January Whites

When I was thinking about taking the holiday decorations down and settling into the new year for the new location (which I love by the way), I was thinking about white and snow and lights reflected in that magical winter light. I grew up, for the most influential part of my childhood, in Massena, New York, a small town near the Canadian border where it could start snowing around Halloween and begin a melt down in late April. Now, living in a milder climate for the majority of my adult life, I never seem to get over the longing for this magical snowy existence and beauty.

So after I took the tree down and all the decorations, I decided a snowy existence or a semblance of one, was just what I needed for a transition from holiday to winter. This last Thursday when I was in my front room restocking paint, I heard some young boys walking home from school with a question...."why is that store all white?" I had to laugh. Well, I guess I did get my point across.

I love ambient light in a room and this was a chance to show one of my lampshades that I made and soon will be featured in a class with Annie Sloan's beautiful fabrics!

I love the store at night just when I am ready to shut off the lights and lock the door. I always leave three lamps on so people can peek in and wonder what is there on the shelves and way beyond. I think we all love to walk in our neighborhoods at night and peek into windows to see how people decorate and live their lives.

One discussion I had with my husband and a customer this last week was of past memories. We all recalled when January was a month when all of the department stores featured "white sales", and then in February there were the men's suit sales around the President's birthdays. In March everyone looked forward to appliance sales. I think these indelible memories for many much younger are long forgotten.

We are nearly to another holiday, Valentine's Day. I am hard-pressed to give up my white decor right now, but I may hang a few Valentine hearts somewhere in the shop. For now I am enjoying the imaginary beauty of snowflakes and magical light cast on snow at twilight. There really is nothing more beautiful.

Public and Personal Color

Yesterday I boarded a plane from Portland, Oregon and landed in Washington DC last night. It was still very hot and muggy at 10:00 PM, but fortunately my husband did have power where he lives. Since I am not acclimated to hot weather yet (we are still rainy and cool in Portland), I could not imagine sweltering day and night for the next four days. How spoiled I am.

I had to take a small plane to Seattle in order to catch a flight east. As I was working my way down the escalator to the other terminal, I saw this permanent art display. What would we do without public art in terminals that can seem cold and impersonal? And what would we do without color in our lives? Everyday I think about colors and mixing and experimenting with the Chalk Paint™ decorative paint, but what if we only had Old White and Graphite in the palette? Yes, these are great ones to have, but wouldn't we miss all the other colors that give us so much range and beauty?

And what about the blues....Duck Egg, Aubusson, Greek, Louis, Napoleonic, Provence, Old Violet, and Florence? Just the other day, I had a discussion with a customer in my store about the attributes of the blues in Annie's palette, how beautiful they are and lovely to have in your decorating scheme.

Public Art at the Farmer's Market in LA.

LA Farmer's Market, a fun place to sit.

And now I have one more color to put on the paint card, the newest blue, Florence! I guess I want the world to stay full of color so I can visually feast on it and have it at my disposal anytime I would like to play with it. Explore the richness of color around you!

A Lighter Heart

Last weekend on my two days off, Sunday and Monday, I piled all my furniture in the middle of my store and started to paint every wall a new and cleaner color for spring and summer.

It is funny, but ever since I became a Stockist for Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, I have wanted to go home every night and change every room in my house. I am starting with my shop.

I think one of the most difficult things is deciding on what color to paint a piece of furniture. I have to live with it for a few days and feel the whole gestalt of it before I decide. I am not always right, but most of the time I am feeling a certain mood for the color as you can see in this cabinet. I am going to store lots of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and wax in there as well as brushes and Crackleur and gilding wax.

What seemed to be missing all winter in my shop was a little extra sparkle. I had lights in the window, but on the other wall opposite, it seemed a little dull and boring.

I have tried for the longest time to not bring anything too feminine or romantic into the space, and then one day I just woke up and asked myself why I was not defining this huge part of myself, a hopeless romantic and feminine person. I am giving into the feeling and I love it!

Sometimes you simply have to indulge your senses.

I have lots of new products coming into the shop including furniture hardware and other embellishments.

I am going to use this beautiful wooden violin case for display. I fell in love with the weathered patina and could not resist taking it back to my shop.

Honestly, she needed a good home.

Tomorrow I will be bringing in a whole pile of vintage and antique linens, Victorian Whites and trims, and an assortment of things I bought in France awhile back. I even have a few Fortuny pieces I am finally willing to let go of. Why? I am not sure, but sometimes you cannot covet something forever! I can hardly wait until Annie Sloan comes out with her beautiful line of textiles.

And of course I am continuing to paint lots of things for the shop in my favorite Annie Sloan Chalk Paint colors. Could you ask for a more perfect existence in a world of color and dreams and exploration? I think not.

Thinking About Color and Light

I think that sometimes it is important to look at color and design and not necessarily see the setting or the object, but rather explore the sensory qualities, the emotional appeal it may generate. I also think this experience is entirely unique for each individual because we each come to this vision with our own set of values and criteria and expectations. Think about color and light in a new way, explore the vast possibilities. They are infinite, just like a snowflake.