Everywhere: A Desk

 A desk in the bedroom.

Exactly what's missing in mine.

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Garden & Be Well,        XO Tara

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Pic last weekend, same home/garden as previous post.

American Farm House, Now

Farmhouse style with her own flair.

Between formal dining room & kitchen, below.

Few built-ins, below, in the kitchen.

And a surprise in the living room, below.

Braid rug.  Bold.  Been so long since I've seen one it was 'new' again.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics taken last weekend, same home/garden as previous post.

Front Porch Questions

Every element sings together on this front porch.

Field gathered furniture swathed in the came color.

Porch questions.  Is the porch so wonderful I must go inside and see the home?  Is the porch so wonderful I must see the garden?
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Pics taken last weekend, same garden as previous post.

Front Porch

Subtle, original.

 A desk on the front porch.

I must know you from the exterior of your home, before ever knocking on the door.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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Pics from same home/garden as yesterday's post.

Chairs after Lunch

 After the party, or lunch, chairs are pure narrative.

Warmth, connection.

Conversation.
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Grace.
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Garden & Be Well,     XO Tara
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Pics taken last month after lunch in the Conservatory.  Torte de Shelle top pic.

Lisa Porter Collection: Vanishing Threshold

Texture, scale, flow, color, invitation, narrative, poverty cycle, light, fragrance, repetition, simplicity, intellect, ceiling, walls, floors & more.

It's all part of vanishing threshold.
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Garden & Be Well,          XO Tara
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Pic via Lisa Porter Collection.  Take the link, lots of pics, about this home by the beach.  Original article from Traditional Home July 2001.  Photos by Jon Jensen for Traditional Home

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Puppet Barbuda adores this fireplace.  Not at all reminiscent of the stone fireplaces in every flower show across USA redolent of the monolith floating amongst the galaxies at the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

On the Porch

Unused on an upstairs porch at the master bedroom, below, she brought the sofa downstairs near the kitchen and potager.  Much better, it's been used for a few naps.

My trugs are plastic, functional.  Hers look so good.

My favorite garden boots.  Ankle support, no dirt gets in, the boot works the shovel, not my foot.  Plastic clogs are great for most days but when it's digging & function it's my almost 30 year old Danners.
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Pics taken this month.  Same garden as several previous posts.  Graham Stuart Thomas is excellent on the garden boot.

Design Interiors From Outside

Front porch, below.

 Lamp seen from the front porch, above, and from inside, below.

Further to the left of the lamp, below.

You do know this already?  Interiors must be gorgeous from every garden view.
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Your home is the focal point of the garden.
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Walking with new clients, around their garden, seeing an ugly interior view I will turn my head, look into their eyes and my right eyebrow goes up.  Enough said.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Pics taken at jobsite last week.  Same home as previous several posts.

A Central Hallway

 Over a century old, the home has a long & wide central hallway copying the dogtrots of old.  Back-in-the-day it was 'air-conditioning'.

Now, it's a place for extra chairs.  Easy to grab for gatherings in other parts of her home.

Cannot imagine the first matriarch of this acreage outside Athens, Ga.  Summertime with no cooling, cooking dinner, and breakfast, daily.  No cell phone, internet.  Only her man, children & workers for interaction.  Laundry, with clothesline, a great effort + time.  Harvesting the kitchen garden, canning.

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Epiphany.  No wonder rural Southerners were tightly bound to their church.

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Women taking the edge off.  Meet & greet comrades in life, unload frustrations, share joys.  Get the gossip, trade successes/failures on life topics.  Hopefully get a good sermon.  Enough to manage another week.

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All this from a dogtrot.    

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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara

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Pics taken last week at jobsite.  Same foyer as previous 2 posts.

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Women In History was an elective I took for my engineering degree.  It ignored physical discomfort & religion.    

Foyer & Front Porch

Foyer, below, with garden light.

Window, above, from the front porch, below.

It's my job, vanishing threshold, getting it right.
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This project  uses my entire team: interior decorator, general contractor, foreman, crew team & equipment, carpenter + team, mason+team, pruner+team & of course the homeowner.  We are 3 centuries of experience.
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With no weak links.  Communication flows.  Every ego wanting to know what is not right or not working, how else to get it right?
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And we all love getting dirty.  Homeowner too.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic taken at jobsite yesterday.

Potent Across Genres

Ranking with simplicity, and copying is 

repetition.
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Hodge Podge Lodge is easy, repetition engages the intellect.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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30 years of clients and they all say, "It must be affordable & easy to maintain."  Repetition is a potent tool in your arsenal of skills.
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Pic Paris Through My Lens.

The Camera Test

It's not often we get to see inside, below,

and go outside the same room, below, a century earlier.

Did you know this is how to test your garden?  Take pics in black/white, is the year obvious?  It shouldn't be.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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pics Ottoline Divine.

The Creative's Office

 Don't you adore looking at the office's of creative women?  Seeing, somehow, a helpful narrative.

I travel miles & eras from the view in my office, creating new ideas from all-that-I-am.  Knowing, there are many layers of  'no'  getting to the layer of fabulous.
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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara
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Pic Daisy Garnett's office.
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If you want a garden that is a moat of grace around your home & life, contact me.
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Details about online design services.
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Learn action steps to creating your best garden & home when you hire me to speak to your group.
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Details about lecture titles here.
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I've written several garden books available on Amazon.

Bedroom View

Garden design begins inside your home on axis with main views, below.

I assume there is a better view on the opposite wall?  Otherwise, even if this is a B&B I would turn the bed.  It truly looks like advertising photography.
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Have been on the hunt for a diminutive round bedside table.  Must be 2 tier, lovely wood, vintage, French.  Those books, above, make me smile.  There is never a time a stack of books isn't by my bed.
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A girlfriend I never see enough has an incredible French style bed.  And home too.  When we do see each other it is me spending the nite with her and gossiping till sleep takes us.  Next time I'll get pics for you.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Pic My French Country Home.
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If you want a garden that is a moat of grace around your home & life, contact me.
.
Details about online design services.
.
Learn action steps to creating your best garden & home when you hire me to speak to your group.
.
Details about lecture titles here.
.
I've written several garden books available on Amazon.

Vanishing Threshold

This, below, is a disaster.

At a minimum prune the crape myrtle trunks into elegance, add sasanqua espaliers & sconces along fence.

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This room stops at the windows.  Why settle for so little?

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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara

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pic via Cote de Texas. 

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By the Glamorous Age you must be able to have a couple of friends over for a delicious lunch you prepared in a lovely setting of garden & home.

The Banquet

We completed her extensive garden & house renovation in 2011, she called us back for another layer recently.

Chatting inside, getting a little tour of our earlier work, I said, "You must have a banquet here."  Laughing, she said it was exactly what an earlier interior decorator told her.
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What are the chances of that?
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Garden & Be Well,            XO Tara
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Pic House of Turquoise.
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If you want a garden that is a moat of grace around your home & life, contact me.
.
Details about online design services.
.
Learn action steps to creating your best garden & home when you hire me to speak to your group.
.
Details about lecture titles here.
.
I've written several garden books available on Amazon.

Vanishing Threshold

Vanishing threshold's 2 questions: 1) Is the garden so fabulous I MUST see inside the home.

2) Is the interior so fabulous I Must see the garden?
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Casement windows, library thick with sconces, terra cotta pots looking 'as if' they were just carried in from the conservatory, I'm wanting to be in the garden looking in at dusk with all the lites on......this room & garden have me.
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Want to read every book, see all the ironstone, types of silver.   What types of pots does she cook with?
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More than narrative, this bit of vanishing threshold is mentoring.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Thank you Cote de Texas for another great pic on your blog.  Look at those library sconces again, notice the multiple layers?  No need to ask, I KNOW they are on a dimmer switch.
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Do you want to be in your garden at dusk looking into your home?  I do.  And adore what I see.
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pic via Bumble at Home.  In a small garden, for above, I would use #89 granite gravel instead of lawn less maintenance.
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If you want a garden that is a moat of grace around your home & life, contact me.
.
Details about online design services.
.
Learn action steps to creating your best garden & home when you hire me to speak to your group.
.
Details about lecture titles here.
.
I've written several garden books available on Amazon.

Tree Arbor

Have never understood the concept, "I can't afford a nice garden."

Can't afford an arbor?  You can afford a few trees.  Contact your Extension Service and discover myriad trees available for pennies on the dollar.
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Site the trees along the western exposure of your home and save money each warm month on a/c.
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Trees raise property value.
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Choose native trees as butterfly hosts in addition to bird habitat.
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Mary Sarton is wrong, gardens aren't silent.  Who can live without the sound of wind thru leaves?
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Trees teach me every fall, trust Providence, let go & be enriched.
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Garden & Be Well,       XO Tara
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pic via Bumble at Home.  In a small garden, for above, I would use #89 granite gravel instead of lawn less maintenance.
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If you want a garden that is a moat of grace around your home & life, contact me.
.
Details about online design services.
.
Learn action steps to creating your best garden & home when you hire me to speak to your group.
.
Details about lecture titles here.
.
I've written several garden books available on Amazon.

Boot Seat

I need this & know of dozens more who need it too.

The cliche, name it to claim it.
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A new thing for my eyes to scour for while junking/thrifting.
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I'm already anticipating colors to paint it.
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And how to redo the back door to place it.
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An old wood feed trough houses my garden boots now.  Charming but too small.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pic saved to show a client, alas did not save provenance.

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If you want a garden that is a moat of grace around your home & life, contact me.
.
Details about online design services.
.
Learn action steps to creating your best garden & home when you hire me to speak to your group.
.
Details about lecture titles here.
.
I've written several garden books available on Amazon.

Trinity of Color Themes

Backdrop rustic hedge, with contrasting foliage, balances formality of furnishings & Chinoiserie.

Trinity of color themes: plantings, accessories, furnishings.
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Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara
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pic via Slim Paley.  It works for interiors/exteriors and will work for you.  After repetition & contrasts, 'copy' is the most potent Garden Design tool.
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If you want a garden that is a moat of grace around your home & life, contact me.
.
Details about online design services.
.
Learn action steps to creating your best garden & home when you hire me to speak to your group.
.
Details about lecture titles here.
.
I've written several garden books available on Amazon.