Gingerbread House!!

Thanks to the fabulous Nichole and her brilliant idea for a gingerbread house party, I made my first ever gingerbread house! It was so much fun. I had quite a sugar high from sampling all the decorations. Lemon drops, gum drops, chocolate, yum!

Christmas hat

Yeah, so when faced with an over the top apron, why not add a fascinator? :-D Matching green and candy.

Christmas apron

Before Halloween I saw a store clerk wearing an apron that looked like a dress...ie witch outfit. I thought that was so clever, and way easier to have a costume just by throwing on an apron. Anyway--I thought ha Christmas party at the library, I'll sew myself a festive apron. Easy peasy, hmmm. Not really. This had some pretty advanced things, and I foolishly though 6 hours would be more than enough time! 15 or so hours later, and some sloppy bits no one will see, voila. Not as cute as what was in my head. And yet I'm strangely obsessed with thoughts that it needs a hat to go with it! I'm insane!

Spiders!!

I'm doing a spider theme for Halloween this year. I made this shawl, and a hat, and I have green spiderweb socks! Yeah Halloween!!

Snowmen

It just makes me smile to paint snowmen! One of my fav things.

steampunk party

Here are some cool banners I made from craft paper for a steampunk party.

Mary Wiseman Seminar Day 2

Had a great time today, but my brain froze about 2pm, so I didn't get nearly as much done on today's plate. Got a good start!

Mary Wiseman Seminar--Day 1

Oh, today was awesome! I've been wanting to take a class from Mary Wiseman for a very long time, and today was the first day of a two day seminar. We are doing Spring and Fall plates. I have a lot to finish on my plate, but I really had fun, and can't wait to do fall tomorrow. And then paint Winter and Summer on my own!

Steampunk costume

Alright, I'm officially obsessed with steampunk. I've been hemming and hawing about whether or not to actually sew my own costume. I bought a pattern for a skirt, but was daunted by the prospect. So found a silver skirt on Etsy, and ordered it. Then decided I would make my own shirt.

Someone remind me why I decided to do this! It feels like I spent 20 million hours making this top, but it wasn't really all that long maybe 6-7 hours. There was a slight debacle with the sleeve that required ripping out what I'd done, and then some issues with some birdnesting. Grr. Anyway--I am now the proud owner of a costume (sorry for the crappy pix, someday I might take a decent pix :-P). Just need to doll up my little top hat I'm ready to go!

Felting

I knitted myself a little tophat a few weeks ago. I haven't felted anything in ages. It's so fun to watch it go from giant and blobby to cute! It took me a bit to figure out how to decorate it, but I'm pretty pleased. I used little watch gears and I think they worked out pretty well.

Sewing

Not sure why the urge struck, but when I saw the pattern for these fat quarter bags, I wanted to make one. Super easy, and too cute. It got me to dust off the sewing machine and realize I don't HATE sewing. And I am perfectly capable of doing it.

Since I was on a roll, I also made this apron. It's too cute...owls and frogs.

Orange

I'm ready for Halloween! I have a bright orange chair and a black cat! I dyed the cover for my Ikea chair orange. I was hoping for a bit darker orange, but ah well. Eva really likes it!

Ottoman

I bought a beige microfiber storage ottoman at Target, and found some cute fabric to recover it. It cost me about $30 in the end, plus the cost of a staple gun. I'm pretty pleased with it, and really easy to jazz up.

Halloween

Yesterday was the Heart of Texas Tolers annual Holiday Express, where we paint all day usually with the idea of getting an jump start on the holidays. I painted this cute Halloween piece based on a design from Maxine Thomas. Too cute!!

Lampshade

A couple of months ago I finally found a squarish lampshade for my Eiffel Tower lamp, and I finally got around to decoupaging biscotti wrappers on it. I mixed a little honey brown paint in the second coat to tone down the blue, red and green colors. I'm still looking for some ribbon to add along the bottom.

Tulips

At our monthly painting meeting, we painted tulips. I went ahead and did it on another memory box. It was a fun class.

Memory box

While I was in a painting mood, I finally finished off a memory box I'd had for ages. It was already painted blue and red, so I went with a patriotic design. I crackled the top just to lighten the color a bit. Cute!

Cards for Soldiers

The Society for Decorative Painters has a Paint for Freedom program, http://decorativepainters.org/paintforfreedom/index.php, and so I painted a card from our chapter. It's a nice way to show appreciation. Marie modified a design for the card.

Guilty pleasure--Quizzes

You are The Moon

Hope, expectation, Bright promises.

The Moon is a card of magic and mystery - when prominent you know that nothing is as it seems, particularly when it concerns relationships. All logic is thrown out the window.

The Moon is all about visions and illusions, madness, genius and poetry. This is a card that has to do with sleep, and so with both dreams and nightmares. It is a scary card in that it warns that there might be hidden enemies, tricks and falsehoods. But it should also be remembered that this is a card of great creativity, of powerful magic, primal feelings and intuition. You may be going through a time of emotional and mental trial; if you have any past mental problems, you must be vigilant in taking your medication but avoid drugs or alcohol, as abuse of either will cause them irreparable damage. This time however, can also result in great creativity, psychic powers, visions and insight. You can and should trust your intuition.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Teddy Bear

We painted this cute teddy bear on memory boxes at our HOTT meeting today. I just painted some wavy lines on the side of the box. It was a quick fun project.

Wildflowers

Oh it's a stellar session for wildflowers here in Central Texas. I took a drive through the hill country to enjoy the show.

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Lynne Andrews Seminar

Our HOTT painting group hosted Lynne Andrews for a 2 day painting seminar at the end of March. We painted a Noah's Ark scene and then a cute painter's snowman. I need to finish both of them, but I'm close to done!

Dublin March 2010

I went to Dublin for St. Patrick's Day with my BFF from high school, and two of her friends. We rented an apartment, and just had a blast. I haven't finished labeling the pictures, but here you go.

Mural

A friend wanted to create a foresty feel to his living room, and ask for some help painting trees on an accent wall. He painted all the walls a lovely light green, and then we painted two floor to ceiling trees on one wall. I might have talked him into keeping it simpler than he wanted, but hopefully after a few days he likes it!! I think they look lovely and peaceful.

Finished Poppy Tray

I got on a painting roll this weekend. I finished, except for the varnishing, my poppy tray from the Beth Wagner class I took last March. I really didn't have too much left to do, and it's nice to have it completed.

Memory Box

Marie came over last night and we painted this darling French country bunny on a memory box. I have two more memory boxes to paint. Hopefully I'll get them done before the Feburary meeting.

January painting project

We painted this chef on a giant clothespin/recipe card holder at our January HOTT meeting. He was a quick and easy paint.