A "jungle" BIG boy room...

A Big Boy Jungle Room...This room began with the help of a little five year old imagination. The sweet boy sat in with his mom & I on our first meeting. He loves animals his mom told me. He tells me he wants "gorillas, elephants, snake, bear & an alligator" in his room. He also knew exactly where he wanted them. So the sketch began...

Before

Then the painting starts...This picture is at the end of Day One.

The final picture.

"I want an alligator under the window in a pond. I also want the teeth cleaner bird in his mouth."

momma and baby gorillas-nesting

Baby elephant playing in a pond

The final pictures & 4 days later...A jungle room for a little boy to grow into. I also added in the tree a growth chart camouflaged in the tree trunk to mimic wood carving in the tree. This room was great fun to paint! Best of all one day I was able to see him in his space playing make-believe with all the animals.

A great thing about a mural is that colors can be completely custom to the homeowners taste. She loved the green in the leaves. It really pops!

What do you think? What would you change or add to a jungle room?

Lavender Love

(image from - The English Home)

Love is "pauple" at the age of four. My mom let me pick out my first Big Girl Room color - it was a lovely soft shade of lavender & my carpet was deep purple (lol). I now am having a new fond love for lavender.

How about having a lavender space be a gentle fountain in a luscious garden. I love, love this picture! I would someday like to paint it.

(image from - The English Home)

Perhaps surround my fountain in Willow Veil (lavandula stoechas) scents.

(image from - The English Garden)

Maybe having a lavender lady's une pièce de poudre( a powder room) painted in a soft gray ( to duplicate the lovely fountain) & place my lavender accent in a beautiful chair in front of my make-believe antique vanity. This criss cross backing is heavenly!

I would definitely have my vanity surrounded by aromatic linen sprays in lavender scents of course.

I think I am forgetting a beautiful floral arrangement to sit atop my antique vanity for my guest to view. Maybe something simple like this...just one perfectly bloomed periwinkle hydrangea in a clear glass vase. Viola!

What would your lavender space be?

In The Mix...Stevie Wonder

Here's a couple of my favorite Stevie Wonder edits/remixes. It's hard to rework on such classics without raping them but these guys have really done it right. It takes a lot of skills and love for music to get it right.

Stevie Wonder - Superstition (Todd Terje Edit) [320 kbps, zShare]

Todd Terje is a master of re-edits. He seems to be able to take any classic tune, rework on it heavily and still make it work.

Stevie Wonder - Uptight (B.Cause Fraze Ruff Ride Refix) [320 kbps, zShare]

DJ B.Cause, one of my favorite DJ's around, has done an excellent uptempo remix of Uptight that's heavy on the bass.

Stevie Wonder - All I Do (U-Tern Disco Edit) [320 kbps, zShare]

This one's amazing. A solid disco/boogie version by DJ U-Tern. It has a nice and long intro and outro making it dj friendly.

Ben Westbeech - So Good Today (featuring The Dap-Kings)

Here's a perfect soundtrack for this morning. The feel good song of the year. Ok, it came out last year but it's all so good today.

Ben Westbeech - So Good Today (featuring The Dap-Kings) [320 kbps, zShare]

The Lovely Villa Anna...

Villa Anna

A visit to the Lovely Villa Anna Blog is a must see...Anna comes to us from across the pond in beautiful Australia. Once you step into Anna's world you will be delighted by her wonderful images.

My first visit to her wonderful blog was by happenstance when I was searching for an interior designer - Ginny Magher whose Provence Farmhouse is at the top of my all time favorite home EVER! Anna did a delightful post of her Atlanta home which is as amazing as her Provence home.

Anna's blog opened a new world for me. I spent a few days looking at her every post and sometimes even twice. I felt like a blog stalker but she has such a wonderful eye to everything beautiful! I never knew that blogs existed for us francophiles. It is such a great find! Because of Anna I decided to give the blogger world a try. Anna has also reminded me of my first love which is homes, especially French Homes and her blog has lots of them to drool over. Thank you Anna!!!

Coffee Breaks, pt. 3

It's been a couple of weeks since the last coffee break so I think it's time to take one.

Juicy Fruit by Mtume was a # 1 RnB hit back in the day (1983). The album is pretty mediocre but I like the keyboards and drum machines on it, especially on the title track. The version I'm sharing is the extended vocal mix taken from the 12".

The sample song isn't one of my biggest favorites so the reason I chose this is my love for Biggie's 1994 banger Juicy. If I would get into making top 10 lists, Juicy would most definitely be on the top 10 rap tracks of the 90's. The album version is good, no doubt about it, but Pete Rock's remix is solid gold.

Mtume - Juicy Fruit (12" Vocal Version) [320 kbps, zShare]

The Notorious B.I.G. - Juicy (Pete Rock Remix) [320 kbps, zShare]

The Notorious B.I.G - Juicy (Dirty Mix) [320 kbps, zShare]

Bounce Camp - Big Dancin

The hardest rocking party collective/dj team at the moment is without a doubt Top Billin. Besides throwing great parties, they have also actively released some amazing EP's.

They recently released six party anthems on a 12" called Sexytime EP. The tracks on the record are great but what really impressed me was the moment when I first pulled out the record from the sleeve and realized that it's pressed on PINK VINYL. If you ask me, that's sexy. Here's a little treat from the EP. Big Dancin is a certified banger by Bounce Camp.

Bounce Camp - Big Dancin [320 kbps, zShare]

I also got a request to make. Gil-Scott Heron & Brian Jackson's album 1980 features a dope track called Willing. Top Billin sampled studiously this track which appears on this EP. Both tracks are off the hook but I don't have the original on vinyl plus I only have a crappy quality file of the song. So if you happen to have a good quality file, I would appreciate if you could send it to me via my dropbox or email.

Top Billin - Willing [320 kbps, zShare]