Acorns, Manzanita and Mantels

Hmmmm......What is on my mind today?

Acorns and Manzanita.

Of course where I live there are lots of Oak Trees, Pine Trees, Manzanita Trees, Maple Trees, Cypress and even a few Redwoods.

We are almost at 3500 ft elevation so it is an area that is referred to as a mixed forest.   It is the perfect elevation before the forest transitions primarily to a coniferous forest.  It provides a spectacular fall and then of course in winter we get just the right amount of snow.

This mixed forest affords an amazing opportunity to gather items that a perfect for holiday decor.

There is an abundance of different types of pine cones, berries, leaves, trees and of course acorns.   All of these elements can bring texture, color and that little bit of surprise to your table, mantel or even your walls.

My mantel hasn't been decorated for the holidays yet so gathering items for my mantel was top on my list today.

So naturally I looked outside for inspiration and I started gathering things for my mantel.

Once I had gathered some things I got out the white spray paint and went to town painting these Manzanita branches
White.

I used two different colors of white spray paint.   A bright white and another color called
Blossom White.

I was really liking how this was starting to look.

In between spraying the Manzanita I took that cute little red basket and went out to gather Acorns.   I need quite a few of them and now is the perfect time to find Acorns with those cute little caps in tact.

image credit

I gathered quite a few and now they need to dry so I can use them in my Mason Jars.

If you want to know what you need to do to dry Acorns you can read that here.
HOW TO DRY ACORNS

I will be layering the Acorns in the Mason jars with votive candles.

image credit


After the painted manzanita dried I started assembling my mantel.
Because I haven't painted the wall over the fireplace yet
I felt I needed to have some white on the wall.
(FYI the reason I haven't painted that wall yet is because at the peak of the wall the ceiling is 18 feet high......and Oh my that is really tall and really scary....I hope to attempt it after Thanksgiving.)
I took down a large canvas painting and replaced it with three white framed mirrors.

I also assembled white candles, white pumpkins and clear glass jars.

The secret to a mantel display is to have a focal point and then form a
triangle around that focal point.
The items placed on either side of the focal point can be
symmetrical or asymmetrical
depending on your preference.

Here are a couple of examples:

Symmetrical styled mantel

Image credit

Asymmetrical styled mantel

 

Image credit

Aren't these images inspiring!!!

I haven't finished with my mantel yet but here is a picture of what it looks like so far.

 

I am going to fill the jars with something.....
I just haven't figured out what that something is yet.
I also want to layer some kind of textural element over the wood...
and I haven't figured that out yet either......

But you can be certain that
my mind 
will be thinking of several options.

Wednesday Wowzers - A new range

This post is supposed to be about small changes that make big impact. 

  

But you will have to forgive me because I am so excited.

We made a small change in the kitchen by switching out our 1980's Jenn Air electric range for a

Brand new GE PROFILE GAS RANGE.

Now I will admit that this really isn't a small change

but I was too excited to pass up the opportunity to share.

We found that inch and the new hood has been installed as well as the new refrigerator.

Let the baking begin!!

Woo Hoo!!

Color Obsession Confessions - repost

Image via Wikipedia

This post has been getting a lot of hits.  I thought I would repost it.  It is great information.  

And HECK I LOVE COLOR!!

(and Yes Dad you did see this post before)  

Yes it is true.  I am obsessed with color.  I don't quite remember when it happened but I am fairly certain it started when I was a young girl and wanted to paint my bedroom the color of Orange Sherbet.  My mother indulged me and I still remember how the color of the room made me smile every time I entered my very bright orange sherbet room. 

I continued expressing my color obsession by always choosing bold colors.  I have had bright blue bathrooms, bright yellow bedrooms,  blue painted floors, gold rooms, red rooms and more.  I honestly think I have used the entire color wheel in my many years of home decorating.  When I started interior design school last August I was so thrilled to sign up for Color theory.   I couldn't wait to learn more about color.

I remember feeling pretty innocuous after attending my first class Color Theory class.  However as the saying goes "Ignorance is bliss".  It was a good thing I didn't know what was in my Color Theory future in terms of work load.   In the end I am so thankful for that work load because I learned so many important things that are imperative to the success of color in design.

One of the most important elements of a well designed space is the use of color.  There have been many times I have walked into a room and I could see that something wasn't right.   I have learned that many problems of color in design are because color relationships were not understood or simply ignored.  A simple lesson in understanding the Color Wheel and color relationships can help in picking out colors.

If you don't own a color wheel do yourself a favor and get one.  They can be found at any art store or craft store and the investment of the few dollars can save you lot of headache.   From now on I will always be carrying with me a Design Kit which will contain many simple but essential things to do my job and the most important thing will probably be that Color Wheel.

One of the very first assignments in Color Theory was to create a Color Wheel.   It sounded simple enough until you realized you could only use 6 acrylic colors in addition to white and black to create all of the colors of the Color Wheel.   I spent many hours mixing colors to get an exact match to the purchased color wheel.  The assignment came with no instructions on what colors to mix together to get the match so it was purely trial and error.  I learned very quickly to keep track of what colors I mixed together to get a certain color.  I also learned that I became less accurate the longer I worked with the colors.  But in the end I did create a color wheel that matched the purchased color wheel.  It wasn't perfect but it was close and I received a 96 out of a 100.

I wish we would have been allowed to create a Color Wheel in abstract like Kandinsky did here.  Isn't the relationship between the colors stunning?

If you understand the relationships between the colors on the wheel and adhere to a few simple guidelines it will help when you pick out color schemes for your home.

It is simple enough to understand primary colors which are

Red

  Image credit 

Yellow

Image by Vicki's Nature via Flickr

Blue

                                                              www. pacificheightsplace.com

Secondary Colors which are Orange, Green and Violet are made by mixing two primary colors.  Tertiary Colors are Red Orange, Yellow Orange, Yellow Green, Blue Green, Blue Violet and Red Violet.  Tertiary colors are made by mixing a Primary and a Secondary Color.   The basic colors of the color wheel starting at the top are Red, Red Orange, Orange, Yellow Orange, Yellow, Yellow Green, Green, Blue Green, Blue, Blue Violet, Violet, and ending at Red Violet.   I fondly refer to the colors in this cool little code now ie: Red=R, Red Orange=RO, Orange =O, Yellow Orange=YO.....and so on.   It is little like Color short hand.

The next thing to understand are the terms of analogous, complementary,  split complementary, monochromatic, Tetrad, Triad.  In my next several blogs I will go over these terms and share with you images of spaces that have incorporated these color schemes.

Check out these amazing spaces. See if you can figure out what type of color scheme was used.

                                               http://tobifairley.com/portfolio/inverness-circle/

                                                                            Mary McDonald

Tobi Fairley 

Fashion is on my mind!

Update for college by dminarik featuring wool sweaters

 So fashion is on my mind at the moment.  

This is not something I usually discuss....but I am thinking I need a wardrobe makeover and have been playing with a site called

Polyvore

It is a lot like a site called 

Pinterest

Both of these sites are 

FUN, FUN, FUN!!

You can create inspiration boards or use these sites to seek inspiration.

Hmmmm.........can you say

 

SHOPPING TRIP!!!!

Progress, Promise and SNOW

The weekend breezed by and last night I looked at the calendar a I realized Thanksgiving will be here in a little over two weeks.   Yikes!!!!

It was a busy weekend full of progress, promise and
SNOW!!

All the new appliances that we got on sale are being delivered sometime today.   Numerous things are still on the to do list.  However on top of the to do list for this weekend was to remove the 1980 circa Jenn Air Range and to install the new hood that goes over the range.


I will admit I thought taking out the range was going to be an all day affair.
As it turned out the range was removed in less than two hours.

So if you ever want to know how to take out a range here is what you need to do.

1. Shut off the power at the panel.
2. Make sure you have shut the power off at the panel.
3. Ask several times "Are you sure you shut the power off at the panel?"
4.Find the wiring.

5. Get a voltage meter and set to correct current.

5. Make sure you know the difference between
AC and DC
.....no not the band...
I mean Direct Current and Alternating Current
 Batteries are DC while the electricity in your home is AC.
7. Once you have the voltage meter set to the correct current check the wiring by putting the probe on the exposed wires.
If the voltage meter doesn't move that means there is no power.


8. Then you are safe to clip the wires.

9.  Stand very far away as the husband clips the wires and
close your eyes 
just in case something
bad happens.

I am happy to report nothing bad happened!!

I was certainly nervous but my husband was in control and of course he had a little helper to make sure he was doing everything right.

Woo Hoo!!!
The range is out and new appliances will be delivered sometime today.

Now about that hood
........hmmmmm.......
well that didn't make it off the to do list because we ran into a little problem.
It is called inches.....
At the moment we are looking for one extra inch.
Yep there is one inch that means the difference of this hood fitting or not.

Heck we took an oven out......
finding an extra inch will be a
piece of cake. 

Remember those 31 days of prepping for the Holidays.......
well we are actually on day 38......
But who's counting.....
right?