I'm Loosing My Mind, So You Have To Come With Me....

That's right little campers.....

I'm back for another post 

right on the heels of my previous one!!!!!

You guys are so lucky.

Or, as they say in New Jersey,

Yous Guys.

Seee?

I learned something from my under graduate degree.

After writing that I was definitely going to use the green colorway of my cabbage rose pattern.

I have changed my mind.

Again.

Quelle Surprisio!!!!!

(spell check doesn't like it when I make up new foreign languages.....)

(spell check has no sense of humor.....)

You may wonder why there are two blog posts in close succession...

WELL...

I have a headache.

And my headache medication has caffeine in it.

I don't normally have caffeine.

Due to medical issues that are none of your damn business.

(Not that you would be interested, 'cuz my family is certainly bored hearing about them, and they are all doctors.)

SOOOOOOO.......

when I have a headache, it is a great excuse to get a little caffeine in my system.

Which my brain box really really really really loves.

AND.......

I am having trouble working out a drop repeat right now on a new design, so I am looking for any excuse to distract me from my frustration.

So,

let's get to today's design issue for little Betsy.

We left off here.

I was going to use my green colorway.

I really love this look.

It is fresh and pretty....(if I do say so myself.....)

however....

there was an uproar from the peanut gallery pushing the pink color back to the forefront

of my cerebellum.  

You guys liked it in the room, and pointed out that it was more what I was known for.

Not that you shouldn't allow me to evolve.

sheesh.

So I placed the pink on my antique French chair to show the class how it looks, because that is how I will be using it.

Like the way all my pictures are blurry?????

I am too lazy to pull out my tripod, and I am shooting in low light.

So deal with it.

I gots to admit that this colorway goes better with the rug and bookcase.

Maybe that's because I originally designed it to go with my living room.

It was so long ago that I forgot that.

Can you believe me?

Talk about a senior moment.

I expressly colored blue flowers into the bouquet to pull in the blue of the bookcase.

I worked really hard for this $%# colorway to work with my living room, and then I forgot that I did that.

Below is the way we sell it in my collection.

It is a fresher pallet.

Josh chose the more muted one that I show above to be printed on my natural linen ground.

Here is one of my fabulous side by sides!!!!!

See how the one on the right is more muted?

That's the one for me.

Below I've pinned the two samples to my current drapery panels, you can see the difference even better. 

Sooooooo.....

the one on the right is the bright way it's being sold, and the one on the left is the way I will use it, and it's not for sale, unless you want it, and then, of course we can accommodate you!!! 

AND THEN!!!!!

BECAUSE I'M AN IDIOT!!!!!

I had to try another colorway.

This is the French blue on white.

I am not going to do it.

But I am leaving no stone unturned.

I need another caffeine pill.

Or something.

ANYTHING.

please.

on that note,

Latah Gatah

Redecorating Using My OWN Fabrics!!!!!!!

I'm redoing my living room.

I'm redoing my living room.

I'm redoing my living room.......

Have I mentioned that I am redoing my living room?????

I am driving myself crazy with this $%&!!!!!

You think it's hard decorating your own house????

Try doing it when you can design your own fabrics, 

and then change the colorways to be 

anything you want.....

I have finally settled on the pattern I am going to use.

It's from my Fall 2016 collection.

(don't you just love how that sounds?)

(It's like I have a gazillion different collections.)

(when we all know I have the grand number of....one...)

Josh (the boy wonder who is my partner and pain in my @$$) didn't want to sell this pattern in the large 18" repeat size.

Now that he sees how it looks on chairs he has changed his mind.

WHY DOESN'T HE EVER LISTEN TO ME?????

It's called Gypsy Bouquet.

Why I called it that, I have no idea. 

Don't ask me to explain myself.

You'd be waiting for an explanation a looooog time.

I have pinned the fabrics over my new antique chair and on top of my draperies, so I could see how they will look.

It lays out just perfectly for the back of a French Chair, or a toss pillow.

The reason for this is because

THAT'S THE WAY I DESIGNED IT.

I am soooo fabulous.......

Due to pressure from my besty Kris and Josh, I am using this sophisticated colorway for my living room.

I think it is the prettiest one.

The muted pink one matches my carpet, but this one is more growed up.

And I am a growed up person.

I am selling this in 2 scales.

This large one, which will be available in the Spring of 2017, and the smaller scale is available now.

Unless you want to order the larger scale, and then we can talk!!!!!

I was thinking about having the walls repainted in a soft green to offset the white background of the drapery fabric, but Josh thinks the white will look nice and fresh.

What to do.... What to do.......

I stand in the doorway of the living room and just stare and wonder...

stare and wonder.

I got sidetracked onto a tangent of pink color by my muted pink colorway that isn't even in my collection.

 (Josh vetoed it, it's printed on my natural line background, but not the white linen like here.)

The pink in my collection is a brighter color that he says is more the look of today.

I'm not sure.....

but there seems to be an insult in there somewhere......

See how it lays out great on a pillow?????

(I pinned it over my old pillow)

I am da bomb!!!!!

I was considering this with the smaller scale for the draperies.

It's very pretty with the pink rug in this room.

But Josh isn't going for it, and this will be an ad.

Or a magazine story.

Or both?!?!

I think this is a quintessential cottage look for a cabbage rose in pink.

See how it goes with my rug and the way the bookcase is painted now???

I will have to repaint the outside of the bookcase if I use the cream and green fabric.

Which I am going to do.

I think.

No, I'm sure.

Maybe......

I thought the problem I was having was that I needed a more sophisticated pink.

SO.....

I recolored the pattern in a more monochromatic pink colorway just for me me me.

It went OK with the rug....

I can never tell how a fabric will look in real life.

It always prints differently than on my computer.

Sooooooo...

I worked up 5 different levels of color.

That's 5

5!!!!

5!!!!!

I must admit to the class that the lightest one looks SUCKY!!!

So

after all that time fiddling around with pinks....

I am back using the cream and green.

Unless I change my mind.

Or design a fabric I like better.

In the mean time,

I have designed an awning stripe for my two club chairs to go with this and have recolored my Small Diamond Batik pattern in this colorway for my sofa.

I'll let you know when I get the strike offs from my factory.

By then I will have changed my mind.

Again.

Oy Vey.

On that note,

Latah, Gatah

My Line is Up!!!!!

BIG NEWS FELLOW CAMPERS!!!!!

after 3.5 years and more hours than my @$$ wants to think about

(if my @$$ could think)

on Friday November 18, 2016 at 10:23 AM my fabric line was finally hung up and ready for sale!!!!!!!!!

This is how the fabrics are displayed at design centers, so decorators can see a full length of fabric.

(and yes, for those of you who asked, this is only available to the trade....sorry)

I have finished the website.

Here is the link: 

Betsy Textiles

it is at: 

 betsytextiles.com

or betsyfabrics.com

or betsyspeert.com

or elizabethspeert.com

but

betsy.com was taken.

I tried to reach the woman who owns it, to ask to buy it, but she hasn't returned my email.

I can't understand way someone wouldn't want to have an email conversation with me!!!???!!!

Maybe I'll email her again.

She'll think I'm one of those crazy internet stalkers.

Or you guys could email her!!!!!!!

Sooooooo

To recap.......

I worked my butt off to get these fabrics ready for the spring launch 

(ha)

(we made the fall.......)

That's when I met with Josh to make the final colorway choices and lay out how the wings and waterfalls would hang in the Design Center.

We had a real meeting of grownups!!!!!

There were 4 of us in total.

3 grownups and Josh.

We used the floor of my living room as a large conference table to lay out the fabrics.

Anyway, last Friday, I went into Boston to the design center to work on making up the first batch of samples.

I worked with Jessica in the samples department.

We had to staple 870 labels onto 870 samples.

That is 

870 #$% times using a stapler.

As you can see, Jessica is lovely.

She claims her hands were fine after all that stapling.

well.....

I AM OLD AND MY HANDS WERE SHOT TO $%&#

and don't get me started on my shoulders.

Here they are tucked all cozy in their boxes.

Before the wings were hung, Josh spread the waterfalls out on a table in the showroom.

These will be pinned to the wings to show all the colors for each pattern.

Before we could get them all installed, someone walked off with one of these. I am hoping that means that they will be placing an order, as I had to sew up a new waterfall and add the labels to the back.

I was not happy.

I had a workroom make all the samples and waterfalls and wings, so luckily I had the skills to quickly redo this.

But this means that folks like my stuff!!!!!

We are already getting low on some of the samples and the fabrics were just put up.

I may have created a monster.

We may have to reorder more samples soon.

Which means more stapling........

When I tell my dad about this, he keeps asking if I've sold anything yet.

Good point.

But it has to be for sale before it can be sold.

SO.

Now it is for sale.

Josh thinks in a couple of years I may have to hire some people.

I don't want to.

He will have to handle that.

I am too old for this #$%.

Be careful what you wish for.

Besides all my bitching.

I am thrilled beyond words!!!

Well.....

maybe not beyond words.

I never seem at a loss for words.

They fall from my lips like pearls.....

or cherries.....

or road apples......

on that note,

Latah, Gatah

My Fabric Line is Almost Ready!!!!!!!

Before I get to today's post about my fabric line.....

just a quick comment about some of the most recent comments to my blog.

Some of you guys got annoyed (angry, pissed off, offended, enraged, ......) because I dared to go off topic from decorating and voice an opinion.

WELL LADIES (and the occasional gentleman) 

This is a blog, not a magazine article.

It is my blog.

This is where I get to spout off.

For those of you who have been following my ramblings for some time, you know that once or twice a year I find something that really fries my goat, and I vent.

That's what blogs are for.

They are personal expressions.

If some of you don't like it, 

NO ONE IS MAKING YOU READ THIS.

There will be no test.

It' very simple, just don't read me.

I don't get paid for this.

I still do it because I have been asked to.

I started writing this after my last book deal was canceled due to the collapse of the decorating book publishing industry.

But since I started my fabric line, I am very

BUSY AGAIN!!!!!!!!!

Designing fabric is a full time job.

Plus I now am designing my own website!!!!!!!

This is because Traditional Home Magazine is featuring my fabrics in the February/March issue, and I realized I better have a website.

So now I am obsessed with designing the website.

It's really fun.

So if any of you are trying to make your own website, I am using the Square Space service.

I spent a couple of days watching YouTube tutorials and now I am just like a pro.

(sort of)

(not really)

The site should be up and running within the next month or year.

(see how I did that????)

(The year ends in 2 months!!!!!)

Sooooooooo

my fabrics!!!!!

We have FINALLY gotten the wings and waterfalls so we can hang them up at the Boston Design Center.

We have had all the samples shipped, so this week I will go into Boston and help attach my labels to all the samples.

After 3 1/2 years this project is going live ladies!!!!!

Here's a shot of my living room as we were figuring how to hang the samples in the showroom.

This room was like this for 6 months.

I used it as a reference as I designed the next collection.

Here's a close up of some of the fabrics.

This pattern is called Small Diamond Batik.

Because

 it is small

diamond shaped

and looks like batik......

I am very imaginative with my names.

It also comes in medium and large!!!!!

Because it is medium and large!!!!!

Don't get excited, but here it is in the medium size.....

I have worked on these fabrics in colorways so that they will work together.

I have been collaborating with a person in his early 40's, so was only allowed one cabbage rose pattern.

I love this bouquet.

It's called Gypsy Bouquet.

I have custom colored it for my living room and am doing it in a scale that is twice as large as the one shown.

My collaborator, who will remain anonymous (Josh) won't let me do it that way in the collection.

He say's it's "Old Lady Fabric".

What I said to him, can't be printed here.

On that note,

Latah, Gatah 

A Non Political Post

This is not a post to support either candidate......

for president.....

BUT

why does Donald Trump make comments about women's weight when 

HE COULD STAND TO LOOSE A GOOD 60 %*& POUNDS HIMSELF?????

This is not just in response to the last uproar about the beauty queen, but his ongoing commentary about women's looks.

I am so sick of men feeling they can comment on women's appearance's 

when they are far from runway models.

As a woman who is always battling my tendency to attract adipose tissue, 

I am sensitive to fat shaming.

Men on the other hand are blithely, obliviously, happily content with their less than stellar shapes.

He looks like he's been carrying extra poundage around for at least a few decades.

Can you imagine a woman with this kind of a figure making fat comments about another woman?

For that matter, can you imagine any public female figure making comments about another woman's weight?????????

I am always battling my weight.

Right now I am winning.

Next year, or month, or week or day that may change.

For women like me.....

WE DON'T NEED NO #$% GUY TO TELL US WHEN WE HAVE SOME EXTRA PADDING!!!!!

We know every crevice of our bodies.

We know every extra ounce.

We are our most brutal critics.

(unless we are within the cross hairs of Trumps fat shaming radar)

This is like one big drunken fraternity party where the cool boys make fun of the "dogs".

I didn't like that part of college, and I don't like this part of the presidential race.

I wish we would just stick to the issues,

like:

LIFE AND DEATH!!!!!!! 

All Right All Ready, I'll Write A Post

I'm sorry, sorta, I know I haven't written for a million years, and some of you have been kind enough to email me to see if I'm OK.

(or to nughe me) nudge 

I don't know how to spell nughe, and auto correct doesn't know either.

Or it doesn't know what I'm trying to write.

I'm going with the first scenario..... 

I flunked spelling in third grade, and it's only gone down hill since then.

EVERY REPORT CARD the teachers mentioned my abisomal spelling.

Now I can't spell abisomal.

Oy Vey.

Let's pretend I'm doing this for comedic effect!!!!!!!

It's nudge!!!!It's NUDGE!!!!! my brain just unlocked!!!!!

spellcheck is useless when your spelling is so far off that no one has a clue what you mean.

Anyway.....

My brother suggested that I just write a post telling everyone that I am busy as hell, and that I will post in a year or two.....

but that seemed mean,

soooooooo.......

today I will show you guys my new slipcovers.

I briefly showed them to you last fall, but today I've taken better photos.

This is my TV/Family/Eating/Reading/Napping room.

The slipcovers are made of a 100% cotton fabric that the slipcover guy prewashed for me so they wouldn't shrink when I washed them.

The prewashing also took the shine off the chintz which I love much more.

The name of the fabric is Althea, and it is one of the Lee Jofa signature patterns.

Even though

the wallpaper has been discontinued and the chintz has been discontinued.

It is still available in linen.

I was lucky to get the last of the cotton.

I freaked out and bought all the remaining yardage.

62 yards.

All mine.

ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!

My family room used to look like this.

I also changed the rug.

I had had a cotton woven plaid rug from Pottery Barn, that was wearing out and getting a lot of holes in it.

So I decided to spend the money and buy a woolen striped rug from Stark in green and natural that has the appearance of jute.

It will wear like iron, and it is also the small rug in my kitchen area.

I had two made for my kitchen, the extra one is stored in my basement for future use when I destroy the current one.

Below is my view in the morning when I read the paper on my iPad and drink my tea.

It looks out on my little terrace.

The chair to the right and below is my super duper TV watching chair.

I turn the ottoman the long way, and it makes it feel like a chaise.

Betsy's rule # 1374

When one is watching TV, it is important to be in as lazy a position as possible.

To help with my lack of effort to have a lack of effort, I use a lumbar pillow to support my back, so my back won't need to support itself.

I needlepointed this pillow around the time of my 40th birthday, when my Mom 

(after my begging)

allowed me  to take the family name of Klee as my middle name.

I had no middle name, and it was very hard to have a good looking monogram with just two initials.

(Actually, for the record, for accuracy, she didn't make me beg at all.)

(When I tell my father this story he gets that look he gets on his face when he thinks I'm out of my mind.)

(Now that I think about that, he gets that look a lot.......)

I just love the way a room looks with lots of the same pattern.

I find it very cozy.

I also love slipcovers with gathered skirts.

But the skirts have to be a loose gather, not tight because that's too much fabric and looks too prissy to my eye.

I've had this chair since 1986. I remember when I bought it.

It first looked like this.

oy vey

I thought I had a picture of this chair straight on, but all you can see in this shot is the back of the arm.

This was my living room in Watertown in 1986.

This was a  photo shoot for the Boston Globe Magazine that Eric Roth shot.

Then the chair had another life as a greeny.

Some of the bobbles on the fringe are missing due to my brothers cat, but we don't want to point any fingers......

you know who you are.....

On the back of sofas and chairs I like to hang throws.

This accomplishes two things.

1) when you get cold, you can snuggle up!!!!!!!!!

2) it keeps the back from getting dirty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I got the one above from Pottery Barn, last year.

I gave some thought to whether or not I was going to do contrast welting.

I usually do, but in this case I felt that the look I wanted was one of smooshiness, not crispness.

These are very important design terms that I just made up, so take notes 'cuz there will be a quiz.

I'll let you know when that is.

I am grading on a curve.

So you better hope that there are no smarties in the class, especially ones that can spell.

on that note,

Latah,

Gatah

P.S. I'm am balls to the wall working on my fabric.

We're hanging the line this month in the Boston Design Center in Studio 534.

I am a good way into designing my next collection.

Josh, my partner in crime, wants me to crank out at least one a year.

As for those of you who have asked after my parents, my Dad turned 101 in May and my Mom is 95, so they are just ticking right along. Thank you for your thoughts.

Once again,

Latah, Gatah