a creative mint

Persimmon and Turquoise

Hello Friends, 

Here are my photographs from my "Color Me Pretty" column this week on Decor8. I also added a few extra to make it interesting for you! I wanted to work with one of my old favorite combinations -turquoise and orange. I like using the word persimmon because it sounds kind of special and some of the orange tones I am using are a little darker, a little more red, like an extra ripe persimmon. I also threw in some grey, a small amount of black and lots of neutrals.

Like many, I have been on the David Hicks band wagon for years. I think it was ten years ago to be exact that I dug through the shelves of a little second-hand bookstore on the Island (Vancouver Island) and found many of his old books, like "On Living with Taste" and "On Decoration With Fabrics", for next to nothing! Today these books are apparently worth much more. I am drawn to his fearless use of color and the very graphic nature of all his patterns. His son published a new book on him that has been released this week called "David Hicks, A Life of Design". For this post I created my own simple patterns that are very much inspired by him and I did them quickly in watercolor and acrylic ink. I know many companies sell fabrics with prints similar to these like Donghia and Kravet. I just needed to do them myself in order to get the right palette and its much more fun to create your own even if they are not always that original looking!

I scanned in some of my watercolor patterns to make a little wall hanging DIY project for you. I used my Marvy square punch and quickly stamped out the squares I needed to make a grid that I then drew out lightly on a piece of 12" by 18" paper. I used this size because I had an old frame this size that I wanted to use. I then lightly sprayed the backs of the squares with spray-mount adhesive and put them into the grid. If you use spray adhesive please do it outside or in a well ventilated area! I actually think this would look way better with the original watercolors being used instead of the scanned copies. Therefore, I think I will do this again and give it to someone for Christmas! This project is great for using up old paper that is in odd sizes or old photographs. A little tip if you are new to using craft punches -the bottom is often clear for you to see exactly where you are punching out the paper. 

These are some fabrics from my fabric stash that worked well with the palette. The bottom two fabrics are large table cloth size pieces of Otomi Indian embroidered material. I bought these six years ago and no longer have the name of the retailer I got them from but they are available at Jacaranda Home in a wide variety of colors.

I loved adding the persimmons, the chinese lanterns (Physalis Alkekengii) and the orange berries because they add touches of Fall to me in a more subtle way. I am not one to change out the color scheme of my home in order to match the seasons, rather I like making little gestures like the berries in a vase on my kitchen sill. Do you make large seasonal decorating changes in your home? Just curious...

I really hope you enjoyed this and can you believe November is just around the corner?  

Take care and I will see you soon! xo leslie

 

 

Island Apples

I can never drive past an apple orchard during harvest time without screeching to a halt, turning the car around and madly trying to find where the stand is...there is just something about trees laden with fruit. Ok, maybe I don't "screech" because I have kids now, but you know what I mean? Even if you are not an apple fan they are just so pretty. This orchard was near Cowichan Bay on Vancouver Island, we loaded up the car with different varieties of apples and did taste tests the whole way home...I think Honeycrisp won...

xo leslie

Color Me Pretty Time

Hello friends, yes, it's that time again! If you have a few moments please join me for my "Color Me Pretty" column at Decor8 today. See you soon! 

xo leslie

The Weekend

Hello friends,

Just checking in for a quick hello and to wish you all a wonderful weekend! It is 9 am right now and already 81 degrees...it's suppose to be Fall and I have lots of Autumn type photographs I took while I was in Canada last week but I think I will post them next week as it still feels like summer here in LA!!! I am also wrapping up my photographs for "Color Me Pretty" which you will see early next week...

Take care and thank you all again for taking moments out of your busy lives to check in here.

xoleslie

Dahlias and Vintage Paper

Hello Friends,

Here are the photographs from my recent column on decor8. I am going to try to explain more about what I do in these color series as a friend of mine said it may be interesting for you. I am a little challenged when it comes to explaining what I do so please hang in there with me! 

In this photograph I use some of my vintage ribbons and threads which I have purchased from the California Millinery Supply Company in Los Angeles. If you live in the city it is worth checking out this interesting shop! I laid the items on a watercolor pattern I painted for the series. I wanted to bring in a geometric pattern so that the photo was not too "fluffy". Do you know what I mean? I usually like to combine really feminine vintage items with something more modern and geometric. As I mentioned in the column I am really inspired by Anni Albers, Gunta Stolzl and some of the other women who studied at the Bauhaus. 

A rather cluttered collection of my watercolor patterns, my photographs and some fabrics that I thought worked well with the palette. The little garland I made from printouts of some of my scanned in watercolor patterns.

In this photograph I used vintage postcards and stamps that I purchased at the Rose Bowl Flea Market in Pasadena. I really love the color of the yellowed papers with lavenders and mauves and then adding a touch of darker brown.

All of these fabrics were purchased at Michael Levine in Los Angles. Except the top mustard colored fabric which I purchased in Tokyo while I was there last month. If there are any particular fabrics you are curious about leave me a comment and I will try to find an online link for you.

I picked up these lavender colored bottles at the Flea Market and apparently they go darker in color if left outside in the sun? Hmmm...I must try this experiment, but I have heard that the bottles are referred to as sun colored amethyst and they date back to the early 1900's.

I could not get over the colors in this old photograph postcard of a sailboat in Florida! Just a dollar at the Flea Market brought me a lot of inspiration for this series! I have it laying on more of my watercolor patterns and you can see the palette similarities. 

In looking at this photo I wish I had a less shiny ribbon to use to make the garland but I could not find anything in my ribbon bin except for this very shiny and very inexpensive white ribbon from Michael's. If I was to make this again (which I will) I would sew the pieces onto a thin grosgrain ribbon or onto some kind of bias tape. For this garland I just hot glue gunned the pieces onto the shiny ribbon. I scanned in my watercolors of the dahlias and the patterns as well as some vintage book pages and then printed them onto inkjet canvas paper. Once I drew the right triangle shape onto card stock I cut it out and used it as a tracing guide.

I always enjoy putting together these "mood/inspiration" boards for you. I usually start my photographic series with the board and from there I work on the other photographs...on occasion I get stuck on the board (like I did with this series) and I then have to start shooting photos and then come back to it. I feel like this kind of board is relevant for me right now because I find endless inspiration from paper crafts and patterns. I usually try to do a "craft" board that incorporates what I am inspired by and what I have been inspired to create for the series.  Then after I take a few photos I try to do a second "board" type shot that is more decorating inspired. To help you visualize some ideas for the palette in your home. As much as I love photography I also enjoy creating things...

Here is a detail photo of my watercolor painted dahlias that I accented with white ink. I learned about the use of white ink from the uber-talented Geninne of Geninne's Art blog. I then cut out my water colored flowers and scanned them into the computer so that I could print out multiple copies of them to use for various collage crafts. I used a merchandise tag punch to create the tags as they come in many sizes and are easy to use. You can get them at Michael's or like myself you can order them off Amazon. I glued copies of the vintage book pages, portions of my water-colored patterns and cutouts of the dahlias onto card stock and then just punched away with my Uchida merchandise tag punch. I then used a 1/8 eyelet punch and 1/8 white metal eyelets for the holes. For much more tag inspiration please visit Sharilyn's post on her lovelydesign blog.

I hope you enjoyed this series and my little explanations...I could add more? I am always curious about what you enjoy the most or what you would like more information on so please do not hesitate to leave a comment or email me. 

I am in Canada enjoying Canadian Thanksgiving weekend! I hope you are all having a wonderful October and are finding time to do something creative.

xo leslie