Design Chick

Stripes

2011-04-24T11:11:00.000-07:00

I love stripes! Whether it's a traditional stripe on a chair or a funky striped scarf, I just have to have them. And why just have one stripe when you can mix more than one into the same room. Lately, I have wanted to paint black and white harlequin on my wood floors which makes Mike cringe so I settled for this fun horizontal stripe in my great room. It is just a couple of shades darker than the original wall so I just had to tape off the space for the darker color. It only took me (and by me I mean Mike) an hour to tape it and a couple of minutes to roll on the paint.

This chandelier painting is the only piece of Mike's art left in the house at the moment. They are all in a studio being scanned to create prints or in Off the Wall Gallery in Moab.

2010-09-26T20:01:00.000-07:00

Two New Projects

I have a love/hate relationship with Ralph Lauren. While I admire the empire he has built and the timeless look of his style, I think alot of his product misses the quality/price ratio. Recently, I saw a chair from his collection in Elle Decor that inspired me to paint an upholstered chair in my bedroom that had long ago worn out it's welcome. I found a can of white primer, grabbed a brush and 5 coats later, my toile chair looks like matte leather. Do I want to paint a stripe down the inside back, like Ralph or freehand a Chinese character? Please comment. The paint in the gallery is Martha Stewart and it really shows the paintings so much better than neutral Sienna Sand.

Mother's Day

2010-05-10T19:34:00.000-07:00

I had a great Mother's Day weekend. Sam was done with his 2nd year of Law School (now a 3-L) so everyone was here. We pretended that it was warmer than it really was and even ate outside for the first time this year. Val wore her cowboy hat which Grace stole and then they all wanted one. Five kids (four years and under) running and yelling yee-haw? Priceless.

Zoom in on this picture and look at Millie's cute grin!

New Paintings from the "Old West"

2010-03-03T18:29:00.000-08:00

These two paintings are a couple of Mike's latest works. They are both 4'x4'. My two oldest grandkids, Grace and Malachi are the subjects along with Vi, our horse. The bulls are from a stockyard not far from our house. Mike is in the process of building his website. He has the pictures posted so...soon. We are running out of wall space so he needs to enter some art shows!

2010-02-14T20:36:00.000-08:00

Jessica's Tribute to Grandma

Weekends at Grandma and Grandpa’s house began with shredded wheat or granola, feeding the horses in too-big black galoshes with Grandpa, and almost always included a trip to Layton Hills Mall with Grandma. She usually bumped into a few people she knew.

At home, she always knew exactly where everything was. She once sent me down to the basement for something — I don’t remember what it was — and she not only told me where to find it, but described everything else on the shelves around it. I remember finding that quite remarkable once I got down to the shelves and everything was exactly as she had described.

Grandma always came prepared. One year at our yearly vacation to Deer Springs Ranch, we ended up on a sandy road after exploring some caves; we were hot, tired and hungry. A family of California tourists also were hot and tired, without water or a long walk back to their car. We all piled in the back of Grandpa’s truck for the ride back, and Grandma pulled out a cube of sharp cheddar cheese and a pocket knife, and started slicing. Cheese never tasted so good.

Grandma loved BYU football. When we were young, they had four season tickets, and they would take different people with them each week. Grandma always wore Cougar blue, complete with matching earrings. She was friendly with a lot of the people who sat nearby. We’d pass the binoculars back and forth, and she would shout things down to the field just as much as anybody else. Halftime meant a polish dog and a Sprite, and the long car ride home to Kaysville was made even longer by the post-game show on KSL (for me anyway).

Grandma loved holidays. She always dressed accordingly, with festive earrings and cute T-shirts. I don’t, however, ever remember her wearing a tacky Christmas sweater. She was much too fashionable for that. When I got older, I often found myself complimenting her shoes, or her jacket, and even wishing we were the same size. Now who ever envies their grandmother’s clothes? She had a great sense of style and always looked her best. But she was a bargain shopper — with all those trips to ZCMI, she did a lot of hunting on sales racks. My cousin Melissa and I often got to pick items out of the Clinique free gift. In fact, I never bought make-up in junior high school because I always had a steady supply of eye shadow, blush and mascara from her.

Anyone who knew Grandma, knew she loved to shop. Except for all her good friends, I think that is what she loved most about Brazil. I remember her dividing up this four huge collections of dishes — one for her and each of her daughters. Grandpa made a comment about using these dishes, and she looked at him and said “Oh, you can’t eat off these plates, there’s lead in the glaze.” I’ve never seen someone look so bewildered. But these dishes were pretty, and she had to ship them home to her girls.

She always gave thoughtful Christmas presents, the most memorable for me being a quilt. She made all the grandkids a quilt for Christmas, and when we all opened them, we all talked about when we remember our quilt being up on the frames to be tied, months before, not knowing it was meant to be ours. I think she enjoyed our reactions.

As it said in her obituary, Grandma was our fan club. She always attended even the most simple of programs as we grew up. Melissa and I graduated from high school on the same day, and Grandma went to Melissa’s and Grandpa went to mine. And I know they were both sad they couldn’t both be to both ceremonies.

I lived in Kaysville from kindergarten through 9th grade. I have spent sick days on her couch, eating her delicious buttery toast. On the last day of ninth grade, a big group of us walked from the junior high to Tasty’s. I, of course, sat in gum, which wouldn’t come out of my tan shorts. But I called Grandma, and she came and picked me up so I could change, and she took care of getting the gum out of my shorts. Then she drove me back to meet up with my friends on Main Street. For the last half of 9th grade, we lived in their basement. I saw how Grandma and Grandpa were with each other when they thought no one was around. They were kind and gentle with each other; they were affectionate and loving. They laughed together, and talked.

While they were on their mission in West Africa, Grandma and I wrote back and forth periodically. As a freshman at Utah State, it was always fun to get mail, but I really loved getting a card from her in her perfect cursive penmanship.

Over the last few months, I liked to call on my way home from work, just to talk about how things were going, tell them about my kids and work and home. And she was always interested. And she was always nervous about me talking on my cell phone while I was driving.

I will miss my grandma terribly; I will miss her passion for history and maps. I’ll miss chuckling to myself as I watched her mow the lawn on the riding lawn mower. I’ll miss her pulling weeds in her flower garden. I’ll miss her falling asleep in the chair while watching TV, her head bobbing up and down. But I know I won’t miss her love for me, because I will carry that with me until we are reunited in the next life.

Redecorating the Nest

2009-11-19T21:02:00.000-08:00

A few months ago my fabulous writer daughter, Jess asked me if I knew anyone who would like to contribute a monthly column in the Herald on being an empty nester. I thought about it for about a week and decided that I wanted to write it! I haven't published anything since high school and that was quite awhile ago and only in the Davis County Clipper. So go to the link on my current obsessions and click on Senior Spotlight (ouch). The column ran on November 16th and will run every 2nd Monday of the month. Wish me luck on coming up with more material...and here's to my two little birds, Taelor and Cass, who have flown in for awhile.

Confucious says... patience is a virtue

2009-09-21T20:07:00.000-07:00

After three years of living in our house, I finally found the perfect entry piece. I have been searching for something with an Asian look but everything I found was too deep, too small, too expensive. I looked at all my favorite haunts...CG Sparks, various antique stores and of course waited anxiously for the new market introductions from High Point. I found this beautiful 8' long alter table at Home Again in the mysteriously "rarely opened basement". I didn't even have to re-hang my maps so it must be perfect and it was under $200.00.

Xeriscaping is beautiful

2009-06-07T19:59:00.000-07:00

Yarrow and pentemon

I wish I could remember the name of this shrub.
It requires almost no water and the spring blooms look like tiny flames.

My Waterwise Garden
I am so excited about my plant choices in my new garden. Even though I have researched this type of gardening for years I thought that I would be giving up some of the color that I loved in my English garden but I was pleasantly surprised this spring. I couldn't believe how much growth came in just one year, especially the penstemon next to the three yarrow plants that have been there since we moved in 2 years ago. Even Mike's tiny rock rose doubled in size.
I was able to turn down the drip volume in late summer and really save a lot of water compared to my conventional sprinkler heads in Highland.

The lavender and pincushion flowers are next to bloom along with other Rocky Mountain wildflowers so I should have something all summer long.

I regretted not saving a place for tomatoes and peppers so I shoveled out bark and ripped out weed guard and Mike brought in some beautiful dirt full of organic matter so I now have a vegetable garden in the back flower bed. I wasn't very good at raising tomatoes in pots last year.

I do miss my 4th generation peonies but Mom had beautiful blooms for Memorial Day. I also bought some from Pam Ostermiller's florist shop Tri.Fec.Ta in Sugarhouse. The starts that I transplanted from Highland to Jessica's house finally bloomed this year...the pink ones survived!

Love is the air in the form of orbs

2009-04-05T15:29:00.000-07:00

On Valentine's Day Denise's dad and friends from the Beehive Barbershop Quartet came in to The Black Goose Design. They sang Let Me Call You Sweetheart while I snapped this photo on my digital camera. We were all teary by the time they finished. Later I saw these glare spots and almost deleted them, but it was such a great moment I thought I had better print them anyway and gave them to Denise. A few days later our owner saw them sitting on her desk and commented on the orbs in the picture. We went on a website explaining orbs and saw that they looked exactly like the images on the website. You can google orbs to get alot of different explanations, but basically it is believed, by some, to be the energy of a spirit in the form of a sphere and they can be captured on film at random times. These men had such a positive energy about them I am sure many happy spirits followed them around the valley that day. For you skeptics out there, I took another picture in the entry of the store yesterday, alas, no orbs. I guess they only like four part harmony.

Denise's dad is 2nd from the right.

2009-03-22T20:52:00.001-07:00

Magazine Therapy

2009-03-22T20:26:00.001-07:00

I have an uncontrolled passion for magazines. I get about 6 or 7 a month thanks to designer discounts and I read them from cover to cover. I don't like to put them away on the off chance I need to find a photo shoot I am interested in plus I like the the way they look all stacked up. My current favorites are Elle Decor, Metropolitan Home and Architectural Digest for high end ideas. For fun and young do-it-yourself ideas I like Domino. I have about every issue of Country Living since the early 80's...I know, it's a sickness. I love the mini rods I found on rejuvenationhardware.com for $6.00
I always have a stack of magazines on my nightstand...if I read too much late at night my mind gets going and I can't sleep. I found this painted glass lamp at emiliejaynes one afternoon.

I am running out of places to put them, but I thought they filled a spot nicely on my newly painted dresser that I have had for 20 plus years. I love the turquoise and I did it all with 2 cans of spray paint and 1 can of laquer!

This has nothing to do with magazines but I thought my new Oscar dress deserved some face time. I love the exposed shoulders and hot pink and red print. I matted it with handmade ricepaper. Thanks to Kelly we all looked fabulous on the Red Carpet.

Hoover Dam

2009-02-28T15:29:00.000-08:00

We spent a beautiful 70 degree day at Hoover Dam with Daxton, Meg and Sam. After a very stressful week it was fun to walk around and look at the engineering masterpiece of the dam, the art deco structures of the intake towers and the beautiful new bridge under construction over the Colorado River. My Grandpa Hunter, who was a riveter on the San Francisco Bay Bridge would have gotten a thrill out of the half finished support arches spanning the canyon and would have been a bit jealous of the workers suspended in a cage and navigating catwalks many hundred feet above the river.
Dax liked walking (running until he falls over) around the worker's memorial. He loved the water and wanted to crawl over the wall. Meg took all these beautiful pictures.

Soon to be the new road across the canyon

Dax is happy to be out of the stroller.

Intake towers into the power plant, built in the 30's, my favorite architecture.

The best Christmas ever...

2008-12-28T16:38:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve was the greatest. It was wonderful to have everyone together. Good food in the Gallery and opening presents, many of them made by the giver. Sam and Stu and thier families slept overnight, or at least stayed...along with Cass they were all up until about 3 a.m. It has been a long time since Santa visited our house. Malachi jumped on our bed in the morning and shouted "Grammy, Santa brought me a train, come see my train!"

Dax and Cabe opening their jammies.

Malachi was happy with the first thing he opened, Grace just wanted to open more presents...she didn't care who they were for.

Mini Santa.

I bought this puppet theatre before I had any grandchildren.

Mike gave each of the kids a painting of my dad saddling Rio.

Each painting represents a season of the year.Mike plays Santa for some neighbor families.

Val is making sure he passes the tummy test...no extra padding required.

The Gallery

2008-12-13T08:46:00.000-08:00

This last year, Mike has become quite a prolific painter. He has this pitiful "studio" in the basement but he has been turning out paintings like a man possessed. I have a room that I didn't quite know what to do with---a dining room, a library? I started hanging art on the walls and it became The Gallery. After we hung all the paintings I thought we needed something 3 dimensional so I headed to C.G.Sparks (where else?) and bought Mike an African ladder for Father's Day. Last month we set up tables and had Stu's birthday dinner in there but mostly it is a pretty room to do yoga. I have my eye on a cream leather daybed that would make a nice place to relax...someday. Thanks to Sonny, my father-in-law for the trunk--he saw it at a garage sale and thought "Leslie has to have this!"

Silly Mammy...

2008-12-10T19:44:00.000-08:00

I was having a Christmas-y day with Grace today. We weren't exactly baking cookies but she was playing with the nativity scene in the office and I was making some new Christmas stockings. Every once in awhile she would wander into the kitchen with me and watch 101 Dalmations, then she would go back to the office and suddenly I realized it was very quiet. I surprised her in the act of decorating my office furniture with two bottles of "white-out" she found in the bin under the printer. I have only myself to blame because she painted the printer stand with it last week while I was in the room, but I was compulsively blogging and didn't notice right away. Of course, she got in trouble and she was a very sad girl while sitting on what is now the time out chair, watching me scrape off her artwork.

The "white-out" is now safely stored in the top drawer of the credenza and in case anyone was wondering, it does come off shutters, drop-leaf tables, laptops and the mouse, and printer stands. However, it cannot be removed from walls. I bent down to kiss her tear-streaked face and she looked up at me with her big blue eyes and said, "I missed you, Mammy." We should all be like a two year old and forget offenses in five minutes or less.

Merry Christmas to all.

Jingle Bells

2008-12-07T11:34:00.000-08:00

Grace and Malachi learned a Christmas song this week. We are now in a countdown to Christmas. Malachi wants a train and Grace wants a baby doll...we are back in the 50's and it is all good. They both said they would sit on Santa's lap this year---we will see!

This is a fun game Daxton plays with his daddy. He gets a mischievous grin and falls backward when Sam stands by the bed.

Thanksgiving 08

2008-12-07T09:48:00.000-08:00

Daxton and Papa on the "polka dot horse"

Cabe and Mammy.

Thanksgiving was a fun day at Grandma and Grandpa Great's house. We had about 30 people to feast on a wonderful turkey dinner. It was a truly glorious autumn day of 50 degrees so we caught the horses and gave rides to all the kids. We all have so much to be thankful for and I don't express enough how great my life is surrounded by family: especially kids that are so fabulous and doing such great things, and of course the population boom of grandkids is such a blessing.

Sam and Megan were here from Vegas and Daxton has a few new tricks. He took his first step to Sam in front of a room full of people. Later, Cabe and Dax head out on an adventure. It was fun to have the babies there together. They were fascinated by each other. We are all looking forward to Christmastime.

Idea Board

2008-12-03T19:31:00.000-08:00

This is one of my favorite rooms. I bought these linen covered bulliten boards at Pottery Barn but they could have just as easily been made. I love to post ideas and pictures I want to put in my home or a client's. Right now I have an article on updated traditional fabrics, from houndtooth to florals. Sources on antique maps and a padded headboard are a few things I am working on.

A few sunburst mirrors are there to remind me to keep searching for the perfect, affordable vingtage piece to put over my fireplace or add to my office. I just love the form and I remember a few of my elderly neighbors had them (or a clock version) in the neighborhood where I grew up.

My low bookcase is from C.G. Sparks in downtown SLC. I found this glorious place when I was working on the Deer Valley project last year. I love thier unique pieces made from salvaged teak and imported pieces from India. The staff is so great and every time I go I find something I can't live without.

I Love Color!

2008-11-30T15:08:00.001-08:00

I love the funky, mixed up look of Tricia Guild fabrics and wallpaper. A very fun and innovative designer in London, she is one of my inspirations. Her signature style is flocked fabric and wallpaper and cut velvets in bright jewel colors. She recently introduced a new line for the Royal family.

I used these ideas in the grandkids' playroom by mismatching the curtain panels. Recently, I ordered two enormous wedge sofas in purple velvet for a client. The pillows are cut velvet in lime, orange and brown.

I also used another obsession: handmade paper from Reuel's Art Supply in downtown SLC. I decoupaged it to the chairs and table and used it as matting on a train drawing that Mike gave to Malachi for his birthday.

Happy 3rd Birthday Malachi!

2008-11-29T09:26:00.000-08:00

We celebrated Malachi's 3rd birthday this past week. Everyone was there for the first time in months.

Malachi scores with brand new Chucks.
A hug for Grace!

Aunt Megan made this darling reversible Batman/Superman cape. Malachi's other Grandma finally took it off Stu so Malachi could wear it. He was so excited! Malachi used to jump off my ottoman onto the sofa and yell "Super" when he could hardly talk.

BOO!

2008-11-23T18:54:00.000-08:00

I found some animal print fabric in my stash and decided to make my grandson's Halloween costumes. Malachi was the cutest cheetah but it was too hot for him. Caleb's side teeth grew in just in time so we switched him to a vampire. He was uncharacteristically solemn at Wee Witches in Gardner Village. I never did get a pic of his fangs and no, that is not white make-up on his face!

We missed the big day with Daxton, but I have never seen a cuter zebra. I had to do a bit of guessing on the size so thanks to Megan and friend for altering it. Milllie is the reason we missed Halloween in Vegas. Born October 29th in 1 hour 40 minutes, weighing 5 lbs 13 0z. She is beautiful.

I am surrounded by artists

2008-11-23T15:20:00.000-08:00

My talented fellow designer and friend Kelly gets us ready for the Academy Awards red carpet event by designing gowns for us each year. These were too good for the breakroom wall so I mounted them on handmade paper and now they are the last thing I see before drifting off to sleep. The leopard chiffon is my fave.

Big Dump and Friends

2008-11-23T14:18:00.000-08:00

Pool and pedicures....AAHHH!!!

This project took all of 2007 and the better part of 2006. It's unusual name came from the owners, and simply put, the condo flag was boxer shorts printed with an outhouse. However the finished project was much more appealing. Christmastime of 2007 was spent with the fam courtesy of the owners and just last weekend, the Goose girls spent the weekend there.

Thanks to Brittany for the pedicures and Denise and Brooke for the yummy food.