M & J Trimming in NYC

Yesterday I made tracks in the city heading uptown, downtown, midtown, acrosstown...literally. One of my many stops was at M & J Trimming located on 1008 Sixth Avenue between 37th & 38th Street. I have loved this place for years...it's 5000 sq ft of sheer bliss if you are looking for trim, appliques, cords, buttons, ribbons, etc. I usually get most of my trim for design projects from the Decoration and Design Building (commonly referred to as the D & D Bldg.) However, every once in a while I need to visit M & J Trimming, as was the case yesterday. I have bought miles of ribbons for my daughter at M & J. I've spent endless hours making a ton of hair accessories for her...all made out of love! So whether you're looking for the final touch of a design project, or to create a special hair bow or to add decorative appliques to a pillow...this is a fun spot to visit! Here's your tour...   

I use all types of trim on design projects, whether it's a custom piece or whether I'm enhancing a retail purchase. And you? 

Love this snakeskin trim...wouldn't that be fabulous around a pillow?

Appliques galore. I've made a ton of hair bows with appliques. How do you use appliques? 

Ribbons, ribbons and more ribbons...

Ideas for making hair accessories...

Have you been to M & J Trimming? Do you have a place like this where you live? I will be embracing my daughter this weekend as she is dressed as a fairy for a very special event and I will toss caution to the wind to be one too (well, to at least wear some wings!) Have a wonderful weekend!

Creating a room out of your hallway

Many times hallways are overlooked as spaces to design. I love to make a hallway feel like a room vs an area you pass through to get from the bathroom to the bedroom. I most often design hallways to be photo or art galleries. If there is a nook, then I might place a dresser, cabinet or console, as seen here.


The size of your hallway helps to dictate what you can do with your space. A photo gallery, an art gallery, a sitting area, a bookcase with a chair for a mini-library? Does your hallway get you from point A to point B or have you created a designed space?

Tissue box covers

With it being allergy season I thought I would touch on tissue box covers. I have to admit that I used to not keep tissues on display, but rather kept them in a cabinet in each bathroom. With mentioning that, I should also mention that the tissue boxes would disapper from their locations since they weren't held down. Having tissue box covers has remedied that little situation. Here are the two tissue boxes in my home.
In our kiddies bathroom

In the master bathroom of our home

The two below are from World's Away (available through the trade.) I have them on my mind should I or a client need them.

http://worlds-away.com/product/kleenex-box-black-and-cream

http://worlds-away.com/product/kleenex-box-cream-and-green-trellis

Do you keep tissues out or hidden in a cabinet? Where do you find your little boxes?
  

Sixth picture

The beautiful Beatriz from That Girl in Pearls (http://www.thatgirlinpearls.com/) has tagged me with re-posting the sixth photo of this blog. I was looking at her post and enjoying my read when I stumbled across her tagging of six other blogs and noticed my blog name there. Hmmm. I thought, what was my sixth picture? So I ventured away to find that my sixth photo was in my third post. In that post I talked about how your front door is the introduction to your home. It can whet the pallet for what's to come. You can enhance your entry way by adding a door knocker,  a fabulous wreath or both, as I did here. This was a January image of our front door. 

How does your front entry say "welcome?" 

Ok ladies, what was your sixth photo?

http://www.thezhush.com/

http://www.brocantess.blogspot.com/

http://www.pvedesign.blogspot.com/

http://www.high-heelfootinthedoor.blogspot.com/

http://www.redticking.blogspot.com/

http://www.roseteacottage.blogspot.com/

Enjoy the day!

How sweet is this?

I can recall being to Pier 1 Imports twice in my life. However, after this find I may have to stop by a little more often! I spotted this adorable wood confectioners stand with confections on clearance for $11.18!!! I bought several...one for my daughter and several for the gift closet (yes, I keep a selection of gifts on hand.) Tea and calorie free confections anyone?

Maybe you have a daughter, a little niece, a granddaughter, a close friend's little girl, your child's classmate......buy now for her birthday or special holiday. It's not about how much you spend, but rather about giving something that you know she'll love. Oh, I would give this gift assembled, wrapped in pink cellophane with a fabulous bow tied around the top. Hope your week is full of many sweet moments!

Ceilings

A client and I have been working diligently on plans for a coffered ceiling in her family's dining room. She and her husband have a gorgeous home with great ceiling heights. We are going to play to that height by adding another dimension of interest to her dining space. The process begins this coming week. Whereas, I don't have high ceilings in my dining room so a coffered ceiling would not work well, but rather ornamental  trim on the ceiling would be a perfect option. We are going to start that process soon! With that said, for months I haven't been able to walk into a space and not take notice of the ceilings. Here are some ceilings that I love and photographed.

Grand Central Terminal in NYC.  

 Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia.    

Wanamaker Building in Philadelphia.

Union Club in NYC.

 Now, all of these ceilings are quite ornate. I've used them for inspiration, but neither my client's or mine will be so over the top. I will share with you once the projects are completed. Are you a fan of coffered ceilings or ornamental trim on a ceiling? Have a wonderful weekend!

A jewelry display idea

I love costume jewelry. There is something very simple about grabbing a necklace in view, slipping on my flip-flops and heading to the back deck for an enjoyable evening with family and friends. Years ago I had two silk silhouette forms made to sit on my dresser as a place to corral my necklaces in our vacation home. The feminine forms look good loaded with baubles or without, have a sculptural appeal.

Do you like costume jewelry? Do you have a place for displaying or do you prefer it tucked away?

Peacock inspiration

The other day I did a post about finding inspiration for designing/decorating one's home from the great outdoors. Recently, I was at the Bronx Zoo and this gorgeous peacock caught my attention.

After snapping photos of him for ten minutes I immediately thought of napkin rings I had seen. How fabulous would either of these two napkin rings be for a dinner party...very striking! http://www.zgallerie.com/pc-8531-31-sitting-peacock-napkin-rings-set-of-4.aspx

http://www.zgallerie.com/pc-7049-31-peacock-napkin-rings-set-of-4.aspx

Are you looking for furnishings and accessories for the home...check out Zgallerie's website...http://www.zgallerie.com/. Inspiration for designing a home or pulling together a chic dinner party is all around us!

Anthropologie hand towels

If I'm looking for hand towels that are attractive and a little of the unexpected I always visit Anthropologie. I love their selection of dish towels. Have you seen them? I have purchased many, but I never use them in the kitchen...I prefer them in the half-bath. They have so many great designs and many do not have a kitchen motif on them so they can be used anywhere. Here's one of my newer ones.

Check out their website to see the amazing selection http://www.anthropologie.com/.

These also make a nice hostess gift! Happy Monday!

A visit to Stone Barns

My son and I spent the morning at Stone Barns in Westchester County, NY. http://www.stonebarnscenter.org/ The weather...beautiful, my date...well, yummy! I always find inspiration for decorating from Mother Nature. One of the most common concerns people have when decorating their home is how to pull colors together to create an inviting space. Use the colors in Mother Nature as a guide. Today, I found inspiration from the stones used to make the buildings, the rolling landscape and the animals.  I could pull together an entire color palette using the various blues, greens, browns, beiges, creams and pinks found in the above mentioned. Are you inspired by nature?

 

Love this rooster gate!

 And, how can you not be inspired by the colors and textures of animals?

We saw sixteen baby lambs! This little guy was born six hours prior to our visit!

(As a mommy to little ones, I know how this mommy ewe feels given that she is sleeping standing up!)

From just this photo I could pull together a very soothing room full of texture with various shades of white, cream, beige with hints of pale pink!

  

 There is a charming little cafe on the grounds that sells Mast Brothers Chocolate. These might be the most gorgeous chocolate bar wrappers I've ever seen! I thought about buying one, but at $9.00 a bar I decided to pass. Now, I'm wondering just how delicious they must have been...they are handmade chocolates (not that I'm a chocolate snob...it all tastes good, right?) Have you ever had this brand of chocolate? 

I would love to have these flowers (called succulents), I mean candles for al fresco dining...all four in the little container would be perfect!

Nature inspires!

Another Happy 101 Award...

I'm happy to have received another Happy 101 award from the lovely gal over at http://www.cashonandcompany.com/. Look at her design website, she is quite talented and her blog, we'll it's busting at the seams with fabulousness! With this award I'm supposed to list ten items that make me happy and pass the award along to ten blogs I enjoy. My list of happy items is very consistent, so there are no changes from the last time I received this fun accolade. However, the last time I received this honor I found it so hard to limit my list to only ten blogs. I'm thrilled to have another chance of listing ten additional blogs I love!

Hamptontoes top 10 happiness list:
(1) My family; being married to my husband and squeezing in date nights with him, hearing my children laugh that gut-belly laugh and seeing them smile; as well as time spent with my extended family.
(2) My amazing friends who enrich my life. I'd go to the moon for them.
(3) I'm grateful to enjoy life with good health.
(4) Being physically active; running, biking, snowboarding, wakeboarding, swimming, yoga.
(5) Interior design/decoration.
(6) Cooking homemade meals.
(7) Gardening and landscaping, love getting my hands into the earth.
(8) In the summer, showering outdoors and looking up at the sky.
(9) Getting massages.
10) And, finally my newest form of happiness is blogging. I'm truly enjoying connecting with others who enjoy the fun escape blogging provides. And, I love being inspired by the many talented bloggers who share their knowledge, information, skills, experiences and thoughts with us.

Lovely ladies here is your Happy 101 award...list your happiness and pass along the award! I've love http://www.casabelladecor.blogspot.com/, http://www.moth-design.blogspot.com/ and http://www.cashonandcompany.com/, but I've received this award from them so I'm leaving them off this list even though I LOVE their blogs! You should visit their blogs and then pop over to these...
http://www.thatgirlinpearls.blogspot.com/
http://www.houseofturquoise.com/
http://www.chiccoles.blogspot.com/
http://www.gwendriscoll.blogspot.com/
http://www.goodlifeofdesign.blogspot.com/
http://www.frenchblue-frenchblue.blogspot.com/
http://www.littlebluedeer.blogspot.com/
http://www.donutstodelirium.com/
http://www.plushpalate.blogspot.com/
http://www.beachvintage.blogspot.com/

Sweet dreams - good night!

Customizing carpet

Not everyone can do a custom rug for their home and rightfully so, it's down right expensive!  However, buying a set size rug isn't your only option (ie: 8 x 10, 9 x 12, etc.) Instead of settling on a rug size that isn't exactly what you need, I always recommend that you visit your local carpeting store and have a rug that you love made to your specifications. You can pick options that are wool or synthetic, traditional or modern, and most importantly...what works for your budget. The store will cut your carpeting choice to your size requirements then have it bound or serged, leather trim or not, etc. I did this with our dining room. I knew that I wanted a wool, tone on tone rug (and a non-standard size), so I went and had the size made and I'm in love with the results. Here is an image of the rug in my dining room.

Check the carpeting stores in your area for sales. I know in my community some of the stores hold once or twice a year blow-out tent sales. Once the dining room is completed I'll share photographs.
Happy Monday!
  

Ready, set, go

Having competed in triathlons and running races (prior to having my children) kept my workouts very honest. Basically, for the past four years the only running I've been doing has been to the bathroom!! I've been itching to get back into triathlons and running. So, last night I signed up for six running races over the next several months. How I'm going to squeeze training into my already tight schedule is yet unknown, but I can guarantee you I'll find a way. These sneakers will be my footwear of choice for months to come (and flip-flops.)

 Have you done tri's? Running races? Would love to hear your stories...do share! Also, blogging friends, I'm hoping you'll keep me motivated! Have a great weekend!

Shadow boxes

Regardless of one's budget for interior design/decoration, one of the goals of most homeowners is to make their house feel like a home. Infusing elements that are meaningful to one's family is one way to achieve this goal. Below is a recent post on personalizing one's home...here are some additional shadow box ideas. All of these were created with an $8.00 wooden and glass shadow box...very inexpensive artwork, but truly priceless. Proper placement in a home makes a difference on it's impact.

This post was about a shadow box that hangs in a built-in shelving unit in our vacation home. http://hamptontoes.blogspot.com/2010/03/personalizing-your-home.html In a post on my son's bedroom you can see another example of using a shadow box. http://hamptontoes.blogspot.com/2010/01/our-sons-bedroom.html

Generally, people consider hallways as a means of getting from point A to point B. I almost always like to create galleries in hallways so that they are no longer thought of as a hallway, but rather a gallery. In our hallway on the bedroom level, I have three different shadow boxes on display. This one is filled with stuff from when I was a baby. The little white cotton dress was worn by our daughter too!

This is the other grouping in the same hallway as above, but on a different wall. These are filled with very meaningful mementos...also, the wallpaper lining in each shadow box is the same wallpaper as in our son's and daughter's bedroom. (Yes, I have a little thing for baby chapeaus!)

The sky is the limit when creating a shadow box.  I love their ideas too! One blogger, Shari @ http://www.littlebluedeer.blogspot.com/ commented on my blog that she is planning to put her great-grandmother's apron in a shadow box and display in her kitchen...that would be amazing! I also think a grouping of shadow boxes above a console in a living area could be quite striking!

I'd love to hear about your ideas for additional items that are perfect for a shadow box! Oh, not one of these displays took me more than thirty minutes to assemble and hang...a great weekend project!