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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…]

Blue Cottage Decor: Our Porch and Yard

December 12, 2014 by Dagmar Bleasdale 36 Comments

Blue Cottage Decor: Our Porch and Yard

I finally get to show you the outside of our Blue Cottage!

We’ve lived here now for a year, and in the fall I finally found the time to get pictures taken of the outside of our house.

My friend Kelly came over and took the most wonderful photos.

I’m so glad we got them done when everything was still green — by now we’ve had the first snow storm and the whole house is decorated for Christmas.

But before I show you that, I wanted to show you these pictures.

This is what it looked like before — we now have a pretty paved driveway instead of those three stone slabs and little stones.

I bought that cute bird feeder at the Country Living Fair, remember?

[Read more…]

6 Tips to Live a More Sustainable & Stress-Free Life

December 10, 2014 by Dagmar Bleasdale

The holidays are just around the corner, and with that comes the stress of thinking of gifts for every person on your list, buying all those gifts, entertaining obligations, mountains of trash, and the clutter of more toys and things in the house after the holidays.

And yet the holidays shouldn’t be about clutter and stress, right? They are really meant to take a moment and spend more time with our family and friends.

So let’s change things this year.

We can make a conscious decision to not get sucked into the stress of the holidays, and the stress of buying things that just add to landfills later.

Do you want to live a more sustainable, stress-free life?

6 Tips to Declutter, Reuse, and Live a More Sustainable Life

1. Declutter your linen closet

Donate old towels and washcloths to an animal shelter or drop them into a clothing collection bin. [Read more…]

Anthropologie Gift Ideas Inspired By My Latest Visit

December 4, 2014 by Dagmar Bleasdale Leave a Comment

A couple of weeks ago I had a few hours to kill in White Plains, and I treated myself to a trip to Anthropologie.

I’m sure you know about Anthropologie, but if you don’t, you are missing out. They are selling clothing, jewelry, and all kinds of home decor.

I’m not a mall person, but I drove to the Westchester mall just for this one store.

Looking at all of their beautiful things is my kind of heaven — their eclectic mix of pretty and vintage-inspired home decor is so lovely, it instantly makes me happy and inspires me.

I took so many pictures during my visit, I made the store manager jumpy. I figured I’d share them with you like I have before in this post.

And since we are all wondering what to get our family and friends for Christmas or Hanukkah, I’ll share with you my favorite picks of Anthropologie items that would make impressive and unique gifts.

[Read more…]

Our Tiny Laundry Room in the Blue Cottage

November 29, 2014 by Dagmar Bleasdale 30 Comments

Tiny Laundry Room in the Blue Cottage

We have a tiny laundry room — well, it’s literally a “laundry closet.” It’s those two doors to the right on the way to the kitchen.

Sure, I’d love to have a laundry room, but for some code reason we were not allowed to have the washer and dryer in the utility room — so a laundry closet it is.

[Read more…]

Blue Cottage Christmas Home Tour 2014

6 Tips to Declutter, Reuse, and Live a More Sustainable Life

Tiny Laundry Room in the Blue Cottage

Create a beautiful home on a budget!

Thank you!

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