That built in flower bed is simply gorgeous.  I think I would fill mine with Daisey’s…one of my favorite flowers! This elevated retreat is truly spectacular.

Love this!  I love the awning over the dining area. And those flower boxes on the rail. I bet it looks great from the street level looking up.

They used cedar decking,  but they also added all weather carpeting.  This is a living room right in the heart of the city!  I live in a very suburban neighborhood, but I’d like to think if I lived in a big city I’d have a rooftop garden like this one.  It looks inviting and comfortable. Just my style.

And lastly,  I love this Mediterranean Oasis.  The cedar pergola looks wonderful with those billowy white drapes.  Oh the dinner parties you could throw. I’m already working on the menu, yet I don’t have a rooftop oasis!

And after dinner, we would retreat to this sitting area.  The floor here is made of ivory marble deck stone.  It is so warm and rustic looking.  Love it.  Yes, I can definitely see myself entertaining here!

So, this week I’m totally hooked on rooftop gardens.  I’d love to see more…so help a girl out and send me any photos or links to rooftop gardens.  You know I’m a lookiloo through and through!

Artist Prakash Chandras paints the essence of California — every day. He gets up each morning, makes himself a big cup of tea and takes it to his studio above the garage in South San Jose. Then he paints for two or three hours of California landscapes before he moves on with his day. Each painting is a postcard size and a distinct image of California — a poppy, the Big Sur coastline, Coit Tower in San Francisco. He displays and sells them on his website at California Daily Art. He calls it a “visual vacation.”

He was inspired by a poet he heard on the radio one day talking about his daily writing inspiration on his short walks to work, whether it was a flower or a cloud. And Chadras, who teaches art at De Anza Community College in Cupertino, knew how such an exercise would not only be a creative one, but a good daily discipline.

“I wanted to push myself every day,” said Chadras, who earned a Masters in Fine Art in 1983 from San Jose State University. He also had developed a special painting technique he calls linearism, where he paints only with parallel lines. And each of those paintings takes upwards of six months. His postcard images gave him a daily sense of creativity and achievement. He sells them for about $100 each.

“I only paint the places I have seen and experienced,” said Chandras, who takes snapshots of his California travels and refers to them in the studio. “When I paint in the morning, I remember being there. In my mind, I’m indulging myself with all these memories.”

Related stories:
Jill’s Living Room
Sonya Paz – Art Out of this World
Everyday is Valentine’s Day at Debbie Marie’s Gallery in Campbell
Another Etsy Find – San Jose Artist Paul Chung
Rebecca Peragine: Prints to Brighten up a Rainy Day
Hand-painted Tiles for a Special Pirate or Princess
Love and Valentine’s Day Gifts: Rae Dunn Clay
A few Etsy Ideas for your home gallery

Cindy Kihn-Santiago’s “My Romantic Home” blog about her shabby chic Campbell apartment is so popular, with readers so loyal, that if she neglects to post a story one day, she gets emails asking, “Are you OK?”

With roughly 2,000 readers a day from across the country and even Malaysia and Australia, “it’s gotten bigger than I ever imagined,” Cindy said. She even receives reader comments in French that she needs a translation program to decipher.

“Cindy, perhaps we could crown you Queen of Blogland,” one of her readers, Suzann@lavenderandroses, wrote earlier this week. “Yup, I think that’s appropriate.”

So what is the lure of romantichome.blogspot.com? It’s not as if Cindy is a professional interior designer offering all the latest trendy tips in home decor. She’s a 48-year-old self-described single mother of two who loves “gardening, decorating, knitting, cooking and drawing.”

And her romantic home is not some vintage English cottage in the woods. It’s a four-plex on a busy side street. But bit by bit, she has transformed a nondescript 1,000 square-foot apartment into a charming, shabby chic, French cottage with an elegant twist.

Chandeliers and lace, china plates and shells, Cindy’s home has become a white-on-white oasis. She’s done it all herself, finding antiques at flea markets and garage sales and repainting chests of drawers and candlesticks. Since late 2005, she has blogged about nearly every detail.

And, perhaps not surprisingly, she said, “the blog gets better the more I decorate.”

For such a self-effacing person, there’s something a bit surprising to find that when “painting furniture” is typed into a Google search, romantichome pops up third _ behind HGTV and Martha Stewart!

And HGTV has found Cindy. Winning a “Rate My Space” contest, Cindy’s apartment was used as an HGTV inspiration for a couple who wanted a romantic bedroom. JCPenney handed her a $500 shopping spree through their home decor department and her blog was featured in Romantic Country magazine.

Cindy’s down-home charm, along with stories and photos about her home, the shops she patronizes and the Victorian-lined streets she wanders along has earned her legions of fans.

She started her blog in late 2005. Too intimidated to write about her passion _ knitting _ she posted a photo of her home. She soon discovered another home blog, “Daisy Cottage,” and was so inspired she picked up the pace of her writing. And readers adore her. With nearly every post, roughly 50 to 200 readers post comments back, gushing about her taste and creativity.

When Cindy wrote about a little shelf in her bedroom, LillyB wrote: “Cindy, It is beautiful and so are your memories! Thank you for sharing! See? You have been talented forever!!!”

A year ago, in November 2007, her blog had 16,507 visits per month. Now, she’s getting more than 60,000.

“I can’t think about it too much or I get a panic attack,” Cindy said. “What am I going to blog about?”

Thank goodness she still has a bathroom to remodel. She’s never met the women she’s come to know on her blog, but “I know we would have such a great neighborhood if we all lived together.”

She dreams of having her own “little cottage someday,” she writes on her home page, “but for now I’m just happy turning my rental home into a warm and inviting space on a single mom’s budget.”

One of her fans just sent her a package in the mail. In it was a Christmas ornament of a little cottage with a note that said, “from my home to yours. I hope you get your dream cottage.”

In the meantime, the pursuit of Cindy’s dream, posted with love Monday through Friday, is close enough.

Update:

This post is featured in the San Jose Mercury News Home and Garden section here.

Here’s the complete slideshow: