"Arting"

I recently completed an art project. I haven't done anything really technically challenging in a long time. And I found myself a little rusty at first but after a while I got my groove back... I haven't had it in a while (like 4 yrs). I have lame excuses for not keeping up with it but the truth is I really need to be doing a little "arting" all the time. So I have committed to myself to make sure I always have a project in the works. The one I just finished was a sign for my parents that has been in my head for years and finally I just had to do it. It was a gift to them for being my wonderful parents yes...but also because they just bought their first home and I'm so proud and happy for them! It is going to hang from the front porch of their beautiful home. I made it from a cupboard door that used to be in my kitchen. Joe and I did a little demolition when we bought the place to make room for a refrigerator in the kitchen. Before that it was in an adjoining room (so silly we thought) any way but I asked him to save the doors so that I could art on them when I got a few free minutes. The door was perfect because it was kinda knotty old ply wood but the edges had been beveled so it gave it a little character and I wanted it to look old because it was going to hang on an old house. Below it says "Welcome Home" the picture doesn't quite do it justice.And the colors were simple they were fall colors which my parents both love and they have recently become infatuated with copper so I decieded to showcase it a little in there name. It was really fun to personalize it to there specific taste. I haven't had so much fun in a long time with art. This felt like a little safer indeavor to dive in after an extended vacation from any serious art. Some time soon I'll start drawing my favorite subject... people. But for now my new project is painting some of the furniture in my living room. I found this way cool article of a woman who decorated her home with all kinds of colors none of them really matched but the way she used them with eachother made the whole thing make sense. As soon as I saw it I was so excited. The article quoted her saying "For many designers there are rules, for me there are none." And I tell you she was speaking my language!

I've got some tweaking to do on the little end table I painted but when I'm satified with it I'll post a picture.

We love our backyard!

Freedom! As many of you may know our yard has resembled a construction site for the last year since our business has taken off. It really caught us by storm and we weren't prepared with a storage plan for all the gear. So just recently we got it all cleaned up and child proof. So now it is Savannah's wonderland and she had been loving exploring in a world of her very own (until Chase grows up of course) So we decided we needed a swing set to finish it off. And we have been loving it.

Potty training has taken off in the last week I finally got serious about it I think. We didn't go anywhere for 4 days and focused on the potty. Of course we did other stuff in between. SO it turns out that Savannah needed to actually wet her "big girl panties" in order to take the whole thing seriously. Shes the kind of kid that would sit in pee or poo forever. But getting her panties dirty was a sad sad thing for her. So we're going through a little more laundry than I'd like but hey...at least we're learning.

Chase our sweet boy, has been teething for the last month and we have pretty much no progress so thats just awesome. Hopefully it will be better than Savannah we started teething at 3 months and never got a single tooth until she was 13 months old. He however is a giggler which Savannah was not. He laughs when I change his clothes... shoving his arms in and out of sleeves is the funniest thing to him. Its so darling. He will outright crack up. I love my boy. And he is growing lots. This week he started reaching for things and has been successful already so far his left hand is better at it... we'll see if it stays that way.

As for the two of them they are thick as theives. Savannah loves to play with him. She bends over and lets her hair hang in his face and he doesn't really like it but she thinks he does because each time he opens his mouth and kinda smiles (I think he thinks hes supposed to eat it) so she thinks hes laughing or at least smiling at her. He is making lots of sounds now and the two of them chatter away ( in baby talk) and giggle. I love my kids.

Painting...

Savannah's room I had great expectations for and I told myself that it wouldn't be that hard. It was. But after many hours of work it was worth all the effort and I may never do it again so I'm glad I got pictures of the process. I started by painting the whole room with the lighter green color and then masking off stripes where it would have the darker green. My speedy mom and dad painted the dark green stripes in a jiffy and Joe's mom Kay brushed in the border using white primer actually. Thanks for your help you guys!

Then I started adding some flower detail inside the stripes... Sometimes it is actually more work to know exactly what you want...not knowing means that you could possibly find something less complicated because your expectations didn't complicate it. I did attempt to simplify by using stencils....

But then I just painted over them and did them all by hand. AHHH! If thats not enough then I proceeded to do a bunch of little flowers (using a stencil) all over the dark green stripe. Then finally the border which I knew from the beginning I wanted to look like lace with ribbon weaving in and out of it proved to be the last straw. All the energy I had left I had to use on the trim which in the picture below is not a painted yet...I never wanted to paint again. And I don't think I did for almost a year...

Actual House of Crazy

We purchased this house last summer and got a screaming good deal because it was in bad shape. We had to replace literally every surface.

Here is a pic of the front door and living room when we moved in (left).

This room was the last room to be completed but it is now done!

The pic above and on the right is of the kitchen and you can also see into the living room. Notice our marvelous "baby gate" blocking off the construction zone. It was a door to a closet in one of the bedrooms turned on its side. We hopped over it for months.

Here is a picture of the lower cabinets being reconstructed due to the disgusting mouse colony living within them. YUCK! Joe and my brother Caleb rebuilt the drawers, lining, and facing of this part of the cupboards.

This is a star I drew up and Joe masterfully converted into a pattern in our floor. It is located outside the doorways of both bedrooms. This takes lots of skill and practice, I tried to help Joe do this and all I did was confuse myself and him. After that we decided we better leave that kind of thing to him. I'll stick to painting....