The Fall Mantle and Other Fall Touches

Hello All! I just wanted to share some seasonal decor changes in the home.

As most you all know, being an artist, I am always revolving my artwork on the mantle. Here is the latest of my blossoms series with the colors of orangey, persimmon, pumpkin, and coral. (Are there any other orangey color descriptions? :) I added my dried Chinese Lantern plant I saved from last year. I've also added my old books on the built-ins.(most are Reader's Digests with the colorful binding)

Here was the mantle in the spring/summer. Another painting in my blossoms series. That painting is really off-center!

Remember this pillow I made that I showed you in a previous post?

Here below is another Fall pillow. This was a simple pillow to make. It is 2 Crate and Barrel placemats that I sewed together, with a zipper at the end. The placemats were purchased several years ago, with the intention of making them into the pillows. Why did I wait so long to do this? It literally took 10 minutes.

I put some of my "warmer-colored" photographic work into my photo art wall. (I will be selling these soon in my shop.)

In the entry, I added some of my cut crabapple branches from the yard, and added the lamp, the candles, and photos of the children when they were younger.

I will buy some pumpkins soon, to complete the Autumnal feel in the home.

What about you? What are you working on?

By the way, I'm linking this post to the Nester's Fall Mantle Party. Thanks for visiting - I'm going to check out some more mantles at the Nester!

Weekend Recap

Hello Everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend! This weekend we went to my parents' home to pick some apples from their tree. The above tree is the one we conquered.

Because of a late frost, the apples were not as plentiful as in the past, but there is still enough to enjoy.
We soon brought out the ladder to reach more apples.

These apples are so YUMMY - much better than any you'd find at the store. I love harvest season, don't you?

Happy Friday

Have a great weekend everyone!

A Commission Painting

Hello everyone! I thought I'd show you a commission painting I completed a few weeks ago.

I met a lovely couple this past summer at an art show in this Arrowhead golf course community called Roxborough Park. Isn't it beautiful? The couple sees these redrocks every day. Can you imagine?

They loved one of my poppy paintings at the show, but it was smaller than what they had in mind. They asked me to paint a similar painting that was a larger size. I painted it in a 3x4 ft. Below is a picture of it on my mantle. I like to view my paintings throughout the day in various lights so I can see if there is anything that needs to be changed.

Here it is in my clients' home. We placed it on the wall where there was already a nail. My clients will move the painting up the wall a little bit.

Right outside these windows, are incredible views. I think these poppies will fit in very nicely!

Coral Branch

Hello everyone! I hope you had a great weekend! I'm not sure exactly where mine went - it is all a blur!

I've just listed another painting on Etsy. The warm orange and ochre colors are making my heart sing right now. I think orange is my new favorite color - I'm very fickle aren't I? Who knows what next week's favorite color will be.

"Coral Branch" is now for sale on Etsy. Click here to view.

Happy Friday

Have a great weekend everyone!

My Chandelier Makeover

Hello Everyone! Hope you all are having a great Wednesday! I just wanted to share with you a makeover I did on my chandelier a few weeks ago.

The chandelier that came with the house was a brownish chandelier that had a hint of purple. Here is a before picture:

For several years, I tried to disguise with a lot of crystals that I gently hung, and some crystal-look garland (sorry for the blurry pic, I couldn’t find a good before shot):I decided to finally take the whole thing down and paint it like it needed, and get some holes drilled into it so that the crystals would stop flying off whenever I needed to change a light bulb!

Using a titanium drill bit, I had my husband drill some holes. It was easier to cover where the holes needed to be drilled with some blue painter’s tape:

Then I spray primed it, and painted it black. The picture below shows the primer. I already had this primer from a previous project.I then had my husband hang the chandelier in the dining room because I had no real plan of what beads to use, and I didn’t want a lightless dining room.

I had a bunch of beads I purchase a few weeks prior to this project that were half-off at Michaels.These are large jewelry beads. I also had some pre-strung crystal that I purchased about 4 years or so ago. :

I sat at the dining table using some jewelry wire, tested out some combinations. I wanted to bring out some of the colors in the current painting I have hanging in the dining room. I finally came up with a combination that I liked, and strung it, and came up with this:

(See how I started decorating for the Fall with my dried orange Chinese lanterns above?)

For a bit of whimsy, I switched out the light bulbs from the “flame” shape to the round shape.

The best thing about this project is that I can easily switch out the beads to coordinate with any changes I make with the room!

Warmth

"Warmth" on sale on Etsy. Click HERE to view.

Hi everyone! I hope you had a great weekend! We had warm weather, but I can tell that Fall is here. There is a little chill in the air even when running at 7 am when the sun is already out. I love it.. Autumn is my most favorite time of year, weather-wise that is!

My “Anthro-esque” Fall Pillow

I had other things that I needed to do yesterday. But, as many of you can relate, I had to follow my creative instinct!

With the Fall season looming, I have been warming up the house. One thing I have done is switch my pillows. I wanted some pillows to coordinate with the new artwork I painted to go over the fireplace. I have been looking for ribbon in shades of orange: pumpkin orange and red-orange to be exact. As luck would have it, I found some awesome ribbon in the $1 bin. Using my leftover fabric from my slipcover project, I sewed my new pillow. I randomly placed the ribbon on the fabric, and sewed on top with clear thread. It was a simple, $5 pillow, since I had all the other materials.

Don't you love when one little thing can make such a difference in a room?

Sandpiper Trio

Hi Everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend!

I fell in love with these sandpipers this summer on our beach vacation. I tried all week to get close to them to get a photo, thinking I could catch up to them. Their long, skinny legs looked like they would never get anywhere, but they always seem to out run me.

"Sandpiper Trio" for sale on Etsy. Click here to view.

Favorite Local Showhome

Hi Everyone! I thought I’d check in before I check out for the long weekend! I’m leaving you with some images of my all time favorite local show home. It was a home in the 2007 Denver Parade of Homes. We used to have these awesome high end custom home shows each year that were one of the highlights of my summer. My husband and I went every year for about 16 years. It used to be a big deal. The show site for the community would be picked about a year in advance, and the team of builders for each home would work till the end to get the homes ready. I had friends who were the builders for one of these home shows, and I know from their experience, it was an exhausting year, but worth it to show what they could do. Unfortunately, with the economy, the last couple of years it has been more of a scavenger type hunt all over the city, and the attendance for the Parade dropped from 122,000 in 1990 to a measly 2,500 last year, according to our local Denver Post. Even I didn’t attend!

Anyhow, here are some images of the images from the 2007 show home. All images are from the Village Homes Website. This was pre-blogging years, so I didn’t have a camera with me.

Builder: Village Homes

Architect: Knudson Gloss Architects

Interior Designer: Hillary Reed Interiors

Landscape Architect: Nuszer, Kopatz Urban Design Associates

Square feet: 6,168

Here’s the floor Plan:

Here are the images. The dining – on the right as you enter:

The study on the left:

The Grand Room:

Do you see that screened porch? I wish there were some images of that. I believe there was an outdoor eating area, with a grill. I can’t remember!

My favorite, the kitchen:

Beyond the kitchen is the master bedroom with the sitting area:

The master bath:

Back to the main area, as you go up the stairs, there is a little sitting nook:

Up the stairs there is a little artist’s nook. Sorry, I don’t have any images. But, I do have some of the basement! I would love this basement for entertaining!

There are some bedrooms down here:

And bathrooms:

So, what do you think of my all time favorite local show home? Love it? I wish I had my camera with me! If I had only known this would be one of my last Parade of Homes as I knew it! For more in-depth information of this home, click here.

Have a great weekend everyone. Thanks for visiting!

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