busy January/ Florida

Hi everyone!

I have not made time for blogging these days, it has been a busy January for us.  Ordinarily we lie low at this time of year. We were in Ohio for the holidays with family then visited more family in Florida in early January with a visit to Thomasville, Georgia on the way home. Some visits to
Atlanta, Asheville, Hendersonville, and Flat Rock, NC  in between and I just returned from a visit to NYC with a friend to see our daughter and view the Matisse cut-outs show at MoMA. Finally home before heading to Mobile Bay and New Orleans next month. We are loving rediscovering the South. 

Some Florida photos... 

We stayed in Indian Rocks Beach near family in Largo and Bellair. Indian Rocks has an Old Florida feel, quaint, with old cottages on the beach. 

 We enjoyed the Picasso/Dali exhibit at The Dali Museum in St Petersburg. 

Gorgeous agave at the entrance.

The building, by Yann Weymouth is great 

and so fun to see Picasso and Dali's works exhibited together as they were working at the same time and were very influenced by each other. No cameras inside the exhibit though.

Pretty view of the St. Petersburg marina from the museum.

Will share some more January travels soon....

Thanks for visiting!

Cindy

an entertaining armoire and other stuff

 Hi everybody!

Hope you all are enjoying the holiday season!

We are having friends over tomorrow for a casual supper and I thought I would share the transformation of our old armoire that was lugged up to the mountains by the movers. It was used in our Ohio house in the living room/man cave to house the television that my husband watched sports on. 

It would have been nice to use it again in the same way but it did not suit the space next to the rustic hearth so the television is now exposed which is fine because in a cottage with one main living area, compromises have to be made. We decided to convert the armoire to a bar instead. (We have had 3 golden retrievers and have three watercolors. The wall needed color so I placed them two of them  here. They were scattered around our old house.)

It was an easy transformation as the shelves were in the perfect position. I lined them with grasscloth wallpaper.  I covered the big hole on the middle shelf that houses the glasses with a wicker flask. It had been drilled for all the cords. I attached little push stick-on lights for illumination. The wine racks are from Ikea.

I tried a mirror first but the space needed color and life. So I placed an old needlepoint I did many years ago on the back, using a push pin to hang it with. I first put it in our kitchen but moved it here after unpacking some watercolors that suited the small kitchen.

Here is the super simple table setting for tomorrow's dinner, nothing fancy. Did not even iron the linen napkins. I actually love to iron napkins but these look great natural.

The amaryllis I planted a few weeks ago has been gorgey. The narcissus are taking their time. Usually the other way around. 

We are finally feeding the birds.  Fearful of the bears in the warm weather, we had not put put out the feeders although plenty of people up here do. We bring it in at night. So wonderful to see them flitting around. So far, nuthatches, chickadees and tufted titmouses. Not sure if we will keep it up in the summer. After having dogs, several bird feeders, pond fish and frogs in our Ohio house, we are excited to finally be sharing space with living creatures! The feeder hangs off the little side grilling deck.

It has been warm enough for porch living. Amazing in December for us snowbirds! With the vinyl blinds rolled down, it is very warm and toasty. 

We enjoyed a warm winter hike in town a few days ago. Discovered this cool barn

and Lindenwood Lake, part of the Highlands Biological Station and Nature Center.

We were in Atlanta visiting friends last weekend and checked out the Cezanne and the Modern at the High Museum.  It is the collection of Rose and Henry Pearlman. Several pieces of an artist I was not familiar with were included, as well as other artists. We loved the all the work of Chaim Soutine, this one was my favorite...

I love the huge plate installation in the lobby of the High by Molly Hatch. It is gorgeous! She hand painted over 400 plates to create a beautiful mosaic.

She describes it here. 

photo: High Museum of Art

That's all for now. 

Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah everyone!

Cindy

Caitlin McGauley

Happy Valentine's Day!

These watercolor hearts are painted by illustrator and artist Caitlin McGauley. You probably know her work. She has created commissions for Lonny, Matchbook, Ralph Lauren, Tory Burch, Hermes and Kate Spade, quite a list of impressive clients!

I contacted Caitlin a year ago after seeing a cute Indian elephant she had painted and posted on her blog. She had not started selling prints on her website yet. She wrote back and offered to sell me the original.  I decided it would be the perfect birthday present to moi! She is very sweet and friendly as well as being so talented. Here is the painting, on a shelf in our bedroom. I posted a photo of it the other day on the blog because I have been making changes in our bedroom....

She sells a similar elephant on her site (sold out for now)...

It is hard not to love everything Caitlin paints. Here are a few more of my favorites but I pretty much love everything she does.....

She now sell pretty porcelain trays made in Portugal with images of her work, although they are a bit pricey!

To learn more about Caitlin, visit her website here.

Hope you have a Happy Valentine's Day, treat yourself to something sweet!

All illustrations are the property of Caitlin McGauley.

dog art

Suellen Gregory

My talented friend Pam, author of the inspiring Simple Details blog wrote about adding art to her kitchen this morning. She included this kitchen by Suellen Gregory that I love. The dog painting, the floors, the windows, the furniture, the slipcovers, the wallpaper, the basket, I just love the whole thing. Anyway, we have dog art in our house that is bright and fun and comes at a very reasonable price.

Ron Krajewski paints dog portraits in watercolor. He prints them on quality watercolor paper and sells them on Etsy and his website Dog Art Studio. These two are in my art room/studio. I purchased them because the one on the right looks just like Andy, our boy golden retriever, the left one resembles his sister( not from the same mom), our old girl that is no longer with us, Dinah.

This one is in our basement on the staircase wall. I think it is so beautiful.

Check out Ron's portraits here and more of Suellen Gregory's work here. She is another talented Southern designer whose work is as beautiful as Suzanne Kasler and Phoebe Howard. She tends to use more color than they do.