UPCYCLING on the brain!!

It must have been giving new life to all these old picture frames* that got me slightly obsessing over upcycling recently.
I've found myself second-guessing almost *anything* I'm throwing out!
(* Technically my Fill-A-Frame project isn't really upcycling, more like "fixing up" since I'm just either filling up existing frames that are already in good condition, or re-painting those that aren't in such good shape.)

First of all, you may ask, what's "upcycling"? Is it different from recycling? If so, how?
Upcycling is to giving new life to something that otherwise would have been thrown out- thrown out into the trash or the recycle bin, whichever. We've all heard reduce, reuse, recycle. Upcycling can be thought of simply as the reuse part of that.

You don't even have to reuse it for what it was originally intended. For example, you don't have to take an old plastic bottle (from soda or water) and fill it back up with something else to drink. You could cut it in half and make two little domes to put on top of seeds you've planted and are awaiting germination!

The difference with recycling is that the bottle would go to a processing plant where it would be melted down with other plastics and eventually formed into something else. (You could still recycle the bottle after using it for your seed-greenhouse, of course.)

Back in December I started learning about Winter Sowing. Have you heard of it? In a nutshell, you fill a container with dirt (make sure it has drainage holes or add your own), plant seeds in it (most times native seeds or plants that reseed themselves in your gardening zone work best), cover it with clear plastic (with holes in it), stick it outside, and at the appropriate time in Spring the seeds will figure out when to germinate and do so!! Then you can plant little clumps of the seedlings right in your garden. There's no worrying about wildlife eating them, there's no hardening off, there's no taking up a ton of room in every warm windowsill of your house.

Here is a whole page about it if you want to learn more!
http://wintersown.org/wseo1/How_to_Winter_Sow.html

Upcycling is HUGE in the winter sowing community! I have occasionally poked drainage holes into the bottom of a yogurt or margarine container to try and grow a plant big enough to be planted outside. I had no idea there was a whole cult of people who do it every year- sometimes with HUNDREDS of containers in every shape and size- to get their seeds started for their gardens. Amazing!

From WinterSown.org

I've always had such terrible luck with seeds, even back when I had a greenhouse. I planted many many seeds and ended up with only a handful of plants to show for them- some lime green zinnias and okra and tomatoes. It was the hardening-off process that did them in, but with winter sowing the seedlings were born outside, so they're completely ready for the outdoors!

My collection of random seeds in my repurposed pottting station

I've started a few flats of seeds myself- so far, just 3.
A plastic tray from some edamame became a greenhouse for some Campion seeds.
A plastic tray from Ortega taco shells became a greenhouse for some Larkspur seeds.
A plastic tub (with holes already in the top and bottom!!) from grape tomatoes became a greenhouse for Black-Eyed-Susan seeds.
I've got 2 empty strawberry tubs to use, also with drainage and ventilation holes already in them. I plan to put Pink Coneflower in one and.... not sure about the other.

I have so many seeds saved up I don't even know what some of them are!

Weekend Inspiration

I finally decided this week that it's time to tackle..... the office. The art studio. The office/art studio.
Remember this photo? Yeah I know... It's a kitchen, not an office, but still.

Last night I started the painting process. I'm pretty excited!

I spent some time yesterday looking online for inspirational photos of great craft/art rooms and found this site via the Etsy forums:
http://www.facebook.com/#!/CraftRoomInspiration

Be sure to check it out if you've got an art studio or craft room you're in the mood to reorganize! There are so many great ideas here. I've never had a real craft/art room before, so I really didn't know where to begin.  

How do I store/display all my paints in a useful and practical way? 

How do I keep my paper cutter, mat cutter, and self-healing-cutting-mat out in the open enough to access them easily when I need them, but keep them out of the way so as not to clutter up valuable desk space?

Since I have no right to be completely selfish about this whole thing, how do I integrate my husband's desk and super-awesome awards he's gotten from work into the office/studio without making him feel like he's in 'my' room, but instead in our office?

When we first started the house-hunting process I had visions of a little room off the back of the house with a separate entrance where I could paint, make a big ol' mess, and invite clients to view my work in a private studio setting. That's a pretty specific requirement when you're under a time crunch and looking for houses in the DC area (where they move pretty fast). I decided to drop that from the priority list and focus on other things instead- things more important to family life (the kids being furbabies for now).

We ended up in this perfect not-so-typical split-level with 4 floors. I love it. We've talked about the possibilities of adding on a garage (with a sun-room on top?), and/or small sun-room/art studio in the back. It might happen one day.

For now our office/studio is a room in the back of the house among the other bedrooms. It's got one regular window and then one GIANT window.

As of about 9:00pm last night, the office looked like the mother of all disarray went in there and threw up after eating a hearty meal of boxes, art supplies, and shelves. All the random extra shelves and furniture were put back there with the thought that I'd find something crafty with which to fill them. Then add in all the paintings and computer accessories and the cat's litterbox and this desk I've had since I was 10 years old. Yes, 10. The poor 20-year-old-particle-board desk sags terribly from the weight of my old CRT monitor circa 2000 (which just got replaced this year with a lightweight LCD). Pieces of it are falling off. I knew it was time to replace it.

Well now.... this is embarrassing.

The horrific cell-phone-photo seems appropriate for something that's already such a mess, n'est-ce-pas? So there's the old desk, and yes, the litterbox, and the state of the office as of last night.

Sadly, that's an improvement from what it's looked like for the past 3 weeks.

Before I started the painting process, I begged my husband to take the door off the hinges (he thought I couldn't do it myself?). Why? Because I had plans for it. Ohhhh yes.
The doors in this house are super old and super gross and dingy and have holes in them and we want to replace them with nice 6 panel doors since that's a pretty cheap and very nice way to improve a house. I decided that one of those ugly doors was going to become MY NEW DESK. Economical, eco-friendly, practical, my husband said it looks like crap but it's for arty stuff so crap = ok! Then who cares if you get paint or ink all over it!? Happy Birthday to ME!

The very first class I attended at my college was Drawing 101 and in that studio the teacher's desk was a door with two file cabinets underneath it. I thought that was the greatest idea ever and it stuck with me. The doorknob was still on that desk, but we took the doorknob off last night so I can run wires from various electronics through the premade hole.

I'll eventually add actual legs to it (ok, sawed off 2x4's), but I had some little shelving units that I thought would be perfect to put under the desk to hold it up. Also you can see my old desk under there, since where else was I going to put it? Eventually I dismantled it and piled the pieces up on the other side of the room. I also took the hutch off the top of it- no need for that any more, and it makes the workspace feel so... closed.

I'm so in love with the door-desk that I'm going to add another one on the wall to the left to make a wonderful L shaped desk. That one will run under the GIANT window and provide a great space for drawing or other crafty things :)
There is room for my husband's desk on either two of the other walls, so I don't feel toooooooo guilty for taking up so much space.

Now everything's in a huge state of disarray once more since I had to move EVERYTHING so I could start painting, but I really hope to have it almost done by the end of the weekend or early next week.
I'll be sure to post more pictures of the process!
What a great way to have a fantastic HUGE new desk without having to buy anything!

Paint Samples

Blogging at 1:00am left me too tired to include color samples in the last post... what a cop-out! This is an ART blog, I can't get away with that!!

You want PICTURES and you want to see COLOR!!!
I aim to please :)

I played around online with Behr's painty-tool-thing. On the Behr website, you can enter in a specific color name and then play with pictures of rooms, put it on the walls, etc. Of course computer monitor colors vary, so they may not be 100% accurate, but you get the idea!  I couldn't color the furniture in the photos, so you'll have to use your imagination until I can post real pictures of the actual rooms... but at least this is something, right?

Here's the Master Bedroom in Honey Moth: (I love that name, don't you?!) 

The color of the nightstand in this photo is the color of our wood floors. Our bedding is the greenish color in the upper left color palette and our furniture is close to the dark brown in the upper left color palette. Our trim is white like in this photo.

This is the guest room in Light Mint:

Yeah, I know, same photo... hehe. Behr's site didn't have a whole lot from which to choose!
We decorated this room with maps, hence the color palette that I chose. The trim is white,  and we've got a big framed map with pins in it of the places we've been. Right now it's only North America, but maybe next year that will change and we can get a world map. We've also got a globe and some other fun map-y travelly stuff.

Here is the office in Honeydew: (in person this color is much brighter!)

Pretend it's not a kitchen. I didn't see any office sample photos that would resemble mine, this was the closest I saw! It will have darker green (that color is called CATERPILLAR!) and bright blue accents..... maybe... hopefully.
...Ideally!

Here is (sort of) the dining room in Cheerful Hue: (I think that was my husband's favorite color name!)

In the color palette, the tan is the color of our couches (the dining room is big enough for a table and chairs on one side and then couches/a TV at the other end). In the color palette, the green looks about right for our table and chairs, but in the actual picture it is showing way too bright! It's really a dark-green-stained wood table and chairs. The red is a terra-cotta tiled floor, closest I could do in this photo.

And here's an idea of the dark teal that's in most of the house that we love:

Like the others, the colors in the palette are more accurate than those of the room. The walls are a little darker than this, the wood is a very dark cherry. The furniture will be dark brown, and there will be lots of green plants :)

So there you have it! Some idea of colors. I'll be haunting your home-improvement blogs in the next few weeks to get lots of ideas... I'll be sure to keep things updated.

And now off to get ready for ARTSFEST!!!
http://www.annmariegarden.org/

Hope to see you there :)

Iiiiiii've been PAINTING!!!

BUT not art. I've been painting our new house! I got to go pick out colors last week and let me tell you... after we closed on the house last Thursday evening, before going to sleep that night, my husband said to me, "Why don't you go to Home Depot tomorrow and pick out some colors of paint that you like?"
Do you really think a girl like me could sleep after a comment like that!? NOOOOOO!!! I felt like a tiny child on Christmas Eve.
Tomorrow I'M GOING TO GO PICK OUT PAAAAAAAAINT!!! OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG

And so it began. The busy-ness and sleepless nights.

Of course I didn't sleep. I got up the next morning all giddy and stopped at a Home Goods for the helluvit, found some ridiculously cute and colorful cannisters for our boring white kitchen, then grabbed a coffee and headed to THE DEPOT!

Our main room is a dark teal and so is the hallway, so pretty much every color I picked was going to not have to clash with it since it's everywhere. I ended up picking out all pastels since the rooms are small and I wanted to brighten them up. I picked out 10-15 swatches, hung various ones in different rooms, and when my husband came home we finalized our selections. I picked out a limey-green for the office/art studio. That's the only room I wanted to make nice and bright :) My friends and family were shocked at my color choices... since my art is SO bright, they expected bright colors. The office will be bright, but it's still a very light limey green. My husband found it hard to believe that wouldn't look terrible with the teal, since the office will be at the end of the hall and the first thing you see back there when you look up the stairs. But I assured him that lime and teal totally go together (and almost picked those as our wedding colors since he loves green) and after I held up the swatch next to the white trim and teal wall, he was a believer!

So what did I pick? These are all Behr paints, but it's late and I'm too lazy to go find pictures/swatches online and post them.
Master: Honey Moth
Office/Art Room (what my husband has now deemed "The Bug Room"): Honeydew
Guestroom: Light Mint (it looks more blue than green though)
Dining area: Cheerful Hue (a light yellow).

The guestroom and master bedroom are done (after me, my mom, AND my husband all pulled an all-nighter on Monday night- we were just TOO FULL of paint-induced-energy!!! Maybe Behr adds caffiene into their paint?!), and I took some before pics. Once we get things unpacked and set up, I'll post them along with the after pictures :)

Painting.... on a GREAT BIG scale!

Not to jinx it... but our offer on a house was accepted today! We're getting the inspection on Friday and if all goes well, we'll be moving at the end of August.

So... the wheels are turning. Here it is in all its glory:

Man.... it's taupe. Eeeeewww. I like the red door but the taupe might have to go. So I played around in Photoshop and created some 'visions' that I worried my husband would find hideous. To my surprise he liked both, especially the yellow because it makes the house "look happier."

Or maybe even a teal would work (ignore the yellow chimney).

The addition of some flowers in those beds will make a big difference too.

It's fun to play around with ideas and who knows what will happen in the next few weeks with the inspection, etc. But hopefully all goes well and I can start envisioning my new workshop/art studio! The basement has a bunch of big work benches already set up that look somewhat built-in, so we are guessing they will be left there. Looks like the perfect place for me to finally start making my own frames! Yaaayyy!

SO.... which colored version of the house do you like best?  Please comment! :)

++

I am falling more and more in love...

With house hunting.

With the idea that soon my husband and I will have our first home, a place to truly make ours.

The first place we lived in together was a house we rented from my grandparents, so technically we probably could have done whatever we wanted to it (with permission). It needed tons of love and TLC though, and we chose to save our money for our eventual own place... however far off that was... rather than investing in a house we would move out of soon.


Our first (rented) dwelling... flower bed on the right is incomplete.


We did go crazy with the outside and the landscaping though! :)

 One of the many flower beds we added!
AND Look at all that bamboo!
I want bamboo in every house in which I live.

So we've seen 6 houses together, he's seen a few on his own, and tomorrow we're seeing 4 more.
I know I've mentioned here and there on this blog that we'll be moving, to the Northern Virginia area, to be exact. I had hopes and dreams of returning to Florida, where a bunch of my best friends live, in Jacksonville. After a recent visit, I think I'm okay with moving to the DC area. I prefer to do my running outside and unless I did it at 5am every day... it's just too damn hot in Florida most of the year.

For buying our first home, everything seems to be in our favor right now. According to this article, mortgage rates just hit an all-time low today:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_mortgage_rates;_ylt=ArF9K76K_bL0dWCKQ0hknpis0N

And properties in NoVA are moving fast. If we miss something, another great house pops up right around the corner!

I'm also having a great time scouring the internet for decor ideas, although that may be a little premature. But I can't help it....

Starting with the outside, some of the houses on our "favorites" list have fantastic interiors but the exteriors are just meh. Looks like all they need is a fresh coat of paint though, so even if I have to be stealthy and super sneaky and do it when my husband is away on travel (heh... I'm kidding... sort of) I am dying- DYING!!!- to paint our house yellow. Not bright fluorescent yellow like my car or anything. But a pretty pale yellow with nice white trim... (if I can't live at the beach, I can pretend, right? A cute little beachy looking cottage. In the DC metro area. It's cool.)

One of the contenders....  Imagine this house painted YELLOW!! 

with a total makeover of the yard.
Hardy banana tree, yuccas, ferns, hostas, daylilies, pachysandra, rhododendrons, bee balm, coneflower, sweet bay magnolia tree, bamboo, milkweed .... 

And then some pretty potted plants by the front door. Maybe in terra cotta pots- that never goes out of style. I'm thinking red geraniums, too, since that's what my grandmother always had by her door.

What's funny is while I was bouncing around amongst decorating blogs, I happened to find this one a few minutes ago. Gorgeous. And look.... a beautiful yellow house. Imagine that!
http://deardaisycottage.typepad.com


The last few times I've taken my dog for a walk, we've gone all through one of my favorite little local neighborhoods so I can gawk and gaze and drool over the little tiny gardens and many flower pots that adorn the doorways of the cute rowhouses in Shipoke and I take many mental notes.

Of course I already have about a billion ideas for the landscaping. Last year I missed my gardens so much I wrote a Squidoo lens all about Tropical-Style Gardening in the Mid-Atlantic so I didn't forget all my ideas when I moved!!
http://www.squidoo.com/MidAtlanticTropical

I AM OBSESSED WITH PLANTS.... STOP ME.... OR HOLD ME.... I have over 70 house plants. Help!

The other night I dreamed about a magnolia tree, so I'd like to add one of those. One of those things I always wanted since I was a kid, but never allowed to have? And when my family moved into a house with a HUGE one they immediately knocked it down? :( (in preparation to add on to the house BUT STILL, I was devastated.) Not sure if I'll do a regular one or settle for the Sweet Bay Magnolia that I posted about recently... but I would love to have one.

Ok, I am done rambling for now. Because I could write a whole other post JUST on my ideas for the office/art studio! You bet your ass I already have a folder full of inspirational photos for it!