It is all how you look at it...

Hello!

In case you have never met my little Monty, allow me to introduce you now. I shot this photo of him in my studio several years ago when I was actually using this pedestal to place products on for a product photo shoot. He was sunning himself in the sunshine, next to my foot all afternoon. I only use natural light and as you can see by the bright light on the pedestal, it was a warm day. After a while, he was tired of being ignored, so he got up and put his paws up on the pedestal (and almost knocked it over) and wanted me to lift him up! I lifted the little porker up and he sat just as you see him right now. I did not pose him. He wanted me to pay attention to him...he was tired of me taking pictures of boring soaps, candles and buttons. He just sat and sat and wanted me to snap away, admire him,  pet him and tell him how wonderful he was. When he had his fill, I let him down, and he went right back to leaning against my foot, snoozing in the sun. To be honest, I worked so hard and long in those days, that I would have never thought to have stopped to wake him and lift him up and take photos of him because I was always on a deadline. And now when I see this photo, I almost tear up because I miss him so much and how happy I am that he "made" me pay attention to him. How I love this photo and the memory that goes with it. He is now snoozing in the warm Texas sun with his Daddy and puggy sister, Lulu. But we have joint custody, so I get to see him whenever I want and can. :-)

I wanted you to meet Monty because he is so sweet and even if you aren't a dog lover, you can't help but smile when you see him. I just loved having his sweetness in my house and sometimes, that is how we home owners feel about our home...we crave a sweetness that doesn't always have the word "Hershey's" printed somewhere on it. And as a designer, it is my job to figure out what exactly is that "sweetness" that the owner wants to feel or be around while living in their home. It could be a special chair, a fab fridge to house great dinners, painted floors, an antique mirror, or in this one home owner's case, it is fabric. Lots of it. It is the sweetness of delicate fabric, silks in delicate pinks and pale, pale ivories mixed with just a hint of blue that satisfies this owner's craving. 

Yes, before time gets away from me, I wanted to post a few photos of the lovely home that I had worked on for this romantic-at-heart owner. The hearth room drapes are now up and from the photos you can see the owner is still moving in. She owns her own business and works very long hours so moving in takes quite a while, but you can see what a beautiful home it is becoming! Enjoy the photos and soon will be photos of the custom bedding I designed for her master bedroom. I posted her home earlier on the drapes in her living room and in her bathroom which you can revisit again here.

So, in the mean time, here are the sweet drapes for a very sweet and romantic home owner:

The Austrian shades are made from taffeta silk with interlining. There is a ton of yardage to get this look, but it is worth it. It looks heavenly in person! To get an idea of the huge size of the window, look at the sofa closely and realize that you are looking at a full-size sofa and then look up at the size of the window. That will give you an idea of the size of the window and the amount of fabric needed to get this look and feel!

She also wanted some pillows made for her sofas in her living room. Below are the custom pillows I designed with silks, pearls, tassels...very romantic, soft, and very sweet. Just as she wanted. Just a hint of color and very tone on tone. I wish you could have seen her smile when I brought them to her. Designing to please the client's taste is what makes my job so very rewarding. And when you get to work with such a beautiful home and a beautiful home owner...all the better!

I hope you enjoyed my little sweet tour and maybe this helped curb a little craving for now. Stay tuned for more. In the mean time, why don't you take a look around your home and if you haven't figured out what is missing, or maybe you just need an extra dose of sweetness, don't wait until Valentine's Day to add that sweetness to your home....do it today. Maybe it is just a simple, elegant book on your coffee table that you really love to look at now and again. Or, a special sconce you've been meaning to hang in the hallway. Something as simple as playing great music in your home more often can add sweetness to your life. Or even as simple (and free) as a kiss for the love of your life when he or she gets home tonight.  That will be sweet for the both of you...and it is calorie-free!

From my house to your house,

My Latest Cyber "Refrigerator" Creation!

Welcome back to the "after" photos of the gorgeous home that I showed you a little earlier. If you remember, I showed you a home with huge windows in need of a little dressing. The owner (and friend) is a true romantic who wanted opulence without stuffiness and her request to me was, "Elizabeth, I want my bedding to remind me of a wedding dress and the drapes to feel like ball gowns...."

When this project began, the home had some construction issues that required the owner to vacate and move out while the floors were being completely replaced along with all the trim around the windows!  Many months later, we finally got to install the drapes. These "after photos" show the drapes, but note the home is not completely unpacked yet. Shelves are still empty, walls still bare and the owner is still unpacking her boxes....but once we put up the drapes, she immediately said so happily, "Now finally, it is feeling like home!"

Nothing makes me happier than to see a house turn into a home. And even though this owner has many boxes to unpack and lots of shelves and walls to fill, the softness of the silky fabrics that hang so casually instantly provide what I like to call "livable elegance."

Please enjoy the photos and while most of us don't (well, at least I don't ) get to live in such a lavish home; this home, I assure you, is filled with the kind of love and friendliness that the little ole' cottage homes we so often think of when we think of "comforts of home." This lavished home is lavished with love!

Before: The family room while unpacking

After: The family room:

These drapes are actually two panels. The top is tied to the bottom. I had lots and lots of inter lining sewn in to produced a heavy, lush feel to such a fine fabrics. I  love the height of the windows! The challenge was to design a drape that would only soften the edges of the windows, compliment them, and allow the windows to remain the centerpiece. 

The above photo you can see how the two drapes are tied together. Below is a photo taken from the balcony. I am designing pillows for the sofas and once she is unpacked and art is on the wall....the room will be spectacular!

I love puddling. I like this view because it does remind me of "Gone With the Wind" ball gowns of ladies dancing in a row in a ballroom. This design is not practical if you have pets or small children (the owner has neither). For those who do have children or pets, I would design it similar, but have a few tricks that make it more practical.

Before: Hallway window

After: Window with silk drapes and tiebacks 

I love the photo below. The puddling reminds me of a beautiful ball gown skirt.

Below is the hallway that has the beautiful window above. And at the end of the hallway is the master bathroom. I am standing in the bedroom taking this photo. Can you imagine getting out of bed and looking down this hallway every morning and passing the beautiful window on the left as you make your way down to take a bath?

Below: The before photo of the main window in the bath

After: I designed Austrian shades for the master bath. Doesn't it look like whipped cream on a wedding cake? My friend Debbie, who came with me on a visit to this home, is the one who said, "Oh, that shade looks like frosting on a wedding cake!" And now, every time I see it, I do get a sugar craving, and that isn't a joke! So the wedding and ballroom theme continues even into the bathroom... :-)

Before: The bedroom window and study:

After: More silk, more Austrian shades, more elegance!

Now you may notice that you can see the corner of the bed, but no bedding....that is because I am saving it for another post! Yes, you will have to wait. Actually, we are making a few adjustments to it and I was excited to get the photos out and I didn't want to wait for the adjustments. So, I will have them out later. Maybe I will have the pillows for the sofa done by then as well and you can see those if finished. I hope you enjoyed the peek. Once the home is completed I will be taking more professional shots of the complete home - you should see the kitchen, the upstairs bath, and the sitting room! I will be taking lots of photos of this home in the future. You haven't even seen the study yet.

And now I save the best for last....I want to thank Maureen - the miracle seamstress who can take my designs and figure out all my drawings and my math and make it all work out. She is truly talented and patient and a joy to work with. Her son, Andrew, helped her install the drapes and he is definitely a pro as well. Can you even begin to imagine how many yards and yards of material that was required? I am talking about the fabric you see, the fabric inside to fill it out and the lining behind the fabric.  Anyone want to guess?

(If you guessed less than 175 yards you guessed too  little.)

Thank you for allowing me to put my art on the "cyber refrigerator" as I like to say. I think that is what we artist use blogs for anyway. I mean, think about it. As a child, what do we do when we create a drawing? We show it to mom or dad and they show it off  by putting it on the fridge with a magnet. Now, we are all grown up and no longer do we really hand our "art" over to mom to hang on the fridge and unless we have a gallery (which is just another giant refrigerator), we now post our art in cyber space on our own refrigerator, aka "blog." And our magnet is our posting for all the "moms and dads" out there to see our work and clap for us! And actually, there is nothing wrong with that. I hope we adults never grow too old to clap for one another. And I definitely hope we never grow too old (or too proud) to be willing to put something out there for someone else to clap for in the first place. You know why? 

It's called encouragement. And it is called inspiration.

Too often we are so quick to evaluate, criticize, and basically shrug off others' endeavors especially when they have no particular meaning to our own lives. Sometimes we don't even realize we are doing it. And sometimes, our society is very purposeful and mean in doing it. Just pick up a Hollywood tabloid and read who gained 10 pounds (gasp!) or who wore the wrong shoes to an event, or who "needs" an eye job? 

Our culture takes great, great joy in knocking down others and seeing others fail...why else would the ratings for American Idol's early season shows be so high? We love to see (unfortunately) which poor slob is going to get slammed by Simon. Or other "reality" shows that vote "losers" off the show...our culture gets great pleasure at the expense of other people's pain. I seriously doubt there would be a reality show that would make it past one season with the theme of  encouraging others to excel and exceed, now would there? I kind of like that theme for show: Encourage! Excel! Exceed! The show would have teams in which life tasks are to be performed and there are no losers - the teams are assigned to shelters and which ever team can encourage a member from the shelter to excel and exceed at life and get that person's life back on track again - that team is the winner. And actually - everyone is a winner.

And that is how I see all of our "refrigerator" blogs out there. We all like to show what we are doing and if we feel like "clapping" for the other, then we do and we offer encouragement. And it always feels good to be encouraged. It always feels good to feel like you have someone on your side. And what a bonus when you find out that what you put up on your refrigerator becomes an inspiration for someone else as well!

So, thank you for visiting with me and I do so much enjoy sharing with you. Because there are so many others that have such wiser things to say than I, I like to usually close with a quote from one of those wiser folks:

"We are what we believe we are" Benjamin N. Cardozo

From my house to your house,

Elizabeth