Ebay Alert

Oomph Lanterns

I watch Ebay like a hawk for all thinks pagoda. Here is a great chance to score not one...... drum roll..... but two lanterns that are just rip for a makeover. If I needed these I would low ball an offer & see what happens.... just saying. Then try higher..... Scrap the glass, get going with some lacquer & boy howdy these suckers will shine!

Ebay Lanterns

More ideas.... love the contrast below....

Urban Electric

Paint them like pineapples and hang over an island!

Coleen & Company

Add bells....

Charles Edwards

Love the sophistication below....

Coleen & Company

Not to be forgotten.... Classic Chinese Red

1st Dibs

Now to really spruce them up add some groovy candle covers! I love these by Kaarskoker.

Kaarskoker

What are you waiting for?????? Go now ~  I may change my mind & buy them myself! Listen to Linda, go low or go home!

Live, Laugh, Decorate is Tawking 'Bout Me

Live, Laugh, Decorate

The lovely & talented Nicole of Live, Laugh, Decorate has a fun series called One Chair, Two Fabrics seen here. She is featuring my Mid Century Butterfly Wing Backs this week. Not only do they love pink over @ LLD but they have the flamingo fetish too!  Check them out stat!
Happy Friday & a lovely weekend to ya'

Updated Foyer + a Rockn' Lamp

Beth over @ Chinoiserie Chic featured small foyers today which reminded me I needed to post my updated foyer as I re-staged it for summer back in May. Yeah.... not one to rush my postings..... If this is your first time seeing the foyer the chevron lantern featured is the Bargello Lantern by Dana Gibson. This petite pagoda lantern comes in additional colors & designs; see it here in grey.

My sister & I tried what seemed like a million several different vignettes in an effort to lighten up & give a more "relaxed sophistication" feel to this small space. The Hollywood Regency vibe (seen here) was great for winter but too heavy for the lazy days of summer.

Above & below were my favorite but....  the space seemed to need a lamp to throw out the maximum welcoming effect @ night. My sister also thought it appeared the Foo Dog was gunning for Pinkie, my Audubon Flamingo. Nuff said.

Clean & serene but still no lamp....

I broke up a set of vintage blanc de chine pierced lamps from my bedroom to warm the welcome. Above & below is where we landed. Cool, Calm, Collected or is it Calm, Cool, Collected???

Beth has more great ideas for small foyers over on her Pinterest Board The Small Chinoiserie Foyer.

Here is a lamp I tried at one point but never took a picture as it totally sucked  was the wrong look for the foyer. Plus it looked just perfect perched on this orange lacquer Asian table in the breezeway. I am crazy for this vintage porcelain bamboo lamp with a hand painted Dana Gibson shade.

Dana Gibson Give Away @ Chinoiserie Chic

Dana Gibson Custom Fabric

I love Dana Gibson & Chinoiserie Chic. Imagine how thrilled I am they have joined forces & Beth is doing a giveaway @ Chinoiserie Chic of a Dana Pillow. Did you know Dana will customize her fabrics??? Boy Howdy she did for me & I love my Dana Gibson Ikat on the chair above! See the amazing Before/After.

Realize I need to update this room seen above; it has come along way & promise to reveal the latest version soon!

Everything's Coming Up Roses

China Rose @ Chinoiserie Chic

Last week Beth @ Chinoiserie Chic did a fab post on Chinoiserie Favorites which included Scalamandre's China Rose. Be still my heart; it makes me swoon! I am particularity taken with the lime green, pink & orange. I am anxiously awaiting my curtain panels in the same for my living room.

Scalamandre's China Rose Lime

Ebay FellaBird

Wanted to let you in on a steal deal! I bought some small cuts of China Rose previously from FellaBird on ebay. I had been watching a piece for frigging eva' of 24 meters & def didn't need that much. She is now offering by the meter @ the crazy price of approx 29 GBP that's about $44.00 a yard. She is a Brit so the rate fluctuates but not much so run, go buy it now! She is lovely to work with; prompt & courteous. Important when dealing on-line. She also has other pretty pieces.
Don't you just love a bargain?!?

Fireworks @ Dana Gibson

Dana Gibson

New Products coming soon to Dana Gibson. Lov'n the Ginger Jar style lamps!
Have a safe 4th!

The Original Barefoot Contessa & Summer Reading

Elements of Ava Gardner's London Apt. inspired me during my recent renovation. Color, touches of Chinoiserie & the comfort of fussy were a definite draw.

Ava Gardner's Dining Room ~ London Apartment

Minton's Cockatrice available on ebay

I have a beautiful collection of Minton's Green Cockatrice; one of many that Ava collected. Beautiful & oh so British. I will be using it soon @ a Whodunit Dinner Party ala Agatha Christie. Ah, the Butler does not do it!

Ava's London Living Room

Ava's London Bedroom

Coming out just in time for summer reading is a book I am giddy is finally being published. Originally begun in 1988 when the author; Peter James, spent time in London interviewing the provocative North Carolina native Ava Gardner. Overwhelmed with the scandals that would become public knowledge if the memoirs were published Ava pulled the plug on the project. With permission from the Ava Gardner Trust the book Ava Gardner, The Secret Conversations is now being published & released July 2, 2013. Oh boy howdy I am heading to the beach next week & plan to stop by the gift shop @ the Ava Garner Museum & pick up a copy. If you're driving through North Carolina on I-95 look for signs for Smithfield & stop by Ava's Museum; it is chocked full of all things Ava, gossip & memorabilia.

“I EITHER WRITE THE BOOK OR SELL THE JEWELS,” Ava Gardner told her coauthor, Peter Evans, “and I’m kinda sentimental about the jewels.” So began the collaboration that led to this remarkably candid, wickedly sardonic memoir. 

Buy A Copy

Ava Gardner was one of Hollywood’s great stars during the 1940s and 1950s, an Oscar-nominated lead­ing lady who co-starred with Clark Gable, Burt Lancaster, and Humphrey Bogart, among others. Her films included Show Boat, The Snows of Kilimanjaro, The Barefoot Contessa, and On the Beach. But her life off the screen was every bit as fabulous as her film roles.


"Born poor in rural North Carolina, Gardner was given a Hollywood tryout thanks to a stunning photo of her displayed in a shop window. Not long after arriving in Hollywood, she caught the eye of Mickey Rooney, then America’s #1 box-office draw. Rooney was a womanizer so notorious that even his mother warned Gardner about him. They married, but the marriage lasted only a year (“my shortest husband and my biggest mistake”). Ava then married band leader and clarinetist Artie Shaw, who would eventually marry eight times, but that marriage, too, lasted only about a year (“he was a dominating son of a . . . always putting me down”). She carried on a passionate affair with Howard Hughes but didn’t love him, she said. Her third marriage was a tempestuous one to Frank Sinatra (“We were fighting all the time. Fighting and boozing. It was madness. . . . But he was good in the feathers”).

Faithfully recording Ava’s reminiscences in this book, Peter Evans describes their late-night conver­sations when Ava, having had something to drink and unable to sleep, was at her most candid. So candid, in fact, that when she read her own words, she backed out and halted the book. Only now, years after her death, could this frank and revealing memoir be published. 

“If I get into this stuff, oh, honey, have you got something coming,” Ava told Evans. Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations is the stunning story of a legendary star’s public and private lives."

Below is a crummy picture of a picture that I took... It was from Ava'a apt. that her niece gave my sister. She included these in responses to her fan mail. I think this is a Barefoot Contessa publicity shot.

Fan Photo

While I lie in my chaise digging my toes into the sand & clutch my sweet tea I will def have Siriusly Sinatra playing as I enjoy every morsel of this long awaited biography.