I wrote a few days ago about my desire for a cow.  Not the cud munching, bell wearing, milk producing sort.  I had fallen in love with this inspiration painting and yearned for one of my own.  I asked my friend, Laura, to paint one for me.  I requested she work off the inspiration painting, but make it her own.  And she did a fabulous job.  Here’s a sneak peek… I’ll say outright that it’s not what I expected it would be.  I expected something more realistic and traditional.  That said, I have totally fallen in love with it.  It’s soft and the colors and shading are exquisite.  It’s an original oil and it was painted just for me and I totally love it…more and more each time I steal a glance at it.  I’m expecting my husband to stop in mid conversation as my eyes are drifting off to the wall above

First of all, I am honored to be “guesting” at Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps of the Porch.  It’s a killer weekly linky party, so check it out!  Thanks so much, Susan, for letting me share some of my transformations with your readers.  Speaking of transformations, I am having a blast working a bit on my own home.  I painted the kitchen ceiling, walls and trim yesterday and then spent the evening arranging accessories.  Some girls like to go out dancing…others like nice dinners…I just want to play with my accessories on a Saturday night.  Can I get a witness?  Anyway, here’s what I came up with… I collected smaller things in metal baskets and on platters to give the counters a cleaner look.  I’ve always been one who puts too many things on my counters (mainly because I’ve never had counters I liked), but it gets silly, so I simplified.

As I announced last week and have been proudly displaying on my side bar, I am a part of the True Value DIY Blog Squad.  So, this week I paid a visit to my local True Value store, Cashman’s Hardware in East Berlin, PA.  It’s an awesome store.  I walked in and started browsing around… “Hi, Marian!  I just saw your husband walk by.  Do you have a babysitter for the boys today?”  I love walking into a store and they know who you are.  In all fairness, I did win a contest there, which was a bit of a novelty, but I heard similar conversations with other customers as I was having paint mixed.  I bought lots of painting supplies, so I could start tackling my kitchen and family room.  I’m not going to be able to complete the makeovers for a while (counters, flooring, appliances, etc. just aren’t

I’ve never been one to collect original art.  I would love to own an original oil painting, but they’re expensive and I’ve never found one I love enough to splurge on.  For a long time, I’ve had this picture in my inspiration file.  (Home of Leah Anderson, photographed by Isabel Lang) What always caught my eye was the soft colors of the cow painting.  I’ve looked around for something similar, but…no luck.  (Original art by Leah Anderson, photographed by Isabel Lang.  Giclee prints can be ordered here.  ) Not finding what I wanted (and Leah’s prints are a bit out of my budget), I turned to the most talented artist I know, Laura Dreyer.  She is the one who designed my logo, business cards, and illustrated graphics…while in college!  She’s crazy talented and so I commissioned her to paint a cow for me.  I asked her to use the colors and

I have a lot of wood floors in my house and rugs can be really expensive…especially nice ones.  I suppose I could slap down a piece of Berber, but that’s not exactly my style.  I found a jute rug on clearance at Hobby Lobby a few months ago.  Jute is good…cheesy leopard print is not.  That print was certainly why it was on clearance.  I flipped it over in the store and it looked just like an ordinary jute rug when upside down, so I bought it.  It’s served me well for a few months, but it’s a little ho-hum.  When I had an opportunity to select a stencil from my sponsor, Royal Design Studio, I knew exactly what I wanted to stencil.  Yep, the ho-hum underside of the clearance leopard print jute rug in my guest room.  I chose a simple Swedish-style stencil (say that five times fast), which would make a