What's the one thing

These all have in common?
Olive base cabinets, cream uppers
charcoal and cream
again
rich chocolate and white
and again
gray or stainless, not sure which and white uppers
the island contrast look
and again (LOVE this kitchen - so CLEAN looking!)
island contrast again
oh yeah, another one.

I will paint my kitchen cabinets. And when I do... the uppers will be a different color from the base cabinets. Now if I can just match paint to the hair colors that my border collies shed... (KIDDING!) I will need to purchase the new floor first, no point in needing to repaint if I can't get the color right.

TED talk - Ken Robinson on Creativity

Found Art

Well, not in the traditional sense of "found art" like finding something at the dump and taking it home and putting gallery lighting on it and calling it something...

Found art in the sense that I made this years ago and then promptly forgot it existed. And I found it today and I like it. So I'm thinking I'll see if I can find a decent frame and pop this thing up on a wall somewhere.

It's the view from Warm Springs Mountain in Virginia, I used to drive past this view on the way to and from work every day as I crossed the mountain. I love Virginia mountains!!!

Detail:


It's watercolor layered with colored pencils.

A Day to Play

The Cat is away, so I decided this would be a good day to play! I haven't used my kiln in years, and I've never fused glass before today. So these are the very first things coming out of my kiln. I went through a number of firings today but don't have the light to get decent photos of the later stuff. So this is all you get! =)
Interesting blob

A free form donut shape, kind of a cool combination of colors and things that catch the light.

This one has some little flowers in it.

I think this one may be my favorite.

This one is a big one. Very interesting experiments! I learned LOTS today! I love learning things that involve color and light!! These are all small enough that they can be worn as jewelry, so I wonder which one I'll wear to church in the morning. Hmm...

You'll see more fused glass from me, I promise! =)

Kitchen Ideas

Love those black chairs!
I’m giving my kitchen some consideration. I am not crazy about it at the moment, there are lots of ways I can update it here and there, the biggest being a nice fresh coat of paint on EVERYTHING! That will come, but for now here are a few photos I've collected that show ideas I like. (I realize now I should have also been collecting info about the photographers so they could get credit but it didn't occur to me since I never expected to actually post them.)

Love the floor on this one, great black and white without being harsh.

Oops, that's not a kitchen photo, how'd that get in there? Must be the floor again. Has to be the floor, the rest is frumpy.

Love this kitchen nook idea! I don't need to do that in my room, I have plenty of room for a kitchen table but this is a great idea for a kitchen short on space. A hint of color on the wall, and a greenish photo display area.
I just love the drama of the black and white in this one but it could have a bit more finesse and not be so overpowering. It's just too dark and not enough color and neutrals to soften it. Children make cute accessories! =)
These miss-matched stools make me happy and I love the details in here, the teapot and clock.
A kitchen with mostly black cabinets, but the upper to the right of the sink is white. That's interesting... why not mix and match? And is that really a turquoise floor? Why not!
Yeah, that's in there for the floor. I do like European style cabinets but don't like the color of those, it is an old photos, and is it just me or is that kitchen TINY?!
Ooooo... LOVE that SHOT of HAPPY color!
Nope, not happening in my house. My ceilings will never be that high and the room feels overly crowded to me... but otherwise that's a smashing dining room. Love all the fabric on the windows and the color on the table. Needs a Melody Johnson quilt on the wall though, spot just perfect for one right there waiting.
Black kitchen with lots of great white contrast. Interesting. Then the other colors in the room seem to sing like the red chairs and the robin's egg blue sofas. This is too traditional for my taste.
Yes, tis good, tis good. Like how clean white can look! I designed a kitchen with my brother (he's a stellar kitchen designer!) that had the white cabinets and I liked them for the most part. They weren't easy to keep clean but that's because two dogs came and went as they pleased tracking in whatever they got into. We don't have the "doggy door" in this house and the dogs stay much cleaner at this house.
My favorite kitchen I ever designed was maple cabinets with black counters and it was beautiful. Very European with lots of great artistic details. We sold that house a year ago and I'm starting over on a new kitchen. I'm not going to rip out all my cabinets and start over though, that's not an option. But a can of paint is certainly an option. So I'm just giving it some thought. Don't know if I am really ready for it, I just keep considering my options. One of these days I'll be off shopping for paint and sandpaper and then who knows what will happen!

I may fall down

but I get back up again.

A Closet Obsession with Order

My closet was a wreck and since I hardly ever manage to close the doors on that thing, I decided it was time to get to work. And so after a variety of trips to Lowe’s and a few other places I settled on the Rubbermaid closet system and bought a closet kit plus a few additional items to trip out my closet. I managed to find other places for my clothing for a while, removed the shelf and bar and got started.
The Rubbermaid system goes in relatively easily, my worst problems were fighting with the stud finder that seemed to give some pretty inconsistent readings. I finally got a screw into each stud and hung the top horizontal bar, the long vertical bars hang from that. Each one went in pretty quickly and easily with a screw at the bottom to hold them in place. The brackets have a little plastic do-hicky that snaps in place once the shelf is installed and that keeps the shelves securely in place. All in all I was pretty impressed at how easily the system went together and how secure it felt when it was in. It was far better than I thought wire shelving would be.

I started adding clothing and realizing that the new system gave me more rod space, but it was still going to be a tight fit to get all my stuff in that little closet. We’ve had some pretty nice closets over the years, I’ve been a little spoiled. But I knew I could make this one work. It took a while to go through the clothing, trying things on and making assessments about what still worked and what didn’t, but totally worth it.

I made another shopping trip, this one dedicated completely to shopping for hangers. I was in one store where there were some great looking hangers in the display, but some were broken. I considered that a bad sign and kept on walking. I love the look of a closet where all the hangers are consistent and while it took me a few tries to find a store that had enough of the right kind of hangers in stock. I did finally come home with three bags of hangers. Hanging everything and getting it organized was fun. I had no idea I had so many long sleeve shirts of the same color. It’s funny what you realize about your shopping patterns when you get a good look at what you actually have. Apparently I purchase tops in pink/fuchsia, lime and turquoise. Now that I know that, I can fix it. Today I bought purple! =)
I have more shoes than I thought. And getting them all organized in the shoe cubby (thanks to my hubby who put that piece together for me) was fun. Now I can reach for a pair of shoes in no time and I’m now free of the dozens of shoe boxes piled in the floor of my closet. I haven’t worn many of those shoes in a long time just because I didn’t even remember what all I had. And at 25 pairs of shoes (boots stored elsewhere) it is reasonable to think that if I purchase a new pair, removing an old pair shouldn’t be that big of a deal. I already parted with some and that’s great. Notice that I only have one pair of dress shoes that have a back on them, all the rest are either strappy or open back styles. I’m not a big fan of having shoes on the heel of my foot. I think I will keep an eye out for a pair of tennys though. I haven’t had sports related shoes in ages and since I’ve done some jogging lately, it might be good to have the right shoes for that. I suppose I’m a pretty good consumer, huh?!
Some of my favorite features of the makeover include having my jackets and blazers in the same closet with everything else and my tops organized by sleeve length and then color. I now have a tie rack that I use for hanging belts, scarves and tank tops. Love that!

And of course bins for clothing that just wasn’t made for hangers. All in all I’m pretty pleased with how it looks. And as I make my way through the weekend’s laundry, maybe most of it will fit and the rest can go to Goodwill. I do like having a place for everything and everything in its place.