... The World Would Be a Dark Place.

I'm so thankful for that quote. It's perfect! Thank you, guitar lesson teacher! My hobbies are experiencing a cross-over event hahahahaha ...

I seemed to be on overload with thinking of little projects over the past few weeks. It really started toward the end of February when my brain was frying through the social isolation of the pandemic, and I had to figure out new things to do! All of these projects are silver linings for me because they have been super fun! 

Some of my endeavors transform one of our ottomans into a painting spot:

Sometimes I'm on the couch with the ottoman, and sometimes I'm on the floor. Either way, the picnic tablecloth is often a life saver. 😉

Much like the stash of baker's twine I had that was just waiting to fulfill its destiny, I've had some mini canvasses on hand blankly staring at me. Then, one day, I was scrolling through a miniatures feed on Facebook and came across someone who made lovely, mini Van Goghs. I specifically recall her version of Starry Night as painted in non-traditional colors, like reds and oranges, and it inspired me to give it a try myself. Here's my first one:

I just love pushing acrylic paint around, so this was fun. I was reasonably happy with the outcome, but I kept discovering ways on the fly to work with the paint to make it look even better, and I decided I must try again focusing on my favorite parts:

I loooooooooved how this one turned out! With all due respect, I'm no fan of Van Gogh, so I didn't feel compelled to maintain the tree or the housing situation at the bottom. I continued to incorporate different colors because they appealed to me, and I love the turnout. I did go back through the feed to review the original picture I saw of Starry Night in non-traditional colors, and, wouldn't you know, my mind totally made that up because what I saw was a replica of the original in tiny form. I dunno.

Moving along, an artist I absolutely do love is Franz Marc. I was introduced to his work in an Art History class I took in college to fulfill a humanities requirement (I'll say it: ugh.). His is the only work that salvaged my interest in that class as well as the only reason I held on to the textbook. Years ago, I recreated his Blue Horses painting for our own home, so I thought The House needed a nod to his work:

This one is called Purple Fox. (Damn-betcha our Art History professor never tested us on the titles of his work because those would have been easy points. But, I digress ...) This, too, is in acrylics. And, this, too, will eventually be in real-people size in our house because we love it! 

Here these three are in the craft room of The House:

I also finally hung this one that I made a couple of years ago:

That's my own creation. No title as of yet. 😊

With the acrylics still out, I had to keep going! This time, I found inspiration from a sticker sheet I have:

With 2" x 2" canvasses in my stash, you know what's coming!

I really enjoyed creating these as it just takes me back to the days my own Boy fell in love with Toy Story and just knew he, himself, was Buzz Lightyear! Anyway, it was interesting to do these after having done that larger-than-life mural on his actual wall (see February's "Paintings Big and Small"). I didn't realize at the time of creating that mural the gift of space I had to work with color and shading. These little canvasses presented new challenges, so I spent some time deciding the extent to which I would work with them while keeping the project fun. I love how they turned out, and they look quite fab hanging in the room!

There's one more piece to show! So, there I was, back in early February, scrolling on Facebook, and I came across a stunning painting with the most vibrant colors! It is of a tree-lined pathway, and it looks like it was made by a rainbow violently sneezing on a canvass. It's SO beautiful! And, my mind made the leap that it is another Franz Marc piece given the colors. I screen shot it to one day paint.

Fast-forward about a month, and Easter rolled around. My Girl put a set of water colors from Target's new craft line in my basket, and it, too, possesses really rich colors. Yes, rich water colors. I said it. No, I did not think it possible. To me, this was the perfect time to attempt this painting!

I got back in my stash of small canvasses and went to work. I guessed canvass wasn't the best for water colors, but I wanted to see what happened. THIS is what happened:

TA-DA!! It's just ... yum ...

So, remember when I just knew I saw a Van Gogh replica where my recollection was completely wrong? That seems to be a theme! I recently researched and researched and researched Franz Marc's works to find the name of the original of this painting, and I just could not find it anywhere. Huh. That happens when researching the wrong artist! Sheesh. It turns out I simply made an assumption about the artist based on the colors and impressionist style. It's not Franz Marc, though. It's Leonid Afremov.

And, now, I have two, favorite artists. And, I know Afremov wasn't presented in Art History class because I would have remembered. Not that my recent recollections support that hahahaha.

This is another I want to work with for my own house. It's called Farewell To Anger. I took a little peek at info about Afremov, and he created most, it seems, of his paintings with oils, acrylics, a wide brush and a palette knife. I'll stick with acrylics as I know nothing about using oils and will leave that to the masters! I wouldn't mind trying this again in miniature in acrylics and with a canvass that is prepped with a few coats of gesso to lessen the canvass weave. But, until then, I think it looks just great displayed in the family room!

It just gets homier and homier!! That concludes this installment of the gallery around The House! But, I can't sign off without sharing a peek of a new resident:

That's Stretch. You see why. And, I had to have him. My Girl already calls this the animal hoarder house, so why not live right up to that! And, why not throw in a cat pic for good measure to wrap this up?

Let your space be light and bright wrapped in the aesthetics you love!

If Aesthetic Didn't Matter ...

I recently told my guitar lesson teacher over text that I chose one tuning app over another because it was prettier. I figured he'd let that comment slide and chalk it up to me just being me. To my wonderful surprise, he texted back: "If aesthetic didn't matter, the world would be a dark place."

To that kind of end, this post is all about the decor endeavors, from floor to walls, in The House!!

A few weeks ago, I decided it was important to work with some of the baker's twine I have, so I decided on a couple of projects. First, I made this: 

One of the art projects we made in our 6th grade art class was a macrame plant hanger. My parents went pretty nutty over it and decided I needed to make many, many more. They literally came home from the store one Saturday and plopped a bag full of macrame cords, beads and hanging rings on a table like it was totally normal. I remember eagerly rummaging through the bag and getting to work because I loved to do it, so that worked out well. I made so many over the years that I basically made this miniature one from memory. I did pull up an instruction page on the internet to get an idea of how long to cut the strings, but I just winged the rest. From here, I just need a wall hook, as the length is a little short for the ceilings in The House, and a plant! I will definitely make at least one more of these because it was super fun! I'd put beads in it like I used to, but beads small enough to look good have the teeny-tiniest holes through which the baker's twine won't fit, so I choose to not drive myself insane.

With the stash of baker's twine I have, I had to make more things. After a little internet investigation, I got some ideas for making looms with cardboard and pulled together two area rugs:

After cutting the slits at the top and the bottom of my cereal box loom template, I simply took the twine and wrapped it around and around and around all the way across the back. These get cut in half on the back and are used to tie and create the fringe. Then, I used the extra, because there's quite a bit of it, to add to the line of fringe to thicken it by tying pieces to the top and bottom rows of the rug. A curved needle comes in very handy to make all parts of this project! Here's this rug in action:

And, I made a smaller one with a smaller cardboard template:

This rug has appeared in a previous post, but I'm just now getting around to focusing on showcasing decorations. Life, amiright?

After I satisfied my urge to use the baker's twine, I decided it was time to get things on the walls! Here are some family pictures in progress:

The five pieces to the right  on the white paper are actually cookbooks in the making, so we can ignore those right now. I used balsa pieces for both the books and the frames, though, so I decided to do it all at once. I'd already printed, microglazed and cut the pictures, so they are here just waiting for their frames to dry. I made these easy on myself and decided to just glue the pictures onto the painted piece before applying polycrylic to make it stick for real. Here's the outcome!

I love the varied color finish on the frame. I just used one coat of acrylic paint which soaked right into the balsa. And, I didn't touch it because I liked the outcome. Directly across from these pictures is ...

... the whole gang! I did make this frame. It seems I missed filling one of the corners. Whoopsie. I love it, though! I made this frame, too:

I really took my time with this one, so it looks most awesome to me! I can fix the other if I want. But, I have yet to trim the outside of the house and to even give it shingles, so let's not be holding breath betting on when I'm going to fix a frame hahahaha.

Of course, not all frames are on the walls in real life, so I made some acrylic ones for some of the surfaces. There are three on these shelves:

And, I have one on the nightstand:

These were ri-dic-u-lous-ly easy! I used a piece of plastic from some product or other -- the kind of packaging where the plastic creates a "window" to the product. This plastic wasn't too thick nor too flimsy. That's the best I can say about what I used. I cut it to size with an X-acto, and I simply bent the end along a metal straight edge to create the picture stand. This plastic was perfect to easily bend and stay put. (A little trial and error on plastics that come in and out of a house daily will reveal what to use!) To put "in" the picture, I smeared clear Tacky glue on the back of the frame and stuck the picture facing out onto it. And, that was that! 

The family pictures really give it the family feel I love!! But, that's not all that's been going on! The journey through the aesthetics continues in the next post!

A Blooming Easter!

While Easter came and went in a whirl, I still wanted to document the holiday with a few pics! As always, the Easter Bunny had a grand time putting out eggs to be gathered!

I couldn't help but go ahead and break out some of the flowers, too. And, in the case of the side of The House, I just went for it with new flower borders:

I've been pondering this for about a year. It matches the trellis and front door wreath, so I finally decided it was a MUST! And, I do so loooooooove ...

One of my favorite Easter decorations is this:

There are actually two, swinging bunnies on the front porch vine. They are actually a set of earrings! I got the set for a dollar. Could they be cuter??

The pictures are fewer than most holidays, but I've been busy-busy with other decorations!! The lack of pictures here will make much more sense in the next post. Stay tuned ...

Let There Be Light!

 Let's just start with what evokes a satisfied, little sigh from me:

After a couple of years of contemplating just what to do to light up The House, I finally figured it out!

When I first embarked on building a house, I did some research about doing lighting that required wiring, and there were a number of reasons I opted to not including not wanting to light up every room at the same time as well as knowing I'd be so very annoyed if something happened in the circuit tape causing the lighting to just not happen. While I wasn't sure what I was going to do, I knew I wasn't going to put the time and money into something I definitely knew I did not want.

Fast forward a couple of years, and I put lighting on mental project status. I had figured out ways to use LED string lights to my advantage in a couple of rooms, but I couldn't see that working for the entire house in a way that I would think would look good. I also tried some of the miniature LED light fixtures. While they are cute and add a little touch of light, they do not illuminate a room. And, that was getting unacceptable particularly in my large family room that I was realizing I could enjoy between the hours of 10:05 and 11:27 a.m. when the light was just-so through my window ...

I found it ironic that just as my mind was focused on this issue, I came across a post on a Facebook page I follow dedicated to miniatures where advice for lighting was being solicited. I carefully read through the thread only to (a) be totally validated on my choice not to wire the house (yay!) as those who had done so expressed nothing but eventual frustration, and (b) be inspired to eventually discover my lighting solutions!

Someone posted pictures of using "button lights" she bought off of Amazon. They are small, LED lights that come in a 6-pack, so I bought some which now light up the third floor!

Just under the eave, I stuck these little lights:

There's a switch in the middle that gets flipped to the right, in this picture, to turn it on! I adhered them with Velcro so if the switch is persnickety, I can just pull it out to turn on or off. This will make replacing them easier, too. It's just a little bigger than a quarter and works perfectly!

The light was a little bright for what I wanted in the bedroom, so I colored two of the bulbs with a yellow, alcohol ink marker to tone it down. You can see the difference here between the bedroom and the hall:

I am going to rehang the fairy light strings that were in both of the upstairs rooms because I like the ambiance they create, but I needed to move them to install these. ("Install." I just called sticking Velcro on a light and putting it on a ceiling "install." 😅)

While on the Amazon site, I did some poking around for other lighting ideas, and I kept seeing touch lights that are often in a closet or under a cabinet. I found some on the site that were only a few inches across, and I got excited!! Before ordering, I ventured to WalMart to see if there were options (read: impatient), and, sure enough, I found great ones!! With high ceilings and large rooms, I was able to get ones that are 2.5" and 3" in diameter to take care of all of my needs! Take a look! Let's start in the family room ...

Two lights here are like large, dome lights in real-people houses, and the entire space is visible!! These use AA batteries (2 or 3. I don't remember because who cares?!?!), and it takes just a touch to turn them on and off!! This definitely brings life to the cousin party taking place while watching a little "Puppy Dog Pals" and having snacks!

I intentionally placed one over in the entryway. Hey, did you remember there even is an entryway?! I kind of forgot because it was so dark! Ha! No more! I like the option of just turning it on by itself, too ...

I completely forgot that plant was there under the stairs because I never saw it! Next, I added a light to the kitchen:

These, like all others in The House, are attached with Velcro to make changing them out easy. I added one of the smaller lights to the kitchen work space, but I kept the false ceiling and "can" lighting I made. It's fun to keep that on when no one is actually meal prepping! There's a large one in the eat-in area so people can now see their food, too:

I guess it's time to put some food back on the table then!

And, finally on the first floor, the dining room is ready-ready-ready for entertainment!

The lighting fixture over the table made out of a Death Star model is a must-stay because, you know. Hal. But, having two, big lights in there just makes me happy!! I love seeing in a lit house, from the outside, too:

Moving along upstairs, the bedrooms are all set!

In case you're wondering what's on TV, Polly escaped upstairs (again!) to catch the latest episode of "Nashville" ...

The hallway is now all set with a remote control light ...

... as is the bathroom!

The remote control lights come with the added feature of being able to change lighting modes and colors. I kind of dig the blue for those long, tub soaks that precede time on the bed with chips and favorite show 😄:

I absolutely could not be happier with how this turned out!! It's amazing what being able to actually see anything I want whenever I want does to inspire more developments! Stay tuned!

Paintings Big and Small

I have some incredibly creative friends who found their way through the recent, terrible, indoor-only weather by creating some really fun crafts!! One of them had her dog "paint" for her, so I got our dog in on it, too. Here's what he made for My Girl:

And, here's what he made for My Boy:

But, how'd he do it?! And, what on earth does it have to do with The House? Ohhh ... hang tight because you're in for a treat!

To create the piece, take a blank canvas, and squirt acrylic paint on it in blobs. No neatness or particular planning required (except to leave a spot for 'signing' the work; I messed that up on My Girl's which resulted in a schmeary signature). Then, carefully slide the canvass into a big, plastic bag. Leave the end open because an air pocket will prevent the painting. Pre-treat the side of the bag facing up with something like peanut butter that your dog wants very badly to lick a lot. Tape down the corners of the bag to the floor if you don't want it pushed all over the room. Finally, let your pooch go to town licking to spread the paint! The signature part is up to you. My friend's efforts required both a bath and a change of clothes 😂. Our dog is quite good with the signature, but it takes me about 20 minutes to get all of the paint out of his pads and fur to keep it off the couch.

Given that much of the inspiration for decorating The House comes from my own family, I had to have replicant paintings on display! So, I blobbed the mini canvasses  ...

and, I put them both in a quart bag. I taped the backs of them to the inside of the bag itself so they wouldn't slide around too much inside of it. As soon as I put the bag on the floor, our dog immediately abandoned his own food and came over toward me. He knew what time it was! Art Time!!

"I'm sooooo ready!! *slurrrrp!*

After I got it taped to the floor, the artist went to work!

"All hail peanut butter! Down with kibble!"

And, with that, The House has two new masterpieces! This one is across from the little girl's room ...

... while this one is in the boy's room!

Both of my own kids chose colors that reflect something about them. My Girl intentionally chose berry tones to go with a space she is intentionally decorating. My Boy's colors were selected specifically to reflect those that remind him of one of his all-time favorite movies, Toy Story (he definitely believed he was Buzz Lightyear when he was a child!). And, this worked very well to go along with the decoration I finally figured out how to hang in that room of The House! Here it is:

This is a picture of a large mural I painted in his room when he was a kid. The mural itself was 7 feet by 4.5 feet, and I had the best time painting it! I thought it would be a fun addition to the boy's room, so I printed out a copy of the picture on a piece of regular ol' paper and treated it with micro glaze to keep it from smearing. I then adhered the picture to a piece of card stock, using a tape runner with permanent adhesive, to give it some durability. I then sat with that piece on my work table for about a year as I've debated so many ways to stick it to the wall. I hoped to do so in such a way that I could one day remove it, if desired, without having to scrape it off. I conveyed my conundrum to my crafty friend Cindy who suggested using a tape running with repositionable adhesive, and it's like a light of DUH went off in my head! She's so wise.

This weekend, I got just what I wanted at Michael's, and I was so happy to finally put the "mural" up in the room!

I made sure the adhesive got all the way to the edges of the paper, so I'm hopeful this stays put for a long time!! I took this opportunity to do a little resetting-up in the room. For instance, I recently discovered the basketball net in a box of Legos I was rummaging. So, I reworked the back of it to hang on the bed. It's pretty perfect!

It's Star Wars vs. Penguins-Sponge Bob characters-aardvark. Purple penguin fouled out, so they're down a man:

Here's the full shebang:

This just all makes my heart sing!