Happy Anniversary

For my husband Tom

Happy Anniversary!

WIP- graphite, charcoal and a little pastel

Howdy!

I decided to make another blog and keep this one for my crafty personality and the new one for my art side. Please check it out! On The Sketchy Side of Things

Now, for my crafty side... Isn't this a cute idea? DIY has the best ideas.

A file folder storage that can be hidden and is a cute decor piece!

Now that the kiddies are outta school I'm going to get in my closets to get all those old, worn out, doesn't fit clothing outta here!

Have you visited curbly.com? I just discovered it and it is so enjoyable! Great photos, DIY ideas and tips for almost anything you can think of for decorating creatively! Very inspiring! Wasn't sure about copyrights so I didn't wanna steal any pics. Another is inspiredroom.net! Check it out!I am now a follower of this website! Wonderful pics!

For some you will remember I have been working on my "Beach Books". They are done, I hope to get the pics up by the end of this week! Stay tuned.....

So sketchy...

Sometimes the scanner makes sketches look good, and sometimes bad. I don't like to use my photoshop to alter them for the web. Mostly because these are just sketches I'm sharing with you and myself, hee!

the left side is not finished, almost on purpose. I call this "Good ole days"

This is a photo I found on google...

We are invited to a party on Saturday and I was picked to make dessert. I found a Hershey's recipe card from the mail and just happened to be sitting with my moleskine and pencils....so I drew it.

MMMMMmmm MMMMmmmm Chocolate Cheesecake!

Have a safe weekend!

Just some pics from around my yard

Some pics from around my home.

As I go it seems one moment I'm obsessed with my stitching, next moment is paper crafting, and then my sketching and painting. The latter I've been working on new techniques, etc. So I thought I would post some peaceful and relaxing photos.

The peonies I brought from my dad's garden just before he passed away and my mom moved. This is the first season they have flowered. It took two years for the "tubars" to sprout these big buds.


And these three baby robins are in my neighbors tree only 5 feet off the ground. They were squished in there! They just kicked each other out today! They were hopping around the neighborhood, sure hope they make it!

I love this ivy, it can grow anywhere and in any kind of soil! I lived in Oklahoma for several years. When my parents came to visit they took a cutting and planted somearound their home. So they have survived from Oklahoma, to South Dakota harsh winters....To several houseplantings (which they don't like inside, only the outside! Which I tried in Minnesota, and Missouri. )From the red dirt of Oklahoma to black dirt in South Dakota to the clay of Indiana!

And my candy striped phlox, so cute!

Some hostas with dew



A wren protecting the home and family they made under the cover of the grill on our back deck. They have also hatched this past week and flew the coop! Ha!

Met Monday

Met Monday! Here's a goodie I did a while back! Thanks to Between Naps on the porch this idea will be shared.

From Camp Rock canvas and animal print metal decor

TO:
Matching Bedroom Decor

Wall Art!

Target had the canvas' for a 1.48- The glitter border tape was already on there. I liked that it added some whimsy, for lack of a better word. I put Burnt Umber acrylic paint on top of the pink Camp Rock picture. I then took a sponge and splotched-spounced-squished (whatever the correct artistic word is...) wedgewood blue and silver paint here and there. Let it dry, then I decoupaged some antique looking scrapbook paper ontop of the words "Camp Rock" that were also glittered on there.
The convex and concave metal decor came from my fav. Flower Factory, (yep, not a suprise... once again- LOVE THAT PLACE!) Only 4.00 for 3 of them. I put a strip of masking tape on the metal wall decor and used textured brown paint on the one side. Sponged the same way on the smaller part. Pulled off the masking tape and painted that strip black to help pull the canvas together with the metal art.





The flowers I painted at the top of the post and this one below was from an image I found in a catalog I recieved in the mail.

Touch of class.com image

Following the Masters

Walking on the beachWatercolor

I am having so much fun rediscovering my "artist" side. Painting, sketching, etc. I have tried the challenge #2. If anyone would like to try it here is the website. Or followingthemasters.blogspot.com

My basement decor

This is my basement, the corner you see as you go down the stairs. My husband finished the entire basement all himself and I was in charge of painting it. (and decorating it some) Whew! It was a 18 month process. But we use it a lot.

This is the image I got the idea from. A BH&G pic. The brown on my wall is a bit darker like in the mag pic but the flash on the camera and the ceiling light made it a bit brighter....

Below: This is just to show that you can hide those ugly speakers.... One is hidden by the tree on the left and the other is hid by a vase of tall grasses, etc.

And this is my full wall clock. I'm not sure yet what to use for the 12, 3, 6, and 9 spots. We have gone a slight traditional/contemporary look down here...And a slight boast here- a canvas that I painted on the right...

Just another view of the long wall, I'm so glad my hubby put the closet in and the built in storage cabinets!

We have a bar around the back corner area. I bought square mirror plates that were made for candles to be set on. We worked on a few different arrangements and came up with this as the easiest. We just used liquid nails and wire to make our own hangers...I believe you can buy square mirror plates that have hangers on them... (I just didn't find them at the time, ya know how it is....)

This below is the area in front of the bar. We have a dartboard cabinet that hubby built just to the left of the picture. So we thought it would be cool to have a chalkboard in the area.... That's when I turned and saw the little wall that was perfect...I just had to give you a "my experience" of a chalkboard wall. I first painted magnetic black paint on with a sponge roller, which is what was recommended. I'm not so sure that was good, it seems to have made it a lot less smooth than what they said it would be... who knows...maybe we bought the wrong brand of sponge roll... after several coats of the magnetic paint I then painted chalk paint on top of the magnetic paint. Same thing, sponge rolled, gave it a little more texture than I was wanting.....Oh well....

After it was fully dry and following directions to "prep" it I added magnetic poetry to it. (actually I couldn't find the original magnetic poetry but I found a calendar that had some "themed" magnetic poetry that worked just as good.) (the neighbors got a little "dirty" one night, with some sentences and the chalk, (therefore, that's why the bottom looks extra black as it is newly washed off!)Thank heavens it is easily washable so kids can't read it...) The laminate floor below is nice to have since chalk dust does fall straight down onto the floor. So I can just go and Swiffer it up. Aren't the wine holders cool! That was a Ikea purchase 9.99 each! So cheap and good enough for who it's for, ha!

Hmmm... a Cosmo Cocktail sounds good! (I'll have to call my neighbor friend later, she makes the BEST cosmos ever!)
I went to Flower Factory (big surprise) and found some cute canvas money bags.... can't wait to show you what I did to them! Stay tuned....

Did I use enough """"""" and (())(()) and ........in this post? Sheesh!

My weekend

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! I went camping and had a blast! It was great and perfect weather! I got to do some sketching.

Sketches from my weekend

We camped with four neighbor families/friends and this is Kirsten who lives next door and does some babysitting for me sometimes. She was kind enough to sit for several hours for me to try and work on getting my figure sketching better. The head got a little shrunk towards the end there.... but it's a sketch so that's my excuse and I'm stinking to it. Ha! (seriously, now it is buggin me and I'll have to go and fix it....argh!)
And my hubby was so kind and got me my first set of Moleskine journals for Mothers day! It feels like butter! Loooooooooooove it!

Now I'm blocked as I don't want to put silly doodles in there. But yet, I want to sketch all sorts of things!

Ok, off I go to sketch and get my other post on here.... Got some KraftyKaye decor ideas to share that I have done in my home......

Crafty Spree....my bad...or not....

I think I'm going through a bad crafty shopping spree. The last two days I have found some cuuuuute stuff though! (let's just keep this between you, and me, don't tell the hubby, heh heh!)

Wally has a lot of their Martha Stewart scrapbook stuff on clearance lookie at what I found!
Felt Flowers were $1.50 and the scalloped rotary blade cutter $4.00 = lifetime of crafty made memories = priceless (couldn't help myself...)

Today I went to my beloved Flower Factory (if you don't have one in your area, beg someone to get one there, they are awesome!!!!!!!!)

K & C company

R U READY?! $1.99

Remember the recipe album post(s)? This is the smaller version of those same albums from the same brand.

Aaaaand:

This is a acrylic "paint" pail that came with 12 chipboard flowers! $3.95

and then there is my anatomy form guy...Isn't he the cutest.... Well, I think so, he is now involved in my endeavor to try and figure out the human figure in the right proportions.

I love portraits and have gotten the feel and memory for it... But the human form is just so difficult for me. Anyway, this guy was only $2.65, if I get better and draw and sketch the form like a mad woman they also have the 12" for only 3.95... woa...

Happy Birthday to my Mom! And Happy Cinco de Mayo!!!

It is my Mom's birthday today so I had to post a dedication to her. Since this blog is about being, finding, and inspiring creative I have to say I wouldn't be as creative without her introducing me to art and different forms of art. Here are just a few of the things she has created for me that are around my home.

Some things are from patterns, some are not. I wish I had pictures of the old bakers cabinet that she redid. Or the old trunk that she redid. My mom is a very talented lady. And for this I dedicate a special spot on the World Wide Web for her. (I need to talk her into making her own blog, but the computer intimidates her a lot!)