Eight Great Places For A Chandelier

Hi Everyone! Another great guest post for you from Arcadian Lighting

I think I should ask them to do a giveaway for all of you. What do you think?
Happy Weekend!


Lighting fixtures can become the beautiful focal points of rooms, and a chandelier is one of the best ways to achieve this. While traditionally it has been the lighting fixture of choice for the dining room, there are slews of other great places for a chandelier. They can create ambient lighting in utilitarian spaces such as kitchens and bathrooms, add a touch of class and elegance to an entryway or suspended outdoors, and they are the perfect accessory to a lavish bedroom, living room or home office. Available in an endless range of styles and materials, chandeliers are the most opulent of lighting fixtures.

Bathroom

Once Daily Chic (via)

Perched above a grandiose tub or even a glitzy vanity, a bejewelled chandelier looks stunning when reflecting off of white tiles and gold accents.

Kitchen

Custom Furniture (via)

Chandeliers aren't always dripping with crystals - a more subdued streamlined light fixture, like this three-shade wrought-iron model, provides direct lighting over a kitchen island.

Bedroom

bjoku.com (via)

An antique-style chandelier adds instant glam to a bedroom, either hung over a four-poster bed or in a changing area, as pictured here.

Living room

The Lennoxx (via)

Arrange the furniture in a formal living room around a candelabra-type chandelier for an intimate sitting area where everyone will want to socialize.

Kid's bedroom

honeyandfitz.blogspot.com (via)

Give the little princess of the house a sparkly addition to brighten up her bedroom - there is a wide selection of mini chandeliers to choose from.

Home office

Country Living (via)

Make going to the office a little more chic with floral-patterned wallpaper, dashes of bright fuchsia and a hanging light fixture overhead.

Entryway

Indy Star (via)

Nothing says welcome like the inviting ambiance of an entryway†chandelier - look for something that complements the decor as well as proportionately occupies the space.

Outside

sucasase.blogspot.com (via)

One of the more unlikely spots for a chandelier and yet one of the most striking, chandeliers playfully dangling from an arbour, tree or tent ceiling brings the extravagance of the inside out.


VV here:
Jennifer is a writer for Arcadian Lighting, a site that specializes in top quality lighting fixtures at extremely affordable prices. Go visit them HERE today!

The Last Hampton On Sale

The shopping site ideeli is having a travel sale. There are several great destinations, but my favorite is in Montauk on Long Island in New York, the "last" Hampton so to speak.



It's at a sweet resort called Sole East, and it looks like just the perfect place to spend the first days of Sumner at.

• Nightly rate for a Standard King Room - $169.
  
• Travel May 22 - July 28, 2011
• Midweek (Sunday-Thursday) nights only
• Taxes of 11.63% are NOT included
• Availability guaranteed on advertised dates or you'll receive a full refund. See blackout dates and restrictions at bottom of the page.

There's a timeless laid-back beach vibe to Montauk, where the swells call surfers to catch a wave, the harbor calls great fishing boats to its docks, and the historic lighthouse watches over the sand-and-sun lovers on Long Island's very eastern tip. At the Solé East Resort, the chic bungalow-style guest rooms (each unique, with island-modern white-on-white décor) in this landmark American Tudor call you to experience Montauk in hip beach-club style.

ideeli is offering Standard King Rooms at the Solé East Resort at up to 37% off regular rates (taxes are additional). Travel May 22 - July 28, 2011, Sunday - Thursday (with blackout dates of May 27 - 30 & July 1 - 4). Enjoy complimentary Wi-fi, parking, and beach passes.

Laze in an oversized St. Tropez bed by the heated pool, curl up in a hammock in the resort's lush gardens, or take the active route and jump on one of the Solé's rental bikes for a three-minute cruise to the beach. Later, grab a fireside table at the Backyard restaurant for a meal of just-caught seafood, creative takes on farmers' market finds, and a bottle of fine wine. At Solé East, even a brief getaway feels like a gorgeously endless summer.

• Rates include parking, wifi, and beach parking passes
• Soak up the sun by the outdoor pool with a cocktail from the Backyard Restaurant
• Perfect home base for exploring all that Montauk and The Hamptons have to offer

Now where is that phone number for my private jet....

I've Got Your Number!

Enamel house numbers in the flea market in Buenos Aires

In my travels to Spain, France, England, Italy, Holland, Portugal, and Argentina, there is a humble object that I love. It is the enamel house number.

The enamel house number on a door in Buenos Aires

On my first trip there in 1997 with Alberto, I combed the flea markets and junk shops trying to find one with our house number on it. I couldn't find one.

Picture this "I Love Lucy" scenario: One night Alberto and I are walking home after a dancing tango, and I see a house with our house number on it! It's hanging by one screw! I ask Alberto to give me a boost so I can see if it will wiggle off. Of course the number is way too high, and Alberto is far more sensible. So I schemed in a very Lucy to Ricky way how we could come back with a ladder and a screwdriver. Picture Lucy and Ethel getting their souvenir block of cement from in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater when they were in Hollywood...It made perfect sense to me! Needless to say I did not get the enamel house number.

On subsequent trips to Buenos Aires, I always looked for our house number and never found it.
But now I can just buy one from Ramsign.

via Ramsign

Ramsign might be known to many of you bloggers, because several of you have done a giveaway sponsored by them. Tezz, from Ramsign recently sent me an email and offered a giveaway for the readers of Visual Vamp.

Enamel house number on a door in Europe

Enamel house number in France

Tezz writes: "We usually let the winner choose one of our house number signs (not name signs or address plaques) to make the award as personal as possible. There are signs available from 1 digit and up to 5 digits and with five different styles. That means you can choose a winner and then send the name and email address to me and I'll get in touch with him or her to find out what sign he or she wants. We'll then make sure that it gets manufactured and delivered to the winner. Regarding the shipping: we do ship worldwide so everyone can participate in the contest."

Martha Stewart inspired by enamel house numbers

So let's make this simple! You can go to Ramsign to see what they have (and they have alot!).
To win one of these wonderful enamel house number signs, just leave me a comment, and one will be chosen at random.

This is a great giveaway - the signs retail from $49. up top $249.

So leave as many comments as you like to enter often!

Effortless Style

See what I do all day at Effortless Style HERE

Something is still messed up with my blog. I don't know what's going on. Yesterday's post just disappeared. I am still not convinced this is just Google's doing, and I suspect someone is messing with me and doing some damage. I can hardly wait to move my blog from this location.

Please stay with me! I will not let this ruin all that we have gone through together, and destroy the friendships and loyalty you have all bestowed on this old vamp...

Happy Weekend!

I Can Be

I posted this on Thursday May 12, and it disappeared from my blog. I don't know what's going on.

Luckily I had a copy in my email. Sadly all your great comments are gone. If I still have them in my email, I will add them. Please stay with me here, while Alberto and I migrate Visual Vamp anywhere but Google Blogspot.

This Barbie was done for an art exhibit

Barbie has been a doctor, a dentist, a vet and a race car driver,and now the iconic doll that has inspired and entertained little girls for generations takes on the job of architect. With the help of two American Institute of Architects members, Mattel Inc., now has Architect Barbie -- complete with hard hat and blueprints -- to be the latest addition to its ‘’Barbie I Can Be…’’ line of dolls.

This is what Matel produced

I Can Be.

What did you want to be when you were the age to play with dolls? I had dolls, but they were not my favorite toys. My first aspiration came around age 9. I wanted to be a scientist, and bugged my mother to get me a microscope. That was my favorite toy. She also signed me up for some kind of kid's book club, and I got a brand new "All About..." book in the mail every month. Books were my absolute favorite "toys".

My mother's aspiration for me was to become a ballet dancer. I was not so hot about this, though I took classes from age 3 until adulthood, was a "professional" child performer, and continued dancing on stage until my 20's. Everything was not beautiful at the ballet for me, but I marginally stayed in show biz via acting, and ending my career in a 80's pop/rock band in New York, and starting a soft show biz life again in 1995 to the present as a tango dancer.

This is a photo of my mother who was a dancer

The scientist dream segued into wanting to be a doctor. Realities of the cost of med school was the buzz kill my mother interjected into my dreams, so I ratcheted down to wanting to be a nurse. A stint as a Candy Striper at age 15 stifled that dream, I didn't dig the hospital hierarchy then, of nurses being treated like hand maidens to male doctors.

Perhaps my I Can Be ideal was a Gloria Steinem or Dorothy Pitman Hughes doll.

Gloria and Dorothy via

Art school was a logical choice for me. Along with all the dance classes I took as a teenager, I also took Saturday art classes at The Art Students League because I had an affinity for painting and drawing. I applied and was accepted to art school, and that was the leitmotif of my higher education.

I still took my daily dance classes for the sake of physical fitness, and later acting classes and singing lessons because I would occasionally audition for some small thing that caught my interest. Along with the rock band, I was a member of a conceptual performance group headed up by poet Max Blagg and musician/writer Jim Farmer.

My rock and roll days - more HERE - Hair by Danilo my friend at the time

I went to film school for awhile, and took a course in race car driving, and I also dabbled in poetry classes with Edward Field, Erica Jong, Michael Bennet, and Daniel Halpern.

I Can Be a dilettante ha ha. I guess I am a creature of the arts. My collection of I Can Be Barbies would be vast.

I have I had 10,000 jobs and 500 careers.

I would love to hear about your I Can Be stories...How many of us turned out to be what we wanted to be when we were children? How many of us are continually re-inventing ourselves?

--
Posted By visual vamp to * v i s u a l * v a m p * at 5/12/2011 08:40:00 AM

Lonny Dropped in New Orleans

Valorie Hart, Jack Mayberry, Michelle Adams and Patrick Cline from Lonny,
and Caroline Robert owner of perch., photographed in perch. in New Orleans

It has been hush-hush for months that Lonny was coming to New Orleans! The publishing world is like that. emails flew back and forth, scouting for places to shoot and things to do, and the results are in the May 2011 issue of Lonny.


Two features I really love: Page 53, on overview of New Orleans, and then page 108 a gorgeous feature called Historic Style.

Michelle is a darling young woman, and Patrick is a genius photographer. He still shoots film instead of digital, and his photos are all the more amazing for it.

Check it out HERE

Historic House Workshop at Preservation Resource Center

Ahem, some PR - just in case you are in New Orleans this evening ~

Valorie Hart is well known for giving Argentine tango workshops with her husband Alberto Paz. Now you can attend an interior design workshop she is giving at the Preservation Resource Center. Historic House Workshop: "Designing the Interior of Your Historic Home" with Valorie Hart (including a Book Signing with Stephanie Bruno) Tuesday, May 10, 2011 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. At the PRC 923 Tchoupitoulas St. (in the Warehouse District) Learn the tricks of the interior design trade – plus get a signed copy of a new book about local neighborhood architecture! This workshop is ideal for anyone who is decorating their home for the first time or who is looking to redesign the interior of their home. Learn design tips from Valorie Hart, who is a design consultant at Perch and author of Visual Vamp, a home decorating blog. See images of beautifully decorated rooms, and learn tips and tricks to promote traffic flow through awkward spaces. Also, Stephanie Bruno will discuss & sign copies of her new book, New Orleans Streets: A Walker's Guide to Neighborhood Architecture. Cash bar. Free and open to the public. For more information, call 504.636.3399 or email sblaum@prcno.org.

Designer Ideas To Take Outdoors

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Pier 1 for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Summer is nearly here, and it's time to get serious about fixing up your deck or patio or balcony.

Pier 1 is the go-to destination for pieces that have a high end designer look at affordable prices. Here's a round up of some designer spaces, along with some Pier 1 pieces that you could use to get the designer look.

I went into my clipping file to show you some images. The first one is a terrific bed on a patio. This is the epitome of the indoor/outdoor concept. You might try a modification of this with a bench or a platform, and fill it with colorful pillows.

Pier 1 has a very cool bench with a canopy over it that would look amazing. They have an incredible pillow and cushion collection. Just pile them on for the high end designer look.

This bench with a canopy from Pier 1 echos the idea of the bed


Designer cushions on a platform

Start with this large Pier 1 cushion

Add a few of these orange pillows from Pier 1

Add another blue pillow or two from Pier 1 - love the button detail

This cute print would add another layer - get it at Pier 1

Designers love to use woven furniture, and it looks fabulous outside and inside. While you are on a Pier 1 shopping spree for your patio, why not pick up a couple of woven chairs to refresh your living room, or den.

The woven arm chair looks great outdoors and indoors


This Pier 1 chair is woven from banana leaves

Dining "alfresco". It sounds so romantic. We love to eat outdoors as much as we can once Summer rolls around. Think about getting a table and chairs that you can use outdoors and indoors.

These cheery yellow chairs just scream "dining alfresco"

This rustic dining table from Pier 1 would work outdoors



This is the best yellow chair from Pier 1

This outdoor table from Pier 1 would work inside as well

The high end designer look of modular furniture for outdoor use can now be ours!
Pier 1 has a great line of sleek pieces that you can put together to get that magazine worthy look.

High end designer look

Party-O on the Patio!
This is the sleek modular outdoor furniture at Pier 1!

Rocking chairs on the porch! Is there any other image that says Summer more than a rocking chair on the porch, or on the patio? Pier 1 has the cutest wicker rocking chair in three colors. This is another piece I would bring inside. It would be precious in a nursery.

These darling wicker rocking chairs are from Pier 1

Who doesn't want or need a cute bar cart? Pier 1 has a rolling cart that would rock the patio, and I would definitely use it inside of the house too.

LOVE this bar cart from Pier 1

Hope you enjoyed this round up of Summer decorating ideas, and the arm chair shopping trip to Pier 1. Get on out to your local Pier 1 and grab a few of these pieces.

Go to Pier 1
And check out the Pier 1 Tweetups

Google The Hacker

The Fickle Finger of Fate! Up yours Google!

What would you do if you got an email from an address you never saw, you didn't recognize, and it told you to click on a link, and if you didn't respond your user name would be automatically changed?

I have been schooled to delete things I don't know, because opening the unknown email or link can infect your computer with a hideous virus.

Or what would happen if this email arrived in your Spam box? Do you open Spam if you don't see that it's from someone you know and landed there by mistake? I think not.

Well I'm with you, and what happened to me was that since April 29 I have not been able to sign into my blog.

All kinds of conspiracy theories floated around. Alberto thought Google was behind it. And he was right. Of course customer service for Google blogspot users sucks, so no answer or help was readily available.

Why is Google changing the user name and email to sign into my blog? Has this happened to any of you using blogspot?

Finally after days of sending countless reports to the robots at Google, I got one today instructing me to sign in with this weird email address they assigned me. I did, and had to reset my password, and now I have access again. I tried to change the email address back to my own, and of course they want to send all communication to the weird email they hacked into my blog to give me. Since that is not my email, it is useless, and I certainly am not sending any password info to some random email.

So Google is a stinking hacker. And I give them the huge finger. They caused alot of us some grief this week. I thank Jenny, Erica, Carollynn, and Nicole for all the support, tech and otherwise, and I thank Alberto for always keeping a logical cool head.

We already started migrating my blog to Word Press.

In the meantime, I'll keep posting here and hope that Google is done fucking with me.