I can't just exercise I need an activity,

I can't just exercise I need an activity, so I decided to walk the trail by my house and take pictures! I had no clue how far I was going to walk but I was going to walk! So these are the items that I brought with me:
spring water, sketch pad, pens, ipod, phone, wallet, and some fruit

There were a bunch of these butterfly's hanging out so I was able to grab a couple snap shots of them.
I thought this was a neat tree with the contrast from the sky and the death of the tree.

Mushroom Hunting in the Garden

As I was watering and weeding this morning I noticed there were a few mushrooms that had sprouted up over night. So I decided to hunt through garden and found that there were several. Fungi has always been intriguing to me. It has all sorts of different textures from slimy to powdery. The arrays of colors that they are is quite amazing as well. Here are a few shots I took of the mushrooms I found today that I thought were interesting...

Various Stages of the Artwork for our Bedroom

Here is a sampling of the pieces of artwork I am working on for our bedroom. As you can see I am using a bunch of different materials and they are in various stages of completion. So far I am happy with the progress as well as how things are turning out. You truly never know how something is going to turn out until it is done!

Project Artwork for Bedroom!

I have had different ideas of big projects I was going to do regarding artwork for some area of our house. The ideas have melded over the years and I finally think that I can put some of this together for the artwork that will fill our room. I have always been a big fan of positive negative and to completely different things coexisting within the same space. I am taking a bunch from nature but all bringing in the elements of the city. Using different textures to accomplish this will be the fun part!
I got some shims and some half sheet plywood that I am cutting down for frames and bases for some of the work that I am putting together.

When I got the plywood I also perused through the aisle to see what other random things I could find and get inspired by. Here is a collection of the things I will be using.
My curiosity lays into when this will be done! So far it is going rather smoothly and I am hoping to continue this pace!

Backyard Blooms Inspiration

This vine has finally bloomed and I love it's soft delicate color and the sharpness of the green new buds developing flowers of their own.
This was a gift from a friends mom last year and it has latched on to the earth and grown significantly. This shot will probably be used in one of the art pieces I am doing for our bedroom, since we have some leaf like accents in our lighting and curtains. I love bringing the outside in.
You know summer is coming to an end when the hasta's start to flower, their fragrance is intoxicating yet subtle in the evening breeze.
The new addition to the garden, thank you Lowes we love your clearance outdoor items they are the best!

Curtains have been Created...with only a few hiccups!

Yesterday afternoon when all my curtain assembling materials were obtained, I moved on to measuring and cutting. Every time I cut fabric I wish that I would have cut it at the store where I could get a straight line, until I realized that my awesome collapsible ikea table would serve the purpose for a straight guide for my scissors.


Then I moved on to pinning the sides and also ironing a crease to hold a nice straight edge for sewing. I did this to both curtains and then spent several trips into the steamy attic to look for the sewing machine. On my third sweep through the attic I decided I was going to go rubbermaid by rubbermaid until I found the damn thing. At one point I threatened to buy another one, until I found it at the bottom of a laundry bin...


I get everything all set up, get the tunes going, have the bobbin in place and start to sew. Well, for about a second, when the bobbin kept effing off (for the lack of a better term) over and over and over. Usually I am able to get it going for a bit but this was getting ridiculous, I could have been done by now...


So I headed over to our lovely walmart and bought this new Project Runway addition sewing machine. Pretty funny huh? I bring it home check out the manual and fire this puppy up. The bobbin system is so much easier to deal with because you can see what is going on and the stitch is unbelievable. I zipped through these curtains in now time flat.


Stella enjoying the sun poking through her new curtains.


Overall this was a successful project! The fabric was a super good price, nice thickness and an easy pattern to work with. It was super easy to have both of the curtains matching without having an excess of leftover fabric.

Today, I am off to get some knobs, a better tie back solution, and some ideas for framing the artwork for the walls.

The Creative Process for Curtains

The more I work on projects the more I realize it is important to have a creative process to make sure that you aren't missing anything. I have been thinking about the design for our bedroom curtains and it is finally the day that I have put aside to bust these out.


I decided to make some sketches and take some notes to make sure that I was approaching this the right way. I also need to make sure that I have all the necessary supplies. When I got to thinking I realized that I couldn't make a tie back out of the material that the curtains are going to be made from, as it is very thick and wouldn't serve the look I was going for. Instead I am going to get a really thick bright ribbon that I am going to sew to the back, so it's always attached and can't get lost.


My other challenge was will this look funny if it doesn't go to the floor? so I decided to sketch it out and then of course made a phone call to my sister to see if she thought it would look ridiculous or not. She said, "no, it will look just fine."

Off to the fabric store to get some sturdy thread and a big old ribbon. The real question is will I get it all done today or will I have to wait til tomorrow to see the results?

Contract Job just about Done, New Projects getting Started

I am back from working my long days in the big city and ready to start some new projects, get the garden into shape and take pictures and notes along the way.


I have been wanting to redo our bedroom for a bit of time now and have finally found exactly what I want to do, but I don't want to put too much money into it and I definitely did not want to paint, right now. I found some great fabric at Ikea as well as a bunch of accessories for the new updated brighter bedroom. Luckily I was able to find a fabric that went with the current paint color spanish moss but also added some lighter soothing colors with an accent of brightness.


We have had the same hardware and curtains since before we were engaged so I thought swapping out the curtains would make a major change and the easiest way to add some color. But I didn't really want to swap out the hardware since it was a huge pain in the ass mounting the current ones. So I decided to go with a more convenient and thrifty plan. I am going to paint the old ones which will change the texture of the glass and the color will be updated to be a brighter, more cohesive color with the fabric I have chosen.


This is half way through my first coat of paint.



This is the finished product which I think will accent the design concept a bit better then the originals. Next plan of attack is finding a good template for some window coverings.

New Additions to the Garden

A new Lowes opened near our house recently so we went to explore...right now is the time to pick up annuals for you garden because they are great prices and you will still have a while to enjoy them until it frosts. I wanted to link back to Lowes so I went to their website and put in the name of the flower Mandeville and to my surprise they give you all the necessary info for taking care of your plant so go check it out. This is a great database for new gardeners to learn the basics and to have a photo to compare. For me that has been the hardest part is identifying what should be in the garden and what shouldn't be, ie. weeds. As good as a job the previous homeowner did in planting it, I had no clue what to do, so I have been gardening trial and error but think I am getting a grasp for it. Adding my own annuals have helped add color and also a name to search for. With the Lowes gardening website it will be easier to bookmark and catalog the plants that I have so when next spring comes around it will be easier to know what to do.



Of course no garden is complete without butterfly's so I got this bush. I have several other butterfly flowers in the garden that have long lasting bright flowers. Every year I notice more humming birds fluttering around the backyard.

Spring Motto Less is More

Almost a year ago I posted pictures of my then newly organized studio, (above) here is my studio with the motto of Less is more! (below)



Having put our house on the market a few weeks ago and all the preparatory work that you do before it is ready to show for the public. Over the weeks leading up I started removing things and just clearing out all clutter, moved furniture to optimize the space, put color where color was needed. Our house is so much easier to live in now thus this is the year of Less is More!

Daily Dose of Inspiration...Outdoor Animals and the People that Own Them!

We are going on our 4th year of living in this house, with neighbors very close! For instance the side of our neighbors garage is part of our fence, so we get to sit and stare at their paint chipping, shingle spewing garage. I have gone over every spring since we have lived here to let them know it is getting worse and starting to rot and within a month my rose bush (that somewhat covers the side of the garage) will be in full bloom and a force to reckon with. They have said every year they were going to take care of it and every year they don't. I am being super stubborn about this but realize that I am the only person to get the job done!

Back to the title of this post, they also have a cat, who is pretty young and they just let him roam around, he doesn't know the law of the land, like their last cat. So this little stinker keeps jumping up on the fence when my cats are having a peaceful time outside in their fenced in area! Also, I have my suspicions that the cat hasn't been fixed, it has been spraying the bushes in the front yard! Yes, most disgusting I was out trimming the foliage and it reeked of cat pee!

So there are a few things wrong with this picture, for instance YOUR FREE ROAMING cat isn't FIXED! There are a lot of random cats in the neighborhood but most of them wear collars and are rather docile and not very street smart and FIXED. But there are a handful of alley cats that don't need to have anymore baby's! My second point is my yard smells like cat piss! Lastly, this backyard is MY kitties playground, not yours!

Furthermore, if you have dogs and live in our neighborhood, you need to walk them!!! We have tiny yards, yeah you over there with the flying shingles you have 4 dogs and in a postage stamp sized yard!

I could carry on for a bit longer but I will spare you the pain!

Crafts Part II

Today I started adding the tissue paper to the background and am realizing that it takes quite a bit more so it isn't so see through.





Here are the first few layers.



here are a considerable amount of layers added here. I like the way how when you overlap multiple colors you get interesting combination's