Cottage portrait with Waterlogue

I'm going to share a magical little artistic secret with you today.

I first heard about the App "Waterlogue" from Kim at Savvy Southern Style.

It's absolutely amazing.

I have played with Photoshop for years and have tried almost all of their filters and effects.

I think Waterlogue is by far, the easiest, prettiest watercolor effect, ever.

Just watch-

Here's a picture of our cottage taken late this past summer.

(More about this photo later)

I uploaded this photo to Waterlogue

and the app magically transformed it into the luscious watercolor below!

Here is the before shot again.....

What a magical app!

And I'll tell you another secret.....

I took the above photo right over the shoulders of professional photographers Gridley and Graves

when they visited our cottage last year for -get this- a magazine photo shoot!!!

Shut the front door!

It really happened!

Our cottage is going to be featured in the March issue of Cottage Style Magazine!

I have seen the pictures they took, but not the article, yet.

I can hardly wait!

I sure hope I am not jinxing things by sharing this.

Talk about checking off a major bucket list item!

Thanks to Amy at While Wearing Heels for the referral to Gridley and Graves.

Seems like Blogging can be pretty magical, too!

Linking to 

Wow Us Wednesdays at Savvy Southern Style

Posted with Blogsy

Powder Room Update

We've been both cold bound and snow bound lately,

so I've been itching for a little project.  

On Sunday, I talked Mr. Grand into painting the vanity in our powder room.

It was a good test to see how much brighter the room would be with white cabinets.  

Sort of a test drive for - wait for it - remodeling our kitchen!

We have a lot of eighties oak cabinetry in our house.  

I plan to replace it all with white cabinets,
hopefully before the pendulum swings back to dark woods again! 

I have seen that pendulum swing several times in my 25 year kitchen design career.  

Twenty five years ago, oak was king.
Then along came cherry, then white, then maple and all kinds of washed and pickled finishes,
returning again now to white. With a vengeance.  

I have been pinning lots of gorgeous white kitchens lately 

and you can see them here.  

We have been weighing the pros and the cons of replacing our current kitchen cabinets 

or repainting them and going to Europe, buying a new car and replacing the roof, 

all of which could probably be done for the price of re-doing a kitchen these days!

We are still vacillating.  

To get an idea of what white could do in our house, we decide to start with the powder room.

One little vanity cabinet.  Really just two doors to paint.

Easy Peasy.

You may remember this post from a while back, called Powder Room Peek...

Not as naughty as it sounds....

Anyway, I didn't show you the vanity cabinet in these pictures, 

probably because I was already tired of the oak.

 Here is what the vanity looked like at about 2:00 on Sunday.

And by Sunday night, look at the difference!

Again, the Before....





And the After.

A close up of the paint finish.
One coat of primer and two coats of  Acrylic Alkyd for smoothness.
The paint color is Sherwin Williams-  Crisp Linen.

You can still see a bit of the oak grain but I don't mind the texture.

The granite countertop is Absolute Black 

and the toile wallpaper is by Thibaut.

What a difference a coat of paint makes!

I love it.


Imagine what white paint or new white cabinets could do
for the dark hole that is my kitchen right now....

and let's not even get started talking about the old wood edged countertop
or the soffits.

Hmmmm.....




Linking to:
Wow Us Wednesdays at Savvy Southern Style
Winter Blues Wednesday at DIY by Design
Wildly Original Link Party at I Gotta Create
Thursdays Are Your Days at 52 Mantels
Inspire Me Wednesdays at 733
Treasure Hunt Thursdays at From My Front Porch to Yours
Furniture Feature Friday at Miss Mustaard Seed
Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage

Dreams of Summer

Well, it's snowing here again.  

It's probably snowing where ever you are too, the way this winter has been.

I have been wistfully wishing to be outside in a warm sunny garden,

surrounded by flowers and greenery.

Unfortunately, the ground hog says that's not going to happen any time soon.

So, I've dug into my photo archives 

to bring you this little tour of garden statuary and flowers.

For several years, I was asked to photograph the gardens 

that were featured on our local Garden Walk 

and then make sets of notecards to give to the gardeners as thank you gifts.  

Many of these photos in this post are the result of that gig.

Come along with me for a little winter break. 

and let's see what we can find.

Here's a path in my friend Anna's gardens.

Absolutely fabulous.

And a gorgeous gazing ball from my friend Nina's garden.  

You may remember the post I wrote about her garden... you can see it here.

Here's an enchanting little fella

And a fish fountain

A gazing ball that belonged to my Mom

And an everlasting fruit basket.

Another gorgeous gazing ball, nestled in the trees

An armillary in the ivy

And a little girl with a net.

Here's a lady having a wardrobe malfunction...

And a lad on the alert.

Here's a nice, secluded spot to rest-  

Try to feel that warm sun on your face.

Some garden treillage

And another fountain amid the flowers

A gigantic dragonfly at the Morton Arboretum

And my friend Alice's arbor....

such a sweet spot.

Hurry, please, Spring!

Linking to:
Tuesdays Treasures at My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Wow Us Wednesdays at Savvy Southern Style
Wednesdays Link Party at Adorned From Above