Health Care cocktail party at House of Sweden!

Welcome to the Health Care cocktail party put on by the Embassy of Sweden last night- George holding the chocolate mousse hypodermic needles!!! Then greeted all guests with vials of Aquavit with mint leaves as you entered the event!


Any party that has chocolate mousse hypodermic needles has got to be good!!! Great idea- all the wait staff was in scrubs- so cute!



So good- I had to have few!!!




Up on the roof they were doing yoga and giving Swedish massages! Also great smoothie bar- great because all smoothies had vodka!!!!!



George enjoyed the roof- a little breezy but it was a mild night in DC!



Everything was white - tents and curtains blowing in the breeze.




View if the Potomac River and Sequoia Restaurant below.




Fabulous fruit and nut bar- the dried apricots were the best. They even had pots of grass to flower up the place! Gorgeous.


Curtains blowing made for dramatic effect.



The elevator took everyone up to enjoy the view of DC from the top of Sweden House.



Overlooking the Kennedy Center from the roof. I don't look too happy but it was a great night!

Three separate projects...

We have a few thing percolating up at the house in Maine. A number of projects should be getting underway this spring and hopefully finished up by June.

Last summer the kids worked on a project- the downstairs bathroom. They removed the wallpaper and painted the walls "Fenway Blue" - Go Sox!!! The dark blue looked great in the small bathroom- but when the wallpaper was removed we saw that it was hiding a multitude of wall imperfections. One huge one was behind the sink - large hole. We discussed several alternatives before deciding on beadboard. I love the look and it would lighten up the room and cover the wall issues. We needed it to be high enough to cover the holes and I really like the look when it is covering over half the wall. We decided on 4 feet with an edge like the one in the picture below. Wide enough to maybe tuck a shell or two on the ledge.


Hopefully Steve our handyman will get started soon and the end result will be all done by May when we head up to the house.






Next up on the projects will definitely take longer. We have found - through a previous owner's video- that the butler's pantry original counter top was wood!!! Yikes it looked soooo gorgeous in the video. Dark, but so cool. We need to get back to that. The ugly formica counter top needs to go! The pic below is very similar to our set up. Glass front cabinets on top and drawers on the bottom. We have lifted up portions of our counter top and the wood is still under there- It is going to be a very interesting treasure hunt uncovering it!!!

The only difference is we will also get rid of the white paint- back to the original stain on the cabinets too! Hopefully will look more like a bar/butler's pantry area with gorgeous wood grain. Can't wait to see the results- George has already started sanding some of the doors- its going to be a big job!!!


Lastly another big project is replacing the "floating" stick on tiles in the upstairs shared bath. I have chosen a 2 inch hexagon shaped tile like the picture below. I love the clean look and think it is more historically accurate for a 1912 house. Many of the fixtures in our 4 baths are original - we hope to keep most of the look the same.

Steve and a helper are going to retile this bath and hopefully have it done before we arrive in May. It is always a problem to have large projects scheduled around the arrival of guests. We want to get this one done early as this bath is used by most of our guests. And we are hopefully having many a houseful this summer.



I'll keep updating as the projects progress- here's hoping they end up looking like these examples!!! Happy Spring!!!!

Fantastic Frames!

Frames are not something I give much thought to- its more about the photo- and I certainly have a ton of photos. The shelves and tables in the Maine house have photos arranged everywhere- mostly in plain silver or gold frames- purchased for not much money and most always on sale.

These two frames by Ralph Lauren featured on the website are gorgeous- I especially love the rope frame- so nautical.



This silver link frame would look fabulous as well- what a great addition to spice up the groupings of plain silver frames. Need to add a few of these to my collection.


To order either of these check out the website below:

http://www.ralphlauren.com/family/index.jsp?view=all&ab=viewall&origkw=frames&categoryId=1761019&sr=1

Blue is back!!!!

So excited when I saw this month's House Beautiful on the news stand- A whole issue on BLUE!!! Yea my favorite color and my "go to" for any accessory in the house in Maine and the DC condo!

When shopping my eye invariably heads to anything blue- I am always scanning the shelves at Homegoods for anything blue!!! And, it usually finds its way to my cart!


Thanks to House Beautiful for featuring the color all over its magazine this month- This house - a beach house in Nantucket is gorgeous, casual and of course BLUE!

Wall of blue up the staircase looks great- might be good in Maine- but I think wallpaper is the way to go for me.

Love these upholstered chairs- how casual - I am also obsessed with corded upholstery!! Love it!


Living room in the same Nantucket house- so comfortable and I love love love that mirror!


Okay, now for something a little more upscale and formal. Eventually when we combine both the Maine and DC houses I will be bringing up all my collection of Chinese blue and white porcelain. I think it will add a nice touch to the beachy look of the Maine house.




Maybe I should concentrate my blue and white porcelain in the more formal rooms like the dining room in Maine- probably a more suitable place for it.


As I said Blue is Back- Ralph Lauren is featuring blue all over their new home collection this spring. This is called La Plage- or "the beach". Love the combination of casual wicker with feminine white french - and how about that striped rug- love the mix .



Again Ralph Lauren cushions from his La Page collection - would look great in Maine- gotta get shopping!!!! So glad to see blue is back in a big way.

3 Weeks in Seattle!!!

Visiting my daughter and son-in-law for a very fun time with my grandson, Gabe! Meg and Jeff are jetting off to Thailand for a great 2 week vacation!! I will be babysitting my almost 3 year old grandson Gabriel Spencer Jones!!!! Having fun but not to much time to blog- back to posting at the end of the month!!!!!

Zugspitze!!!! Highest Point in Germany

This last week one of the high points (pun intended) of my Germany trip was a gondola ride to the highest point in Germany - the top of the Zugspitze!!! What a journey!! Gorgeous!!!


Checked out the map upon entering the gondola area.




Yikes, this is the thing I have to ride to reach the top??? - Warning - fear of heights not encouraged here!!!



Entrance to the gondola ride- many Asian tourists in Germany - hence the sign.


This is the view from the ground - it is a long way up!


Okay the ride begins- we arrived in the Garmisch area late in the day - so we took the last gondola ride up the mountain- it was about 3:30 pm and we had the gondola to ourselves on the way up!


George was fascinated with the car- he kept saying -"Oh that's how James Bond gets out of here"- Fearless!!


Passing these large structures was the worse part of the ride- you almost have a feeling of falling for a short time- and the crunching and grinding - OY!!!!! I was scared!!!


I am saying - why in the world did I say yes to this!!!!!! YIKES!!!!!!



The setting sun - over the Alps- just gorgeous- it was slightly shady on the German side of the mountain.


We are getting close to the platform - arriving at the top- almost 3000 feet above sea level!!!


Yes - George on the cell- this scene has been repeated all over the world!!!!



View toward Austria- much sunnier on this side! These pix are all out of the window from the cafe. Completely surrounded with windows the cafe is a great place to view the surrounding mountain ranges!!



This side of the mountain enables the many skiers to ski on a glacier!!! Unbelievable!!!



Terrific views ...



I really don't think we need any warning signs out there - don't worry I have no intention of going out there!!!!!!



The cafe is called 2962- the exact elevation of the mountain.


Gotta have a little treat after all that stress in the gondola!!!



Getting ready to head back down in the gondola with all the skiers- there was no one on the way up but we were packed in with about 25 people and their skis on the way down!!!





Back on the ground!!!


Heading back to the Lodge- what a day and what a view - even this parting shot is terrific !!!!!
More posts on the trip to follow - this however was truly the high point!!!!!!!

Guten Tag Munich

Hey all - I am off to Munich, Germany for my birthday week- accompanying George on a business trip and having fun along the way. Will have lots to post when I return- until then
"Auf wiedersehen".......