Design work...

Here's some of my old design work from school.... It's hard looking back at some of it now! What was I thinking?! *L* But these - I still enjoy.

Fabric heaven!

Choices, choices!!

There are so many decisions involved in this house! Makes my head spin just thinking about it! However, we did finally make a few desicions... our brick is called Old Fredericka with a khaki mortar, the cabinet stain we picked is called Huntley Brown and we're in the process of picking paint colors. We're thinking of Gunmetal for the bedroom (the name's horrible, but the color is lovely!) and a lighter creamy beige for the living room. Hmmmm.... still looking though!

We have sheetrock!! :)

Most of these are the newest I have taken. (some old ones still mixed in - I know, I should be more organized!)

More house photos....

These are pretty old... but I still thought I'd share them. :)

{Ben playing on his tractor }

{building the dock and the view of the woods}

Dining Table crisis!

Ben and I stopped by this store called The Warehouse here in Statesboro this past weekend.  Not really intending to buy anything, I wanted to just look around.  With Ben shuffling his feet behind me, asking every two mins "Can we go yet?",  I was heading towards the front door when I saw it.  In a sea of furniture and whatnots scattered around this vast, dark space, the darkness parted and a ray of light shone down on the most beautiful dining table I've ever seen. :)  I stopped in my tracks and then walked slowly towards it, looking closely at it's lines, color, size...  looking for something, anything at all wrong with it so that I could dismiss it and continue on.  But the more I studied and analyzed, the more my heart just tumbled and I fell in love.  Yes.  With a table.  

Now,  before you all start calling me and referring me to your shrinks, I am NOT CRAZY.  I promise (at least not any more so than the rest of you!).  I have been LUSTING after this amazing table from Pottery Barn for more than a year now.  I've bookmarked it on my computer, I've clipped it out of the catalog and put it into my "Inspiration" folder, I've shown it to Ben at least a dozen times.  I've been wanting this thing forever!  But priced at $1600 - just for the table - no chairs - there's no  way in heaven or hell I could afford it, however perfect for my house it would be.  

The point of this whole psycho rambling is that my happened-upon love of a table is an EXACT match to the perfect, ideal PB Montego dining table with a honey oak stain of my dreams!!!  Same size, shape, lovely color and turned legs.  Perfect replica.  And the absolutely BEST part is the price - less than half the cost!!  $679 to be exact.  Within my budget - if I max out my credit card, that is!  And then there's still the issue of chairs...   need to find some to match it.  But I'm determined to get this table.  I couldn't live with myself if I let it pass by!!!!  

Here's the PB version  of it...  a large, chunky yet sophisticated  version of an old farmhouse table.  Loves it, loves it, loves it!!!

    

I've been re-reading Brook Jenson's Letting Go of the Camera again and it never ceases to amaze me how much insight he has into the mind and heart of artists. His words are full of warm inspiration and a cold dose of reality all rolled into one book and I love it.

"Be careful of allowing yourself the freedom of creativity; it might just shatter the limits of everything you now know. Creativity - the life of an artist - is not for the timid. You might find that you make some pretty awful art - on this trust me, I know. And not everyone will like or respect, (or buy, or understand) your work. But you will find that there are those who will "get it" and it is for these people and yourself that you create. It is for the process of exploring and finding, failing and finding, finding and sharing that you create."

Isn't this sooooooooo very true!?! Artmaking is such a personal endeavor - a deeply personal endeavor - and it's so very hard to share that with the outside world, knowing that the majority will not understand why you were compelled to create this at all.

A few more random thoughts...

"The process of being an artist is to forget everything that you know and to really see, with eyes that are simultaneously naieve and sophisticated."

"Artmaking is a battle, a confrontation, a pursuit, a matter of the soul and survival, a passion, a pile of frustration and a grain of reward, an irresistable impulse, an addiction, a form of self-imposed insanity in a world that does not require me to make art at all. My art is, therefore, a great joy simply because it is of no use whatsoever to anyone at anytime. . . . Artmaking is solitary. . . . Artmaking is about the soul."

LOVE IT!!!! :)

The start of our woodpile at the new house... plenty to keep us warm on those cool, autumn nights to come.



"If we can't change life, then we must change our response to life and see the magic of the world in which we live."

Dream Variations

To fling my arms wide

In some place of the sun,

To whirl and dance

Till the white day is done.

Then rest at cool evening

Beneath a tall tree

While night comes on gently,

Dark like me --

That is my dream!

To fling my arms wide

In the face of the sun,

Dance! Whirl! Whirl!

Till the quick day is done.

Rest at pale evening . . .

A tall, slim tree . . .

Night coming tenderly

Black like me.

--Langston Hughes

-Photo by Sabrina Ward Harrison

Loverly

Love these prints by Australian artist Kareem Rizk. 

via: Design Sponge

Tender Grace

"But the tender grace of a day that is dead

Will never come back to me."

 - Alfred Lord Tennyson

Babies having babies!

I just heard the most wonderful news the other day - my cousin Rachel, who is a newlywed, is expecting! This will be her and JJ's first child and I couldn't be more thrilled for them! I was at their wedding this past year, and I took their wedding photos for them. I remember when Rachel wasn't even a teenager - just kids! I'm only a few years older than her, but I feel like a proud mama at how well she's doing for herself and her little family.

Congrats, Rachel - I'm tickled pink for you! :)

Waiting for summer

As the winds pass through the needles of pine trees, it creates a quiet song of summer, lulling us to peaceful thoughts. It makes us pause and look at clouds, stuffed like pillows, floating gently across the sky.

HA!!

This is exactly the reason people from elsewhere in the world think that all Southerners are rednecks... *L* Saw this sign in Bristol, GA in front of the smallest BBQ stand you've ever seen! Only in south GA...

Never underestimate the value of the little moment.

My Peyton feeling sleepy on the couch.

Cravings...

I'm totally in lust with this bathroom from Pottery Barn. Wish, wish, WISH I could afford such things... but I will have to settle for the knockoff. We are getting custom cabinets made throughout the house, so it should be easy to get the same finish of the cabinets, and we already have the venetian bronze faucets... now we just need to find that gorgeous countertop and sink!

Lovely...

Inspiration

Ben and I have been looking at paint colors recently. Got to make some decisions in that department in a week or so, and we've been having a rough time of it. So, I started looking back through my Inspiration folder on my computer (divided into so many sub-categories that I don't know what's what, and where from and who did!! - New Year's Resolution #458 - Get Organized!!) to see if I could find some great ideas... and of course, I did! Just not necessarily for wall color!

Here are a few of my favs... and please bear with me - I'm not sure where all these photos come from, so if you see something of yours, please let me know so I can give credit where credit is due!! :)

Love the baskets with tags hanging off identifying it's contents. :) So lovely and organized!!

Good color palette - B/W with pops of vintage blue and soft yellows... very modern and vintage at the same time. Hmmm.... that's a thought.

And this one -

GORGEOUS shelves with so many pretty colors and accesories! I crave something like this in my home office.

Alicia Bock photos lined up on a shelf... and I'm in lust with the grey wall color behind them!! :)

I've seen these signs all over the place lately - even Pottery Barn (my heaven!!) has them. Easily done at home... it's on my list of projects, filed under "someday".

New House!

House stuff!! Lookie, lookie at my beautiful new house! Still a work in progress, but coming along quite nicely. Lots more pictures to post - so stay tuned!! :)