Category Archives: Interior Design

Sites to See Potpourri

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Some cool things I have found on my travels . . .

Miniature Artists Books - I love miniatures and books

Elephant with books

Elephant with books

Making paper with seeds - good Spring gift

Yoga sleep pose - from the Yoga Journal

Stereomode site - for whatever mood ails you

Tile Coaster DIY from The Cottage Home

The 99% - not the 1%, but the 99%

feel more better – If you want to feel better go here

the jealous curator – speaks for itself

Lists of Note – lists from all walks of life

Let me know what your favorite “go to” site is right now!

cherished chairs

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Race Antelope Chair 1951

Race Antelope Chair 1951

I am totally crushing on chairs right now. I guess it’s not a new obsession. As I survey my basement for things I’ve long misplaced, it’s chairs I need to move to get to a certain place. The old ones can be especially heavy. I’ve collected a lot of antiques over the years and the one item I can’t seem to get a hold on is chairs. There’s an Eastlake, an Eames; to me they’re all a dream. Think of all the stories they could tell if only they could talk; of times by the fire or even darning socks. Do people darn socks anymore? Anyway, chairs is the focus of this post and feel free to post a chair of your own if you dare. In a rhyming mood today I guess.

Eames chair

Eames chair

To see super cool furniture go to Race Furniture.

Hans Wegner 60s chair

Hans Wegner 60s chair

Might have been Freuds chair

Might have been Freuds chair

Arne Jacobsen Egg Chair

Arne Jacobsen Egg Chair

Vange foldy chairs

Vange foldy chairs

Inspiring Interiors

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I grew up with the “Better Homes and Garden” concept that is “you should love the space you live in.”  ”Make it your own.”  ”Make your home your sanctuary”.  That is why these pics resonate with me so.  I can imagine myself with this type of interior and it really “sparks” those creative juices.

I love the colors, textures and patterns used.  I’m not great with this, but am improving.  Looking at pictures like this is key to finding your design style.

Just beautiful!

Just beautiful!

Love the fabric and flowers

Love the fabric and flowers

Creative Craftiness

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Here is a collection of crafty ideas I found on some of the blogs I’ve been reading. Some really cool things I think!

Hand-lettered gift wrap – Make unusual gift wrap and boxes for one of a kind gifts

Handmade gift wrap

Handmade gift wrap

Decoupage sunglasses – tailor those cheap sunglasses to fit your personality

Modge Podge book at Amazon

Wind Up Paper Butterflies – as seen on Handmade Charlotte

DIY Paper Butterflies

DIY Paper Butterflies

Design your own custom fabric at Spoonflower

Ingenious use of old skateboard (and it’s not a backsplash or used as tiles)

Skateboard Wheeled Cubby

Skateboard Wheeled Cubby

Let me know if you try any of this stuff? Looks fun. I really like the old skateboard caddy (above).

A Young Girl Reading

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A Young Girl Reading

A Young Girl Reading or The Reader in French La Liseuse circa 1770

I have her on my mantle and I love everything about this painting.  I have loved this painting a long time.  When I was about to begin junior high school we took a tour of the school while in sixth grade.  The library was, of course, my favorite place and there she was prominently placed for all to see.  I fell in love and never kept trying to find out more about this painting.

A Young Girl Reading is an 18th century painting by Jean-Honoré Fragonard.  The painting is of an unidentified girl reading an unidentified book.  I have searched for the identity of the book and the girl and it is nowhere.  This perplexes me.  Fragonard painted many paintings of girls and it appears upon closer inspection (via x-ray) this canvas used to bear another person’s image, although that person’s identify is unknown, as well.  How frustrating.  You may want to look at these books as reference:

  1. Bailey, Colin B. (2003). The Age of Watteau, Chardin, and Fragonard: Masterpieces of French Genre PaintingYale University Press. pp. 286–287. ISBN 0-300-09946-0.
  2. Taft, W. Stanley (2000). The Science of PaintingsSpringer Press. pp. 79–80. ISBN 0-387-98722-3.
The painting was a part of the Melon Foundation’s collection until Andrew W. Melon’s daughter, Mrs. Mellon Bruce gave the painting as a gift to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. in memory of her father, Andrew W. Melton.

Some commentary on the painting states Fragonard painted each of the textures in the painting in a different brush stroke which left the viewer feeling a “busy”, not relaxed and absorbed feeling as the painting seems to portray.  I think that’s looking into it a bit much, but to each his own.  Perhaps busy could be associated with Fragonard’s works.  It is said by his friends he finished these paintings in no more than an hour!  His bold, energetic strokes were almost scratched on the surface of the canvas because he was working so quickly.

Using the wooden tip of a brush, Fragonard scratched her ruffed collar into the surface of the paint. This is the “swordplay of the brush” that Fragonard’s contemporaries described, not always with universal approval. The above quote courtesy of the National Gallery of Art.

How does this painting make you feel? What is your favorite painting and why?