Soft Lighting, Small Lighting, Little Balls of Flame

Threw a couple of things together for my art studio last week that I'd been thinking about:

• A sheer, cotton, red, paisley curtain panel I've had in my fabric stash forever
• A wee (3") wooden shelf, cut from scrap, fixed in place about 2/3 up the window, with
• A bamboo rod and white muslin café curtain on clip-rings below it, and 
• A couple of glass bottles of Pothos and Philodenron rooting in them
• A trio of brightly-colored, glass, "Moroccan" candle lanterns hung where the sunlight can catch them.  They were a Christmas gift from a friend. :) 

After agonizing over what color to paint the room, I've decided NOT to paint it.  I like the white.  I like the backdrop it gives for ANY color I want.  I've decided that this is going to be my random, riotous, Boho paradise-y art space.  It IS a room for creativity, after all.  

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"Ikea Hack"?

That candle holder in the guest bath, by the way, is actually pretty much just a stack of candle holders, LOL.

The wooden base is a candlestick from Ikea.  I glued a blue glass flat pillar candle plate on top of that, and then, for the bathroom, I stuck a brown glass votive holder on top.

It's like Jenga, but with fire and broken glass danger.   I'm kidding. It's totally secure.

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Hallo-week 4: Spooky Glow & Dead Things

"Bleeding" candles, made by dripping red wax down the sides of white candles. 

Low lighting (achieved by removing bulbs - a bit ghetto, I know, but it's what I had) + nifty "mummy" gauze bits strung all over light fixtures.  

Red/range glow in hallways, done by draping red and orange sheer fabrics over the light fixtures (I was very careful not to touch the fabric to the glass of the light fixtures.  No sense risking fire).   + More "mummy" gauze draped across doorways.

 Cute little Halloween bottle labels from the party store.  Most of these are bottles of mead that my boyfriend brews at home.  (Look - more "blood" on the countertops that I had to clean up later). 

Every available surface had dead rose petals and leaves scattered across it, vases full of dead roses and bunches of dried herbs from the garden, and as many drippy candles as I could pack in.

The end. 

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Hallo-week 2: Come On In!

Front entry:  bats, webs, and SKELETON FLAMINGOS.  I heart my skeleton flingos. Hee!  <3

The bats are just cut from light construction paper and stapled to the wall and post.  The planters, by the way, are filled with a mix of Sanseviera, Dracaena marginata, and red Caladiums...not that you can see them all that well in this picture.  The decorative piece above the doorway? Is a $10 plastic doormat.

Purple/red glow on the front porch after dark.  Yay!

And a blue tint on the back porch - the lights are purple like the ones on the front porch.  I've already replaced the blue bulb in the overhead light with a white one again - for security reasons - but I'm actually contemplating leaving the purple lights.  They're so cute! And it's much nicer to have them on at night when I'm relaxing outside than a bright glare from above.  We'll see.

Here's the little "lantern" I made with the Ikea JÄTTEBRA plant cachepot - all it needed was a candle.  I love the way it looks kinda starry.  :) 

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Meditation Space Available (Inquire Within)

Good morning!  Happy Monday, too.  Wanna see what I did over the weekend?* 

My heart really, really wants this just outside my  back door - to relax in on a rainy day, or sit and meditate in on cool mornings...

(Picture credit unknown - please comment if you know where this came from)

Mine would have one of these on it:

(The Hangout Place)

And lots of brightly colored lanterns and candles hanging above and all around:

(TripAdvisor.com)

But instead, I have this:

usairnet.com's heat index for Aug. 21st

*sound of brakes screeching* 


Oh, well.

For years I've simply plopped down on whatever expanse of floor in my house was available, sometimes with a pillow or a blanket under me, sometimes not.   These days, though, it hurts me to sit on the floor - so I'd been thinking about building a raised platform to pile cushions on top of.  Something a bit more springy than the hard floor.

Where, though?  Here, maybe, I thought, in this little empty corner of the living room under the windows:

It's out of the way enough, lit - but not heated, thankfully - by the windows all around, with a view of the garden outside and already sheltered by plants.  This picture kept springing to mind...

(photo by Di Lewis, from the book India Style by Alexandra Bonfante-Warren)

That's made of pallets!  Pallets, which are available for free just about anywhere you look - I found a stack of them behind my local grocery store over the weekend, and picked out several nice, relatively new ones from the pile (with permission, of course).  I took two apart and used the slats from both to make a new, sturdier top on one, sanded it, and painted it.  A few pillows, candles, and houseplants later...

YAY!!!

Aside from the pallets, this entire space was made with stuff I already had - candles, plants, the little ceramic cuppa-sand with incense sticks in it...

The little plant here I separated from the big palm-y looking one hanging over the area - a Bird of Paradise.  ...does that make this one a Chick of Paradise?

I really, really wanted to get a little brass Ganesh for this corner - and I found one at World Market over the weekend that I almost bought, but, it'll have to wait until payday.

In the meantime...

THAT didn't take long!  Silly kitty.  This is Rabi  (pronounced "robbie").  I was fully expecting this little corner to turn into a dog bed the second I turned my back, but Rabi and his feline brothers and sisters claimed it almost immediately.  I don't mind sharing. :)


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Candles

No reason.  Enjoy.

* copyright ME, by the way.  Most of the time I don't care, but these are actual art photos, so, you know. :)