Loretta's Top Ten APPLESandRUBIES Posts of 2011

Looking back at 2011, here's my favorite TOP TEN APPLESandRUBIES posts:
(click on the links to view the posts)

 

#1 January 2011:  APPLESandRUBIES Pure Style Home Inspired Lunch post. Creating a winter tablescape based the color palette of Lauren Liess's star turn article in Better Homes and Gardens. Thanks for the inspiration, Lauren! (and it gave me the kick in the butt to finally hang curtains in my dining room!)

 

 #2 April 2011: APPLESandRUBIES Wishes For Charlie post. How could I forget this beautiful and moving interview I did with fellow blogger Sarah Greenman of La Maison Boheme about her son's upcoming surgery? This charming boy is doing so well now! See an update on Charlie here.

#3 January 2011: APPLESandRUBIES Dreams and Dragonflies post. One of my favorite pieces of jewelry,  based on Loretta Fontaine Jewelry's sterling silver Maria necklace. I enjoyed researching, sketching and painting the delicate dragonfly for this custom piece.

 #4 May 2011: APPLESandRUBIES A Letter To Vern Yip post. What a pleasure to get together and have a GREAT design consultation on my home from HGTV's iconic interior designer Vern Yip.

Stacey, I'm still waiting for those photos of Vern and I... I know you took, like, a hundred photos!!!

#5 June 2011: APPLESandRUBIES "A Beautiful Windowseat" Post - This was the MOST POPULAR post of the year. (Seven months later it still gets dozens of hits a month... Unbelievable!!!)  A tale of how I envisoned my dream windowseat, and the random Google search that lead me to Lauren Liess's blog Pure Style Home.

 

#6 June 2011: APPLESandRUBIES A Little Custom Can Make All The Difference post. One of my favorite things - customizing my jewelry to perfectly fit the client! This is the Loretta Fontaine Jewelry sterling silver "Theresa" necklace with the miniature original photograph "Reaching Boxwood."

  
#7 August 2011: APPLESandRUBIES Labeling: My Dad and A Sharpie post. Dad, I love you and you crack me up, always!

 #8 September 2011: APPLESandRUBIES More Paper Model and Demo is Done! post If you've followed my blog this year you'll see the slow progress of my windowseat construction as the year went on. Making this paper model was a blast. (You can see the latest windowseat update here.)

 

 #9 September 2011: APPLESandRUBIES Our Backyard Flooded From Irene post. Yes, this is our backyard creek. Looking more like a small pond. What a storm!

 

#10 APPLESandRUBIES Best and Brightest For Nate post. Yes, I picked the outfit on the left, and yes, I will post soon on the trip to NYC to see the show taped. And yes, I am so SAD The Nate Berkus Show was not picked up for next season!

What a fun trip down memory lane to make this list. I put my top ten list in chronological order, because, honestly, I could not rank my favorites within this bunch.

Happy 2012!
Loretta

A "Beautiful Window Seat" by Lauren Liess For The DC Design House

Remember my post that mentioned the progress of Lauren Liess's room in the DC Design House? Here's the finished room! What an amazing difference!

{"The Hideaway" at the DC Design House, photo:Helen Norman}

Now, how did I ever find Lauren's wonderful blog Pure Style Home in the first place? 

It was back in Spring of 2010 when I was using Google Images to search the words "Beautiful Window Seat" as I was doing research to design my own window seat. I came upon an image of a  window seat in an old April 2009 post by Lauren called "Icons of Home" describing how she had just bought a home, and was using photographs to illustrate what would be in her dream home. 

Of course, her home was so similar to the one I had just bought, ( a '70s home with a walk-out basement, creek in the back and a so-similar first floor plan) that I had to keep reading a year's worth of past Pure Style Home posts to catch up.

{so charming! photo: Helen Norman}

So I have to sigh with happiness when I see this room in the DC Design House. Let's just focus on this new "beautiful window seat," shall we? There's the Peter Dunham Fig Leaf fabric on the pillows. Luscious! As well as two pillows with fabric from Lauren's new collection Lauren Liess Textiles - Wild Chicory in black, and Magnolia in true. Don't you want to curl up and spend the day?

{photo: Helen Norman}

With a Princess and the Pea fairy tale twist, Lauren has three real mattresses stacked up. Heavenly! Such an innovative and creative space. Even though the room is dismantled as the showhouse is over, I know the photographs of this room will live on and be referenced time and time and time again, happily ever after.  Congratulations, Lauren!

{my sketch - construction has been delayed yet again - will start late this month}

Here's the latest drawings of my windowseat project...

{interior - pillows will be added, promise. This is a "working" drawing!}

...and did you know that I always invisioned a cozy "real mattress" in it, not just a thin piece of covered foam? A real mattress in a window seat is something I rarely see, so I was SO excited to see it in Lauren's project!

{from Pure Style Home, image from Cottage Living}

...let's go back to that image I pulled out of Google Images so long ago, and you can read Lauren's April 2009 post "Icons of Home" here. One of my favorites!

Loretta

p.s. For an update on my own "beautiful windowseat" click here!