My favorite Designer-my inspiration

At some point, I can't remember when or how, I came across Beth Keim and her interiors.

Love...

I don't even think I need to say anything else. I love Beth's design work.  Every. Single. Room.

All photos courtesy of Lucy and Co. and Beth Keim

She lives near Charlotte, N.C. and for a short time we thought we might be moving to that area.  I was so excited that I might be able to meet her, see her store and maybe see some of her work.  But, alas, no.  So instead I get my fill by visiting her blog, Lucy and Co,  and following her on facebook. 

And now I'm off to use my imagination to decorate my house ala Lucy and Company. 



  

Big things happening

We have some huge changes happening in our family.  The short version is that we are moving our family of six from Scituate, Massachusetts to Dallas, Texas.  The long version is as follows... 

About 11 years ago my husband was feeling itchy in his corporate job at Fidelity and started talking about owning a business.  "How about opening a restaurant" he said to the wife who heads to bed at 8pm.  "Umm, where is this coming from?" I asked him.  I had never heard his desires to own a restaurant and being an early bird, early to bed and the mother of a one year old, three year old and five year old I really didn't see this working for us.  We needed security, we needed health insurance and we needed stability.  He talked to a couple of people in the industry and was steered away from owning a restaurant and the myriad of problems that accompany it.  Life went on.  We had another child, moved from the country to a seaside town and three years ago he got a job with a different company.  He had his beloved boat, we had two dogs, we went on ski trips and a wonderful cruise.  Life was good.  I began to play tennis, worked a couple of hours at an orthodontists office and did sewing on the side.   Like I said, life was good.

February 2012 we went on an awesome cruise to the Southern Caribbean.  It was the most perfect vacation our family had.  Upon returning home my husband's dissatisfaction at work arose again.  This time we were in a different position and he really meant it.  I dug my heels in.  I liked my life, our house and where we were.  I didn't need for things to change.  He, however, was commuting three hours a day to sit in an office to do a job that he didn't have any passion for.  We had some serious heart to heart discussions.  I always want him to be happy.  He's much more fun for us when he likes what he is doing. Biggest on the list, he's a smart guy who when he puts his mind to something, he will give it 110%. 

So, he started looking at business magazines rattling off business franchise opportunities.  "How about a painting company? Car wash? Dry cleaners?" Really?  I couldn't imagine leaving a corporate job with health benefits, bonus and security to own a painting company!  How about my owning a membership boat club...  "Now that's the first thing that sounds like you." I said from the couch.

 As he looked into it more and more he liked it more and more.  It all sounded great except for one thing, we live in Massachusetts and our boating season is about 3 months long.  To make a club like this work really well you need an extended boating season.  Next big discussion, we move south.  Again I argued I like where we live.  I love our big ole house within walking distance to town.  I grew up an Air Force brat and moved often.  I took trips, by myself, with a youth group.  I went to a German school for a year as a teen.  I am not averse to change.  Could I do it?  Could I move out of this house I said I'd never leave when we moved in?  What ultimately made me feel like I could do it was my friend across the street had moved away the year before.  Now, she is a mover and a shaker, but if she could do it, I could too!

Numbered pillows

The bar stools at our breakfast bar are tall and deep.  A little cushion at the back makes them much more comfortable.  I had some cute sea themed pillows but they needed updating and I  wanted to go with a black and white scheme.  I love the look of typography and this is what I came up with.

Four kids, four pillows.

If you are interested in your own numbered pillows, please contact me through my contact page.

Kathleen



I'm addicted

I generally don't have an addictive personality.  However, I recently visited Pinterest and I am addicted!!  Really, just ask my kids.  They've been hinting at my addiction and I knew it was true when I did a google search because my search bar on Pinterest was gone.  I was directed to someone's blog with instructions on Pinterest searches and all the comments were about people's search bars gone missing.  They were dated the same day I had my problem.  I was so relieved that it wasn't just me.  It looks like there are plenty of us addicts. 

So, if you haven't visited pinterest, you should. 

There are great pictures of everything you can imagine.  The wonderful thing is that almost every picture links back to the original post. 

There are cute haircuts...

Cute animal pictures...

Yummy recipes...

House ideas...

(All photo via Pinterest)

Everything is very inspirational and so much fun to look at.  It's addictive,...but I love it!

Little things that help

Here is a typical look into the family bathroom on most days. 

(Don't judge me by my 1960's bathroom floor)

 I bought and decorated four cute hooks, one for each of my kids.  They have my kids' first name initials so I would know which hook belonged to whom.

  I also hung them low so there was no excuse for them not hanging their towels up.  It is probably the design of the peg, but the towels don't always like to stay hanging... I have lived this way for 8 years and finally decided that enough is enough.  Something had to be done to help these towels stay put.  I have actually known what to do for some time but I finally got around to doing this little, tiny really, project to make life a little bit neater. 

 I measured a generous amount of ribbon to sew to the middle of the length of each towel.  I folded the end of the ribbon under and stiched it in place.

Easy peasy and done in just a couple of minutes. 

  Ahhhh! I love neat!

Moss covered letter

Although it just snowed last night and all the decorations have been taken down - I'm not saying they have been put away, but...  anyway, it was time for a springy project.  I saw this project done on the beautiful blog Dear Lillie last year.  I had gotten a box of paper backed moss through Freecycle before Christmas.  Freecycle is a program where you can offer and request things through an email group.  It's done to keep still usable items out of the landfills.  The groups are localized so that you are not travelling far.  So someone offered this paperbacked moss and I responded as fast as I could so I could eventually do this project. 


So now I had all my supplies for my project.  The back of the letter is cut out of a pizza box.

I cut a template out of newspaper.  As you can see the H is a little wonky but I figured the moss would cover alot of imperfections. 

Once the letter is cut out,

I laid the H on the back of the moss. 

I was going to cut right around the H but decided to make some cuts in the paper to fold it around to the back.  Since the paper was really brittle, probably old but since it was free to me I can't complain,  I spritzed the front and back of the paper to soften it a little bit.

While it was sitting for a minute and the glue gun was warming, I spritzed my poor fern who is neglected in the winter.

Once the glue gun was hot I just glued the moss onto the cardboad and folded over the edges as shown below.

A couple of spots were missing moss so I just took some extra moss and hot glued it in place. 

I'm so pleased with the end result.  I have tons of the paper backed moss left and need to think a some projects to use it.

Happy New Year!

This is the year.  Is this the year?  I think this is the year I will get it all together.  Right?  Things seem to be working out great for me.  I got a laptop this year for Christmas.  I have always hated disliked sitting in our"computer" room.  So, with my laptop I will be able to sit wherever I want to.  Right now I am sitting by the window in the library.  It's so calm here.  Not to mention the laundry isn't nearby waiting to be folded, the dishes in the dishwasher waiting to be put away, the dogs wanting another walk.   So I am happily starting 2012.  Not to mention we have a great year ahead of us.

New Year's Eve 2011 at The Tinker's Son

 Stay tuned, ...

Christmas mantle

We fell in love with and  moved into our house 8 1/2 years ago.  The family who lived here many years ago had 5 (i think) kids and many people I meet in town know our house as this family's house.  I like to let people into the house to view it.  Sometimes the house is messy and I apologize, but let them in anyway.  Last weekend I had a yardsale and cleaned and decorated the house for anyone I knew who wanted to see the house.  I decorated the mantle and I LOVE it!

 I usually decorate more for the kids, but this I did for myself.  I'll add to the decorations as the season goes on and add more for the kids, but here's the mantle and this is how it will stay.  

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!

Making Mercury Glass

I found a blog post about making mercury glass and decided to give it a try.  It took me a little while to get the spray paint and still didn't end up with quite the right thing but decided to give it a try anyway.  I wanted looking glass silver but when I tried the silver I had purchased it turned out more matte.  The supplies you will need are vinegar water spray (50/50), silver looking glass spray, glass containers, newspaper and paper towels. 

Once I had everything together, outside since the spray paint is smelly, I sprayed the inside of the globes lightly.  While the paint was still wet I sprayed the vinegar water mixture onto the inside of the glass.  The vinegar/water beaded up the paint and I took a paper towel at this point and dabbed off the excess paint. 

I sprayed and dabbed until I was happy with the results.

Once they were all dry I took them inside to the mantle and put some candles in them.  I would have liked black candles for Halloween but had to make due with little white ones. 

I think I could have taken off  a little more paint but the glow is very pretty.  I think I'll try again and follow the instruction of the blog post and see what the results end up like. 

Monday morning and back to work

It's Monday morning and the weather continues to be

 grey and rainy.  I have a couple of sewing projects in the works and a

 few that will be coming in - just waiting for fabric to arrive.  Today I am working on some

panels for a closet door.  It is hard to see the fabric in this grey, rainy weather,

but it is brown.  We are interlining the panels to give them a rich full feel. 

  

 I'll need to make a trip to the fabric store for more lining and interlining

but have enough to get started.  I never mind a trip to the fabric store. 

It's always inspiring to look at the new fabrics. 

On the project front I am working on some screen printing.  I purchased a

kit and made my first attempt last week.  It didn't turn out but I think

I know what I did wrong so I've started again, hopefully with better results.    

If this works out and I can screen print on fabric, I will make some pillows.  I already have several designs that I am excited about.  The next part should go pretty quickly. 

So now it is back downstairs to work on the closet door panels.  Have a dry day!  Kathleen

Pillow and cushion

A friend of a friend recently contacted me to make a cushion for her for her mudroom.  We had the hardest time connecting and never actually did.  She ended up dropping the fabric with a picture from a magazine.  I had a few questions for her such as did she want the buttons like in the picture, did she want welting, how thick did she want the cushion.  She answered all my questions and gave me some insight... I want it heavy, like an old boat cushion.  I knew exactly what she wanted. 

I stood in Joann's with the foam and cotton batting draping and wrapping.  I figured out just how much cotton batting I needed to get the "old boat cushion" feel.  I finished the cushion and got in touch with her to get the cushion to her.  It turned out that it wasn't for her house, but for her beach house.  She was just headed there and could I meet her there.  I always like to take my work to the house personally to make sure it fits. 

When we put the cushion in place it was perfect.   I did just what she wanted and she was very please.  She showed me around the house a bit.  I wish I had taken photos of it because it was stunning.  It is a contemporary cape (not my style but I could totally appreciate it) set right on the beach.  They had gutted and redone it in a modern beachy feel.  She said she has more projects for me so I may get back to the beach house.  When I do, I'll definitely take some pictures for posting. 

Here is a pillow I made for another client.  She had a piece of fabric and two pillows. 

She said to pick the pillow that fit the fabric.  I centered one coral on one side and two coral on the other side.  Pretty!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend and a happy mother's day!  Kathleen