An art gallery in my house

My friend, artist Matt LeBlanc, and author/singer, songwriter Rémi Boudreau are currently bringing their INSPIRATION tour to cities in New Brunswick, Quebec, and Ontario. Kinda like rock stars, but minus the roadies and the groupies ;-) On Tuesday night, Matt and Rémi brought their tour to Ottawa, and I was lucky enough to host my first-ever art party. An hour after they arrived, Matt had transformed my house into an art gallery. A very clean and tidy art gallery, if I do say so myself – and it only took five straight days of mega-cleaning. UGH! Anyway, everywhere I looked, there were fabulous pieces of art…

As the host of the party, I had a tough act to follow. Monday’s party in Westmount included guests like Debbie Travis and billionaire Guzzo Cinema owner Angelo Guzzo.

Sadly, I don’t know any famous designers or billionaires. But even so, I think the party at my place was pretty cool & fun – how could it not be with the best party girls in town in attendance? YAY TBBs! And where there’s TBBs, there’s wine…

And there were cupcakes…

…lots of cupcakes…

This picture just cracks me up. Can you see why?

At first, it looks like a room full of girls. But there’s Jackson on the sofa, looking all serious and like he’s thinking about what painting to buy! The dog thinks he’s a human :-) And here’s Matt with Squirt (he thinks this picture is terrible, but I like it). I bought the paintings you see behind him way back in 2007. It’s really cool to see how his art has evolved since then.

Rémi sang a set of five songs, which were very touching and meaningful, because they’re about his life.

Many lessons, hard lessons, had to be learned for me to be able to take my previous life, which was motivated by the outside, and transform it into a life that is now “Inspired from the Inside”. This album is, in many ways, a personal diary of this rewarding journey of mine. All that I hope is that it will inspire you to live the life you were born to live…YOURS. ~ Rémi Boudreau ~

 

It was great seeing my friend Matt again and meeting Rémi for the first time. They’re both so friendly, warm, and fun, not to mention extremely talented. Matt & Rémi are bringing their tour to Toronto and London next – if you have a chance to attend one of their parties, don’t miss out!  You can find the information on Matt’s web site.

And on a totally different note, now that I’m back to blogging here at JAX regularly, I’ve decided to make some design changes. So if things look a little wonky at times, that’s me playing around with the HTML code and probably messing things up ;-)

Happy weekend!

Dressing up a TV wall with art

You know how sometimes you know that something needs a little somethin'-somethin' to kick it up a notch, but you're not sure what? Well, I've been thinking for a while that the TV wall in our family room needs a little somethin-somethin' more than just the TV. We hung the TV low on the wall so that it's at the perfect viewing height from the sofa. But the ceiling in the family room is about 10 feet high, so that's a lot of empty wall space.

So anyway, I was over at refresheddesigns yesterday, and as soon as I saw the art on Kelly's TV wall, it was like, BAM, that's what I need to do! Hang art!

Art and design by Kelly at refresheddesigns.

I have some paintings and prints that that didn't make it onto the gallery wall in the hallway, plus I've bought some new pieces in the last few weeks, and I have a bunch of my own paintings that all need homes. So I think they're going to be adopted by the TV wall :-)

Here are some more examples of TV art walls. I really like the simplicity and boldness of the art on this wall (plus I LOVE this whole home!)

via Houzz | Design by Marie Burgos, photo by Scott Morris

I wouldn't be able to wrap the artwork from the TV wall onto the adjoining wall, but I really like this look.

via Tulip and Turnip

The TV almost disappears in this arrangement of artwork with mismatched frames placed tightly together.

via Elegant Abode

This art wall is a bit more formal with the matching frames, but also sort of relaxed with the spacing between each piece and asymmetrical layout.

via Bloggers.com

So there's another project to add to my never-ending to-do list! Do you like the look of a TV art wall?

Fun colour experiments

Here are some fun colour experiments that help demonstrate how our brains perceive colour. Look at the image below with the two squares. They’re two different colours, right?

Now put your finger across the line where the two grey squares meet. Or look at the image below with the black bar.

The squares are the exact same shade of grey, even though the one on the top looks darker. Our brains are programmed to interpret shadows a certain way. In this case, it thinks the top square is brightly lit grey and the bottom square is poorly lit white in a shadow.

Stare at the black cross in the image below – do you see a green dot moving around the circle?

Now try following the green dot as it moves around the circle. It’s gone, isn’t it? That’s because the green dot isn’t really there – it’s an afterimage. Your brain is seeing green (magenta’s complementary colour) in the empty space as the dots flash around the circle. Here’s another example – stare at the red circle for 30 seconds, and then look to the blank space next to it.Do you see a turquoise circle? Except the turquoise circle isn’t actually there! Your brain is imposing the turquoise circle on the blank space.

And one more colour experiment. Read the colour names below out and say the colour of the font out loud. For example, the first colour font is RED.

RED

BLUE

PURPLE

GREEN

ORANGE

PINK

YELLOW

Now try it again – remember, you’re saying the colour of the font, not the word.

RED

BLUE

PURPLE

GREEN

ORANGE

PINK

YELLOW

Was it harder the second time? Did you get any of the font colours wrong? Part of your brain tries to identify the color while another part of your brain reads the word. This regional brain conflict can produce errors in perception.

These are just a few examples of how our brains perceive colour. Do you have a favourite colour game or optical illusion? Let me know, I’d love to check it out :-)

The New Art Festival

If you’re in Ottawa, you have to check The New Art Festival in the Glebe this weekend. I was there this afternoon, and I was floored by all the amazingly talented artists showcasing their work. There are artists, photographers, woodworkers, jewellery makers, textiles artists… everything is beautiful and unique, and the variety was fantastic. I picked up a lot of business cards, and I may go back tomorrow to buy a few pieces that are stuck in my head. Like this photograph by Roz Hermant:

“Pacifica VIII”

Can you tell what it is? When I walked by it, I thought it looked like a splash of water. But it’s actually a close-up of Siamese fighting fish tail. That’s the beauty of art – everyone interprets it in a different way.

When I went to artist Susan Bailie’s house a couple of weeks ago to pick up the commissioned painting she made for me, she had just finished creating a bunch of paintings for the festival. This cute little guy caught my eye:

“Petit Puff 4”

And now I need to decide where to hang him, because he followed me home :-)

I was totally in awe of this super-cute artwork by Sue McNenly. She creates adorable little vignettes in shadow boxes with little silver figures that she makes herself. Absolutely adorable!

“Whoosh!”

I saw tons more pieces of art that I REALLY want to buy, but I only have so much wall space. And money ;-)

There’s lots of free parking nearby, and dogs are allowed, so there’s no excuse not to go! Trust me, you’ll be happy you did :-)

BlogPodium: The Business of Blogging

 

I posted this BlogPodium recap over at DTTD imagine.design.create, but I thought I’d share it with you here as well because it’s important information that every blogger who’s interested in monetizing their blog may find helpful.

 

Although this past weekend was filled with laughter and wine and crazy cab rides and more laughter and more wine and some singing and more wine and TBB brainstorming and tap dancing and more wine, there was some serious business going on too - The Business of Blogging, to be specific :-) Jen and Lindsay brought together a great group of people at a great venue for another super-informative installment of BlogPodium.

 

 

Keynote speaker

 

Keynote speaker Nicole Balch from Making It Lovely talked about how her blog has evolved into a business, and gave us advice on how to monetize our blogs.

 

 

In a nutshell...

• A good starting point for adding small ads is when your blog reaches 10,000 views per month. These are typically small boutique ads (for example, an Etsy shop).
• Approach vendors that you like and want to support, and offer them ad space on your blog. You might even start with a free ad to get things rolling. 
• A good starting point for using an ad network is when your blog reaches 50,000 views per month.
• SheBlogs Media is the place to go if you're a Canadian blogger - they're Canada's first official social ad media network for women and represent 100% Canadian content.

• Sponsored posts are another way to make money with your blog. But don't overdo it, and don't let the brand write the sponsored post for you. Your readers want to hear your voice and know that the post is authentic. Make it clear that a post is being sponsored by a brand - it's as simple as a statement or logo at the beginning of the post that says "Today's post brought to you by....."

 

Panel discussion

 

Nicole's presentation was followed by a panel of experts who discussed monetizing blogs from the perspective of both brands and bloggers.

 

Left to right: Cheryl Kozoriz from Gluckstein Home, Laura Muirhead from Tribal DDB, Lindsay Stephenson from Little House Blog, Christine Dovey from Bjou and Boheme, Leigh-Anne Allaire Perrault from Cityline (moderator)

 

From the brand perspective, they're looking for the following from bloggers:

• Authority  How well informed and professional are you.
• Context How does your blog's content relate to their brand.
• Engagement  Do your posts get a lot of comments, what's your following on Twitter and Facebook.
• Reach  What are your blog stats, do you have a strong social media reach.

• Brands are open to different kinds of pitches.
• You don't necessarily have to be a the big kid on the block - smaller niche blogs are appealing to brands, and the style and aesthetic of your blog are also important.
• Brands want to know who you are and where you're from - identify yourself as a Canadian blogger.
• Authenticity is important.
• How has your blog grown over time, what kind of reaction do you get to your blog posts.

From the blogger perspective:

• If you want to monetize your blog, it's super-important to keep track of and know your blog stats.
• Put yourself out there - approach shops, sellers, and companies that you like and ask them if they're interested in working together on a project.
• Prepare a proposal to submit with your request - be brief and have a plan in mind.
• Make it clear what you're able to offer the brand - for example, an ad above the fold (highest visibility) an ad on your sidebar, X number of sponsored posts, etc.
• Tell the brand why they should want to work with you.
• If a brand approaches you but you don't like the pitch, reply back and let them know what you DO want to do with them.

Vendor Meet & Greet

We spent a couple of hours meeting all the BlogPodium vendors and sponsors. It was a great opportunity to introduce ourselves and connect with brands that want to work with bloggers. I'm already thinking about the projects that I have planned and which brands I'd like to approach about working together! And once again, a huge THANK YOU to PARA Paints for selecting me to be on their Blog Crew. It's an amazing opportunity to work with a Canadian company that has been in business for almost 100 years, and I'm really excited to get started :-)

 

Jen and Gary from PARA Paints

 

Thank you to all the other amazing vendors and sponsors!

Thanks to Jen & Lindsay for all the hard work they put into making BlogPodium such a huge success. Hope you ladies have some time to relax now!

 

The BlogPodium Queens! Lindsay & Jen

 

Thanks to Nicole, Cheryl, Laura, Christine, and Leigh-Anne for sharing your knowledge and insight.

 

And hugs to the TBBs! :-)

 

 

I'm already looking forward to the next installment of BlogPodium :-) Will you be there?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All images from Mango Studios and the BlogPodium Flickr photostream

It’s the little things: HingeHeads

You know how sometimes you see a little detail in a house that stands out because it’s unexpected, unique, or quirky? Well, here’s a cute little detail that’s all of the above – HingeHeads. They’re little magnetized finials that attach to metal door hinges. Totally unnecessary, but totally cute! I’m thinking this little sailboat would be the perfect little addition to my blue front door…

Or maybe a dolphin…

There’s a HingeHead to suit just about anybody’s home.

There’s also a bottom finial available to give your hinge a more finished look.

HingeHeads come on three finishes – Antique Pewter, Antique Brass, and Antique Bronze. Prices range from $5.95 US to $15.95 US, plus a few dollars for shipping to the US and Canada (shipping is higher for overseas orders).

What do you think – is there a door in your house that you’d dress up with a HingeHead?