Whimsy from Primitive and Proper

Hello friends of A Place to Call Home!  I am so excited to be starting a fun new series here, sharing all sorts of fun, whimsy, design, craftiness.... you name it.  I am Cassie from Primitive and Proper, and I will be here every Wednesday with some fun for your soul. Today I want to share a little infatuation of my own... toadstools!  I love them!  I painted my own daughter's table to look like a toadstool.  Check it out!  

And today, I am even over on my blog sharing a fun toadstool craft...

But I want to share with you some more toadstool cuteness from around the internet. How adorable is this pillow?  I would love to have it on my porch, as a happy greeting to guests or gnomes.

I might have to find a need for these lanterns....  

These DIY toadstool pencils would be a fun end of the year teacher gift.

Now that I have figured out how to make clay toadstools, this wreath is on my to-craft list! And I know this is a little girl's dress, but I would totally rock this as a top.  Might have to find that fabric and beg my mom to make me one!

So how bout it?  If you didn't love toadstools before, do you now?  Aren't they the cutest? Thanks Jen, for having me here today to share some toadstool love!  Happy Spring!

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Toadstools are super cute, my favorites are both of Cassie's creations, that table in Emmy's room is to die for! So I am super excited that Cassie will be joining us every week on Wednesdays to share cool things that shes found on blogland, pinterest, etsy, or anywhere she's found inspiration. I'm super excited about what she's going to share!

Guest Post by Just Paint It White

Hi, my name is Fiona and I live very near the beach on the South Coast of England. Jen has invited me and my little blog Just Paint It White to do a guest post and I am sincerely flattered. I first found Jen's lovely blog sometime before Christmas, and followed along immediately.  She has such a beautiful home with great style. She's also an impressively organised person and absolutely charming. She always comments back and gives loads of encouragement. My own style is pretty eclectic and ranges from rustic and rusty to gold leaf. Today I am going to share with you some projects I have made with beach junk. I have been walking my dog on the beach for about 5 years but only picked up a few interesting pieces in the past. Since I started blogging last October, my collection has really grown. The wealth of talent in blogland is so inspiring that I'm always getting new ideas.

My favourite piece is probably this simple frame, made from a rusty piece of wire mesh that I stapled into the back of a £3 pine frame from a charity shop, which I then painted white (of course). I like switching it up for different occasions, and trying different looks.

I think the shells are so pretty when worn by time and the sea and the wind, and I just put some in a small box frame, on a fabric sample using a tiny piece of organza ribbon as embellishment.

I store some of my shell collection in apothecary jars and under cloches.

Probably the most successful piece I have made so far is the driftwood lamp, which started off life like this -

And became this -

with the only cost being a £10 shade and lots of hot glue - oh, and a large blister to my thumb !!

This is the latest piece I have been working on, with some of my favourite things. I couldn't find a rectangular box frame, so I stuck the pieces straight onto the glass, and put photocopies of underwater creatures behind. The frame was pine and I just painted it grey and distressed it a bit.

Although I have hung it on my yet unrevealed gallery wall, I am still pondering about it. In my studio I love it (where there is lots of light), but when I bring it into my house, it seems a bit dark. I realise it's also a bit busy, but I quite like that.

Actually, It doesn't look so bad in this picture, I might keep it there for now !

The next piece I have to show you really is junk. I found it just like it is.

I didn't really want to turn it into anything, I just love the patina on that metal.

The last piece is the bonsai tree I made. This was the only piece I thought about making years ago, when I found this piece of driftwood on the beach.

After three goes, which I posted about here, it finally ended up ok.

As you can see, my style is definitely eclectic, I suppose it's all about the textures for me. I have a couple of projects in the pipeline and would love to make a much larger driftwood lamp, but hopefully I'll continue creating with whatever I find. 

I hope that I have inspired you in some way and want to say a big thank you to Jen for inviting me to be her guest today.

I hope you all enjoyed Fionas lovely work, I'm so inspired by all her beach junk she finds! I hope you'll take the time to go and visit her blog too!

Guest post from Cassie from Primitive & Proper

I'm so happy to have Cassie here today to talk to you all. . She is the nicest person and she inspires me so much with her eclectic style, I'm so happy that shes hear to talk to you today. First I'll share a couple of things shes done very recently that I love.

so cute, I want 10

fabulous

Her daughters adorable chalkboard closet doors

Hello!  I am Cassie from Primitive and Proper and I am so excited to be here on Jen's fabulous blog!  I found Jen's blog back in December through the Nester's holiday home link party and was blown away by her talent and style!  Isn't she amazing?  Her home is awesome and a great expression of who she is and who her family is.  And that is what a home should be... an expression of who we, the people who live in it, are.  My family is currently living in our third home.  Our first home was in Louisiana, and it's where both of my babies were born!  (Well, not in the house, but you know what I mean!)  I remember getting together that first nursery... I was so excited and so proud of it.  Yet now, looking back, I am so embarrassed!  It's not at all what I would choose today.  But style is evolutionary, so laugh at me all you want, but I am still evolving.  Do you want to see it, so you can laugh? So here is Sawyer's nursery in our first house.... everything was so "matchy".

My mom made the quilt and pillow and those are still so special to me.  I had painted the dressers which were my parents baby dresser, and I painted the changing table which came from a thrift shop.  So I was still thrifty and revamping furniture, just much differently than I would do now! When Emmy was a baby of about 2 months we moved into our second home.  I reused Sawyer's furniture, and her room is a little better....

I painstakingly used a formula lid to draw all of those circles and then went around painting them all.  I still think the walls looked cute, but that room is also a far cry from what I would do today if I were to decorate a nursery.  My how my style has changed! I am DONE having children, but I still like to look at nurseries and imagine creating a new one, only because I know I could do it so much better now!  So I thought it would be a fun activity to share what today's nursery would look like.  I am going to go gender neutral for all intents and purposes.  I am a huge fan of rustic, with a touch of glam, and a touch of aqua. First off, I am really digging white walls lately, so I would go with my favorite white, Benjamin Moore's Cloud Cover.  That way everything else would take center stage and pop against it. For the crib,  I definitely would not go with the honey colored crib of yore!  I am a huge fan of the simple Jenny Lind style, and love the crib that Ali painted for her twin sis Lisa.  I love it in this dark gray that could work well for a girl or a boy...

For bedding, I think I would go with basic whites and grays with some texture.  I adore this set I found on etsy!

And to bring a little pop of aqua to the bedding, this fun deer pillow just might be nestled in the corner... Also to bring some color to the crib area, I would most certainly hang a fun bunting!  I love the unique style of this with the crochet designs and colors...

And of course we would need a gorgeous rug to anchor the room.  This one from West Elm would be perfect!  I love the slight geometric pattern and the texture.

Now so far, it's pretty neutral with whites and grays, we need some color, right?  I would bring color, though slightly muted, in with the dresser which would also serve as a changing table.  And I would love to have a piece like this....

And above the dresser, of course we would need some awesome artwork...  perhaps these prints which I actually have and will be going in Emmy's room....

And of course, we are talking about a nursery, here... and since I am sure there would be many nights where I would be sitting next to the crib begging the baby to sleep, I think I might need one of these in this fabulous bronze finish... Planning a nursery is SO fun!  But here's the thing... free time is SO fun, too.  And my kids will both be in school full time next year, so I choose free time.  But if any of my friends decides to have a baby soon, I might stake claim on decorating the nursery. Thank you so much, Jen, for having me here today and letting me dream of the "what if".  I hope you will hop over to my blog and follow the progress of our "new" house and all of its non-nursery rooms!

Thank you so much Cassie! I cant wait to start the nursery makeover asap!

Guest Post From Gardners 2 Bergers

Hi Everyone, Happy Monday!

Today Becca From Gardners 2 Bergers will be here sharing her condo and what her style is.

Hello blog fans of "A Place 2 Call Home". My name is Becca and I run a little blog called "from Gardners 2 Bergers". Jennifer invited me to host today and asked me to talk about my design style. I'm so excited to reach out to fellow bloggers, so pull up the computer, get cozy, and let your eyes feast upon my "GLORY"!

Here's a pic of our home- ok, let me be more clear, it's the dining room part of the living/dining room/kitchen which I call "livitchen". For the past three years, the condo life has been, livitchen.

This pic is perfect for showing my love for both styles! I love the vintage globes and suitcases above a brand new Ikea mirror and very modern moose head! 

Truly, my style falls into four categories: "NEW-NEW", "OLD-NEW," "NEW-OLD," and "OLD-OLD."

The New-New- Our sectional is what you would call "new-new". It's a custom made sectional from Basset Furniture and I designed it to have clean lines and a modern feel. Pretty much all the pillow cases on the couch are also "new-new." Surprisingly, "new-new" is kinda fun to say!

The New-Old- This is when you buy something with the intent to change it into something that looks "aged". Take a look at the curtain panels behind my couch. They are new Ikea curtain panels that I stenciled with a damask stencil. I wanted to create an aged looking fabric to balance the newness of the couch.

The Old-New-These are the things we already have that get a makeover to resurrect an old item and make it into a new one. The lamp on my front table in the livitchin was a brass monster, but had these gorgeous lines. I used a 20 cent clearance can of spray paint to makeover the lamp and also the mantel clock beside my couch. It was this ugly old thing the hubs received as a gift ages ago. I gave both a fancy little face lift and transformed the look. 

The Old-Old- We should all be familiar with this category. These are all our vintage finds- the stuff we scour thrift stores and maybe even Ebay for.  I have several vintage finds scattered around the home. I heart the old blue mason jars and their zinc lids and old fans like this turquoise beaut on the table.
My apiary sign on my gallery wall is old-old- but it was a makeover too. It was an old wood sign that looked a mess and I painted it to look like a different old wood sign. My husband says it's the wild west in me... even though I'm from the east coast.

Thanks for touring my crib. Please stop by my blog, if you wanna see more of my style and fun new budget makeovers!

Looking for places to link up your projects? Check out my Party page.

I'm also linked up here.

Isn't she just fabulous?? Not only is Becca super talented and inspiring but shes also just a really nice person, I hope you guys enjoy her and her blog as much as I do.

And if you are new here-

Here at A Place 2 Call Home I talk about cleaning, organizing and decorating feel free to look around and hopefully follow and find some inspiration!

Have a wonderful day!