friends — Page 17

In the Mail

August 21, 2016 at 10:25 am by Claudia

Red and I have problems. I love red, but photographing it is always problematical. Whether it’s a red rose or a red sofa (as you will soon see) I can never quite get the tint/shade right.

I got a package in the mail yesterday – all the way from Australia. Gabrielle, who made the sofa for Don’s mini studio, made another one in red. For me, not Don. It’s a deeper red, but heck if I can get it to register, no matter how much I tweak it on Lightroom.

So just know that the sofa has less of an orange tint and more of a deep cherry tint.

8-21 sofa

Not quite right. But enough of that. Isn’t it beautiful?

8-21 sofainhouse

Here it is in the loft. It might be a bit too long for this house, but I’m currently saving up for another house, so it may move around. Trying to photograph the loft yesterday was equally frustrating. Maybe I’ve lost my mini photography mojo? It needs some pillows, so I just might have to trot over to Brae’s Etsy shop.

Also in the mail on Friday: some wallpaper for the newest project, the half-scale Fairfield.

8-21 wallpaper

These are William Morris prints in half-scale, along with a tile I might be using (lower right hand corner.) ItsyBitsyMini, where I get all my mini wallpaper, has most of their designs available in half-scale and quarter-scale as well as 1:12 scale. And their customer service is great. These arrived with a slight crease/wrinkle, which limits what I can do with them. ItsyBitsyMini promptly responded and is sending new sheets next week. Thank you!

And to top off my ‘packages in the mail,’ a big, heavy box arrived yesterday. I wasn’t expecting anything other than the sofa so I was, to put it mildly, quite curious! It was from my friend Donna and her daughter Amanda – Amanda designed the Bedrooms coloring book, remember?

Inside was a thank you card and a gift for hosting the giveaway. It was my pleasure to host it, since I’ve known Donna for such a long time. And Amanda sent me my own copy of the coloring book, so I was quite happy.

Here is what I unwrapped:

8-21 shakespeareboxset2

A vintage set of Shakespeare, illustrated and in three volumes, and edited by well-known Shakespearean scholar, A. L. Rowse. Oh, my heavens!

8-21 shakespeareboxset

It’s beautifully illustrated and includes photographs from various productions. I never see this set in any shop or used bookstore. But Donna and Amanda have serious junking/thrifting skills (Donna has an Etsy shop) and somehow she found this.

Thank you, dear Donna and Amanda. I’m thrilled to have this in my library and will treasure it always.

Two brief-ish book reviews on Just Let Me Finish This Page today. Stop by!

Happy Sunday.

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Perfectly Lovely

August 4, 2016 at 9:21 am by Claudia

After the heat wave, then three days of rain, yesterday dawned with blue skies and white fluffy clouds and temps in the mid-eighties. All in all, a perfect day for a visit with my best friend! Laural and her husband, Craig, took the train north from Manhattan. We picked them up at the station. First stop: our cottage. It was so important to me to be able to share it with Laural. The gardens looked beautiful (though now that I look closely, they need weeding!) and Laural loved the cottage, both inside and outside.

8-4 garden1

(Taken in the early morning light.)

Then we talked and talked and talked and went to lunch at a Thai restaurant and showed them around a neighboring town, with a quick drive up into the mountains for a view of the Hudson Valley.

And then we talked some more and it soon became time to take them back to the station.

Perfect day with beautiful friends. I’m very grateful.

8-4 bestfriends

Here we are. Friends of almost 52 years. Unbelievable.

8-4 butterflybush

The butterfly bush is right outside our den window, and as I sat on the sofa with Don late in the day, I could see at least two butterflies circling and landing on the blossoms. Beautiful.

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Don’s in the city today, signing a contract with his commercial agent. I’m taking it easy. All that cleaning and mowing and weed chomping tired me out. It’s a slow morning here at the cottage.

I may not answer yesterday’s comments, if that’s okay with you? But I’ll definitely respond to today’s.

Happy Thursday.

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Giveaway: “Bedrooms” – A Coloring Book by Amanda Atkins

August 1, 2016 at 10:08 am by Claudia

When I first started blogging over eight years ago, I had no idea if anyone would ever find me on the internet, let alone leave a comment. I really did feel like I was a speck in a vast wilderness. I did what was recommended; visit other blogs, leave a comment, and hope against hope that blogger would return the visit.

One of those bloggers did stop by. In fact, she was my very first blogging friend: Donna, of An Enchanted Cottage. Donna, a fellow Northeasterner, and I share many of the same loves, including nature, gardening, decorating and, above all, animals. We have stayed friends for over eight years and she has been steadfast and true. When Riley died, Donna made a beautiful framed piece based on a photo I had posted of Riley and Scout (my favorite photo) and moved both Don and me to tears. It hangs on my wall just outside my office.

Donna is very talented and is a working artist as well as a the owner of a successful Etsy shop. She has two daughters, both adults now (how did that happen so quickly?) and one of them, Amanda, is also an artist.

Which brings me to today’s post. Amanda has just had her first Coloring Book published by Pomegranate Press! Huzzah!

Bedroom Book cover

Bedrooms – A Coloring Book by Amanda Laurel Atkins.

Amanda and Donna graciously sent me a copy of Bedrooms. You know I love coloring books! I was floored when I first held it in my hands. First of all, it has a hard cover that opens flat. (I don’t see that out there in the coloring book world.) So much easier to color! Each page has a blank page as its back, so no worries about coloring on both sides of the sheet of paper. The quality and heft of the paper is perfect for coloring. And each page is laid out horizontally, rather than vertically, just as the cover indicates. The binding runs right alongside the edge above the title. It is beautifully done.

Amanda Laurel Atkins BEDROOM coloring book sample page 2

A sample page.

Amanda Laurel Atkins BEDROOM coloring book sample page 11

These photos don’t really show the crispness of the lines, but trust me, they are crisp and clear. They’re also not too thick. Personally, I have passed on purchasing certain coloring books out there because the lines are too thick, almost like you’d see in a child’s coloring book. This one is perfect.

Donna and Amanda shared some pages that they colored themselves:

Bedroom Book 1a

Bedroom Book 2

bedroom coloring book ocean view

The illustrations are full of books, paintings, animals, and nature, things that Amanda loves.

I often think about my childhood bedroom, which for a girl who needed a good chunk of alone time, was a refuge that was all mine. I could shut the door and be in a world that was entirely my own. That same feeling is evoked in these illustrations.

Amanda: Bravo! Such beautiful work!

By the way, here’s a bit of information about Amanda:

Amanda Purple shirt summer 2016 Backyard

Amanda Laurel Atkins is an artist and illustrator living and working in Boston, MA. Her work is inspired by the 1950s, architecture, fashion, color, animals, and literature. While her paintings focus on portraits of fictional women, her illustrations span a vast array of subject matter, including the many rooms in Bedrooms. Amanda loves walking and exploring her city and spending time with her family, friends, and all the animals in her life. You can explore her work at AmandaAtkins.com.

You can purchase this delightful book in Amanda’s Etsy shop and at Pomegranate Press as well as on Amazon.

Exciting news! Amanda would like to share one copy of Bedrooms with one of my readers. Isn’t that wonderful?

Here are the rules: Leave a comment on this post before 8 pm on Monday August 8th and I will use Random (dot) org to pick a winner.

In your comment: Tell me what it is about your bedroom that you love.

Good luck! And thank you, Amanda and Donna.

Happy Monday.

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In the Mail

Perfectly Lovely

Giveaway: “Bedrooms” – A Coloring Book by Amanda Atkins

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