I thought we would zig instead of zag today. Reason being is that I think an artist, more than any other wonderful creature on Earth, likes to express their personality in almost every aspect of life. Their home, their car, iPod color choice…you get what I’m saying. This is the reason I went to Skin It and ordered a design to skin my laptop. See?
That’s my chosen design on the top and My Baby all skinned up on the bottom (location: hotel room). The pattern is also available in black.
Skins are digital vinyl “presses” for most any tech device. They have outstanding graphic quality and are easy to apply. They stick and contour very nicely and so far, they don’t become distressed with use. If you do get tired of your particular design, they come off without leaving any residue and you can apply another. They have hundreds of designs to choose from. Some of my faves (click to enlarge):
Unique & Neutral-ish
Overall Graphic
Unusual yet Intriguing
Colorful
Ocean Views
There are some skins available at other companies, such as Unique Skins and Etsy. (Seriously. How cute is this Apple laptop skin?) You can find great coupon codes at each company’s Facebook and Twitter accounts.
So, do you like the idea of personalizing your tech devices? If so, what designs would you choose? Art, Flowers, Fashion or maybe even Woodgrains? Something else, perhaps? Well, I do hope you enjoyed this brief foray into a fun side street, dear Reader. Until tomorrow! :)
Whenever I mention I live in Orlando, the first thing that comes up is “theme parks”. Yes, they are exciting, but there’s also beautiful neighborhoods and non-touristy areas to enjoy as well. One of these is the city of Winter Park, FL. The Hubs and I recently spent a Saturday in that area. Well, I just lied — it really was a few months ago. There was tons of pics to whittle down, fix and then write a post around them…you see where procrastination would rear up, right? Right. So, on that recent day, we spent it walking, seeing the architecture, taking a scenic boat tour and finally ending up at a wonderful local restaurant.
FROM OUR WALK
Winter Park began its start as an art and literary colony in 1881, according to the Winter Park Historical Association. Today, it is home to museums, lakes, canals, parks and a charming shopping district. I like how the roads differ and the exteriors, too — as well as little shots of color from stairwells, arched entrances and tiles.
The old Alabama Hotel -- now condominiums. Would be nice to come home to an ivy covered residence, no?
I don't believe this is faux...
FROM OUR BOAT
We took a pontoon ride on Lake Osceola from Scenic Bout Tours and had a chance to see another side to Winter Park. We passed the Kraft Azalea Gardens, Rollins College (gorgeous Spanish-Mediterranean architecture on campus) and the Albin Polasek Museum & Sculpture Gardens. They gave a great history of the city and what I remember most is that they noted that Mr. Rogers was inspired to write his signature song while living in Winter Park, FL. (He has a music degree from Rollins.)
The Pontoon
(above) I find it amusing (and yet so admirable) to design the boathouse with the architecture of your home. Click on them to zoom and you’ll see how beautiful the effect is.
A final view of one of the canals.
Hope you’ve enjoyed Winter Park, FL — and that you’ll consider taking a detour from the theme parks the next time you happen to be in Central Florida. Have a wonderful day!
Aren’t mosaics beautiful? Certainly an incredible aspect of art. I’ve written before about how mad I am about them but today, I want to focus on a blog focused solely on mosaics: the Sara Baldwin Design blog. Sara Baldwin runs an international company, New Ravenna Mosaics, and I had the pleasure to meet her at a design show last year. She’s wonderful and extremely generous with giving business advice (I’ve turned to her a time or two). On her blog, she writes not only about mosaics, but also about her travels, discoveries and her company’s behind-the-scenes actions. One of those posts, caught my eye: Look What We Did Today. In it, she talks about a very special (and not altogether cooperative) photo prop. Here’s a hint:
You’ll have to clink on the link to see the adorable and hilarious results. Be sure to also check out her Capitols, Columns and Cuervos: Parte Dos (or, Gourmet Tequila, the second best thing in Mexico after the Materials Marketing Factory) post which features colorful murals and Bough Wow Wow, a post that is all about Asian-inspired mosaics. I could keep linking on an on…enjoy the visit to Sara’s blog!
I apologize in advance to those who follow me on Twitter or are a Facebook friend, as I already shouted this one out from the rooftops on those sites. Google Alerts was kind enough to let me know that the Fauxology blog was mentioned in a Connecticut Now article entitled “Trick Out Your House with Color” — as one of two recommended blogs to read (the other being the wonderful Color Buzz).
Thankfully, y’all can’t see me doing the I’m a Superstahhhhh! Moves. (Looks like this…)
The article was written by Feng Shui expert Kathryn Weber — a big hearty thanks from me. Click on the link to the article which contains great tips on the addition of color in your home. I particularly like the one about painting your doors a snappy color. My doors are now looking at me like “What? We look good — you woodgrained us already!”. Silly doors — they’ll see a lot more changes throughout the years. Enjoy the article!
My brother, Jason, is a total Foodie. So when I hear him in rhapsody over a restaurant, I know it’s going to be a phenomenal experience. Case in point: the Columbia Restaurant in Tampa, FL. Columbia is the oldest Latin restaurant in Florida and one of its Top 25 restaurants overall. It opened in 1905 and has since been named an All-American Icon — only one of 50 restaurants in the country to have the honor as bestowed by Nation’s Restaurant News. The food is influenced by the cuisine of old Spain and on certain nights, even have extraordinary flamenco shows to complete the experience.
After attending a NY Yankees vs. Tampa Bay Rays game this past Sunday, the Hubs and I decided to stop by. Jason had also told me that the decor was as outstanding as the food. I thought he was talking about the interior but lo and behold, I found these tiled beauties on the exterior of the building.
One image just a bit closer
(above) Click to Zoom
A smaller tiled mural is right next to this bigger one.
There were also several beautiful elements in the interior design. They have fifteen (15) dining rooms in total and each is as interesting and different as the previous one. The restaurant itself is 52,000 square feet. Click here for more information and to read about their fascinating history. Below are images I took and some pulled from their website.
Reception (left) and the view — with painted columns and ornaments — from our table (right)
Cafe Dining Room
The Red Dining Room with an allover design on the walls
The Kings Room -- love the tiled chair rail.
Oh, yes. You may be wondering about the food. Although we did not have the 1905 Salad (rated one of America’s best salads by USA Today), we did have amazing tapas, paella, sangria and decadent desserts. [And hey, thousands of Facebook fans can't be wrong.] Our fantastic waitress, Megan, practically had to roll us out of there with both our stomachs and eyes happy. What could be better?
Modern Masters is a now-defunct show I enjoyed on HGTV. I remember an episode that featured the father-son team of Tom and TJ Moberg. They are known for creating beautiful relief designs and nature scenes using drywall mud and other unique materials. They are based out of Des Moines, Iowa and have a studio called the Moberg Gallery. I’ve seen them featured on other blogs but I thought I’d share some visuals with you as well.
Tree with Copper Leaves
Beautiful Scene with a Water Feature
A Cool Idea for a Staircase.
Love the idea of the tree transcending the wall -- and the sweet birds resting among the branches.
My favorite: Poseidon. Poseidon always seems to be upset about something, doesn't he?
Please remember you can always click on the pics to zoom. There are more visuals and information to be found at the Moberg Gallery website. Healthcare Design magazine also featured the family in an article entitled The Healing Arts. Hope you’ve enjoyed their work!
I’ve found that artists usually have creative loves that they keep as pleasurable hobbies instead of being immersed in it as their bread and butter. For some it’s creating music, others enjoy dancing, still others cook & bake and some, like me, enjoy writing. Today, however, I dedicate this post to those artists who enjoy gardening. It’s a discipline that does entail artistry & color theory – as well as patience and a good amount of love. I’ve collected a few images throughout the years that inspire my creative soul.
Imagine you're walking along and you come upon this scene...
Would love this atmosphere as the interior of my studio!
Sublime.
Last but not least - moody, striking and so beautiful. I'd never leave my home if this was the view...
Hope you’ve enjoyed this brief foray into a lovely side world of design. Gardening is something I’ve been meaning to dig my hands into (the puns continue, dear Reader). My appreciation for it began during our Sundy House commission. Do you enjoy it? Or does another artistic endeavor have your heart? Would love to hear about it!
Some Images Courtesy of: Architectural Digest, Orlando magazine and The Landscape Diaries
This week we are to finish Phase 1 of a month long commission — it’s been a blessing and fun because of several key finishes. We return for Phase 2 in about a month or so. (I’ll be sure to share pics when all the furniture and such is in place.) In the meantime, I went on a consult recently for The Grand Bohemian Hotel here in Orlando. We’ve previously done their Wine Room — our claim to fame is that the first person to reserve it was Beyonce.
Anyhoo, I spied several gorgeous gold leafed ceilings in the hotel that had a nice touch — a sort of “flame” effect made with the combination of the gold leaf with the burnt red base. I thought it was a great idea to share. Here are the pics:
The Kessler Rotunda. You can spy a gold leaf ceiling as you walk in.
A full shot of one of the ceilings. You can see the "flame" effect around the rim. It's very effective when you are looking up at it from the entrance.
A close-up shot is always nice...
Here's a smaller ceiling over the Lounge area. You can see the effect is now within the dome as opposed to the surrounding trim.
What do you think? I thought it was hot! (Yeeeeesss, another pun this week. Maybe I should stop with those…) Have a wonderful weekend!
While perusing pics from my trip to Italy in 2005, I found images of a finish I stumbled upon in one of the hotels. Wish I could tell you which hotel or even which city but I neglected to note that. However, I think it is an interesting technique and one that looks easily achievable with tinted plasters, a grate with a pleasing pattern and a trowel to mess some of it up while still wet. It looks as if they applied, troweled or rubbed some sort of metallic wax or overglaze over some of the finishes when done.
The finish was applied around the room entrances and elevators. Below, you will see Reds & Golds in one area and Blues in another. Isn’t the blue color movement just so visually pleasing? All my closeup shots of the blue are fuzzy. Argh!
Here’s the closeup of the Red & Gold, though…
This one is in ochre tones — there’s a closer look.
The Red & Gold combination continues but here it is paired with beautiful greens.
I love the “messiness” of the finish and the goal of it being not so perfect either.
The artisans in Italy always think in such exciting colors! I really enjoyed the results. What do you think?
Hello everyone,
This is Suzanne Rosales of GlobalSwan.com, writing in again as a guest blogger today for all Fauxology readers. Today, I’m going to be talking about websites and blogs, as well as spreading the word on some great freebies that I’ve found along the way.
Blogs AND Websites – WordPress!
My favorite web software is WordPress because you can do so much with it as well as being super user-friendly. It can be a simple blog, a gorgeous website, or best of all, both. Keep in mind that the WordPress I’m referring to is Wordpess.org; there is also a WordPress.com which will host and manage the WordPress software of your site, but you will be restricted in what you can do with your site. With WordPress.org, you have a lot of flexibility with your site but you need to install the software on your own server or with a 3rd party provider. Click the link to read more about the pros and cons of WordPress.com vs WordPress.org. There are tons of plugins, which are “tools to extend the functionality of WordPress”, that are available for your WordPress site to help make it functional and easier to use after installation. If you know your way around web code, you can highly modify WordPress with some tutorials and research to make it your own.
If you are looking for a user-friendly site that you can maintain, I definitely recommend finding a web designer who is familiar with WordPress. For the DIYers who would like to modify the content on their site and update it as often as they’d like – consider working up a training program with your web designer so that they can teach you how to use your new WordPress site. It could save you lots of money at the end of the day. I know my sister, Regina, did that and it’s worked very well for her with the Fauxology blog.
If you don’t know a designer, you can contact me to help get you on your way. I also build custom websites, online galleries, blogs and e-commerce sites. The possibilities are endless. To see examples of my work, check out My Gallery.
Here are a couple of helpful tips to remember when contracting work with a web designer:
1. Maintain Ownership Of Your Site.
Make sure the contract states that once you are fully paid up on web design services, you own your site, files, databases, artwork and all login credentials are handed over to you.2. Purchase Your Domains
Buy website domains with your own account; meaning take a minute to sign up for the account with your own credentials.
I recommend using www.name.com – they are inexpensive and easy to use.3. Sign Up For Your Web Hosting
Make sure website domains are hosted with your own account and contact information.
Remember domain hosting, the companies who run Internet servers that allow you to serve content to the Internet, is an additional service you must subscribe to in order to get your site up and running. Most hosts will offer monthly or yearly subscriptions – the longer you subscribe, the more savings you will receive. I like using www.247-host.com for hosting websites or you can use these other recommended hosts.4. Ask For Your Credentials
Make sure your webmaster gives you all login credentials.
Whether you or your web designer purchase domains, or sign you up with a host provider under your accounts – make sure you get all your login credentials. Important logins to remember: domains, host provider, e-mail accounts, ftp accounts, WordPress or blog logins, any third party subscriptions for your site.5. Keep It Safe
Keep all your login credentials in an encrypted file.
Create a word or excel spreadsheet with your sites, usernames and passwords. Research how to encrypt files for your Operating System (PC or Mac).6. Read Your Contract
If you decide to move your site from one designer to another, always review your website contract. Once the move is complete, I’d recommend changing your logins (if applicable) and passwords. This will ensure your site remains intact and fully functional. **Don’t forget to update your encrypted login file!**
Please do keep the above in mind whether you’re rebuilding your site or starting from scratch — whichever route my clients have needed to take, I’ve helped them achieve peace of mind in knowing that their websites will be fully functional, beautiful and they will own it! Once you ensure with your chosen company the parameters of your contract, you can move forward with confidence and help design the perfect site for you. With that in mind…
FREEBIES - On my search for web design elements I’ve found some awesome artwork by www.dezinerfolio.com – check out the preview below and click the link to download this awesome icon set. You must click this link if you’d like to take a look at some of the free WordPress themes. Themes is just a fancy word for what your website and blog can look like — as artists, you’ll have a lot of fun picking one that fits your personality.
Click Here to Get Your Freebies!!!!
Warmly,
Suzanne Rosales
Global Swan
