Swedish Tea on a Summer Afternoon

What a lovely, summery look with all the blue & white

with red accents.

On a warm afternoon one can seek shelter inside a drawing room where curtains billow in the summer breeze, or under a shaded, leafy canopy beneath the trees in the garden.  

And tea served on fresh blue & white china.

Nature's Finest

"People from a planet without flowers would think we must be MAD WITH JOY the whole time to have such things about us."

~ Iris Murdoch, A Fairly Honourable Defeat

These old fashions bloom better and better every year for me.
I was given these five rose bushes by a friend whose ex had them in his yard.
I was told they were well over 20 years old and hadn't bloomed in years.
Thought I'd give them a try...they bloomed the first year I planted them and every year since and every year they get more prolific and more heavily scented!
I am so looking forward to this year's batch!

Drama at Home

I LOVE blue & white but when I decorate with it, I always use white as my main color for furniture or wallpaper, cabinets and fabrics because I am crazy about Swedish Gustavian style and the lightness of the whole look.

  This NYC penthouse might be your ticket if you are loving blue but don't want to go the white accent/furniture route.  From Architectural Digest, January 2011, featured was the penthouse of a NYC interior designer and her husband.

   I think it is stunning!  The use of black was almost shocking when I first saw the photos but the more I studied them, the more it grew on me!  I LOVE how they used Chinoiserie furniture too - probably antique pieces as this was very popular in 18th C European homes.

What do you think?

The use of blue & white china throughout really brightens the rooms and makes the pieces stand out even more, I think, then they would against white.

The blue they use for upholstery is a soft baby blue, accented by pink.  Love that pink tufted footstool in the master bedroom, as well as the pink flowers on the baby blue wallpapers.  All that use of baby blue and pink is very sweet but when paired with black and gold Chinoiserie furniture, it becomes dramatic and very sophisticated!!

If I didn't have all my furniture already white, I'd be quite happy to go this route...

"Summertime, Summertime"

"...and the livin' is easy."

Well, here in Seattle we are still dreaming of it because with the cold, wet weather we have right now, it seems a ways off yet despite being one week into June!

(but, truth be told - I would take this wet weather and our verdant mountain and valleys over the rest of the country's dry, hot, brown, drought-stricken conditions any day!)

Here are a few dreamy visions of how a laid back summer life could be if we actually had summer weather (and I wasn't having to break out my fleece jackets or wool sweaters which I thought I had safely put in storage until fall)!  LOL

 A bowl of ripe cherries and a vintage bottle of fresh, cool water is the perfect mid-afternoon refresher between jaunts to the beach or exploring the nearby fields.

 What a wonderfully simple summer cottage kitchen with the blue and white cabinets and open shelving to display what one needs to live a carefree summer life - only the essentials!

 A Swedish blind in white linen is the perfect window dressing for a summer cottage.

 I LOVE the use of blue and white stripes in this summer cottage setting. It keeps everything fesh and casual with no fussiness.

 I'd like to nap her on a hot day with nothing to do

 A tranquil place where you can be alone with your thoughts

 This hammock is dressed better then my bed!

I LOVE this Swedish Gustavian style white lawn furniture...wish it were easier to find in the U.S.

My Newest Spoonflower Fabric Designs

You'll love this collection if you are into blue & white as I am!

I have been having alot of fun creating new designs to offer for sale as fabric through
LilyOake on Spoonflower 

Please check it out and let me know what you think about them!

I just created this new summer plaid to accent the garden of rose prints already offered.

I have some polka dot and other accent patterns in the works too.

The Neoclassical wreath on blue is destined to become my living room curtains should I go the route of wallpapering the upper half of the walls in blue roses and adding white paneling below.

I love creating my own fabric because I can then truly create the home environment I see in my mind's creative eye, but can never find in stores.  Or if I do find what i like, it's $128 a yard!  haha

Well, Spoonflower isn't cheap either (quilting weight cotton starts at $18.50 per yard) but at last its exactly what I wanted.