Sunday Sunday

This is a picture of our beautiful kitchen. I was so happy to come home to it today after a long but wonderful Artist Row - dinner ready and waiting (with 12 other people waiting too). I had the most amazing weekend!Here are the chinese lanterns from my garden in my vase from More Fire's discount table at their sale on my kitchen table in the kitchen with the tangerine wall.

Latest beads, Lucinda gave me some marshmallow! Isn't it wonderful? And I guess by now you know how I love the spot light effect in Photoshop filters.

also on the needles

I purchased this yarn at the local Fiber Festival almost two years ago. It is very very soft and I love the color. I took it with me to New Orleans so I could knit while waiting at airports and on the plane. I had no plan and stupidly got a lot done not knowing what it will become. I could make a sweater, but considering the other sweater I would prefer to complete, I have decided to make a wrap. It should be a wonderful thing to throw on at the beach at the end of the day. I don't know the fiber - I assume it not a natural fiber because it looks ribbon like, as if it were spit out of a machine. But, boy, is it soft. I have another skein which I think will become a baby blanket. It is on top of my pile there on my bedside table pictured below. I did finally get some Orla Kreily pieces at Target. I got a great Pears table cloth (of which two would make amazing curtains for the right room) and these containers for my yarn. The blue is an exact match to our vintage wall paper. I wish they produced this fabric in tablecloths as I have been looking for curtains, or fabric for curtains, for 4 years for this room.

More

This our other living room. I meant to post the Anna Marie Horner curtains I made over Christmas vacation, but I forgot. I still have to hem them, I am so lazy when it comes to sewing.

banister

One day about two weeks ago, I went to clean the banister and decided the paint was too chipped to bother cleaning, so I removed it. I figured I would repaint it, but then  I mentioned to my husband the idea of finding a new banister as we always hated that one. (It was a pathetic, scrawny wrought iron thing). 

Last Saturday we went to House Parts and Re-House and as we were leaving Re-house unhappy with the colonial wooden banisters we saw, and Allen noticed this blue steel rail , we bought it and within the week he had cut and welded it to fit our stairs! The blue is almost an exact match to the walls - but we are going to live with it for a while and then decide how to have the surface. 

I did it!

A while back I went on and on  about wall paper and I did it. Last weekend I began wall papering one wall in our living room. I ran out in need of just one more 8 ft. piece and on Tuesday I ended up driving to Batavia to get the last roll in the upstate area (they had sold out on line). So I have some extra if any of you ran into the same problem with the same exact wall paper.

More for the New Year

April is all tuckered out . (She had a friend to play with for a day or two).

Allen's new amazing gorgeous dresser made by our dear friend Misha. Check out his other beautiful woodwork at his site.

Aster made a scrumptious cheesecake for New Years' dinner!

The newest group of gloves - can be seen on Etsy too!

This is the sweater I made for a baby that was born this morning. It is a little mis shaped and way to big for a new born, but that is what I get for refusing to follow a pattern. Well really, it refusing to search endlessly for the perfect pattern. Had to make a yellow sweater because we do not know the gender. Would never use yellow otherwise. Hoping all is well with the mom and the baby.

Haven't heard any details yet...

Thank You

I had a great Thanksgiving and a lovely weekend to follow. Thank you to my wonderful parents for coming a long way to celebrate with us and thank you to everyone who came out to support Second Storie} Indie Market. We had a great turn out, we had a great time, made new friends and came home with some lovely items too!! (I'll share those through out the week). Thank you all who buy hand made and local this holiday season!

This picture is of our guest room which is never clean enough to photograph. It is our dumping ground for what ever I don't feel like putting away, but maybe now it will remain clean and comfortable like this. Who am I kidding - at least I will have this photograph to remind of its potential.

Pictures

Inside -our kitchen counter
Outside on Wednesday - rainy day
Outside on Thursday.

Anna Marie Horner

This is the fabric I ordered for the Family Room curtains. I have always wanted to have a splash of pink somewhere in the house and I really hope this works. I think it will look cheery and vintage, yet modern and stylish. It will take up almost an entire wall and be a major focal point as one walks in the front door. We have a wonderful vintage couch in that room that I made a red slip cover for and there is a stone fire place and stone floor. I am quite nervous ordering fabric online - I hope it is all I believe it will be.

Our Bedroom

We moved into this 60's house over four years ago. It has zero personality. No wood work, literally no window sills. But I am beginning to love it. I am looking forward to making the family room curtains this weekend with some amazing Anna Marie Horner fabric. After watching Leanne win Project Runway I am desperate for some pattern! Here is a picture of our bedroom. It has this gorgeous vintage wallpaper that is in excellent condition. (We stripped the wall paper of of every other room in the house). I almost love our bedroom, as it is close to perfect. We found these vintage table lamps ten years ago and they were born for this room. The curtains were original to the house and they are a lovely raw silk. I found those amazing pillow cases at Target this August. I just need the perfect (affordable) rug and I will be happy.

Sunday

Part of a Tree

No Tree

Sunday I hardly left my bed. The whole family has had a very bad cold (seeming like the flu really) for over two weeks. It comes and goes and it came bad on Sunday for me. Worse yet our neighbor across the street was having a very large willow tree cut down. The chain saw made it very difficult for me to rest, let alone fight off the headache I had. It is almost 6:00 and they still don't have it completely down...

I managed to get just a little bit done on Saturday. I finished a handful of green bottle glass earrings. I also went shopping with my daughter and I bought the most wonderful winter coat. The cat pictured is Nemo, we have had him since he was a kitten. He is almost 9 years old (I think - I am going to check the photo album on that one). I felt bad that I have showed off the dog (April) and one of the rats (Peanut). So I am trying to be even about my representation of family pets on the blog. I'll have to get some nice pictures of the other rat and the snake (which reminds me, the snake needs to be fed).

sara dankert

Sara Dankert is an awsome artist and teacher. I am lucky enough to own this drawing. We saw it at RoCo and then my husband went and surprised me with it as a Christmas present! I am in love with this other one too! Maybe it will become a tradition and I can get this to hang over the couch!

Home Maker

I had some things framed and I have been trying to get the house in order as the school year begins. We have lived in this house for over four years and it is still a work in progress. Here is a shot of a corner of our dining room. I love this little picture by Erin Tyner. I may have to make a collection of her work. Two or three would look good on this wall, don't you think? The collage pods growing out of the molding are the one element I feel is my personal touch in this house. There will be more, personal touches that is, I don't think my husband could stand any more pods.

Decisions

So here is the finished piece in place. And I do really love it.
I played around more with the pieces to this puzzle and I think I may rip the painting in half and have the house shape/flyswatter hanging down in the empty space...

These colors are truer to the reality of the painting. In the photos below I was using photoshop adjustments to give it something it just doesn't have.

I am working on this piece for our living room. I have a large frame that I am repurposing for an empty wall. It is getting there. I need to sand down the shininess of the acrylic paint and decide how much collage to use. The oval of wallpaper is bothering me - I like it and I dislike it. I am considering painting something over it to push it back...but I don't want it very complicated.

So little time

August came too fast! Summer is time for home improvements for us. As we are teachers (although my husband has a great deal of work to do in the summer) I don't have to go to work. This year Allen built a deck off the back of the house. The yard was a blank slate of grass with no landscaping at all. We didn't like having to have the grass mowed and we didn't like sitting in it, so it was necessary and we really do love it. We didn't want to put the grill on the deck and so we decide to put in a stone patio right next to it. We were planning to hire someone to do it, but I decided to take a try and I am pleased to say I completed it by the end of July.

I have a new beautiful maple dresser that my friend Michael Kryzytski, an incredibly talented wood worker/cabinet maker made for me. It has eleven drawers and it is absolutely beautiful. As gorgeous and new as it is, it feels like it has always been in my life, and it is truly part of our home. (Don't you just love the wallpaper in our bedroom? The original owner most likely put up in 1965).