Liebster

Nancy and Bethany of Powell Brower Home awarded me and 10 other fabulous bloggers the Liebster award.
There questions were so much fun. The coolest part of this is finding new (to you) blogs and "meeting" other really nice folks.

The rules are as follows:

1. Post 11 facts about yourself.

2. Answer the 11 questions your nominator asks and then create 11 questions for the bloggers you nominate.

3. Choose 11 people with under 200 followers to nominate and link to them.

4. Go to their pages and let them know. (no tag backs)
11  Things about me

1. I have been married twice and my husband and I have 5 children between us. They are ages 20, 17,17,15, and 3.
2. I grew up in Fairfax county, Virginia.
3. I love to refinish furniture.
4. I can't ride a bike or whistle
5. Wall-to wall carpet grosses me out. Guess what is in 75% of my house?
6. I am kind of a germaphobe. Bleach plays a big part in  my life and I am a hand-washing lunatic.
7. I rarely watch TV
8. I am very sentimental about certain belongings.
9. In my "former life" I was a computer geek.
10. I have a very irreverent, sarcastic, and probably offensive sense of humor.
11. My husband and I are true "foodies" and love unusual foods

 Nancy's questions...
 1. What is your idea of  the perfect day?
A sunny day, thrifting and antiquing with my husband. Luckily, we do that somewhat often.
2. What city/state do you live in?
Fredericksburg, Virginia
3. What was your major in college?
Interior design but it was Art History first.
4. Tell us your favorite job you've held.
I pretty much have my dream job. I am a stay at home mom and an artist. I guess my other would have been the Down Quilt shop in the '80s. They made and sold high-end down products and did custom work, curtains, pillows, and duvet covers.
5. What would your dream vacation be?
A driving trip through France and Italy.
6. Who do you admire the most?
I admire my husband for leaving a good paying job that he hated for a back- breaking job as a butcher that he loves. He had to start at the bottom with all of the 20 year-olds but he has out shone and impressed everyone he works with and for.
7. What do you want to be when you grow up?
A really sucessful artist.
8. What is your decorating style?
Definitely eclectic. I love traditional things but I am drawn to mid-century and ethnic things too.
9. Are you a city person or a country person?
City
10. What would your dream job be?
See #4
11. What is your go-to decorating store?
eBay for a deal on high-end fabric, Oriental rugs, and antiques.

11 Questions for my nominees
1. What is your favorite place to have visited?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What one expensive item for your home have you been saving for or recently splurged on?
4. What bad habit, that others have, really annoys you.
5. What celebrity do you most resemble?
6. Where did you grow up?
7. What is your favorite kids movie?
8. Do you prefer online shopping or real stores?
9. What and where is your favorite restaurant?
10. If you could live anywhere else, where?
11. Cake or pie?

Blogs I am nominating

OK so there aren't 11, but I feel ingenuine in nominating one I have never read before.

A room with a view

La Reportiste

Lenny Lianne's Passport to Poetry  (disclosure: this is my mom)

Women, Art, Life weaving it all together

Beauty Without Within

More Spoonflower goodies

Escher pagoda in Blue

Maybe you saw my post on Spoonflower fabric. Maybe not. I have yet to put together the "how-to" post but rest assured it is in the works. 

Meanwhile, I will show you what I have been up to.

New color suggestions are not only welcomed but encouraged.

 

Escher pagoda in Pink

Escher pagoda in Trendy Tangerine

Escher pagoda in Navy bamboo

Escher pagoda in Citrine

Escher pagoda in Red graphite

Escher pagoda in baby pink

Escher pagoda in lavender chocolate

 

My next step is to receive the color guide and double check my colors. Then I can order swatches of the collection and make it for sale. 

I am giddy over the stuff. I want to throw away everything and wrap my house in it, LOL!!

Spoonflower fun

I have been daydreaming about covering a Bergere that is in my 15 year-old daughter's room, undoubtedly covered in clothes at the moment.

My first idea was to get some suitable white fabric and paint it in some sassy way.

Then I had that "Duh!" moment when I thought of Spoonflower and taking an existing painting of mine to create fabric.

OK, so bear with me for the "could you die" moment, its farther down. Scroll crazily, if you must.

"Satsuki rain" by Kerry Steele 2012

This is the painting Satsuki rain, now sold, that surprised me with its fun result in mirror image.

I am hooked on the mirror option because if you use one of the other basic or brick repeats of your design there can be an obvious line if the colors do not match along the edges. As you can see below.

 Compare that to the mirror of the same.

the color on this is massively off...I guess I need to retake the photo

The mirror can make for some crazy looking stuff too. It is best when your image is large and you must check the views in 1 and 2 yard view to get a realistic idea of how it will look.

"Pregnant with helen" by Kerry Steele 2012

I also used this painting in a mirror repeat and you can see in this view below how one yard would look.

Basically, every painting that seemed so cool to make into a fabric was dud and the ones I was skeptical of, delighted me.

My preppy painting turned into a psychedelic, preppy look, LOL!

"Patrician plan" by Kerry Steele 2012

Well, now I've done it and fallen into the Spoonflower hole. I designed a few chinoiserie fabrics and tweaked the colors. I loved that one so much that I ordered a sample. I will do a tutorial of how I did it soon. I promise! Feel free to remind me if I forget. I'd do it now but the thing is involved and its late folks.

This is the third iteration of colorway for "Escher pagoda"
It goes with this detail of one of my grandmother's paintings, although it is unrecognizable.

If it it wasn't my own work I might say something like, "I just died!!" "Holy Escher pagoda world!"

Actually, I named this fabric "Escher pagoda" after the famous stairs that create optical illusions by the famed M.C. Escher. It is not for sale on Spoonflower yet. One must order sample before it can be offered and the most cost effective way to do that is by creating a Collection in different colorways, etc. I need to work on more colorways. This means dinners are gonna suck for a while, lol!
I'll share my process soon and hopefully you all will wow me with some fabrics that you create.

Do you use Spoonflower? Have you done a project with your fabric?

Just beachy

I have been mega busy, As in, not even commenting if I have a minute to read a blog.

We do have tentative plans to steal away to the beach for a few days. It is with three tens  (teens.. I meant teens, lol!) and a toddler, however, so the relaxing part of things will be minimal but I am excited anyway.

So in honor of all things beachy...

Have you gotten sand between your toes this year?

Styling for sales

My husband has been bugging me for months to offer frames and mats for my art. I came up with a million reasons why not to do it.

I finally caved.

I just bought one style for the moment and one size, 11 x 14 for my 9 x 12 paintings on paper.

I may keep this one

Yesterday I spent quite a bit of time styling vignettes to include in my Etsy listings. The first run through I ended up with a bunch of stupid looking pictures because I chose the wrong table and the lighting was rotten.

There were several spots that worked but the best was the table in my entry hall.

The entire time I was undoing and redoing my normal set up and scouting out accessories from several rooms.

In some of the photos I managed to choose items that picked up a color in the painting. In others I made an attempt to highlight the fact that there were two that coordinated with each other.

I found this styling so that the artwork was not too obscured but that the vignette was not disjointed, difficult.  I am not over the moon about any of them but I think they effectively show how these little paintings look framed.

They are a huge bargain at $50 framed and matted with free shipping or $15 for the painting alone with $8 shipping. HERE

This is a post in which I wish for all of my kind and savvy readers to agree with me.

 

First, let me explain. 

My 15 year old, and alarmingly fickle, daughter comes to me every so often with a new plan to decorate her room. A mere one and a half years ago she was given a choice about the color we would paint her walls. She opted for white. "Really?" I asked several times. "Are you sure?!"

So the latest and greatest idea to to turn her bedroom in to a bordello is cheetah curtains.

I did not waste second saying no. I later had the idea that I would let her choose a bargain fabric on fabric.com and have something at least colorful to help out the room.

She has this bed and bedding but not in this room. There is other dark antique furniture... sigh... against white walls. I should have taken charge while I could.

So I found Fabric.com's under $7 a yard page, and let me tell you, I don't even want to spend that much. I am so glad I took the time to look first because it was animal printapalooza! 

She changes her mind every few weeks and I go into her room and stuff is rearranged and the pricey pillow is on a shelf in her closet. Arrgh!

I know animal print is super trendy, but curtains?

Please confirm that this is a ghastly idea.

Playing with toys

If you are a design junkie, like me, a new aquisition is like a new toy is to a kid. You style and restyle around your new goodie and wake up the next day with a "better idea" that you can't believe you did not think of sooner.

Last night, when I got home from an annoying trip to Richmond, I was pleasantly surprised to see a box awaiting and I knew what was inside.

I ordered two trumpet vases from The Pink Pagoda store and spent some time playing with different looks.

I tried it with my truly ancient ginger jar but the scale bothered me.

I liked it with this ginger jar and it even worked with the African textile underneath.

The main problem is that my great, great-grandmother's soup tureen usually lives on this table and there is no good alternate spot for it.

It is blue and white but it is English. English, Chinese, and African didn't work for me.

 

 This is how it is now but I am sure that those vases will move around my house "visiting"  all of the other blue and white in my collection.