We are settling into our Florida house

http://ourflhouse.blogspot.com/

I am going to some posts on our Florida home blog.  We moved into our house a year ago.  But things got delayed until I could recover from my Cervical spine surgery (discs fused).  So, as I 'wake up' and come back into a little more activities I am planning the house that we do not need to move from!

We decided to go with a house that would not have a mortgage and just relax and take each day as it comes.  We decided we want to remodel or change some of the surfaces in the house.  We are going to take our time and work as we have energy and desire to.  Meanwhile the house functions and each room can wait until we work on it.
I have a design in mind and a tropical feeling.  I will take some photos as we do things.  But nothing is going to go fast!

The music on this Blog!

I just realized that now that I have moved to Florida, this 'summertime' collection of songs is good year round!  Love the relaxing sounds.  Enjoy!  Happy forever-summer to everyone!

2 Years!

I can't believe it has been 2 years since I started Blogging!
Thanks for coming by and for leaving comments!
I recently moved to Florida, and am settling into my new life. I really am glad I made the move, I am blessed now with more family visits and a more relaxed lifestyle!
Will I do more projects in the future to post, of course!
For now it is 'Time Out' for me!
See you in Blog-land soon!

COLOR STUDY 2

Pictures I got off the Internet for my color study:
I want to create the tropical feel in the yard and in the house. I do not have my house yet, that would make things simpler wouldn't it? I like the idea of using unconventional items such as yard art, plants, fabric to create touches here and there to accomplish a cohesive look without added visual clutter. The center photo shows the arrangement of tropical flowers, it is intense and used sparingly it is very affective. They are primary colors, so even mixing these, pulling in the intensity in a small area or spot to draw your eye. Will be fun to experiment. I think my next house will have enough trials and adjustments that I should do a mock-up foam core model and play with inter-relationships between rooms as well. If I am to live with this much color, I should study it first. Can you tell I have been a Black, white and brown person for too long?

I love the idea of yard art with found objects. We want to also incorporate wrought iron or metals that are welded together as a prospect. DH has a welder he is axious to use!

Check out my other Color Study on my Home Blog!

Large canvas painting

Here is a Craigslist find for $20. The size is 43" X 54". I thought it would be great for me to experiment with it for a large painting in my next house! I have always wanted to have a large painting but was not sure if I could live with that scale of something on my wall! So, I bought it, brought it to our apartment, and put it up on the wall. Suddenly it was NOT so large anymore! Funny how scale changes with other furnishings and surroundings! I love Amaryllis anyway, so I knew I could live with the print if it worked out. I plan on painting the wooden frame darker. The colors matched the two settees that are a washed out red that I already own.

One settee is full sized sofa and the one on the right is a love seat size. The fact that they are both winged back makes them taller in a room, around 42" AFF. You can see from the shadows made by the lamp that they have texture added onto the canvas. This I can remove later on when I repurpose the canvas.

You know, this may grow on me, and instead of finding an 'art supply' canvas, I might have found a piece of simple (hotel type painting) art to put on my wall!

Mirror (repurposed) into a stand!

I had this mirror in our old guest room, and was going to bring it to the thrift shop when the mirror tilted, and there was a different use for it, a stand! I put a candle holder on it to show you what I meant by a stand! The mirror has bolts on the sides to tighten so it won't move so it is sturdy. What a great lift for some Christmas stuff!

Curly Willow tree

I had gotten this bouquet of flowers last year from my kids for Mother's day. This was from Martha Stewart's collection. See the wooden branch that came in the vase? That is a Curly Willow branch. After a week in water, I noticed it was growing roots!
I took that branch and planted it outside in my yard. The photo below shows what the branch became after only one year!

Curly Willow, Willow bushes, Oak Willows and Willow trees all have growth hormones in them, so they self root. You can also take a small piece of the branch and add it to your water to root other plants that propagate this way. We have sold the house where this is planted, and I can see over the fence that this tree is now about 8' tall! And all from one little branch in a bouquet of flowers!