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PATRICIA GRAY INC is an award winning international interior design firm writing about lifestyle and WHAT'S HOT
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Kitchen of Serenity

First, let me apologise for my husband's disgraceful behaviour. Hijacking my blog? Who does that rascal think he is?

♥ ♥ *swoon* ♥ ♥

I felt such a lovely mixture of extremely embarrassed and extraordinarily happy. I'd say this would be an accurate portrayal:

Are you feeling it?

The blush? The giggling? The lurrrrve?

Anyway, ahem....moving swiftly on, now that V-day is over, shall we get back on track with a bit of Kitchen Delectability?

As a little reminder, here at Modern Country Style, we're going through, step by step, how to makeover a kitchen on any budget....with plenty of other delightful distractions along the way.

We've looked at:

Step 1: Kitchen Foraging

Step 2: Narrowing Choices

and I do believe we're currently stopping off at:

Step 3: Colour Inspiration

I want the feel of my final colour choices to be calm and peaceful and this Kitchen of Serenity sums that up perfectly for me.

The Kitchen of Serenity has a very limited palette of white, pale grey and charcoal. So restful and gentle.

{L:O:V:E those pendants.}

The Kitchen of Serenity is spacious and airy. No clutter at all, apart from carefully placed objet de gorgeousness, as I like to call them, in an unbelievably pretentious fashion.

But, for reality's sake, I feel I have to ask 'Where's the kettle and the toaster?'

Is it a little bit *too* clean and clinical?

A bit *too* lacking in any colour or personality?

{What do *you* think?}

Images via Plain English

Valentine's Day Part Two.

Er....

Hello - is anybody there....?

This is the occasionally referred to Mr Modern Country speaking.

It is Valentine's day and this is the closest that I could get to shouting from the rooftops.

Mrs Modern Country:

I LOVE YOU!

Not so secretly, your adoring husband.

PS, please forgive me for resetting your password and ruining your lovely blog with a lack of arty pictures. XXXo

It's Valentine's Day

Whether you're smooching with your partner.....

{how romantic is this?}

or spending the evening with good friends (doesn't that look fantastic fun?)......

.. or on your own, curled up in bed, with a good book ...

I really hope that you have a very

Happy Valentine's Day.

 Images via Wedding 0011, Casa Tres Chic and Cabbages and Roses

Pale Sofa: Sin or Saviour?

Well? What did you think?

I think Wednesday's English Garden Party was one of the best Garden Parties I've ever been to.

Really and truly.

There were so many fantastic posts linked up from all over the world, in all different shapes and sizes. It was just amazing seeing it all come together.

Thank you all so much for coming. I had such a brilliant time.

Now...question of the day: pale sofas with little children...yes or no?

Would you? Could you? Should you?

Spill the beans, please.

{Not literally, obviously. That might stain, might it not?}

My English Garden Linky Party

Welcome to My English Garden Party!

And some ground-breaking news too. It's an exciting moment for me at Modern Country Style....I've just set up my very own Facebook page.

I'd LOVE it if you'd click on the little Like button over on the right on my sidebar. It's a special button that allows you to Like Modern Country Style without being whisked over Facebook.

It's the perfect way to have a bit more of a chat with me and each other than blogging allows. You'll be able to hear the inner workings of my brain.

Frightening.

Will you join in? It's just to your right? See it? Yup, that's the puppy. Now, just a little click and you're away....

There. Simple, eh?

**********************

So.

This is my garden in about May/June, looking away from the house.

I love scent in the garden. When I walk out of our back door, I want to be embraced by the heavenly fragrances of my favourite flowers wafting towards me. In May, that comes mainly from the roses and honeysuckles that you can see here rambling their way over our fences.

The back part of the garden is jam-packed with fruit. Yup, I said JAM-packed. Ha!

We have redcurrant, white currants, black currants, gooseberries, raspberries, strawberries, plums, apples, peaches, loganberries and tayberries. All fairly easy to grow in England and all so utterly delicious. I can feel my taste buds perking up at the thought of all that plucking fresh, plump, juicy fruit.

We generally manage to eat it all but what little there is left over, gets made into jams and ice cream.

This is one of the flower beds about half way up the garden, near where we have our table and chairs. I'm on the lookout for some nicer ones this year...now that our twins are hopefully old enough to stop wanting to push them to one side and use the paved terrace for tricycling. 

So are you ready to link up your gorgeousness of the flower/ plant/ garden variety?

Here are three things I'd love you to do.

1) Follow Modern Country Style if you're liking what you see here.

2) Like Modern Country Style on Facebook. 

3) Link back to me in your post so other people can come and share the garden love.

Not rules...but I'm hopeful. ;-)

Now, take it away.....

I'm linking to my favourite parties in my sidebar.

Valentine's Rosebud Initials

Here are my Valentines Rosebud Ornaments. I've shaped them into our initials.

G for Guy

S for Sarah

And, of course, a heart.

Sarah loves Guy.

Or Guy loves Sarah.

Depending on how the mood takes me.

;-)

The letters were actually easier to make than in yesterday's post. There was no twisting of the wire to be done.  Just gently bending the end back around the last rosebud.

*************************************

One more day to go to my English Garden Party. Eeeeee!

Come on over tomorrow (Wednesday morning GMT) to link up.

There will be a bath available for anyone who gets over-excited by all the scrumptiousness available to drool over.....

{Can you imagine? A bath in the garden?}

I'm linking to the fab parties in my sidebar.

Rosebud crafty tutorial

Hello again, sweet pea,

Well, am I glad to see you today. It's so good to have some adult company.

{Between you and me, the chicken pox saga is somewhat taking its toll on my sanity.}

Have you chosen your outfits for Wednesday's English Garden Linky Party at Modern Country Style?

I'm thinking some posh wellie boots would go down well.

Yup, this is definitely the outfit I have in mind.

;-)

Please will you come along and link up your garden/ flower (fake or otherwise)/ outdoors posts too (the grabbable button is on my sidebar to your right)?

{I can't very well have a dress like that and prance around on my own, now, can I?!

Oh, alright, I probably could but it would be *so* much more fun with you.}

*******************************

Now onto the rosebuds.

This is one of those excellent crafts that pretty easy to put together but looks absolutely awesome when it's done.

Here's what you'll be needing:

A packet of dried rosebuds, which, if you're wondering where to find them, I got easily-peasily from eBay. My second home.

Some firm but malleable wire

Pretty ribbon

Step 1

Take a rosebud and push it onto the end of the wire. If your wire isn't stiff enough then you can use a needle to make a hole and then slip the wire through that.

Step 2

Repeat until you have between 20 and 30 rosebuds on the wire then snip off the wire with a few cm spare at each end..

Step 3

This part depends on what shape you want to make. If, for example, you're after a heart then simply bend the two ends round until they touch and twist together to secure, trimming off excess if necessary. Shape the wire-loop into a heart.

Step 4

Attach pretty ribbon.

Step 5

For a gorgeous finishing touch, swivel the rosebuds so that the stalks all face same the same way.

Step 6*

Love Modern Country Style for always.

Mine are up and look so lovely and romantic. Tomorrow I'll be sharing my rosebud reveal.

Can't wait!

* Step 6 optional

In Quarantine....

Well, it's been a funny kind of a day for me. My plans have been thrown off-kilter a wee bit because my smallest kiddiewink has come down with chicken pox.

This weekend, we'll be taking it easy, as we're in quarantine. I'm thinking that we'll need lots of special treats scattered throughout the day.


For me.


Like a long lie-down in this lovely bed.

Aaahhhhhhh......

I'll be back on Monday with my promised rosebuds. They're looking so beautiful. I'm really looking forward to sharing them with you.

Oh, and then remember next Wednesday 9th is my English Garden Party at Modern Country Style. I can't wait to see all your garden or flower or...or....or anything-at-all outdoors related posts.

Thank you SO much to everyone who's grabbed the button that's on my sidebar.

See it over there to your right? Wouldn't it make *your* sidebar so pretty?!!

Have a gorgeous weekend, my cherubs.

Image unknown

I'm linking to the parties in my sidebar...

Valentine's Cushion

I have an announcement to make.

You are all cordially invited to:

 Modern Country Style's English Garden Party on Wednesday 9th February 2010.

Just to be clear....I am SO chilled out about what you can link up. Does it have to be a perfectly manicured garden? Nope. It can be a bunch of flowers, or some herbs, or dried flowers, or your winter yard, or some lovely outdoorsyness (no, not 'odiousness', Mr Spellchecker...) of your choice.

Out of my factory of fun, I have masterminded a new button....which is over on the righthand side of my blog, on the sidebar.

I will love you forever and a day if you grab the button (by copying the html code below it) and put it on your sidebar if you have a blog too.

Thank you so much.

Let it be known far and wide that I love Valentine's Day. Not the commercialised schmaltzy version but the loved-up coupley thing. 

Slow dancing. Red roses. Love letters.

Makes my tummy do a flip at the thought of it.

So, with that in mind, here is the first of my Valentine's offerings.



A Valentine's cushion celebrating our marriage together.



We got married at a gorgeous red-brick church 1999, Sussex, England. The sun shone for us and we absolutely glowed with happiness all day long.




I used bleached calico on the front and grey wool on the back for an envelope-backed Valentine's cushion.



I used a draw-thread technique to create the two lines on either side of the stamped section by pulling about ten or so complete threads out of the material. It creates a kind of ladder effect.



My top tip is do that bit afterwards. If you mess up on the stamping, you don't want to be repeating the pulling.

Don't ask me how I know or I'll growl. :-)



I love the combination of the two textures and colours: the soft charcoal wool and nubby off-white calico.



Perfect for snuggling up with, alongside this pearl-grey faux fur throw.



I used a mixture of vintage typewriter keys and standard alphabet stamps. I have a bit of a stamp mania going on at the mo.

Stamping everthing in sight I am.

I've already given this cushion as an early Valentine's present to Mr Modern Country and was utterly blown away when he said that he *loved* it.

Yes, he used those words. L.O.V.E.D. 



Well, you could have knocked me down with a feather. 

 And thank you so much to Cindy at Oakview Cottage for sharing my Modern Country kitchen makeover. Have you visited her blog? The photos she and her husband post there are awesome.......and she's LOVELY too. ;-)

Come back soon for some rosebud scrumdiddlyumptiousness.

Could there be anything more Valenitne-y than rosebuds?