Pretty House Plans....dream a little dream with me......

Good morning, sweet friends!

     I got up this morning and got my son off to his class at Vocational school, had some coffee and toast and started reading my email~yes, I still do email in the mornings~lol! I get a lot of your blog posts by email link and I love to read through them each morning. I also get some from various web sites I have subscribed to through the years and I do admit that there are WAY too many of those. Sometimes I read them and sometimes they get deleted. Whether or not I read those depends on a few factors; how long it has been since I last visited the site, how interested I am in the content of their email and (most importantly) my mood that particular morning. This morning I got an email from e-plans and decided to see what was new over there. I do enjoy looking at their beautiful house plans and dreaming a bit. This one really caught my eye:

Queen Anne , 5 Bedroom , 2 Story

     Isn't it GORGEOUS! I love the turret, the wrap-around porch and all that beautiful trim work! It is a total of 4,988 square feet of living space which is WAY more than we need, but it is nice to dream about all of the family gathering here for holidays and birthday dinners!!! If you want to know more about it just click on this link: 

http://www.eplans.com/house-plans/epl/hwepl03280.html?utm_campaign=POTW081516&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter

     I hope that you are all having a beautiful day and are enjoying this last full month of summer time. We have 38 days until it is officially Autumn again! I am really looking forward to those cooler days here! Until next time....

Stay Cozy, 

Charlotte

What's In/Out

Happy greetings, cottage buddies!!! I hope you are all having a great day and soaking up all the summer sun you can in those lovely cottage gardens. I have just a small "patch" in front of my little home and the "August Lilys" (an old fashioned name for Hostas) have finished blooming their pretty purple blooms and the tall stalks need to be cut back. Good activity for a Sunday afternoon, huh?

In my spare time (whatever that is==LOL) I love to read magazines and articles by others interested in design and decorating. I often come on articles with lists of what is "In" and what is "Out" in popular culture in reguards to materials and furnishings used in homes. I tend to chuckle a little at these lists as they always seem to guide the reader into thinking that they need to drop everything, shovel out the contents of their homes this very minute and rush down to the local home supply and furniture store so that they wont be outdone by their more contemporary, hip and happenin' neighbors. (Yes, child of the 60s that I am, I said. "Hip and Happenin'-sorry-heehee). I always have to wonder if anyone that read the list has done just that, hmmm. It really rubs my fur the wrong way when I find "the list" in well established interior design magazines as these should, above all others, hold to the time honored philosophy that design is more than just what is "popular" at the time. Here's what I mean; GOOD design is timeless, it is the combining of elements in a seemless flow. The very heart of good design is defined as the client works with the designer to create a space that is not only pleasing to the eye, but works well for the client after the designer has finished and gone on to the next project.
The design should encompass the classic principles of scale, harmony, rythm, balance and unity as well as the elements of line, color, shape and form. The materials selected should be those that add to the balance and are pleasing to the client and conductive to their intent of the way the room or rooms will be used at any given time.

You can see, then why it bothered me a great deal to see hardwood flooring mentioned in the "Out" column on one of these lists this week. WHAT were they thinking, timeless, beautiful, durable, re-cycleable, renewable, linear, wonderful hardwood flooring. I couldn't imagine a cottage without it!!! I think you all know me well enough by now to know how I feel about the cold, all concrete and steel world of post modernism--leave that stuff for prison design. Give me a home that is warm and welcoming with plenty of warm wood tones and natural materials around me (as well as my well-placed tchachkis and trinkets and books). Hardwood flooring-"Out"--INDEED!!! (Harumph). Oh well, to each his own...I think I will go tend to that garden patch now and then have some tea on the porch swing. After my rant I am pretty well spent.

Enjoy your Sunday,
Charlotte