I hate it when people, decorators, furniture stores, builders, and magazines try to tell us what Tuscan style is. I have never been to Tuscany but I have seen pictures of the buildings and the decor and it is not what Ashley Furniture is pushing. Case in point,
Emanuela Marchesini. She has a few shops in Tuscany and they all look like this.
You need to go to her
website and check out her style. I love it. Mini me and I
drool over her stuff and it makes us want to go to Italy real bad. When I was in London I was asked if I decorated in the Southwest Style. When I asked him what that was he said, "Log pole beds and rustic mexican stuff with bright orange and red." I told him I didn't know anyone who decorated their homes like that but I have seen a few trailer parks with some painted coyotes in their yards. I guess that is what Tuscans feel like when we think they all decorate their homes like fallen down barns. They do have venetian plaster and lime washed walls, that part we got right.
My Christmas tree looks just like this one only BIGGER. I swear. I would love to have a dining room set like this one. I would even consider taking the piano out of the dining room to put that in there. I think my sister in law is getting me a set just like this for Christmas.
Look at the buttons on the sofa... they are bows! I could replace every cabinet in my kitchen with the big display cabinet here. Counter space just gets junk on it.
I love this room. I love the old scraped paint on the doors and the added on built in closets. There is gold writing on the wall in
Italian. Mini Me loves the sofa because it is her favorite color.
I love the bed - but the curtains are what I'm going to copy. Peeka and Art Girl are due for some curtains and I love how the sheer fabric has a silk panel on the bottom. I'm giving myself until the end of the month to complete them. I just got all the fabric in and the only thing holding me back is...ME! I would love it if you would encourage me to meet my deadline.
Oh, the colors!
I showed this to my builder hubby and he said we could do this in our next house. (I think he is just thinking is would be cheaper than a cabinet.) I love how there are beautiful things to see underneath the sink. Bidets are big in Europe.
Ew. Check out that mirror. Maybe I can find one on Craigslist-
hey, it could happen!
This is my new family room. I
wish. Have fun on her website. I know I do.
We are going to Iowa! Yippee! This is the place we are staying at in Iowa. I know, pretty fancy, but property values in the middle of farmland are not as high as say, Phoenix or even Show Low. This place is about an hour and 15 minutes from Nauvoo, Illinois. We will be going to the Nauvoo temple while we are there and seeing old Nauvoo.
This is my bath tub. It's just wrong, all wrong. Now get out, I'm going to take a bath.
Iowa for Thanksgiving. I know, some of you are saying "Iowa? Why are you going to Iowa? Do you have family there? Are you crazy? Are you going to eat your tots?" Well, I know what you are thinking as I have had those same questions myself. BUT, take a look at this house! It is in the middle of nowhere (as much of Iowa is) and there is nothing to do but kick back and relax, go fishing, go swimming, or bowling. This is the conservatory, filled with plants I see every day in Arizona. Oh so very, very wrong.
Unfortunately, we haven't been there in a while and the furnaces are broken. All except one, the conservatory. I am not sleeping next to the pool. I am going to see if the fireplaces will work so we can have some heat. We might all be sleeping in this room. I call "dibs" on the big sofa.
Here is the "pond". That is what the locals call it but it is 9 acres and stocked with Large Mouth Bass. I like to call it a lake. The bass is yummy. There is a boat and turtles, frogs, snakes and little otter type creatures. But I think they will be in hiding because it is 40 degrees out there right now. I just hope there is no ice on the pond.
I didn't show you the wooded part but there are wild turkeys and pheasant running around. I wanted to catch one and eat it for Thanksgiving but the owner said "no hunting". Is it officially hunting if you catch it live and then accidentally take it to the butcher and then eat it for dinner? I'll let you know how that turns out. See you next week.
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