An anniversary present ...

<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vignette_%28graphic_design%29" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444467816478421026" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtbhe67USZGw7IewKwC6-8sFix2roNRQK-WycKEYUpI-YaCDsK-gFRHGqIAI7K6eb5l6xBiVD9WpkD34cy15Hwt9P4fUNUxN5xtDunjP7DHwlhjRhbFuFucnrshoSXqPSRtk_hgbyUzOA/s400/birds.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 141px;" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>Vignettes</b>, in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphic_design" title="Graphic design">graphic design</a>, are decorative designs usually in books, used both to separate sections or chapters and to decorate borders.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vignetting" title="Vignetting"> Vignetting</a> in photography, any process by which there is loss in clarity towards the corners and sides of an image. In <span class="mw-redirect">theater,</span> script and poetry writing, vignettes are short, impressionistic scenes that focus on one moment or give a trenchant impression about a character, an idea, or a setting. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vignette">Art and definitions from Wikipedia</a><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><br />Since my blog and I have been together for a year, I decided to give it a gift. The traditional anniversary gift is paper after one year, so I made a new banner (virtual paper?) for the top of my blog. I always liked the idea of illustrating the ornamental aspect of design with the image of a graphic vignette on my blog’s banner, but the pen and ink drawing that I found isn’t super recognizable in such a small size.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Why vignette?</span> Since my career started in graphic design I liked the idea of the woodcut image of a vignette which was traditionally used to lead a reader into a new chapter. Every blog entry is like a new chapter, don’t you think? In interior decorating, the vignette represents a close up view of a photographed space that tells a visual story. If you have been reading my blog for awhile, I am sure you know how much I like to tell a story! Also, most of my images are close ups since those are easy shots to compose without doing a complete style makeover of a given space.<br /><br /><br /></span><a href="http://designvignettes.blogspot.com/2009/03/creature-comforts.html" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444474095275272226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcaCUcn-KORj4l0Co4XYZB9ntAtLqlNWVJTl37XR8TPPjTTYkpB_ArIwhoWus7lOVKidoRt-MEHusKC0UrAMK4ieBGcx2yoNiMKK8-4awuXEclwmkj-U-tYJ5kBeRFjXgaOT55Mmx388w/s400/bunny:rings.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" /></a><a href="http://designvignettes.blogspot.com/2009/03/creature-comforts.html"><span style="font-style: italic;">One of my favorite vignettes</span></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br />My intention for this blog has always been to inspire others to create their own special moments in their home. New furniture, fancy drapery, expensive construction ... a small vignette does not require any of these. A vignette only needs a little design intention created with objects that relate to one another in a meaningful way. The end result usually provides a glimpse of the person who created the visual story (in some cases it may say more about the designer than the homeowner, but that is a topic for another post!)<br /><br /><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir9VqdZxguFgAHmBtfZbEczi8n5osKMASULAY26yS3IBjJ_8vFy7fWHl4kGrXs2ovsunVJpmtoTUyBmVoAsvzLmGGsCAVAISkatS4bfGAQitO8rPfIAnFPGIz0fXNUD-rFpGCPAhg41ko/s1600-h/DesignVignettesBlogBanner.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444477084085359122" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir9VqdZxguFgAHmBtfZbEczi8n5osKMASULAY26yS3IBjJ_8vFy7fWHl4kGrXs2ovsunVJpmtoTUyBmVoAsvzLmGGsCAVAISkatS4bfGAQitO8rPfIAnFPGIz0fXNUD-rFpGCPAhg41ko/s400/DesignVignettesBlogBanner.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 65px;" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><br />Original blog banner<br />and new blog banner</span><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8iZP3Fr4OVVT5IXuouQYAa2ZEx5YUbAo7zPTqf-v2i8CN5uRbBMGS401th67PHZgw5ERL_LJq0vlpA4k_ncy85wrC7O8yeRacnee_XbTJcGzeTE3W-tvBr2OapF1_FsvXnJ0vqAuvj9g/s1600-h/DesignVignettesPhotoBanner.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444479687259811362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8iZP3Fr4OVVT5IXuouQYAa2ZEx5YUbAo7zPTqf-v2i8CN5uRbBMGS401th67PHZgw5ERL_LJq0vlpA4k_ncy85wrC7O8yeRacnee_XbTJcGzeTE3W-tvBr2OapF1_FsvXnJ0vqAuvj9g/s400/DesignVignettesPhotoBanner.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 64px;" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">For our new banner, I have temporarily removed the vignette graphic and then warmed up the wallpaper background. The traditional photo corners were added to highlight the fact that photography is a big part of my blog. Now it looks more like a scrapbook which is also appropriate to the way a blog functions. It really is a snapshot in time, highlighting the projects that I am involved in while saving momentos from other interesting people and places.<br /><br />My blog has decided to try this new banner on for size. We may decide to keep it or exchange it later for something that can better illustrate the vignette concept. As I have said before, once a graphic designer always a graphic designer! Thankfully I am not able to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kern_%28typography%29">kern</a> blog entries or I probably would waste a lot of time trying to do so!<br /><br /><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk9aJzkrxTPk0DTGb4fwArZNcZ52LOhV1Sg7kO5R-vnq6-6LOzVA6mCsfxFSNzTXkujaTNaKXpx3ZGVjTzYJYlZCfO1gun0ATgJg3lcQlt6JWdhk5l9PHSXP-QgMlg-KAS6fsqqQFcL1s/s1600-h/blackfeathersmall.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444473686119675410" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk9aJzkrxTPk0DTGb4fwArZNcZ52LOhV1Sg7kO5R-vnq6-6LOzVA6mCsfxFSNzTXkujaTNaKXpx3ZGVjTzYJYlZCfO1gun0ATgJg3lcQlt6JWdhk5l9PHSXP-QgMlg-KAS6fsqqQFcL1s/s400/blackfeathersmall.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 166px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >Please pen your thoughts ...</span><br /></div>

An anniversary present ...

Vignettes , in graphic design , are decorative designs usually in books, used both to separate sections or chapters and to decorate borders....

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Happy birthday to my baby

<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7dX8pVUTN3BXT57o68wH7g8SjKPQQNA4NRkFv0ltB1bgMGxYYNAhdAHewA7Sb9DT0NzGKpBrM19lkxx4H0GkhPuNsQWYtZrNorojUD4atrXxZYtqx30kuXbf6Qbx2ulniXRHmtSfxiuA/s1600-h/sunart.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443870707328597026" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7dX8pVUTN3BXT57o68wH7g8SjKPQQNA4NRkFv0ltB1bgMGxYYNAhdAHewA7Sb9DT0NzGKpBrM19lkxx4H0GkhPuNsQWYtZrNorojUD4atrXxZYtqx30kuXbf6Qbx2ulniXRHmtSfxiuA/s400/sunart.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 337px;" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><br />When our first born turned one, I spent the night before his big day painting this mural above his nursery window. My husband and I had created this room especially for our expected newborn ... raising the roof on our little Cape, adding newly plastered walls, new doors, a huge walk-in closet (can you say “hoping for a girl?</span><span style="font-size:130%;">”</span><span style="font-size:130%;">) choosing everything in it <span style="font-weight: bold;">without the help of the internet</span> (can you imagine?)<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">I remember being about seven months pregnant, browsing the aisles of Fabric Town, looking for something not-too-babyish</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> to cover the nursery windows. I saw this playfully captivating, yet sophisticated in a painterly way, jester fabric. With its blue, red and yellow colorway it was fairly gender neutral ... just what I was looking for as we didn’t know if we were having a boy or a girl. When I was told that the fabric was no longer in stock, I went on a pregnancy-induced-frenzy looking for it.<br />It was for my baby! I had to have it!<br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br />I ended up tracking down a local <a href="http://www.carolefabrics.com/">Carole Fabrics</a> distributor and managed to snag the last nine yards (an ironic amount at my stage of pregnancy!) by saying I was an interior decorator and it was for a “client</span><span style="font-size:130%;">”</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> since he could only sell </span><span style="font-size:130%;">“</span><span style="font-size:130%;">to the trade.</span><span style="font-size:130%;">”</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> Well this kind man (I forget his name, it seems like a lifetime ago!) took one look at my bigger-than-a-cute-baby-bump belly and said, “Why don’t I just place the order for you?</span><span style="font-size:130%;">”</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> And he did, and that was the official start of my career as an </span><span style="font-size:130%;">“</span><span style="font-size:130%;">interior decorator!</span><span style="font-size:130%;">”</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu5NDyXhuqJJT31nQ_fiV25C0fyC3DXbI3dPN5e7iAc0XbZI_Lqyl2fZsgku9_l4ewGOs6mx_vWsIe60-zDyy1zzHhpvi1VAGT2VMrVi8jQK3brKkWQRqbIjiWryOtCVZoKmtUgSLBJVM/s1600-h/babyscorner.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443881822176240242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu5NDyXhuqJJT31nQ_fiV25C0fyC3DXbI3dPN5e7iAc0XbZI_Lqyl2fZsgku9_l4ewGOs6mx_vWsIe60-zDyy1zzHhpvi1VAGT2VMrVi8jQK3brKkWQRqbIjiWryOtCVZoKmtUgSLBJVM/s400/babyscorner.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 261px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">I thought this would be a fitting story to tell </span><span style="font-size:130%;">on this <span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">*</span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 153);">One-Year Anniversary</span><span style="color: rgb(153, 0, 0);">*</span> of my blog (<a href="http://designvignettes.blogspot.com/2009/03/waiting-for-spring-and-something-new.html">how it has grown</a>!)</span><span style="font-size:130%;"> </span><span style="font-size:130%;">Just like the entry to parenthood, becoming the caretaker of a blog has been a bigger job than I expected, at the same time providing many moments of joy, along with some sleepless nights (I love to write during those rare quiet moments.) </span><span style="font-size:130%;">And as it is with parenthood, I have been exposed to a whole new community of people that I have discovered are on a similar journey. </span><span style="font-size:130%;">We have connected through posts – mine and theirs – just like young moms making friends on the playground ... “Your blog is so cute!</span><span style="font-size:130%;">”<br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;">“</span><span style="font-size:130%;">So is yours!</span><span style="font-size:130%;">” </span><span style="font-size:130%;">“</span><span style="font-size:130%;">Where did you find that ...</span><span style="font-size:130%;">?”</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnTntsFXYhLnIgAd0k0lmsQOqy7Ft8PdfieqVTG51RqqvpRw6zwLXVSGYiZhwU54VYSAf0bZ5mUsqUVi3zHnh8QG-dcMQVL7BiuQlqCdTDp5xTfXmH6g03L_ZtqoJ8tcPhkkSBZ8vYN8Q/s1600-h/dragonflyhookwheart.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443881814759976226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnTntsFXYhLnIgAd0k0lmsQOqy7Ft8PdfieqVTG51RqqvpRw6zwLXVSGYiZhwU54VYSAf0bZ5mUsqUVi3zHnh8QG-dcMQVL7BiuQlqCdTDp5xTfXmH6g03L_ZtqoJ8tcPhkkSBZ8vYN8Q/s400/dragonflyhookwheart.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 364px; height: 400px;" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">I have also discovered that there are a lot of people out there looking for inspiration over a daily cup of coffee. Not unlike our weekly baby-and-me playgroups where girlfriends and I would gather to discuss strategies to navigating this new-mom-world that we found ourselves in, all the while diapering, burping and bouncing our little ones as we bravely attempted to finish a sentence while in a state of severe sleep deprivation. I certainly admire those of you out there who are doing a great job blogging while taking care of real live babies of your own. How fortunate you are to have this connection to the outside world (that doesn’t interfere with nap schedules) along with a forum to share your thoughts ... whether on family life, great design or a passing fancy. I didn’t even realize this world existed until my youngest was well beyond the age of being invited to join playgroups!<br /><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbDS1qVPAt5-ww3VbJJziWqzBdnn8XwMYKsGWZlAbEkW4Yh0sLTjwHj7e-xLDP2UGPfe6hvo-1lT5c4Cskena4kfINrMd4mGY6Dqi_RDA71JQOS1MxX6Es2Lo0RsFdK3T3mLEC4Z9Wbh0/s1600-h/quilt.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444023466374014210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbDS1qVPAt5-ww3VbJJziWqzBdnn8XwMYKsGWZlAbEkW4Yh0sLTjwHj7e-xLDP2UGPfe6hvo-1lT5c4Cskena4kfINrMd4mGY6Dqi_RDA71JQOS1MxX6Es2Lo0RsFdK3T3mLEC4Z9Wbh0/s400/quilt.jpg" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 341px; height: 400px;" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">That first fabric is now a much loved quilt.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br />As I mark this special day (this time with favorite snapshots instead of hand-painted murals) I have many hopes for what my blog will be when it grows up. But like a good mother, I anticipate that it will have a life of it’s own. All I know is that I am enjoying its company, and I hope you find it to be amusing as well!<br /></span><br /></div>

Happy birthday to my baby

When our first born turned one, I spent the night before his big day painting this mural above his nursery window. My husband and I had crea...

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