The Tour de Lance

In honor of the 2009 Tour de France (beginning July 4th)...
For Sale...

What: This house:


Owned by this guy:



Price: $12 million down to $10.5 million!!!!!!

Features:

I'm in love with it (except I'm not a fan of the pinkish formal living area). Perhaps Jon will consider this for our vacation home? Yes, only if I win the Tour de France! Ha!


What do you think about Lance's house?

Salt Art

I always have so much fun creating with the girls. Here's a fun little SALT ART activity that we did outside. This idea came from cute blogger Shannon!

#1...I gave each girl her own supplies...salt, cups, food coloring, recycled paper and Ziploc sandwich baggies.

#2...There were four food coloring colors in a package, so we just made four colors each. Each girl evenly divided the salt into 4 cups.

#3...Pour the salt from the cups into the baggies. Add drops of food coloring per bag and SHAKE!

#4...We carefully poured the colored salt onto some recycled pieces of paper and let them dry.

#5 It didn't take long to dry...enough time to ride a few laps around the driveway.

#6 The girls poured their dry, colored salt back into their cups. I had some old glasses that they used to pour their salt into. They had so much fun creating designs!

And what is an artist without her hat....or bike helmet (and bike gloves)??? Such creativity!

Summer Art

There are so many fun things to do during the wonderful summer season! Here are a few that I plan on...

A trip to the aquarium:


Visiting the zoo:

Relaxing and just looking at the beautiful flowers:
Staying up past bedtime watching movies with my girls:


I hope that you are having some summer fun!

Artwork:
mermaid (custom)...24x48...$105
octopus (in stock)...16x20...$45
mermaid (in stock)...11x14...$30
all zoo paintings (in stock)...16x20...$45
all flower paintings (in stock)...12x12...$25
princess painting (custom)...24x36...$75

*all custom pieces can be recreated to your liking!
If interested, send me a comment or email me puffy1@ffni.com for a consultation!

You Say It's Your Birthday?

Happy 6 months, Henry Oliver!!!!!!!

I may forget what I did yesterday, but I remember oh-so-well the stormy winter night of December 27, 2008! Despite the hospital intercom instructing everyone to take shelter in the hallways (away from windows), the electricity flickering, and having two of my former students as my postnatal nurses...It was a wonderful night!

So Henry, here's you at 6 months:

* You weigh 16 lbs. on our scales

* You sleep from 8:30 ish P.M. to ~7:00 A.M. (A couple days a week you are up at like 6:00 A.M. for a bottle, but you NEVER cry...just talk loud until someone comes to feed you! You then go right back to sleep.)

* You are a mover and a shaker! You roll, inch, twist and turn your way across the room.

*You love, love your exersaucers! You will play in them for over an hour!

*You eat EVERYTHING! All toys, hands, etc. go in your mouth. (The girls roar when they give you their old "my first baby" and you instantly eat her face!)

*You act so nonchalant when eating your baby food. You are not too into it, but just stare us down like a sad dog when we eat!

* You adore your bottles! You try to grab them as they are being made! YUMMY!

*You know your name and will smile when your name is called...even if you cannot see us!

*You are mesmerized with our animals! Especially if the cats get close enough to tease you with their tails!

*The girls fight over who can get you to laugh first. You get NO attention! Ha! You are entertained constantly.

* You are extremely content. You are so good we sometimes forget you are there! (Honestly! Other people have said this too!)

*You love baths! We took out the infant mesh part and now you sit (with help) like a big boy, splashing in your tub!

* You take a morning nap, a longer afternoon nap and a cat nap before bed.

*You drool ALL THE TIME, but no teeth yet!

* You "talk" and it sounds like "Mama"!!!!! No kidding!

There are so many wonderful things I could say about my favorite boy in the world, but these are just a few things going on in your life now. You are pure bliss and loved by soooo many! We cannot wait to watch you grow! Happy 1/2 birthday, sweet boy!

Master Bedroom

Show Us Where You Live F-R-I-D-A-Y!!!!!!!!!

This week, Kelly (http://www.kellyskornerblog.com/) is having a tour of master bedrooms. Check out her blog...hundreds of people link in for the tours! It is sooo much fun to peek at everyone's spaces!

Here is our master. This is the view as you walk in. Our walls are a grey green color from Restoration Hardware. Most of their stores are painted in this color as well. Our bedding is all white. Every sheet in my house is white and I wouldn't change it for the world! One word: BLEACH! I love the smell of fresh bedding washed with Clorox! Yes, one word: CHEMICALS! So, I've started using Oxyclean.

Our bedroom furniture is black and brown. I like a bit of rustic with some contemporary/traditional. No, we do not have any window treatments (only in the children's rooms and the bathroom). As I've said before, we live in a woods and do not have any next door neighbors (only critter neighbors). It's great to wake up with the sun (or usually before)!

(Here's where the lighting gets ugly)...Here's a view from our bed. Our armoire hides our tv. And, yes, we have a twin bed for our greyhound, Sacco! She has like zero body fat and needs padding. She doesn't know how to jump, so we had to take the bed off of it's frame. This is her summer look. :) I would love, love to have a beautiful overstuffed black and white toile lounge with a side table and lamp, but animals come first! :)

Here's a side wall. The pictures are of our family in Florida. Every year, the kids collect some shells, so I put them in a glass container. The big conch shell is Henry's. Jon's parents bought it in Florida. This is his "first vacation" gift. It's sooo heavy and beautiful! There's a note slipped inside telling him who it's from and why. We will display it in his room when he is older. (NOTE: Notice the high light switches? When we built this house, I wanted to be able to turn on every single outside light from our room. We use these all of the time!)

There are many, many gorgeous bedrooms out there, but mine is just relaxing to me. It's amazing when all of the screens are open (from the top down) and you can hear the birds singing their songs. I feel like I am in a treehouse!

Displaying Photos

This is how I display pictures of my friends and family!

Ohhhh...I WISH I could say that this was my space! I drool over this pix every time I pull it out of my "Decorating Ideas" folder! All I know is that it is from Beautiful Homes Fall 2004. (As you can see, I just ripped it out without ever worrying about what magazine it was from!)

Displaying photos has always been tricky for me. I do not have a lot of wall space, built in shelving (except for my husband's office),or much space for any type of display tables (like a beautiful round skirted table). I have heard that it looks better if you keep your photos grouped together. I have also heard some designers say NEVER to use personal photos in your main/formal living space, so I thought I hang some of our family favorites in another space.

Going off of the above as inspiration, I decided to create a "family" space at the top of our stairs. Here is a pix of what I have started. (The pix aren't really crooked...it's my fantastic camera skills! Ha!)

I have a family photo and the girls' one year photos (Some of those frames are temporary.) I will replace one of those pix of the girls with Henry's one year photo when actually turns one. Eventually, I would like to have another family photo taken, so I don't know if I want to keep adding more pix? Maybe adding our wedding pix? Yes, I know this would all look better with black and white photos, but....what to do?

When I was little, it was always nice to see family pictures on an ugly wooden structure with glass shelves that my mom had in our living room. I was so proud to see my school picture there! Fast forward to my house...I know that school pictures are the worst pictures in the world, but I will still buy them and display them. I have three children, and know that many, many pictures will be coming: soccer pictures (and other sports pix) and pictures of my four nieces. I have all of these pictures on a side table in our family room. I love clean lines, and all of these pictures scream just the opposite, but again...what to do?

All I do know is that I'm not into this: I was scanning the net for some very, very over the top picture displays. One person showed a room...pictures stuck to the wall w/ double sided tape...from floor to ceiling. And she said she rotated them too: When the tape got too old, the picture would fall off of the wall and the dog would take it and eat it! YIKES!

How do you display your photos? Send me a comment...I'd love to hear!

All In A Summer's Day

Well, it's just another HOT summer day here in Indiana. I'm definitely NOT complaining, because I do enough of that during the cold, dreary winter season. I checked a lot off of my "To Do" list today.

1. Have Emily take her very first picture with my camera. Check!

2. Take Emily to the dentist. Check! (Don't smile too big Laney, you're next!)

3. Get the mail and show the girls that they are famous because they are in our local paper . Check! (Four generations of our family ran the Hog Jog {a few posts back}. Laney was over the moon because her baby doll was also in the newspaper picture.)

4. Have girls cool off by eating popsicles in their swim suits (and ummmm bike helmet) while running through the sprinkler. Check!

5. Make a nice dinner AND dessert. Check! (Poppyseed chicken casserole, crescent rolls, green beans and angel food cake with sprinkles in the batter!)

Just another summer day! Do you have anything original on your summer "To Do" list?

Children's Artwork

I have some friends and clients who are having or have just had babies or are redecorating their children's rooms. And... they asked me to paint some art for them! So, I thought I would show you what I've been up to!

Let me start out with baby Sam's nursery art. (Sorry...a few of Sam's pix are fuzzy.) Sam's mommy and daddy wanted a nautical theme for his nursery. I painted 6 canvases that went above his bed. Then I painted a larger canvas for an opposite wall. I used some molding paste for his boat, so it has a lot of texture...like a peeling sailboat! My favorite is the little saying I added using different sizes of letters. It reads: I am Sam's boat. I dance in the sea. I had a lot of fun creating for Sam!

Next is baby Tate's nursery. His mommy and daddy didn't want a theme, but liked a "cottage" feel. They wanted me to match Tate's adorable bedding (dots and stripes). His name will go above the crib. Tate's parents enjoy relaxing on their real boat; therefore, I created a boat similar to baby Sam's. I hope that Tate enjoys his art when he arrives ANY DAY!

Third is baby Olivia's nursery. Olivia's parents did not know the gender of their baby when I painted this nursery. They wanted a mural to match the bee bedding that they bought. I painted a large tree (the room's focal point) and some bees on one wall, then added some little bees on another wall! I just love how this nursery turned out!

Here's a trio for a client's son. He just loves his dog, so I add her in! I used some felt to add a "real" effect to the dog food.

Another trio for a client's grade school daughter.

Another nursery: Griffin's farm themed room! He just loves his tractors!

Here is some flower art for a friend's preschool age daughter. These 30x40 creations went above her bed and match her Pottery Barn Kids bedding. I enjoyed adding the gems and different puffy paints!

Finally, this is definitely a piece that will always mean so much to me. A client asked that I create a 24x36 fairy princess for her soon to arrive twin's room. This gal's toddler had passed away a few years earlier to a heart illness. When this mommy found out she was pregnant with twins, she knew that she wanted to honor her first daughter; therefore, I painted a fairy princess that resembled her first daughter. This piece was put in the twin's nursery to look down on them. I added a tulle skirt, and some embellishments. Her wings are painted with sparkle paint.

In the corner, I added a little handmade tag:

I enjoyed creating each of these pieces. I hope that all of the children that receive them will smile when they look at them. If you are interested in custom art for a special someone (maybe even some abstract art for yourself), then send me a comment or email me (puffy1@ffni.com) for a consultation. The possibilities are endless!