Happy 30th, Eimear!

Today is my friend, Eimear’s (pronounced ee-mur) 30th birthday.  As Eimear would readily admit, it’s not the easiest day for a birthday because one half of people already have plans and the other half avoid going out because it’s New Year’s Eve.  I would fall into the latter group, unfortunately!

Eimear is originally from Co. Cork and Corkonians are a very proud group of people.  Their county colors are red and white so I’m sure red features into the design of a lot of homes around Cork. So, in honor of Eimear’s big day, I thought I’d highlight a couple of rooms using red in different ways.  I absolutely love red as an accent color. It’s great with a white room or, two of my favorite combinations are red and apple green or red and a rich, buttery yellow.

Red can, of course, also be lovely just on it’s own.

Christmas baby

Just wanted to share a couple of pics of the little cutie I got to spend Christmas with.  His name is Casper and he’s part Irish, part Swedish, part American and 100% adorable. 

A wintery hideaway

Molly lives in a beautiful house on Trout Lake in Colorado.  The picture windows nicely frame the wintery scene outside. Just had to share what she wakes up to every day.

The beauty of baskets

I have always found that open shelves with baskets can be a quick and inexpensive solve to a lot of organizing and decorating issues.  If you buy uniform looking baskets, you can throw them on just about any open shelf — no matter how plain — and suddenly, your room will look neat and tidy. And baskets really seem to warm things up.  Having lived in a lot of houses with limited kitchen storage, I’ve found throwing a few baskets on the top of the kitchen cabinets can be a godsend.

An enviable entry

I really love this entryway – great rug, fun chairs, all mixy-matchy — but most of all, I love all those vintage mirrors on the wall.  It’s so inviting and bounces the light — enough said.

Scott Sanders, Picture Perfect

I had the good fortune of meeting New York interior designer, Scott Sanders, at a dinner party here in Dublin recently.  I had a first-hand peek at Scott’s new book, Picture Perfect, and I was so impressed.  Scott is a lovely guy — in spite of his success, he’s very down-to-earth and you can tell by the drawings Scott did as a child (featured in the forward of his book) that he was destined to become a designer.

Scott spent a number of years working as a designer for Ralph Lauren.  While you can certainly see that influence in his work, Scott has a design sense that’s also all his own as evidenced by the colorful pool house he designed (below).  Check out his website at: http://scottsandersllc.com/

 

 

Silhouettes everywhere

I have written a few times now about how I love silhouettes.  It seems like they’re everywhere I turn. I love that they’re no longer confined to an oval frame on the wall but are busting out in new ways.  Thanks to Michelle for sending me some additional silhouette ideas!

But with all my writing about it, I don’t have any — maybe because I don’t have kiddies and people might think it was completely over-the-top if I had a series of silhouettes of Tilly — hmmm, now that’s an interesting idea.

Happy Stephen’s Day!

Today is Stephen’s Day in Ireland (and please, don’t confuse this with Boxing Day – that’s the English holiday :-) in honor of the first Christian martyr, St. Stephen.  

In Irish, it is called Lá Fhéile Stiofán or Lá an Dreoilín — the latter translates to Wren’s Day linking episodes in the life of Jesus to the wren.  At any rate, it’s a public holiday so I’m not working…woo hoo!

I thought I’d share a few photos from a snowy Stephen’s Day a few years ago when young Miss Tilly was still a pup.

Merry Christmas, All!

Hope this finds you healthy and happy on this Christmas Day!

Bonus post – knitted gloves wreath

Another contribution from Michelle. Love it.  Maybe this is what I can do with the mittens that young miss Tilly chewed a hole in when she was just a few weeks old…