Inspiration Boards

I like to have little bits of stuff I love around to inspire me. I sell my necklaces in similar style - draped on old frames. I love to see them dangling and fire-polished beads catching the candlelight. I have a weakness for pretty little baubles, vintage clothing labels...fabric swatches... $2 cork bulletin board from our local Red White & Blue thrift store, scrap burlap, a few handfuls of buttons that came from my overflowing stash of white buttons, a faux zipper ;) just b/c I liked the texture, a vintage ruler which is glued on CROOKED, yes, it is driving me nuts, and a mess of hot glue. Some of my favorite little junquey stuff! I'm sharing this post on... you should see the eye candy and inspiration over there. And if you like your junque on the rusty side, this is the place for you...Enjoy!

bloom where you're planted

I am living up to Mary Englebreit's sage advice. I'm blooming for the first time in a long time. I have always, always, always wanted to grow stuff. My grandparents had a nursery and greenhouse - where did I go wrong?!! I used to have plants but my then kitten (now 16!) would go wild swinging from the vines, digging, ripping the poor plants to shreds. I wasn't even sure what needed done but I brought a few pages of inspiration from magazines of forced bulbs. My friend, Libby (follow link at your own risk ;) ) dug into her barren fridge and produced bulbs, and provided a special ed class on drainage, and voilaaaaaa! A month later I have the HEAVENLY scent of paper whites when I open my front door.

I always thought forcing bulbs meant cramming tightly into a container. If you notice in that poor quality cell-phone picture above, there is one glorious blossoming bulb but if you look closer you will see the others are making their way as well. Growing at their own pace. And they make me insanely happy. I feel like I have accomplished something rather marvelous... something new, something little, something insignificant, but something I've always wanted to do.

Onward I go!

Dream Men for Us

Just sayin'... what could be better than a pair of junque pickers?

Mike just warned Frank not to fart when they were in the crawl space under the opera floor.

And I can watch whenever I want for free On Demand - wahoo!

It's always date night!

http://www.history.com/shows/american-pickers

If you were me...

If you were me, tonight you'd be in that TGIF slump and sitting around feeling that the end of week messies have won. So you ignore the messy house and instead park yourself in the middle of it all and read blogs.

And that would get you so inspired that you put the final tocuhes on your reclaimed desk chair that has been sitting in the dining room with the trim ripped off and a base coat of paint. And that turns out so well that you go to take a picture on your own blog. But the camera battery is almost dead and you can't upload anything. So you read some blogs. And ignore all the paint and fabric mess in the middle of the floor.

Then you are inspired by some blogs again and you decide that the slip-covered arm chairs - that you really don't have room for and would get rid of if you could haul out yourself in the middle of winter - should have big monograms on them. So you pull out the fabric paints and go to town. And decide they need a new spot in the tiny dining room. So you move all the furniture around. And realize and remember that the house is really messy. So you vacuum, but only the areas relevant to the new furniture flow.

And then, you decide that the furniture looks crappy in the new layout. But you're too tired to move it somewhere else. So you leave it all out. Cause the house is a mess anyways.

Then you flop down on the sofa and curl up with the laptop and read blogs, browse etsy and eBay.

Thank goodness you aren't me cause you'd wake up tomorrow to a messy house, dirty dishes in the sink, stuff everywhere and no clean clothes.

Have a nice weekend!!

The Doors

I'm going to tweak these a bit and have them printed to do a little gallery. They were little moments of inspiration in the dark November gloom. (update March 18... wahoooo... the weather for my trip to France this weekend is high 50s and low 60s, and SUNNY... it was so gray in November that it will be like a whole new experience!) In contrast to the sharpness of France that caught me off guard (that I've mentioned quite a bit here ;) ) there was the discovery of these doors that are so common and stunning.

Don't you wish Lowes or Home Depot stocked these stunners! Such craftsmanship and attention to detail.

Nothing mass produced.
Unique.

And the hardware... oh my.

The custom shades of blue... no paint chips produced these.

I wouldn't hang a wreath either!

The molding...and carvings.

UPDATED March 18, 2011 because I'm linking to The French Cupboard

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Okay, back to reality... laundry, shopping, a half dozen projects that need attention.

And my dear daughter's 10th birthday.

Double digits, oh dear.

Where did the time go?

I can accept that my son is 24 easier!

My girls, my babies though...

the time is rushing by me.