Luluology's blog

Before and After: faux bamboo dresser

I quite liked the yellow, but when it came down to it, I needed to paint it white for the room.

*faux bamboo gentlemen's dresser

*thrift store find $9.99

*Benjamin Moore paint in Decorator's White semi-gloss

Inspiration Photos

From Geneva, Switzerland & Annecy, France

 

Child's Play

All too often people tell me they are not creative. 

Sometimes this statement comes apologetically... as if they don't recognize they really are creative, or they hold hope they are creative, but just need some validation. Less often it is a flat, impatient statement. As if trying to communicate the point they don't have time for such things.

I say all you need to remember is how to play.  And take some time.  It is a wonder what will come about when you nurture it a little.

 

This battle scene brought to you by a little boy home sick from school today.

creative guests

Creative guests get a little extra love from me.  I was delighted when our guests for a family New Year's Eve party, got together and set up a root beer tasting panel. They brought nine different types of root beer, and everything needed for a blind taste test. Comments ranged from "flat" to "minty" to "woodsy".  And the winner.......

 

.........was Parker's Root Beer, a store brand generic!  It was my personal favorite as well, but I give props to IBC for the beautiful bottle.

 

thirsty anyone?

creative people on VOX

To post only one of Lulu1's amazing photographs is hardly fair.  I just had to share her photo of the witch's hat she made for her daughter.  The idea was "a witch going to a ball".  I think it is absloutely lovely.

 

This brings to mind a thought I have about creativity.  You know how some people just seem to be good at everything?   I think they tend to be extraordinarily creative people.  Creative people seem to be good at everything because they are not afraid to try, they tackle a problem in a way they can understand it, and apply their experience in one area to another.

smile like you're two

 

even if you have to pretend you're wearing hot pink cowboy boots

 

luciana's new boots

I found my little niece's smile inspiring in this photo.  I think I'm gonna try to smile like this at least once today.  And for the record...I'm wearing a pink shirt.

Featured Question: My Signature Dish

What’s your “signature dish” and when do you usually make it? (Bonus points if you share the recipe with the rest of us!)
Sponsored by Blogs.com.

 

Circus pony

Call me a one trick pony, but if you have been to my house for dinner, chances are you've probably had 7 Layer Bars (or Magic Bars,or a dozen other names) as one of the desserts.  Why?  It's quick, easy, homemade, and I usually have all the ingredients on hand.

The seven ingredients:  graham crackers, butter, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, coconut, almonds, sweetened condensed milk.

Heat oven to 350.  Place pan in oven with about 1/3 cup butter and let it melt while you smash one small package graham crackers in a ziploc bag (about 9 whole crackers).  Mix crushed graham crackers and melted butter in pan to form a crust.  Sprinkle 1 cup of chocolate chips on top of crust, then 1 cup butterscotch chips, 1 cup coconut, 1 cup almonds or your favorite nuts.  Top with a can of sweetened condensed milk.  Bake for about 20 minutes or until the coconut is golden.

Done! And you didn't even have to use a bowl.

Vox Hunt: Out For a Stroll

Show us your favorite walking path.

My favorite path these days is paved.  Hard to admit for a girl who grew up hiking logging trails in the forest.  I much prefer a bike ride to a walk, unless I have someone special to walk with.

Ennesbo

It shouldn’t surprise me that an artist with a degree in dance would use everything from peeling wallpaper to surround sound in her exhibit. The idea of a multimedia exhibit is what drew me to the show, but I wasn’t expecting the layers I experienced at the Swedish American Museum Center in Chicago.

Swedish American Musuem Center

 

Sandra Binion:  Ennesbo included a couple of wallpaper fragments from an old farmhouse (one of which was a fantastic birch faux bois), watercolor journal drawings, photography, the sounds of birds chirping and calling, her own journal entry wallpaper,  and a four channel video installation which played the domestic pleasures of a rural farm in southern Sweden.

 

Artist Sandra Binion has been staging performances and installations for over 30 years.  Ennesbo grew out of her experiences during a month long visit to a farm still in the hands of her Swedish relatives, and from which her great grandmother immigrated.

 

The perspectives evoked were as diverse as her media.  There were so many feelings behind each type of artwork--simplicity, passion, tenderness, connection and regret.  My friend, Noel, commented on the use of technology to communicate such a simple life.

 

Noel & Journal Drawing by Sandra Binion

 

I couldn’t help but wonder what Sandra Binion’s Swedish family thought about her interpretation.  Were any ideas similar to their own, or is her experience only one that can be felt from a separate continent and removed generation?

 

The American experience is largely one of adoption.  Non-native peoples are adopted as countrymen.  Immigrants adopt a future.  At some point most Americans swim back upstream, find a smaller tributary, and adopt a homeland-- a past.  There are so many to choose from that in some way we invent our past as much as our ancestors invented their future.

 

If I could give an assignment it would be to find your own Ennesbo, and explore it.

 

 

Sandra Binion: Ennesbo on view: 

Philadelphia: American Swedish Historiacal Musuem January 4-April 5, 2009

Seattle: Nordic Heritage Musuem December 4, 2009-February 7, 2010

St. Peter, Minnesota: Hillstorm Museum of Art October-December 2010

"It's just paint."

This is the post where I confess that all my creative endeavors do not turn out as expected.

UUUGGGHHH. 

I had planned a lovely post, with before and after photos of my kitchen table and chairs.  In my mind I thought they would have a dreamy Scandinavian feel painted white.

I have carefully primed and painted the table and six chairs---even revisited the paint store to discuss the viscosity of the rather expensive paint I had purchased. The chairs have been in and out of the garage no less than six times...I kid you not.

The result is a ghastly 80's country- looking set that just needs a blue swiss dot table cloth and a mauve plastic two- quart pitcher to be complete.

Usually, I'm confident about my paint choices, and don't worry too much about it.  After all---it's just paint, right.

Yes, it's just paint, but it's time I don't have.

I'll work with this...don't be surprised if I end up painting them black.