Prepare to be Floored!

Well, I’ve finally found the rugs I can really believe in and consequently offer them for sale at Hodgepodge.  They are manufactured by Kaleen and are part of the Paula Deen Home & Porch Collection.

I have purchased ten of the 2x3 rugs in order to show our customers several of my favorite patterns, plus one 7’6”x9’ so you can see how these rugs change a room.  Just look at what this rug did for our mezzanine level garden room at the shop!

This is Coffee Bluff . . .

This is Isle of Hope in celery . . . This is Isle of Hope in ebony . . .

This is Mercer’s Glenn . . .

This is Rivers End in mocha . . .

This is Cedar Hammock in brown . . .

This is Turner Creek in linen . . .

This is Chatham County in mocha . . . 

This is Chatham County in ivory . . .  

Here’s the sales pitch:

“Paula Deen Home & Porch is an absolutely beautiful and elegant collection perfectly produced to be a wonderful addition to any room in your home yet durable enough to be used for your outdoor enjoyment as well. This collection is reflective of Paula's Savannah lifestyle and invites the expansion of indoor living space to the outdoors. Paula Deen Home & Porch is UV treated against excessive fading and is water protected. Hand Made of 100% Durable Polypropylene.”

That being said, they are gorgeous to touch as well as to see!  Everyone who has been in to see them already thinks they feel like wool!  Further, any rug that can stand-up to outdoor use, can surely stand-up to my kids and pets!  I’m sold.

You can view the entire collection here.  Just call Hodgepodge (931-647-0444) for pricing.  And yes . . . we can drop ship!

Thanks for your indulgence!

PS—I’m thinking Mercer’s Glenn for my almost finished Master Bedroom.  What do you think?

Tuscan Tablescape Dilemma

Okay.  First an apology.  I promise, cross my heart, that I will eventually set a table in my own home—rather than here in the shop!  Next week—consider it DONE!

Second, I had decided to take pictures of our new Tuscan table—it’s actually more Tuscany meets Provence (I flatter myself)—but then realized I had a different idea for the setting, which morphed into a slightly different setting, which . . . well, you get the picture.  Actually, you will get the pictures! 

Below, I’ve added photos of the four options I conjured for this table.  I’d like for you to choose the setting I should use.  So, if you could leave a comment here—choosing the setting you like best—I will select a winner (using one of those random number generator thingees) for the prize prizes shown below:

It’s a fishnet bag full of Capiz Shells from Two’s Company!  These shells have a multitude of uses—only limited by your imagination.  They are suitable for food use and look great with a mini grit cake topped with a grilled jumbo shrimp and pepper sauce!  We’ve also used them as place cards or to label food items on a buffet table.  Trust me—you’ll love them.  I’ll also throw in four of these:

They’re Sahara tea glasses with hand worked gold leaf detailing.

So, here you go:

Tuscan Table Option 1

Tuscan Table Option 2

Tuscan Table Option 3

Tuscan Table Option 4

 

I know, I know—the changes are almost imperceptible, but if you participate in Tablescape Thursdays, you understand.  I don’t need to explain further.

So, tell me what you think.  Leave your comment and be entered to win the Capiz Shells and Sahara tea glasses.  Be sure to tell your friends and other tablescape addicts—the more the merrier!  I’ll be over to visit your post, too! 

If you didn’t start here:

you need to go and take a look!

Thanks for your indulgence!

A Fine New Addiction--Tablescape Thursday

I’ve found a new blog to get lost in . . . www.betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com

Apparently, however, I’m the only one who didn’t know about this blog, though, as she has more than 5,000 readers, nearly 3,000 google followers and about 1,500 facebook fans! (No moss growing on this gal!)

So, let me just jump on her band wagon and join one of her blog parties. It’s called Tablescape Thursday. This where everybody and her sister arrange a table setting and then share pictures with everyone in the land of blog, via this link.

So, here’s my first shot at Tablescape Thursday. The table is actually one we have arranged at Hodgepodge, but I promise to share my own settings at home, too. Since I have Patty to thank for this new addiction, I decided to use one of the table arrangements she had pulled together. Here it is in all of it’s splendor . . . I’ll call it Sunshine in the Garden!

It appears that most participants list information about each of the items they’ve used in their table settings, the manufacturer and where they can be found for purchase. This will be easy . . . it’s all available at Hodgepodge.

But please, please come back—I promise this will not be one big advertisement. While my shop is where I live, I promise that dishes and tableware is not only my business, but my personal pleasure! I will have plenty to share from my home, as well.

Now, let me see if I can go set-up all of the links. Go see all (or at least some) of the other posts—at last count, there were 92!

Thanks for your indulgence!

Clarksville’s Downtown Market

I thought I’d share some highlights from my trip to the Downtown Market last weekend.

Although, at 8 A.M. it was already miserably hot, all of the vendors had delightful dispositions!

Looks empty, but it was still early—believe me, you’ve got to get there early for the best selection.

This is a gentleman who makes incredible wood carvings. Last year I bought an intricately carved rooster figurine.

Oh my . . . fried pies!!! Get there early—they go quickly.

This is Ted Kitterman working with Joe Schiller of Broke Point Farm. I bought their snow peas—yum!

Diann Nance is our local herb expert. Here, she is sharing scent of her dried lavender with a customer.

Dianneis so knowledgeable—I usually spend too much of her time picking her brain for gardening solutions. I left with citronella plants; a potted garden which included: patio tomatoes, Anaheim peppers, chives and basil; a “piss off plant” which is supposed to keep away unwanted cats and dogs (I’m just interested in the “cats” part, as most of my garden beds smell worse than my indoor cat’s litter box); a Jacob’s Ladder plant and a curly parsley.

Don’t miss Evawood Bakery. Not only are they some of the nicest people you’ll ever meet, their breads are fabulous! I took home that beautiful foccacia and a hearth baked sourdough.

Where’s her card? I can’t find it. Thankfully her business name is on the tablecloth—Nifty Crocheted Works! I bought two wash clothes and made a special request for a particular item. I’ll keep you posted.

This is Melissa of This and That. She sells items made of fabric, jams and thank you cards—just as her business name implies.

I didn’t get a picture of my favorite plant and vegies vendor—they’re from Pleasant View. I bought the tastiest tomatoes from them this month.

And from this vendor, I purchased peaches. They’re amazing!

Well, I hope this encourages you to get downtown this coming weekend. Don’t forget to visit the downtown businesses when you done at the market.

Thanks for your indulgence!

A Bathing Beauty

I don’t know about you, but I have a heck of a time finding a shower curtain I like.  Several years ago I found one I liked for my master bathroom, but it is time to replace it.

I began looking for a new one in January, but have found nothing I’m willing to shower with every morning for the next 5 or so years.  Everything readymade has a bold, graphic design or has that plush spa-look.  Neither style works for me.

While at the fabric store the other day, my eye was drawn to a gorgeous toile on the remnants table.  After a quick measurement, I decided to take it home—there was just enough to do something with it. 

You see, I have a problem with fabrics.  I love them. I always envision wonderful projects I can create with the fabrics I find.  I purchase yard after yard of these beauties, only to stack them in the pile with the other remnants—hoping against hope I will find time to work them into the pillows or table clothes I imagine them to be.

This time, however, it was different.  On the way home, with “my lovely” sitting on the seat next to me (so I can glance occasionally at my great find), I decide this beautiful linen fabric will become my new shower curtain.

As soon as I got home I tossed the fabric into the wash on a cold and gentle cycle.  Here’s the thing—it was labeled dry clean only, but I’m not going to dry clean my shower curtain!  So, I had to wash it to shrink it before I cut it to length for the shower curtain.  Let me tell you—the only thing I love more than a beautiful toile, is a beautiful toile printed on linen that’s been through the wash.  It changes the structure of the fabric.  It does shorten the life of the fabric, I’m sorry to say, but in this case it not only necessary, but worth it!  The weight and consequent drape/flow of the fabric were significantly improved.

Okay—let’s get on with it.  If you find yourself in the same predicament of being unable to find a shower curtain to suit your good taste, fear not!  Here are the instructions you can follow to construct your own shower curtain.

Here’s the fabric. I know—it’s  great.  This is after the washing—so now it is “pre-shrunk.”   By the way, I use decorator fabrics for these projects—they’re wide and generally more durable.

 

Next I laid it out, determined the direction of the fabric—which, if it’s not obvious, can be figured using the guide on the side of the fabric in the selvedge (I think it actually has something to do with the dye process, but it also indicates the direction of the fabric.  The #1 is the top.)   I measured the length I needed for my shower curtain.  I took the measurement from the bottom of the shower rings to just below the edge of the shower basin.  I added an inch for the bottom hem and two for the top, then I cut.

NOTE: Since I was making a curtain for a shower stall, the 50” width of the fabric was perfect.  If I were making a curtain for a tub, I would have needed twice that amount and would have thrown a seam down the middle to double the width.  Don’t forget to allow extra yardage for matching the pattern—if you’re a stickler for that type of thing.

Then I finished the edges.  I simply folded back the selvedge and sewed a straight stitch.

For the top hem, I folded under one inch and pressed, then again, pressed and pinned in place, then stitched.

Making the holes for the shower curtain rings can be easily accomplished with the button hole function on your sewing machine.  If your machine doesn’t have this function, you can always use grommets, but I haven’t done that myself.

Then I had to mark where I would make the button holes for the curtain rings.  There are twelve holes in a shower curtain liner, so I had to make 12 in my shower curtain.   I first found the middle of the curtain, then evenly spaced 6 pins to each side.  That’s where the button holes would go.

Here’s a picture of the first button hole on the right.

After you make your button holes, you use a seam ripper to open the fabric between the stitching.

Here’s the finished product hanging in my bathroom.

As you can see, I had enough fabric to add a matching curtain for my window.  For the lace sheer, I used an old lace curtain I had in the closet—the kind with the attached valance.  I hung it from a rod at the top of the window, then cut the curtain to length along the floral pattern.  No need to hem, because it’s that cheap (yet attractive  not offensive) poly-lace.  Then I placed another rod about 2 inches above the bottom of the valance.  I added the cafe curtain rings and determined the length for my matching toile curtain.  Voile!  Toile!

I hope my “de-structions” make sense, if you find them confusing or need some clarification, just leave me a note here.

I’ll show more pictures of my renovated bathroom shortly.  Still pulling a few things together.

Thanks for your indulgence,