5th and state

March 16, 2016

Kindness

Kindness

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.

Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
it is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.

~Naomi Shihab Nye~

Cooper

May 1, 2006 - March 16, 2016

March 3, 2016

Design contest results!

Recently I announced a contest for an E-Design, an interior, exterior, patio, or gardens. By random number generator the winner was Joanne wanting to update her Master bedroom.

A typical design includes some back and forth's. In this instance, being a contest, it is just a reveal.

Typically, each design includes a supply list and instead of a Mood
Board, I like to address section by section.

So Joanne.......hope you like!

ps....sorry for this back and forth sideways format with the photos and text. Obviously a big, FAIL!

HAVE A GREAT WEEK TO WEEKEND!

Debra

Venetian Plaster abstract art workshop!

Below is another example of this art, for your D-I-Y

nature. Yes, we all have it and this art requires zero experience. Sign up and take home your art piece, ready to hang.

MARCH 4TH & 17TH 5-7PM $55.00

February 23, 2016

Let's Get Away!

We are excited to present our boutique/small group tour to England. I believe this to be our best, EVER!

Come get away with us!

Our other journey for 2016, in early October, is Normandy France and Paris.....Oh la la!

Debra

February 18, 2016

When I get the sad's I retreat, cherish alone time, lose my creativity, go silent.....

There has been much sadness around me lately and I feel others pain, often being too sensitive. A long time family in town lost one of it's members, a vibrant 18 year old, hit by a drunken driver. A beautiful woman came into the shop yesterday seeking retail therapy, her sister just passed due to a brain aneurism. And on and on.........I will dust myself off and begin to appreciate anew all of life's blessings, and I am very blessed. But first I need to deal with my personal sadness, the impending loss of my sweet pooch, Cooper. In comparison to other people's losses, I feel foolish, but nonetheless, feel, deeply

How is this for silly? My sister and I were playing with him and oddly, he went along with the dress up!

He quickly tired of our nonsense and went back to his favorite pastime; watching TV. Yep, "Pitbulls and Parolees" is his fav.

So many of you wrote, asked how he is doing, thank you.

All changed when I picked him up from his last chemo treatment, "Watch him closely, it could be 2-4 or more months". "Watch for what?" I asked......."Recurrent tumors, you know he does not have long"

Why my shock? His original oncologist, long since gone from the practice, said "This treatment will cure him, he will die of old age not Lymphoma"
She was rogue, she apparently told this to others, I was stunned.

So tell me dear readers..........what do you do to get out of a funk? A time of burrowing? Sadness and silence?
After far too many years, I know that TIME is the answer, always is, just wondering who has any wisdom for these times in life?

I will say that I am at home as much as possible to be with Cooper while working on the computer, but for a spot of time yesterday I did lose myself in some creativity and it was a balm to my soul. Maybe that is the answer, jump back in. this may seem like an odd segue but it did help

What do you think? My first abstract art

Here is a try on a piece of burlap, do you love the crackling/old world effect? This could be stretched on a canvas.

Up close you can see the effect of gold leaf. Forever I have dreamed of being an artist, a canvas artist, suddenly I feel empowered

Here is Margaret's first try.
Guess What? This is easy!!

If you are local, we are teaching this class on March 17th from 5-8pm. And, you will go home with your own art, ready to hang. This is a combination of Venetian Plaster, Pigments, Mica Powders and wax. NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY.......really
To register call; 630.232.1303

And to you my friends, thank you for listening. Thank you for caring

xoxo Debra

January 10, 2016

On the Road Again

The wildly busy Holiday season is in the rear view mirror. I pull out of the drive with heart palpalations; what antiques will I find, will the gift show be a good one, will I find myself in a jam?

Two hours out of Chicago, the first jam.......

At the Scotts Antique show, many of my dealer friends started coming up to congratulate me, ME!?
Over and over I heard "You scored the piece of the show!" From Provence, a sinous, perforated metal table. "Do not sell it until you can manufacture more!" I wish

A new favorite design style is Spanish Colonial and I have a client heading in that direction, this piece is for them. Spain, 18thc, original paint, step back cabinet from my creative friend Lisa.

That movement in the wood is called 'Linen Fold' an old world craft adding movement to wood

Green/Turquoise seems to be my theme......A gorgeous antique cabinet, original wavy glass fronted cabinet on metal stand, would make a perfect bar, with style.

The step-back interior could hold bottles on the bottom, glasses and accroutements on the upper shelves.

Ever see these? Probably not, I surely had not. Next question; what are they? Very old wine barrel stoppers. Rare to the market as they just do not leave the wineries, staying within the family. This conversation piece adds to any vignette

Stylish Lisa never fails to leave me inspired. How is this for a vignette?

In my current vein of Spanish Colonial, is this Santos monk, c. mid 17thc, hand carved wood

The detail is stunning. The soulful eyes mesmerizing.

Lessons from the Professionals.....

As I was purchasing hand woven vintage linen, from a woman that specializes in these goods, I asked her how she keeps her linens so crisply pressed. Buy an iron with as many steam openings as you can find, she advised. Ignore price, that is not an indicator. Before pressing, lay a terry cloth towel on the ironing board, the steam will go through the terry and come back up through the fibers keeping them open and 'fluffed'.

I chose this oversized sheet due to the gray undertones. "Oh, in that region of Germany the soil produces a flax with those color ways" Who knew?

A master restorer said Loctite super glue is the best and only product he uses for wood repair

This French watercolor from my friend/dealer Lee appealed to me on many accounts but the lack of glass was high on the list. Most of us feel that to fully protect a watercolor is to encase under glass, that cheapens it, it could pass for a print. Lee recommends this product, to fully protect without a trace of evidence

DRATS! Another day another tire! As I told my husband, "things happen.....when pulling a 22' trailer."
"No, things happen when you hit curbs." He was not amused

Next up.........the warehouses and the gift show.......pinch me