Chalking of the week

I'm not so sure that I'll actually be able to keep up with a weekly chalk drawing, but we'll give it a try. 

Before you get all crazy-angry on me, all I'm asking for are some flurries. Flurries, people. 

Artist Crush: Mimi Designs

Happy Friday! What a long week it's been; I was in Orlando for work all week, and although the weather was much nicer there than it is back here in Ohio, I'm still glad to be home! 

For those of you who don't know, I'm a big fan of art. I studied Art History in college and love spending hours in art museums. While in Orlando I saw some beautiful art that reminded me a lot of some pieces that my in-laws have in their home. It made me realize that up to this point I haven't written much about art. I'd say it's about time we fix that, don't you?

SO- let's start with an artist that my mother-in-law loves (I have to agree with her):  Marian (Mimi) Damrauer. Mimi is a Chicago-based fiber artist. 

She recently collaborated with Crate and Barrel to design a line of rugs: 

Crate and Barrel Sebastian Rug (not currently available on their site). I'm guessing it sold out!!! 

I especially love Mimi's textile collages, which are made from cottons that are hand-dyed, painted, cut, and machine sewn. 

Here are the three that my in-laws have in their home: 

Beautiful, right? I believe she makes prints as well! Check out Mimi's site here. Have you ever seen Mimi's work? It's really beautiful in person; you can appreciate all the work that is done by hand when you see it up close! I'd love to learn more about Mimi and her artwork. Perhaps a Shop Talk Interview is in order???

Have a great Friday! I'm so excited to start my weekend; I hope it involves lots of relaxation. I'm pooped (yes, I just said 'pooped')!!!!  

Project "Display My Christmas Cards" = COMPLETE

I don't know about you, but we've been getting lots of Christmas cards here at 1551. I am a big fan of cards in general, and I have kept every card or letter I've ever received since fourth grade. 

I've seen a lot of cute ways to display Christmas cards, especially via Martha Stewart: 

I thought about trying to hang my cards with the garland on our staircase, but Luca loves to eat the garland already, and I would hate for her to eat my cards as well!! 

Instead, I decided to display them on the side of our refrigerator cabinet. I took clothespins and "glitterized" them using three different green glitters. *Glitter can be expensive, so if you don't want to buy full bottles, you can buy little sample packets from Michael's for a lot less money.* To stick them to the cabinet I just used double-sided adhesive squares.  If you don't include the time it took for the glue to dry, this project took less than thirty minutes. Easy! *I will admit, though, I have green glitter all over my face and hands right now. Sparkles never hurt anyone I suppose.... 

* If you don't see your card displayed, please don't be offended. I have a few out in my car right now, but it's 8 degrees so I'm not about to go back outside tonight to get them!!!  

If being crafty is not your thing, another alternative to hanging your cards is this cute photo holder from Urban Outfitters: 

It's only $8! Pretty cute! 

How do you display your Holiday cards??!

XOXO,

Kelly 

What's Your Take on Snakes??

I was out to dinner last night with some friends, and the topic of snakes seemed to keep coming up throughout the evening. Normally, whenever I think of snakes, my initial thought is "gross", but when I saw this image in Elle Decor a few months back, I had a different reaction.

Maybe it's just me, but I'd never thought of a snake as beautiful until I saw that photo. The artist is Guido Mocafico. Here are some of his other snakes:

I actually really love these photographs and wouldn't mind having one hanging in my house one day, so I guess snakes are OK with me, provided they are one-dimensional and stuck behind a glass frame. What's your vote??

XOXO,

Kelly

Gallery Walls

I LOVE gallery walls; they're a great way to be creative and make your home unique by grouping together images and items that have meaning to you (or things that you just think are pretty). Here are a few swoon-worthy gallery walls:

via Elle Decor

David Jimenez

via Lonny

via Domino

After our wedding, I created a gallery wall of our own with all of our wedding photos:

I loved it at the time, but there comes a point where it's weird to have an entire wall dedicated to your wedding. A few weeks ago, I reached that point.

SO, after painting the entry and living room, I decided to update the gallery wall as well. The librarians and book conservationists are going to hate me for this one. To save money, rather than trying to find small prints, I purchased this book at Half Priced Books for $4.98, and I tore it to pieces:

I'm pretty proud of the results, considering I didn't plan ahead or draw the layout beforehand. In the future I might add more photos and objects, but for now I'm happy with it.

**For anyone who's concerned about the fact that I destroyed a book, I did read it as I was tearing it apart. It's quite interesting if art history is your thing, and I even saved it just in case I need more artwork in the future!

XOXO,

Kelly

This and That

Lots of random pictures for this post. I am off work all week and have been painting our living room and entry today; I am dizzy from the paint smell right now, so I'm taking a break to blog about all the little artsy-fartsy things I've been doing the last week.

First: Last week I went to the Fall Centerpiece Event at Rose Bredl. Mary and Ruth helped me make a wheat spiral (I think that's what it's called) and a gourd centerpiece. I'm pretty proud of both, and I didn't cut myself or drop my gourd which is always a plus!

I got out the gold leaf paint yesterday and found a few more things to paint:

A piece of abalone...

... and this boring, little pot.

Finally, I picked up my very own Fiddleleaf Ficus. I was not able to convince Christopher it was our Christmas tree; he read the blog post and was expecting it. I'm going to have to become more secretive with my tricks. I need to find the tree a proper container, one that will protect him from LUCA. She's already eaten at least a half cup of dirt from the pot; the PICA diagnosis is sounding more realistic each day.

Sorry for the lackluster post. I'm going to open a window and get back to painting!!!

XOXO,

Kelly

Painted Door

Okay folks, here's another "Survive-Christopher's-First-Year-of-Law-School-Project". This one's super-fun, and because it's getting cold, rather than having a glass of wine, I made my favorite hot chocolate while I worked:

Seeing this picture makes me want another cup....

.. but onto the project instead:

Background:

About two years ago Christopher's parent's dogs (Sammie and Bella) were in town visiting along with his parents. The four of us humans decided to go out to dinner, leaving Sammie and Bella alone at our house. Naturally they flipped out, scratching and clawing the door that leads to the garage, in an unsuccessful escape attempt. I can't blame them, really; it seems like perfectly natural behavior, and I'm considering doing the same thing the next time Christopher leaves me home alone. I'll let you know how it goes.

Here's the "before" photo. Just to be clear, the door would be ugly whether or not it had been attacked by two malteses.

Close-up of the damages:

Of course I would love to just replace the door. The rest of the doors in our house are six panel, so this one just doesn't fit, but doors can be crazy-expensive. This one is also hardwood, so I don't like the idea of replacing it with a cheap one. I'd been toying with the idea of painting it a glossy color, but it has so many scratches and dents in it, glossy paint would have been a poor choice.

Enter inspiration. Last spring I saw these images from the Anthropologie catalog:

Prior to seeing these images I mainly thought of chalkboard paint as being solely for kids. I was wrong. I LOVE the slate-like finish of chalkboard paint, and the art-nerd inside of me loves the idea of drawing on the door. Tomorrow I'm off to buy chalk!

Here are some semi-after photos; I say "semi" because I was too excited to wait until the door was fully dry to take photos. I'm going to add another coat in the morning.

For Sammie and Bella's next visit I'm going to encourage them to release their anxiety and express themselves through the art of chalking. :)

Have a great weekend!!!

XOXO,

Kelly

As Promised...

Here are the painted pumpkins so far. I'm one short: Luca took the liberty of eating a pumpkin. I will not explain the consequences of a dog consuming an entire pumpkin, except to say that I will never look at pumpkin pie the same way.

I have a few more that I spray painted black and need to finish with gold paint. More pics to come later!

XOXO,

Kelly