My weekend of Interior Inspirations

This weekend hosted one of our big fundraisers for Child and Family Agency. This organization promotes the well being and development of children and their families. It helps to meet the needs lacking in physical, emotional and intellectual care and nurturing. It is an honor to be apart of this agency and to support our auxiliary.

The event was months in the making, planning and execution. A job well done ladies and it was enjoyed by all. Over the span of four days we were treated to many wonderful lectures, meet and greets, and design tips. Lucky for me, we are just about to embark on redoing our dinning room. I walked away with a whole new list of creative ideas {please insert my husband's scream of enthusiasm} to embark upon.

I was there in support of my fellow members as my event isn't until next spring ~ you'll hear more about that as the time approaches. We've been looking forward to meandering through the vignettes for quite some time now. Not to mention that I was personally looking forward to meeting Alexa Hampton and hear her speak. Her new book is simply amazing.

It's fair to say that I'm not a designer and I don't pretend to be one. I know what I like and often can't explain why I do other than "it just fits my style." Not that I even really know how to classify my style.

Enjoy the tour ~ I'll try to keep it brief :)


A Garden Room ~ designed by Larry Hamre of Lawrence Hamre Designs in Essex, CT
I just need to figure out where this will fit into our home/ the addition we will be building to house my "new" needs.



Did you pick up on the red shoes? They go with the red lip stick on the champagne glass.

I'll take one of everything in these photos; thank you.




Artist's Atelier ~ designed by Melissa Barbieri of Melissa Barbier Studios in Essex and Greenwich, CT

I spent a few extra minutes chatting with Melissa about the possibilities of turning our round oak table, similar to hers, into a coffee table with such a painting on its surface. We have {compliments of the Navy and living on the coast} many nautical hints in our home that I'd like to showcase all together in our family room.


While it's hard to picture the true beauty, Melissa painted this chart as well as all the other framed art ~ this is way beyond my paint by numbers ability.





A Slice Of Time ~ designed by Victoria Vandamm of Greenwich, CT.
This vignette grabbed my attention. While the colors aren't of those that are featured in our home, the design would fit nicely. If you look closely, you will notice that the "walls" are really Venetian plaster that has been stenciled and then distressed. I was thrilled to speak with Victoria about color balances as well as Julie who designed the stencil and created the walls. We will be in contact as I would love to do this in our dining room {once again, insert husband's gleeful response}



We have just the sailing art waiting in our basement for their new homes.



Jewelry Box ~ designer Melissa Linday of Pimlico in New Canaan, CT
There was just something about this design that mesmerized me and called me back more than once. I have nothing like it in my home and yet I was dreaming of how to incorporate such a look. The items on the dresser were just lovely. I've always had a fondness for mercury glass. After this weekend I'll be adding more to our home.


Please note that the mirror is picking up the reflection of one of the volunteers of the museum.

Love, love, love the wallpaper. Hmmm ... there must be a room in our home that is in need.



Kev, if you're reading as I know you do from time to time ... just a reminder that my birthday is coming up and anything in these photos will do :)

The framed photo was absolutely beautiful!




Safe Harbor ~ designed by Ellen White of Boxwood Interiors in Old Lyme, CT

Nicholas may be just a tad too old for a bedroom redo but if I had it all to do over again, I'd copy this exactly. Unfortunately, my photos don't really show the true colors due to the poor lightly.




The butterflies are shells ~ so pretty.
All the furniture is miniature for the little bodies to enjoy. Have you spied all the harbor hints?






Hannah Childs Interior Designs of Old Lyme, CT

If only I could pull this off. The tulips are amazing and the colors and furniture design are truly magnificent!



The Dog Study ~ designed by Paula Perlini of Paula Perlini Inc. in New York, New York.

This is my husband's new study {he just doesn't know it yet} or man cave. He and the dogs will spend many hours together surrounded by the subtle "man's best friend" motif. The little pillow reads ~ what part of woof don't you understand? Oh, so very true around our home these days.





These curtain rods are a wonderful representation of his time spent at the Naval Academy.


As you can see, I will be very busy in the next few months {years} implementing all my new ideas into our home. This may require a large loan or possibly a second job for my husband ;)

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Fall break and a special visitor

I am so far behind in postings. Life has been crazy busy in our home. I'm looking forward to popping over and see what you've all been up to the past few weeks.

We recently enjoyed a wonderful visit with my son Nicholas. He came home just in time to enjoy the amazing beauty of a true autumn in New England. We were delighted to meet his girlfriend, Lauren. She is a lovely young lady inside and out.

For a little behind the scenes information, when Nicholas was growing up I felt it was very important to have his friends in our home. This provided me the opportunity to see the types of friends he chose to spend time with as well his behavior around them. There are a couple of sayings that I've heard over the years. They go something like ... your friends are the reflection of who you really are and, show me your friends and I'll know where you're heading in life.

I often hear parents of daughters say that they want to meet the young men their daughters are dating to "check them out" and make sure they will "treat her right." Well, I feel that should apply to both daughters and sons. When Nicholas began dating ~ sorry I have to laugh at this because he really didn't date that much in high school. He was always hanging out with his group {great kids} of friends. Anyway, I felt it was important for Nicholas to bring the young lady to our home for the very same reasons. Secretly, I think he also wanted our approval.

He brought Lauren to Connecticut to meet his family and show her around the area. I assumed that we would share snippets of time between their other outings with friends. I was thrilled that they spent almost all their time with us. It was simply delightful!

They arrived Saturday just time for the Fall Festival. They literally walked through that door and I put them both to work. Without missing a beat Lauren jumped right in as though she had visited before and knew the drill.




The weather was absolutely gorgeous! The sun was bright with just a little nip in the air. We met a few of our friends there and spent the entire day grazing on our gourmet picnic and laughing.



Later that night we built a fire on the patio and enjoyed hearing stories about college life. I am going back to school ~ they've got the life!

Check out Nicholas' sunburn. Who would have thought of bringing sunscreen in October?



To help Lauren feel welcome, I made here a little tray and placed it in her bedroom. I took this before I had a chance to place all the goodies. In it's original state it was black with spaces for photos. It really wasn't my taste so I painted it white and put scrap book paper in the photo slots. There was a letter of welcoming and few items to make her comfortable during her stay.



In the course of conversation, I learned that she had never been to an apple orchard, never tasted cider, nor had a carmel apple. Hmmm, we needed to do something about this and quick. After all, you can't visit New England and not check these off your list. Mission accomplished when we sent them back to North Carolina.



One of the last apple presses. The cider is amazing! The doughnuts, fritters, and pies aren't bad either ;)






 A sweet little shop and sitting area to enjoy your apple and pumpkin goodies.





I love this old iron fence.



Freshly picked pumpkins from the patch.



While the turkey was on the grill {dinner request from Nicholas} we busied ourselves with making carmel apples.



We had several different toppings. I went with the mini chocolate chips and crushed pretzels. Yummy ~ sweet and salty! I caught my husband licking his fingers after "taste testing" a few of the leftovers. I think we'll need to make a few more before the season is over.
Helpful tip for sticky carmel ~ use the non stick aluminum foil



Nicholas wanted a couple of photos with the dogs. Let me just tell you that this is no easy feat. I thought it was hard to photograph small children but I think I may have found more challenging subjects. Thank Bentley and Bozley for offering a little comic relief ~ ugh!




This is the best we could do before they had to be on their way.

It was GREAT having my little guy home and I had tears running down my face as I said good~bye. I am so proud of the young man he has become and I was very impressed with the gentlemanly manner he exhibits towards Lauren. I think it's a goal of all mothers with sons that they become true gentleman.

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Auntie JoJo Strikes

Update ~
I used my low {cool} setting on my glue gun to adhere the candy. I didn't want to melt the candy or the wrapper. It worked beautifully.
Let me know if you make one.


My sweet nieces and nephew recently received a fun filled package from me. I made this sweet treat Halloween wreath for them to enjoy during Trick~or~Treat month.

It's very simple {and tasty} to make. I bought a craft wreath,loop ribbon around it to hang from and strategically adhered candy around it so that no white of the wreath showed through. A few years back I made small ones for my teaching buddies. Make sure you buy enough candy for the project and yourself. Taste testing is a must!

This will surely win me the "bestest auntie in the world award" from Mia, Molly and Will. And on a side note to my brother, this is pay back for the times you took Nicholas to the candy store before church. Nope, I didn't forget; just got even ;) I also haven't forgotten about that horrible train set you bought him that only had one noise level ~ VERY LOUD.

I added a little tag I made with a note to them on the back. Hope they enjoy their early Halloween treats.

Love and miss you all~
Auntie JoJo

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My current hang out ...

The days just seem to be going by faster and faster. I'm incredibly busy and yet I feel like I'm accomplishing very little. My alarm goes off a few minutes earlier each morning and I slip between the sheets later each evening.

One of the culprits is our new puppy. He can't be left alone for,well, any amount of time unless of course we'd like a room rearranged or new creative carvings in our furniture. I've been spending a lot of my time on our front porch or the back patio. It's amazing what can be done to pass the time while the "boys" are playing in the yard. I've caught up on all my magazines, read a book and even wrote a few notes to friends and family. Please note that none of this was on my to-do list and nothing of real importance was checked off during this time.

In my so called spare time I'm finishing up the decor, projects and recipes for our upcoming Oktoberfest. This is truly a labor of love. All our hard work will be worth it as we are enjoying a wonderful evening together.

As if I don't have enough to keep me busy, I'm having a tag sale this Saturday. Insane you say? Yes, I know.We've been putting items in our basement for over a year now that we don't need/want/use. The small area we allotted has taken over half of our living space and is threatening to grow even larger. Enough! It's going to be a beautiful weekend so out it goes and it WILL NOT see the insides of our home again. What is left will be whisked off to charity.

What are you all up to these days?

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