3.31.2016

A Traditional Boy's Nursery (In A Long-Overdue Update)

Wow, it's been a while. I think I'm just beginning to come out of the fog of sleep-deprivation, stress, and complete lack of personal time that go hand in hand with becoming a new parent, moving across the Atlantic, changing careers, living out of a suitcase for five+ months, searching for and purchasing a new home, and the mounds and mounds of paperwork that accompany all of the above.

If you're reading this, it means you've stuck with me over the past year of approximately ZERO posts (or stumbled across this for the first time), and I thank you for your loyalty and interest in my little space here. I hope to make up for the lack of posts in the coming months!

Our stuff will remain in storage until we officially close on our home, which means all of my inventory and art supplies are inaccessible to me at the moment. Once we get settled in, however, I will be reopening my Etsy shop and accepting commissions for commercial and residential murals and other projects.

Since my focus over the past year has been on a certain tiny person, I don't have much new artwork to share with you at the moment. I think the last few things I painted were pieces for the nursery, so I'll share those with you. Sadly, this nursery is no more, as we have moved out of the charming Spanish house it was in...but happily, all of these items have come with us and will have a new home shortly.


This painting was inspired by vintage travel posters and illustrations from children's books from the Golden Age of Illustration (in the vein of Maxfield Parrish, N.C. Wyeth, Jessie Wilcox Smith, etc.). It's enormous - I wanted a big statement piece for over the crib. I wound up stretching the canvas myself in order to save money and find the size I wanted. You can see the scale in the photo below.


I also painted the alphabet lamp and the chalkboard-art style Scripture piece on the wall (although the design is not my own - I found it on Pinterest, although I can't seem to find it there anymore).


Here's a close up of the lamp. It originally had cherries between the checkerboard borders (painted by my Mom during a Mary Engelbreit craze), but we scraped them off to make it more suitable for a boy's nursery. I love it.



As you can see, his nursery was somewhat eclectic, which is the look I wanted. Themed nurseries are perfectly fine, but I wanted something a little more subtle than having the same fabric/pattern/picture repeated on every item in the room. I guess if you had to describe my theme here, it would be an eclectic nursery based on classic children's literature, travel, adventure, and a traditional European boy's room. I'm not sure if I accomplished that entirely, but we liked it. It was a happy little room, for a happy little person (well, happy MOST of the time, haha!). I was sad to leave it behind... But, it's nice to be back in the States, and I'm really excited about moving into the new house and making it our own. I'll be posting about our home improvement projects as we tackle them, so be sure to stay tuned for those!

Thanks for visiting.

1.15.2015

The Adventure Begins...


Happy 2015! 

We are charting new territory over here - our first baby arrived over the Thanksgiving break, and it's been an amazing (and exhausting!) few weeks. We are totally in love though - and who wouldn't be with a face like that? 

Needless to say, my creative endeavors have been on hiatus lately. I did manage to squeeze a few projects in during the last few weeks of my pregnancy (since I was vegging on the couch most of the time), so I'll be sharing those with you in some upcoming posts. I may also throw in a couple of baby-themed posts (since that's my life these days) - we'll see. 

This set was one of my last projects before our little explorer arrived, and it's definitely one of my favorite things I've made for him. He looks SO cute in it! The patterns were really quick and easy too, which was nice. I'll include the pattern links below - you'll need to have a (free) Ravelry account and be logged in to access them.


Hat - Crochet Aviator Hat by Sarah Zimmerman (I was using up yarn in my stash, so my white yarn isn't as thick as the yarn called for in the pattern.)

Jacket - Cute as a Bunny Set by Lion Brand Yarn (I modified the jacket pattern by adding pockets and top-stitching, as well as the aviator patch.)

Both patterns are available free from Ravelry.



10.22.2014

Another Spanish Casa

Some friends of ours recently moved back to the States from Spain, and before they left, they asked me to do a watercolor of their home for the last three years... This was the result: 


I think they were pretty happy with it. I certainly enjoyed painting it! It was a relaxing break from the craziness that our life has been lately....