a studio and a house tour

welcome to my studio - my favorite stop on the house tour.

not much to say about these pics except - holy crap, i have a lot of stuff! i swear, it is not hoarder central in person, it is a warm and cozy room which i love being in, i swear ;)

this peg board wall is the perfect place to display what i am currently working on. plus it is the great storage spot for all my may arts ribbon. i need to buy better pegboard hooks and then all the ribbon you see leaning against the chair on the right will be on the wall also.

these book shelves have slowly transformed from holding books to holding art supplies.

my double long desk is from ikea and is genious with a top layer of glass that has a shelf beneath it. this pic would have been beautiful had i thought to take out the trash before photographing the room. and while i am looking at it, i could have paused the episode of project runway that i was watching as well. geez, way to have attention to detail!

on the table, i have a wire basket which holds my most frequently art supplies.

on the side table, there is a drawing station set up which holds my journals, colored pencils, ink, rapidio sketch pens. really anything i need.

last but not least, my hanging white shelf has slowly been taken over with my 5x7 paintings. love seeing them when i am working on my computer.

art and illustration

i recently got this sweet print in the mail today for my art illustration wall in the laundry room. LOVE it!

check out emily mcdowell's etsy shop to see more of her beautiful work...

a dining room and a house tour

i'm back with more of my house tour!

here is the dining room which is the first room to the left when you walk in the house.

the room is a perfect square which fits my circular dining room table perfectly. i love this round table so much for dinners with friends and game night. a round table is so much better than long rectangles because you can see everyone and talk to everyone.

the blue cabinet between the windows holds my ever growing milk glass collection. on the doors i have taped some watercolors i did on old book pages to bring a bit more art into the space.

i painted the room white so all my treasures and trinkets would pop. this wall is filled with some family pictures, a fabric covered M and a few etsy photographs i have picked up through the years. i cannot believe my munchkins were once that little. at 9 and 7, they still resemble these pics, but i have a hard time seeing the baby faces that are reflected here.

this room is full of thrifty finds which include the blue milk glass cabinet, the recently painted blue low and long buffet, the mirror above the buffet, the chandelier and this white cabinet. oh, and pretty much everything in the cabinet from the gold rimmed china to the bridge tablecloths folded in the bottom section. yay for saving money through thrifting!

words and beauty

i haven't been feeling very wordy lately... as if you haven't noticed!

i go through ups and downs with my flow of words and right now, i am in a down swing. i am really loving beautiful pictures more than beautiful words at the moment. i guess that also explains my addiction to instagram (@linwoodavenue).

my husband teased me the other day that i talk in my sleep. he said i kept saying "oh, that is beautiful". it puts a smile on my face to know that i even dream about pretty things :)

handmade sewing and somerset holidays & celebrations

today has been a fantastic magazine month! i swear, i will never tire of seeing my name in print. when i buy a pub that i am in, i have to try really hard to stop myself from telling the cashier all about my excitement!

i have talked about this before, but if your dream is to be published - what is stopping you? send in those submissions, write that story, it really is easier than you think!!! and the high you get from seeing the printed piece is indescribable.

a daisy and a muted palette

here's a new painting i made on wednesday of last week. this is my third flower painting with scalloped fabric at the top. for some reason, i need to do everything in threes.

each canvas is finished off with vintage trim that i found stuffed into a manila envelope at an estate sale. yep, i am the girl who finds stuff to do with the things people stuff in envelopes waiting to be taken to the trash.

ohio and country living

 

i feel like these days that i am one day late for everything. i have things planned, but oops, i missed whatever by a day. so weird! to honor this time in my life, i am a day late with this post letting you all know that i sent a box of goodies to travel with Modern June to the ohio county living show this weekend. 

if you are in or near columbus, ohio, take a day to explore the show - you will have the best time and will see the most amazing hand crafted work by all the creative vendors.

sculptures and frogs

another trip to the atlanta botanical gardens yielded some more pics.

they went through a large renovation a few years back and on my visit before last i could not find my favorite sculpture. i was honestly depressed about it's demise for the entire day. but do not fear - on this visit, i found it! there is a small pond on the right side of the building with a tiny waterfall. behind the waterfall are these beautifully sculpted faces coming out of leaves and blossoms. the largest face on the left utterly captivates me every time i see it, i have no words for why, aside from its obvious beauty.

on another note, frogs are all over this place. this little bugger stayed still long enough for me to snap his pic. i'm in love with his coloring.

brushes and bathrooms

do you follow donna downey? i discovered her free weekly video tutorials a few months ago and have been hooked. i love seeing how someone uses a product, especially when it is in a way that i have never thought of before.

a few weeks ago, she moved into a new studio/shop location and announced her altered brush project. the short story is she has two large blank canvas bathrooms that need decorating. which is where we come in. you order a paintbrush from her site, decorate it however you want and attach your biz card. the paint brushes she receives will decorate the walls. it's a fun, unique idea, plus it's great advertising!

i loved the idea immediately and don't think i have ever hit the purchase button so quickly. but then, i sat on the paintbrush for a few days, not knowing how to begin - it was the same kinda pressure of creating on the first page of a brand new journal. then one night, i was trimming up 40 aprons that were on my sewing table and looked over at all the fabric scraps and was inspired. the white banner is lined with wire which i bent into waves but you can't see that very well in this pic. i crocheted a bakers twine flower to embellish the brush and added a scalloped felt backing and i was finished.

my Linwood Avenue paintbrush is currently on its way back home - can't wait to see what everyone else does!