And...Back to Home Design Projects

I am just about to get back into the tiling project at my house (in one of our bathrooms) but today was spent helping daughter, Jess, tile the hearth for their new wood stove. The "design" is hers, I was just the consultant and laborer today. This multi-toned travertine is going to look beautiful with their brown enamel Vermont Castings wood stove.

Lamp project completed....

Here it is all assembled with it's silk shade. See below for details of this project.
I may embellish the shade at some point but once I put it all together, I decided that I like it like this for now. It is on my buffet, nicely illuminating a formerly dark corner.

Back to "Design"

I have not written much about art & design on this blog of late. Bernie's fund raising challenge has been on my mind and heart. Also, most of my "design" work lately has been "course design" as the new semester begins in 1 week and I am teaching 4 courses including one brand new "pilot" course with a lot of "eyes" on it. So, I have been designing the course, selecting readings, constructing assignments and putting it all into a computer based course management system!





BUT, I did get back to some artsy type design yesterday. I had purchased a lamp off ebay. It is a mid century, chalk based lamp and it arrived, as described, all painted black with some worn places with exposed white"chalk." I want to use this piece in my house and the colors there are autumnal earth tones with browns and oranges and light greens. So, this is what I did with the lamp:

First, I painted it all brown, leaving a little black showing through here and there. (pic 1 &2 )

Then, I layered that with other shades of brown plus yellow/gold and added some touches of orange to one shape of leaf and green to the other leaves, leaving the tree trunk with just the browns and golds.




Next, I dry brushed it all with metallic gold. (pic 3)


Last, I dry brushed blackened bronze metallic surfacer onto the tree trunk. (pic 4)




This is the result.

I also have a square silk shade to embellish before I re-assemble it all. I'll post the finale production, soon.

The seller tells me that last year they had a pair of these that Martha Stewart bought. Hey, maybe she will mass produce them for her product line. If so, I wonder how they will compare to my refurbished "original?" That would be fun to see.

A Place to Bark is Currently #2!!

Let's keep up the great work of getting word out!

I am blown away by the amazing response from the art blog world! Several of the blogs I read regularly now have links to this fund raiser for Bernie's shelter and some of them are giving away original art work too. In one week Bernie has gone from $0 to $15,107 (as of 5:30 this evening) and #2 in the number of donors (743 at this moment). WooHoo!!! I hope everyone keeps on spreading the word -- far and wide -- and that she wins one of the four $50,000 grants to boot.

Lexi has not been over to play the past couple of days but here are 4 of my 5 babes all snuggled together on the new pet bed. Gotta love it!

Let's Put "A Place to Bark" on Top!

There is a national fundraiser going on sponsored by Six Degrees, Parade Magazine and some others. All donations are matched, up to $25,000 and the 4 organizations with the largest number of donors win $50,000 grants! I know there are lots of great causes out there, many of which may be participating in this challenge but I know personally of one fabulous animal rescue in Tennessee run by artist Bernie Berlin. Bernie entered this challenge 6 days ago and has gone from the newbie on the bottom of the list all the way up to #3 tonight!!! There is still over a week to go so... the race is ON!

Please consider making a small donation. The minimum donation is $10 and remember, the contest is for the largest number of donors (not most donations) so every $10 is critically important. The main thing that Bernie plans to do if she wins is build a year round building so she can rescue animals winter and summer.

The picture here is of Lexi, my grand-dog who Bernie personally delivered to Massachusetts right before Christmas. Lexi is an amazing dog and a testament to the wonderful work Bernie does and the happy outcomes for hundreds of dogs and cats who pass thru Bernie's loving hands each year.

To donate, scroll all the way down to the bottom of this page and click on the box that says "donate!"

Working on the Valentine's Swap

Jess and I got together tonight and worked on our Valentine's heart boxes filled with little treasures for Artsy Mama's swap. No sneak previews yet but here is our helper, Arthur, King of the Brits. He found the dry paper towels I had used to tea stain old sheet music and he thought they were LOTS of fun! He rolled in them and buried himself in them and then attacked them. Yes, that is him licking his lips with his big pink tongue in the last picture! We had some good laughs and he soaked in the flash of the camera, loving that all eyes were on him!

Winter Flowers

January = Adding primroses to the house, after the Christmas decorations get packed up and while there is still snow outside the window.

The 12 Days... come and gone...

Today marked the end of the 12 Days of Christmas. Tomorrow the tree will come down. But the winter fun has just begun and the snowmen and other winter decorations will remain yet a while longer, soon mingling in with the Valentine's ones.

Hope you have had an enjoyable and restful holiday and that your 2008 will be joy-filled and peaceful.