into a home in Austin that enjoys a tree-house feel thanks to the many trees on their lot…

Garden, Home and Party: Arbor Day 2014

{via}

Garden, Home and Party: Arbor Day 2014~Austin, Texas~

*Note: these pictures were taken in the heat of summer just after the kids bought the home.  The seller had decided to skip watering the yard while the house was listed…really?!  Fortunately, the yard is so much prettier now that the kids have done some yard clean-up, and Austin has had some beneficial rain this past winter.

Garden, Home and Party: Arbor Day 2014

…the Hotel Saint Cecilia in Austin value the historic trees on the grounds of this lovely hotel located in Austin’s South Congress District…

Garden, Home and Party: Arbor Day 2014

Garden, Home and Party: Arbor Day 2014

I have kept all of the trees on our postage sized lot and they provide shade in the summer and a pleasant back drop for our suburban tract house…

Garden, Home and Party: Arbor Day 2014

Garden, Home and Party: Arbor Day 2014

My favorite communities have an abundance of trees.  Palos Verdes, California, parts of Marin County, California, Bainbridge Island, Washington and my own community here in Irvine, all seem more inviting and lovely for their abundance of mature trees.

There is a park across the street from our home and the mature trees there break up the monotony of house after cookie-cutter house, not to mention the birthday parties, soccer practices, and sand lot playground they shade.

Garden, Home and Party: Arbor Day 2014

About a mile down the road is a community park that offers a stream and plenty of trees.  There’s even a Nature Center offering programs on the local flora and fauna.

Garden, Home and Party: Arbor Day 2014

Garden, Home and Party: Arbor Day 2014

Aside from the aesthetic, trees benefit a community by cleansing the air, even pollutants are partially controlled by trees.  In one study of an urban park, tree cover was found to remove 48 lbs of particulates, 9 lbs of nitrogen dioxide, 6 lbs of sulfur dioxide and 1/2 lb. carbon monoxide.

Mostly, I just love the beauty trees provide around a house.  To make my point on this Arbor Day {week}, here are a few lovely examples…

Garden, Home and Party: Arbor Day 2014

{via}

Garden, Home and Party: Arbor Day 2014Garden, Home and Party: Arbor Day 2014{via}

Garden, Home and Party: for the love of trees

Garden, Home and Party: Arbor Day

Garden, Home and Party: Arbor Day 2014Garden, Home and Party: Arbor Day 2014

Garden, Home and Party: Arbor Day 2014

Garden, Home and Party: Arbor Day

Garden, Home and Party: Arbor Day 2014Garden, Home and Party: Arbor Day

Garden, Home and Party: Arbor Day 2014

Garden, Home and Party: Arbor DayIn California our official tree is the Redwood…

Garden, Home and Party: Arbor Day 2014

Happy Arbor Day, or week.  I hope you’ll take a moment to enjoy the trees in your neck of the woods.

Garden, Home and Party: Arbor Day 2014

{Home} The magic of flowers and Ikebana

05 Wednesday Mar 2014

Posted by Karen B. in Flowers, House and Home, Uncategorized

≈ 21 Comments

Tags

ikebana

Garden, Home and Party: Ikebana

Flowers are a welcome mood and room brightener and maybe never as coveted as on these last few days/weeks(?!) of winter.  I am always on the lookout for new ideas and inspiration for a display of flowers, whether they are store bought or home grown or a combination thereof.  Bouquets (below) with unexpected elements are such a nice surprise.

Garden, Home and Party: Ikebana{source}

Flowers – they transport us, romance us, amaze us. They make us smile and swoon. Who could live without them?

—Charlotte Moss, designer

Garden, Home and Party: ikebana

{source}

So I was excited to receive an invitation from Tuttle Publishing to read their new book, Japanese Ikebana for Every Season,  by Rie Imai and Yuji Ueno, and asked to post my thoughts.

Garden, Home and Party: Ikebana

I really enjoyed this book as my recollection of ikebana was of a far different style than the arrangements shared herein.  The classic ikebana arrangement should look natural, something I lean towards where flower arrangements are concerned.  But I used to think of ikebana arrangements as stark and possibly a little too modern for my tastes.  Clearly, this doesn’t have to be the case, for this pair of talented artists (the authors) have introduced a new view of ikebana.

Garden, Home and Party: ikebana

Garden, Home and Party; ikebana

Author Rie Imai is an accomplished “lifestyle coordinator” in Japan, with a focus on interior design and flowers.  During her time in the United State Ms. Imai completed floral design course work at   Parsons New School for Design, New York and at City College in San Francisco.  She has traveled extensively and has mastered blending the cultural aesthetics of modern and traditional, as well as Eastern and Western influences into her floral designs.

Garden, Home and Party: Ikebana

Garden, Home and Party: ikebana

Garden, Home and Party: ikebana

Her co-author, Yuji Ueno, is an independent floral artist.  The book’s introduction to Mr. Ueno says it best, “…Yuji has created a style not linked to any recognized Japanese ikebana school…he has found the freedom to chart his own course.”  He has a personal website where you will find further inspiration.

In addition to some spectacular examples of the new ikebana, the book offers detailed words and illustrations on water absorption, cutting  and maintenance techniques; there are helpful tips on stabilizing, shaping and trimming which can assure your success as you embark on creating your own flower arrangements.

Garden, Home and Party: ikebana

There are great ideas for each season, using items from the yard as well as what you can buy.  As with any floral arrangement, it’s the unexpected that catches my eye and presents a need to study exactly what has been included.

Garden, Home and Party: ikebana

The photography for the book was done by Noboru Murata, one of Japan’s most accomplished photographers.  

Garden, Home and Party: ikebana

{source}

The book will be a welcome reference to anyone who enjoys flowers in the home, and who doesn’t?

{Thanks to Tuttle Publishing for contacting me and providing me with Japanese Ikebana for Every Season}

Spring officially arrives on March 20th.  Happy Spring, just a little early!

 

Recent Posts: Garden, Home & Party

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