Linen Curtains...

...literally.

What started as "make do with what you have" ended up being one of my favorite things.  I love the curtains in the guest room and they are going to stay.

I used some linen tablecloths...one that I had and one given to me by my friend Linda....and I like the fact they don't match.  I used tension rods and some clip curtain rings. They look great with the new color!


This picture was taken when the room was still yellow.

I did the same thing in the hall at the top of the stairs. This is another lovely linen tablecloth from my friend Linda.  I even love the holes that are worn into it....signs of them being well loved!       Thanks Linda! 

All Freshened Up!

The yellow is gone and the guest room/craft room is all freshened up ready to reinvent.  I think it looks like the color of white sand...but still a nice contrast to the white woodwork.  It feels so clean and fresh...almost a whitewashed look.

Speaking of whitewash...I'm going to do something with the cabinet in the picture below to tone down the pine...some sort of a pickling or whitewash.  I wonder if there is such a thing as a "bluewash." There must be blue transparent stains. hmmmm

Here is the point that I had a first coat on 1/2 the room...then I moved everything over to the other side.  I like it soooo much better than the yellow....nothing against yellow...my guest room in Lexington is yellow. It just wasn't right for this house.

It's a blank canvas ready for art and color.

I noticed that different times
of the day it took on a
different tone
depending
on the
light.

Something New...

...something blue!

While we were in on Cape Cod earlier this spring I saw this beautiful blown glass piece in a gallery window.  Paul was quick to take the hint and asked the clerk to box it up. Now it has a home in the dining room in Maine and I just love it!



Each ball has little dimples....which adds to its charm.
And I just love the silver ball right in the middle.





From certain angles....when the light is behind it....it is even more beautiful.  How lucky am I!

Hide Behind The Three Trees

OK....I will admit right here at the start that this was a really silly game...but we were kids on a farm and we had to make our own fun.

These three trees edged our front lawn on the farm.  The left one was the flower tree....because it was near the garden.  The middle one was the skinny tree and the right one was the mailbox tree...you guessed it...near the mailbox.  The mailbox tree had the best rope tree swing ever on that big branch that went way off to the right.  We lined the bottom of the swing with an old couch cushion.

One of us kids (there were 9 of us) would be "it" and stand facing the house and count to 10.  The rest of us would hide behind the trees. Whoever was "it" would guess one by one...."I think MaryAnn is behind the flower tree." Then I would pop out....if I was behind the flower tree I was "it"....if I wasn't I was safe.  And so on...and on and on.

Because of this silly game....I am always drawn to images with three trees.  It's a good memory!

Gathering More Inspiration...

...for the guest room/sewing room.

I came across this print of the sailboats hanging in the basement in Lexington...and I like how it pulls in the bright colors in the inspiration piece.

And I still like the green quilt and this pillow sham. (from the Goodwill Store) I like the mix  of patterns in all these things...dots, stripes
and plaids.

I also rediscovered this print I bought at a the local South Portland "Art in the Park" last summer....and the colors are perfect.  I will admit that I was not only drawn to the beachy color scheme...but also the fact that there were three trees. We used to play a game as kids on the farm called "hide behind the three trees"....but that story is for another time.

I also have some of the things I had downstairs in the dining room...that may find a new home in the guest room: this delightful nautical weaving done by my friend Ellen....and this mixed media square tile piece by a local artist I will feature soon.

And Lynn's watercolor circles may end up in the room too.  I like how they mimic the circles in the inspiration piece....even the right colors.                                 

So now I am thinking I will paint the room a nice beachy neutral rather than blue or aqua....I'm going to have a lot of color in the art and bedding....and I don't want color to overwhelm the room.  It still needs to be a restful guest room as well as a fun sewing/project room.

Maybe I will work in 

some paint stripes accents somewhere....hmmm.

Time to paint!

The Lights Are Back!

One of the first thing I put back in the Maine house was the string of shell lights on the mantle.  They make a great night light and I enjoy the cozy glow all seasons.

I will probably keep the simple vases and baskets for a while...This whole less is more thing is working for me!

The Inspiration....

...for the guest room/sewing room.

Now that we're staying put in the Maine house I'm going to reinvent the little yellow guest room. It's still the color that came with the house...actually most of the rooms were yellow when we moved in...but it's time.  Or at least it's time to start thinking about it...it may take a while.  It's summer after all.


When I redo a room I always find some sort of an inspiration piece with a color scheme I like.  I found this greeting card at the local drugstore a while back and fell in love with it. I know there's a lot of color here...but it's a soft earthy palette and that's what I'm going for. I'm going to focus on the aqua's and blues with some pops of other colors.

I mounted the card on a deep profile paint panel.  I have had it done for months but hadn't found the right spot. Now it's going to be my starting off point for the guest room/sewing room. 

Here's the before....stay tuned for the during...and after.  

This is what is actually looked like... before the decluttering for the listing.

Stitches

Yet another spread in an art journal....I'm not sure the pages go all that well together...but sometimes opposites attract!  Ok....maybe not this time.  I think the only thing they have in common are the"stitches."

I cut strips from some crazy patterned fabric and fused them spaced apart.  Then I used floss to stitch more patterns in between the rows of fabric.  

For the companion page I printed quotes from my "Words" Pinterest board and collaged them with a variety of things including buttons, lace, burlap, tissue, and a cancelled stamp.  Then I finished it off with some stitching.

Fabric Flowers

This is a spread in one of my art journals.  I cut out the circle flowers and leaves from fabric and fused them onto a linen background.  I added some topstitching and a little bit of bling.

The companion page is a combination of fabric and tissue all applied with matte medium. The blue polka dotted vase is made from a  paper napkin and the checkerboard table is a piece of scrapbook paper softened with a layer of tissue. The page is finished off with a little topstitching.

Young Bessie

Here is the original picture my Aunt Beverly used to paint the portrait of her mom I featured in the last post.

I love this photo!  And I love the painting!
Thanks Aunt Beverly!

Pearls

I came across this pin I made a long time ago and it made me think of my grandmother (Bessie) who used to wear her pearls almost every day.  She was an awesome grandmother....I miss her!  Here she is with my two boys, Nate and Sam.




I love this painting of young Bessie done by her daughter, my aunt Beverly.

Here she is with her cat and you  can see the painting in the background...which was in her living room for years.

The painting lives in my living room along with another acrylic piece done by my Aunt Beverly called "The Walking Path." How lucky am I!

Do Your Thing!

Found on Pinterest and can be located here.

A Splash of Color...

...in Portland, Maine.

Polyvore...

...creative entertainment!

I had seen interesting collages on Pinterest with lots of textures and patterns....and I wondered how they were done. I noticed that many of them were from "Polyvore" so I finally visited the site to see if I could learn more.

Found on Pinterest

Even when I read the description on their website found here....I didn't really understand what it was. It seemed to be about fashion and product advertising. But when I wandered around I realized it was much more.  The site has lots of images to make your own collage using their templates or a blank page...but the images were mostly commercial products.  What I found was you could also upload your own images to make your own digital collages.  In Pinterest you "pin" images to save them....in Polyvore you "clip" them.

One I created

It reminds me of my son Nate's technical music called "sampling." He imports songs into his computer...then using several different tiny sound bites he manipulates them and puts them back together into a whole new sound, or "beat" as it's called in the hip hop world.

On Polyvore you take pieces and parts from different images and manipulate them to use in a digital collage piece. Below are a couple of pages from my Pinterest inspired art journal with some of my first collages.  On the left I added some embellishment using floss and beads....it's hard to see in this picture.  The bird on the right is not part of the collage...just glued on top for the journal.

This page was done in Ellen's journal....and many of these images were from her Pinterest pages.

Like any other art medium...it takes practice...and I need a lot of practice!  I still tend to overwork and overdo...not knowing when to stop.  But for now it's just creative entertainment...so it works for me!

Embracing the House

I thought a little more follow-up on our decision not to sell the South Portland house was in order.  And I thought I would share the beautiful lace cap hydrangea that's in full bloom in my garden right now.                              

     

Like I have mentioned we have moved several times and made home improvements that we have left behind. We felt it would be nice to be investing now in that long term space....to reap the rewards of new windows we put in or to plant a tree we could watch for 20 years. The market was great for selling and interest rates were low for buying. So our plan was to sell our vacation home and look for a house with a little more space to accommodate us and our hobbies in retirement.

When we found a house in Portland with really great space we were tempted.  But in the end we thought that we might regret leaving South Portland and its access to the coast. And the reality of not being able to afford what we were looking for in South Portland was becoming a reality.

So we asked a Contractor to walk the house with us and he helped us see that there is potential in this house...so we decided to hang onto it.

Retirement is several years away and we don't need the extra space right now. Yes this house has some work that needs to be done...but that is the price of home ownership and we will embrace fixing the issues whether it's for us or someone else. We will also make some minor changes that we will enjoy over the next several years there.  Then, once we get a little closer to retirement we will make the decision to add a little extra space... if we want to stay for the longer term.

So over time I'm going to put this house back together again...probably changing it up a bit.  And if I find the right spot....I will even plant a tree.

Paul's Home!

Paul has been on sabbatical since Easter and mostly living in Maine. The sure sign that he's home is that stacks of books are back on the coffee table.  A few he didn't get to from the last stack...but lots of new ones. Welcome home Paul!

And here's the splash of color he found on the door of his office.  

Welcome back Paul!