An artist, I am not!

About 2.5 months ago I took my class to the Corcoran Gallery of Art. While browsing, I saw a painting there that was a huge canvas of vertical lines of varying shades of coordinating colors. It was awesome and painted by an actual artist. Despite that, inspiration hit me! I thought, "Hey, I can do that!" (Only part of my mind is delusional, but it still allowed me to move forward on the idea.) I had originally thought that my bedroom could use some homemade art. So, that weekend I went to Michael's and bought a set of 3 12x16 canvases, along with some coordinating shades of blue paint. I was going to try to paint some varying stripes on those canvases and try to create something cool for our bedroom. (More on that another day!)

I also bought a 3rd 8x11 canvas and some purple craft paint. I ended up returning the extra canvas and used one of the set of 3 for a bathroom project. I have changed my guest/daughter's bathroom a bit but am waiting to show the final project. Anyway....I decided to try my hand at painting something for the bathroom first before tackling the bedroom. Let the laughter begin...

My first step was to tape off varying sized stripes on to my canvas. I forgot a picture of that step, but here it is after I painted my purple stripes.

 I think I painted about 3 coats. I then peeled off the tape when it was still a little wet, as I've read that helps to make sure it wouldn't bleed. Well, unfortunately, it bled, but the hubs tells me that's because I didn't press the tape down hard enough.

Anyway, I thought it looked crappy. So, I put it aside for several weeks. In the meantime, Kate texted me a cool picture of some art she had made for one her daughter's rooms.  Fast forward about a month and a half. My mom and I were at Michael's looking for supplies for a certain little peanut's birthday party. I wandered over into the Martha Stewart section and was looking at the stencils. I saw a long moroccan looking one - I thought that was what I wanted so that it would jive with my original idea of stripes.

See that long blue one on the little tray? That's what caught my eye...

(See my foreshadowing??) My mom had a 40% coupon for some of her art supplies at Michael's so I bought a small pack. Anyway, it took my three weeks to actually try it out.

But, I did this weekend and didn't take any pics of my process. I guess I wasn't convinced that it would turn out! First, I needed to repaint the whole canvas. So, I painted about 3 coats on the white stripes to try to match the same tone of purple on the purple stripes. I then tried to stipple (haha!) the long stencil horizontally along the top of the canvas. Well, the canvas is long and the stencil was short so I promptly gave up because I knew that I wouldn't be able to make those straight. (Remember my protractor table??)

So, I tried to use some of the small rounded stencils and make an "organic" arrangement of blobs along the canvas ala Kate.

Et voila:

I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. I think it will look really cute in a bright white frame instead of just hanging as a canvas. So, I am waiting to show you it in the room until we frame it. Then I will show you how the bathroom has evolved.

So, all that to say that the Corcoran inspired me to try some art. I came away with the idea that I am not an artist, but at least I tried something :)

I will show you the bedroom art I created in a few days. I am at a loss for next steps and could use some advice!

Drab to Fab

The other week, we took this chest from
this:

to this:

I am in love! The color is Pencil Point by Behr in a high gloss paint. The knobs are Home Depot. They tie in with the chandelier nicely.

Here are a few pictures with more perspective in the room.

Ok, well, to be honest, my mom painted it. (Insert sheepish grin), but I picked the color and the knobs :) That counts for something, no? We have a second one and I think we will add it in the room next to this guy. The Mister is a little nervous it will overwhelm the space, but let's be honest - his opinion doesn't REALLY matter!

I am linking to Primitive and Proper and My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

Halloween Birthday

My second peanut was due in early November. I was supposed to schedule a c-section the week before her due date, at the end of October. I really didn't want  to have a baby anywhere near Halloween, so I never scheduled the c-section. I thought we would just wait and see. Well, in what only has been true to her form these past 2 years, she made up her mind she was coming early. She was born right around Halloween anyway, on the day that I should have scheduled the c-section. When she makes up her mind to do something, it will happen regardless! So much for trying to control things!

I have decided to embrace the Halloween birthday and go full out on the theme, at least for the first few years anyway. Last year, the kids came in costume, we went on a pumpkin hunt around the yard and then they decorated the pumpkins with stickers. This year we were going to have a Halloween parade down the street, do some pumpkin decorating (this time paper pumpkins) and enjoy some yummy treats. Our power went out the morning of the party and was due to come back on at some point during the 2 hour party. We had gotten the house and treats ready the night before so we were set regardless. At the last minute we went with it anyway...

Here are a few of the cute things that we made for the party.

These are the tables we had in the house with some crafts for the kids to do when they first came in. We cut out pumpkins and various shapes for them to glue on for the eyes, nose and mouth. We also had some themed coloring pages for them to do before the parade. All that work getting things together and the biggest hit was the tattoo station! The kids loved the spider and pumpkin tattoos.

Tattoo frenzy

We made these pretzel ghosts out of pretzel sticks dipped in white chocolate. The eyes and mouth are mini chocolate chips.

These witch hats are Keebler fudge stripe cookies, orange frosting and a Hershey kiss on top. So simple and so easy! I found both recipes on this great blog. I Heart Naptime has a ton of great ideas.

I forgot to take a picture of the whole tray of them. They looked much cuter all together. This one just looks pitiful all alone.

The pretzel ghosts  and witch hats were in the favor bag, along with  spider rings, a noise maker,  and a glow stick.

The little pumpkins were their cupcakes after pizza. My little lady could have cared less what was going on around her, she just wanted to eat her cupcake in peace!

Happy Birthday Girl!

Only Fitting

It was this weekend last year that I completed my first DIY project. I made my sunburst mirror just in time to hang for my youngest peanut's first birthday party. I hung it proudly over my mantle and crossed my fingers that someone might notice and comment on my craftiness. (No one did, but whatevs) Fast forward 1 year and here we are, the eve of her 2nd birthday and 2nd birthday party. Only fitting that I make my return to my blog after a 2 month hiatus and start posting again.

My mom kept telling me that I was going to lose followers if I didn't start blogging again. Low and behold, she was right. When you only have 35 followers, it kind of hurts to lose 2, but I would have dropped me too I guess. Anyway, I have my sea legs now that I have been working full time for 2 months - I've gotten my groove in the the classroom and at home and am now able to start working on some projects around the house again. So, I hope those of you that are reading continue to check in on me and see what else we have been up to around here.

And, surprisingly, I have been doing a few things here and there. Remember these sconces from long ago?

And the epic fail that resulted when I tried to spray them in the humid, spring air? No? Well, let me refresh your memory.

Um, yeah, pretty awful.

A few weekends ago, I tried them again and just decided to go 1 color instead of the 2 tone affect. I think they came out much better this time. In fact, they are almost Tiffany blue, what girl doesn't love that?!

And, in the dining room. Yeah, much better... They still are very traditional, which isn't really my thing, but I think the fun, bright blue color kind of off sets the tradition. And, they were free so it only cost me a couple of cans spray paint!

Now they even have candles in them. Even better. The dining room is slowly coming together. I have a few more updates to reveal soon so stay tuned!

Oh August, what happened to you?

It's August 24th, how did that happen? This month has not been a great one in terms of blogging (although it was really awesome otherwise!)
Here's a rundown of the month
* I lost my camera for almost a month
* Found my camera and posted twice
* Went away on an awesome family vacation
* Came back and right away started full time work back in the classroom

And, that's where we are now. As I mentioned above, my school year started last week for teachers and then this week for students. I am back full time in teaching 1st grade for the first time since my older daughter was born. So, it's going to be quite the adjustment for all of us. Not sure where that leaves my home projects and blog, but we'll see. I hope to at least get a few things done a month. My mom told me today that it has been so long since I have posted that I might lose some followers....ha! Let's keep it real people, hard to lose people when there aren't that many to begin with!

Anyway, I do have something to share from the living room re-do. I took the frames from above the sofa and transformed them. Here are some before and after shots.

I painted the frames some glossy white, chose some decorative papers from my stash, flipped the mat over,got a new piece of glass cut and voila. Here we are!