An Eye For Detail

MY SHOP UPDATES

If you’re new here or haven’t followed me for very long you may not know my
Etsy Shop
ONENUMBEREIGHT

If you look to your right you will see a small preview of some of the items!
But let’s talk about what is NEW

This is brand new for 2020! A wall calendar, 6″ x 6″, with each month showing one of my Flower Portrait images. All are on a soft but dramatic textured grey background.

It’s printed on a nice heavy/but not too heavy gloss paper.
It measures 6″x 6″ or 6″ x 12″ when fully open.
There is a hole at top for you to hang the calendar.

My most loved item:
“Jewel Case Calendar”

This has been my #1 selling item for three years now! It is available as the full calendar in the plastic jewel case but also as a refill. If you already have the case, just order the refill!

And these
NEW NOTEBOOKS

Each notebook has 50 pages with a […]

By Libby|2019-09-15T19:40:43-04:00September 15, 2019|Shopping|

SHOPPING FOR THE PERFECT ‘BRETON’ SHIRT

Let’s start with the definition of ‘Breton Shirt’ :
The Breton shirt was first made for the Royal Navy in 1858. It was thought that by wearing this uniform sailors who went overboard would be much easier to spot. Each shirt had exactly 28 stripes: one for each of Napolean’s victories!

Then, in 1917 Coco Chanel incorporated the look into her nautical collection and, as they say, the rest is history. They were an immediate success and have not really changed much over the years. New fabrics and new, expanded colors have all become popular. Some are long sleeve, but the short and three-quarter are just as popular. Boat necks, round necks and v-neck are all available.

There are many, many versions out there. I have done a round-up of some of this season’s most popular and easily accessible here for you:

#1 #2 #3 #4

#5 #6 #7 #8

This one ships from France but arrives within 7 days! A true Breton look..

By Libby|2019-09-08T11:48:00-04:00September 8, 2019|Shopping|

FRIDAY FLOWERS: GROWING DAHLIAS

One of the best garden blogs around is
The Middle-Sized Garden

Yes, it is based in the U.K. so of course discusses gardens over there. But the information is, I have found, so very universal. Plus, I come away with so many new places I want to visit!

Go to the home page and look around. See what you think.

Last week Alexandra did a video chat all about growing dahlias. Listen to how the Brits pronounce this flower: dahlias with the ‘a’ being a long one. Do you like it?
I found this video talk so informative even though I have grown dahlias for years. But watch it until the end: I love the way they discuss companion plants for dahlias. I’ve now started thinking of next spring and making certain I plant some sun loving dahlias right with my cannas. Somehow I never saw those two together before!!

This is the only dahlia I’ve grown this year…sadly. These came to me from many family generations and I do treasure them! I dig up some of the tubers each fall but also leave some in the ground for the winter. In this climate it doesn’t really seem to make a difference (sigh of relief!)

By Libby|2019-09-04T17:04:36-04:00September 4, 2019|Friday Flowers, Garden|

FRIDAY FLOWERS: TRIP TO BIG BLOOMERS!

Unless you are local to this area of North Carolina you probably do not know the name

Big Bloomers

It’s an enormous flower farm, retail garden center, and home of so many plants of all sizes and kinds that it can be totally overwhelming.

But if you ARE local, then you need to get over and down there. Annuals, of which there are thousands (?) are more than half price off. They even have healthy petunias in nice size pots for $2.00. My flowering cannas, Chocolate Sunrise, were $6.95 each.

I didn’t take any pictures while we were there…it was just TOO HOT to do much of anything. I was on a mission to buy plants and DID accomplish that!

All this for $40.00. Pretty pink portulaca for my hot western rock garden. They had been, and are everywhere else, $3.95. Marked down to $1.00. You just can’t beat the prices, and these are all very healthy plants.

I asked how long the sale lasts: until they sell out and then the pansies start.
Yes, pansies!

By Libby|2019-08-15T17:36:17-04:00August 15, 2019|Friday Flowers, Shopping|

HOUSE RENOVATION: THE STAIRS

Our house was built in 1992. One woman lived here until we bought it in 2010. We think she never, ever went upstairs (master bedroom is on ground floor) and thus the carpeting on the staircase and upstairs was barely used.

So yes, this was a good thing for us. I guess.

But was it our taste? Certainly not. The builder had installed same carpet in every house here and some houses even had it in the bathroom. Horrors. At least our bathrooms had vinyl tile!

Here is the original bland carpet extending almost wall to wall on stairs and landing. It also covered the entire upstairs hall and guest room.

We lived with said carpet for 8 years. We had carpet companies, carpenters, and builders all in about five years ago to see our options.

We thought long and hard about how to move forward. Cost was a consideration in that I would have liked to sand and stain the treads. But the wood under the carpet was rough pine and would never have looked smooth or taken a stain well. So, short of removing the bannister and replacing all the treads and the entire floor on the […]

By Libby|2019-08-11T21:45:19-04:00August 11, 2019|8 McDowell, Shopping|

A Shout-Out to Garnet Hill

Do you know the retailer,

Garnet Hill?
They do actually have an outlet store in Franconia, New Hampshire, but most of their business is on-line.

I have been a very faithful customer for years and years; I think I started ordering from them in the late 80’s!

I will start this short post by saying HOW much I adore this “store.”

Their sheets are, with maybe one exception, the ONLY brand I buy. Ever. And I don’t buy the Eileen Fisher or Wamsutta or anything else they actually do sell but rather I only buy their own brand. The percale sheets are superb. They fit beautifully, they wash superbly, they last for at least fifteen years (remember, I don’t own a clothes dryer!), and they iron easily.

Yes, you will see a set of their sheets hanging in my laundry room about every ten days.

Recently I have had a yen for linen sheets. I looked and looked and researched and realized I wanted the softest possible fabric, as per many reviews. So, of course, I went to Garnet Hill.

This is what I bought:

These are the Solid Relaxed-Linen Bedding in Tourmaline […]