It's all apart of life's pageant

What up Buttercup?!

For those of you that follow me on Facebook and Twitter [honestly thankful for those social media outlets] know that I am still alive. This blog is on my list of things to 'cleanse' - this may be my word for 2011 too. Everytime I sat down to post I wanted to clean up a few things, which ended up being hours of frustration and wasted time. For example that HUGE space on my right hand side bar... Typepad can't even get rid of it, it's something that I programmed in my CSS. CSS wha??? exactly. Then after all of that I didn't even post.

Which leads me to hiring this team and eventually moving the blog. Right now I am deciding how much of the content of the blog is going to transfer over and how much is going to get cleansed out. It's not an easy transfer so it will be a great deal of cutting and pasting. Unless I find an easier way to do it of course! Any ideas?

I am definitely not going to keep you waiting - because I do have so much I want to share... Like my office remodel!

Part of my cleansing has been to change the colors in the house - it has been happening ever so slowly. Since we have lots of photographs and art I wanted a calming color on the walls. This goes for my office too - I started to feel that my office was just too much! The walls were coral, all the paper stacks were colored, the art is colored, everything had some kind of color and my eyes needed to rest. Calm. Grown up. Big Girl color. Whatever you want to call it...

I call it Collingwood [OC-28] by Benjamin Moore. Here are some initial photos of my space - my organizing system is still in place, there is less of it. I just purged and re-arranged furniture. Since I don't have the luxury of having a totally seperate computer work area I tried to make it seem like I did. I also wanted to be back by the window.

The main creative area is still the same - I was hoping to get rid of at least one Bonde [discontinued IKEA] shelf but couldn't part with such a good unit. So I set out to empty/purge one unit! I also was able to situate my worktable against the shelving unit. Only blocking a few shelves that I don't need to get to on a daily basis.

The other goal on the list was to move my Genesis trimmer off my workspace so I had more area [you need this when cutting fabric ;)] Setting up the other side of the room allowed me to do this and place the trimmer on the Alex [IKEA] drawer units.

This is my sewing area...
I am slowly adding in the details - there will be a pendant light above the sewing desk and a quilt design wall on the blank wall above the Alex drawers. Magnetic boards will be hung back up and can't wait to get this from the framers to hang above my computer desk!

Thanks for sticking with me and hope to be a better blogger in 2011!

 

 

Garage Sale | More photos

Get the details here.

Garage Sale | Saturday, June 19th

Don't forget if you are in the area we are having our annual garage sale this Saturday! LOTs of scrapbooking supplies that are priced to walk away with you - shabby/antique items - books - home decor - TVs - vacuums - area rugs - ETC.

We are doing this one day only from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM  - here is a sneak peek of what we have ready!

17501/17505 SE 22nd Drive, Vancouver, WA 98683

Holiday Decor part deux

Here are some photographs of some of my favorite pieces in my Christmas collection...

Snow globes - I can play with these ALL day, especially listening to the Christmas music from the wind up.

Love my dirty snowman with my regal santa...

Silver Balls - a  tradition started a long time ago that my mom carries on. You receive a silver engraved ball from your first year marriage and there after. I had this re-bar tree made for display purposes and now I use it to display these balls at Christmas time. As you can see some of my balls need polishing but it may have to wait until next year!

I have several of these reindeer in different positions...

They were all a gift from my mother in law and she bought them from a store in Chattanooga that is no longer in business. But I love how the antlers are little branches!

This metal wire tree is up all year around. I take down the 'Jolly', but leave pretty much everything else. This is a little vintage collection that sits on top of the amoire in the dining room. 

I jumped for joy when I saw these crocheted snowflakes last year at Target!

Frosty sits on the amoire too...

Cherished piece of Christmas artwork from Dottie - boy, I miss her!

Red cinnamon wreath - these were made as a fundraiser to raise funds to buy feed for horses in need. I have had it for two years and it still smells wonderful! I hang it on the inside of the front door.

Enjoy life!

Holiday Decor

This is how one of my Christmas trees starts out - yes, I have artificial. I am sure there are plenty of arguments out there but this is what we have chosen. We have three, white, champagne and traditional green. This year the white one was the only one that made it out...

I am VERY picky about my branches - they have to be unscrunched and laid out so they are flat. Most of my ornaments are vignettes and the items need to sit into the tree not hang...this takes me several hours to do.

Definitely needs more lights! I string on several more strands...

Need to look at it from outside to see if there are enough lights...we are there!

Let the trimming begin! As you can see I have some hanging ornaments, but I also put together vignettes of a extra large Christmas ball, glitter fern, birds, glitter icicle branches, silk flowers...

The white doves I found at an estate sale - 24 for $1! Of course the dogs have been eying them.

The ornament above is from one of my favorite illustrators Patience Brewster. I adore her Krinkles line.

Here is our finished room. This is the first year that I haven't gone mono-chromatic with the white tree - I usually do silver and white. While it makes for a very elegant tree - I thought I would try some color since I wasn't setting up the others. As you can see on my coffee table I also have a collection of snow globes - I receive one for Christmas almost every year. I need to find the rest of them - I think a box is still in storage...check back tomorrow for more photos!

Enjoy life!

Tapestry Beige - finished!

After spending the time to prep/prime the rooms the Tapestry Beige color turned out even better than I expected.

We have very dark floors and furniture so this neutral color let those features SHINE! Above is a picture of our 'travel' wall. As we travel around the world I bring back small pieces to feature in this area.

Above is a photo of our kitchen back splash. This tile is also the same color we have on the floor. So excited that my Christmas cactus if blooming!

Here is the back wall of the kitchen (galley style) and the door is to the pantry/laundry. The crow painting is by Eli Halpin and it is done on an old window. She is one of my favorite artists - she used to live in Portland, but has since moved to the East coast. My dream would be to commission her to do the furbabies!

The two crow painting is another Eli Halpin piece - and also a sneak peek into some holiday decor... check back tomorrow!

Tapestry Beige - new paint color

Yes, on my to do list before Christmas was to paint the kitchen/dining/tv room. A friend of mine turned me on to this neutral color - when I first saw it I just loved the simplicity. Tapestry Beige is by Benjamin Moore, color number OC-32. But let's start from the beginning!

These rooms were painted a very deep orange for about six years. When I first picked this color everyone was appalled, Kirk was apprehensive - I LOVED it. But over time everyone warmed up to the color - of course this happened as the orange color came into style for home decor. But after six years I was ready for a change.

But that meant I was going to have to prep/prime the walls with Kilz - a whole extra day of painting. I only had to do one coat of Kilz, this just took the edge off of having to cover the orange paint with the new color.

Of course by the time I got around to the project it was already December! If this was going to get done it needed to be done before I decorated for Christmas.

Check back tomorrow for the end results...

Our Jesus Set-up

As a child Kirk called Nativity Mangers 'Jesus Set Ups' - not sure if this is a Southern thing or not?! Our scene below is from an artist in the south called BurkArt Clayworks. My MIL first had this collection and I fell in love with it. So she has been sending us pieces each year for Christmas.

 



Each piece is hand formed and the texture on the clay is made from one of the artists' family heirlooms. What I really love are the personal touches and the imperfections of each piece. I get excited each year to see what is new and what piece is going to join our family.

Happy Friday - enjoy life!

Bathroom clean up

When the weather gets like this around here it's time to start nesting. This was taken out my bedroom window - dreary.

I started some of nesting projects last weekend - one of them included cleaning out my drawers in the bathroom and hanging some much needed organizational pieces that have been sitting in my closet for about six months.

My jewelry has been been a tangled mess and like my crafting if it's out sight - it's out of mind. I needed to figure out a way to display my jewelry. My first solution is for my more dainty pieces and bracelets

  These are shadow boxes from Micheal's cover with some fun fabric on the inside. I used quilting pins to hang the jewelry on. I have had these for awhile now - in fact my house cleaner accidentally broke the bottom one and the glass shattered out. I like this much better because now I don't have to open it!

The next piece is an old drying rack that I found at and estate sale for $1

I cleaned it up and bought some 'S' hooks at the local hardware store and hung my chunkier pieces and earrings on this one. I don't have very many earrings because I am pearl kind of girl.

This next piece is by one of my favorite artist, Lisa Kaus and I actually showed you another piece earlier in my downstairs bathroom here. 

My Lisa piece holds some of my handmade jewelry either by me or other artists.

After I completed this project there was so much more room in my drawers and my counter - you could see it again! As you can see I have the dreaded one sink bathroom. I can only dream of having separate sink areas...

I also cleaned up my ring and watch area...

This is an glass serving tray that I found at GoodWill several years ago. I picked up two, another one sits in the guest bathroom. The porcelain cup hold my fun cheapo rings and pendants. The cast iron hand holds my handmade or chunky rings and the Dachshund holds my wedding ring and engagement ring.

Some decor in our bathroom are pictures of us - by Allison Tyler Jones. Towels and bars are from PB.

The wall paint in this bathroom is by Benjamin Moore called Copley Gray HC-104.

What are you nesting projects?

Barn House - Fall Harvest

Last weekend I tried to stay pretty busy - it's my way of coping through the grieving process. I was thankful that there were some fun events to keep me occupied.

One of my favorite is to attend any event hosted by the Barn House, Joe and Jermonne. Last Saturday was their last event of the season and they didn't disappoint!

I picked up a couple of feeders at the Barn House. My intention was to hang these off my worktable ends to hold tools but they are just about and inch too wide. So they are going to find a home on a wall. Which means some moving of my existing shelves and that will entail filling holes and touch up painting...it's always a can of worms isn't it?? The width of the feeder holds a small canning jar perfectly so my acrylic crayons, paintbrushes, etc are going to fit perfectly in it!

 

Found an end bolt of burlap type fabric. I have started to make lavender sachets out of it, decorating the front with some shabby flowers. Will hopefully have these in the etsy store soon!

 

Loved the look of these aged glassine envelopes...wheels were spinning when I spotted these!

 

Always on the look out for glass knobs, I use them on my art pieces. I either find good deals on Ebay or at Estate sales, these were on the expensive side but the savings in my time made up the difference. I really love the red paint on them.

Enjoy life!