One Change ALWAYS Begets Another

Recently I redid the Expedit in our guest room.

I moved things from around the house to fill each box.

My little wire rack has been sitting empty ever since - due not to a lack of time, but a lack of creativity.

This morning, as I cleaned and straightened up the house, I had my "aha" moment.

First I swapped out the red corduroy slip covers for the original blue and white stripes.

Like the Expedit redo, the slipcover swap means another project.

I love all my hand painted pillows, but there are too many stripes.

I have some ideas for new pillows, but I am working on another pillow project right now.

New pillows will have to wait.

I filled the wire rack with shells and buoys from the mantel.

And that means a mantel redo.

I love the red slipcovers, but the stripes give the guest room a fresh, crisp look.

The guest room is done - if you don't count needing to replace the sofa pillows and the pillow on the wicker chair.

Which I guess means I am kidding myself that the guest room is done.

KC is coming for my retirement party in June, which means I have one month.

I still have to finish our bedroom shelves and redo the mantel.

Chances are each of those changes will beget other changes.

Such is life!

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I will be partying at

The Farmhouse Porch - The Scoop

Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson - Share Your Cup Thursday

My Romantic Home - Show and Tell Friday

The Dedicated House - Anything Blue Friday

I need your two cents . . .

None of my friends are into decorating.

That isn't quite true - my oldest friend is a professional interior decorator.

But, her style is very formal and not at all "cottagey".

So I am asking for your opinion.

I made slipcovers last summer for my sofa and made the back pillows buffalo check.

What I really did was be lazy and make the blue buffalo check pillows, but use red buffalo check pillows I already had from the old slipcovers.

And those red buffalo check pillows are not going to make it through another washing.

I started looking on-line last night at Cath Kidston, Ralph Lauren and a variety of other sites for fabric in red, yellow, blue and green.

I love ALL of the Pierre Deux fabrics.

They are just what I am looking for.

The fabric in the largest box is EXACTLY what I want, but I can only find it on Etsy and I don't think the seller has enough fabric for 4 large pillows.

I "sort of" like these fabrics, but they are light weight cotton prints and I don't think they are a heavy enough fabric for living room pillows.

I looked at Moda tablecloths, but to have enough fabric for four pillows could get a little expensive.

I even looked at Ikea sheets for ideas.

I love both sets of sheets and I see an Ikea visit in the near future.

But, that doesn't solve my dilemma.

I recently swapped out the bright yellow pillows for a lighter floral.

I have at least 10 yards of white fabric left from the slipcovers so I am thinking of painting the white fabric and then making the pillows.

Maybe I will paint the back pillows with different colored stripes -

one with red stripes,

one with blue stripes,

one with yellow stripes,

and one with green stripes?

I have a couple of considerations.

The bench in front of the sofa was red, is now green, but paint can change that if necessary.

I will be replacing the cushion and pillows on the window seat this summer.

And I know absolutely that I don't want white on the window seat.

Our house is so tiny that I want the fabric in both rooms to be complimentary.

Tomorrow Steve and I are going to take a drive up the coast to Santa Barbara to The Remnant Store.

I don't know what I will find there.

Oh, what should I do?

Mix and matched colorful florals, checks and stripes?

White pillows with hand painted stripes?

I would love to hear your two cents.

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You can find me partying at

Jennifer Rizzo

The Charm of Home

French Country Cottage

Common Ground

My Romantic Home

Redoux

Rooted in Thyme

A Little of This and a Little of That

The timing of the Grow Your Blog Party

at 2 Bags Full is perfect.

My blog,

just turned one year old.

Participating in the party means I need to describe my blog.

I still am not sure what the blog is about.

Yikes!

What can I say?

It's a bit schizophrenic -

a little of this and a little of that.

My original thought was to use Schizophrenia for the title of this post, but I thought it might scare people away.

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Basically I write about life in our little seaside cottage.

Decorating

Some days I write about decorating and my love of primary colors,

collections,

vignettes - 

all the ways I tweak my home to make it fresh and inviting.

Other days I write about painting furniture.

Did I mention that I like primary colors?

I was not much of a furniture painter PB (pre-blogging) and I had never heard of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.  

Seeing all the beautiful furniture pieces being refinished around the blogosphere has inspired me to paint up a storm.

I have to drive 45 minutes to the closest ASCP dealer, but it's worth the time and it is located in a great antiques mall.

Life Outdoors

I might write about my garden, but definitely not right now.

Even though I live in temperate southern California, it has been too cold to work outdoors and the poor garden is not showing off to her best.

I long for summer when I can spend my days digging, weeding and planting.

the dog in the foreground is our precious Dorje during "doggie playgroup"

You will definitely read about life at the beach 

and see pictures of our daily walks

or kayaking adventures.

Creativity

I might write about making pillows out of scrap canvas, 

or using the canvas to make a rug.

I will never write about making slipcovers.

I have nothing against slipcovers.

In fact I love the look of slipcovers.

But I will NEVER make slipcovers again.

Been there, done that and will let someone else experience the aching back and sore fingers.

I'm sticking to pillows.

Then again, you might read about the little books I make.

or the Valentine decorations I have been making.

One thing I will guarantee you.

You will NEVER read a post about recipes and cooking.

I do not cook.

I do not clean.

I do eat.

My husband Steve is a gourmet cook, surfer, tennis player, and artist (not in any specific order).

He takes care of me and the house while I slave away at school.

I teach school.

More specifically, I teach middle school.

 Which also means I'm crazy - you have to be crazy to teach middle school. 

It keeps me young - at least at heart.

Since Birthday Wishes are in order for Art and Sand, there needs to be a present- not for me - for you.

If you would like to win this little handmade quotation book please leave a comment.

I know not everyone is into primary colors

so the winner may request a custom book - size, color scheme and favorite quotes.

Thanks for dropping by Art and Sand.

The Giveaway will close on January 31.

Please come back on February 1 to see who is the winner.

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See all the other blogs attending the party at 

2 Bags Full- Grow Your Blog Party.

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Life Before Pinterest

The room...

The inspiration?

Lately I have been visiting Pinterest and thinking about my inspiration pre- Pinterest.

I have always been a "tearer".

As I looked through my favorite magazines, I would tear out pages of things I loved, decorating ideas, recipes (for Steve to try), places we should visit, quotes...

You name it, I tore it out and had files of tear outs.

About 20 years ago, I began putting all the torn pages into books I spiral bound.

I created 39 books before I found Pinterest.

a few of the books on a shelf in the attic

I know the exact number for two reasons.  

I recently moved them to the attic and it was a pain to carry them up our pull-down attic stairs.

And, I numbered them to help a little for organization -it only helped a little.

I should have created a different book for each different interest  - like Pinterest boards.

Since I have been using Pinterest and reading magazines on my iPad, I rarely buy magazines anymore.

And with fewer magazines, I don't tear pages out.

So, no more books.

All 39 books take up a lot of space and I debated tossing the books.

Something told me to just keep them in the attic for now.

I am glad I did because yesterday I remembered an article I had torn out titled "What Makes It Cottage?"

When I got home from work, I pulled down the stairs and went in search of the article.

I remembered that it was before we moved to our present home so it would have to be in one of the lower numbers.

#7 to be exact.

they had to have titles

I used craft scissors so I didn't have to make straight lines

It was fun to flip through the books although I didn't make it through all 39 books.

What I noticed was:

my style has changed from book #1 to present day 

and 

I actually followed through and copied looks I liked.

I bought or made things, decorated rooms and  visited places I pasted into the books.

For instance,

I found this photo of a sofa I liked 

and, until last summer, this was my sofa.

 I obviously was thinking about white slipcovers

long before I decided to make new slipcovers last summer.

I pasted these beach buckets into book #7

and here are two of my favorite pails. 

I wonder if this picture was torn out before or after we moved to the beach

because it seems that I got my inspiration from the picture above.

This picture must have sparked my interest in benches

because this is my coffee table bench today.

Who knew that when I tore this picture out

that I would one day have a dining room with mullioned windows.

Metal baskets filled with books?

Oh, yes.

Vintage linens?

Definitely.

And, these were just things I noticed in book #7.

What amazed me most was that I don't recall looking at the books before I bought things or decorated.

The images must have been burned into my brain.

How many ideas from the other 38 books made it into the house?

In 10 years, if I look back at Pinterest I hope I have copied a lot of my pins because I have a lot of great ideas there.

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I am linked up at

No Minimalist Here - Open House Party

Common Ground - Be Inspired

Homespun Happenings - Rustic Restorations Weekend

It's A Hodgepodge Life - Hodgepodge Friday

My Romantic Home - Show and Tell Friday