My country home

Well, okay it's not mine, exactly. But I am fortunate enough to be able to use it like it is. Here's another corner of my friend Tracy's house where I spent all day yesterday working on more book photos. Whenever we get together, we always drag each other around our houses asking the other's opinions about this and that, colors, furniture, ideas. etc. We like all the same stuff generally, but we're just different enough that we really benefit by including each other's input. We also match right up where housework and our attention to it are concerned, a relief. My very best friends are the ones I don't clean up for. (Like you!)



Anyway the photos. Eleni was with us all morning, as she modeled a few shots. She has been loosing sleep thinking about her big day with Sylvie the white horse. We've been talking about it for weeks, but had to wait for the pasture to be dried out enough, and the weather to be warm enough. Sylvie is an old girl, so sweet and gentle. Tracy was brushing her while Eleni patiently waited for her role to begin. I was taking snapshots of the scene. At one point Tracy had to remove her jealous donkey, Joseph, because he was making a spectacle of himself so she asked me to hold Sylvie's reins. The look on her face (horses do get looks on their faces) was so hysterical. She just kept looking at me out of the corner of her eye like 'you have no idea what you're doing, just stop it.' I was laughing, holding the reins under one arm and snapping pictures, Joseph ee-aaww-ing like an ass, Tracy tying him in to the pen with the goats and sheep, and Eleni standing precariously on the fence whining to come into the gate so she can ride Sylvie. I imagined this must be what its like for every sewing book author. It is, right? (I won't even mention the baby chick Tracy recently rescued from the tortures of mean pecking chickens at the feed store. Her 6 year old named it Pecker.)

It was a beautiful day. Later in the evening Tracy came over and after we did the 137th tour of rooms, questions, show and tell, and design opinion gathering we enjoyed a sit in front of the monitors viewing all the days events. Whew. Over 600 photos with the hopes of getting 5. But we got them. And it takes every morsel of strength in my being to keep them to myself and my publishers. When it was time to get back to our families, I sent her home with sample cuts of the above fabrics because she has two chairs she wants to cover and I think any of these new Drawing Room fabrics would be quite swanky in that room up there. Good, right? Right. And it pleases me with an obnoxious amount of splendor that someone else thinks orangey-gold and pale plum are perfect for the living room. I love you Tracy. And I would love you just for your palette and house but in fact you are a dear friend too.

Oh and speaking of sending off pals with prints....don't forget that this Sunday the 16th Jennifer at CraftSanity is posting our podcast in which 4 fabric winners will be announced. That was a very enjoyable interview, and I really hope that you enjoy the chat as much as I did. It actually got quite....um....personal, I guess for lack of a better word. You guys came up with some very poignant questions, and I was happy to share what I hope were actually answers to those questions. It felt a lot like just spilling myself into the phone so please forgive me if it sounds just exactly like that.

Okay so I'm headed north to NY for a few days to kiss my new niece relentlessly. I'll try to post from there but I might be too busy nibbling baby toes.

love, AnnaMaria