Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Spooky House Halloween Painting

Would you walk up to this house on Halloween night (house on lower left)?   I've always thought this house looked a little spooky from the day I took the photo and I think it works well in this painting.  Once I finished painting the shrubs and sidewalk, I realized that all the lights are off in this house.  I may have to change that.  I like my Halloween paintings to be child friendly especially with little goblins going door to door.  What do you think, lights on or off?

I started the lower right house this afternoon and hopefully this painting will be finished by the end of next week.






Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Halloween in July


Goblins are now running through the streets of my Halloween painting chanting "Trick or Treat" in tiny ghostly voices.  

I'm still trying to beat the heat by painting a fall scene in July and it seems to be working.  We were actually able to open the windows last night and let in a cool breeze and today only topped out in the low 90's.  

What are you doing to get your mind off the stiffling heat?

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Another Makeover and Halloween is Right Around the Corner


I've had this box for years and had never done anything to it.  In fact I forgot to even photograph it in it's raw wood state.   This box has great storage, but I simply had no place to put it.  My mother decided it would make a great foot stool for her small apartment, so a couple weeks ago we painted it and covered the top with linen.  Our first plan was to use black brads under the lip of the lid to hold the fabric.  Noticing that we were straight line challenged and that our brads appeared to be curving up and down, we went out and purchase rope and wrapped it around the edges three times to cover the staples that were now holding the fabric in place.  It's definitely not perfect, but Mom loves it and that's what matters.

Below is the painting that is currently on my paint table.  I still need to come up with the remainder of the village that goes at the bottom of the painting.  I love the vibrant hues of autumn and all the little jack-o-lanterns are just so fun to paint.  Those little smiling faces will greet the little goblins I'll be adding next.



Thursday, July 11, 2013

Montgomery Ward Chair Trash to Treasure

Just in case you think that bloggers have got it all together, let me give you a little background on this project.  I started this back in January and this is July.  I'm very good at putting things off, also known as procrastinating.
I usually finish my projects once I start them, but will make no promises as to when that will be.
Here is the chair that was given to me by a dear friend.  I have a collection of chairs that come in handy when we have a large dinner and I run around the house collecting them to put around our dining table.

This chair closely matches my buffet which I hope to paint sometime in the future.  (Note the Christmas decorations on the buffet.  I told you I procrastinate.  This photo was taken in early January.)


My husband had to cut a new plywood seat.  Even though this one was terribly cracked it was sturdy (more likely petrified) beyond belief.  But, to be safe we replaced the wood.


This is the Mongomery Ward tag that was attached to the bottom of the seat.


If you read my blog you know that the table did get finished way before this chair and I blogged about it here.


This was the dingy/dirty chair cover that I removed.


Nasty/stinky padding was removed.


I used left over fabric from my window coverings to replace the old chair fabric (please ignore the dirty window)...


and cut new padding...




The chair was painted as per the instructions for the side table above.  You can check out the link for the "Side Table Transformation" for that information.


I found some blue and white checked fabric napkins in my buffet that I used to cover the chair back and added a button in the center.
What do you think?  Should I paint the buffet?  What year do you think I might get that done?  


I'm linking today with:


Wednesday, July 3, 2013

4th of July Folk Art




Happy 4th of July!  Wishing you and your family a safe and fun filled holiday!


Check out Max Lucado's blog post for today.  It's a very inspiring read!

God Bless!