My sweet dear friend Celeste of CelestinaMarie has tagged me. This tag is to tell 7 things about yourself that no one would know. Once you have done this, be sure to pass it on to up to 7 more of your friends. How much fun to find out new and interesting things about one another!
Okay here goes:
1. At 18 I was in the Miss Washington U.S.A Pagent.
2. I must copy Celeste...I have at least 100 pair of shoes..and love purses too!
3. I worked 11.5 years at Boeing Commercial Airplane Company.
4. I have been painting 9 years, creating all my life...
5. In order to create, I must have my home in order or it will drive me nuts until I get my tasks all done. But, when I create, it is CHAOS!!!
6. I love just about anything sweet.
7. My favorite time of the year is SPRING...love the green and flowers blooming!
Now to pass this on...hopefully to someone who has not been tagged...sorry if you have!
Connie...Living Beautifully
Sharon...SweetVictorianRose
Rhea...SweetnShabbyRoses
Karen...Oh*Happy*Day
Steph...Angelicaccents
Holly...Hollydoodledesigns
Heather..HeathersPrettyPetalBoutique
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Monday, September 17, 2007
The Art of Painting A ROSE
As most of you are aware, my passion is painting roses. I can tell over the past few years as an artis that I have finally gotten MY rose down to a science. So, I thought I would *toot* my own horn, so to speak. I have been busy painting up items that had been waiting over the summer. Now that my daughter is back into school, life is finally settling down. Maybe from time to time, I will show you my latest renderings? Would you like that?
My first offering is on esty...so don't forget to click the link. I just am a HUGE blue fan. My master suite is painting a soft *little boy blue* and I just love it! This was an old mirror that I have painted and added applique's to the corners. One of my current favorites, that is for sure!
My other offerings are on ebay, one is a foam pumpkin that I just love to do and the other is a wonderful old tray that has 3 glass inserts. I hope you enjoy my latest offerings!
My first offering is on esty...so don't forget to click the link. I just am a HUGE blue fan. My master suite is painting a soft *little boy blue* and I just love it! This was an old mirror that I have painted and added applique's to the corners. One of my current favorites, that is for sure!
My other offerings are on ebay, one is a foam pumpkin that I just love to do and the other is a wonderful old tray that has 3 glass inserts. I hope you enjoy my latest offerings!
Sunday, September 16, 2007
The Art of Design on a Budget
Well....I had showed my pictures of our recent Guest Bedroom Redo to my Pretty Romantic Homes Friends (PRH) and they said I need to add this to my BLOG. So here I am...
Over this past 4th of July week my sweet hubby had to take vacation. Sooo...he set aside one day to paint our guest bedroom, just for me. This room was also better known, in my daughter's younger days, as Gramma's Room. We had agreed that it needed a redo badly since we have lived in our home for 14 years and this was a room we really had not done to much to.
Out starting point was 2 cans of $5 "Ooops" Paint. These both were colors I just loved and knew would help create a unique color pallet. We painted one wall a very bright Brick Red, and the other 3 walls a very pretty almost mocha or coffee color. I had seen pictures of a sweet friends home and just loved the quilt on a bed in one of her guest rooms and knew where I wanted to go with bedding. But I also had been thinking toile as well. So...the next Sunday afternoon, after church and lunch we were at our local mall and I asked if we could go shopping for bedding ideas. My sweetie was so obliging. You see, he is a shopper!...Yes a real LIVE man that enjoys shopping. But let me qualify this so you know that when I am in MY zone to shop...I do it alone. LOL
Anyway, we found a pillow that had the quilt pattern with our wall colors but nothing else to match. The next day my hub actually offered to go to a mall nearby where he worked to see what they had, during his lunch hour. Well, they had more of a selection...he wasn't sure which one was close to what we both liked. So he didn't get it...but that evening he and I ran back to that mall and found just exactly what we were looking for...and best of all, we go a $200 heirloom quality quilt for $50. I then found on-line matching shams and bedskirt all on sale, making all the bedding cost just $110. I just could not believe that we could get all of this for such a great price!!!
During this process, I had been corresponding on my ebay group PRH and had asked if anyone knew where to get toile fabric for cheap. Thinking I was going to make some panels for curtains. My friend Rhea of Sweet N Shabby Roses (go see her blog!), offered me some curtain panels she had in a toile...for FREE!!!!! And best of all they were a perfect match. I then paired Rhea's toile curtains with some creamy cherub panels that I had in a drawer. I placed my bed in front of the window knowing that I wanted frame out my bed.
My sister came to visit during this time and helped me shop for treasure and then went around my home and picked out some amber glass that I have been collecting to place in the room. And then slowly, I began to *shop* around my home until I reach the desired affect I wanted. Using furniture that we already had in this room and from others..that cost me $0. My latest purchased were 2 rugs for $14...which made my final total for our Guest Room Redo around $150.
I love the challenge of not having a lot of $, but lots of creativity to use to come up with a whole new design...and a wonderfully comfortable place for guest to rest.
Thursday, September 6, 2007
The Art of being Tagged
TAG, your it!!! Well, my sweet friend Amy of BunnyRoseCottage just tagged me and this is what it's all about. You must take your middle name and after each letter write out a description of what that says about who you are. Amy's was so short but sweet, just like her! Now, if you don't have a middle name, you could use one you would have like to have had.
Mine is Ellen...which actually is my mother's middle name, Rose Ellen, and we passed in on to my daughter Michaela Ellen...keeping it all in the family and passing it on. I just love that we were able to keep this going in my family.
E - Exhorter- this is one of my *Spiritual* gifts that I guess I use w/o ever knowing it.
L - LOYAL - I think I am a loyal friend, once a friend always a friend!
L - LOVING - This just comes natural for me to love others...I just love people!
E - ELLEGANT - That is what I have been told is my personal style as well as decorating styles too!
N - NOSEY - Okay, I admit it...I just love to snoop, that is, at other's home decor and how they do things...aren't we all a bit inquisitive too?
Thanks Amy...I am gonna pass this on to Ele of PinkPrairieLady and Rhea of Sweet*n*Shabby*Roses...TAG your it!!!...If you haven't been already!
Mine is Ellen...which actually is my mother's middle name, Rose Ellen, and we passed in on to my daughter Michaela Ellen...keeping it all in the family and passing it on. I just love that we were able to keep this going in my family.
E - Exhorter- this is one of my *Spiritual* gifts that I guess I use w/o ever knowing it.
L - LOYAL - I think I am a loyal friend, once a friend always a friend!
L - LOVING - This just comes natural for me to love others...I just love people!
E - ELLEGANT - That is what I have been told is my personal style as well as decorating styles too!
N - NOSEY - Okay, I admit it...I just love to snoop, that is, at other's home decor and how they do things...aren't we all a bit inquisitive too?
Thanks Amy...I am gonna pass this on to Ele of PinkPrairieLady and Rhea of Sweet*n*Shabby*Roses...TAG your it!!!...If you haven't been already!
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
The Art of Swapping
Today was such a neat day. I had been out running my daughter everywhere...to driving instruction, out with my friend *thrifting*, daughter to basketball training session and when I got home from going to the grocery store I had a Box awaiting for me to open.
I could hardly contain myself and tore into it. What I recieved was absolutely gorgeous...my PUMPKIN SWAP arrived. Why am I so excited...well my wonderful group Pretty Romantic Homes, an ebay group came up with a wonderful swap in July to do for our fall decorating. We were told we could do anything, as long as it had to do with pumpkins. Well...we have such a wonderfully talented group of ladies and what they have com up with is just unbelievable. Be sure to check my PRH friends blogs.
My swap Partner was Ele, who lives in North Dakota of pinkprairielady and has the most wondful studio on her property, which is an old church! What a luck gal I was to recieve her OHHHHH Soooo glittery pink collage for fall, and a sweet tag with a white lacy runner. I was so spoiled...and I will also include pictures of what she recieved from me. Would love to hear from y'all about what you think.
Thanks Ele, you have made my fall so much more special this year!
Beautiful Pink and Glittery Collage...
My sweet tag and lacy runner!
Here's What Ele Got:
Thursday, August 23, 2007
The Art of Collecting More.....Part 2
Well...I was looking around my home this morning and thought I needed to show you more of my collections. Okay, should I say...Part 2...I guess I may now have shown everything so I wanted you to see that I REALLY do collect a lot of different things. And...Yes I Know I have a lot of *THINGS*, ...I am such a visual person...my true artist within, so that is how I rationalize it! LOL
Close to where I live, in Ann Arbor, Michigian is a very wonderful well kept secret. There is this wonderful place called Treasure Mart. Treasure Mart is in an older home in the middle of a downtown residential area that are mainly college housing/apartments. It is 3 stories full of home items of every kind. My dear sweet friend Susie introduced me to this wonderful place. We take many day trips there and can spend hours sifting through each floor, looking for buried treasures. Many of my current items (my pottery) that I have started to collect were from here. These treasures are brought in from all over the area and left on consignment. The best part....the longer they stay there...each month they start discounting the item by 10%...so you could find something that has been sitting there 6 months and get 60% off its original price. That's when you know you have found a really find a good deal!
Monday, August 20, 2007
The Art of Giving Back
Can you tell that I have a theme going here? Well I guess this happened my mistake.
I thought I'd share with you a wonderful venture that I have had this summer of 07. Our Ladies Ministries in our church decided they wanted to offer a mission type trip. But instead of going to exotic or far away places, they kept it closer to home. Our mission was called Divine Design and we were going to Pontiac, Michigan to help a wonderful place call Grace Centers of Hope (GCH).
Grace Centers of Hope is a rescue type mission program that offers rehab for those with addictions. Men and women alike must first go through their 1 year program, stay in their dorm like facilities before they can graduate on. GCH not only offers hope, they offer jobs in their thrift stores, offices and salvages business. Through the past years they began to acquire home on a street call Seneca. There are probably 20 homes of which GCH now owns all but 3. Once they graduate from this 1 year program, they have the opportunity to rent rooms in these homes and begin to get back on their feet. What I just love, is that they are not just rehab'd and then left to their own devices. They are helped out through every step of this process.
SOOOOOO.....that's where Divine Design came in. We had 20 women broken into 5 teams. Each team was given room(s) to basically start from ground zero and do a makeover on them. In May/June we began our planning, preparing and praying for our project.
My team of 3, Bobbie, Sara and myself was given 74 Seneca Street, a quite large home upstairs bedroom and paneled hallway. We knew going in that we had a queen bed and a few holes to repair in the walls, but basically nothing else. On July 30, we loaded up the church bus and headed off for the 1 hour drive to and from Canton to Pontiac.
Day 1. We needed to prep the bedroom and hallway walls. Cleaning and spackling were the majority of what we did that day. The windows also needed the framework cleaned off as well. Close to 100 staples were pulled and old hardware removed. It became evident that we would have to paint these too. Unfortunately we realized that the ceiling had been wallpapered, so we did not have time to do anything to it.
Day 2. The hallway was primed and then Bobbie used 2 small rollers and did a technique which gave a soft sponged like affect. We sanded and ended up doing 2 coats of primer in the morning and then gave it a coat of deep green as a base coat. Also, Bobbie ended up doing a spackling technique out in the hallway to cover the ceiling. It all turned out so well!
Day 3. While Bobbie and Sara put the Bellagio technique on the walls, I was busy prepping and painting the 2 window trims. This day we did any necessary fix ups from paint splatters and wood fixes, to vacuuming and starting to get everything ready for decorating.
Day 4. Now we were just down to the finishing touches. Our Ikea Ar moire was assembled, rods for curtains were put in place, curtains we ironed and hung, the bed was made, our chandelier was hung, furniture moved into place, mirror and headboard were splashed with paint and hung, a large rug was placed under a very marred up piece of rug(w/an iron impression em blazed in the middle) and the finishing touches; things for the walls, inside drawers and desk items were all set in place.
We were also privileged to have very generous donators so that we had extra money in which we used to place a rug in a very worn out bathroom floor with towels to match. We gave storage supplies and toiletries to the Mother, Donna and her 2 children Luke 11 and Judy 9. They were already living in this home as we worked. Donna loved what we had done so much, she kept telling us she just might move in that room. Our last day was finished up by having a Divine Design group walk through of each of the 5 rooms we had worked on. We did this before the Pastor and head of Grace Center’s of Hope and staff had their walk through.
This was truly a life changing event for me. Something I am so glad that I had the privilege to be a part of. I went in know that I have limited strength and came out know that GOD gives us just enough strength for each day. Each day I was exhausted, but a GOOD exhausted. Knowing that I had a little part of placing HOPE in the lives of others is what living is all about. Hope means changed Lives, Changed lives means they will be healthy and reach out to others too.
I thought I'd share with you a wonderful venture that I have had this summer of 07. Our Ladies Ministries in our church decided they wanted to offer a mission type trip. But instead of going to exotic or far away places, they kept it closer to home. Our mission was called Divine Design and we were going to Pontiac, Michigan to help a wonderful place call Grace Centers of Hope (GCH).
Grace Centers of Hope is a rescue type mission program that offers rehab for those with addictions. Men and women alike must first go through their 1 year program, stay in their dorm like facilities before they can graduate on. GCH not only offers hope, they offer jobs in their thrift stores, offices and salvages business. Through the past years they began to acquire home on a street call Seneca. There are probably 20 homes of which GCH now owns all but 3. Once they graduate from this 1 year program, they have the opportunity to rent rooms in these homes and begin to get back on their feet. What I just love, is that they are not just rehab'd and then left to their own devices. They are helped out through every step of this process.
SOOOOOO.....that's where Divine Design came in. We had 20 women broken into 5 teams. Each team was given room(s) to basically start from ground zero and do a makeover on them. In May/June we began our planning, preparing and praying for our project.
My team of 3, Bobbie, Sara and myself was given 74 Seneca Street, a quite large home upstairs bedroom and paneled hallway. We knew going in that we had a queen bed and a few holes to repair in the walls, but basically nothing else. On July 30, we loaded up the church bus and headed off for the 1 hour drive to and from Canton to Pontiac.
Day 1. We needed to prep the bedroom and hallway walls. Cleaning and spackling were the majority of what we did that day. The windows also needed the framework cleaned off as well. Close to 100 staples were pulled and old hardware removed. It became evident that we would have to paint these too. Unfortunately we realized that the ceiling had been wallpapered, so we did not have time to do anything to it.
Day 2. The hallway was primed and then Bobbie used 2 small rollers and did a technique which gave a soft sponged like affect. We sanded and ended up doing 2 coats of primer in the morning and then gave it a coat of deep green as a base coat. Also, Bobbie ended up doing a spackling technique out in the hallway to cover the ceiling. It all turned out so well!
Day 3. While Bobbie and Sara put the Bellagio technique on the walls, I was busy prepping and painting the 2 window trims. This day we did any necessary fix ups from paint splatters and wood fixes, to vacuuming and starting to get everything ready for decorating.
Day 4. Now we were just down to the finishing touches. Our Ikea Ar moire was assembled, rods for curtains were put in place, curtains we ironed and hung, the bed was made, our chandelier was hung, furniture moved into place, mirror and headboard were splashed with paint and hung, a large rug was placed under a very marred up piece of rug(w/an iron impression em blazed in the middle) and the finishing touches; things for the walls, inside drawers and desk items were all set in place.
We were also privileged to have very generous donators so that we had extra money in which we used to place a rug in a very worn out bathroom floor with towels to match. We gave storage supplies and toiletries to the Mother, Donna and her 2 children Luke 11 and Judy 9. They were already living in this home as we worked. Donna loved what we had done so much, she kept telling us she just might move in that room. Our last day was finished up by having a Divine Design group walk through of each of the 5 rooms we had worked on. We did this before the Pastor and head of Grace Center’s of Hope and staff had their walk through.
This was truly a life changing event for me. Something I am so glad that I had the privilege to be a part of. I went in know that I have limited strength and came out know that GOD gives us just enough strength for each day. Each day I was exhausted, but a GOOD exhausted. Knowing that I had a little part of placing HOPE in the lives of others is what living is all about. Hope means changed Lives, Changed lives means they will be healthy and reach out to others too.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
The Art of Collecting
Do we Women EVER have enough, when it comes to eye candy?
I don't think so. I guess you might just call me an avid collector. I collected all kinds of things and have them all over my house. Now, I am getting to the point that I might need another house, to house them all in...well not really..but maybe more display cabinets. With my birthday on the horizon, I have put my plug in for another place to display my treasures. And of course, I just love to take these wonders and make beautiful vinette all around my home. Can you tell that I love to create? or even better decorate? Yep that's me! I hope you don't mind if I show you some of my treasures!
Minature Shoes
Bone china plates, tea cups and tea pots
A *shelf* above our patio door with creamers
Stamps and misc collectibles
Purse even one my grandma gave me as a teenage (the black beaded one)
Mirror, Mirror on the wall
Milk Glass
I don't think so. I guess you might just call me an avid collector. I collected all kinds of things and have them all over my house. Now, I am getting to the point that I might need another house, to house them all in...well not really..but maybe more display cabinets. With my birthday on the horizon, I have put my plug in for another place to display my treasures. And of course, I just love to take these wonders and make beautiful vinette all around my home. Can you tell that I love to create? or even better decorate? Yep that's me! I hope you don't mind if I show you some of my treasures!
Minature Shoes
Bone china plates, tea cups and tea pots
A *shelf* above our patio door with creamers
Stamps and misc collectibles
Purse even one my grandma gave me as a teenage (the black beaded one)
Mirror, Mirror on the wall
Milk Glass
Friday, August 17, 2007
The Artist Within
How many of us go through life and then all of a sudden, something happens and the direction you are going in changes? Well that happened to me.
In 1999, it became evident that my health was suffering and I need to have a radical hystorectomy. I then had a 7 year old and would have loved more children, but it was not what God wanted for me. He had other plans for me. I had no idea what I would do...and then I saw on TV a Donna Dewberry advertisement for her 1 stroke painting technique. For some reason that piqued my interest. That was the beginning of what has now become a passion to me...my painting...painting of roses. As time has gone on I have create a rose that I really believe to be my OWN rose. I love to try other flowers and other roses...but always come back to my rose. Now that doesn't mean I still don't tweak it here and there...but I have grown fond of my rose. I will leave some pictures for you to see.
In 1999, it became evident that my health was suffering and I need to have a radical hystorectomy. I then had a 7 year old and would have loved more children, but it was not what God wanted for me. He had other plans for me. I had no idea what I would do...and then I saw on TV a Donna Dewberry advertisement for her 1 stroke painting technique. For some reason that piqued my interest. That was the beginning of what has now become a passion to me...my painting...painting of roses. As time has gone on I have create a rose that I really believe to be my OWN rose. I love to try other flowers and other roses...but always come back to my rose. Now that doesn't mean I still don't tweak it here and there...but I have grown fond of my rose. I will leave some pictures for you to see.
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