Starting Where I Left Off

Hello!

Its been so long since I have posted, I am not sure where to even begin. 
I think just starting where I left office best.
I have endured many changes (most for the best) this past year since I last posted.

I have had new experiences and learned a lot from all of them!
From escaping an abusive relationship to dating again, reclaiming my home for myself, participating in new art shows, fairs and embracing the welcoming publicity of 2 magazine articles!

In the spring I decided to try moving renters into my home.
Seattle has become a very expensive place to live.
I felt like I needed to seek help in keeping the day-to-day expenses paid up and instead of finding a second job (once again), I chose to lose some privacy instead of lose my free time.

While my roommates are nice people, they aren't necessarily the types I want to live with, except for one person who has become my very good friend and partner-in-crime.  A young Persian nicknamed Arash.

In the mean time, I decided to stop always playing catch up with finances, while struggling to live as a single, middle-aged artist in Seattle, and instead quit the 40-hour-a-week day job that has become tedious and boring, leave the wet, rainy clime of Seattle and head back east for a fresh start and new things to explore!

My house goes on the market soon - within a few weeks.  I'm very excited about that too!
The past few months have been topsy-turvy as I gently nudge roommates to move on (and out), and begin the repairs and improvements that will make my house more attractive to buyers.
Its been a steep learning curve for me - learning how to re-do countertops, install baseboard, install linoleum and wood floors and of course, stuff I already am good at, like painting everything in sight a refreshing coat of white!  lol

But I decided to just post photos of some of the things I have been doing, creatively, the past year since I last posted.
I have been busy designing, painting, attending shows and just enjoying life in my sweet cottage as  newly single person.

I do hope you rejoin me on my adventures as I close the book on my Seattle chapter in life and begin a new one (probably in historic Virginia).

Enjoy, and thanks for coming back to read up on my updates and see what I have been creating.
:D

Southern Lady featured my work in one of their issues!

They used my "Capetian Toile" in basil green, to make lovely laced-back slip covers for traditional chairs.

These are the very talented gals who sewed the slips!

Got the Blues, and That's Good!

...got the love of blues, that is! I bought a book called "Decorating with Blue and White" by Gail Abbott. These "snaps" are from that book - just a wee bit of inspiration for all you lovers of blue & white!

Advice and Good Advice

Yes, there is a difference and I found that out recently! I am working on the family room/dining room. It's a later addition to my cottage - used to be the garage back in it's original form but was converted to a large "everything" room with a wood stove, way before I came along. It had nasty brown carpeting which only got dirtier as the years went on. We carpet cleaned a few times but with 3 people in and out the French doors to the back yard, rainy Seattle weather, many cats, and a few messy eaters, a carpet can take a real beating so one day I ripped it out and vowed I'd live with the cement floor until I could afford new flooring. I did get new flooring - a 16" sand-colored porcelain tile. It was on sale at Home Depot for just 7 cents a sq foot. I had a 20x20 room. I could afford this! But it sat for 3 years before the person who promised to lay it for me did so. Two weeks ago I took 2 vacations days and helped lay the floor. I am still walking into that room dazed and amazed that it got done!!

I chose white grout after being told brown grout would be better. Brown grout would make it look like an 80's Mexican restaurant floor. White was best. I sealed it by hand, on my hands and knees, one Saturday night. Resealed the high traffic areas the next day. I was told NOT to buy another piece of furniture off Craigslist (a friend suggested that I had enough stuff in the house!) but then I found this amazing, well made sofa from the 1930's for $75, which will provide seating near the wood stove. Advice was given to me to decorate the room with colors different from my blue & white I use through the rest of the cottage (my favorite color combination). I tried for weeks to find a green or yellow that would work but nothing seemed right to me. One person after another gave me advice and I'd faithfully follow it until I'd wasted more money and time figuring out that it wasn't right.

What was right was following the advice of a few friends who knew me best and didn't let their own personal preferences get in the way. OF COURSE the room needs to be blue and white - it will then fit in with every other room in the cottage!
It must all flow from room to room.


So, the walls will be white - my signature shade of "Cottage Linen White" by Waverly. It turns out to be the best choice to keep a large room with few windows light and airy. The ceiling will be light blue, and the windows covered with the blue & white toile curtains I used to have in the living room. I also have 12 yards of that toile in upholstery weight in storage. I can use it to recover the sofa. I just saved hundreds of dollars using what I already have.

I will hand paint the furniture white, as is my style. The 2 piece hutch and tables are either new, from the 70's or 40's and are not antiques so I have no problem painting them. In the end, the best choice I made was to NOT listen to anyone else when it came to making my home my own. The best advice from a few friends who knew best, was to follow my own instincts, and so I am.


Stay tuned for progress on each of these projects. Here are a couple of "before" photos so you can see where I am starting from. Everything is pretty raw right now. I have alot of work cut out for me.

Lit `a la Polonaise

I love a bed or piece of furniture with a canopy above it. I love the term "lit `a la polonaise" which as far as i can tell refers to an iron bed that supports a canopy atop an arch or round frame. I do not have an iron frame and my topper is not domed, as many lit `a la polonaise seem to be but I decided to make my own simpler version to sit atop my settee in the living room. Yes, it is primitive and simple but I think effective. I hope to make silk dupioni curtains this next year for each LR window and at that time I will make my lit `a la polonaise out of the silk to match and maybe a bit fancier with braided trims and tassels. For now it remains simply scalloped with blue piping out of a cotton toile I use in my LR and BR called "Musee Toile Blue". I liked how it turned out - used IKEA sheer curtains for $4.99 a pair. They will eventually line the silk curtains. I get emails from a place in L.A. called the Silk Barons. They sell silk dupioni for $10.99 a yard! They have many colors that might work for me...

I also found some other lit `a la Polonaise online which I am head-over-heels for.
See if you can pick mine out of the line up...hahaha

Reupholstering and Gilding

I was just sharing my experience with reupholstering a piece of furniture on the Victoria magazine forum when I tried to upload a photo of my project and it repeatedly failed. So, frustrated, I decided to blog about the piece instead and then let the VF readers link to my blog if they wished, to view the settee. Here's the history behind it: one day at work, probably 8 or 9 years ago now, I checked into my email and saw one had just come thru 3 minute ago from my boss's antiques gal. My boss had a bunch of stuff she was giving away and it was located on the 2nd floor landing of the privately owned office building I worked in. Without a word to anyone else (it was first-come, first-serve) I bounded up the stairs, three at a time, to the landing and practically landed on top of this gorgeous old settee with very Rococo lines. It once had a broken front leg which was repaired but very obvious. And on it's front was a horribly ugly purple tapestry with tiny white daisies. It was badly stained with white paint. On the back was a soft peach damask but was rotting and stained badly with a bright green paint.

Needless to say, I was given the settee as I was first to see it and put in a request for it. So once home, I had to make it usable. I tried my hand at reupholstery - my first try. I found and bought the fabric I wanted - a denim-shade of blue and white stripe ticking stripe for the front and a solid blueberry blue damask for the back. I took photos of the piece before I began to remove the upholstery and as I removed each piece, I set it carefully aside, labeled, to use as a pattern for the new fabric. Under the purple fabric on the seat I found an old layer of modern batting and then what looked like horsehair. Hand made nails. I lifted the hair and saw underneath the original peach damask still intact.

Not wanting to destroy what I'd found, I decided to put a fresh layer of batting over the horsehair and then my fabric on top of that. When I can afford it, I'll have a pro redo it for me. Once the front was done, I did the back and then added braiding to the areas where I tacked the fabric unto the frame. All in all, it looks acceptable and I have used it in my living room ever since.

Since the people way back then - I assuming 18th c - were so short, I needed to raise the seat a bit ) I am 6' tall and when I sat on the seat, my knees almost came up to my ears!) hahahaha very graceful looking. So I bought a king sized bed pillow and sewed a blue toile ruffled and piped cover for it. It sits comfortably now and I'm happy with the piece except for one thing - I still want to gold gild the frame. So this is my "before" photo - before I add gilding. When I get it done, I'll repost the photo to show how it turned out. I have never water gilded so I will do it the lazy way and oil gild.

Taking delight in blue & white

The very talented Carolyne Roehm has a new book out: "A Passion for blue & white". This book is a must for any person passionate about the most classic color scheme of all: blue & white. ( "most classic", in my humble opinion) Soothing and serene, blue is the color of the sky and sea. It's a natural part of our everyday life here on Mother Earth. My love of blue & white influences my every design decision from the way I dress (navy and white), my linens and vases, the dishes I eat off of (Royal Copenhagen's Blue Flowers Curved), to my home's interior decorating scheme. I love "Restoration Hardware's" Atmosphere Blue paint. It's a pale, moody blue that changes hues with the time of day or weather. But it always coordinates beautifully with many different blue shades. Come this spring/summer of '09, my home "Elinor Cottage", will go from a washed-out, pale yellow exterior to the soft "Nordic Blue" from Waverly's paint selection. (with Honey White trim). I also use "Musee Toile Blue" in every room of my house. It's a pattern I never tire of, in a classic mid-tone blue on a crisp white background. Being 100% cotton, it is easy to launder at home and is durable enough to use for upholstery as well as draperies and other accessories such as pillows. Country Curtains sells an entire line of bedding and curtains in this blue toile.
And don't even get me started on blue & white stripes and gingham - love them!
Whether you use blue & white throughout your entire living space or just as an accessory, blue & white will always add a fresh note to a room. What is your favorite shade? here are a few: navy, baby, Atmosphere, cobalt, cerulean, azure, indigo, lapis, royal, sapphire, teal, ultramarine, sky, sea, beryl, turquoise, kingfisher, iris, steel, delphinium, lilac, robin's egg, Parrish, electric, French, Gustavian or denim. I just cannot get enough of blue & white and Carolyne Roehm's new book feeds that passion and reinforces my decision to go all blue & white in my life. Enjoy these images from "A Passion for blue & white". (and get the book! It's well worth it)