Drawing: Can You Draw People?

I always have a little chuckle when people ask me that question. Yes, of course I can draw people. I can even draw them to a degree of realism that would look like a black and white photo. Do I draw people? Only on special request. Do I draw them in a photo realistic style? Never. I have an attitude when it comes to that. If you want photo-realism, have a photo taken. I know some really good photographers I can point you at. Generally I prefer animals as subject matter, and I lean toward a more abstract style, but yes, I can draw people. Picasso could too. Most artists aren't limited by skill or talent, but by what they are passionate about. I've had extremely talented artists turn me down flat when I asked if they would do something specific for me. Don't be offended. We're just crotchety that way.

Home Improvement: Budget Kitchen Remodel

I bought a little townhouse to fix up and rent out basically to fund my dad's retirement because I don't want to be working at Wal-Mart when I'm 50. This is what we did over Christmas vacation: new Armstrong Luxury vinyl floor tiles with grout, painted and sealed the countertop, cleaned the place up, and changed the outlets that were original to 1973. We also installed smoke alarms and dead bolts for safety. The Formica had come off the countertop and the previous owner had just put a coat of latex paint over it so it would look nice, but it never would have held up. Since it was already painted, I did a faux finish and three coats of Polycrylic which should hold it until I can afford some granite.

Peel and stick that wasn't sticking

New floors, painted countertops

We also added a faux "tin ceiling" backsplash around the stove

Drawing: In Memory of Laurel Burch

A little more graphic than what I usually do, but it felt right. The cat in the foreground gazes at the softened outline of a Laurel Burch style cat. She was one of my earliest and still favorite inspirations when it comes to making cat themed art.

Decorating: Trends Smends

I have pretty much decided that I would be the worst nightmare of every modern designer. Part of it is just that I am a traditionalist when it comes to décor (although not art), but part of it is that I am a very low maintenance person.

1. Stainless steel. No thank you! I'll take white appliances any day. They don't show every fingerprint, nose print, and water spot. They are easy to clean and not smudgy. Right now I have black appliances, and so far I am good with them. When it comes to a sink, I hate the flimsiness of stainless and again the difficulty of cleaning it. I grew up in a farm house in Wyoming with a sink older than my grandparents. Give me white porcelain coated cast iron any day. That's a sink that will survive the zombie apocalypse.

2. Open floor plans. I really hate this trend in architecture, and it's why I prefer older houses. I like to make a mess in the kitchen. I like that the mess is only visible if my guests are in the kitchen. I also like to be able to run the dishwasher and watch TV or have a conversation at the same time.

3. Hardwood floors. Everyone who knows me has heard my rant about them. In short, I want to have pets. I want my friends to come to my house and bring their kids. I want to wear shoes in my house if I want to.

4. Separate bath and shower. Ok, this can be good if the bath is one of those that you have to scale like Mt. Everest to get into, but overall, it's just two areas to clean instead of one.

5. Granite. I'm ok with granite, but I'll take Quartz or any other solid surface any day. Who wants to have to reseal the countertop? Plus, it can crack or be stained. I want a surface I can put a hot pot on or sand out an imperfection with my handy-dandy palm sander.

Thankfully, all trends come and go. I'm personally dreading the return of brass and crystal, but when I look at my list it reminds me to always pick what I like when I do my house and to ignore the trends. After all, I'm the one who has to live in my house, not my decorator.

Drawing: Way Cool Trip

My most recent artistic endeavor: A portrait of Trip who belongs to my high school friend Amie. So much is lost in the photograph. My work gets more and more three dimensional as time passes. This one was just a lot of fun.

Home Improvement: Laminate vs. Hardwood

So after less than 6 months, my husband and I have relocated here in Sealy. We really like the town and the area and hope to stay here, but we were less than in love with our first house here. Don't get me wrong, it's a beautiful house in a neighborhood full of really nice people, but like many houses in the US, our American Dream quickly turned into an HOA nightmare. My husband is a woodworker and wanted to build a shop. Our covenant clearly stated that we could do so, and our neighborhood was filled with various kinds of hobby shops, but we quickly discovered that the president of the HOA had no intention of allowing us to build a shop and had already drug another couple into a lengthy lawsuit. Thus, we began a search for a house that already had a shop and DID NOT have an HOA. Whether by chance of design, we quickly found a lovely home with a large shop in a beautiful mature neighborhood just a few miles down the road. While I am fairly certain that it is a mark of insanity to move after just a few months, the new house meets our criteria for a retirement home almost to a T. The only change we felt we needed to make was taking out the carpet and installing new floors.
Thus began the great debate between hardwood and laminate. My husband, of course, loves hardwood because he is a wood worker and prefers real wood. I prefer laminate because it is bullet proof and easy to clean. We put real maple in our last house and quickly discovered that it is seriously high maintenance flooring. Since I am not redoing this house with resale in mind, I held firm and got my laminate. It is Pergo Max and in my opinion, it is gorgeous. It may seem even more beautiful to me because it is so easy to clean and because I can slide the furniture around on it, let the cats tear our on it, and if I want throw a screaming, stomping fit on it--and it will all be just fine!

Color: Orange Oak Cabinets

Master bathroom before

Inspiration from House Beautiful

After

Parma Gray from Farrow and Ball

Unlike most modern decorators, I am not hating on oak. Our house in Houma had beautiful, high grade oak cabinets that fit beautifully in our Southern country home. Our new house also has oak cabinets, but unfortunately, they are builder grade plywood that is not all that attractive and does look extremely dated. High gloss varnish has turned them orange.
I've always loved the look of painted cabinets--probably because I grew up in a house full of them. Lately, I find myself more and more drawn to them. With the right color choice, you can simultaneously take ten years off your room while making the cabinets look like they are 100 years old and a custom feature. I look to HGTV and decorating magazines for inspiration and found the look I wanted to mimic in my master bath in House Beautiful.

Decorating: Faux Frosting

These weird little curtains on the sidelights weren't moving me, so I decided to stencil the glass. I just used exterior latex in case I change my mind about the pattern in the future or something. John will be happy because it lets in more light. I'm happy because I can see out, but still have the illusion of privacy.

Project: An Idea Worth Stealing

This is an idea that I saw in a craft shop that I realized was totally worth stealing. The ones in the shop were glass vases that had been painted with chalk paint and embellished with lace, ribbon, and bits of antique jewelry, which got me to thinking....we all have a pin or pendant that belonged to a beloved grandmother or aunt that we can't bear to part with, but also don't ever wear. (In my case, it's my mom's favorite cameo.) Most of us also have some cheap glass vases sitting around. Since I have a T-boy, I bought a little metal vase from my local junk shop, spray painted it, and did a bit of sanding. Then I just pinned the cameo to a piece of lacey ribbon. Now it is out where I can see it every day and serving a purpose. I can imagine doing this with any old bracelet or necklace that a person would like to display. Really you wouldn't even have to paint the vase

Home Improvement: To match or not to match, that is the question.

Well, it was a long time coming, but our new door is finally installed. Our original door was not even remotely up to code--their was some speculation that it might even have been made and purchased in Mexico. The glass was an untempered bloody nightmare waiting to happen.
We thought really hard about whether to put in a Texas star rather than trying to match, but in the end, we were able to special order a pattern pretty close to the side lights. We did decide to order an oval window rather than a large rectangle like the old door since we new that the patterns would not match exactly, so we wanted to go more for a coordinated look than have it look like we tried to match and failed.
I get a lot of questions from clients asking if they should try to match this or that, and the answer is always different. If you can get an exact match for what you have, that's great, but if not, sometimes it is best to go for something completely different. Sometimes you want something just enough different that it doesn't look like a failed matching attempt. In the end, you just have to visualize things and trust your guts to tell you if something won't work.
Since there was no chance we would be able to match wood on the sidelights, we went ahead and ordered a much sturdier, higher quality fiber glass door. Then I started looking for a color that would brighten up our chocolate colored porch. I found it on the front door of a house the same color in Austin that was featured in HGTV magazine. Thank you Benjamin Moore for Majestic Blue.

The new door

The old door

The Austin home that inspired our color choice.

Staging: Art and Environmental Ethics

My husband is always saying that I need to take before and after photos of my canvases. You might wonder why I would do that . Well, the answer is that I almost never buy a new canvas. I buy them at Goodwill, yard sales, thrift stores, etc. There are three basic reasons that I do this.
First, I try to practice what I preach. In both my Ethics and Geography classes, we talk about the importance of conserving natural resources and preserving the environment for future generations. Making art can be hard to justify since it uses natural resources to produce something that has no practical use or value. This way, I am at least reducing, reusing, and recycling.
Second, my backgrounds always wind up with multiple layers of paint that give them texture and uniqueness, so as far as I am concerned, the first layer I buy them with is just primer.
Third, buying used canvases allows me to save money, which allows me to not only pass on that savings to my buyers, but it also allows me to give more of my profits to my local animal shelters and rescue groups. I also don't mind donating a painting here and there to a good cause or charity because I haven't sunk a ton of money into materials.
I hope a lot of other artists don't take up this practice though because, honestly, I don't want competition at Goodwill!
If I've said it once, I'll say it a million times: This is also the best way for sellers to get that "new" art they need to brighten a room, create a color story, or fill a blank space left by family photos.

Who knows what these will become?

Home Improvement: Finding Inspiration

Everyone who has known me for more than a day knows that I have always wanted a little old white house (just like the one I grew up in). Well, there is one for sale here in Sealy, but unfortunately it is way too small and in need of too much work for John to agree to it. So I have been thinking a lot lately about how I can make my house into my "dream house." Thankfully, it is already mostly white stone. One day before too long, I want to paint all of the wood parts white as well. I already have an aqua door. Now I am thinking about red accessories--flower pots, patio pillows, etc. We hope to build a red and white shop, and I want aqua flower pots to set in front of it. It's red, white and blue with a twist.
Last night as I was thinking about this, I realized how much childhood affects our ideas of the perfect home. I grew up in a white house with a red barn. My grandparents had a white house with a red barn as did two of my uncles. It was a common thread in my youth. It feels like home.
To tips for choosing exterior color schemes: Search the internet for color combos you are considering. Drive around your town and look for houses that you love. What do they have in common?

Inspirational color scheme

Inspirational historic home in Sealy

Project: Sketching Pets

I had some rare free time last weekend as my husband was infected with a virus, and the doctor ordered him to stay in bed and rest. Since I had quiet time on my hands, I spent a lot of it sketching the cats. I was particularly happy with the end result of this sketch of T-boy. It's about time he starts earning his keep around here!

Decorating: English Garden Bath

What I am learning from this house is that you don't have to sew to make things with fabric. My inspiration room has lots of little sachets and pretty fabric touches. I am slowly working many of the touches from the inspiration photo into my bathroom, including a little sachet bag I made using stitch witchery and my glue gun!

My inspiration photo has a chair. I found a chair like it for $300 in an antique shop and passed it by in favor of a $3 yard sale find. Now I have a chair too.
My inspiration photo has a pink pitcher. I found one for $14 at an antique store. Now I have a pink pitcher.
My inspiration photo has sachets. Ok, I only have one, but I'm working on it.
My inspiration photo has a gorgeous copper tub. I have a little tub I found at a second hand store that I painted copper--it's great for rounding up clutter!
My inspiration room has pots of pink roses. I have art featuring pink roses that I made with decoupage because I also have cats, which I am guessing the owners of the inspiration home do not! (Ornery little devils.)
My bathroom will never look exactly like the inspiration room, but it is slowly taking on that English country garden feel.

Inspiration photo

yard sale chair and home made sachet

Color: Toning Down Terra Cotta Tile

When we moved this time, I asked my husband to find me a house that was "move in ready," and he did a pretty good job. We were able to put our furniture in the house and live in it for about two months before the flat tan paint started looking like a horde of angry monkeys with dirty fingers was rampaging through the house while we slept. In truth, I might have just kept doing touch ups until I ran out of paint, except for the fact that the terra cotta colored tile in the bathroom was starting to grate on my nerves. I like terra cotta, but there is a lot of it in that room, and the tan paint was really showing off just how orange the tile was. So I looked online for inspiration for toning it down and found these:

I wound up painting our bathroom a similar shade of grayish green called Garden Shed by Martha Stewart. It is amazing how the green brings out the red and darker shades in the tile so that it is not glaringly orange. Now I just have to find myself some more cottage-garden accessories, and my bathroom will be warm and cozy like the ones in the inspiration photos.

Soothing in green

before in the flat tan

before

after

Project: DIY Tiny Patio Table

Just enough room for a cup of coffee or a glass of wine—and perfect for small patios.
For this project you will need:
A small resin statue
A metal plant stand
A round piece of wood
Spray paint
Nano or Gorilla glue
I got my bird statue at the Dollar Tree, the plant stand at a thrift store, and the paint and glue at my local hardware store.  Resin statues and plant stands are easy to find at Ross, Big Lots, yard sales, etc. Mine came with the wood already inside, but Michaels has a good selection of precut round pieces of wood.
Then I just glued the bird to the wood (I love Nano glue), let it dry overnight, and painted the whole thing white. Really, you could use any color or combination of colors (it looked cute pre-paint and would have been fine for a more rustic porch), but I like the uniformity of one color and white makes everything look sculptural and antique. 

Staging: Hi ho, Silver! (metallic paint)

The thing I love about painting with metallics is the way the finished painting changes appearance as the light changes throughout the day. I wound up hanging this one in the bedroom just so I can watch all of the different appearances it takes on. Silver is by far my favorite.
A simple metallic painted canvas is also a great way to scatter light around a dark room for staging or decorating. You can get a large piece of "artwork" for next to nothing by buying a used canvas at a thrift store and painting it with craft paint or a metallic spray paint. Serious budget art, with a serious impact--no cat required!

Project: Great Legs! (Patio table)

It's safe to say I fell in love with this little table because it has great legs because the colors certainly weren't moving me! One coat of Clark & Kensington Beach House and a decoupage butterfly later, and it is perfect for my patio. In fact, it is so pretty that I'm trying to find a place for it in the house!

Project: Thank you, I'll do it myself

It seems that once you start fixing things up around the house or fixing up thrift store finds, you suddenly decide you can probably fix just about anything. I recently munched a piece of the trim work on my car and decided that I could fix it myself and save a ton of money, which I did.

However, it turns out the auto-body guys would have earned their $175 dollars changing out the little piece below my tail light. We pulled out the lining and took out the tail light and discovered that the piece was riveted in. No big deal, drill out the rivets and replace them with little bolts. However, in order to do that, we first had to take off the bumper cover--a process that involved watching two youtube videos that explained how to take the front bumper off a Corolla and then reading and carefully re-reading the eHow instructions for getting the back bumper off. This is similar to taking off the front bumper but also involves take apart the back part of the trunk and cussing a lot. Anyway, we got it all apart before the sun went down and got it back together this morning. I did decide during this process that John and I would not make a good mechanic team. My little OCD compels me to keep all of the little pieces collected in a bowl so I can find them easily to put them back. John was popping out plugs and taking out nuts and just tossing them in the trunk or in his tool box, which about sent me over the edge, and I nearly killed him this morning when I couldn't find one of the lining plugs. Luckily I found it caught in the afghan I keep in the trunk or I might be in jail right now. Although to be honest, the tire iron that comes with a Corolla would be pretty hard to kill someone with.
Also, I love my car, but if freaks me out how much of it is made of plastic and Styrofoam. Still, this was a fix it project that stretched my creativity to another level, and one that I am proud of the results of. John says that I now need to wash and wax my whole car so that it is as shiny and new and the new piece, but I'm thinking it will be easier to just take a little drive down a dirt road.

Project: A Splash of Lime (Cheap exterior art)

Sometimes all it takes to make a flea market find into something really cool is a solid coat of a fun color:

before