Fire Circle Update

Last Weekend we finally got around to clearing our fire circle (which tends to get totally overgrown in the Summer) and we added some much needed improvements! This year Eric put down weed stopper gardening fabric and gravel around the pit, giving it a much more finished look and hopefully cutting down on the amount of clearing we have to do next year. Here are some pictures of the updated look.

Eric working on spreading gravel

Echo supervises the work

Finished and our first fire of the year!

After these pictures were taken we added more gravel and border bricks. It is already a much more pleasant place to hang out. We have plans to put in benches and fix the death trap of a staircase that leads down to the back yard at some point but that might have to wait until next year. In the mean time it's nice to have the back yard transformed in to a more usable space.

Tree Triptych

At long last I've finished the tree paintings I started so long ago! This is a project I began back in February when we had a full week off due to snow and I was cooped up in the house all day. To me that week was heaven, staying at home all day, painting and cooking delicious food in my crock pot. By the time the snow week ended I had only finished two of the three paintings however and I never could quite work up the will to finish the third painting, until today that is :-)  I planed this series of paintings to go over our fireplace in our current house as soon as we started the buying process. We have these huge high ceilings and a big blank wall over the fireplace and I knew I wanted a large piece of art to go there. As a new homeowner however, I knew I wouldn't be able to afford something the size that I wanted to go up there so I decided to make it myself! The imagery is inspired by all the lovely windows that offer views of our plentiful trees. I wanted these paintings to mimic the windows on either side of the fire place and provide a trompe l'oeil effect, acting as faux windows to the outside world. I'm so pleased with how they cam out and so happy to have the whole set finished! Here are some pictures.

The finished triptych

 The images above are some in progress shots taken back at our old house when I was first starting the paintings. I worked in multiples layers of color to add depth and used a lot of scumbling during the process. The paintings are oil on canvas.  

 These a few close up, detail shots of some of the tree branches.

Finished and in their proper place, hooray!

Fire Pit!

Ever since we bought this house we thought it would be a great idea to to have a camp ground style fire pit in our woodsy back yard. Well at first we were preoccupied with flooring and painting and then Summer came and it was just too hot and buggy to work in the yard. Now that Fall is here and the weather is glorious Eric has been working on putting the fire pit together. It's far from finished but the basic structure of the fire pit is done and therefore it's usable. We didn't want to waste these any of these great chilly evenings so we started using it as soon as possible. Right now it's a dirt clearing with some logs to sit on and the pit toward one side, we plan to add some gravel and a brick border to the fire pit area but we want to leave it somewhat natural so that it won't stick out too much in our totally wooded backyard. To share in the fiery goodness we invited my family over for beer, popcorn and games followed by fire pit and s'more making. Here are some pictures of the fire pit's first use, I'm sure we will be spending many evenings to come in this way.

Fire pit in the daylight

Westley checks it out

evening coming on

fire!

Marshmallow toasting

s'more, it was heavenly

shot of the fire pit from our deck

Tree Table DIY

Finally I get to post about my tree table! I got the idea from this post on Design Sponge and have been in love with the thought of it ever since. I have always loved this kind of natural wood furniture but it will cost you a pretty penny if you buy it from a store (see this example from Amazon). There is no reason you can't make this yourself, it's actually super easy (if I can do it so can you!). I started by selecting the perfect log, this was not too difficult because if there's one thing we have a lot of in this neighborhood it's trees. Lucky for me my parents had recently had a tree cut down and had a whole stack of beautiful logs in their back yard from which they let me take my pick. A word of caution about starting this project, these logs are heavy!! Be careful trying to move something like this, you can kill your back. Fortunately I have a big burly husband who carries my heavy things for me and he picked it up like it was a rag doll and hauled it back to our house for me. After I had it in the garage I knocked all the bark off of it and sanded it smooth. I didn't go overboard on the sanding because I personally like having some texture to the wood but you can sand it as much or as little as you like. After the sanding I cleaned off all the dust and coated it with several layers of polyurethane. Here are some pictures of the finished product.

this is replacing our $7 Ikea end table :-)

I love that you can see the insect paths on this thing.

The stump was not quite level so I used some of these to help it stand a little straighter. 

So that's what I've been working on this week. I must say I am pretty darn proud of it. It has really inspired me to take on some of my other DIY projects that I have been putting off forever.

Bargain Hunting

One of the great things about living in this neighborhood is that it has killer yard sales! Eric found all these wooden bowls at a sale this weekend, he paid $3 for the whole set! They totally fit with our rustic, woodsy style and has inspired us to try to make it out to yard sales more often.

"Woodsy" Design Elements

My interior design tastes have gone through a lot of changes over the years. I went through my poster decorating phase in high school. In college I continued with posters but moved on to more sophisticated versions such as reproductions of Japanese wood block prints and surrealist photographs. When i got my first apartment I started making more conscious design decisions and went through an Asian decorating phase.

When you get married or move in with a partner you take on a whole new decorating challenge. You have to create a space that merges your two styles and becomes not overtly feminine or masculine, something that maintains a bit of gender neutrality while still reflecting who you are as a couple and as individuals. I always think seeing how couples decorate and combine their households is really interesting, and when I got married I was excited to give it a try with Eric. In the end it is all about finding the common ground, what design elements do you both love? For us it came down to natural materials, specifically wood.

If you've ever been to mine and Eric's house (our current rental that is) you probably will have noticed that we like things that are made out of wood, things that have a tree motif, or things that remind us of the woods and/or being outdoors. We plan to continue this trend in the new house and even amp it up a little bit. Playing off our house's exposed wood beams and trim and emphasizing the "cabin in the woods" feel that we love so much will be a priority. We also plan to infuse things with a bit of industrial modernism but for this post I am focusing on the "woodsy" elements.

To start with here are some woods and camping inspired products that I am craving from etsy

 Tree Slice candle stand braggingbags Rustic wood floating shelf wrenwoods Smokey the Bear Note Cards EmsOddsAndEnds Tree Bark Ring MarcusBerknerJewelry Feather desk Lamp portrhombus Campfire Pillow maverickjune Tree Pillow Cases MARIESCOSYCUSHIONS

As I was lusting after all of these woods inspired home items I decided to take a look around at what we already have and I realized we are well on our way to creating the cozy cabin feeling we want in our new house by virtue of already owning a lot of natural wood items and woods inspired accessories. I took some pictures of some of our very own woodsy design elements and here they are.

Wood kitchen items all gifted to us by friends and family, we love natural wood grain!

Our wooden cooking utensil collection

Vintage camping inspired TV tray my parents got for us

A painting I did in 2007 inspired by a hiking trip to the North GA mountains

Branches shower curtain given to us by good friends Susie and Richie for our wedding

Woodsy bedroom curtains from Ikea

Natural wood shelf Eric picked up at a thrift store, perfect for storing my painting mediums!

Tree wallet I got Eric for Christmas, not exactly a home accessory but it fits the design theme

 Surrounding myself with things that remind me of the woods makes me feel pretty good inside, like I am going on vacation to the mountains. I can't wait to put all these things to good use in our new space where I think they will fit in very well.