Artfully

very year for our anniversary Kirk and buy each other a piece of art. It all started one year when we bought these two paintings:


This is "Dante" by Brian Boner. I love so many things about it - I love the skin tones and the way he has painted so much texture into the painting - I love this image of a little boy in his swim trunks - he looks like he is sunburned, which is a common sight around our house at the beginning of summer. I love it because so much of my kids lives have been spent in swim trunks all day. Brian is one of our favorite artists.




This painting above the couch is the "The Wish" - it is a painting of Brian's wife - this painting gives off so much positive energy it's amazing. I just love this and I never get tired of it. It's moved from one wall to another but I would always want this somewhere that I could see it everyday when I left or entered the house. It's just gorgeous painting.

What happened was we went in to buy one painting and we ended up with two because we liked them both so much. I'm not even sure how many years ago that was - but we've bought art for each other every year since.

This year I can't even buy Kirk a painting because he is dead set on getting a painting that possibly doesn't even exist yet and definitely isn't for sale yet. He is kind of obsessed with this artist named Lu Cong. In April there will be a show of Lu Cong's work at the Bonner David gallery in Scottsdale and Kirk is on the waiting list for one of his paintings. Here are some past works of Lu Cong:



This year I am seriously considering getting something from a local artist. Lately I have seen several things at 1st Fridays (or 3rd Fridays) downtown that I really like - So I am thinking about something like this:





These are encaustics by Lisa Sipe - she had a show last month at Eye Lounge and I really love these.

Or maybe:

This image doesn't do this painting justice - Rick Toerne paints in this super poetic way that I have liked for a long time. He shows his stuff at The Longhouse and I have thought about getting a painting by him for quite a while.

Or maybe:



These photos by Jason Koster were in the room next to Lisa Sipe at the Eye Lounge last month and I really, really love them. The thing is the images just really stuck with me. His photographs are so strong. The women all have this internal strength that he manged to capture so well - I have thought about them multiple times since we saw them last month. Normally I don't buy photography - I do like photography a lot but never usually enough to want to own something by someone else. These are different though.


These encaustic are by Christopher Jagmin - his show is this month's show at Eye Lounge. These just have a really great playful quality that I think would make a happy addition to a wall in my house.

But I'm very undecided...

Any thoughts?

Are you only going to do posts on design stuff now? A Thanksgiving Blog...sort of...

(the sunsets have been stunning lately! Well...they always are in AZ, but lately they are just extra great)


Someone asked me if I was trying to turn my blog into a 'design blog' - and my husband asked me "are you sure you want to become a counselor? or do you want to be a designer?".

No, I'm not trying to turn it into a design blog and no I do not want to be a designer. It's more of a hobby. It's just for fun. And I really don't have any other deep thoughts to share right now.

I'm out of anything else to say!

Well...not really.

But Kind of.

My life right now & things I am grateful for (making this a Thanksgiving blog of sorts):

I miss Holden. I miss him at weird times and for weird reasons. I miss our joking around with each other. I miss his impressions of people and inside jokes. But most days it's fine and I am happy he is doing what he is doing.

The other day though I saw this little blonde boy - probably maybe a 6 year old and that REALLY made me miss him - like tear up a little. I surprised myself at that reaction. I think more than anything I miss the idea of having little kids. All of my kids are getting to be grown up. I feel suddenly older than moms with kids who are little. Don't misunderstand - I don't actually miss having little kids. But I miss certain moments of having little kids. And sometimes I look at those moms and I think - "wow...I don't miss that". But sometimes I wonder if they realize how quickly the time will go and they won't be moms with little kids anymore either. I might not have fully appreciated that while it was happening. I've been so blessed with such great kids.

I'm loving my anthropology class. Not that it is super exciting or anything - but it's easy!

I have a surprise vacation possibly in store for the holidays which I am actually pretty excited about but must not reveal at this time!

Every day I just sort of feel like "life is good". You know? Sometimes I have just the tiniest bit of superstition that I should not put that thought out into the universe unchecked. But just honestly, most people I know are pretty darn lucky/blessed.

We still have a lot of projects around this house that I would like to do/plan on accomplishing. Will it ever end? I doubt it.

My kids are at a stage in life where they are pretty darn helpful. I'm so grateful for that.

My husband is a pretty great guy. We are nearing our 21st anniversary! That makes me very happy.

We are surrounded by a lot of great people who make our life rich.

There is so much beauty in the world, isn't there?

It has been a good year, and I'm looking forward to an exciting holiday season!

(there! How's that for a non-design post?)

Orange you glad it's Friday?

range has been a new favorite color of mine this year. When I think of Orange the first thing I think of is an Hermes watch. I would like an orange Hermes watch before I die. But I digress... we are talking about house decor, not Lezlee decor.

Here are some inspiring Orange images - I don't have any orange in my house right now, but I do love it. Especially bright bold orange with white. In my fantasy life I would have a beach house near Carmel California and it would have massive windows and be all orange and white. How's that for a rich and specific fantasy life?

It's Thursday...Time for Trendy Purple

verywhere in design magazines and online design blogs this year you can find an article that says "Purple is the latest decorating trend". Really? I honestly couldn't name one person I know who has a purple room. I mean, maybe a babies room or a little girl or something - but a purple front room? Family room? Master bedroom? Kitchen? I don't know anyone who has that.

To be honest, I think it's probably one of the hardest colors to pull off properly. I think purple easily veers off into Grandma land. Where one might envision a room filled with lilac satin pillows with lace or something.

So I was actually surprised to find that I have saved quite a lot of purple images over the past few months. Oh yeah, and I did this:
So apparently I did have purple on my mind a little. But it seemed easier to pull off outdoors with all the bright light, than it did inside.

Maybe someday I'll try it inside - if it turned out like these images, it might be doable:























(one thing I really love of these is the one with the painted ceiling in the kitchen...that takes courage but it is "to die for" I think)