FIREPLACE IS DONE!

Lookie here! The fireplace is painted! It looks SO much better now. Bye bye Temple of Gloom!!

Getting my pretend logs installed and working has been a long, many efforts project (gas was leaking, had it fixed, leaking still, fixed again, 3 attempts to have logs installed, etc etc.) But here it is - all done! and just in time for....70 degree weather! ha ha! Actually, it got cold again, so I've turned it on a few times. Pretend fire - might be better off with just a tv playing a picture of fire? Who knows. But this is the solution for now. The flue is severely cracked so it is not safe to have "real" fire. I'm thinking of Firemarshall Bob, does anyone else remember him? Lordy, that was Jim Carrey before he became super famous! Hilarious!

Also in the picture you can see the little "Valentine's Day" pillows with Matt and My initials. Stuffed with kapok pillow inserts (so soft, by the way!) and some floor pillows, the covers for which were on super sale at Pottery Barn, the store I love to hate.

I am obsessed with learning to paint portraits. I want to paint a great picture of both Stella and Rafe. Right now, I'm at below amateur level, obviously. The grouped ones are quicker practice pieces, and the one in front of mirror is a little better, but still quick - exactly the length of a Backyardigan episode, to be precise. I've considered reworking it to complete her eyes and warm up the color, but I think I am learning that painting without a subject before me is not so great...I really struggled with the big Rafe painting in part because it was from a photograph. So the problem is, i can't actually get these children to sit still, so how will I paint them. Hmmmm. I haven't figured that out yet. Maybe I should find another model, but the only person who might agree to that would be Matt. Hmmm, something to consider.

Going to and from Stella's preschool, I see the wonderful barn I am longing to paint. I imagine being out there in the grass painting it. When would I get a chance to do that? Probably never. I really, really want to do that, but I don't have enough alone time to do it. If Matt is home, we already are always taking turns running out to do errands and stuff. I would really like to have a few more moments to myself. It probably sounds so selfish. I try to give and give to my children and give and give to my home, but secretly, I want to indulge in selfish things, like having time to learn to be a better painter.

Simple Sewing - and recycling!

It's about time I did something thrifty...Getting tired of the teenie bibs I have but not wanting to purchase something that I could so easily make myself. It was fun! Made 4 bibs out of 1 old sweatshirt, baby sleepsack, and 2 old receiving blankets. Doubled receiving blankets since they were pretty thin. All have tie backs. I love sewing, especially when it's something so easy and doesn't require a pattern or measuring or neatness of any kind.

Redrum

The room of red....

Don't tell anyone, but I might paint this room soon. The red is so oppressive. I don't have the lamps on the pianie anymore cause of course we don't want the Rafer pulling them down!

Alison, i like your suggestion of a gold color. would coordinate with curtains. or maybe just offwhite. for some reason i also can picture doing a very subtle faux finish in here (for in my next life when i have that sort of time...) maybe two shades of off-white/goldie color, layered, barely noticeable. For red, this is a great one. it's just so dark in this room that it's unpleasant to even be in.

Well, ya know, my dream home is insanely white, white white. White floors, furniture, etc. It would probably be annoyingly sterile, right? It would last a day, then i would start painting colors, im sure. Speaking of white, i need to post a picture of the completed master bathroom. Problem is, it's always messy! Perhaps will just post a messy picture of it.

entryways, again

This door reminds me of another project (purchase!) that I've been putting off...I think that the front door would look great with some of these false strap hinges. Probably not so ornate, though.

Here is a bird lamp I found which is in the entryway. I have a thing for bird lamps, I get all excited about them. Once I saw a Buddhawithchildren sculpture turned into a lamp on ebay...I wish I had gotten that! I was told once it's not too hard to make your own lamps. I would like to learn how to do that some day.

I've always loved these under-the-stairs closets!!!! I wouldn't store anything in there because I would like to have it be my own hiding place.

Here is a really sweet friendly entryway. No ideas from this which I can use, since I don't have room for multiple mirrors and I have stuccoed walls. But isin't this wallpaper sweet?

I tried moving Broder's 5x7 rug to the entryway...it was much better looking than 2 smaller rugs put together. I thought I had found a cheap orange Moroccan-window type rug that I could put in his room as a replacement but it turns out they are not available anymore. So will keep my eye out for an orange area rug for his room. Hmmm, orange rug...should be easy to find one of those, right? ha!

more about paintings

ahhh, out of order pictures! some day i will figure out how to do this layout thing. broder - the real one, and the painted one. i think im almost "done" with this picture, simply because i dont think it's going to massively improved. it's alright for an amateur, anyways. sorta cartoonie!
and then my bob rossian style landscape...chuckle! and levitating oranges. landscape is still in progress, but im sorta bored with it so might need to come back to that another time. i do a little when i have 15 mintues/30 minutes where i can safely neglect the children, heh heh... means less laundry done and less food cooked, but more happy mama.

Stella

Stella, 10/06. Let's see, she would have been 2.5 when this picture was taken? I'm biased, I know, but....she was so damn cute!!!

I used this picture because I can't get the more recent ones to work for some reason.

Today Stella went to Kindergarten Roundup and had this to say about it:

"Kindergarten is the life of eeease. Because it's easy but the teachers think it's hard."

I asked her if she wanted to do half day or full day, and she said she wanted to do half day because she loves to play on the computer SO much. I said, "well, what if the computer blew up? then what would you do?" Stella: "get a new computer." Hmmmm. makes sense.

other painting

praying to the fireplace gods (i think it's looking swell with it's new white facade)











the other day i started doing some actual "painting"...it was so much fun to do again. obviously neither picture is done yet! my sister thinks that this is a sign of me going crazy. i think it's just the opposite! painting makes me happy!