Lazy Summer Days

I have not been very art-productive lately. But I've been doing lots of summer reading of my old favorites: Veranda magazine, Country Living magazine, Horchow website etc. I haven't done any antiquing as many of the antique/junk shops in Pennsylvania are not air conditioned. Old and musty becomes overwhelmingly old and musty when the heat is high! 

I'm still looking for inspiration for decorating our master bedroom. Yes, I realize that this is very anti-feng shui of me especially that it's now been over a year since we moved in our house here. But, I cannot settle on a color or a scheme or anything! Suggestions are very welcome! 

I haven't been up to much art except that I painted this old bench green. What a work of art ;)

I love bright colors and this picture in Veranda magazine made me want to paint my walls vibrant red! 

An interesting painting that I would like to duplicate

I'd love to set up a table like this somewhere in my little house. Love family photos all about.

These gold framed prints really caught my eye

I know if I patterned an entire room- it would not look anywhere near as good as this one.

This is really the only ongoing art project I've had since the spring: my garden. Loving the summer colors and contrasts!

As my 2 yr old likes to tug on my necklace and his comfort thing, this would be a great necklace for me. Durable and very cute.

Trying to decorate my master bedroom. STILL looking for inspiration. This design by Trina Turk is really tickling my fancy.

The coordinating pillows

Or a tamer scenario by Pottery Barn?

Spring Fever

It's spring fever.  That is what the name of it is.  And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!  ~Mark Twain

Since my last post, I have had this "spring fever" that Mark Twain wrote about. So many things to do, and not quite sure how to go about it, hence, I have been ALL over the place. 

My trip home really shook things up. While Natchez, MS was in full bloom in March, I returned to Pittsburgh, PA to snow. Yes, SNOW! It was a shock to my system and I do believe my heart went haywire.

I put a photo montage together in our stairway that looks over the living room. That bare spot had finally stared at me one too many days.

I visited my favorite Rt. 19 Antiques and longingly looked at this embroidered ship. I've never seen anything like it before. My husband and I both love boats.

I visited this nursery called Rooted in Thyme. A new fav hang-out of mine. I must put a blue bench SOMEWHERE in my garden.

I rearranged furniture and paintings. We don't have a finished basement, so our study off the dining room doubles as a playroom. Not much "studying" is done here!

I decided to paint the armoire and add new knobs. I really really like it now. The painting my husband gave me for my 30th birthday now hangs in the dining room (on left).

I drove to Washington, D.C. in the snow, sleet, and rain. I heard there was better weather over that way.

Enjoyed bike riding (in the rain) with one of my best friends from college. I am pretty happy with how this in-motion-biking-in-the-rain-in-front-of-the-White-House-self-photo turned out!

I really wanted to go sit in these lovely white adirondack chairs in front of this mansion in Chevy Chase, MD. But, I thought the owners might mind.  Note to self: Earn mansion and these chairs... Might need to start with just the chairs.

These streets of Chevy Chase, MD tunneled by cherry blossom trees were breathtaking. 

I really like this simple landscaping with a beautiful arbor and tall white picket fencing. I think this would go well with my mansion and adirondack chairs one day.

The sun came out one day in Pittsburgh. The Pirates baseball team may be the worst in the league, but they sure did build a beautiful stadium along a beautiful skyline and river.

Who knew a giant yellow steel structure could be beautiful? The Fort Pitt Bridge is gorgeous rain or shine.

I could do a whole post about this one daffodil. This is my first daffodil ever. I planted about 60 bulbs in the fall and it seems like a miracle that even just one has bloomed. Daffodils are my favorite flowers.

So, you see that my art-loving heart has tried to go in every direction I can think of. Now that spring is springing forth more strongly in Pittsburgh, I hope I can get back into a nice routine again. Running outside aimlessly every time the sun comes out and rearranging and repainting  large pieces of furniture is wearing me out.  

Natchez, MS

My hometown is Natchez, MS. I like to focus on the good things and when I'm home there are plenty of things that catch my eye. I'd really like to bring some of these back with me to Pennsylvania. The ideas at least. :)

A pirate face mug from England... possibly soon to be a Pittsburgh Pirate?

St. Mary's... there are Tiffany stained glass windows inside

The city park fountain behind St. Mary's

Love the ivy-like plant growing over the brick. I need to do this over some unsightly retaining walls in my own Pennsylvania garden. Also really like the flowers growing on the border.

A newly redone store on Main St called "Jack and Stella"- I love how it screams COME INSIDE AND SEE!

It's amazing what freshly painted bright green shutters can do to set off a 2nd floor apt downtown.

It's as yummy inside as it looks on the outside!

I may do a charcoal rubbing of this for my own PA house.

The only pets my family has ever kept and I think they are beautiful. The big one is about 6 years old! I hope to do their portraits one day.

Spring is a'Comin'!

This has been my first full Winter living in Pennsylvania. It's been an adjustment from the South, to say the least. It snowed last night at our house, but thankfully I am sitting somewhere in warm Mississippi this morning, as my son and I have come home for a little spring break. I guess I was anticipating the warmer weather of home, as this week I decided to go ahead and decorate our house in PA for Spring and Easter. Let me mention again, it snowed last night. And, I hear it's snowing there right now. So, I guess I have jumped the gun a little bit, but I will be happy to return to PA in a couple weeks to see the house all ready for Spring along with the daffodils and tulips coming up... just a little later coming up North.

Several months ago, I bought two giant eggs at Goodwill for 99 cents each.  My son thought they were the greatest toys he has ever owned, but I have been plotting their role in Easter decor since the moment I laid eyes on them. The day I bought the toolbox was also the day I swooped in on a little birdhouse that was literally rotting in the 30% off section of Rt. 19 Antique Mall. It had been there longer than the toolbox. It needed a home to love it. A few days ago, the silk flowers were just so attractive at Michael's Arts and Crafts Store that I bought a bunch. Definitely too many. I think I was just craving some color besides brown, dark brown, and gray in the landscape. 

An overzealous arrangement, I ultimately decided. But it does scream Easter!

I thought back to my Halloween door arrangement that I really liked the way it turned out, so I tried to go more along that path... but without the hay bales. So, I painted the eggs.

Personalization for our home

Some squigglies, some waves, some lines, and of course polka dots

I found some BEAUTIFUL very very GREEN Kimberly ferns at Home Depot that were just aching to brighten up a dull porch. Finally, a funny sort of tinsel bunny jumped out at me at a craft store and I knew that my son would adore him too. Somehow it all came together and I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out though I don't feel like it's quite complete:

Voila!

Window Shopping

I am a "shopper." I like everything about it even when I don't buy anything. My favorite shopping is antique shopping. I seriously think I could probably go everyday for three hours and never tire of it. Quick trips are when my son is awake and usually buckled in his stroller. But I really love when he naps and dreams on my shoulder while I walk around dreaming of where I'd arrange something in my house... Or other people's houses. :) I hit two of my favorites the other day and just thought I'd share some of my favorite things I saw. Who knows, they may creep up in my own artwork or maybe one day I'll buy them... One day...

The beloved Rt. 19 Antique Mall. I love that OPEN sign.

This by Charles Green Shaw. It's $21,500.00.

This could be my son and me around 1900.

This is called a bottlecap quilt. Would LOVE to be cuddled up under this (after a really good washing) on a rainy Saturday morning with a big cup of tea.

This sign is just neat. I like the horsehead post too.

Busy Day

I heart the blow-dryer. It speeds things up.

A giant plastic egg I found at Goodwill

My son was quite concerned that I was painting "his egg"

A very special cupcake for a very special person (more about this cupcake to come)

I used to think my mother was crazy

...and sometimes I still do. But, lately as I've been trying to get in a routine of doing more artwork, I've discovered that maybe she wasn't all that crazy. Getting up before my 1 year old son gets up, is VITAL to my day if I am going to get anything accomplished just for myself which also means get any of my work started. I grew up thinking my mother was a morning person. SO OPPOSITE from me. Well, turns out, she's probably not a morning person and getting up at the crack of dawn before any of her four children needed her was her hanging onto a thread of self-sanctuary. Getting up at 6 a.m. when my child sleeps until 8, gives me two hours in 24 hours where I am not totally consumed with all the constant attention that he needs during the day (and night, we're having "staying in our big boy bed" issues mostly at bedtime, 2 a.m., and 4 a.m.)

At the park with my mom in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1981 (I wonder if she was able to get up before I did this day)

For all you more experienced mothers out there with grown children, YES, I did call her the moment I realized my oversight.

How to Start a Day

One of my favorite Christmas gifts ever

Given that artists are infamous for being temperamental, it's important that I start my day off right. For me, Bad Day=Bad Art. I do not create out of angst or misery. It is amazing what a giant cup of tea, turbo boil on my stove, and my Le Creuset teapot do for me in the mornings. Had to share the secret to my success. ;)

Boils in just under 2 minutes

Twice the size of a regular cup