Paint in My Hair

The Living Room

So I was surprised today by an email from my friend Rosalynde.  She was like, "Way to go Laura, getting on Design Sponge!"  I was like, "What?!?!"  But sure enough, that's me.  I love Design Sponge.  How cool is that.

So here's part of the living room. 

Let me answer some questions I've received:  The dining room chairs were a garage sale find, painted and recovered.  Someday I should do a post on how crazy easy recovering a chair cushion is.  The curtains are bedspreads form Urban Outfitters.  Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while know how I love to use those for everything.  And yep, the chandelier is from Lowe's.  I LOVE SPRAY PAINT!

I'm off to prepare for the holiday.  I'm going to Colette's for Thanksgiving.  She mentioned two people bringing a pie a piece.  My brain went "Wo, that's 2 pies."  Some of you may remember when Heather outed my family on our pie obsession.  Needless to say, I have a lot of pies to make.  We usually shoot for a pie per 2-3 people.

The problem with this is that I was always on filling duty.  Someone else made the crust.  I confess I've stooped to store bought crust in the past.  But this year I am bound and determined to conquer crust.  Any tips????  Help!

I'll post the rest of the living room soon.  :-)

P.S.  I just restocked my calendars.  You can buy one here.

 

And the Winner is......

Wow.  Blush.  Thank you for all your well wishes and support.  It's been lovely to read your comments over the last few days.   I've randomly selected a winner.  The calendar goes to:

Laurie, at The Wooden Spool.  (I swear it was random!)

Just email me your info, Laurie, and I'll send you your calendar.

For anyone else you can purchase a calendar here (at my Etsy shop).   Or use the calendar link in my sidebar.

I've been doing my Christmas shopping on Etsy.  I LOVE it. I get something unique and I'm supporting a small business owner.  Makes me happy.

 The only tricky part is weeding through the bazillion "shops" to find the ones you love.  I thought I'd share some of the "shops"  I heart.  And please share some of your favorites with me.  I want to get all my out of town presents purchased by Thanksgiving.

Oh ya.  If you buy a calendar between now and Thanksgiving I will gift wrap it for you.  Just let me know you would like it wrapped.

 Kung Fu Cowgirl:  I love these little zipper pouches.  Love the price too.

Rachelle D.  Love this vintage flower jewelry. Funky color combos.

Fabric Divas  I love that I can buy little scraps of crazy fabric. 

Happy shopping!

A Calendar Giveaway!!!!!

Here she is......my 2009 calendar!!  I just couldn't be more pleased with how all my texture and layers of color came through.  So here's the cover.  That's me, Laura Gunn :-)

And here she is posing.

A close up.

More posing.

And there's the back! 

So, you say, how can I get one of these lovelies.  Well, in a few days you can purchase one from yours truly.  But right now you can enter my calendar giveaway.  Just leave a comment and a winner will be randomly selected.

Thanks for playing.   This giveaway is now closed.  The winner is posted above.

Speaking of my calendar and randomness I have to share a random experience from Quilt Market.

(I had an amazing time at Market, but haven't talked about it much because Heather and I both forgot our cameras.  Duh.  And so I am waiting to hijack everyone else's photos.  This first one I stole from awesome Kim Kight at True Up.  We had a memorable lunch with Kim and Michelle.)

So random experience #1:  For all the non-sewer readers, The International Quilt Market takes place twice a year.  It's a wholesale show.  A lot of great fabric designers go.  I was there assisting my SIL, Heather Bailey, as well as promoting my own line. 

One of the amazing designers that showed up was Heather Ross.  I love her work.  She does charming designs and saved my bacon when I was setting up Luke's Nursery.  I was struggling to find BOY fabric that was original and interesting.  Heather Ross delivers.  So, of course I was excited to meet her.  She was very cool and I showed her my work.  Since the best pics of my work are in my calendar I had been using it like a portfolio at Market.  After I showed it to her she said, "Where can I procure one of these."  Well, of course I gave her one!  I was so flattered.  Then, to top it off she asked me to sign it.  I had to giggle over that.  It seemed ridiculous for me to sign something for Heather Ross, but I aims to please, so I did it anyway.  It was very sweet of her to pay me such a compliment.  And I don't even care if she was just being polite.  It made my day.  And here's the photo to prove it :)

Dining In

So here's the dining room.  I cannot lie.  I LOVE IT!!!!!.   I did the walls in a neutral light gray.  That way I can do all sorts of crazy colors everywhere else.  Stay tuned for the living room and you'll really see what I mean.

And yes,  The bamboo is growing horizontally.  That's just how it works on planet Laura:-)

Here's the view from my kitchen. 

We just spent like 5 hours at the mall  (I bet some of you were there too, cashing in your "friends discount" at the Gap stores) so I am wiped out.   Going to crash. 

Stream of Consciousness and a Chandelier

What a crazy week!  Dave's parents have been here for a few days, which called for some shopping, and sightseeing, as well as cooking and many games of Upwords (All of which my FIL won.)  And all this in the middle of an interview/photo-shoot with St Louis At Home Magazine (our cool local home dec mag.) Phew, time to take a breath.

 I am determined to start some Christmas crafting this week.  DETERMINED!!  Come hell or high water.  (That's the kind of expression my mom used to use.  My sisters and I throw one in every once in a while for a giggle.  I have no idea if that expression makes other people giggle, but for my own amusement I have used it.  My stars and garters, I have really digressed.)

Anyhow, I mentioned before that Isaac came and helped me finish up my living room.  He put up crown molding,  switched out my chandelier, put up sconces, and then photographed the whole thing.  What a brother!!!  So over the next few weeks I'm going to give you a tour of my projects in those rooms.

We'll start with the chandelier.  I'm sure I'm not alone when I say that ever since Heather put this beauty up on her blog I have longed for a funky chandelier.  I picked up the chandelier at Lowe's.   I removed all the crystals and spray painting it turquoise.  The turquoise goes great with my totally funky mural on my dining room wall.  More on that next time (oooooh the suspense.)

I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one out there blasting the Christmas tunes already.  I think I'll turn some on and work on my growing mound of laundry.  Toodles.

Merry Christmas! I know, I know, but I can't help myself.  I'm a Christmas junky.  I never complain about the Christmas stuff in the stores in July.  And If I can make it through October without whipping out the Christmas music I feel like I have exhibited a lot of self-control.  I did pretty well this October, aside from singing Luke to sleep with "Oh Holy Night"  and "The first Noel" almost every night.  And, since I'm coming clean, there was the 15 minutes in the car that Lily and I worked on the 2nd verse of "Angels we have heard on High."  But all in all I think I kept myself in check.

But now it's NOVEMBER!!!!!  No more holding back.  In fact, this morning I got together with some girlfriends to get the singing started.  I love the classic songs, but am definitely expanding my repertoire.  A few years ago my sister Maureen got me hooked on this song from our church children's songbook.  I insisted we sing it at Emily's.  It has the prettiest little soprano descant.  (Being a soprano, I'm biased towards pretty little soprano descants.)  

Emily had the same Reader's Digest Christmas Song Book that my sister Evie always uses. Perfect.  I get a little weepy when I think about singing Christmas songs with my brothers and sisters.  (The good kind of weepy that I secretly relish.)

This morning I also dug out the Christmas music and Dave's Guitar.  I'm ready to slyly place the guitar and music next to him.  (Once I get him started he'll play for hours.)

I think I'll also celebrate November by buying this Kathy Mattea CD I have wanted for years.  Then I can belt out "Mary Did You Know" while I'm loading the dishwasher. (Brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it:)