Tag Archives: orange

Orange you glad?

PLEASE NOTE: I actually started this post January the 29th.  I was so excited about doing orange stuff in the middle of winter.  Some of the zeal has dissipated – obvious by how long it has taken me to post this, but I am still very fond of tangerine and clementine and hot peach and orange crush and all things brilliantly hued in various forms of red with yellow.  I am just late saying so…Nonetheless…

I went on an orange kick. 

Orange is the happiest color.”  Frank Sinatra

I have talked about orange before because I really, really like it (here and here).

Right after the Christmas of 2007,I decided the living room/sanctuary was too neutral and that pumpkin and eggplant would jazz it up nicely until I could go on an all-new-furniture extravaganza…which has yet to occur, btw.  I bought fabric to recover the couch pillows and then flew off to Maui  to cook for a film crew with Carol Ann.

During our winter snow this past Monday (and my sweet day of rest and Sabbath), orange fever hit me.  Dave called to see what I was up to and when I told him I was painting things orange he said, “I am coming home to a Dr Seuss house” but he was not one bit fearful.  The next day when he saw that I had painted a chair, 2 candle-holders, a tree branch from last fall’s pruning (which I kept because I knew I could use it someday somewhere) and 3 wooden religious icons orange, he said he was afraid if he didn’t hide the  brushes he’d come home to an orange refrigerator and stove.  It is addictive.

house-and-hunter-001 house-and-hunter-004 june-stormies-035 june-stormies-038

A year later, said fabric remains as it was – unused.  And maybe I won’t use it.  I’ll have to check to be sure, but I think the orange was more dull – like pumpkin pie filling before it is baked but it has lots of cinnamon.   And I am not really feeling the eggplant this year (leftover Tuscan~ishdays?), but would love to pair brilliant crayon orange with bright “tealish”-robin’s-egg-blue, although that is probably too big a jump for me right now.

Here is how some of it turned out/before and after:

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I tried several different fabrics for the chair cover.  I kind of know what I want, but haven’t come across it yet.  So recently, I just took a scrap of painter’s canvas and painted some simple flower shapes on it for now (I used an old pillow sham of Stormie’s as the inspiration).  I wanted a lot of “white space” and a pretty modern perspective.

I am not sure exactly what I will do with everything or how I will bring the whole room together.  But I know I had fun with the orange paint and that I am not afraid of the process or awaiting the a-ha moment.  It will happen. 

For the moment…Jeanie

Chalk Dust

Thank-you to my daughter Stephanie for the chalkboard paint recipe listed in the comments after this blog post and to Martha Stewart Living for this recipe:

Custom Colors How-To
Start with flat-finish latex paint in any shade. For small areas, such as a door panel, mix 1 cup at a time.
1. Pour 1 cup of paint into a container. Add 2 tablespoons of unsanded tile grout. Mix with a paint stirrer, carefully breaking up clumps.
2. Apply paint with a roller or a sponge paintbrush to a primed or painted surface. Work in small sections, going over the same spot several times to ensure full, even coverage. Let dry.
3. Smooth area with 150-grit sandpaper, and wipe off dust.
4. To condition: Rub the side of a piece of chalk over entire surface. Wipe away residue with a barely damp sponge.

Some of Martha’s projects with custom colors:

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Here is a pretty interesting dining room I ran across.  It almost looks like it is in one of those old schoolhouses people buy and turn in to homes.

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These kid spaces/projects are cute (in the third picture, it is hard to see, but it is also the toy chest sporting the chalkboard surface):

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Two unique uses:  A mudroom locker (wish I had one of these!).  The quoteable laundry/linen closet – a door filled with inspiring words, right where you need them the most.

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A bathroom that welcomes graffiti.  A green chalkboard wall where you can draw on the stuff you don’t actually own.  And a wall to keep track and keep your stuff.

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Colorful, no?

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Quick, somebody tell me why I keep loving this room!?!:

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Yes, you guessed it-the orange chandelier…and table…and chairs.  I do have more orange paint.

The chalkboard paint yet awaits…Jeanie

Fall Frost

I think we had an actual, true frost today.  I know it was 58 degrees in my kitchen when I started up the coffee pot.  And no, I will not turn on the heat, yet.  I am a die-hard.  Can I make it to November?  This is the question. 

Most of the plants seem to be perking back up, even though I have done nothing to save them.  Even the zucchini, whose leaves froze and look soggy, dark and droopy, are boasting some bright new flowers in response to the returning sunlight – after 3 very overcast days.

I am studying and preparing for the Leaving a Legacy Intensive kick-off this weekend, but keep getting distracted by 3, small adorable orange moths of some sort.  Though they are probably depositing some evil larvae all over the garden as we speak, I think I will call them butterflies because they are delightful as they frolic,  alternately swooping and circling and tag-playing, with sunning themselves on the patio and garden rocks  Try as I might, and though I swear I have seen them all in the view-finder at once repeatedly, I cannot seem to get the camera to click quickly enough to capture all three, though they are dancing and prancing about just inches from me here near the glass doors.

Yes, the garden is slowly, but surely shutting down for the year, but it makes each plant that is still showing all the more ravishing, makes me more grateful.  Why, the petunias are practically haughty today, all purple and abundant, flowering with gusto, unaffected by the cold – perhaps even encouraged by it?

  

  

Today I am praising God for: the return of the sun…hot coffee (and decaf for when I have reached my limit)…the 3 fanciful orange “butterflies” performing gleefully outside my window…the grape tomatoes, packed with flavor, my morning snack…the love of a good man: my husband, my friend, my lover-the one who talks me off the ledges…my family, both the one I came from and the one I am getting to create, still…e-mails in “secret code” from grandkids…people who know how to pray…the sweet Presence of God, who joins me on the first sound of a song……First frost-warm home…the wisdom of the Word (I am in Proverbs today!).  And the temp in my kitchen has reached 63 degrees.  I am thankful!

Blessings in all things to you and yours!…Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF:  So glad I didn’t get in a hurry to uproot the sagging sunflowers (see photo here).  Yesterday they were the host to a couple of amazingly beautiful bluejays and I got to watch!  What would I have missed by stripping them away before their whole work was through?  Get back to Legacy notes…

Pictured, top, left to right: the orange “butterflies” sunning themselves on rock and concrete.  Bottom, left to right: the first two were taken through the window on the Dahlia plant that is apparently enthralling the little “flutterbies.”  Finally, the mum, quiet the summer through, has now exploded into this happy hello in its off-the-beaten-path locale.  I snapped  it chasing butterflies.

UPDATE  10.14.08 – I have been informed that my 3 little orange “moths” were actually baby Monarch Butterflies.  I didn’t know Monarchs were ever this small?  I hope they keep visiting!

My Church is Orange, too

Northern Hills, to reflect some mighty big changes over the past year or so, rolled out a new “branding package” this week.  It is very different than it was.  And these are very much “my kind of colors” (oranges, pumkins, spices, shimmery copper), but the new site will take some getting used to, even though we have gone much simpler.

The jackets the staff and elders were all wearing (with the church name on the back at the waistline, just above the bum (to, I assume, garner some attention – which it almost certainly will) are very nice looking.

So, October is orange.  And, it turns out, so is my church.  www.northernhills.cc  This works out nicely because of the cute orange-church-magnet they passed out for my fridge.  Just in time for October!

October is Orange

October is pumpkins and spice, rustling leaves, brilliant carrots and abundant gourds and squash.  It is wool socks, leather shoes and a new pair of dark blue Levi’s.  October is tricks and treats, turtlenecks, Sunday suppers and chimnea fires.  It’s roasted seeds and amber and gold with browns and greens.  It’s spicy, cool mornings and indigo-dark skies.  It’s cinnamon rolls and fresh spicy pies.  It’s blazing color and fried green tomatoes, and caramel and taffy and apples, too.   But mostly, October is orange.

DECORATE WITH ORANGE. 

http://blogs.hgtv.com/hgtv/design/archives/2008/10/fall_into_orange.html

ORANGE (“the color of craving”) AS DESIGN PASSION. 

http://www.whorange.net/

 

1 Kings 8.65 The Message: …”This is how Solomon kept the great autumn feast…Two solid weeks of celebration!…”

 

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds  (modified from a recipe by Alison Aves)
In a 10″ x 15″ baking pan,
mix 2 cups unwashed* pumpkin seeds,
1 1/2 tablespoons melted butter,
1 1/4 teaspoons salt (use a seasoning salt, if desired) and
1 teaspoon (or more to taste…for me? always more) Worcestershire.
Spread seeds out in pan.
Bake in a 250-degree oven, stirring occasionally,
until browned and crisp (about 2 hours).
Serve warm or cool.
Thoroughly cooled seeds can be stored in an
airtight container for up to a week.

So-I am a summer-lover, but fall feels really romantic and lovely to me, too…Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF: October is also when I have been called for Jury Duty, too.  Poo.  Jury duty is NOT orange.

*Don’t worry – the orange slime from the pumkin that is still on the seeds will form a deliciously salty, crunchy coating on the seeds.

pictured: a deliciously orange google image-collage