I Met Miss Mustard Seed !

I finally met Marian, Miss Mustard Seed !
Three years after doing her first painting "Eulalie"

 She is adorable.... and I have to tell you, it was just like seeing someone I already knew.  I mean from reading her posts and talking in the email...  seeing her in person and talking was so familiar, like being around an old friend.  
It actually kind of blew my mind how a friend from online can be just as real as a friend in "real life"

I was so happy to finally look at her face in person, and give her a big hug... it was awesome, she was awesome...

 good easy energy, a very loving spirit, and cute as hell 

But don't let her adorableness fool you...

This woman is a force of nature...

She not only has moved mountains in her home
She moved mountains in my home

Thanks to her I sell quite a few prints
and i almost, just almost 
could stop working full time and painting more..

(who do you think the car with eyelashes belongs to?)

 

Here is the new painting i did for her

 I was painting this to sell at the shop where i sell my work

Fetch Antiques and Interiors in Hillsborough, NC

.... and i started thinking ... this would look good in Marians house

So I emailed her and asked her if she wanted it, and she was like "Heck yeah"

and that was all she wrote... the painting was officially Marian's before it was even finished.

anyway, all i can say... is thank you Marian

my world is made massively better through knowing you

...the end...

I'm In Paint Color Hell .... Again

Hi gang,

I'm sorry ...  don't hate me... I know i've been so absent.  I'm just seriously overwhelmed with the whole social media thing.
 There are just so many options out there now...  
I know I love Pinterest, and then there's Facebook... so I have a personal Facebook page, and a Cindysfracturedfairytales Facebook page... and i follow a bunch of people on both of those.  And THEN, i decided I would stop boycotting Instagram as just another form of social media... and tried it, and I really like Instagram, so there's that... and then the blog, which I've totally neglected because Instagram is instant gratification... and  there is summer and the garden and life and work and trying to paint ....so... Half the time i don't have any idea where to focus my energy with this stuff, and then i get behind on all of it.  I really need to find a rhythm and balance here...
(is rhythm the hardest word in the world to spell or what...)

Anyway, thanks to a lot of you talking about it, i finally caught on and watched a couple of episodes of "Fixer Upper" 
 it is totally home decor porn!

 The season finale almost make my head explode it was so cool

So of course now I've gone completely insane again and did intense online research good enough to qualify me to become part of the the CIA to find out the colors she used  -
 and as you can imagine decided to repaint my living room, dining room, and kitchen which has entailed buying 8 thousand paint samples to try, which look absolutely nothing, nothing at all like the gorgeous wall colors in the episodes.  What the heck is the deal with that!??? 
I mean, I know i know all about how lighting and the computer monitor can change the look of the paint and all that... 

but come on... surely my walls would look something..... even a teeny weeny bit like the walls she painted!!????

Nope

so here we go...

example 1

Sherwin Williams 

 2 parts Mindful Gray to 1 part some other lighter color

now that i see it here on the blog, i like it

but in person it looked so dark

 Example 2

Benjamin Moore

Revere Pewter

see the current wall color on the left and above

Whoa don't like this one - way too dark
and how is it so blue???

Example 3
Martha Stewart
Gray Pearl

Example 2039
my current wall color on top
Mindful Gray at 50% below that
some other color under that
Edgcombe gray at the very bottom

it's becoming pretty clear that at this point that i am starting to lose it right?

lord help me and all who have been around me this weekend

you can see a giclee print of Eulalie on the table, i am proofing it for a buyer - looks good!
 

In addition i then tried each one of these same colors in my living room and it looks like i painted cold gray steel on the walls!!!
 
how is it that Joanna from 'Fixer Upper' can take these exact colors and they are soooooooooo incredibly beautiful

what the heck!

 I need an intervention...

******************************

What else has happened this summer?

Well i made this lemon meringue pie, twice in three weeks

I can't eat dairy products, so i found this recipe with no dairy and it was so darn good

 i literally ate this pie every day for one week

skipped a week

 then made it again
and ate most of that one

I mean Mr. Fractured ate some of it
but He has self control

 

*******************************

I finally started getting the urge to paint again after a 4 month dry spell, and painted this girl by the garden gate...  name suggestions?

I was lucky enough to end up with this insanely fabulous frenchy mirror

but i don't know,... it seems like it may be a little too big and fancy for my lowly little cottagy space

Below is the former mirror

What do ya'll think? 

I know the frenchy mirror is so amazing, but hmmmm...

Plus you can see my current wall color
seems so boring after seeing Fixer Upper... sigh

anyway, i'm gonna try to post more often and write less 

i realize i just blathered on about 4 different topics in this post

...as always, thanks for putting up with me... 
that's all for now

  ...the end...