Art Fail

There has been quite the long progression of what will grace the wall above the couch.  First it was black and white photography of mine.  I was going to do the whole architectural prints onto blue board.  Turns out that black and white photography totally clashes with my paint color on the wall...  Then it was photo canvases of some of my prints from Kennecott...  Then that was pretty pricey, and it turns out you can't custom make random canvas sizes.  So then I moved from a photography mindset to a paint-oriented mindset.

Well, in my mind I thought some tree ring art would be awesome above the couch.  First I was thinking ginormous canvas and doing a watercolor of the tree rings.  The ideas surrounding watercolor ranged from more realistic, to wonderfully abstract.

Then I totally changed my mind.

Surprise, surprise!  :o)



Clearly the next step in my filling-the-void-above-the-couch venture was plywood.

Here's what I ended up making one night while watching reruns of Sabrina the Teenage Witch (I'll admit it, and ya know what, it was funny to watch it and go "oh man, I used to wear that too...  yikes!") on Hulu.  

 The idea was to heavily white wash paint the tree ring outlines onto the thin plywood, then reinforce the back to hang it.  I thought the wood grain behind it would be kinda neat.  I also liked the idea of light colored art since it would pop more against the light gray'ish tan walls, and not make the room small feeling.  

Please ignore the frog tape.  I was planning out size proportions of built in bookshelves (coming soon'ish - hopefully!) and wall art with the wall size and couch.

Here's another shot of the room to show the slant of the wall.  Oh and the lovely papasan chair, ceiling fan, torch light, and stair rails that are just screaming awesome style.  ;o)  Work in progress folks, work in progress.  

I ALMOST like it when I see it in these pictures.  In person though, it just isn't right.  :o(  

Kevin still thinks I should hang up some of my photography and I'm CONSIDERING doing a 3x3 grid of 8x10 photos of mine... but I still am a bit hung up on the idea of LARGE art.  I have an idea for a large panel project...  I think it'd be awesome and also give me the excuse to break out the hammer and saw... BUT I'm not certain if it'd work with the room as a whole...   Who knows.  

All I do know, is that something needs to get up on this wall! 

 

Making Mugs

I have seen tutorial after tutorial on Pinterest on using a sharpies on porcelain.  I think I pinned one of them over a year ago.  In true Krista fashion, I just now got around to trying it out.  :o)

Oh, and pardon the pics.  I took them before I left for work (which was like 7:00 am, which is also pitch black dark in December)

One of my schools was auctioning off cookie trays to benefit Abused Women's Aid in Crisis (AWAIC) in Anchorage.  Last year they were able to donate over $1000 (this is my more affluent school) from parent/teacher bids on cookies.  Well, give me any excuse to bake copious amounts of cookies and I will do just that.  :o)  I wanted to try hot chocolate on a stick (FAIL!) and serve it in custom mugs with marshmallows (I toyed with the idea of trying to make my own... but then I realized I was uber busy) and homemade sugar cookies.  I'd share the sugar cookie recipe, but its a family one from my Great Aunt Dorothy that I'm not ready to share yet.  Maybe next year. ;o)

Okay, like I was saying... mugs.  I picked up two plain white porcelain mugs for $1 at the thrift store with "good lines" (dunno why I felt the need to stick that in quotations... It just felt right...).  I followed this tutorial from A Beautiful Mess.  I drew on them freehand, then baked them at 350* for 30 minutes.  Cooled, washed, then ready to go!

I went with "Merry and Bright" and "Comfort & Joy" because I love how two (okay, technically three) words can encompass the coziness of the holidays during the darkness that is Winter.  Love, love, love!

Here are the final platters I brought in.  No clue how much they auctioned for, but hey, they went for something, and that something went for good.  Oh, and I got to be a bit artsy fartsy and decorate mugs AND cookies!  Sounds like a win-win-win to me! :oD