Annabel Bleu

/

Friends I’m not shy about my love of Pillows….. In all shapes and sizes. This week I’m sharing my go to source for ready made pillow covers Annabel Bleu.

I ordered my first Annabel Bleu cover in those first heady days at home in March of 2020. I seriously love this brand so much - for the myriad of styles, amazing price points and exemplary customer service.

Alyssa is the owner of Annabel Bleu. Her grandmother’s name is Annabel, who’s favorite color is blue. They like to eat Bleu cheese and apple slices together in Annabel’s kitchen. Annabel has always had a beautifully decorated home and the two of them choose fabrics for Annabel Bleu together.

Annabel & Alyssa at High point fabric market

Alyssa began sewing when she was 6yrs old. Sewing doll clothes with her grandmother is one of her favorite memories. This amazing creative is a NICU Nurse, and during Nursing school ran a sewing school out of her home with 56 students of all ages. After several years of nursing she decided to re-embrace her creative side by sewing and selling pillows online. Within 6 months, Alyssa was sewing every spare minute, and hired factory-trained seamstresses to work with her. She was thrilled to help someone out of a factory work environment, and pay them what they truly deserve for each and every piece.

These days Alyssa’s shifts in the NICU a just few every month and she spends the rest of her time designing, photographing and shipping product. Her studio is her favorite place to be!

Indigo Farmhouse Collection - one of my design clients has this group in their home.

Annabel Bleu is a small design company with many years of experience in Home Textiles and Interior Design. They are passionate about crafting Heirloom - quality Decor. This is why I am such a fan and wanted to share this amazing brand with you today.

Click the images below to go directly to Annabel Bleu.

While I was writing this piece I received this post from well known DIY Home Design Experts Chris and Julia Marcum all about the best pillow inserts… I call that serendipity!

Til next time be well!

Images: Annabel Bleu and me.

The One Thing...

/

Recently I shared a little peek at my bedroom - really it was the wall and the collected objects on the shelf and in response to a question a friend posed I shared the most important object I own. The One Thing I’d save if I needed to…

The answer is this little print. It’s a street scene of Edinburgh, Scotland my mother Rita gifted me. It means so very much to me - the fact that it’s Art of Architecture - and that Rita understood what I loved and brought this fully framed piece back in her suitcase from her travels - it’s everything! and it tickles me to think it cost £4.99 in 1992.

So I started asking friends “Would you share a photo of the one thing you’d save” I quantified the question saying it was an object not a living being.

So here’s what they would grab above all else.

Melody Borghesani: It would be this painting of my mothers! She painted it when she was 59 she’s 85 now! She painted three of them and I was lucky enough to get one! I’ll always cherish it!!!

Aileen Grodzinsky: I’d grab Lucy’s baby doll Carolee. Not exactly a grand heirloom family passed down item answer I know. But it’s just the 1 thing that immediately came to mind. It’s Lucy’s security blanket. Her most cherished possession. And it’s a doll which feels at times like a real person in this family. So it would be a devastating loss and one that we could not get over.

Jessica N. Rhodes: This question you asked me about my most special object was really difficult to answer! To be honest, I don’t think I’d take any decorative object if my house was threatened, I’d probably take photo albums of family pictures instead, but that’s a boring answer. So if I had to choose a most precious object it would probably be this oil painting my dad found for me. I love that the bright greens are unexpected, the light looks like it’s glowing, and that my dad knew it was something I would love when he saw it.

Cynthia Schenck Shirey: I used to think if my home was threatened that I would grab my jewelry or a huge box that holds so many of our family photos. Then we lost our son in 2018. I found this unfinished stippled work in his art portfolio. It now hangs where I can see it many times throughout my day. He struggled the last three years of his life, and he started this piece in an effort to deal with one setback after another. It is my most valued possession, as it symbolizes his unfinished life, his unfulfilled hopes and dreams.

Alison Sheffield: The book Stephen altered and gave me when he proposed. It’s a beautiful art piece and I love it. Also, the rest of the proposal was a bit of a disaster so this is extra special.

Mariana Silveira: My best friend (who was trained in fine painting in Russia) made it and gifted it to me on my birthday about 5 years ago. Antonella was seven.

Michele C. Strauts: I thought long and hard about this and I would try and save as many pieces of jewelry as possible because those are the most precious and sentimental objects to me.

Thank you so much ladies - I appreciate each of you accepting the challenge!

I can’t close this piece without sharing this image from October 2012. Hurricane Sandy was bearing down on us in New Jersey and the Edinburgh street-scene was in the closed green bin you see behind my husband in our diningroom.

Til next time friends be well!

Images: Account Listed & Linked.