Filed under: Etsy Favorites
I had this idea a while back, but I lost access to a kiln for a few months, so they had to wait. I’ve probably missed out on most of the wedding traffic for this year, but what can you do. I’m still really, really happy with how these turned out!
Oh, and any dreams I had of one day competing on Food Network Challenge, or opening my own bakery, have been dashed. I made a cake to use as a prop in taking these pictures (and to eat, obvs), and I did an ATROCIOUS job frosting it. Just awful. Crumbs everywhere, big holes where frosting should be… just awful. I think I managed to hide it in the pics. But it did taste good! (Lemon with white icing).
Click here for my new “Wedding” section on Etsy!
Filed under: Etsy Favorites
No big projects in the last few weeks, because I’ve been working on updating my Etsy shop! I’d gotten tired of the look of the shop (and apparently so had the ceramics buying public, because sales are sluggish!), so I thought I’d take new pictures and give it a fresh look. What do you think?
Haven’t quite finished yet. Still need to photograph most of the jewelry, but it’s so time consuming, I’m doing it a little at a time.
I do have a BIG project on the horizon that I’ll be excited to post about. I’m building a new TV stand/entertainment center for the living room. The plans are done, I just need to go buy materials and get going. Hopefully you’ll start seeing posts on that in the next few weeks!
Filed under: Art in Memphis
I went to the July gathering of Urban Sketchers Memphis on Saturday. I love sketching with a group like this. A lot of the time I don’t sketch because I feel like I’m inconveniencing other people… making them wait while I finish, or ignoring them while I sketch and they just sit there. But with the group, we’re all there for one thing and I don’t have to worry about anything but what to sketch next!
We went to the Mud Island River Park and Mississippi River Museum. I hadn’t been there since middle school (before I moved to Memphis, actually!), so it was fun to go back. There was a lot to see, and it was a bit overwhelming deciding what to draw! After a while, I just picked something and got started.
First thing I drew was a steamboat wheel. There was audio playing in this section, and unfortunately the loop was short enough that I heard it like 30 times. I probably should have added more detail, and maybe color, to this, but I had to get out of there before I lost my mind!
I sketched a banjo in the “Origins of the Blues” section of the museum. The audio in this section was better!
Next sketch was done in a section of the museum that dealt with the early days of Rock and Roll.
And finally, I ventured outside and sketched a small section of the skyline. It was HOOOOOTTTT.
While working on the wall art above Suzy’s sink, I turned around and noticed this blank space above her stove:
Not a lot of room, but I figured there must be something we could do to spruce it up a bit. Suzy had bought some cork tiles for some other purpose, and we decided that having a few little cork boards there to pin up recipes, etc. would be a good idea.
And because just plain corkboards are BOOORRING, we decided to add a little something to make them more fun!
First, she attached the sticky things to the back of the cork boards.
Next, we placed painter’s tape 2″ from each edge.
Using leftover purple paint from the walls, she filled in the square in the middle. A foam brush worked best for this step.
Remove the tape, and voila! Fun, simple, color-coordinated recipe boards!
Measure out the placement on your wall…
…and stick them up using the mounting tape.
Easy, and fun!
Filed under: How to
My little sister moved into a new apartment back in January. Around the same time, I saw this super cool yarn art idea on Pinterest. It only took 6 months, but we finally got around to giving it a shot this weekend.
We used only supplies we had on hand. Her kitchen is purple and grey, so we used some purple yarn she already had lying around from a 1/2 finished blanket. I wasn’t sure about the bumpy yarn, but it turned out really cool (I do still like the clean look of the regular yarn, though). In addition to what is pictured below, we also used a large quilting ruler to get the angles right.
Here is the space before. It’s right above the sink.
We didn’t really think this through quite as thoroughly as the original blogger did, but it all worked out in the end. First, we measured the amount of space we had available, and figured out exactly how wide each letter should be. Then we marked out the four corners of each letter. We decided our letters would be 2″ thick.
Next we hammered in the four outside nails for the “E.” Like I said, not much planning ahead, so we just measured and nailed as we went along. Since I didn’t get a good picture of the nails, here is a diagram of where they were:
Basically, there should be a nail anywhere the yarn needs to make a turn. We started with just the “E” to make sure we even liked the idea before doing the rest of the measuring and nailing.
We dug it.
So we finished wrapping the E, going around the nails 8 times. We were lucky in that the wall got weirdly hard about an inch in, so we didn’t have to worry about getting the nails even. They all stopped at the same point.
We moved on to the “A” and then the “T.”
And all done! The whole project took a couple of hours, and it was definitely easier having a helping hand to unroll the yarn, hold the ruler and level, etc.
Suzy likes it!
This is something I have wanted to do for AGES. I love the look of a gallery wall, and have been collecting small prints for years hoping to one day find the perfect spot to put one up.
Back in June, I bought Mike an original Lamar Sorrento painting for his birthday. We knew we wanted it over the couch, but it was a bit small, so we decided to do a gallery wall with that painting as the focal point.
First we gathered some of our favorite framed prints from around the house.
Next, I measured out the amount of space I wanted the gallery wall to fill. I didn’t want it to be overwhelming, so I kept it the same width as the couch. I taped out that amount of space on the floor so that I could figure out my layout.
Mike was working late that night, and I must have texted him a dozen pictures of slightly different variations of the layout below. He humored me, and gave his opinion on each one.
Once I had the layout figured out, I made templates of each frame and taped them to the wall. I also marked exactly where the nails should go, so that I could simply nail through the paper, then remove the template and hang the picture.
And Voila! The template/nailing method worked PERFECTLY. We’re so happy with how this turned out!
And in case you’re curious, here is what we have in our gallery wall:
1. “The Spaces in Between” by Kecky on Etsy.
2. Beatles folk art painting by Lamar Sorrento.
3. Mike brought this print back for me from San Francisco last year. I have the artist’s name written down somewhere, but I can’t seem to find it. If anyone knows who’s work this is, let me know!!
4. “Campfire Calaveras” by Mis Nopales Art on Etsy.
5. “Good People Drink Good Beer” by Lucius Art on Etsy. This was another birthday present for Mike this year!
7. “Love What You Do” by The Wheatfield on Etsy.
8. Ticket Box
9. Sketch of the Commercial Appeal newsroom (local Memphis paper) done in 1977 by Bill Garner (thanks for the tip, Elizabeth!). Mike has worked at the paper since college.
10. “Monte Carlo” metal sign. This was previously in Mike’s kitchen. One of the things I liked about the wall was the variety of depths, and that’s the main reason I used this. It could possibly be replaced in the future if we buy a new print.
11. My favorite picture of me and Mike, from Thanksgiving 2010.
12. A photo I took on top of Notre Dame in 2007.
13. Framed gig poster from Mike’s old band, Spin Room. This was LONG before we knew each other, but this gig just happened to occur on my birthday!
14. “It Had to Be You” by Lisa Chow on Etsy. This was a Valentine’s Day gift from Mike this year.
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