Happy Valentines Day! This is one of my favorite holidays.
I love being in love and expressing my love to my sons and
my hubby and even though I will admit to you (shhhhh)
that I didn't buy hub's card until this morning (day of)
I think of it as a day to try to be especially romantic and loving.
My birthday is the day after Valentines so its usually a
double whammy of flowers and cards and sometimes dinners out
and gifts, so it brightens up this winter month quite a bit.
My birthday gift is a new pair of boots! Floral and girly,
these Doc Martens arrived yesterday and today they are on my feet!
I wore them out to get hubs a card at the supermarket while
I picked up blizzard supplies (yes its happening again).
They are so comfy and cute!
I was tagged on instagram to take a "selfie" and
post under #20beautifulwomen by a lovely lady who shops at my store
and is quite stylish and beautiful. Instagram is a thing you do with your phone,
you take pics and upload them under your account and its
a visual sharing communication platform that I have been enjoying quite a bit.
Its quick and easy, so these days that works for me.
At any rate, when I clicked over to see who is on the #20beautifulwomen page,
its mostly young women...really YOUNG women.
Now it was my turn to tag beautiful women I know,
and I tagged a few beauties that have the "experience and wisdom" in their corner.
Beauty is not only for the young. Getting older and aging gracefully
is upon me in full force, and with my birthday tomorrow,
I am embracing my age more than ever. Or trying to.
Its hard to love wrinkles and sagging, but its wonderful to be
healthy and alive and in love. So if you are in my age bracket give or take,
embrace your beauty, your lovely inner beauty, your confidence,
your wisdom and all that you have gained through your many years thus far.
Lets gang up and make it AWESOME to be older and
beautiful, wrinkles and greys and those few extra pounds!
And if you have youth on your side, be kind to yourself. I know you will
wish you had that figure you find hard to love right now.
Yesterday I hosted a Creative Stenciling workshop at Maison Decor.
It was more about being creative than just plain stenciling.
Thinking outside the norm and taking a stencil, or two
or three and layering them to create beautiful treatments
for walls or even furniture.
Cupcakes were just because.
They look pretty sitting on our wall boards don't they?
The thing I learned from Annie Sloan three years ago,
was to use a foam roller to do stenciling. And the other thing Annie taught
me was to use two colors at the same time in the paint tray.
Side by side put a blob of one color and right next to it add another blob.
Then run your roller through it and stencil so you get two colors
showing at once in a very muted and lovely fashion.
This was Graphite with Paris Grey. See how it fades in and out?
There are highlights of metallic but you can just use the two colors
and then finish by layering even more with dry brushing over the entire thing.
This was done with Scandinavian Pink and Coco.
Finished with a dry brush and wash. In other words,
layer your pieces....and get these lovely finishes.
We practiced on brown paper first to get a feel for the "touch"
and to learn not to have too much paint on our roller or
it will seep through and look blobby. UGH. Don't do that!
You can always add more, but its hard to take it away...
This is a finished board using two stencils and three colors.
Paris Grey base was sponged with a wool sea sponge,
then trellis was added with Old White, then Emile was added
over that using a lacy floral leaf stencil. So pretty!
This large acanthus was not layered but was put
over a ragged base then rolled with two colors and
dry brushed to finish it off.
A bit of Pearl Plaster was used in the stencil as well for glimmer.
This stenciled treatment was done using our Croc stencil over Country Grey.
We did the Croc using French Linen and Old White and the colors blended
naturally as they were put on one roller. We do LOVE our Croc stencil!
After our fun workshop, look what arrived.
My paint order, and it was terribly busted up. UGH.
It came at the very end of the day, and I was really ready to go home.
Friday night and all that...and now the paint would keep me late in the shop.
I had about 8 cases of slammed and broken paint.
I am thinking the delivery guys have had it with our freezing cold weather
and snow banks and they took it out on our paint.
Just part of the business that I hate....this stuff.
The workshops I love, the claims and damages are the worst.
Boston has been all over the news as Mother Nature
has been giving us more than our fair share of snow this month.
Its been over 6 feet in two weeks and tonight another foot
is headed straight for us. Again. And it is in the single digits too!!!
OMG its simply been brutal.
My mother in laws house right next doors has a
leak in her living room due to ice damns.
So that meant the roof needed to be shoveled off....
Here is a pic through the screen window of my kitchen watching
the guys try to get the snow off and then bust up the ice dams.
Finally hubby filled panty hose with Calcium Chloride and
knotted it into long tubes and threw it up on her roof
to create escape dams for the water to release. This stuff is not for the faint of heart.
So all of my readers (and you mom and dad) who are living in Florida and Texas
just know that you ain't missing out on anything good right now.
Taking our dogs out has been especially fun....NOT.
Our shop in Reading Mass (*now closed)
Justin's shop in Boston (*now closed) is no different.
Well maybe its worse! This is a pic from his instagram acct.
I told you, get on instagram!! Follow him @pioneergoods
and follow me @amymaisondecor
You get to see inside peeks at things like the latest stuff in our shops.
Look at how fabulous Justin's shop is these days. Its getting better and better
and the guy is on a roll. He is on the covers of magazines and getting
featured and its all just been CRAZY!! I will be blogging all about his
amazing retail ride soon with details and links to some of these happenings.
Speaking of instagram, here is Matthew Meads account.
Now this post of his is about his new magazine that
is coming out in a couple of weeks,
The first issue will be March 3, then the issue I am going to be in will be
coming out in April! He is coming over Friday to shoot my house!!
OMG all this snow, and the boots and hats and gloves and dog leads
and junk laying all around from fighting the blizzard will just have to
get dealt with this week. I have to get it together so it looks amazing!
I know this post is very long...but I have to pack it all in because
I will be busy this week with the anti-blizzard fight and cooking
for cold and hungry troops, and decorating my home
so it looks completely unreal, like real people cannot possibly
live in such a beautiful space!! Lol.
So this is a pic of my sister's chandelier that finally got
hung over her table. Since the table was not in the center
of the room the chandy had to get swagged~but hey, its more
important to have it over the table and low enough to be dramatic.
I think it looks amazing!!
Here is another shot of her room. We plan to paint the
corner cabinet Old White. And get a pair of upholstered end chairs
to add some more personality to the room.
And I wouldn't mind saying goodbye to that carpet.....
One "last but not least" mention.
Happy Birthday Taylor!
Madison shared this pic (on instagram)
of her holding her little sister and its completely adorable.
They are as close as any two can be....
and today is Taylor's 25th birthday!
And its Valentines Day!
And it also happens to be National Organ Donor day!!
Really pretty amazing if you think about it.
We have been blown away by the loving response for Tay.
Check her updates right here at Taylors Heart Fund.
She needs a new heart. Lets hope she gets one soon.
xoxo
Amy
No comments:
Post a Comment