Myers Pottery

One of my favorite places to visit when we're home in Columbia is the gift shop at the South Carolina State Museum. It's a small shop but it's full of lovely home items that either showcase the state's native emblem of the Palmetto tree or are made by South Carolina artisans.

Over our Christmas visit, we stopped in and I fell in LOVE with the pottery pieces of South Carolina artist Jan Myers. I ended up purchasing a beautiful little pitcher that is similar to these (mine is a "straight" pitcher without any curvature but with this coloring):

The blue-green glazed pitcher will look beautiful with our seagreen glass kitchen tile. It will work great as a small vase for flowers or to serve juice in the morning when we have company. But honestly, it's so pretty, it doesn't really need a function.

I also feel in love with these petite pitchers that would work perfectly as a creamer when you serve coffee:

I left these guys behind but now I'm wishing I had nabbed one!

I always love adding handmade items to our home and especially so when they are from our beloved South Carolina. Check out more of the pottery items from Jan and her husband John here...

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New Bamboo Plates

For a while now, I have wanted to replace our everyday dishes. When we were first married, Carter and I scooted to IKEA and bought a set of a dozen white dinner plates, salad plates, bowls, and mugs for about $3. Total.

And they have worked great to tell you the truth. They fit perfectly in our glass front kitchen cabinets and have worn well. My biggest gripe is that the dinner plates are teeny. And our cereal bowls no longer match after breaking several throughout the years.

So when putting my Christmas wishlist together, this was my main request. To replace our dishes with THIS:

Hello bamboo trim! These plates are the Catherine collection from Happy Chic by Jonathan Adler for JCPenney. Gorgeous, right? So simple but right up my alley with the subtle Chinoiserie nod. And being that they were from JCPenney, they were reasonably priced so I could maybe get more than one dinner plate for Christmas.

Although I listed the complete set I eventually would like to gather, I made it clear to Santa Carter that maybe just the dinner plates would be great.

But, y'all, he got errrrrything. I have the whole set that I wanted! It was a great surprise.

So task #1 in the New Year is to unpack all of my new lovely dishes and start fresh with our everyday plates in the kitchen.

Any favorite items you got for Christmas this year?

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Merry Christmas

We wish you a Merry Christmas.

Love, 

Daniela, Ana Claire (& Carter)

Candy Christmas Tree

We have two Christmas trees.  I think this might have been the primary reason why I was so thrilled to renovate the basement into our family room - the opportunity for a second tree!

And I knew exactly what I wanted to do in our family room...a candy tree. Something bright, colorful and sweet. We debuted the tree last year but seeing as how I was super-dee-duper pregnant I didn't get around to blogging about it.

So here it is this year:

And if you remember what our family room looks like, you'll see that the bright pops of candy color are right at home in this room. In fact, I'm pretty sure the desire for a candy tree might have influenced this room's color palette.

Every Christmas, my mother-in-law takes me to my favorite shop in Columbia, SC called Madison Hall where they have a gigantic Christmas room devoted to ornaments which is where I purchased the majority of the ornaments for this tree. I can't wait to go back this year and keep adding to this one...and I hope as Ana Claire gets older, she comes to love her sweet candy tree as much as I do.

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Friday Crush

(Someone remind me where this image is from...Southern Living?)

I am planning a red buffalo check shirt for my Christmas Day ensemble...so I'm basically going to look like this table. And love it! What a beautiful, traditional, sweet table setting. Love the pretty package in the center of the bowl...lovely ribbon can do magical things.

Hope y'all enjoy the last weekend of the Christmas season. See you next week!

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Ellis Plaid

This time of year, I go plaid crazy. I have bought two plaid shirts and really had to hold back from getting two more. I just love the fabric and how it's classic and preppy and warm and usually a bit masculine.

I recently came across this fabric from Laura Ashley - Ellis Plaid - and it shot up to #1 on my fabric want list:

HELLO beautiful! Do you love this color combo like I do? The maroon with the orchid and that peek of yellow...it's so, so lovely. If you had the guts to use this on upholstery - like a sofa - your risk would pay off. OR, what about upholstering the seats of some black dining chairs? Or perhaps curtains in a wood-paneled study....ooo, with some yellow ruffle trim. Guys, this is good stuff. Do you like it?

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Wreaths on Windows

image via Southern Living

The Christmas season is flying by....slow down, Christmas! I'd like at least two more weeks of enjoyment. Two more weeks to completely savor images like this one...I LOVE wreaths on windows. And the size of these wreaths with big red bows adorning an adorable cape cod with Chippendale railings...well, it's Holiday Heaven. Totally saving this idea for the day when I have that gorgeous window-walled sunroom.

What's your favorite way to decorate outdoors for Christmas?

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Raggedy Ann Christmas Tree

Do your children have a color palette? Ana Claire does. Is that because I'm a weird designer mom or do parents do that? Since before she was born I gravitated toward the combination of red, pink and blue. There is nary a yellow, green or purple outfit to be found in her closet.

So being that the child's palette is red, pink and blue, a Raggedy Ann themed first birthday party was an obvious choice. And celebrating Ana Claire's birthday so close to Christmas meant that, clearly, our Christmas tree had to match her birthday party theme. I couldn't have an all-green and white situation competing with my her red/pink/blue party.

Also, I kind of switched up the Christmas color scheme in our living room last year to a more traditional palette of reds, greens and blues. Remember our stockings?

SO WHAT I'M SAYING IS, the tree got a makeover this year. And it began with this little idea I had of wrapping sweet blue ribbon around candy canes:

And one of our gifts to Ana Claire for her birthday was this Raggedy Ann ornament:

And then it kinda spiraled from there into this:

And the twinkly evening view...my favorite:

Now, keep in mind, virtually everything on this tree is new so I had to really keep tight on the budget. The ribbons are present toppers that I just separated out into individual strands and tied to the branches. The candy canes were obvi low cost but have a great impact. The balls and bead garland are from Target. And the painted ornaments are wooden ones that I picked up at AC Moore for $1 and painted to match the tree.

I must say, I am really digging it. Thanks for having a birthday so close to Christmas, baby girl. Gave mama an excuse to redecorate. Although I will likely not repeat this tree next year, I do like that I have more of a red/blue foundation to build upon to jive with our stockings and our blue and white porcelain in the living room. Just think I'll add a little more green to it next year.

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Friday Crush

Our sweet girl is one year old today!! Happy birthday, Ana Claire! Carter and I are still in shock that a whole year has gone by...but, boy, what a year it has been. We can't imagine life without this little one in it. She is our light and our joy and has made our family so much better. We feel so blessed that she joined us a year ago today.

In true one-year-old fashion, she refused to keep her bow on for the picture...she's pretty feisty, this one.  But she did let me put on her pretty dress that I have been saving for this occasion - it's by Kayce Hughes (hello adorable baby girl clothes) and absolutely darling. We are throwing a small birthday party for Ana Claire tomorrow with a Raggedy Ann theme and the dress is getting us in the party spirit. I'm hoping to take some good pictures I can share here with you...I always joke that Pinterest wasn't around when I got married and I feel cheated because of it, but I'm making up for lost time now that I'm planning events for Ana Claire.

So, we'll be celebrating our birthday girl this weekend! I hope you have a great weekend and see you next week!

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Vintage Palm Leaf Side Table

Do you want to stun someone with just about the most awesome Christmas gift ever? EVER. Check out this vintage palm leaf side table from High Street Market:

Amazing, right? I can't stop looking at it. And it's $395 which to me sounds very reasonable....and it's free shipping today! The site is running great deals all week long including some very cool free items depending on your purchase amount. We got our vintage fox door knocker from High Street Market a couple of years ago and got the blue agate coasters as a free gift and I must say that both are still two of my favorite items!

Back to the side table...if you are in the market, ask Santa to hook you up because this one is a winner!

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Our Christmas Cottage

I'll be frank that I chose our house color largely based on how it would look at Christmas. It's no coincidence that our home is green with a red door...and when we got our first snow this weekend, my heart was full.

The snow dusting made the house look so sweet and all the pops of red against the white looked great. I still need to zhush our flower boxes with some holly berries (we have a huge bush in the backyard) and lights so you can see them better at night.

Speaking of night...here is the nocturnal view without snow:

LOVE how the lights look in our skip laurel bushes! See what I mean about the flower boxes? They need some twinkle. And yes, that's a slightly different house flag. I have a lot of house flags.

Have I mentioned I love this season???

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Friday Crush

 

image source

Love this sunny breakfast spot with a cobalt blue sofa paired with light lavender walls...reminds me of my own guest bathroom. I particularly love the idea of dining on a sofa pulled up to a table...lounging with a cup of coffee and a magazine while I munch on my toast...I could get used to that. The bleached wood of this dining table is just beautiful and I love the wee pops of turquoise from the chargers. Such a lovely composition.

Hope you have a wonderful, relaxing weekend ahead. Enjoy it...see you next week!

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My Thanksgiving Table

I forgot to show you my Thanksgiving table! Pretty much every year I tell myself that I'm going to set aside an hour or two to really dress my table - sort through linens and chargers and glassware and come up with something spectacular....and every year, I'm left with about 5 minutes to throw things on the table.

This year was no exception. And I didn't have flowers! Totally forgot to buy some, so I improvised.

I will say the Caspari placemats and napkins in Imari really did the heavy-lifting. The table was pretty with the bright pops of pattern in all of my favorite colors and the jewel tones made the setting very festive and autumnal. And I was so very pleased with how they looked with my china (Derby Panel Green from Royal Crown Derby).

Now on to Christmas decorating!

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Sally Steponkus on One Kings Lane

PSA for this Wednesday: DC designer Sally Steponkus will be on One Kings Lane today with a Tastemaker Tag Sale!

If you are not familiar with Sally's style it is incredibly classic but never boring. Her spaces are timeless with just the right touches of youthful chutzpah to make them delightful.

I'm oh-so certain her sale will be full of handsome pieces that will be great additions to your home. I just trust this lady - she knows what she's doing. So check it out starting at 11 am EST - click here for the link. Happy shopping!

p.s. Click here if you aren't an OKL member and would like to sign up

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Welcoming the Season

This was the scene last night at our house.

After a full weekend of family, food, and entertaining we quickly transitioned into Christmas. The Nutcrackers joined us once again, Carter built a gorgeous fire, we turned up the Christmas tunes (which, let's be honest, were playing all weekend) and relaxed.

Now to hit slow motion as I delight in every moment of my favorite season made even more special this year because I get to share it with Ana Claire.

I hope you had a beautiful holiday and that you too are enjoying the final weeks of this year.

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