Come in out of the cold!

The front door of our old farmhouse opens into the centre hallway.  It is the main entrance because the  back door (side) opened onto a small landing in the basement stairs.  It wasn't safe and after a sliding door replaced another window we boarded the doorway up.

But I am still rethinking the hallway so if I could just scoot you quickly off to the right and into the biggest room in the house we'll save that busy hallway for later.  I wonder if the canvas above the stove is the right size but having everything exactly right makes a room a bit sterile.  My inspiration book uses a colour wheel type approach to styles.  She suggests using the opposite of your preferred style as an accent.  It appears this room is more accent but I'm keeping my eyes open for a better rug and more modern touches.  Generally it is making me smile whenever I pass through!   

My new motto, KISS, is a bit challenged in this room as I need the larger table and all the extra chairs at least once a week and I just got tired of hauling leaves and chairs around.  lol  But I have resisted spreading  knickknacks and whatnots all around!   I'm learning to think bigger when it comes to accessorizing.

This room seems to be used mostly in the evenings. The stove sometimes makes dining a bit warm but we'll often find guests standing by it.   It is very cozy when the table is round and at its smallest with four small dark wood chairs placed around it.  A good place to enjoy a glass of wine and some conversation, even if it is just the Rooster and I.

We moved the dining table in and the sofa out many years ago as we eat more than we sit. ;^)  Our visitors tend to be kitchen table table people, as we are, and this has just worked out wonderfully.  These bigger birch chairs are sturdier and fit best when the leaves are in place.  Generally we have need of more chairs.  A round turntable that matches the lighter birch wood links the chairs to the table that I stained to hide the orangey oak.

Grouping all my small collections of English pink transferware and cranberry depression glass in the china cabinet was a good decision.  It just makes me so happy seeing it all in one place.  I got that small rectangular plate during my first visit to an antique shop in Thunder Bay, Ontario.  It was meant to be a souvenir of a lovely visit with a friend.  I am not a serious collector but add a new piece every once in a while. 

The openess of  the tea trolley keeps things from feeling too closed in and I just luv it.  Another spontaneous find close in town. :)  I wish I'd chosen a more modern fabric for these two auction find chairs but they work.  I can spruce up the cushions when time allows.  Meanwhile,

I hope you have been warmed by your visit!  Thanks for dropping by! :)

Setting up for spring

Friday is the first day of spring and we have had a wonderful taste of what is to come as the weather was one degree short of record breaking on Sunday.  Chilly again but whatever comes next will only be a brief delay as the snow is just about gone.

So my thoughts have turned to spring cleaning and decorating.  I have finally embraced the idea that it isn't just the end of a long winter that gets me all excited.  I just really like the fresh and simple look that comes to mind when I think of spring.  I'm a thinking I'll be dragging that look through all my seasonal decorating in some way, shape or form.

Seth, over at The Altered Page, has been hosting a series of links on Living with Art.  I feel real strongly about having my/our home reflect who we are and how we live. My quilts are fairly evident but not my mixed media projects.

 So why is my 'art' stuck away in closets and far away bookcase shelves. ???  I am thinking it is time to put it out there.  :O


I'm feeling the urge to slap some house paint onto some needy;  well, and some not so needy pieces of furniture.  I've been doing some serious study on colour and thinking about how to get my two rather distinct decorating personalities to play together nicely.  I really appreciate Maria, from Colour Me Happy.  She has helped me understand why I haven't been getting the results I've been wanting.  As she says, white is complicated!!!  I also had a real aha! moment rereading Lynette Jennings No Compromise Decorating and the earlier, Straight Talk on Decorating.  It is all about understanding what needs to showcase the stuff I luv as I move through the seasons of a year.  Hopefully I can have some good stuff to show come March 20th.  ;^)  Ready, setty, SPRING!

Finishing February

The lovely holiday is finished.  They have such colourful rosy grosbeaks in Ontario.  The hoar frost was amazing.

The 'puter is back from its spa and seems kinda cranky but it needs to have an attitude check as that is as good as it gets!  lol

I finished the No Compromise Decorating book and I have already been doing my decorating with 'out of the box' thinking and just need to translate some of that to my mixed media approach.  Lynette Jennings, the author, suggests getting to know your space and and your style.  This is an ongoing evolution that is part of life but sometimes it is good to stop and take stock of where one is.  "Your taste, what your eye sees as beauty, has a self-coordinating effect once you edit out the things you don't like."  Then sort, prioritize, rearrange, and recolour.  It is already there but the clutter creates confusion and the uglies will pull you/compromise you where you do not want to go. Your home is a collage of things you love, arranged comfortably and you do that to your own sensibilities.
So-
1) go with the flow (traffic patterns)
2) analyze how you live (remove the names of the rooms on the floor plan)
3) find where your very most favourite spot is and decorate from there (sofa corner with a window view)
4) realize that what you luv may not be feasible but it should be what you like, truly like  (luv modern but not neat)

I already switched my small dining room into a sitting room with no couch.  The living room is our dining room and the master bed room is the sewing room.  The kitchen is now under the spotlight!  De cluttering is happening and grouping similar things/colours is enlightening.

I now need to stop compromising with my art and apply these excellent principles to it!  

My class on Getting Started is up to date.  I finished the basics of gelli printing.  That is a LOT of fun.  I added paint, I subtracted paint.  I got layers happening but I think the biggest aha! was on the intentional gelli printing.

 I need to get better at it and the mono printing itself is very serendipitous but I liked it.  The left page is the painty paper shapes laid on a spare page.  The centre is my gelli printed paper with some layers on it.  The right paper is a catch all and the cut shapes are laid on it and can be collaged on.  :)

We are waiting on the contractor for the go ahead on the front rooms.  So our thoughts are turning to the kitchen.  A visit to the new IKEA in the city sparked all kinds of dialogue!  I want it pretty and 'he who cooks' wants to know where all the pots are going!  lol  

I had an aha! moment a week ago.  Life is far too short to stress over the past.  Reconcile and move on.  So this wedding quilt is a promise to be met and finished as best as I can make it.  After chatting with my DD we will go with the floral and the new green and asap!  I have one more month to complete my goals for the finish a long.  The dreaded coveralls are hemmed and it will be full steam ahead!

The light is going so perhaps I'll post the calendar journal another day.

February is finished and I am marching purposefully into the final month of winter!

Tuesday Toots!

The Altered book tutorials are about finished and before I begin my on-line colour class I need to work on the whole house plan for our renewal project here at home.  It has been some time since the house has been painted and the temporary fix in the kitchen has exceeded it expiry date.  The Rooster and I intend to stay here so while he is working we need to get ready for the inevitable retirement and the beginning of our golden years which will be all about pursuing our various hobbies rather than fixing the nest.

I have serious procrastination issues which I think stem from too many choices that paralyze me and then I am seduced by a different idea for a different project so I start all over again and again.  The Rooster has known this and I have come to admit that he is right. Hark!  Do I hear crowing???  lol

So he has agreed to oversee the project and figure the time line.  First I need to define what it is I want to do.  I think I know.  I just need to isolate it and articulate it.

Creativity is about creating.  And home decor is at the heart of my creativity.  I would like what I create to be evidenced in my home.

First lesson:

I follow a couple of decorating blogs and The Decorologist had a post a few weeks ago that really spoke to me. First I liked the colour palette and then I agreed that if you buy what you like then you will have the where with all to create a desirable environment. She had 3 Secrets for Styling Your Space With What You Already Have.  I have already spent the last year editing all my stuff.  I want to include where I am right now and what I like now.  All my folk art stuff is gone to the thrift store except for one or two things that I still luv.

Maria Killam is a great resource for getting things right.  I learned a lot about undertones.

I am stuck right now narrowing down paint selections.  I keep changing my mind. That old habit is still with me but I think my colours are right here in the house and I just have to identify them and pick the best rooms to showcase them.

So according to my fabric stash, my accessories for decorating vignettes, my favourite colours are yellow and aqua.  I just hadn't really seen them as 'grown up' decorating colours.  And to be fair as my decorating sense has evolved,  the past revolved mostly around hand me downs and sales!  lol

 First I bought a fan deck.  It has been worth the $30 just because it has saved many trips to study wee paint ships and therefore my sanity.  I find an option or two or three and then I go get several of each and cut and paste them onto white paper which I put up on the wall where I can see them over a few days.  Amazing how helpful that is.

This is how it works.  I 'always' wanted a red  room.  I have figured out it is the blue reds that I like.  I picked the best and put it up on the wall.  I had warm fuzzies for a week and then I began to really think about it.  ???  I tend to gravitate to low contrast.  Hmmm!  My collection of decorator pages usually show red as an accent and often with yellow.  ???   I have now learned that I need to have red as a secondary colour and not as wall paint.

Many decorators recommend a theme fabric or some special object.  Then you pick the 3 main colours and carry them throughout the house.  Most of my favourites have too many colours.  They do include yellow, cream, rose, aqua and a fresh green plus white.  :(

With a certain amount of angst, I have arrived at this for downstairs.

And this for upstairs.  It hasn't the real aqua but it does have a lovely chartreuse.

The public areas are more traditional and the private bedrooms are more funky. I figure blue/green changing to a yellower green up the hallways will make the transition smooth.  And besides, dragging this rug all around downstairs gets tiring quickly although I do think I need to do it at least once!  lol

Limiting my palette to 3 colours, yellow, blue/green, rose plus the neutral creams and white,  and then remembering that I favour low contrast except for seasonal pops of colour should simplify my choices.

Now to find the right white for all the woodwork!  :(  Older houses don't do so well with IKEA white but the new vinyl windows aren't exactly antique ivory!  sheesh

Comfort Zone

Each time  I rearrange my house I get closer to the ideal.  Last night I was so happy I actually sat down and looked around.  I even brought the stack of books I'm reviewing for 2012 and stacked them for browsing.

I couldn't keep my eyes from looking around. Ambiance!  Even though it was only 5:30 it was dark but I took pictures anyway.

The colours are beginning to jell.  The 2 large decorator florals are just pinned as I consider drapes.  I'm thinking of a wooden valence over the top of this sliding door. The fabric has a dusky red that I once considered for the dining room but now I'm thinking sitting room which has a smaller wall area but should be cozy. I'm also sure the large mirror will stay in this room.   The fabric has a green with some blue in which would be a good colour to recover the aqua chairs.  The walls in the dining room would be pulled from the golden beiges in the fabric.  That front window is a puzzle.  Maybe a valence from the bit of floral fabric that would be left over or maybe I should use it for the foot stool.

But I'm definitely liking the comfort factor.

The quick peek I had at my first book is stretching my comfort zone though.  I thought 12 books for 2012 had a nice ring to it.  But Threads- the Basics and Beyond,  is extensive.  Even if I started tonight  (2nd floor decorating today) and did Nina's manual at the same time, it would take at least 2-3 months.  I'm probably being unrealistically optimistic, too.

More thinking while I pick up pins in the playroom.

Above and Beyond

I'm so glad that we decided early on to leave the two bedrooms alone.  My son in law had decided to remove the 2 tiny closets and put in one straight wall.  He will put a new closet on the wall at the foot of the bed.  Even if a drywaller had stepped in,  we wouldn't have had the time to paint.   

The master bedroom opens off the living room and is small.  Cari always has one of my quilts on her bed but with the taupe walls and all her battenburg lace duvet and pillow cases I decide to just use the white for this photo.  I spray painted the thrift store lamps gold and I need to find bigger and hopefully  rectangular shades.  I'd seen them a month ago and didn't realize shipping and storing lampshades is risky business.  They dent easily. So now I know, if you see one you like, buy it!.  And these lamps need big shades.  Rectangle would put them further back on the bedside tables and contrast the curves in the bed and lace.  I used a battenburg bedskirt to make valences over the sheer curtains.

This new wall will be a perfect photo gallery wall and all the frames should be white.

The kiddie room had bunk beds that overpowered the room and the reality is that the kids aren't ready for them. So Willian had put one away.  They each have their own end.  Their dad is South American so the theme incorporates that and is also suitable for either gender as growing things and flowers figure prominently in their lives.

I took the two bookcases from my house and they'll each have one to store their stuff. Now I've learned a lot about spray painting since I first did this. sad, very sad.  LOL  And their Dad is an excellent spray painter and has serious spray equipment so he can improve on them.   I did organize a play area in the basement for trucks, trains, blocks and kitchen.  The kids' Papa is a carpenter.  He made a kitchen for his daughter.

He also made the bedside tables and this hutch which we moved from their room because the new closet will go in its place.  The chair is being stripped back to natural wood. Oooh, blurry but all I took.

I was in such a rush to get finished I neglected to take a photo of the Rooster work in the tiny hall.  A corner holds some triangular shelves that has baskets with white liners to hold stuff.  I also used some curtains my DD made to cover the basement pantry.  The basement  has a revamped laundry area and an area for the kids to play.  An old coffee table is the new Thomas the Tank play station.  

That pretty much wraps up the make over.  I enjoyed the creative challenge.  I hope they enjoy the change.

I would like to say that it has taken years of trying different things, reading lots of magazines and decorating books to get to the place where I can pull together a cohesive decorating scheme. I'm reluctant to take on projects for others because a home is so personal and should reflect what the owners lov.   I'm not sure why decorating held such an interest for me even as a youngster.  Perhaps it was my first doll house. Notice Elaina's.  I gave it to her for her first birthday.  Some pieces are put away so she doesn't swallow them.  I think if one is interested in something, then one notices things, analyzes why it works  and pursues and learns all about it.  This encourages me to continue to pursue creative things whether it be decorating, sewing, arts or crafts.  Notice I didn't include cooking!   I ain't  THAT interested.  lol

The family returns today and I'll be spending the weekend visiting and relaxing.  Monday will bring new creative challenges.