There Are Faeries About.... !

 On this most magical of days... 

as the veil between the spirit world and the real world thins 

I find myself changing somehow... I don't quite know what it is...

But i feel....... different....more real

 

there is a vibration trembling the air within and around the golden leaves

shhhhhh.... i think i hear a unicorn approaching...

now i will go in search of wonders in the woods

Happy All Hallows Eve...

there is magic in the air... there is magic everywhere...

...the end...

Ok, Remind Me to Never Ever...

...buy 4 chairs that might look great in my house if i painted them, 

 and drag them home, 

and then only kind of like them, 

and have to paint 2 coats of paint on all 4, 

and then have to figure out what to do with them, 

because i like the chairs i have better.... 

GEEESH!  

So, i have 2 days off of work every week, and a thousand million gajillion things i want to do OTHER than painting chairs that i'm not going to use!  

I'm mad at ME!

They are kinda cute though...

I painted Paris on them... just for fun

I liked their curvy backs, reminded me of a heart shape....

the fabric is just tucked in in this photo, not stapled yet

soooo, they are now at my friends shop for sale! 

uh oh, now that they're in the shop i think i like them again...

this linen fabric is really nice, love the colors....

they actually look pretty darn cute at this wonderful farm table she has

wish i'd taken a photo of that

and so it goes....

it's like donating something to the thrift shop,

and then finding it later and wanting to buy it back !

 

I still like my cane backed chairs the best, but what i really want to find is some chairs like Miss Mustard Seed's old chairs...

I LOVED these!

or these $50,000.00 dollar a piece Rachel Ashwell chairs, i love these too!

 ok, so they're not really $50,000.00, but they're pretty darn expensive for my budget...

 

 so,  for now

 mine will have to do

another thing i took to my friends incredible shop 

Fetch Antiques and Interiors

this weekend, 

 was my most recent rose painting...

 The very same day one of her partners brought in the coolest chairs with blush colored silk fabric, 

and oh man, they look so pretty together with the rose...

here is a photo with the painting just propped up near the chair...

there are two of these in the shop, isn't it heavenly!

 

so... changing the subject...

  

I was washing dishes the other night, and had this great sink full of good hot fresh sudsy water ... just happily going along, i put a nice clean pot on the rack to dry, and  i turned around and all the water had drained out of the sink... 

don't you just HATE it when that happens, a fork or something pulls out the drain and you lose your good sink water!!! 

i know it's so so small a thing, but it's soooo irritating!

it made me think of you guys and how i wanted to blog about the little things that happen that just really get on our nerves

 i mean we all know there are a million awful things that can happen, and we're all really blessed, blah blah blah...

but lets talk about the little things that are so annoying anyway

just for fun...

Ok, I've got another one

dogs slurping water...

it drives me completely out of my mind! 

now.., i love dogs, i have dogs, i sleep with my dog, i've rescued dogs, i've bottle feed dogs, i've had emotional breakdowns watching that Sarah McLaughlin commercial about dogs 

haven't we all!

but when my dog slurps water, it makes me insane

 

the first few seconds of slurping are fine, sort of... 

ladeda... just tune it out... she'll stop soon

But NOOOOO she keeps slurping and slurping and slurping and still slurping .... and then of course more slurping

 

until finally i'm pretty sure 

i am going to have to kill her

i don't kill her 

no dogs were injured during the making of this blog post

 

i mean, is it me, or is dog slurping really really really annoying??? 

Ok, now, how about you guys, own up ... don't leave me out here in the cold talking  about stupid stuff

 

what makes your head spin around???

cute pumpkin

...the end...  

       

 

 

Ok, I'm Tired of Messing With It...

Yep, i've spend 3 weekends messing with this painting, and basically i'm tired of it and ready to move on... I'm calling it done!  

A painting can always be toyed with endlessly, but sometimes you just have to know when to stop...

here is how the painting started....

brushed in, then wiped out color...

here is where i went in the next weekend after it had dried, and darkened the dark areas, just adding contrast

you can see that just darkening around the rose really makes it pop...  

contrast is cool!

and now with some color added....

this is a big ole painting, 30 x 40, so it has alot of impact..

now wanna hear a story...?

years ago when i first started painting

i didn't know alot about supplies 

i didn't know much about archival stuff

and when to use quality, and where you could skimp and save money

i didn't have alot of money, and canvases were expensive

so i painted on plywood alot

linseed oil is also pretty darn expensive!

 so one day i found some boiled linseed oil at Home Depot

it was like $8.00 for a gallon

i was in hog heaven, i thought i was so clever to buy it and use it on paintings, and was just so sure that art supply stores were ripping me off with their  pricey little 

containers of linseed oil!

I painted this painting using boiled linseed oil

It was so pretty and airy when it was done, i really liked it

but it turns out that painting with boiled linseed oil, is like the worst thing one could possibly use for an oil painting, 

it is not really boiled, but does have solvents added to it and could even eventually eat through the canvas, or something horrible like that

Opposite of Archival !

which basically means something that will retain it's quality for a really long time! 

 Sure enough over the ears, this painting has yellowed to the point that the color is so poor

it's kind of an awful yellowed apricot

sigh...

 

  So the moral of the story, 

when you do buy art supplies for painting

consider that you might end up painting something more beautiful than you thought you could!

and get the best quality supplies you can afford!

I always liked the composition of the painting though, 

so finally

15 years later

i repainted it

and this time 

no boiled linseed oil!

...the end...  

 

Pink Pom Pom Perfection...

I have finally found the perfect pink accessory ever in the whole wide world

And TADA ... here it is!

it's this wonderful, adorable, soft, yummy throw from 

Pom Pom Interiors 

ok, so i'm gushing a little... well actually alot

I had seen this throw about a year ago online, in a random photo from some really cute little shop... and searched everywhere for it, because it looked like a rare find

the perfect pink

which can be quite elusive actually

the perfect pink is like the soft blush of the inside of a conch shell, or of a fading rose petal. 

it has a hair of brown in it, a molecule of yellow, and the perfect shade of red mixed with white

it can't be too blue, it can't be too bright, and it can't be too coral

now you see how crazy i am about my pinks being just right!

anyway Jacqueline from Cabin and Cottage did one of her cool posts where she goes to the BEST shops and shows us peeks of the goodies inside, and she's an amazing photographer so the images are to die for,  and you feel like you just went shopping with her

was that like the longest most rambling sentence ever or what...

anyway... lo and behold

in one of the photos

there was the throw i had searched for!!!

my throw mate...

just look at those cute fat pink balls on it...so charming

did i just say cute fat pink balls?

the color's a little off in this photo

the package was so pretty too, i'm keeping it

(hoarder personality)

Pom Pom Interiors does it right!

They actually don't even know i'm blogging about them,

so, i definitely wasn't paid to say anything about this cute blanket...

i'm totally not interesting enough for anyone to pay me for my opinion

this is my own deranged overreaction to the perfect pink!

So Thanks Jacqueline! 

you brought me and my perfect pink pom pom perfection together

 ...the end...

 

Punkins, Punkins Everywhere...

I kinda like pumpkins...

they're round, and curvy, and cute... they're even a little funny

with their lumps, and warts and funny shapes

Been looking for the perfect white Cinderella pumpkin

  in fact i've been looking for white pumpkins everywhere

 i found a few big guys at Home Depot... 

and plopped a couple in the urns on my front porch...

tucked in a faux fleur, and some real ivy...

and there you have it...

I really liked this rusty colored flower against the white... what a yummy color combo

So much that i tucked some of this color in the wreath on the front door...

I have since removed it... the rust colored flower...

It's so funny about color

i do get enticed by it,

but often intense colors start to bother me, even if they're pretty 

i end up back with my creams and grays and neutrals, 

they seem so boring alone, like in a can of paint

but all grouped together, and in different textures

the creams, silvers, and linen colors are beautiful and subtle and very complex the way they play off each other with shadows and light

and they seem to calm my mind   

then of course, there is pink

that's my weakness

painted punkin with some wrinkly pink ribbon

even the punkins get a touch of pink

the pumpkin above started out like the ones in the photo below

good ole Annie Sloan took care of that multitude of oranges real fast

see that adorable gingham ribbon stamped with 'Paris'...

I LOVE it... and ordered it from Mary at the Etsy shop

Homestead Treasures

Here it is in her Etsy shop

how sweet is that!

I ordered a couple of styles of hand stamped ribbon from her, 

 they came in the mail so quickly, and were beautifully packaged with crinkly ribbon and a sweet little tag...

So thank you Mary, your ribbon is divine !

exactly as cute as your shop shows it to be

and as Forest Gump often said...

speaking of pumpkins that is...

"that's all i have to say about that"

...the end...