Keep you posted!
Gaudy or Good?
Iris Apfel is considered a “geriatric starlet” and a very senior fashionista at 94. How much of a statement do we need to make as we grow older. She has collected jewelry and clothing all her adult life and now has a collection of “couture” jewelry that has been featured at the Peabody Essex Museum, where she is considered the “Rare Bird of Fashion: The Irreverent Iris Apfel.”
When I am 94 I would love to be considered fashionable, but I do live in a small community and not New York City. How do you take “fashion” to rural America?
For one thing, I would never be able to wear that many necklaces without a back brace. One car accident too many, by this point in my life to have that much weight suspended from my neck. On another day, we might take on the conversations we have with peers about “health issues”. Maybe call it “Backache with Lunch”.
Looking to icons of fashion over the years, so many seem based on excess not elegant simplicity.
So where do you take this? Do you over-stimulate your eyes in the mirror each morning or do you look for an expression less overpowering? Or do you take some elements of style and look fashionable in slightly less exaggerated manner?
Coco Channel is stylish in a slightly less provocative manner. So pick your style, enjoy life and love getting dressed in the morning. “Fashion you can buy, but style you posses”. Iris tells us this. What is your over 50 style?
Maybe in a more rural environment, we just make our overalls more stylish?
Or better yet, maybe go for stylishly simple and elegant. Anyone can make a statement, but not everyone can make a good one.
Maybe less attention too excessive is good and elegance can return. What do you think? What would AARP say about this?
Everyday in my home I wake up to a variation of this view. It took a long time in life to get to the place where I wake up and can’t wait to see the view of the morning. I kept buying and selling and then building and selling to make a profit on each so I could move to somewhere with a better view. I am in the smallest home, other than my first in Del Mar, California and I love the view the best!
Many do not understand this obsession, but living in the Pacific Northwest we have this incredible opportunity to live our lives with amazing views or using a word I heard for the first time “Fablioso” views. If you don’t live where you love the view you wake up to, then perhaps it is time to think about moving?
That is where I came in to help you find just the right view. As an artist and a professional (ASID & IIDA) interior designer (Yes I passed the two day test) and having worked to earn a PhD in Business Marketing, I can do a great job for you!
Think of me when you think of Real Estate. Join me on one of my Facebook pages:
https://www.facebook.com/dianakingsley1
https://www.facebook.com/D-zine
https://www.facebook.com/kingstoncovestudio
It is so nice to have the time to paint once again. I think as you go through life you have to make choices of what is really important to you at that point in time. I went back into real estate a few months ago, to supplement our income a little. I didn’t have to make a lot to be happy, just a little. I missed the interaction with people since I retired and thought this would be a great way to interact, help people and add a little more interest to my life. I chose a company that found many of the clients by “chasing” lead generation. So a person signs on to look at a home, and immediately you were to call them. It seemed a little like “Big Brother” is watching you, if you remember the movie from the book “1984”, and could not be comfortable disturbing peoples’ privacy, so decided to just work on my own. That being said, I now have time to also do the things I love.
My garden is flourishing, by art is growing, and my life is much more relaxed and happy. Find what you love and do it. Don’t think about doing it, just go do it.
Yesterday I bought a second 12 foot kayak too, so my husband could enjoy the relaxing pleasure of being out on the water. I did not want to order one, wait another week or two, miss another weaker two of this glorious summer. I wanted it yesterday and I found a beautiful yellow one and they delivered and we kayaked at sunset.
Glorious!
Life is not about what you are going to do tomorrow, it is what you are doing to day.
Picked up my paint brushes for the first time in six months. It felt glorious. This painting has been sitting on the canvas half done for over six months. Life got in the way, and that should never happen to an artist. I truly enjoy selling real estate, but was with a team that wanted you to work 7/24 and cold call people whenever they signed online to look at houses. It made me feel like I was “Big Brother” watching what people were doing. I don’t like it when I get email for months when I was interested for a short amount of time, or now on Facebook anything that you have viewed online or in Amazon shows up on the side bar, till your next choice of searches.
When I finished this painting tonight and photographed it, I could not decide which I liked it best. Horizontal or Vertical. That is when I started thinking we all have choices to make every day of our life. Today I chose to paint after having a wonderful lunch with my beautiful God daughter. She inspired me to get back to what I love doing.
Not that I am not going to help people buy and sell houses, I am just going to take some time for me to do the things I love.
So you choose, which way do you like it better? Vertical or Horizontal? Life is so full of wonderful choices, just take one and get on with it.
How many Hair Salons have a Chicken Coup, a School House from the 1800’s and nice modern salon built on the property. Don Edward’s in Kingston is Gene Juarez trained and actually listens to what you say. Pretty remarkable combination.
Poulsbo, Washington is one of our local “Go To” places in Kitsap County, picturesque with great restaurants and shops galore. Sheila’s offers great breakfast delights with friendly local servers and The Loft restaurant offers great views of the bay, if you sit out on the deck. Be prepared to wait a bit, as I find the service a little slow, but the food is local and good.
In this drawing, I think I actually like the black and white better than the colored version.
Since I just started selling Real Estate again with John L. Scott and Penny’s Team in Poulsbo, and will be showing from Bainbridge to Kingston I decided the perfect house-warming gift would be a drawing of the house my client buys. Let me know if you know of anyone looking to buy a new home in our area.
Port Gamble is a little treasure of a town, that offers many lovely old buildings to sketch. Here are two of my newest sketches. Please send ideas if you have something you would like to see sketched.
Out and about buying fabric to make Easter Dresses for my three Granddaughters, with camera in hand, Port Gamble is such a lovely piece of our local history. Originally built as a sawmill town, there are rows of houses built for employees and managers of the Port. the Walker Ames House, which I drew last week was the owners original home.
In the next week or so, I will be drawing the General Store, owned by friends of mine with some of the best food in the area. The fabric store Quilted Strait is often one of my favorite stops, as they have a lovely and varied selection of cotton, more designed for quilts, but work great for “Granddaughter” dresses.
This beautiful Victorian home in Port Gamble, Washington is stately and beautifully designed. It has not been used as a residence in many years. In 2008 a group interested in paranormal activity came and definitely felt the presence of “ghosts” in the house. Built in 1888 it was the home for William Walker, master mechanic,and his wife Emma, daughter Maude, and son-in-law Edwin Ames. The house was close to the mill so Walker was nearby in case of emergencies. Ames was the resident manager from 1883-194 and then general manager until 1931.
This is the rear of the house. It faced the waterfront to welcome ships and captains.
When I was teaching Interior Design at The Art Institute of Seattle, I had the good fortune to teach a class called Adaptive Reuse. My students had the choice of redesigning this or another structure. It was wonderful to see this elegant home come to life as a Wine Bar, a Bed & Breakfast, a Wedding site and several creative venues. It is too bad that zoning makes most of that impossible and for the most part the building sits empty and sad.
Here is a photo of the house in it’s 1888 glory time. There are no color photos from that time for obvious reasons. I love to draw historical houses and places and you will see more of these in the future.
My drawings are available for purchase at Liberty Bay Gallery in Poulsbo, or from me.