Kitchen 'AFTER'!!!

I finally got my kitchen all put back together and I am LOVING the results.  It's so bright and happy in there, it *almost* makes me want to cook!

The uppers are SW Antique White and the lowers are SW Jet Stream, but I had them darken the color up, so I'm not really sure exactly what color they are now.  You  might notice the ceiling is painted a pale blue too.  I really like how painting the soffit and the cabinet the same color really raised the ceiling.
Remember the 'sad before'?  It was all so chopped up and busy.....

I also got a  super cute new rug ( which my dog is blending right into in the 'after' photo..)  that is made out of recycled plastic water bottles. I love it, it's so easy to clean. The only 'caution' I would add is to not apply aerosol sun screen while standing on this plastic rug, unless you want to slip and fall and break your elbow.

~xo E

paint like me

I am super excited to announce that beginning on July 13, a dream of mine will come to fruition...I will begin teaching canvas classes for people who think they have some,little, or no artistic ability. If you just want to create some great art, these are the classes for you.

The Perfect Pair Antiques and Salon, In Warrensburg, IL has a huge new class room where I will be teaching. 

I am going to be doing things a little differently from the typical learn to paint school or party.
First of all, student will create L A R G E canvases...24x30 in most cases. And not only that, we will be painting on the thick 2" gallery wrapped canvases. That's the kind you see in a gallery and what distinguishes a professional from a hobbyist.

The old adage of 'the end result is only as good as your basecoat' applies here too. So we are starting with hefty, high end canvases to work with.

Most of the products that I will be teaching, will be products you've probably never used before. Things like Venetian Plaster, Wax, Leafs and Foils, Crackle paste, tiny glass beads, mica flakes  and so on.
To have the best results, we will be using only the best products.

You do not have to have ANY artistic ability...just a desire to create. I will take you step by step through each process as I show you how to use trowels, combs, and at times just our fingers.

The cost of each class is 195.00 per student and all you need to bring to class is yourself, dressed in your fabulous paint clothes, and whatever snacks and drinks you would want. We will provide the ice, cups and plates. (There will also be snacks available at an adjoining business, Board Knight, the game shop on the premises.)
If you want to take both classes, there is a 25 $ discount for both.

Ok so here are the 2 classes being currently offered.

1.  "Trees"

This class will employ the use of metallic paints, foils, Lusterstone and crackle paste.  Students will learn how to paint simple and elegant trees with a flat brush and a ruler. Finger-painting will be involved.

This canvas has beautiful underlying texture and lots of shimmering, rich colors. 

Detail of the texture.





2. "Abstract Chevron"

This class will create a gradient chevron design in neutral colors with Venetian Plaster, Lusterstone, Silver and GoldLeaf, Mica Flakes and tiny glass beads. 

Class schedule is as follows :

Trees...Saturday, July 13  from 10 am to 1 pm

Abstract Chevron....Saturday, July 13 from 2 to 5 pm

Please email me at chicpaint@gmail.com  if you want to be included in either class ( or if you're a fan on facebook, contact me there.  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Punch-Sizzle-LLC/48273974042?ref=hl

A deposit of 75.00 is required to hold your spot.  No guests or children will be allowed in class. 

Favorite color for the garden :Acid Yellow

I'm in the mood for a party! We have had the grossest late Winter/early Spring ...YUCK! I just want sunshine and cocktails,baby!    I am getting ready for a Graduation party, and I am in the process of foof'ing up the back patio. Today I found YARD FLAMINGOS on sale for 7 bucks for TWO! (at Rural King). Woo hoo! I've had my eye on them for a long time.

   I think a garden should be an extension of the home it's attached to...so naturally I would have to funky/retro garden.  My garden is pretty shady, so I like to use YELLOW and WHITE to bring spots of color to an otherwise mostly green space. I am really loving Acid Yellow this year. How fun are these vintage chairs available at The Perfect Pair Antiques and Salon ( in Warrensburg, IL) . I bet you thought you knew what liquid sunshine was? Wrong! It's hot yellow paint.

 I am crazy about this hot yellow door! It makes me rethink my jade green door. Hmm....

How about this yellow trellis? Even something plain and simple becomes fab when painted a jazzy color! 

I can't wait to pick out something in my garden to paint bright yellow! I like 'Yellow Flash' by Behr (shown below, darkest color.) (original source unknown) 

New counter top LOVE and kitchen remodeling progress

My oldest daughter is graduating in May and there WILL be a party!  In between teaching her various self defense techniques and crying in my tea wondering where the time has gone....I have been 'remodeling' my kitchen.

Ah...my kitchen. The smallest 4x6 patch of real estate in town.  My house was built in 1954, when people didn't live in their kitchens ( I guess...) and it is T I N Y.  Sometime in the 80s some wise homeowner knocked out a wall and at least created the illusion of space....Anyway....none of that is important except to say that I was HATING my kitchen and something really had to change. 

I knew I had to repaint my cabinets, they were looking a little worse for the wear and they were super dark (blech!)  so I decided to paint the uppers off white and the lowers powder blue. Since my cabinets would now be light, my counter top would have to be dark!   

Fearing nothing, I started applying a Lusterstone finish right over the existing counter top.( I am a trained applicator of the following products, so I won't be giving ALL my secrets away).  I just sponged and swirled and trowelled 3 shades : Ebony, Moonstone Gray and Snowflake White. I wanted the finish to have some movement, but not be spongy looking. I ended up with this Lava looking color. Sweet!!!

I added in some mother of pearl mica flakes, mirror chips and some iridescent glitter. (Cause I'm the glitter Queen)
Finally, I applied 2 coats of resin, letting each one dry overnight.
Here's the final look! I am looooooving it!!!!

I painted the walls Sherwin Williams Antique White and added this nifty new valance whipped up by my mom.

My children are wondering when in the heck we are getting the cabinet doors put back on....I have this terrible habit of starting a project and then getting distracted by some life sized  shiny object (like work, or taxes...)   As nothing is as productive as the last minute, I imagine they will be getting hung back up a few hours before the graduation party!



I almost forgot to show y'all....I painted my grandmother's buffet hot pink! After agonizing about what color to paint it, I decided I desperately needed a shot of crazy color, because my walls and floor are going to be all off white.

I chose Sherwin Williams 'Dragon Fruit' and added some fun turquoise knobs. (Some of the original knobs were missing.)   I set up this little breakfast bar, which extends the area of the kitchen. )

I love my kitchen now! Can't wait for the party!

Totems

I do a lot of cabinet jobs. When I am painting or staining doors, I set them out on 2 parallel 2x4s. One day a client commented that my 2x4s looked like some cool art installation,what with all the streaks of various paints and stains on them.  It gave me an idea....
I've been sitting on this idea for a long time, but the perfect situation presented itself last week.
One of my clients has   accepted a transfer to another state (sadly, boo hoo!) . They have a very large, very beautiful home  in a very depressed real estate market. They enlisted my help to get their house in tip top shape for selling.
I noticed they have 2 alcoves on either side of their front door that were obviously designed to house some kind of artwork, but have been sitting empty as long as I've known them. 
"How about just some vertical strips of art for in there", I suggested. "Nothing too elaborate or pricey. Just a little kapow..."
"Where are we going to find that?"
HELLO!!!!!

"I'll make them."
"Well....You go, girl."

(I assure you, these pieces ARE centered within their alcoves.)

I found my local Big Box store has thin maple boards that come in pre- cut lengths, these were perfect for my purposes. Thick enough to screw in a  hook for hanging, but not so heavy to require heavy duty holes in the wall.

Sometimes our homes become kind of 'schizophrenic', especially if there have been a lot of moves in our pasts.  This particular client has moved many many times from a ranch in Texas to a more stately home in the deep South...to the flat lands of Illinois.  I wanted to tie in all of her things which range from Tuscan to Texas Ranch...  and have them work together, so I just pulled colors from the adjoining rooms. I used only stripes of color and texture to create a truly 'transitional' piece of work.

Two years ago,I had the opportunity to change their built in book cases from a HIDEOUS yellow (SW Harvester. Sorry SW, that color is gross)  to a distressed and textured 'salvaged' look.  This built in faces the front door. The counter top sections were plain off white Formica. (egads!) I applied a crackled copper finish to those areas, so I knew I wanted to use the same copper plaster in the paintings.

Because I was working with Maple, I wanted to use the grain of the wood for some of my stripes. I started out by just painting on bands of gel stains in different colors.  After that was dry, I taped off areas for some heavy duty crackle paste. I added in copper plaster and areas of copper and silver foils and a tiny bit of a teal metallic. (I won't give away all my tricks!) 
Lastly I taped off some stripes and applied tiny gold beads and bronze mica flakes.  I have to have texture in my work. I could never sell something flat, I would just feel so WRONG.

Now that the pieces are installed, the client has ordered 3 more. HUGE ones for the stairwell wall.
Yay! (Here they are on the studio floor, in progress.)

UPDATE!!!! Here are the 3 additional 'Totems' installed !

**I wanted to share some other work I have done in this home.
These 3 armoirs were a pickled oak finish before I got hold of them.  Using Modello stencil stickers and four different colors of gel stains,  I created a faux, inlaid wood look which took a million years but looks like a million bucks. I am really proud of this project, it has to be one of my favorite furniture transformations.The clients were so happy too they overpaid me.

Here's an upclose of the completed door fronts.

Decking the Halls

Yay! My favorite time of year...the time of year when glitter everywhere  is welcomed and not ostracized! I love decorating for Christmas ( and glitter) and here's what I've done in my own home so far.
 I try to do something different every year at Christmas time with my decor, which has given me a attic crammed  full of Christamas 'stuff'. I organize my ornaments in boxes by colors, and this year I pulled out the pink and purple ones for the sunroom tree. This skinny tree is what I usually call the "Girls' Tree", and I mix in a lot of their hand made and sentimental value ornaments. Of course we had to add in purple and pink lights!

 I really don't like tree skirts much at all, so I use hat boxes and gift wrapped empty boxes nestled around the base of the tree instead.  I have had those hatboxes for many years and they are a great way to store the really breakable 'priceless' ornaments.

Last year I made this ribbon light garland by just tying on lengths of several fabrics directly onto a strand of lights. Thank you Pinterest! That was a super easy and fun project and as I recall all of us girls worked on it during a Law & Order episode.


 I have to talk about the mantle, because I am in love with it! This area of my house gives me fits and I am constantly fiddling with it.  I'm trying not to buy any new Christmas stuff this year, since, you know...I have that attic full of stuff...but I really wanted something dramatic for the mantle.  The other day I went on a consultation and my client had a garbage can sitting on her curb full of Red Dogwood sticks. Hello! DRAMATIC RED STICKS!!!! I like to think that God gave me those! God and Lola Underwood and the Law of Attraction !

 I think they look great in the clear glass vases with sparkley, multi colored vase fillers.  I added the mod stars and the sweet reindeer and  sprinkled over the whole thing with fake snow.

 (pssst! they have these star ornaments at Big Lots in a box for 4 bucks! Run!)



The pink glitter trees have a new home this year next to the cake stand full of vintage ornaments.  In my former married life, I spent every Saturday morning garage sale-ing ...I have a TON of vintage ornaments. These itty bitty ones are my faves.  I added in a few disco balls...because we have disco balls all.over.the.house.

 This is my AWESOME new chandelier, which was another God gift.  I really wanted a chandelier just like this one for a very long time. I saw the original Calvin Klein design  in a client's home and just swooned. After searching high and low and online, for like THREE YEARS,   I had about given up on finding an affordable version, when I spotted this clearanc-ed out, floor model at Lowe's for...would you believe 50 dollars?  It's hung extra low over my table, which will probably make my brother nuts...if he ever comes to visit me!
Just to keep with my "I"m kind of a cheapskate" theme...I have to mention that the monofilament used to tie these silver snowflakes on was donated to me by a client who was cleaning out her craft room. "Can you use this fishing line for anything?" 

 You might wonder what Buddah has to do with Christmas. Well, Jesus was a Buddah. So there you go. Yes he does make sense there.

 Last weekend I went to an upcycled craft store in St. Louis. After digging through piles of old greeting cards, I found this cute little guy from the early 60s. LOVE!!!!


Not only do I have a zillion vintage ornaments ( from garage sales) I also have a zillion strands of beaded garlands (from various places,including garage sales). I shoved a bunch of them inside the glass cloche and I rather like it and it adds a fun shot of festive to the otherwise black and white vignette.

 

 Sometimes I make stuff to sell and then I can't let it go. I love love love the glittered peace sign and it keeps my crackled blue kitchen hutch from looking too shabby. 

 I told you I have beaucoups of ornaments!....here they are on the snack bar with a groovy santa/chef that I've had for years. He cracks me up, I love him.


Stay tuned, for this weekend...the living room gets the Holiday treatment! 

Christmas Open House....and how I design paintings

It's hard to believe the Holiday Season is upon us.  Christmas just keeps getting closer and closer to Halloween it seems!

I've been busy preparing for the 2nd annual "The Perfect Pair"  pre-holiday shopping extravaganza!  If you attended last year, and you plan on going this year, you will be amazed at how much more stuff there is to fancy up your home.
Wanda and her team of artists have been packing the showroom full of funky furniture creations and now there are several vendors with products for sale year round. This year there will be  cupcakes, jewelry, the ever popular lazy susans, goat milk soaps, my paintings and a bunch of other unique gift items! There's also a huge warehouse full of vintage furniture that you purchase to create something fun of your own.

Last year, I created a whole bunch of huge paintings.
This year, I'm keeping it small.
I think this time of year is all about gift giving, not big time decorating. So I've designed a fun little 'collection' that is all about inspiring words, sparkle and of course my favorite 'black and white'. (and pink...)


Awhile back I saw a photo of the way Kelly Wearstler works. She creates inspiration 'trays' instead of boards. I realized that I work in this way too. I start with a canvas and a general idea. After the canvas has had it's background textures applied, I start piling on the 'stuff' that I want to use on it: papers I like, glitter, broken jewelery, certain colors...whatever!

This way I can see how ideas and colors are going to work together and it helps me streamline my design.  Also I can move elements around and get a feel for where they should live permanently.

These are the infant canvases I am working on today.
I also find that photographing my work in progress really helps me figure out what's going right or wrong.
For example with the 'think/believe' set...I feel like the two polka dotted circles look like a child's car so I'm going to have to re-think that concept!


I've also never done 'seasonal' canvases before so creating winter themed work is a new one for me. I'm really excited and I hope if you are local that you can attend this year's show!


The Perfect Pair Antiques and Salon
November 16 & 17, 2012
10 am to 4 pm

Located at : 266 N. State Rt. 121
Warrensburg IL

**Update

Here are some photos of the completed paintings from this show