Art Room in Use

 I'm finally using my art room!!! Yeah!! It has turned out to be a wonderful, warm, light-filled space and I am feeling inspired to create. Here are a few shots of the room.

Lots of storage for yarn, fabric, and inspirational things.

A corner shelf to store glass and some vintage lace.

Items from nature.

An old wooden shelf where I'm starting a collection of things.

My brushes in handmade (not by me) ceramic containers

 Here are the "before" and "after" photos. Remember this.

YUCK! Terrible.

Gettin' better.

Now that's more like it. :-)

 With all this inspiration I think I'll start a spring project! I've been crocheting all winter and I will have some pictures soon of my finished projects.  In the meantime... I'm looking forward to some PAINTING TIME. Right now I'm prepping some canvases with gesso. 

I used a canvas drop cloth and embroidery hoops to save some money.

I'm trying to be economical and use a drop cloth which is SOOOO much less expensive than going to the art store and buying stretched and primed canvases. The canvas is really nice and thick but does require a few extra steps to prepare it for paint.  Here are the steps I followed.

Trimmed to large, medium and small sizes

Gotta iron those wrinkles out!!

Trim the excess canvas.

Stretch between the hoops, secure with glue, and trim.

Ready for gesso.

That's it for now. You have unlimited possibilities with these little canvases. I'll let you know when they have something on them.  Stay tuned....

Thanks for stopping by for a visit and I hope you'll come back soon!
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Feathering MY Nest

I knew it was going to be a big job.  I really didn't know HOW BIG! The art room is an average sized bedroom, but the mess was colossal, gargantuan, immense, mammoth, prodigious, supersized, WALLOPING!
Remember this?

PLEASE, DON'T JUDGE ME :-)

 I'm still amazed that I put pictures of it on the internet and into blog wonderland. I can say I have worked on the mess for a solid week and I have made a lot of progress. I'm not there yet, but today I started getting excited! I have seen some people who work with wool put out their colorful scraps for the birds to use for nesting. A multihued "FEATHERING OF THE NEST". I am doing the same in MY nest- my ART ROOM. Ohhhh it makes me so ... happy!
       I have always loved decorating any/everything. Adorning, decorating, prettifying, EMBELLISHING. I start to feel like a bee that has been visiting so many flowers that it is satiated and drowsy. It is so much better than the sleepy, drowsy state that keeps me planted on the couch--- not a good kind of drowsy.   SO,  let the great sort begin...

I am NOT showing you the piles of stuff that went to the local trash site or the piles that went to a charity shop. I AM showing the warm-fuzzy color that lifts me up when I walk in the new and improved art room.
TURQUOISE!

Not the true color here (bad light)

 It is like being inside a robin's egg.

I have a long way to go but for the first time I am actually delighted to be in this space. My husband keeps coming upstairs to see what's going on - FEATHERING!  Stay tuned for the next progress report....

Thank you so much for visiting and I love hearing from you!
 xoxoxoxoxoxoxox's

Philippians 4:4-6 "Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again- rejoice. Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon. Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done."

Floral Paintings and Gypsies

I LOVE to travel!!! I don't know if you have a wandering heart, but I think I was supposed to be a traveler. There is a show on TV called "My Big, Fat, Gypsy Wedding" and I'm not talking about that kind of "traveler". When I was young I was cursed with motion sickness and really hated driving anywhere more than an hour away from home. THANKFULLY I out grew it and have gone on many wonderful trips. My in-laws love to travel and have taken us on many amazing international travels. I always want to buy a few things but I also try to collect things from nature at each place.  I have made a small shadowbox with some of my beachy collections. The pics seem a little blurry to me so forgive the photography...it might just be my eyes ;-)

 Sand dollars and Sea Shells

 I am also going to show you some of my paintings I have scattered around the house. I am not very confident about my work but I do REALLY enjoy painting. It takes me away... I don't know how to describe it ... so how about a couple of quotes?

"To create one's own world in any of the arts takes courage."  Georgia O'Keeffe

"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up." Pablo Picasso

"Art allows us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time." Thomas Merton

"I tell you, the more I think, the more I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people." Vincent Van Gogh

To make art you have to-  be brave, be a kid, lose yourself, and love other people.   I will MAKE ART!

 Most of these paintings are in my sunroom with 7 windows and glass framing so I couldn't get rid of the glare in the photos. You may have noticed a FLORAL theme. I think I need to push myself to branch out a little-  Dontcha think?   

Art Room update:  I am diligently working on the chaotic, cluttered, confused, jumbled, littered mess that is my art/craft room and will be showing some pics soon of this HISTORIC, EARTHSHAKING, MOMENTOUS Work In Progress. (It needed lots of adjectives!) 

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and I would love for you to say hello! Also, if you would hit the G+1 button I will know you visited. Thank you, Thank you.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Well, Here it is!

I have to say, I'm a little bit nervous about posting these pictures, but I'm going to face it   HEAD ON!    THE ART ROOM!

Well, let's not rush into this...

First, I have to show you a few pictures of the neat parts of my house so you won't think I'm a complete SLOB. As I said in an earlier post, I love order but am prone to disorder. Here is my kitchen and you will see BOTH.

Order

I think the Flylady calls this a "hot spot".

Order and disorder together!

Now for my kitchen cabinets-   They're GOOD!

(sorry about the poor light)

Even my pantry  is okay  - Not pretty, but we can find everything.

Now, here we go...      UPSTAIRS....  THE ART ROOM OF DOOM!

I can't even get in the door!

There are some really good workbenches under here that I made a few years ago.

Now you know the ugly truth.

Here is my PLAN. I am visiting our family cabin this weekend so I am going to get started on this next week. I really AM, because I've said so on my blog! Tune in as I go.

My next post will show a few things I have made with HOOKS and NEEDLES.

Thank you SO MUCH for joining me here at home and please leave me a comment to let me know what you think. Talk to ya soon.