Floridian Art, Family Style

Marie Decosta is an artist.....She has, over the years developed an edgy style,

with bright colors and subjects. While I like her flowers, and landscapes, she has developed a following in Florida for her pictures of Surf, Surfers and all things Floridian, which is why I sent some examples of her work to Linda of Lime in the Coconut! Linda loved the Floridian side of Marie's art so we are blogging together... Who Better????  She is doing the beachy stuff and me the flowers etc......See here at http://www.coconutsandlimes.blogspot.com/

 Living in Florida for recent years Marie has tackled different venues, 

This example called Tiffany's Garden seems like one of their glass artworks......

The use of bold color in her art makes her style unique and noticeable.  This is Peacock Blues.  She has

exhibited in Museums, Galleries, Banks and now has reproductions available.

Timothy  Leary's Melting Electric Garden ( sold ) RATS! Marie has studied under William Greet of Cambridge England and Peter Ceretta of NYC and Fla.

Wild Orchids Sold (RATS!)  Her affiliations are in Daytona, St Augustine, Brandon Fla and other areas not far from Ormand Beach.

This is sold but I love the dripping flowers.......

This Yellow Butterfly is one of my favorites...

Look at how this Moth has so much color!

Sweet "New Kitty"..

LOVE him! Her????

I know that she loved Georgia O'Keefe's work too.... It's not in her bio. The reason I know is that I have seen some of her early work.  VERY EARLY.... It showed talent and potential.

I know, because she is my sister...... I am very proud of her accomplishments.  To investigate Marie's work further go to http://www.marie-decosta.artistwebsites.com/  She is represented by http://www.anartaffairgallery.com/

Thanks to Linda at Lime in the Coconut for the collaboration.xo

AND don't forget our second annual VIRTUAL TRUNK SHOW FEATURING OUR BEADBOARD COLLECTION KNITWEAR AUGUST 4TH THROUGH THE 8TH;)

Trunk Show Alert!!!!!

Remember Her??!!!!!!!!

Two level vest.... How cool is this! Pick your color!

She will be back Thursday August 4th through the 8th for the second Annual Beadboard Virtual Knitwear Trunk Show along with LOTS of new looks....... And a surprise or two..... Tune in then...Enjoy the eye candy!  Come on Fall! If you wat to see last years offerings just click on the link below, the one that says lift off!!!!!!

Bringing YOU to market......

So what tempted me over at Lila Reed?????  These big oil lamps.....I loved these....

They come with decorative metal tops and a seperately packed liquid fuel....

You remove the decorative top, fill with the fuel and insert the colored ceramic lid.....

So Cool!  And NO BILLOWING SMOKE!!!!!!! There are little ones with butterflies inside..... (you may want to enlarge this......)

Another example of an apothecary jar...I don't usually like "FAUX" anything but the fruit is very pretty and would look great in a kitchen.  Besides being in building on the US Historic Register, I am very particular about what I burn in here.  If anything.

Gifts for men..... This company does fabulous, embossed leather books, journals etc.....

 The top one was for Birders ( bird watching) the second had noting to do with the LAW. A drink guide.

For a gentleman's gift I thought these were pretty nice!!!!  And appropriate.

Loved the shape of the luggage tag......I think this one belonged to Richard Burton.... or the Reagans... or...

you fill in the blank here......

I was tempted by this line of glass serveware........

A  tray with fsirly deep sides and smaller bowls to fill in or serve seperately.

Great colors!  For fall I like the ones on the right.......

I liked the curviness of this........

Remember I did the post of the gorgeous dinnerware????? Well here are the new intros....

Cream center with brown trim on the left and white center with taupe trim on the right....

The green, blue and yellow for summer have been very popular...... Oh and remember?

These are PLASTIQUE!!!!!

So what would you buy for your shop?????? And why????????

Lighting, Mother Nature's Style

The ultimate in lighting.....And it's free for you to enjoy on summer nights.

(image by leebyron.com)

Word has it the fireflies in the East Coast are prolific this year due to rain..

(image from google.com via pinterest)

Not so here...

(image from grogrenefabulous.com via pinterest)

(image from smithsonianmag.com)

Having grown up on the East Coast I remember putting them in the jar to see them light up.

I know better now.. Just watch.. and enjoy.

(image from metrolic.com)

A Glimpse of Beadboard Rehab

Not only do we make custom furnishings  like the dining chair above,

but we especially like to bring back old pieces with good bones.

I thought it was about time to show you some of my favorites and in some cases when we had the picture, 

of what they looked like BEFORE.

Like this table frame... A little Carrera Marble for the top and Voila!

A pretty coffee table or a great piece for the end of a bed.

Believe it or not this is a before.   I was going to keep this one and redo later.  But the frame color was so perfect for my client's house and we had been looking for the perfect chairs....So I offered them to her...

This has one of my favorite designers Carolyn Quartermaine's French Script fabric...

Love how these turned out.... She does too!

These are two more French chairs I rescued......In another client's house.

These were very hard to give up. But they have a great home!

This is a bistro chair we carry in the shop........

Same chair with Arte Pura Evento....(thought I'd "slip"some Arte in there somewhere!)

This is a matelasse slipcover we did on a more contemporary sofa and then added shell pillows.....

\

This is a before, a 19th century French Side Chair.....Silk fabric.. YECH!

Carolyn Quatermaine again..... This time in pink linen.  I love this.

I couldn't find the before picture for these but they were hunter green velvet......

Had a splat in the back,,,, so I thought I'd make it interesting by using contrasting fabric....

They didn't last long........

A classic wing chair we reupholstered for a client.

Same thing here .

This was a quilted Baker chair with dated mauves pinks blues...

We did in Seaglass linen and trimmed with a caramel linen in a 1/2 inch flange with pleats....

My favorite settee we did.....SOOO hard to part with this...That's why it is

Here at our entrance......!  Hope you enjoyed this peek at some of our work.;)

We Have an Arte Pura Muse!

This is the entrance to the Arte Pura Shop, La Galleria, in Firenze (Florence), Italy.

The picture was taken by our Muse, an adorable college student, with a good GPA, a cheerleader,

and a member of a sorority with 450 "sisters" at a major university.....

Isn't she cute?????

 She went on a trip to Europe this summer after falling in love with Arte Pura at our shop.

She is our Arte Pura, Muse......Miss Beadboard.  She is going back to the university with an Arte Pura Bed, and the Evento Slipcover and the padded puckered linen bag which she will be using to carry her laptop  around campus....

When we heard from her parents (who are absolutely delightful people) she was going to Florence, we called Arte Pura to let them know she was coming.  When she arrived at the shop with her friends on the tour, the owners knew her and greeted them all very warmly,  She was able to point out all

the things she had coming from our shop. 

 It is nice a company this size would do this for us and for her.

They let her take pictures..... She was so excited she emailed us when she got back,

 "They knew who I was!" 

The owners tried their best to treat her special with their limited English.

So enjoy the pictures sent to us by our new Muse.... Of Arte Pura...Oh and see that little white pitcher to the left???? Bella Bianca from Arte Italica!!!!!! So the shop is carrying that just like us! 

She emailed us " it reminds me so much of your shop!"

We were flattered because this is gorgeous.......

There is the Evento.....Her slipcover.

A beautiful display in a niche.

And here she is in our shop on "her" new bed with a few changes....

And, if any of her friends at school happen to see it..... She has all the answers.

Have a great year MB!

And Gratzie!

And Gratzie also to the owners of LaGalleria and Arte Pura....