Bathroom Remodel Complete and a New Blog

So the bathroom is complete! It looks spectacular and you will have to stop over to my new blog and website to see it here: https://brandeyehome.wordpress.com/2017/01/15/bathroom-remodel-complete/

How to Make Terrariums

Have you ever wanted to make a terrarium?  I have, and finally made a few this week! It is much easier than you think.



Click on for the instructions to learn how to DIY.

Well that was fun

A huge thank you to everyone who came out for my first POP UP shop on Sunday! I had a blast hanging out with you while you shopped in my house! The process of setting up for it was fun too.

Basically I redecorated my house with vintage housewares, plants, flowers and pillows from my shop. Also sprinkled in the mix was art by my very talented artist friends.

This area is usually our bar, but became a milk glass collection.

The pillow on the left is a quilted pillow. I designed the colorful subway tile fabric with the website Spoonflower. I used a photo that I took of the Market East (Jefferson) train station in Philadelphia. The station has a two huge walls of tiles that from far away are a trees, but from most vantage points they just look like random angled subway tiles. I took a photo and did a mirror repeat to make a cool design.

My friend Jason Koons, who creates papercut art, had several pieces hung throughout the house. This intricate tree was created by cutting paper with an exacto knife. 

And here is one of his large papercut stars. 

My photography skills do not do them justice, they are the coolest. The one above and two below are all sold. I really wanted the top one in the photo below, but my friend Ben snagged it before I bought it. Jason does custom work, so we are going to commission something cool. 

And here is the gorgeous pottery by Marilyn McCauley. That pot in the middle is now all mine :-) 

The brand*eye home vintage planters and plants were a hit.

The happy shopper Pia taking a break after a karaoke session.

Oh yeah, there was also karaoke, hot dogs and chili compliments of my husband Dave. We can't invite people over to our home without feeding them, and as soon as anyone mentions karaoke it's on. 

Thanks for hanging! 

seedlings

I started some morning glory and moon flower seeds a few weeks ago. It  helps if you first soak them overnight to jump start the growing. 

I then planted them in some potting mix.

 This was about a week later, the morning glory seeds took off quickly.

And here they are a couple of weeks later. I also bought some brussel sprout plants, which I am planning to plant in a new raised planter that Dave made me. I just have to get some dirt to fill it. I also plan to attempt to grow tomatoes, swiss chard and lots of herbs.

The next step is to harden them off by taking them outside to get acclimated. You take them outside for a few hours a day, and then build up over about a week to them being outside completely.

What are you planting this spring? 

valentine's flowers

Perhaps someone gave you a beautiful bouquet of flowers and you're not quite sure what to do with them. Or maybe you have learned the importance of having fresh flowers around to admire and brighten your day, so you bought them for yourself. 

These flowers were bought from the grocery store. Starting at the left we have carnations (which I think are highly underrated), tulips and some greenery. Since it was the day before Valentine's day, the flowers were at least 50% more than they usually are. 

Start by picking out some vases or any type of container that would work as a vase. I started with the following: a milk glass pedestal vase, a marble wine cooler, a milk glass cup and a milk glass vase. Unless you have a very large vase, the amount of flowers in a large bouquet (or 3 small ones as shown above) usually look best as smaller arrangements.

Start by placing the foundation of the arrangement. This is best accomplished by using the sturdiest plants first, i.e. some type of filler. Think outside of the box if needed and (if it's not the middle of winter) raid your garden. In the past I've used hosta leaves, evergreen branches, ferns, and a number of unknown plants from my yard.

Eyeball the level of the plant and where it will best align in the base, as shown above. Make sure to tear off any greenery or leaves that fall below the water line. If they are in the water it will make the water turn gross faster.

After the base is set, follow the same procedure to place the flowers. Eyeball which part of the stem to cut by placing the stem in front or beside the vase and seeing where it would work best in the arrangement.

You can mix and match different kinds of flowers into one arrangement, or stick with one flower type per vase.

I decided to keep it simple and made two tulip arrangements and two carnation arrangements.

Just as I was finishing shooting the above flowers, my lovely husband came home with the beautiful bouquet below. He wasn't as cheap as I and bought them from a proper flower shop.

Since this was a large, awesome collection of different types of flowers, I thought it would work best as one large arrangement. But there was enough to make one large and one tall.

For wide vases, use scotch tape to divide the area into sections, as shown below. You can divide the tape lengthwise to get two pieces per piece.

Start with the largest, sturdiest flowers as the  base. Then add the flowers to fill the spaces. Vary the heights somewhat, so give it depth.

And here are the finished arrangements. The vase on the right is one of my faves from my vintage collection.

Happy Valentine's Day!

your fall table-milk glass

Previously I posted some inspiration for decorating your Thanksgiving table - aka tablescape - using brass and leaves. Today I am providing you with some inspiration using milk glass.

I have paired some milk glass pieces from my collection, and from the brand*eye home shop to create a unique scene. This is definitely not the typical orange and eath tone thanksgiving table. It is inspired by the purple vintage glasses, which happened to pair perfectly with the cut coleus from my garden. I used the vintage milk glass vases and filled them with coleus. This arrangement would work with any cut flower or mixture of flowers. You can find a post on cutting your coleus here-extending the lives of coleus.



Ingredients:

• milk glass! here is a vintage footed hobnail lidded compote (that is a mouthful), and here is a set of vintage milk glass vases from the brand*eye home shop.
• vintage milk glass vase from the brand*eye shop here
• vintage purple glasses- just use that search term on etsy or ebay and you will find a bunch of awesomeness
• plates from crate and barrel: this is a similar set
• vintage silver ware
• vintage linen napkins

The milk glass candle holders are from my collection, but if you're interested, just contact me at brandeyehome ( at ) gmail (dot) com.

I didn't use any base for this arrangement, but this would look even better with the scattering of leaves down the center like the brass example.

house plants

over the years I have figured out the kinds of things that can take a nice space and make it an awesome space. #1 on that list is house plants. this plant I picked up, along with 2 more who need to find a home in my house, at a yard sale for $2. two dollars! and the lady who was selling them was super sweet and I told her that I would try my best to keep them alive. so I am trying.

this is the before and after of our bathroom. pre and post plant. it fills up that weird angle perfectly.

if  I had planned this photo shoot better a) it would have been day time and the lighting would have been better and b) those vases would be filled with flowers.

vintage planters in the brand*eye home shop

Saturday I was a very lucky girl and scored a lot of great things to stock the brand*eye home shop. I found lots and lots of excellent planters. The yellow one above is my favorite. These work really great to store things around your home. I use them for bracelets, keys and misc items.

Extending the Lives of Coleus

I always look forward to the beginning of Autumn and the crisp chill in the air. But the part of fall that I enjoy least is that most of the outdoor plants die for the season. What if I could tell you that this doesn't have to happen. (Writing that sounds like I am in an infomercial.) But it's true. There are a few plants that you can take clippings from and overwinter inside your home. This means that you will have to buy less next spring and having them inside your home will cheer you up all winter. WIN WIN!

 

Mirror Art Wall

I am a fan of using random art work and items to fill a wall space. If you went to the Barnes they would call it an "ensemble." We are trying to finish the dining room on the smallest budget possible so we used what we had lying around. Admittedly I have more just "lying around" than most, but it's due to lots of hard work and picking through flea markets, yard sales and thrift stores.  ;-)

planting climbers

This year I am forgetting about trying to grow vegetables and sticking to easy plants. We never get enough sun for vegetable plants and I am terrible at the upkeep. I picked up some climbers so I am envisioning this being an amazing paradise this summer. It already sort of is.

 

Lots and lots of coleus. It is my favorite plant.



 

 

I started some moonflower and morning glory from seed and am hoping that they last and thrive. We shall see.

 

 The plant to the right is a very cool looking climber called Cardinal Climber. I first saw this last summer in my neighbor hood. A house had this planted along with Hyacinth Bean and it looked stunning. I picked up some of that too.

 I love this planter. I picked it up at a craft show in NYC last year (Renegade perhaps?), but can't remember the seller. Anyone know?

What did you plant this spring?