Here are some things making my house a lovely place to be right now:
Fresh flowers from my very own garden
Sunflowers growing on my kitchen windowsill (these give me a ridiculous amount of joy)
These paintings I bought last year from the doctors. The artist’s name is Caz, and she exhibits her work in the waiting room of the big clinic. While I’m at it, this piano gives me a great amount of joy also. Our next door neighbour was cleaning out his garage and asked if we’d like it. Did we what! We have a REAL house now: we have a PIANO!
This is the painting I bought first, for a ridiculous $20 (and here I was thinking I could never afford original art!). She looked so lovely on the wall and yet so lonely that I thought I better go back and buy her sisters.
This one has “Poppies in the garden” written in pencil on the back.
The next time I went to the doctors I met their mother:
She was so beautiful. And HUGE. But her price, though very reasonable for a painting that size, was well out of my reach. Sigh,
For over a year, every time I visited the doctor, I would sit near her and look at her. I don’t need to own this painting to enjoy it, I would think to myself, It’s just as beautiful here as it would be in my house. And I would sit there looking at the painting feeling very virtuous and a tiny bit sad.
Around a month ago, I went to the doctors’ with Christopher Robin, who had split his head open at school and had it glued back together again at the hospital (that might sound like it might make a dramatic and interesting blog post, but, trust me, it was just a whole lot of scary followed by a whole lot of waiting in the emergency room – no real narrative structure there). I needed cheering up so I found us a seat right next to my painting. As I gazed at her, it struck me that there was something different about her – it was her price tag! The painting had been drastically discounted and was now $120. I called Mr Knightley, “I know what I want for my birthday!”, I announced breathlessly (my birthday was still several months off, but I was being organised). Within a few hours she was on my living room wall, and it turns out I was wrong: she looks MUCH MORE beautiful in my home than she did in the waiting room. Look:
If I had commissioned this painting it couldn’t have looked more at home.
A lot of bloggers are talking about thankfulness at the moment (is it something to do with Thanksgiving? I don’t know). I am thankful for my home. If you could see the state it’s in at the moment as I blog amongst the toy-and-toast rubble, you might think that strange, but I guess I wouldn’t have mess if I didn’t have such a perfect abundance of food and possessions. I’m going to finish this post now and give my beautiful home some love.
Just as soon as I convince Harry to stop riding the vacuum…
Laptop on the Ironing Board 
Original art beats mass-produced ”walmartart” hands down any day of the week… especially when it’s priced right! And I love your garden flowers… totally jealous as my garden is currently blanketed in snow 🙂
These are the first blooms from the roses, which were a gift from my parents earlier this year. They smell so beautiful too. On the bright side, I’m sure you’ll have a beautiful wintry Christmas. Roast dinners and plum pudding taste so much better when it’s cold!
At first glance, I thought this was a joke and then remembered you are in a different season! I’m a genius.
I think I confused a few of my northern hemisphere readers with this post! I didn’t mean to!
It’s good for us to remember other parts of the world function on a different schedule 😉
Beautiful! I love what you did with the egg cartoon there 🙂
Thanks! I love egg cartons!
Fresh flowers always cheer me up, love the egg carton and oh my gosh a piano I’ve always wanted one and it’s so beautiful. Many a time I’ve looked on eBay and almost bid on one but have stopped myself because one we can’t afford it and two no one can play the piano! Hope you get lots of enjoyment out of it. Just love the big canvas too, perfect spot for it 🙂
You never know, people downsize all the time and want to get rid of their pianos. You might get lucky! The egg cartons are great for seedlings. It drives Mr Knightley crazy because I save more than I ever use – we seem to have empty egg cartons everywhere! Thanks so much for your comment!
I love the Mother painting! So beautiful and looks just perfect in your living room! I always wanted a piano too 🙂
We always wanted a piano too. When our neighbour said he was clearing out his garage, we jumped at the chance. Oh, and I forgot to mention: the mother painting is called “Happy Trees”. It was written on the back. I might go back to the post and put that in, because that was a delight to discover!
I keep forgetting it’s springtime down under! Beautiful! And you’re right, that painting above your sofa does look as though you had it done on purpose! Oh, and thanks for the follow!
Yes, we’re all topsy-turvy down here! The strangest part is Christmas, where we all heat up the kitchen with a traditional roast dinner even though it’s the middle of summer!
That IS strange! I think I would grill meat outdoors!
We had an outdoor BBQ once, and it was nice, but not …Christmassy!
New follower on here and FB! Just discovered your lovely blog…looking forward to reading more!
I saw you on FB and wondered who you might be! Thanks for the follow and for your lovely comment. I really like your blog too! We seem to have a lot in common!
I found Laptop on the Ironing board after you “liked” my post–so glad to have found you! I clicked on soul diet and read the first half–and loved the post but cound’t get it to load fully 😦 not sure if it is your technical difficulty or mine…in any case, thanks for the blog–and the color it brought to a very grey november day 🙂
Love this blog! I’m an artist myself and love it when paintings go to homes that cherish them. I also think its good to make art that’s available and affordable for the all walks of life, not just for the art collectors who spend 100’s of 1000’s on paintings 🙂
Your home looks beautiful! That painting that was discounted looks perfect on your wall 🙂 I also love the flowers growing in your kitchen. I want to do the same and also little herb pots once our house is set up (we just moved)
Thank you:)
Thank you so much, Amy – your comment really made my day! I want to do something with little herb pots as well. I have these Campbells soup cans that are replicas of the Andy Warhol ones. I need to find pots small enough to fit in the tins and then I want to grow herbs out of them.
You’ve reminded me also, that I want to contact the artist and let her know how much I love her work. It would be good if I could promote her work on my blog too (not that I have such a significant following, but every little bit helps!)
Thanks again, for brightening my day!
That sounds awesome using Andy Warhol cans! I cant wait till my house is set up properly! any exposure for artists to exhibit works is definitely appreciated 🙂 no worries thank you for the blog!! XX