out with the old and in with the new

For quite some time now My Aunt Deb (Beth Quinn's Mom) and I have been planning to do a make over in  her home . Little did we know how the project would grow and come to include the whole family..... That is My Aunt Barb, my Mom ,Beth and Cal  have all played rolls in this first phase face lift ( 4 rooms to go) of Debs space. The goal was to get her feeling like her condo of 7 years is finally her home!! To do this it was needed  to give it the cottage feel she  adores and to make a space for her creativity and ebay business while still keeping in mind that she loves to entertain her family and needs a cozy feel as she  lives by herself. Here is what I came up.  I used black and white as the main feel as it gave the 80's oak a chic sophisticated feel and would be a simple background  color theme  that  would tie all these multi purposes together in one big open  space. We all pulled together in cleaning, painting and repairing to make this happen. Deb had a lot of good things to work with, they just needed a new twist put on them to bring them into  their new environment . Oh and 10 trips to the dump and Goodwill with a tad extra stuff no longer needed!!

Four Eyes

Here I am in my new glasses . I finally bit the bullet and went to prescriptions. UGHHHH they are progressive lenses and I cannot see I thing. All I do is move my head around trying to find the " Sweet spot" where things come into focus. They say it takes about 2 weeks to get used to them.  I am amazed I can see to write this post !!!!

Up on my etsy!!

This little guy is now on my etsy. He has an old style crank music box in his base. His name is "buzz"

...How she submitted ---. Loved.
Loved her interior world,
her interior wilderness,
that primal forest inside her,
where among decayed tree trunks
her heart stood, light green... ~Rilke

from the heart

This morning I wanted to blog about something very special to me and hand made with love. My Grandmothers creative art form was knitting and crocheting. I wish I had her gift of patients for this creative work.She made sooo many beautiful things through the years for her family .My favorite gift from her is one of the first things I would grab if the house was on fire. It is the ivory afghan that she gave me in 1977. WOW that makes it 32 years old . It  always holds a treasured place in every home I have lived in. I would also call it my security blanket as it is the item I love most to wrap up in when I need to feel warm and comforted. I see it daily and  it keeps my Grandmother always close in  my mind.

Open studio tour

Today is open studio  for  Quilting arts Magazine's studio's  of Cloth Scissors Paper ( Interweave Press)I know I just posted my studio but wanted to participate in this tour. So here we go again. What I love most about my space is that it is in the heart of our home. We have one big room that is part living room part dining room. I made a rolling drywall" Gallery Wall" it is in an L shape and is 4 feet by 6 feet and 6 feet tall. It separates the Studio ( the dining room part ) from the living room. The wall rolls around on very large casters . It took me about 2 days to  make this and was it heavy! Thank God my dad taught me carpenter skills. When I have friends over for a creative day I can just roll the wall to the side and open up the room . I also love that I have a separate sides  in my space for my computer as we all know this is a BIG part of our creative world .I can just switch over to the other stool on the other side and have a coffee break while I blog. Oh for those of you who would like to know, the white furnishings are from Ballard Design. I believe it is the Abbyville collection . I love them!!!

Chenille bug infestation

We called the exterminator but he said there was nothing he could do about the chenille bug infestation in our garden!!!! Aren't these so darn cute!!! They just came in the mail as a surprise treat form Maija She got them at the French  General!!SOOO CUTE!!!I guess she knows what I like...TEE HEEE