Spring Treasuries

Created two new treasuries in the past couple days, and I wanted to share. There are some really unique gifts for mother's day, and definitely some cool wedding ideas, as well as a few items of just plain awesomeness. Just click on the photos to be taken to the treasuries and all the store links of the wonderful artisans that created these goodies.

Enjoy!

Faith

Meal in a Ramekin (MIAR): IKEA Potato and Broccoli Medallions Tweak

Just a quick "Meal in a Ramekin" recipe idea using the delicious Potato and Broccoli Medallions from IKEA's frozen food section and tweaking a little.  I generally don't add a lot of salt to my dishes like this, so you make prefer a little salt and pepper added (or even hot sauce!).

Take one ramekin and drizzle olive oil in the bottom, then brush one frozen medallion with oil as well.  Set medallion into ramekin and let bake in the oven as directed (until golden brown).  While cooking, slice 1/2 an avocado and grab an egg.  Pull out Ramekin at the end of baking, turn off the oven and break egg over the medallion.  Put back into the oven for 7 minutes, letting the residual heat cook the egg.  Once the egg is at desired doneness, top with avocado, and enjoy!  Make several at the same time for a delicious brunch dish for the entire family.

Before and After: Inspirational Window Changes

So after our basement started flooding twice, calls into the city finally brought a crew to repair the problem- something which we had been calling about more times than I can count over the past two years, and the city arborist slotting the Sycamore tree that attacked our house for removal...at least a few things got accomplished.  I think I have been in a state of non-stop stress since the Year of the Dragon began...but wait, this is supposed to be my year, right?  I guess in a way, this year will have highly anticipated ends to many struggles that occurred in 2011.  And that feels wonderful.  So, in the meantime, I am going to start getting back into blog mode and share the little things that keep me sane, or at least relatively pulled together in between the times I was completely falling apart ;)

Today will just be some quick tips about window treatments.  Whether or not you like my personal changes to these rooms, there is a little bit of an "ah-ha" moment in each, and encouragement to think outside of the "rectangular box" when it comes time to re-think a window's place in the overall design instead of treating it as an afterthought.  It can change a room drastically for minimal cost.  (I can't speak to cost of before pictures, since it shows photos of what was there when I moved in.)

Here is an example of before/after in both my bedroom and living room re-design.

Bedroom Windows

As you can see, the window literally looks three times bigger by increasing height and width of the overall hang, using a optical illusion of dark (but not heavy) curtains on the sides to cover what is actually just the walls on the sides of the window. The light white cotton back drape creates a soft under layer that allows all the sunlight to pour in, but is still thick enough to hide the illusion and give full privacy.  Cost: $40 for the dark drape set, $15 for the white set, and $15 for the double curtain rod (on sale- was originally $30).  Sew your own, and the cost could go down even further.

Living Room Windows

In the living room, it wasn't necessary to hang the window treatment higher (though we could have), but the vertical blinds were so garish and hiding the beautiful re-finished original windows, so I needed a fast and super cheap solution.  This may not be the final look ultimately, but speaks to how easy it is to change the feel of a room.  The original window treatments before were assisting in quashing my ability to look beyond the dingy old feeling of the space as a whole. The gauzy white curtains ($10 per set) and simple black rods ($8 per set), once installed, were all that was needed to really help me re-think the space and open up my continued and evolving inspiration for this room. 

I hope this helps you re-think the importance of your windows in your overall design and how much it can further inspire your creativity when making a space your own.  I promise to post my final pics of both rooms when all the construction in the house is finished. Until then....

Have a wonderful and inspired day!

Faith

A Time to Create

I have been very inspired lately, which is a wonderful thing!  However, my business has been keeping me so busy (a very good thing too!) that the opportunities to delve into producing new designs and invest that level of attention and time has been diminishing greatly especially since we are still in the midst of construction in our home.  Because of this, I have decided to thin out my store a bit and limit my stock availability for a month while I create.  What I have realized from this incredible increase in business, is that I burn out very quickly when I don't make time for inspired creation. It begins to show in my work and my attitude towards the business side.  I love what I do and I love the business, but like a marriage, I need to work at it and keep falling in love with it, or it starts to becomes almost a burden touched with resentment- I don't ever want to feel that way about something I am so passionate about.

For the next 2 days I will have a store-wide sale of 30% the entire purchase. This is a huge sale, so if there were pieces you have been keeping an eye on, this is the time to buy.  I will not be re-listing anything until February, and some items will not be returning, so I encourage everyone to take this opportunity to check the store out. Make sure to go to my facebook page and grab the 30% off coupon code for the 2 day sale.

I look forward to being able to share with all of you the new designs that I have been working on.  I hope you will be inspired right along with me.

Have a wonderfully inspired day!

Faith

Happy 2012!

Starting today, Pride and Prejudice ornaments in sets of 3 are on sale for 10% off!  This is a great time to buy for next year, especially if you have them in mind for gifts, or wanted a few more for your own tree.  Other items will be added to the sale for the month of January. Just click over to my sale section in my store.

As I am working on my new studio, I am getting little bits of revived inspiration, and I look forward to sharing how the studio is progressing.  I also have been having fun on pinterest for studio design inspiration...if you have ideas too, I would LOVE to see them!  I have to keep this short today, but more to follow tomorrow :) 

Happy New Year!

Faith

A Family Production

Today's entry needs to be dedicated to my amazing husband and children.  I could not have survived this holiday season without them.  To bring everyone up to speed, I was given the rare and wonderful opportunity to have one of my Pride and Prejudice novel ornaments featured in the National Post.  It created a whirlwind of business that no one expected and I desperately needed the help of my family to fulfill orders and stay on top of all the holiday shopping madness going on in my online shop.  My vintage novel ornaments and french script candles were an incredible hit this year, and I am immensely grateful and humbled.  A few of the ornaments are still available at Paint Creek Center for the Arts locally in an exclusive large glass bulb with opalescent finish that I don't yet sell online (as well as some of my frames, french script candles, cupcake gift boxes, and covered wood boxes.) If you would like to grab a few ornaments at a discount, my shop will be selling the Sets of 3 10% off in the month of January.  I will re-announce the sale in my next blog and on facebook.

The infamous Pride and Prejudice novel ornament.

I finally decided to join twitter.  I am still getting used to the idea of trying to remember to "tweet" things, and find the balance between not enough/boring and over the top/obnoxious.  I lean to the former out of fear of the latter.  The whole concept of putting something out there in cyberspace that I may never be able to take back makes me a tad nervous...oh wait...this is a blog, right? haha

Thanks to the lovely invitation by an long-time friend, Christine Martinez, creator of Miles to Style, I am now on Pinterest as well. (Thank you, Christine!) This is a sloooooow process since I am still juggling home/work/construction/holidays, but I think I am getting the hang of pinning much more quickly than tweeting.  Afterall, I am skimming through the pages of Etsy and the net all day looking for beautiful things to feature, buy, and inspire me. Being able to pin them into a virtual book totally rocks!  No more word docs of links in barely organized categories (yes, I actually have been doing that for over 5 years).  I really enjoy looking at the pins of my friends as well.  You all have great taste!

Well that's my update in a big flowery basket of newsy goodness.  Looking forward to chatting into the New Year...

Have an inspired day!

Faith

Holiday Push

The last couple of months have flown by, and with construction still going on and business booming, a bit of my world has been turned on it's ear.  I keep telling myself, and it's true, that this is comparatively minimal sacrifice for much greater gain. I may feel like tearing my hair out now...but it will be worth it in the end (even if that means having to invest in a few wigs).

A lot of cool things have been happening, and one of them is being contacted by a great local gallery in Rochester, Michigan called Paint Creek Center for the Arts, which will be featuring some of my items in their annual gift gallery.  I feel honored to be chosen as one of their artists and am looking forward to the opening on the 19th.  My items will be displayed through to the end of the year, so if you are in the area, please stop by and check it out.  Make sure to keep up on all the happenings via my facebook page.

I am very careful to avoid topics such as religion and politics in my blog, but mentioning the gallery brings me to the idea of buying local.  In the atmosphere of unrest in the economy and people world wide asking for, even demanding, answers and accountability, I want to really encourage all of you to consider doing a significant amount of your holiday shopping supporting small businesses and local establishments that are not owned by big corporations.  I know it is a tough thing to do in this current economy, but it will help bring the money back to where it can actually benefit immediately in the lives of the people who live in your community and country during this holiday season.  I have a large international customer base, so I am not specifying only US.  It really is a world-wide dilemma.   

I have been really thinking about how I can make a direct impact as well.  As many of you know from previous blogs, we have significant storm damage to our home, and are in the process of repair/restoration.  I will be posting more about my boy's bedroom very soon.  We have had a lot of fun deciding how to design the space.  One thing I have tried very hard to do is make sure that all the artwork is either mine or purchased direct from the artist on Etsy.  As I blog about the process, I hope you will follow the links and get to know this talented group as well.  It really pushed me to start looking at what I was buying, and to re-think what each imprint of each item I buy on our economy and on our environment.  I love to recycle and upcycle, and while I did break down and visit IKEA, Target, and Walmart for other items, simply because of our budget, I made a huge effort to make sure each purchase was very consciously done.  I have decided to apply that to the Christmas purchases this year.  I look forward to sharing with you the process of rebuilding, not just my house, but my purchasing mindset. 

Have a WONDERFUL week!  

Faith