Changes to my art space/sewing studio.
Last night we hung this shelf, a gift from my friend, Cheryl. I had painted it turquoise before we hung it. Filling it with little objects was lots of fun!

One object is a retablo of St. Teresa, painted by my sister. You can also see (click on the photo for closer look...) a crow feather and ATC (artist's trading card, 2"x3") of a crow and a girl drawn by an artist in Russia.. a nesting doll also from Russia, artwork by Tammy Mimms, little African beaded dolls, a painting by a Southern folk artist whose first name is Jesse Lavon(it is of a quilt sale at a rural church),a "bellsnickle" black papiermache cat, and a photograph of a friend in her office....

Meet my friend, Macrina Wiederkehr. I've treasured this photo for a number of years! The little Amish doll was a gift from me. I was hoping to find the secret to a SIMPLE, PEACEFUL life, and had been reading about the Amish. Macrina is a spiritual director , poet and author of 7 published books. She has just opened a blog, poetically named, "Under the Sycamore Tree" . I know you will love visiting with her through her posts!

Now I have some other friends coming to see my quilts and studio this evening. I'm off to find a recipe for a tuna pasta salad AND to tidy up all around here! LOL!

Forever improvising...and "making do", my creative side gets going on solving a problem.

The west side of our sun porch just bakes in the late afternoon and evening sun, and the reflections on the glass table make having an evening meal out there less than wonderful. I had been thinking of getting a bamboo roll-up shade for that side of the room.

Yesterday I sat there and thought, "at least I could hang some fabric...."

In my stash downstairs was a 2 yard piece of floral print. There were already nails above the windows where we had white fairy lights. I moved the fairy lights to another side of the porch.

Using clothes pins and grosgrain ribbon along with the nails which were waiting, I was able to make a simple window treatment which works simply by tying and untying the grosgrain ribbons.

I know I posted this page before.....






It is from my on-going cut and paste art/life journal.
It shows a cozy breakfast nook which had colors and things I loved. Too much yellow, maybe, but it is a very happy room!
Several years before seeing this, I had painted my kitchen cabinets the same green color as the cupboard in this photo. Pasting this in my journal this spring inspired me to do on-line research on Monet's kitchen..

The written text is a quote (sorry I didn't note the source!)
"You can draw inspiration from some of the French Impressionists like Monet, Renoir and Van Gogh (post impressionist!). Colors that are used in French country kitchen style include sunny yellow or soft gold, bright red or rust, grass green, cobalt blue and soft ocean tones."







Finding this photo (the one in the journal above), with a china collection on the walls really "clicked" with me because I have a collection of blue and white china....(as with all collections it is easy to get "too much") [my bookcase with my precariously stacked china!]

The love of the blue and white along with a love of the "old" green from the 30's and 40's had inspired the colors of my kitchen and breakfast room. Deep blue on a couple of walls and lots of white, and all my cabinets the "old" green. [all of this was done in the last century you understand!]





So this spring, instead of painting the breakfast nook sunny yellow, (Mr. Pear was not in favor of it for one thing!) I visited flea markets and added some sunny yellow plates. Then I hung my own poppy painting (Lila is an "Impressionist" too!)




Now we know there is always room for improvement....(did you hear that when you were growing up?)....I straightened the painting and re-took the photo...but it is still a bit off!!!




Here are my cabinets....and they could be improved with a fresh coat of paint and new hardware.....it never ends!