Parting is such sweet sorrow . . .

I love Little Man (an expensive splurge), but I always felt that he was really more my sister's style so a few months ago I wrapped him up and we parted ways.

 Little Man looks right at home at my sister's house.

I like the "sweet" part of the line because it made me truly happy to see Little Man sitting serenely in my sister's morning room when I visited last week.

I know my dear friend Susan felt the same way when she wrapped up this beautiful vase to give me as a "bathroom completion" gift - she was the one who recommended our wonderful contractor.

What makes this vase so special is the story behind it.

Susan purchased it in the early 80's when she was teaching in West Berlin and she recounted stories of going through Checkpoint Charlie with friends to enter East Berlin to shop and dine.

But like me seeing Little Man at my sister's house, Susan knows when she visits that the beautiful vase will be on display.

Susan has no blue in her house which is why she thought of me not only with the vase, but also a beautiful linen tablecloth that belonged to her mother.

Rather than sitting forgotten in a cupboard, the items are loved - this is a pic from December 2016 when Susan first gave me the tablecloth.

And here it is out on the beach for a tea party last spring.

So many of you are talking about simplifying and purging and the difficulty of letting go, but I challenge you to part with something like sweet Rita of Panoply did when she sent me these gorgeous linens

or May Alice of Chateau Chic when she parted with the fabulous sugar bowl I use as a vase.

 I hope Linda of @linsals, who sent me the beautiful beach pail painting, enjoys seeing it on display in my She Shed.

I promise you, the parting is sweet and it's one less thing to dust!

Change Takes Time

Anyone who has followed Art and Sand for very long knows that I love color.

But, over the last few years I have switched to a white background 

with colorful accents - primarily blue.

Change takes time and we are finally done (until I get a new idea) with the living room.

Lulu is modeling her favorite change in the living room - the jute rug from Rug USA which she thinks we bought just for her to roll on.

Most of our changes are designed to make rooms seem larger so instead of a regular sized sofa we went with the IKEA Ektorp love seat.

And as you can see from this "before" photo, we placed the love seat against a wall instead of beneath the window.

I tried having nothing in front of the sofa, but I like to put my feet up so an old tool box from my dad was brought down from the attic.

Striving for a less cluttered look, we removed a cabinet from the living room and replaced it with a tall candle stick I painted.

The SUN pillow and its mates SEA and SAND had been in the dining room and I found a fun blue and white floral to break up all the white.

An old cabinet from a local shop, Tattered Door, took the place of Old Faithful (Steve's leather chair that will NOT be shown) and we gained about 24" of space along this wall.

This wall is not finished, but I just don't have any ideas yet so it is "done for now".

 We replaced the BIG overstuffed chair that matched the old sofa with a smaller chair for me and another of my father's tool boxes gives me a place to put my feet.

We have always had a white mantel, but I usually avoided showing pics of the dull brown fireplace.

Painting the fireplace white has been on my list for a long time and a few weeks ago I finally grabbed the paint and started painting.

The way I feel about our living room has completely changed.

I love the crisp clean look

and it works well with another change we made.

We did not own a television until 2013 and I have always hated looking at it even though it's a small black box.

Steve nailed strips of wood together, I stenciled the quote and now all we need to do is set the sign on the floor when we want to watch a movie - the sign hasn't been removed for about 2 weeks.

With a jute rug, new furniture, a bit of white paint and

 a beautiful sailboat from Caron's Beach House.

we now love our living room.

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I've Got the Blues

I have slowly been working on my 2018 goals

and although changing the color palette throughout the house wasn't one of my goals,

it seems to be the happening with each change.

Making a new cover for the window seat cushion was high on the list.

The dining room plate racks are filled with blue and white dishes

so I chose a blue and white plaid fabric.

A year ago my sister-in-law gave me the white fabric which was perfect because it has just a little bit of texture.

I struggled to find another fabric for 2 more pillows and then one day I walked into Marshalls to find the perfect pillows to finish off the bench.

The next change was difficult for me to make -

I loved the dining room chairs in red, but they clashed with many of Steve' paintings

and the blue chairs compliment his art.

The room looks "put together" now.

I've definitely got the blues -  blue and white dishes,

 blue and white pillows

 blue and white cushion ...

 and even a blue and white house.

Having the blues means being depressed, but I don't know how anyone could be sad around this happy combo.

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