I'm lucky!!!!!

Toss out my recipe for tassels, there is better cure for WHATEVER. I knew it, I'd experienced it, but occasionally I forget to check in often enough. It had been since Valentine's Day (can you believe my husband knew to buy one of Amy's cupcake charms for me for VDay? Good, that means you aren't gullible.) that I had really checked out the shopping at Inspire Co. http://www.inspirecompany.com/ . Actually that's not true~it was just a couple of weeks ago when I checked it out and I had missed out on the perfect charm bracelet Amy was offering. The picture was there but it had been sold. I continued to keep clicking on "buy" for a couple more hours but eventually I got discouraged and it was time to start dinner...ANYWAY, great timing this week. The very fabbest photo album was available. And, little pink plastic ballerinas, well, duh, they are an ordering must...

Okay, so you're feeling a little down, maybe a lot down. Maybe you are perfectly fine and want to celebrate that. Maybe there's no reason other than to celebrate life~buy yourself a gift~whether you need self-nurturing or not. And there's always a friend who should be told in a special way how you feel about them. Okay, no more waxing~you can feast and figure for yourself~above is a party pic of what it looks like inside the box when you open it (it's really speedy delivery in the first place), like a gift from your best friend (Amy IS a good friend, but I'm speaking somewhat objectively here)!!! There's not a better way that I know of to self or otherwise nurture than a treat from Inspire Co.

Then, here's the inside!!!!! It's all so yummy. Even the thank you note that was included went directly onto my china cabinet in my dining room, just my colors in there~robin's egg blue

and brown~all ribbony...

And here's just another of my put-togethers I wanted to share. It is a really nice planter I got from Nene~No.5, a wonderfully-shaped cloche I bought from Fran from her Emporium Antiques booth in Frederick (doesn't it look like a game piece?), the fab pic that my cousin, Carol, gave me of her aunt taking a tour to a Broadway play from Texas (see previous post with full pic and story), along with a silk flower and an amazing nest I just bought at Flowers By Jim in Frederick. I had always wanted to stop at FBJ when I drove by on my way to Emporium so, for some reason, I decided last Saturday would be the day to stop in. Nene had told me it was a great shop and it is. Jim wasn't there (unless I'm stereotyping) but kudos to you buddy! I am particularly fond of this nest as it has lichen all over it. I LOVE lichen. Has to do with growing up in Texas with those big oak trees with lichen on them~similar to my love of acorns. Okay, to make a short story endless~I wanted to make a vignette for the historic, sentimental photo that our cat couldn't get to (she likes to tear up paper) and voila!!! Now the photo is out on my dining room table where I can enjoy it all the time and safely under glass. Thanks for "listening" and have a blessed day. Don't forget to watch Roots being aired on TVOne in celebration of the 30th anniversary of its first airing. Tonight is night 3 out of 6 so it's not too late.

Howdy Pardner!!!!!

Okay, this is why I listen to what my heart says when my head and other heads are saying different. The days of week before last were the last we had to move out of our Ellicott City shop of which my portion was still full, prep days for a one-day show that weekend which included driving, packing, and hauling items from the Frederick shop, and my middle son's, Justin, 21st birthday. Sooooooooooooo, what do I decided I must do on Tuesday morning? Go to Janine/Nene and Woody's house and take pictures. It made no sense at the time as they haven't finished their new home, weren't moving out of or putting on the market the present home until some time in May, and there appeared to be no hurry to get party pics of that house before they moved. Here's the thing about trusting your "gut"...this guy knocks on their door last week, asks about the house next door, Nene tells him that one's not for sale but this one is, he puts a contract on the house and they want to close before the end of the month!!!!! Whew, remember, life can change very fast.I'm gonna play catch up here at some point. Chronologically I'm planning to back pedal and fill in blanks in case there's anyone out there who cares. So this is a picture of Janine and me on photo-op day. See how we are both wearing our vests? It was just a coinky-dink, happens all the time. Hers she called a "fishing" vest, I had deemed mine my "photographer's" vest as my appropriate costume for the task. Janine, mostly known as Nene (I call her J), and her daughter, Heidi, opened a shop at Oella Mill a couple of years after I did. They were an instant hit with all of us, both merchandise and personality wise. And of all things, Nene is from Oklahoma and had lived many years in Texas! After a bit of time, Nene was looking for someone to share space with at Oella and Paul of PJ's set the two of us up. Knock wood, for five years it's been a match made in heaven. We are soul sisters and she's a better friend than anyone could imagine. There is just not enough time for me to tell about all the wonderful things about Nene, she's FABULOUS! She's Meg Ryan meets Polly Anna meets Martha Stewart (Martha wishes) meets Scarlet O'Hara meets Santa Claus meets Helen Mirra meets...well you see what I mean about time. We've had three shops and a decorating business together for five years~and we are pretty much hand and glove. Here's the end of the bikini wax for now~she's a very special person (it's not just me, lots and lots of people think so too).

Here's the start of the house tour...above and below are in the kitchen area. Nene is THE MASTER of staging. And it's not staged looking at all, it is total creative nature coming out of her. Her put-togethers are ultimate eye candy~not cotton candy like me~dark chocolate cake~rich and satisfying.

This is in their pantry area. They have travelled a lot and have picked up a lot of cool pieces then Nene puts them together and wow!

Here's the dining area. Woody hand made the table himself to fit the area perfectly. It's beautiful and I think it stays with the house because he designed and made it specifically for that area.

This is one of Nene's original designs, the striped side board. She has so many things that she made or put together years and years ago, long before we started seeing the ideas in Martha or Mary, and this is one example. She even striped the tri-fold mirror that its topped with! She made urn-turned-lamp herself as well.

Another fave of mine that she does is the craft paper rollups. She makes rollups of brown craft paper then adds the coolest ribbon to finish it off. Most windows she's done in this house then have the addition of decorative panels. She does all her own sewing. I know, gag me with a spoon, but she's just that good.

The living room is where Woody took the top picture of J and me. She MADE the mirror screen~I don't mean she propped it in the corner~she hinged wood frames which are each about the size of a door, had glass cut for the inserts, then sprayed the mirroring on herself. She finished it off by gold leafing the frame. As you can see in the picture we are sitting in front of the screen on her zebra fabric covered chaise with the suitcase table she made by my side. Above is across the room~a round table which she made the dressing for and see how she covered the chair with half stripe, half red? U-huh. And the red curtains with the black and white striped border? U-huh.

Here are some close-ups of what you're seeing on her tables.

Below is the powder room on the main floor. Saying that J loves books is an unreal understatement. The Matisse painting is by her good friend, Gabi. See the book hanging on the standing lamp? See the books in and on the fab cab? U-huh. What you can't see (believe it or not a lot of my photos didn't come out well) is the set of encyclopedias stacked in a twirl next to the antique side board sink base (all of their sink bases are antique pieces and THEY'VE been doing that for over 30 years!

Upstairs, one whole wall in the hallway is a built in bookcase.

Crap, I keep accidentally deleting the pictures while I'm putting in the text. So, there will be a sequel right after this. To left is the dresser in the master bedroom. Here is where the photo of the headboard and the rest of the bedroom is supposed to be. Plus the pictures of the master bathroom. Please see next post, crap... Pics here and there from the guest bedrooms...

One of J's favorite photos she's got on her dresser.

P.S. Nana, nana, boo, boo!

Warning to customers past, present, and future: You snooze, you loose~I win!!!! So sorry but I'm gonna gloat a little (what's "little" mean again?) here. I am so happy with my new put-together that I have to share.

I bought the base legs, printer's drawer, dresser mirror, and antique French folding chair at very separate times from PJ's Antiques (see previous post re PJ's) over the course of probably a year or so. Then one day it all came together and I married them. I had them in one shop or another for quite a while at some rediculous price like $85 for the vanity and chair. Then, when we closed our EC shop last week and our Frederick shop is more than full, so's my garage so I decided to intergrate the pieces into my home. But not before noticing how the stained glass window left over (imagine!) from last year's show house looked like it might fit into the mirror frame. It did! It's a marriage made in heaven. I popped it into the master bath and along with THE NEW TASSEL (see yet another previous post)...well...let's just say I don't mind spending time in there. I can also relax on my bed and view all the fun from atop my book.

The good news for you folks who just can't get that vision up front, call us at Doojies @ No.5 Interiors and we'll help you out so there'll be no more snoozy decorating in your home. We are listed in the Anne Arundel Yellow Pages. Have a blessed, creative day!

Ta~Da! My Studio is as Clean as it Gets!!!!!

A little group of us just closed our shop in Ellicott City that we had for two years after having to leave Historic Oella Mill where we had the perfect set-up. We were trying to recreate Oella in a mini version which is not realistic. My main focus was to keep as many of us together as possible, I just couldn't let go of those relationships. Thanks to Linda from Wild Goose Chase, over the years, we've had several opportunitites to work together but it's the day to day that you can't keep. Our shop was right next to PJ's Antiques who are our dear friends so we are all having withdrawl from each other as well as from Paul and Julie. I haven't even dared to steer anywhere near the banks of denial river. Soooooooooooooooo, having to move out, remove, move, reorganize, organize with a deadline (deadlines make great motivators) plus a one~day show right in the middle (see post before last), I really needed to incorporate my workroom into the process. I had been spending months trying to organize (read: making the room to tip toe over things to get around), then last week hitting it hard, then yesterday morning I woke up with a scary determination (truthfully I had been itching to do a post on the room) to complete the clean up before breakfast. And here are the results, they will last approximately 32 seconds. My father-in-law made this desk a long time ago. I forced them to let me bring it home from Vermont where it had been stored for years. It was already great but now that it has recently turned pink, it's perfect! Can you believe those cubbies? My ballet dancing Madame Alexander doll is sooooooooooooooo happy there.

This is a little angle overview. As you can see there is no Anna Corba~esk studio going on here. No fab tidy, well-organized bins with a big clean work table in the middle. And no horse-swinging contests can go on here, but I am so very blessed to have a little space dedicated to just me and my art.

I did a little map valance border at the ceiling all around and, if you can see it, there's a chalk drawing of me that Justin did in the third grade.

Another angle...

Above is the single most important invention known to modern man. The ribbon holder! I got this bad boy on eBay then told Amy of Inspire Co. and she got one too. It's genius. It's just one of many ribbon holders I have, a proper lady does not have too much ribbon.

These are no wannabees, they are alreadies. But they are gonnabees. They are my sweeties who are waiting for me to create individual homes for them in which they can be adopted in the form of my 3 dementional collage shadow boxes. I give them lots of attention and they give me endless inspiration.

This wonderful old desk chair was one that I rescued from abandonment when Oella Mill closed. It's a cool mid-century, swivel that I reupholstered in a chocolate brown background paisley print then donned with an Anthropologie seat cushion, and topped off with a pillow which is the first needlepoint (my first art love) piece I did when I was about 10.

Here's one of many pieces I have framed of Hope's (Wallace~Paper Relics) artwork along with an ATC (sorry, I don't recall the artist's name) perched on an antique toy wooden park bench.

This is a new valance I made for the window. I made it from a map that my dad's cousin, Carol, gave me. It had belonged to their Uncle Roland and is of Paris in the 50's. I modge podged it to craft paper then sewed a scalloppy ruffle to it, pinned on some black and whites of my parents' travels through Europe, and, voila!!!

Justin made this shelf for me in shop class in middle school. It's filled with some of my faves.

I bought this snail lamp at our church thrift shop many years ago for a song. Last year it got a little makeover with a fab new lampshade from the cottage and a sweet posie.

This is my Nurse Nancy outfit from childhood, one must be an RN if you're going to have lots of dolls. You know how clumsy Barbie can be. I don't know if you can see it well, but on top is the requisite engraved metal Texas toy pistol. Hey, not all Barbie's weddings were "shotgun". In case you haven't caught on, I love heirlooms and memorabilia from my childhood. I don't believe in sticking anything in drawers or closets; I like things out where I can enjoy seeing and remembering...

What's a room without a piece or nine of Judie Bomberger's art to brighten it? You may notice Jonah sits atop my desk by the ribbon holder. This one girl with her baby are traveling using an old black and white of my mom and dad at a cafe in Paris as a guide through Europe.

Emporium Antiques in Frederick, Maryland is where you can find sweet little lamps such as this one plus tons of other wonderful antiques and collectibles. How could anyone be grumpy with all these sweet, smiling faces surrounding me while I create?~you can't!

Speaking of not being grumpy, don't let this picture of Gustaf fool you, he gets jiggy with it all the time. This is a classic Becky Christian of Bees*In*My*Bonnet. In case you can't read it, it says, "Gustaf's B and B", and, "Gustaf's sunny disposition put his humble little Bed and Breakfast on the map...". I've had it for years and it never fails to lift me up and make me laugh. And, being from a family with 3 generations of innkeepers from the Monterey Peninsula, it has extra special meaning for me.

Okay, that's it for now. Rest up 'cause I'm putting together a post of an epic tour of Nene's (Janine~No.5) home~a real treat...

Good Living on the East Coast

If you know me, I tend to complain frequently about living on the East Coast. It's crowded, way fast-paced, and not too friendly. My solution to this dilema is having great friends and art and...here it is...D.C. Baltimore is a totally cool town too but, come on, The Most Powerful City in the World, that's heady stuff even for us little suburban folk.

There are days and days worth of fabulous museums, all those...you know...important buildings, the annual National Symphony Orchestra Show House, the National zoo, the memorials (some, I don't get), marches, and then there is TODAY.

It was reported that yesterday and the day before was the peak. We couldn't make it either of those days but this being spring break for Matt, we could go today. It was still peak. Just enough wind to have some "snow" showers of petals without worrying that the blossoms would disappear too soon.

We are supposed to get a cold front through this week so the wind will have its way with those blossoms and they'll be gone 'til next year. We hadn't been to see the blossoms since Matt was in a stroller. You know how locals take these things for granted, our bad. It is too beautiful to be able to get anywhere near capturing it in photos but this is our attempt.

Y'all southern and western weiners should consider this in your travel plans next year. Until then all we have is too much great stuff to do in less than a week...