Our Vintage Baby Grand Piano

I bought this painting last year at an antique shop in NH.

The glamorous mother in a yellow gown plays

as her daughter watches her in this very grand room. 

This painting captured me, as art should.

Did I know I would be getting my very own piano one day?

A friend who is relocating to Florida offered it to us!

It was her mother's piano and her very favorite possession.

I was honored to have it come to our home.

Would you like to see how they move a piano?

Death Wish Piano Movers 

I think their company name is unforgettable!

 *chuckle*

 The piano is on the flatbed of the crane

 wrapped in a blanket.

It is getting hoisted up and onto our side porch.

Hubby watches them move it carefully past the wires

Its being unhooked now and placed on a dolly

In through the side door...

I had moved everything off the front porch:

the wreath, the urns, the watering cans, 

the furniture on the lawn...

only to find them using their crane and 

popping it up over the railings on the side porch!

Through the kitchen and the dining room...

Here it comes, into its new room!

The dead corner by the stair case was going

 to be perfect for this baby grand!

There were 3 guys doing this work.

They screwed the legs and the lyre back on and then 

using a special tool you can see attached

 to the bottom of the piano here,

they roll it over onto it's legs!

The legs and the tool before they attached it.

Hubby sits down right away and tickles the ivories.

His grandfather was a piano tuner!

Guess who will be making a 

new cushion cover tomorrow?

This vintage Janssen Piano is gorgeous.

 It has pretty legs and carvings~

one fitting for Maison Decor, n'est pas?

So my painting found it's perfect spot....

All of my favorite colors and such a romantic painting.

I'd love to know the story behind it.

Welcome Baby Grand!
The next day I had to style it.

A pair of crystal candlesticks I had from when I bought
Mrs. Mahoney's house and some of her furnishings.
I love them!
I understand she bought them in Spain.
 I have never seemed to find the right spot for them until now.

The darling little ceramic girl in the aqua dress
 was made by my Grammy in her ceramics class.
She looks perfect with our new aqua rug
 and the ladies in the portrait above.

Add a dash of vintage sheet music from my hubby's cousin....

Voila!
Our lovely piano!

What a treasured gift from a friend~

 Thanks Sara!

Read more »

The Lovely Blog Award

Wow!! I received an award from Freckled Laundy!

Thanks so much, Jami!

Woo Hoo!!Yippee!!

The Rules of this award:

1) Thank and link back to the person who gave you this award

2) Share 7 things about yourself

3) Pass the award on to 9 fellow bloggers who inspire you

4) Let them know about the award

                               ***************************************************

7 Things About Me

1. I love birdwatching and have bird feeders in my yard and birding books by my windows.
2. I grew up in these foreign countries: Brazil, Pakistan & Thailand and got to go to many wonderful places with my parents such as the Eiffel Tower, Leaning Tower of Pisa, Acropolis, Taj Mahal, Mount Everest, The Wailing Wall, Tivoli Gardens, Sugar Loaf, Copenhagen's Little Mermaid, Anne Frank's Attic Hideaway, Red Square, Big Ben and Buckingham Palace....
3. I have a rescue pitbull, Dillon, and have fostered other pitbulls
4. I was chairwoman of The Sign Review Board in the city where I used to live and co-authored the law governing all signage in the city
5. I play a competitive game of tennis
6. In my twenties I sold my homemade cheesecakes to a french restaurant
7. When my boys were little I ran a home day care business taking care of other little ones so I could be a stay at home mom. I was also President of the PTA during those years and we rebuilt the library and the playground.

***************************************************

9 Bloggers Who Inspire Me

1) Nancy's Daily Dish

2) Mod Vintage Life

3) Comforts of Home

4) Welcome to Boxwood Cottage

5) Joelle Dolce Bebe Style

6) Juniper Hill Antiques

7)Aiken House and Garden

8) Secret Garden Cottage

9) Sixty Fifth Avenue

It was hard to pick just nine blogs that I find inspiring,

because there are so many more I could add to my list!

I think this award is nice because it is a pay it forward award

and helps all of us bloggers find other blogs that are 

flying under the radar or have escaped our attention. 

Check out the blogs that inspire me!
Before you go check out my rooms that I totally redecorated!
I'd love to know what you think!
Click here.

Read more »

White beadboard, peaches, and champagne!

I am celebrating a few things!
 The new white beadboard I installed and peaches

from our peach tree in New Hampshire.

Peaches fill the basket and the champagne is coming!
We have given away so many peaches already,
 and we couldn't pick them all.

My country style dining room has a lot of white for summery freshness.

My dinnerware is by Ralph Lauren, Boxwood pattern.

 Flatware is vintage silverplate.

Each champagne glass is different.

White eyelet placemats say summertime.

Straw hat spun with gold threads is my garden hat.

My seating has a wire garden bench
with a shabby ruffled eurosham.

The newest additions are my Rehab Boutique

 frenchy chairs with toile seats. Love.

Hydrangeas in a mason jar from my Boston garden.

Our peach tree was bending over to the ground with all its fruit.

Organic gardening at its best.

Fresh and summery,

the classic blue and white combination never is tiresome.

The large chippy blue bench is a lidded box that keeps our recyclables at bay.

Our sideboard holds the blue glass I find so appealing these days.

A secret: the beadboard is actually
wallpaper from Graham and Brown.
It looks so real, my mother-in-law touched it
and said she could not tell the difference!

A lavendar rose stands alone.

Peaches and champagne~celebrating a perfect summer.

Linking to

Tablescape Thursdays at Naps on the Porch
and
White Wednesdays

and for those fab frenchy chairs check out:
The Rehab Boutique

to see me putting up the beadboard click below
Fab Faux Beadboard

Read more »

My Backyard Reveal

This is the back lawn....

and here is the tale of how it got that way...

Look, no WEEDS!!

Loam all raked out and seed and mulch is going down.

Finished mulching the new area. 

Moved the white screen over to hide the air-con unit since now
 I don't have to hid the whole side of the house anymore!

This was how it looked when I started stage one for Gitter done.

Remember this pile of rocks and weeds?

 See my little conservatory perched on the hill?

 This is the garden bed I killed myself on in the spring.

Tomatoes are picked almost daily now. So worth it.

The seed has been put down and the sprinkler is in place.

This requires due diligence in watering constantly to get a

 lawn to come in during the month of August!

This picture I never showed you before. 

It is the before of the back of the house when

 I started my first stage of the garden clean-up.

This is how the back of the house has looked until recently.

Old tires, extra rocks, some trash that the trash man won't take...

Simply ugly. White trash? lol

The seed is down and the mulching has been done. 

The back of the house is shaping up!

I am using an old bookcase as my potting storage for now. 

We plan to put in a french door where the window is

 and have a patio outside the door.

I plan to move my table and chairs to the back when the lawn comes in.

Fast forward six weeks: the lawn is lush and green.

Pretty amazing!

We planted some tall arborvitaes

 to hide hubby's excavator~

its handy but not very pretty.

My garden kind of meanders along...

The front gravel walk with cobblestone edge

 has roses and boxwoods as a border.

This walk has to be weeded on a regular basis.

Dillon and Tobey watch me when I work outside.

They gave me the thumbs up on this project!

Read more »

Fab Faux Beadboard

Beadboard fantasy becomes a reality for Maison Decor.

My dining room is undergoing a makeover. 

Again. 

I recently had painted it pink and yellow.

 Before this it was a beigey yellow, BM Hepplewhite Ivory.

 I thought I wanted more color.

So pink and yellow it was!

It looks nice doesn't it?

I just found out that I can't live with that much color.

So I decided to get rid of the pink and try beadboard wallpaper!

All you need is a square, a tape measure and scissors

 and start cutting off your lengths.

This is going to look more realistic because

 there is a chair rail and baseboard in place.

It went on very easily. 

I prepped the wall with sizing and then

 applied the paper with pre-mixed wallpaper paste from Lowes. 

The paper was from Graham and Brown. 

I ordered it online after reading about

 @Surroundings successful kitchen makeover.

Off to a good start...I am getting really excited now! 

That chippy blue box I found in NH holds our family's recyclables.

Super easy, I would say anyone could do this project!

 The paper is heavy foam coated paper with

 grooves in it that simulate actual beadboard.

Look how great it came out!

I will be painting it soon to finish it, 

but this is how it looks right after you put it up!

Part of the dining room makeover is going to be

 a color change that will incorporate pale swedish blue.

When I saw these frenchy chairs at

 Rustique in New Hamphshire,

 I grabbed them!

Bridget, the owner, did her famous pale blue color and added toile upholstery. Love!

So this is step one, with the beadboard and new chairs!

More changes are coming, but look at the lightness the room has now.

A little farmhouse...

More on the horizon, but I am loving this!

Beadboard wallpaper!

Linking to Metamorphosis Monday

and
Funky Junk Interiors SNS

Read more »