Showing posts with label painting. Show all posts

Art Turned Philosophical

Monday, October 1, 2012

My daughter Katie is an artist. Want to see?

This is what the kitchen table looks like when she is doing homework. I love it.

 I majored in Humanities and Art History but I cannot paint or draw to save my life. Seeing what Katie can create gives me some of the greatest joy. Major parenting pay off right here.
I have this framed in my bedroom. It's very hard to get a good picture (for me anyway). She is taking advanced placement art in school this year and pretty much as soon as she finishes something I try to get her to give it to me.

 She gets a little annoyed.
She did paint this mermaid for my birthday; Marc gave me the angel. I love them together, the curve of their bodies, the tenderness of the angel watching the mermaid, it puts me to sleep happy.
Katie is just 17 and sometimes she is so hard on herself. She thinks she doesn't have any talents...CRAZY!

Aren't we all like that sometimes? When I look at her I see all kinds of awesome. She is adventurous, smart, fun, artistic, creative and so snuggley! All she can see are her weaknesses. When I point our her strengths she blows them off as being of little value.

As a grown ups we need to own our strengths. We should be gentle with ourselves, and recognize our beautiful gifts. I associate with many amazing women who when I comment on their coolness swipe my complements away like flies. Being modest is one thing, but discounting your contributions is damaging.

Why do we do that?

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The (Almost) Finishing Porch Touches

Monday, September 10, 2012

I'm thinking another post about our house painting project may be kind of overkill, but I'm putting up the porch pictures just the same because it is the best part. If you've painted a whole house yourself then you know what I mean, it's the little details that finally make it look good.

 If you want to follow the process, here are links to the other posts.

So here it is.
I so love a red door. The little detail I love the most is the hook for dry cleaning we hung on the inside of the lattice on the right. Hooray, no more dry cleaning sliding off the bench and getting walked on by the dog...not that that ever happens here.
I also like the bench painted black. I started out painting it with the orange/red we used on the shutters.


But after moving it on and off the porch mid-paint we decided all black would be better.

Now, even though we have more windows to trim, I'll try to resist talking about it here. Good times though, right?

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House Paint Update

Sunday, September 9, 2012

I tried to be fresh and modern, I really did, but the trim paint colors that won are black and red. I guess I'm just a traditional girl at heart, and after painting the green I kept coming back (like Leslie and Linda recommended) to the craftsman colors. 

Let me refresh your memory, here is the house before we started painting.
And one more time now that Marc and I have agreed on trim colors.
We kind of ruined the plants that were in the planter box under that front window with our ladders and spraying and stomping and whatnot. I'm still trying to figure out what to plant. Maybe some boxwood as a nod to our time in Virginia?
We also ruined those metal awnings over the windows. We couldn't get them down so we could spray until we turned into the hulk, and I guess that makes me She-hulk, to tear them apart and throw them off the roof. Now we kind of regret it but at the time it seemed like a good idea. Wonder twin powers, activate!
Katie and I took that down with a bow saw. Go girls! OOPS,  just in, Phallic is spelled Phallic.  What a funny phallic word.
I'll put up the pictures of the front porch tomorrow. Right now Marc is bugging me to come cut his hair. (That link has a really bad picture of Marc; sorry hon.)
And before you ask if we're all done, let me share this little gem with you.

 It's franken-window and we will never be done.  Thanks for all your input, it was super fun hearing your opinions!

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Painting Impossible

Saturday, August 25, 2012

A few weeks ago I posted about painting our house. Now everywhere I go people ask me how it's going. You too, may want to ask me about that.

 And I would have to tell you, "Sheesh, don't pressure me! It's not done okay? We can't hardly get a Saturday to work on it."

 And then you might say, "Good grief Shelley, who spit in your bean curds?"

 And then I would have to admit that I'm kind of frustrated because we have come to a bit of an impasse when it comes to our trim color. We have five different colors under consideration and we, meaning Marc and I, can't quite agree on which we like best. We're not fighting-but we're also not painting.

 Want to see?

This is a picture of the patio side of the house with a few samples of the green paints we were trying to choose from.

Here it is again after Marc sprayed it with the winning green, "garden sage" from Sherwin Williams. We did finish prepping and spraying the whole house. Honestly, prepping was the largest part of the job. If I'd known how much work it was going to be I'm not sure I would have tried to tackle it.
Look how how much of the paint needed to be scraped on just that one little part! It was like that all over! Neither of my men look too pleased at this point. It got really hot up on that part of the roof.

 Here are some of the trim colors we tried out:
What do you think of terra cotta or gold?
We both really like this sassy green (that's its real name), but we wonder if it will blend in with the whole house when you step back a bit?
I'm pretty fond of the black on the right,and Marc likes the bottle color on the left. Which one do you like?
Can you even see a difference? It doesn't matter I guess because I like the black and Marc thinks it's too harsh; he likes the bottle but I think it looks like faded black. Impasse!

I think we'll mess around with painting out a whole window with the sassy green and see how it looks. We're also still trying to figure out what color to paint the front door and porch trim.
Can I just say "Aaaaarrrrrrggggg?" All ideas and recommendations are so very very welcome. Help, please.

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Yes, Paint Master

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Getting ready to paint, bright and early and bushy tailed!
There is a story about a farmer who has his young sons taking care of his horses. A neighbor comes by to let him know that his horses would fare better if the farmer, with his greater experience, took care of the horses himself. The farmer replies that he will continue to leave the horses to his sons because he's "not raising horses."


Well, Marc and I aren't raising daughters, we are raising paint ninjas dipped in awesome sauce! They have been such a huge help as we tackle the gargantuan task of painting the exterior of our house. Yesterday afternoon (the second day of prep) I muttered, "okay, who has a match? Let's just burn it down and get the insurance money." That's how challenging this has been. 


I know Maddie and Katie are exhausted (and we're not done yet) but some day, when those sweet girls have an abode of their own with a hue that makes them want to cry, they can call and ask their little mom to come and help them paint and I will gladly say, "Oh! Kay!"


This I promise, here on the internet for all to witness.


I also promise pictures of our monster house soon but I'm just too darn tired to do it now.

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Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Dresser Makeover (How I Did It)!

Saturday, July 14, 2012

The Annie Sloan Chalk Paint is all over the internet, eh? And I, like you, have been sort of dying to try it out. But there were a few obstacles, mainly that I didn't have a piece of furniture I wanted to experiment on, I didn't know where to get the paint, and, oh yes, ASCP is not cheap. But all things can be overcome through persistent obsessing! 


When Marc and I bought Springbrook Ranch the previous owner left a lot of stuff behind. Most of it we sent to the dump but I uncovered this little dresser under a bunch of garbage in the garden room. 


It was super dirty and the top was a real mess. Perfect for a paint makeover! 


With a piece of furniture to work on I decided it was worth the drive to a store in San Jose that carried the paint. I didn't want to order it online because I really wanted to visit the colors in person. The store was ADORABLE. So worth the trip! It's the kind of store that makes my heart beat faster and my stomach kind of hurt because I can't buy everything. Marc really hates those stores. Here is a link, it's called Magpie.


One of the benefits of the ASCP is that you don't need to sand or prime before you use it. Maddie and I did, however, spend a lot of time cleaning it and we had to sand some too because the glue from old contact paper in the drawers wouldn't come off with just washing. Here is a picture of Maddie helping me. Yay Maddie! This is what I call the not fun part of the job.
Her's cute
After we got her (the dresser, not Maddie) all cleaned up we decided to drag her into the entryway to paint so the wind wouldn't blow little leaves and dusty bits onto the paint. Maddie started painting the inside of the drawers, and I started on the main dresser.


So here's the scoop on my experience with the Annie Sloan Paint, first, the color is gorgeous, I used Antibes Green, and I am in love. It reminds me of the green painted master bedroom at Mount Vernon. It goes on really nicely and was easy to work with. Unfortunately you buy it by the quart which cost $32 and although they say it goes a really long way, I used a good 2/3 of the can just to put two coats on this little dresser. On the website they say you can water it down, but I wanted my coverage to be opaque since the dresser was pretty yucky. I don't know what the coverage would have been like if I had thinned it. I didn't have any problems with brush strokes and I used a regular purdy paint brush.
After the paint was dry and I put the drawers back in it was time to use the clear wax. I learned from the "stockist" at Magpie that the process goes 1. paint 2. clear wax 3. distress/sand 4. dark wax 5. clear wax over distressed areas.


I just used a clean rag to rub the clear wax in. I used small circular motions and a fair amount of elbow grease. When I finished with the clear wax the dresser looked like this:

I could have stopped right here.
The next step is distressing. It made me nervous. Everything was so smooth and perfect and now I had to scratch it up. I used a piece of 150 grit sand paper and focused mainly on the edges and corners. I'd do a little, step back to check it out and then do some more.

After that it was time to use the dark wax. I knew I didn't want it very dark, so I only used a tiny bit on the end of my brush. Because I love you enough to embarrass myself on camera I took some video of how I did it. It's not very good; I haven't vlogged before but I spent so much time trying to read everything about how to use the wax that I feel it's only fair to share.

Aaaannnd one more because my kids can't leave me alone. Even the grown up ones.


You can tell my videoing skills are poor since I held the camera sideways. Whoops.


And for the grand finale, pictures of the finished product!
Maddie fancied the photo up with instagram

Here's what it looks like in my room
I really like how it looks distressed and dark waxed. I like it so much that I'm thinking about using the ASCP on my kitchen cabinets. It was a ton of fun using the products. My final observation is that the $50 dark wax will last a long time if I keep using it this sparingly, but the $50 clear wax? Well, I went through a lot of that. So there you have it, fun, pretty, expensive. Let me know if you have any questions. Good luck on your project...May the force be with you.

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My Painting

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Here's an update on my birthday picture. I got a bird! Marc is working on the blossoms still, he says he wants to change the colors but has to wait until the paint is dryer.

I love the nest.



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It's Like a Disease

Sunday, February 7, 2010



Is it too early to start obsessing, I mean thinking, about my birthday? Marc is painting a picture for me and I am so excited!

He told me he didn't want to be in the picture but he's so cute when he's painting me a present that I just sort of sneaked him in there.

Just so I don't forget, I also want some lovely stained glass stars for my kitchen window...
and I've wanted the sketchers since WAY before the Super bowel. But now I want them even more.

Awhile ago TAMN did a post on how lame it is to post about what you want on your blog. Forgive me, I have a birthday illness.


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Show Off

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Right then, I'm thinking it could conceivably be in bad taste to post about the things I got for Christmas, but I can't quite get mortified enough to stop myself.
Maddie gave Marc and I this beautiful glass lamp. Wowee is it fun to have a daughter who actually earns money and is willing to spend it! We don't have any overhead lighting in the dining room so this was totally needed, too.

A note about the beautiful Madonna and child painting in this picture. My Aunt Colleen bought it for me when we were in Venice (that is a good story) and it is my favorite thing in the house. It also works as a litmus test when people come over for the first time. See, if you look at it and ask me about it and mention that it's lovely then I imagine we will be kindred spirits. If, however, you look at it and then hem and haw about how it is "interesting," or worse yet, you don't notice it at all, then I am inclined to believe our hearts just don't speak the same language.

So now you know, you didn't imagine it, I AM judging you!

Another absolute gem, Ellie made us a calendar with original art work for every month of the year. This, of course, is January with snowflakes (la la ha ha no snow where we live :)


Katie actually painted this Christmas angel for us. I am so in love with it!

And finally, that same Aunt Colleen gave me this fabulous piece of barnacle shell cluster thingie. I cannot get a photo that actually does it justice. It is gorgeous!

So there! Am I the luckiest lady or what?

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