very (P)interesting...

There is a new "social media" website in town and it is called Pinterest...

The minute that I heard about it I wanted in! I remember getting my first glimpse of the concept on one of my favorite blogs (Lisa Leonard) and I was in love... this is a website that allows you to "pin" your favorite images from the world wide web on a huge virtual cork board and then share these images with a growing on-line community... all with the ease and simplicity of clicking a single button... sign me up! sign me up! sign me up! .... but wait... I tried to sign up and I found out... you don't just get to sign up.?.?.?  

you submit a "request for an invitation" 

OK... seems a little weird... but I get it... trying to be different... no problem, I can wait 24 hrs to receive my "personal" invitation... right? 

But then a week had passed and I was getting impatient... I went back to the Pinterest website and tried to resubmit my request for an invitation... they responded with... "your request for an invitation has already been received" UGH!!!

Then months passed... MONTHS! LIKE 6 MONTHS!!!... and I became desperate, so I sent out a seemingly rediculous plea to my facebook friends... "can anyone out there please send me an invitation to Pinterest?!?!?" ... I thought it would be a shot in the dark, like trying to find a needle in a haystack or brain cells in Charlie Sheen's head!...But NO, I was wrong!!! Quite a few of the members of my very small FB family responded that they could send an invitation to me... Wow, there are people out there in this world getting easily accepted into the world of Pinterest... 

LOTS OF THEM! 

just... not me

anyhow, the point of all of this ranting is to say that I feel a wee bit miffed that I did not receive that invitation that I had so desperately been waiting for, and I can not help but wonder what the heck the criteria is for getting a gosh dang invitation?!?!? 

but oh well, now I am "in" (snuck in the backdoor and gave them a fake room number just like I always do ;) and now that I am here I am going to "pin" the heck out of this fricken' place! 

(btw, I can't help but wonder if all the people that receive these "special" invitations have "iphones"... ugh... such elitists ;)

~in the meantime my Droid and I will continue to be sneaking in the back door... if anyone else wants an invitation, let me know and I will leave the door cracked open behind me.

"un-original" sin...

I have always loved art and I have always loved original things (objects, clothing, people, etc.) so it kind of blows my mind when I think about all of the completely tacky un-original things that I have hung on my walls throughout my life... I mean let's go way back (way, way back) to the MJ days, the days when my room looked a little bit like this...

(Yep, I posted pictures of Michael Jackson on every square inch of my bedroom... and that is exactly what every other little girl growing up in the early 80's did)

Then came the black and white photos with the highlights of lightly colored objects...

(Yep, I hung these posters everywhere in my late teens and early 20's, just like everyone else did)

So I guess it was of little surprise when in my later 20's and early 30's I began collecting "art" from such fine galleries like "Target" and "Pier 1 imports"

Now, don't get me wrong... I dig the example above, I think Rodney White is totally original and did an amazing job of taking everyday pop culture objects and turning them into great pieces of visually interesting, mentally stimulating >>> ART.  But once they hit the mainstream reproduction outlets, they began to lose their luster. You know, cause how special is something... when anyone can buy it... anywhere... at anytime???

Which leads me to a revelation that I had a few years back... Art should speak to you, art should call your name (whether a whisper or a shout) it should tell a story, any kind of story... like, who you are, what you love, where you want to be... and art should never say "ummm... I shop at Target... a lot!"

So anyhow, my rambling (somewhat misguided) message is that (just like I would wish that no one in the world would ever again by a "bed-in-a-bag") I would love to see people stop buying silly re-production pieces from big box retailers and instead support their local community of artists, buy something original... shop your local gallery or craft boutique, check your local goodwill for unique finds and hire a professional photographer to take beautiful pictures of your family (notice I said "professional" do not go to Sears, JC Penney, The Picture People, etc. as these outlets WILL NOT produce beautiful artistic photographs) or even better yet, pick up a camera and a paint brush and let your own creative juices flow, get the family involved, purchase a large canvas and let everyone take turns adding details... you just may be surprised how talented you are. And in the end you will definitely have something original that will speak to you!

(Bill took the picture of this old truck in Santa Fe, then he constructed the frame out of reclaimed wood from our old porch)


The walls of our home are now filled with many original pieces... photographs taken by Bill and I through the years, paintings done by our kids, projects that we have worked on together, and antiques that have been passed down from one generation to the next. Our style is miss-matched and imperfect and you may not like it... but we do, and I can guarantee that you won't find an exact replica of it in anyone else's home-

and that my friends is what truly matters when it comes to art.

~vacation...all I ever wanted... vacation... got to get away~

We just got back from a little family vacation. During our week long adventure down the Southern California coast we made a pit-stop in Laguna Beach. And while this is one of my all-time favorite spots to catch a little sun and a wave or two... I love it even more for all of the one of a kind shops, galleries and boutiques hidden throughout it's quaint little streets. While searching through one of my most favorit-ist shops ever (EVER!) - "Art for the Soul"- I spotted a fantatic piece of art... and now it has a brand new home-

hanging on my wall! I am so in love with this reclaimed art spinning wheel :)

but most of all, I love the message that it has hidden inside...

yep- "love makes the world go round"

Suburbia...

blehhh...

I often find myself wandering along all of the decisions I've made in life, you know the big ones, the small ones... all of those decisions that have lead me to where I am... right now.

and where am I? suburbia... really?! I would have never guessed I would end up here.

I am not knocking it, I mean for being stuck in the suburbs, we have created an amazing life here...  it's just not what I would have ever "dreamed" of...

when I look at myself, my thoughts, my dreams... they just don't seem to match up with this suburban life.

I belong on the beach, an "ocean community" if you will (inside joke between Bill & I) or a big city... I know these two ideas seem worlds apart, but there is common pulse in there... a heartbeat that feels more like my own. 

maybe. someday. just maybe...

Today, I love this...

Sigh.

How long would it take you...

If a bird took a sh!t on your window, how long would it take you to clean it up? (btw, I figure there are only 2 real answers to this question, so I have eliminated any C or D answer options)

A. You would clean it the second you saw it.

B. You would clean it when it finally gnawed on you enough that you couldn't stand it anymore, like say a month or two or ten...

I seem to be of the group that would opt for the B category. 

19 things...

I was recently inspired to make a list of my all time favorite things, you know those items that make your house and a home. Just as Julie Andrews says.. "these are a few of my favorite things..."

1.   MY FAMILY (the obvious answer I know, but the absolute truth)
2.   Our Pets (I love my little furry friends! A house isn't a home without a little fuzz on the couch)
3.   Family photos (photography is a treasured hobby of mine, photos are the wall paper of our hallways)
4.   Hand-made quilts (made of course by all the grandmas of yesterday and today)
5.   Paintings by my kids (what could be better than one-of-a-kind art, made by the ones I love)
6.   Vintage whale hanging (my grandparents')
7.   Antique transom equipment (Bill's grandfathers'- he was a surveyor and actually used the equipment!)
8.   Colored glass bottles that my grandmother collected
9.   Hand-made furniture that Billy has custom created for our home
10. Hand-painted items that Billy has refinished.
11. Chalkboard in the kitchen (the craziness of family life gets semi-organized here)
12. Paint - you know the kind that you toss up on the walls and it transforms everything about a room with just a days work
13. Apron sink - the amazing farm house sink that absolutely completes my kitchen)
14. Antique washer/ringer that Billy gave me many moons ago (and a great reminder of just how much harder my detested chore of laundry could be)
15. Vintage ice-cream churner (an ode to a simpler life and my all time favorite dessert)
16. 200+ year old french window (I love to imagine the life that this window had before living in our home)
17. Dimmer switches (seriously, I am beyond in love with ambient lighting, and completely loath florescent lighting)
18. Fresh cut flowers (every room, everywhere)
19. Living plants (never, ever fake/faux/silk/plastic ones... NEVER)