Romance in the Dining Room

Please join me over at  The Pink Pagoda for her fun and fabulous Blue & White Bash, and share in everyone's mutual love for blue & white! And check out all the participants.  Its so much fun to see what everyone is doing with their love of blue.


I worked for Laura Ashley, years ago, when the company still had shops in the US!

I was and still am, heavily influenced by the florals and romantic fabrics I was surrounded with day after day in that wee Seattle shop.

So when I finally bought my own cottage and had a chance to decorate it, I already knew just how I wanted it to look.

Soft blues and whites and romantic florals.

Influenced by Laura Ashley and Swedish Gustavian design!

So, budget allowing, I am working my way through each room.

Right now I am working on the dining room.

I love being able to design my own fabrics and wallpapers via Spoonflower.

My shop name is Lilyoake.

I chose my "Jane's Rose Stripe" for my curtains ( to be paired later with a matching wallpaper called "Jane's Rose Bouquet".)

I took some time out this past weekend to finish sewing the first curtain panel, printed on linen cotton canvas.

I edged it with a matching blue gingham I bought at a fabric shop.  I intend to line them too, with white cotton sheets, so they look more finished from the outside.

But in the mean time, I can get them up, because we need the privacy now that its dark early!

Violets are Blue...

"We are violets blue, For our sweetness found careless in the mossy shades,

Looking on the ground.

Love's dropp'd eyelids and a kiss,

Such our breath and blueness is."

             James Henry Leigh Hunt

This is a new fabric I designed, I've called Violetta.

I needed to balance out all my pastel blues and white designs with a little drama, a rich blue background!

Flowers for the Soul

This quote by Hans Christian Anderson, says it all:

"Just living is not enough...

one must have sunshine,

freedom,

and a little flower"

That's how I feel about interior design as well.

I adore floral prints, especially in soft shades of blue and white.

And I believe a home looks magical and romantic when adorned in flowers.

I have designed over 160 so far, and each new design becomes my new favorite!

I started out designing just for myself, to decorate my little Cape Cod cottage in colors and patterns I wanted, but couldnt find on the open market.

Now its become an obsession!

Here are a few photos I took recently of some of my fabrics I have had printed on the linen-cotton canvas, quilting cotton or heavy cotton canvas, available at Spoonflower.

I plan on sewing them up into soft furnishings for the home this fall/winter, and offering them up for sale through my ETSY shop, Lilyoake.

So, stay tuned!

My Love of Roses

"Won't you come into the Garden?
I would like my roses to see you..."
                        Richard Brinsley Sheridan

I took advantage of the late summer sun on the patio and took some photos of my roses fabrics.
I have designed so many, I had to limit my choice to a few, but in my Spoonflower shop, Lilyoake, I have nearly 170 fabrics.  Most of them feature roses.
I think I have an addiction!!