n2cre8n

Moments

Loved this idea from Ali Edwards, so here's my version:

Right now, I'm taking a break from a productive day.  I found the bottom of my kitchen sink, vacuumed all the dog hair, and turned on all the fans.

My kids went to swim practice, painted the bookshelves while I was cleaning, are working on their lists of chores, and are currently reading (oh, the quietness is nice)

My cat had a present for me when I came out of my bedroom this morning.  A dead mouse just outside my bedroom door.  Good kitty . . . now let's take it out to the dumpster.

My dog is lazy and depressed.  Eventually, I think he'll love the woods surrounding our house.  For now, he thinks we are mad at him because he has to wear a collar outside (invisible fence system).  He pouts, only stays outside long enough to potty, then comes inside and pouts all day.

I'm listening to a 5-disc cassette of my favorite CDs right now.  I call them my coffee shop music.  James Blunt, Eric Hutchinson, Jack Johnson, Maroon 5, another Jack Johnson.

Creative thoughts are swirling in my mind.  Mainly decorating stuff right now.  Once my house is comfortable, then I'll get back to art projects.  Totally inspired by This Young House right now.  I'm painting my table and chairs for homeschooling like these.
 

Thankful for air conditioning.  Our unit has major issues.  After two weeks of the repair man coming out twice, he finally said we need a new unit.  It's being installed tomorrow.  We've had temperatures of 80' on the main level and 82-84' upstairs in our bedroom.  Makes me grumpy.

My hubby will be home late tonight because one of his employees won an award for hardest effort and will be awarded at a dinner tonight.  She doesn't know it and he's excited to share it with her.

My goals for today and tomorrow are to finish painting the bookshelves, table, and chairs . . . then get started on the family room walls.

Only had one cup of coffee today.  Trying to get off coffee altogether, but starting slowly.

Desperately want to get back to my running schedule and get a new bike to start cycling.
 

Need to get off my computer and go paint before my house reaches 82', so goodbye for now.

Decor Inspiration Board

These are a few pieces from my inspiration files for our new home.  I'm totally on the band-wagon with the nature colors.  I hate when I jump on the wagon, but I'm on it.  Loving it too! 

The brownish-grey background is the paint color currently on the walls in the foyer and living room.  That's about the only color that is staying.  Other colors I'm adding are mainly greens and blues.  I'd love to bring in some orange, but dh and I are both not fans of orange.  I might accent with it where I have the complimentary blues, not sure.

These were just a few images saved on my computer.  I have two 3-ring binders full of magazine pages, all organized by room.  I get a bit A.R. when it comes to this decorating stuff.  Aside from nature colors, I'm totally in love with graphic elements painted on the walls and large painted canvases.  My dd9 wants a peace tree painted in her bathroom (how fun!) and I'm going to use that guy under the umbrella in the foyer with a tree - so excited for that one.  I can see it in my head.  I attempted to describe it to dh, but his forehead got all wrinkly.  He prefers to just see the finished result! : )

The blue damask scrapbook paper will be on the bottom half of our hallway walls.  I have a stencil and a stiff, scratchy brush.  That one is what we call an "experiment"!

I have this litle fantasy of having black sillouette creatures/images painted tiny in hidden places around our house - like fairy or the kids on the seesaw.  We'll see. 

This will probably be a year-long project to get everything finished, but it will be fun!

If you have any nature/graphic elements to share, please do!  I'd love to see them and add them to my inspiration files! thanks

feedburner is now working

Not sure WHAT I did with my Feedburner links, but it hasn't been working.  So if you'd like to subscribe to this blog to receive updates via email or bookmark it on your toolbar - you can now do that in the upper left corner.

Whew, glad that's fixed.  Now I need two Tylenol for the technical headache I have.

Here's something prettier to look at - my new favorite Disney movie, Tinkerbell.  If you haven't seen it, you can view the trailer HERE

 

they make "something" out of "junk" - they're "tinkers"!

purse gift

our real estate agent, Susie Beck, was so patient with us.  She spent six months showing us houses.  We never did total the number of homes we saw, but I'd guess it's over 50.  She helped us adjust to the east coast sticker shock, decide on gated vs. un-gated communities, realize what we really wanted for our family, and was available pretty much all the time!  She listened, bit her tongue, listened, shook her head, drove endless miles, made suggestions, showed more homes, and listened again. 

we love susie!

so I had to make her something for her time, kindness, and patience with us!  she and her husband are huge William & Mary college fans.  Her husband and two adult sons are alumni from W&M.  They follow the Tribe football team to all their games, tailgate, and cheer for all the games!

so it was easy to choose what kind of gift I'd make for her.  It had to be a W&M Tribe football themed denim handbag.  With as many purses as I've decorated, I'm beginning to think my new name might be the "bag lady", but I'll hold off on that for a while.

here's what we gave her on our closing date
 

Thank you, Susie . . . what a trooper!!!

see the photo album of all the purses I've made HERE

Monogram gift idea

This little cutie is my niece in Wyoming.  She's making a monogram gift for her teacher.  Her little sister helped make one for her teacher too.

Check out these adorable framed monograms - made from crayons!  I just love how they turned out!

Visit my sister's blog HERE for details and instructions!

new banner from House of 3

I was reading one of my favorite new "Tutorial Tuesday" posts on Ali Edward's blog.  The tutorial has Heidi Swapp demonstrating masks, stamps, and hybrid elements.  It wasn't until I got to the bottom and read that Heidi recently joined Rhonna Farrer and Janet Hopkins to create House of 3. 

It took me a while to get my bearings, once on the site.  This tutorial was most helpful for me.  I soon learned that these talented ladies have created several products, including the following (copied from their site, houseof3.com)

House Adornments: We offer unique Jewel Wall Art to adorn your house. Our Limited Edition designs consist of: Chandeliers, Frames & a Lamp. These re-positionable black vinyl stickers are fabulous for creating a beautiful world around you.

Printables: We love the freedom & versatility of customizing designs. Check out the Printables section where we offer a variety of options you can print out at home on your computer! We offer kits that include books, invitations, labels, stickers, cards, papers, monograms, even recipe cards!

Digital Warehouse: We have so much fun creating with these digital elements! They are perfect for photographers, bloggers, scrapbookers, mixed media artists, anyone!

 

Featured Digital Kits:
Our Tool Kits offer so much versatility! You can create all sorts of effects on your photos, papers, & blogs with these tools! We offer Aged Edges, Sanded Edges & Inked Edges Tool kits; complete with brushes and overlays. You can see how to use these versatile kits in our Tutorial section.

Blog Couture: This section of our store offers Blog Headers & Backgrounds for you to dress up your blog anytime you want! They coordinate with each other or can be used on their own! We offer some bundles as well. They were designed with Blogger in mind, but can be used on Typepad & Wordpress as well!

Design House Kits: Stay tuned…we’ll be offering physical kits exclusively designed by Rhonna Farrer, Heidi Swapp & Janet Hopkins! You will LOVE them!

So, $40 later, I have a cart full of downloads (including my new blog banner) and frame kit that will be coming in the mail.  There are so many possibilities with all the printables, love that!  Check them out!

p.s. - the banner I downloaded looked like this

but since I can't figure out how to get it the right size, I customized mine.  That's a fancy term for centering it on polka dot paper, resizing, uploading, screwing up, resizing again, uploading . . . repeat.  Finally, it worked out . . . sort of.

Tour of Ranger Industries production

I was on Tim Holtz's website, watching tutorial videos, when I ran across this video of the production warehouse of Ranger Industries.  I spent two summers working at a Pepsi production plant (which kept me in college), so this video was cool to watch for me. 

The video is complete with the song from Willy Wonka, "Pure Imagination".  Remember these lyrics?

Come with me
And you'll be
In a world of
Pure imagination
Take a look
And you'll see
Into your imagination

Enjoy!

Zooey boots Meg

I believe I'm kicking Meg to the curb.  Meg Ryan, that is.  She's been my all-time favorite actress for years.  It all started in 1986 with Top Gun, then Innerspace, then When Harry Met Sally.  As if these could be out-done, then came along Sleepless In Seattle, French Kiss, City of Angels, and You've Got Mail.  I left a few out, but you know them all.  She's had that cute, simple, happy-go-lucky personality that we all are drawn to.  Until lately.  I don't mind that she's 47 years old.  I just want to know where she went.  She's gone!  So I'm kicking her to the curb.

Nah, I'll continue to watch her.  I am anxious to watch her duct tape her husband to the toilet to stop him from leaving her in her new film Serious Moonlight. 

But in the meantime, my new actress-crush is this ray of sunshine

Zooey Deschanel

For me, It all started with Elf in 2003.  Her voice, her eyes, and her singing.  She was good, remember?

And who could forget the charming music teacher in Bridge to Terabithia in 2007?  She was also the voice of the lifeguard, Lani, in Surf's Up. 


We haven't seen all her movies since 2000 - but our recent favorite is Yes Man with Jim Carrey.

Her dad is a producer and her sister stars in Bones.  The girl's got talent running through her blood.  And we're happy she does.

So when I saw the trailer for her new movie 500 Days of Summer, I had a feeling it would be a keeper.

It is set to release July 17th.
Okay, okay, just watch this trailer.

So long, Meg.

Jeff Claasen Artwork

 

Thanks to a blog post by Teesha Moore, I got the chance to see the edgy artwork by a guy named Jeff Claasen in CA.  He has a blog, a storefront, a web store, products, and a video.  He uses spray paint, large markers, sponge tips, screen printing, etc.  He has an urban, grungy, skater-type of feel to his artwork.  It's great.

He often begins with a background of spray paint and stencils, then draws these incredible cartoon-like people on top with rich, black ink marker. 

My favorite stop on his site was his videos.  Check them out here.  My favorites are Sketchbook #7, Deconstruction of a Drawing, and Drawing with Krink on Wood.

See more of his cool artwork at jeffclaasen.com

 

Journal Gift for Millie

We recently moved into a house that is rich with character, surrounded by 1.5 acres of wooded nature, and has everything we were looking for in a house.  When we first viewed the house, there was a large canvas photo on the mantel of a mother and her two college-aged children.  Our realtor explained that this woman lost her husband a year ago to cancer.  Her children are in college and she's ready to move on.

Once we decided that we loved the house and our offer was accepted, I got a chance to meet this owner, Millie.  She's about 55 yrs old, tiny little petite thing, and full of spunk and sass.  She loves the outdoors and spends a lot of time with her dog, Leo and two horses.  She decided she was ready to sell the house and get a fresh start for herself.  Millie is going to go sailing for a couple years . . . "or until I decided I hate it" she says.  Her husband was the sailor, not her.  But she is suddenly drawn boating and is taking an intensive sailing course this month in Maryland.  Then, I believe, she plans to spend several months sailing the Chesapeake Bay area.

I'll never forget the first time I walked through this house - there was a large map on the coffee table of the Chesapeake Bay with several dots and markings on it.  On top of the map were three small GPS devices and some handwritten notes.  I believe she was mapping out her course.  It was fascinating.

Weeks later, I once stopped over at the house to measure a couple of the rooms for furniture.  Millie is the type of person that says, "just stop by anytime and if I'm not here, the door is always unlocked".  I took my measurements and then she walked me through half the neighborhood.  We knocked on a couple doors and she introduced me to some people.  We walked down to the dock and then the clubhouse, where she shared a couple of stories. 

She is an intriguing person, one whom I'm sure will be missed in this neighborhood.  I believe she's called to the water for a reason and I hope she finds serenity there.  She's one courageous woman.

During our last encounter, I gave her this gift for her new journey.

Here is the process of making this journal. 

I first found a blank journal I liked at Barnes & Noble.

I love the natural feel to it, especially the binding, but the cover image wasn't quite what I was looking for.  I decided that would be easy enough to change.  I sanded down the floral image until it was almost gone.  Then I used blue painter's tape to mask off a rectangular area to work in.  I wanted to do a dimensional ocean painting.

DIMENSION - I applied Golden Molding Paste with one of those fake credit cards you get in the mail weekly. I glopped it on, then create wave-like patterns.  I then let it dry for about 20 min.

SAND - In the corner, where the water meets the sand, I wanted a real sand feel.  So I used Tim Holtz's  Distress Embossing Powder in Antique Linen color. 
-if you want to see a neat video on how to use the embossing powders, go  here

I then added some color to the water with acrylic paint.  To get a blended look, just keep the paint wet and start brushing the colors into each other.  I even painted the whitest parts white to protect the paste from chipping off.  It sort of seals it on there.  Once this was dry, I applied bright white acrylic paint to the raised edges only with my finger.  You might only be able to see that by clicking the image to zoom in.

Once this was all dry, I peeled off the blue tape to reveal the ocean scene I was going after. 

The final touch were a couple simple embellishments.  I stamped a phrase stamp onto a scrap piece of chipboard and inked the edges brown.  This was attached to the cover with dimensional Glue Dots.  I then used another product of Tim Holtz, Grunge Board.  I don't remember the pack I used, but it was a multi-themed pack with butterflies, crowns, etc.

I pray that Millie WILL "go confidently in the direction of her dreams" and find peace on her new journey.