The Laziest Nightstand Makeover

Scene:
Garage Sale

Cast:
Me
Baby Clara
Old lady

(On my way to my mom's, I see a garage sale sign. Follow arrow. Stop at sale. Decide if it's worth taking the baby out of the carseat. Decision: go for it!)

Me: This is nice (looking at nightstand or whatever it is supposed to be)
Old Lady: Yes, it is. I think she wants ten dollars.
Me: Hmmmm.
        Okay, I want it.


Decisions, decisions.

What color should I paint it? I intend for it to be baby Clara's, and after finding knobs at Ross on clearance, I was thinking green. BUT I only want to spray paint because I am ridiculously lazy. None of the colors worked, so I bought two cans of Valspar White gloss spray paint but only used maybe one and a half at the most.

I modge podged K & Comapny scrapbook papers on the inside and then on the back where I didn't want to waste paint.

Voila!!!

She isn't perfect, because once again I am too lazy to sand or prime. Yup, let's call it shabby chic with out the work.

Tools: spray paint, screwdriver, modge podge, scrapbook paper



The back of it. I modge podged scrapbook paper because I didn't want to waste my paint.

The inside is so cute! I can just imagine my little girl using it as a doll house if she wanted to.



Pretty green knobs from Ross

The Turquoise Hutch Love Story

Here's the story:

Once upon a time I wandered into a thrift store. I walked around till I came to the furniture section and behold!

The sweetest little yellow hutch caught my eye.

The crafty yellow glaze and country angel stickers were cute, but not my taste. I opened the doors and it smelled like cinnamon! Its previous owner must have stored her cinnamon sticks in there, because it was then that I knew I had to have it (note: how often do things smell GOOD at a thrift store?)

I bought her for $50 and crammed her into my tiny car. My back end didn't shut all the way and it bounced up and down on the freeway all the way home.

I was nervous the whole way home. When you are married you can easily anticipate your spouse's reaction. It was not going to be good. I was right.

But it made me fall in love with my hutch even more! He eventually accepted it, but now I feel like the hutch and I have a special bond. I understood how beautiful she was even when someone else didn't ;)

Her original intent was to hold (some) of my craft supplies (goodness knows I've got ten hutches to fill with that stuff). When we moved and Calvin didn't have a closet because his room is the office, I let him borrow it. I am sure that when we move again it will have a new home.

I love my spray painted turquoise hutch!

If you love the color, it's Valspar's Mediterranean glossy spray paint. I am addicted to the color. I have spray painted his dresser and star in the same color and it is just the cutest!

Classic Winnie the Pooh II

Miracle alert!!

My Uncle Bob and Aunt Chrissy are having a baby! Little Ryan is due in less than a month and we are so excited to meet him. They've been waiting over twenty years for this sweet little guy and I'm sure he will have been worth the wait.

For such a blessing, I knew I'd have to get to work painting! Just like Natassia, Aunt Chrissy decided on a Classic Pooh theme for the nursery. I set to work on making some rendered reproductions of the original illustrations by Ernest H. Shepard. You can see Natassia's Pooh paintings here.

 Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, and Eeyore visit Christopher Robin at the tree house. The original only had Pooh visiting.

 Hundred Acres is flooded! I compbined two illustrations to make this painting. Pooh and Christopher Robin are in the umbrella while Owl sits on the branch talking and Piglet is calling for help.

 Pooh, his balloon (or rain cloud disguise), and the honey bees. It's pretty much the same as my last one.

Pooh and Piglet watching Christopher Robin nail Eeyore's tail back on. Piglet was added to this illustration.

Happy Birthday, Jamie!

Jamie has been my dear friend since middle school! We went to high school, college, and even church classes together! Now we are mommies, so instead of having One Tree Hill and Gilmore Girl nights with Del Taco, we ESCAPE from our children and husbands for dinner and movies. I love how life can change, but good friends never do :)

Happy BIRTH Day, Arilyn!

Sweet little Arilyn was born two weeks before our baby Clara.

She is the third baby for my husband's best friend Jared and his wife Jen. Isn't she the cutest?! She will be sharing a very girly room with her older sister Lexi, so I thought it would be fun to do a super girly painting. Note the PINK, purple, flowers, and butterflies. Congrats to the Flores fam!

Cherry Blossoms in Watercolor

Okay, so my mom has been going crazy with her watercolors, so I had to try it out. My mom does amazing stuff. You have to see it. So I tried to do one that was nice and simple, like this window with the cherry blossoms. I'm really starting to like watercolors, so I think I'll be trying more of it. I think I like it more for illustrative purposes more than fine art. I just don't have the technique (yet) for it!

Christmas Craft Decorations

I realized that Calvin was probably old enough to help make some Christmas decorations, so I pulled out my scrapbook paper, buttons, beans, gems, yarn, siscors and glue. It was soooooo hard to even let him glue the buttons on because I am such a perfectionist.

Lesson learned: make doubles so I can make my own and he can do his own with out Mommy fixing it!

 Calvin mixing batter for a tree cake

Merry Christmas!

Love,

Tree, Santa Claus, Snowman, Rudolph, Tree, Calvin, and Heatherlee

Winnie the Pooh

As God would have it, my Twin (Natassia; born on the same day, one year apart) and I are pregnant at the same time with only two weeks between our due dates. Little Dante will be her and her husband Ray's first baby. I am sooooooooo excited to meet this little guy! I've even had dreams about how adorable he is going to be.

I knew Natassia was going to be decorating in Classic Pooh theme (of course! She's always LOVED Classic Pooh), so I set to work on making some reproductions of the original illustrations by Ernest H. Shepard. I had a hard time imitating his style, so I put my own flair into it. Here are the final pieces:

Fire Truck for the Little Fireman

 

Fire Truck with Dalmation Children's Painting by Heatherlee Chan 

 

I painted Calvin a fire truck for his room yesterday. My dad is a retired fireman, so obviously Calvin's got a love for big red trucks that have sirens and puppy dogs! We got him this Big Boy bed around February when we found out we were having another baby. He LOVES being in his fire truck bed!

Miz Jackie

My friend Jackie turned 25 last week, so I painted her a picture of flowers. It was my first time doing flowers, so I was kind of nervous about it. She was so cute when she opened it! She said it looked like it belonged in a Nicholas Sparks novel. I love that girl :)

The painting was 12x12 and it was fun painting the thick sides. I love to do that so they don't need to be framed.

Happy Birthday, Jackie!!!

Vision (almost) Complete!

I set up the two new paintings with the chalboard and the kids' handprints. I love it! Not so sure the husband does, but oh well. I have one more painting that I am working on that could hang with these cool dudes, but I'm getting frustrated trying to paint the flowers.

Anyway, this is what it SHOULD look like. You know, if I didn't have two boys eating like the uncle-ghosts on Casper (you know that part where they scarf down the food and it just falls to the floor).

Kitchen Makeover...coming soon!

The top two are new paintings for the kitchen. I plan on putting all of the pictures up on the wall mish-mash style with the chalkboard above the kiddie table. I had Calvin and Ethyn do their handprints on scrapbook paper and then put their initial and age in stickers. All I need is baby Clara's handprints come October for the purple one!

P.S. I love these frames from Dollar Tree! I have them in my bedroom, too.

Kitchen or Studio?

I decided to get back in the saddle and start painting again. It's only been a few months, but I feel so rusty! I started with a small painting and there are two more sketched out and ready to be attacked.

Of COURSE Calvin wanted to help. My little unwanted helper decided to reorganize my brushes (according to him, the brushes prefer to hang out with paint bottles). When he started to go for the paint with the brush I put his "helping" to an end. I gave him watercolors to play with at his table, but there's something so much more alluring when it comes to Mommy's paints.

I decided to set up in the kitchen, seeing that my "studio" is a corner in the garage and since it is July it is not all that welcoming. New paintings coming soon!

Butterfly collection

Unfortunately, insects and butterflies creep my husband out. Therefore, the butterfly painting remains in the garage over my work area (that I never work at because it is too HOT!).

Sitting pretty in the country field

This painting is nice and big. It hangs right above our couch...just close enough for my 2 year old to knock it crooked ;) Although its colors are muted, it is one of my favorites!

A tall, sturdy tree

A tall, sturdy tree. Orginally created to hang in our dining room. Nothing spruces up a room better than a big painting!

What's that glare?

My original vision for this painting was to have the sunlight look reallyreallyreally awesome, but after I started painting the white I totally began to regret it. Now my pretty picture looks like I was trying to paint the coming of an angel or prophet...and was very unsuccessful.

 Oh, well. You win some, you lose some--right?