HOME...be inspired everyday

The Cottage on Cullen St. Spring Mantle and Scentsy

Have you heard of Scentsy?  Well it's a cross between a candle and a fragrant plug in, the website calls them flame-less candles. I first smelled {made aware} of them when I would go into the classrooms to substitute and the rooms would smell so GOOD! Another teacher saw them in the classrooms and wanted to know where she could get one and if I might know where to purchase them and I said, "my old neighbor from the old house sells them".  One thing lead to another and before you know it I'm having a Scentsy catalog party, {yes..I went in kicking an screaming, I don't "need" another "thing" to get hooked on}.  My other neighbor sells Partylite so I jump on her bandwagon sometimes when she has parties.  I am so glad I jumped on the Scentsy Bandwagon... I LOVE my new scentsy container, I ended up with a very Beachy ceramic holder that goes perfectly with my home decor and my home smells so good when I get home after a long day of teaching. {It sure beats smelly soccer socks!}

Here is my robins-egg blue ceramic scentsy holder, this one is called the Montauk Full Size. It has  a variety of shells hanging with twine as you can see from the pitcher.  They have so many scentsy scents to choose from it will make you dizzy smelling so many that you might go home with a headache. But after your nose re-cooperates you'll be back in business and order some scents to fill your home with lovely fragrance. In the end this is what I got; lot of "beachy" scents to go with my home.

This is what the bars look like and inside are individual "chunks" of wax that you plop into the top of the well to melt.  I choose the Beach scentsy bar and I could not stop there with so many scents to pick.  This one smells like you are sitting on the shore and smelling fresh rubbed up bodies of suntan lotion and the ocean breezes.  I also picked up the Ocean scentsy bars which smells like flowers that grow near the sea, very different than the Beach one.  I had to have Lush Gardenia, of course ya know it is my favorite flowers, eva!  It has a very strong scent.  I love all kinds of floral scents, I'm really not into the vanillas or "food" kind of scents, for example Cake Batter or Cinnamon Roll.  I also got the Lilacs and Violets, which is a very soft floral scent.  I also like the fresh clean scents like linen, cotton or rain.  To feed my love of fresh scents  I got Thunderstorm and Wishing Well {Madison picked that one out}...which are very light scents.  

I know there have been a lot of Spring Mantle "show and tells" on blog land since spring but I have not been able to get my post up until now. Recently Mr. Incrdeble was diaganosed with Skin Cancer on his lip and in the last couple of weeks he has surgery to remove it and then reconstructive surgery to repair the cut out.  I will spare you any pictures of THAT!!  But he is on the mend and he is doing great!  Everything is good in the hood as they say in these parts.  

Speaking of Mr. Incredible..see those ceramic vases over on the left of the mantle..he made them in high school in Ceramics Class.  He loved ceramics class and we have saved them all these years.  

I got inspired looking at this PB picture and thought geez I could pick up a couple of spring cheery blossoms and put them in the vase Mr. Incredible made and create a very cute springy mantle display....mine is a bit more sparse or simple but I think I like it.  So if you have heard of scentsy what scent is your favorite?  

 

 

Seasonal Giveaway

Maria at Dreamy Whites is having a giveaway that ends tonight..it is a whopper....Her cousin owns Wintersteen Farms , where they make Holiday Wreaths as shown in the above picture.  Is it not a beauty? I love wreaths as you know from this post or this wreath I made.    But I would love to win this one, I can smell it's piney scent  just looking at it.

 

  If you enter the giveaway  and you are chosen,  you win a wreath and a $200.00 gift certificate to her shop Dreamy Whites, she has the most beautiful items to choose from.  She is a fantastic photographer, love her pictures and could spend  hours browsing her  inspiring blog.  So what ya' waiting for, head on over and throw your name into her Cowgirl Hat!

Tis the Season Giveaway

What a beautiful Giveaway over at Pretties and Posies Melanie has selected the most beautiful things from Iron Grate.  Head on over you will not be disappointed....

 

French Garden House! A Giveaway!!

Oh Wow!  you know I have a "thang" for ruffles..no?  Let me refresh your memory...see?  Well over at French Garden House Lidy is having a wonderful giveaway....oh my!  

See!!  The placemats and napkins are made with Belgium Linen!  Love it. Hurry over there to enter...the giveaway ends tonight at midnight!
 

Oui, oui

Yes, yes..I love the french...you have to say this with your lips pressed together like the ass of a chicken....that is how I learned how to speak French.  Really I did!   Now look at these beauties...

They make the most gorgeous things..Oui, oui?  How about that Zinc Pitcher in the first photo?  What about the grain sack pillow all knubby and cute...and of course Lavendar satchets.  Well if you would like to win these beautiful items French Larkspur is having a giveaway honoring her friends opening of her new store Dreamy Whites and her one year Blog's Anniversary.  So head on over and put your name in the drawing..hurry, hurry it ends soon. 
 

Summertime is in full swing and I'm a winner winner chicken dinner...

A few weeks ago Twice Rememered Cottage was having her annual Cottage Linky giveaway party.  I entered a few of the giveaways and low and behold I came out a winner on a couple of them and I'm so glad I did.  First off I won this cute ABC pillow sham from Debra at Loyalist Cottage .  Here is how it came all wrapped up...

Didn't Debra wrap it up so cute?  Love the colorful card and the scalloped tissue paper with the bee stamped ribbon.  Now lets look and see what inside..

 
 yep, that cute ABC pillow in red..doesn't it go great on my cottage bench?  Thank you so much Debra, your a doll!  Thank you so much for always coming to my blog and making comments, you really make my day! 

The next giveaway I won was at Cottage 980, she is a yard-sale, thrifty hunter extraordinaire.  I was the lucky recipient of her lovely generous giveaway..

 
 
 3 more ball jars (around here they go for about 7 dollars a jar) to add to my collection. I got two in aqua,  which will fill out my chicken wire basket perfect and 1 white jar which you see I have already filled it with Salt Water Taffy for Summer Bingo {I'll get to that in a minute}.  Vintage music paper, some scrabble letters which I think I'll make into magnets.  I need some magnets for the Chalkboard or Refrigerator. A darling melamine plate with robins egg border and petite floral roses on it and cute tag with some flowers all wrapped up with ribbon.  Thanks so much Maureen over at Cottage 980.  I loved all my goodies.   I've added both of these bloggers to my blog roll so go check them out.  What sweet ladies they are.  As they say in Hawai'i Mahalo!

Now for the second part of my post.  Summertime is in full swing over here.  We have gone to the beach once and scheduled our beach day for Fridays. Last year you might of remembered this post of Summer Bingo .  I got this idea from Stacy Julian a few summers ago, she has 4 boys and 1 sweet girl adopted from China.  She has the best ideas and I've been following this Summer Bingo program for the third summer.  I change it up a bit every year. And as you can see the li'l one is already on her way to blackout..

 
We have a Paul Frank theme going on instead of Spongebob.

   
Here are the Summer Bingo rules that I adapt to my family, if you click on the link above you'll be lead to Stacy's downloaded copy of the rules and Bingo card but here is Download Summerbingo Card and Download Bingorules-1 {mine}. Have fun changing yours in your word program to fit your own family. 

 
I've changed my schedule up a bit from last summer.  My girls help out in the classrooms at their school from 8am until about 11:30ish Monday until Thursday.  So their mornings are pretty much filled up.  Then they come home and have lunch and then they are off to the WYN club. {Our city does a drop in program from 12:00 until 5p.m. at one of the local parks.}.  They do water games, sport games, crafts everyday and hang out with their friends. They love it and they are "out of my hair"..well if I had any hair!!!   they would be out of it!!   They come home and help with dinner and twice a week, each one picks a night to cook dinner with Mom {that they love too}  Kenzie picked Tasty Burritos..and boy was that yummy on Tuesday.  Tonight Madison is making Tacos.  Yes...we cook a lot of Mexican here!!  This year I've adapted the homework part of it on the Summer Bingo. They don't have to do the Homework sheets and read, but as you can see they do have to read in many of the squares to get a sticker.  I gave them a choice to read or write for 20 minutes before bedtime.   For MacKenzie I also added the choice of going through division flash cards because she needs help with that, according to her report card.  Madison is weak at writing/reading so I'm hoping she'll choose one of those.  We don't do this program during the Holidays or weekends.  I do it to keep them entertained, so they don't fight with each other and so they don't wine with I have "nothing to do"!!  It works for me give it a shot....

Yes, they are tweens and DON'T want to take pictures...

   A new suit for the summer...Last year I was a much better "MOM" and had beach buckets filled with new Beach stuff...slippers, light up balls, goggles, new towels..It was called the "Summer Fun Bucket" ...I forgot to do that this year.  Oh well!! They didn't seem to miss it because they never asked about it.   They always get what they need I suppose.

 
  Here is to a fun filled days of sandy feet, warm sun at the beach and at the neighbors' house enjoying the pool.   To eating lots of popsicles and tanned bodies and enjoying reading lots of books!! Hope you have a wonderful summer and keep those kiddies cool and happy!  AND READING!!

passing it along...

One of my favorite English Designers is Christina Strutt.   Her company called Cabbages and Roses , is a line of housewares, clothing etc.  that just speaks to me.   I've seen her style in several of the magazines, it's very romantic and soft.  Over at Ticking and Toile  blog, Shelagh is having a giveaway of Christina's new book along with an interview, as she picks this Brit's Brain for designer ideas, you might be surprised where she finds her inspiration.   Just take a look at the cover..does it look great!  I love blue and white together so crisp and clean and the blue cabbage roses on the towel...devine.    So why don't you hop on over and put your name into the hat...you never know if it is your lucky day and you could be the winner of Christina's New Book .
 

Flea Marketing at the Rose Bowl....

here is most of the group that met up on Sunday for a hunt of flea market treasures.  The hostesses gave out prizes in three categories...one for the cutest decorated carts..and boy their where lots of cute carts...

here is a close up Pam Garrison's pouch she has on her cart...too shabby cutielisious...She made her outside liner out of a paisley pink oilcloth table cloth from Target and the inside was made from Simply shabby shower curtain since it already had holes in it for the ties.

Here is Amy Hanna cute ticking striped cart with s vintage label name tag.

I had big plans to make a liner for my cart....but ran out of time to do it {i have been working a lot these days} so suffice to say I did not win the "cutest cart" award.  This cute li'l trio of rosettes stole the show, look at the detail, it was on a linen liner, I love the use of cheesecloth, would of never thought to do that. 

Now look at the bag that one the prize..

Is this bag right up my alley?  yep...i was going to steal it when the owner wasn't looking.

But as you can see she had a very tight grip on it and never let it out of her sight..darn.

Because no one had a rockin' cute apron the prize went to the one who traveled the farthest which was San Diego almost the Mexico border.  Some die hard flea marketeers...I say. 

Now look at the cute Cornucopias they made.  I didn't get a great shot so I stole this from Heather.

Inside the Prize Cornucopia was those darling Nickel earrings that Amy Hanna made.  Loved that!!  Also inside where Vintage Cards.  I can't remember what else. 

There was all kinds of neat stuff there and here are some shots I got with my Gilbert {Canon G9}

The industrial look is very popular these days...and here is one famous "LA Woman" who was buying a bunch of it...

Another booth had lots of Holiday decor up...

 

This booth had a wonderful surprise for the "group" , when you went to visit her you got a ticket to enter it into a drawing for a pillow of your choice.  Now look at all

the great choices she had?  Lots of burlap and linen, stamped with letters or numbers.  I had my eye on a little shabby chic one but to my disappointment my ticket didn't get pulled and went I went back with my new friend who did win my li'l shabby pillow was gone. 

Can you see it there under the black and white damask print?  Boo hoo.

This booth had lots of french linens, hemp and other great material.  I have a friend who just redid her sons room all in vintage Star Wars..I bet she would love to have one of those pillows for his bunk-bed.  They also had Hemp tunics and nightgowns made of hemp.  The dress in the above photo that Jenny Doh is wearing with her cowboy boots came from this booth.  Love that french Cowboy look she has going on. 

 Look at the detail on these bloomers.  They don't make them like they used to, that's for sure. They had small opening in the back....I'm sure you can guess what for.  I thought that interesting.  I'll share what I got on my next post. 

Hope you enjoyed the trip to the Rose Bowl Flea Market and I plan on attending the next one our Indulgent Hostesses plan...won't you join us?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 

 
 
 

Better Late then Never as they saying goes...

Happy Autumn Everyone!  Even though it will be awhile here in SoCal before leaves start turning colors and the days get cooler where you can put on a fuzzy sweater and  jeans.  I know it looks like this in other parts of the country, California takes it's own sweet time for fall to get here.  We have had tempertures in the high 90's in these parts but  the last few mornings I have seen dew on the car windows so fall is there is a bit more of a chill in the air, so fall must be around the corner.

Not only is it the First Day of Autumn last week but September marks the Blogaversery of Home..Be Inspired Blog.  I started my Blog in September of 2007, that seemed like a long time ago.  I started my blog after several months of blog hopping and enjoying many blogs such a Daisy Cottage,  Pam Garrisons Craft Blog, Cherry Hill Cottage, Seeking Velvet Strawberries, Pleasures of Homemaking, Whatever, Heather Bullards' Past-Present, Notes of a Cottage Industry, The Painted Cottage and so many more....I thought I would love to have a blog of my own to document the daily life with pictures and stories.  I used to scrapbook so I think my blog took the place of that but I also thought it would inspire me to scrapbook more to as my journaling would already be done, I'll I'd have to do was hit print.  So many of the blogs out in bloglandia are like a magazines as I  look at their wonderful photography and design asthetics.   Decorating ideas are abundent with many how-tos and recipes by the dozens. I have enjoyed the vintage finds that many blogs  share with everyone as well as the redo projects.  There are so many more Inspirational Blogs popping up everyday and it is hard to keep up sometimes,  I enjoy them all .  I have tried to emmulate my blog after all of the many wonderful ones out in bloglandia.  I think Home... be Inspired has evolved into a genre of All things about the HOME which includes the family{Mr. Incredible and the girls}, recipes{from recipes I have found in cookbooks as well as ones handed down from my family}, decorating, crafting, yardsaling, home- stalking type of blog{I think I need a bumber sticker that says, I brake for cute cottage houses".  So for the next couple of weeks my blog Home...be Inspired is having a giveaway in honor of it's anniversary. What a better way to say Thank you to all my readers out there, ones who post comments and ones who lurk.   This is your invitation to delurk yourself.  So what can you Dear blog readers do to enter the give away.  In the comment section tell Home...be Inspired what is your most favorite post OR what is it that you like about Home...be Inspired.  That's it!!

Are you wondering what will the lucky winner get if they are chosen by the Random Generator.....well lookie here...

  a small journal so you can write memories down or things to do in your own cottage{from PotteryBarn}

a set of 3 of glittered gourds to get your home decorated for fall {made by me}

  a Fall glitter-lettered banner {made by moi}

a hardcover decorating book called HOME SWEET HOME by Mary Englebrieght

and a recipe box full of Home....be Inspired recipes.......

  Here is a recipe called Chicken in a Basket that will be included in the recipe box. 

I'll use the radom generator to select the winner of the Home...be Inspired giveway on October 16th at Noon. 

Edited to add....I'm going to hook up to the Fall Party  at Rhoda's @ Southern Hospitality...since this is a fallish post, I haven't gotten around to adding all my decorations just yet...but I redid this wreath from last year..remember how pitiful it looked...have a look here ..

See I added the glittered mini pumpkins to the wreath..Happy Fall Everyone...

Are you on the ball for fall?

I AM NOT!   It's hard to feel inspired with weather temperatures in the upper 90's.  It's been very hot here in Southern California for the past several days.  I'm not inclined to light my pumpkin smelling candles....it would just make my house hotter!!  But the weather {person} says it will be cooling off this coming holiday weekend.....so I need to start thinking about decorating my humble home for fall...Here are my TOP Ten countdown of things that remind me of the fall season {and what I look forward to}

10.   Pumpkin Spice Coffee from here

 Yum!!! my favorite...

9.  Pumpkin Spice Pancakes from here , to die for!!!

8. Mini pumpkins especially in white...

 

{pic on left Country Living, pic on right..my home}

7.  the fall decor on my hutch...one of my most favorite things to gussy up for fall

6.  Beautiful fall wreaths...from L.L. Bean....

 

Or from Williams-Sonoma

 

5.  Spicy smelling potpourri....

 

4.  the turning of the leaves from green to red, orange and yellow.....

 

3.  lighting candles as the days get shorter..... 

 

2. baking this easy peasy delicious dessert for potlucks, Thanksgiving, it IS a FALL fave....My yumalisious PUMPKIN CRUNCH Recipe

1.  and the number one reason that seems to occur in FALL is having more uninterrupted {no girls saying "mom, can we go to swim at so and so's or can we go to the park?}  time to finish my ever expanding TO DO List....

 

liners need to be sewn, pillows need to be made, curtains and curtain rods to be bought or sewn.....projects need to be finished and on and on and on...

 

which brings me to this last point Melissa at the inspired room  is having a Fall Nesting PAR-TAY!!!  woop, woop!!  not only that she along with {HOMEGOODS} is giving away a gift certificate for $$$$$$  yes, the nice green ones.  BUT I need your help...I have 3 rooms that need to be done or finished but I can't decide which one should I focus on if by the powers that be I should win!!  I would like you dear blog readers to vote on which room I should do........  

Finish the Family Room....... 

 

 

 

I don't think I have ever introduced you to Sully (Sullivan from Monster's Inc) ..he is our {Mr. Incredible's } 64 inch big screen T.V. and I HATE that stand it is on.,....OK!

 

 

Nice curtain rods, eh?

 

this corner needs HELP!! 

 

 

I would like to get a variety of frames to put these up on the blank wall behind the sectional...

or should I work on my Master bedroom....

 

 

 

 

As you can see the Master Bedroom needs window treatments, wall art, bed skirts, side tables and a some help with the taking it from Blase to Wow!  

or {I'm so embarrassed to show you the bathroom which is the "pit of despair" as my kids say}...please view at your own risk..I'm warning you..................

 

 

 

 

I know it's in pretty bad shape....so what would be your vote?

the family room

the master bedroom 

or the bathroom....

please leave me your vote in the comment section I really appreciate each and every comment and your opinion means a lot to me. 

Stay tuned for a give away coming up this month for my blog-anniversary....you won't want to miss it!!