Covered Screened Porch

Garden view, daybed, lamps, table w/chairs, blue/white, cozy, stuffed with amenities.  Staycation is too small of an idea for this room.

Flowing from garden to kitchen with doors, & views from master bedroom and living room.

This couple is always doing something with their grown children & spouses with grands.

Tipping point for the TV is obviously the grands.

Daybed, slounging chairs + a table with chairs for projects/computer?  Perfect trinity.
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Garden & Be Well,  XO Tara
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Pics same house/garden as previous post.  It's obvious Susanne Hudson has put her skills here.   I have a strong weakness for grandparent/grandchild relationships.  Mine still fills me with incredible strengths.

Basement Door is now the Dowager's Porch

It's common to see a basement door with lawn.  And nothing else.

Mother-in-law Suite doesn't aptly describe this rendition.

Common furnishings, off the shelf shutters, a simple arbor, concrete pavers & voila !

Color theme was chosen and leveraged with punches of yellow.

Boxwoods, liriope, hollies prettier AND easier to maintain than ubiquitous lawn.  Notice, above, the garbage can?

Between driveway & Dowager's Porch is a tiny foyer, above.  Gravel, above, pure brilliance.
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Most basement doors are the throw-away-zone.  Worse, the criminal zone.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
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Pics taken last weekend at the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival.  This garden belongs to Jeri Farmer, co-founder of the PMHF with Susanne Hudson.  Susanne helps Jeri with her Garden Design.  

Color on the Ceiling

"Paint the ceiling the same color as the walls", she said.  

Susanne Hudson has come onto my team many times thru the years, I trust her.  Painting the ceiling was out of my comfort zone.  Of course there was no other reply than, "Ok". 

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Benjamin Moore-HC Rockport Gray.

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Morning winter sun, above, reads blue.  As summer comes and the trees leaf , the ceiling is white in the mornings and greenish in the afternoon.  

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Walls & ceiling are the same color, above.  

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The ceiling never looks the same color as the walls.  

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pic yesterday, had to verify a package delivery.  Exciting times, this is the 'before' pic.  Gave Susanne a heads-up last weekend about ordering a sofa for this room & slipcovering a pair of chairs.  You know I especially love how my garden colors the ceilings.

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Marc Chagall, "Color is all. When color is right, form is right. Color is everything, color is vibration like music; everything is vibration."

Theory vs. Reality

Today I'm off to a jobsite, outdoor kitchen & foyer, mostly complete, to place lighting.  Of course locations for the sconces & chandeliers are already chosen.  Do you think that matters?  No.  Real world placement trumps theory.

I need a sofa at the foot of my bed.  Dozens of pics later this is the only one I've liked.  In theory it's perfect.
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Susanne Hudson, the decorator on my team, is sourcing it now.  She'll get one with the right dimensions & fabric.  Perhaps she'll have a list of bullet points, or a single reason, why this sofa isn't right.  I'll trust her judgment, it's her specialty.
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It's something my clients have taught me!  Patience, and trust.
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Too much money is involved to make a mistake.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

Patio & Folding Tables

Patio tables should be square.  Buy a pair & use them apart or pulled together.

 Buying folding tables?

Round tables, 36" diameter are best.  Seat 5, don't need a huge centerpiece, and conversation flows easily without breaking into 2 groups. 
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Garden & Be Well,          XO Tara
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Pics taken at client jobsites last week.  Been doing the square patio table thing for decades.  The 36" folding table idea is pure magic from Susanne Hudson.

Deer In The Laundry With Arbor

We were so busy in the garden I never had time to ask about the deer in her laundry.

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Didn't realize the pic was getting the awning outside.  She has several, this one is over the gas grill.

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A style quite common ca. 1910.

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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara

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Pic taken last month.

Decorate With Multiple Collections

She drinks alot of Perrier perfect bottles for rooting cuttings, below.

 She inherited boxes of shells, it took about a year of spare time to sort them, below.

 Old, broken, water salts & moss make her terra cotta better.  Of course the arrangement is fabuloso, below. Have you noticed how people that arrange flowers seem to be able to arrange anything?

Clustered & themed, she uses collections to decorate. 
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This trinity of collections are close to each other in her Conservatory.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Pics taken last month in Susanne Hudson's Conservatory.

Garden View From Her Desk

Her desk, below, in the kitchen.

 With its

garden view.

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Inside & outside she's created her own world, it's not of this time.  It's timeless.

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Have you done this for yourself.  Created your world?

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken last month in Susanne Hudson's garden.

Hydrangea 'Queen of Pearls' on the Front Porch

Front porch garden. 

Hydrangea 'Queen of Pearls', still in its 3 gallon pot, slipped into a tall classic iron urn.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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A Dirr selection from McCorkle Nurseries.  Susanne Hudson's front porch.  Queen of Pearls was a no brainer with her green-brown-white trinity of colors.

Rules of Vignette

How little can you do & it: is pretty, comfortable, easy to maintain, flows from your interiors, affordable, describes who you are, makes you happy, has a color theme & ages into more fabulous. Does it create its own world?

Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Pic via Greige Design.  Can you imagine when the vine fills the wall?  This is my idea for the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival in Douglasville, GA, June 2-3, 2012.  Several small spaces of equal size & different designers.  Of course the fabulous garden of Susanne Hudson is on tour too.
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BTW, whenever I'm accused of living-in-my-own-little-world I smile & graciously say "Thank you."

Kitchen Lighting

Leaving at dusk last month I could see, from beyond the Ancient Orhcard, these lights, below, on.

 Retro fitted lighting ca. 1880.  The light bulbs mimic gas.

I'm a Landscape Designer & demand every view into your home be fabulous.
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Lighting, window treatments, furniture, art & etc.
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If I can see it from the garden it is within my domain.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Pic taken at a jobsite last month.  The primitive piece next to the marble island is called a biscuit board.  Never seen one till here.  Wish I had the type of camera to have shot from the garden, past the Ancient Orchard, across the Lawn & into her windows.  Susanne Hudson is helping with interiors.

Put The Shutter Inside

At the frontdoor, below.  

 Don't know why I bought the old shutter-dog, don't know why I kept the old shutters in my garage for almost 2 decades.

Susanne Hudson made the brilliant suggestion, put the shutter inside.
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Kept the original color on the shutter & haven't touched the original rust on the shutter-dog.
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It doesn't fit accurately and I adore the entire idea.  And opening/closing it each day.
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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara
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Yes, I'm this easily amused.  Better than street drugs yes?

Signature Style

Did you notice, below, the shelf above the sink?

 An old pie safe, hung on the wall.

Susanne Hudson has several signatures, this is one.
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Every time I see her pie-safe-on-a-wall-routine, it's FRESH !
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I love bringing Susanne into my projects.  Team Tara knows when to bring in specialists.
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Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara

Hydrangeas On Speed

At my back door, below, this week.

 Potted hydrangea & a potted variegated boxwood.  Last year this hydrangea was a cutting in a 4" pot.

 Susanne Hudson has phenomenal growth planting 4" potted hydrangeas in large terra cotta pots.  Phenomenal.  Of course I copied her.  It worked.

Aaron Copland anticipated my arrival, writing Appalachian Spring for my garden & for me.  I hear it in my garden & looking at the pics.
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Garden & Be Well,      XO Tara
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Pics from my garden during days of great drought, heat, humidity & zero maintenance or watering.  This is why I've taken you around my garden the past few days. You must know how easy it is to have a garden.    

Lamps Beside The Daybed

Garden & Be Well,   XO Tara
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Susanne Hudson redecorated her Conservatory this year.  Sconces are laid on the table in my Conservatory, primer/paint/brush nearby, new packages of screws/hooks, brown/white ironstone transferware.  Soon, a bit of my own redecorating in the Conservatory.

How To Stabilize A Column In A Pot

We didn't know how we were going to stabilize the column in the pot, we knew it was-going-to-happen.With few raw materials, bricks-gravel-dirt, we chose bricks for wedging. Gravel for gaps, then
dirt to plant 6 boxwood.

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Columns don't budge.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pic from PMHF garden Susanne Hudson & I created.

Decorating Alone

Decorating my Conservatory late Tuesday, alone, I got frustrated. Typically with a client moving things or, most often, with my guys.Multiple trips to attic, garage, mudroom and back to Conservatory I had a sweat going. Along with a mess & the transpiration of TIME; 3 hours passed.
What I completed looked like 12 minutes of work. And there's more to complete.

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I did what any grown-up pouting girl would do, I called Susanne Hudson with my tale of woe.

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She laughed and said, "Tara, it took me over 50 hours to get the sea shells organized and my conservatory redecorated." She, too, worked her Conservatory alone.

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Susanne's redecorated Conservatory & sea shells, above pics.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Took the pics last weekend.

Sea Shells In The Conservatory

Seeing Susanne Hudson's sea shells, below, in her Conservatory,I was inspired to gather mine from attic & garage. Before Georgia I lived at Cape Canaveral &
Galveston Bay.

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Why wasn't I honoring my past?

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pic taken last weekend. What parts of your past need to be honored in your garden?

Daybed In The Conservatory

Pink & brown & hydrangeas & a Conservatory in the garden. With a daybed.With large terra cotta pots as legs.
Our jute draperies
pool, below, outside.

Susanne Hudson & I were on the front page of the paper. Did I know the photographer was coming? Sweat, hat hair, gardening clothes, dirty. We were the happiest women in the galaxy.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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I took the pics yesterday in the garden Susanne Hudson & I created for the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival.

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Thank you Douglas County Sentinel for promoting the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival. Newspaper pic by Winston Jones.

Pots, Easy Landscape Edging

Pots, original, as landscape edging? Hardly. A centuries old idea. At my garden, with Susanne Hudson, for the Penny McHenry Hydrangea Festival, below. (PMHF is this weekend, June 4-5.)"It's what we do with what we have.", my mentor Mary Kistner said. I first saw pots as edging decades ago in Ryan Gainey's Decatur, GA garden.
Susanne & I have broken pots & fallen limbs.

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Perfect landscape edging. Easy & free.

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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara

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Pics taken a few days ago.