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My Trip to Colonial Williamsburg With Benjamin Moore Part 2

January 12, 2015 by Dagmar Bleasdale Leave a Comment

Trip to Colonial Williamsburg

It has been a while since I blogged about my trip to Williamsburg, VA, with Benjamin Moore, but I promised you a second post about my wonderful visit — and here it is.

Benjamin Moore and Colonial Williamsburg teamed up to create the 144 hues of the Williamsburg Collection and invited me and four other bloggers to come explore this beautiful, historic place.

I took so many photos, it would be a shame not to show them to you.

In my first post I told you about our first day of exploring Colonial Williamsburg and its many stunning buildings.

After our visit to the DeWitt Wallace Museum, we went back to our hotel rooms, freshened up, and got dressed for a fancy dinner at the Colonial Williamsburg Inn.

Every meal so far had been better than the one before, but this dinner was one of the fanciest I’ve ever been to.

And it was over four hours long! One amazing course followed another, and it was filled with wonderful conversations with the Benjamin Moore and Colonial Williamsburg teams.

The thing that made this trip so amazing, aside from the beautiful surrounding, was the company — everyone was so lovely and supportive, and I learned so much.

We all had one thing in common: our passion for what we do — from historic preservation to creating paint colors to blogging — and that was very inspiring to be around.

This was the yummy finale: hazelnut cake with as much chocolate sauce as you wanted. [Read more…]

Furniture for Small Homes and Apartments

December 28, 2014 by Dagmar Bleasdale Leave a Comment

Furniture for Small Homes

If there’s something I’m a bit of an expert in, it’s how to furnish a small home.

Every place I’ve ever lived in is short on space.

Our Blue cottage is no exception.

But I don’t mind — I actually enjoy the creative challenge.

I just wrote a guide for eBay about the kind of furniture I like to use to decorate our small cottage.

I wrote about

Under-The-Bed Storage
Multi-Functional Furniture
Cube Shelves

Check out the whole guide for decorating ideas for small spaces.

Do you live in a small house or apartment?

Easy DIY Hostess Gift: Milk Glass Vase Jewelry Holder

December 25, 2014 by Dagmar Bleasdale 1 Comment

Check out this easy DIY hostess gift: a pretty milk glass jewelry holder.

There are always a lot of parties during the holidays, and you might be invited to one or a few and wonder what to bring as a little thank you for the hostess.

What do you bring when you are invited to a party? I’m always looking for new gift ideas.

I like giving something I’ve put together myself, but I don’t want it to take long or to break the bank.

So this is what I came up with for my holiday hostess gift:

Milk Glass Vase Jewelry Holder

I use a vintage milk glass vase to organize some of my bracelets and earrings, and that gave me the idea for this gift.

Here is what I like about this DIY gift: depending on the occasion and how close you are to the lady you are giving it to, you can make the milk glass vase or the bracelet the main gift.

And which hostess can’t use another little vase?

[Read more…]

Blue Cottage Christmas Home Tour 2014

December 16, 2014 by Dagmar Bleasdale 6 Comments

Blue Cottage Christmas Home Tour 2014

After showing you the outside of our Blue Cottage, it’s time for the Blue Cottage Christmas Home Tour!

I decorated the downstairs and love how it turned out.

Notice the new vintage trunk table? I exchanged our larger trunk coffee table for this one. I had had my eye on it for months at the Newburgh Vintage Emporium and finally bought it when it went on sale.

I opened all of our boxes of Christmas decor and used most of what I already had, except for a few new things from Target and Pier1.

Unwrapping and setting up the little hand-painted angels from Germany is always a favorite of mine. My mom sends us a new one every Christmas, so the little orchestra is growing every year.

I had a gold and silver Christmas theme in mind for this year [Read more…]