art work

Original art work does not need to cost a fortune.  Last night I went to a local art show and bought a new painting.  Sadly the artist, John Wenrich, just passed away last week, he was 94. We had bought one of his paintings a couple of years ago and when I saw this new one I just thought it was meant to be.  Honestly - out of all the paintings there within a certain price range, it was my favorite, and now sentimental. 

It pays to find out where there are juried local art shows in your area. Most of the artists are very talented and you can afford to buy nice art without having to take out a small loan. You would also be surprised at what you can find at smaller unique shops in your area.

I have a few pieces that we have acquired over the years.  I love watching for the artists' new pieces and seeing how their styles have evolved over time. Usually at shows there is a wide variety of sizes and prices.  I love the small miniature paintings that you can buy for not that much. Getting a couple and grouping them together is a great idea.

Beyond original art, there are many other great things you can do to decorate your walls, again without spending tons.  I have bought botanical prints and antique maps. If you have them framed and sometimes even group them together, they can enhance any space. But that will be another whole topic.

Here are the two paintings that I had bought.  The one of the roosters we got a couple years ago. The landscape is our new one and it is now hanging in my dining room and has brightened up the whole space. For those of you who are local you can check out the art show until May 15th, for more information you can go to Historic Yellow Springs  If not, try to find out where you can go in your area. You never know what you might find. It's inspired me to get my own paintbrushes out!

spring clean up

If someone could find a useful way to decorate with "monkey balls" (sweet gum tree balls, but they do not deserve the name given to them) I think they should patent it now! For those of you who have gum trees in their yards, you may know what I'm talking about. Well, we are so fortunate to have 4 surrounding our yard.  As a matter of fact, our neighborhood is actually covered with monkey balls.

I have even tried to employ my kids to pick them up, I would be poor by the time they were finished of course, but there are so many that the money doesn't even interest them.  The only useful thing that we have come up with is that they burn very well in our chiminea to help keep the fire going.  Besides that, I find not one good thing about them. They twist ankles, kill grass, and litter the yard like prehistoric dinosaur poop fossils.  I suppose in my craftier moments I could make monkey ball wreaths....maybe I'm onto something.  Although if the goverment could somehow find a way to use them for fossil fuel  maybe we could get out of the huge deficit that we're in!

favorite places

One of my favorite places to go is a home and garden store called Terrain, it is owned by the same company as Anthropologie and Urban Outfitters.  I am fortunate enough to have the flagship store close by.  It is an amazing treat for all the senses.  I like to go sometimes just to walk around and soak up the surroundings... it is earthy and raw and very inspiring.  It's great to have a place that you can go to that you just love and can  feel relaxed and peaceful for at least a few moments.  I was there recently to see what "spring" feels like, because those of you who live on the east coast like I do, know that spring has taken a long time to get here!!  You can find many beautiful containers for plants, garden inspired accents, which are nice to incorporate some of these more earthy unique pieces into your decor.   Also I think it's nice to bring a little of the outdoors in.    

Getting Started

I am the world's worst at organization. Open any of my closets and you would see my dirty little secret. I mean, things don't fall on you when you open the door, but they aren't the best.  My organiztion skills (or lack thereof) don't end there... when my kids get older the only thing that they might know about themselves are what state they were born in, how much they weighed, and their birthday.  Don't even ask me about my wedding album. Still, after 10 years of blissful marriage, 900 pictures are still all stacked up in a pile.

I am a mom, but despise the term "stay at home mom" because...come on, who really just "stays" at home, with a million things to do everyday.   So while raising my two kids, Abbie (7) and Finn (4 1/2), trying to find the time for my work sometimes seems impossible.  I'm wondering what in the world I'm even thinking starting a blog?  I can't even open up my fly lady emails to help me get on track.  But the way I look at it - it's creative clutter, who said creative people need to be perfect?  That's what makes us different(or provides a really good excuse).  I don't even eat my corn on the cob in a straight row!  Somehow I manage to get by.

But all that aside, I LOVE color, somehow it gets me excited, happy...how color can blend together.  Yes - Sometimes it turns on you and you'll paint a room a beautiful shade of green and then discover at night it looks like vomit- yes we've all done it.

I also love design and fabrics, I love mixing fabrics together, their textures, their patterns the way different colors work together and finding the unexpected. 

I am hoping to inspire myself, it will be a disciplinary measure to find the time - a way to get excited to blog about design, color, painting, design trends, fresh ideas, fun places to go to find the unexpected, to capture what maybe I've lost a litttle as life, kids, laundry, dishes, a very active puppy etc. etc.  have taken away.
 I wouldn't change a thing but it is all a process of learning and doing- who says we can't do it all.  Well, I'm going to try at least in my own creative way.