Cabin Check Fever

Cabin Check Curtains from Country Curtains.

Lovin' my new curtains!  I wish you could see in person how pretty it all looks but these pictures will have to do.

Calico curtains.

Sweet little calico curtain print.

And our new and pretty throw rug.  It's a little darker red than in their photo.

I have yet to order the throw pillows for the sofa...

Camping Weekend

Our neighbor.  Isn't this adorable?

Us at Laguna Seca.

Antique Shopping on Saturday.  1940's Catcher's Masks for sale.

Here's a nice looking guy.

Another great weekend spent camping at Laguna Seca.  

I can't tell you how many times we drove back and forth from the campground to Carmel, to Monterey, to the beach.  For the best pizza in Pacific Grove, go here: Joe Rombi's Pizzeria.  It's also a coffee shop.

Two More...

Our beautiful cabinet HERE.

The pictures don't show the true color of the walls, which is more grayish green with a hint of blue.  Very pretty color by Benjamin Moore Paints, Wythe Blue.

Living Room and Kitchen Redo

Last Monday I began painting the (very bright yellow) living room, hallway and kitchen in our newest color, Wythe Blue.  Sort of a grayish green with a hint of blue.  My paint choice is always a satin finish which gives the walls a soft sheen.

Our Oak Tree in Napa Valley Photograph on Canvas with my handmade lampshade on the right.

I can see from this photo, I need some new throw pillows.  Something like this or this to brighten up the sofa and this or this or this for the chair.

My Armond Roulin (After Vincent Van Gogh) painting.

Mike's hand carved birdies.  (Mine) ;)

My Rossi Vineyard and Manchester Barns Paintings and the Cabin Check valances HERE.

Hallway

Our Newest Little Cabinet

HERE it is.

A Fabulous Day at the Beach

We went to Portuguese Beach this afternoon with family and friends.  Loaded the back of the pickup truck with an awning, firewood, chairs, blankets, plenty of food, drinks and a bag of marshmallows, chocolate bars and graham crackers for some you know what.

The waves were big and crashing.

Me, Shilah and Angelina.

Judy and Samantha.

Out of nowhere and in what seemed to be slow motion, Shilah came tumbling down.

Dennis was cold.

So, Michael built a fire.  And...we had S'mores.

Mosaic Art For the Yard

We recently redid our backyard landscape and put in a brick path meandering around the fountain which is the focus of the yard.  I had Michael put in a mix of stepping stone pavers here and there throughout the brick path.  These are my blank canvases to do some decorative tile mosaics.  I had some extra boxes of colorful tiles stored in the laundry room for quite a few years, leftover from some other mosaic works.  I was waiting for a new project to use them up and I knew they'd be perfect for this. 

So, the other day, I donned my knee pads, goggles, etc., and began the daunting and back breaking task of the tile mosaics.  First thing I did was come up with some designs for all the pavers, nine total, I think.  Here's a few of the first ones completed but not grouted yet.  I'm going to wait until all are completed before grouting them.

I need to add just a wee bit more of the dark blue along the edges.

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My flying white egret.

I still have the background to finish on this one.

Our newest shabby shelves.

Dentil Trimmed Shelf

The dentil moulding is our own handcrafted design.

Beaded Row Trimmed Shelf

Another of our own handcrafted designed trimwork.

Newest Design!

We designed some new shelves recently.  Here's the newest one:

Floating wooden shelf ledge with twisted rope trim.

Custom Swinging Doors

 Michael made these doors for Pane e Vino in Suisun City.  They turned out beautifully, he's such a craftsman!

They wanted me to paint some bread and wine for the doors and here's my painting.  I'm very pleased with how it turned out.  I've never painted this subject until now.  The bread was a bit of a challenge, the wine and glass were fairly easy enough.  I used a medium on this painting which helped my paint to flow like butter.  I began painting again very recently and have been painting strictly with the oils and not using a medium.  I'd forgotten how smoothly the paint goes on with a medium.