I've Hit the Wall

I am feeling creatively drained.  It is as though the last bit of originality 

has been emptied out of my mind.  I admire the world full of bloggers who

can come up with interesting tablescapes and 5,000 ways to use

a pallet on a regular basis.  

Or the women who redecorate their homes every six months to keep

up with the current trends coming out of High Point.  I grew up with a

Mom like that and I vowed that I would never be her.  I loved my Mom

dearly, but she could drive Daddy and me nuts.  The furniture in our

house was rearranged so often we never knew what to expect.  There

was a constant stream of decorators coming through our door.  The

worst one was the one who suggested my Mom get rid of everything

in the living room, except the piano (I was taking lessons) and start

over with all white furniture and all the fabrics were in shades of

mauve.  

When the room was complete, Mom called us in to see everything

and to ask our opinion.   Daddy and I just nodded and said

Looks nice.  That was code for ~ we hate it, but don't want to

say anything negative about it because Mom won't speak to us

for days ;-)  

After two short weeks, Daddy came home from work and found

Mom crying in the living room.  He asked her what was bothering

her and she replied 

I hate it!  I really hate it!!  I can't live with it a moment longer!!

That weekend, we all hopped into Daddy's car and drove downtown so that

Mom could get new furniture.  Daddy had the patience of a saint.  

Fortunately, they found a designer who encouraged Mom to go the more

traditional route because a classic never really goes out of style and 

small changes can be made to stay current.  I thought that Daddy was

going to get down on his knees and praise the Lord for this person!

Now you might want to take a break from reading this and go get 

yourself a cup of tea, coffee, a glass of wine (he he) or whatever 

because this may be long winded :-)

Are you back and ready to read some more?  Okay, we left off with my

Mom being satisfied (for a while) with a more traditional look.  Of course,

this was reinforced by Daddy's insistence that Mom not drastically redecorate

for a while (hopefully never).  She agreed, because let's face it, she just

spent lots of money on new furniture once again, so she could not complain

too much.

Now don't get me wrong, I have gone through various design styles in 

my lifetime.  I have been through ultra Scandinavian modern, BoHo 

which evolved a bit into Arabian Nights while living in Bahrain for

three years.  Upon returning from unrest in the Middle East, I was

longing for a cozy and secure decorating style so that led me to

embrace Early American which evolved into a Early American/

Cottage look, finally embracing with Ralph Lauren meets Downton

Abbey and the English Country Home look.  This is also accented

with a bit of French Country in the guest room, full on Cottage

Style in my studio and old 1940's movie look in the master.  I 

will give you some images to show you what I am talking about

here ….

English Country House ~ umbrellas, walking sticks, fox hunt accents,

antique gate leg table, old carpet, etc.

Now in the formal living room, this is where the style becomes

Ralph Lauren meets Downton Abbey.

And that theme continues into the dining room too.

The family room is a lot like the English Country homes I have visited.

Books everywhere, newspapers too.  Most of the furniture is 

slipcovered to keep it dog friendly.  Pictures of horses, and dogs and

lots of golf references.  It's a put your feet up and hang out in front of

the telly kind of room.  It's paneled walls are warm and cozy and 

completely out of style, but we are not changing them because we live

here and we love it!

There are some Mrs Patmore elements in the kitchen :-)  I love her!

The French Country room.

My studio is full on Cottage Style, and ….

I purposely styled the master bedroom to look like an old movie

set from the 1940's because I love watching movies from that

era in here.

Since I don't intend to drastically change any of these rooms in

any way, other than perhaps moving a couple of items around,

I am limited in what I can show you since not much tweaking or

metamorphosis will be happening.  The only things that are on my

decorating schedule are, the completion of the guest room bath,

the installation of my farmhouse sink in the kitchen and some more

changes in the potting shed.  Oh, and the miniature dollhouse nursery

is coming along and I will be featuring that too.

This all revolves back to my blog.  I have to make changes because

I have hit the wall, and just can't keep allowing the themes of 

blog parties to dictate it's direction.  I know I have discussed this

issue before, but now it really is time to make a change.  There are

so many wonderful blogs today whose authors are showing off

all their decorating and creative talents, and I just can't keep up

with them.  Rather than bring you what I consider to be an

inferior product, I am taking a different path for this blog and I

am excited to see where it leads.  Bentley and I will be bringing

you more stories, more fun and more adventure.  I hope y'all

will join us and that you will enjoy the new content.

Big Texas Hugs,

Susan and Bentley