Picture-hanging pain...

OMG.  Why have I never thought of this??  DUH!!


http://mmscrapshoppe.blogspot.com/2011/07/picture-frame-hanging-tip.html

Speaking of my Daley-Dale....

Some random shots from her ultra-beachy-cool 100+ year old beach cottage (recently featured on the Bay St. Louis Tour of Homes, thank you very much). 

Bird nest salt & pepper in a nest. Painting of sugar thing.

Old Window used as door on cabinet displaying Shearwater Pottery teacups.   

                        Talking about oranges, keeping it beachy by pairing the orange with light, washed out colors.

Bird by Marion

Monster by Aubrey "My monster has wheels but he just sits there"

                              Water fountain to quench the thrist of the 800 neighborhood kids always running around.

 

                 


  Stuffed Elephant by Aidan.
                                                                                                  Birds by Sadie.

Painted floor in art studio.

                                                                               Perfect playhouse.
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Little mushroom people.  The hats are bells and play different notes

She's as elusive as Jason in pictures....but I managed to get a blur of her.

I have needed her back in my life for so long!!

Thanks DALE!

After running my thoughts and a million orange paint swatches by my own personal artist and color expert, Dale, I came home, mixed up some samples, and NAILED THE COLOR.  Now I just have to wait until the Sherwin Williams sale to start on Sunday...

I'm getting a serious talking to.

Greta complains about her lack of breakfast.  Turn your volume up for the full schnauzer experience. 

http://www.esnips.com/doc/7fe3c756-18af-4e81-b81c-1e94d2148afb/gg

My own personal nerd

This is the response I got yesterday when I suggested that Jason start painting the living room, even though  I haven't actually picked a color. 

Living Room

The living room in the new house is...interesting.  Long, narrow, and dark, dark brown. We have no living room furniture (long story) except the giant armoire and the media console we got with the new bedroom set.  We knew this would be the first room we painted, because we don't really love the brown, and because it's really the only room that needs painting.  We love the colors in the other rooms.  

The first week we were here in the new house, we took several walks down to the beach. And in those first walks we found these amazing shells and Jason suggested immediately that we use the colors in them for the living room. 

It's not a perfect picture, you can't really see the greens and blues in the sheen on the shells, but you get the idea.  So FINALLY, after (literally) months of looking, we have actually ordered furniture and can stop driving our family and friends nuts about that.  But now we are on the hunt for the perfect ORANGE, which is not as easy as it sounds. 

Here is what the inside of my brain looks like right now:

I think we've narrowed it down to one of the three big patches below, but of course there's a hitch.  I created that middle tone (which is the only one I actually like).  It's not a real color from a store and therefore it will be hard to recreate.  Well we'll see.  Color matching technology is supposed to be Soooooo much better these days...

 So anyway here's the final design idea. I took a shot at using photoshop to create a MOOD BOARD for the first time in my life ever.  (I know right - a PLAN?  ME?  WTH? Jason is rubbing off on me maybe.)  

I am ready to get the living room painted for sure, but technically I have 6-8 weeks before the furniture gets here. But I sure as hell can't do anything OUT OF DOORS in the 150 degree summer, so I might as well paint. 

Orange on the brain

What am I doing during these dog days of summer (besides working/traveling for work)? 

• Googling the origin of "dog days"
• Listening to books about serial killers and/or mexican poets
• Floating in my 10 foot inflatable pool (when I'm ever home)
• Trying to see my niece as much as possible before she turns around and asks to borrow my car
• Listening to ADELE over and over (And Florence and the Machine, and Simone Dinnerstein)
• Obsessing over stuff on Pinterest
• Trying to pick furniture and the perfect ORANGE for the new living room
• Thinking also about colors for Kaylin's room @ our house, and I'm thinking my studio will need a new color too of course.
• Feeling guilty about not gardening.  It's too freaking hot, kthanx. 
• Taking an on-line sketchbook class with my Mom!  It's fun, but I'm only through lesson 3.  I am supposed to be locating an object to draw a million times in a million different ways, but I can't decide on one.
• Have I ever mentioned what a problem I have making decisions about stuff?   (mainly stuff I need to buy - like furniture.  Or a watch, which I obsessed about for 2 years and had to look at every available watch now being produced or ever having been produced before I decided.  Also, I had a $200 limit on that purchase, and I rarely wear it because a>  I can look at my phone if I need to know what time it is and b> I clinks on my computer keyboard and that bugs me.)
• Hoarding stuff for this blog and then being too lazy to blog it.
• Staying up 'til the wee hours and sleeping late. 
• Experimenting with new sleep meds my new Dr. wants me to try instead of Ambien.  So far, it's a BUST and right now (as we speak) I'm about to take 1/2 a xanax at 1:42am in order to have the slightest chance of sleep tonight.   

New neighborhood oddness

One thing I always loved about our old neighborhood was the ever-present touch of eclectic weirdness.  I don't think I'm going to miss out on that here.  Already, we have Walter Anderson's daughter (in-bizarre-costumes) riding her basketed bike around.  And there's the guy who rides his bike pulling a little trailer in which his cat rides.  And the roosters. 

And at the construction site of the new house on the corner this morning, there was this:

My thoughts are:  #1 - how did you get that picture? How do you know it was 200? 

#2 - why would somebody do that? and

#3 - Dude.  How much did it cost to have that sign made?

I haven't met these neighbors yet.  I'm sure there's an interesting story here.