The Next Mood Board Monday: Etsy Artwork

Hello! So sorry it has taken me two months into 2012 to get the next Mood Board Monday party going! I've been wanting to do this particular one for a long time, but just couldn't get my act together until now. Ladies and ladies (seriously, are there any gents that read this?), I bring you Mood Board Monday: Etsy Artwork!!! (Let's do the actual linky party on Monday, March 12th. Ok?!)

Art is such a great jumping off point for a room. And where better to find tons of beautiful original art than etsy? I wanted to give you different types of media to choose from...so here's three amazing works by three really talented artists...a photograph, a painting and an illustration. Choose one of these as your inspiration and design a room around it:)

Remember, Mood Board Monday is all about seeing how different people are inspired differently by the same things. There's no budget, no real client (unless you want to really challenge yourself), no limits.

1. "Romance of Fall" by photographer Carl Christensen

{Carl lives in southeastern PA right near where I grew up. His stunning fine art photographs of the surrounding areas remind me so much of home. Check out his Bucks County Collection for some charming, beautiful scenes. Here's Carl's website, Integrity Studio,and blog.}

2. "Live Colorfully" by Him & Her Abstract Art

{You guys most definitely know this husband and wife team already..."Her" is the lovely and talented Camila of the blog "Effortless Style". Camila is known for her brilliant use of color and pattern and for writing the always fascinating and inspiring series "In Her Shoes". Apparently her hubster has his own talent, he's the artist behind this beauty.}

3. Bird Art Community Tree by Cori Dantini/etsy seller corid

{Cori is the perfect example of an etsy success story. She started out selling her art at craft shows, opened up an etsy shop about 4 years ago, and is now a more-than-full-time artist who just started licensing her work...while her husband stays home with her son! Here's her blog: Cori Dantini makes}

Completely awesome, right???!!! For anyone unfamiliar with the concept of the Mood Board Monday McLinky party, here's the general idea (we would love to see some new faces and hopefully lots of you back from previous parties):

1. This is a fun way to share all of the creativity out there and showcase how we can all start from one inspiration point and end up with a variety of ideas.
2. To be a participant, you need to create a complete mood board for any room using one of the three pieces of etsy art shown here.
3. On Mood Board Monday party day (Monday, March 12th in this case), come back here to link up to the party. You will need to include your sources in your post and give a brief description of the room and how you used the inspiration art.

Thanks so much! Can't wait to see what you guys do with these. Hope you are as excited about this as I am...it might be the first MBM party where I have actual trouble deciding which inspiration to go with - the choices are just too good:)

Ps. If anyone has any ideas for future Mood Board Monday party categories, just let me know!

Pps. Check out our previous Mood Board Monday Linky parties here: MBM01, MBM02, MBM03, MBM04, MBM05, MBM06, MBM07, MBM08, MBM09, MBM10 and MBM11.

Kitchen Update: Gallery Wall

Happy Valentine's Day, you guys!

I finally hung the gallery wall in our kitchen that I first posted about back in November. I'm loving it, it makes such a difference in the room!

{after}

Before this wall just held 4 blank canvases wrapped in patterned paper from Paper Source. Nothing spectacular, but they added color and some fun to the kitchen when we first moved in. I wanted to take more advantage of the space though and go for some things that were a bit more sentimental or at least more indicative of our style now.

{way before...the floors are now dark walnut and there's a little white kid's table with black chairs for Maura at the end of the island!}

{after}

So I collected some artwork, downloaded and printed some free stuff from the web, framed some postcards...and I got me the beginnings of a gallery wall:)

I chose black frames (after holding up white ones too and deciding I liked the contrast against all those white cabinets) and clustered them fairly close together so that I can add more as time goes on. I will admit that I finally tried the whole cutting-out-random-paper-the-exact-same-size-as-each-frame-and-taping-them-on-the-wall-first/template thing and it made the hanging of all the actual frames so much easier!!

Here's some sources/what everything is:



No. 1: Original watercolor painting of two hens (Sheila and Betty) by artist Alison Fennell (Eastwitching on etsy) that I won at the Give Hope Adoption Auction over at The Wayman Family Nest earlier this year. Read all about it here. I love these hens!!




No. 2: Super cute owl illustration that I downloaded and printed from Katie Moon, the wonder behind oohmoon.com..she created and offered a free illustration every day for an entire year!!! Now that the 365 days/illustrations are over, you can buy them for a couple bucks each...all kinds of awesome over there:)



Nos. 3 and 4: Kerry Transport and Gallerus Oratory by Irish artist June McIntyre (prints from an original batik and silk painting respectively). Purchased these at her gallery in Dingle while in Ireland in 2007 with Paul and my sister. I love the idea of buying original works of art or other local home decor items from our travels instead of little silly souvenirs.



Nos. 5 and 6: Fort Point and Crissy Field postcards from my trip to San Francisco this past summer with my sister. They were too small to fill these 5 x 7 frames, so I just mounted them on coordinating colored card stock for a fun pop of color border.



No. 7: Love this sweet saying...a free printable download from Joni over at Lay Baby Lay (there's a blue one as well for boys).



Maura really likes this new wall too. Because everything is a recognizable object now instead of a pattern, she walks by here and points out each of the birds, makes "bock bock bock" and "hoo hoo" sounds, says "baby" for the little silhouette. Its an educations gallery wall too:)

Living Room Update: New Throw and Painted Mats

I've never been totally happy with our living room. I'm currently trying to get rid of as much of the yellow/gold tones in here that I can, along with adding more cool colors...which is hard with a caramel colored sofa, gold fabric roller shades and a rug that has more yellow in it than expected when I purchased it. I was hoping some quick, small fixes would at least be a step in the right direction.

{after}

Here's a before of the little sofa corner of the room. Remaining untouched or in place: the couch, the 4 beveled mirrors (from Michaels a long time ago), the cream and taupe crewel floral pillows from Pottery Barn. I like these two botanical prints that I nabbed at HomeGoods, but the outer, buttery yellow mats have always bugged me. They're only helping to add to that "too many warm tones" in here. Love this wool blanket from Ireland that my mother-in-law gave us, but I can use it and enjoy it in another room in the house.

{before}

Here's the same spot after. One of my favorite colors is that lovely shade between blue and green and grey...I want to incorporate that more around the house. So I asked for this Grand Chenille Throw in Blue Smoke from Pottery Barn for Christmas. (It's super soft, but in person is just a touch more on the green side of blue than it reads in the catalog or online.) To add another layer and even more color here (that's not gold!), I moved my olive green chevron pillows (from etsy seller milk and cookies) over from their usual spots on the leather club chairs that face this sofa. (Now I want to find new throw pillows for the chairs in a pattern than incorporates both this sea foam/robin's egg blue and green - domino effect!)
.

{after}

Then, because those pale yellow mats on the botanical prints were bugging me so much, I did something slightly crazy. Painted them white! This was not expensive, treasured art...there's not even glass in them, so I wasn't worried about screwing them up by accident. Figured what did I have to lose?


Taped up the frames so I wouldn't get paint on them and just went to town with a brush (I normally use for trim or cutting in) and some random flat white paint. I used a little artist brush to do the inner border where the yellow mats meet the artwork (that green border). I did two light coats and they turned out totally fine. You can only see the brush strokes if you look up close and then it sort of just has a textured mat appearance to it.

{in progress}

I'm definitely a lot more happy with this part of the room after these quick changes. And I like how it's looking with the rug. Heads up, it doesn't look like this often. This is where Maura likes to read and color and play behind the cushions. Oh well:)

Maura's Nursery in Baby Lifestyles Ezine

Have you guys heard of the site Baby Lifestyles? It's a great go-to place for everything baby - from real nurseries and baby showers to maternity and newborn photography sessions. You can even get your fix of the latest celebrity pregnancies, births and crazy baby names!

Totally flattering - Maura's nursery is featured in the February/March issue of the Baby Lifestyle Magazine (an ezine...pages 69-73) which just came out yesterday. So honored to be included among some killer real nurseries...not quite sure how we made it in 'cause these are seriously gorgeous...check them (and the rest of the magazine) out!

• baby Charlotte's nursery by Kristine of The Painted Hive (I've always loved this blog!)

• little Alice's nursery by Christine of Just Bella (a new-to-me blog, but I'm so there!)

• baby Sloan's nursery by Nicole of Nicole Faby Photography
  

Lovin'....

As we get ready to head into February (say what?), here are a couple of things I've recently dog-eared in catalogs or eye-balled in storefronts:)

From Ballard Designs:

{Crawford 5 Light Chandelier}

{Paulette Server...set of 3 shown}

{Alhambra Rug...in grey or brown}

{Julian Apothecary Floor Lamp...in Antique Brass, ORB, or Aged Silver}

From West Elm:

{the Hand-Blocked Silk Paisley Cover and the Hand-Blocked Silk Casablanca Pillow Cover}

{Modernist Serving Bowls and Mugs}

From Pottery Barn:

{Jaquelyne Lidded Barrel Basket}

{Baluster Table Lamp}

What have you guys been loving lately from main stream sources? Anybody else have a birthday coming up in February? (I'm going to be 35!)

Winter Vignettes: Mantel

Hello! Our mantel this time round is really different than I usually do. For starters, I actually took down the mirror I always have up there and started fresh!!! (For all mantel decor over the last 5 years, I have just left the silver mirror in the center and added things to either side. This time I got rid of it completely!!) This set up also seems a bit more modern/bold/eclectic/asymmetrical than normal for me...and I'm diggin' it.


Started off with these huge, thick, rustic grey metal frames from Crate and Barrel (the Berwyn)...love 'em - they make a great focal point in the center. Little old lazy me even went so far as to hang one up, floating just a couple of inches above the mantel (but low enough so that once I put the big mirror back you won't see the new hole). I had two of these Brushed Silver shadow boxy frames with white mats (also from C&B) and thought they added some nice contrast, and lightness, to the sides.

{sidenote..I did not actually buy these frames, there are just certain advantages to having a husband in the frame business!...and no, I'm not being endorsed by Crate and Barrel to write this post either - ha! I've always wanted to say that!!}

Then I ran around the house trying to figure out what I could put in the frames. I really like the colors in this Physical Map of the Pacific Ocean (a page cut out from an old atlas I have). And I still had an antique fish print lying around from when I framed a bunch for our foyer. Ooops, did not mean to start too much of a nautical thing going on here...its a WINTER mantel!


The large brushed silver frame got another page from my 2011 Paper Source Wall Calendar and in the small square frame I mounted an old skeleton key I bought in Providence while on a blog date with Carrie (Hazardous Design) and Casey (loft & cottage) onto some fabric I used at Maura's 1st birthday party!


Next up I wanted to add some layers/different shapes, so I brought out some of my letter "P" collection (for our last name). The big black metal P is from a local home decor shop, the lighter silver zinc P is from Anthropologie and the cute little backwards P is a wood letterpress type block that I scored at Brimfield. (Both the Anthro P and the wood P are stuck on the wall using 3M adhesive mounting squares.)


Last but not least, I thought the space under the big hanging gray frame needed something, so I broke out my cute, little, old clear glass apothecary bottles (also from Brimfield).


So that will about do it for all the new little "winter" bits around here (if you missed them, check out vignettes 1 and 2 here and here)...now I can sit back and not have to touch these spots until spring! (And maybe I can try to actually get one thing done from our 2012 to-do list!) Thanks for following along, guys!


PS. I'm linking up to Suzy's House Party Thursday over at Saved by Suzy:)

Winter Vignettes: Family Room Ledge Shelves

Thanks for your super nice comments on the foyer bookcase for winter! This winter vignette (the ledge shelves in the family room above our coach) is a lot more colorful and seasonally specific. Hope you like:)


I started out this little grouping with something extremely nostalgic. My good friend Jen (she lived 2 houses up from me growing up and is now a super successful architect and furniture designer in NYC) and I did this paint-by-number together when we were probably about 12 (yes, like we were both simultaneously filling in different colors). We were always coming up with some crazy craft project to work on...all while we sported side ponytails and more than one pair of colorful slouch socks at a time. I've held on to the "painting" and have wanted to put it up somewhere for awhile. There's no specific Christmas references anywhere in it, so I think its just a nice late fall/winter scene and seemed perfect for here.


Next I swapped out the holly botanical print that was in this large frame (it used to be black but I painted it white awhile back) from our Christmas decor with the December page from my 2011 Paper Source wall art calendar (I just got the 2012 one for Christmas and there are a ton of great prints to use later). Love the bold, graphic nature of this snowy forest scene, especially that little red bird.


To balance things out on the right, I thought I needed some more warm tones, so I grabbed a couple of old books with red/orange/brown covers. One of my lucky #13 Ball mason jars (from Brimfield, I now own three) and 2 little apothecary jars in that beautiful aqua color (that I got at a flea market in the parking lot of our supermarket!!!) were just the right size and color to finish things off.



Stay tuned next week for our winter mantel. I'm really excited about this one, its definitely different than what I usually do. Have a great weekend!