Marie Claire Idees

I have binders...binders full of wonderful, informative, imaginative, inspirational "stuff"...My binders are years-and-years of cutting out things from the mountains of magazines...I had subscriptions, and I had Borders or Barnes and Noble.....I am a visual junky (junkie???)....My cat, Gussie, recently went blind, and I cry myself to sleep at night, for being blinded is my greatest fear...I live for seeing the beauty in the world, and I cringe at seeing the pain..but I digress....my binders..that's what this is about...I have bookcases full of them...several of recipes from Bon Appitit, several that are about art and techniques for faux finishes, one on window treatments, one on bedrooms, one on kitchens, one on dining rooms...it goes on-and-on...I have one that has these photos from old issues of "Marie Claire Idees"....I love these...for I love bits and scraps of beautiful fabric, whether left over from design projects, or just picked up here and there...Rather than save the mountains of magazines, I have distilled what catches my eye, inspires me, or is just pretty.....these are ideas (idees) that are wonderful..

So, take your bits and pieces of velvet, lace, ribbon, beads, bobbles, and bobs, and make something of it....

My Kitchen

I have one....I also have a Google Account, that insists I don't have a blog...I have one...so, being persistent has paid off, and a week later, here I am...but I digress.
Since I got my new, wonderful, does everything camera, my images are so much better, and I'm like a kid with a new toy...keep in mind, I was a professional photographer for 25 years (along with being an interior designer) and I used the old-fashioned, film cameras, and darkrooms...I did buy a state-of-the-art digital camera eight years ago, and paid a fortune for it...within a short time, it wasn't so state-of-the-art any longer...but I digress.

I live in Texas - I have a "Texas House". There are many interpretations of a "Texas House"..and thank goodness there are. I have lived in regions where I refer to their style(s) of architecture as "architorture"....very boring..Our house is "Rattlesnake Limestone", stained concrete floors, lots of arches, radius corners, high ceilings, lots of fans (yes, we have airconditioning, but it's HOT here, and moving the air around helps)....We have stone fireplaces, which we do use in the coldest days of windter, but not often. We have Live Oak trees off the deep, back porch, to shade us from the relentless Texas sun.

My kitchen is small, yet very functional, style-wise...there are just the two of us, but when we entertain, there's plenty of room for friends to have drinks and salsa and chips, chatting or helping with the cooking...we laugh alot in this house/kitchen.

This is my "Kitchen Angel"...when I purchased her, she was white resin, but I "rusted her, and then, did a coat of gold on her wings. She cradles a bird in her arms, that has seen better days (it was once in a Christmas tree years ago, and I don't have the heart to throw it away...She's a good angel, and she also hides outlets very nicely (I hate outlets, but they are necessary evils)... This is from the living room into the kitchen. The greenish cast on the backsplash is because I have the camera set for "tungsten", and these are flourescent...oh well...I do have plans for the tile backsplash behind the stove...I have clay...I am going to sculpt something...it is a surprise...wait for it..it may take awhile..

This is the view from the living room....In our last home, one couldn't have people in the living room and be able to participate in conversation...also, we can watch the tellie as we cook...

The appliances, we hate....but, they came with the house, and until they die, they stay...

Funny thing, our ice maker (after only three years) stopped working...I called Sears (it's a Kenmore, no, not a Sub Zero - which orginates in Madison, WI , where we were for twelve years, and one of my good friends is from the Sub Zero family...that's as close as I'll get to a Sub Zero)..but I digress...I called, and was told it would cost $300 to replace it...I decided that in todays' economy, I could buy alot of ice cube trays for that....six months later (last night), I heard it - the ssssssss sound of water through the pipe, and that comforting "clunk" (this was 2 am)..I jumped from the bed, ran into the kitchen and "glory be", we have ice! I am pretty sure "Our Lady of Perpetual Ice Cubes" decided to bless us....But, I digress.

We downsized considerably from our former home, and when I found this house, it was 2/3 finished....As a designer, I specialize in new construction, and when the economy was better, builders would buy my time and give it to their clients to start the process of building - which can be daunting - as in picking all the exteriors, all the surfaces, designing fireplaces, kitchens, baths, etc...so, when I saw that the builder was doing a spec house with custom features, such as granite countertops as opposed to laminate, oil rubbed bronze fixtures, etc., I held a gun to my husband's head and told him to make an offer (not really, we don't own a gun - which is unusal in Texas)....

The island is butcher-block as opposed to granite, which is fine with me...between dropping things on the floors, and the granite countertops, I don't need another hard surface.....Also, I enjoy the mixing of surfaces...and I like wood...(yes, these are floorcloths I painted.)

I found this round table in Target, when we moved here four years ago...it fits wonderfully in the little alcove - I suppose I should have photographed the tray ceiling over it...next time...

I love the stained concrete floors, which are cool to the touch (I used to go barefoot all the time, but there are scorpions in Texas...haven't seen many lately, as we have pest control, but one still never gets up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom without slippers - and one never slips into bed without checking the sheets first)..

There's plenty of cabinet space, and the tall cabinet is a built-in pantry...The wood is pecan, and we love the warmth of it...You may have noticed there is no hardware...I found exactly what I want..oil-rubbed bronze, but it's very expensive, and until the economy picks up, no hardware, sigh.

This is an all-electric house, with an electric burnerless stove top, which I've already managed to break. I was pulling a piece of cookware out of the upper cabinet, and dropped it...it's cracked, but there is no danger in using it - and until there is...(it's the economy thing again)..I've become very frugal these days.

I found this cabinet kit at Sears in Wisconsin...I bought two of them, and my husband put them together...one is in the dining room, and it has doors on it...it is decoupaged, and finished in a rustic red. When we moved, the doors to this one got lost, so I decided to use it any way..it has a wine rack, storage, and the top folds out as a server. I decided to crackle-glaze it, using a turquoise underbase, and a dark green paint...love it...

The inside-mount envelope shaped linen window treatments were so easy to make...I used spring-loaded hardware, and, "viola"...I had the trim, which I cheated by hot-gluing on, and I decided to set it off with real turquoise beads.. I am part Cherokee, and make a lot of my own jewelry, so I have plenty of turquoise in the house....

So, there's our little kitchen....I shot this at night, as the window treatments wouldn't show well during the day.....Now, I am going to eat breakfast...in my kitchen...enjoy your weekend!

This Could Take Awhile...

Arggggggggggggggggg!!! Okay, here's what happened...I tried to post these images in order, but had double-posted one, lost this one, and had to put it here..why, you ask? Because I haven't figured out how to move images around...All I can do is put them up in reverse order, so that the one I want first, I put up last...This image is the second page of a tutorial at the bottem...The next one is the first page of "How to repair drywall"...so, I have to live with it. Ya'll seem to do so well and know all the magic thingys, that make things beautiful, functional, imaginative; things flutter, things float..you can put HERE..and if you click on it, you go somewhere..don't bother clicking on that HERE, for you will go nowhere...stop laughing..stop it.
So, if you haven't read by now, I am archiving many of the articles I've cut out of magazines over the years and placed in sleeves in loose-leaf binders..big binders...I am getting rid of the binders, as they take up too much space, and it's hard to carry such heavy things around...so, I figured I might as well share them with you...

Don't forget to double-click in order to read the articles....I know, you knew that...

This is "moi", in all my glory, trying to reach a spot on my client's staircase (two stories), while sitting on a homemade (do not try this at home, I am a professional) scaffolding, comprised of boards and ladders. The room(s) I glazed -(one is pictured below in a photoshoot for Graber Window Fasions.) added up to 1,000 square feet...lots' of work...My client caught me with the glazing brush between my toes...

Painting stripes can be challenging...math skills needed here; and apparently I lacked them...one has to be very careful not to be off by a quarter-inch here, and a quarter inch there, as one ends up with having to adjust the width of the stripes at the end...I made it barely discernable..it did turn out well, and I learned alot..also, had thighs of steel, after all the taping and painting..going up-and-down a ladder one million times.

I took a faux finish class at New England School of Art and Design, in Boston....This was my final project..got an A...We had to use the Old World techniques, which are much more difficult than the wonderful (and better for your health) products out there today...which is why I want to share what I've learned by just reading...and observing.

I would like to give credit where credit is due, and I try, but some of these images were cut out years ago, and I have no idea...but, thankyou very much....