My Renovated Studio and things I Love to Create!

So, as you can see, I finally found my NEW Pillow Colors. Now these are what I was longing to find! They are so pretty and so French. I already received orders for them!

My business is really doing great and I am so thrilled and grateful that I am able to do what I love to do and work with such amazing people. Just today I added four New Clients.

My Son and my Daughter!

I must say Happy Birthday to my Son. Today, August 3 he turned 15.

Here it is, my new Studio space. I love it!

My workspace is a 10' long piece of formica that we purchased at Lowes. It is actually a kitchen counter, but I got creative with it and it is the perfect space for me to work on. The great thing about formica is that my Daughter gets paint on it all the time and it just washes right off.

Underneath is all storage and to hide it, I spent $15.00 on eyelet fabric and just staple- gunned it to the bottom side of the formica. One day I will replace it with something more sophisticated, but while my Daughter is still young and gets paint everywhere, I will just stick with the eyelet fabric.

These chairs were a great deal! I bought both of them for $10.00. I re-covered them with one of my Pillow Designs. They make the perfect seat covers and the burlap is very durable. I love the contrast that they add to my Studio.

This is my Inspiration board. If you click on the picture and enlarge it, you can see many of the things that inspire me. There are pictures of my children, my friends, my art, magaines that I have been published in and of course tons of inspiring images!!!

This was just an ordinary 5' x 6' corkboard with a metal trim, which was not very attractive. My Husband and I went to Lowes over the weekend and purchased $18.00 of base moulding and he created this gorgeous frame. He mitered the corners like you would a picture frame, which makes it that much more elegant.

I really LOVE my new Studio space and looking at this board everyday will continually bring me inspiration...

All of the images I have posted on my board make me smile! They either bring back great memories of special times, give me ideas of new things to create or make me long for things I would love to have.

My good friend Barbie (who is taking taking my Pillow Collection to the San Francisco International Gift Fair this weekend) made me this beautiful banner just for my Studio. What a wonderful gift and friend. I just love it! It is the perfect finishing touch to my space.

So, usually I do not like to look at "stuff". I like everything put away where I don't have to see it. In this room, the closet is full with so many of my supplies that these racks (which are just spice racks) really helped to add some much needed space.

The middle section in between the racks is a magnetic board we put up for our Daughter. It is just galvanized steel that we bought at a hardware store. To make it look prettier, I added some left over wallpaper to make it fit in with the rooms decor. Now, I love looking at it!

I flanked the sides of the corkboard with these beautiful sconces.

This desk, which I purchased at a garage sale for $20.00 is perfect for all of my paperwork. I had to refinish it and paint it, but I love it. It has such pretty original architectural details.

This petite antique side table is a nice accent piece next to my desk. It has all of the magazines that I have been published in and a gorgeous mercury jar filled with flowers on it.

I love to display pretty things all around my Studio. It really helps to keep me inspired, happy and open to new ideas.

I LOVE Chandeliers. They are so elegant! This one needed a lot of help!!! I am one of those people that can look at something that one person may see just for what it is, and I look at it and see the potential for what it can be!

I added this antique side table to the corner of the room and placed a wire cloche and some gorgeous flowers to add some color and whimsy to my Studio.

I need to be in a beautiful space to be able to be creative. I believe that a Studio can be pretty, while still being functional.

I love to be surrounded by things that inspire me to be creative. There is something about these petite picture frames that I absolutely adore!

For this small space, I placed these sweet French Nesting Tables. They fit perfectly!

I made these fun, whimsical little fairies for my Daughter...


Below are some of my Creative Pieces that I have designed over the years...

This is to date, one of my favorite things I have created! I love my collection of French Inspired Pillows...

I have many passions, one of them being photography. I love to take photographs of architectural elements, nature and every day objects in an unexpected way.

I took this photograph of a fountain in my courtyard. I then took the image in to Photoshop and added a pretty verdigris patina color to make it feel as though it has been there for ages. I then added the border to give it an antique feel.

This gorgouse Rose was growing in my garden last summer and it was just too pretty to not be photographed...

This is a decorative urn in my home. I love the architectural details and curves on it. I like to take most of my Art Photographs off centered. For me it is all about perspective.

These are some Decorative Wood Art Pieces that I worked on about a year ago. It seems I am always making something. We all have something that is our passion and creating is definitely mine.

My Photography, Jewelry and Art have been featured on Poppytalk Handmade.
You can click the link below to read the article.

http://poppytalk.blogspot.com/2008/07/something-special-garden-to-remember.html

These are a few of my New Chalkboards and Memo Boards that I have been working on. Each one will be unique depending on what type of frames I come across.

I love vintage jewelry and have always been inspired by the amazing pieces I have come across. That is why I started my line of Romantic, Vintage Inspired Jewelry. I like to add original, vintage glass and lucite pieces to my designs to add an authenticity to each piece that I make.

This is my personal favorite!

I sold quite a few of these to Brides for their Weddings. It's vintage charm and pretty design blend beautifully together.

These are part of my Wood Jewelry Line. I have taken unfinished wood pieces and drilled holes through them. I then hand-painted and hand-stamped them with beautiful botanical images that are reminiscent of antique engravings and European textiles.

My Line of Wood Jewelry was featured on Modish. You can click the link below to read the article.

http://www.modishblog.com/modish/2008/06/into-the-secret.html

I made this Custom Monogram Art Piece for my Daughter. I love coming up with original and unique ideas.

I used hundreds of small glass beads to make it.

Me, just having fun. I try to laugh as much as possible... I have a lot of things going on in my life and being able to be creative is the perfect outlet for me!