NYE 2012

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2012 has been a pretty good year, all truths told. I have had some changes in my life, and many new experiences. I have learned a lot about myself and what is important to me for the future. Looking forward, I want to apply everything I have experienced so that 2013 will be phenomenally better.

Resolutions for 2013:

1. Practice the piano regularly and reach a respectable skill level (no more Fur Elise haha)
2. Run a marathon (when its not so freezing)
3. Travel somewhere new
4. Set up an Etsy Shop
5. Develop drawing and painting skills (painting, ack!)
6. Set aside a respectable savings

I already have a few of these set in motion, so I think I will have some accomplishments at the end of 2013 to be proud of.

I did have some plans to go out to Victory Park with all the rest of Dallas, do the countdown, and watch the fireworks show. But alas, it is the greyist and most wet day out, so instead I am heading over to a coworkers to spend the evening drinking wine and staying warm and dry lol. Not as energetic and exciting, but a whole heck of a lot more comfortable!

 

Wishing good wishes and happiness to everyone else for the coming new year!

Holiday Home Tour 2012

 

 

This year's decorating was very modest, with just a few touches to get in the spirit of things.

 

Welcome Welcome!

 

Simple wreath I decorated with left over ornaments, nothing fancy...

 





 

 

My tree!
I definitely want a fat white tree for next year.
I think those are so beautiful.
This one is also pretty skinny lol.

 

 

 

Festive minibar! Definitely a necessity for the holidays.

 

 

Advent calender for 2012.
These are always a bit more fun with more people involved though.
Somehow there just isn't as much suspense or magic
when I placed the chocolates there myself...

 

 

My snowflakes I cut out and glittered all by myself! I am very proud of them lol, although I would have liked to hang them up in a different way. There is always next year though. That was a fun project, and so inexpensive! Paper crafting is always a good option lol.

 

 

The beginnings of my new paper village! I haven't really glitterfied them yet, and I will add several more little houses as well and white trees. Eventually it will be a cute little paper village! But for now... its just a Texas village lol.

 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! It actually snowed on Christmas Day here in Dallas!!! I haven't had a white christmas in sooo many years; it was magical. Although I didn't spend it with family, I was invited to my boss' home and we spent the day cooking gumbo, making sugar cookies, and wrapped up the night with a film. All while enjoying some pretty fabulous wine, listening to christmas music, watching the snow fall, and laughing together. Driving home I felt so grateful and appreciative to have been invited to enjoy the holiday with them and invited into their home. That is definitely what Christmas is about.

 

Ballerina #1

 

 

Ballerina sketch #1, soon to be out of two.

 

 

 

{8x10 pencil drawing}

 

 Ok, there are a lot of things I do not specifically love about this one, but then there are some specific elements I do lol. C'est la vie!

I started on the second ballerina which will be comparable in size and lighting so as to be displayed either as a pair, or along each side of the 11x14 pointe shoes. I then want to do a larger ballerina to be displayed alone.

I am reminding myself repeatedly that the purpose of this little ballet project of mine is really to learn, so imperfections and mistakes are to be expected and learned from rather than cast in shame.

One of the primary reasons I have held off on pursuing art has been because of my perfectionism, so trying to leave that at the door.

Being able to draw out many different ballerinas should allow me to learn from each sketch and apply my new knowledge to the next. Hopefully after I complete all six drawings I will be more comfortable with this subject at least.

 

 

 Just for fun, I also took a few pictures throughout the sketching process just to document how everything developed and changed :)


#1.

#2.

This step really was just adding more shading and dimension to the figure, and changing some of the proportions.

#3.

I completed the tutu, the ballerina's face, and applied some background shading to emphasize the highlights, and added a shadow.

#4.

The last change I made was how I grounded her. I first thought it would be easy to do a simple shadow, but if I followed the light it really should have been very far to the right which would have unbalanced everything. So instead I tried just creating part of the stage floor which allowed me to keep the overall light balanced. I definitely favor this way of grounding the figures.

 

 C'est Fini!

 



Fasion Trends: Plaid Crazy

I. Love. Plaid. 

 

But only certain color combinations lol... it all depends on the pattern. 

And it is such a classic look! I think it reminds me of the holiday season.

 

Specific patterns seem to pop up each year, but investing in a couple of pieces for your wardrobe is definitely a smart fashion forward move.



Plaid shirts are the most available and easy to purchase right now if you just want to incorporate it into your wardrobe simply.

 



 

Last year there was an emphasis on red and black, but this season the trend has migrated more toward greens and blues, like these skinny trousers.

 

I am definitely in love with the green!

 



 

A scarf is another easy and affordable purchase, if you just want to get your feet wet. 

 

 

Work appropriate ensemble! I need a navy skirt, STAT hehe.

 

 



Ballet Slippers

I am so excited about this drawing!

 

{11 x 14" pencil drawing of Pointe Shoes}

 

 

This is just a photograph that I had to edit to brighten of the drawing so the contrast level got kicked up and the pencil strokes are more obvious than the original, but I am going to scan it with a professional scanner soon.  

 

This is sort of the first drawing I have done recently which is really all me, and it feels so good! I think I am going to also create a few more ballet inspired pieces to build a collection that I can display together.

 

I started this concept design this past Wednesday, and actually had it completed by Saturday night! I was expecting the entire process to take me a lot longer, but instead of distracting myself and putting my supplies away even temporarily, I kept everything out and within my line of sight which really helped me stay on task.

 

There was so much work involved in this, so just having completed it to my satisfaction is so rewarding. But after I scan the image so I can keep it for always, I am planning on matting and framing it, and hanging it at a local Cafe Brazil for sale. I was at one this past weekend, and most of the items for sale are not as good, and yet are being sold anywhere from $50-$250. After asking the advice of a few objective people, I think I am leaning somewhere between $50-100 without the frame. We will see though...

 

Depending on how that venture goes, I may try selling most of my originals at a cafe, and use Etsy mainly to sell Prints. I would love to be able to build up a good little print business.

 

Classic Winnie the Pooh

Per my own odd wimsy, my friend Maria from Heritage Knitting, and my sister Brittony, I started working on a little collection of sketches inspired by the classic winnie the pooh artwork.

I guess its just fun to have some original sketches for art to display around the house. I want to sketch a few more of the famous images (pooh eating honey out of a jar?) just for fun.

This sketch looks great in a 4x6 frame, although can be in up to an 8x10.

 

Maria still has to get back to me on which specific images she wants for her nursery, so in the meantime I am just picking things randomly just for some fun.

 

When I have a baby, I want to buy all the Winnie the Pooh episodes and play them for him/her, since most of the television today just has no heart. There are just so many sweet and precious moments about the stories that I love! I think the producers now just throw together anything loud and colorful, and annoying lol.

 

 

 

Homemade Snowflake Ornaments

Since I changed color schemes, I wanted to add a few white and red ornaments to my tree this year. Last year I used simple green ball ornaments from Hobby Lobby and painted snowflakes on them, and I wanted to follow through with that again but with red.

 

 



I still had the glitter and white paint I used, so all I had to buy were a couple boxes of ball ornaments for a total of $5.00

 

One christmas movie later, viola!



 

 

 

 

These additions were definitely needed to bring some pop to my tree! And there is something just fun and festive about making your own ornaments :)



Happy Christmas!!!

Christmas Tree Decorating

 

So this year, my new apartment has a completely different color scheme than my old one. Go figure lol. The last two years I have done a white and green christmas (2011 and 2010). Prior to that, I had done the traditional red and gold. This year, my walls are grey and I have turquoise and aqua accents, so the green wouldn't really have worked.

 

So what to do for Christmas?! The easiest thing would have been to go for an all white and silver color scheme. I started decorating my tree with this in mind first.

 

I am so grateful my tree is prelit lol. They are sooo much easier to put up!

 

Most of my ornaments are just ones purchased from the craft store, but I do have one little box of glass ornaments that mean something special to me. My grandma had these little glass heart ornaments on her christmas tree, and our family inherited them when she died. Every year growing up when we would hang all our ornaments on our tree, coming across these always pulled at my heart a little with memories of her. A few years ago the last one left finally broke (hazards of pet ownership). Apparently my distress was visible, because last Christmas my mom hunted down new ones and gave a whole box to me for my very own!

 

 

I will always cherish hanging these on my tree.

 

So after decorating my tree all white, I was still missing some pops of color, so decided to throw in some Red! It's not as classic, but the little pops of brightness bring me cheer :) I even have little cardinals nesting in the branches!

 



 

Thank goodness my tree skirt works! The above picture doesn't really do the red justice, the picture below is a bit more true.

I don't think I will hang stockings this year, since my new apartment does not have a fireplace, and it would just be me and one for Sasha. She has been uber cuddly lately... anytime I am on the couch working on my laptop, sketching, or watching a movie she just plops right next to me hehe.

 

 

 

Mad Men Minibar

I stumbled upon this dresser sitting by the dumpster one morning while taking out the trash.

Immediate thought: this could be my mini-bar! I rushed back into my apartment, grabbed my yard stick, measured the wall space in my apartment simply screaming for a minibar, and then went outside and measured the width of the dresser. And I had 2 inches to spare! Obviously I proceeded to drag the thing into my apartment, to await my DIY planning hehe.

Painting required of course... and new hardware. After I painted it over white, I decided to try something new and paint the top two drawer spaces a seafoam green. I think it turned out pretty well, and I really love using the stackable wine rack in the space.

At first I wanted to buy a shelf to install above and then get some stemware holders to nail underneath it so I can hang my wine glasses underneath. But the latter really only come in dimensions of 12" depth, while finding a floating shelf that deep is practically impossible. So I compromised by finding a 6" deep floating shelf and just storing some of my glasses on top.

I am using the drawers for linen storage since I do not have a linen closet.

 

 

When I painted over the top, I had to do several coats because the writing kept creeping through lol.

 

One young teenage girl's trash - my own new household treasure.