The Next Van Gogh!

My favorite! Both of us love the northern hollyhocks! And Lake Michigan!
Just a few sitting on top of her armoire.
This is of one of her favorite houses on Mackinac Island.
This one is just breathtaking in person, it is huge!
This one really shows off the detail of the painting, you can see every stroke that she has made.

My little sister Melanie has once again found a new creative outlet. Painting gorgeous pictures. She has always been the artistic one, we always say that I am the organized one, she is the creative one. She used to paint here and there on furniture and walls, but not really ever any on canvas. She decided last month to give it a try. Of course she amazed all of us with her talent. Even she didn't know she could paint so beautifully. I am not kidding, I have been to the galleries and seen gorgeous artwork, her work is just as good. I went up north to her home last weekend for a night and I snapped a few shots of her latest pieces. They are so pretty, I love the colors she is using. And the scenes are from snapshots that she has taken of her favorite places in Northern Michigan and Lake Michigan. Her hope is to enter an art festival soon and maybe sell a few pieces. I have the first painting that she did in my dining room, I just love it, the colors are all sherberts and melons. I will post more about her later, she has some very exciting news for us that love to decorate, her home has been scouted by a person who works for Country Home and Better Home and Gardens magazines. The woman came and took tons of pictures of her home and called this past weekend to say they are very interested and wondered if she decorates for Christmas. OOOH Does she! I have some shots of her home that I will feature here in a few weeks. You will love it! We both love to decorate and be creative, we are always swapping "goods" and we always promise not to get rid of it, just give it back when you don't want it any longer. I am not giving my painting back any time soon Sis!!! If you would like to visit her stop on by and tell her that I sent you! She can be found by going to http://www.prettiesandposies.blogspot.com/. Update: Her blog is now private, please feel free to email her and ask for an invite. Her computer has crashed but will be up and running again very soon!

Our Office

Welcome to my office, the ceilings are 10 feet tall in here so I tried to draw your eye upward to see how I utilize all of the empty space that used to be there.

Love these frames, paid $3for all of them!
Here are my pretty window mistreatments, no sewing here! (Remember the fringe I bought for a few dollars at the great garage sale, this is where it ended up, I had just the right amount for both windows, and they puddle on the ground!)

These are definately not the best pictures but, well, you get the picture.
Love this new huge frame! I have had the topiaries since we moved into the new nest 8 years ago, I still see them at Homegoods, timeless! The red toile plates were a $3 Marshall's find. This display is actually quite large, the frame is at least 3 feet long!

Ahhh, my cozy chair! All of the pillows were purchased at my sister's garage sale last year!
This was given to me by my Grandmother years ago, it is a McCoy and was in her family. It is perched high on my bookshelf away from little hands.

My beloved photo albums, full of our life stories.

I have been slacking on this blog big time and I apologize. We have been so busy, if you read my other blog you would already know that :). So I decided to just take a few snapshots of our home office today to share with you all. We painted this room a few years ago, I had an idea in my head and hoped that my hubby could pull it off. I wanted the room to look like I had spent a fortune on custom molding/paneling. I cheated and painted the bottom 3/4 white and the top a rich dark taupe. He figured out a way to buy cheap pine strips of wood and we painted them white as well, a few cuts and wa-la, faux moldings. He also built a nice shelf all around the room so that I could display pictures (used to have pictures up there) or whatever I chose to do. I love how it turned out and we get many compliments on this room, probably because it is the first thing you see when you enter our nest. This furniture used to be in our basement but it was not convenient at all to run down there every time we needed to use the computer. So my hubs and another big strong man moved it upstairs to its new location and I fell in love again with this room. We also have a big stuffed chair and ottoman that is the most comfortable reading spot. This furniture was originally in our upstairs extra bedroom before a little Chinese darling entered our life and that room needed to become a nursery. I made the window mistreatments a few months ago and yes, the fringe is hot glued to the edges and there was no sewing involved at all! Yippee! I also have a bookshelf in there that holds our family photo albums. I love these albums from Kohls, they can hold some serious pictures let me tell you and they all match, it gives a more pleasing appearance. I have thousands of pictures in them. My newest addition to the room are the cool vintage frames. I have collected them from garage sales and was given a few also. Literally, I have paid around $12 for the all of them. My large frame I just bought from my neighbor's yard sale a few weeks ago. It had a huge picture of Jesus in it, I can't throw out a picture of Jesus so I just gently removed it from this frame and put it in a safe place. This frame is huge and it was $10. I am in love with the look of Nell Hill so I tried to achieve that look in this room with the gold accents, red toile, brown florals and rich colors. The pretty clock on the desk was Mark's service award from his department after being there for 15 years, it chimes and everything, Myah loves to remind me that my clock is going off. I have a few of my favorite decorating books at hand, some personalized stationary in a caddy, my crazy calendar, my favorite magazines and a few good books all close by in this room so I can stay organized and on top of things. This was once an unused room and now it is my favorite spot to spend a few hours. This is also the room that I sneak off to when I am on the phone, away from the hustle and bustle of the rest of the nest! I hope you enjoyed this litte tour of my office, I'd love to see yours!