Bandanamom

Saturday, December 05, 2009

In Honor Of Chrismas - Red & White & Green

retty quickly, my folders start to fill up with more images of rooms I love. So I'll probably continue this series through out the year of sharing them periodically.

Because it's Christmas Time, I'm sharing some of my latest favorites in Red, White & Green:

How much do you love this tile? I mean, it's a completely crazy idea that totally works, if you look closely, it's completely random and there are several different reds with the white - I just don't know if I would dare do it, but I really think it's glorious.

How crazy are you about this? I mean, really, isn't this what we all hope heaven would look like?

Isn't that green totally delish? With the black cabinets and that great oversized diamond black & white tile? It's really, really great.

I'm kind of obsessed with these great mid century modern chairs in all their various styles right now. I love how you don't need very much red to really make a statement, just a couple of things will do.

That view is ridiculous. You could never tear yourself away from it could you? It feels like you're practically living in the clouds.

I'm not sure if I totally get what's going on here? Does this person teach small preschoolers at this table during the day? Elves? Kate Gosselin's house? Well regardless, there is something very charming and awesome about it. And kind of nervy...but it works.

I think if I had one wish for when I remodel my children's bathroom (which will be when it becomes the guest bath, after the children move out) , it would be to do the whole stinking room in these little tiny mosaic tiles - I just love them so much.

I'm really, really into the views right now. I love rooms with big windows. I told Kirk the other day that I would like to knock out the walls in back between the bedroom and family room and the back yard and just have massive window walls. I probably won't really do that, but don't you love this feeling of being both inside and outside at the same time? I love white in a big airy room.

More of those awesome little mosaic tiles. I really think they are to die for.

Friday, December 04, 2009

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas

t's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Along about October I start to kind of dread Christmas - I resent having all the Christmas stuff up in the stores about 2 seconds after all the Halloween Candy is on sale. But once Thanksgiving rolls around, I'm perfectly happy to get into the swing of things.

It will be strange having Holden missing from our Christmas this year - I've never been away from one of my kids at Christmas! It makes me a little teary to think about it too much. I mean who wouldn't miss this kid?

I know I've said it before but he is just fun and funny and there's so much to miss.

I think we'll try to do something really fun but maybe a little unusual for Christmas this year. That's all I'm going to say about that because I think it's going to have something of a surprise element.

I haven't done any Christmas shopping yet. I'm one of those weird people that sort of enjoys the last minute rush. I really think about what I want to get people, narrow it down, weigh the options and then like the last 10 days before Christmas I just try to get it all done. I know some people can't function like that, but I enjoy it.

It's Kirk and my anniversary in December too - this year makes 21 years. Crazy huh? We have decided to maybe take a quick trip to Vegas for like 2 days one weekend. Which is also kind of crazy this time of year, but I think it might be a blast. The deals right now are so awesome! A lot of the hotels are doing a buy 2 nights get the 3rd free right now AND the average price per night for most of them is $50. Are you kidding me?

We're so there.

Last year I did a post on what I wanted for Christmas, and I pretty much got everything I asked for! I don't even know if there's anything I want this year. I think some travel would just be lovely and I am perfectly happy with that as my gift. I think we're doing a trip to Italy this year, and a trip to Colorado, and probably Mexico. I love to travel. It's my favorite thing.

But...if I were to get anything else, these are nice:

I need a new office chair, and I LURVE this Arne Jacobsen chair. The only problem is an original costs upwards of $2,000, and the reproductions are still around $500.

slightly cheaper would be one of these - which I still like a lot. Just not, you know, true love, like the Jacobsen. But sometimes you have to settle. Besides, the Jacobsen isn't really an office chair....and these are around $250.

still...maybe I'll just wait and get the Jacobsen...I just love love love it.

I also really love this jewelry box. Suzanne and I were in Pottery Barn today and I thought these were just super cool. That's a faux leather exterior. And the price isn't bad - $199

Don't you just love these Paloma Picasso Sugar Stack rings?

They look like yummy candy for your fingers. The only problem is that they are pricey for little colorful rings I think. But I do so much love them. ($500-$1500...and of course I always like the $1500 ones the best...)

A cheaper idea is this ring from Etsy that I really do like...($69)

Or, every year I tell my family that if all else fails just get me bubble bath. I don't think people take me seriously when I say that. But for reals. Just a whole ton of Philosophy would make my day.

I also told Kirk a year's worth of car washes would be cool too. I love getting my car done at Danny's but I never want to spend the money on it. So if it was pre-paid, I wouldn't worry about it. :)

Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Further Random Rambling Art Thoughts and Some More Rooms I Love

ore rooms that I love - while I'm thinking about new art for my house, I'm also in a dilemma - I'm pretty much out of wall space! In my new walk in closet I really want at least part of a wall with slotted spaces where I can store some of my artwork and be able to rotate things. Wouldn't that be a cool idea?

You know it really doesn't seem like it was all that long ago that I bought all my artwork at Kmart. But even when I bought my stuff at Kmart, they were Gauguin reproductions. I've always really loved art.

I'm am of the opinion that real art work brings an energy with it - and into your home - that is hard to capture any other way. A lot of people say that they can't afford to buy original art work. If you can afford to get a poster framed, you can afford something original. Not all original art is expensive. When we are down at First Friday, I see cool stuff all the time being sold for next to nothing. There are a lot of young kids just trying to get started who will sell their stuff very cheaply just to get enough money to buy some more paint and a little food. Now granted, most of that art work isn't going to be a long term investment - but you can find cool stuff!

We house sat for a family once who had framed a bunch of their daughters art work - she was probably 10 years old or so at the time she did the artwork - it looked so cool and chic in their beautiful home. Kids usually have this innate sense of art. Generally until they get old enough to worry too much that it doesn't look perfect. I think good abstract painters just never lose that ability to be free with what they paint or they never lose that childlike wonder with texture and color.

(side note, fascinating documentary on this subject is "my kid could paint that" - about a little girl who has an art career that really takes off, but then questions arise during the filming as to whether she is actually able to do these abstracts, or if it is actually her father who is doing them....REALLY worth seeing)

Being a good abstract painter isn't as easy as it seems though. How many times do you hear someone say "my five year old could have done that"? But that's not really true. Have you ever tried to paint an abstract? Well I have - we had an assignment to do that in one of my college courses - I went into that assignment thinking "this should be easy". It was awful. It was hard. It just didn't look right at all. I could not be free enough with what I was doing. And yet, if I tried to just be totally random it didn't have the structure it needed to work. A lot of abstract artists aren't really painting as abstractly as you might think. I have an abstract over my bed that I love. Most people think it's just totally an abstract. But actually, it's an aerial view of a farm. But a good abstract is really pleasing to the eye - you want to look at it, you want to study it and you aren't even sure what you're responding to.

If you really can't wrap your head around a painting - how about at least some cool photography. There are so many cool photos on site's like Etsy (also a good place for art - btw) and Imagekind. Hey! Even some of my artwork is for sale on imagekind! That one peacock photo I did has been really popular. You want to know a secret though? I don't even have any of my own photography in the house. I keep thinking I should at least get that one framed because it got published, but I never get around to it. If I were to buy photography work it would be something like these flickr images by keelyislost - these are so cool:

This whole blog post is kind of a Random Rambling isn't it? Here are a bunch of rooms that I think are awesome for various reasons - often because I love the art work.

Okay that poster is so boss. I love that movie "My Life as A Dog" I made my kids sit through the whole glorious subtitled Swedish gem this summer. They thought they were going to hate it but they loved it

look how much energy this art work adds to this otherwise kind of sedate room! it totally kicks everything up a notch!

what I love here is that you have all this mid-century modern stuff with this sort of classical painting - how great is the juxtapostion?

this is an awesome idea! and really, it could be so inexpensive if you were just always on the look-out for great and colorful plates...

there's no art here, but I do love the texture of that animal pelt on the chair - I am really into that whole fur thing right now, even though I don't have any...but I'm considering how I might incorporate...

this was from one of my magazines...I was loving the color of the couch...what is that? melon? salmon? coral? I really like it, plus I thought the pillows were cool and paired with the artwork above the couch I just thought it was a super warm room that just looks happy as all get out!

I think this is a great idea in a kids room - the cute Barbar artwork? Blowing up the cover of a kids book illustration is a great idea. Kids book illustrations actually have some amazing artwork.

here I just loved how it looked like danish modern and mid century had a child and contempo and indo-european had a child together and their children got married and had a child and it was a lovely.