Toile Lamp Shades

After Teen1 (I need to think of a new name for her since she's not a teen anymore) moved out I was left with a nice freshly painted blue bedroom, new beige carpet and a new off-white Roman shade. She took her bed and furniture so I gathered together Grandmother's stuff again; a brass bed and an Empire style dresser. Then I studied it all for a while trying to think of a more traditional scheme that would work with the colors. I've always loved toile, so I figured black and white toile was the answer.

I'm going to make a toile bedskirt and some pillows for the bed too, but I started with the lampshades. I got those pre-sticky ones at JoAnne's and some sticky trim for the edges too. I also got little black tassels. The lamp shades were very easy to do and I'm quite pleased with the results.

Did you know you could get these fancy little knobs at OSH? You just unscrew the plain brown plastic ones and screw these in their place. Too cute, eh?

So here we are Amongst The Oaks actually making progress on the Guest Room Remodel.

A Day in San Francisco

Teen2 and I had a wonderful day out last Saturday. We went to the De Young Museum to see the "Masters of Venice" exhibition. It was very interesting and we enjoyed studying the paintings. They are from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna so our chances of seeing them in person were pretty slim.

Afterwards, since we were right there in Golden Gate Park, we walked over to the Japanese Tea Garden. If you've never been there I highly recommend a visit. Plan to go when the azaleas and deciduous magnolias are blooming. That would be around the end of February or early March. And then come the cherry blossoms in March and April.

We spent an enjoyable hour strolling through the garden and looking at the koi.

Then we decided we needed a little snack, so we had some jasmine tea, the O-Musubi set, and a Taiyaki. Taiyaki is a waffle batter snack filled with red bean paste. The mold it's cooked in makes it look like a fish. Isn't it cute? It tasted really good too! Teen2 and I really like Japanese food so we were in heaven.

Next we went to the Legion of Honor. What a beautiful building it is. And what a beautiful setting out there in Lincoln Park.

I wanted Teen2 to see Bernini's Medusa. I got a better photo of it this time because I used a real camera instead of my phone. It's just mind boggling that this thing is almost 400 years old and still hypnotizing folks with its beauty.

We also visited many of the other galleries. Teen2 like this room from France. It reminded me of Versailles.

And of course we had to visit Monet's Water Lilies again.

After our dose of culture, we had dinner at Fog City Diner and then we drove home relaxed, satisfied, and enriched. All in all it was a GREAT day out. Thanks Teen2.

The End.

detail Renoir's Mother and Child