Hydrangea Love

Hydrangeas are one of my favorite flowers and they were everywhere in Cape May. So here is a collection of big, rich, floppy heads of beautiful color to start your weekend off right. Happy Friday!

Highlights from The Virginia

The Virginia is a beautiful, quiet hotel on Jackson St. in Cape May. Part of our family joined us and stayed a street over at The Virginia (adults with no children) and really enjoyed it.
Some of my pictures are a little washed out, but I wanted to share the lovely wallpaper in the piano room - which is reminiscent of the hydrangeas blooming everywhere - to the use of red, black and brown through out the hotel. You can visit their website here, but the pictures are a little out-dated as they've done some redecorating.

Beautiful crewel work as art

A small lounge room for evening drinks

And from there, a lovely glassed-in porch with unique wicker furniture in sharp slip covers.

One of my favorite things about the hotel is the long front porch and red, slipped couches, especially the fantastic Greek-key style cut out on the bottom. At night they light candles on the little wicker side tables and the whole place glows.

Door Inspiration - Cape May NJ

The architecture on the old "painted ladies", as Cape May's Victorian cottages are referred to, is really something. We go every summer and each time I take a million pictures. I hope you enjoy a peak at just some of the many doors I photographed. I will be posting on Cape May inspiration all week - happy Monday!

Be Back Soon

Fourth of July Fun

While looking around for some creative inspiration for the Fourth of July, I came across this great site on Etsy. Made by Paper and Cake, these little snack cups come with a group of other party necessities to make any get together more sparkly. I thought the Abe graphic would make a fun t-shirt as well. Have a wonderful 4th!

Alexander Wang - A Quick bit of Design Wisdom

via rightbank.wordpress.com

These are pictures of fashion designer Alexander Wang's bedroom. I've had an old issue of Domino Magazine (Feb 2008) open to the article of his apartment for some time because of the write up that appeared under the photo of his bedroom (the retro, frilly dresser in particular). I thought you might find it just as inspiring.

"...The irony of the flea-market, princess-y dresser is Wang's idea of chic: "People are so self conscious and afraid things might look cheesy," he says. "The coolest people are the ones who aren't afraid to look like dorks."

Design Time Travel

While researching how to change a front door handle and lock, I stumbled across this wonderful slide show on the New York Times website. It's about home owners who have left their homes largely untouched since the 1960s and 70s. Above is Mr. Reitzin, whose home has remained paused in the mid 1970s.

His lovely living room with beautiful walnut paneling and note the animal tusks on the coffee table.

Here is the stunning "work area" in the house that architect Donald E. Olsen built for his family in 1954 - A true dream office.

And, the beautiful built in cabinets in S.Stephen and Alice Atkins living room - the lighting fixtures are fantastic, and how about that gorgeous screen! I've only shown you four photos out of a fourteen photo slide show, but I hope you'll take a moment to look at the rest, it's a feast for the eyes!