I say I like Autumn

If you're like me, cleaning out your purse can be an event that yields surprises. Although Christmas is upon us, my recent purse-cleaning produced a poem scrawled on the back of a "Conferencias de Padres/Maestros" reminder. It's undated, but was clearly inspired by the brilliant autumn colors that graced Chico a couple of months ago.





I SAY I LIKE AUTUMN
Spring, for many, is a hopeful time.
And why shouldn't it be?
For trees there is regeneration,
For animals, reproduction,
For Christians, resurrection.
Celebrate?
Of course.

But for me, valley dweller,
Loather of perspiration,
Lover of coziness,
There is a moment late in August,
Blooming to a full evening in September,
That offers promise more refreshing than
Any spring blossom or breeze.

It is the promise of cardigans,
cocoa and cuddling.
Even more, it is the promise of crispness.
Crispness of air, of color, of leaves underfoot...
Crispness of Spirit.
Celebrate?
HALLELUJAH!

BY LADAWN HALL
FALL 2010





On the other side of the notice, at odds with the Spanish parent conference reminder, I noted:

Spring looks back:
'I used to be dead and now I live.'

Fall, by contrast, just says, "LOOK AT ME!"
And everyone obeys.

AFTER (finally)

After Betty, Corinne and Mom (the Dream Team) left, my family immediately went on a 4 day camping trip to the Big Trees (which was breathtaking). Right after we got back we had visitors from So Cal who stayed two weeks (and showered us with generosity). Upon their leaving we spent the weekend at Six Flags Marine World (fun/vertigo). Today, Monday, I have exhaled for the first time in many weeks (aaahhhh). And so to the BLOG!


THE LIVING ROOM

These companion paintings were a wonderful find because they bring together all the colors of the room.


Here they are in their grouping of mirrors. The large mirror is made of a frame I already had and a larger, broken mirror I already had, cut and set for me for free by the great people at Miller Glass here in Chico. The other two mirrors are antiques given to me by Corinne.


These two photos show what is above and below that arrangement of color and mirrors. The giraffe in habitat in the window was a birthday present from my sister Jamie. The brown and coral colored pillows are left over from my former home's decor and I never would have thought they'd fit in to this new one, but they do, complemented by new pillows in highly textured tweeds and animal prints (made by me with finish work by Betty).


And speaking of finish work, the triangles on the couch (made from a former window treatment by my mom) were a bit of Betty genius. They set the tan couch apart from the yellow wall in a lovely way that really can't be appreciated in pictures. You can also see in this picture another beautiful antique mirror given to me by Corinne, a tablecloth made from an animal print scarf I happened to have on hand, and the wonderful rug I got at a discount fabric store for a song. A word about antiques: I'm not an antiquey kind of gal. I never would have thought to include antiques in any space of mine, let alone an international sort of safari themed one. But they really work to make the whole feel of the room slightly more formal, more homey, and less like a meal at the Elephant Bar. Way to go Corinne!


In this shot you can see how rich all the colors and textures are. I LOVE IT! The drum was a Home Goods purchase, the grass another touch Corinne brought, and please notice the bookend "holding up" the little old table (more info on him below).

This is a favorite detail of mine on this wall. It is a piece entitled "The Twelve Apostles." I believe it was a gift from Marge Simpson (Betty's sister) to my Uncle Paul, brought from a trip to Ireland. I love its simplicity, its subject matter, its origins and its look. Thank you for passing it on to me, Uncle Paul and Aunt Corinne! It is cherished in my home!

Here are two other arrangements on the red wall about which I feel very pleased and proud. They are the hand-carved Mahogany elephants I traded for an old pair of K-Swiss tennis shoes in a Massai village in Kenya, and Man/Woman masks bought from the same people. The giraffes are only from Michaels, but they feel very comfortable here, I'm sure.




These two photos show another side table dressed with fabric I had on hand, classic sconces added by Corinne, a wonderful beaded touch on the candle, a darling tic-tac-toe board with Eiffel Tower and Arc d' Triumph shaped pieces, a Somali sea shell, and an Asian easel holding a leopard print frame with a snapshot of a Chinese landscape taken by my dad. Europe, Africa, Asia...check!

I love this detail. My dad had a set of bookends from Central America (Honduras, maybe?). This one came loose from its stand and now hangs out on the side of this bookcase. The stand he was separated from is now a coaster which you will see later.

This picture shows the bookcase my Honduran guy is guarding. It is a well-protected affair, as there is also a Chilean Indian on the shelf third from bottom (close-up below), a Guatemalan wildcat artifact on the top inner shelf, and a diligent, iron birdie making sure the yard sale urns and pine cones stay together. The African thumb harp isn't capable of guardianship, but is worth mentioning nonetheless.

Chilean Guardian of Books. South America...check.

Here is Betty's favorite place to sit, think up wonderful ideas, and in general be the Queen of Sheba. It is my favorite place to do the morning crossword and sudoku. The chair was $3.50 at a yard sale. The cushion was one I had on hand recovered by my mom in fabric I had on hand. The basket I had on hand, the bowl of textured balls I had on hand. You'll read more about the little table/box in a minute. But in general, resourcefulness city!

The geese at the right make such awesome silhouettes both from inside and outside, and seem to change with the light. It's not very noticeable in this picture, but there is an ethnic little bird in the window at left as well. He wants to be a goose.


This fabulous wall hanging was given to me by Betty. This is another thing that, if I had seen it away from the space, I would never have thought to choose it for this room. But it is so perfect here! Great shapes, ruddy texture, quintessentially African in its feel. Thank you Betty for having the eye to know it would complete my room.


I seem to be saying "I never would have thought" an awful lot in describing the wonderful things that have turned my house into a home. This is the grand poo-bah of them all. When we were in the garage in search of a tool of some kind, both Betty and Corinne's eyes went straight to this tool box. To me it was just a tool box, special only because it was made by my dad as a scout project in about 1948. But the team said bring it in! It was dusted and oiled, but still looks "rough"---just right for the room. It now holds all my piano music. (Watch for how its inner tray was used later on.) And the coaster on top? That's right, it's the stand that used to be attached to the Honduran bookcase guardian. :)

Another stroke of genius by Betty and Corinne...PROBLEM: ugly brass switch plates. SOLUTION: cover them in decorative paper. RESULT: switch plates that both blend in and stand out in the room. It's all in the details!

Corinne found this at a Tai Pan tent sale. It's the perfect piece for my dome shaped entry way window.
These were part of my flower themed former decor and I had a hard time giving them up. Fortunately, this stair wall adopted them and all are restored to happiness.



Entry Hall. The box at bottom is for the putting on, taking off and storing of shoes. However, the notion has not quite caught on among the under 12 set.

Here is the Piano Wall, Betty's professed favorite. Corinne brought me this interesting 8x10 frame, but I was (wisely) disallowed from using it for family pictures. I found this snapshot of a lion that Dad and I took on safari in Kenya, and set it in the frame on a background of black cardstock. It is a small touch that packs punch! Also seen are antique tin boxes, one of which was my Grandma Black's, a camel flower pot, and a stone woman bell from Central America. The mirror, clock and candle stand I already had on hand. Thanks to Corinne for the tile, hanky and other touches.


I got this piano bench for $2 at a yard sale. It had tan legs and a beige vinyl top (or was it beige legs and a tan top?). It was Plain Jane city. Thanks to Mom and Corinne, it is now Fancy Nancy!



THE FAMILY ROOM
The family room is still very much a work in progress. White Waldo is still white, for example, and I am not happy with the placement of all the family pictures yet. But ideas are underway and I hope to finish things up by summer's end. A few things are worth showing, though, namely......the CHEECKEN!! You already know how much I love it, and Betty had the wonderful idea of featuring it on the main wall of the family room, right above the fireplace. I had this 'chuckle' already, and in fact was ready to give it away, but it seemed to finish off Cheecken's look so perfectly that it now lives here. I LOVE MY CHEECKEN!


Have you been watching, as instructed, for the inner tray of the old toolbox? Corinne had the idea to turn it into a 3D frame for a collage of family photos. She suggested gluing buttons and little decorative items in the empty spaces, which I did a bit of, but I decided to also add small tools, in homage to the tray's roots. Some of the pictures are coming loose and need to be glued in earnest (double sided tape did not do the trick), but all in all it's a successful and charming project, agreed?


This sketch of my dad was done by a high school classmate of his as a poster for a school play in which my dad apparently starred. It was done in the early 1950s. There is some damage to it, but it is now well preserved in safety glass etc. I love the piece, but the jury in my brain is still out about its placement on this wall. I'll have to wait and see what I think once White Waldo turns into Black Bert and other touches are complete in the room.


This is a wonderful touch hanging in the breezeway between the living and family rooms. It is a chime Dave and I bought for ourselves as an anniversary present at a local music festival. We loved the sound it made, so we hung it on an eave outside our bedroom window. Hearty spring breezes notwithstanding, it never chimed once! Apparently it requires gale force winds to operate. So, it now lives here as art. We love it!

THE BATHROOM

So many people comment on this as the "mirror on a mirror" in my little Western powder room. But it is simply a pine frame that once held an art canvas, covered lovingly in rope by Betty and suspended by fishing line from above. It is at the perfect level to frame my face when I stand in front of it. If you're not my height, you're out of luck.



Here are two more shots of bathroom details, including an authentic horseshoe, and a sign, hung at eye level to someone sitting on the toilet, that reads "On this spot in 1837 NOTHING happened." This last picture is dark, but you can see the darling rope window treatment that I think makes a big splash. Love it. North America...check.



TO THE TEAM
Thank you so much for your hard work both physical and mental, for putting up with my children's messes, for remembering that horses gallop, and especially for introducing things that I "would have never thought" of. I'll keep you posted as the family room progresses. Thank you again with all of my heart! I absolutely LOVE walking down my stairs and seeing my beautiful living room that combines class and pizazz in all the most wonderfully ethnic ways. Love and blessings to you all!!

Update

International living room complete! Family room underway. Pictures to come soon!

White Waldo and Milk Toast

YARD SALE - $40 GOTTA LOVE IT!

A COATED MESSAGE

Houston, we have paint...
Remember, you can click on each picture to make it bigger, then click the 'back' button on your browser to come back.



Above, you see the yellow (French Pastry) main wall, red (Cherry) fireplace wall, and brown (Desert Sandbar) stair landing wall (in shadow). All colors are Valspar Signature.



In this second picture, you see two Desert Sandbar browns (even though they look like two different browns, they are not), and the one OOPS, albeit a big one, about my color choices: Valspar's Brioche, a.k.a. bright-freaking-orange. It looked tame and stylish in all my sample blotches, which were applied with a foam craft brush, not a nappy roller. Certain times of the day it is likable, but in some lights it is down right hideous. I think I'll have to do a sponge treatment on it in a lighter color glaze. I will gladly take all your "I told you so's" now. In my defense, it is very difficult to find a lighter version of orange without its looking peach.



Here you see one of the other two places this Brioche color appears: the niche around the front door. Again, for about an hour each day it looks great. The rest of the time, not so much. Fortunately, the third place I put it is the small area around the under-stair closet door, which you can just see at the right in the picture below.



The bulletin board wall is the French Pastry yellow, which I absolutely LOVE. It is SO buttery and wonderful. Even though it didn't work for the orange, I have to say I am SO glad I did a whole bunch of patchwork sample blotches in several places throughout the house. It helped me choose the most perfect yellow, one which I NEVER would have chosen from looking at paint chips alone.



Here above is the family room side of the fireplace wall. The Cherry is rich and wonderful. I love it.



Not all the walls in the family room have been painted yet. I chose a much lighter brown for them, called Milk Toast, but it will be painted later this week. However, I chose the Desert Sandbar brown for the bar wall and the six inch edge of the dropped kitchen ceiling. It will set off the kitchen nicely, and I was surprised to see the color goes nicely with the green leaf wallpaper as well. I had planned on doing red in these two places, but the fireplace wall is accent enough, believe me.



And this is what Cherry looks like at the top of the living room, flanked by buttery French Pastry now, and adjacent to Milk Toast when the family room gets its coat. Boy these walls are making me hungry!



GOOD NEWS! I GOT MY ROOSTER! Happy birthday to me! I have wanted this rooster for the better part of a year, and finally sprang for it. I got it at the same time I bought all my paint and was therefore stung by buyer's remorse in the face of the cost of everything. The rooster was sitting on Sophie's car seat when I drove through a fast food place for breakfast shortly after spending a small fortune. A very flamboyant Hispanic worker there confirmed the wisdom of my rooster purchase when he noticed it and said, while handing me my food, "Oh my ghosh! Where dee yoo ge tda cheeken?? Ees SOO kyoo!" To make matters even better, I received a birthday card from Mom with a check for the exact amount I'd paid for the rooster! I'm telling you, this rooster was meant to be!!

Rearrange!

In trying to get the house ready for painters to come, I cleared out all the extra stuff and was left with only furniture. This was a good time to experiment with furniture placement. I took pictures so my team could see the possibilities ahead of their visit, and perhaps 'vote' on their favorites.








In these first three photos, the long couch is against the East wall, and the love seat is coming out at an 'L' angle from it, into the room. The space between the end of the love seat and the wall is narrow. As you can see, I moved the piano, which was no small task, truth be told. My feeling as I sat in this little area was that it was LITTLE. Of course behind this area there is ample room for what we have dreamed as a library, but I almost feel like it magnifies the smallness of the space. While having the fireplace as the focus of the sitting area is ideal, these couches are too big, and this space a bit small to not feel crowded.


Next I opened the space entirely, and put the long couch further south on the East wall, and the love seat against the wall formerly known as the "piano" wall opposite it. This opened the space in a lovely way. Knox was drawn into the area because there was so much room for back walkovers and handstands. In this scenario the library would be over across from the fireplace, and would share space with the piano. I love the feeling of this layout; it was open and large, but I did NOT like the fact that to get to the family room, you had to walk between the couches, or in other words, the traffic lane went right through the middle of the sitting area instead of behind or around it. Here are two pictures of that layout, including Knox and Sophie and their acrobatics. I should note that the coffee table in the corner, covered in paint supplies is not part of the equation, but was just left there for want of where else to stash it. As you can see in the second picture below, the hall was already full of stuff.




Finally, I put the small couch in the Southeast corner and the long one parallel to it coming out from the east wall. Although this is still a small sitting area, it allowed for a comfortably wide walkway from the front door to the family room entrance. I also like that the "formal" living area is the first thing one walks into upon entering the house. Again the library in this scenario would be at the north end of the room and share space with the piano. But get this: my decorating wheels are turning so much, that I actually considered doing away with the piano all together. Where it sits now (between the fireplace wall and the window on the north wall), would be a wonderful place for my five 4' IKEA free floating shelves. Am I crazy or what?




Well, that's it for now. Let me know what you think, Dream Team.