Halloween 2007

My oldest went as a Ghost Pirate.
This was a easy costume: 1 single white sheet torn at the edges and then I added glow in the dark paint to them (edges). A little face paint and a hat I got at Kmart.

My baby went as a Mummy, because at the time he was learning to walk and would balance himself by having his arms out in front of him.
His costume was a little more difficult - I took a white tee (thrift store) and gauze, other white fabric and more white tees cut into strips. I sewed all these strips onto the tee and then tea died it all (also made a cap for him). Paired with a long sleeve shirt and dark sweats.

My husband was Cap't Kirk (Pirates of the Great Salt Lake - this is going to be a rather funny movie, you can see clips at http://www.piratesofthegreatsaltlake.com/freethepirates/index.html or http://www.piratesofthegreatsaltlake.com).
I hade to make his pirate hat (took a large circle of orange fabric - didn't have black and no money to buy any). I took a balloon to get the head part of the hat and then sewed it into pirate hat shape and painted black. We bought a belt buckle for $2 and I painted a skull and bones on it with metal paint, the rest of his costume came from the thrift store.

I went as Mother Nature and if you know me at all you would know that that was PERFECT!
I took a bed sheet and cut a hole in the center for my head, tore the edges and then sewed up the side which also made the sleeves. I took it outside and with watered down acrylics I sprayed on the color - I wanted it to have the look of the sky at the top and go down in color til it reached the ground (brown on the bottom torn edges). I bought some fake flowers and leaves and sewed them on - I added a little glitter paint to the costume too, to give it a fairy look. I finished the piece off with butterflies I made from polymer and I added brown ribbon and soft scarves to give it a wispiness.

Diamond in the rough

I have always wanted an armoire.

June 2007:

I bought an armoire from our neighbors for $5, it looked like a beautiful piece that just needed a little love, it was a diamond in the rough. It sat on the back deck for about a week before it moved to the basement (where it sat in a closet for over a year).

This past weekend I told my hubby that I wanted to work on it.

Day 1 - Saturday we pulled it out of the darkness of the basement closet to the backyard. Hubby began to take the panels out (we needed to replace the back, top, side panels and it needed a door panel). We spent $50 in new wood.

By the end of this day I had it white washed.

Day 2 - Hubby and I put the new panels in (back and top too). I also realized that I did not like the white wash (I can see all the flaws, not good). We brought it back inside where I could do a new paint treatment to it and get it in our room.

Day 3 - I spent a good 5.5hrs painting this armoire today (in between taking care of the kids, etc). I painted the main body of the armoire a chartreuse color and the panels a off white. I painted bamboo to the front and carried it over to the sides just a little. The inside I painted a fun, bright pink color. I am not one for New things, so I aged the piece with watered down brown paint.

Recently a girlfriend of mine asked if I would paint a picture for her kitchen. She sent me links of this pottery that she wanted..........I went around and found some other forms of inspiration for her, of the same subject.
She brought me a 16x20 cardboard canvas (not my fave); I searched my stash and found a stretched canvas of the same size (figured I would surprise her with that).
Within the first day, I had about 80% of the painting done, just needed to add the detail. I put the piece aside for a few days

*always, put it down and walk away from it - gives you better insight into the piece.

Yesterday (July,15,08 - I finished the painting), I wrote her and said 'I have something for you', within 2 min she was calling me! Too cute!
We had agreed that I would bring it to her house today, but last night I just could not wait and took it to her - she Loves it!!!
All in all it took about 10 hours to complete.

the 2nd painting...

I also painted a basic black cat on a colorful background.

it's baaaack!

I feel my creativity over the past several months has been null and void, but inspiration has come to me and I have completed 2 paintings (available at: starvnrtist.etsy.com).

I had family in town back in May/June and I took them to the zoo. I am obsessed with the peacocks there - they are just so beautiful! I can take hundreds of pictures of them each time I see 'em.
*of course, you take hundreds of pictures and only a few turn out good.
I got a really good picture of a peacock looking at me, so I painted it. If I do say so myself, it is a beautiful painting.

Recycle & Reuse

This morning my husband and I were talking about recycling. It is something we started doing about 2 yrs ago (paper, plastics, etc).

We realized that antiquing, junkie (yard sales),thrift stores, dumpster diving and hand-me-downs IS recycling. Our dining room is 100% recycled, living room 85%, bedrooms are about 50% and the kitchen is 15%.

We love antiques, things just are not made like they used to be.

It is something we have been doing all along.

Productive week.

Seems like I have been out of it for a while now (I finally think the cold and flu season is gone although Winter is still holding on).

This past week I have been rather creative.

I had a double baby shower (2 girlfriends both pregnant), I didn't really have money to go out and buy them things - so, I made them something (Buy Homemade, Right?!).
*side note, my mom always told me that things made by hand meant so much more then the usual commercialized stuff.
At first I was going to tie die some onesies (both are having girls, so I was going to do pink), But then again, the cost of things now days. Then it dawned on me that I can make plush bears (Duh?! I made 1 for my oldest and a penguin for my youngest).
I started going thru all my girlie fabrics (planned on doing a patch work stuffed bear). As I made the larger piece of material to then be cut into the shapes....it looked good, should have been a quilt. While I was sewing the pieces together to make the bear...it just wasn't right, all the excess material was getting in the way and the bears - yeah....I refuse to give things that I am not happy with.

I ended up going to Joann's anyway (still cheaper than actually buying something) and got 6 different girlie fabrics. Each fabric was a different piece on the bear. The end result was rather cute - as I was stitching the arms, nose and ears on; my oldest comes over and starts watching, then he starts telling me that I need to add a heart (I painted a heart on his and his brothers plush animals).

BTW - they loved the bears.

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I bought a cabinet thing from my neighbor last weekend. I was stoked about this piece and then when I was destroying the thing (to re-do) I realized that it was completely made out of plywood (not my favorite). I cut the back off it (sadly, I failed to get a BEFORE picture of the thing, but it had a triangle back). I basically, squared off the cabinet. I saw that there were several gaps from where the top touches the back - How would I fix this?
*the cabinet was made by my neighbors friend to use in her kitchen, she later sold it to my neighbor.
I cut and sanded, added filler wood where needed. I brought it in and just kept looking at the gaps....How would I fix this??? Then I thought, brown paper bags....Yep, I have some. I took a few bags and started ripping them and balling them up (for wrinkles) then pasted them to the top (looks so much better than it had - I want it to have the final appearance of aged leather).
It sat in my home for a few days with me pondering what to do to it to 'mask' the plywood look. As I walked by it one morning, my eye caught an art piece my mom did (I sent her a pic of a resent painting and she reproduced that on leather with glass beads ~ it's the size of a coin purse, I have it hanging up on my art station).
I kept seeing RED in my mind as I imagine the final product. 1 day I painted it out white (to hide the original color/design) and the next it was Bright RED. I thought really hard about painting it to look just like my painting, but then thought I would prefer something traditional. I went online and started looking. Basically, it has a Pennsylvania Dutch Hex art to it. The design I picked means: Good Luck.

It is painted out RED and I am still working on the design, there will also be a simple branch/leaf design on the sides. (will post about it when complete). Boy, will my neighbor be SHOKED when she sees it again.

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I bought a wood and iron chair at a yard sale for $5, I love this chair. We have had it for about 5 yrs and I am just now getting around to painting it. Nothing special, just painted to update it a bit. I wanted a bright color, but then I really could not commit to something so LOUD (like my RED cabinet above, that isn't loud at all!!! I guess Red is our accent color).
Anyway, I ended up buying a pale green color, it actually matches the kitchen color (I call it watergate salad green - pistachio pudding).

*you can see this chair in the above picture with the bears.

That has been my week ~ April 12-19, 2008