Fog

I woke up at four am, and went into the powder room - (the master bath is "en suite", but the powder room is closer to my side of the bed)...and found that our darling cat, Raisenette Funicello Buttafuco(he head butts things), had decided his litter box needed changing, so he would pee on my newly created floorcloth...Please keep in mind that every day, I empty, bleach, wash & dry his litter box..got home late last night and didn't...this is what I get for that. Fortunately, I polyurathane the floorcloths, and they can be wiped clean (even 409 and "Urinoff" - which to me sounds like a Russian name..."Boris Urinoff") but I digress.

Cleaned the floorcloth, washed my feet, swore a bit, and was wide awake at four am...the whole world is yours at four am...read some great blogs that I follow (see list), and peeked outside, at the early light of dawn and saw it was foggy...I threw on my jeans (finally, I can get into my jeans again) and a sweatshirt, grabbed my camera, and hit the road...

You may be thinking..."but, Jessica, this blog is about Interior Design", and it is...sometimes, it's also about light, life, musing, juxtaposition, and inspiration...be patient, I have a point in here somewhere...then again, this could turn out to be one of those "William Faulkner run-on stream of conciousness, get to the point rambles"...we shall see... "The fog comes on little cat feet" Robert Frost

This is the "culpret" .......on his little cat feet....

This is our house in the fog...I love our house, but cannot wait to get our turquoise shutters made..it will make such a difference (I think)...but first, I have a huge mirror (leaning floor mirror) project, which won't cost as much as the ones I've seen in the stores, but it will cost a few hundred dollars (materials and paying my builder)...

Okay, what was this about...oh right,it's about fog, and color, and light, and juxtaposition...and inspiration..really.

We are blessed to live in a "semi-rural" neighborhood...where most of the homes are on at least a couple of acres, and many are set back from the woods out of sight...I am so curious as to what's back there, but the "no trespassing" signs are to be taken seriously...especially in Texas, where pretty much everyone is packing a gun..(sadly)

Having moved here from Wisconsin, we also lived on a couple of acres, but it couldn't have been more different...lots of Autumn colors, rolling hills and fields..here, lot's of woods, but mostly Cedar, Live Oak (they shed their leaves in the Spring), a and a few trees, that struggle to turn their leaves into the show of yellows and reds...it just doesn't get cold enough here to do it..but we have a few determined trees...have to love what you can find...

I grabbed a couple of carrots, and tucked them into my sweatshirt, as my walk is a loop, and on one corner lives "Sissy"...whom I named "Esmarelda"...before we were formally introduced..she's placed third in the Barrel Racing World Championships...really...However, "Sissy" wasn't there, but there was this very nice, slightly overweight (who isn't) horsey, who was pretty cautious, until I waved the carrots in the air and "clucked" at her...she couldn't resist me (but then, few can)... kidding...

Our neighborhood could be described as "eclectic"...some very "fancy" homes, some pretty "funky" ones, and most of our mailboxes on the country road are very nice, either stone or brick, with the mailbox built in and the numbers on the mailbox...I think this is a pretty inexpensive, and rather creative house number marker, but I can't say it's very attractive.

Sometimes, I write about light...it's all about light, and shadow, and contrast....Took this in our back yard in the spring... Just down the street, a buck stopped grazing (yes, the buck stops here...okay, I need a nap)..long enough to let me get just close enough for this shot...I wish everyone only hunted deer with cameras...if you click on the photo, it will get, really, really big, and you can actually see him.Before you start drooling out of the corner of your mouth, and growing moss on your North side, I will get to the design point.....Inspiration...This little bit of color in this bush has enough of a variety of colors to do an entire room...I love to pick out the least dominate colors of a photo, a fabric, colors in a rug, and place them next to the dominate ones...it makes it "Pop".....

This was my "neighborhood" in Wisconsin...color everywhere...overpowering color...but, nature can get away with being "showy" , we can't...a room this color would make one's eyes bleed, but think of a dove grey room, a taupe, linen sofa, with velvet pillows the color of those golden leaves...oh my!

Here it is...the point..the "juxtaposition", the "inspiration"...I make these boards for presentations, and I think it really helps clients, who cannot figure out where to start on a room...look at the fruit in this painting (My friend, Sonia, copied this Caravaggio paint of Baccus so well, I couldn't tell the difference from the original)..The fruit, leaves, and the black background inspired the fabrics (those are paint color chips on each corner) any of them would work beautifully in a space.

Another painting (a portrait by Sonia...if you want yours done, let me know, I'll put you in touch)that demonstrates how one can be inspired by pulling the colors out, and playing with them...

This was a photo I took of our "big back yard" in Wisconsin..when the sun was just fixen to set...that magic time, when the light goes "sweet", which really is a photographer's term.."sweetlight"...wonderful term.. I love the colors of nature best of all....

This was our back yard this fall, when the light was morning "sweetlight"........twenty minutes after sunrise, and about twenty minutes before sunset...I have waited many hours for the light to sweeten...then, sadly, it's gone..My backyard..same tree, in the fog...such a difference, yet with a beauty of it's own... There, I am done...please look at things until they look back at you...there is beauty in nearly everything...if you made it this far, as they say in Texas..."I appreciate ya"....

One of these days, I will learn how to post without having the comments wayyyyyyyyydown on the post...sheesh!