MONDAY INSPIRATIONS: A LITTLE GREEN PLEASE...

Well, I am starting to crave a little green and thought I'd bring that into focus this week. When I started thinking about spring and the world turning green again I felt pretty happy. I know it's going to be wet and muddy and sloppy-but that's ok as long it gets here soon!

 Green-yes, muddy, wet, becoming mossy, shoots sprouting-hmmm it all began to remind me of a children's book full of twisty tangled trees with mushrooms popping and owls watching! A real English woodland from a fantasy! Sounds wonderful right? I need a woodland fantasy right about now because I awaken everyday to a winter wonderland and it's getting old! So here are Monday's Inspirations........Green and Mossy...

1. Orla Kiely cork chair-Heals.co.uk

2. Alex and Ani eagle cuff $79-Spiritbeautylounge.com

3. artist Russela-via Designsquish

4. Danish Terrarium from Design Green via Tink makes art blog

5. Those Alaskan Girls-ETSY

6. Scotch naturals nail polish-Spirit Beauty Lounge

7. Great Horned Owls-photography by Richard Ditch

8. Botanical print via Design Squish blog

9. Lily lamp by Yonoh for Fambeuna

10. Serena and Lily fabric

11. Mushroom Illustration via Design Squish

12. birch plant holders

13. chair from Danish designers Lund and Paarman

14. ceramic tree trunk in silver-Z. Gallerie

15. Wise One pendants from within4walls.uk

16. "A seat in the Forest" -Lulufroot-Etsy

SEE YOU TOMORROW FOR TUESDAY COLLECTIONS....

FRIDAY: THE HUMBLE ABODE UPDATE AND PRETTY INSPIRING ROOMS...

Hello again. Sorry I've been posting so late everyday! Jeez, you can't even read my blog on company time-ha just kidding. My ideal life would be having my posts all done on Monday and I could come in with my steaming coffee and hit a button-poof-then surf the blogs I love for like 3 hours....oh I have children-never mind-one is actually crying right now as a matter of fact..Anyways, better make this quick! I think this is my color scheme I've mocked up here, but you know me- I do like to change my mind! Just ask my husband -he loves it!!! :) So excuse my crude stairway drawing--and I call myself an artist--it does the job--plus some rooms I like that have similar color palettes...hope you like




MY STAIRWAY PROJECT THOUGHTS AND IDEAS...



via apartment therapy



via live creating yourself blog...

via apartment therapy



via decor pad



via decor pad

coco and kelley

via apartment therapy

via beautiful living

from LONNY magazine

SEE YOU MONDAY FOR SOME SPRING INSPIRATIONS....

THURSDAY ART ADDITIONS....

Well I have a few pieces for you today-I didn't do alot this week artistically-sometimes you gotta work on business things too-bummer. But seriously I have been working on getting my Etsy shop going-all the little things like policies, finding out shipping, designing the header, etc, etc sooooo....here's a couple of things I DID do!

Finally finished my pine cone stag! This Snow & Graham print is pretty and looks great around the holidays! I actually started it around the holidays and then went on vacation-oops! lol-Anyways he needs a nice shiny coat of gloss and an Area Fare necklace tag and then he'll be ready! He's going to be up for auction at the Evening of Elegance dinner in April to benefit All Saints Catholic School.

I've found that it's quite difficult to get a good photo of this guy and that art in general looks much better in person!

closer details

glittered nose and eyes...

glitter crusted antler tips too!

This next piece I "found" while cleaning and looking around the house for my Tuesday post. It is an original painting I did a couple of years ago when we were in York, Nebraska-guess I missed the trees! lol-- (it's nothing but corn out there for hundreds and  hundreds of miles! I then did some digital editing to tweek the appearance and colors.

Nebraska Tree

and last but not least I'm including a piece of art that I finished this week-though it's unrelated to my sort-of-theme of branchy, gray, still wintery-ness and I showed you on Tuesday from the Around The House post--it still bears inclusion in this weeks Art Additions. I've also included some detail shots and a look at it before it was complete-again photographs (especially from my crappy camera-hint hint :) just don't capture art in it's true form.....


early on...

getting closer...

pre-finish details...

finished details...

All done...bye bye!




 SEE YOU TOMORROW FOR THE HUMBLE ABODE UPDATE AND SOME PRETTY INSPIRING ROOMS!






WEDNESDAY ETSY ARTIST FINDS...

Keeping with my white, gray and branchy theme I've got going on this week I found some complimentary items trolling around Etsy. If you ever need a gift or some art or just a little inspiration-Etsy is a great place to start! Support Handmade....

Eloise Renouf: I absolutely LOVE this artist! Her prints are both modern and simple with a bit of whimsy and the colors are just lovely! Based in Nottingham, England Eloise is a textile and stationary designer who ran her own stationary business, has done design work for studios in both London and NYC and now does commission work while raising her "two lovely little sons" Perfect!

8x11.5 giclee print-$25.00

Morikaty: cute designs and good prices-and lots to choose from! Check-it out...

owl $12.00

$12.00


Fancy Prints: This creative shop is sooo cute and colorful with great prints for the home (especially the nursery!) The wedding gifts are so original and clever too! Love the thumbprint wedding tree posters that the guests print with their own thumb and then sign!



13 x19 personalized wedding tree poster-$38.00



11x14 poster print-$24.00

PRETTY MY DRINK: This Ohio based shop has some cool stuff. She hand paints glassware of all sorts including these ceramic coffee cups that I just LOVE...lots of different styles too!

PIXIE PIXELS: These vintage inspired prints and posters are sure to please! This shop, located near NYC, has a modern take on french inspired and country decor-Really colorful and pretty designs with great prices!



  SEE YOU TOMORROW FOR THURDAY ART ADDITIONS.....

TUESDAY AROUND THE HOUSE

I've found that I needn't go very far for inspiration-if I look around I can usually find SOMETHING! Here's some white and winter things from around our house today...

outside our window...

When we came home from down south last weekend I still had the windows painted in a holiday theme-I washed everything off but the snow flakes....you see-spring really is nowhere in sight!!!!

Who doesn't LOVE this simple book from Ezra Jack Keats-"The Snowy Day" is a winter, bedtime staple in this house.

Ezra Sebastian Snyder-age 4

What do we do on snowy days? Well, we do some arts and crafts of course! I love Ezzie's watercolor paintings!

I love me some white accessories! I change my mind alot and white just goes with everything so I can rearrange , relocate & repaint whenever the urge strikes. I really like the 2 milkglass pieces for their vintage quality and they're pretty-I use the oval one as a sugar bowl and the one next to it for anything-I have 2 of those-picked them up-along with the bird shown here and a white engraved gravy boat from St. Vincent Depaul in York, NE for $18 and the curvaceous ruffle vessel in back sits in my office-I just love that thing-scored that in an antique shop in Amish country-Middlebury, IN last summer-$10

" I love you 24" custom artwork for a client

Ahh the finished piece ready to leave and go live with a new family....

That's all folks....SEE YOU TOMORROW FOR WEDNESDAY ETSY FEATURES!

MONDAY INSPIRATIONS WHITE AND BRANCHES....

Well I know we are all eager for spring and have been inundated by pink and green things all over the web and in the stores proclaiming "Spring is here!" Sadly here in Northern Michigan people can still go ice fishing and you know what that means-spring is nowhere in sight!

 What is in sight are lots of branches and newly fallen snow. Since I missed 6 weeks of the winter brutality I'm not totally sick of it yet! We had a nice little thaw and temps reached into the 40's-I mean that's t-shirt weather compared to a normal February day! That led me to think about spring in it's earliest form, a transitional period of cold whiteness turning muddy and branchy, gray skies with some occasional blue. Spring is about to appear but winter is not over yet. So, this week I'm exploring themes of the white and branchy (that's not really a word but I like it!)-transitional period before spring actually appears.....hope you like!

1. Sofa-In Duplo series from Danish manufacturer Erik Jorgensen

2. snowy branches

3. gift wrap from Kate's Paperier

4. a collection of little white ceramic animals

5. vases from IKEA

6. Hampton lattice rug-Calypso Home

7. branch pillows-Maries Cosy Cushions-Etsy

8. fur throw-$350.00 Calypso Home

9. White room with branches in a vase-via Decor 8

10. white pouf-Calypso Home

11. owl flask-whimsy and dink-Etsy

12. decorative wall panel from B & N

13. snowy flower

14. Home Away Dual Time alarm clock for travellers-by Vancouver designer Kitmen Keung

15. branch chandelier in white-Arteriors

16. fog and spade fabric-Serena and Lily

17. interior garden stool

18. dishes-Happy STHLM via decor 8

SEE YOU TOMORROW FOR SOME AROUND THE HOUSE THINGS

FRIDAY FEATURE: The Humble Abode

So this is my first Humble Abode feature. For those who didn't read Tuesday's post-I am featuring real home improvement projects I'm doing around our house. Like I said before-now that we are home I'm feeling really inspired to work on the house again-and it needs alot of work! hahaha....no really it does...

My first project is the uninspired and slightly dilapidated staircase (and the trim).They are wood but not a high grade wood that I would want to refinish. The steps currently have an awful Home Depot off the rack runner that I have left for the anti-slip properties it possesses (kids-ya know). You can see how beat-up the wood is in the pics and the stuff that looks like dust is actually like glue or permadirt or both-lol like it does not clean up--old houses--you gotta grind it or paint over it or both! All the trims and railings in this area and the whole house for that matter, are going to be painted in a fresh gloss white-I'm thinking Atrium white from Benjamin Moore.

I've been thinking alot about wall color here. The staircase connects the upper bedroom hall with the lower hall where the bathroom office and living room converge-but it is separate-you can close off the living room door to that hall. So I'm not worried about seamlessness but maybe complimentary colors to those living spaces. hmmmm

Also the downstairs hall and staircase are lacking in natural light and the staircase goes way up--lots of wall. I love the  thought of a kelly green wall or something but I think it would be a big shamrock nightmare! hmmm

I don't want it to be totally boring either--I mean I love grey but Northern Michigan gives me plenty of that and like I said the light in there is terrible. OK--so I'm posting a pic of the hall and some pretty staircases I just love. I'll keep you updated with the colors I've chosen and my design plan so I can get this thing started!

Have an idea? Let me know at areafarehome@yahoo.com  Love to hear it!

the horrible hall in question


lower hall area + one really handsome boy!




upper hall going down-look how beat up the wood is...nice right



going down-no railing right now til I paint

going up-this is as bright as it gets on the stairs-no overhead light--hmm that sounds like a hub project!

NOW SOME PRETTY LITTLE STAIRCASES THAT I SUPER LOVE AND ARE SO FUN....

PINK STAIRCASE VIA ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL THINGS (BLOG)

damask wallpaper via Stories of A to Z



black and white is a delight! Domino via Grayson



via Apartment Therapy



via Arte Styling




orange mod flowers via Design*Sponge




via Apartment Therapy




via Design*Sponge-Scott Engler home




via Design*Sponge-Karen Barlow home

 SEE YOU NEXT WEEK FOR MONDAY INSPIRATIONS--YAY!

THURSDAY ART ADDITIONS

I am so happy to be home-have I mentioned that? Ha ha-but really-I have so many supplies and materials to work with and no time! Isn't that how it is? I am getting really excited to implement some of my ideas around here and I'm kinda ready get underway--just gotta fall back into my groove!

This week I've cleaning as I stated before and also working on an original painting for a "client"--that makes me sound so professional right? :) Anyway it is a painting for their 10 year anniversary and she asked me to replicate something she saw as a giclee in a catalog. I decided to practice some techniques on a smaller canvas before starting on hers. It was mostly a texture thing and I liked how that turned out. I've been tending toward brighter colors lately in my work and life I suppose, so this one is a little subdued for me but I had fun experimenting. I call it "13".

I'm also including a poster print I did before we left called "Alpena Area". I actually have some posters made up of this one in a 13x19 size and they are on sale for $13 plus shipping. I have 25 of those- so let me know via email and you can have one today! I can take local checks, paypal or cash-ola

Additionally I am posting a dot deer and a pink deer print I did in November as well as my really cool decoupage deer in pink-those are custom and cost about $125 plus shipping and take 2-4 weeks to ship-but I do have a pink one right now-I'll post some better pics of those soon. Hope you like...

alpena area

13-digital edit-poster dot

decoupage deer-pink cherry blossom

dot deer

friendly deer- pink

"13" textured canvas with acrylics