A Sunny Getaway and Guest Posting

I adore this cape cod summer home recently featured in the most current issue of Traditional Home.  Keeping the 1817 house's charm, the family of six renovated it to accomodate their family with children and extended family.

The fabric choices keep the home youthful and playful, but the furnishings are traditional with wordly accessories scattered throughout. 

I'm normally not a fan of windor chairs, but I love how they modernized by painting them purple.  I believe it is Benjamin Moore's Mulberry Wine.  And, then to add another element of interest, they painted their accent wall a 'green apple' green. 

Here, you see a better picture of the green wall off to the left.  How amazing is this kitchen which completely opens up onto their porch.  I also really like the ribbed glass light fixture that is centered over the island.  I love the porch furniture with accents of orange and green. 

You can see accents of green and orange carried through out the house.  The room above is one of the original 1817 rooms.  I love the Brunschwig & Fils 'Shaw' fabric on the chimney wing chairs.  And, how about the green striped desk paired with the painted floor!!  Brilliant!

So sweet.

They hired a decorative painter come to dress up this powder room.  It reminds me a lot of de Gournay's cherry blossom wallpaper.  Since I'll never be able to afford de Gournay's wallpaper, this might be the next best option!!

Ahh, serenitiy.  The master bedroom.  The chestnut floors were stenciled with a fortuny-inspired design.  And, I like the contrast of the black iron bed with the white walls.

Okay, now I am ready for the summer!!  Also, I'm over at Jen and Jana's blog, Opal Never Shouts, guest blogging on ways to freshen your home for spring. 

We See Fireworks at PS122

Helen Cole’s We See Fireworks which enjoyed a fantastic run at the Barbican as part of Spill Festival earlier in the year is on it’s way to PS122 in the heart of the famous city, and are lucky enough to be joined by our good friends Action Hero who will be performing Watch Me Fall.

We’ve been raving about We See Fireworks throughout the past year, but for those of you who haven’t heard the name then here’s the info:

With support from the British Council, Performance Space 122 brings 3 companies, Inbetween Time Productions, Action Hero and curious, across the pond for a taste of the UK's hottest contemporary performance experiences. 

Part installation, part performance archive of audience voices, We See Fireworks is a curated collection of memories of past performances or performative moments whispered softly into the darkness. They talk of religious ceremonies, accidents, lovers' meetings, loss, homesickness, adolescence, fairgrounds, car parks, fetish clubs and school halls. Articulated by strangers, these words are viral, searing into the consciousness, until the deepest memories become yours.

'Quite how vivid performance can be is demonstrated exquisitely in We See Fireworks’  Lyn Gardner, The Guardian

The installation is open at PS122 in New York from Saturday, June 4 - Saturday, June 11 from the hours of 2 - 6:30pm / 7 - 9pm daily.
The installation is closed on Monday, June 6.

If you would like to add your voice to this growing collection, opportunities for individual recordings are available June 4, 5, 7, 8 between 4:30 - 6:30pm & 7 - 9pm.

Giveaway Winner!

Happy long weekend, my friends!!!  The sun has been shining here in New England and it is such a treat.  I finished planting all my planters.  I spray painted the below terracotta planters glossy black to match our front door; I like how they turned out.

And, before I sign off for the long weekend, I wanted to thank you all for participating in the Olive Leaf Stencils giveaway.  The winner of this awesome giveaway is Elizabeth from The Mustard Ceiling! Congrats, Elizabeth....hope this makes your weekend!!

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:14Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Olive Leaf Stencils Giveaway

Don't forget to enter Olive Leaf Stencils giveaway - go here.  It ends tonight!!

Challenge #1 sponsored by All That Scraps

Welcome! Well, this past week has been the longest! Since we chose our Design Team and our Guest Design Team, we do have more followers (thank you for that) and we had so much fun making the first card / project. Our first Christmas Challenges {with sketches} challenge is finally up.

This week we are sponsored by All That Scraps and they are offering the lucky winner an amazing $30 gift voucher to spend in their store.
You can find the store --> here <-- The winner will be chosen by Random Generator.

Here's some inspiration from the Design Team ...

Made by Carol

Made by Claire

Made by Janneke

Made by Linda

 Made by Marion

 Made by Monique

Made by Nicole

Made by Pam

Made by Renata

Wilma is on vacantion so no card from her this time ;o)

And our lovely Guest Designers

Made by Annemarie and Merit

Made by Betina

Dina is on vacantion so no card from her this time.

Here is the sketch that Janneke made for you this time ;o) You can rotate the sketch and resize the elements, as long as you follow the original sketch, that way your entry qualifies for the prize draw.

To join the challenges and to be eligible for the prize made ​​available by the sponsor of that challenge, we have a few rules. You can find them --> here <--

You can place your direct blogpost link in Inlinkz untill Monday June 6th 23.59 am (Dutch time)

Three Essential Elements: Why I’m Going to and Blogging about NLO

Three elements underlie why I’m heading to the conference.

Element 1: Networking
One morning my officemate asked me: “Do you know the nonlinear optics conference is in Hawaii?” Me: “No.” I must say Hawaii is good place for a conference.

So I looked up the committee chairs and invited speakers and wished to go. Steve Harris—my dissertation advisor’s dissertation advisor will be there. Steve Cundiff, who edited the book "femtosecond optical frequency comb technology" and recently published “Optical arbitrary waveform generation” (which is closely related to what I am working on) in Nature Photonics, is one of the program chairs. Also the conference will have a symposium celebrating the 50th anniversary of the nonlinear optics.

Element 2: The negotiation workshop given by APS
At the 2011 APS meeting in Dallas, APS gave a FREE (Yes, free, everything paid) professional skill development workshop. One presentation is about negotiation skills. Two key things I learned: a) you don’t get it if you don’t ask; b) negotiation is not selfish and it is for the benefits of both sides, at least as far as a faculty position is concerned. Both you and the school want you to settle down well and succeed. Negotiation lays the terms necessary to do so.

By the end we had one assignment: Ask for something you want but do not need.

Going to Hawaii is a lot of money. 11 hours of flight time. Hotels, registration fee. But I thought, this could be a good exercise.

I gathered courage and sent my advisor an email in which I proposed I pay part of the fees.

Several days later, he came in and told me. Go ahead and submit an abstract. Money is tight but should not be a big problem.

That leads to the 3rd element.

Element 3: Nice experimental results!
I have been working on this project--Pulse-shaper-assisted phase control of a broadband coherent Raman spectral comb--for one and a half years. Finally in March we obtained some beautiful results. Therefore I do have some nice figures to put in the abstract. I am writing a paper anyway so I prepared an abstract and submitted.

Now, Bingo! I am going the Hawaii’s fourth largest island. I have been to the first 3 islands so this would be a totally different experience.

When Nicolas from FastLite in France asked me whether I am going to any conferences in European countries, I said no but I am going to Hawaii. Here is his response:

NLO in Hawaii... wow... seems much better than Europe :-D !

I am getting excited.

My Painted & Stenciled Rug AND a Stencil Giveaway

If you've been following my blog, you know I have been slowly updating my office.  It is an office that also serves as a toy storage room and a guest room (futon is dragged up from the basement when guests come into town).  There were 2 inspirations for my office makeover: 1) Schumacher's Chiang Mai Dragon fabric in aquamarine (which I adore) and 2) incorporating a loose interpretation of a bold patterned rug (like Madeline Weinrib's Mandala) but in subdued colors.

So, not willing to spend money on a Weinrib rug and having a difficult time finding a rug in the perfect color, I set off to create my 'own' version.

First, I started with an inexpensive, flat weave rug in a neutral color.  This is where Ikea's Erslev rug comes into play for $29.99.

I wanted to the base of the rug to be a pastel orange/pink color - similar to a peachy color.  I thought this would complement the coral color found in the chiang mai fabric.  I chose BM's 064 Nautilus Shell no VOC latex paint- the perfect peach color to create a calming effect.  Here, I started my first coat.

I used a 4 inch roller and rolled away.  The rug ended up taking 3 coats of paint!  After the rug dried, I was ready for my stencil!  Here is the stencil taped onto my painted rug.

You can hardly tell a color difference because the peach color is very subdued, but in person it looks great.  Like I mentioned before, I wanted a very loose interpretation of the Mandala rug.

I contacted Olive from Olive Leaf Stencils and they agreed to let me try one of their stencils!!  It was a difficult to choose just one because they are all SO fabulous, but I finally decided on the chrysanthemum stencil no. 2.  I liked it for it's boldness and whimsy.

Since the rug was textured, the stencil didn't lay entirely flat.  So after taping it down,  I used heavy objects like these books to add some weight to ensure the stencil lay flat.  You can see here, I used a foam brush to paint the stencil.  

I just dabbed the paint onto the stencil.  I never brushed it - just dabbed the paint on.  Seriously, it was super easy and worked great.  After, doing a total of five stencils I was so happy with the end result.  

What do you think??  Another view:

A complete view of my office:

Don't worry, I plan on changing the fabric on my valences and do you see my dyed lampshade?  And, I couldn't end this post without inserting a picture of my Schumacher Chiang Mai pillows that gave me the color inspiration:

{my inspiration board will be coming down and a FABULOUS mirror will be coming soon!}

So, now here's the part you've been waiting for....the Olive Leaf Stencils Giveaway!!  

To enter:  Go to their site, come back, make sure you're a follower and comment on your favorite stencil.  Easy peasy.  The winner will receive the stencil of their choice worth up to $60!!!!!

For extra entries: 1) tweet about the giveaway and/or 2) blog about the giveaway!!! 

Giveaway ends Thursday night!!!  Good Luck!

My Rug (DIY) Inspiration

I hope you all had a nice weekend.  I was able to finish a DIY project that I've been working on since last weekend.  Tomorrow I'll share the details along with a fabulous giveaway!!  You won't want to miss it.  The inspiration for my DIY was Madeline Weinrib's Mandala rug.

I can't wait to share the details with you!!  Stop by tomorrow - you won't be disappointed.  Now if only the sun would come out for a minute, maybe I could take a decent picture!!  

Are you ready?

 Hi there..... Here is just a little note to tell you that the first Sketch Challenge is coming up on Wednesday! Make sure that you are ready for making a Christmas Card or Winter theme card with the first Sketch.
This first one is mady by Janneke. She is the founder of this blog! Before this she owned a club for makingChristmas Cards and then the idea for this blog grew and grew.... She talked about it with Renata, Nicole and myself and we all were so excited about it.. that she went ahead with it...
And here we are... at the evening of the beginning of Christmas Challenges {With Sketches}.
I want to thank all the sponsors for their confidence in us and their trust in sponsoring us. This is such a blessing. We have a special place for all our sponsors on the left side of this blog! Please give them a big thank you!
And then... for some of our new team members it's the first time they are in a Design Team. And I have to tell you... they did a great job so far! They all picked up the routine very quickly.
Further on... from the bottom of our hearts... I want to thank all of you followers... You really exceeded our wildest dreams...so many of you that are already here! I hope that you will enjoy the sketches as much as we do!
For now... have a great day and we hope to see you back on Wednesday May 25th at 9:00 am Dutch Time!
Hugs from all of us.

Dyed Lamp Shade!

Today, I will be over at JPM Design as Mary has invited me to participate in her Friday series.  I've decided to share one of my recent DIYs - my dyed lamp shade.  Stop on over to get the full scoop!

Here's a sneak peek:

A Miracle

I am 21 weeks pregnant!!!  A new baby will be joining our family in September.  This means a new sibling for Luke (whether he likes it or not)!  Our dream has come true.

Like any story, this one has thousands of details I could tell.  And I debated sharing these on my blog.  But it was this story that actually led me to blogging as an outlet – so it only seems right that I share it here.  I have been intentionally holding off to announce the “news” for fear of jinxing myself.  But at the end of the day when faced with trials, one needs to trust in Him.  Fear is unproductive; trust and faith are what you need.  

I share our story in the hope that it may help others in a similar situation to not feel so alone or lost.  Bear with me; this will be a long post.  Kevin and I got married in June 2006 and within months found out we were pregnant.  It was a textbook pregnancy and birth.  We were so excited to have our little Lukie.  But, we were also naive.  And our unbridled happiness was challenged when, two weeks later, my mother passed away from cancer and lung complications.  I knew her day was coming, but a daughter is never ready for her mother to leave.  In fact, we scheduled Luke's baptism just before he was born - and, with this turn of events - his baptism ended up being the same weekend as my mother's funeral.  I was dealing with motherhood, the loss of my own mother, while not really having a support network (I had only lived in CT for 10 months and our families lived in remote states).  Looking back, I was in survival mode.   

Kevin and I had always planned to have several children so it was no surprise that nearly 9 months later, we were pregnant again.  Having had no complications during Luke's pregnancy, I was unprepared for the road that lay ahead.  I was 12 weeks pregnant and we were full of anticipation as we went to our first trimester screening.  I remember laying there, holding Kevin's hand as the technician started the ultrasound.  After an awkward moment of silence, the technician looked over at us and said, "I'm sorry."  I was bewildered and confused.  Could this really be happening?  The doctor came in and confirmed there was no heartbeat.  We cried.  Our doctor assured us that miscarriages were 'common' and that we shouldn't worry.  

But I didn't feel common.  But, I thought, we'll try again.  And we did.  The results were 3 more miscarriages.  There were no genetic abnormalities and we had no trouble getting pregnant; I just couldn't sustain it.  And our doctors provided no answers.  I'll spare you all of the details.  But after our fourth miscarriage, I was done.  I felt horrible and had nothing more to give.  I hit rock bottom and was completely empty.  I felt like a failure.  

I looked for support; other women who silently suffer the pains of loss, but they were hard to find.

We've all had burdens.  But, for me, this one seemed impossible to bear.  It was so heavy and filled with so much sadness.  I knew, that with any ordeal, God has a plan for us.  I didn't understand it.  And, in fact, at times, I resented it.  But this is what He gave us.  I prayed and told Him I didn't think I could handle another loss.  

We took time off.  We did a lot of reflecting and praying.  I slowly started to research other women's success stories.  How did they overcome their recurrent miscarriages?  I slowly made some changes in my life.  I started with nutrition and made changes.  I started to see an acupuncturist.  We looked into the adoption process.  I started to see a counselor to discuss my mother's passing.  Taking some control over my situation (when I felt so out of control) felt re-assuring.  I started to wake up with a new sense of peace, reminding myself daily that God does love me and that He is giving me the strength to deal with this.  

Remember how I said that our doctors (my OB/GYN and fertility specialists) were not providing the answers.  Well, through a priest friend of ours, I found about about NaProTechnology (Natural Procreative Technology).  This is a scientific approach to monitoring and solving women's health issues - especially infertility and recurrent miscarriages.  I contacted them and they told me they wanted to find out the underlying causes of my recurrent miscarriages.  This was music to my ears.  

I was introduced to a registered nurse, who taught me their Creighton Model Fertility Care system, which would monitor my biomarkers during my cycles.  This experience was eye-opening.  The nurse met with me monthly and was so incredibly supportive and helpful. I was blessed to have been introduced to this woman; she supported me and helped me immensely through our entire ordeal.  After 6 months of charting my system and obtaining 'data' for what was going on with my reproductive system, we were ready to move forward.  I met with my NaProTechnology doctors in NYC and I went through a series of tests to rule out any medical issues.  I had a laparoscopy conducted to rule out endometriosis.  I had tons of blood tests done to monitor my hormonal levels.  They found out I was hypothyroid and lacked adequate B6 and B12.  We found out some critical information concerning my hormone levels, which gave us more information.  With all of the pieces of the puzzle in place, we were prepared to try again.  

Last September (2010) we started trying again.  In January 2011, we found out I was pregnant.  I am now 21 weeks.  We are insanely blessed and hopeful.  We are so thankful to our family/friends - and to the NaProTechnology doctors/nurses.  And I want to suggest that people who are having trouble getting pregnant and staying pregnant should explore this option.  And, thank you to you for letting me share my personal experience!  I am not doing it for pity, but in the hope that this can benefit others who face similar obstacles. 

PS - Over the last few months I've had a number of posts related to baby items (yes, Rene, you guessed it months ago).  I guess this was subliminal.  You may also remember how sick I was back in January/February - it was all due to mind blowing morning sickness!!  

CCWS Guest Designers ....

 Goodmorning all,

Today I have the three (or must I say four) members of the new Guest Design Team for you ... We had a hard time choosing the Guest Design Team like the DT but we have chosen these three girls:  Annemarie en Merit
Betina Dina 
Congratulations girls and Welcome ;o)  We love to invite everybody to join in our challenges. The first one will be posted on Wednesday May 25th. That is only one more week to go. Hope to see you all next week! Hugs from all of us ♥ 

The Versatile Spool Chair

This weekend my friend and I went furniture shopping.  We came across the spool chair.  When we sat in it and I couldn't get over how comfortable it was!!  She has been looking for a comfortable chair for her bedroom where she can sit and read and we both agreed that this chair could be a contender.  The great thing is it's versatile, it could easily fit in a living room, family room or study setting.  Here are some of my favorite images.

House Beautiful

Hickory Chair

Hickory Chair probably has the best spool chair out there.  Timeless and great quality.  A piece you'll have forever.  On their website, you can picture the chair in any finish or fabric of your choice!!  Simply click on the 'Personalize this item' button on the top right hand of the product page, like this one.  

Hickory Chair

Layla Grace

Layla Grace carries both the chair and the ottoman with many fabric options.

Wisteria

The Wisteria chair is currently out of stock which is not surprising for $600, however I think not having padding on the arm rests would bother me and the fine print 'assembly required' worries me.  

Bloomsbury Vanguard Furniture

I found this one on clearance for $800.

Are you a fan?  Do you own one?

Christmas Challenge Design Team ;o)

First we like to thank you all for joining our DT call and making such beautiful cards. You made it so difficult to choose the Design Team, but we succeeded. 
We have six new girls to join us. This week we also announce our Guest Design Team, which was, like the Design Team, chosen out of the entered cards to the call. These ladies will get an email from Renata and they can join us for June, July and August.
So here are the new Design Team members

Carol

Claire Linda Monique Pam
Wilma 
Welcome girls and congratulations ;o) 
Last but not least we want to invite everybody to join in our challenges. The first one will be posted on Wednesday May 25th. Hope to see you all next week! Hugs from all of us ♥