Hi everyone! This is Jana from Twig

Hello everyone this is Jana from the blog Twig!
It's that time again! The Vintage Whites Market will be held this month on June 19th, Saturday from 9 AM until 4 PM! Maria has been kind enough to feature our market, and we really thank you for that! I hope all of you who read and are within driving distance get a chance to come check everything out!

Last month, the best deals went first so make sure and get there early! We will have espresso and yummy treats to keep you busy while waiting in line, and plenty of awesome goodies to keep you busy for the duration of the day.

The address is 269 Burns St. in Somers, MT. Please email me at thevintagewhitesmarket@gmail.com for more information or directions.

Are you looking for anything in particular? Here are a few photos from the last market. All product is updated each time, so expect new and exciting things this time!

Beautiful handmade lampshades...vintage lace....they cast a gorgeous shadow in the living room!

Baked goods from Sandy of Sweet Notions...

Fabric rosette pins and hair clips made by yours truly...

A wine bar made from a vintage radio cabinet...

Complete with a rack for your wine glasses...

There are so many fun items scattered throughout the market....I really hope you'll join us on Saturday...and remember, our markets are monthly throughout the summer!

Make sure to visit http://www.thevintagewhitesmarket.com/ for all the dates and times, and my blog http://twigdecor.blogspot.com/ for updated information!!

Thanks Jana!

I will be back tomorrow with the winner of the giveaway and also some answers to your questions about hydrangeas!

Take Care,

Maria

Hydrangeas

Hello Everyone!

I hope you all had a great weekend!

Today I thought I would share another one of my favorite flowers.

Hydrangeas

Three years ago, I planted over twenty hydrangea shrubs.

I planted them all along the east side of the house, that way they would receive morning sun and not afternoon sun. The idea was the porch was supposed to protect them from that hot afternoon sun.

I never expected them to grow so big so fast.

Hydrangeas do well with filtered sunlight.

They don't do well in the hot afternoon sun.

They burn very quickly when exposed to the afternoon sun.

So that is why I need my husband to extend the porch!

Not Really, however we do have very hot summers here, and beings they are no longer protected by the porch we are going to have to create shade for them.

They really shouldn't be exposed to the sun after 11:00 a.m.

Now the outer edges of the plants are exposed to the sun until about 1:00 p.m. because they have grown outward a little more than I expected.

One thing we have thought of doing is planting climbing roses along the porch to create shade for them.

I am sad to say they will not look like this for long, beings the hot summer days are now upon us. Until I can come up with a shade solution I will have to cut them back very soon, so I thought I better snap a few pictures before that has to happen.

The name of the hydrangeas I planted are called Nikko Blue,

Really they are very low maintenance.

I fertilize mine once a week and water everyday during the hot summer months.

You can read more about hydrangeas here

They make the prettiest cut flowers!

Hope you all have a great week!

Take Care,

Maria

P.S. There is still time to enter my Cabbages and Roses Giveaway, by clicking here!

Cabbages and Roses is so generously giving away a beautiful table cloth and 6 napkins, to one lucky reader.

valued at $185.00

An Interview with Christina Strutt and a Cabbages and Roses Sponsored Giveaway

Hello Everyone!

I hope you are all having a great day.

I have a very special interview with the talented Christina Strutt, who is also the founder of Cabbages and Roses, and the author of the inspiring book, At Home with Country.

Cabbages and Roses is also sponsoring a very generous giveaway, for one lucky reader.

How would you like a chance to win a lovely Cabbages and Roses tablecloth along with a set of 6 napkins?

Thank you Cabbages and Roses for sponsoring such a generous giveaway.

You will find the giveaway information at the bottom of this post.

First I would like to share my interview with Christina Strutt. Christina has authored four internationally successful books under the Cabbages &Roses brand since launching the company in 2000. Her fifth book titled, Cabbages & Roses At Home with Country, published by CICO Books, was released in March (North America) and April (United Kingdom) 2010. The book showcases the romantic, classic and versatile design sensibilities of the brand, as Christina transforms urban, country and beachside dwellings into havens of comfort and beauty.

What inspired you to write your wonderful new book At Home with Country?

Cabbages & Roses are well known for their dreamy faded floral prints and people automatically assume they fit perfectly into country cottages, we wanted to show that our prints and fabrics slip very happily into any situation – a city apartment, a beach house, a houseboat on the River Thames really almost anywhere!

In your book, At Home With Country, you have shown us that your fabric
designs can look fabulous in any style of home. Do you have a favorite
style of home that you prefer to work with?

At the moment I like a challenge i.e. it is very easy to make a beautiful room in a perfect country cottage, I am enjoying the challenge of designing fabrics to furnish a stately home or a minimalist modern city apartment or a wooden shed! In short I like doing the unexpected and stretching the boundaries.

A lot of us dream of living in an old English styled country home, but reality is we live in a new home. How do you give a new home a feeling of being an old English styled country home?

By doing away with straight lines and perfect finishes – I once did up a home which was 15^th century but we made a lot of new additions so we had to make the new bits look old – we rounded off the plaster finishes and made them imperfect, we sanded areas on the new stone steps so that they looked worn – basically somehow knock off the smart edges! Wallpaper is a great help in softening hard lines, historic paint colours with their subtle tones and fill with vintage artifacts.

In your opinion what is the right way to decorate with whites in an English country style home?

By using different tones of white – Farrow & Ball have many versions of white – chalky white, old white, strong white – all the white tones used in different areas have a lovely effect. White is a very dramatic colour when used in an expansive way. By adding vintage or antique white textiles, such as the old hand woven French sheets, adds lovely texture and a sense of history. We very often wash products that have been made for us and dry them out in the fresh air – we never iron our textiles, they have a lovely pre-loved quality after washing. Whatever advice I give the ultimate quest is for a relaxed attitude. We don’t take ourselves too seriously and boundaries and rules are broken, I encourage you to do the same. If you love it – go for it!

What do you think is the biggest mistake people make when decorating their homes with whites?

To forget that a room needs layers and texture and for a really Cabbages & Roses look, pieces of vintage furniture. The biggest mistake is to never expect to make a mistake. The best interior decorators make mistakes too – if you learn from your mistake then it will be worth while. If you continue to make the same mistake then I would perhaps give up!

Do you have a favorite paint color that you find works really well as a
backdrop, when decorating with whites?

My all time favourite paint colour is strong white from Farrow & Ball – it works with all our fabrics whether they are on a white ground or a natural linen ground. It has a chalky grey hue and is quite perfect.

Has designing always been a lifelong passion of yours?

I think so. Very often what I really wanted didn’t exist so I got it made or made it myself. I think this is what Cabbages & Roses has become – it is certainly how it started. When I was an interior decorator, the fabrics that I really loved were the old faded fabrics that I found in antique shops – these were usually small scraps but so beautiful. With this gap in the market we filled it by reproducing fabrics – ready faded.

The clothing side of the business has grown for the same reason – the inability to find clothes that I liked!

Do you have a favorite Cabbages and Roses design?

Strangely, it is still the very first fabric that we produced – Bees. It had somewhat fallen off my radar recently, but I noticed it the other day and completely fell in love with it all over again.

Do you have a favorite rose?

The Constance Spry is one of my favourites (I have many) but it is prolific and beautifully scented and old fashioned.

What is the one thing you hope readers will walk away with after reading your inspiring book, At Home with Country?

That Cabbages & Roses really does fit in anywhere, whatever type of house you live in, there will be a place to incorporate Cabbages & Roses.

Thank you Christina Strutt!

Christina's book, At Home with Country, is such an inspirational book, there are so many beautiful images in the book! I hope you enjoyed the interview!

Giveaway information!!

Cabbages and Roses will be giving away a lovely Cabbages and Roses tablecloth and 6 napkins to one lucky reader.

Valued at $185.00

You get to choose from three different Cabbages and Roses patterns, Natural Raspberry, Tulip and Rose, and or Cerise Hatley.

All of their linens are beautiful!

The giveaway will end June 15th at midnight p.s.t.

The winner will be announced June 16th.

Random number will be used to pick the winner.

You must leave a separate comment for each entry to count.

1.To enter the giveaway all you need to do is visit The Cabbages and Roses website, and decide which one of these three patterns is your favorite,

Natural Raspberry, Tulip and Rose,

and or Cerise Hatley.

If you click on each name it will take you to the Cabbages and Roses Website, and you can view that particular pattern. Then please come back here and leave a comment on which print is your favorite.

2. If you want to Post about the giveaway on your blog or on any of your social networking sites (such as twitter or facebook) then that counts as another entry. If you posted about the giveaway on more than one social networking site, then please leave a separate comment for each one. That way you get an extra entry for each one of your postings.

Good Luck!

Thank you Christina Strutt for the interview and for sponsoring such a generous giveaway.

I feel very honored to have been given this opportunity.

You are so talented and an inspiration to us all.

Here are a few links for Cabbages and Roses, I thought you might enjoy..

Cabbages and Roses Website

Cabbages and Roses Blog

At Home With Country

Vosges Paris

Hello Everyone!

I hope you are all having a great week.

I wanted to share someone special today with all of you.

Her name is Desiree.

She is the girl behind the

Vosges Paris Blog.

After Lori, from White Flower Farmhouse (more on Lori in the near future, she is the one who introduced me to blogging ), so kindly featured my home on her blog, Frugal Farmhouse Design, Desiree was one of the first people to email me and tell me she liked my home.

I couldn't believe I was getting an email from someone in the Netherlands.

Then after I started my own blog,

Desiree was then so kind to put a picture of my home on the side of her blog, Vosges Paris, and introduced my blog to her readers. I was so overwhelmed with gratitude that someone who didn't even know me would do this for me.

This is something Desiree does for new bloggers.

I think this is so generous of her to do.

Desiree has been such an inspiration to me.

Desiree also sent me this very nice package in the mail.

When Desiree was featured in this magazine at Home she sent me a copy of the magazine.

I had left a comment congratulating her for being featured in the magazine, so she offered to send me a copy, since we don't get this magazine here in the states.

I wish we got At Home here, as it is filled with so much inspiration.

Congratulations Desiree on your magazine feature!

Desiree sent me these cute wooden letters that spells out the word Reve, which means dream in French.

She also sent me this french document as well.

I love it.

Thank you Desiree!

Desiree, as you know, I love everything you sent me.

I asked Desiree if she would let me do a little interview with her and she kindly agreed to answer a few questions.

All of the pictures below are property of Vosges Paris.

Where are you from?

I am born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and still live here and to be honest I could not think of living anywhere else ... I absolutely love my town! I live in the old Harbour of the city surrounded by water and lots of history... You might see something of my neighbourhood when in August this year Sail 2010 is taking place just around the corner from where I live. I feel like having the best of two worlds, The tranquillity of the harbour, doing my daily shopping in a former warehouse of the KHL (Royal Holland Lloyd - Founded in 1899 to carry cattle andcargo between Amsterdam and South America) where coffee and tea was being stored and being really close to the city centre with its canals and narrow streets.

What inspired you to start a blog?

I have always been interested in interior design and photography. Fifteen years ago I bought myself a new camera and started to take lots of concert pictures I sold on eBay and by advertising in magazines. Some of them ended up in Music biography's and it was a great way to finance one of my greatest passions I have next to interior design .. 'music'.

Long before I started a blog of my own I made pictures of my DIY projects and Flee market finds that I shared in Picasa albums with a group of women. We 'met' at an interior forum that I still visit daily. A great group of people with the same passion for interior, flee markets and DIY. From time to time we also meet up at some place, have workshops, shopping trips. Some great friendships have been started there.

Later on I started to read blogs. I was really impressed by the French weblogs (there is a whole list at my blog for those of you who want to discover them). There were so many beautiful 'Mis en scenes' (still life's) as the French call them to admire. I started to make more and more pictures and decided to publish them on a blog as it would give me the change to write some more about them.

What is the story behind the name of your Blog?

The name of my blog comes from a silly nick name I once made as Mr.Google was rejecting all kind of names I wanted to choose. It comes from 'Place des Vosges' in Paris, It is the oldest square in Paris. It was the easiest way to just keep that name.

How would you describe your style?

To be honest I find it very difficult to describe my style.. there are so many things and styles I like. I truly love industrial things as metal cupboards, tolix chairs and tables with big wheels. But my heart also beats faster when seeing a shabby cupboard painted in white. French medici vases, zinc baskets or a garden table with rusty legs and a wooden top. I just love to combine the things I love.

On my blog I get reactions on my posts as: 'this is so you' and many times about the contrast in my home and pictures. So I guess, my style is combine things with a bit of contrast. Such as a modern white vase with an old crate painted with chalk paint to show my collection of strange iron finds. I definitely like to surround me with things you can't find in every shop.

So I often switch things around in my house. The concrete wall with zink ornaments has now been replaced by a white wall with an old table from the antique shop. But there can easily something else coming up in my mind that asks for another changing if decor.

Do you have a favorite room in your home?

I think changing and decorating your house is all about the inspiration you have at that moment and the picture you have in mind with that certain room. And like a painter who likes his last painting best I like my latest projects best. I love the serene atmosphere of my bedroom with the old white shutters and the touch of violet and I love the wall with the Industrial table in my working space. At the moment I am chanching things in my living room and added some bright white IKEA furniture and added a grey and white kelim.

Interiors grow by living in them , so who knows what will be next.

Who is your favorite designer?

That will be Frederic Tabary, I discovered his Picasa photo albums a few years ago, he now also has a weblog.

He is an interior designer and architect. He renovates and builds houses, shop interiors and all kind of unusual places

You can recognise his work by the amazing industrial and smart gadgets.

He uses all the material I love such as concrete Iron and wood.

Once you know his work you will regonice it in the magazines such as Cote Maison.

I can think of many more designs I like and I can pretend to know all the Dutch designers but the thruth it I don't.... I do know very well what I like though.. looking at beautiful things and happily enough Amsterdam is full of cool places with 'hot' design.

What is your favorite design book?

I donít really have a favorite book but I like the books from my favorite interior magazine. The Dutch magazine called ëVT Wonenë.

Do you have a favorite place to shop?

Yes I have a few places I like to shop, I mentioned a few on my weblog already like ëDe Weldaadí and ëSissy Boy homelandí But I also like to wander around at the Noordermarkt, the weekly antiques and curiosa Market. For all the basic stuff most Dutch shop at the HEMA and IKEA.

How has blogging impacted your life?

It has made my world bigger I find it absolutely great to see how other people live. I think if it wasn't for blogging I would never have get in touch with people like you and could have a look at how you live and decorate your home. I have met so many great people over the last years.

Thank you for your friendship Desiree!

Thank you for everything you have done for me.

This is a picture of Desiree below!

Vosges Paris

She has a great blog!

Desiree will also be having a giveaway shortly on her blog.

So keep a watch out for that!