text: pewter+sage: March 2011
  "Quietly - with low level coos and the odd cluck Mother hens Sheila and Betty moved in closer - their plan to raid the meal sack firmly embedded in their crested heads."
  A few weeks ago, Jennifer and her husband from The Wayman Family Nest hosted a Give Hope Adoption Auction to help fund their journey of adopting a little one from Ethiopia. (They raised over $2,500.00!! Congratulations, guys! And best of luck, you'll be in our thoughts and prayers.) A great cause, tons of fabulous items like artwork from etsy? Sign me up!
  I had the honor and pleasure of bidding on and winning this 8 x 10 Hen original watercolor painting by etsy seller eastwitching. It came in the mail last week and I am in love!
  I can't tell you how excited I am to have someone's original painting! I'm a watercolorist too, so this is even more special for me.
  eastwitching is the shop of artist Alison Fennell from South Wales who specializes in watercolor animal paintings and custom pet portraits. I love her mission too:
  "Animals Matter. This is what this shop is about - raising awareness and appreciation of animals, painting them and selling art that helps protect them. At eastwitching I am using my art to help people to appreciate animals and the integral part they have in our world. I hope to help raise awareness of animal rights, reduce suffering and cruelty by being able to donate what I can each month to several international charities as a result of sales on Etsy."
  Wonderful work, a wonderful heart. I'm so glad I found Alison through this auction!
  These two hens are awesome. And they are so my watercolor style. The thing I love about watercolors is that they are so light and fresh and vibrant..you can only go so far with the paint before it starts to get muddy, so soft layer upon layer is added (light colors first, building up to darker colors), with not a lot of room for error. The nature of the paint and the water lends itself to not a lot of fiddling around with...it is easier to let the paint do the work for you, running and blending and creating lots of interesting, organic texture. It appears that Alison is a master at this:)
  My two favorite things about this painting are that you can still see Alison's pencil lines where she sketched out the hens (so cool!) and the lovely whimsical splatters of turquoise paint.
  I can't wait to hang Sheila and Betty up! Thank you for sharing your amazing talent with us, Alison!
  Did any of you participate in the Give Hope Adoption Auction? Did you win anything?
  Labels: Artwork , Awesome , Finds , Wall Art 2 comments
  Labels: Awesome , Maura , Us 9 comments
  Labels: Antiques , Furniture 8 comments
  I've been wanting to line the back of the entertainment center in our family room with some sort of patterned paper, fabric or wallpaper for awhile now. Besides bringing in some more print to the space and adding a bit of whimsy, I think it will lighten up the whole thing and help the huge expanse of black feel more integrated into the room.
  {this is one of those gigantic entertainment centers with the tv in the middle, cabinets below and a bookcase on either side...sorry...don't mind the holiday evergreen garland}
  I love Paper Source. And they have some really beautiful decorative papers out now. Hand-crafted in Japan and India, using fibers grown in Nepal, batiked, silk-screened, inspired by textile designs (or even their own in-house stuff)...they're very global with lovely small and large scale patterns, even metallics. I'd like to use cool tones - greens, blues and/or greys - and I think all of these are contenders. (I plan on mounting the paper onto foam core, cutting it to the size of each opening and then sort of wedging it into place so as not to harm the actual bookcase. Or I guess I could mount it on poster board and glue dot it to the entertainment center? Anyone done anything like this before?)
  1. {Gold on Sea Green Mums}
  2. {Batik Mums on Turquoise}
  3. {Chartreuse Birds on Pool}
  4. {Pool Daisy}
  5. {Flora and Fauna Pinwheels}
  6. {Flurry Moss on Pool}
  7. {Yuzen Pool Gold Waves}
  8. {Yuzen Pale Aqua Gold Waves}
  9. {Gold Leaves on Turquoise}
  10. {Yuzen Cherry Blossom Clusters on Pool}
  So pretty! I think I'm going to have a tough time deciding. It's probably worth ordering one sheet of each of the potential winners and seeing how they look for real in the space, huh? Which ones do you like best?
  Labels: Family Room , Furniture , Inspiration , Paper 14 comments
  Hi! How was everyone's weekend? I've always loved the look and idea of terrariums, but actually putting together a real live one seems a bit intimidating to me. A couple of weeks ago Maura and I were out to lunch with my mom and the restaurant had beautiful glass jars filled with succulent terrariums on the hostess stand and in the waiting area. Shy girl that I am, I asked the hostess if they had made them and she told me they were fake! Coulda fooled me! That was all the incentive I needed to head over to Michaels and tackle this project myself.
  I spent $13 on 4 fake succulents, 2 fake ferns, 2 fake fiddleheads and a bag of moss. I knew I already had a ton of glass containers and river stones at home. It took me like 10 minutes to put together 3 of these faux terrariums, just layering the stones, moss and then the plants. I put this tall hurricane one in the family room on our end table.
  BTW - also new to this side table is the Silver Leaf Handprint and Footprint Frame from Pottery Barn Kids that Maura got for Christmas from her uncle. It was a fun but somewhat messy project to ink up her hands and feet and press them on the paper, but its such a nice keepsake to have. He even had it personalized with her name and birth date!
  The other two terrariums (one more in a glass hurricane, the other in a lantern) ended up on the coffee table in our living room.
  Someday I'd like to tackle the real thing, but for now these are doing it for me. I love the pop of green and woodsie feel they add.