inspired painting.

I just finished a painting for a client, based off of examples she sent me from Ballard's and a couple of other places. She wanted calming blues and greens, with a touch of yellow.

It's an inspired landscape - or maybe more of a seascape. Depending on the way you look at it, I think it can represent dusk or dawn, and a rainy or a pretty day.

I did lots of processes on this piece, including placing it out in the drizzling rain for a little while!

(after the rain)

this is my little container of a blue wash I was using - I thought the colors were pretty. Almost marble-like.

This is a trick I learned in college, in a watercolor class: sprinkle salt onto your painting, and the paint almost pushes away from it, to create pretty little dots. (Plus, I like how it looks like sand on the "beachy" painting) Kosher salt is better, because it's bigger, but I didn't have any.

My favorite part is these blue patina-like drips on the "ocean".

H&H on One King's Lane!

My friends/clients Heather and Helen from H&H Home (who I painted this and this for) are having a sale on One King's Lane right now. So cool. If you are in the market for some beautiful furniture or accessories, please check out their sale!

a taste of the goodness!

I want all 4 of these for my imaginary terrace...

I love this chair, and will be sad to see it go to another home...

red! bamboo!

a new "nest" for baby.

A few months ago, I worked on this nursery for a dear friend of mine. I loved how her nursery turned out, so I wanted to share it with you guys.

I love the neutral palette (with just a hint of blue, for the baby boy). Check out my Moroccan stencil in khaki and off-white:

I adore the bird/bird's nest theme that Tasha picked out...

the "nest" painting above the dresser was purchased at the Dogwood Festival here in Atlanta, and was created by Holly Hambrick. Those adorable bird lamps are from Homegoods.

here is the other side of the room, where the crib is:

Tasha made the sign hanging above the baby's crib by tracing a drawing I did for her on a piece of plywood. Her mom then drew in the Bible verse, and Tasha added the sweet faux bird and egg "chain". A labor of love, huh?

here is another cute little decoration Tasha made:

The Manzanita Tree branch was purchased online, and Tasha added the birds for a whimsical touch.

chinese lanterns nursery!

Happy Monday! Last week, I painted this nursery for a sweet little girl that is making her way to live with her new family here in Atlanta. She will come all the way from China, so her mom and dad wanted to give her some Chinese lanterns on her nursery walls. I thought it was such a cute idea, and this is how I did it:

there are cherry blossoms on the lanterns, and a big cherry blossom "blooms" from the top right corner of the room.

my new paintings.

Last weekend, I did these 2 paintings for my bedroom:

I wanted something graphic and bold for that wall. I always feel like rooms that are "designed" tend to look too feminine, so I needed something to balance out the light, airy look. I saw this image from Lonny, which was part of my inspiration:

I didn't cover my entire canvases, because they are big, and I didn't want THAT much of a tangley mess.

here it is at night, with the lamps on...

this is my favorite part. I like to do drips on my paintings, for some reason, and so I did a few on these. I love how the drip on this right one stopped right where the circle swoops through. A happy accident.

For some reason, the paintings remind Jordan of this guy:

his name is Graucho Marx, and he was a comedian. Don't ask me how Jordan knows who he is, or really why the paintings inspired Jordan to point this out (other than the glasses, I guess...), but I have named the paintings "Graucho Marx"

The End.

maasai's nursery.

the past few days, i've been working on a nursery for a little baby boy that will be named maasai - after the african tribe. what a cool name, huh? his mom wanted to create a jungle-themed nursery for him, and that's what i did!

here are the pics:

i did a lion, elephant, a tree, some birds, and a giraffe...

i also painted the sky with some clouds!

the ceiling sloped upwards.

i love this guy:

and this guy:

and this is the coolest part - the maasai tribe have a certain necklace that they wear, and my client wanted to represent it in the room. i thought it best to tie it into the look of the mural, so i painted it around the lightswitch in the colors i used for the mural:

it's more of a decorative "frame" that is inspired by the necklace. i thought this was such a cool idea, and what a great learning tool for the baby.

painted kitchen table and chairs

last week, i completed this fun kitchen table and chairs makeover.

stacey has had the table for many, many years, and the chairs were bought from a local library sale. both were due for a makeover, and we decided to do something different and fun with them.

here is the before:

and the colorful after!

she sent me a photo of the table all ready for dinner tonight, and look how cute it is:

aren't the different-colored chairs fantastic with her fiestaware? i love it!

i made a headboard!

i've been wanting to try my hand at building a headboard for a long time now, and this past week, i finally got around to it. and yes, apparently i'm redecorating my bedroom - when inspiration strikes, i get crazy.

first, i had a piece of large MDF cut down for me at lowe's. i had the rectangular elements sized at the store (much easier!),then when i came home, i knew i'd have to do the details with my saw.

i drew out a template for the design i wanted. i traced it on with a sharpie, then i took it to the other side of the headboard, flipped it over, and traced again. that way they're both even.

next, i just sawed out the shapes with my skil saw.

i used an "egg crate" foam bed cover from walmart for my padding (rather than upholstery foam, which is much more expensive). it was only about $15 - i used a twin sized one.

i stapled it all down with lots of staples, being sure to pull tight to get a more professional look.

i bought a twin size sheet to use as my "fabric", too. it's just sometimes much more inexpensive to think outside the box when it comes to materials. sheets bought at discount stores are much cheaper than buying fabric by the yard, and usually the patterns are pretty cute! in this case, i just wanted a simple tan, so i knew it'd be easy to find.

here is what the headboard looked like before i hung it on the wall:

i attached two D-brackets to the back to hang it on my wall.

and voila!

it was truly VERY easy. the thing that took the longest was hanging it on the wall. hah!

it's so nice to have something soft to lean our heads on, rather than the wall!

and yes, i've done a lot more in my room, too. i'll share details on those things later in the week.

you may have noticed this little dude lounging on the bed. he looks like he's been laying here for hours, and that i am really interrupting him for my little photoshoot. in actuality, he ran upstairs as soon as i began the photoshoot, and managed to get into "lazy cat" character pretty fast. what a little showboat.

all in all, i'm very happy!