Traditions And Harmony With Friends

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Sharing with you my hand painted signs with holiday greetings and some of my favorite holiday etsy shops! My "Merry Christmas" signs can be purchased in my peaceful Etsy shop at http://www.etsy.com/shop/BurlapLuxe

uncomplicated with simple beauty adds to a graceful holiday creating traditions and harmony all around you. The holidays are a great time to treasure hunt for gifting idea's, inspiring places to visit are your flea market vendors, tag sales, local thrift shops and etsy shops letting unique piece's reinvent themselves showing the love put into the found objects as well as the pieces the artist create for etsy.

I love embracing the imperfections in a find making it a perfect piece of history to gift. Seeing the passion in a hand crafted artistically created piece of art adds life to a European coastal cottage or a French farmhouse, gifting a piece hand crafted celebrates a holiday filled with love. Abandon the formal part of the holiday by waking up the spirit of your home with simpler soulful history with a carefree feel that works so well with wanting less and giving more from the heart of country living.

Hand painted and signed by artist Dore Callaway (Me)
Reclaimed vintage solid mahogany painted with exterior latex enamel paint then matte sealed for future heirloom history. Size 22" x 7" x 1" aged gray chain adds hanging length. It is painted in peaceful shades of white, gray and charcoal. The little hand painted sparrow sings Merry Christmas cheer.

Kerrie Sanderson SeaCottage.blogspot.com
A dear friend who's handmade coastal holiday gift tags can be purchased from her SeaWashed etsy http://www.etsy.com/shop/Seawashed They are hand created on white acid & lignin free paper tags (from the Paper company) stamped with London Fog gray dye ink... This tag set come with natural organic yarn ties. Kerrie's art is all hand created so no two tags are exactly alike, making them perfect gift tags for your coastal theme holiday packages and holiday garland. You may decided to even adorn your Christmas tree with them. The back side is blank for writing your own special greeting.

Hand painted by Kerrie, Kerrie's coastal water color paintings are soulfully seawashed on note cards, making for perfect greeting cards for your coastal holiday. You may choose to frame them as gifts, or use for your Christmas greetings as well as hanging them on the holiday tree. Seawashed and signed by the artist.


Another gift item from Kerrie's SeaWashed etsy is her original sand dollar watercolor print by artist Kerrie Sanderson in her trademark Sand dollar Series. This sand dollar-Lemoni is printed in the color fog gray on cold pressed acid free Strathmore watercolor paper size 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 print, framed in a
6 1/2 x 6 1/2 white shadow box under glass wired and ready to hang or may stand on its own.

She was inspired by her time spent sitting on 'sea's hem' along the Sonoma Coast of the Pacific Ocean over the past 20 years. she paints from her collection of sand dollars gathered from the shore in a soft seawash color to convey the quiet beauty she experience's at the sea.
This painting is named after the little girl in Captain Corelli's Mandolin.

Laurie Blaswich at bellainspirations.blogspot.com
A dear friend and her great holiday etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/lblaswich These hand made coastal stockings have a natural color burlap boot in the shade of a sand covered beach and a vintage inspired matlesse cuff as white as the hem of the sea. It is fully lined inside for heirloom quality, making for a beautifully natural coastal "Merry Christmas."


You will also find Ruffles on stockings in Laurie's etsy shop, they are perfect for every euro chic cottage and country living holiday with rustic relaxed elegance.

As featured in Better Homes & Gardens Christmas Ideas. Laurie's unique soft white matlesse tree skirt with cotton tea stained border with the words,"Oh holy night the stars are brightly shining." is finished with moss green silky ribbon intertwined around border. Completely lined with soft white cotton duck and cotton batting, all seams are professionally overlocked for long lasting durability, this vintage inspired tree skirt will become a family heirloom.
Designed by Laurie Blaswich a friend of Newbury Park California and her beloved mother Jean and her dear friend Jennifer Grey.


Also featured in Better Homes And Gardens Christmas Ideas Magazine! is Laurie's holiday pillows, the perfect decoration for the holidays. Reproduction vintage muslin sack once used by farmers in Eastern Europe for transporting grains to the mill. Her stunning monogrammed pillows are hand sewn with washed cotton, they include a unique detail of "Oh holy night the stars are brightly shining." perfectly sized for a living room or even a bedroom. Use this sack case with king size pillow inserts. This pillow will be one of your favorite seasonal accessories for many years to come.
Let "etsy" Inspire Your Holiday Gifting!

Rural French Washed In Grey

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My friends who know me would say that their is a tool in one hand and a paint brush in the other altering the well lived life of a piece creating a piece to treasure. I took this overly loved chest of drawers with hidden charm and gave it intense practicality. I took and removed all drawers and added shelves to it like the chest of drawers I altered in my older posting, but this one I removed the scalloped wood base trim work and cut new trim base from an old step ladder, it's functioning now as a storage cabinet filled with objects for everyday use rural French in style.

The kitchen inspired this piece by using natural materials I had on hand, it's designed to play a part with each object that speaks for itself, French textiles and linens, pottery as well as sliver in a palette of hues ranging from creams, greys and whites. I am passionate about rural French pieces that wildly call out to you, gathering and collected that come together to make a unique and passionate home appreciating the pieces for their soul (rather than value.)

Mixing eras is the easy part to a great display of French flea market brocante, yet keep it organized with an understanding of your own vision. My vision is staying within a colour palette of smokey grey's, dingy whites and well worn creams a back drop to live peacefully with giving the eyes a soft place to land on with rural French living washed in grey.


I knew I had to then paint this piece adding to it's charm of rural French and distressing it as if time got the best of it letting the little dings and fractures shadow through the layers of paint.

Pictured is the base trim I cut from the side legs of this ladder by removing the scalloped trim and adding the ladder trim to the base I was able to create a less recognizable dated piece adding rural charm to this piece was a plus.





The "Seawashed" note cards are created by a dear friend Kerrie at seacottage.blogspot.com they can be purchased from her artful etsy. I fell in love with Kerrie's sketched and seawashed shells and so will you. I used Kerrie's note cards as invites to a luncheon using my imagination for a South of France themed luncheon. The shell art was perfect and Kerrie's artful hands made them unique and so very personal. If you have not visited her site please do as often as your heart can take it.


Let the piece tell you what it wants to be.

Living With... And Loving The Find

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Having a soulful hand in what we live with making it informal, cozy you don't have to worry about making it perfect. What inspires most about country living is the pieces and colour we surround ourselves with. My kind of country, rural French living and loving the find. French country has always been a influence across Europe soulfully living with pieces that encourage and influence a French country life. I never look at the surface of what it is, I find the hidden depth in the piece while taking and redefining its use reflecting a passion for all things aged with history.


I try not to be sentimental about a new find, "I've let go of many beautiful soulful pieces over the years in my interior design business and shop that's just the nature of this business. Sometimes there is just that one inspiring piece that pulls you in questioning that it just may have to live with you for awhile. This galvanized zinc drawer that made no sense to someone else, made all the sense in the world to me.

I love the find that adds to an atmosphere for lost pieces that get over looked in what it is, to what it can become. Most important arranging them as though someone lives among them, adding truly a beauty to its life.

If a zinc galvanized drawer or crusty wire baskets and buckets inspire you then let it find its way into your home decor. I was inspired by this drawer and instantly knew it had to come home with me using it with a whole new function holding useful objects of interest reflecting the passion of its owner giving it a gathered and collected European flea market feel seeing the full potential of the piece.


Flea Montreuil-Bellay they have my kind of French country.

Letting all things galvanize inspire what I love most.