Now, I love my shoes as much as the next girl but with kids they are NEVER stacked neatly (in our house at least.) I find it more productive to save my nagging for "Drop that knife NOW!" rather than PLEEEEASE line up your shoes neatly so I don't go insane."
Another trip to the good ol Salvation Army (affectionately known as "The SAL.") and now everyone (even little Junior) chucks the shoes in the basket.
After removing them, of course.
That little chandelier issue I mentioned last week involves this. What can I say? Love is love, whether it's a chandelier or bacon.
Today, I got a sitter for 5 hours and took this "alternative" acrylics class. At home tonight while watching Design Star Washington Week I experimented with some printmaking. I decided to haul out some plywood and although my tulips look like blobs I actually sort of like my mistake. Why can't I get the vibrant colors to show up on the blog?!
Not much is going to happen in Casapinka this week since I'm working non-stop. HODAD/Placido has gotten insanely active all of a sudden. I was talking to a friend on the phone tonight, and since he's just learned to scream to see the cat jump, I put him in the bathroom for 5 minutes and stayed on the other side of the door while talking (he's 9 months - what's he going to do, take a bath?) Well, sure enough I heard a splash and he he was dragging his hands through the toilet bowl and of course putting them in his mouth. This clearly leaves me with MUCH less free time than I previously had. I do, however, hope you'll stick with me as I commit myself figure out this new territory. My first child, you see, basically sat and smoked cigarettes for her first years of life so these are unchartered waters. Oh, I did manage to paint this Syroco clock for the dining room and will post it soon. It's covered with tape so I can paint it.
The Beautician has arrived and is temporarily standing in until Jackie O's canvas is made. Then, she will travel across the foyer to the dining room which has picked up speed in the past 24 hours. Jimmy is coming to finish the wallpaper in the foyer next week and hang my chandeliers for me. I snapped this photo at midnight with terrible lighting which is par for the course in this crazy house.
At 11:30 p.m. I decided to get moving on the chandelier. I have also been pimping out some rather great accessories for the fuchsia dining room so stay closely tuned. There are some chandelier issues which I need to discuss soon as well; suffice it to say, when huband reads about them he's going to put an Ebay filter on my computer.
Do you ever commit a decorating faux pas? Yeah, me neither, heh heh. I bravely you showed my horrible looking mirrors in the stairwell but took them down this week. Instead, I hung my Amelie triptych from the artist Almost Famous, which I bought months ago. I havent' framed them yet but I love how they smile at me on the way down the stairs. Espcecially the green creme brulee one. It's like a silent "Go crack some serious creme brulee!" directive. Husband loves them, too, even though he doesn't really feel the need to crack creme brulee on a daily basis. It's a good start, at least; I like it a lot.
I think old silver trophies make lovely tabletop decor, especially when filled with pink flowers. I have my eye out for a few for the foyer but Ebay isn't very generous at the moment. I think one needs to view these as small investment pieces.
There is this one - I love the lines and the shape.
Parishotelboutique also has some beautiful trophies and Lynn, the owner, really adds a personal touch to the buying experience. This above trophy is from a bird race - I love that!
I bought a necklace from Parishotelboutique several months ago which was designed by the clever Tamara Berg. It had an antique "award fob" (isn't that the best term?) dangling from freshwater pearls. I get multiple compliments when I wear it and having a small piece of history around my neck just feels right. As well as that (ok, don't mean to bore you) the name on it is G. Stokes and Stokes was a famous Irish physician so one never knows...
Don't forget to check out Lynn's blog. I was surpised when I saw her bedroom - the colors are identical to the ones I'm using in mine, although I have a few mirrored objects and naked woman, of course. I find the pale aqua incredibly restful and the black and white beautiful but not jarring when I wake up.
Today the weather is dreadful which I love. It's the perfect day to get a chandelier painted pink and to continue my work on PCP (Petite Casapinka - thanks, Err - I appreciate the abbreviation.) If anyone sees a photograph of a particular pink that you think would be good for the chandy, please oh please let me know! Here's a little photo to give you a bit of inspiration.
Now, THIS is the turquoise I was envisioning. This is just a sneak peak but I thought you might like to see the final color (don't worry - the drawer does fit properly) When I was painting I discovered that underneath it is marked with Thomasville 1966. The first coat of paint is on and it needs another couple of coats today and I'll post the final result next week. I also need some knobs/pulls for it. I always smile when I say the word "knob" after spending six years in Ireland - Fairfax, MirrorMirror, Drey, Jo, Anna - you can chuckle along with me, I'm sure! Now, here is where you all get a weekend assignment if you're willing. Please help me find the perfect KNOBS.
I don't know if I ever showed you this pierced porcelain lamp I bought several months ago on Ebay but I think it looks beautiful in this space.
I ordered the little yellow cuckoo clock, by the way, and I want to credit girl meets glamour and AmandaLouise for directing me to it and all of you for pitching in on paint colors for the bamboo desk. One other thing: If anyone spots a couple of little ottomans that might fit under the bamboo desk please let me know. I hope to cover them with some wonderful fabric.
Now for that chandelier: lighter blue, same turquoise, pink, zebra...
Here's a little sneak peak - the flash actually lightens it a bit. After my last post I decided that I refuse to be overwhelmed by colors. I think I have turquoise on a swatch card, then it turns out to be blue, these too green, these too dark. Then, I'm sure that was the exact shade I saw in the magazine. Wasn't it? Not even close! Heck with it - I went with this light turquoise that I love. My foyer doesn't get a lot of natural light so I erred on the side of light turquoise (but I think you'll find that it isn't an error at all!) I chose the top left card, second from the top, if you look at the previous post.
My daughter asked me to take a photo of her coloring book and sparkly shoes from Ireland (thanks Auntie Niamh!) I realized that we gravitate towards what we see every day, or maybe we just repeat the colors that we like. We probably should have named her Foyer.
The ladies at Social Design Events (where I was lead via Chamara's blog) were discussing aqua and blue as a great color combination and I'm afraid I have to agree. I have gone to Porter's, Home Depot, Benjamin Moore, Sherwin Williams and Lowes and there is NO turquoise to be found. I discussed mixing it to match and was told that it was very difficult to get right. I did find a color that looks like this:
which is an armoire that holds stuff like this:
Last night, I dragged the desk out and primered it with white. It looks so much more beautiful white than it did in that texturized teal.
So, today I need to decide on a color. I am not going to find the turquoise I was after, I fear, but I think maybe one of these blues on the lower cards (the two that are second from the top) would be pretty, or we could rethink the entire scheme and just do aqua and red...
Thanks so much to Nicole of Making it Lovely for sending over these mockups. It got me thinking that if I can get better at Photoshop I could get some great stuff going at Casapinka.
For example, I don't like all those huge portraits that people have of their kids in their Sunday best looking like they aren't possibly thinking of putting a spitball into the ear of the sibling next to them. I want a different breed of kid portrait in my dining room. I'm going to try and edit everything out of this photo instead of the flying baby. A nice white background with just Junior and his shadow. How's that for a nice formal portrait in a dining room?
Well, why the heck not - I love this idea! Large, gallery stretched canvas, maybe smaller than in this picture so it doesn't overwhelm the desk. I asked husband about it last night and he really liked the idea, too. You see in Ireland, everyone always had a photo of Jesus, JFK and the Pope and this is our nod to JFK. Just look at how her pink lipstick goes so well with the turquoise, almost like she planned her outfit for my foyer. Thanks, Jackie - you're a star.
By the way, I have a fabulous JFK and Jackie story that I'll save for another time, but it's another reason husband actaully liked this idea (not to mention that it means pink, red and white prob won't win out.)
If anyone can help me with Photoshop, please do. I can't even figure out how to fill in the little blue bits that are missing.
UPDATE: Sarah from smallfox just made this for me - I have no idea how she did it but I appreciate it so much, Sarah. Now if I could figure out how to eek out a living with Casapinka I could cut back my ER shifts to eight per month and have fun communications with people like Sarah all day long (oh never mind, going off on a tangent.)
