Colorful Interiors Against Winter Blues

Don't know about you, but I desperately need some color as I start to feel a bit sluggish this time of year. Here is a bit of eye candy from Spanish decorating magazine 'Nuevo Estilo':

Here is another one from Home Pic Photo Blog:

The last one is from MadeByGirl:

Don't you feel energized by this striking colors? I could jump for joy! On the other side, I'm convinced that already a little splash of color could do miracles on a winter day. A vase here, a pillow there...go with pink, red, green, yellow...anything will do!

Colorful Interiors Against Winter Blues

Salvation Art - part two

Today I would like to present the second piece of my "Salvation Art" collection. Click on the link to learn more if you hadn't read my first post about it. This is an original print that I especially love. It hangs in a perfect place, in my bedroom over the bed.

I love everything about it: contrast of black and white, almost dancing movement of two bodies, so close yet so different, the yin and yang feel to it, energic lines, simple frame...

Sorry for the reflection in the picture, I use my old 5 Mpg digital camera since I lost my new one in the unusual way. I guess I'll have to wait with the purchase of another one till I find a new job - but this is a different story. This is a 3/8 print, signed by what appears to be "N. Jager" but I'm not so sure because I haven't found anything on the Internet about an artist with this name.  The best: I paid the incredible price of only 2 $ for it!!! Less than a cup of coffee.

Salvation Art - part two

Taking Pictures Inside Stores

First thing first: I did it only once and I felt awful during and after. As if I was a thief... It happened spontaneously, I didn't plan it, I was just looking for some color inspiration for my second bathroom. There were some lovely combinations and since I take my digital camera everywhere with me, I decided to take some pictures instead of writing down  the ideas. Just the fact that I looked around to see if anyone is watching me can  tell you for sure that I knew I wasn't supposed to do it. And, I didn't use flash on my camera either to avoid capturing attention of the sales people. Sneaky little...blogger!  Did you already do it? Do you find it awkward taking pictures inside stores? Tell me about your experience or tell me what you think about it. Anyway, here are some of the pics I took that day:

Taking Pictures Inside Stores

Yellow My Love !

I always loved yellow, since I was a little kid. This color cheers me up and makes me happy instantly no matter where I see it. Yellow brings sun and light in your life and home but it also attracts regards wherever you put it. Warning: this color isn't for the Faint of Heart, you must be a very special person to love it and use it. There you go blue-lovers !

For more inspiration in yellow you can visit my album 'Yellow My Love'

Yellow My Love !

Salvation Art

I had an opportunity, completely involuntarily and independently of my will, to build and rebuild what is going to be my home three times in my life. And when I'm talking about building a home, I'm not talking about building a fancy house with an architect and a designer on my side. I'm talking about building a feeling of home after having lost it once for historical reasons and another time for political reasons. I promise I'll explain it all to you one day when I'm ready.
My first home was a very humble rental, I can remember exactly how it was furnished and decorated, but at that time it didn't matter at all. What did matter was that I was madly in love with my husband and so over happy to live with him under one roof after four years of being together. Then we had our first child and two years later our second. I still remember how impatient I was to fill that fourth chair around our little table.
Our happiness was brutally interrupted by an (now) historical event in 1992 and we were forced to leave our home with nothing but our lives - yes, we were lucky.
Then we were installed in Germany for six and a half years, working hard to build from scratch a sense of home for children, to protect them and to give them them a happy life. Tragically, for the political reasons this time, in 1998 we were not allowed to stay in Germany any longer  and we were forced to search for a new country to call home.
Since 1998, we have been living in Canada. It wasn't easy at all, starting a new life from scratch again, learning a new language, a new culture, having to acclimate to the new weather conditions. But from the first day on, I continued to dream about building a home for my little family, I wanted my children to be able to play in their own yard. We started by learning a language first (French, imagine!) then finding a job and saving every penny in order to realize our dream. It took us six years, many sleepless nights and lots of tears to get there. I didn't know we could be so strong...
A hell of an introduction for what I was going to show you today! I can't change it, it's my life...
I thought often about things that make me, make us feel home. Each time when I was confronted with an empty space, aside from getting the basic furniture, I went and bought large plants and art for our walls. This two elements gave me instantly the feeling that I was already there for a long time.
Arriving in Quebec, Canada, I discovered the Salvation Army shops and, to my surprise, I was able to find many original paintings and prints for a couple of dollars only! And so I started my Salvation Art collection that didn't stop to grow since.

This was my first one. It's an original print named "Flammes" ('Flames' in English), 4/5 prints signed by an artist named Marc Martel in 1972. I really liked it so I readily payed 19$ for it even if the glass was broken.

I still like it very much. It hangs in my dining room with two other pieces. I'll continue to present you the rest of my Salvation Art originals collection. Many of the pieces that I found are made by renowned artists and are worth much, much more than I payed for them.

Salvation Art

Color Escape Neutral

Decorating with the Color Neutral?  I'm the first to tell you not to live in a beige painted house!  Strictly taken, there is no neutral color. Colors called neutral such as beige, ivory, taupe, black, gray and white appear to be without color. But don't be fooled, not only they reflect back the colors around them and enhance bold contrasts, they also have a color hue for them selfs. Neutral colors from taupe, ivory, bone, vanilla, through khaki and mushroom, to sepia and espresso can be used to wonderful effect. If you're not very confident with color, then using beige as the background interior design color for your room is safe. Then you can experiment with smaller items with accent colors which can be changed whenever you want. That's exactly what I'm going to do with my bedroom very soon.

Color Escape Neutral

Green Your Life Today

Today I present you part two on colors that I love. In my everyday life I really need some green around me. This color is soothing, healing, calming and beautifying.You can make it a focus theme or an accent color for artwork, fabric, paint, bedding, curtains, pillows, rugs,throws, vases...possibilities are endless. My guestroom is  monochromatic green with accents in white, grey and yellow and the walls in my bedroom are still painted the soothing greenish gray shade. Don't be to shy in choosing the hue, go with stronger and deeper shades of green, make a statement. There are so many different shades of green, starting from blue-green and going to vibrant, luminous yellow-green. A little green goes a long way. Green your life today and never look back!

Dr. Greenlove forever... For more inspirational pictures in green visit my online album.

Green Your Life Today

Chandelier recycled and saved from garbage

I found some other pictures of a DIY that I'm very  proud of. So here it goes: almost 2 years ago, my coworker Melissa, wonderful young girl btw, gave me the old brass chandelier that her mother was about to toss in the garbage. She remembered that I mentioned  how much I would love to have a chandelier for my bedroom so she brought it to me for free, just like that! I love that girl! It was somewhat stained with white paint, several  "candle holders" were partly broken and some of the christals were missing. I wasn't quite ready for a DIY action at that moment but I was very happy to have it. Can you believe that I was finaly so lazy that I bought a little chandelier from the store for my bedroom? I'm so ashamed, but if it can be an excuse - it didn't really cost that much. Talking about karma! It wasn't meant to be my chandelier. Then my daughter moved in another apartment and she needed a ceiling lamp for her bedroom. What was she supposed to do? Poor thing, she had one of this "breast with nipple"-like ceiling mount lamps already fixed in her bedroom. So I took pity on her and offered to restore the chandelier that I was saving for my bedroom. The result is simply breathtaking, for me anyway. See how it looks in front of her charcoal gray wall:

I used some silver spray paint, didn't even bother to prime it, we found some nice fake bling-bling in the dollar store to replace the missing christals - you can barely tell the difference. I was somewhat worried about the solution for the broken "candle holder" parts but my daughter wanted me to let them uncovered and to just spray paint them. So I did it her way and guess what? It looks just lovely, it adds a little surprising industrial touch to it.

BTW, it looks a bit yellowish in the picture but it's really silver painted. We were so busy that day that I completely forgot to take the  before pictures. Here is what it looked like approximately before the upcycling:

Chandelier recycled and saved from garbage

Thread rack from Ikea bathroom shelf

My digital camera is definitely dead, even rice 'spa' couldn't help. I went over my pictures on the computer and i found another little project that I completed two weeks ago. I needed some kind of a thread rack for my little sewing room, mainly for the large serger  thread cones. They needed desperately to be orderly stored. And as my daughter offered me her Ikea bathroom shelf named 'Songa' I was happy to accept it. It didn't need much work, the only thing that bothered me were the black metal supports - I wanted to spray paint them silver for better fit with my existing equipment. It took me no more then 10 minutes to prepare and to spray the supports. It was howewer rather tricky to spray paint each side of the support, they are so thin, nearly impossible to work precisely. Here is the end result:

I like it, it's installed directly over my work area, very easy to reach. I'll show you my little sewing room very soon, I have some things to finish this week in it. And then I would like to start next week to make some lovely things for my brand new Etsy shop, hopefully still in time for Christmas! There are allways people out there who do some 'last minute shopping'. I allready have the fabric and I'm working on the little collection of warm, wintery, snuggly...well, you have to wait till next week to see what am I preparing, sorry...

Thread rack from Ikea bathroom shelf

Cookbook Holder Solution

Today, as I was cooking my beloved Indian Carrot and Ginger soup, I used my improvised and simple cookbook holder. Actually, this isn't really a cookbook holder, it's rather a solution in the absence of it. There are so many models to find today, some even aren't so expensive, like this one I like :

Sleek and simple, only 14,99$ from http://www.organizeit-online.com/

But as it turns out, I have other priorities so I prefer this 1$ solution at the moment. I would like to say that I came up with it, but it wouldn't be true. I must have seen this one on the Internet very long time ago. So here it is working for me in my ugly kitchen:

All you need is a pants holder with clips! Works like a charm with not so thick cookbooks, individual pages / cards and magazines:

Simple to use, easy for storage. BTW, the recipe for my soup is from this German cookbook I love.

Just pay attention as you buy the pants holder: the clips should be rubber coated from the inside to prevent slipping. That's all! Oh, and the recipe for the soup, I'll give it to you tomorrow.

I found on the Internet some other very interesting ideas using the pants holder. I would like to share with you this one that Jean and Dylan from Ladies & Gentlemen Home posted last year as a beautiful solution for displaying art:

 

Be sure to visit their blog on ladiesandgentlemenhome.blogspot.com

Cookbook Holder Solution