My Orange Tabby Cat, Goldie - I Heart Faces Pets Photo

It's week 12 of I Heart Faces and I am showing off my cute and lovable buff tabby cat, Goldie!

He is 8 years old and still has a lot of energy! He loves to help me garden, can you tell?

Are you ready for your close-up, Goldie??? Cheese!!!

("Oh, please, lady, just let me in the house and clean off my paws! Some catnip would be nice, too!")

Isn't he adorable???





Make sure to stop by I Heart Faces Pet Week to see all of the fur babies!

ttfn,

CSN Lighting Giveaway Winner & 31 Days to a Better Blog

The lucky, lucky winner of the $100 store credit to CSN Lighting is...

The Thrifty Trendsetter!!!

Congratulations Thrifty Trendsetter!!! Enjoy your beautiful new lamp! And thanks again to CSN Lighting for such a nice giveaway!

ttfn,

PS: Darren Rowse of Problogger.net is hosting 31 Days to a Better Blog. If you are interested, please visit my other blog, bella casa news, for more information. Thanks!

Giveaway: $100 Living Well Lamp from CSN Lighting

Good Monday Morning!


I am so excited this morning because I have a fabulous giveaway from CSN Lighting!

The prize is a $100 store credit towards any Living Well brand Lamp from CSN Lighting.


Just take a look at some of my favorites:



Living Well - Mountain Mist Table Lamp with Fabric Shade


Living Well - Aged Copper Table Lamp with Silk Shade

Living Well - Brown Sand Buffet Lamp with Jacquard Shade

More information about the Living Well brand of designer lighting:



Living Well Under Designer Lighting



When it comes to top quality lighting, Living Well has been providing the world with beautiful lighting designs for any style décor. Specializing in traditional, transitional, and modern lighting, Living Well offers an extensive collection of table lamps, chandeliers, wall sconces, and indoor and outdoor lighting fixtures. Living Well carries such a wide array of styles and products that one would assume that they have an army of designers from all over the globe at their disposal.




Not only does Living Well offer versatile lighting solutions for almost every application, but their lamp shades are also handcrafted by masterful Asian artisans. It is this attention to detail and individual care that makes this brand a unique combination of handcrafted fine art and high quality modern lighting. Many Living Well lighting fixtures feature stylish themes such as nautical, antique, and Asian inspired styles to help create a theme for your home that can truly add character to an otherwise dull decor. Whether your home was designed with traditional or modern design elements in mind, Living Well is sure to offer a lighting fixture that will accent your home beautifully.



The Living Well Metal Rose table lamp for example offers a beautiful mixture of ornate Asian design and modern simplicity. It would add an international accent to any living room, bedroom, or study in any modern home. The metal rose lighting stem offers intricate rose peddle carvings and a handcrafted rose inspired lampshade that has a worldly sense of style and sophistication.


Are you ready to enter to win a fabulous lamp? Here's what you do:

1. Visit the Living
Well Designer Lighting page at CSN Lighting.

2. Come back here and leave a comment for me, telling me what lamp
you would purchase or apply your $100 store credit towards...and what room you would put it in.

(Make sure that your email address is accessible in your Blogspot profile, or leave your email address in your comment, otherwise, I will have no way of contacting you if you are the winner.)

Want to earn extra entries?

1. Blog about this giveaway on your blog and leave a comment with a
link to your blog post.

2. Tweet about this giveaway on twitter and leave a comment with a
link to your tweet.

3. Sign up for emails or RSS feeds from Bella Casa and leave a
comment that you did so.

4. "Follow me" on Blogspot and leave a comment telling me that you did so.

(Leave a separate comment for each entry.)

This giveaway will end this Friday and I will announce the lucky winner this weekend. It is open to US and Canada only.





Thanks so much, CSN Lighting and to all of my readers, GOOD LUCK!!!

I'm Hooked on Virtual Design Makeovers from Alt-erior Design

Hi! Welcome to my blog today!



If you are here for the first time, visiting from Hooked on Houses, Hooked on Toile Party, thank you for visiting and I am very glad that you came! And if you have been here before, well, I am also glad you stopped by...the more, the merrier! Let's keep the party rolling! I just love the Toile Rain Boots that Julia had on her blog, too cute!





This week, I am hooked on virtual design makeovers from Alt-erior Designs, which belongs to my new friend, Ali Mae.


How could I not be? A couple of weeks ago, I posted a picture of my brick home and told all of my readers that I would like to paint it. A day later, I received an email from Ali Mae, with a virtual makeover of my brick home and how it would look if it were painted and had a trellis and porch curtains, here, take a look...



She took my home from this:





To this!

Isn't that gorgeous? And it's so life-like, it really does give you a good idea of what the house would look like painted. She does fabulous work!

Then, this week, I posted that I need to pick out a paint color for my Living Room and again, Ali Mae sent me another virtual makeover, she's amazing!!!

My current Living Room:

Some color choices for my Living Room:





I am so glad that Ali Mae did the virtual makeover of my Living Room, because I was leaning towards cream, but I can now SEE that cream would not really be the best choice. I like the khaki and brown tones much better, they are so much warmer and cozier, which is exactly what I want for that room.

If you are interested in a virtual design makeover for your home, visit Ali Mae's blog, Alt-erior Designs for more information and pricing.

To see what everyone else is hooked on today, visit Julia's blog party.

Have a great weekend everyone!


ttfn,

A Tassel from The Nester

Do you remember this gorgeous tassel from my Hooked on Etsy post?

It's all mine now! I bought it last week and when it arrived, I could hardly believe my eyes! It is HUGE and the feathers and tassel part are so soft and the finial part is so chunky and funky, I just love my new tassel!

If you would love your own tassel from The Nester, check out her Etsy Shop and tell her I sent ya!

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

ttfn,

Help Me Decorate My Living Room

Well, I didn't win the HGTV Sonoma Dream House, so I have to concentrate on my house again, drats! ;)








My dear, impatient husband, Velo has informed me that he wants to start painting our living room this weekend and I still don't know what color to paint it.





Can you help me, please?







Here is the room, in all of its bare glory. It's painted a creamy light green, called "Outback" by Behr. I do like the color, but am in the mood for something new. Also, what you don't see, is behind the couch our little artist colored the walls...plus, we want to lose the fuschia wall in the foyer...otherwise, I wouldn't even bother painting it right now.

We have 2 big windows in this room. What I want to do is have bamboo blinds with silky curtains. I am thinking green or brown. I will defintely hang the curtains taller and wider than the blinds currently are:

Just another corner in the room:

Of course, there is the dilemma of the Iron Work Wall. Right now, I have shimmery copper colored curtains up in front of it. I have more of these curtains, so I could use these on the other 2 windows, but, I am kind of thinking green or brown. So, do I need to match the curtains on the window to these, or can they be different? Hmmmm...

Currently, I really like Candice Olson and Kim Myles as far as design style. They both have a sophisticated style, that is also comfortable and fun.

I was thinking a green, brown, cream theme. I was even thinking cream walls, which I am not really sure about because I do love color on the walls...but if I had rich, shiny color on the curtains, the cream walls might work out ok. I'm just not sure. I also love gold, honey, mustard sort of colors, but am not sure that that would work with our sectional, which is a tan/light green sort of color.

I definitely need more lighting and an ottoman, too. We will probably get an upholstered or leather ottoman. And I need a rug, too. Oh, and something on the wall behind the sofa. I need it all! ;)

So, what do you think? Any and all ideas are welcome!

Thank you!!

ttfn,

Free Subscription to Metropolitan Home Magazine - It's Back!

Free subscription to Metropolitan Home Magazine

For more fabulous freebies, see my Friday Freebies post at bella casa news, thanks!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

ttfn,

More Painted Brick Homes

Coco from Ordinary Miracles wrote a fantastic blog post about painted brick homes in Memphis last September. Please read all about it here.






Wonderful post, Coco, thanks for sharing it with us!

If you would like to see the virtual makeover of my brick home, you can see it here.





ttfn,

My Spanish Painted Brick House - Virtual After Pictures

As you all know, I want to paint my brick house. But it is a scary project to take on, once that paint is on, there's no turning back! So, although I imagined what it would look like, I really knew I would not know for sure, until the paint was on the house.

Imagine my SURPRISE, when I opened up an email yesterday from one of my lovely readers, Ali Mae! She virtually painted my house and sent me the pictures! I actually squealed in delight when I opened up her email and I was clapping my hands...and looking like I had just lost it ;) My husband was like, "What???" And then when I showed him, he was pretty happy as well (see, HE is the one PAINTING and he was still kind of hesitant about it)...until he saw Ali Mae's beautiful pictures, here take a look:

Spanish Brick Home Before:

Here, she virtually painted the house and shutters, in beige and tan, love it:

In this photo, she has added a trellis, for added interest and to 'balance out' the house, I love this, too:

Here, Ali Mae has added flower boxes to the upper windows, so pretty! Notice, too how she painted the porch a soft yellow, to make the arches stand out more - so smart!

And look, here she has even added CURTAINS to the arches on my front porch, like I had been talking about in my last post:


I think it looks like a beautiful villa, I am now even more excited to get going on this project. Thanks so much, Ali Mae, you are the best!!!
_______________________________________________________________
Edited to add: Ali Mae has started a new blog for her virtual makeover designs. If you would like to hire Ali Mae for a virtual home makeover, visit her new blog Alterior Designs. Congratulations, Ali Mae!!!

ttfn,

PS: If these gorgeous pictures have given you more ideas on what I can do, please let me know, thanks!!!

PPS: I posted several freebies on bella casa news yesterday, check them out, something for everyone!

Front Porch Curtains on My Arches - Opinions, Please

Yesterday I posted about how I want to paint my brick house. Thank you for all of your helpful comments and keep them coming, please! It's such a big project to take on, I can use all of the input and support that I can get ;)



Today, I have another questions to ask of you all. I want to hang curtains on my arches, the way that Kimba, from A Soft Place to Land did on her porch:










Gorgeous, isn't it?


So, my question is...do I hang the curtains on the inside or outside of the arches? I mean, I am assuming the inside (porch side)...but I am wondering if they would look better on the outside of the arches instead? But then, they would get dirtier faster, too. Hmmmm....what do you think?

Thanks again!

ttfn,

I Want To Paint My Brick House - Need Ideas, Please

OK, so I know painting brick is a touchy subject...but I think once you see my house, you just might get on board with me.

See, my house has a Spanish them going on on the bottom, but on top it is a typical 1970's Colonial kind of look. I am thinking of painting it all one color, to tie it all together. I really think it would make this ugly duckling of a house, a beautiful home...at least that is my hope!

I have never shown pics of the full exterior of my house, because I just am not in love with it...so, deep breath, here goes:





Last spring we added the blue shutters and painted the front door blue (although it's still purple in this picture, lol). I was going for a Spanish Mediterranean sort of look...I failed :(

I do love the arches on the front porch...I wish they would have brought them *into* the house, too, but they didn't.





My solid as a rock wicker chairs from the Salvation Army...the could use a paint job though:





Close up of the brick. It is very nice brick, but I just don't know what else to do to give this house some curb appeal:






In this pic, you can see how the sides of our house 'fan out', it's a nice feature and I think by painting it a light color, people from the street could actually see that detail.

I took this picture from the middle of my front lawn...so you can imagine how much detail that you just miss of this house from the street:





We also have 2 chimneys that are made of brick and are arched at the tops of them, like the arches on our porch. I also think paint would make them pop from the street, too.





Here is my inspiration before & after. I am sure many of you have seen this before, it is the Nester's painted brick house:









Truly stunning, isn't it?



So that is the look I am trying to achieve. I am thinking a creamy white with tan shutters. Or, if we can find a place to make them and can afford them, I would love to have decorative iron shutters, to tie in with the Spanish theme.



I welcome any and all suggestions, especially ones that back me up on painting the brick, haha! After all, it has taken me 6 years to get my husband to even consider painting it, now I just have to get him over the hump!



Thank you!!!





ttfn,


PS: If you know of anyone who does virtual Exterior design, please let me know! Thanks!

UPDATE: A very kind and talented reader, Ali Mae did a virtual design of my home painted! Thanks, Ali Mae!!!