Pink Living Room #1

Again, some of you wanted me to post on my living room after we did the pink paint on the walls and, while you can see it on my right hand sidebar by clicking, I'll do it for you.

The walls are Behr paint called Cupid's Arrow and is definitely pink. I am loving it. It feels like I live in a pink cake box with white frosting (the trim) or in a confectionery store. I tried several different kinds of curtains but these plaid ones look the best with the pink walls. The pink pillows are another TJMaxx find for $13.00 each this time but still feather pillows. The other pillows on the right I made from a gorgeous roses barkcloth fabric and the one of the left is from my friend, Rhea, who made it. My lamps are ones I got about 6 years ago and added the silk roses to the shade.

I stack boxes under my coffee table. Paper covered boxes and fabric covered boxes bought mostly in Calif. when we lived there. I only bring beautiful things into this house. (Well, okay, mostly beautiful things!)They contain storage for things not pertaining to my sewing or craft room or for my office. See what you can do with a bit of creativity. I have numerous hat boxes in most rooms to hold other storage also. I'm very limited in this 1800 sq. ft. house but it's easy to keep clean...that is when Love Bunny remembers to take off his mud trackers at the laundry room door. ;-)

I have numerous plates I try to hang on walls where appropriate without looking too crowded. I'm finding since the walls are pink and not beige I'm less likely to fill them with so much froufrou and fluff since I'm loving the color so much. I'm also not a fan of cathedral ceilings but they came with the house and not much I can do about it. But I do love my ceiling fan and am just trying to figure out how I can hook up a chandelier to it. Not sure it can be done, but I love chandeliers. If there's a way I'll figure it out, but in this Idaho desert we need ceiling fans way more than we need chandeliers.

I had to give one plant shelf to hubs for his limited edition prints of trains. But I also put up some vintage train cases. Most of them I've either covered in roses fabric or decaled. One in front of that vintage fence gate is still in its original form, but when I can find the time I'll be doing it in fabric also. I have one or two in my craft room waiting for me to finish it also.

My tribute to my favorite artist, Susan Rios. I absolutely adore this woman and her paintings. Most on the wall are hers—either paintings or limited edition prints. The one of the woman in the black hat with roses reminds me of Susan's self-portrait she did many years ago. I've emailed her to let her know this. I picked that picture up in Goodwill for $2.00!

The lampshade is another one I decorated with paper roses and lace. I bought that antique chair on the left of the sofa table at a store in California last year. I've piled books on it and put one of my vases from a collection I have and stuck some realistic roses in it. The trunk under the table is my hubby's old USMC trunk he had. I painted it white and use it for storage now since I doubt he'll be shipped out to foreign lands again. :-)

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My 500th Post Giveaway!

I've been busy, chicks. My craft room looks like a hurricane hit it after some rock star had a party in it! When I'm creating everything flies out the window but what I'm doing at that time. Trust me, it ain't purdy.

But I had to go to Boise today to buy some sheets for our new mattress. We've had it for about 2 months now and the bottom fitted sheet keeps coming off. Nuuuuuu, not what you're thinkin'! This is an NOT an R rated blog. But we've determined it's the new thicker mattress and the old sheets are not compatible. So I spent the morning looking for new sheets. Let me say here that trying to find just a single sheet is almost impossible any more. So I had to buy a "set" of queen size sheets. Actually, our top sheets are becoming frayed so it wasn't a big deal but just the thought of not having a choice riles me up. I'm now saddled with extra top sheets. And heaven forbid that anything as simple as WHITE should be available! I love just plain white sheets with a few colors thrown in. I also like good thread count and soft 100% pure cotton. But I found 5 sets that are really nice but only 2 sets are white. One is egyptian cotton which is the best I believe.

Anyway, while shopping for the sheets I found a chair. Now, I really don't need another chair but the metal folding chair I use in my sewing and craft room wasn't high enough for my vintage school desk for me to craft on. We're talking my "chest" hits the desktop and I feel like a kid sitting there. Lo and behold, I found this french blue wood and cane folding chair marked down from $100.00 to $22.00!! Never one to pass up a good bargain, into the cart it went. I also found 2 little plates that are adorable but I can't find them at the moment to photograph so they'll have to wait.
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Now for the best part of what I was doing this afternoon and evening since Love Bunny had to go to a business meeting.

Voilà.......my latest creation. Roses, fabric, shimmery tinsel garland that looks like icicles draping over the edge of the little birdhouse and feather yarn around the bottom. My little chick is sitting on her little perch - all pink and wide eyed. This is the giveaway to celebrate my 500th post. All you have to do is leave a comment and a way to get in contact with you and this can be yours. I was going to keep it for a valentine swap but I've come up with another creation for that. I'll show you when she receives my swap. I think you'll like that item also. I'll draw a name on sunday and post it back here.

Greenhurst Nursery #17

Have you ever thought of a black and white Christmas? Well, here's what it could look like if you DID. Exquisite. My friend and sister PRH chick, Stephanie, will squeal with delight on the bling in this photo. SteeeEEEppphhHHHHhh, are you listening?!?! Give mum smooches for me, honey...... She does love me the most, ya know! ;-) hahahah

Fur covered ornies that remind me of santa's helper's hats turned upside down

Polka dot and shell ornies........

More lovely clocks in this place. The middle on is huge.....

Steeeephhhhhh..........more blingggggg!

Eye popping glitzy bling.....

I would LOVE to have that chair in my living room!

I'mmmmm dreaming of a whiiiiiiite Christmas, just like the ones I used to knoooowww........

I absolutely love clocks so these are right up my alley..... even cuckoo clocks ornies....

You can display it just at Christmas, but I'd display it all year long.......

Did someone say "white" Christmas? How about "RED" Christmas????

Or a feather and/or grain Christmas??? Beautiful!

Father Christmas is about 4 feet tall here.

Another stunning lamp for hanging on the wall.....*Sigh*.......Lamps are a weakness of mine also.........

Years ago I was at work in my job and walked around alllll day long with an ink smudge on my upper lip. Cannot for the life of me figure how that happened but finally at the end of the day a woman told me. I always wondered why she didn't tell me about it when she first noticed it and saved me the embarrassment of walking around like that. I think she was not a true friend. This kind of says it all for me. Telling me about it when it happened as opposed to telling me at the end of the day that it had been on there all day would have saved me much embarrassment, but actually, I think she was the one who should have been embarrassed!

Lovely cabinet.

This was also bright true red. I could find a place for this in my craft/sewing room or my office/painting room I think......

This ain't yer same ol' "Charlie Brown" Christmas tree, trust me! It just sparkled even though it's "minimalistic"!

Okay, you'll have to enlarge this photo to see the "sticker shock" on these gorgeous little ornies. Hah

You would definitely have to be a "connoisseur" to collect these little expensive jewels!

Gorgeous and stunning!

Photographers and Stylists

When I read a magazine or book, I read all the little, seemingly inconsequential, things in it - who did the photographs, styling, editors, staff, date it was published (if a book) and all those little things with which we don't concern ourselves very often. I can actually tell when the editor of a magazine has changed just by perusing the magazine even before I sit down to peruse it leisurely. They each have a certain "style" as evidenced by the "recent" (few years ago now) changes in Romantic Homes magazine. I noticed it immediately with Country Home and Country Living through the years.

But besides seeing who the writer of the article is, and let's just talk about magazines in this post, I look for the stylist also.

I didn't think it would be a particularly hard job, but certainly glamorous, and would have loved to do it. But since I've become a photographer, and I use this term very loosely here, I learned how hard both jobs can be! Getting the light just right. Cramming all the lovely items into a small space to add pizzazz to the photo. Hard work I'm sure!! I don't even come close to being good at either. I am barely adequate when posting pix for this blog. So with great "reverence" I salute the photographers and stylists of those truly beautiful stories we read in the magazines today.

Now, the the proofreader I've noticed is slacking on the job though. The current issue of Romantic Country, summer 2008. Have you noticed that on page 21 in the top left picture the clock is running backwards? And just below that one the clock looks like it's upside down. Now, that can't be a reversal of the photo but what's with those people hanging the clock upside down???? Page 28 left photo of the buddhas. Read the description and look at the buddhas. They've reversed the photo. Then we have page 50! Whooooa chicks! The pink telephone dial is backwards, the writing on the shadow box on the wall is reversed and the clock again is running backwards. I know, I know, not a big deal, but those proofreaders should have caught those "goofs"! Yoohoo, Romantic Country, I'm available!!!!! I'm not cheap though!! :-)
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The shutters were put beside the archway on the dining room side. I'll probably spend the rest of the year patching nail holes........uhhhhh, only the visible ones though!

I've put one french wire basket under the picture off center. I could not get it centered with all the other stuff. AND since I worked so hard to get it out of my daughter's shed and home to Idaho I'll be darned if I'm NOT going to put it up somewhere! Now I just have to figure out where the other one will go. It will have to be low because of not being able to see what is in it up high. I also hang items HIGH and low on walls. I think it adds visual interest and love it. I've even put pictures leaning on the wall on the floor or on baseboards too.

Be creative in what you do in life and how you decorate your home. It sets you apart from all the "cookie cutter" or "accepted" decorating styles and shows YOUR style, not your friend's style or the show room salesperson's style, but your unique style! I do and I highly recommend it. :-)

Today I went to Boise since Love Bunny is away. I bought these 2 feather pillows for $24.99! Squeeeeeal, yes for both! That's $12.50 each for a 20" x 20" feather pillow. I am truly blessed. :-)

Now for this next part you're going to have to use your imagination since I didn't get "before" pictures but they're in some picture somewhere on this computer but I'm too lazy to find it so I'll just describe the "before" to the best of my ability. Ooooohmygosh!!!! Yep, that's what it was before. (I bought it but for the life of me I can't remember WHY I would have bought it!!) An "ohmygosh" lamp! Dark wood with a beige shade and amber crystals hanging down. Pretty ugly let me tell ya, chicks! Soooooo, I decided to take my handy dandy spray can of white paint and spritzzzz it. I had that other shade - remember, I stuck a faux fern in it till I could figure out what I was going to do with it?? Okay, after taking off the amber (yuck!) crystals and painting the lamp white, I then decorated the lamp shade.

Now, a sweet friend named Sharon gave me a little charm last year and I wanted to do something reeeealllly special with it since it is so teensy tiny. I don't see how she paints on them. Very tiny! I decided to put that little pink roses charm on the new lamp. Voilà, the new frou frou lamp with parchment roses, lace and Sharon's lovely exquisite charm!! Very little effort for spectacular results!!!



Sharon's hubby is really into western movies. He watches them frequently. I have this art print by Chuck Haan in my hallway. No, I am not into western art, but when I saw this many years ago in a little antique shop in the Niles area of Fremont, Calif. it touched my heart. It's an Indian brave looking sweetly at a little bluebird on a snow covered branch of a tree in the dead of winter. It just stole my heart away and I had to have it. So even in a romantic, shabby, girly pink house this print holds a place of honor. I thought Sharon might like to show it to hubby.

The point of this story is: If you love it, if it touches your heart, then you should have it no matter what the decor of your home is. Ooooooh, and btw, please don't tell Love Bunny I said this. It DOES NOT apply to model trains!!! No no no no no no no no no!!