Look What I Bought! Whimsical Happy Flower Head Artwork to Perk Up My Office Walls

I just found a terrific new-to-me watercolor artist via the Cote de Texas design blog!  Take a gander at the prints I selected for my office a few minutes ago:

Flower Head on Black by Harrison Howard

Flower Head Lady by Harrison Howard

Rendezvous at Night by Harrison Howard

Parasol in the Air by Harrison Howard

Now I'm really going to be stalking the delivery trucks!  To see more of Harrison Howard's work, visit his web site here.  He's running a 25% off sale on his limited edition prints that ends tomorrow.

I purchased a few oil paintings at High Point Market last month, too, and those are supposed to be delivered tomorrow morning.  Also, my in-laws brought me a beautiful Delacroix print when they visited us a few days ago.  It's one of two prints that I had always admired in their New Jersey dining room, and I have to reframe them before hanging.  And poor Bernie has to relocate the doorbell and thermostat, because our builder apparently was not thinking about wallspace for artwork when he stuck those ugly boxes there. 

I'm really looking forward to getting all of this beautiful artwork up on the walls so we can enjoy it!

Fabulous Use of Antique Quilts & Quilting Motifs in This Remodeled Texan Guest House

Okay, this one is for all of you interior design lovers AND for the quilt lovers and quilt makers out there.  One of the most elegant interior design blogs I've seen is Cote de Texas, where a Houston designer chronicles French-inspired design on the Texas coast with regular doses of inspiration and and a smorgasbord of delicious photographs that make her readers want to climb through their monitor screens and take up residence in each beautiful home.  Recently, Cote de Texas did a feature on the newly remodeled Cotton-Eye Joe guest house in Abilene, Texas, owned by Terry Browder of Sayles Ranch Guesthouses.  Browder took a plain, blah, boring house and created a fresh, chic interior that reflects its Texan roots without crossing over to the Dark Side of kitsch and country clichés.  The end result is so beautiful, I want to go to Abilene, Texas just to stay in this guest house!  I especially love how Browder repurposed antique quilts as upholstery fabric for these dining chairs, and how she incorporated various traditional quilt patterns in the painted hardwood floors throughout the guest house. 

That's just one little picture to whet your appetite; there are dozens more where that came from and each one is just as gorgeous.  Without further ado, click this link to be whisked away to Cote de Texas to tour the rest of this project; then come back here and tell me what you think!

COTE DE TEXAS: An Abilene Remodel