New Beginnings

I guess I had known for awhile that I had felt dead in the water in Seattle.  What kept me there was a great paying job (although I was bored to death with it), and of course my house, many wonderful friends and familiarity.
I had been in Seattle 33 years - my entire adult life.
The only memories I had of living anywhere else were childhood memories of growing up in rural Wisconsin.

But I decided at one point in the past two years that I needed something new, something challenging.
After my last relationship ended, it became clear I didn't have the heart to continue to do what needed to be done to make ends meet in the expensive housing market Seattle had become.
I had tried hosting students, roommates, working 2 or 3 jobs at the same time - all had benefits but also major drawbacks.

Then I realized it wasn't just the high cost of living in Seattle that was making my eye wander, but the fact that I was actually bored there too.

I know, its still a beautiful landscape nestled between 2 stunning mountain ranges, on the Puget Sound.  And the city, growing in leaps and bounds,  has become way more exciting.
But I never was a coniferous tree person, I rarely took the ferries or hiked the deep wood. The ocean was a long ways away, it rains all the time (the grey drizzle does get to you!) and I rarely got downtown where the excitement was happening.

I seemed to have either outgrown the city or it grew away from me.

My romantic, floral art seemed to be passed over for industrial, retro coldness and lack of soft colors.
I enjoyed participating in art studio tours in my neighborhood and developed friendships within the art community I really cherish.  But my style was more traditional, southern and romantic.

So the day came when I decided to be brave, courageous and adventuress and take that leap - sell my cottage and move on to new experiences.
Leaving behind friends (whom I still text/chat with frequently, as I did when still there), and a job that was not always comfortable or guaranteed, but had become boring an tedious.
And leaving behind familiarity of how the PNW worked, the people interacted and the weather patterns.
But also leaving behind a dull pattern of living my days had fallen into.

Time for a change before I got too old.  Time to sell before the housing market bubble burst!
After considerable looking, reading and exploring online, I decided Richmond, VA was my target.
Its central to so many cool places on the east coast, has a ton of historical sites to explore, and is still a very affordable place to live.  The housing market is just taking off (so perhaps within 5-7 years I can again sell my house for a good profit).
But buying a house outright would give me stability and ease of mind, too.  No longer would I need to entertain foreign students who take 2 hour showers and belch at the dinner table,  or roommates who treat my expensive antique china like paper plates, or work 2 to 3 jobs to make ends meet with a burdensome high mortgage and property taxes.

So, long story short, a 3000 mile road trip, a great experience with PODS, and a tiny cottage all my own in a soon-to-be, up-and-coming neighborhood in Richmond, I have made the change I so needed to make, to try and spark some new enthusiasm in my life and art.

Of course my first thought was to decorate!  LOL

So here are choices I have made thus far, regarding wallpapering my new cottage.
All blue & white, but faded and soft colors that won't overpower the small rooms.
There's a bit of work needed to the house - the yard needs to be fenced and landscaped and the majority of my boxes still need to be unpacked and put away into IKEA furniture I have been busy building. (woe to my right hand's palm, with the hole worn in the skin from using a  screw driver, lol)

I took screenshots of the papers I will use for each room.
They are all available in my LilyOake shop on the Spoonflower website.
(Fabrics, wallpapers and gift wrap!)

As I decorate, I will be posting more images but first the house needs to be unpacked, furniture built and my studio set up - its always the last thing to be completed, for some reason, even though its first on my mind every day when I wake up!

The same lovely print i used in my last bedroom will now grace the walls and windows of my new compact living/dining room 

A fun way to bring some color and brightness to a small kitchen.

My art studio needs to be beautiful and inspiring and I can't think of a better way to do that then wallpaper in Olivia in faded blueberry.  Flowers are the essence of my design and train of thought.

The north facing bathroom needs some life and light so Aylen in faded blueberry is a newer pattern I designed.  I thought it needed showcasing so my own bathroom will be papered in this soft but lively pattern.

Even the hallway is getting wallpapered!  A hallway in a small house can seem like an entire room on its own.  Its an important pass through between 4 rooms and has high ceilings, so I felt it deserved a fun pattern.  I chose Stockholm Gingham in a faded back blueberry and white.

My dining room in the last house I owned was papered in Jane's Rose Bouquet with matching curtains in a stripe.  Being one of my favorite patterns and having already invested in money and time, the making of the fabulous linen curtains to match, I decided to re-use this pattern in my own bedroom.  It will be a soft, lovely, romantic hide away with all white furniture, an electric fireplace, tons of bookcases with decorating and art books and a relaxing corner to read in.

Slipcovered Thriftshop Chairs

      As usual, I blog sporadically!  But I did want to show you both my new slipcovers in one go.
I have been quite busy sewing and planning out new projects.

      This newest slipcover I completed 2 days ago, using my pattern "Theodora" in white.
The floral pattern is a soft blueberry blue and easy on the eye.  Again, I used the linen-cotton canvas fabric available from Spoonflower.
      Here is a link to  Theodora  in my shop, Lilyoake.  Its available in 17 different fabrics, 2 types wallpaper, and gift wrap!

      I am participating in the Arts North Studio Tours in September and need to have things to sell to the public, who might be touring my studio and looking for items I design and make.
I decided slipcovered chairs were a great thing to offer and began scouring Goodwill stores for sturdy, undamaged one of a kind dining chairs which I could paint, upholster and make slipcovers for.
       Every chair I offer will come with new upholstered seat PLUS a removable/washable slipcover, giving the chair more versatility!

     The easy part was painting the frame and sewing the slipcover - the hard part will be pricing them to sell, without cheating myself out of my time, supplies and hard work.  Isn't that always the case for an artist? 

The chair with the upholstered seat, in Caroline blueberry

Dining Chair Linen Cotton Slipcovers

Blue Roses Wreath linen cotton canvas slipcover

       I finally completed the fourth and final slipcover for a set of 4 French-style chairs I bought for a song from a store closing down.  The chairs had a great shape and very cushiony-comfy supportive seats but were painted a hideous grey-peach with cream accents.

   They were the perfect vehicle to show off my fabric designs on and so I got to work sewing slipcovers for them, identical in style but different in prints.
The one thing that really tied them all together was the same color of pale blueberry blue, a staple in my fabric design.

   This fourth slipcover fabric is in "Blue Roses Wreath", available HERE in my Spoonflower shop.
All the slips are on the 55% linen-45% cotton canvas which is marvelous to sew with!

   Baby Stewart was only too happy to test them out AND photobomb them!

Blue Rose Wreath linen cotton slipcover

Custom Fabric

I know of a few websites were you can upload your own designs and choose various fabrics to have the designs printed on.

I chose Spoonflower.

I currently have 3 designs with them, two of which other people have bought to do their projects with!

That commission I earned, combined with a designer discount and another 20% off for ordering 20+ yards at once, got me 20 yards of my own custom cotton fabric for $300.

I chose the quilting weight cotton because its what my budget allowed.  If I had a bigger budget, I would have gone with the cotton/linen blend which is $10 more per yard.  I ordered a sample yard in this blend last year and it has a wonderful drape and feel to the hand.

With our bedroom moving upstairs to make room for our niece moving in one of the downstairs bedrooms and our college student renter moving into our old room, I wanted to make the new room which has far less space, coordinated so its easy on the eye.

It also gave me a great excuse to do more decorating in blue & white.

This cotton fabric is on a soft white background with faded watercolor roses in a soft blue that tends towards the purple (I love the Shabby Chic shade of blue too but it's more turquoise then I care for).

The blue I like fades like denim....more on the warmer, purple side.

If you like Restoration Hardware's old paint color "Atmosphere Blue", you will know what I mean.

I will make bed curtains to hang on either side of the built in bed platform which sits in an alcove and then a single panel for the window.  I ordered inexpensive lace panels/rose pattern in white from Brylane Home to go behind each panel/curtain.

I will post the final product when its done!

Master Bedroom Wallpaper

I hung this wallpaper in my "new" room last summer when my room mate moved out of my house and I moved downstairs to take over his old room.
(the other smaller, yellow bedroom that I am hanging wallpaper in was his daughter's room)

I love this paper - it is so romantic and really added character to the small bedroom which already had great lighting and calming views of the side and back yards of green grass, lilacs and hydrangeas.

I love waking up in this room with that beautiful wallpaper all around me!

Custom Printed Fabric Update

I just received in the mail the custom printed fabric swatches I sent for! I couldn't be happier - the colors are right on with my digital file in Photoshop and the blues match the paints and other fabrics in my house.
The only thing I noticed was the pattern is slightly smaller in scale then my digital file - something to keep in mind!

The company is Spoonflower and you can click on to their website and upload your own digital designs for yardage in any of their many various fabrics. Just follow the file size requirements. An 8"x8" quilting cotton swatch costs $5 each with $1 shipping.

When I order the faded blue roses for my living room curtains, I will have the pattern put on the linen/cotton.

The other pattern is a fun Swedish folk floral I want to use for a table cloth, matching napkins and various simple slipcovers. Its a happy, cheery floral.

Another cool feature is if you order yardage, you can opt in to make the pattern you designed "public". Spoonflower offers it for sale per yard in their online shop and with each sale, the artist/designer gets a 10% commission.