Setting Realistic Goals

Gosh I find that I hate making that yearly resolution list.  Why because I really hate to not keep my word and I know that if I make some commitment that I will kill myself trying to fulfill it or totally fail and feel like a loser, does that make any sense?  I can be really hard on myself.  So a realistic goal, is a goal in itself.  Life is so busy and next to keeping up my blog I want to keep up my garden.  The desk I sit at and type away on my computer is at the farthest corner of my house so I have two windows at each corner that looks out into my backyard.  Having something beautiful to look at is critical to staying creative for me, so here goes.

1.        Keep my jasmine on the fence and in the retaining wall clipped.

2.        Paint that metal bench again because baby blue is not doing it for me.

3.       Move one of those Crepe Myrtle plants because two next to each other looks dumb.

4.       Finish my cat feeding table mosaic.

This seems to be a realistic goal for me.  I can always add more!  Pictured below is one of my recent projects.  I found this lovely little bird bath in Sonoma, at Plain Janes Consignment Shop, and found it was too low to the ground to be a bird bath because of my six cats.  So, one day it hit me … it would make a beautiful planter.  I had my husband drill a few holes in the bottom, and I added pebbles and some charcoal and some potting soil and due to the heat in my area I chose succulents.  I think it came out quite beautiful, what do you think?

 

 

 

Getting Exactly What I Want

I’ve always wanted a little French looking bergere with rococo swirls.  I saw one online at Horchow and was love at first sight and it was also it was $1,800.00!  So I did what I do when I want something real bad and I can’t afford it, I make "budget" version of it.  So I found a similar style online for $125.00, but it had a natural wood finish with a 70’s brown, orange and gold striped velvet fabric.  It came from New York City aboard a Grey Hound truck.  I had no idea at the time you could ship that way.  I had a vision of the chair in a distressed cream with a luxurious fabric in my living room.  I can sew, so I started like I do all projects, irresponsibly diving in and then assessing what needs to be done as I go.  The painting and distressing was super simple, I like to paint too.  Then I was onto the fabric hunt.  I chose a completely inappropriate light sapphire blue silk fabric.  Mind you I have three small dogs, and my living room is the sunniest part of the house.  I had it completely stripped of fabric within a few hours.  It was at this point I decided I needed help so I thought wouldn’t it be nice to see someone doing this then it hit me –  the library!  Libraries these days are soooo cool, just like Amazon but free, and you don’t have to find a permanent spot in your bookshelf.  I hit the jackpot and they had some books and a VIDEO!  I watched the video a few times and dove in, oh yeah I bought some simple upholstery tools.  Let me tell you it was a really difficult and I can’t tell you how many times I hit my nails with the stupid hammer trying put in those tiny little tack nail looking things.  There’s a reason why upholstery is expensive it’s time consuming and hard work.  I also burned the heck out of myself with the glue gun when I was putting on the welt or is it gimp?  Oh and I didn't think about the effect of the heat from the glue gun on the silk.   All in all I think I did a pretty good job aside from the fact that I will have to take it in to have it reupholstered in a few years when the sun has its way with it.  What do you think?  Oh and the little black mark is another story.

 

 

Inspiration

My inspiration has always been the divine appreciation for all things beautiful. Since I was a child of about eight or so I’ve had a fascination for homes.  I used to look at moldings, trims, banisters, sinks, stoves and oh gosh the ceilings.  I can’t explain it, maybe some residual past life stuff there, but perhaps growing up poor and seeing  beautiful versions of something we had at home held for me some little déjà vu factor.  I clearly remember a mansion that we used to visit in a town I lived in as a child called Vineland, in Southern New Jersey.  My mom had a friend that lived there – no, not the whole house, it had been chopped up into these little apartment rentals. It was so sad.  It was here that I sat mezmerized with this ugly artificial wall that I knew didn’t belong to the rest of the room with this huge brown polished banister sticking out of the end of it.  Immediately I wanted to imagine what the rest of the house looked like.  The kitchen area had this enormous white porcelain sink that must have weighed a ton and had an apron in the front and its own backsplash that went up about a two feet then curved towards the wall.  I can also see in my mind the enormous windows over the sink with little panes.  It’s haunting how I will never forget this house, and a few years back I even tried to look for it on Google earth and couldn’t find it, but it’s where it all started … my love of all things beautiful.

My first peony. 

New Fabric Line from Sarah Richardson

I just read that Sarah Richardson is planning a new fabric line through Kravet.  See her  diary, on September 18th, I can only imagine a vintage line in in muted colors or some of the newer brighter colors she's been using in a funky modern print.  Or better yet, an organic line inspired by nature to drool over.  I'm already renovating my living room in my head, I'm really tired of my old curtains.  Yes this is truly good news. 

Here's one of my favorite rooms from Design Inc., it's just so soft, sexy and luxe.  Enjoy.

Let it Rain

I'm so happy to write that we have roofing paper down and we don't have to sweat the rain.  We are taking a few weeks off and then we can start roofing (hopefully).  I'm so bummed about not having a metal roof though.  It was such a lovely weekend and I'm so thankful for the wonderful people that have given us their time to help with the building.  We are also at a road block for the siding.  We were told it wasn't going to be a problem getting the wood at cost and now apparently it's not happening.  Gosh I used to think that a persons word meant something.  Well maybe in the "olden" days.  Guess we have to go to plan B, or C.  Wood is so darn expensive right now maybe we can find an old barn that needs to be hauled away.

Looks pretty cool huh?

The dogs are excited too.

The Cabin in the Woods

The building of the cabin has been our main focus for about three months.  Every week on Friday afternoon we pack up some supplies and the dogs and drive north for about three hours.  It seems a bit nuts but it's worth every minute.  Being surrounded by nature is simply bliss.   Funny though, I'm writing this post because I can't sleep.  I can't sleep because how much money we've put into our little vacation / weekend home.  I realize that it was going to cost money but like any project it can take on a life of it's own.  One day at a time.  I tell myself this all the time.  Sometimes I need to just say it to myself over and over and over.  The goal is to get it water tight by winter and Greg thinks that we are almost there.  Good.

 

Kitty Quilt Completed

Another quilt has been completed and shipped off . This one is for Jessica, and she says that she loves it. I’m so glad that she finally has it. I’ve been working on it for about a year now, and I’m sure that she thought I was full of shit there for a while. Don't you just love the prison looking bars in the background? Just one of the many joy's of working in Richmond. Oh, and the boy had to try it out before boxing it up.

I’m gonna work on one for me next. I sent off two rag quilts, one for Steven, and one for Mike & Louise, in Arizona then the one to Jessica. I rate it.