A work in progress

This is the other half of our kitchen. We had more wallpaper removal in here, as well as faux wood laminate that went halfway up the damn wall. I tried my best to make the walls smooth enough for paint but it didn't work out. I ended up buying textured, paintable wallpaper. My favorite part about the kitchen is the glass tile on the countertops. The pictures don't do them justice, but the tiles actually look like Jolly Ranchers. They are mostly in primary and secondary colors, with traditional "tattoo" picture tiles as well. I got them at http://www.modwalls.com/ I based my design on the design that's posted on their website. I added more colors though. Hopefully by the end of the month the cabinets will be New Ebony, and the hardware will match the fake metal backsplash.

We liked the kinda sorta retro style of our stove top, so we kept it.

The backsplash behind the sink.

A little close-up of one of the picture tiles.

The plastic panel kept falling on us so we replaced the fluorescent light with recessed lighting.

The After (so far).

The before, with the our realtor Trish, and my husband Andy

A break from our regularly scheduled program...

Sometimes I have time for Illustration Friday, and sometimes I don't. I hate to leave my blog empty for long periods of time, so this is another thing I'm working on. We bought a house last summer, and I've been doing some remodeling. This is our dining room, or half of our eat-in kitchen. Getting the wallpaper down was a nightmare. My husband had to scrape it all off by hand, and then put up new drywall while I was taking care of my Mom in California. I've since bought a Wagner power steamer, which I highly recomend. We painted it together, and I did the tree on my own.

After. Complete.


After. Our Family Tree, without the photos.

This is the before with the fabulous Miss Yo-Yo

Wrinkles

I'm really terrible at ironing. I once made a dress, and while pressing the pieces I not only scorched it, but melted a hole in it as well. Lucky for me I had extra fabric.

Homage

"...Cambodians believe we just rent this body, it is just a house for the spirit, and if the house is full of termites it is time to leave." -Dith Pran



I lost my Mom to breast cancer this past October. It was a six year battle and this last one was especially arduous after the disease metastasized to her brain.
This is the fourth drawing I came up with. I got really obsessed with getting her likeness perfect. I finally decided to drop it, and just draw her the way I imagined. My mom used to spend so much time on her hair, crimping it (yes, crimping ) and trying to get it as big as possible. She would then drive to work with the window down giving her this crazy mane that everyone knew her for. She read the bible a lot and and loved images of Mary. I have her ascending above her home in my childhood neighborhood (which I must say, I referenced Google maps and that site is seriously creepy). She has wings, pink, which became her favorite color after she got sick. I guess what I'm trying to say is that this topic was really cathartic for me. It gave me a lot of peace just to draw this little doodle.

Garden/Heavy

I decided to add my sketch for Garden. I strongly dislike the butterfly, which is why I didn't post it initially. It's an imitation of the wallpaper in my master bathroom. As beige, boring and flowery as it is, it's starting to grow on on me. Basically the wallpaper is literally growing on me. The flat printed butterfly is starting to fly off and the stems are crawling out.
It's difficult to come up with a new drawing every week. This was going to be my "Heavy" drawing. I'm posting it as is so I don't give up on this endeavor all together. If I can overcome rushing and overworking things, I might have an easier time.

Illustration Friday submission

Here's my first submission for Illustration Friday. Leap. When I first started pondering about the topic all I could come up with was a frog. But then I got to thinking my husband is forever teasing me. I always say I'm going to get him back. His response, "If you're feeling froggish, leap!". So here she is, ready and waiting. I used colored pencil. I think I got carried away with the foreshortening, her fists are awfully big. I also couldn't quite get the slyness to come across in her expression. I haven't drawn on a regular basis in a long time, I read about the website in Artful Blogging. It's really inspiring and I don't have wonder about what to draw or if it's a stupid idea.