Ta-Dah!

This is the picture she took, posting so you can see the brightness.

I will leave it to my friend to name it (it is her story after all).

My objective was to give movement, I think I did that.

I think the Hot (reds/oranges/yellows/whites)
vs
Cold (blues/greens/purples/whites)

is well balanced.

I added 5 stars, to represent the grandkids that are and will be (the stars will be a lil surprise).

*She sent me a txt and I quote 'I keep looking at it and tearing up! I absolutely love it, it's SO beautiful'.
On Facebook she wrote -
'My dear friend AmyC made this beautiful painting for me. I told her about a happy memory of my dad, and this is what she did. It is even more beautiful than I could have imagined. She even added 5 stars in the sky to represent each of his grandchildren. Amy you are an amazing artist, love.'

What do most little princesses like?

Shoes (glass, of course)...


Her purse (jeweled)...


and her crown.

House Updates...

Hubs and I have been talking a lot lately on how much we have changed the house/yard.
Last night I went on a picture hunt to see if I could find earlier pics of the house when we first moved in (or rather the first year+)... Here is what I found.



This D.E.A.D. tree was in the center of a power line triangle (scared me to death anytime we had a nasty wind storm come threw).
$100 and it came down one Spring morning. Opened the backyard up.



The chain link fence (I just recently pulled that down) and that too opened the back up so much! Before that the back lot was nothing but weeds...then it was weeds and a large pile of dirt.
The red fence there to the right....Ugh, that was so hideous; it was leaning a good 3 feet into our yard, the 3 feet is was hovering over was nothing but weeds. A couple Mother's Day ago, I was out there pulling and ripping that fence down. We put up a nice chain link.



My garden....was a 'patio' of sorts (note 2 pics down w/ muddy child).











We put in a 8'x8' sandbox.







(these are out of order...Hmph). We painted over the bruise color on the lower part of the house (note next pic)...we painted over with an Blue Spruce Green color.







I hated the honey color to the kitchen cabinets (top and bottom) so I ...



painted the lower an olive green and the upper...



an antique/off white. I still have to finish...needs another coat.

Other updated pictures to follow.

Mock Graffiti

This is the room how we have had it for 4+ years (minus all the boxes that I removed ...hubs things).




LOOK nice hardwood floors!




This room has some 'interesting' features...still don't know why some of the things are in there - Hoss will just have to live with them for now.




AFTER sanding the walls and floor.




Lots and lots of primer...





I wanted a 'clean' room...I picked out a light grey for the walls - the color they gave me looked more like an off-white, so I added a few drops/globs of black to it. The floor is also a dark grey.




The window has a few issues, so I painted around that (looks bad, but oh well). I will get to the window when I get to it.




The boys love to look at the graffiti on the trains that go by (hubs even takes his camera)...I looked threw pages of pages of graffiti art and couldn't find anything that I was willing to attempt (being that this is my first)...everything was detailed or not appropriate for a 7y/o room (IMO). I took my sons first name (Yes, folks that IS his REAL name and WE LOVE IT!) Then to keep it 'light' I added bubbles.













Near the finish line ... tweaking here and there ... outlined his name in black paint.





Hubs says the runs look more realistic to graffiti...so I added more, putting a lot of paint in areas and letting it do its thing.







So, this is my first attempt at mock graffiti and I LOVE IT!

*this was a big milestone for me...I haven't been 'creative/artistic' since ma's death in Oct '09 (she and I had that in common - we are both creative people...if she was stonewalled she could ask me for help or ideas and I could run ideas off her as well)...I haven't painted and I haven't really been the camera whore (hubs words---I like to take a BUNCH of pictures - Thank God for the digital camera!) So, this is me re-entering the world of creativity!