Making Over A Kid's Table & Chairs, Part 1

I am a bit behind... I still owe you a 2nd post about our Christmas 2012. You will see it over on The Etc Lists within the next couple weeks. For Christmas, I gave a little table and chairs set. It is called Latt and it is from Ikea. As usual, I couldn't leave the set just like I bought it. I had to dress it up a bit. Also, as usual, it took me about 10 extra tries to get it right. You get to see all of my exciting spazzy errors in Part 2 of the Ikea Table.

Here is the before and after:

I do love some green!

I always start a project with some serious brainstorming. I think about the colors I want to use and I picture what kind of vibe I want to end up with. As soon as my brain has exhausted all of its ideas I head on over to the Google machine. I like to see what other people have come up with. 

From my brainstorming I knew that I wanted a chalkboard top and plenty of color.

Here are some of my favorites Latt Hacks (the sources are at the end of this post):

A colorful top! I hadn't even considered just painting one area. Google was already up 1 on me.

Fabric and paint! Fantastic! I loved the idea, but was worried about the durability. 

Another inspired person wrapped their Latt chairs in fabric. Pretty funky! 

Who doesn't love a map! This one is super neat, but not quite the vibe I was going for. 

This Map Latt was closer to my vibe, but I do not have near enough talent to make that.

A chalkboard top! And, they color-blocked the chairs. A great idea! 

I was excited to find this one. Ikea green was one of the colors I was considering. So, I was happy to see that someone else had already tested it out for me. And, with a chalkboard top! This was about as close as I was going to get to what I was looking for. 

I drew up a possible design for the chair tops in my favorite program, Microsoft Paint. I wasn't sure what colors I wanted to use so I drew up 4 possibilities.

Now you know the riveting process that went into my Latt-hacking. I'm sure you are losing your mind with excitement about Part 2 coming up soon. 

I will give you one more sneak peak. This photo is from the first time I showed Cora that you could write on the table with chalk. I wrote, "Cora's Big Girl Table" and she insisted that I also draw a hat. So, a sombrero was drawn.

Time for Wednesday's Weekly Rather Question:

WYR:

dfsf be caught in a serious nose pick on national TV (like this guy)

or

have to wear a very strange cartoon-looking sombrero (like the one I drew above) 2 hours per day every day for the next year?

sources: fabric topped, yarn wrapped, maps, color blocked- green, color blocked- yellow, red with map

The Master Bedroom Chronicles: Step 7: Make Some Wedding-Related Art

Last week, we jumped back into the Master Bedroom Chronicles with headboard-making in process.

Waaaahoooo! I know it didn't take all that much work to put a rug behind the bed, but man oh man was I excited to get that crossed off my list. 

With the headboard started I was on a roll to make the master bedroom better looking. I set my sights on some lovely art to go above the bed. At all times, I have at least 1,000 options of things I could hang up in the house. So, I consulted my stash of the goods and a few lists of other wall hanging ideas. And, I landed on wedding related art. Vague enough for you?

Scott and I got married almost 5 years ago and people do not lie when they say that time flies!

In the wedding invitations, I included a hand drawn map.  A friend of mine was nice enough to draw a picture of each location that needed to be included on the map (the hotel, the reception site, and the ceremony site).  He did an unbelievable job and I have always wanted to do something with his drawings.  

I scanned them into the computer and played with them a bit in Photoshop.  In the end, I used just one of the drawings (the ceremony site).  I colored three prints differently to bring in some of the colors in my bedroom.  I used yellow, blue, and brown.  

I bought a few different pieces of fabric that went with the color scheme in my room.  I put mats in the frames and I figured out which fabric looked best with which print.  The fabric got introduced to the ironing board so I could be sure it was looking its best. 

Mom, I know you're going to comment that I need a new iron and ironing board. 

It seemed like something was missing. Construction paper to the rescue! I made  little border of construction paper matting around each piece print. Then I glued the print onto construction paper so it would stand out a little more. Yep, construction paper was the first thing I thought of to use and I had plenty on hand because I am a 3rd grader. 

It turned out to be a little tricky to get the construction-papered prints to stay on the fabric.  So, I cut a hole in the center of the fabric (making sure I did it in a place where it wouldn't be seen).  I put a piece of paper behind the fabric and glued that piece of paper to the back of the construction paper. I am 100% positive there was an easier way to do this, but that was what I came up with.

I measured and hung them. It is never perfect on the first try so there may be an extra hole or two behind the paintings.

We are just a few steps away from crossing a Chronicle off our list!

Here are the steps from the whole process:

Step 1: Move in. Throw a bunch of random stuff into the room and live with it for a while to figure out how we wanted to use the space.

Step 2: Rearrange the furniture and add a seating area.

Step 3: Redo a desk with a funky chevron pattern.

Step 4: Redo an old chair for the desk.

Step 5: New comforter and lamps.

Step 6: Headboard, Part 1

Step 7: Make some wedding related art.

Step 8: New entertainment center.

Step 9: Add some new art

Step 10: Headboard, Part 2. Finishing touches. Try to bring it all together.

Artin' The Roof Away

Art goes on the playground, on a ladder, on plants, on a baby, in the closet, in Michigan, and...

ON THE ROOF!

Raise the roof, ya'll! 

FYI I hardly every say ya'll in real life, but I couldn't imagine saying raise the roof without "ya'll" for some reason. So, whoop there it is!

I also did a little gutter clean while I was up there.

Art In The Closet

Yes, that's the way we roll around here. Art goes everywhere... even in the closet. Especially when it is hiding my jewels (READ: my dollar store beads).

I used to have my necklaces hanging on hooks in the closet (FYI I LOVE HOOKS) but it was not doing anything to class the place up. So, I hid them! Clearly, that is the next step... hang your necklaces behind a piece of art. 

 I don't wear necklaces very often so this is a good solution for me. They are accessible but out of the way. Another plus to having them hidden is that Cora won't get ahold of them and tangle them into craziness.

I wanted something in this spot because it seemed too blank. I know that putting art in your closet is not the normal thing to do. But you can see the wall that I hung the art on very well from the master bathroom. And the blank spot was calling my name. 

Please excuse the half-doneness of the bathroom. It is a work in progress.

I figured out where I wanted the paintings to go and put them up.

I don't love these paintings. I will probably redo them soon. I will be sure to give you a little blog update when I do!

Then, I put a few extra nails behind them and up my bling bling went.

I have also considered putting canvas on a hinge to hide a flat screen TV. Art can hide all sorts of things- like ugly security system boxes or outlets. 

And now for today's Would You Rather question!

WYR... have to wear sunglasses all the time except for when you are sleeping
or 
have to wear one (just one) huge pirate earring in your ear all the time (pictured below)?

happiest pirate ever image from here

PS this was another Scott WYR.

Art On A Ladder

I told you that when I was growing up I liked to put a lot of time and energy into decorating my room and I showed you all the crazy things I did to it.

I did not tell you that I used to keep a ladder in my room. 

I saved up my money and bought a wooden ladder. Mainly, because I thought it would be awesome to have a ladder in your room. It could be used as extra seating. I could use it in my acrobatic routine. And it was a little helpful when I needed to put more pictures of The Muppet Babies on my ceiling.

I painted the ladder yellow.

I googled yellow ladder and this image came up. I have a million smurf miniatures. So, who knows... maybe this was my inspiration.

Here is the point in this post where you get more of a glimpse of what a weirdo I was (AM). I would lay on the ground and try to do tricks where I twirled the ladder around with my legs. I did these tricks ALLLLL the time. I even impressed my company with them (READ: made my company think I was stranger than they originally thought). Most of the time I would end up accidentally throwing the ladder into the wall or conking myself on the head with it.

I really am one strange dudette.

On with the show...

I have stopped using a ladder as part of a gymnastics routine but I have no stopped decorating my house with them. As you are probably starting to realize, Scott and I always have at least 300 projects going on at one time. Many of them involve a ladder. And many of them go on for 6 months to 3 years (no joke... we are SLOW). 

For the first time in a few months, we do not have any indoor ladders. We do have a couple of outdoor ones up that are ready to be gymnast-ified. The ladder pictured below is a little too metal and a little too big (my old one was only 6 feet tall and couldn't be stretched into a big one like this).

So, as you may have guessed from the title of the post, I will use the ladder as an art display for you.

This photo is basically an M.C. Escher "trick your mind" painting. Not really, but it does look like the two yellow, blue, and white paintings are one big painting. Big gotcha of the day- they are 2 separate paintings. You will get to see those ones again on the big bonus room reveal.

There you have it, folks. That is what they call "art on a ladder."

And what you all are really here for... the daily 

Would You Rather Question!

WYR... everything you see is tinted a shade of green

or

your dominant hand was replaced with a hook?

Artin' It Up With My Cous', Bobby Ross

Who didn't love watching Bob Ross paint? Along with teaching you how to paint mountains he taught you life lessons.

Here are some of my favorite Bob Ross life lessons:

• People look at me like I'm a little strange when I go around talking to squirrels and rabbits and stuff. That's ok. Thaaaaat's just ok. (This one is for Scott!)

• You can put as many or as few as you want in your world.

• We don't make mistakes. We just have happy accidents.

• You can do anything you want to do. This is your world.

• Any time ya learn, ya gain.

• We're gonna make some big decisions in our little world.

• The only thing worse than yellow snow is green snow.

Those life lessons are clearly some of the greatest you will ever hear. I'll be sure to include a little more of Bob's infinite wisdom in my life (and my blog). He had a lot of important things to share with the world.

Bob and I may not have the same art style but at least we have the same hair style (in my dreams).

Here are a couple of paintings I did the other night. I wanted to include more but I had to spend last night trying to repair my electronic forcefield instead of painting. Not my favorite paintings but you get to see them anyway. As usual, I tried to keep them interesting for you with a good backdrop!

Question: Huge bear or tiny painting?

Where's the bear?

Answer: Huge bear (Thank you, Shauna. Cora LOVES her big bear).

Full disclosure: Mr. Bob Man Ross is not really my cousin.

Good day to you! And in the words of my friend, Bob, "Let's get crazy!"

More Art!

The theme this week seems to be MORE so I'm going with it...

A couple of weeks ago you got Art For Kelly and now you get more.

Does anyone want take a little gander at some art by a spazzy lady? To make it more interesting (READ: weird) I photographed some of it at the playground with Cora. Don't worry, I tried to wait until all the other playgrounders were gone before I ran to the car and busted out the art gallery.

But... I didn't try hard enough. I played the waiting game with a little girl and her babysitter. They won. They got to see me go from the normal mom saying "wheeeee" as she pushed her daughter on the swing to the crazy lady who puts paintings on the slide. They definitely seemed confused about the whole thing. Fair thing to be confused about, I think. Poor Cora- she has a wacky mama.

And so the weirdness begins

The playground always works well to de-crank Cora when she's acting sassy.

Gravel is fascinating!

Where's the baby?

This looks, to me, a little like a still-shot out of a suspense movie.

The art gallery comes home.

A little weirdness for the neighbors to see too.

So, there they are. A few paintings out on the town.


But wait, there's more randomness for you... I save lots of picture of things that I think are beautiful. I have a ridiculous collection of scraps of paper around the house and jpegs on my computer. I'll look at these pictures for inspiration sometimes while I'm painting.

Somehow I came across a store called Casa Ideas. It has locations in a few South American countries. They have bucket-loads of awesome, art-inspiring merchandise.

Here are a few things that I will keep in mind the next time I paint:

If you want to see some more art-related posts I have got them for you!

Here is some art I painted for my sister. Here are some animals that inspire art. And a little circle art for you.

Annnnnnd the answers from Sunday's WYR questions:

• Live in a world that has real unicorns rather than live in a world where there is a rainbow every other day

• Even Split: Have to drink 3 cups of pickle juice every day or have to wear a huge pink tutu every day

• Even Split: Never be allowed to sing again (even when you are alone) or the only thing you can watch on TV (or stream online) is sports

• Always smell a good bit like cat pee rather than only leave the house when it is dark out

Art For Kelly

My sister moved to Michigan. What a strange thing to say. 

My sister's neighborhood is gorgeous. The university that she is teaching at looks awesome. I am sure Michigan is great. I just didn't imagine that one day I would paint a bunch of paintings for my sister so she could pick which one she wanted to put up... in her house... IN.MICHIGAN!

My sister moved to Michigan.
Yep, it is still strange to say.

Michigan is so cold and so far away.

North Carolina was sad to see her go.

Michigan was excited to have her in town.

Here is a photo of my sister the day that she drove off to Michigan in her "Sweat Corvette," Sir Chauncy Weatherspoon.

Cora is CRAZY for her Aunt Kelly (pronounced Ahhhnt). She was soooo sad to see her go. After Kelly drove away Cora stood at the front door blowing kisses until I carried her away. It should also be noted that  Kelly is just getting some quick directions on her phone. She gave Cora plenty of attention before and after this photo was taken.

That sweet looking '97 Jetta did not have air conditioning for about 75% of the time it spent in North Carolina's 100+ degree summer. Hence the reason for the "sweat" part of its name. The "corvette" part is because my sister apparently fancies herself a corvette lady. If you knew her you would think that is insane.

Here is a List of the things Kelly loves. After you read it you tell me if this person would be the type of person who loves a Corvette. 

• Harry Potter. Actually, ANY book.
• Coffee
• Hygiene products
• The Back to the Future Triology
• English muffins (LIKE THEY ARE GOING OUT OF STYLE)
• School supplies
• Dinosaurs
• Anything with writing (if you want to have a conversation with her keep the magazines very far away)
• UNC Basketball (this came on strong OUT OF NOWHERE 2 years ago)
• The Beatles
• And plenty of other un-Corvette-y things

Actually, now that I read this list Kelly sounds a bit like a 10 year old boy (a nerdy one) and 10 year old boys do enjoy a car magazine or two.

OK- back to the whole reason for this post... ART FOR KELLY.

Kelly asked me to paint her something for her new house. So I have painted 8 paintings (some are sets). Kelly gets to choose which one she wants. And you all get to come along for the ride (sorry, not for a ride in the "Sweat Corvette" though. Sir Chauncy is a busy beaver).

1. Three paintings in a tree! If you choose this one you get three!

2. This is Cora's favorite. She carried it around for a little while.

3. good, ol' spotty

4. circle time

5. Cora is testing out the durability of this painting.

6. Yep! Another painting in a tree!

7. circle bud #2

8. If you choose this one you get two paintings. The sweet hammock baby is not included.

OK Ahhhhnt Kelly, which one will it be?

Everyone else, I would love to have you weigh in on which one you think she should choose!