It's Beginning

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas at my house!  After a whirlwind few weeks with no end in sight, I managed to get everything decorated except my Christmas trees which will have to wait until this weekend.  And there is still tweaking to be done, such as adding live greens and throwing out the pumpkins which still grace my front porch, but the majority of my holiday decor is out and ready to ring in the season.

And in other news, the new special double spring issue of Romantic Country is, or soon will be, out in stores.  I was fortunate to write two of the home stories in this issue, and I can tell you first hand that not only were the homes beautiful, but the people who live in them are too!  My favorite part about being a writer for home magazines has to be the wonderful people I meet...they are the best!  If you are able to get your hands on this issue, I hope you enjoy reading the stories as much as I enjoyed writing them!

Have a wonderful week!

A Little Bit of Everything

Sometimes when I go to play with an image I have a clear cut vision of the end product.  I would say that about 90% of the time this is true and I can see the finished product before I even begin, but there is still that other 10% of the time when I just go in blind and hope for the best.

When I photographed some Ranunculus I picked up last weekend, I wasn't quite sure where I wanted to go picture wise, but I did know that I wanted a soft aqua paired with the pale pink of the flowers.  Usually I like to keep things simple, but for whatever reason, tonight I threw in a little bit of everything, including using some script brushes I bought from FK Textures.  At first I wasn't sure I liked it, but after a bit I decided that sometimes throwing in everything but the kitchen sink makes for a more interesting image.

I've heard through the grapevine that people are stealing other people's images and claiming them as their own...such a shame.  So from now on I will be doing more elaborate watermarks and only posting very low res images.  It makes me sad to think that I have to do this, but with things like Pinterest it appears that those of us who make our living from creating artwork,  need to watch our backs and protect our images.  I have no problem with someone pinning something I post, in fact I love it, but only when they give full credit on mine or anyone else's work.  I try my best to do this on anything I pin as well, though I'm sure we all have a few images that we can't nail down the original photographer or artist, but I would never pretend they were my own work.

Well that's enough blathering for one evening, I hope you all have a very Happy Tuesday!

The Winter Blues

I'm so excited that so many of you felt a connection with my post from yesterday!  I think the Year of US is full of endless possibilities!

Now that almost all of my Christmas decor is snugly packed away for another year, I thought I would throw a little color around the house.  My collection of blue Ball jars and old insulators will now be providing me with a much happier version of the winter blues.


 

When I come into the kitchen each morning I will be greeted by their various shades of blue and aqua.  And at nighttime I might just throw a few tea lights up there to illuminate their beautiful blueness.

And I will smile when I see the light dance through these wavy, undulating, bubbled, glass vessels.

Yep, now that's what I call the perfect winter blues...maybe I'll even sing the blues.  What makes you sing this time of year?

A Coastal Cottage Christmas Sneak Peek

Thanks everyone for your wonderful comments, not just on my last post, but on every post!  You are my inspiration!  When I visit your blogs, stop by your Pinterest sites, or get your emails I find myself striving to try new things, expand my horizons, and just be a better person...so thank you!

And speaking of getting emails, the email gremlins struck again this week.  I know I sound like I'm beating a dead horse, but it's gone from just being annoying to really affecting my work and lifestyle!  Apparently a friend sent us an email inviting us to a Christmas party this evening, and if they hadn't texted me last night asking if we would be coming, we would have missed it completely...ugh!  So dear email, you can mess with a lot of things but I'm putting you on notice that you better not mess with my social life by losing party invites!!!

So, on to a sneak peek of my kitchen Christmas decor.  Like I said, this year will be simple, and I've coined the term Coastal Cottage Christmas for the look.  Oh heck, I'm sure someone else coined that phrase, but I'm going with it.  Mr. Tide and I stopped by a friend's house last night, and as we chatted about how as you get older you sometimes lose your gumption to put stuff out, we all decided that less truly is more for us these days.  I noticed that she too had embraced a simpler style of decor and her house was warm, cozy and beautiful!

As you can tell by the photos of my kitchen windowsill, this year will be a little less dazzling, not like in years past, which you can see by clicking HERE and HERE.  Still, I'm loving the natural elements, the pops of turquoise, which will be a theme found throughout my holiday decor this year.  And I'm not completely done with the windowsill yet, I will be adding a few votives so that I have a bit of dancing light up there in the evenings, just not the twinkle of Christmas lights like in years past.


 

I also managed to get a few greens and two big beautiful wreaths from a local Mennonite family yesterday.  I love, love, love the smell of fresh greens and can't wait to incorporate even more around the house over the next few days.  Over the next few weeks, I'll be sharing more pictures of my house during this year's holiday season, so stay tuned.

Looks like I'm on track, on budget, and still completely out of my mind...which is as it should be! ;-)

I hope you each have a wonderful week, and keep those inspirational posts coming!