Holiday Traditions

Happy Holidays everyone!!!

I wanted to announce the winner of the Girard's Famous Salad Dressing giveaway.

Congratulations Kate Ryan.

Please email me you information.

The Christmas lights are up, the smell of the tree is all around us, and now

on to the Gingerbread houses. 

Traditions are what the holidays are all about.

(baby Luke)

Each year I am going to take our Christmas card images,

 or at least until they stop letting me. LOL

Hang the lights together, cook wonderful meals,

and make gingerbread houses. 

Those are just some of our traditions.

What are yours???

~lulu

French Industrial & A Simple Thanksgiving Table…

 

Hi there…

What are you thankful for???

I am thankful for my gorgeous husband, my beautiful baby boys, my fun family and sweet friends. I am thankful for my God, my Faith and my genuine heart. I am thankful for my life, and for being an artist.

I am THANKFUL!

French industrial is my new crave at the moment. My hubby sanded down my dinning room table recently and we just topped it of with Briwax. LOVE that stuff. It brought out the natural pine in the table and was super simple. This table has changed 3 times in two years. Once I stained it a dark Jacobean color, then I painted it white and now this. I like it best this way. I also styled a  simple Thanksgiving table. You can check out last year’s Thanksgiving table setting here.

I replaced my Ashwell chairs with  these two vintage Tolex chairs from my friend Sandy, the other side has a bench. You can see how it use to look here.  I was going to go for the knock off version of these chairs  but decided, NOTHING is better then the real thing. The vintage one’s are hard to find.  I am on the look out for more.

This table setting is just a photo shoot I did for fun and to share idea’s.  I DO NOT use my ironstone, transferware and vintage cutlery to eat off of. Chef told me once that it is not sanitary and it can be porous and hold bacteria. I use it just for decorating

But, that is just me being the crazy, clean, anal person that I am.

All of my velvet pumpkin’s came from A Beautiful Mess. Did you know that these are collector’s items???  My vintage grey French transferware came from Tracey of French Larkspur.

I love her style and flea market finds.

After I shot the table I decided to use my grey French trivets as chargers.

I wanted to let you know I am a little behind on my posting.  You can find me daily on FACEBOOK and follow us there too. I will be sharing what is coming up on our blog as I did when I found these chairs a few weeks ago.

That little blurry guy in the back is a vintage statue of St. Francis.

Got that beauty from Debra Hall Lifestyles.

I hope you all have a wonderful and THANKFUL,

Thanksgiving.

Until next time.

~LuLu

 

I will announcing the winner of Girard’s Premium Salad dressing giveaway on our FACEBOOK tomorrow.

Girard’s Famous Premium Salad Dressing Giveaway!!!

Happy Friday!!!

It is that time of year again!  There is nothing better then the Holidays spent with family and friends.

It is my favorite time of year.

Lifestyle photography is where my passion lies, photographing food is a part of that. I was thrilled when Angela from Girard’s contacted me again and asked if I would participate in photographing another giveaway of my food and Girard’s famous salad dressing. They also asked me if I would interested in becoming a Girard’s Epicurean Expert.

I wanted to share the email Angela had sent me, it was so kind and a complement to my readers.

Dear Lulu, “It was such a great experience working with you on the review and giveaway of Girard’s Premium Salad Dressings last year that I couldn’t wait to reconnect with you again on behalf of Marzetti with a very special invite I think you and your Dusty Lu readers will enjoy.

It’s clear you’ve been busy in your kitchen and with your new bundle of Joy, Luke! How incredibly precious is he?! Congrats! We’ve been busy too, since we last spoke,  perfecting Girard’s Premium Salad Dressing.

Thanks to you and your readers’ participation and feedback on Girard’s three newest flavors, we’re thrilled to introduce 17 varieties of Girard’s Premium Salad Dressings, now tastier and better for you than ever!  We’ve even added more elegant flare and entertaining morsels on Everyday Elegance -an exploration of how food can be prepared simply yet extraordinarily every day and something we think you and your readers will enjoy experiencing.

All of this wouldn’t have been possible without your expertise and passion, which is why we’re thrilled to invite you to become a Girard’s Epicurean Expert. Being a Girard’s Epicurean Expert means you’ll be an essential member of the Girard’s family with opportunities to experience our exclusive food innovations and provide your culinary expertise to help us bring original flavors and perfected mealtime classics to families and establishments across the country.” 

Thank you Angela, I feel blessed and so excited to start my new venture.

In honor of this fun, we are having a giveaway. But, this time we are giving away a Girard’s® Epicurean Expert Kit .

What is a Girard’s® Epicurean Expert Kit you ask???

Well, one lucky reader will receive 4 delicious new flavors of Girard’s Famous Salad dressing, plus a few goodies inside this amazing kit, for your kitchen. YOU will love this, I guarantee it!!!

This giveaway will be open on our Facebook page and our Facebook friends will also have a chance to win. You can leave a comment at the end of this post and or follow us on our blog and “Like” our Facebook page....For additional entries, add it to your sidebar, or you can post about the giveaway to any social networking sites, twitter, facebook, and blogger!!! Please come back and leave a separate comment for each site you post about the giveaway on. Anonymous entries please make sure you leave an email address with your entry, so we can get it to you if you win . Giveaway is open internationally as well!!

Good Luck!!!

Giveaway ends November 23rd.

Have a blessed day.

Lulu

Follow us on FACEBOOK to get daily updates on what is to come on our blog and much, much more.

P.S I will be posting about a new look and our Thanksgiving table next. Stay tuned…

Interview with Laurence Amelie

I was thrilled when I went to see the art exhibit for Laurence Amelia. I love her work.  If you have seen Rachel Ashwells latest book  you can see two of her gorgeous paintings on the cover.

Laurence is an artist from Paris and her painting’s are beautiful. Her work is seen all over the world and in art exhibits in Paris and France. 

We have been corresponding via email and I have had the pleasure of getting to know her . Laurence is warm, friendly, kind and very passionate about her paintings. We have become good friends.

  She has 5 children and they are her inspiration.  She is married to Ubaldo, he is half Italian and half French.  They are both painters, they have a romantic love story. I will be doing a post on Ubaldo as well.  But, today it is about Laurence. I was able to get an interview with her from Grange De Charme. Grange De Charme is a stunning blog, you need to pay them a visit.

Laurence has a wonderful blog as well, called Kittens Tribulations, its fun, clever and inspiring.

You can check it out here. 

It was a little tough to translate the interview but, I know you will enjoy her spirit and I wanted to keep

it as she would express it. She call’s it  Frenglish. LOL.

 

What is your background?

I trained as a designer.  I drew flowers in every detail and I had an epiphany when I discovered the water lilies of Monnet.  … I have an inordinate love for the 18 th century, flowers, fabrics, silk ribbons and crumpled Fragonnard of course the dancers of Degas ...

 

Where does your inspiration?

One day, someone ordered arrays of white robes, and having bathed since very small in abstract art, the natural returned at a gallop. . By dint of strokes I left the scope of the command to turn into a kind of abstraction and become the tutus that we know.

 

How did you meet Rachel Ashwell?

We met 10 years ago . I was looking to exhibit my paintings then in shops imitating the Shabby Chic style.  I went to a shop in Paris in vogue at the time, and it made me realize that I had no chance, is not known, and that this could harm their reputation!  I then wrote directly to Rachel Ashwell asking her to show my paintings in her stores and she was immediately seduced by my work!  And there was born a true friendship.

What is your favorite phrase or motto?

Each person is born with a talent, but 90% of people are born, live and die without ever having known they had a talent ...

 

What would make you get up early on a Sunday morning?

Undeniably the inspiration!

Where have you spent your holidays?

Rachel in between Brentwood and Malibu, to paint and draw inspiration from her world, and its color without painting a few days ... and I'm bored! The ideal holiday home, not far from my studio, the comings and goings of children, punctuated by a good family meal because the kitchen is for me a means of artistic expression.

Amelie Kitchen

 

What is your wildest dream?

My dream was to make a living from my painting and my dream came true ...

Thank you Laurence for taking the time with me and for the endless emails, I can’t wait

to get my painting.

I kept it short and sweet. I hope you will all visit her blog

Have a wonderful day.

~lulu

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Our Family Room…

 

Good evening!!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween. We sure did. We went to my sister-in-laws house and Dusty went treating with his cousins. We had a blast. The Holidays are so much fun when you have kids to share them with. What a blessing.

I wanted to show you our family room that is adjacent to the kitchen.  Yes, I am sorry there are some rooms I have not shared with you yet. Usually this room is full of toys and more toys but, I was able to store them away and put it together for a little shoot. I hope you enjoy it.

Those gorgeous Blue Book are from VintageWeave. I am going to to an amazing post on my friend Kathy soon.

I have decided to change things up a bit for the fall and winter months. I wanted to add some warmer tones to my all white background.  I have been itching and  searching for a new decor style and I haven’t figured out what direction I want to go yet. I am in the process of finding a new dinning room table. I have found the chairs though. For now, I love the white and natural brown tones mixed in with a little color.

On the farm table sits a vintage baby bath tub with dried hydrangeas.  I found the tub and hydrangeas from the sweet Debra Hall of Debra Hall Lifestyles. She has a great eye for unique and stylish items. If you haven’t already, you must visit her website.

 

I couldn’t decide weather I wanted the cloche on or off the base. My son ended up deciding for me, that is why some images have it off. He helped. I think a future photographer is in the making

The gorgeous antique grain sack pillows come from Kymberley Fraser of 3 Fine Grains a division of  A Beautiful Mess and date back to the mid 1850’s.  The stripped ones date back to the 1940’s.

I can not get enough of A Beautiful Mess Antiques, and not just because Kym, Karen, Marilyn, Victoria and Tina are my friends but, because the whole store is full of one-of-a-kind finds. The girls search high and low for amazing items. Each one of these women bring a great element to the store and a  fresh vibe.

We have built-ins around our T.V and I am trying to fill them all with the same color books. Might take awhile.

The oil painting’s are from A Beautiful Mess too and are from the early 1900’s. They are signed by Kavanaugh. I love to collect these. I admire the painting’s of women and children most of all.

My new/antique pantry boxes. They are perfect shade of blue and grey.

This basket came from the Santa Monica flea market a year ago and I store my son’s toys in it. I was frustrated because it sinks in a little in the middle and I couldn’t really put anything on it but, then I saw Brook Giannetti of Velvet & Linens recent post on how she added a cutting board to the top of her basket. GENIUS!

Voila!!

Have a wonderful fall day!!!

~LuLu

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