Kitchen Tour Week: Day One

Company is coming! I figured Thanksgiving week would be a good time to show off the homes featured during the 5th Annual Wenham Museum Heart of the Home Kitchen Tour last month. I took a LOT of pictures (there were 9 homes on the tour) so I will have to break this post into a weeks worth of inspiring kitchen images. It’s been awhile since I have posted on a daily basis, but I will give it my best shot. This first home, which dates back to 1765, has been thoughtfully renovated by its architect owner. Surrounded by garden-filled grounds, it is a lovely property that still maintains an historical feeling while accommodating 21st century family life. 

The well-organized mudroom is one of the new-and-improved additions to this vintage home.  

Country kitchen white beadboard walls and seeded glass cabinets are paired with a dual-fuel professional stove. The curved bow of the island provides comfortable seating while softening its visual edge. This family loves spending time on the water. They have decorated accordingly.

Soapstone sink and counter with a grooved dish drain are from Cumar Marble and Granite. Cross handle levered faucet from Salem Plumbing Supply.

The dining room welcomes with a long table, windsor chairs, and original hearth. The piano in this space reminds me of when families used to entertain each other instead of plugging in. 

A charming first floor powder room. Love the bar soap in the compote dish. More pretty styling: an embroidered hand towel.

In the side yard, an original soapstone sink has been cleverly transformed into an herb trough. I actually have one of these is in the basement of my 1904 farmhouse. If I can find a way to get it outside, I would love to do this next summer.

There were still some greens in the garden on the day of the tour. By now I am guessing it is all composted and resting for the winter to come.

Saturday snapshots ...

They look so cute, don’t they? Twin bunnies relaxing

beneath the new plants I just added to my garden.

Not so cute to find the perennials eaten up

and the bunnies nowhere to be found.

Didn’t realize I was serving lunch ...

The landscape tamer ...

Fire pit design and photo credit: DesignScapes by Drislane

How is your backyard looking? Mine appears to be awfully neglected these days. I have weeding to do, plants that need to be moved, retaining walls that need to be built, lawn furniture that needs to be dusted off ... oh, it is a long list! If only I could have someone come in and take care of it all for me.

Photo credit: DesignScapes by Drislane

If I ever did actually hire someone, I would call Chris Drislane of DesignScapes. I recently interviewed him for an article about his business on Lynnfield Patch. Read it here. Along with a solid education in landscape design, he has the eye of an artist (plus a crew and lots of heavy machinery) and can transform any outdoor space into a backyard oasis. I can only imagine how nice it would be afterwards, to simply go outside, put my feet up on the lounge chair (with drink in hand) and just enjoy the well-manicured view!

Do you like to enlist help or do-it-yourself when it comes to landscape design?

New England Finery: Issue Two

Click here to view Issue 2 of
New England Finery Magazine

In honor of this week’s on-going celebration of Earth Day (it is officially on Friday, April 22nd) we are devoting our second issue of New England Finery Magazine to green living! Going green has become a huge part of the collective consciousness. Take a peek inside and be inspired by some New Englanders who have come up with eco-friendly ways of doing business.

Making green choices isn’t all business though ... also included are some fun fashions, earth-friendly design tips, and great garden ideas that can easily be incorporated into our every day lives.

And don’t miss the section on what’s new at New England Fine Living the retail store.

If you are in our Middleton, Massachusetts neighborhood, please stop by! Shopping local is
another great way of “being green.”

An evening in the garden ...

A bold container garden by Tracy Drislane

Last week the Village Garden Club of Lynnfield held its year-end dinner event at the home of Tracy and Chris Drislane. Tracy, who is a garden club member, and Chris, who is a professional landscape designer and certified horticulturist {DesignScapes, Inc.} have a beautiful property that I have always admired for its rustic charm, great use of scale and creative touches. Here are some images taken during the
garden stroll portion of our evening ...

A variety of large leaf hosta plants fill the gravel
covered alley between the barn and the house.

A hurricane lamp decorated with hosta and coleus leaves still stands tall even after the skies opened up and rained during the early part of the evening.

S’mores were on the menu, but we had our
desserts inside. Isn’t this fireplace amazing???

I love how Tracy filled a number of wine glasses with moss and succulent blossoms and then accompanied them with candles in bell jars as table centerpieces.

Even the tomato plants looked great when
partnered with tall landscape grasses
standing like a living screen behind them.

It would not be a Village Garden Club party without a beautifully presented and equally delicious menu (courtesy of President Bootie Stevens, Tracy Drislane and other club member contributions).

Fresh rosemary is a pretty and fragrant
accent when added to a dish of hummus
or in a container garden like below.

With garden club member and friend, Laura Thomson

A lot of members commented on the gray floral pin I wore attached to a string of pearls. It is by stella & dot and is available by clicking here (type in my name as the hostess to order one for yourself, or any of the other lovely stella & dot jewelry items).


My rock garden this morning


A garden path by DesignScapes, Inc.
for Club President Bootie Stevens

This week I will be focusing on cleaning up my own gardens now that I have been completely inspired by the combined effort of the Drislane’s, plus a year of attending garden club lectures and events. If you are interested in becoming a member of the Village Garden Club of Lynnfield (and live in this area ; ) please contact me by email at yblacker@verizon.net.



Annual dues are just $25 per person which entitles each member to discounts at local nurseries, free admission to monthly events (we meet from September to June) and lots of information-sharing from the dedicated garden enthusiasts that make up the group. We always have a lot of fun at our monthly Monday night meetings, and have done a lot of community service gardening for the town of
Lynnfield as well. To see some mentions of events from this past year, visit the following links:

Arranging dramatic centerpieces with Bert Ford

Art in Bloom at the Lynnfield Library

Holiday party decorating: Laura Thomson

Field trip to The Stevens Estate, No. Andover

Kim Smith and autumn gardening



Thank you for opening your
home to us, Tracy and Chris!

Kim Smith and Fragrant Gardening

At the Wenham Museum with designer Kim Smith

One of the best parts of participating in a local design show is meeting other creative individuals who share the same interests. Last year at the North Shore Design Show I met Kim Smith, a super talented designer, author, illustrator and photographer who created a lovely space for Willowdale Estate (see it here) where she works her design magic from the bridal suite to the garden landscapes. While at the show, I really enjoyed talking with Kim about flowers and design (a couple of my favorite things ; ) so I asked Kim to share some of her gardening wisdom with my friends at the Village Garden Club of Lynnfield. She visited with us in September, presenting her tips on growing native plants – illustrated with many gorgeous slides – to our group of garden enthusiasts. While Kim did not participate in the Favorite Spaces design show this year (her daughter was graduating from college – congrats to you both!) she did host a slide show that highlighted the best flowers to plant when designing a fragrant garden.


Peonies I caught in bloom at a local cafe.

My favorite shrub rose smells heavenly this week.


Here are just some of Kim’s fragrant favorites
(although I think she loves most every flower!) ...

White Lilac (Syringa vulgaris ‘Krasavitsa Moskvy’)
White Wisteria (W. sinensis v. alba ‘Jako’)
Old Garden Rose (Rosa Louise Odier)
Butterfly Bush (Buddleis davidii)
Nasturium (Tropaeolum majus)
Oyama Magnolia (M. sieboldii)
Moon Flower (Ipomoea alba)
Mock Orange (Philadelphus)
Peony (Paeonia lactifolia)


Her number one tip on choosing flowers with the most fragrance is to look for a white variety as scent is in direct proportion to pigmentation. The more showy, colorful flowers may attract your eye, but the subtle shades of white, cream, pale pinks, yellows and purples will release the most scent. And while you are at it, plant those scented species closest to where you are apt to enjoy them, near a window or along a traveled path. I am going to try my hand at Moon Flower this year. I love that it opens at night, just around the time that I will be out in my garden room, enjoying a glass of something cold and refreshing!


Vintage biennial phlox from my garden ...
they smell like cinnamon!

To receive Kim’s gardening tips via email, visit her website and sign up for her eColumn which is always chock full of great photos and information. Her blog is another great resource for gardening inspiration.


Kim Smith illustration from her book,
“Oh Garden of Fresh Possibilities!”

Colorful jewels from stella & dot


And for those of you who like to wear your love of flowers, I am hosting a stella & dot party online. One of my favorite items (besides the Sophia Pearl Bib Necklace that I am wearing in the photo with Kim above) is their Sasha Flower Brooch ...



These pin-on-flowers are all the rage right now, and are the perfect accessory to a summer top, bag or belt. There are so many pretty items in the stella & dot Look Book for Spring/Summer 2010. Take a peek at the latest trends and let me know what your favorite is ...




To purchase a stella & dot item, click on this link and add my name (Yvonne Blacker : ) as the hostess.

Have fun shopping ... and gardening!

xo
yvonne

How does your garden grow?

Fernleaf Pink Bleeding Heart

Here are some photos from my perennial gardens taken this morning. Most of these plants were given to me from friends and family, or were purchased at the annual Plant Auction held by the Village Garden Club of Lynnfield. This year, my garden is starting to look well established. That is what I love about perennials, each year you get more than you started with! What other purchase gives you that type of return on your investment??? Once I get to my weeding, I will show photos of the entire garden ; )

Solomon’s Seal


Azalea

Hosta: Blue Elegans

Chives



We noticed yesterday that a bird has built her nest in our birdhouse. I will try to get closeups of the babies when they hatch!

Perennial Plant Auction

Presented by the Village Garden Club of Lynnfield

Monday, May 10th
at 7:30pm to 9pm
at the Lynnfield Meeting House
(on the common across from
the Lynnfield Library)

Take home mature perennials at great prices!
Refreshments will be served.

Happy gardening!

A peek inside ... Boston Design Center

Everyone always asks “what do they have inside the Boston Design Center?” Here is just a tiny sample of what I saw while visiting the showrooms yesterday to attend Design Boston. A couple of friends and I sat in on a number of design seminars (Recasting Historic Colors for Contemporary Settings sponsored by Farrow & Ball, Choosing Luxury Furnishings sponsored by Grange, but sadly missed Textiles 101 sponsored by Donghia since we were sitting in dreadful traffic on the way in to Boston.) Upon entering the building (filled with eight floors of the best luxury brands in the design industry) I couldn’t help myself from stopping to admire the landscaping ...

If you have empty spaces in your yard that you just don’t know what to do with, consider planting large groupings of perennial grasses. They are dramatic throughout several seasons and require virtually no maintenance. These also look great in containers and can be left out all winter to be enjoyed again come early summer. I love how they sway softly with the breeze.

The outside is in.

Had to post a pic of one of my favorite “I want to be in there” rooms at the BDC. JANUS et Cie has to-die-for quality outside furnishings. I found myself longing to take some home for my garden room.
Maybe next season???

Inspiration in a bag.

With registration, we each received a shopping bag full of product showroom brochures. Love the yellow and black graphics! Inside I found:

Cybele is the official magazine of the BDC. You can view it online or order your own copy of this quarterly publication that covers “the local design industry, special events, new products and design trends.”
Kinda like my blog, no?


Great textures and colors on a postcard
featuring pieces from Powell & Bonnell.



How cute is this complimentary pad of paper? I grabbed a pencil as well from the Osborne & Little showroom, who had their own bag of drool-worthy images from some of their product lines (Designers Guild and Nina Campbell were favorites of mine). I saw a lot of traditional settings covered floor to ceiling with BOLD colors, patterns and fabric combinations in the 2009 collections. Velvets, silks, pattern on pattern, and almost circus-like embellishments went from
“not difficult to imagine ...”

Orsetti trims from Designers Guild

to “I’ll need time to think about that
... but I think I love you.”

Find these stunning images and more
like them at designersguild.com

If you aren’t quite sure if you can handle this much juicy visual stimulation, how about adding a dramatic flower (like the one on the low cocktail table above) to punctuate a space as I did in this bath that I designed for my last home ...

Round, lavender alliums are a photo-stylists favorite.

This image on a brochure for Osborne & Little reminds me of a stylish bowl that I selected for a client’s home a couple of years ago ...


More graphic boldness from Villa Romo
through Webster & Company.



I had to smile when I saw Nina Campbell’s Sylvana Swan Lake collection ... it reminds me of my high school senior art project (now be gentle — I copied this painting from a card and my mom still has it hanging up for all to see) ...



Graceful style that anyone could live with
from A. Rudin at M-Geough

Still feeling design shy? Try accenting a classic piece like the chair above with a brightly colored silk pillow like this one from Designers Guild (unless you have young kids, then just forget about the silk for a decade or so!) ...

Letourney Cocoa

Of course, walking through the soothing-design-magazine-like atmosphere of the BDC made us crazy with I-have-to-have-that-desire, and if I can’t have it, at least give me something good to eat ...


Gorgeous for fall: sweet potato vines, ornamental kale,
mums, and towering palms combine to create a
dramatic centerpiece under the luncheon tent.

Lunch was served al fresco by The Catered Affair (and sponsored by New England Home magazine — thank you!). The food was delish and the presentation was oh-so-stylish. I had orzo pasta with finely chopped vegetables, and an apricot chicken salad (yum!) on fresh greens. Both were served (separately) in these great double old fashioned cosmopolitan glasses. I am thinking of ordering a set or two for myself to serve small bites of great food or end-of-the-day cocktails. I think my kids would get a kick out of pasta presented in one of these ... and I will serve myself a lemon-drop martini while I am doing my back-to-reality dishes!

Image from Wasserstrom.com

How to fill it ... click here. Cheers!