Beautiful Paintings

I bought a huge canvas a few years ago at a garage sale for $8. I have always wanted to paint it to go about my bed. I finally started it! It's going to be a huge peacock feather, and its almost done. My friend Janis joined me in painting also. She is working on a pair of trees with different color back-grounds.


Here is an update on the peacock feather. I'm adding darker lines to the body of the feather. I like it a lot better, but the top half is still not quite there yet.

Here is my 3 year old painting his own picture. I gave him the colors that will be in my room so it will coordinate. He was very meticulous with getting the edges and covering it all. Not too bad for his first masterpiece, or as he kept saying "It's beautiful!"

Jewelry Obsessed

My friend Christina makes the coolest jewelry, so one day I told her she needs to teach me the basics. After meeting at the craft store and purchasing what she told me I needed, I've been crazy about making jewelry ever since. It has become therapy for me since life has given me a curve ball and turned it upside down. The attention I need to make necklaces or earrings takes my focus away from the craziness at times, and in the end I have a beautiful piece of wearable art. I think I had just as much fun taking these pictures as I did making the jewelry.

A ring and matching earrings I made out of black craft wire and some beads I picked up at a local bead store. I was very proud of these since my first ring I made was very messy. Christina taught me how to do it and hers was nice and neat. My second try, this one, was much better. Of course I needed something to match, so I made the earrings. It's tricky to make the hoop part too but with practice I should get better.

On the left is a bracelet I made while I was in LA visiting my friend Christie. The earrings on the right are made with some metal roses I bought in LA at a cool bead store. I love the mix of metals with the clear beads.

I've always loved rings..and now I can make my own. I made this one with craft wire wrapped around a highlighter-which happens to be the same size as most of my fingers. The bracelet has three color discs on it that makes a fun sound when you shake your wrist. I love the rock it's sitting on too.

One of my favorite bracelets is on the left. Its a mix of flower beads and some silver charms. The necklace on the right was made to wear to a wedding, about 10 minutes before I left.

Two of my first necklaces I made. The one on the left is a very long chain and the one on the right actually is one chain with the hearts on either end. To put it on you actually tie a know with the chain. Got that idea from my favorite site for inspiration - Etsy.com

What's in a Name?

I found these adorable canvases in San Diego at a cool art store named Blick. I got 5 for under $5. Perfect, considering my son's name is 5 letters long. Here is the beginning of my attempt to make his name into art. I've used John Lennon's book as inspiration since his room used it too. Each letter has a different animal on the square along with the letter. I'll update the pictures when I actually start throwing some color on there.

Torn

I have always loved doing collages. There is something satisfying about tearing up paper and then gluing it together to make something new. In high school, I collected a variety of magazine pictures and made myself a huge collage to hang on my wall. I could never bring myself to throw it away.

Most recently I have made a collage of a snail. Random yes, but so fun! My friend Maggie needed art for her new apartment. So we decided to each get a canvas and create the same picture using different mediums. We let Megan, her daughter, to pick the subject-so she picked a snail! Then we each chose our medium: Maggie chose pastels and cut paper, Megan chose acrylic paints, and I chose to do a collage with different stationary and art paper.

Maggie found an image on the Internet and then we all went to town with our art project. It was so much fun! When we were finished we hung them on the wall. Maggie decided that would be fun to have anyone that comes to visit draw/paint their own snail. I loved the idea of making art for someone else, and now want to do this when friends come to my house.

Left by Maggie, Top right by Megan, Bottom right by Me

Stripes and Dots

When I was pregnant, I didn't want to know if it was a boy or girl. I like yellow and green so using those colors didn't bother me for the baby's room. We decided to use yellow, since it was free paint from my parents, and make stripes on one wall with the different shades. On the opposite wall, we wanted to add a color, so we chose orange and made three sizes of polka dots. It was so much fun making this room and I love the way it turned out. My son, now 2 and a half, seems to like it too for the time being.

(pics to be posted soon!!)

Dressing up a Window

Easy way to dress up a window - Get yourself a few dinner napkins (mine came with a matching table cloth), a few beads (got them free from a fabric store since they were left in a bin and the lady didn't know what to charge), needle, thread, and an adjustable valance bar (got mine at Walmart).

I took the napkins and folded them to make triangles over the rod. I sewed the bottom corner so that they wouldn't move, and tacked on the beads to the point. Then I hung up the valance on the wall brackets.

At Christmas, I decided I needed a more Holiday-ish valance. Again I had a set of napkins from a tablecloth set. This one was trickier, since I wanted it square. So I used fabric glue once the fusible webbing stuff failed to work. It was a messy job, but no one could tell. Then I added some trim that I had saved for years, but it added that Christmas-y touch.


My friend Maggie needed to dress up her kitchen window in the apartment she was rented. Unfortunately the cabinets are ugly, its a small, and the tile in the kitchen looks more like something on a patio. However, with some free paint found in an alley, a table runner, and some ginormous napkin rings, she was able to give this window a makeover!