Spring is for Lilacs

   My favorite flower, I wait for it all year round.

This year Mother Nature did not disappoint!

When one pays such close attention to their lilacs year after year, you discover how the winter before affects each bush or tree.  Last year we had a much colder, stormier winter and the common lilacs had heartier stems and more flowerettes.  The specialty lilacs bloomed profusely, except for the whites.  This past winter was mild and hardly cold compared to years past and the common lilacs now have more brittle branches and while they bloomed profusely, the flowerettes are not as long lasting. The smaller specialty lilacs didn't bloom at all but the whites and all the new lilacs I planted last year with the expectation they wouldn't bloom for a few years, are giving me the most beautiful displays now!

Here are a few I picked for the dining room mantle last Saturday.  Aren't they magnificent!?

You can only imagine how wonderful my home smells right now.

There are lilacs everywhere...I float from room to room thinking this must be what heaven is like.  Occasionally I see a cat butt on a table, sticking out of a vase...the kitties love them too...but mainly, I think, to drink their water! haha

Transforming An Armoire into a Faux Swedish Tiled Stove

I needed a front entry "closet" for my c.1950 Cape Cod "Elinor Cottage" because it wasn't born with a closet - the front door just opens right into what is now my dining room.
After searching Craigslist I found this big, dark modern behemoth for the right price and went to go buy it.  It comes in two parts and I really like the interior - lots of drawers and cubbies, with front doors on double hinges so it completely opens/clears the front (its former life was an entertainment armoire).

After washing it down with soap and water I mixed up my own chalk paint because I use a particular shade of white throughout my entire cottage - Waverly's Cottage Linen White.  I did not want to be stuck with the one white offered in ready made chalk paint.  Cottage Linen White is not cream but its also not a stark/harsh white.  Its the perfect compliment to the blues I have in every room, including my favorite shade, a pale whisper of a blue, a discontinued Restoration Hardware paint color, "Atmosphere Blue".

I painted the exterior white and the interior in Atmosphere Blue with some surfaces wallpapered in a left over blue and white rose print from a bedroom re-do on the main floor.

Next I had to decide what to do, decoratively, with the exterior of the armoire.  
(some pieces speak to me of how they will look finished and some pieces take awhile to design themselves in my mind)

I considered hand painting rose swags or landscapes.  I even considered wallpapering the entire EXTERIOR too.  But in looking through some of my Swedish Gustavian decorating books one day, and seeing what was being posted and drooled over on Pinterest and in some blogs, I decided transforming it into a faux Swedish tiled stove was perfect!! My cottage was already decorated in my own version of Swedish Gustavian, my favorite historical style.

Due to lack of time, I decided it best to design a pattern and have it printed as wallpaper through Spoonflower, instead of hand painting every tile.
My first attempt at designing a tiled pattern went bust when I was constrained to square ones due to the pattern repeat I was working with through Spoonflower.  The armoire called for rectangular tiles in an odd size (and this is the tile shape you see on most real tiled stoves) so my next option was to design the faux tiles in Photoshop and then use an old method of transferring the image to the painted surface with Golden Acrylic's transfer medium and laser prints.
I used an old piece of hand made paper/scanned, to manipulate in Photoshop to look like a hand made tile, and then used some hand painted roses I had already used on a fabric design I have for sale through Spoonflower, "Watercolor Roses in Blue".

This has turned out to work the best for this piece and it will save me HOURS of hand painting when my job schedule doesn't allow me more then an hour each night after work and cooking dinner/cleaning at home for the family.  Not to mention I am healing a broken fibula from an unfortunate bicycle accident and its hard to get into certain low positions to paint with a cast on my leg!

 Start by laying out where the tiles will go - although I had already measured and designed them in Photoshop, to make sure they fit the space. I then had to cut them all out after printing them on laser paper.  They needed to fit within the moulding I had pre-cut but not yet attached, around the edges of the inset panel.

 Supplies: Your laser copies(trimmed and ready to go), (this transfer medium does NOT work with inkjet copies - sorry!) a brush or two, painters tape for low tack positioning, a tape measure and pencil, a water container, rag and a of course, the fluid matte medium!

 After measuring out a grid and drawing it on with pencil as a guide for where to place my tiles, I could begin gluing the surface and adding the faux tile laser copies - FACE DOWN.  Its the actual printed side that makes contact with the glue to do the images transfer so make sure your image is printed mirror image (backwards). NOTE:  there really is NO re-positioning so make sure you land the image down exactly where you want it!

 Leave it dry for at least a few hours.  Overnight is ideal.  Here is what happens when it doesn't dry long enough OR you apply too much pressure in removing the paper backing:  see the upper right corner?  The image and paper came right off.  BUT, this is where touch up comes into play.  If you don't care and want a worn look, this look is desired.  But if like my project, I want it to look like actual tiles, I will need to get out my acrylics and repair it.  No biggie.

 What is used to remove the paper backing to reveal the transferred image?  WATER!  Clean water and your fingertips.  Go ahead and try a soft cloth if you want but I prefer hands-on because I can control the pressure needed to wash/peel away the paper backing without taking the image off in too rigorous of rubbing.

After an hour of wetting and rubbing I got this far.  This is time consuming because you have to be careful not to remove the image by over-rubbing.  And its not a one time thing either - this removes the first layer only. When it dries it milks back over, showing you all the paper backing is not yet off so keep repeating until it dries bright and clear and true to your original laser copy print!

Once I get the paper all off I will go back in with my paints and create a faux grout and repair any tiles that lost some of the image.  I am still deciding whether to gold leaf the wooden trim or paint it a bright blue to match the faux tile flower print.

Keep checking in with me for updates on the project!  I have a long way to go but every step is exciting and I am already imagining it done - coated with a high gloss lacquer so it gleams like real porcelain tile!

Newest Blue & White Fabrics!

I have added two more custom fabrics to my Spoonflower collection. The first is a collage of my own acrylic blue & white plate paintings from Spring 2012. Wouldn't this fabric make a wonderful apron, a set of napkins or place mats or even oven mitts? I can imagine it as a kitchen valance too...

The second is a simple faded floral in a soft sapphire on white which I named "Maryanne's Muslin". It is newly entered in the Jane Austen contest.  I would love to use this myself, to make my own Regency era dress for my next Jane Austen meeting!

Springspiration

On this, our first day of spring, I gathered some pretty images I had pinned on Pinterest and made a collage, paired with a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson ~ enjoy!!

New Spring Fabrics

Heading into spring, I am beginning work on my new fabrics for 2013/Summer.

Here are my latest offerings, which can be found and purchased in fabrics, wallpaper and wall decals at Spoonflower.

I am continuing to fuel my own passion for blue & white by offering up my designs in fabrics, decals and wallpaper!

Let me know what you think of my line!  Comments are very welcome.

I would also love to hear about any ideas YOU would like to see me do in blue & white.

Coming soon:  blue & white china prints featuring my very own acrylic and watercolor paintings of china from my own extensive collection.

And many more classic English & Swedish florals, and summery stripes and plaids.

 Copenhagen Blue Summer Tartan

 Swedish Rose Trellis in Blue

 Rose Basket in Sapphire Blue

Summerhouse Rose Blue

Blissful Mornings

    I am up at the crack of dawn, or sometimes before....4 AM-ish on most week days.

I  have three students to get out the door for early morning classes. I make breakfast,  pack lunches and help locate missing items like keys and hats, all in a rushed flurry before they are all suddenly sucked out the front door as if in a whirlwind, by 6AM.  I wave to them out the top of the dutch door one last time, shut it, and take a deep breath.

   At that exact moment, it becomes calm and peaceful, with just me, my watchful cats and a quiet house.

That's when my day begins for myself.

One of my New Year's resolutions is to take more time for myself.  Create a more relaxing space for myself to dwell in.   Eat in a prettier space, read more and do more art.

One of my new habits I have been developing in January is to not sit at my computer and wolf down breakfast, but instead, sit at the table and eat slowly, in a relaxed attitude.

Its quite dark out this time of year so I light the candles (which we light every night at dinner, so they are always conveniently on the table), and begin my day with the most important meal of the day - breakfast.

I happened to have plenty of flowers on the table today - left over from my Winter Tea Party I hosted on the 20th, and they add to the ambiance.  Its nice to sit in front of flowers to dine, when outside the typical Seattle winter day is dark, gloomy and wet!

My only "guest" at the table this morning was my tomcat Sushi.  He eased up onto the edge of the table and watched me patiently.  Shortly after taking these photos, I went to the kitchen to get something and came back to find he had inched closer and was about to set his tail on fire as he laid it down over a tealight!  Indeed, the smell of burnt hair rose up in the air as I chased him away.  LOL  Those who live with cats will understand - you cannot keep them off ANYTHING!! 

 Sushi waits, ever so patient...

 Musee Blue Toile chair pads, vintage 1940's Irish linen tablecloth and Royal Copenhagen's Blue Flower's Curved china.

 I light the fireplace sconces up too - with minimal modern electric lights in the dining room, candles light our way through most of the year and makes for a more relaxed, special meal each time.