Christine's Home and Travel Adventures

Friday, April 19, 2013

Florida Home Master Bedroom and Bath

If you are a reader, you would know I just

spent 3 weeks in our Florida vacation home to decorate it. We just bought it in the early part of the year but have not been able to go back since closing until ta few weeks ago. I had so much fun in spite of the amount of work I had to do from opening boxes, lots of assembling, thinking and placing items where I decide they belong.

The walls were already painted mustardy yellow and I brought some yellow and gray beddings from our Natchez, MS home. I found the picture from HG and I thought it would blend well with the print on the quilt and the colors were right, so I bought it.

I ordered these canisters (set of 3) from Joss & Main and had them shipped to my daughter's, who lives next door, before I even got here.

I brought this pair of tole lamps from our Natchez home last January when we had our closing. I originally bought them from an estate sale, negotiated to $60 total for both. I placed the lamp part in 2 luggage (1 each) and placed the shades in my hand carry. I was so happy to see that they did not get deformed because they were really crunched in the luggage. The 2 white vases with roses were left by the sellers. The alarm clock, angel night light and fluted vase were all from Natchez home. We flew there via SW Air last Jan. and I filled 6 luggage to the limit of 50 lbs each. My mom was with us that is why we were able to bring 6.

Eiffel tower pillow is from J & M too. The other beddings and other pillows were brought from MS home.

I placed the 2 dining arm chairs temporarily by the sliding doors and will leave them there until I buy a bigger table for the dining room. Right now, what is there can only accomodate 6 chairs and I have 8 (yes, I bought them from Joss & Main, lol).

One of my guests from MS, Gary, was so nice to assemble them when they came for a visit 2 weeks ago. After I find a table that I like, the existing one will go to my daughter. It was the only one and its matching chairs that I included in the contract when we made our offer to buy the house, because my daughter likes it, but we ended up with a lot more furniture, including this whole bedroom set and TV. But I am not complaining, lol.

The drapes were existing, left by the sellers. Someday I will replace them but I don't think they look too bad so I will leave them for now.

Black and white vase, jewelry holder and salt tea light holder are from the MS home.

The tin vase, yellow flowers and book box were all brought from MS home too.

It was nice for the sellers to leave us this flat screen TV but the visible hanging cables drove me crazy.

So, I measured that gap between the TV and the top of the dresser mirror and drove to Kohl's to search for something to fit there perfectly and found this wooden plaque on the clearance shelf for $5.99.

It might not be the best solution but it looks much neater now, I think.

Now, let's proceed to the master bath. When I saw the Italian mosaic medallion in the middle of the floor, I told the sellers and my daughter that this house is meant for us cause we have the same exact one in our shower in MS.

Below, you will see the doors to the "His and Hers' walk in closets. Mine is the one on the right. It's bigger, of course, lol.

I found this at HG, which BTW is only a 4 minute drive from this house, and I thought it would be perfect for this wall. It has the postal print that hubby likes. You will see where I hang it on the picture above.

View from the hall and bathroom door.

View from the jacuzzi tub. The bathroom had no bath towel racks so I bought a free standing one from Brylane Home catalog, which you can see on the left. The hamper on the right is from HG. The rugs in front of the sinks are from TJ Maxx and the one in front of the tub is also from HG. The birch tree (or aspen?) frames are also from HG.

His and hers sinks have marble counter tops.

I found the "Paris" bathroom accessories, which includes the Eiffel tower soap dispenser shown above from Ross, when I took my mom back to Illinois this past winter. The lady head boxes were brought from our MS home. I had them in a box that I packed for Brenda and family to bring when they drove to visit me a few weeks ago.

I bought the candle holders and pot and some potpouried shells from Homegoods, shell box from MS home and most of the natural shells were picked from Sanibel Island beach, where we went to take my visiting friends a few weeks ago. The big shell was left by the seller.

And finally, I just want to show you how it all looked before I started decorating. The sellers left us the bedroom furniture and TV, even the beddings and pillows. John only uses down filled pillows so I replaced those and all the beddings too and saved the old ones for a spare. They are all clean.

Thank you for stopping by. The whole house is pretty much decorated to my taste now except for the lack of wall pictures, which I am still searching for. I might bring some from the MS home or might even paint some myself. Also, I am still looking for a farm style dining table on double pedestals so I can give the existing table to my daughter.

I am linking with

The Tablescaper's Seasonal Sunday

http://thetablescaper.blogspot.com/
Sunday Scoop at,
http://iheartnaptime.blogspot.com
Overflowing with Creativity
http://www.itsoverflowing.com

Susan's Metamorphosis Monday

http://betweennapsontheporch.net/

Kathryn's Make it Pretty Monday

http://thededicatedhouse.blogspot.com

Amaze me Monday
http://dwellings-theheartofyourhome.com

Mosaic Monday

http://dearlittleredhouse.blogspot.com/

Mary's Masterpieces Monday

http://boogieboardcottage.blogspot.com/

Marty's Inspire Me Tuesday

http://www.astrollthrulife.net/

Tweak it Tuesday
http://www.cozylittlehouse.com/

Centerpiece Wed

http://thestylesisters.blogspot.com/

Sherry's Open House Party Thursdays
http://nominimalisthere.blogspot.com/

Pamela's Treasure Hunt Thurs

http://frommyfrontporchtoyours.blogspot.com/

Kathy's Home and Garden Thursday

http://blissfulrhythm.blogspot.com/

Sherry's Home Sweet Home
http://thecharmofhome.blogspot.com/
Feathered Nest Friday
http://frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.com/
Maria Elena's Tuesdays at Our Home
http://mariaelenasdecor.blogspot.com/

Thanks for all your visits. I hope you like how I decorated our bedroom and bathroom. It looks very relaxing to me.
Thanks to all the hostesses too. I appreciate you all very much!

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Thomas Edison and Henry Ford's Gardens

I am so happy to join Alma, The Tablescaper's new linky party "Oh The Places I've Been". Check out Alma's blog and her participants at http://thetablescaper.blogspot.com/ I am a traveler so you can just imagine how excited I was when she announced about this new meme. Naturally, I will not want to miss it and for my first entry, I thought I would share my latest trip to Florida. We bought a home there which is right next door to my daughter's and her family. The house shown below is my daughter's and ours is the house on the right which is not shown. Anyway, I just spent this past 3 weeks there and while I was there, my friend Brenda and her family drove from Natchez for 16 hrs, where our primary residence is and came for a visit. They spent 3 days with me before going to Orlando to take their kids to Disney while on spring break.

Here is Brenda, helping Tina with my grandkids cause I wanted to take them to tour Thomas Edison's place.

First, we stopped by Bennett's Fresh Roast in Fort Myers for breakfast. As if donuts aren't fattening enough on their own, they had to add bacon to them, lol.

The Edison estate was just closeby. We toured the grounds first and then the houses, then the laboratory and museum, but I will only show you the gardens and outside the houses today since I already have an overload of pictures. It's hard to capture everything in pictures so I took a few panoramic shots to get a better view. I was admiring the surrounding so much that I did not listen to the details on the tapes. You can google Thomas Edison in Fort Myers if you want more info. The property is right on the water and would you believe he paid only $25 or $27/acre at that time?

This is the biggest bouganvilla plant that I have ever seen. I never thought they grew that huge.

And I would love to have this mango tree. Look at all the fruits!

This pond and garden is my favorite. That's my youngest daughter, Tina with 2 of her 3 kids, Nathan and Reese. The oldest, Brendan was in school.

I was really in love with this pond and all the plants surrounding it.

Here is another pond, which is Brenda's favorite.

I think Nathan has the cutest smile. I miss him so much.

They had so many huge banyan trees there too. I believe the very first one was a gift from India.

Here are the tourists, Brenda and her family, posing with Thomas and Mina Edison's main house in the background.

This is a pretty fountain but I love the gorgeous Crown of Thorns they placed around. I did not know they came in different colors. I have only seen the yellow ones.

There were three houses on the property. The Edison's home, their guest house next to it and then, Henry Ford's house. Edison and Ford were best friends and after Edison bought a property there, Ford decided to buy also.

Edison's houses were connected with a beautiful pergola with a gazebo (not shown very well) in the center.

And if you keep going, you will get to Henry Ford's house.

Ford's garage.

Thank you so much for stopping by. I will share more pictures next time. I have toured the lab and the museum a few years ago but this is the first time I toured the houses and garden and I am glad I did.

I am also linking with

Pink Saturday

http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/

Scenic Sunday

http://scenicsunday.blogspot.com

Thank you so much for hosting!

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Lady Bugs and Chickens

I am back home to Natchez but I left a table set in the breakfast nook in the FL home. I am still limited in tableware there but I can create a simple table. The black and white plates were left by the sellers. I brought the flatware from our MS home. I bought the tumblers from TJ Maxx in the Tampa Bay area and bought the goblets from the Dollar store.

I bought the vase with a flower from Ross and the chickens from OneKing'sLane (or is it Joss and Main?) The black iron candle holder and red candle were left by the sellers. The sellers also left this counter high dining set for us. All the linens were brought from our home in Natchez.

This is my favorite place for drinking coffee and blogging during the day. At night I do my blogging in the bedroom because this is so visible from outside and it freaks me out thinking that someone is watching me, lol. The window has no curtains and I really do not want to cover it.

I used 2 placemats with ladybugs as runners, also brought from Natchez home.

I have been admiring those white wooden plate chargers for a long time but they were too pricey for me. Before I left for Florida, Pier 1 had them on sale so I bought them and had them delivered directly to FL, since I have enough white plate chargers here. This is also another reason I wanted to create a tablescape before I left, I wanted to use them.

I did not have any napkins to match (I never thought I would ever say that, lol! Note to myself: Bring different colors of napkins next time I go to FL which is next month) so I folded matching placemats to use as napkins.