"The King's Speech" -- via The New Victorian Ruralist

One blog I check at least once a week is The New Victorian Ruralist written by James Snowden of Lexington, KY.

He recently wrote about a post about the movie "The King's Speech" and it expresses my feelings exactly. Do check it out and tell him what you think. I will see it again just to savor the colors and textures.

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Paper Artist -- Anna-Wili Highfield

For the past few days I've been making repeat visits to the website of artist Anna-Wili Highfield.

Anna is a young Australian artist who, while pregnant with her first child, took paper, watercolors and thread and began making decorations for the nursery. She paints archival cotton paper, tears it and gets to work sewing. The piece above is "Budgerigar in a Bell Jar".


Love the shadow of the "Magpie" above. If you visit her website you can expand the images. When you do, you'll be able to see the actual stitching. "Turtle" really shows some large basting sort of stitches.


I wonder if the (presumably heavy) watercolor paper moves when there is a draft? It could be very dramatic if the owl's wings began to move!

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Topics One Would Never Suppose I'd Write about: Home Depot and Martha

Martha Stewart Living has hooked up with Home Depot.

Actually she is cross-branding with them. This partnering is truly inspired. I must admit, I am not a Home Depot kind of person. It's big; I like small. But the display was quite impressive.

Studying MSL's color palette makes me swoon. I find myself easily smitten by the color names.

Check out the names of these colors:

ballet slipper pink
corkboard
graham cracker crust
chopstick (?)
picnic basket
Pup Tent


Loving these:

cornichon
river mist
spring melt
SEA GLASS
muscari
faded ink

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SHAME --There's an app for that

I have neglected my blog for many months. Why? I've been way too enamored with the apps on my latest Iphone.


Bad Jil. An app a day is not a way to live. That said, I am addicted to some of them. One particularly fun one for color enthusiasts is ColorSnap for the Sherwin Williams paint company. It has one feature that integrates with the camera on your Iphone and allows you identify a color or family of colors. I took a photo of an Anichini throw, the colors of which move me.



I then tweaked it and the app analyzed my palette. An email function means you can then send yourself or your decorator or your painter an email listing those exact colors.

Other cool features include making customized palettes, a Sherwin Williams store locater, and a really time wasting by fun section called "explore color" where you can zoom your finger over a color then play with lightening it, adjusting the saturaton and on and on.

While it is doubtful anyone will have actually missed me, I feel as if I have provided a somewhat rational explanation as to my MIA status.

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