Vintage Belgian Sleigh Bells, A Vintage Gray French Trunk, Bleu the French Bulldog, and a Winner

Hello!

I hope you are all enjoying your week.....

I'll be adding a few more products to the shop on December 15th.

One of the items I will be adding is this vintage French gray trunk.....

It is a trunk that would work well in a bedroom or in a entryway.....

I thought it would be fun to show a way to use it during the holidays.....

I was recently in Oklahoma at a horse show, and came back feeling inspired by all the beautiful horses I got to be around all day for a week.....

I have fallen in love with these vintage Belgian sleigh bells.....

The sound they make is so unbelievably beautiful.....

And I can only imagine how beautiful the horses were that they were once used on....

I don't think they will make it in the shop this season : )

I love to get two uses out of my boots.....

I love to wear them daily and I love accessorizing my house with them as well : ).....

Hang your favorite scarf from a ladder to add a little color to the room.....

I placed the small silver tip tree that is adorned with ornaments I purchased from Anthropologie in a 

a vintage French jam pot that is filled with water.....

I wanted to answer your questions on how to stabilize the tree in the pot....

The base of the tree is not very long, the bottom branches of the tree rest on the pot, and that is what stabilizes the tree in the pot...

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I wanted to share a few pictures of our French Bulldog named Bleu......

She is the sweetest little Frenchie....

She likes to stand like she is bigger then she rest of the dogs......

There might be more then a few pictures of Bleu in this post....

Bleu at just eight weeks old....

Bleu and her siblings at five weeks old.

Bleu is the puppy on the far left.

                                        I photographed the litter of puppies for our breeder,

 Jenn Gilliam, who can be reached at 559-310-2014....

We also raise French bulldogs and are hoping to have another litter of puppies available this spring.

Bleu

Bleu's brothers....

Bleu's brother singing for us.....

I will be sharing lots more pictures of Bleu in the near future....

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Thank you to everyone who entered and helped spread the word about our Wintersteen Farms Wreath and 500.00 gift card giveaway.....

The winner of the giveaway is

Tracie of Fishtail Cottage who also has a sweet etsy shop......

Congratulations Tracie!

Thank you Wintersteen Farms for giving away one of your beautiful wreaths.

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I also wanted to share a link to a beautiful holiday e-zine that was produced and photographed by Meg Sandu.....

Thank you Meg for featuring our grain sack stockings and the Wintersteen Farms wreath in your ezine.

Hope you have a great week!

Take Care,

Maria 

Dreamy Whites Shop

Facebook

Random

Hello,

I hope you are all enjoying your week!

I wanted to share an updated picture of my bedroom....

I will be sharing a few details about my room next week, and will be hosting a fun

giveaway.  

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I wanted to also share how I ended up coming up with this french staircase....

The image below is a picture of my space at the Chateau Sonoma French Flea Market...

I have had my eye on this staircase at the Chateau Sonoma the past couple of years. 

I was more then thrilled when I found out I got to use it as a display piece 

in my space at the show...

I then had to take it home with me...

I had hoped to display the staircase the way it is shown at the flea market facing outward in my living room.

Unfortunately that didn't work, it stuck way too far out into the living room : (

Luckily it worked facing the staircase the other direction otherwise it would

be for sale at this time : )

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On another note...

I wanted to say thank you to Meredith Publishing for publishing images of our home

in a Better Homes and Garden New Cottage Style bookazine.

A special thank you to Sarah Alba who is responsible for getting our home published in the book, and also was the stylist for the shoot.  Paul Dyer was the photographer, and I can't tell you how much I loved both of them....It was such a great experience and I learned so much!

Paul was even kind enough to share photography tips with me as well.

I loved everything Sarah did to my house....

Sarah recreated the shot I did with the hydrangeas in the bucket that

I had posted on my blog last spring.

A picture of Sarah working her magic : )

I learned so much just by watching Sarah work.

 This ended up being one of my favorite shots...

I love how Sarah simplified my mantle by just adding a few sea glass bottles and three french apothecary jars with the Mirabelle labels from my shop.

Thank you Sarah Alba, Paul Dyer, and Meridith Publishing!

New Cottage Style can be purchased here on Amazon.

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On a final note....

I know it is summer when my kids are hanging around in their swim trunks and
cowboy boots.... I don't ever want these moments in life to end : (
I just wish my kids could stay little.
I am making sure to stop and enjoy these little moments with my kids...
Enjoy your week!
Take Care,
Maria
p.s. I have been working on product pictures will finally have some new products listed in my shop soon!

Dreamy Whites Shop
Dreamy Whites Facebook

Blackberry Pie.....My Mom's Pie Crust Recipe...Facebook and Twitter

Hello,

Hope you all enjoyed your weekend.

Well, I decided to sign up for facebook and twitter over the weekend.

I am a little nervous about this, but I think it will be a lot of fun....

KT Merry and Sara Roeder both convinced me to get signed up : ) .

My sister Liz, will be helping me run my  twitter and facebook accounts.

Liz does all of the sewing for my online shop, so she is very knowledgeable as to what is going on.

You can find me here on facebook

and you can find me here on twitter....

Now onto the blackberry pie recipe......

My sister, Monica shared the blackberry filling recipe with me....

I had planned to share this recipe last year and never got around to it...

We are in the middle of blackberry season here, so we picked some blackberries on the ranch to make blackberry pie.

We bake a lot of blackberry pies every summer....

I love this picture of my son Austin, I love that his little hands are stained with blackberry juice

and so are his lips : )

This is about the easiest recipe ever....

For the filling you need....

Blackberry Filling

1. Cup of Sugar

1/3 c. flour

1/2 tsp. of cinnamon

4 Cups of Blackberries

1 TBL. butter

Mix all ingredients together and add to an unbaked pastry shell.

{I like to 1 1/2 times this recipe so I have plenty of filling for the pie)

The recipe for the pie crust is a recipe my mom has used ever since I can remember.

I have tried so many different pie recipes and really this one is my favorite.

I am from a family of 10 kids, so this recipe will make 6 single crust pastry shells....

so if you are making berry pies or fruit pies, where you need a bottom shell and a top layer, the recipe will 

make 3 berry pies....

You can adjust it according to your needs.

Even with having just five kids, I always make the full recipe.

Pie Crust

6 Cups of Flour

3 Cups of Butter

4 tsp. of salt

1 1/2 cups of water

Mix Flour and salt together

cut butter into the flour (until the mixture resembles corn meal)

add water

gently combine your flour and water together (just until dry ingredients are moistened)

divide into six sections, and refrigerate for at least two hours.

Add your berry mixture to your unbaked pastry shell....

Roll out another layer of dough and place over the top of the berries.

Pinch the two layers of dough together.

Be sure and cut in air pockets, and I also like to sprinkle a little sugar on the top of my crusts before putting them into the oven.

Bake for 35 to 45 minutes on 425....

I always loosely cover the edges of my pie crust with aluminum foil to prevent burning.

I take the foil off the last 5 minutes of baking.

My favorite dish to use for baking pies in is the Emile Henry brand.

I really love using their bakeware.

If you would like to read more about Emile Henry and why their bakeware is so special, you can do so by clicking here.

Do you have something you love to bake in the summertime? 

If so please feel free to link to a recipe from your blog in my comment section.

On another note...

We are headed to the fair this week.

I had to share a picture of Bethany with her steer from last year.

Bethany had grand champion 4-H steer last year.

I probably won't be back until next week.

I  would like to thank Marni Katz from the inside source for featuring our bedroom in 

an article about recycling architectural salvage.

On a final note.....

Please make sure you enter my Jeanne Oliver Designs Camera Bag Giveaway if you

haven't already....

Jeanne is completely sold out of the camera bag....

One lucky winner will be getting the last camera bag, before Jeanne's new fall collection comes out.

I added a few new items to my shop over the weekend, but since we have the fair this week,

I won't be adding any new items until the beginning of next week.

Enjoy the rest of your week.

Take Care,

Maria

Dreamy Whites Online

Dreamy Whites Online Mother's Day Sale and Mixing Modern, Industrial, and French Farmhouse Pieces Together

Hello Everyone!

I hope you all enjoyed your weekend....

I had a couple things I wanted to share today....

First I wanted to tell you about a SALE I am having on my site, Dreamy Whites Online.

I have marked a number of things on sale in my shop this week, in honor of Mother's Day.

The sale starts today and will run until May 8th.

I will be adding new items to my shop every night this next week.

All items in the shop ship for free to anywhere in the continental United States.

Thank you to everyone who has chosen to shop with me over the past four months!

I am truly honored that you would choose to shop Dreamy Whites Online!

I wanted to share a few ways I like to mix industrial, modern, and French Farmhouse pieces together.

I love these industrial tubs from Europe....

The antique label that is attached to the tub, adds a lot of color even when it isn't holding a bouquet of flowers. ( I will soon be able to fill it with hydrangeas from my garden.)

I think it helps add an industrial and modern feel to the entryway.

I especially like how the industrial tub looks paired with the more formal antique chair...

I have a few of these tubs and use them for many different purposes in the house, such as storing my lavender buds in, and if you subscribed to the House of Fifty,

then you saw the one I have in my bedroom, that I used to store my pillows in.

I chose to use a more modern light fixture here.

It has a modern but yet farmhouse feel to it...

I used natural grain sacks for a rug...

The metal tub, the clock above the mantle, and the light fixture all add modern elements to the room.

The bistro chair and antique french natural wood shutter leaning against the wall add elements of french farmhouse to the entryway.....

The antique Italian chair adds a formal touch to the modern, industrial, and french farmhouse mix.

What styles do you like to mix together?

I will be taking the rest of the week off from blogging.

I will hopefully be back sometime next week.

I hope you all have a great week.

Take Care,

Maria

Dreamy Whites Online

Creating a Relaxed French Farmhouse Feel, The Talented Ruby Wand, and a Winner

Hello!

I hope you are all having a great week!

I first want to thank my friend, Melaine from My Sweet Savannah for hosting the chic french linen market tote giveaway for me.

Thank you Melaine!

Also I want to thank all of you for participating in the giveaway and for all of your sweet comments you left over there.

Melaine picked a winner this morning.....

The winner is the author of the blog Fete et Fleur

Congratulations!

Thank you Melaine!

Today I wanted to share a few pictures I recently took of a french fruit basket....

I spend a lot of time taking product pictures for my shop...

I hope you don't mind if I share product pictures with you from time to time.

I love to try and give my house a relaxed french farmhouse feel.....

When I took these pictures of this french fruit basket, that was the feeling I was trying to capture in my photographs...

Here is what I did to try and create a relaxed french farmhouse feel.....

I first started out by adding a jar filled with lilacs to the basket, that ended up not looking quite right.

Since my lilacs are in bloom, you will see a lot of lilacs in my product pictures (sorry)

 I ended up just laying the flowers in the basket....

I added my J Crew sun hat  to one side of the chair...

I love using this hat throughout my house as a prop...

I added my Chic French Linen Tote to the other side of the chair,

I think the white tote helps break up all the wood that is in the picture.

I threw in my favorite lavender pillows that my sister made for me....

I like how the material looks against the wood and next to the lilacs.

I love creating displays on my bistro chairs.

Bistro chairs also make great night stands and or end tables.

That is how I tried to create a relaxed french farmhouse feel for a product picture....

On a completely different note....

I wanted to introduce you to the talented Ruby Wand.

Ruby recently special ordered a french ticking duvet and a set of french ticking euro-shams from us.

My sister Liz designed and sewed the duvet for Ruby.

I actually didn't get to see the duvet in person, since my sister lives in Atlanta, GA.  

Ruby just sent me pictures of the duvet over the weekend....

I could hardly wait to share these pictures of her bedroom and the duvet with all of you.

I love Ruby's style.... I think she is very talented.

I thought you might enjoy seeing some pictures of Ruby's bedroom....

Ruby used to live in a 1900's white cottage. 

They had to move due to her husband's work and currently rent a condo.

I just love what Ruby has done to this condo.

Ruby's husband Russ, made the night stand and the bookcase.

I love how Ruby used this mantle for a headboard and then added an antique bench to the foot of the bed.

I also love how Ruby mixed so many white linens with her gray and white french ticking duvet.

(The bottom side of the duvet is made from an antique french monogrammed linen sheet.

My sister designed the duvet so that Ruby could also use the linen sheet as the top side if she wished to do so.  Liz used antique buttons made from sea shells to close the duvet.)

I love Ruby's bedroom!

Thank you Ruby for allowing me to share these pictures of your bedroom on my blog.

I hope you will start a blog someday soon! 

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Take Care,

Maria