ace&jig

"created their clothing line around using antique textures and colored stripes of heritage cloth"

words found here

"We describe Ace & Jig as a textile story, it's the feel of the fabric itself that fuels our purpose" 

A&J on anthropologie.com

Here is a designing duo I admire.  I only just discovered them. I like what they are doing A LOT.  From the simple, easy to wear silhouettes to the making of the all natural, hand-dyed, loom-woven fabric, their story is a bit dreamy for me.  They do everything from scratch with good intentions 'from inspiration to creation'. Real ladies that are good family folk. Working mostly with cotton or cotton-linen blends, beautifully combining color and texture. Find them here, read this great article and learn even more of their creative journey here and here.

part art, part play

This is grrrreat! A play area made from tree cutoffs, the options and ideas for what you can do with this inspiration overflowith.  And I had no idea Eucalyptus grew to get so gigantic. Found here.

shelter from the storm

Ya'll my humble little studio has become a shelter for a handful of college students from New Orleans.  Drunkering I mean hunkering down above sea level and out of storms way (mostly at least).  We are still expecting a whole bunch of rain and wind but not nearly as much as further east, like they say around here 'we're gettin' the good side'.  The gumbo is on the stove and when I asked PaPa if he had prepared for the storm his response "yep, I got an extra case of beer". And I noticed the brand new bottle of vodka on the table too.  I'm glad I'm not busy on a project because I would be walking over sleeping bags and around others personal belongings. What's usually my space to create, for now smells like a bar and in less than 24 hours there's already a large trash bag full of bottles and cans.  Ahhh...the college years...to be 21 again.  No Thank You.
But I'm glad we have a place for these youngin's to run. Be it small and cramped, no matter.

you can find more pics of our village here

the jeweler

BRVTVS the recent Makers feature. Have a look at the pretty pictures from around her studio, her space where she creates.  I have a thing for peoples' creative spaces. They make me happy.

natural beauty

Simple, organic, raw, natural, beautiful. Amethyst cluster necklace. Your own slice of Earth from the inside of a Brazilian Amethyst cathedral. I love these! Hemline now has a couple in stock. Coming real soon to my online shop.

hmm...

found here

before & after

I know I just posted about our lovely new bath but I could not resist the before and after side by side. Which funny enough I did not consider until after the original post. The before is from before we even moved in 2 years ago almost to the day. What a difference!

a lovely new bath

Inspired by our shared intrigue of old ways and natural techniques our lovely new bathroom is a combination of earth toned slate and a Moroccan waterproof plaster technique called tadelakt. We used a lime mixture with a 'mayan green' earth pigment and surprisingly our color turned out nearly identical to our inspiration color.  My hubby has a passion for olde world building techniques and though until more recently he has mostly worked with timbers he is excited to be broadening his work to include earth plaster and earth pigments.  This sort of plaster work is not an easy feat and involves many messy steps but the outcome is breathtaking. Our new bath transports you to an old home in the European countryside, so we feel.  It is always a bit of challenge for he and I to compromise our ways. He is skilled and fine tuned and appreciates utmost attention to detail while I prefer a more primitive and rustic simplicity.  But through it all we work it out and I think we have come up with some great creations. A true representation of the two of us.

We found this beautiful antique cypress door at a local antique store and after much scraping and sanding my hubby cut the door in half to make french doors. This made the most sense as the original door took up most of the hallway when it was open.  These new doors add a great authentic olde world feel, like our very own primitive palace :).  We added rusty hardware which fits perfectly.

We added wide cypress atop the doors and window to create a beam like look.  We used the original trim around the parellels of the doors and window but we scraped and sanded through to the wood to change them up and add to the overall rustic appeal.

I love the geode and crystal knobs we picked up at Anthropologie on a recent trip to New Orleans.

a tiny antique afghani wool rug... scored on ebay for a great $25

and heres a look at some before and during...

You can never be sure what you'll find when you start to take apart an old house. We had anticipated some work but my goodness. We had to replace a decent portion of the sub floor, we had to change the side of the plumbing for the shower because we did not consider that when we bought our new/old tub. With that though we plumbed our grey water from the tub into our garden which is super exciting for us.

this little man means serious business ya'll

I am so glad this is finished.  Honestly I am horrible at renovating, at least emotionally. It makes me kinda crazy.  Highly irritable and cranky due to all the chaos and mess. Of course I try to contain it mostly but that in itself can make one want to bust ya know. Ain't that ashame. My poor hubby. He is so sensitive to my ways too.  Again, let me just say WE ARE THRILLED this is finished. He worked so hard and did such a great job. This was our summer vacation for the most part.  We had talked of plans for a week long road trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains but instead we spent that time and money on a long awaited, often talked about bathroom remodel. Now that is said and done and beautiful!  Neeeext...

You can find more pictures of our original bath here and more pics and stories of our home here.

I like it...

found here

There is so much about this bohemian room that I like.  The pallets used for the couch/daybed. The stump as a coffee table. The plaster textured walls.  But mostly in this room I am inspired by the lamp shade cage decorated with moss and branches and suspended from the ceiling.  My mom has a few of these around with a great natural weathered/aged patina. This is something I would like to try because I like it...

jewels

Here are a few wonderful pieces that I find truly inspiring. Their all from pinterest and filed in my jewels board.  They are each so very different but share a very organic way about them.

If I were making rings I would want them to look something like these

This is something I would like to try with my salvaged copper collection

I have always dreamed of working with clay this would be a great way to meld with my passion for making jewelry...

just because...the long gradiating elements remind me of porcupine quills

these are beautiful I like how the metal is so formed and molded to the stone

massive + raw

simply stunning

tribal + feminine

leather + crystals

hmm...

found here

beekeeping at the camp

faces of approval...this honey is mmm mmm good

We shared our very first beekeeping experience and it went well.  No bee stings until the very end. When all was said and done my hubby returned the box with the honey drained frames and when he came back to camp he apparently brought a couple of bees with him. One did get my mom and it seemed to hurt her real bad for a good 10 minutes or so.

I wasn't much help with the honey harvest but it was enjoyable to watch closely and to see the kids experience such a moment. I basically snapped pictures (many obviously) and hung with my kiddos. All in all it went rather quickly and was not as difficult as we had unknowingly anticipated.  We smoked them with pine needles and sage which apparently works like a sort of sedative.  Our bees were pretty calm which was nice.  My hubby did most of the work, front and center, with great help from some great friends whom had done this sorta thing before.  It was a pleasure to have their experience on board.  They helped move things along smoothly, flawlessly and painlessly (mostly).