Sunday, November 27, 2011

Cold Weather Comfort Food

Well, we have finally hit a cold snap in the deep south. That means I head to the kitchen to make one of our favorite dinners, Savannah Pork Ragout. This is a recipe out of Kay Ewings, A Second Course Cookbook.  
ingredients
The ingredients are as follows:     6 strips of bacon                       3 Tablespoons ketchup
                                                  2 1/2 lbs pork tenderloin           2 Tablespoons Worcestershire
                                                  trimmed and cut in bite-sized     2 Tablespoons molasses
                                                  pieces                                       2 Cups chicken broth
                                                 salt & pepper                             4 small red potatoes, chunked
                                                  1 onion, chopped                      2 Cups baby carrots, cut in half
                                                  2 cloves garlic                           1/2 cup chopped parsley
                                                  1/3 cup flour                             salt, pepper to taste
                                                  1 1/2 cups coffee, warmed


        Cook bacon in a large stock pot or Dutch oven over medium heat, until bacon is crisp.                          Drain bacon on paper towels, crumble and set aside.

                                 Season pork with salt and pepper and add to hot bacon grease.
                                                            Cook till no longer pink.


                                        Add onion and garlic and cook for 2 minutes


                                       Stir in flour and cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
            
              
                               Mix in coffee, Worcestershire, molasses, ketchup, and reserved bacon.

                                        Bring to a boil, cover and lower heat. Cook 15 minutes

                                                                   Stir occasionally.

                                   Add chicken broth, potatoes, carrots, parsley, salt and pepper.

                                                   Cook for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

               You can serve this dish with/over mashed potatoes, rice, noodles, or my favorite cheese grits.  


            Try this Savannah Pork Ragout, and it will become one of your cold weather favorites too!!
                                                       
                                                                      YUMMY!!!


    

Monday, October 17, 2011

Simply White and Cream

Sometimes I get too involved in trying to decide what color I should use to paint a piece of furniture.  Then the questions...should I antique it?....should I jazz it up with a stencil?....do I bling it up with some metallic leafing?  Well, in the pieces I'm sharing with you today the decision was made to keep them simple. 
The first piece is actually a blanket chest that belongs to a client of mine. The lines are classic.
forgot to put the drawer in for the picture!
She was using this chest under the television for cable and DVD boxes. She was wanting a more cottage look for her room and the decision was made to do a basic old white finish.
What a beauty1
I did a little distress and spray painted the hardware with Oil Rubbed Bronze. I have a happy client!  

Here are the other two projects I wanted to share.
Lovely cream
This chair was a great find, extremely well made, but no cushion. That was an easy fix... I just went to the very talented lady that does all my drapery work and asked what she had in the way of  fabulous scraps and she pulled this out of her fabric mountain and sent me on my way.

I painted both pieces in a ASCP Cream. I did add a button design on the table, it gave it a little character. I really like the simplicity of using white and cream. How lovely!



Monday, October 3, 2011

Thank You and Inkblots....

                     If you have visited my blog in the past you know it was a rather sad looking thing.
Well, thanks to a very talented lady, Karen Valentine of Valentine Designs and My Desert Cottage blog, the Lucinda Diaries now has a snappy new look. I am grateful for her help and recommend her to those that are not savvy enough to do it  themselves.  Now on to the ink blot section of the title. In the October 2011 issue of Country Living there were four framed prints of Rorschach-inspired inkblots. They used old ledger pages, framed them and put a $174 price tag on each. I came up with my own! ( for under $20 ea.)                      
love vintage music
I started with some pages out of a large vintage music book. They were discolored and worn looking.  Perfect! 
Squiggles
I then took black acrylic paint and made random swirls and dots, making sure not to leave big blotches of paint in one area.
fold
Carefully fold in half long ways. rub your hand over entire surface to spread the paint on the inside. Open carefully.
what does this look like to you?
If you want to add somemore dots or squiggles, now is the time to do it. Just refold and rub surface again. Try not to add to much paint because you will end up with one big black blob! 
ready to hang
I attached each one to a piece of black mat board, that I had cut to fit inside a 16x20 frame. They are really good sized pieces and will look great in a foyer or on a statement wall. I actually have four inkblots, but only got two finished so far. I haven't decided weather to sell them or keep them. Decisions....decisions!!!

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Only Afters

Well! It's been some time since I have stopped by to visit, but I have been busy...VERY BUSY!! I had no idea that becoming a stockist for Annie Sloan Chalk Paint would turn my life up side down. It has and it's been great! Every day I get to meet and talk to new people that have been " turned on " to this amazing paint. If there are any of you out there reading this and need to purchase Chalk Paint please check out www.anniesloanunfolded.com. which gives you a list for the stockist closest to you.  So todays post is about the projects that never get their pictures taken as "befores". I only have the "afters". They are the ones that I couldn't wait to get started on and forgot to snap the picture to show how awful they looked before the transformation. So here we go with a little AFTER show and tell.              
sweet little table

a bit of gold trim
This pretty little table was painted with Aubusson Blue, then a light wash of Paris Grey. Gold gilding wax was used to highlight some of the raised detail.
happy trio
This was a custom job I completed for a Sorority house on the LSU campus. They chose Scandinavian Pink. I finished them up with one coat of clear wax and two coats of dark wax. This picture does not do these pieces justice. I had some happy clients!
my french beauty
This was a sad looking piece of French provincial furniture when I found it at a garage sale. It had that icky laminate top. The Duck Egg Blue covered it like a dream. I used a mixture of clear and dark wax, to give that antique look then again used my gold gilding wax to add a little interest, on hardware and details. I may have to keep this one if it doesn't sell soon! I am really trying to get better with the picture taking so for my next show and tell I plan to have Befores and Afters

Sunday, July 31, 2011

I'm Not Afraid of Color!!!

As an interior decorator, I can appreciate the many different styles used in homes today. From traditional to contemporary, eclectic to polished, soft color palettes to those bursting with color. In my own home, I guess you could call it " traditional eclectic, with pops of color". Even though I really like "all white" shabby look, I have not been able to envision my home in this style. I've got to have my color fix! I have been wanting to redo several rooms in our house, and now that I have you, I thought it would be fun to bring you along for the journey..... the slow journey! I have so enjoyed watching what others are are doing in thier spaces, so here goes!   I am going to start with our guest bathroom. It's small enough and just needs a little perking up. I love giving powder rooms and guest bathrooms that unexpected pop. We installed a wonderful black and cream toile wallpaper.( Yes,wallpaper is making a comeback!)
Wallpaper by Thibaut
The cabinets were custom made by the previous owners, but I never liked the color stain they used on them. It was way to orange for my liking. The counter tops were a very ugly green Formica ( sorry no picture of that!).We replaced them with "black pearl" granite.
Is that orange or what?
Our next quick fix addition was a light fixture, mirror, and towel racks. These were all spray painted in a satin black. This room was slowly coming together
Getting there
OK, so I still do not like those cabinets. The changes we made in the room made the wood even more orange. What to do.... what to do???? COLOR! It needs a color! Black?.....no to much of a good thing already. Cream?.....no then we have a black and white theme, BORING! Ahhhhh..... Annie Sloan to the rescue!! Provance, it has to be Provance! Just the punch of color I want!!!
WOW!
Yes, it is bright, but that was just what I was looking for... the unexpected! I went ahead and kept the crystal knobs since I actually liked them. I also added a new oriental rug on the floor.

Almost there

Love the green bunnie.
By using a few ironstone platters, two colorful pressed glass containers (love the rabbit), a candlestick  lamp, and a little artwork I completed my "not to cluttered" acessorizing.  



Please overlook the dangling cord!
I really like this batroom now and so do my guests.....What do you think??? 

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Put On Your Red Dress Baby...

When I was a little girl, we had several female relatives that always told my mother..."she (meaning me ) is a redhead, you can NEVER dress her in RED!!" Well, thank goodness my mother did not have a problem with breaking that rule! For my first grade picture, she made it a point to buy me a bright red corduroy dress, which I wore proudly. To this day I get a smile on my face when I see that picture and remember my mother saying, "Now who says a redhead can't wear red !!!". I still love to wear the color, and I use it in decorating whenever I can, which brings me to my next little story.  
The boring little table
I spotted this little table piled with junk, in a corner at a fleamarket. She called to me "please take me home and fix me up". ( Don't you just love it when a piece of furniture talks to you?) Well, the dealer wanted to be rid of her for a really good price. I quickly paid him, carried her to the car and away we went. She lived at our house for a couple of weeks until I figured out just what to do with her. Then it hit me!! She needed a RED dress!!! So I dug out my can of Annie Sloan Emperor's Silk paint ( a really yummy red) and gave her that new dress, but I did not stop there. She needed a little jewelry, so with a great stencil and Martha Stewart metallic paint in the color Polished Silver, it gave her just the right bling.  

Ready to dance!

She is now ready to go to the dance!! Actually, she  stands out proudly in my booth, ready to move to a new home! Who wants the next dance??

Monday, July 11, 2011

For the love of footstools!


I have always loved little footstools. I must not be the only one, because every one that I have put in my antiques booth sells within days. I have collected many over the years... needlepoint, tapestry, velvet, and some that had me scratching my head and wondering "what were they thinking when they covered this!" I have even bought a few that are just base and legs, without a cushion.  This brings me to my project for today. I saw a small bench in a vendor booth ( Mary Flanagan Woolens....www.mfwoolens.com ) in Houston, so I will not take full credit for this idea  
Getting started
I started by finding an old footstool that had seen better day. This one was dinged and scratched, with a grimey, faded orange cover. I then gathered a bunch of wool scraps. I used pieces that were purchased, collected from discarded wool clothing, and even thrift store sweaters that have been "felted". Now I probably should have saved this project for cooler weather, considering the heat index today was 105 degrees, but decided to get a head start on Fall anyway!!   I chose Annie Sloan Chalk Paint color ... Olive to paint my stool, then distressed slightly, followed by AS clear and rustic waxes.
Make sure to use a mat!!
Using a rotary cutter with a pinking blade, cut the wool into strips about 3/4" wide and 16"-18" long. You will need a bunch. My stool used 80-90.
Lots and lots of strips
Once you have all your pieces cut it is time to start rolling. Roll them "jellyroll" style". Then with a long needle and thread, secure them all the way through a couple times and tie off.
Use a neutral thread.
Now that you have a gillion little roll, lets get to gluing. I used E6000 glue, it's thick,sticks well, and dries clear for those of us that get a little messy, ( because we want it done NOW)** I forgot to mention that I did recover the yucky cushion with a cotton fabric** Start with one roll at a time. Dab some glue on the bottom of   and place a row on one side. I did the perimiter first, then filled in toward the center, making sure they fit snug. So this is how my little footstool turned out.                                       


To sell or not to sell???