Decorating with love

How sweet it is! a pink frozen milkshake with the cherry on top. We captured this at Sun City in South Africa on a visit a couple years ago, sitting at an outdoor bar, with a huge dome ceiling overlooking a pool that appeared to be a ruin. Magic, absolute magic. and doesn't this confection look good enough to eat?

Its Tuesday night and I am back pounding the keyboard.
Goldie is up on daughter's bed, queen of all she surveys. Although the witching hour is approaching and Goldie's eyes are very heavy. Not much to do but sleep at this point.
And suddenly the world seems ROSY.

and full of promise.
there is an opportunity to re purpose the gifts and colors of the world around us. Opportunity and Adventure await. in cans of paint or in moving items around.
Decorating is fun. Especially when we reinvent those ideas from the world around us.
Like these outdoor pink cement bowls at Taliesin west in Scottsdale Arizona, - I took some pictures on our visit there a couple of years ago - I was fascinated by the shapes, the colors and the textural contrasts. I love to mix and match not only pattern, but texture too, to create a rich story. Not only when I decorate, or design but also when I dress or create things.

Below is a pink styled quick art piece I created from some found objects and paint to enhance my red pink brick fireplace.

Those red bricks abound all over this area. So many clients' homes have one of these brick fireplaces.....crying out to be saved, enhanced or remade.
Creating items for my foliage and frame piece and put this together. I was entranced by the idea open space and stylized framing.




and here the complete opposite - real art from nature - Peonies in a gorgeous glass vase spied in a shop in Toronto on our trip in July 2008.
My absolute favorite flower. The color, the texture, the naturalness, capture my heart.



on the same trip we visited Montreal - another fabulous city and we were lucky enough to have the opportunity of experiencing the battle of fireworks - countries from the around the world get a night to explode their firecracker power. We witnessed the Australian show. It was thirty minutes of absolute magic. The picture below evokes the drama and amazing color range found in the pink of it all - brilliant!

Wouldn't these colors make a sweet combination in a room?
In fact we did work on a client's dinning room that has those very colors. The colors were there, we changed the accessories to enhance the space:

we used the green and cream artwork to bring out the green in the upholstery, and some modern pieces our client had to create more balance. The only items the client bought were new candles and a stand for the one plate, and three small pieces of green and pink art on the wall across.
Can you spot the differences? Our client could, and she loved how we changed every room in her house, using what she already owned. The three little pieces of artwork were the only purchases she made for the entire home. Think how you can change you home in small ways.
Its all in a flick of the wrist !

Well, I have so many more pink thoughts, and ideas but I will leave you with this clever idea I spotted at Ralph Lauren store in San Francisco

they cleverly combined pieces of rugs to create one big one - it shouldn't work, but it does.
It gave the store a warm inviting feel. Old stuff is still good stuff.