Happiness is . . .

I spotted this message on Instagram this morning 

and it pretty much sums up my philosophy of life.

Happiness is the lavender trim and tidy

 because the bees let me work alongside them.

Happiness is fall decor in the dining room,

living room and even in the garden.

And, it is the angle of the sun in the fall - the pumpkins look like they have been lit up.

Happiness is making new friends on Instagram who challenge you to post for a hashtag like #plumplaidpickins, 

finding enough fall flowers to fill a drawer

and creating a new look in the entry.

Happiness is crying tonight from the beginning to the end of an uplifting true story

that evoked wonderful memories of our life in Jamaica.

I hope you had a happy day.

It Makes Me Smile

If you are on Instagram, you know about the variety of daily hashtags you can join.

This morning, the tags #makesmesmilethursday and #myowndrumdecor , got me thinking about how I decorate and what about my decor makes me smile.

You might wonder what it is about this shot of my bathroom door that

makes me smile - our painter is finished, our walls are a pristine white and I love the original 1920's glass knobs on our doors.

The mantel makes me smile, not just because Steve hung a recent painting, 

but because Cindy of Consider It All Joy came to visit in August and she brought me the cute ceramic pumpkins that are finally on display.

People have asked where my primary colors are and I told Cindy I blame her.

The windows in this photo are what make me smile - they were custom made to exactly match the 1928 windows (that are now a headboard) and we love them.

The vignette doesn't just make me smile, it makes me laugh, because who has this many 2's? - definitely decorating to "my own drum".

In August I posted this picture on Instagram and it didn't just make me smile, 

Steve loved the photograph and just finished his rendition of my photo.

Last week I bought a bouquet of orange flowers at the grocery store and I'm still smiling because 1 little $5 bouquet filled not one,

not two,

not three,

but four containers of flowers.

While setting our bedroom back to rights after painting, I came up with a silly night stand for my side of the bed - a striped wooden box turned upside down holds a bunch of my favorite books and it definitely falls into the "my own drum" and "makes me smile" category.

What is making you smile these days?

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Join me at Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson for Share Your Cup

and

Poofing the Pillows for Thoughts of Home

listening to my body . . .

Just a quick note to let you know that I am stepping down from SYC with Jann of Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson.

I'm fine, but I am listening to my body that is telling me to slow down.

I am taking a lesson from Lulu and not doing much these days

and following the advice of Ralph Waldo Emerson to "live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air".

New Season . . . New Colors

Spending 4 days sitting on a trial as a juror left me little time to take pictures this past week, but I created a collage for the Instagram hashtag - #mysummer2016.

As I scrolled through my IG gallery looking for photos, I noticed that blues, aquas and whites filled my sumner.

But as fall slowly awakens in southern California, I am seeing new colors around the house.

Baby pumpkins in white and orange on my little green table are a departure from my usual palette.

While I was on jury duty, our painter was working his magic on our walls - my green pie safe looks crisp and clear against a white background.

Bouquets of colorful flowers are my usual centerpiece in the dining room, but pumpkins in a green box are a nice seasonal change.

Even the garden is sporting flowers in fall colors

and those fall flowers look lovely in vignettes.

Steve changed the painting over the mantel so I am trying out different ideas on the mantel that will compliment the colors of the sky and ocean.

The colors in the living room are softer - especially with the cute pillow I won on an Instagram giveaway from Bianca of  With Lavender and Grace.

The house is decked out in whites and pastels this season,

but you can see from the bench on our porch and the accents in the entryway

that my seasonal colors are all across the spectrum.

What are your seasonal colors this year?

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Join me at Stone Gable for The Scoop

Sea Spray

A few weeks ago, I saw a blog post about a paint additive called Sea Spray and thought I would like to try it out.

I could not find a distributor in my area so I got brave and emailed Dixie Belle Paint Company and asked them if they would send me some Sea Spray to try out.

Not only did they offer to send me the Sea Spray,

they told me to select 2 colors of paint to use with the Sea Spray.

That sounded like an easy task until I looked at all the fun colors on their website.

 I chose Barn Red and Fluff with this old bench in mind.

One of the benefits of the Dixie Belle paints is that you don't need to prep the surface of what you're painting so all I did was wipe down the bench.

I poured a bit of the red paint in a can and mixed in a bit of the powder until I thought I had the right consistency.

Tutorial 

I determined the right consistency by watching this YouTube video.

The first coat of paint, with the additive is "gloppy".

The old me would stop right here with the red bench, but I'm leaning toward white with color accents these days so, this is just the bench after the Sea Spray and paint combo.

You can see here that the bench is still gloppy after the second coat is applied.

I used our electric palm sander to bring out the color of the under coat.

And here's the finished bench sitting in the garden.

So, what's my verdict about Dixie Belle Paint and Sea Spray?

The paint and the additive were easy to mix & apply, the clean up was quick and there are lots of fun colors - I will definitely use the products again.

But next time, I will use white as the undercoat like I did on this table and the stool below which were painted with a different paint and additive.

Thanks Dixie Belle Paint Company for exposing me to your fun products.

Check out Dixie Belle Paint Company here.

Check out #dixiebellepaint to see projects people have shared on Instagram.