Kid Chinoiserie and stripes

School starts today in our neck of the woods. I was glowing with pride when my six year-old asked for pink Chinoiserie dragons when I was designing a front page for her binder.

I also created stickers with her name and a pink Chinoiserie dragon for folders, composition books and other small items.

On mega sale HERE

My neighbor pointed out that she wears navy and white stripes like it's her uniform. Huh? I never noticed. I looked and she has a vast collection of striped clothing.

 Before we went on vacation I ordered two scarves from MDS Stripes.

My plan was to be striped scarf twinsies at the beach but I ordered a day too late to get them in time. I think I can incorporate them in to her back to school, Chinoiserie, preppy, stripey look. 

I am loving her style.
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A few new Chinoiserie fabrics

Several years ago I created the rather popular "Escher Pagoda" design on Spoonflower.com.

I have done several custom orders including matching paint colors and enlarging and rotating the fabric.

This Australian customer wanted the railroaded orientation and an enlargement for the this daybed.

Over the weekend I created a custom color and began to think about new designs.
Photographs were manipulated in several ways to create these.

I came up with this...

and this...

I would like to do more Chinoiserie designs too.

Any requests?

Witty willow

Sea monster plate

An old friend posted a link to the Kickstarter video for this product on FB last week and I was intrigued.

You can read about the entire process this illustrator uses for creating Calamityware here. The artist uses the traditional "Blue Willow" pattern and adds an element to create the "calamity". Look closely at the hilarious detail of these plates.

Scary flying monkeys

Giant robot

So far there are just three plates in production but the announcement of the fourth design was made public on Friday.

These cheeky things are just my kind of thing. I wonder how long it would take guests to notice the impending doom on their plates?

Decisions, decisions

Do you ever stop yourself from buying something you love thinking that its use is too limited?

I almost did that last Spring while redoing my daughter's room.

painting/chair/planter/pillow /pouf/desk

I walked away from this fab mirror that was a mere $50. All I could think was, "I don't need a mirror" and "What if she hates it? Then I am stuck."

Silly me. I saw that mirror in vignettes on Pinterest and it reminded me that I won't necessarily always be in this house and they are growing up and leaving so I will other places to use the mirror when circumstances change. Luckily, my short-sightedness did not hurt. The mirror was still at the store a few days later.

I put together this board to see how I might use it in an entryway or little office nook. Can we just talk about that pouf? It was love at first sight. I was thinking I should just buy it or two then I saw the price. Yikes!

Have you ever walked away from a purchase that you are kicking yourself over?

ORC-Whew! Its done!

As always, many thanks to Linda of Calling it Home for dreaming this baby up.

Are you all exhausted too?
If you need to catchup here are the previous weeks.
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
 Week 5

Let's take a look at my plan for my 17 year-old daughter's room and the results.

I had the bed, curtains and loveseat beforehand.
The girl likes chevron so I indulged.

I ordered a Lucite chair (from a company I won't recommend) and the blue and white chevron rug was a last minute Homegoods find.

The accessories in the room were the most fun for me. We both love elephants and the brass one was a thrifting score.

I found this vintage magazine rack at a local thrift and hit it with some gold spray paint to tie it in with some other accessories and hold all of my old her records.

I actually had the table in my basement. It was a side-of-the-road broken find that I repaired and lovingly refinished years ago. I took a deep breath and just started painting it white before I could reconsider.

I use my children's rooms as art hanging spots for my paintings until they sell so we can enjoy the paintings for a while.

That painting is from my new series and my daughter likes things to be color coordinated  and I think this works with her color scheme without totally matching.

The lamp on her nightstand was thrifted and I wrapped nearly all of the books in fun wrapping paper.

The pillows and throw on the loveseat make me want to steal them.

I found these blue and white porcelain balls at a discount store and I may have to buy some for myself.

 I hung her watercolors that are for sale in her Etsy shop with bulldog clips and they serve as inspiration as she works.

A print from The Pink Pagoda and a small abstract of mine work nicely together.

The rainbow was painted by her little sister and hangs with my favorite of all of her elephant paintings. I might just have to snap that up myself.

I learned a lot from this ORC. The main thing is that I never want to redo a a room with a resident slob. Every photo you have seen involved me moving clutter and clothes out of my way and putting things back to the way they were just a few hours earlier.
 We love the Parsons desk and ghost chair andI am really happy with the John Robshaw pillowcover I ordered and my recovered storage cubes.

Are going to spend the next few hours perusing all of the other fabulous ORC linker's rooms, like me?

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Blue and white bash-Scored!!

Today I am linking up with the Pink Pagoda's Blue and White Bash. Head on over to see loads of inspiration.

I love to score great goodies in thrift stores but my local pickings are slim. I browse, get discouraged, and quit for a while. Then I have some sort of mission, like the ORC, and I hop right back in the saddle.

I found the vase and shallow bowl above several weeks ago and bought them for my TV room.
A pair of beaker vases from The Pink Pagoda was on my mantel but their way back to the table by the front door.

 I needed some blue and white for the ORC and I am keeping the budget small because I never know when she will just stash everything in a closet. I went to every thrift and consignment store in my area at least twice a week.

Nuthin! I mean nuthin!

Just as I was about to throw in the towel when a bridge closure and detour took me past a consignment store that I had forgotten about.

They had oodles. Some was unmarked and I asked for a price. Mind you, I was trying to contain my excitement so as not hear an inflated price. Instead she cut the price in half on the marked ones and gave me the ginger jar for $10. I loved saying, "I'll take them all."

Some of these I am keeping for myself and some will be a part of the ORC for a certain budding watercolor artist.

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7 fun, fresh Chinoiserie fabrics

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you will have seen my fabric designs before. 

My Escher pagoda and "Tea caddy" were a fun way to take actual antiques that I own and turn them into modern, and fresh looks. I have used several around my house and lately I am inspired to dream up a few new ones based on my great-grandmother's antiques.

Escher pagoda in Radish

 It seems that I am not the only one up to the same thing. The much blogged about Dana Gibson for Stroheim delightfully captures the tradition in Chinoiserie motifs in a cheerful, stylish manner. If you have not browsed her site you really are missing out.

Canton

 Co-founder of O'verlays, Danika Herrick has a few incredible Chinoiserie fabrics also.

Her "Trellis" design is a friendly bamboo fretwork array that I have been hunting a spot for in my house. "Cloud Pagoda" by Danika Herrick comes in quite a few colorways but my favorite is the orange/pink.

Trellis on coral

Are you totally crushing on this updated Chinoiserie look too?

Pagoda mirrors

I love pagoda mirrors. I mean who doesn't right?

They are suited for mantles and entryways and dining rooms that need something over a console or buffet.

They are not for every house or budget. This one from Circa Who is $2800. Another was on eBay for $1500.

Circa Who

The thing I like best about pagoda mirrors is...

that there is now one in my house!!!

Imagine me screaming that and jumping up and down like the people one The Price is Right!

That is how excited I am, especially since the price was right. It amounted to about what the sales tax would be one one found in a retail store.

I have Kristen of Pursuing Vintage to thank for this. She emailed me about an estate sale nearby. At first I dismissed the idea entirely because my husband and I agreed on a spending fast where we buy nothing but food, gas and essentials.

Then I peeked at the offerings and saw the mirror. Despite my inner curmudgeon telling me it would be gone already, too expensive and that I dare not buy anything, I went.

Let's just say that Mr. Design du Monde was none too pleased about this but he was not mad enough not to style the whole thing. He hated the varying blues in my porcelain set up so I scurried about the house bringing pieces for his approval. He is insisting that the painting next to the mirror is wrong looking so I better fix that. He is a styling fiend!