Exceptional Home Designs by Architects Johnston Marklee

Exceptional Home Designs by Architects Johnston Marklee. Perched on a hillside with picture windows facing the horizon, the open-concept plan maximizes the incredible views, from Rustic and Sullivan Canyons to Santa Monica Bay. Minimalist interiors are notable for their lack of walls, resulting in an awesome open interior that promoted socialization. The main living area is overlooked by an upper

We are Back! (And the Winner of the $50 Gift Card)

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Yay! Despite a setback of being without electricity for almost five days (we did finally get it back today) DearLillie.com is finally live and open for business. We will be adding new products that weren't quite ready to go over the next several days and weeks. Please note with our new site we will no longer be taking custom orders and everything that is available for purchase is already made and ready to ship. For some of the products there are limited quantities (like scarves and some of hats) and once they are sold out it may be a while before they will be restocked.

And now onto the winner of the $50 Dear Lillie Gift Card:

Congratulations to Vida!

Please send us an e-mail at dearlillie@hotmail.com to collect your prize!

Thank you all for "sharing" our site with all of your friends! We appreciate it so much!

And thank you all for sticking with us over these past few months while we were closed! 

Have a wonderful Thursday!

I AM BAAAACK, A THANK YOU AND WHY I WANT TO GO BACK TO PARIS!

Well hellooooo blogland! Wow what a ride,  courtesy of Irene!! Here in NY, we were hit pretty hard, mostly from downed trees taking out all kinds of wires and cables which resulted in cutting  approx 500,000 people out of electricity, cable and Internet access!!! We have had power off and on for the last few days but just got my beloved Internet about two hours ago!! I sooooooooooo missed being here in blogland, and want to send out a sincere thanks to so many of you who emailed me to check up on how we were doing...I cannot begin to tell you how touched I was/am. So, 2 books, several glasses of wine, one too many afternoon siestas (purely out of boredom),10 sore fingers from texting family and friends, countless boxes of cookies and bags of chips, several candlelit meals,and many many prayers later.....here I am back at The Enchanted Home!! And oh what a relief it is! This post is one which I had worked on last week to post one day this week so seeing that there is no time like the present....


Well truth is I think its fairly obvious why anyone would want to go to Paris, at any given time. It is to me, the most spectacularly beautiful city in the world, with the most breathtaking architecture, which boasts of incredible food and gastronomy bar none, their innate fashion sense is off the charts, they understand the pleasure of really living life and their language sounds like a perfect melody regardless of what they are saying......did I  mention the food? Oh yea, got that covered. When we were there last time, we had the great pleasure of visiting the Maison Objet show and I shared a very lengthy post coming off the heels of that wonderful trip with you. But as I was going through my online album trying to clean it up a bit, trying being the operative word, I suddenly found myself yearning to be back in that magical city and really loving all my pictures (most from the show). There are few places that I have been in this world that I feel this way about but there I do. So though this is really random, I wanted to share again some of the highlights from the beauty of the city, to the mouth  watering window displays of French patisseries, to all the divine goodies at the show (actually this is but a smidgen of what I saw) but it will certainly whet your appetite!!

The Christopher Guy showroom

Loved the marble mantles

Something about this moss green velvet...fabulous!

Blue and white always catches my eye!

This limed oak was everywhere

Gorgeous French company small family owned and produced,

Loved their furniture...so elegant and timeless

Another mantle..a stunner!

Love this butchers block and still want to find a place for one!

And this one too!

If I had a beach house, would love these chairs and table for it..

Saw lots of fun and whimsical displays

Loved the marble bath in our hotel room....

LOVE!

Always adored this wall of blue and white plates!

A gorgeous hand made ladies writing desk

Talk about a statement piece!! I could see this on a black and white marble checkerboard floor...

Fell in love with this burl walnut chest....

Black rules!

How stunning was this setting? Magnifique!

A cool beach house or Manhattan apt. vibe....

Love a really tall bookcase

Beautiful heirloom quality chest

The Phillipe Starc Baccarat limited edition chandelier

I loved all the paneling in the hallway of our hotel

And our room wasn't too bad either.....

At every turn, there was something pretty to admire

A Parisian street, like no other!

Even on a dreary winter day.....how stunning is this city?

In fact i think its at its most beautiful when enveloped in a gray shroud

The beautiful Seine......ahhhh, this so has me wanting to return for our evening strolls here!

A few mantles we admired at an antiques shop, unfortunately when we came back to measure neither size worked

What more approrpriate note to end this on then a mouth watering display of French macaroons?

Does this make you want to go too? Have you been to Paris? Do you feel the same way I do about this incredible city......If not whats your favorite city? Anything above strike your fancy or knock your socks off? Always love to know. Once again SO HAPPY to back here...I truly missed it!  Have a wonderful evening.....and be back tomorrow!!

Where We Learn…

Hey all my friends! 

I know a lot of you know that we homeschool our children.  We began homeschooling when our son started Kindergarten and he just started college this week.  We also homeschool our two other children; one a junior and the other in 3rd grade.

My husband and I have counted it as such a blessing to be able to teach our children at home, even though we all teach our children at home, don’t we?  We just felt led to keep them at home when school time came around. 

I am so thankful that God called us to this job.  It has been very rewarding and also very difficult at times.  Oh, did I tell you that I am the teacher and my husband the principal?  Yeah, he gets a kick out of saying that he is the principal.  That’s fine with me because he is also the math and science teacher when the material gets too tough for me to understand. 

Right now, our oldest homeschool child does most of her work independently in her room.  (except for test time)  The youngest and I do her work together.  I am teaching her to be more independent in her work, but mom is still needed a big percentage of the time. 

Since I do have to be pretty much right with Faith, I like to do our school work downstairs close to the kitchen and laundry room.  We have a big playroom that would be great for a school room, but it’s upstairs and too far from the day’s happenings. 

We tried a couple of different places but decided on the room that we or maybe me, find the most calming and relaxing.   That happens to be the dining room with the big farm table and most everything painted white.  It also has two windows that look out onto the front yard so we can see our chickens playing and anyone who happens down the driveway.  I pull the blinds all the way up every morning to let the sun shine in on our day and then we work, and play, and talk, and laugh, and I love it!

This is my youngest love that makes my heart go pitter patter.

You know that I love my farm table and now it’s become a great spot to do more than just eat at.  Learning can be “pretty”.

(chemo treatment number two for my mama tomorrow (Thursday)…please pray if you feel led to) WHEN WE ARE WEAK, HE SURE IS STRONG!!!!!

Partying over at Faded Charm and Brambleberry Cottage