Beauty in the Breakdown

I'm so glad you all enjoyed hearing about my new camera bag in the last post.  I'm in no way affiliated with Kelly Moore but wanted to give a shout out to a great company.  I hope that those of you who said you might be looking for a good camera bag will have the opportunity to own one, I know you will love yours as much as I love mine!

This week is one of those crazy weeks where you have a list of emails, phone calls, and appointments that stare you down each morning when you wake up.  I am slowly addressing each of those, but there never seem to be enough hours in the day.

When I feel buried by "real" life stuff, I sometimes do the complete opposite of what I should be doing, and veer off into projects that could wait...like playing around with photography.  I blame people like Kate for this, since she always posts such gorgeous pictures, both her own and those of others, on her blog.  In a recent post she included some amazing images from flickr and one of those was a still life that was breathtaking.

I've been enamored with still life photography for a long time, really since the first time I stumbled upon an example of it in a cookbook of all places.  I've longed to recreate what Dutch Masters of old captured in their paintings, the subtle use of light and shadow, vivid colors, and an almost 3-D quality that draws the viewer in.

The people who are really good at this type of photography make it look amazingly easy, but it is not.  It takes more than a simple knowledge of photography, there are also things like lighting, angles, and most importantly...composition to consider.  The end result should draw the eye to one primary part of the image, similar to having a star of a show, and the other pieces are simply supporting characters meant to create a sense of place and scene.

Texture and background are also important, and I've used a variety of textures, mostly by Florabella and Kim Klassen.  If you haven't signed up for Kim's very generous and always lovely free textures, you really should.  

I think that to really become a master at creating images that resemble artistic master paintings, it wouldn't hurt to have a background in art, which I am sorely lacking.  I feel like artists have an innate sense of composition, color, and lighting, which are all things I have to study and think about.  The other key ingredient is to have the proper lighting equipment.  I've been fortunate to find used lighting equipment (a soft box is a must when you are starting out with still life photography) through friends and contacts who were getting out of the business.  Lighting is crucial in creating the look you want in the finished image.

The process of breaking down an image has become a key element and driving force behind taking my photography to the next step.  If you surf the web enough and stare at enough photos you begin to see the way certain images come into being.  From there you can create your images using your own sense of style.

Although there were other things I should have been doing, this wasn't really a waste of time, I will be adding them to my portfolio on my website, so it was kind of like doing work! ;-)

And speaking of beauty in the breakdown, the wonderfully wise A-M posted an article about decluttering (you can read it here) on the very day I had done some decluttering of my own.  Having 7 bins, yes I said 7, of fall, Halloween, and Thanksgiving decor was feeling like a wee bit too much...well that and the fact that Mr. Tide snidely said, "so...fall is your favorite time of year?...because you have more bins for it than you have for Christmas!"...so I knew it was time.

I've always been someone who goes through my things regularly and gets rid of them.  Moving 6 times in 7 years when we were first married makes you appreciate the notion of packing light.  But even though this house is much smaller than our last, and we did get rid of a ton of stuff when we moved, I've been a bit neglectful about taking stock and getting rid of things as frequently as I once did.  Throw in the fact that my parents both passed away and so I inherited a lifetime's worth of their stuff to boot, and well, things had gotten little out of hand when it came to my holiday decor hoarding.

So I sat there in my living room, surrounded by tubs full of stuff, some of which we had had since we first got married, and some of which my parents used to decorate their own home, and it hit me like a ton of bricks.  Right then and there I broke down...something I almost never do!  Mr. Tide came to see what was wrong, and I blubbered and sputtered about how it was just hard, getting rid of things that held memories from a simpler time.  He of course told me not to get rid of the stuff if it made me sad.  I explained that I was ready, it's a complicated emotion, but that it was just hard letting go.

By the time I got my shower and we loaded up the huge bin (I emptied 3 bins total) to take to the donation place I was fine...I felt lighter really, like a weight had been lifted off of my shoulders.  So when I read the article linked above I knew I had made the right decision, I was ready to get rid of something old to welcome something new into my life...a little breathing room perhaps!  So there really is Beauty in the Breakdown, and sometimes it's best to Let Go!

If you would like to learn more about creating Still Life Photos, click HERE

A Recipe for Good Design

If decorating were like baking a cake, there would be a recipe to follow, something simple that would result in something delicious!

Just like with the cake analogy, there are a million different flavors of cake, some which are favorites, and others which cater to a more exotic palette.  So in a way there are tried and true recipes for decorating, and there really is no right or wrong, the ingredients can vary and the outcome will sometimes flop, but you can start over, amend the recipe, and try again.

If I were writing a decorating cookbook of sorts, I would be sure that each recipe included 3 key ingredients, Color, Light, and Texture.  For me, these are like sugar, flour, and butter...essential to creating that prize winning cake, or to creating good design.

I am not a master chef at decorating, but I do know what I like.  Like the photo above of my trusty bucket bench.  This bench has traveled with me from house to house and in its lifetime it's been several colors, including a deep green.  Today, it's painted Benjamin Moore's Simply White, but next month it may find a new color, who knows.  It holds a small collection of crocks, and if you look closely, you'll see something dark sticking up from the crock in the back right.  I use these crocks to hold our dog's leashes, they keep things close at hand but out of sight...well sort of since you can see them in the photo!  

The clock was an inherited gift from Mr. Tide's grandparents, we still need to take it to a repair shop to get it back into working order.  I love the deep dark brown of the wood, the wavy glass which reflects the light pouring in from the backyard, and beautiful intricate carving...color, light, and texture!

For me, color comes in many forms.  White on white, or tone on tone interiors are all the rage right now as evidenced by the numerous books and magazine articles featuring interiors with monochromatic color schemes.  When done well, with lots of varying shades of white and plenty of texture, I swoon right along with the masses, but I know that for me, it would never work.

For me, having an all white house would be like eating angel food cake for dessert every night.  Not that I don't love a good angel food cake with its soft center and slightly crispy browned crust, but I need more color in my life than that.  On the other hand, I'm not a red velvet cake person either, with deep rich hues and plenty of saturated colors.  I think if I was any cake it would be a lemon chiffon, or maybe a spice cake with a big dollop of fresh whipped cream...something light but colorful, or something with a kick of flavor from a mix of ingredients.

With design, I think it's fair to say that you can appreciate and even enjoy different flavors, but in order to find your own sense of style you need to figure out which tastes appeal to you and then learn to hone those flavors into something that satisfies your needs.

If Paula Deen or Martha Stewart told you to only like cupcakes would you believe them?!  The same can be true for magazines and books.  Just because something is in vogue at the moment and it's not to your liking doesn't mean you have to re-do your entire house to suit someone else's taste buds.

I think we all struggle with this, I know I do.  And believe me, when you work in a business that is focused on what's hot at the moment, it's easy to get caught up and swept away with the latest design trends, often feeling somewhat inadequate if your 2 layer yellow cake somehow doesn't measure up to the perfect chocolate truffle souffle being featured on the pages of your favorite magazine.

Instead of letting it overwhelm you when you feel like your home someone doesn't make the grade, stop and take a moment to look at all the ingredients found in the rooms and homes you see featured.  Maybe you love the pinch of salt, like the all white walls and white slipcovered furnishings they've used, but your blood pressure can't handle it, so take what you can use, maybe the white walls, but leave the rest.

Find your own secret ingredient, using things you already own, and mix up the recipe to create something new in your home without having to start from scratch with a whole new recipe, baking dishes, and oven!

Good design chefs come in all shapes and sizes, and they offer up all sorts of variations on those tried and true recipes.  My Color, Light, and Texture recipe isn't a one size fits all, it's just a recipe that has worked for me over the years.  Becoming a great decorator and creating a home you love isn't always about having the perfect, most expensive ingredients, it's really about taking the things you already have and whipping them in to something special that says something about you and the way you live!

And speaking of homes, my heart goes out to the people in Australia who are dealing with horrible flooding!  Our dear friend A-M is suffering firsthand the effects of this terrible natural disaster.  Please take a moment and stop by her blog (HERE) and send her, and all the others like her and her boys, a big virtual hug!  My thoughts are with all those who have lost so much!

I'm Alive and Well

Today, the birds were out in force in my backyard. There were mostly Blue Birds, which are my favorite due to their happy nature and striking colors.

All the birds sounded more like they were singing about springtime, rather than autumn. And they flitted from tree to tree as if they didn't have a care in the world.

Even this Red Bellied Woodpecker (tucked behind the leaves in the center of the picture) was happy as a Lark. I wonder why people say that...happy as a Lark? I guess Larks are the optimists of the bird world and are always happy?!

I've always mistakenly called these birds Red Headed Woodpeckers...Google is a wonderful thing folks, and I learned something new today! I knew I would need to mind my P's and Q's for those of you who know your birdies.

As I watched these happy go lucky creatures who seemed so content just to be alive, it made me reflect on how fragile life really is. One day we can be fine and happy, and the next moment life can change on a dime.

Yesterday I read a post entitled Bye My Lovlies on A-M's beautiful blog The House That A-M Built and it made me very sad. She has decided to end her blog due to unforeseen circumstances. That phrase "unforeseen circumstances" conjures up so many things, none of which seem good for some reason. I'd like to think that she won the lottery, was offered a TV hosting position, or is now so busy designing her own line of lighting that she doesn't have time to blog, but the realist in me thinks it's something else. Whatever her reasons, and they are only hers to know, I wish her all the best and hope that she will be happy and healthy and that she will return to blogging when the time is right for her and her family. Please pop over and send her some well wishes and support, I know she would appreciate it.

Last night Mr. Tide returned home from a business trip, I'm always so happy to see him walk through the door!  We never really know what tomorrow will bring, but at this moment, I'm alive and well...and today, you know, that's good enough for me!

I hope you enjoy this little slide show I put together for you, it features one of my all time favorite songs and at the end of the song is a singer who I adore...Dave Matthews. I'll have to tell you my Dave Matthews story sometime...but I'll save that for another day! ;-)

Winning Ways and Crazy Days

Thank you everyone for your wonderfully supportive comments about my great week!  Your kindness only doubled my excitement and happiness for everything that has been going on around here!  Life has been so great this past week and to top it all off I won not one, but 2 great giveaways!  One was a magazine from down under and the other was a copy of the upcoming Holiday with Matthew Mead!  Does it get any better than that?!

And the crazy life I've been leading will continue for at least one more week.  Tomorrow my in-laws will be arriving to help us celebrate our son's high school graduation next week!  On Monday we'll be having a cookout at our house for some friends and family and then the big graduation day will be on Wednesday...so it will be non-stop action fun around here this holiday weekend and into next week!

Of course we cleaned for our special visitors from just a few days ago, but can someone please tell me the answer to the question of why, no matter how recently you've cleaned you still need to clean again when you have more company coming?!  I think you could clean all day everyday and still never be completely finished...UGH!  I visited The Biltmore last year and I walked away from it thinking...wow I should have been a Vanderbilt and lived during that era!  I love to entertain, I love coming up with the party ideas, but to have someone do all of the cleaning, cooking, and other preparations...that my friends would be the life!

Last weekend we bought a bunch of flowers, a lot of them were only $1 on clearance at Lowes, simply because they weren't blooming!!  The bargain hunter in me can be patient enough to wait for the blossoms to arrive, so we loaded up the car and brought home everything from azaleas to lantana.  But as you all know, those darn things don't plant themselves.  So today we will be finishing up the planting and pulling the yard and house together for the visit with my in-laws.

We also bought this huge hanging basket from a local Mennonite farm.  It's full of a variety of flowers, including these gorgeous pink petunias.

We get so much direct sun here all day long that I need flowers that can hold up to the heat.  Petunias will bloom until late fall in our part of the country, and with some watering they are happy clams at our house, providing beautiful color all summer long!

But after all of the yard work is done, I plan to kick back and take a few moments to enjoy a tall glass of iced tea and to read this magazine.  I won a copy of Home Beautiful from the talented and oh so nice A-M, who has the great blog The House That A-M Built.  Her gorgeous home was featured in this issue and she gave out several copies in a recent giveaway, one of which I was lucky enough to win!   I am completely addicted to home decorating magazines, but I especially love perusing mags from overseas!  They just give you a little different perspective that we can all use from time to time, and they make a great addition to my ever growing stack of magazines which are piled in every room of my house!

I'll take my favorite turquoise pillow out to the hammock, let the dogs out to have a run, and then settle in for a good scan of this gorgeous read!  If you click on the picture at the top of the post you'll see Mr. Quinn and Miss Kylee are all for this idea!  It seems that a good romp and a few yummy sticks make for some very contented doggies now that we have our yard all fenced in!

And just in case the breeze isn't quite right up the hill where the hammock sits, I might just wander down to our dock and pop open this bright blue beach umbrella and set up my lawn chair underneath it.

Hard work makes a person deserving of a little down time don't ya think?  And relaxing with a cold drink, some fresh fruit, a wonderful new magazine, along with some furry friends is my idea of shear bliss!

Don't forget that you can be a winner too, just click HERE to find out how you could win my latest giveaway!  And I hope all of you will find a little spot to relax and enjoy your weekend!