National Gallery of Art. Color Inspirations.

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Yes.  I love The National Gallery of Art.

I, also, love posing like the art.  Hard to tell which is Degas’ Little Dancer and which is me, isn’t it???  It’s a joyous thing to go mid-week with friends.  It was quiet, uncrowded, and none of the guards were asking me to remove my children from the sculptures.

I get so excited and inspired about all the colors—and then I start building rooms in my head….

 

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Mary Cassatt

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Mix and Chic

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Mix and Chic

Celerie Kemble

Celerie Kemble

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Nancy Vintage

Nancy Vintage

 

eclecticbath

Mix and Chic

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Vincent Van Gogh

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Mary Cassatt

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Mix and Chic

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George Bellows

Dorothy Draper Design/Greenbrier Hotel

Dorothy Draper Design/Greenbrier Hotel

Remodelista

Remodelista

Andrew Wyeth

Andrew Wyeth

Momtoob

Momtoob

Thomas Sully

Thomas Sully

 

thevisualvamp.blogspot.com

thevisualvamp.blogspot.com

Claudiablonde.tumblr.com

Claudiablonde.tumblr.com

 

(Love this new blog I found Mix and Chic Interiors!  Check it out.)

 

OUTTAKES:

Outtakes

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Orange You Glad You Are Reading This Post?

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When is a pumpkin not a pumpkin?   When you drop it; then it’s squash.

What did one Jack-o-lantern say to the other?  Cut it out.

I love a good pumpkin and I love the color orange.

Recently we went to a pumpkin patch and I was reminded of this fact–over and over.
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What’s the ratio of a pumpkin’s circumference to its diameter?  Pumpkin Pi (3.14)

The color psychology of orange is optimistic and uplifting, rejuvenating our spirit. In fact orange is so optimistic and uplifting that we should all find ways to use it in our everyday life, even if it is just an orange colored pen that we use.  Orange brings spontaneity and a positive outlook on life and is a great color to use during tough economic times, keeping us motivated and helping us to look on the bright side of life.  (Courtesy of  www.empower-yourself-with-color-psychology.com)

 

If you like Orange you’ll LOVE Orange You Glad its 2014? Or Decorating Inspirations with Orange.

Canopies, Red, Robots and Decorating Boys Bedrooms

 

Today I went to the OBGYN for my annual exam with my 7 year old son.  It was a dream come true.

sar·casm

noun \ˈsär-ˌka-zəm\

: the use of words that mean the opposite of what you really want to say especially in order to insult someone, to show irritation, or to be funny

He’s home sick today.  There has been a total of 7 days of school.  He has been there for 4 1/2 of them.  Sigh.

My little guy is actually good as gold when he is home sick.  Today he was my little buddy escorting me about town and a lovely companion.  Although while he waited for me in the nurses’s station during my exam he picked up all sorts of female medical terms that I would have preferred to avoided.

So Home Goods was practically NEXT DOOR to the doctor’s office.  I mean I almost had to walk through it just to get back in the car.  Naturally, I dragged my semi-sick seven year old inside for a quick looksie.  I actually think it was his idea.  He WANTED to go in and see the Halloween decorations.  While inside not looking at Halloween decorations we discussed his bedroom decor which led to this post.  He wants to know if we could fit a giant robot in his room, a canopy to keep his room shady (?) and if we could paint the walls red.  Maybe?

 

 

www.huft.com  Kansas City
 Neslihan Pekcan/Pebble-Design
Canon www.ephotozine.com

Canon Robot waving GOOD BYE www.ephotozine.com

 

 

Displaying Kid’s Artwork

 

OMG it’s Labor Day.  How did this happen??  Summer! Don’t Go!!!! And tomorrow is the first day of a new school for my boys.  And sports. And extracurricular clubs.  And homework.  And bedtimes.  And the often feared   S-C-H-E-D-U-L-E.  In short, many changes this way come, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.  It just feels like it.

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What is it about change that creates such anxiety?

I read somewhere that our brains our wired to resist change–to follow familiar paths where we know there is no “danger”–something that goes back to our cave man days.  So when something new comes up, your brain fires up warnings, saying, “911!” Your glands respond by preparing you to fight, flee or freeze. Now you’re all charged up with adrenaline so you’re physically able to fight or flee if you need to. You are ready to deal with a life-threatening event.  Of course 999/100 times it’s not a life threatening event it’s just something “new”.  But your body doesn’t know that so your head still throbs and your hands still get clammy.  Or maybe you want to hide under the bed like my 9 year old wants to do about tomorrow.  I’m trying to tell him that it’s ok to feel nervous and we have to push ourselves over the humps and eventually all the “new” will feel familiar.  What I’m not telling him is that I feel the same way.  I can talk a big game about creating new neural pathways in our brain–blah, blah, blah but I feel anxious regardless.

As I type this my kids are fighting.  Maybe school tomorrow isn’t such a bad thing?!  Ok, now I think they are hitting each other.  Definitely a good thing about school starting.  Wow! My brain adapts fast to change!

This is what I really want to post.  If you have kids bringing home art, or something they wrote, or maybe something random that you have and want to display—Look!

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Kiko Glass Frame by Nkuku.  $30.  www.notonthehighstreet.com .  If you order more than one they become less expensive.


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I saw this on the same website.  Frame tape by Artful Kids.  $27  www.notonthehighstreet.com.

I’m not super enthusiastic about the prices so I’ve been hunting.  Apparently there is a lot of tape being made just like this–and all expensive–coming from European websites.  But then I found this:

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It’s on Amazon Prime for $10.32!  SOLD!  You can find it here.

I keep getting sucked back into the same original website–because next I saw this:

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The Illusion Cork Board by Artful Kids $34 www.notonthehighstreet.com/artfulkids/product/illusion-cork-board. Love it.

That’s all I’ve got.  Kids still arguing.  Anxiety about all this change-GONE:)

 

 

 

I Dreamed A Dream Of Ralph Lauren

I was listening to Les Miserables last night while looking at a magazine spread of Ralph Lauren interiors.

That is obviously what inspired the dream I had.

I dreamed a dream of Ralph Lauren
When hope was high
And life worth living
I dreamed that he would decorate my house
I dreamed that he would be not expensive

Then I was young and so naive
So dreams were made and used and wasted
There was no mortgage to be paid
No song unsung
No college tuition

But the budget talk comes at night
With my husband’s voice soft as thunder
As they tear your hope apart
And they turn your dream towards Target

And still I dream he’ll come to me
That I will live the years with velvet
But there are dreams that cannot be
And there are storms we cannot weather

I had a dream my life would be
So different from this budget I’m living
So different now from what it seemed
Now Ralph Lauren’s fee’s have killed
The dream I dreamed
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All interiors, needless to say, are by Ralph Lauren.
And if you didn’t get this post try listening to this

Inspired Living, Or Pictures of Not Normal Living.

Me toasting a Normal Day.

Me toasting a Normal Day.

It’s August 21st.  Today marks my very first normal day since 1979.  Meaning, my house is not on the market, I’m not packing to move, I’m not unpacking from a move, I’m not being chased by a pack of very aggressive geese (really did happen last week), I’m not leaving for a trip, planning a major event, or staying at someone else’s house because I am homeless, I don’t have house guests (8 just left including a baby and a 4 year old not including a small dog and a really big dog), I’m not on percocet (Yes, my husband had to call 911 2 weeks ago because I was paralyzed on the dining room floor due to a very unwelcome back and nerve issue.) and my house is clean and semi-to do list free (I actually just refuse to make a new to do list so therefore that counts as not having one.)  So today is normal.  It’s 5:53 pm as I write this so I hope I don’t curse it.  Watch, any minute a small car of 27 clowns is going to pull up, or the dishwasher will explode, or a reporter will show up wanting to interview me about bees while I am holding large stuffed animals (Oh, wait, that was yesterday.)

To celebrate this normal day I thought I would write a blog post.

Let’s look at not normal houses because really, who lives like this?

Bathroom/Houzz.com
It’s 9:15 pm same day.  So far no clowns…