I’ve been planning on posting about this particular home since spotting it in the November 2009 issue of Country Living Magazine. What happens when a California woman buys a home in New Hampshire? Yellow happens … but just a smidgen.

It’s astounding what a small touch of one color – especially yellow - can do to revamp any space. Do you decorate with yellow? Where do you draw the line between sunny and smothering?

[Images taken by Lucas Allen for Country Living Magazine]

That very feat happened to me just last week. I was reading the November 2009 issue of re-designed Real Simple Magazine (love it!). Snuggled within the Decorating With Blue feature by Nicole Sforza was the bedroom of my dreams:

I once thought that my dream bedroom would be full of double doors, which opened onto a long balcony overlooking the ocean. A canopy bed would be in the middle of the room, surrounded by layers of thin, pale curtains. The reality: a place like that would be far too expensive for me, but that’s what makes it a dream.

On the other hand, this gorgeous photo (taken by Timothy Street-Porter) of a cozy blue bedroom is a modern twist on rustic simplicity. What’s not to love!?

[Built-in bed] Less furniture = less stuff to buy & clean, which means more time for doing things you love! I can’t think of anything better than cuddling with my husband in a bed like this.

[Book shelves] Another way to lower the need for more furniture (not a big fan of having lots of stuff, in case you hadn’t noticed) – put your books, magazines, glasses, a lamp or candles here … a quaint nook for slowing down after busy days.

[Window] A delightful way to make up every morning. The built-in wooden shutter door helps to block out evening moonlight, making sleeping all the easier.

[Fireplace] This gem tops it all off, especially during the holidays. Mugs of hot chocolate, fresh-baked cookies, warm blankets, & a roaring fire = life is good. A soft love-seat would add to the ambiance even more.

A few things I’d do to make the room even better: add a fluffier comforter for the bed (an uber-important part!) & install storage drawers under the bed.

[Image taken by Timothy Street-Porter; scanned from Real Simple Magazine]

While dropping off my husband at work last week, I spotted something strangely attractive in the trash can nearby. On top (not swimming in garbage juices, mind you), I found these 3 ceramic bowls.

First off, aren’t they cute!?

Secondly, who the heck throws out perfectly good ceramics!? Yes, two of the bowls have small chips on their rim, but come on … you can still eat out of them. Plus, they are downright charming.

As expected, I gathered up the bowls (despite my husbands’ minor disgust) and took them home. Fast forward to yesterday & I finally had time to wash and take some pictures of said bowls. In less than 30 minutes of internet research today, I’ve found out more about the origin of my new beauties.

The stamp on the bottom of the bowls says “The Old Curiosity Shop”, which is a line of various colonial-style patterns manufactured by the Royal China Company of Sebring, Ohio (my connection to the Midwest never ceases!). The company began in 1934, was sold in 1969, and went bankrupt in 1986. These particular bowls were likely manufactured in the 1950s. They were sold as soup bowls, are 8 and 1/4th-inch in circumference, and designed by a man named Gordon Parker.

If you find yourself enamored with these darlings, then you’re in luck! I’ve found two websites (Big Ed’s Royal China Dinnerware & My Granny’s Attic Antiques) that have them for sale at just $10 each (chips not included, haha). You can also find many of the other patterns in the Old Curiosity Shop line in green, blue, brown, and pink.

[Images taken by Victoria Klein]

We browsed nearly all of the tents under the cloudless sky, but we did find two particular booths that had us lingering. The first was the Heritage Antique Maps tent, whose selection was dumbfounding. Decorating with old maps is so easy & always looks nifty. I hope to find a colorful map of Sweden to frame and hang in my living room.

Secondly, towards the end of our touring, we spotted a booth hosted by an elderly couple who were most friendly – the woman reminded me a lot of my grandma (my mum’s mum). My mum quickly became enamored an adorable hand-painted bread box with matching canister set. After browsing their entire tent in-depth for almost 20 minutes, my mum was determined to get the $30 bread box/canister set for my kitchen … she’s strange like that.

I’m still trying to decide what put in the metalware set (and where), but it is pretty swank. I noticed a company logo on the bottom of the canisters. Finally, I sat down today to see if I could track them down … and I did! Ironically, the Ransburg Collection was originally based in Indianapolis – just an hour away from my hometown.

A little more digging on their website turned up the pattern of my new set, called “Tropicana”. The bread box alone can be worth anywhere from $3.28-$127.50 ($0.99-$152.50 for the canister set, which seems to be missing one). Since some of the paint is faded and a bit banged up, I don’t expect it to be worth a lot. Collectible or not, anything that gives me another reason to buy bread is welcome in my kitchen.

[Image taken by Victoria Klein]

The ever-required “before” picture (above). Makes you wince a bit doesn’t it? I’ve seen so many houses with kitchens like this and while I highly enjoy a challenging design project, it can be hard to see the gold under the dirt with something this outdated. Thankfully, the folks at Country Living weren’t swayed a bit …

… and they hit a home run with this one! CL’s style & market editors teamed up with Shawn Henderson to create this jaw-dropping kitchen. Who needs a living room when you have a space like this to settle into? There are so many elements about this space that I adore I barely know where to start:

+ A flawless mix of modern & rustic is so very difficult to create, but they nailed it! Cozy, functional, and timeless, I wouldn’t feel the need to redesign a kitchen like this for decades.

+ Yellow & gray: one of my all-time favorite color combinations. Warm and sunny meets cool and solid; both a powerful and fun mix – it all depends on the shades you use. Seeing these 2 colors in a kitchen makes me love them all the more.

+ Farmhouse sinks make the designer in me swoon. There’s something so “European countryside” about them & their color reminds me of fresh milk from cows or goats. A metal sink belongs in the laundry room. For a kitchen, I’ll take a hefty ceramic Farmhouse sink.

+ Last but never least, open shelving is the kitchen trend I hope lasts for years to come. It makes the whole space feel much more friendly and accessible (no pun intended). Always the creative type, Country Living’s editors found some shallow fruit crates, tacked them on the wall, and stored canned vegetables in them (see picture below).

For all the pictures and product details, click over to Country Living’s website.

P.S.: Don’t blame me if you get distracted & browse the site for hours … happens to the best of us.

[Images courtesy of Country Living; taken by Wendell T. Webber]

Another nifty feature is their quick, easy, and cheap crafty projects that will spiff up any home:

This is just the start of the hundreds of great creative ideas Country Living has – here’s another collection of fun and fresh crafty endeavors.

[Images courtesy of Country Living; taken by Steven Randazzo]

Bonus points for converting an old barn instead of building a new space.

[Images courtesy of Martha Stewart]

Featured in the June 2009 issue of Canadian House & Home Magazine, I spent more time looking at these pictures than I wish to admit. I was hoping to find a gallery on the CH&H website, but they didn’t have one … so I took some snapshots of the magazine instead.

Thanks to the currently shit-tastic lighting here in New England (it’s only been cloudy for a month now!), the snapshots didn’t come out that great. The photographer, Janet Kimber, posted a few images from the shoot on her website – these will give you a much better idea of just how stunning this place is.

So much natural light & so little “stuff” – a perfect combination! The main thing that I don’t like about the condo my husband and I are hoping to land (we are writing an offer now) is that there aren’t enough windows a.k.a. natural light. This house in Nova Scotia has that in spades! Oh well, for our first place, we didn’t expect to get everything we wanted; the condo also has carpet throughout (ew!) and we’ll plan to put in wood floors throughout eventually (when we can afford it).

Until then, the Angle’s vacation home gives me countless ideas for my future dream home. I plan to have as little “stuff” as possible in our new place, but I don’t want it to feel vacant … a tough balance, if you ask me: airy yet comforting, not sparse or deserted.

The Angle’s place also gave me some great new resources for decor items:

Rugs (which I used to hate but am now enamored with) – Fedora Design

Bedding – Plover Organic

Right along my love of opposites, I found two homes recently that really “light my fire” for creating a place of my own. Of course, they are both houses & none of the condos we’ve been looking at are anything like these … but I can dream (and renovate slowly). The first came to me via Desire to Inspire: a Swedish home ( for sale at $1.5 million) that is delightfully colorful.

I found the second home in the July 2009 issue of Country Living (one of my favorite magazines). Clean & crisp, yet cozy at the same time, it is the New Orleans home of Donna Ballard Maselli.

Though the color schemes of these homes are distinctively different, they do share two particular similarities: taller ceilings & more open floor plans … how I love thee!

My ideal home would be:

+ A combination of these two dwelling

+ Less than 2,000 square feet

+ Has 2-3 bedroom, 2 full baths, wood floors, & tall ceilings

+ Near naturally moving water (river, stream, ocean … etc.)

+ Has a sizable yard (for relaxing & a garden) OR near a large public park

+ Close enough to a city that I can bicycle there (but not too “metro”)

+ Likely in Rhode Island, North Carolina, or Sweden (or near Cleveland or Chicago) [though we're buying in Connecticut]