Working Studio {or, where I've been this summer}

After a long and winding road finishing this space and a quick summer 

attempting to recover from that project, the studio is finally in working order and I am using it daily. 

I didn't get any pictures of the beautiful butcher block counter, farm sink, and custom designed laundry area, but I will post those when I take them. Thank you so much for all you did to make this a beautiful and functional space, Mom and Alan!

I've been studying and drawing and painting (and teaching) this summer. And I'm keeping up with the laundry better too! I am so grateful for this place to work and to those who have encouraged me 

in these efforts, most notably my dear husband, Scott.

Here are a few of my most recent paintings.

Trees in Shadow, 16 x 20, oil on stretched canvas

Fallen Branch, 8 x 10, oil on linen board

Afternoon on the Trail, 5 x 7, oil on linen board

Trees in Meadow, 9 x 11, oil on canvas board

 

Studio Sneak Peek

This weekend Scott's mom and stepdad came to visit and to work 

on a little project about which I am super-excited. We are converting our detached garage 

into an art studio and Alan is generously doing much of the labor to make my dream studio a reality.

This weekend he framed the ceiling and partition wall (to divide the studio side of the garage 

from the storage side), cut and installed a window, and added a door.  

{Thank you, Alan!}

Over the next month or so we'll be finishing up the electrical work, sheetrock, floor, counter and trim. We plan to install an Ikea counter and sink, epoxy the concrete floor, and I have all kinds of dreams about storage and functional design. Follow my "dream studio" board on Pinterest (see the sidebar) if you want a glimpse 

of that obsession.

The room is taking shape and I can't wait to start using it!

Pretty Plate Wall {high impact ~ low risk}

 When I was visiting my sister, Carrie, this fall we were inspired to jazz up her kinda-boring kitchen 

with a plate wall. I'd been wanting to try one for a while, but I've run out of wall space at my house. 

Carrie was up for some low-risk (inexpensive) decorating, so we had a great time throwing this together.

What you will need:

10-15 plates (or more?) - All of these were already owned or cost around $2 - $5 or so.
plate hangers - We used the wire ones you can get at hardware stores.
butcher paper
a digital camera
hammer and nails



How we did it:

1. We started by collecting plates. Carrie had six of these plates already, but we went to Marshall's and Home Goods to pick up the rest. We were looking for a combination of bright, bold colors, lots of texture, and a mixture of patterns and solids. (You should check out all the plate walls on Pinterest to figure out what colors and styles you like.)

 (one of our earlier layouts)

2. We played around with the composition on the floor. I'd take a picture when the layout seemed close, then tweak it a little more, take a pic, compare, tweak, pic, etc., until we settled on a composition we liked. 

3. This step could be combined with two to simplify things, but we were putting this together over a few days time so we separated the steps. I measured the space we wanted to fill on the wall, then rolled out a length of butcher paper in the same dimensions on the floor. Using the picture I'd taken as a guide, I set the plates out in the composition we'd chosen. Then I traced around each plate, drawing circles on the paper to create a template. Once that was finished I taped the paper template to the kitchen wall.

4. I chose a plate to start with (it doesn't matter which one). First, I attached the plate holder to the back. Then I held it up to the corresponding circle on the template and marked where the nail should go. (I continued using the picture on my camera as a guide.) Then I nailed right through the paper and hung the plate. I repeated that process until all the plates were hung, but the paper was still taped to the wall with nails poking through it. Finally, I took all the plates off the wall, tore off the paper (leaving the nails in all the right places, of course) and re-hung the plates.
 

Pretty jazzy, right? Well, just in the last hours before I left to return home I was hit by a second wave of inspiration ~ that old IKEA table was calling out for a quick and easy update. 

But, alas, I had run out of time.

So when I went back last weekend (to visit my sweet new little cuddly nephew) I hit the ground running 

with a plan. I lightly sanded the table, painted it green and did a few coats of wipe-on polyurethane 

on the first day. The next day I applied another coat of polyurethane to the top with a brush. 

(I wanted to be sure to get a good strong top coat since the table gets such constant use.)

The next day it was finished in all its bright, spring-green, freshness.

 I love how Carrie's kitchen turned out and it was so fun and easy to do.

If you're contemplating an inexpensive, high-impact change--I say go for it!

What do you have to lose?

Tupperware Organization {with full disclosure}

Um. I have to admit something to you. 

I have a discipline problem. 

I'm great with intentions and planning and envisioning the perfect _______ . 

(Just fill in the blank.) 

But I'm not very good with follow-through. If it's a short term, projecty, 

boom-and-then-it's-over kind of a thing then I really shine. But the laundry . . .

Coming to this realization has been really helpful. 

Any new attempts to get my life in order are made with more realistic expectations, hoping for modest gains, and once I find a system I can maintain I feel a real sense of achievement.

Enter my tupperware problem. Does this look familiar to you? 

It occurred to me a year and a half ago that the frustrating experience of never being able to find a matching lid and barely being able to close the tupperware drawer could maybe (maybe?) be remedied.

So I took everything out, stacked like shapes, and threw away any lids with out bottoms and vice versa.  I came up with the brilliant plan (via google) to keep lids in a separate container and I found an old plastic crate in the garage to corral the bottoms.

Then I waited to see if I would follow through and keep up the system. 

A week passed. A month. A year. 

And so, it is with great pride that I present to you my tupperware drawer a year and a half later ~

 

Ta da! I have a new and improved green crate and (you may notice) 

my super-organization has resulted in some color-coordinated decorating pride.

{Full disclosure: This is what the other counter looked like when I took this picture.}

And, my little helper . . .

Three cheers for self-awareness, low expectations, and little victories!

Mustard Yellow Table {love it or hate it?}

Lately I've been loving bright, mustard yellow. I think it started with a scarf I got last summer and now it has resulted in a little table transformation in our living room. Scott and I originally picked up this sturdy end table a few years ago from friends who were moving and I refinished it in a creamy white. I pretty quickly realized the white was too "antique" for me and the table just looked blah.

After collecting some images of little French tables on Pinterest and mulling it over (secretly) for quite a while, I decided to paint it a bright mustard yellow. 

 Scott said, "It's very yellow." I said, "Trust your wife."

Next, I sanded off some of the new paint, revealing some of the old white paint 

and the pale bare wood underneath.

Then, in order to give it a more aged look, I stained the exposed wood.

A final coat of wipe-on polyeurethane finished the job and gave it a hard, durable seal.

The whole project took just a few hours, with most of that time spent waiting for the paint to dry. I bought only a little sample jar of Valspar's "jackson square" paint (from the allen + roth collection at Lowe's) and that was plenty to do the job. The stain and polyeurethane were leftovers from other projects.

And now I have a much more interesting little corner in our living room.

I'm pretty sure a lot of people would think this kind of furniture refinishing is rather unfortunate--

who would want this garish, mismatched table in their home?

Well, call me crazy, but I do!

So what do you think?

Love it, or hate it?

DIY Boxwood Wreath

I love spontaneous projects. 

I've been wanting to hang some simple boxwood wreaths 

in the windows in the dining room, but the price tag was a bit steep for me. 

Today as I drove up the driveway, I suddenly saw that I have a wealth of boxwood 

all around my yard just waiting to be harvested.  I unbuckled baby boy, 

postponed big brother's math lesson, and went to work.

First I clipped a bunch of boxwood and washed it.

Then I shaped a metal hanger into a circle.

Next, I gathered the twigs into little bundles and tied them with fishing line.

In order to get a sense of how much I needed, I arranged the bundles around the wire circle.

Then I attached the bundles to the hanger with floral tape.

Add a bit of ribbon, and ta da!

{a quick and easy boxwood wreath}

I love creating new things from stuff I already have!

Odds and Ends

Yay for the genius bar at the mac store and for a fixed computer! 

Here are some of the odds and ends of what's been happening around here lately . . .

Miles Standish, Squanto, and friends had several difficult voyages and a great feast.

I painted a landscape of the Snake River and the wheat fields of eastern Washington. 

Scott's family is from a little town among these hills 

and the painting is an early Christmas present for his mom. 

And it blended great with our autumn decor!

Christmas decorating has commenced.  I had a moment of missing my unloved chandelier 

while I figured out how to Christmas-ify the dining room. 

But then the cardinal with the Fu Manchu took up residence on the lantern, 

and all is right with the world.

And, here is this week's meal plan:

Party Like a Ninja

Today is Jack's birthday!

This weekend we celebrated ninja-style ~ 

silently, stealthily . . . ok, maybe not so much like ninjas, 

but we did our best.

The decorations were all black, red and white from the invitations to the cupcakes.

I made origami throwing stars for the ninja warrior training session.

{All links to inspiration and tutorials are at the end of this post.}

Jack was a red ninja ~ Hiya!

I made an enemy ninja as a target for the throwing stars.

Part of the warrior training was this string obstacle course. 

They had to try to slip through as stealthily as possible.

We had an expert ninja master to demonstrate the way of the ninja warrior.

He presented the ninja warriors with their headbands and swords.

After all the preparation and practice, the ninjas were let loose on the enemy.

I drew ninja masks on about 20 helium-filled balloons and anchored them around the front yard.

The kids attacked them and popped every last one! fast! faster than I could photograph.

I made sneaky ninja cupcakes for the victorious warriors.

Happy Birthday 5 year-old!

Links
origami throwing stars

decoration inspiration, and more

ninja cupcakes

enemy ninja balloons

string obstacle course