Watercoloring Again and More Art Shenanigans

If you follow me on Instagram, you'll know that I've recently become obsessed with watercolor painting again. Back in 2017, I decided to learn to watercolor paint. My biggest achievement and most progress was made during July of 2017 when I participated in the Daily Painting Challenge on Creativebug where we painted a new flower each day with Yao Cheng. I had a lot of fun that month, but shortly after that I kind of fell out of the habit. Maybe I was just all painted out after painting every day for a month? Mostly I know that my old problem of not knowing what to paint without having a prompt caused me to just stop painting. I hadn't really picked it back up since then (so sad), but back in June I started to become a bit obsessed again after discovering the work of Josie Lewis. She paints beautiful geometric designs in watercolor, and she put out a book teaching color theory through her designs, so I bought myself a copy. Then she restocked her limited edition watercolor palette in early June and I just had to grab one for myself since I love her chosen colors. 

 This is what came in my package - look at that awesome painting on the cover of the book! The book includes templates so you can recreate these types of paintings yourself, but before you get there it works you through other projects to build up your ability to mix the colors like she does.

 One of the first projects is to make a color value chart - I seriously always love color charts, so I was right on board. I cut some larger watercolor paper in half and printed out the template (which you can download off her website) on nice watercolor paper. I love the format and evenness the template gives and I love that I can see all the colors I can create with this palette at a glance.

I also had to just mess around with the pretty colors, so I painted these little amoebas. Look how vibrant these are! I just love it. I also love the little tin this set comes in - you can mix in the palette really easily and it all closes up very compact (you could easily fit it in your purse). Just bring along a water brush and paper and you're set.

And about a week later I was just messing around and came up with this little painting. I like it so much I made it the cover on my Facebook page, lol. This was before I got better brushes too, so I'm sure I will be playing around more now :) Princeton Neptunes - check. them. out. For real.

 All this playing around inspired me to pull out some other art supplies - acrylic inks! I grabbed these on major clearance and hadn't really used them at all until now. Their little bottles just look so cool and I thought they might work like watercolor (spoiler, they don't - big surprise, right?)/

Then I decided to keep the amoebas going by mixing my few acrylic inks to see what combinations I could get and test out the different looks I could get. The painting on the right is with acrylic ink. I will say that I was impressed with all the colors I could make with just my primary set and the metallics are fun but more designed for lettering, but they just don't have the zip and glow in the color that watercolor gives. They also dry more streaky unless you even it out completely yourself - I was used to the flow of watercolor evening itself out. So, I will certainly use these, I just won't expect them to be like watercolor now. I also decided to make a color chart for another palette - this is the Windsor & Newton Cotman 14 Pan Travel Set, which I do like, but some of the color choices are a bit odd. They include white, which I will probably never use, and the two reds included are so similar I don't really see what the point was there. But the glory of this set is that I can pop out the ones I don't like and replace them with any other half pans I would use instead, so I will be adding a neutral tint I've filled myself and then I'll have to decide on the other color. I LOVE the case on this though. It has several mixing areas, a tiny dish you could mix in or put a little water in to use as a wash, and it includes the most adorable little brush that also fits inside. I just love that everything is so contained and easily portable - plus it's just cute. This was another thing I got on major clearance, so I'm really happy with it for the money. Now I'm just glad I have the colors painted out in front of me for reference.

So, the Josie Lewis book includes lots of projects that are designed to ease you in to more complex color mixing projects. Having made a goal of working through the whole book, I decided to start with the very first one. It involved smooshing acrylic paint around with a palette knife, and it's definitely something I never thought I'd do, lol. It was pretty fun though, even if my color combo came out kind of Miami Dolphins looking. That pthalo green really takes over.

Another beginning project is a color value collage. I've never been one to do much collage, but again it was pretty fun. I used 2 fishing magazines, a crochet magazine, and some junk mailers because that's what I had on hand and I'm pretty happy with the result.

And just yesterday  decided to make color charts for my most used watercolor set - the Kuretake Gansai Tambi 36 pan set. I bought this back in 2017 about halfway through the flower painting challenge and I really liked these for how vibrant they were compared to the total cheapo set I was using before. Since there were so many colors, I never did a proper color chart until now. Thanks to the templates in the book, every palette is my oyster as far as color charts go :) I will confess that as I do more watercolor I am less enamored of this set of colors, but they really are lovely so I'm glad I did this to reignite the spark and make me want to use these again. And just as a reference for anyone else out there that is considering getting this set, I've included some close up shots of each page so you can really see the range of colors included.

The final page does have a few extra colors thrown in because I have them in tubes and needed to see their value somewhere. The are Windor & Newton Artists' in Naples Yellow, Windsor & Newton Professional in Neutral Tint, and Windsor & Newton Designer Gouache in Spectrum Yellow. Anyway, I hope this helps someone out there :)

So thank you for enduring all my random art adventures of late! Seriously who knew making color charts and simple art projects with not much skill involved could be so much fun? I will be progressing through the Josie Lewis book throughout the year, so be forewarned that you will see more posts of my projects some time. I've included a link to the Creativebug class that helped me so much in case anyone is interested. Fall down this hole with me!

*contains affiliate links, but all opinions are 100% my own.

My Daily Painting Challenge with Yao Cheng

Every once in a while there is a challenge that kicks my rear in gear and makes me want to really try something new. I posted about dabbling in watercolor painting back in March, but to be honest I haven't done any painting since then :/ I was still very interested in trying to get better at painting, but I just struggled with what to paint and when to fit it in. When I saw this new Creativebug class I knew it was just what I needed to get me to give it another try and (hopefully) make a habit of painting.

I waxed poetic about Yao Cheng's beautiful painting classes on Creativebug back in March (click here to see all of her classes), and I still love her effortless style of painting florals. Yao had a new Daily Challenge class that released on July 1st. The way it worked was that a new chapter of the class was released each day to show how to paint a new type of flower. I was stubborn, so I didn't start on July 1st like the class is meant to do, but by July 10th I could no longer resist the temptation. I pulled out my palette and dove in.

I painted all of #1 through #8 on the 10th, then I painted #9 through #11 on the 11th. After that I did each flower on its assigned day. Things didn't start off terribly or anything, but I wasn't exactly thrilled by what I was able to paint on these days. Mostly I was happy that you could tell what type of flower they are supposed to be, lol. These are: 1. Craspedia, 2. Lavender, 3. Hyacinth, 4. Tulips, 5. Goldenrod, 6. Orange Firethorn, 7. Agapanthus, 8. Stock, 9. Dill Stems, 10. Allium

By the 11th, I had a decent grasp on the techniques and got slightly better. These flowers are: 11. Hydrangea, 12. Rose, 13. Fuji Chrysanthemum, 14. Carnation, 14. Pincushion Protea. I enjoyed painting the hydrangea, but I really don't love how watery my results are compared to most of the other flowers. By this time I had a better handle on my leaves and I was better able to control my color bleeds. I LOVED the Fuji Chrysanthemum. This became one of my favorites even though it's not as well executed as later flowers (and it was with my cheaper materials). The carnation saw a new technique - wet on wet. You actually paint with just water and then drop the colors you want onto the edges to get a natural looking bleed. The pincushion was fun and was fairly easy to get the desired result.

This set is when I started to realize the failings of my materials could be causing my frustration. These are: 16. Dahlia, 17. Muscari, 18. Sunflower, 19. Ranunculus. The only one in this set I like is the muscari. I was getting major puddles on my paper as well as major warping where I used more water - you can see this in the way the paper scanned all wobbly and this was after I set the dry paintings under heavy books to flatten them out. This was when I decided that my paper wasn't great. I also noticed I was having problems with the depth of my colors when dry. I know watercolor is sheer by design, but mine were much more so than Yao's and it didn't seem to matter what I did. I put that question up on the class message board and the consensus was that I needed better quality paint. Since I had an Amazon credit, I sprung for a pan set that had good reviews and people specifically mentioned the vibrancy of the colors. Day 18 (the sunflowers) was the first day I had the new paint. I couldn't resist trying to add a little of my new gold paint in there, lol. I also must confess - I was afraid of getting my colors muddy in the pans - this is why the sunflowers are such solid colors, particularly in the leaves. I got over this by picking up a porcelain plate at the Dollar Tree to act as a palette - basically I get that plate as muddy and mingled as I want while keeping my pans mostly original. This has worked really well for me, so if you're at all OCD particular about your colors like I am, I recommend a wide open palette to mix with. Also day 19 was my first day I repainted, but I still wasn't really happy with it. The first time I got a lot of accidental bleeds and then I accidentally dropped my loaded paint brush and I was really done. I painted another version that night, but I think it looks like a lollipop, lol.

This set saw things really start to turn around. These are: 20. Hibiscus, 21. Water Lily, 22. Poppies, 23. Pansies, 24. Lily. I was very happy with my hibiscus ... until I added the gouache for the stamen, lol. I couldn't find gouache locally except for full kits, and being on my very tight budget I went with the cheapest option, lol. Well, the gouache I got is kind of useless. I'm not sure if it should even be called gouache. The paint wasn't opaque and kept activating the color beneath, mixing their colors and dimming my yellows. It was also very goopy even after I mixed it with water. I'm still very happy with the flower itself and the leaves of my hibiscus. I finally got better paper on the 22nd, and I'm sure you can see the difference in this day. I had no puddling or warping of the paper and it was so great, lol. Again I was happy with this until I had to add the gouache. I still like the green and pink poppies though. The pansies are another wet on wet technique and I need to practice it more. Mine was not quite wet enough to spread the color fully, so I had to go back and add more. The lily was one of the more difficult flowers in that it took about 3 layers to do. I was frustrated at the time, but it's really not that bad now that I look at it after the fact.

These next two lines are the final week, and this is where I really saw definite improvement. These are: 25. Cherry Blossom, 26. Anemone, 27. Cosmos, 28. Alstromeria. I loved my cherry blossom until I added the gouache (again). This gouache did come out better than others though, so I still like it a lot. By day 26, I had purchased a micro brush for the wispy details and this was the first day I used it. Oh man what a difference! These anemonies became one of my absolute favorites I painted this month. The alstromeria got painted twice because I forgot to add the yellow while the base flower was wet, so I ended up painting two. In the end I actually like the first try better, lol.

And the final few days are certainly some of my best work - go figure. These are: 29. Delphinium, 30. Foxgloves, 31. Peonies. I LOVE these peonies. I really like all 3 of these, but the peonies in particular came out really nicely. 

Overall these were my favorites. Some of them I can see aren't fantastic now that I've improved a bit, but I still remember feeling proud of them at the time I painted them. I will definitely be painting all of these again :)

What I learned:

• Cheap materials give cheap results - I talked a big game about saving so much money on my watercolor supplies when I first started, but to be honest I have replaced ALL of my components throughout this challenge. The paint I had wasn't giving me reliable pigment (probably because there wasn't a lot of pigment in the mixture), so I got a better set. My paper was warping something awful on every single painting, leaving rings around the areas where the water puddled, so I bought thicker paper (Strathmore 300 Series). My brushes just didn't seem to hold the amount of water that Yao's did, and after further research I discovered it was mostly due to the bristle type of the brushes, so I bought a few nice brushes (synthetic squirrel) in the sizes I used most. I still shopped sales at local stores, and somethings came from Amazon, but I still spent considerably more than my original $20 or so. I've really enjoyed painting everyday, so this cost was worth it to me, but it would have saved me money if I had just bought the decent stuff in the first place. 
• Not all brush types are the same size - Yao is pretty good about telling you which brand of brush she is using as well as what size and why. When she used a size 12, I grabbed my size 12. I started to notice that I wasn't getting near the swipe size she was, so upon further examination I realized my cheapy brushes were considerably smaller even though the number was the same. I even found this with a nicer set of brushes that was a different material - as in I bought a set of brushes that included a size 6, then bought a nicer synthetic squirrel brush in a size 6 and the squirrel brush is a decent bit larger. This isn't a terrible thing, just keep in mind that you will get a different result.
• You can improve at ANYTHING if you devote yourself to doing it a little every day. I certainly don't think I'm some amazing painter by any means, but I can see decided progress from my flowers at the beginning of the month to the end of the month. This is why I wanted to post all of my flowers here to show the difference. The differences are not just in the quality of my materials (which is noticeable as well) but in the decisiveness of my strokes, the quality of my color blends, the shapes of the flowers, etc. Just from spending a little time each day with this skill, I have improved.

I was so into watercolor that most of my other hobbies kind of stopped in the month of July. It's not that I didn't enjoy sewing and knitting still, it's that I really was having fun with watercolor and I wanted to keep that momentum going. I also painted a few extra things this month since I was in the mood and all my supplies were out. I tried Yao's geometric blending exercises from her Beginning Watercolor class a few times to test out my new paint set - *hint* all of these have metallic paints because I just couldn't resist. Then I decided to try painting birds,which turned out pretty well - a few of these were copied from tutorials I found on Pinterest, but the cardinal I painted from a photograph (cardinals are my favorite bird). Then another night I decided to paint my Crown of Thorns plant (which was on the new paper with new brushes) and I was very happy with how the leaves and buds look (still need to work on the thorns and the pot though, lol). One of the draws for me to start the flower challenge was to actually have something in mind to paint as this used to be my biggest hang up (meaning I would want to paint, but I just could never decide what subject to actually paint). Now I just have things pop into my head that I should paint, so this is another nice perk of completing this program. It made me realize that it doesn't have to be a big song and dance - just paint something!

I'm surprised and excited with the results of taking this class. What started as an innocent, "Hey why not?" type thought has turned into something that I love to do. I would never have guessed that I would take to painting in any form if you'd asked me any time before the last year. It's crazy that something I always thought I was no good at would become something I actually feel a little proud of now :) It's nice to see the results of dedicating yourself to something new. So, if you have a notion to try out art, I cannot recommend this class enough. It doesn't matter that the month is over because you can still watch each class and do this at your own pace. You can also do like I did and watch Yao's Beginning Watercolor class first so you have a little understanding of what to do going in. Both of these classes are included with a $4.95 monthly membership (you can even get 1 month free as a new member!) and I recommend watching anything and everything that spark your interest. I had a lot of fun and have a great jump start into a new skill. I'm also super excited for Yao's new class that comes out this Wednesday!

Trying Something New: Playing With Watercolor (and Creativebug Class Review)

For most of my life, I've just accepted that there are things I am good at and there are things I am not good at. Most of the things I've deemed myself "not good at" (most sports, math, etc.) were things I never cared enough about to improve. The one shining regret though is that I am not better at art. By "art" I mean fine arts: painting, drawing, etc. As a kid, I showed very little natural ability, so I was never encouraged to try harder. I just knew that the art I produced didn't look anything like the artists I loved (Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Monet), so I thought I was just no good and I set the dreams of being an artist aside and went on doing things I knew I was good at. I've developed my skills in sewing, knitting, photography, baking, crocheting, and much much more. Some of these skills required a lot of time and work, but I grow more confident in them all the time and I enjoy the time I spend in these types of activities. Ever since I started knitting, I've slowly realized that most any skill just requires determination and practice. I've suspected this about art as well, but it wasn't until I started watching drawing and painting classes on Creativebug that it really sunk in: I could do this - I just have to work at it.

The glory of the Creativebug class platform is that when you subscribe you can watch any class in their catalog that you want. I've always loved Craftsy, but since you purchase each class individually I've always stuck with things I knew I would use and apply (mostly sewing, knitting, and baking classes). When I subscribed to Creativebug and started looking around, I got pretty into watching their beginner art classes. For one it's mesmerizing to watch someone paint who really knows what they're doing (*cough* Yao Cheng *cough*), but in each class I've noticed the same theme: anyone can do this if they devote the time to practice and learn. What a novel thought, huh? 

I started by watching Molly Hatch's Introduction to Drawing, which inspired me to get a set of pencils and give things a try. I've noticed a little improvement since I started, which is pretty great :) From there I really became interested in water color painting thanks to Yao Cheng's Beginning Watercolor class. Her paintings are beautiful, but they are very freeform. She constantly says that you need to try to capture the feeling more than the intricacies of the piece you are painting, and I definitely feel that in her work. She paints beautiful florals, and she just makes me want to give it a try.

Now considering that I did not know if I would enjoy painting enough to make it a real practice, I did not want to spend a lot of money on materials to give it a try. Enter ebay. Guys, I've probably mentioned it before, but did you know that you can buy a lot of things for a fraction of what they cost in the US when you buy from a Chinese seller on ebay? I feel like I'm putting on my salesman voice here, but I'm talking these are the exact same products that we can buy here, you're just buying them direct from the source and so you are paying far less. The packaging may not be as fancy, but who cares about the packaging? I was able to get everything I needed this way and I spent quite a bit less than I would have here if I'd bought similar products. (Also I do not get any form of a kick back for mentioning this, just so we're clear).

This is what I bought:

• 18 tube Water Color Paint Set - $5.27
• 12 Rounded Point Nylon Water Color Paint Brushes - $1.74
• 25 Grid Artist's Paint Palette - $2.99

I'll admit that the palette was a slight splurge since I could've bought the round ones for about $1, but I liked that this one folded up. I also bought a larger paint set with 18 colors instead of the basic 12 colors from the same company, and that cost $1.28 extra. But that's just compared to other Chinese made prices. The cheapest I found these types of supplies in the US was at Michael's in their Everyday Values section - they were identical products and the 12 tube set cost $5, a set of several flat palettes (not close-able like this one) was $5, and a brush set was $5. So I spent $10 instead of $15 but I got more paint and a palette like I wanted. Any time I try a new hobby, I check ebay first for the supplies. Anyway, let's move on (end rant, lol). The other things I already had (the pad of watercolor paper and the little metallic paints). just for the record.

I decided to start out my painting journey by watching the Playing with Watercolor class by Lindsay Stripling. She goes over how to make yourself a color chart before you begin, and I thought that would be a great place to start since I was in no way familiar with my paints. I made a grid on my paper and followed her instructions to make my own color chart with fades and tints that turned out pretty awesome if I do say so myself.

Once I started actually trying to paint something, I realized how easy the chart was, lol. Give me a grid to fill in with a pretty color, no problem. Give me an entire blank page to fill as I liked ... crickets. In all my fine art experimentation, I think the hardest thing for me is figuring out what to paint or draw. I'm surrounded by neat objects, but I'm just not used to looking at them artistically. I started off by doing an exercise from Yao Cheng's Beginning Watercolor class where you paint a shape (circles, triangles, etc) over and over again in different colors, but you allow just one tip of the shape to touch a previously painted one, causing the paint to bleed over just a touch. It looked cool in the class, so I gave it a go. Turns out I'm not so good at making shapes that look even yet, lol. So I tried it for a while and soon just started doodling with paint. This was my resulting masterpiece:

Ha ha see why I never pursued painting? It's not as bad as it could be (maybe), but it certainly doesn't show any artistic vision. I stopped after that painting and continued with my day. Later that night though I decided to give things another go. This time I decided to draw something first and then paint it. I went with one of my favorite plants right now: My Christmas Cactus. 

This is my subject in real life. It's already past blooming, so this was just about the plant itself. I figured simple leaves and variations on the same basic shape would be a good place to begin. First I drew my still life in a 2H pencil:

Then I used water color paint to fill it in:

Still not a great work of art, but it's passable. You can tell that it's a Christmas cactus in a pot. Adding the gnome was a bad choice (he's a clay watering thing in my real pot), I see that now. Also I tried to add depth with color, but I kept running into problems with my previous painted areas being completely dry, so the paint wouldn't blend at all, or being too wet still and the paint just spreading around and changing the color. These are the things I really need to work on to improve, and that will just come with time and continuing to see what the paint does in certain situations. I'm reasonably proud of my little art work though for just beginning :)

A short while after the cactus, I watched another of Yao Cheng's classes - Intermediate Watercolor - where she shows tips for painting her iconic florals. I was really inspired, so I decided to give things a try. My attempt is certainly not anywhere near Yao's standard, but you can tell they are flowers, and I tried a few new techniques with this that actually worked out, so that was cool.

It's really interesting learning the ins and outs of a completely new medium or expression. I plan to keep painting and drawing simply to improve - I know these are borderline embarassing paintings by the standards of any "real artist" out there, but I wanted to share them almost because of that fact. You have to start somewhere, and there is no shame in trying something and then working to get better. So now these are on the internet for comparison so I can see if I do, in fact, get better. I just need to devote the time and keep trying :) You can do it too!

I shared once before about Creativebug, but there is a new deal that I wanted to let you know about. First time members can get their first month for just $1 AND get a free class to keep forever even if you don't keep up your membership. Like I said before, this is an affiliate link, and I do get something if you join, but in total honesty I wouldn't share it here unless I truly liked the company, which I absolutely do! I find myself watching their classes just for fun instead of watching a movie, lol. I'd rather be learning something new. Do yourself a favor and take advantage of this offer and watch as many classes as you like while you have that free month, then decide for yourself. If they can get me to try art again, they can help you do pretty much anything :) Go here to sign up!

Furniture Transformation: Sewing Room Dresser

This project has been finished and in use for over a year now, but I kept putting off blogging about it until I cleaned up my sewing room really well for pictures. The room never got completely cleaned, but I wanted to get this documented and stop feeling guilty for not writing about it, so I just took pictures anyway. Now this dresser is no longer even in the same house these photos were taken in, ha ha. So, here's a real life look at another custom piece I made for my sewing room:

I finished my French Provincial dresser! I first started this redo back in May of 2013 and the dresser looked like this:

A week or so after that post, I ran into humidity problems and had to stop my spray painting for the summer (stupid Florida). I bought this dresser years ago for $10 from a friend who was moving to Saudi Arabia (thanks, Brenna!). I love French Provincial style and had a small collection (which will soon be for sale). Sadly, all of the pieces I have are pretty beat up, plus the coloring really doesn't go with any of my decor. I planned to revamp all my pieces eventually, but this was the first one to get the full treatment since I knew I wanted it to match my sewing room.

I gave this piece the full treatment - I started with sanding, then two coats of Kilz spray paint, then two coats of Rustoleum 2X Ultra-Cover in White Satin. Then I decided to get fancy. I wanted this piece to match my desk which has a coral pink top, so I started playing with what parts I wanted to accent with the coral paint. In the end I decided to paint the drawer fronts, so I did 3 coats of Valspar Color Radiance spray paint in Coral on the tops. Things got tricky on those bottom drawers - It looks like the dresser has 4 drawers, right? Not so! The bottom drawers are double deep, so that raised bar in the middle is actually part of that drawer. This only became an issue because I wanted that middle bar to stay white like the others, so I had to do some very precise masking off. I had to touch up a few places with a small paintbrush (no easy feat), but I don't think you would notice if I didn't point them out - so I wont, lol. Once I got all the main colors on, I coated the entire piece with 3 coats of Minwax PolyAcrylic.

Once the dresser was painted, the hardware did not match at all. I grabbed a can of Rustoleum Metallic spray paint in Matte Nickel and gave all the pulls several coats. It was a bit of a challenge to get the hardware off, which mean they were also difficult to put back on. My persuasion caused a few nicks to the new paint (I let them dry for a few days, but it wasn't totally cured apparently). It's not a big deal. I remember I thought it would bug the crap out of me back in April when I finished it up, but I can't remember ever even noticing it over the last year when I look at the dresser.

I'm telling you, after working on this for almost 2 years and storing it around various places for a few years before the work even began, it was a big celebration to finally get this piece in my sewing room. I originally thought I would store fabric in the drawers, but that was naive at best (I have WAY too much fabric for this little thing, lol, luckily the fabric storage situation was solved months ago). When we put this in my room, even though I was super thrilled to have it done, I had no idea what I wanted to put inside it! Isn't that crazy?! Since my original plan of fabric changed, I decided to store notions in it instead. Overtime, I've added more and more things to the drawers and now it is an integral part of my organization in the room. I store my button stash, bias tape maker machine, trims, knitting needle sets, crochet hooks, scale, heat set tool, washi tape, yarn winder, extra pins, etc. I also utilized the area under the dresser to hold more ribbons and trims along with my old tins from my Grammy (this isn't the case in my new sewing room, but I'll still show it here until I do a new sewing room reveal).

So there you have it - my finished dresser! I know the pictures look kinds of junky, but this it the real life I guess. It always looks like this (in fact, it was much worse and I cleared it off for the photos).

I still love my customized furniture I've done, and I'm really glad I made them all for my sewing room so it adds a little touch of extra joy in the room to think that I did all of that work for myself :) Since I've moved, I won't be doing any furniture remakes in the foreseeable future :( At least I got the few things in while I had the space and got to enjoy them. The unfortunate thing is that now I always look at furniture with the creative eye to see what I can remake to fit my needs ... but I won't be able to do that! Bummer. One day, lol. I'm getting my new sewing room situated (it's all together, but I'm deciding where to hang things and making a mini curtain), but I will show that soon!

Furniture Transformation: A Side Table To Love

Today I have quite the transformation to show you - but it took some of the least amount of work I've done in a long time, lol. My friend Liz moved to Las Vegas last month, and gave me this little side table that she couldn't take with her.

No need to adjust your monitors - it is, indeed, neon pink, lol. At first I was unsure if I could help it out, but never one to turn down free furniture, I was happy to take it from her. It's a good height, which I have discovered is hard to come by in thrift store/used furniture. I'm guessing it's because they are so useful that no one gets rid of them. Anyway, this particular table seems to have belonged to a little girl before going to Liz. Not only was the table a terribly spray painted pink (the top was very splotchy), it was really beat up and even had the message, "If you can read this this table is cursed!" written is shaky, little girl handwriting under the lip along the edge, lol. Thanks for the warning.

When I first received the table, I planned to strip the old paint off and stain it a dark brown to match my living room furniture. This means that it sat in my garage for about a month as I put off doing so much work in the midst of my larger house projects. This past weekend though I was struck with an idea - what if I just spray paint over the pink with a deep brown color? The table is small, and since I was planning on stripping the paint to begin with I figured it couldn't hurt to try the spray paint first and I could just strip it later if I hated how it came out. I just gave a few gooby spots a nice sanding (there was some wax dribbled on the side), and sprayed it with a can of Rustoleum American Accents 2X Ultra Cover in Espresso Satin. It absorbed wonderfully (bless you, real wood), and after 2 coats and maybe 20 minutes, I had a wonderful transformation!

It came out great! Sure, I could have given it a bit more TLC and filled in the pits on the top and edges, but at the time I just wanted a quick and satisfying project to keep me in the DIY spirit. The color looks great in my living room - it's close enough to the dark stain of my furniture to pass, plus it's in a corner by itself so it has nothing else right next to it to give a side by side comparison. Also the satin finish makes it shine like it was recently sprayed with Pledge :) I still didn't want the pits on the top to show so much, and I recently came across this thrifted hand-crocheted doily I picked up for 25¢ who knows when (it was in the abyss of my sewing room and I found it amongst the fabric I put on my new shelving unit, and it still had the price tag on it). It's the perfect size for this table and just enough of a distraction from the blemishes on the table top. It doesn't cover them all, but is makes you not notice them unless you're really scrutinizing.

Now my little corner has an appropriate sized table that is just enough to add light and interest. Added bonus - the table top has a little cubby underneath where it attaches to the base, so I was able to twist tie my lamp cord and tuck it inside the table - no more unsightly cord hanging down! Now nothing can distract you eye from that beautiful new light socket down there, lol, it's the little things, folks.

This project was just enough to really kick my spray-painting-butt into full gear. I love how a quick and successful project can just make you want to do more and more. I've got another huge transformation that just has to be coated in poly-acrylic (*hint hint* I posted about starting this project 2 years ago! That's so sad!) I am beyond thrilled to have this next one done and 1) out of my garage and 2) holding things in my sewing room. I can't wait!

Cost Breakdown:

• Cursed Side Table - Free (Thanks, Liz!)
• 1 can Rustoleum American Accents 2X Ultra Cover Spray Paint in Espresso Satin - $3.77
• Antique Handmade Crocheted Doily - 25¢

Total Cost: $4.02 (pretty awesome, right?!)

Catching Up

I've felt so remiss in my lack of blogging lately - it's certainly not because I don't want to! I've had the unfortunate experience of my laptop deciding to not work, so it's off being fixed - thankfully I have my phone for internet or I'd go insane, but it's not great for blog writing. So, I've been quite active on Instagram the last few weeks. I figured I'd use my IG pics to report on what I've been doing, so prepare to be inundated!

I've had a serious lack of knitting time of late because I've been doing so many home improvements. They really are addictive :) The most time consuming "improvement" for the past few months has been painting my kitchen cabinet doors.

As we speak, these 9 doors are all that is left to paint - I'm crossing my fingers that they are done on the back and that I can flip them and do the final coat on the front this weekend. Then they would be done! I'm honestly curious as to how it will feel when I can officially break all this down and not have a painting station in my living room. It's been so long!

The nastiest part has been this final cabinet base. We always thought we would have to just replace the cabinet since it was so disgusting from water damage. Obviously the previous owners had to do some plumbing work in that hole they so beautifully cut out. I have to get a piece of wood to cover it, so technically I will have to paint that as well. The picture on the right is what the cabinet looked like "cleaned" and the left is after I painted it with Kilz Oil Based Primer to cover over the old mold (gross). Since this pic was taken, I have painted it with one coat of XLM primer and 1 coat of paint  and it is AMAZING how much better it looks. I mean, it's still not perfect because of all the crap from the sink and what not in there (plus the big hole), but Oh My Gosh what a difference! I will be painting the final coat tonight and I seriously can't wait!

The doors and this cabinet are all that remains to getting my kitchen "finished" for now. I call it a Phase 1 Remodel because I definitely have further plans, but things like counter tops and appliances get a whole lot more expensive than a few gallons of paint, so at least I will have the basics covered (like finally having doors on my cabinets after 2 years of living without them, lol).

I also gave myself a decent little splurge of sewing time over the past month. Not only did I tackle the Peggy Skirt, I also made a cute pair of PJ pants (which I still have to photograph and blog about), and went straight into making a new dress pattern. I chose Simplicity 1419. I made a muslin of the bodice first and boy, did I have a hard time. I knew basic alterations I needed to the front pieces from the fitting work I did on Simplicity 2444, but I still have gaping at the back neckline of that dress that kind of drives me nuts, so I decided to buckle down and figure it out. Turns out I have a dowager's hump (lovely to know, isn't it?), so after an hour or so of pinching out darts and what not to no avail I pulled out Fit For Real People and consulted the experts. When I read the instructions, it didn't make any sense as to how that would fix a gaping back neck, but I tried it anyway and (amazingly) it worked! Who knew the experts would be right? lol I know, I'm ridiculous.

Once I got the bodice fit sorted, I picked a nice springy fabric to make up my dress :) I have it all cut out and marked, but have yet to sew it together. I kind of hope I can get this done for Easter, but I won't be devastated if I can't finish it. We'll see.

I also got experimental in the kitchen and made these s'mores (which were delicious!). I just used Aldi brand graham crackers, marshmallows and milk chocolate (their Chocheur brand with hazelnut paste in it - oh my gosh). I set the grahams on a tin foil covered cookie sheet, plopped a marshmallow on top and put them in the oven at 350F for a few minutes until they puffed up and started to get just a tinge of brown. I took them out and pressed the marshmallow down with a fork (so it covered more of the cracker). Once they were cooled off, I melted the chocolate in a double boiler and spooned/spread it across the tops. Oh man, these were so good and very easy to make, if a bit time consuming. So worth it though!

This past Thursday, I decided to finally try dying a few items of clothing I'd accumulated. It was an interesting experience, but not completely awful, lol. I'll report more on that later.

Later that day, I decided to tackle a big reorganization project. My good friend Leigh gave me an awesome Ikea shelf unit thing she had used with a tabletop on it, but no longer had space for and it had been sitting in my living room for a day. Originally I hadn't planned on tackling it yet, but I had some time and wanted that stuff out of the living room (it took up a lot of space). So ... I dug out my whole closet in my sewing room and situated the cabinets - I kid you not, they fit exactly - like, if they were even 1/2" wider, they wouldn't fit in there. The two piece together are 60" wide and 24" deep, so the tabletop Leigh had wouldn't fit (it's cut to overhang them), so I have to get a top piece cut and painted for it, but check out what I did in the meantime...

HOLY FREAKING GOODNESS! I guess I have just a little bit of fabric, huh? Those shelves are stacked two rows deep, so there is even more you can't see. I unloaded 5 Rubbermaid tubs and 1 large box (it was bigger than the tubs) full of fabric onto this baby. I still have one file box that I couldn't fit (sigh), so I will be weeding through my stash and eBay-ing some of my less-loved pieces. In my defense, I did not purchase all of this myself. I got quite a bit of this when others destashed and just gave me a whole box of fabric. Anyway, it's AMAZING to see all of my fabric like this! Some of these fabrics I haven't looked at in at least a year. I organized each shelf by type of fabric, so I will be able to "shop" my stash for my projects instead of ignoring my buckets and going to the store. I used to have to literally unload my entire closet to get to my tubs, and then pull everything out each tub to find what I needed, so this will be kind of life changing. I'm hoping it increases my productivity :) Since taking this photo, I have also cleared all that junk from in front of the closet and tidied up about 2/3rds of the rest of the room. Once I get it all cleaned up and have a topper on this, I am planning on a new tour of my sewing room post!

And why not round off this post with a gratuitous sexy shoe photo? I'm a total convert to Swedish Hasbeens, folks. I have a black pair and this pair, which I figure should serve me well until I find more on super-duper sale like these were, lol. Wooden shoes FOR EVER!

So, if you've made it this far, thanks :) I know it's just a bunch of random-ness shoved into a post, but I just really wanted to update my goings-on. Once I get my house projects finished, I will be doing some before and after posts of epic proportions (no joke, my house looks SO different than it did just 2 months ago), so check back for that soon. Now I'd better get back to cleaning ... or painting ... or knitting ... you know, the essentials.

WIP Wednesday: Knitting and Home Improvements

Man, it has been a while! I can't believe how the time flew by - I've had so much going on that my blog hasn't shown the progress. But progress has indeed been made! First off, here is my sock:

I know it's an awful picture, but at least it's looking more sock-ish now :) Once I turned the heel, I had to try it on (much to the dismay of the purl rows between the motifs, lol) Now I'm just continuing my way up. I plan on making these as knee-high as I have yarn to do, if that makes sense. I am just a smidge shy of how much yarn the pattern calls for, so I might not make it truly "knee high". They do seem to fit nicely though, so that's good :)

I feel like I should make my full excuse as to why I've been so busy - I'm finally finishing a bunch of things around my house! My sister has been in town from Japan, and she has made it her goal to get things done in my house, lol. She loves diy, and living on base housing she hasn't been able to do anything where she lives, so she's living vicariously through my house - that's just fine by me :)

This is just a sill preview, but it shows two of the finished areas - my hall and foyer are painted gray with white trim, my living room is finished being painted (the other side of the room still had never been painted, lol), and we've even started hanging art work - it's kind of a miracle after living in a sadly unfinished house for 2 years. She also is painting my cabinet doors and drawer for my kitchen - I have functioning drawers! That alone has been kind of life changing. Now I'm working on getting all my art work together so that we can design a gallery wall. I've even ordered a few new prints, so it should be pretty exciting :) That picture above the lamp in the photo is a hand colored lithograph I bought at a thrift store for $5.00 year ago - it's numbered and signed, and it's professionally framed and everything. I love that I get to see it hanging up everyday now! I can't wait to show more progress once the gallery walls are done. So exciting!

Hopefully this makes at least some kind of good excise for my lack of knitting, lol.

That's it for me this week :) Head over to Stitch Along Wednesday to see what others are working on too!

Thrilling Thrifting!

While on my lunch break yesterday, I went by a local church thrift store. I check there about once a week since it's so close to work and I usually come out with a little thing every now and then. Yesterday though, I hit the mother load. I had to make myself not look at several sections so that I could get back to work and not spend any more money, lol. Check out what I found:

I've literally never seen a single record album in this store before. As I was looking in their back room, I saw a man huffing and puffing while separating a large pile of new items and taking them to their sections in the store and there they were - a big stack of records. And these weren't the average Christmas and Christian 70s music records I usually find around here - they were all music that people sill listen to. I jumped on the stack and started going through them afraid that someone else would swoop in and buy them before I could, lol. I looked at each record I was interested in to see the actual lp's condition (how scratched it was), and I came out with these 14: The Beatles - The White Album, Let It Be, Rubber Soul, Abbey Road, 1962 - 1966; The Eagles - Hotel California; Styx - Paradise Theater; Van Halen - Van Halen; Kansas - Point of Know Return; Creedence Clearwater Revival - Willy and the Poor Boys; James Taylor - Sweet Baby James; Queen - News of the World; Lynyrd Skynard - Skynard's First and Last; The London Howling' Wolf Sessions with Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Bill Wyman, and Charlie Watts. I went home last night and had a great little listening session and I am seriously amazed at the quality of these records - they play perfectly! I started it off with Van Halen and then switched to The Beatles and so on and so forth. It was pretty awesome.

I also found this nice little lithograph. It looks like a print that has been water colored by hand and it is all butterflies and flowers but in a funky blue and yellow color scheme. I think it will look nice somewhere in our house - I know I'll paint the outer frame silver though. It's really nicely matted and framed and here is what made it even cooler:

It says 95/200 Fantasia and is signed Pearl Abrams across the bottom. I've tried looking up the artist and can't really find much on her. Anyone know where to look? I did find 2 other lithographs of hers that were selling for $100 - $150, so that's reassuring :) I honestly just bought it because I liked it, but it's nice that it make be worth something too.

I also grabbed a Shrek cup from McDonald's for 50¢ (I have a little collection of these and we use them all the time) and this funky floral printed polyester twin sized flat sheet (yes, polyester, you read that right, lol). It's got a little sheen to the it and I figure I will use it as fabric.

So that was my bit of excitement so far this week :) How about you?