THE ART OF LAYERING || FRENCH COUNTRY SPRING DECORATING AROUND THE HOUSE

Hello everyone and welcome to The Little Blue Fly. It's been a moment and I'm going to see if I can get through this video recording it because I'm sure you can still hear it in me. I'm not 100 percent. So I of course didn't plan on being gone for so long and I really, I tried. I tried so hard to come back sooner but whatever this was that decided it wanted to come and visit our family, it's not friendly and its sole purpose is to remove all the liquids from your body and it doesn't care how it removes them. It's just going to remove them and violently. And so then you get through that whole process. Three of us in the family had it. The other two were just fine but then after that it goes to my lungs and you know I've stated before how I have bronchitis so whenever I pick something up it likes to take a visit to my lungs. And so I just made sure you know every day to take care of myself and you know bring those herbs in and you know just rest, rest, and rest. I know I left off with the kitchen but we will come back and revisit the kitchen because I just did not want, and I really didn't have the strength to go up and down, up and down the ladder. So I just stayed ground floor level and decided to do three wonderful vignettes and just fill up the home even more. So layers on top of layers. So that being said let's begin shall we? I thank you all so much for being so patient with my absence. I know it's been quite a while but I thought to have a nice lengthy video for you guys today. And I just split it up in today's you know just getting things done little by little because the goal is to get back 100% health. But I did share this I believe in the previous video. This is the room in between the reading room and the living room. And behind me is the downstairs bathroom. I have this large frame that a mirror was in and I decided to remove that but use the frame because I love it so much. And inside is a smaller very ornate frame that was a Facebook marketplace find. And then a small little picture of some floral inside a vase. And I just I love how the depth of it all how it just goes in smaller and smaller. And then up front I have this very aged French country vessel. And the shelf down below was purchased from Hobby Lobby. And I know many of you already know this but I do have new subscribers. It's important to keep everyone into in the now of things. Okay so I have these two sconces. I don't even remember where I found these but they are um they have some good weight to them a nice metal and the meshing is what I really like about these sconces here. And I believe I'm going to try and see if I like them on the left and right hand side of the picture frame. And it just works all the colors go together so real chippy and aged and all the gold and and again I like mixing my tones so I'll have different colors in my metals and in my woods. I don't it doesn't have to be so um matchy matchy. And then down below I have to go back to storage and find the piece of furniture that I want to put um here in it to finish this whole vignette off. But today we will be working on the wall portion of it. Now these sconces it's it's the I don't know it's one or the other it's I either had these sconces but I couldn't find the glass flutes or I had the glass flutes that went inside and not the sconces that were on the wall. But anyhow we have them all because I found them. I was able to unpack a couple boxes um you know our days they don't know whether they want to be warm or cold and on cold days I stay in the house. I don't even try to go out to the garage. Especially lately I had just let's just face it I haven't been able to do much there. Okay so now down below the shelf I will I believe I'm gonna hang some things from here as well. I have some gold hooks that I have screwed in to the bottom of this piece before. So I'll just place some more in there. But overall right now I'm I'm liking this. I'm liking the look um you know the different the metals with um the different woods. And always very um I like the rich moody look and feel. Okay so we're going to ignore the mess over there to the left. That's the formal dining room. Try not to peek through that little crack because I know many of you probably are right now. Don't do that. That's coming. Okay this picture is called The Visitor. And this was an eBay find a bid. I paid a little bit more than I wanted to. But it's so sweet. Little girl here dressed up has her basket with the cloth over her baked goodies and mom had her go to a neighbor or to a family member and just gift them with something wonderful and homemade. It is a home and garden party um art print. I did sell this many many moons ago. And um home interiors and gifts. It was so fun. How many of you used to go to those home parties? They were just the best. I know I've rotten this up before and it just yeah they were just so much fun. Sweetest just European look and feel. Everything I love. So I'm placing it off to the side. I don't think I want to put it on a stand. I really could. I could put it on an easel if I wanted to but I for now I think I'm just going to keep it right here on the shelf. And again um take notice too because I know many of us have different colored metals around the house or or or wood tones. Blend them together. Just bring it all together. If it makes your heart happy do it. And I'm telling you after everything I have gone through and the family even though this is difficult to do it really is breathing life back into me. That's for certain. I have this sweet little vessel with some dried goods up at top. This was purchased from a storefront called French Blue. It is in Apex, North Carolina and if you're in that area it's a must-see. You know even if you don't purchase doing a walkthrough it's so inspirational. Again it's called French Blue in Apex, North Carolina. I want to give you a close-up here of this old vintage frame. I don't even remember where I purchased the frame but on the inside this is just different cutouts I um put together and then some little sticker um like stamps down at the bottom because everything here at the Little Blue Fly is about adventure and taking the next wonderful journey somewhere magical that always tends to bring out that little girl in us So I have these down on the shelf as well. Right now I'm just sharing a few things. I will start moving items about but again this is my version of spring in the warmer tones always with just a little bit of moodiness. I have some old books here. I collect these. I love to find them when I'm out thrifting but it's becoming more and more difficult to thrift these. You really you start picking them up in the antique stores or you know shops where they have different booths you know inside the building. I need to go to some garage sales so I place them standing up and again things are going to change. You know another good place to find books is estate sales but it just seems like anymore people are just such vultures right when they go to estate sales and you know I tend to think about you know the family you know the people that you know collected these items and you know I more so just want to keep whatever journey they took to keep it alive to find out history on pieces so I kind of shy away from estate sales a little bit just because it is so vulture-like but every now and then I do step into one and it is pleasant. I did just show three gold Florentine vintage picture frames. They'll come back into the picture here in a moment but right now let's add a little color and I love the color lavender and I thought to put it inside of this vignette to just help bring things to life since we are getting ready to go into spring and I'm going to place them inside this fabulous aged vessel so this has a long stem and I'm just going to go about you know bending things to fit inside of the vessel that's what I'm doing down here right now I'm pulling stems apart and bending larger stems to get it all working inside so I'm going to use this one first for the height so in the back of my arrangement I would like for it to stand up just a little bit higher than what I am about to place up front I just find it visually pleasing this way and I'll move things about here and there but look just even with those in there what a difference I'm liking it I'm like oh I like it just as it is but me being the maximalist that I am I must add more so I'm going to put in this lavender colored sedum and again I will play with this a little bit more I like how this is coming down a little bit up and in the front but what I ultimately decided to do here is to push it all over to the side and I'm going to play with it here a little bit more because those gold frames that I just uh gave you a look at oh see I still have moss in here but the gold frames the florentine frames I decided I wanted to add them inside here with some of the floral so whenever um if you try your hand at putting together floral arrangements maybe push them off to the side and stick something in unexpected because that's what just gives it that little extra special touch and allows you to layer to maximize things so I'm gonna I'm going to weave some of the floral in through the frames to help it make uh make it look a little bit more natural not forced or just plopped in there um but to just make it all go um together more now how about I love this I'll play with my floral a little bit in my frames until I get it to my liking but I love all these different elements together the sedum up front was purchased from the nursery when I was living in Virginia okay so I played with everything and the frames are how I want them and the floral and I have these books tucked underneath the sedum it you know looks like it's just it's growing over the books but as I started looking here I noticed there was just a little bit too much vertical going on here and um I needed it just kind of a little bit like just I don't know blah so I thought let's put a tray up here and even though I have a metal piece over to the left that's fine because this is a different texture and a different color I did purchase this piece I'm gonna show the bottom from Target and let me get this into focus there it is so 25 dollars for this little tray I mean but it's metal it'll last some it'll last quite a while I suppose and it's small enough to where you can really play with it in many different places okay so I went ahead and put the books in the frame in the little vessel with the floral but now I just again I need to change things up because there's just too much vertical going on but as you can see placing the tray here how it has the little feet on it it just gave it um just that much more depth and interest and now to just make all of this work together pleasing make it pleasing to my eye so I placed the books down and put the picture up on top and then the floral right next to it and up at top you can see I placed one of the glass cups up there and I put some moss in it and I'm going to keep it like that for now because before you know it the bunnies and the eggs and all the different Easter touches are going to find their way into this vignette here now we're going to scoot into the reading room because I've made more changes so the little plate that I had it was a flow blue um beautiful I took that off because there's something else that I wanted to do of course my mind is always going on these different adventures and so it's fun to switch things up inside the home but the three clocks are going to stay there and the ship picture will stay there and of course the lamps and a few other things that were already up here will come back on top of the desk the desk was a find of a Facebook marketplace so I decided to make this a true workspace so here I purchased myself um this apple here and I decided to go with the yellow I've had this for quite a few months and it's just been sitting in the box so I finally pulled it out and this will be my work area and in the very near future I will start um editing right here at this desk now I will share a link for this computer for those of you that might be interested I did have them add details um different uh hardware inside it that I needed for my editing so just know that you can do that if there's something else that you need inside of of your apple they'll they'll add it in for you associates are there you just tell them what you're trying to do and they put it all together for you super easy so the stickers up front that says hello and soon not in today's video I will peel that off so I kept the Himalayan rabbits up on top to the left because I love them so much and I have the spray way out because I've been cleaning things up and I have this very old found it from an antique store um mirror that has I'm sure there's a name to this but I don't know it if you know it let me know because I surely don't I'm just going to call it a mirror with a small um shelf on it but I'm going to place it right inside of the large frame and there she sits all sweet and pretty and I decided to place her here because of those precious little clocks vintage clocks that come from West Germany on the sides they're very ornate and then you have different uh on this one you have the white and the gold clock face and the hands on it are black but these oh gosh you can find these in antique stores um forget thrifting I don't I would love if I could find one of these in a thrift store but um and ebay and etsy so I placed them up on the mirror and I just love this whole clock look um it's just something about time and clocks I don't know what it is but I love it um it just gives that um that sense of of adventure of whimsical here's an old clock face these can definitely be found on ebay you can even put in like a lot and people will be selling several of them together which is nice and here's some more so I'm slowly finding my treasures slowly so I place them down so that little wooden tray is it's a spool drawer to a sewing machine cabinet and I decided to put old clock faces inside and a couple of um very old and um aged books I decided to put one of the clocks down in it and then a clock face up on the mirror and then over here to the left I place the books back on top and I have my two um candle sconces well candles candlesticks but look what I found I found the glass hurricanes to go on top these were missing and for the longest time and now they are complete with the glass hurricanes on top and having the little pops of blue and white you know just gently placing them and throughout the decor area it the decorated area it just makes for very nice touch now we're gonna move over here we're just moving about all over and this chair I did share it is a leather chair I picked up uh off of Wayfair um I will share a link for that um and a couple pillows the one in the back I've had that for years but the one up front the cheetah print that can be purchased from Ballard and Ballard Designs and I will share a link as well I believe they're on sale right now and then my old mirror Facebook Marketplace find and this is new so this is a live edged shelf with two brackets that are from Rejuvenation but they were Facebook Marketplace find and I just thought um you know okay so up above it okay I have all these lithographs from Scott Gustafson and I did share a link in my description box but I'm having two more made and they will go up here above the shelf just not today because they're not done because Hobby Lobby I'm waiting for the dark matting the charcoal matting to come back in they ran out of the size that I need um for my lithographs but we will go ahead and decorate on top of this shelf but just keep in mind that I'm not putting anything up on the wall because I want to keep it open for these lithographs that hopefully will be up in the next month or two well definitely within two months so just to give you a close-up these live edge shelves and I'll share a link they're wonderful they really bring the nature indoors and having all the fairy tale lithographs I just thought you know fairy tales you know the majority of the time you are in the woods it's very woodsy and I thought this was the perfect touch to add with them and to bring more layering in my reading room so up in the corner I started with my vintage wooden duck and her name is Truly so all my little friends here at the house I like to give them names and a lot of times I ask for help from you all to name my sweet friends and then in front of Truly so her name is Truly Scrumptious but it because she is Truly Scrumptious but anyhow in front of her I did place this antique brass lantern again Facebook Marketplace find and I have it tucked over into the corner now I want you to notice okay the pictures are going to be the same height as the one up at top so Truly and the lantern will not go will not block the image at all on the lithograph because they're tucked off over to the side so I'm trying to keep everything from so the picture to the right where the white is I'm trying to keep everything right there or below because I do not want the image to be blocked at all but a little bit off to the sides I guess that's okay so inside the lantern I do have this blue and white battery operated so flameless candle that has the most gorgeous glow to it but you're going to have to wait until the closer look because that's when I like to turn the lights on but sometimes like earlier on the desk you know I did have some lights on but the majority of the time you have you everyone has to wait until the closer look and I have something called Easter eggs I know many of you have not caught on yet at the end of my video I share Easter eggs throughout for you all to find and to leave me a comment to let me know if you have found them or not this is a vintage book I have quite a few of them I don't even remember where I purchased these from but they will go up on top of the shelf and then I have a brass and black hurricane over here to the left with a taper candle inside so we have some real light over here to the left and some faux over to the right and then I have this little um just a precious uh you have the lion lion heads on the side a black and gold vessel that has the just the rich and warm French country look and feel to it and I have a lot of many different little short candles because what happens during the move my candles break and that's okay so I'll just snap them apart and I'll have little short stubbies and I love burning those and they look great placed inside vessels okay so this beauty right here I have been looking for this piece forever since we left Virginia I just I couldn't find it and I finally came across it I I was like oh I know it's it I know it's it when I was opening up the box because you know when you move and you haven't seen your items for a while well I didn't forget about this one but you get surprised because you start unwrapping things that you forgot you had but inside here I placed some miniatures or very old miniature books um just stacked all throughout this fabulous piece because after all this is a reading room so this is what we have going on so far and I was like okay I need a little bit even though I'm putting pictures up here just for now um I need to add something up here but we will we will get to that so I have this long rectangular basket and I thought just for now this is it's not going to be permanent I'm going to put it back behind and what a difference we have instant warmth just gives that you know that cottagey look and feel that I'm going for in my reading room I mean the most ultimate reading room is just to have books stacked everywhere here and there and blankets and comfortable furniture and candlelight and and just you know an array of mess I don't want um a finely just put together room I want items everywhere um because that's makes comfort okay so again this wicker tray will not stay here it will go away when the lithographs come up on the wall now we have another touch of blue so let's go with some vintage uh flow this is a blue flow plate and it it just doesn't get any richer than blue flow it just you know it started off as a mistake you know it was a it was a a printing error but it widely became popular and I know it is in my home I love it and just adding in touches of blue with all the different colors that I like to work with it really does make it look and feel magical to me but for those of you that you know might have a different you know different colors different style bring those plates out put them back behind your decor it just adds a nice touch like our sweet little girl here that many of you and I thank you all so much um for the name suggestions and you know I don't know if I ever came out and gave her name and if I did I apologize because it's about to change um I decided to name her Abigail she is an Abigail through and through just look at her sweet little face you know over the weekend I watched that one Disney show the Aristocats oh and I just loved it so much and I was like you know I must name her Abigail and I placed her off over to the side so we have a little bit of blue going on over here and some and inside the lantern um I really wish I could move the camera over a little bit but it's it's kind of stiff but you will see um how the blue just works perfectly with these lithographs now to add in just some aged goodness these will look perfect inside any English or French country home it has all the rust in it they're very heavy they're iron and I don't remember where I purchased them from but what I am going to do is place them up on the shelf but we have to wait until the end the closer look to see what I put in them and again things change all the time around here but for now you will see what I decided to place in them during the closer look because again I place many not many but one two sometimes three different Easter eggs so again during my closer look when I'm giving you the the overall view you're gonna see items in there that I did not speak about those are the Easter eggs and let me know what they are because if I can get more and more engagement I plan on start starting to do um some gift giving because I just would really love to do that for you all because you're so good to me you're you're just you're so loyal okay so this basket came from Kirkland's has a great cottage look to it oh but look at that $39.99 ouch but this one was 25% off so it took it down but then they were having a door buster sell so it took even more off so I was able to walk out of the door paying $21 for this nothing like finding a nice basket when you're out thrifting though for a couple dollars nothing can beat that this box if we only had smell-o-vision if only these are sachets from robin king at robin king designs she's linked in my description box and they're fabulous they're filled with a lavender scent and the fabrics that are used on these heart sachets are everything now I know we just passed valentine's day and I hope all of you had a wonderful valentine's day but you can use hearts in your home throughout the year not just during valentine's they give such a nice touch inside mixed with your decor and this fabric is fabulous so I have several different hearts in here that I will be hanging from hooks or knobs or setting them sideways this yellow one's everything I love this but again robin is linked in my description box and I cannot wait to unpack these and spread them around the home they smell so good so so good okay so my basket I did hang it from the hook because if there's a hook I'm going to or a bracket I'm going to hang something that that's all there is to it and I decided to put in three of these plants faux plants from pottery barn now Hobby Lobby has these as well I have not seen the plant but they have the stems and they can be found over by the wedding section so they're in one of the aisles they're not out with the big um cluster of floral I mean maybe they have some out there now I don't know but these are with the floral that are tucked next to um like where the wedding supplies are at and their stems and I just like how it's falling down from the basket and you can see I placed one of Robin's sachets from the lamp because as I'm sitting here doing my reading that lovely scent is just going to welcome me right in this sweet little reading note corner now I have my basket over to the left and added another small basket on top and then a little scalloped edged uh gold tray so we'll be doing a little bit of decorating on there um again the front pillow and the chair came from Ballard I'm trying to remember everything that I have placed here I think that is pretty much it and now inside the basket I'm going to put something special in there my father he had something called a busy basket and he placed it up by his bed and inside his basket there his reading glasses were in there um I hate to say it his cigarettes he was a smoker boy was he a smoker um and if he had like his Alka-Seltzer was in there and he had a little book that my brother shared with him um about the gospel of Jesus Christ and that was always in there for him to to read up on whenever he wanted to I'm down below here I have my throw blanket I don't know um if any of you are like this but I will turn my air conditioner on freezing just so that I can throw a lap blanket on top I don't it doesn't make any sense I mean it does to me nothing like having a chilly home but with a blanket over your lap and this is my Bible that I will be placing over in my um reading basket that was called my father's busy basket because in this corner I the the majority of my reading is in the Bible it just you know I I just my day wouldn't go right if if I did not um have the Lord in my life and feed myself some good scriptural food okay so here I have the tissue box and we're going to decorate it with one of Robin's pieces of artwork again robinkingdesigns.com in her coupon box make sure to put the little blue fly and she will give you a kind discount and this is her bunny tissue box she has several of them I love the rich warm colors on this one and it's so lovely to look at so remember the little blue fly in the coupon code box so things will be moving around on this table as well so I did start another read and little women and as you you can see um I'm right at the beginning of it and these pages are so silky I mean I love a silky page but I also love um you know a dusty crinkly old one as well but I have to share this other piece that my special special special friend Jewel just recently gifted me she's such a wonderful loving and caring friend and she put this on the back here let me see if I can get this into focus and she said a little bookmark for when you read in your little corner love you you're Jewel I love you too Jewel I know she's watching this video and she's just precious I'm so glad that she is in my life and this is a fabulous bookmarker to use when I'm reading I love bunnies I love everything bunnies they're just so sweet and precious I hope you all enjoyed this time that we've had together I do plan on being back soon and we will go into the kitchen please make sure to give this video a thumbs up to get me back into the algorithm and I would love to hear from you all in the comments