The Bakery

My husband and I watched "It's Complicated" last night. I loved the cozy home...what I really loved, though, was that bakery!


Both images are from Cinema Style - a wonderful blog I just found looking for these bakery images. I think I'll go back and read some more!

Happy New Years everyone - stay safe!!!

This and That

I wanted to share some miscellaneous Christmas touches:

The chandelier in the kitchen eating nook has an addition of some rustic glamour with some metallic spray painted branches with crystals and a mercury glass ornament.

We have our stockings on the mantle in the basement. I made the "jester's" stockings around 8 years ago. They are still in good shape, although the bells on one of the stockings have fallen off. I used black velvet, colorful satin, and sheer fabric that match the satin. The stockings are lined in the same satin colored fabric.

The stockings coordinate with the tree the kids decorated just a few feet away:

Here's my quick wine cork name card holder project after being inspired by Lauren's beautiful Christmas decorated home.

And a quick Christmas card holder project using a frame I had in storage and chicken wire.

If I don't make it back to the blog before Christmas, I hope you all have a wonderful time celebrating Christ's birth with your loved ones. Merry Christmas everyone!

Family Room Christmas Decor

I just finished a painting that I'm giving as a gift, and now I finally have a bit of time to share some more pics of my Christmas decor!

Below is my mantle in the family room. I just have my painting and some branches from the yard, with some candles and greenery. The stockings are on another mantle in the basement. I quit hanging the stockings on this mantle a couple of years ago, because it started getting a bit too much for this room that we spend all our time in. I was feeling like Christmas threw up in here. :) Every year, I'm noticing I'm using less Christmas decor.

For a bit of fun, I spray painted the frame red:


Sorry for the fuzzy picture below - this was taken the morning of our breakfast party. I must have been a bit jittery from all the coffee! I switched the accessories on the shelves to mostly beige, white, and touches of red. I also have blue accents in the pillows and the blue Christmas ornaments. The slate blue goes well with the blues in the painting.

I painted this family area/kitchen from a gold color (BM "spice gold") to white ("French Canvas") a few months ago, and I am so glad I did! For as much as I change my accessories and paintings, I can't believe I didn't re-paint this room earlier!


Every year, I have the kids take pictures with Santa. I am missing a year. It is so fun to see the kids get bigger every year. I think I will have them take pictures with Santa for as long as Santa can hold their weight!
We have another party coming up this weekend. This time, it is actually a dinner party with some very close friends. We're thinking beef tenderloin.....

Breakfast Party and the Dining Room Christmas Decor

This past weekend, our family hosted a breakfast party. The reason for breakfast instead of dinner? Well, this particular group of friends we invited do dinner very well in their homes. Very gourmet, very intimidating, and very delicious. Some of them have been to the finest restaurants in this country. One of them is a writer for a industry nutritional magazine, and has tasted the best food. They know good food. They are foodies to say the least!

My husband's and my idea of a dinner party would consist at best marinating some salmon in soy sauce, garlic, and cilantro.

We do, however, make a mean breakfast! And, after a camping/hiking trip where my husband brought the most inedible freeze dried eggs, he had to redeem himself.

Being part Swedish, my husband makes great Swedish pancakes. Breakfast is his specialty. His mother used to wake up at 5:00 am every morning to fix a nice, hot, breakfast for her boys every day. Every day. Yikes! I wake up at that time every day so I can work out, but there is no cooking involved :) ! I never really enjoyed breakfast until I married him. Was I missing out!

So, here was the menu:


Swedish pancakes, Stuffed Blueberry French Toast, a green chile, sausage, and cheese egg dish, Poppy Seed Bread, and of course, Mimosa and Espresso/Lattes for the adults. Orange juice for the kids. We used 72 eggs. Call the cardiologist! Wait, he's a guest!

Here's a not so clear picture of the holiday decorated dining room. I decorated the chandelier with some glass ornaments, a garland of clear and silver beads, and crystals that I wired. (I am planning a chandelier makeover after Christmas is over and all that stuff comes off. This is a builder's basic chandelier that I do not really like much.) The table is set with greenery, my moss balls, and branches from our yard. We used silver inherited from my husband's mom, which, by the way, we use every time we have guests over. Why have silver if we don't use it? Our water goblets are one of my favorites - pink and green glass which resemble Depression Glass. They hold so much water! I'll be so sad if one ever breaks, as they are irreplaceable.


Then there's the food. The presentation is not so great. It's difficult to make it look pretty when one is feeding 8 adults and 11 children. One of our friends even brought a yummy potato dish as well. It was a foodfest!

By the way, one requirement for our guests - must wear pj's.

My Christmas Fruit Tree

We had a great Thanksgiving holiday this past weekend. We usually stay home for the holidays, since both my husband's and my family live in town. This year, though,we ended up visiting my husband's relatives in Nebraska for the weekend. It was a huge family get together, and a great time for all of us.

We usually put up the Christmas decorations during Thanksgiving, but since we would be away, the Christmas decor went up a week early. Why not make the most of all the time and effort involved?

Here is my entryway tree. This is the tree where I get to put all the "pretties". We have another tree with family ornaments that the kids get to decorate in another part of the house.


This tree is filled with framed pictures of the children. Each year, additional frames are added.

There are also many dragonflies...

A bee....

And many hand-blown glass fruit ornaments from Germany. I love these....

The grapes below are not blown glass, but I love them. They catch the light nicely.

Since I was in such a "fruity" mood, why not paint some fruit? Here are 2 pears:

"Grey Pear" is on Etsy. Click here to view.

"White Pear" click here to view on Etsy

I'll post pictures soon of some of the other decorations I've put up. I can't wait to see everyone else's holiday homes out there!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Lemon Tree

We just had another 12" of snow this past weekend. Looks like we're in for a lonnng winter! The kids have been asking relentlessly for me to set up the Christmas tree for them. I finally put it up yesterday, and after stringing up the lights, they started decorating the family tree. (I have the pretty "mommy" tree with the pretty ornaments that goes upstairs in the foyer.) Since we decorate for Christmas so early, we have fake trees. (My first job out of college was also working as an insurance adjuster, so real trees kind of freak me out with all the fires that get started from them.) However... I want to get a "real" tabletop tree this year for our main living space. I love the smell, and the imperfectness of a real tree.

Anyhow, speaking of trees, here's my latest in the shop. It's not Christmassy, but I do have fruit ornaments for my real tree, and for some reason, this painting reminds me a little of Christmas. Maybe subconsciously I want to go somewhere warm for Christmas!

"Lemon Tree" is for sale on Etsy. Click here to view.

Glory

Photo taken by my husband at the Airforce vs. Army football game

To our heros: Happy Veterans Day! Thank you for your service!

A Wicked Great Weekend

"Tree Blossoms" for sale on Etsy. Click here to view.

I haven't posted in a couple of weeks because I was getting ready for a Christmas Boutique I participated in this past weekend. It was a great show - I met such great people, and I sold several paintings! By the way, I have now restocked my shop. It was barren there for a few days.

On another note, my husband and I went with a couple of friends to see "Wicked" the musical at the Buell Theater in Denver yesterday. We all loved this show! If you have not seen it, the story is about the "bad witch" in "Wizard of Oz", and how she actually was not a bad witch at all, but quite the opposite. I loved the twist on the story, and how all throughout the show, there were references to the original Oz story. I'm still thinking about the story a day later. If this musical ever comes to your city, I highly recommend you see it!

Autumn Touches

I thought I'd share some quick pics of the Fall decor I've added to the house the past couple of weeks. (While I post this, there is snow falling outside! )


The above is my entry way. I've actually done a little makeover in this whole area. I painted the large mirror black, and added my columns and glass top that I had in my storage area. The painting is one of my latest - in my chandelier series, and the urn was brought in from the other room . The white pumpkins add that subtle autumn feel here.
I'm not usually a huge fan of pumpkin orange, but I had to buy this deep orange/red colored pumpkin. It is a beautiful color.On my fireplace mantel, I switched my artwork, and added another painting also from my chandelier series. In my iron urns, I added branches that I spray painted white. I purchased the Chinese Lanterns from Whole Foods. I love the delicate tissue-like look of these Chinese Lantern branches.


Now that I've added these Autumn touches, I am in the mood for Christmas decor, especially with the snow falling outside!

Three

I recently completed a commission painting for a client’s entertainment area in their basement. The whole basement was finished by her Anesthesiologist husband. What a set of talents: space planning, framing, drywalling, tile setting, picking out finishes, and being able to put people to sleep!

The area where Aimee wanted the painting was right over her fireplace. The painting needed to be large, as this was a large room, and it was to be a focal point of the room. She wanted warm colors in the purple family.

This is the painting I completed:

The painting is entitled “Three” – for the three trees in the background. I have a thing for numbers, maybe it’s because of my accounting background. Who knows, but numbers are symbolic to me. Anyhow, here is the painting in the room. I love that fireplace, don’t you?

Through My Rose Colored Glasses

For the past several years, I have been playing around with my photographs, paintings, and Photoshop. Up until now, I have not done anything with them except for decorating my own home, giving them away, and making color adjustments for my paintings to be viewed on line. I realized it was more than a hobby when I had to keep buying more and more external hard drives to store all those images. What to do with all those Gigabytes worth of “playing around”?

I have decided to list some on my Etsy site.

Here is my first photograph I have listed. It is called “Through My Rose Colored Glasses”, because I think everyone should wear those once in a while. Why not Rose Colored Glasses? We should all dream and see things rosy once in a while, right? :)

Click here to view this print on Etsy.

Since October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, I am donating 20% of the proceeds from this print to the Susan G. Komen foundation. In memory of my neighbor Jill.

An Inspired House

Sorry for the delay on this post – my youngest came down with the flu (Dr. says most likely it’s the Swine), and Strep throat. Needless to say, I’ve been wielding the disinfectant spray and hand sanitizer! The house smells like Lysol. She’s much better now, and the flu was not as scary as anticipated.

Anyhow, in my last post, I mentioned that my friend Katy stayed in Suzanne Kasler’s old beach home. Well, she came back from that trip so decor inspired, that her own home got a refreshing makeover! Katy has always had a great sense of style – leaning more toward Mountain/Western/Rustic. She was ready for a change, though, and look at what she did! I don’t have before pics, but the believe me, the befores were also very beautiful. These rooms below are the living and dining rooms.

As you enter the home, you turn left, and are greeted by the sunken living room. We actually sit in here when we come over. When does anyone use their living room? We do, because this room is too pretty to not be used!

Here is the other side – I love her zebra throw. The photos of the beach were taken with her point and shoot! There was no photoshopping involved. The beach really looks like that in Carillon!

View of the room from the dining room. She’s decorated for fall – see the pumpkins in her wicker tray?

I love her blue chairs. They are comfy as well.

The dining room is beyond the living room. See the copper pot in the corner? It’s very functional - it houses some weights for when the family is in the mood to do some exercising! (She’ll probably wonder why I even wrote that, but I think it’s perfect to store the weights there.)

A better view of the room. Katy’s husband is an avid fly fisherman. The print above the buffet is for him. I think it’s fun and unexpected.

The other side of the dining room: I love the hammered tin shelf. You can’t tell in the photo, but it and the clock are very big pieces.

Little details are scattered throughout her home. Seashells and votives (which do get lit), sit in this little basket.

This little curio sits in the hallway. I love the little white pumpkins. I had to get this shot, because her silver J.Crew flipflops look like they were put there on purpose for these photos. Nope, she just happened to throw them off right there!

And, of course, I have another beach inspired painting:

Aqua Beach is on Etsy. Click here to view.

Hope you enjoyed this little tour of a portion of my friend’s home. I know I always love going over there to see the new things she’s done! Thanks Katy for letting me show the everyone your home!

Suzanne Kasler’s (ex) Beach House

In a previous post, I showed you some beach homes in Carillon Beach. One of those homes was a beautiful home once owned by designer Suzanne Kasler. The home is called Casa Blanca I. There is a guest house called Casa Blanca II. During our vacation in Carillon, my husband and I would jog by the Casa Blancas and I was tempted several times to just run up to the porch and peek into the home. (ala Joni style :)) But alas, seeing as how it was a small neighborhood, and I am not that bold, and was afraid of getting caught and embarrassing myself, I did not peek in.

However, our friends we vacationed with had the opportunity to rent Casa Blanca I a couple of years ago when Ms. Kassler owned it. Below are some photos that were sent to them from the home’s management office. (I’m sorry, but I don’t have the photographer’s name to credit.)

The home was featured in Atlanta Homes and Lifestyles magazine in 2007. You can read it by clicking here. The images I have are a little different than the styled home in the magazine article, but beautiful just the same.

This is the entry to the home. It is on the side of the home. It sets the tone for the light, airy feeling.

As you enter through the side, there is a powder room. I love the aqua colored glass sink!

Through the entry is the kitchen and dining area. I have 2 photos. The first may have been taken during the Atlanta Homes & Lifestyles magazine shoot. I love the pops of color in the lampshades in this one. The second is the unstyled home:

Through the kitchen is the great room:

The other side of the room. I love the prints on the wall that again add that pop of color!

Upstairs are the bedrooms. The loft area:

The guest room:

The guest bath:

Master bedroom:

Master bath:

It was a great vacation for my friend. Although it was a bit stressful having 2 young boys in the beautiful home, she gained a ton of inspiration from living in this home for a week. In a few days I will show you some images from my friend’s Kassler inspired home.

I painted this painting shortly after our trip. "Ocean Abstracted" is now on Etsy. Click here to view.