Becolorful

Motivated Monday #7

It's Motivated Monday.

Did this past week fly by or is it just me?

With only eleven days to go until the Traveling Door sale I am entering manic mode.

I will be in Chicago for three of those days so the manic is rapidly approaching panic.

So my posts might become erratic but please bear with me.

There should be a plethra of projects to share with you.

I am so motivated by what you all showed me last week.

These drapes from Beyond the Screen Door are amazing.

Learning to sew is on my bucket list.

And how does Sunny from Life In Rehab think of this stuff?

Easy, only four dollars and not your run of the millie orange pumpkin.

I liked this mirror so well from Lemon Tree Creations that I ordered the stencil.

I never would have thought to stencil a mirror.

I'm hoping one of these will be in the Traveling Door sale.

Erin Leigh's recipe box also has me inspired.

Hmmmm. Maybe by the spring show. :0

Paisley Passion's mud room solution for the universal issue of where to put shoes is genius.

I looks great and doesn't take up much floor space.

Be sure and check these wonderful blogs out. 

They will definitely get you motivated.

It's that time again.

Bring it on.

Motivate my Monday. I love your ideas.

Timely Words Wall Clock

One of the things I've been working on this week was this Timely Words Clock.

It was a TJ Maxx find in a burnished gold finish.

I opted to change it up and make it a one-of-a-kind beColorful wall clock.

So I painted it black and added these words of wisdom.

Chalk up another project completed for my Traveling Door Sale!

I also finally finished this lazy susan that was giving me some grief.

I like this better.

So glad I decided to redo it.

Back to painting.

Be sure and stop back tomorrow for the Motivated Monday Linky Party.

XOXO,

P

Motivated Monday #6

 

Welcome to the sixth Motivated Monday Link Party.

This is where we inspire each other with remodeling, artsty crafty pieces, photos,recipes, fashion tips, or writing that we want to share.

This is where you can come and shamelessly boast about your creation.

So link up and inspire us all.

Please be kind and link back by including a link or my blog button in your post and comment on other projects you find here because everyone loves to get feedback.

One of my fave's last week was this awesome gift wrapped table.

That's right. Gift wrap!

Be sure and stop by In My Own Style to see how she did this.

Love it.

As for me, I am getting ready for the next Traveling Door sale so I'm in the artsy fartsy mode.

One of the things I have been working on are lazy susan's.

I take a plain spinner like this one from Ikea

and then I sand it to rough it up a bit and paint it a base color.

Then I draw an outline of my plan in a black marker if I want the outline to show in the finished project or a gold pen if I want it to disappear.

Then it is just simple filling in the lines and adding shading.

 

I am definitely influenced by the seasons.

This is a lazy susan I did for the spring show.

 

 

These are two that I finished this week.

One could be used year round.

 

 

I like to put words on things.

Influenced by Sticks, I did a bit of wood burning on this one.

 

 

 

 

The other lazy susan is dressed in holiday flair.

 

 

 

These pieces get two coats of poly to protect them so they can be used functionally or decoratively on a table top, or even in a bathroom or bedroom displaying perfumes or cosmetics.

They could be handy in an office to help organize containers of office supplies.

 it would be useful on the coffee table handling the remotes and popcorn.

I use one in my studio that holds three or four of those little tin buckets you find in the Target dollar aisle. I filled each of the tins with gift tags, scissors, pens, pop dots and the like. There is still plenty of room for the tape dispenser. It is my go to spot when I am ready to wrap a gift.

I was hoping to have a third lazy susan ready for today's post but like so often happens, I painted the base coat, drew on my plan and started painting. I wasn't feeling it. So, and this is the beauty of paint, I painted over the whole thing and I am back to square one.

Always when I have a looming deadline. Argh!!!

Enough of me.

Onto the party.

Linking to Met Monday,  Celebrating Blogland,  Making the World Cuter

DIY Showoff  Skip to My Lou Texas Monkey

 

 

BeColorful's PIllow of the Week # 34 and Houzz

These pillows by Karen HIlton Designs are just so much fun.

I love her edgy style and colors.

I saw them earlier this week and knew right then that they would have to be my feature for Pillow of the Week # 34.

You can find them here.

I also was excited to see this post on Houzz today featuring toss pillows and the school of thought that they are one of the easiest ways to bring color, pattern and personal style into a room.

Be sure to find the time to check out this great segment.

Hope you are having a fabulous weekend

and

don't forget to link up tomorrow to Motivated Monday here at BeColorful.

XOXO,

P

Colorful Clock

 

 

Relish Time-

I am in overdrive now getting ready for the next Traveling Door Sale.

Yes, damn it, I procrastinated again.

I am a really slow learner.

I've got my carry out menu's on my cell phone now.

Oh who am I kidding.

I never cook.

I did make dinner last week though - twice. :)

Thundering applause.

Now that I can see the deadline looming I can be a bit more focused and my projects should be coming through fast and furious for the next couple of weeks.

My latest is this colorful clock.

I almost forgot to take a before picture 

but remembered in the last seconds.

It was pretty dressed in the all white look but I thought it was time to dial up the fun and put the Be Colorful touch on it.

So I painted it in varying shades of pink, orange and green. 

Added some black and gold for pop.

I wasn't sure what I was going to put on the sides when my middle one suggested roman numerals ... and he thinks he isn't creative.

Au contraire. I think his suggestion was very "timely"

So I embellished it with numbers and a quote.

Voila.

Colorful Clock.

 

It looks like there is pink paint on the gold rimmed clock works but trust me,

that's just a funky reflection.

Lucky for me the whole piece came out to make painting  around it easier.

Time is a wasting.

On to the next thing.

XOXO,

P

* So after I posted this my son sent me a message on FB letting me know that the numbers on the clock aren't lined up right. Haha. A quick twist will fix this but I guess I'm so busy looking at my contribution to the piece that I forgot to make sure the clock was in the right position when I put it back in. :)

I like my friend Dharma's suggestion that I leave it that way and say we were drinking. I love her. 

Linking up my quirky creation here:

 

Motivated Monday # 5 and A Lamp To Keep Me Grounded

 

 

Thank your for stopping by the Motivated Monday Blog Party

at BeColorful

There were some spectacular links last week.

Each one brought a little something new and special to the table. 

These were especially noteworthy.

I loved this.

BeWitchin' Shoes Pillow from Just Another Hang Up

 

and who said Halloween had to be all about black and orange?

Life in Rehab shows us her blue twist.

While The Perfect Life of Bliss gave us a real Show Stopper.

I hope you can take the time to be inspired by their creativity.

 

 

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A Lamp To Keep Me Grounded

Last week I posted about jumping off into that abyss/money pit aka my piano room makeover.

I removed everything from the room so that it could be painted.

Now I have to decide what I will be bringing back in

and what needs to be donated, sold, or repurposed.

There are a number of things from this room that aren't meshing with the image for this space that is beginning to form in my head.

Still, there is one thing that, regardless of style, I want to hold on to.

 

About seventeen years or so ago my brother and his new wife were coming to visit us for the first time in our new home.

I was proud of our new place and I was anxious to show it off ...

but just not yet.

You know how it is.

I wanted it to look perfect.

It didn't.

we had more space than we had furniture and my decorating style could best be described as something close to Early Little Tykes.

The worst room of all was the living room.

The windows were naked and the small room was  empty except for a floor lamp, picture and a country blue camel back sofa. 

It was the 90's after all.

When my brother called and said they would be driving through Missouri and wanted to stop by I only had two days to pull everything together.

I started to panic.

How could ever pull the house together in time?

PLUS

 all three of my usually beautiful babies had the chicken pox.

( Before the Chicken Spots )

 

I had only met my sister - in - law a few times.

They lived in Ohio and we lived in Missouri.

Back then I wanted to impress her  make her jealous.

What can I say? I was young.

She was a bit older and I thought much smarter than I was

but I was convinced that I was the one with the with the superior sense of style and the perfect offspring.

Yes, I said it.

So bad.

Now here I was with a half finished house and leper looking kids .

Not how I had played this out in my head.

I was sure that God was punishing me.

Did I mention that I deliberately exposed our kids to the chicken pox?

I did.

I know what kind of mother does that?

Me.

When I heard the next door neighbor kids had the pox

I immediately took the kids over to play with Cool Aid and too few cups.

Hey, to my way of thinking, it was summer.

At least now nobody would miss any school.

There wasn't any big vacation planned.

This was perfect.

If we could get this crud out of the way now,

it wouldn't interfere with Christmas or spring break.

I was actually feeling pretty smug about myself.

I just didn't plan on company.

Especially THIS company.

I'm not going to lie,

it did cross my mind to pack my scabby and cranky children into the car and head to the nearest mall to find something new to spruce up, update, or accessorize our home.

Yes, I am just that shallow but no I didn't do it - although towards the end of our week long home incarceration I did sneak them into a movie.

Hey, I was losing my mind okay? and we try and sit off by ourselves.

Anyway,

I decided I would have to shop the house.

I pulled some pieces from other rooms, robbing Peter to pay Paul.

It was looking better.

Next I grabbed this ginger jar lamp that I found buried in the basement cast offs.

It was brown and antique brass and the shade had a dent on one side which for now could be turned toward the wall.

I spray painted the lamp black while the kids were all down for what may have been a Dimetapp induced nap. :)

Oh come on. You know you've done it too.

Then, inspired by some patterns in a crewel book I had brought home from the library,

I went to town painting it.

It was my first redo.

Look at me.

I was creatively going green before it was even cool.

I'm not sure what my sister in law thought of it.

She never said.

Now it doesn't really matter.

I still have the superior sense of style and so far nobody is preggers or in jail.

Ah growth.

Seriously though.

I've learned by now to do things that please us and not to impress others.

Looking at this lamp reminds me of that and of a  time in our lives when money was pretty scarce.

I never want to forget those leaner days or to take for granted where we are now.

The road ahead is always unpredictable. 

You will be happy to know that the kids recovered nicely.

Our bank account is also healthier today than it was back then.

Another up side to growing older.

Much has changed since then.

Seventeen years later, though, and the lamp is still here keeping me grounded.

I've learned that even though I could go out and buy a new lamp today

that sometimes,

I don't need to.

Maybe what I need is right here in front of me just waiting for me to rethink it, repurpose it, or change it up with a fresh coat of paint.

 

Thanks for listening.

I hope you will link up your latest creations, renovations, and inspirations with me here.

Give yourself a shout out and Motivate me.

XOXO,

P

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pillow of the Week # 33 An October Accent From the Z

Isn't is fabulous?

An orange petal mania.

She would make such a fun autumn addition to any room.

Where to find it?

Why Z Gallerie of course.

You can buy it here.

Becolorful Living Room Step 2

Yesterday I showed you my copper ceiling and creamy white walls.

That was my first step into my living room madness.

I kind of jumped off here without a real plan in my head.

I just know when I like something

and when I don't

I knew I was over what had been here and it was time for a change.

 

 

We actually don't call this the living room.

For years it has been the piano room.

It is not an area where we spend a lot of time.

Piano Room sounds kind of hoity toity.

I don't want to leave you with the wrong impression.

For those of you that think I sit here and play the piano for hours at a time

while sipping Pinot Grigio 

or that I am some kind of cultured and refined type person ...

well let's just say

you would be wrong.

( well except for the wine part - and often times martinis)

I do love the piano but haven't really sat down to play for at least two weeks.

I have too many things I like to do.

I will never ever be bored.

Perhaps it really is Adult Attention Deficit.

I digress.

:)

Anyway, now that I had step one behind me I was ready for step two.

 

Step two was installed today.

 

 

 

I know this is an unorthodox way of doing things.

Selecting the drapes first probably doesn't make a lot of sense.

In the beginning, though, I thought that if I changed the walls and the drapes I would be happy.

It isn't working out that way.

Once I made these changes 

I knew that my old furniture, rugs and accessories really weren't going to fly with the room vibe I was going for.

So for now I have a room with a piano, new paint and new window treatments.

 

They look silky in the photos but this is the fabric - more of a woven pattern.

 

I do love how they puddle on the floor.

 

 

We did have to allow for the radiators under the front windows and do those two windows in a sill length.

Just another decorating challenge that comes with an old house.

 

 

Once the fireplace is flanked by a couple of oversized chairs I am confident that this little flaw will become much less obvious.

I also like that we took the window treatment above the windows to give the illusion of more height -

especially since we had opted for a darker ceiling.

 

Somehow we were short one set of drapery rings so they weren't able to hang the last panel today. 

That's okay.

I'm not in any real hurry.

I don't have any furniture now anyway.

The red rug will eventually be leaving too.

I'm thinking an animal print or maybe a quatrefoil or a stripe.

What do you think?

In the mean time

I am taking the minimalist look to the extreme.

Tomorrow I will decide what can come back in

and what needs to find a new home.

Then my next goal will be

to find a sofa.

XOXO,

P

 

Linking up here. I hope you will join me.

Holy Mess

Oh good Lord.

What have I done now?

I've made a holy mess of my living room.

Do you remember it?

It looked like this.

Circa 1810.

 

 

I'll admit it.

There was a time when I LOVED this room.

It was everything I wanted it to be.

I can't remember when that was exactly but I know that I did.

I've moved on.

My room didn't.

 

I tried making little tweaks so people wouldn't think I was stuck in a time warp.

 

 

It wasn't enough.

Two months I took a leap of faith and ordered new draperies.

Ten days ago the big guy helped me take down the the old ones.

Originally I was going to store them because I spent so much money on them.

The more I thought about it, though,the more that just didn't make sense.

Looking at them just makes me feel bad about myself.

Sometimes you just have to take the hit and let go.

I'm letting go.

I decided I would like to donate them to TCR - our community theater that was devastated by the 2008 floods.

They lost so much and maybe this is an opportunity for us to give back.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was thinking about painting the ceiling a color to draw attention to the  interesting woodwork.

So when the painter came Monday he painted the ceiling a metallic copper.

 

 Then took the walls back to a whiter shade of pale.

You know when Becolorful goes with off white walls that she has been influenced by the decorating blogs.

I haven't lost my sense of color.

There will always be color in my house.

I'm just rethinking where it will come from.

I like the casual slip covered look but after a lot of thought maybe that look would be better suited for the family room.

 

I am kind of leaning towards a more of a sophisticated casual look.

Therein lies the rub.

The furniture I took out of here -

I don't want to bring it back.

So for now it is stacked up in the library.

The only thing I know for sure that I want to keep is the piano.

What have I done?

I feel like I have let the decorating beast out of it's cage and now I'm wondering how to tame it.

I really don't want to spend a lot of money in this room.

This big old rambler of ours all of a sudden has too many needs.

We will have been here thirteen years in December.

It took me probably eight years to get the house where I wanted it.

Now it is time to start over.

I'm freaking out a bit here -

and if I'm freaking out you can imagine what the big guy is thinking. :) 

We've already had the "we're going into the slow season" talk.

Why do I always want to tackle these projects when we are going into winter?

So, needless to say, I want to keep my investment here small

but I want it to look rich.

I loved this.

Can I do it?

 

I'm hoping that maybe a more casual feel will make it more welcoming space and I have even given some thought to looking for a bar cabinet.

Instead of calling it the piano room we could call it the piano bar.

  :)

 

That fireplace might be pretty painted.

It is the original mantel. 

Over the decades it has been painted, antiqued and then stripped and refinished.

It's pretty but it is also pretty boring.

The rug just isn't working for me anymore.

The red damask wingback chairs have already left for the consignment shop.

What will we sit on?

I'm beginning to wonder if I should have just left well enough alone

Dearest readers, I'm going to need your advice.

Please don't desert me now as I morph into a raving crazed decor diva wanna be. :)

Bar. 

Yes.

I think we need a bar.

This decorator could use a cocktail.

The draperies come tomorrow.

I'll be sure to share some pictures.

XOXO,

P

Linking here and hoping for some great ideas.

 

 

It's That Time: Motivated Monday and Pillow of the Week # 32

 

I finally finished pulling together my fall flair for the house

and now it is already time to add the Halloween touches.

I can't wait to see Carlotta again. ( My Halloween purchase from last year).

I also thought this Alfred Hitchcock The Birds Pillow was an interesting take on Halloween accents.

I love that it is blue and not the traditional black and orange.

You can find it here.

I hope you will link up your fall or Halloween decor ideas to inspire me as I get ready to add one more layer to my October look here at home.

You know how it works:

1. please link your blog post not your home page.

2. please link back by copying and pasting the Motivated Monday button in your post or sidebar.

So be a dear,

let 'er rip and show your inspired side.

:)

XOXO,

P

 

 

Welcoming Autumn at Linden

 

Dear Autumn,

Welcome to our Linden House.

Today I decided to let the images speak for themselves.

I really didn't change it up a lot from last year.

So in the spirit of keeping it simple, this is my nod to fall 2010.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers and have a fabulous fall weekend.

Stop by Sunday evening to link up to Motivated Monday.

Show me YOUR fall flair.

You never fail to inspire me.

xoxo,

P

Linking up this post here:

 

 

Fall Flair or What Happened to My Post?

 

I wrote this post two days ago.

On my end everything looked normal.

Then I started to get some strange comments.

It seems there was something wacky with the font.

Some people were receiving it as it looked on my computer 

and others thought it might be in Arabic ???

I have no idea what that was all about.

Has anybody else ever had that happen?

No matter how I loaded it. 

It looked perfectly normal here.

Crazy.

Anyway, here it is again. 

Hopefully it flies right this time.

 

 

It's taken me two weeks to get my fall flair pulled together this year.

I really can't say why I've been so distracted.

 Too many projects at once I guess.

I didn't do anything dramatically different this year.

I did decide to use leopard print this time as my cohesive element 

to go with the canvas I painted for this space earlier this spring.

 

So I added a little leopard ribbon on the pumpkins and a couple leopard print plates.

 

 

 

 

I started out using more votives but decided it was a bit busy

and I didn't like the two different colors.

 

After I had blown out the candles I played with it some more.

 

I didn't bother to relight the candles for the picture but I think I like it a bit more open under the canvas.

What do you think?

I've lost the best light for taking pictures so I will be back tomorrow with the rest of my Fall Flair.

Until then,

XOXO,

P