Tuesday, August 26, 2014

around my home

The words "business", "clients", and "work" seem so foreign to me. I am not a "businesswoman" by any means. I am just a mom who home schools her kids, spends the remainder of her day cooking, cleaning, meal-planning, organizing, cleaning out a chicken coop and running errands. My one passion is creating. My passion is interior design, and if money and time were no object, I would go back to college and get my degree. Along with interior design, I love crafting, sewing, flower arranging, party planning, baking, painting, and pretty much anything else where I can use my creativity and hands. If you are new to my blog, WELCOME! Also, since my business is taking shape, I want to give you an idea of what my passion looks like.

My 7 and 8-year-old's joint birthday party. Trying to celebrate together as long as I can get away with it. 
I have learned, over a period of 11 years, that kids love balloons. Lots of balloons. They are a very economical and colorful decoration...and will fascinate them for hours on end. This year I used normal balloons, as well as large (about 20") latex, and the numbers "7" & "8" mylar ones. The birthday graphic is from one of my favorite shops (Caravan Shoppe). You can download their graphics onto your computer and print them at home, or at an office supply store. I had a 3' x 4' engineering print made at Staples for under $8.  The chalkboard is one that I made. It is my command center, my chalkboard canvas, and my homeschooling board. Needless to say, it gets daily use. If I could do it over again, I would change a few things, but I still love it, and it fills the wall beautifully.

Our Christmas mantle. 
I sewed all of the stockings, as well as painted the very large canvas. I have had several people ask whether I would sell these in my shop. I plan on creating several different sizes and styles for this upcoming holiday season. Keep an eye out. I will post them in the next month or so. Who knows, I might throw a few stockings in there as well.

36" square hand painted canvas.
My OCD senses are tingling with this canvas. I actually still have to do a few touchups. However, I plan to make a few more like this for my shop as well. I can take orders for different color combinations as well since this isn't a holiday specific item. Again, they will be up on my shop's site too.
Revamped lamp
I took a new lamp base in a color that I was not fond of, and painted it. After painting it a medium gray tone, I waxed it with Annie Sloan's dark soft wax, buffed it, and recovered the boring lampshade with this fabric. It is a cream grain sack cloth with a robin's egg blue stripe. Oh, and you see that side table? That one, and it's twin are about to get painted...My motto: "Paint all the things!"
stepstool
Since we are talking about grain sack stripes, I repainted this lovely steps tool from IKEA for our kitchen. I use it all the time since I am only 5'2". I can't reach half of my cabinets.

coffee filter & twig wreath
People can hardly believe that this wreath was made out of coffee filters. It is a fun project and I love making them. Would anyone be interested in purchasing one? I won't put them in my shop, but I would take orders if anyone wanted one. I can also do white. This is a natural color.

map wreath
I love maps. This is one of my favorite projects. Instead of spending a fortune on framing this map (Aren't the colors amazing?) I created a vintage "pull down" effect. Sorry for the grainy iPhone pic.

hand-painted doll bed
I painted this doll bed and sewed the bedding for my daughter's American Girl doll. The bed is from IKEA. With a little latex paint, and a cute hand-painted detail, I saved a ton of $ doing it myself...and she had the cutest doll bed of any other little girl I know :)

giant map wreath
Have I mentioned that I love maps? This wreath was made with an old atlas. I have had many comments on it, and am thinking about selling them in my shop. It is not difficult, but very labor intensive. It also caused lots of burned fingers. Ouch!

I would love your feedback on the items above. I am trying to get a feel of what people are looking for. I will always do furniture, but I would like to include some other pieces as well.


4 comments:

  1. You're amazingly talented! I love everything you've done. A few favorites are: the hand painted doll bed, wall signs & maps that look like an old pull down screen. I know my mom had one of those in her classroom ;).

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    1. Thank you Sara! I looked everywhere for a cute doll bed that wasn't a fortune and couldn't find one. It was so much fun to do.

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  2. I love your signs, personally. I think you could make a killing off of custom orders. People would order their last name, welcome signs, etc. And with each change of the season and with holidays, you could crank some extras out and sell them. I'm a total sucker for Fall. If you had a "Happy Fall, Y'all" sign, I wouldn't be able to resist! Stuff like that would sell big time. Also, I love the lamp shade. It's amazing what a simple stripe would do. And I bet they'd sell. It's tricky to find what items will sell and which items you'll make the most profit off of without spending a ton of time on them. When I've baked for pay, it took lots of tweaking. Sometimes the amount of money I spent on ingredients and supplies paired with how much time it took me to bake made certain items not worth it. But starting with a large variety is good because then you can tweak and hone in on what really sells, what you enjoy making, and what takes the least time. Good luck!! You have a talent. So glad you're using it!

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    1. I agree! It is hard to find that balance. It helps to love what you do, but refinishing furniture in this Texas heat is pretty miserable. I am ready for fall...and fall decor! It would be much cooler to paint inside my house than out in my garage. I have several pieces still left to finish, but I am going to dive in to canvases soon after that and give myself a much needed workspace indoors ;)

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