Thursday, November 19, 2015

Painting the Purple

ravens-to post
16"x20"
Oil on canvas

I finished up another one.... probably my last painting of the year. I started this painting earlier in the year... like March/April... and never finished. 

So, obviously there's a Raven's theme going on here... the raven... the football... the purple.

But I actually painted this with something else in mind. For the past couple of years I've walked in the PurpleStride to raise money for pancreatic cancer. The walk in DC is usually around the June time frame. Purple is their color. My original intent was to sell or raffle off the original painting or do something to raise money. But then I had a conflict and couldn't do the walk this year. So then the painting never got finished. Until just a few weeks ago.

I'd still like to keep my plan. Even if it's a year later. So once I get my act together and figure out what I want to do, I'll post about that. Stay tuned.




Sunday, November 15, 2015

A Portrait of Toy Cars

I finally finished up M's painting!
toy cars- to post
Completed 2015
24"x48"
Oil on Canvas
I had no shame hanging it unfinished in his room, but it is nice to finally finish. All that's been lingering was the window for the bus. I first posted about his painting back in September. I think ultimately it took me about three months. For some reason I initially thought things would go much faster. But let's be honest... they never do. I can remember making fun of my mother for projects that would seemingly last her forever. Now I completely understand :)

I guess next up I'll owe a painting to the baby girl. But I figure I have at least two years before I need to worry about that :)

I'm on a bit of a streak here finishing up projects, and even have another painting that I've finally finished and signed. (That will be three for the year!) Pictures of that one will be coming sometime soon.





Monday, November 9, 2015

Baby Girl's Argyle Nursery

Continuing with the room decorating....

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I think I'm about done with the nursery. Like everything else, it's been a work in progress. This weekend we bought replacement hardware for the crib hardware that we lost. So from a functional standpoint, the nursery is now ready to go! And tonight my butterflies arrived. Mike rolled his eyes. I however was super excited and hung them immediately :)

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I do have a couple details to clean up still. Like finding some art for the picture frames on the ledge. Not a big rush though. The pictures of Baby M are still cute :)

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I didn't really have any plans going into this project. All I knew was that I wanted to keep the original argyle pattern but change out the colors.

Here's a little before and after:

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I also decided to get rid of the accent wall:

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From there I found the hot air balloon idea on Pinterest (of course). Then saw the world map print on Etsy and thought it was a good match. You know... hot air balloons... travel... maps...

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So that's that.
I have at least one fan...

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Thursday, November 5, 2015

A New Room for the Big Boy

I finally finished the car painting!! But I haven't taken pictures yet so instead I'll share pictures of M's big boy room.

It feels like I just finished decorating the nursery for him. It's hard to believe it has been more than two years! And now we have moved our little guy into a big boy room. <tears>

With the impending arrival of baby #2 we decided to move M out of the nursery and into the former guest room. And luckily we had already painted the guest room a blue color, so the move didn't involve much painting :) (I'm patting myself on the back for that one.) I did end up painting a white border along the ceiling of the room. The room doesn't get much sun during the day so I thought this would lighten things up a bit.

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As you can see I've already hung the car painting. It's actually not quite complete in these pictures but I was using it as a place holder.


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It seems like this transition took a couple months. Between moving out the guest room furniture, painting, acquiring a bed, and adding some accessories it took me awhile. I'm moving slowly these days...

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The dresser was recycled from me. It's actually a piece that I bought second hand about two years ago. We decided that rather than buying the kid new furniture we would finally buy ourselves some adult bedroom furniture :) Actually a lot of things in this room are recycled. The dresser. The bed we got from M's cousin. The orange side tables are recycled and painted Ikea tables. And the little desk and rocking chair came from M's grandparents. Pretty much the only thing we moved out of the nursery was the rug.

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And what's a room without a tribute to our favorite dog breed? 

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I bought the print from Etsy and had it printed. The only thing missing is a blue eye ;)

Up next is the new nursery. Then I can take a break from redecorating!