stuff i've been painting

here are some recent photos of some work i did...

remember the "vintage" movie posters i showed you guys a while back? well here is another photo i snapped of them...i just used old posters and signs from the 50's and 60's to paint on these panels i came up with. they were really fun...i think i like the "sundaes" one the best!

i'm not sure why my camera is translating them so grainy....ohhh welllll. i tried to make them very vintagey...hence, the imperfect fonts and hand-drawn look. 

annnnd, i painted faux brick in a dentist's office the other day. it was pretty fun...something i haven't done in a while. the photos make it look a little weird, (again, they aren't well-lit) but it is supposed to look like the wall is cracking off to reveal brick in the background..i'm not sure if you can see the "cracks" i painted on, but they're there..

in this one, you can see the cracks on the right, and the texture on the left, which is neat.

my kitchen before/after

here i am again, making little "buttons" for my side bar. like i said before, this is just a 'before/after' so that people can clicky on my button and look at work i've done in my house!

anyway, here is my kitchen before: wooden cabinetry, yellow walls, stone backsplash and black granite countertops. some people would love it...it just wasn't my style!

here is the view from our "family room" area:

this is a photo i took when we first moved in! looking pretty bad, but i love the window:

aaaand after: i painted the cabinets and backsplash white, and added some modern handles from IKEA. i also added pale turquoisey blue baskets above the cabinets for storage, and painted a vintage plastic wall-hanging a bright yellow, then applied it to the stone with two-sided foam tape. i would love to change out the light fixture at some point, but it's not necessarily at the top of my 'fix it' list!

here is the area above the refrigerator: a white platter with some vintage napkins sits on top :)

we have a chalkboard wall!

glass container of cheese balls and another glass container of lemons

we don't have a whole lot of storage space, so we use this stainless steel shelf from target as storage for "pretty" things, like plates, cups, and glasses. the baskets on the top shelf are from target, and the ones on the bottom are from bed, bath and beyond.

christmas decorations...so far

i put up some of my christmas decorations over the weekend...i kept it pretty simple, and am not quite pleased with everything quite yet. i plan to go buy martha stewart's christmas magazine for some inspiration in the next few days. i need something new! (maybe i needed that white christmas tree? hm...)

anyway, here is a little taste of what i've done so far:

little white tree from target placed on my bamboo console (from target, this year. it was only 2.50!). i had those little tiny ornaments from last year, and i kept it to only orange and silver ornaments:

also, one of my favorite things i have for christmas decor is my collection of vintage christmas cards...i tucked a few into this drawing, and also into my mirror above my TV.

here is the tree. it looks pretty much the same as last year. i need something new! i love my red vintage tree, but i think i just keep thinking about a white one! orrrr, i kind of want a regular old christmas tree. i don't know...i love all my vintage ornaments, so i don't want to change up the ornament scene. i think the white one is just calling my name...

here is where my vintage santa and reindeer collections are right now. i will probably move them. i just don't like a lot of knick knacks sitting around, jumbled together, creating clutter, so i kind of put them all to the side:

you can't really see very well in this photo (it's super dark in this little corner of the house, plus it's a dreary day), but those 3 little plastic reindeer are soooo cute! one of them is missing his bell around his neck, so i think that i am going to paint him a red nose and let him be rudolph. i need to do that today! i'm not really sure how i started collecting vintage deer, but some how it happened, and now i have 5 of them. i love old stuff!

here are all my santy clauses. i love them too, but am still not quite happy with my arrangement. i'm sure i'll change it up here soon :)

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i am thinking of doing some kind of garland with string, ribbon, etc...it just hasn't quiiiiiiite hit me what i should do. stay tuned! (i'm sure you are all on the edges of your seats)

what i did this week

a sweet lady had me paint a table that has been in her family since she was born in 1944. the table was used by her, then her children, and now her grandchildren, so she had me paint a little family tree on it.

here is the "before"

here are the stages of painting the tree, leaves, birds, and then the names and years that each of the birds, ahem, children, were born:

nancy, the grandmother, is the mother bird that is at the bottom of the tree, then her two children and three grand-children. i thought it was a sweet idea