Classy client

I saw a favorite client of mine last week and went to a new building. It was new to me and had amazing pieces of American Art. I geeked out. These three pieces were in the conference room I was in.

“Meteorite”
1986, Screenprint
Sam Francis

“6/01”
2001, Oil on Canvas
Stanley Twardowicz

“5/01”
2001, Oil on Canvas
Stanley Twardowicz

This was outside of the conference room.

“Divide”
1966, Acrylic on Canvas
Kenneth Noland

“Untitled from Imperfect Series”
1988, Woodblock and Screenprint
Roy Lichtenstein

A different conference room.

“Yellow No. 9”
1977, Tapestry
Fernand Leger

“Red Transparency”
1973, Lithograph
Herbert Bayer

There were tapestries.

Then, there was my favorite piece when you came onto the second floor.

I met a friend (who I met by working with this client) for dinner and she told me that they give tours. Sadly, I had no idea and no time to do one. If you’re ever in Jefferson City, MO let me know. You gotta see this place. Art everywhere.

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Jenny Andrews Anderson at Furbish

I knew it wouldn’t be long before Jenny Andrews Anderson of My Favorite and My Best and Jamie from iSuwanee and Furbish would partner together. Jamie has used Jenny’s art in a couple installs and now offers prints as a pop up shop.

here

You may recognize the print of a piece of art that I missed out on in May. It’s titled “Through the Telescope” (the original was titled “Through the Periscope”) and is $75.00 and I believe the original was double that. All prints are on 11×14″ paper and there are six available and all are signed. Find them here. It’s tempting. This is my work computer.

Obviously, I’m a fan.

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Things that are making me sads

Obviously, Oklahoma. I have no photos or stories to share. If you need additional information about what’s going on – just turn on your TV or go to Facebook. You know that everyone on Facebook is an expert on everything. I’m going to focus on things that cannot compare to the devastation in Oklahoma, but they still upset me.

First, Happy Endings was canceled. It’s probably your fault. It was moved to Friday evenings, ABC had a #savehappyendings campaign and it was cut. I thought about protesting ABC because of it. I had to look at a list of their shows to remember what they aired. First, it was ridiculous stuff like Grey’s Anatomy (Seriously?! That thing is still on?) and Revenge. Then, I saw Nashville (okay…it’s a little ridiculous too) and Modern Family. I may still have to watch these but the whole time I’ll still be sad about Happy Endings.

Here are Buzzfeed’s “36 reasons Happy Endings is the Best Show on TV.” There are rumors on the internets that a cable station (USA or TNT) may pick it up. Until then, I’m gonna have to play with my Jane paper doll.

here

Then, I saw this piece of Jenny’s art.

here

I immediately stopped walking down a sidewalk and “pulled over.” I quickly went to her Etsy site to buy it. I put it in my cart and got an “Oops” window and began to panic because I jumped to the conclusion that someone was doing the exact same thing. I tried again and sure enough I got “Sold Out.” I cursed out loud and threw my phone in my purse. It was not my proudest moment. So, I’m going to commission something. I just can’t take it anymore.

Make me happy and donate to the American Red Cross. You can donate to the disaster fund here or to a local chapter. Additionaly, you can always text “REDCROSS” to 90999 for a $10.00 donation.

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This or That: Hand painted wall treatments

The bathroom is cray right now.

It’s impressive that The Mister and I haven’t committed double suicide. The main thing getting me through is the thought of how much better it will be. Here’s what we’re doing:

• Filling in the walls and fixing poorly done jobs in the past (jobs done by previous owner)
• Removing everything from walls
• Sanding the walls
• Repainting the walls and the wall cabinet
• Replacing the medicine cabinet, air vent and shower shelf
• Replacing doors and hardware on wall cabinet
• Glazing the tub (we’re hiring this out)

The main thing that has my attention is painting. I have purchased an unreasonable amount of paint samples (you can see some of them on the top shelf above the toilet) trying desperately to match our vintage blue tile and it ain’t gonna happen.

I don’t like the solid blue “treatment” that we’ve had and I feel like doing plain white is…boring. So, much to The Mister’s side-eye glances, I want to hand paint a wall treatment. I’d love to do something like this.

here

But I’m being realistic. So, I have a few other ideas. It’s either I go with something more formal (potentially stenciled) or I go with something more free form.

Option 1:  Something more formal or stenciled
First, we have Higgledy Piggledy Stripe. This wallpaper is by the amazing Anna Spiro for Porter’s Paint. I would do a “knock off” of this pattern. I think it’s the middle ground of free form and formal.

Second, we have Albert Hadley’s iconic Fireworks.

here

Albert Hadley makes my heart swell. However, I don’t know if I trust myself with a stencil. They seem hard. I know there are DIY pins of them everywhere, but I’m not talking about a trellis pattern or some gloss paint over flat paint. I’m talking about a knock off of an iconic designer and print. I don’t think I can do it.

Option 2: Something more loose or free form

First, we have David Hockney painting his pool.

here

Then, we have samples of free form thin stripes.

here

Alexander hand painted stripes for Kate Spade

here

In either option, I  would likely do a white background with the darker blue stripes to match the top (gray blue) tile in our bath. Though this last photo of many different colors is quite pretty, it could easy become too much for all the walls.

So, what do you think? Free form or stenciled?

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Pantone Spring 2013

The weather seems to be Springesque for most. This does not apply to Wisconsin as my aunt told me it is still cold. That makes me frown.

So, lets look at Pantone’s Spring Collection of pretty colors that make us smile.

here

By the way, when I typed “Pantone”the WordPress app changed it to “panties.” I don’t know who is blogging about undergarments but I’d like to speak to them about finding some pantyhose that are run resistant.

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Under Cover

This week I made a new cover photo for Facebook. I took this quote and this beautiful piece of art.

 “Fly By” by Michelle Armas

Then, I ended up with this.

You should be able to click on it and save it as the full size image which is 851 pixels by 315 pixels.

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What I did this weekend

The weather was great this weekend. It really felt like Spring. The flea market is next weekend and the March market is the kick off to the Spring and Summer flea markets and yard sales. We went to Lowes and was excited to see this by the front door.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year.

We went to Lowes to buy a medicine cabinet for our bathroom. We haven’t installed it yet as we’re doing some patching to smooth out the edges where the old cabinet was. You can see what I’m talking about in the photo below.

It obviously makes The Mister feel very glamorous.

We hung a bunch of art in the office.

All of this plus two other pieces.

The walls in our home office are gallery style. I’ll have a post on it soon. The wall when you walk in hasn’t had anything on it, so it looks much more finished.

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2013 Antiques and Garden Show

I attended the 2013 Antiques and Garden Show last Friday. Not only did I attend the show, but I attended a lecture by Bunny Williams. Whenever I find my notebook that I took with me, I’ll share some quote from it. The show was in honor of Albert Hadley and rightfully so.

The entry (seen above and Vine video  here) was designed by Jonathan Savage.

I met Jonathan last year at the show. He sat next to me during the Eddie Ross lecture and I started conversation by asking if he wore an orange scarf the day before during the Miles Redd lecture. He asked me if I asked about folding screens during the Q&A and I had. He gave me his card, which I misplaced. I’m terrible with names and finally found it months later. I deemed too late to reach out and that I’d look straight up stalky. This year, I stopped to take a photo of the entrance and he recognized me. I recognized him too, but since he’s cooler than me, I didn’t think he’d remember me. I didn’t realize he did the entrance and it looked great. He called me out for never calling him. I deserved that. I’m obviously a fool. 

There were some great gardens. Below are links to the Vine videos I took of each and it appears I missed Garden 1.

• Garden 2
• Garden 3
• Garden 4
• Garden 5
• Garden 6

There were some amazing things for sale. The photos are not nearly inclusive of all the goods.

These WWI leg splint were gorgeous as art.

There was gorgeous lighting.

Alabaster lamps

There was a set of these industrial sconces. They had a great green color and great for a kitchen.

This chandelier was sold and located in the Artifacts booth. Artifacts is located in Nashville and you can look at a small sampling of their offerings on 1stdibs here.

This piece was not sold and was $1,200.

I had a thing for dressers – full sized and children’s dresser or salesmen samples. (Vine videos of children’s dressers and salesmen samples here and here.)

I liked the vignette below very much. Chinoiserie, leopard print, gold and kelly green furniture? Obviously.

Then, I fell in love with this painting below. It’s by William Engle and was found in C. M. Leonard Antiques. The owner there (we’ll say C. M. Leonard) was very nice. I immediately told him that I loved the painting but couldn’t pay $10,500 for it. I was pretty sure he’d be uninterested in me being in his booth, but was very kind and still shared information about the painting with me.

I left the booth to sat on a bench and stared at it from afar. I was stalking it like a super creepster.

The only thing I bought were the butterfly taxidermy pieces. The rumor was that next year’s show will be smaller. This year’s show was smaller than last, so I’m curious to what next year will look like.  Hopefully, they’ll still have some fountains in the supposedly shrinking garden area. I love fountains. I could watch/listen to this all day long.

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What I did this weekend: Butterfly Taxidermy

This weekend I went to The Antiques and Garden Show and enjoyed it. My recap is posting this week and you may have seen some of the greatness of you follow me on Instagram. (I’m Rachael__Anne. )

During the show, I bought two pieces of butterfly taxidermy. I’ve wanted some for a while but wanted very simple pieces. I’ve been to Key West a few times the past two years and have visited the butterfly conservatory twice while there. I knew they had no harm pieces but always worried about getting them home and most of their pieces were not the simple presentation I wanted. So, I was happy to find a booth of no harm butterfly taxidermy this weekend.

I thought their prices were reasonable as each piece I bought was $32. This seemed especially true after I asked how they were made. Basically, they purchased an area of the rain forest to “save it” and consider the butterflies farm raised. They collect butterflies once they die naturally. Each butterfly is placed in an individual envelope to dry. If they look good and their wings are not messed up torn or wrinkled, then they put some formaldehyde in the body and have to reattach the wings to the body.

I bought two. One includes a Monarch and was one of only two frames in the booth that included a Monarch. The gentleman at the booth told me that Monarchs are can be difficult for them as their wings typically tear. Both include “98 butterflies.” Here they are on the wall in our bedroom.

They fit the space really well as I have only a sliver of wall between the window and wardrobes in our bedroom. It’s my side of the bed and I wanted some art there. So, I’m pretty stoked how they fit so well.  I’m so happy that I’m going to show you another photo of our room where the room is not touched up and our bed is, in fact, not cute.

This message is brought to you by “Keep It Real Monday.”

Jenny with Little Green Notebook has some great photos of butterfly art and some good faux options if you’re interested in putting in a little DIY.

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Before and After: Using store finds

I’m sharing some photos of finds from this weekend and how I’ve seen similar items used. They may not look like much in the store but they can make a major impact.

There were only three of these tennis rackets, but I find them occasionally on hunts.

via theproperstranger.tumblr.com

 I will join any country club with this type of art.

I wanted this federal mirror.

It was a replica. It may have been plastic. However, they can increase your cool quotient significantly.

here

via Better Homes and Gardens

BOOM!

here

Orange built ins? Obviously. Of course, it’s Miles Redd.

I may have wanted this mirror more than the federal one.

I saw it recently on Little Green Notebook.

here

Here is the mirror painted to make a chalkboard.

here

Do I need the mirror? No. Does that stop me? Not always.

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