Collections - Vs. Chaos

First, let me apologize for being absent for such a long time....flipping this house has become a full-time job...We are staggering towards the finish line....

That said, I want to talk about collections....vs. chaos.  I am learning first-hand that it can get out of control..these "things" I thought I must have.  Having finished the upper level, we have moved to the lower level, where my studio, work room, and husband's office is.  It looks out on the lovely lake, and is an ideal space for a studio (other than it has carpeting, and I paint).  But, I digress...

Who doesn't collect something?  Whether it's Barbie Dolls (no, I don't) or Books (I do, but have narrowed it down to antique books, and "the classics"..)

 I also love bronzes and bookends....I've narrowed this collection down, but have a difficult time walking away from some "find"

I like to place mirrors behind books in bookcases...These were built ins in our Texas home.  I do so miss built in bookcases.

 Who doesn't love seashells?  I have them all over the house...tucked into bookshelves, on bathroom counters, I can't resist them.

 

 

 I am also a sucker for blue-and-white vases...(this, again, was our Texas house)..That piece of coral in the front has an interesting story; my mother-in-law (soon to be 92) was a great beauty, and still has a wonderful style about her.  During WWII, she was featured in Look Magazine as one of the fifty most beautiful coeds in the country.  She received hundreds of letters from soldiers and sailors at war...one of whom was in the Navy..he sent her this piece of coral (before it was illegal to take coral)..along with a marriage proposal (she turned him down)..
The painting is my work.."Ghost Swimmers".. The silver-leafed candle holders are from the Goodwill - honest...seven dollars...I did the silver leafing.

The hydrangeas drying in the blue-and-white china on our Tennessee mantle (painted the ugly brick Sherwin William's Greek Villa), look so wonderful...sadly, it was such a wet summer, I only got one vase to dry properly)...

I enjoy creating "table scapes".  It's a good idea to have a "tall", 'Medium' and "low" height...I once had a garden in Wisconsin, where I grew the beautiful stargazer lily...now, I am happy to grow a few gladioli, zinnias, and cosmos...(it's been a very wet summer here in Tennessee).  
I began collecting the gold-leafed and red leather-bound classics many years a go...one book every three months (they were expensive, and my husband was a lowly grad student...we were thrilled, when they would arrive)..and we still treasure them.

Candles, did I mention candles?  I seldom burn these, as I haven't found any to replace them....I also collect silver candle sticks, and have been fortunate to have an aunt, who left me lovely, lovely silver, which I don't display in our Tennessee home the way I did in Texas...Hey, you can't have everything out at once, which brings me to the "Collections Vs. Chaos" title. Special occasions are fine for the silver...very special, a lake house is a bit casual for all that silver, but I do love to bring it out for the holidays.

Every thing and every one looks better by candlelight...

 

You know those "built in desks" that were all the thing in kitchens... the ones that became a landing spot for everything...keys, mail, bills, magazines, and all kinds of "stuff"..that made you crazy, trying to keep it from looking cluttered?  Well, I decided in our Tennessee house to reassign it's function...it now houses our tea set, Aunt Lily's gold-leafed pheasant cocktail glasses, and her lovely, Italian tureen...(the Paris sign has followed me around forever)...martinis, anyone?

This is a portrait I did of my grand daughter, Hannah (I once did hand-painted black-and-white photography); and I am wild about family photos, but, now that the house is on the market, down come the family photos, the groupings on the side tables, and most of the ones on my bedside table.  They are wrapped lovingly, and ready to move to our next home..(on the same lake)...I group photos either by frames (as in all silver), color photos with color, black-and-white with black-and-white, you get the idea.

 

So, enjoy your collections, whatever they may be, but don't let them overtake your home...change them out with the seasons, or have special cases to house them (I have a friend, who has over a hundred, antique, glass cake stands...she had beautiful cases made for them...when asked what would happen to them when she died, she said, "that's my children's problem" ...ha!

 

 

 

Finally!!! Someone, or some thing....I am thinking aliens, has been messing with my computer...my friend just got me up-and-running again..Problem is, I am up-and-running with design and flipping a home..more later...this is for whomever/whatever got to me:)