Monday's - Mother Day Recap!

Just for today I decided to take a break from Monday’s Mood Boards and post something a little different, Mother’s Day!

This past weekend was so much fun. It kicked of with my daughter’s last soccer game of spring league. They won 3-0 and I’m happy to say my Raquel (Rocky) scored in every game of the season, which never looses its excitement for me. Then it was off to my friend’s hair salon, The Bladerunner in San Luis Obispo, so Serena and her friend could get their hair done for Prom!! Back to the house to cook and get ready for a fun Prom Party! We had lots of friends and family visiting along with my other daughter’s little friends spending the night. I just love it when my house is full of life and laughter. I went to sleep one proud momma. But the joy kept coming when I woke up to many really lovely Mother’s Day treats!!!

If you’ve followed my blog you would know that we built a second house on our property for my parents almost five years ago. It has been one of the greatest decisions we ever made. Amongst all the terrific benefits, is the fact that my mother has the magic touch in our garden. Our roses look amazing! So in honor of the beautiful garden she has created and her love for the greatest Mother of all, The Blessed Mary…I painted this for her. And so sweet, my youngest daughter made a crown for Mary to honor her on Mother’s Day too.

It was a beautiful weekend. I couldn’t have asked for more. I hope you all had a lovely weekend as well!

Monday's Mood Board...Spring Redesign For My Girls!

The beautiful Spring weather always puts me in the mood to reinvent my home. Time to clear out the clutter and re-design. This time I’m focusing on my two younger daughters who share a room. When we built this home they were only 2 and 3 years old. They have since grown into lovely 12 and 13 year olds and the baby pink room is about to grow up. I’ve been consulting with them and they are giving me very little lead way in the design process.

Raquel and Chyna picked the color palette. Dark Coral walls (I know-right?!?!) with accents in White, Black & Gold!!! Across from their beds they said they wanted a Bulletin Board “Wall” like the one seen in Kylie Jenner’s video. I also found this cute one on The Happy Home Blog, it’s not quite big enough for what we want to do but I wanted to share her idea with you. She shows you how you can make this yourself step by step on her blog. Something else I found on Pinterest is this super idea from The Vintage Treehouse. I love how she reinvents these old frames and lace to make jewelry holders.

Behind their beds I was thinking of doing something like this lit canvas as seen on Apartment Therapy. The idea kind of sent me running down a bunny trail but instead I've decided to paint two large canvas’s with all our colors, to tie the room together. Behind the paintings I’m going to paint a black and white border on the wall to frame them.

Rocky told me she really likes the silhouette pillows I made of them a few years ago, so I’m going to make new ones for them, trimmed in gold and backed in coral. I’ll also create a new heart pillow for them as well. Drapes will be a bold in black and white stripe and I’ll be adding a desk under the window with a funky chair of some sort. We already have a manikin. Her name is Lola and she’s super for belts, scarves and purses. Of course we’ll need a full-length mirror too…all of these ideas and more you’ll see unfold on the follow up posts.

So there you have it. From my sketches to my Mood Board, that’s the plan for their room. I will be posting updates to this project as I hope to have it completed in the next couple of months!

Prom?

Just on a little side note. This was on our porch the other night for my daughter. Boys are so sweet these days! And...of course, she said Yes! Happy Cinco de Mayo! Cheers!

Monday's Mood Board - Lipstick & A Good Perfume!

A few weeks ago my oldest daughter and I went to Sophora. If you know Sophora, then you know that it’s basically a candy shop for women. I love browsing through the perfumes and finding a new scent to wear. I also love, love, love lipstick! I’ve often told my daughters, “All I need is Lipstick & a Good Perfume.” Something else also struck me that day, all the beautiful packaging but I tucked away those images in the back of my mind.

Then recently I’ve had two design projects that made me start thinking about that day again. As you can see from the prior post, I’m designing a boutique and I’m also designing a teenage girl’s room. Both projects are incredibly fun!

When looking for art, I started to pin certain things that inspired me on my Pinterest boards. Can you believe that this Dolce pin has received the most re-pins out of anything I’ve ever posted? That got me thinking about Sophora and all the great packaging of these beautiful products…so inspired, I decided to create my own art and out came the watercolors.

Today’s Monday Mood Board is all about Lipstick & a Good Perfume. These are my favorites!

All Images Copyright 2012 Mari Robeson, please ask before shaing. Thank you!

Monday's Mood Board Is Getting All Dressed Up!

Every once in a while I get asked to design something really fun and unique. This time it’s a little clothing boutique that just needed a breath of color. My inspiration piece is this gorgeous chair I found during one of my addictive Pinterest afternoons. As you can see I’m continuing with my Rose theme…It’s what is inspiring me right now along with "That Chair" (pitter-pat goes my heart) that was featured on Lisa Mende’s Design blog. I’m in love with the large textile and the stripes on the armrests. It became my muse!

In keeping with the black, pink and gold theme, I found this wallpaper, soooooo pretty! I’m going to use it on the bottom of the wall and add a black piece of trim to cap it off at chair rail height. I’m also going to use it just on the back of each dressing room wall.

Down the hall across from the rooms I’m also going to add some artwork and these round mirrors I found at IKEA for only $14 but to make them more interesting I’d like to paint a gold and black design behind them. I’m also going to paint a frame around the large mirrors they already have in the dressing rooms. This is a much less expensive solution than framing the mirrors with wood.

I still have more things to ad-dress ha ha in this space, such as lighting and artwork so stay tune for more updates on this fun project!

1 Chair Lisa Mende Design 2 Black Baroque Mirror IKEA 3 Floral Wall Hooks Anthropologie 4 Round Mirror IKEA 5 Rose Wall Hook Anthropologie

Sneak Peak Surprise Feature - Thank you!!

Much to my delightful surprise, I received a lovely message from Ana Heleno, blogger extraordinare, over at SneakPeaks that she was featuring my textiles on her blog today! Thanks so much Ana!!! Sneak Peak's is also on FaceBook. Have a super Tuesday everyone!!!

Monday’s Mood Board – Taking Time To Smell The Roses!

Last week we launched our Vintage Rose Pillows and Fabric and ever since, it seems everywhere I look, I see Roses! We have several varieties lining our courtyard in the front of our home and they are all “just about” ready to take off. A few of the early bloomers are already cut and placed around my home.

Other than the typical places to have arranged flowers, I personally like to have flowers in every bathroom too. It offers a little element of thoughtfulness that one doesn’t usually expect. I add a small clipping of jasmine and it keeps the room smelling wonderful all day and night. Side note: I love Jasmine too and have it planted under all our bedroom windows. In spring the entire house smells divine.

This little, red vase inspired the design of our powder room, The Red Bathroom as everyone calls it. We built our house over nine years ago and I still love the color of this room.

Monday’s Mood Board is full of Rose Inspired décor for the home. I hope you’ll take time to stop and Smell The Roses this week!

1 Wall Decal 2 Place Setting 3 Rose Knobs ETSY 4 Melamine Plate ETSY 5 Vintage Rose Fabric 6 Rose Wall Paper 

Introducing Vintage Rose!

A little more Black & Yellow cheer on quite a dark and rainy day here in California.  I’ve been waiting to introduce my Vintage Rose designs until the roses in my garden started to bloom and yesterday, much to my joy, I noticed they have. This extra little shot of rain is going to make them even more beautiful.  April showers, right? J

If you didn’t know, my textiles are all printed right here in the USA. They are printed on organic cotton twill and sewn right here in Sunny (well, not so sunny today) California. Now available in my shop!

Monday's Mood Board...Black & Yellow!

Monday’s Mood Board celebrates the launch of my new Vintage Rose Fabric and Pillows! Yay! I’ve always loved Black & Yellow together so it was really timely when a new client of mine told me her daughter wanted to do a yellow bedroom. Yellow is a tricky color, especially for a bedroom. You want to make sure the yellow is a warm yellow and avoid the bright yellows that have a green undertone to them. That type of yellow is an agitating color and not conducive to rest. Even the yellow in my watercolor is too bright (but fun for a watercolor) which is why I want to mention that to you.

I’ve included some fun finds in the room.  My client has a long window above her bed. Instead of covering it with a traditional window covering I wanted to treat it with something more unique. I saw the work of this ETSY artist and thought it would be terrific if they could create a wood cut-out that I could insert inside the window frame.

Another great find on ETSY were these chevron storage baskets. Tuck them inside a bench at the foot of the bed for extra storage.

By now you know I love the work of Jill Rosenwald and think her lamps are amazing. You can’t go wrong when searching for beautiful furniture and accessories when shopping at LaylaGrayce which is where the beautiful side tables and chandelier are from.

I couldn’t fit everything I wanted into today’s Mood Board so Wednesday I will post a follow up of some more ideas I want to  do in this room. Happy Monday everyone!

1 Vintage Rose Pouf & Pillow 2 Tufted Headboard from Amazon 3 Vintage Rose Fabric By The Yard 4 Newport Teardrop Lamp 5 Maura Daniel Chandelier From LaylaGrace.com 6 Bennett Nightstand From LaylaGrace.com 7 Elwoodworks On ETSY 8 Umbra Frama Mirrored Wall Décor Appliques

Saturday In Santa Barbara

Most of you know that just about every weekend you can find me on the soccer fields watching my daughters . Go Condors! Last weekend wasn’t any different but it was even more fun because Chyna had a morning game in Santa Barbara. That meant the rest of the afternoon would just have to go to lunch, the museum, and shopping of course! It just isn’t right to go to SB and not pay our respects to all the Mom and Pops as well as Anthropologie and Nordstrom.

So after Chyna got civilian again, aka out of her soccer uniform, we had lunch on State Street at a cute little Mexican restaurant.  Then we walked down to the Santa Barbara Museum. Much to our surprise, they were having several incredible exhibits!!! All my favorite Impressionists were represented as well as an incredible collection of Modern Art as well. It was heavenly!

After we left the museum we went to several little shops. I just love how everyone creates their displays and the architecture alone in SB is beautiful to look at. Soooooo much eye candy to take in. Of course I had to visit my favorite shop, Anthropologie. Talk about great displays. Their visual merchandisers are masters at it!

As the afternoon meandered on, the skys started to get grey and we knew the rain was coming…one last stop…Nordstroms. I don’t know why I love it so much there. Maybe because we don’t have any kind of shopping like that in San Luis Obispo. We don’t even have a mall! I love to look at all the designers and see their latest creations. I especially have a thing for purses. These are a few of my favorites, I painted just for fun.

We left Santa Barbara that day and drove home in the rain. Having that time with my youngest daughter, exploring and getting inspired, is a day I will always remember and hope to do again soon. (Oh yes, and they won their game that morning 3-0.) 

1 Kate Spade 2 Co Co Chanel 3 Tory Burch 4 Louis Vuitton