$5.00 art

There's a thrift store in town that I like to frequent: Thrift & Dollar. They have a variety of stuff from high-end antiques to everyday thrift items.  Each time I shop there, I make sure to stop by the $5.00 art section to see what they have. There are nice painting (for nice chunks of money) throughout the store, but I've found several nice treasures in the $5.00 section.

Lots of the prints in the $5.00 art section are nicely framed and protected by glass.  This reprint of "Home for Thanksgiving" by Grandma Moses is over the doorway that leads from the kitchen to the dining room. It's not the best place for picture-viewing, but it livens up the space.

This nice oil? acrylic? (whatever, I don't know anything about art) painting has a nice gold frame. It hangs in the half bathroom.  Because I support art.  Especially in the bathroom.

This painting is called "Best Friends." I put it in the hallway leading to the kids' room because, at this stage in their lives, they really are best friends.

The picture came matted, framed and covered in glass, which is a huge deal for $5.00.

Little Miss has been the beneficiary of several of my $5.00 art finds.  I like her room to have a flowery/feminine feel, so these Monet-ish paintings were a perfect fit:

Though it's hard to tell in the one below, it is a scene of several Victorian-ish women lounging outside, some of them napping.  I hope this inspires Little Miss to continue her naps for the next year or two.

Both of those paintings are in the corner of her room with the glider. 

Finally, this last piece was a huge find, especially since it was only $5.00.  I found this great gold-framed mirror and hung it at just the right height for Little Miss. 

This might be the best $5.00 I've ever spent.

Recent home improvements

BFF Laura was here a few weeks ago, and totally shocked by our new-ish front door, new paint in the guest room, new paint in the family room, etc. 

"When did you do all this?" she asked.
"Oh, a while ago," I said.
"How come I didn't know about this?" she asked.
"I don't know..." I said.  Then it occurred to me:  LAURA DIDN'T KNOW BECAUSE I FORGOT TO BLOG ABOUT IT.  And mention it in phone conversations.  GASP!

And if I didn't blog about it, did it actually happen?

Of course it did!  Here are some home improvements that were made in the last half of 2011.

In September, the guest room was painted peach which was a huge improvement from the puke olive green color that had been in there.  Soon after we added artwork (I'm a Wizard of Oz fan, can you tell?) and floating shelves to the walls. 

We also had the master bedroom painted in September. I love, love, love the blue color on the walls.  In November, we got this amazing picture from Uncle Rich (Hi, Uncle Rich!).  Growing up, it was displayed above the couch in my grandmother's house, and I am excited to be its latest owner. The sea painting goes great with my beach-inspired bed- and bathroom.

In November, we had the family room painted by Ron Miller.  He and his daughter did a great job, and had the whole thing done in two days.  The Big Guy choose a lighter color for the room (Benjamin Moore's Hazelnut Cream) and it has really brightened up the whole room.

Also in November, Handy Freddy installed a storm door for us.  We got a really fancy one that when the glass on the upon portion slides down, a screen takes its place.  Nice!

And once the storm door was installed, we decided to take that opportunity to paint the front door.  It went from black to bright red in only four coats.  I'm not thrilled with the finish of the paint, but I do like how cheery it's made the front entrance.

Especially when the outside is cold, snowy and incredibly bleak. It's nice to have that pop of red in the middle of a sea of taupe and gray.  Not that I have anything against taupe and gray.

So that's all the home improvement we've done recently that I forgot to tell you about.  Sorry!  I'll do a better job of keeping everyone in the loop the next time we tackle major projects...which I'll have the energy for (hopefully) in the spring.  Right now, all this gray makes me want to hibernate!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Kids' crafts for Halloween

Lately, I've been finding a lot of inspiration for fun kid crafts on Pinterest. And just in time for Halloween, I found these great projects using hand and foot prints.  With MOM2 and neighbor Yogita's help, our kids got to turn their hand and foot prints into some fun Halloween art.

Using regular craft paint (which washed off those little hands and feet quite well), the kids made hand print spiders, foot print ghosts and hand print stems on pumpkins.  Now all they have to do is draw in the faces.

Check out my "Kids Crafts and Activities" board on Pinterest. There are lots of fun hand/foot print art ideas for animals, holidays, and special occasions.  This project went really well and the kids had a lot of fun...can you guess what we'll be doing when Thanksgiving comes around?

Happy kid crafting!

Calender art

Now that the master bathroom has been painted, it desperately needed some artwork. Naturally, I went through all the amazing photos I've taken on my ridiculously luxurious vacations and picked a few of my favorites to frame.

Bwahahahahahahaha!  Sorry, for a moment there I confused myself with Martha Stewart and her awesome vacations.  My bad.

For really nice pictures of beaches I can only dream of visiting, I got out a calendar.  A 16-month calendar from 2007, to be exact.  

I bought inexpensive 10x10 frames at Michael's. 

Then I tore out my four favorite pictures from the calendar. 

I cut the pictures to fit the frame, inserted the pictures and put the frames back together.

Voila! Quick, easy and frugal art for the bathroom.  Seriously, trying to hang these correctly on the wall was the hardest part about this project. 

The pictures are on the wall over the soaker tub and totally visible from the shower, so I can see them while I'm hosing off.  Sweet!

This type of project works equally well for pretty postcards. 

Of course, I still need to get those off my counter and onto the wall.  It will happen.  Eventually.

Under the sea

Last year at this time, BFF Laura helped me redo the kids' bathroom.  Over the course of a week it went from barf green to tropical sea blue, all inspired by this shower curtain:

Since then, I've been searching for artwork to further enliven the space.  On a random Target shopping trip, I spotted a sea-themed Motifs in a Minute on the clearance shelf.  Score!

These are vinyl clings that stick to walls. The package came with a variety of creatures in different sizes.

In just a few minutes, I went from this...

...to this!  Isn't that fun?

The Little Guy was very excited and had to get involved.  You can tell which ones he applied by how far they are off the ground.  :)

Here's the area by the medicine cabinet and light switch.  I am loving these things!

I added some fish over the linen closet...

...as well as above the shower.

For just under $7.50, I've added some more visual interest to the kids' (and guests') bathroom and it took less than 30 minutes to get it done.  These clings were a real find!

What cheap decorating solutions have you found recently?

Sugar Creek Arts Festival

This weekend, the Little Guy and I took a mini-road trip to Normal, Illinois, to see good friends Shannon and Joe and stroll through the Sugar Creek Arts Festival. There were over 100 booths filled with jewelry, art, glass work, ceramics, textiles, pottery and more. All the crafts were very upscale made by very talented artisans. No tea cozies here.

It was so very Martha.



But the Little Guy wasn't interested in all that fancy arts and crafts stuff. No, sirree, this wee one was focused completely on the band.

And who can blame him? Sister Groove and the Crosstown Jam are awesome, and have been playing in the Bloomington/Normal area since 1996. Not to date myself, but I remember seeing them way back when.

The Little Guy was intent on getting up close. As close as possible. He grabbed my hand and pulled me all the way up to the stage.

I think he wanted to get in on all that singing and dancing action. After the show, one of the sisters said that the Little Guy was so focused on the performance, she was ready to let him onstage to see if he'd jump right in and start singing.

Maybe we'll give that a try next year. The Sugar Creek Arts Festival is in Bloomington/Normal every year (usually the weekend after July 4th?). If you are ever in the area, I highly encourage you to check it out. If the arts and crafts don't move you, the singing and dancing will!

Happy Birthday to an Artist

Today is Mom2's birthday. Not only is she an amazing woman, but Mom2 is also quite the artist. In celebration of her spirit, her artistry and her all-around super-awesome mom-ness, I'm sharing several pictures of her art:

Mom2 is just like her artwork: moving, original, surprising, creative and loving. Okay, maybe the artwork isn't loving, but she sure is. Take a look at the artist with her new favorite subject:

I think next year's birthday gift for Mom2 is going to be matching smocks for her and the Little Guy. And finger paint. Lots and lots of finger paint.

Happy Birthday, Mom!