Monthly Archives: April 2010

I wanted to show you an incredible artist whose work I just revisited.  Her name is Leslie Clark and I love her paintings!  I went to Ojai the other day for a beautiful photo shoot with Elizabeth Messina (I will show you those photos a bit later) and afterwards I stopped in Leslie’s gallery.  I had first seen her work several years ago and admired it then but have not had an occasion to go back to Ojai.  It was such a treat to see her gorgeous work again!  She spends half of the year in Africa painting the people she lives among, capturing their beautiful faces and traditions with her magic.  She particularly focuses on the Sahara and the Niger regions but has traveled all over Africa.  She also has the Nomad Foundation, a non profit foundation that “… seeks to blend cultural preservation with economic opportunity”.  Feast your eyes on these amaizing paintings.

… and of course one of my favorite things, saris!

I have been working on some fun projects of late…  I had my first “faerie” bride comission me to make her a set of wings for her wedding.  She bought the most beautiful amber color wedding dress that I am matching with vintage sari material for the wings.  She also loves mermaids so we are making it a bit of a cross between wings and fish tails.

I am not done yet but here they are mid way…

I will be adding shells, bugs and all manor of fun things.  Here is a close up of the embroidery on the sari…

more deails…

Anyway I will post a picture of the completed wings later and hopefully I will show you the bride with her magic wings on her wedding day!!

Yeeeaaaa!!!  My faerie shoot made it into Santa Barbara Magazine.  Seriously happy over here!!  Have a look, they interviewed me and the result was a fairly long article!  Instead of using it as a wedding as I intended they chose to show it as an over-the-top party.  Either way would be very fun!  As you can tell I am over-the-moon about it.  Check it out and enjoy…   I surly am!!!

The cover shot on the left also by Elizabeth Messina, the lovely lady who shot the faeries!!!

I mentioned earlier when I talked about Nipper (The best tip we ever received!) that I would write about his brothers and sisters, so as promised here they are (some of them).  My husband and I are very privileged to run a charity for unwanted cats.  We have only in the last couple of months made it official by creating a non-profit organization and establishing a web page and in general organizing ourselves.  When we moved onto the beautiful ranch where we live now we discovered a staggering number of feral (wild) cats desperately in need of food and medical attention.  Thus began our crash course in cats and unbeknown to us the beginning of our charity.  Prior to our hugely expanded family we had only one cat.  We basically now live with a herd of somewhere around 40 plus!  We have as of now spayed and nuetered 60 plus!  For all the details and lots of cute pictures and great stories please visit our web page The Lucky Few.  For now here are some snapshots of a few members of our fuzzy family…

“Munchkin”

Shortly after moving in I found this precious little girl soaking wet, shivering, eyes newly open, only 3 weeks old under a bush positively howling for her mother. There were no other cats around and if I didn’t get her dry and warm soon she was in trouble.  I actually let her sit for a bit hoping a mother would show up but no one came so I was it.  Not just love but infatuation at first sight! We absolutely delight in her!  A few weeks after we found Munchkin we saw this in our back yard! Munchkin’s litter mates

We couldn’t approach them because they would scatter!  We just kept food down and over time they became lap cats.

Now they are all grown and part of our huge family,

Munchkin now

Some of her litter mates now

Princess

Back to front, clockwise: Timmy, Stripes, Princess(white calico), Solo, Morgan (the two gingers).

Tiger

Tiger is one of the patriarchs on the ranch. We think he is around 15, no one knows for sure.  His family left and couldn’t take him with them.  He joined our family about 2 years ago.  All you have to do is look at him and he starts purring.  He is on my lap right now purring like mad with his chin on my wrist (typing is a little interesting at the moment). I couldn’t ask for a better floral design supervisor!

So as not to overload you too much I will stop for now. Stay tuned for more cats and tales.

Puuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…

I have some ideas rummaging around in my head, thought I would share them with you.  As you may know from an earlier post the ranch we live on has a wonderful old barn that my husband just restored for a wedding.  I was poking through some of the ranch’s old buildings looking for salvaged wood to build tables for the barn and my imagination started going off.  I have a couple of scenarios in my mind, both I would like to try, so here goes…

First thought would be to use some of the old doors and windows I found for an unusual ceremony look.   This site exists across from the barn and I have always thought it would make a lovely ceremony tree.   I drew a picture below…  see what you think.

I think hanging several windows from the old Sycamore tree with some flower garlands intertwined would be kind of fun.  I just inherrited two beautiful stained glass windows from my family that would make a beautiful “altar”.  The colors are very muted, not at all strong.  Unfortunately I have not picked them up yet so there are no pictures to show you.  The entrance to the aisle would be an old head board from a vintage bed that I have.  Just before the bride walks down the aisle it could be opened with a flourish.  We have some old church pews that I would use too.  One long Asian carpet would be the aisle runner, with another for the bride and groom to say their vows on. would be a long Asian carpet with another one at the vow site (of course I own lots of carpets too!)  A fairly eclectic look but beautiful I think.

On the left is an example of some of the windows I could use, we would need to replace the panes or knock them out, not a problem.

Here are some of my own windows along with a wagon, table, and bench.

The other variation would be more in keeping with the barn theme.

I would take an old window pane door I have (pictured above) and create a frame for it and set it at the vow site. I would then set next to it a hay bale or two with some beautiful garden urns with flowers.  I would also set next to it my old wagon filled with flowers. I would still use the Asian carpets and pews.   For the entrance to the aisle I would set some old fence gates I found.  Here are some pictures of various props I own and some of the old windows and doors on the ranch.

The large doors behind the gates in the first picture on the left we might be able to take down and use for the vow site.  They are huge and beautiful if a tad worn…   The white gates would be the entrance to the aisle.

My husband and I will be making tables out of these doors, I think they will be wonderful for the barn!

There are 7 doors like the one on the left.  It is hard to tell in the picture but they have a wonderful patina.

The ones on the right will be joined together for one large table.

This old grain bin we are going to turn into a couch.  We will take the front off and then make cushions out of white denim and filled with goose down for the pillows.  To this I would add lots of luxurious throw pillows in the colors of the wedding.

This door on the left has the most wonderful old paint on it.  I will wax all the doors so the color will really stand out and the finish will hopefully be nice and smooth.

I also have a few old benches that would be fun to throw in somewhere, maybe as a coffee table for the grain bin couch?

I also thought it would be whimsical to fill a few odd items with flowers like the top suitcase in a stack of suitcases, or a beautiful old steam trunk.  They could also be filled with blankets for the guests to borrow for a chilly outdoor wedding.

The stack of suitcases would also make a great check in table or cocktail table.

I would also use several of my own vintage wooden tables, may be for check in or gifts or a family photo display…

Pardon the mess but these tables I use as my desk and art table.  I believe the level of messiness directly corresponds to how creative you are…   that’s my story and I am sticking with it!

How fun are these old wagons?

Now lets imagine we go into the old barn for the reception and though the barn itself is very rustic with a dirt floor, the decor is very sophisticated!  I just love the unexpected mix of old and rustic with beautiful elegance.  I would hang from the rafters large crystal chandeliers and then have some of the old wood tables with sheer organza linens on them so you could see through the fabric to the table.  Some of the old tables would have a heavy damask runner or a beautiful old brocade.  I would mix in a few regular tables so I could have a gorgeous heavy linen all the way to the ground.  The centerpieces would be silver bowls filled with flowers and silver candelabras.  I have kept a few pictures from an old Anthropologie catalogue that has a great color story.  I also cut out an old photo that created lots of beautiful possibilities in my mind.  There are definitely some great ideas for table linens and colors in these photos!

Here are some fun fabrics of my own that would make lovely table linens or even curtains for the barn.

Well…   thats the way my imagination has been going, hope you like my ramblings!