Inspiration Close to Home

When we came to SF to look for apartments, the one we ended up with was the second one we looked at. When we first saw it, I thought it was okay, but then when I saw the baby blue carpet in the bedrooms, I thought, nope--can't do it. So we moved on to the next apartment. Soon we realized that actually getting an apartment here was very competitive and that the baby blue carpet apartment was a dream compared to some of the other dingy but extremely high priced apartments we saw. Recently, though, our landlords let us replace the carpet! Now we have light beige carpet in the bedrooms. I love it! I never thought I'd say that about carpet, but it's so creamy and fluffy and clean. I've been so excited to make things how I'd really like them. Not many color combos look good with baby blue wall to wall carpet so until recently I hadn't really bothered too much with our bedroom--just decorated it in neutral colors only. I decided to re-do our room in black, white and beige. I've been flipping through magazines, but like usual, I always go back to the box full of pictures I have of my mom's and grandma's houses they've lived in over the years. I like the way they do things better than just about anyone. My grandma's style is a little fancier than my mom's, whose style is more laid back. Grandma's house is the one with salmon walls, and there we all are in December of 1999. Mom's house has the brown walls. Neither of them live in either of these houses anymore. But these are the two I was looking at tonight. Whenever I need picture hanging and arranging help, I turn to this box.

Inspiration Close to Home Part 3

With my grandma's house in mind, I wanted to tell you about another decorating, crafty diva, one of my grandma's best friend's, Connie. She, like my grandma, is a great decorator, painter and is incredibly creative. Here are a few decorating tips that Connie shared with me . . . 1. An oversized piece of furniture, like a chest, looks great in a smaller room. 2. Collections look great together. (Connie has a bowl of old cherubs and has a cute card in the bowl that reads, "life is a bowl of cherubs" and she has a bowl of old watches and watch faces and doll hands with a card that reads, "time on your hands.") 3. Contemporary lamps on an antique chest look great. 4. Mirrors look best when they reflect an attractive view. 5. Silver trays are great for holding jewelry on your dressing table, holding liquor bottles on a bar, holding books and plants and of course for serving food. 6. Dried flowers always look great. 7. An orchid always looks beautiful and blooms for 3 months. 8. Stay true to your style and don't follow trends. 9. Use all of your good things daily. 10. Painted furniture looks great. 11. Books are a must, but only ones you really read and love. 12. Make things for your house yourself whenever you can.

This is the coolest, most unique Christmas "tree" I've ever seen. I was trying to save this picture for Christmas but couldn't.

Connie's guest bathroom is decorated completely in seashells. She did all the seashell designs herself.


Connie made these canopies out of bed spreads.

Every year Connie paints a different version of the Madonna on a card and sends them to friends and family. I've started a little collection of my Madonnas.

One of Connie's many beautiful paintings.

Connie and her beau, Everett, king of the blue parrot! (A blue margarita if you didn't already know.)

Connie's artwork and crafts are available at CLF Gallery at the Galleria LTD Antiques and Interiors, 7628 George Washington Hwy., Yorktown, VA 23692. 757-890-2950

Pillow Talk

Here they are--my pillows for my new colorful bedroom! My inspiration came from the pink and brown combo from SFgirlbybay that I mentioned in my last post and from the general way Anna at Absolutely Beautiful Things mixes various colors and prints. The only one I don't really like is the bright pink and purple herringbone print with the green and white dots. That one is kind of ugly! It's not so much the fabrics as it is the way I sewed them on, so I might re-do that one. The others, though, I like a lot, especially the pink floral one with the mustard plaid. There's one on my bed I didn't make and that's the big floral print on the very back row. I got that one recently from Bexcaliber on etsy. Also, I haven't finished sewing up the bottoms of a few, if anyone notices.

The lighting in our bedroom isn't that great, so I brought these out in the den to take pictures of them individually. They're going back on the bed, though.

Front, pink floral with mustard plaid . . .

and back, white and black floral.

Front, black with white floral print . . .

and back, brown and ivory dots.

Front, aqua, purple and bronze flowers on a sage green-ish grey print . . .
and back, mustard plaid.

I just love this fabric (above) so I wanted to show it close! My mom scored it somewhere--maybe a thrift store. She said I could take some home last time I visited.

Then I also got a little bit of this amazing silk to cover the seat of my dressing table bench. It's rust colored, purple, pink and lime green. So pretty! It looks much more vibrant in person though. And I bought this other black and white graphic pillow from Bexcaliber as well. It will go in a chair nearby, but I just thought it looked good beside the silk for a picture.

And lastly, I made this pillow for my nephews' playroom and made another one like it for the baby room. Aqua and green on the front, and yellow and white on the back. Whew, time for a pillow break!

Now that these are done, I want to get a combination of frames and artwork to make my walls look a little bit like this. Really I just need to either spray paint some frames that I have or get a few new ones. I think I can work with what I have beyond that. More to come soon.

Inspiration Close to Home Part 2

After my earlier post about my grandma's house, I thought I should have asked her some decorating tips and included them in the post. So now here are a few tips from my grandma, Gloria . . . . 1. Buy things you love and your house will look loved, rather than looking like a house for show. 2. Building up a lamp on top of stacked books or a plant stand on a small table will give a table more height and look great. 3. Pictures on walls look more interesting mixed with objects that are not pictures and mixing pictures of various frame sizes looks great too. 4. Lots of candles are always good. 5. Don't be afraid of color. 6. Leopard looks great with everything (grandma loves animal prints--but a little goes a long way). A chair or rug in leopard adds a touch of pizazz. 7. It's nice to always have something black in a room. 8. Use outdoor objects inside like a stone figure. 9. As you grow and change, so should your home. 10. Use beautiful fabrics as throws. 11. Always have some fresh flowers or plants in your house. 12. Remember that your house reflects who you are more than any words can express.

I know I've posted this picture once before, but it's quintessentially my grandma, so I wanted to show it again


My grandma is also a really great artist. In every house she's owned, she's painted something, somewhere. I think she's painted a mural in each house she's lived in. Below is a mural she painted in my mom's old house, the house I grew up in, which actually took up a whole long wall (you just can't see all of it here). And below that, you can see where she painted the bricks and stone on the porch floor.


Also, my grandma has a tradition of painting on our Christmas presents. Each year she chooses a theme and paints something beautiful on one or two of each person's presents and then after Christmas we frame them. Some themes in the past were toys, santas, bible stories and birds. Below is a larger detail of one from the year of birds.