The incredible egg

I have kept chickens for the past 20 years and can't say enough good things about hen keeping . The fresh eggs and manure (manure tea for plants) is the extra benefit. I have noticed a lot of people  starting to keep chickens in the city ,which I think is great. The closer we are to our food production the healthier we will be.

We think our ladies are very happy -they get a lot of vegatable scraps, this is what we call the chickens buffet table

They get plenty of exercise and love to dig around in the compost pile

A hen can produce an egg every 24 hours

This is one of my favorite ways to have eggs-often for supper- Soft boiled with cracked pepper and chives!

The Art of Arranging Shelves

My friend and business partner Deborah (the intrepid hunter) is always adding to her collection of ironstone. She has been collecting for years and we knew her shelves needed some attention.  We picked one additional item (silverware with bakelite handles) to support the ironstone. I like to choose two to three themes (color, texture or like objects) to build the shelves around.

Before 

AFTER

AFTER

The everyday dishes are in easy reach and special pieces on top the top shelf

Closed they are still pretty especially with the choclate brown paint in the back

Ready to relax....

Blooms & Fruit

By now, you know me well enough to know that I love fresh flower arrangements and I am always looking for new and inventive ways to present my lovely blooms!   One of my secret go-to's for floral arrangements is to incorporate fruit into the vase in a coordinating color.  

These flowers were done for a party for my friend Kellie and Joe

Remember this guy?

Kellie's accent color in her condo is orange

The "before" of the bust - we painted him black & white of course! 

How to arrange a wall of pictures

A studio wall- floor to ceiling with paintings, drawings, photos and mirrors. It can be a mess- unless you carefully compose it before it goes up. I love to collect old paintings. I am drawn to the richness and life that I just can't see in a new painting...

This is a gallery wall in my hall in Raleigh most of them have a general theme -old ,old frames and gold tones

Most of these are from Flea Markets all over the world and I have hung them floor to ceiling

The house at the bottom is a sugar cane plantation on the bayou where my grandmother grew up

I bought this old painting in the Cotswolds at Barnsley House - Rosemary Verey's house

Detail of a painting that Deborah  found

This is my business partners Deborah's dining room, we have used mirrors and two large portraits of women  for this wall and kept to a triangle shape to humanize the proportions  of the room.

This was originally  a huge gabled wall so we had a lot of area to cover...

These portraits are probably from the 30's and when we got them they were a mess . Also they needed new frames.

Detail of portrait- so moody!