Then follow this link :

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/blog-nominator2012

….and if you see the worthiness, please consider entering chestercountyramblings in Country Living Magazine’s  2012 Blue Ribbon Blogger Awards!

Winners will be featured in their December/January 2013 issue and will also  attend a luncheon in their honor in New York City on November 13, 2012.
Nominations are open from May 15, 2012 until July 29, 2012. Please only nominate  once.

Read more: Blue Ribbon Blogger Awards – 2012 Blog Awards – Country Living.

Come on now….do a gal a favor!  I spent a good part of 2011 dealing with breast cancer, so it would be nice to have more fun stuff in 2012.

Thanks for considering chestercountyramblings for this honor!

Guest Toothbrushes, $14

We were pretty psyched to find ourselves on the pages of June’s issue of Country Living. They picked our beautiful Guest toothbrushes as the perfect detail for your guest bath. We love them, too: they’re made from sustainable bamboo and bring beauty to an otherwise mundane object. Check out the latest issue of Country Living for even more great design tips and recipes!

Be careful what you wish for because just as I was in the process of setting up my site, preparing samples of my former work, submitting auditions and preparing my office for recording on this level, I was hired by a wonderful novelist named Kaira Rouda to produce a book.

So, as is often the case in my life, I switched gears, turned on a dime and accellerated the set up of my home studio. If I was going to make this work, I would no longer be able to afford renting studio time for this purpose.

I got the gear, set it up and started analyzing my room for sound quality, when I realized I’d need to cover some “703″ and fit it into my windows to baffle noise from the front yard and get some derned curtains to kill some of the bounce.

AT2020 Microphone and Popper-Stopper

Mic set up and...wait...that's my cooking show, "Sing For My Supper" on the computer screen.

I was out looking for affordable curtains…I neede to be funtional but it HAD TO BE CUTE to go in my room. I remembered an article years ago about someone who made curtains out of painter’s drop cloths. Aha!

In searching the net I found tons of bloggers who have done this so in studying a quick DIY tutorial at a cool blog called,  “More Like Home” I was on my way.

I didn’t make them as fancy as she did as I was in a time crunch but I can go back later and put finishing touched on them…however…I think they’re pretty funky the way they are.

Drop cloth curtains in mini-studio

Supplies?: 2 6×9 canvas drop cloths; 4 packs of clip on curtain rings, pins, scissors, ruler needle and thread.

Cute but very functional curtains for the mini studio

Check out “More Like Home” for directions.

The great news is that this new little home studio is perfect for editing my cooking show, “Sing For My Supper” (coming soon to My-TV-Now.com; using the new pro software, Final Cut Pro I just taught myself how to use.

Cheers,
Leslie

I found Cathe (pronounced “Cathy”) a few years ago in a copy of Country Living Magazine. These days, she’s a contributing craft editor for the magazine…among a bazillion other things.

Cathe hosts one of my favorite blogs over at Just Something I Made. It’s hard to describe just exactly what it is Cathe does, since she seems to have her hand in every art and craft pocket that exists. Every visit to the blog starts with something beautiful. Recently, it’s been a list of gorgeous Serving Trays.

Cathe is an inspiration, to say the least. And one of the most generous bloggers on the internet. Aside from all of the classes Cathe teaches, there’s always a new tutorial posted on the blog with printables to match. One can get lost on the Freebies page. There are so many treats and downloads and printables there.

If you haven’t met Cathe yet, hop to it…you have no idea the amount of fun you’ll find over at Just Something I Made.

As time began to speed up for us during this busy spring (see Shutter Babe), the article had slipped our minds…

Until (drumroll please), on an unfortunately still cold morning, our wholesale director (who is oh so crafty and always brings in magazines) showed us this!

On page 42 of the may edition of Country Living Magazine, our Fleur Hand Painted Jug was listed in the article 50 finds under $50!

Since this is one of our products that several of us happen to display proudly in our own homes ( We’ve got good jugs), we’ve been patting ourselves on the back a bit for our  good tastes… and are definitely happy to hear that they are shared!

Author: Sarah Griffis

COUNTRY LIVING MAGAZINE

PRESENTS THE 2012 FAIR

APRIL 27 -29

Over 150 vendors! All under cover at the Travis County Expo Center, 7311 Decker Lane Austin, TX 78724. Just 15 minutes from downtown Austin. The pages of Country Living Magazine come to life! Rain or Shine!!!
A Fun, Folksy & Fabulous Show & Sale of Folk Art, Antiques, “Made in America” Crafts, Art, Furniture, Home Decor & More.
Meet the editors of Country Living Magazine. Plus Seminars & How-to’s, Artisan Demonstrations, & More.

Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. Rain or Shine! All exhibits are under cover.
Tickets can be purchased online until one week before the fair and at the fair box office all the days of the fair
One day $13 in advance – at door $16
Weekend Pass $15 in advance – $20 at door
Early Bird $40 (8:30 am to 10am) only available in advance and limited to 2500 tickets. 90 minutes of priority shopping
Children under 16 free if accompanied by an adult.
Regular parking fees apply. ($5 per car per day) Advance purchase a three day parking pass online for just $8! Tickets are always available fair days at the box office.

Since the Country Living Fairs are usually held in other states, this something I would definitely like to try.  There are a lot of fairs, craft shows, bazaars and festivals in this part of the country.  I just visited the big antiques show in Warrenton a few weekends ago and didn’t blog about it, but now I am,  because all I saw was this sign (see below) and all I bought was a four dollar soap dish.  It was probably because I went on Saturday and most vendors were packing up or gone home for Easter Sunday.

Here’s the sign…wasn’t sure how I felt about it…I felt queasy; I laughed; I passed it by;  I backed up; I shook my head;  then I took a picture.   I will leave this post at that and let you decide for yourself whether you shall laugh, pass it by, back up, etc…

There are two sides to being a stock photographer – one, thinking up concepts and one, where the research is available to us through the hard work of others. I mention this because I was recently asked two questions.

The first question was “Why don’t you blog more of your images”?

Well, why blog something when you are trying to sell it. A short but simple answer, I suppose I could add that I have no idea about marketing myself on the internet so leave it to the agents. They take their percentage, I take mine – everyone is happy.

The second question was “Where do you get your ideas from”?

Ideas like buses don’t come along for ages, then three come at once. In truth, you don’t have to be very imaginative to come up with standard stock photography, all you need is a subject. For example, a bricklayer. When stuck, I use the hard work of others. For example, when asked to do a coastal shot, either of people or landscape, I simply look through a few copies of Coast magazine. If it’s rural then I look through a few copies of Country Living magazine etc etc. I don’t copy what they have done, I simply look for inspiration. The added advantage of using magazines for this is that they work months ahead of the rest of society, so pretty much have the lead on what’s happening in the photographic market – which is driven by consumers – which they are in tune with.

So, given that I am lazy, I have an idea, I research what the market wants, I produce… Life is so simple.

With the garden playing a great part in the early part of this year, with the mild weather putting us weeks ahead, I have a number of shoots lined up that are garden orientated. More of them later, in the meantime, here are some with garden preparation in mind. All simple shots – all have sold.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Also big on the agenda this year has been the current financial situation, not just here in the UK but worldwide. Whilst somewhat negative, I think that the images strongly portray the feeling on the street. That they don’t know where the money is going, that governments simple poor money down the drain, the list could go on – but this toilet scene was thought of, shot, uploaded and sold its first licence within a day.

Yesterday I went to the Country Living Magazine Spring Fair at the Business Design Centre in London.  I had a lovely day looking at all the pretty goodies on offer on all the amazing stands. It was nice to see so many people selling products that are made in Britain so I thought I would share a few with you.

One of my favourites was Barnickle Furniture as I thought the display really stood out. Lucy Schmidt is the very talented artist from Devon who takes discarded items such as filing cabinets and cable reels and transforms them into statement pieces of furniture by painting various designs on them. So not only does she create her amazing work in Britain but she also does her bit for the environment by recycling unwanted items! I really loved her little coffee tables that were made out of cable reels but my absolute favourite was the red telephone box filing cabinet. She is currently painting a lot of patriotic imagery on her furniture but she does also take custom orders.

There were quite a few clothing stands at the fair this year that I really liked.  One of which was Little Dye House where I bought this super cute camisole.

They offer a range of very pretty Womenswear, girlswear and babywear all lovingly made and dyed in Britain with incredibly soft fabrics. Another company I liked, was Kind Hearts Clothing which also makes beautiful items of clothing in Britain for Women and Children. A lot of their designs have a retro feel and I especially liked the 1940′s style cardigans.

Whenever I go to these fairs, I always want to buy a Tweed Coat or Jacket as they always look so well made.  Welligogs had a selection of British made coats and jackets that looked sooooo amazing!

Not only was there loads of British made clothing for people but I also found some seriously cute wax jackets for dogs on the Redhound for Dogs stand. They also had collars, beds, jumpers, bandanas and treat bags all of which are made in Britain. I just had to buy a wax jacket for my little Westie, Belle! She will have to wait a few days for it to arrive in the post though as the Lady is kindly changing the trim for me.  I will add a photo of Belle wearing it soon!

As a lot of my finds on this post have been a bit girly, I thought I should end with a more MANLY product. I was so impressed with the quality of Alex Pole‘s ironwork that he hand makes in Somerset! His mix of iron and other items such as large pebbles, lawn bowls and blocks of wood really looked stunning! I have definitely got to buy one of his oak doorstops soon! I love the way that they have such a simple and contemporary shape which is contrasted by the natural texture created by the grains of the wood! Absolutely Beautiful!

“Go ahead,” we say.  “Test us.”  And she does.

So I nearly caved on this bright, warm morning when I found an incredible issue of Country Living online. The ultimate kitchen garden design is feeding the fever.  It has a plan — put together out of ideas from chefs like Alice Waters, Peter Hoffman and Rick Bayless — and it has a list of specific varieties of edibles, seed resources, instructions for scaling it down to the size of your own garden plot, recipes, gardening advice — everything.

This is as local as you can get.  And we love local foods.

To put some “spring” in your step, try this bright, seasonal asparagus frittata with horseradish sour cream – seems like a perfect plan for an Easter weekend brunch.

*2 oz.Sparkling berry drink. We used Lorina French Berry.

*1.5 oz. St. Germaine

*1.5 oz. Champagne

*Raspberry for garnish

1.Measure, mix and stir gently.  Pour into fancy glass over ice.  (Drinking champagne through a good straw makes it even more fun!)  I found the perfect vintage ‘B’ glasses for Chris at a church sale years before we had kids.  I would have gotten them even without the correct last initial and $5 price tag.  Josie-bean Ice Cream.  I love our vintage ice cream maker and any excuse to whip up a batch makes me happy.  The We are going to do custom flavors for the girls’ birthdays from now on.  For Josie-bean (Ada’s nickname for Josephine) you will need:

*3 Cups Heavy Cream.  Good quality cream is essential.  We use Ronnybrook Farm’s from our farmer’s market.

*2/3 Cups Unrefined Sugar.  I think this tastes better than white sugar.

*2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract

*Seeds from 2 Vanilla Beans

*2 Cups Fresh Raspberries

1.Scrape seeds from vanilla beans and add to cream, sugar and vanilla in small saucepan.  Drop empty pods into cream and heat on low heat until all sugar dissolves.

2.Remove vanilla bean pods and pour cream mixture into bowl.  Chill in fridge for an hour.

3.Pour cooled mixture into ice cream maker, add fresh raspberries and follow directions for your maker.

4.Serve immediately or store in freezer.  Allow to soften slightly before serving.

Happy Birthday Josie!

The best trends are ones that don’t really look all that trendy. Like the perfect scarf that seems to go with everything, the best trends manage to blend in seamlessly and elevate what you already own. If you know anything about 2 Great Gals, you know we are not the ‘throw out everything and start from scratch’ kind of decorators. So look to the trends to add a small dose of something current to your homes.

10. Industrial lighting – These beauties are from CB2. Hang them in groupings for dramatic effect!

9. Mixing metal finishes – not only is it ok to mix different metal finishes, it can add personality! We are definitely moving away from the matchy-matchy perfection of the past.

8. Canadiana – Oh Canada! We love you in all your quiet pride, wild places and hip, urban spaces. Check out these quirky pillows from Nicole Tarasick’s Etsy shop.

7. Kitchen gardens – With so much attention focused on eating locally, organic farming and reducing carbon footprints, it is no wonder we are looking to our own backyards for dinner table goodies. Even the smallest balcony or windowsill can support potted herbs. Need some advice or inspiration? Check out Canada Blooms, indoor garden show in Toronto from March 16 – 25, 2012.

6. Farmhouse Chic – Still one of our favourite looks for it’s relaxed, easy approach. Both of us city gals long for country living. Try adding one or two elements to soften a contemporary interior with quilts, rustic woods, natural linen, simple flower arrangements, vintage prints or milk glass. Best done sparingly and simply like this NJ restored farmhouse featured in Country Living magazine.

5. Patterns & prints – Mix it up! For a lesson from one of the high end fabric/wallpaper showrooms that does it best, check out Designers Guild.

4. Bright colours – Grab a cup of happiness and go for saturated colours this spring in both your home and wardrobe. Whether through a can of paint, bunch of flowers, new pillows or a fab accessory. Jump on the happy train and add some colour! (more on this topic tomorrow)

3. Eco-friendly materials – Reclaimed materials are still going strong this year and are being used in unique ways. I love this idea from Wonderwall Studios! Horizontal wall slats add texture and warmth to a room. This is not your grandpa’s wood paneling!

2. Boho-chic – Relax, grab a floor cushion and put on some music. Boho-chic is all about mixing colours and materials in a ‘flea market meets high fashion’ sort of way. Definitely part of the ‘more is more’ sensibility and a great look for collectors. These photos are from Bohemian Vintage, be sure to check out Bohemian Wednesdays.

1. Handmade - The resurgence of handcrafted items makes us incredibly happy. The online craft community is strong, ideas abound for new projects, collaborations and amazing products are easily available. Sites like Etsy and papernstitch have created a global marketplace for the independent artist/crafts person. Wonderful for those of us looking to find something unique and support small businesses at the same time. Click on the images below to link directly to the online shops.