A Blooming Artist CONTINUED......

As promised here are the pictures of how my artwork turned out. These are the walls at The Durham Rescue Mission that needed "joyful color". The above pictures are the group that helped install all the artwork. Elizabeth is trying to take credit for the one she is with- HA HA!
They turned out great and thanks to everyone who helped make this gift a success!

A Blooming Artist

Being in charge or organizing ASID meetings, I feel as if we should do a charity around the holidays. So.....this year we had the opportunity to help out The Durham Rescue Mission. They desperately needed artwork in the halls in their apartments for their residents. It is so gloomy and depressing down the halls we thought some artwork would help cheer things up. We had a lesson from Susan Hecht a wonderful local artist in Apex. She was so kind to let us use her studio and to donate the materials. Check out her website at www.susanbhecht.com.

You will see the finished product in the next blog. I know you can't wait to see!!!

ASID Christmas Party

ASID (American Society of Interior Designers) & IIDA (International Interior Design Association) held a joint social event bringing the design community together to celebrate the holidays. The event was held at the beautiful Nasher Museum of Art on the Duke University Campus. As you can see from the above photo the museum had the Picasso exhibit and an Andy Warhol Polaroid exhibit. It was an interesting exhibit and what a treat to see original Picasso pieces.

Favorite Install Items

One of our most glamorous light fixtures is a "to die for" addition to the master bedroom where we installed it. The bedroom was already very glitzy and Hollywood like, but the light fixture made the room. We will have portfolio pictures of the room it is installed in coming soon........

The above rug is made of a wool silk combination. The design is taken from the window treatment fabric. The portfolio pictures we take of this job will show the detailed construction that went into this rug and all the other elements. This is an all white/creme room. Therefore, no muddy shoes or drinks allowed!!!

The above tile medallion was installed in a foyer to give a grand affect in the entrance of one of our clients homes. It was very interesting and tedious putting the medallion together and making sure it was not damaged in shipping. The picture to the right is showing the medallion after it had been installed, before the grouting took place!

Dining Room Make Over

Our FUNNIEST clients hired us to do their dining room this summer and have it done before Thanksgiving. We added lighting, color and fabrics! As I tell all my clients when they mention "DINING ROOM" that is the most expensive room in the house to work on. To help stay within budget we kept the china cabinet and table. As you can see just a few things: paint, artwork, fabrics, rug and accessories the room looks totally different.

We couldn't help, but to post our FUNNIEST client in his new Dining Room!!!

ASID November Meeting

The above photo is one of my favorite kitchens displays at Apex Cabinets- I love the tones and the finishes, all the details make it "drool worthy"!

I am the Design Community Chair for the ASID chapter in the area, which means I am in charge of organizing meetings throughout the year. This is my second year of performing this job and this meeting in November was held at the Apex Cabinet Showroom where the lead designer for MasterBrand Cabinets spoke about the "Trends in Cabinetry". Here are a few photos:

Make A Wish

For the past few months we have been working on a wish request from the Make-A-Wish foundation. We are so happy to have gotten to know Kathryn, and complete her wish for her. I met Kathryn though one of my favorite clients Connie.

Here are a few Before & After photos:

Staff's Halloween!

HALLOWEEN 2009

As you can see our four legged staff members enjoyed halloween tremendously!

Fudge was a turtle

Lila was a hotdog

Tess was a bumblebee

Elizabeth & I went as ourselves!

ASID 2009 Fall Conference and Gala

This past month ASID had its yearly conference this year themed "Connection". The best thing about the conference was the location, Wrightsville Beach!
I had the chance to attend a seminar on blogging, twitter and facebook for your business along with a lot of other informative sessions.

The left photo shows me with two of the best designers in Raleigh, Vicky Serany and Micheal Steiner.
The right photo is a great shot of the outgoing President of our chapter Emily Walser and the incoming president Margaret Olson.

Fall '09 High Point Furniture Market

Furniture market was once again a blast, but exhausting as well. We found many new hot items which companies introduced. Everyone seemed to have a positive attitude that the economy was turning around and the market was busy to support the positive attitude.

The two photos posted are of one of our favorite clients trying out a few chairs for her home. We are in the Brown Jordan showroom testing out outdoor furniture in the top photo and we are in Councill Furniture looking at a desk in the bottom photo. We look forward to posting many of the items we found. Stay tuned.......

Oceanside Glass Tile October ASID Meeting

Our ASID meeting of the month was hosted by Traditions in Tile and Stone who are the dealers for Oceanside Glass Tile.

The presenters were nice enough to fly in from CA and give us a CEU class on color theory!

http://www.glasstile.com OCEANSIDE GLASS TILE

SPCA Wake County Fur Ball 2009

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October 4th the annual SPCA "FUR BALL" took place and I helped out to decorate with the flowers/colors/tables. This is for a great cause and it raises a ton of money for the no kill shelter to survive on throughout the year. I thought this is a great way for me to give back tp the thing I love most with a talent that I love to do.

http://www.spcawake.org/site/Calendar?view=Detail&id=107541

Tess is Back

Tess returned to work this past week. Here are a few pictures of her before she left her babies to grow up by themselves. I think Elizabeth needs to adopt ALL of them!

Client to Asheville

Jonas Gerard: Fearless Exuberance

It was time to address art for the living room we are working on in Durham. My client is a collector of Jonas Gerard. She invited me to visit the gallery with her in Asheville, and spend the weekend on a 200 acre horse farm. It was wonderful to meet the artist and select from so many works. Here is the website if you are interested in seeing a truly talented artist: http://www.jonasgerard.com/. I ended up purchasing 2 of his works for myself.

Here are a few pictures of the horse farm and my client riding on the "mule tractor" which I never thought I would see:

ASID Meeting Kickoff

This past Tuesday ASID had its annual meet and greet kick off meeting. I am the design community volunteer, which means I am in charge of organizing all the monthly meetings for ASID for the entire year. Our first meeting was held at Foster's in Cameron Village. Allison Humphries of Cambria presented the CEU on her product Cambria. It is a wonderful material here is a link to more info: http://www.cambriausa.com/

I hope to use it in many projects! It is so durable and looks incredible.

Here are a few pictures from the meeting enjoy!!!

Client to High Point

This past Friday we took one of our clients to High Point to test out how a few pieces of Baker Furniture sit. She loved how they felt, Baker sits like a dream! We are working on her living room in Durham, which will have a contemporary modern feel with creams/whites and silvers when complete. It will be a few months until the project is done, but it is going to look great when finished.

Tess is on Maternity Leave

Tess is now a mom of 9 again, this totals 17 (I think). She will be out for a few weeks nursing the new pups. I know Elizabeth can't wait to have her back at home and work with her. Here are some of her babies.......

Tall Window Treatment Install

August 16th, We had a HUGE as in Tall window treatment install in Chapel Hill. These always make me nervous when it involves tall ladders and everyone climbing up to over 12'. It takes an army to make the install go smoothly. It is wonderful to have such a great team! Check back to see the after pictures!

Tamara's Party

August 13th, Elizabeth and I attended a summer bash hosted by my faux finisher Tamara Clark at her design studio. She had lots of vendors and different sources that were great for us to meet and get to know! Elizabeth is enjoying the great food. It was so nice of Tamara to host this event!!!