Catching up

I am so missing all my blogging friends! I feel so bad that I haven't been regularly posting or following blogs and I really miss it. Many of my blogger friends I follow on Facebook and it makes me lazy about my blog. I don't want to give up on my blog though so I am hoping to get back on a more regular schedule.

We had a lovely Christmas. I let myself stress out way too much every year which I am still working on.

Here is a couple photos from Christmas eve at my parents house...

One of the best things about Christmas is the little ones and since Jaxon has become such a big part of our lives we enjoyed him so much this Christmas :)

He was so excited about Santa and so thrilled with every gift he got he was an absolute joy. I hope his Mama was seeing from up above what a wonderful Christmas he had!

Then I spent New years day in a way that I didn't want to start the new year...

Gage had a massive seizure lasting several hours. They gave him so many medications that when they finally got it to stop they had to transport us by ambulance to Doernbecher's Children's hospital and we were in the Intensive Care Unit for 4 days until he finally woke up.

When he woke up and I asked him to smile and he did and it was so wonderful. It was an emotionally exhausting 4 days.

So all is well with Gage now--other than he seems to have a cold now--but I can handle that. No more Intensive care unit I am hoping!

I have been busy as can be painting. I so enjoy it and have a following of ladies who love my items. It is helpful to pay the bills and makes me feel good personally too. I feel like I really have this painting thing down pat now. I promise soon I am going to try some new ideas and I will try to do some tutorials again.

Here is one of my latest projects...

 

New pieces of furniture create new photo ops for my daughter's dogs! :)

I just love this old dresser! I love what I did with it too. It was hard for me to sell this one because I wanted to keep it for myself!

So that is what my days are full of...taking care of my kids and Jaxon, all of our animals...and painting as often as I can! Winter Formal is this Saturday and though Wyatt has no interest in going, Chantel has been working on getting her dress and everything for the past few weeks. Winter Formal pictures coming soon!

If you have just a second I would love to see who is still following my blog these days--I am off to catch up on other people's blogs now!

Thanks for visiting!

Adding Red to Christmas

At 50 years old I will say that until now I have never hung a red ornament. I have had pink trees, blue and silver trees, and all white, but never a hint of RED could be found on my tree. My kids this year mentioned they would like a little more color in the Christmas decorations...and I surprised them and myself and added some red!

My Swedish blood is finally showing in my decorating.

Wyatt's Nutcracker collection looks great with the new color scheme.

I painted some of the frames on the tree in my favorite Red--Emperor's Silk.

Jaxon helped us pick out the tree this year--we were lazy and didn't cut it ourselves but just picked one out from the Elk's lodge.

Kids just make Christmas more magical.

I have a really bad habit of really getting stressed over the holidays. I am trying to relax a bit--I just want all my family to have a great Christmas and I always feel like it is up to me to make it happen. My goal this year is to just relax a bit. It is easier said than done.

As I sit here at my laptop I feel so blessed with my beautiful little home and my loving family. My heart aches for those who do not have a warm and happy place this holiday season. I can't even imagine being outside in this freezing weather--both for people and for animals.

Wishing you all warm and happy December days!

Thanks for visiting!

Painting projects

Christmas is just coming too fast! I have been really feeling like Christmas decorating though ever since Janae and I went to a Christmas open house last night.

Buying Christmas presents isn't a problem for me as far as I am pretty good at knowing what people would want...where the problem comes in is having the money to buy all these gifts! So I have been painting hours every day in hopes of making some money for Christmas. It is fun to be able to make money doing something I love...so I thought I would share a few of my projects.

This dresser is not a huge difference in the before and after but it is done in a way that was requested by a customer in Annie Sloan Original White. She loves it!

This little table my Mother bought for a couple dollars at a garage sale and it turned out so cute I wanted to keep it! It sold within a couple hours.

This next little table sold within one minute of me putting it on Craigslist--the lady was delighted with it.

Another one I wanted to keep--the thing is the project I just did is always my favorite!

This table is so sweet. I think the lady that bought this is putting it in her entryway of her gorgeous home!

As you can see I paint everything in Annie Sloan original white--because that seems to sell really fast. We all know I love white too. But Janae gave me a couple chairs when she cleaned out her garage and I did add a bit of color to them---for me!!

I just  love these chairs! I mixed some Emile with Old White for the purple color--I love purple! Both chairs are done now and I love them!

 

This year something really strange has been happening to me as far as what attracts me color wise... I have always really disliked red..but now I am really liking red as long as it isn't orangy-red.  I loved the window display at Camas Antiques last night.

So I was itching to paint something red for the holidays...so I painted this small frame and put a Christmas card in it.

Baby steps! But I think this is more red than I have ever had in my house ;)

Oh and one last thing...look what I found at Goodwill!

It was a whooping $9.99--it had all it's crystals and everything but I replaced some of them with antique ones I had from a chandelier I am parting out and so it just adds to the appeal. Goodwill never lets me down!

I did a milk paint project I am loving--will share that soon.

I hope this finds everybody keeping warm! Thanks for visiting!

Good News

Hi everyone! Wanted to share some good news--Janae won the Petsmart contest! Thank you to all who voted!! It was a great birthday present for Frankie who just had his 1st birthday!

This is not the only contest Janae won this year--she also got best dog photo in the Petco contest and won a $500 gift certificate!

Isn't that adorable?! Janae puts a lot of thought and effort into these contests.

To prove this talent runs in the family Chantel for Honorable mention in the Petco contest with her Powerpuff Guinea Pigs..

Chantel also got 2nd place at the in store pet costume contest with her Guinea pig Candy Corn.

Yep--I have very creative daughters!

I have been painting like crazy---I will share my projects soon!

 

Thanks for visiting--and thanks so much to those of you who voted! 

A favor to ask...

It is that time of year! My daughter Janae just loves entering pet costume contests this time of year and she does so well in them!

Petsmart this year is having a owner and pet costume contest and Janae is in the final 5 for the small pet category. Here is the photo...

Isn't that adorable?! I think she should win (says the proud Mama). Frankie is the perfect bunny and Janae the perfect Alice. The prize if she gets 1st is $1,000 which would sure come in handy for her upcoming wedding.

Alice in Wonderland was the theme this Halloween...with Wyatt joining in as the Mad Hatter too :)

 

Janae did such a good job with the costumes and Wyatt is such a sport to help out his sister with the scene.

So if you could help us out, could you please vote for Janae? It is much more fun than the voting we have been doing lately--lol. I now realize I don't think you don't even have to have a Facebook. (so you can try to vote Mom!)

You can vote here https://monstercute.petsmart.com/?type=Small-Pets&page=1--you even have a chance to win $75.00 yourself just for voting. You can vote everyday for the next few days. (I think through the 7th).  

I have been busy as can be painting and selling my projects. Having so much fun! I will post some soon.

Have a great day and thanks for visiting!

Tutorial On Gingham painting and Decoupage

I have received messages from a bunch of you wanting this tutorial..so here goes!

I have really been enjoying the stripes on many pieces of furniture and now I have added the gingham look to what I really enjoy doing. Though I am a newbie at it here is how it all worked for me.

I start out doing the same thing I do to just do normal stripes..I put the first piece of tape on, then the second, then the third...

Then I remove the second strip...which can be used again as you go along to evenly space your stripes. I keep up this process until the whole area is done. 

Follow me so far? Then I paint!

I carefully remove the tape. Something that I learned--to get a more fabric look to your gingham only use one coat of paint. Using 2 coats makes it look more checkered.

I have heard people complain they sometimes remove some of the paint with the tape. This usually never happens to me but I think I was a little anxious with this piece and did not let it dry long enough--I think you should let your base coat dry 24 hours at least--48 hrs even better.

But no worries if you don't--you can fix it.

 

See that! Not the look I was going for. Take a small brush and 'fix" it.

All better now!

Next you want to do the same process just going the other way.

That is how you get the pretty gingham!

Now to put some adorable photos on your piece...

I can't say enough about Fed Ex! I emailed them the picture I wanted and the size I wanted it to be--even asked them to also do it in reverse image and they did it for me for like $3.80. I think it is just adorable and makes this cabinet so personal.

I am also quite a fan of Mod Podge. I have heard all sorts of things about how you can make it yourself and stuff but you know even a penny pincher like me can afford this product! I think it works great.

I took off the cabinet doors to make it easier and I covered one door at a time with the Mod Podge and the back of the picture with it too. I positioned the picture on the door and then used that blue thing shown (which I found in my kitchen drawer and I am not exactly sure what it is) to use as a way to flattened it out and get any extra Mod Podge out. You will have bubbles if you don't get any excess out. That is the secret really. Smooth it out all real good.

To Mod Podge over the top of the photo I used a new type I hadn't used before. It is called One Coat Super Gloss. It works great!

Wouldn't a changing table with a baby's photo look wonderful done like this?!

Well, Bentley thinks it looks pretty wonderful with him on it as a place to store his clothes.

 

Now Bentley has his little area in the bedroom he shares with his sisters.

 So I hope this post has been helpful to those of you who were hoping to do these techniques. I have to share this pretty cross I found at Goodwill. I just love it now that I painted it!

Happy Creating! Thanks for visiting!