Deck the Porch

Time for the requisite Halloween decorations. Halloween isn't my favorite. I don't care for horror movies, so I get to spend an entire month dodging horror movie commercials. Ugh.

I do like making costumes for the kids. And candy is pretty great even if it's crazy expensive anymore.

And I love pumpkins, so we went to the pumpkin farm and loaded up. The family's favorite part is the trebuchet they use to launch giant pumpkins wicked far and they smash in an amazing explosion. :)

That is a blue pumpkin on the hay bale. Or straw? What's the difference again?

We also got many of the cute little mini pumpkins, technically gourds. I only put a few outside.(The squirrels will eat them.)

So, I may not be in love with Halloween, but this autumn goodness makes me happy.

This post may be linked at the following parties (for their Blog Buttons see my Link Love page): (M) C.R.A.F.T., Amaze Me Monday, Sumo's Sweet Stuff,  (T) A Little Birdie Told Me  Stories of A to Z, The Blackberry Vine, How To's Day , Type A, Amaze Me August, , Show Me What Ya Got,  (W) Wow Me,  Blue Cricket Design, What I Whipped Up, Wicked Awesome Wednesday, Sweet Peas & Bumblebees (TH)   Creative Juice, Thrifty 101 , Smilemonsters , Everything But the Kitchen Sink, Shabby Chic Cottage, Thrifty Thursdays, House of Hepworth's,  (F) Fingerprints on the Fridge, Furniture Feature Friday,  Lovely Crafty Weekend , Remodelaholic, For the Kids Fridays, , Craft Goodies, (Sat) Tatertots and Jello , Anything Goes , Funky Junk Interiors (Sun) Creative Blog & Hop, Sundae Scoop, Under the Table and Dreaming

 

Kitchen Crashing, the part in which we demo

The demo has begun in earnest. Kent and Diana included refinishing their wood floors in the rest of the house, so they were banished from the house for awhile. And otherwise they have been roughing it.

The dark side of remodeling; your ping pong table becomes your kitchen and you are all smushed in the basement.

But, back to the kitchen.

They stripped the walls down to the studs, removed cabinets.

It's so open right now!

They may still take out the floors themselves, but at this point it is time to turn things over to the contractor.

For now, it's buh-bye old kitchen!

It's outta here.

If you missed the before:
Kitchen Crashing part 1
and part 2


P.S. Opal Slate did not work. Back to the drawing board on color.

Art Adventure: Matisse

Grr Blogger! I had this scheduled to post this morning and it didn't for whatever reason. I was actually on top of this one! Anyway.

Today's art adventure is one that I was able to share with my son's second grade class. It was so much fun!

Henri Matisse was a French Post-Impressionist painter. He is know for his bold use of color. When he exhibited in 1905 with a group of artists that all used bold color, they were labeled the Fauves which means "wild beasts."

Matisse got a late start in art. In fact, he went to school to study law and became a law clerk. But, during a long recovery from apendicitis, his mom gave him a paint box and that changed everything. At 21, Matisse enrolled in art school where he was told by an art teacher he couldn't draw! But he went on to become a famous artist because he didn't give up.

Toward the end of his life, he could no longer paint and began making collages, still with bold colors and he called this "painting with scissors."

So, today we will make our own collage with bright color and bold pattern. Our inspiration is "Interior with flowers and parrot."

Matisse Interior

Supplies:

• construction paper (3 colors)
• plain paper to build collage on
• scissors
• glue stick
• markers
• scrap papers or old magazines

First, use markers to draw patterns on each of the papers. Make each paper different.

Cut on of your pattern papers in half (or a little more than half if you prefer) and glue it to the plain paper. Then fit a second paper in the remaining half of picture and glue down.

Those are the two walls, and now we need a floor. Lay the third paper so that it overlaps the bottom by two to four inches.

Take a marker and starting at the point where the two walls meet, draw a diagonal line to one corner of the collage paper. Repeat drawing a diagonal to the other corner.

Cut the paper and you have a shallow triangle. Glue in place being sure the point is matched up to where the two walls come together.

Now you have a flattened 3D space, like Matisse.

Just another example.

The next step is to fill up your room. Will it have a pet? Plants? A window? Favorite toys? You can draw them on scraps of paper and glue them on, or you can even cut out things you like from a magazine or catalog.

And that's all there is to it. When I led the class in this project, the kids excitedly exclaimed, "It looks like 3D!" when I showed them how to add the floor triangle. :)

This post may be linked at the following parties (for their Blog Buttons see my Link Love page): (M) C.R.A.F.T., Amaze Me Monday, Sumo's Sweet Stuff,  (T) A Little Birdie Told Me  Stories of A to Z, The Blackberry Vine, How To's Day , Type A, Amaze Me August, , Show Me What Ya Got,  (W) Wow Me,  Blue Cricket Design, What I Whipped Up, Wicked Awesome Wednesday, Sweet Peas & Bumblebees (TH)   Creative Juice, Thrifty 101 , Smilemonsters , Everything But the Kitchen Sink, Shabby Chic Cottage, Thrifty Thursdays, House of Hepworth's,  (F) Fingerprints on the Fridge, Furniture Feature Friday,  Lovely Crafty Weekend , Remodelaholic, For the Kids Fridays, , Craft Goodies, (Sat) Tatertots and Jello , Anything Goes , Funky Junk Interiors (Sun) Creative Blog & Hop, Sundae Scoop, Under the Table and Dreaming

Walls Pretending...

I found this door. It is beautiful. It is awesome.

But let me explain. Our town has "free" (meaning we pay for it in our property tax) large item pick up once a month. Set it on the curb and they come by with the heavy machinery and haul it away. I love this service. It's nice to have, but more importantly, you can find some awesome stuff by the side of the road for absolutely free. Like this door.

My ultimate plan is to banish all uninteresting slab doors from my house. I envision replacing the screen with frosted plexiglass. I hauled this bad boy (solid wood!) into the car myself, and hauled it out of the car into the house. And--!

It doesn't fit. Anywhere. Not even with trimming. We'd have to trim so much we would lose the integrity of the door. >:(

But I love the door. I said, "It could just be decorative?" and Mateo said, "I know! We can hang it randomly on a wall and it will be like Harry Potter." Me, "?" Mateo, "You know walls pretending to be doors..."

At least I'm laughing now. I'll keep you posted. 

This post may be linked at the following parties (for their Blog Buttons see my Link Love page): (M) C.R.A.F.T., Amaze Me Monday, Sumo's Sweet Stuff,  (T) A Little Birdie Told Me  Stories of A to Z, The Blackberry Vine, How To's Day , Type A, Amaze Me August, , Show Me What Ya Got,  (W) Wow Me,  Blue Cricket Design, What I Whipped Up, Wicked Awesome Wednesday, Sweet Peas & Bumblebees (TH)   Creative Juice, Thrifty 101 , Smilemonsters , Everything But the Kitchen Sink, Shabby Chic Cottage, Thrifty Thursdays, House of Hepworth's,  (F) Fingerprints on the Fridge, Furniture Feature Friday,  Lovely Crafty Weekend , Remodelaholic, For the Kids Fridays, , Craft Goodies, (Sat) Tatertots and Jello , Anything Goes , Funky Junk Interiors (Sun) Creative Blog & Hop, Sundae Scoop, Under the Table and Dreaming

Kitchen Crashing: More color and Floors

If you are not in the loop, check out "Kitchen Crashing" where I explain what is going on with my friends' kitchen.

Where we last left off (I feel like I am an old school tv show recap), Diana had bought a darker color to try.

On left, was to be the living room and main color, right arrow points to the color that would be accent walls.

She painted the light lavender/gray color on the hallway and didn't like the way it looked in the poorly lit space (no natural light). "It looked like grapes!" said Diana. She tried Valspar's Gravity at 75%. (I'm not sure the 25% less saturation made much difference, but whatev's.) 

Although there is the slightest hint toward lavendar, it is a gray gray color.

So, she painted the accent wall color next to it, and woh-woh, it didn't work. The problem is that they are too similar. Really, she has to go darker on the accent wall now.

So, she is going to try Opal Slate from Valspar.

It's a very gray purple color. The purple is definitely there in real life.

Diana also picked floor tile. They will be going with Mountain Mist by Cascade. It's a laminate.

It looks good, but I think it sounds like I'm chilling in my dishwasher with a pop (or soda). 

Demolition began yesterday. I just have an early shot of the upper cabinets coming down.

Stay tuned for more demo and back splash tile.

This post may be linked at the following parties (for their Blog Buttons see my Link Love page): (M) C.R.A.F.T., Amaze Me Monday, Sumo's Sweet Stuff,  (T) A Little Birdie Told Me  Stories of A to Z, The Blackberry Vine, How To's Day , Type A, Amaze Me August, , Show Me What Ya Got,  (W) Wow Me,  Blue Cricket Design, What I Whipped Up, Wicked Awesome Wednesday, Sweet Peas & Bumblebees (TH)   Creative Juice, Thrifty 101 , Smilemonsters , Everything But the Kitchen Sink, Shabby Chic Cottage, Thrifty Thursdays, House of Hepworth's,  (F) Fingerprints on the Fridge, Furniture Feature Friday,  Lovely Crafty Weekend , Remodelaholic, For the Kids Fridays, , Craft Goodies, (Sat) Tatertots and Jello , Anything Goes , Funky Junk Interiors (Sun) Creative Blog & Hop, Sundae Scoop, Under the Table and Dreaming

Master Bedroom Color Wow

The power of paint never ceases to amaze me. We hadn't touched our bedroom since we moved here, and in fact, hadn't done much for our room in many years.

So here is the before:

The green walls were there when we moved in. It was nice and bright, but I really wanted something deep and dark and cozy.

I bought that quilt 9 years ago with the plan that we would have a dark room. But we rented for so long was never practical to paint.

Gabe actually found the perfect color. He collects paint chips every time we go to a home improvement store. :) 

 

The moment I started I knew I loved it. That doesn't always happen, you know?

Love it! I can't stop admiring it when I'm in there. 

It even makes the door and closet doors look great and I figured I needed to paint them or something. So glad I did the walls first.

The color is French Gray by Glidden. Which incidentally I also really liked the low VOC formula.

We still need to actually decorate. And just ignore Matt's messy dresser. After 11 years, I have given up. I have come to terms with it. :) He needs a new dresser, I need a new night stand, we need a headboard and I'm thinking new sheets and curtains.

But for now, I just love going in there and snuggling down.

This post may be linked at the following parties (for their Blog Buttons see my Link Love page): (M) C.R.A.F.T., Amaze Me Monday, Sumo's Sweet Stuff,  (T) A Little Birdie Told Me  Stories of A to Z, The Blackberry Vine, How To's Day , Type A, Amaze Me August, , Show Me What Ya Got,  (W) Wow Me,  Blue Cricket Design, What I Whipped Up, Wicked Awesome Wednesday, Sweet Peas & Bumblebees (TH)   Creative Juice, Thrifty 101 , Smilemonsters , Everything But the Kitchen Sink, Shabby Chic Cottage, Thrifty Thursdays, House of Hepworth's,  (F) Fingerprints on the Fridge, Furniture Feature Friday,  Lovely Crafty Weekend , Remodelaholic, For the Kids Fridays, , Craft Goodies, (Sat) Tatertots and Jello , Anything Goes , Funky Junk Interiors (Sun) Creative Blog & Hop, Sundae Scoop, Under the Table and Dreaming

 

Art Adventure

I apologize; there will be no Art Adventure today. The schedule just spiraled out of control for me this week.

I have to readjust when we do art projects around here because the boys are now in school.