horseplay lutanist gloom

Success is the result of good judgement, 

which is the result of experience, 

experience is often the result of bad judgement. - Tony Robbins

The other day a friend asked me if I 'accept' fabric that an Interior Designer friend of ours was dumping.  Well, Yeah...  It's been a very long tie since I would open the kitchen door and find a huge bag of leftover material from unknown sources!  back in the 80's word got out that I liked fabric so I would have mysterious donations appear at regular intervals.  That hasn't happened since we moved to the condo, and certainly not here in gated-community land!  But yesterday I got home in time to find said Interior Designer with two lawn-and-leaf giant bags full, struggling to get them out of her golf cart and into my driveway!  We dragged them in and set them at a lounge s=cahir and she happily left feeling much lighter after purging!

I dumped out one bag at a time and went through it all-  I tossed all the small samples, tossed all the icky chenilles and heavy woven furry things, the t transparent things, and the huge amount of chintz (I am soooo over chintz!)  

 Junior League Camouflage

(More about this one some other time, but this was my last chintz purge)

There seemed to be a large leaning to a particular coral color and a pale green, neither of them favorites of mine so I only kept a few of those.

But then, be still my heart, a HUGE 30" square of LEOPARD jumped out of the bag!  OMG, it's enough to cover a hassock, make a Euro pillow, a seat cushion, so many things.  Maybe a Sonny and Cher vest...  Beautiful, and worth going through two bags!

Here's the pile as it emerged from the first bag, and you can see how many small samples there are, and so many pale colors.  I loaded the keepers into one bag to haul to the studio, and the rest I will donate to a school supply place down in Palm Beach I heard about.  I would have loved to be able to access odd supplies back when I was teaching so it's a great resource, and especially for my favorite art teachers who end up teaching 200 ways to draw on construction paper without this kind of stuff!

In the House Department, I met with the closet lady yesterday and she practically lost it when I showed her what I want on one end for my jewelry case.

This idea I grabbed years ago from my SIL who added two at the end of her dressing room and I decided then and there it was GENIUS.  All those skinny drawers for earrings and rings, the medium ones for necklaces, and the deeper ones for the necklaces I adore that are, shall we say, chunky found crap that I actually wear.  I than had to talk closet lady out of fancy mirrors and corbels and chandeliers, preferring a bank of daylight fluorescents.  No backing boards, just shelves and hanging rods, lots of them, please.  I have no intention of ever sitting IN MY CLOSET except perhaps to tie sneakers, so no lovely chair and ottoman sets, no tables for a coffee, etc.  

And still later, I had heard about a young woman who was starting an Interior Design office and made an appointment with her because I have hit the wall on decision making.  Turned out she is exactly what I need.  In twenty minutes we narrowed down color choices for the kitchen and the exterior, mostly because she had lovely 9x11 samples rather than my strips from the paint store!  Made it so much easier.  Then I took her over to the house and walked her through all the issues that are driving me nuts.  

Like my view of Firenze from the guest room:

I think I feel this relief because somebody else sees it like I do and will perhaps offer me some new eyes.  And IDEAS.  Anyway, I slept better last night.

This was sent to me by a west coast old friend who is very worried about Florida sinking.  To allay her fears I looked up where we are on the sea level charts and it seems we are at a mountainous SEVEN FEET.  We are safe as all hell.  (But it looks like perhaps Jupiter will be the next Atlantis and soon people will be diving here find the remnants of the Burt Reynolds Theater and the Dune Dog restaurant.) 

So, today's art will be about my new undersea residence!  First, blown glass critters: 

Oregon-based artist Scott Bisson has basically spent his entire life mastering the art of glass blowing, and by the looks of his lifelike animal sculptures, he’s mastered it pretty well. Using his fascination with nature, he manipulates glass to mimic the intricate shapes and textures of different animals. 

In an ongoing series titled “Dreams,” Chinese sculptor Wang Ruilin creates surreal animals that don’t act like animals at all. Their backs, and sometimes their antlers, function as arcs that carry monumental elements of nature like lakes and mountain cliffs. It’s like an animal-version of Noah’s Arc without people. “Leaving individuals behind is painful”, admits the 29-year old sculptor, but it allows us to reduce confusion and see the value and force of life.

And with that it's SQUIRREL TIME!

A mold to make chocolates for your next party of nuts!