Peace

We buried my aunt today. She is at peace in heaven. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.

Grieving

I apologize for my lack of posts. I have been enjoying Spring Break with my children. I had fully intended to post something this weekend, but my beloved aunt had a heart attack and passed away today. I will be back sometime next week. Thank you.

Spring Break

This week is my children's Spring Break. Where would someone go to enjoy the Spring weather?The mountains of course, to ski! We drove up for the day yesterday to do a little skiing. Above is my husband and 3 kids posing for a picture on top of Keystone Mountain. It was a rather cold day, actually. Didn't feel too much like Spring!

This is a sweet life-size bronze near the base of the mountain. I love all the life-size bronzes that many of the ski towns have.

Meanwhile, on the home front, my husband and I spent most of today painting our 2 story entry way. I have been busy with the paint brush lately. Everything is about lightening, brightening, and freshening!

Spring!

I'm hoping my tulips will come up soon, and that the dry weather and the vole problem we had last year didn't affect my tulip bulbs too much.

Happy first day of Spring to the people in this half of the world and have a great Fall season to those in the Southern Hemisphere!

Awaiting Bloom

A week or so ago, I read in the newspaper that if we're going to prune our trees, we should do it now. Then, a few days later, Lauren from Pure Style Home had some inspirational photos of cut branches. I had always wanted to do this, but our trees have always been too small. Now our cherry tree is big enough, I had my husband prune some branches off. He didn't understand what I was trying to do, so he first cut about a foot off a branch. Too short, I said. I asked him for a larger branch, and the second branch is a lot better. I put it in some water, and we'll see if those beautiful cherry blossoms will bloom! Happy last day of Winter everyone (here in the USA, that is)!

Want this House?

When Kiki Vandeweghe, the former general manager of the Denver Nuggets basketball team was let go, the first thing I could think of was what about his house?! How could they leave the 1917 Georgian Revival that was so beautifully and lovingly restored by his wife Peggy?

I first saw this house on HGTV's Generation Restoration. Being a Denverite, I am always interested in the real estate market here. I had recorded the program and watched it again and again. It eventually got deleted somehow, and forgotten. I was reminded of it again as I read the paper this morning. I guess they just had an American Indian "Blessing of the Grounds" ceremony to try and sell the house. It has been on the market for 6 months, which, in my opinion, is not that long considering the asking price is $7.5 million.

This home is 15,000 square feet, and has a list of luxuries, including 10 bedrooms, a ballroom, poker room, music room, theater, Brazilian tiger-oak flooring.... the list goes on and on.

To see the realtor's website on this house, click here. The website, however, does not do justice to this home's beauty and the story that goes along with it that was featured on HGTV.

All images via Kentwood Homes.

Flower Market

I love flower markets! I envy the beautiful flower markets that some have in their cities. The sea of color and the floral aroma filling the air is so romantic to me.

This picture of sunflowers was taken in a Whole Foods Market in San Diego when we were on vacation a couple of years ago. I was taken with the sea of yellow in the grocery store.

I have to admit, Whole Foods does a great job providing beautiful fresh flowers. It is very convenient. But, the thought and romance of being able to purchase flowers from a flower market while strolling the streets of a European city ....

This "Flower Market" painting is on sale now on Etsy.

Mustard Season

Welcome to Fab Friday hosted by Simply Seleta!

This Friday, I am remembering visiting Napa Valley a few years ago this time.

It is nearing the end of Mustard Season in California's wine country - Napa Valley. This is a time of year where the mustard plant flourishes and grows and turns the landscape into a shockingly bright citrus color. It is especially beautiful when it grows in the vineyards. The Mustard Festival is underway, and one can feel the excitement and celebration in the air!

I wish I was there right now!

My version of the above picture:
Have a great weekend everyone!

Pillow Love

I adore these pillows! Ness Lockyer of Marley and Lockyer, made them. The designs replicate those of the grain sack fabrics of yesteryear that are so popular these days. I think they are both simple and elegant! The Oat Sack pillow above is one of her latest designs.

How cute is this Eye Chart pillow?

For a splash of color:
Now, how to choose one for my newly painted bedroom? Visit Ness at her Etsy site to view more of her special pillows.

Evolving

I have currently been spending a lot of time lately freshening up my home. I've felt like I needed change. Maybe it's all these wonderful blogs showing off all these white interiors. Maybe it's the anticipation of spring and summer. Maybe it's my need for de-cluttering and organization. Regardless of the reason, I'm freshening up, lightening up in all areas of my life.

I've painted my bathroom a light grey/blue. (Click here to view) I've painted my bedroom white, from a dark earth tone. I've been sewing up a storm, using fabrics I have had for years. My husband is so happy that some of that fabric is being used, it has been taking up space in our basement storage room.

Even in my art, I have been changing. In a way I fear this change. I don't know how it will be received.

I've even tried freshening up my blog design. Unfortunately, I am not that great with HTML. I'm trying to learn it though. I spent a couple hours today testing out different formats that I can work with and tweak to make it look the way I want. I tried Maxima, Maxima Stretch, Minima, and reformatting my current format to make it wider...Then I realized that I really need more time than the 2 hours I had. So, look what I ended up with. A grey border around my blog. I switched from a brown one. Wow! Big change, huh?! Oh, boy, I wish I had more uninterrupted time! Well, change is going to have to come slowly, I guess!

Form vs. Function

Welcome to another Metamorphosis Monday hosted by Between Naps on the Porch. It has been so fun to participate and see so many before and afters. Thank you Susan!

When it came to decor, it used to be form over function for me. Who cared if something had no function as long as it served my aesthetic need? :) I didn't even use baby gates as I thought they were ugly. I taught our children to crawl backwards down the stairs as soon as they could crawl so that I didn't have to deal with those ugly gates.

However, with the chaos of family life, I am realizing I need function a little more than form. As our family grows up, I am constantly thinking of how to make our house function for us. A couple of years ago, we switched our living and dining rooms. It worked better for us to have a large dining room to host family and other social functions. At the same time, it was better for us to have a smaller living room where we could tuck the (ugly) piano on one side of the wall where it was not very visible to people as they walk into our home. I also had an office armoire in the living room that housed my computer. That armoire moved last year into the study. It was bringing too much clutter from all my paperwork, and I was also not doing a good job at closing up the armoire after I was finished for the day.

While the living room was functional with the piano in there, I realized it could be even more functional. We do a lot of reading in that room. The sofa is so comfortable, we can nap in there too. Here is the before of the living room:

I decided while it was nice to have a clean, uncluttered living room, it might be better served with bringing up the bookcase from the basement "library". No one was using the bookshelves down there. All the books were coming upstairs and being left everywhere. My dilemma was that bookcases, when used for the sole purpose of housing books, can look quite cluttered. I am trying to declutter, and also trying to lighten up the house. The bookcase we have is dark, and not necessarily the style I would have chosen. But, it had been given to us years ago, is a very high quality piece, and I have always been a believer of using what I have. Also, I had to think of function. Here is what it looks like now:

To accessorize the top of the bookcases, I added my prints to the top of the bookcases to visually lengthen them.

I want to lighten the look of this room for the summer. My plans for this room include slip covering the side chairs, replacing the drapes, and replacing the 3 prints on top of the bookcases. I am planning on also covering some of the paperback books with white paper. I know. What a time consuming task, but I do like that clean look.

I know that having all these books in this room will take more work to keep clean, but seeing this (below) makes it worthwhile when I know this room is being used for its intended purpose.

Hopefully, after I do some of my projects as planned, I may end up liking the look of the living room "library". Who knows, maybe I'll even go and paint the bookcases black to emulate this look:

Traditional Home via Porchlight Interiors

Daydreaming

This is me sometimes. My kids' sports activities are starting up again, and so the chauffeuring is heightened. Between picking kids up from school 2 times a day (I have a child in morning kindergarten, and 2 kids in all day), piano lessons, school activities, sports practices and games, I spend a lot of time in the car. As I wait for them, I daydream. I carry a notebook, and my car is filled with magazines and books.

Sometimes I feel like I dream my life away. Don't get me wrong, I love my children and am so happy for them that they have the opportunity to do all these activities. It is so exciting to see them doing all these things, most of which I never did growing up. I know that this is just the "season" of my life. I know when they are older, I will look back and wish it all back.

For now, though, while I wait for for the hour or so for each of their activities to end, I dream.

The Yellow House

There are a few neighborhoods nearby that I would love to live in when the time is right, so I am always doing my research to see what's out there. One house I found a year and a half ago was stunning, and all done in yellow! All images via Kentwood Homes.

We all know now that the Pantone color for 2009 is Mimosa.

Now, this particular house wasn't this shade of yellow, but it was a cheery, warm, yellow. I normally wouldn't love an all yellow home, although the great room in my last home was yellow. This house, however, had just the right amount of crisp white mixed in with it to balance out the yellow. Let's take a look:

As you enter the home, you are greeted by a gorgeous staircase.

Here's another view from the living room. The Brazilian Cherry floors are gorgeous with the yellow! Just beyond the staircase is the living room:

On the right of the stairs is the study:

On the left of the staircase is the dining room:Just beyond the dining room is the kitchen:

Look at all the space for barstools!

The hearth room sits right off the kitchen.

Upstairs is the beautiful master bedroom:

And adjoning bath:

I think this realtor did a great job showcasing this home. Who would've thought a yellow home could be so beautiful?