Making and Copying and Deja Vu

Yep, I definitely steal am inspired by ideas that I see in all the art and decorating magazines but this as a new record for how long it took me to knock this one off.  Not exactly rocket science, and it didn't hurt that I had all the items within my reach and could be found.

No shame, exact except I left a hotel key I had on the jar when I found it full of acorns.  Love it 'cause it's the robin's egg blue color jar which matches my bathroom perfectly.  Highly recommended!

Last Saturday I was in quite a funk for no particular reason (could have had something to do with Matt having gone back to school 4 days before he came home with strepand mono and I've kinda been waiting for some uninterupted time for six weeks.  So on Sunday I pulled up my bootstraps, put on my big girl panties, and headed to my work room.  I whipped up some stuff that I really enjoyed making.  I'd love to sell them (they're in the shop) but the therapy is in the making.  I used many things I've had hanging around for a while so that's double goodie...getting rid of stuff too.

This is a little put-together that I did today.  I got two of these easels of Wendy Addison's from Bayberry Cove.  Love them.  This one is in my bath with a beloved ATC from years ago that became unearthed on Sunday.

This is the deja vu.  A friend I haven't seen in years emailed me that she had some things she was cleaning out, furniture, and was giving me first right of refusal.  Free=Yes.  My other friend, Paul, picked up the pieces for me so he could make some minor repairs.  When I went to his shop today to pick up some of the pieces I found the above in a strange basket outside.  Post traumatic art syndrome.  I made this maaaaaany years ago and it was fun to have it come around again.  It'd had a different pin on it, and I had never found a really good spot for this fab pin, so it got an update and is staying with me for a while this time.  Next up, I'm working on my workroom/studio again.  I had it pretty cleaned up a couple of weeks ago but still have boxes that I never unpacked when I changed rooms and I'm back to the point where I can't find anything anymore when I need it.  N0-fun-creativity.  I'm kinda hoping that I might get it so clean/good looking that I submit it to one of the studio mags.  Guess what?  Stay tuned...

2010 Historic Ellicott City Show House

"We" finished the rooms at the show house last week.  Actually, Karen has been tightening up this week, but for the most part, it was done last week.  I say "we" because my name is in all the publications as a designer.  Karen was lead designer, wanted to make most of the decisions, and that was fine with me!  I nodded a couple of times and did a little here and there but felt ever so undeserving until last week when I put in some real time.  Unfortunately for Karen, it's the hard part; for me, it's the easy part, because it is the easy, fun part of doing the decorating.

We did the show house decorating under the umbrella name of The Pink Cabbage to promote the shop.  One of our shop owners is a fabulous artist.  Kate painted and did the treatment on the walls and painted all the art for the rooms-we love it. 

Many folks at The Cabbage contributed their wares for the room.  We like to think of it as an overall feeling of all the different shops we have-11-within these decorated rooms.

Most of us brought in what we had that would fit into the feel of the rooms.  Oh, yeah, we had three rooms; the master bedroom, bath, and dressing room.  Lots to take on and Jody, Kate, and especially Karen worked their butts off.

In the dressing room, the vanity before the large oval mirror was hung.  Looks gorgeous with all the vintage clothes, purses, and jewelry.

Here is the detail from the floor cloth that Kate painted for the dressing room.  Beautiful isn't it?  At the very least, these are some of the most beautiful rooms in the house.  Whew, opens tomorrow night with the gala-oh boy!

A little this but not much of that...

Since I haven't been posting a lot right now I thought I'd at least show one of the things I did recently.  It's been a while since I made anything that I wanted to keep and not sell at least right away.  This is one.  It just has something about it that speaks to me.  I love the crepe paper rosettes that I've been seen being used lately and the paper flowers too.  The rosettes came from Whim & Fancy Designs and the flower came from Sunny Skye Creations, both on Etsy.  I had the monogrammed silver piece from who-knows-where BUT the basis was the metal piece behind that Janine brought to me from Ecuador.  Actually, she brought two of them to me plus a great nicho that I have above my bed.  Anyway, these metal pieces were, I think, religious icons.  They are/were dirty, rusty brown pieces with water damaged and torn pictures and broken glass in them.  She was kind of embarrassed to give them to me; said she was just going to throw them out.  Well, ain't no old rusty crap gonna get thrown away on my watch!  I've had them a couple, three weeks and just decided to play with them.  I had already removed the glass and washed a lot of dirt away so they were ready to go.  I painted this on with silver paint (splotchy) and just started gathering and placing things.  I'm not usually very good about planning ahead but it just happened.  I had already done something kind of cute with the other one and just finished assembling that one to sell but this one I want to look at for a while-I guess it's the silver with the pink with the tea-stained word flower with gray harlequin-all stuff I like and together.  Otherwise I haven't been on because school started for us this week and I wanted to be ready with Mom Duty for after school and during I was doing house dooty.   I'm getting more involved with the show house and Karen is doing a wonderful job (and what a job it is) but is finally ready for some input and help with the fun stage.  I'll get some peep pics to post next time I'm out there, then lots of them when it's ready to be revealed.  As usual, stay tuned...