Smokey Eye With Chalk Paint

 

I have spent the better part of this weekend

painting furniture in our new SW Snowbound White guest room-

hence the post title.


Why that title?

Because when I paint-

I also paint

MYSELF.


Remember my Anti-Paint Tutorial?

I paint in my gown-

I paint recklessly-

and I paint messy.


I have also spent more time this weekend

under the bed trying to reach for things

without kicking over said chalk paint can than I care to repeat.


But let me tell you-

as someone who is 3 years late to the party-

(and yes- I painted the hardware and I even left the stuff in the drawers!)

you could paint your car with chalk paint-

without washing it FIRST

and it doesn’t care.


I am impressed and a MESS.

***

PS.  Do you think this  ‘no le hace’ (It doesn’t matter)

attitude about DIY projects

is why I have lost 4 followers in a week?


All I can say is if you are still reading-

you go girl!

If you are just a tad rebellious and think most things are funny-

then you are in the right place.

Unlocking Creativity

(Traditional Home 2012)

This is a bait and switch post.


I do NOT know what unlocks my creativity

in terms of design in my home.


In addition-

to make matters more complicated,


I have entered a sort of indecisive,

hand-wringing stage of late

where ideas dart around and rarely land.


And so when that happens, the phone calls to daughters start

beginning with me saying

”Don’t hang up. I just want to ask you about my paint colors.”


If that doesn’t work, I text friends (Anna, Jenny) or email other bloggers (Karianne).


And so today,

after days a la Cinderella’s step-sister trying to jam her foot into the wrong shoe,

something broke loose,

and my creativity rebooted and started to flow naturally again.



Why today?

I have no idea. 

It just did

after doing the things I listed below.


Here is what I learned if you are ever faced with this stumbling block:



*Decide what you don’t like.

I eliminated a large portion of the

color choices for our guest bedroom at Sherwin Williams by scanning the board and saying

”No, no, no…”




* Once it clicks ,and you feel your creative juices flowing-

Run!

My house may be a big hot mess right now

because 4 rooms have been repainted in the last week

(my utility room is now cobalt blue),

but I am seizing the day.


* And finally, when I asked our daughter the librarian

if she wanted to come by during her lunch break today to

look at the white paint color I picked 

(I know… I was really pushing my luck),

when she agreed,

I ran around the house 90 miles an hour

fixing her lunch

and putting things I thought would look good on the bed in the newly painted bedroom.



That worked

MAGIC.

Who knew that all Sherwin Williams Snowbound

(Sherwin Williams 7004 )

needed

in a room with lots of natural light was

a white coverlet on the bed

which I will be spray painting in gold leaf,

a burlap pillow,

a mercury glass urn,

a chinoiserie vase in taupe and white,

a few antique gold accessories,

an antique gold and glass lamp from the flea market,

leopard print fabric that will cover a desk chair I am painting gold,

and two intaglio prints in gold frames I found at the flea market?

Who knew?


Apparently,

I DID.

***

Linking to:

UnderTheTableandDreaming
Make it Pretty @TheDedicatedHouse
Twisted Party @ DebbieDoos
Cowgirl Up @CedarHillRanch

 

 

Negative Space : Where my History Lives

( My den today- without its furniture.)



This afternoon

after the painters finished wall repairs

and finished painting our built-ins,

I was blessed with a look at the

negative space in our den.

The space that today is still unfilled.

I had just read

a statement in one of my ‘saved’

Traditional Home magazines-


that the real beauty in a room is found in its negative space-

the space not filled,

the floor not covered,

the window not swagged,

the furniture surfaces laid bare.

And then I thought, it is in the negative space

that the story is.

My den’s history:

*My husband made multiple trips in 1989 across the border into Mexico to Miguel Aleman

to arrange for truckloads of saltillo tiles to be delivered to our home.

Our den is 20x29 feet, which is roughly 580 square feet of saltillo .

He made many trips.


I remember riding with him once and standing in the tile factory

where the saltillo was drying

and seeing paw prints from a dog that had run through the wet tiles.

*And these built-ins, empty and freshly painted today were my first clue

that I need symmetry in my life. 

We added this room on when we bought the house, and the builts-ins

back up to a pecan tree in our backyard.

I designed the back wall of our den to protect that wonderful tree.

*And finally,

when I had the copper top from my island replaced with granite,

I left the copper bar because I couldn’t bear to see it go.


I searched forever for a metal works company in our area that sold sheets of copper

and had the willingness to use it as a bar surface.

And none of these things would be in the forefront of my thinking today if it were

not

for

Negative Space.

What a blessing.



That is where the history is.

***

Linking to:
Wow Us Wednesdays @SavvySouthernStyle

Show & Tell @BlueCricketDesign

Primp Your Stuff @ Primp

Time Travel Thursday @ Brambleberry Cottage

Hookin Up with HOH @ HouseOfHepworths

Transformation Thursday @TheShabbyCreekCottage

Show Me Extraordinary @ 36thAvenue

Open House Party Thursday @NoMinimalistHere

Fridays Unfolded @ StuffandNonsense

Feature Friday @ RedouxInteriors
 
Inspiration Friday @ AtThePicketFence

Jewelry Fruit Bowl

Have you ever impressed…

yourself?

Isn’t it great fun?

It makes me laugh thinking about it.

I am my own audience of one!


When I found this stray flea market find out in

the garage ,

I did not think of

fruit.

I thought of the end of my dresser.

And so,

true to my blog’s roots

and my mother’s tutelage,

I spray painted it flat white.


And now it holds this.

The Days of Wine and Roses and Mature Eyes

Makeup Tutorial

Who knows what triggers an interest

in my steel trap thinking?


I just know that earlier this summer,

my middle daughter Lauren mentioned

Pixiwoo makeup tutorials on

YouTube,

and it may as well have been

an invitation to 

lost weekends in the movie

The Days of Wine and Roses…

(Remember Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick?  Anyone??)

I am lost, and I am obsessed.

Picture this.


A seedy motel room-

My laptop in my lap-

YouTube videos on MATURE EYES playing repeatedly-

Laura Mercier Caviar eye sticks strewn everywhere-

My 10 x magnifying mirror swinging back and forth-

and

cherry pits everywhere (my new obsession- 0 points).


Scary…

But my MATURE EYES are done.


***

Go to YouTube and search for Pixiwoo-

a duo of British makeup artists.

You will be transfixed.

Reverse Bucket List

Bucket lists make me nervous.

(wait for it…wait for it…)



What happens if you don’t finish the list?

What happens if item #4 isn’t what you thought it would be?


I have a solution-

a

Reverse Bucket List:

a list of things already done.



Here is part of mine:




* Seeing my husband’s face, as he sat in the Chicago Cubs dugout

the weekend Katherine ran the Chicago marathon for Parkinson’s research.

(my grandson and my father)


* Watching these two guys eat Blue Bell ice cream out of my mother’s

milk glass bowls.


and

*Working with this funky, quirky house

that was a HUD listing,

had been abandoned,

had fire damage in the hall bath,

and

is my

HAVEN.



So here’s the deal ladies.

You have a bucket list-

 

you always have.


It’s behind you.

Never Say Never: My New Kindle

As a sometimes rebellious person,

I have cultivated my fair share of

stubborn opinions.


One such opinion,

for example,

is that

books are found in libraries,

or from bookmobiles,

or in boxes at the flea market,

or from a friend/daughter/brother.

 

I have books everywhere,

and I can not imagine my life without them.

 

However, when Target marked their Kindles down 50%,

I gave up.

 

Have you ever noticed that when you give up,

good things are apt to happen?

I am in love.


It is light,

the font matches my eyesight,

and I ordered James Lee Burke’s

Creole Belle

one night at 10:00 pm.

I am in heaven.


And yes-

I still have a 500 page overdue library book in the den

that I can’t wait to start as well.

Dear Daughters: My Color Philosophy

Dear Daughters,


Today I woke up and decided that choosing

colors for my home

is no longer going to create

dread and indecision

and phone calls to one or all of you.

(Keep reading- this is a win-win.)


I have simply been looking

for inspiration in the

wrong place. 


Sherwin Williams

has the products to make color change happen,

but that wall of

paint swatches

has never made my heart sing.


This does however.

 

As does this.

So, it then made perfect sense.

if I want something painted the color of eggplant-

Look. At. An. Eggplant.


Sherwin Williams does not have a produce department.

Just another day of deep thoughts

from my house to yours!

Love,

Mom

***

Linking to: