Fauxology: Studying the Visual Magic of Faux Finishing and Interior Design (brought to you by Garay Artisans)

Hi, Everyone!!!  It’s that time again – a few info nibblers to chew on!  Well, as you may know, I’m a huge TiVo fan.  Today I came home to watch my recorded Martha Stewart (yes, I’m a fan — anyone who knows that much about the stuff I love is a good thing) and her show today was all about bloggers!  Go blogosphere!  She has her own blog and I happily noted that some of my fave bloggers were guests…and I even found some new ones.  Check out her site to see more deets.

Another nibbler for the business owners who read Fauxology is a great site to include in your marketing & promotion plan.  Check out and sign up for Help A Reporter.  Once you submit your e-mail address, you will receive a daily listing of stories that reporters are working on nationwide and the sources they are looking for.  You never know…

Last but not least!  I wanted to let you know of a capability of this blog you may not know about.  If you scroll down along the menu on the right, you will come to a Search box.  Please feel free to conduct a search within my archives for background information or inspirational pics on anything related to decorative painting and/or design.  I have over a year’s worth of posts so maybe something I wrote one day proves to be just the info you needed or a picture can spur you into just the right creative direction.  It’s a great feature I use on other blogs!

Enjoy your day!

Well, the 2008 SALI convention has come and gone and by all accounts was the best in years!  That is great to hear — it’s an amazing organization.  A notable change this year was that they changed the name of the organization from SALI (Stencil Artisans League, Inc.) to IDAL, an acronym for International Decorative Artisans League.  Definitely more in keeping with the varied and ever more sophisticated levels of artistry in our field. 

What I’ll take from this little nibbler is to always stretch your boundaries — something wonderful to remember every day!

I hope the holiday break was wonderful to all of you.  I spent it in Miami visiting both my husband’s family and my friend Elisa who recently lost her mother, Maya.   Maya was a kind and fun-loving person — we spent some time talking about her and about how to appreciate your family and friends every day.  It was both a sad and hope-filled weekend. 

Well, I’m going to give you a few nibblers to chew on while I put together some bigger blog posts for later on this week.  I hope you enjoy them!

DIY

A good blog I like is Apartment Therapy.  Their motto is Saving the World, One Room at a Time.  Love that!  They recently posted two cool (ok, one cool and one sorta questionable) How-Tos and I thought I’d share with you.

Painting Embossed Wallpaper - This is the cool one

The Top 10 Affordable Wall Treatments - The suggestion to use Blik? Very nice.  Aluminum foil?  Not so sure about that particular one…but I will go to crazy lengths for my DIY readers, so here you go…

ENTREPRENEUR

Ladies Who Launch is a great group and website.  It’s all about female entrepreneurs and (1) finding the right resources and contacts/friends, (2) connecting with others and (3) spreading the word about your personal business.  They’ve just opened their online social network to allow for everyone to register for free.  They even have a meeting group in some states where you get together with other powerful women for a few weeks to discuss each member’s business and work to better it, promote it and bring in fantastic new ideas from each other.  I wish they had one near me here in Florida!  I think it would be very inspirational. 

FREE SUBSCRIPTION

If you are an artisan in the decorative painting field, Decorative Arts magazine is offering a free subscription to decorative professionals.  Please click here for the registration page. 

Well, I’ll talk to you soon!  Coming up, we have some great new Faux-cus on the Pros interviews, our Book-of-the-Month selection and of course, pics of great design and great finishes.  Plus, you’ll be getting information on The Fauxtastic Four.  Who are they?  You’ll have to come back around to Fauxology to find out! 

Until next time…