Mother was from Florida and part of each summer was spent in Pensacola visiting my grandparents.  Days were spent on the water or on the beach: one of white, white powder-fine grains of sand and sea oats.  Hunting for shells and fiddlers, chasing Sand Pipers, fishing and building sand castles kept us kids occupied.  Those sand castles were built with the aid of paper cups, straws, shells and shards of sea glass and other found objects.  They fueled our imaginations and we took great pride in ownership.  And, yes, we cried whenever a wave demolished our creations!  I can’t imagine how many tears would have been shed if our sandcastles looked like any of these created by sand sculptors and featured in an article in the May Coastal Living.  It’s a true art form with big prizes!

Another summer memory from my teen years always recalled those earlier years of building sand castles.  Pat Boone had a big hit titled Love Letters In The Sand.  He even did the whistling.  “On a day like today we pass the time away writing love letters in the sand. How you laughed when I cried each time I saw the tide take our love letters from the sand.”  I always thought it was a song of the 50′s but recalled my mother singing it when we built those sand castles.  The song was first published in 1931 so it would have a lot more meaning for my mother.

Everyone has loads of memories of their childhood summers.  Care to share any with us?

-  Lorre Lei

With the gorgeous weather this past weekend, and a wonderful Mother’s Day celebration, I took a little “me time” to read up on my magazines. I was going to post another inspirational post from High Point but decided to save that one and run this one instead because I was so excited when I saw the possibilities stemming from House Beautiful‘s regular Paint Palette feature. I love how they pull the paint colors out from an image as in Audubon’s painting, Roseate Spoonbill.

Then I got to thinking why does this have to just be paint? Why heck, we have all these colors as the Karen Robertson Collection Stripes and as Wallfinishes, seen below.

Even some of our Organics  (faux bois and raw silk) would be a similar match to these colors and if not, you could customize it by giving us  paint or Pantone colors to match. Easy and limitless possibilities.

Now let’s see what all this might look like in a room setting. To do this, I use Olioboard to get a sense. I’ve pinned other boards on Pinterest.

Creative concepts make decorating a lot easier if you can conceptualize it before you have to do it.  Casart coverings makes it a whole lot easier than having to paint! Casart is one of the most versatile repositionable wallcoverings around. It can go over itself without permanently sticking + commercial grade so thick, durable and mold and fire resistant.

Try it with our products on Olioboard and see what you get. Let us know what other ones you want us to add.

If you missed our Mother’s Day sale, it’s not too late. You have until May 20th to order from any of our Botanical Designs. Contact us for the special code at contact@casartcoverings.com. This Pink, Black & White Flower Power was one of the more popular items on One Kings Lane. These flowers last long after the real bouquets fade.

One other extension of Mother’s Day that you may also find interesting is this article that proposes Mothers would make good business women. Why? Because they’ve been practicing the art of “conflict resolution” known as E=Q*A in business lingo. Read more here. It will make any mom feel good about child rearing and giving themselves often unnoticed (except one day out of the year) credit for all the hard work they do.

– Ashley

There were plenty of Showrooms that had lots of style at this year’s spring High Point Market. I couldn’t capture all of them because there are so many and just so many hours in the day for visiting them. I’m showcasing the ones that stood out using eye-catching wallpaper and backdrops that set the stage for their furnishings.

I’m always happy to see another female, family owned business take center stage. Lucy is the furniture designer and her sister, Holly, helps manage Lucy Smith, custom metal furnishings made in Anniston, Alabama, good ole’ USA. Kudos ladies to a great High Point showing!

Lucy Smith in her showroom. Like the wallpaper and LOVE her slide under chair table.

Worlds Away Showroom - color block accent walls with 3-d illusion vignettes

Elaine Smith - Venetian vignette - clever 3-d illusion

Tozai - Makes dripping paint decorative - darn right cool

Global Views - yellow room with mirrored wall and concave features

Global Views - mirrored wall with practical shelf inserts

Global Views - dark gray walls make these coral, white and black with silver colors pop with sophisticated-hip elegance

Finally a theme that I thought was totally unique was Cyan’s chicken coop comparing your home to your coop. Who would have thought fake grass could be fashionable? What can I say, I love chickens and yes, I used to raise them in my backyard. At one point, we turned the family play gym into our chicken coop. It was the perfect a-frame structure. I tended little cute chicks to full grown chickens there with fond memories.

Cyan - Carries the Coop theme throughout - totally unique + I love chickens

More inspirations to come….

 – Ashley