The Decorologist | Paint Color Consultant | Home Staging
Home Staging and Paint Color Expert Kristie Barnett, draws on her background in psychology and education to provide design and color advice to residential projects.
When hosting a dinner party or get-together, developing a theme is a great way to help guide you through the planning and preparation. Even Christmas parties can benefit from a theme beyond the expected, like the Downton Abbey dinner party I hosted last week.
The Emmy-winning PBS series is set in early 1900′s England and focuses on the family and servants that occupy the Crawley’s home, Downton Abbey. [Read more...]
What does an Ouija Board and elbow-length gloves have in common? I found both of these things while spending Black Friday shopping estate sales and antique malls. If you know why I purchased these disparate items, it means you are a die-hard fan of one of my latest obsessions . . .
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I don’t know about where you are – but it’s going to get a bit chilly in Nashville this weekend! Have you ever wanted to have a spur-of-the-moment bonfire in weather like this? I have to share a super-easy product I recently found that makes it super-easy to have a spontaneous bonfire party anywhere, anytime.
Instant Bonfire
The product is called Light ‘n Go Bonfire and is made by ecoforestfirewood.com. It’s available in 2 sizes for around $10 each. You can set this all-natural birch stump on any surface – the flames are safely contained in the center. I can see grouping 3 or 5 of these in the middle of a driveway, porch, or backyard for some fabulous ambiance and maybe even some marshmellow roasting!
I wasn’t paid to endorse this product – just think it’s a fun thing. I hope you have a great weekend!
For the past 4 years, this reluctant camper has been Camp Counselor to a great group of little girls during the first week of June. Actually, they are now BIG girls as they just completed 6th grade! Anyway, I am pretty much off the grid as you are reading this post.
My co-counselor and I always make fun shirts for the girls in our cabin. We’ve done silk-screened and tie-dyed versions in the past. This year we made some really cool ones using a cardboard stencil shaped like a cross.
Last weekend, we stuck pieces of cardboard inside the shirts and lined them up on my driveway. Then we layed the cardboard stencil on each shirt. Using a spray bottle of bleach water (50/50), we lightly spritzed the middle of each shirt directly on and around the stencil.
Fifteen minutes later, this was the result! Aren’t these great? Of course, we washed them in cold water at this point.
Did I mention I’m in a cabin with 21 sixth grade girls? It’s like herding cats. Pray for me . . .
This weekend, my home was the setting for a baby shower for a dear friend and fellow blogger, Heather Spriggs Thompson. We met several years ago online (haha, I love to say that) and connected on both a personal and business level. Her friends and family wanted to help welcome her baby boy into the world with a party that would be perfect for this artistic, creative, nostalgic, beautiful mother-to-be.
Baby Shower Tablescape
Since the nursery’s theme will be “Vintage Travel,” the other hostesses and I put on our thinking caps to come up with decorations and props to style the event. Heather is a decorative painter, stylist, and designer, so you can imagine how important is was to us to create just the right setting for her shower! [Read more...]
If you’ve never been to a Fashion Swap, you are missing the boat. Get rid of clothes you don’t love, get new clothes for free – what’s not to like?
This post is a re-vamp (pun intended) of one I did two years ago when I hosted a Twilight Dinner Party. Since the latest Twilight movie is about to come out and it’s Halloween, I just had to share this with you (and since most of you weren’t following me way-back-when!). You will LOVE this if you are a Twilight books/movie fan, but there are also lots of ideas for anyone hosting a Halloween or vampire-themed party.
Last week I hosted my Cooking Club in my home. I am “up” to host once a year, and this year I chose an Enchanted Forest theme. I always choose the theme based on decor first, then plan a menu around my decor – which is completely backwards for most of my Cooking Club friends. Cooking is NOT my forte and decorating is, so there you go!
Enchanted Forest
This is where I started with my tablescape: I scavenged my backyard for the right size tree limb and luckily found one with some grapevine wrapped around it. I started adding in some owls, some small mounted antlers, and a few Tom Clark gnomes my father used to collect.
Basis for Enchanted Forest Tablescape
Actually, the only thing I had to purchase for this tablescape was a bag of moss from Michael’s. It made a bit of a mess, and I was glad I decided to go without a tablecloth for this one.
Nature is Messy
If you or your child is addicted to Cake Boss or Ace of Cakes, this party theme will be right up your alley. My daughter is convinced she wants to be a professional baker at this point (rather than her previous aspirations of farmer and architect). So it was up to me to create a birthday party around her obsession!
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I made the invitation for this party by scanning a photo from a vintage Better Homes & Garden’s cookbook for children, [Read more...]
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I stumbled across these photographs I took at a Cooking Club hosted by my pal, Robbie, in December of last year. I forgot to share them with you last year, so I decided to do it now! I loved her stick Christmas tree with the origami swans. |
| I did some interior styling for Robbie a couple of years back, and we did a lot of cool things in her home – like some fun wall groupings of her daughter’s art and this tangy green wall color in her dining room. |  |
