Making Changes in 2009

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I am back from taking a break.

Happy 2009 to all of you. I took a little blog break to make some changes and simplify my life to create more time to pursue my love of painting and closed my retail shop at Debra's Cottage. I will still be involved with Debra's by painting commission art for her customers and blogging about her fabulous shop. There will always be a part of me in her adorable shop as she plans to continue to use the cottage I painted for her as the banner on her website and on her packaging and store labels.

One of my favorite sayings is one I learned from well known decorator and author Kitty Barthlomew. (http://kittybartholomew.com/) - -" It's Not what you don't have, but what you do with what you do have". This year I plan to re-decorate my home on a budget by using what I already have and "re-purposing" my furniture and art. My decorating style is Cottage Garden with a bit of Shabby Country French thrown in.

A recent Home tour of the cottages on Balboa Island (a tiny island located on the Newport Bay about 2 miles from my home) inspired me to turn a cottage garden painting in my home into a "seaside" cottage garden painting and to add Seaside to my Cottage Garden style.

Come along with me for a little tour of some of the darling cottages which were my inspiration for a Seaside Cottage Garden Painting.

Finding Inspiration . . . . . . .

Balboa Pavilion - a 100 year old Landmark building on the water in Newport Beach, CA . A short ferry ride from Newport Beach to Balboa Island Here . . . .

There . . . . .






Everywhere . . . . .

Original cottage garden style painting with a window in the background, green watering can and large terracotta pot.

After the Home tour inspiration I decided to make some changes to the painting to give it a Seaside Cottage Garden feel - I painted out the window in the center - removed the large tera cotta pot, added flags to one of the pots and started painting the green watering can red. Next I painted in a blue sky and ocean and sail boats to change the Cottage Garden look to a Seaside Cottage Garden.

Here is the completed painting with changes hanging on the wall in my living room with a totally different look and feel.