Tips Build dog house designs

Tips Build dog house designs . All About Puppy Houses Sparky1 - our quite individual Do it yourself entry! An insulated medium-sized dog house having a removable roof for ease of cleaning, a cedar deck with roof, an optional inner wall, and sound building throughout. A lot of pictures and thorough development instructions.

Asheville Humane Society Dog Residence - An easy but practical dog property which has a gently sloped roof, an offset doorway, interior wind break, as well as a 2x4 raised floor. Among the nice functions with this particular strategy is that all the measurements are provided in terms of your dog's dimension which means you can quickly custom build the home to suit your dog. Instance: dimension X is dog's length plus 12". [ PDF format].Tips Build dog house designs

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Philippa’s Worldly Vignettes

My dear friend, Flip, whose house I have shown several times, has her house on Apartment Therapy and she’s receiving the most marvelous comments from the audience, which  can be rather caustic at times.You can see some pictures of Flip’s house:

Salvage Chic Part I
Salvage Chic Part II
Flip Says Thanks
Flip’s Bathroom
More Details
I hope that you will take a few minutes and look at Flip’s house and the accompanying slide show. You will notice in her details that she’s gotten several pieces from our talented friends, including David at McLain-Wiesand and Tracey at Housewerks. Flip is super-talented, a marvelous person and someone I am so pleased to call a friend!
Congratulations, Flip! I am so proud of you.

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New Gore-Dean

I loved the space where my friends at Gore-Dean were located. It was in a refurbished mill complex and was architecturally very cool. But it had some issues, like lack of visibility and the location next to the stream which powered the old mill, and that sometimes floods.
They’ve just moved into a brilliant new space, about a mile and a half down the road from their previous location and it is FABULOUS!  It has beautiful clean lines and it just so beautifully lit with loads of sunlight streaming in on one side and a view over the courtyard of the complex on the other. While the original site had gorgeous features from the old mill building, it was difficult to see the amazing things on offer, as you can see below. The new shop is set up in little vignettes and items are on wood shelved backing up on a white ground. It makes is so much easier to see everything and gives it a much cleaner, museum-like look. Deborah Gore Dean and her wonderful husband Spider, have such a marvelous eye for both the items in their shop and the display of them. I am thrilled with Gore Dean’s new location and hope that if you’re in Baltimore, you will take time to visit them in Cross Keys.  Check out their Christmas catalogue here.

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Treasure Hunting

Sometimes, I just get the feeling I’ve got to go somewhere and check out what they have, and more often than not, I find a treasure.  There’s a charity shop right around the corner from my office, so I swung by there at lunch today just to check it out.

When I went in the shop, one of the gals pointed at an old laundry cart and just left it at that… When I walked over to it, I was gob-smacked to see that it was full of old silverplated pieces of serving-ware. But all of the way at the bottom of this cart, I found something I’d never seen before. There were about a dozen silverplated cups. Not like a Jefferson cup or a julep cup, but almost like a tea cup. They were absolutely filthy. Dirtier than almost any other piece of silver I’ve ever seen. But when I turned them over, the underneath was fine, so I thought I could clean them. I still have some work to do on the one on the right, and then seven more to clean, but isn’t it amazing what a little (a lot) of elbow grease will do for a piece?

The other little treasure I found was a sweet book called “The John F. Kennedys” by photographer Mark Shaw. He was a photographer for Life Magazine who became a friend of the Kennedys in the late 1950s and early 60s. There are photos I’ve never seen before which present a side of the family just before JFK became president and then immediately after.  Here are a few examples.

I love how contemporary the top image of JBKO looks. It could have been taken this summer.

If you want to come treasure hunting with me, I am thinking of doing a Friday-only pre-holiday shopping trip to a couple of my favourite places in Baltimore. Probably the first Friday in December. Let me know if you’re interested.

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Pushing The Season

Now, I know it’s about 41 days until Christmas, but I have no idea how many days there are until Valentine’s Day, because it’s not even on my radar yet. Hell, I’ve got to get through the next three months before Valentine’s Day will even be a glimmer on my screen.

But the good PR folks at Dempsey & Carroll, one of my favourite stationers, are already out there pushing for us to order our Valentine’s Day cards. I am probably not even going to figure out what I am sending for Christmas cards until, oh, about December 24th! D&C… please let us get past these upcoming holidays before you barrage us to buy for the next one.  If good PR was your mission in sending this e-mail reminder, you failed.

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Paper-Doll-House

A few months ago, in a fit of insanity, I agreed to decorate a doll house to be auctioned to raise funds for the renovation of the Minton-tiled kitchen at Evergreen House. A few months ago, the deadline of Thanksgiving sounded so far away. Now, however, it is right upon us. My über-talented friend, David Wiesand, proprietor of McLain-Wiesand, is also creating a dollhouse, but since he’s got a whole workshop full of amazing artisans at his beck and call, I knew he’d be the hands-down winner. So I had to think of a strategy that was both frugal and creative – just like me! (HA!)As I was drifting off to sleep a few weeks ago in a Nyquil-induced delirium, I had a semi-brilliant thought. Why not make a paper-doll house? Everything in the house will be done in paper. It’s taken me some time to really work out how to do this, but I think I finally have it!Thank god for Google and my printer! I have finished the outside and am now working on the inside decor. At least I won’t be totally mortified when I show up with my paper-doll-house. David will still win, though.

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More Jewelry

One of the most important jewelry auctions was held 23 years ago when the Duchess of Windsor’s jewelry collection was auctioned by Sotheby’s. Now, more then 20 of those pieces are being re-sold at an auction later this month, again by Sotheby’s.
Most of the jewelry has been made by Cartier and all of the pieces were highly personal to the Duchess, including a bracelet of crosses, indicating the crosses she had to bear to be with the Duke. Some people would surely disagree with her way of thinking.  To read the e-catalogue, please click here. 

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On-Line Auction for Visual*Vamp

You may have heard that blogger Valorie, aka Visual Vamp’s husband, Alberto was struck with a heart-attack in the Calgary airport as they were arriving from their home in New Orleans to teach some classes. Alberto is slowly recovering, but the medical expense of flying him from Calgary to New Orleans is going to be massive.

A number of blog friends of Valorie’s, lead by Decor to Adore, have launched an on-line auction to help raise money for the med-evac flight.

I am offering a set of two French Ivory-handled knives and forks, similar to the ones in the picture below. These are collected by such notables as Martha Stewart, Eddie Ross and my new pal, Nate Berkus.  The handles of these knives and forks are French Ivory, which is a synthetic ivory, developed in the late 1800’s. The handles are incised with decorative elements. They probably date from the 1930’s.

It’s simple to participate: Just leave a comment with your bid and the highest bid at 10:00 on Monday morning will be the winner. Bidding starts at $10, and will end at 10:00 a.m. EST, on Monday, November 8th, and the payment should be sent here. Your contribution will help Alberto be flown home on the medical flight from Calgary to New Orleans, a huge expense.

Thank you so much for participating in this special auction!

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I’ll Take This: House in a Ballroom!

This was once the ballroom of a mansion Somerset, England, and its dissection into a four-bed home has left the drama of its dimensions undiminished.

The open-plan living floor is topped by an elaborately moulded glass ceiling worthy of a Victorian railway terminus;

lavishly proportioned windows light the orangery, study and library; and half an acre of formally landscaped gardens extend into woodland.
It’s a fascinating piece of property and is a good example of a well-done conversion of a historic building.  Yours for £515,000. HERE.

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Une Essence Plus Française

Do you read the wonderful blog, French Essence? It’s written by Vicki Archer, an Australian ex-pat, now living in France. She’s got an amazing eye and a way with words.Vicki’s book, French Essence, Ambience, Beauty and Style in Provence, has just been published in the US by Penguin Books. You can either try and win a copy on Vicki’s blog, French Essence, or buy a copy here.
Her first book, My French Life, chronicles Vicki’s adventures in restoring a seventeenth-century property in Saint-Remy-de-Provence. Earlier this summer, Vicki kindly send me a photograph of a pig that she’d spotted in a brocante market in Provence. She’s that kind of person – warm, generous and brilliant!
If you’re not already reading it, bookmark French Essence as a fabulous place to visit… and linger.

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A Breakthrough!

The University of Maryland’s Clark School of Engineering and the Walter’s Art Museum have received a three-year grant to develop a technique to slow the tarnishing of silver objects to a nearly undetectable rate.The $500,000 project, which would involve refining a process called "atomic layer deposition," is being designed primarily to benefit museums such as the Walters, which have extensive collections of ancient silver statues, jewelry and drinking vessels. You can read the story here.

As a child, one of the chores I liked best was polishing the silver before a big dinner party that my parents were hosting, or before a holiday meal. It was instant gratification! I still love polishing my silver, as evidenced in the video that the Nate Berkus Show shot at my house.

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Rock the Vote!

If you’re in the US, don’t forget that Tuesday is Election Day. It doesn’t matter who you vote for, or which party you belong to, you should just get out and vote. If you don’t vote, then you don’t have any right to complain about the way things are.

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Halloween Party

My friend Tracey and I put on a Halloween Party to benefit the Baltimore Architecture Foundation, where she’s the Director and I am on the Board.  The party was held at Tracey’s other business, Housewerks. The building is a perfect place for a Halloween party – or any other party, for that matter. It’s a Victorian gasworks building and is filled with the most amazing items and artifacts.  (This is an early picture, right after they bought the building.)

We didn’t have to do much to the interior of the building, except for adding some lights,  some spooky skeletons, and lots of candles. For the food, we had loads of candy and snacks, including this huge cauldron of cheeze balls. The costumes were hilarious, ranging from the Chilean Miners, to a creepy clown that someone had put on his back. He’s actually facing the “miners” talking, but the clown face was looking out at the group. Here are a couple of other views of the space before the party started.

Joseph and the Baby Jesus with his miner’s goggles on. Some spiders hanging from the back door. The fireplace room, reflecting the main room. The 1940’s perm machine, all lit up and ready to go. One of the sinks, filled with glass chunks and fairy lights. All in all, it was a fun party and raised some funds for the Baltimore Architecture Foundation! 

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