Art...

I did another painting last week (you know, since I'm not thrifting these days....!).  It's quite large, probably about 20x24, which is larger than I typically work.   I'm still deciding whether I'm completely happy with it.  It feels like there's almost too much going on for my taste, but maybe I'm just not used to such a busy piece.

Anyway, it didn't start out looking like that.  I took a couple of process photos at the beginning, just because I think it's fun to see the progression.

 Here was the first layer I did.  Mostly just random shapes and light washes.

Then I went in and covered a bunch of that up!  This layer looks pretty ugly, but you can start seeing the arch shapes that result in the finished piece.

After that, I forgot to take photos, but at least you can see where some of it started!

As you can see, the majority of the beginning painting has been covered over, but I never regret doing all the layers.  Each step sort of dictates the next, so it all leads me to the finished piece.

In other news, I've been working in Avery's room quite a bit.  I've moved the changing table out (even though she's still not potty-trained- ugh!), which gave me room to do a little redecorating.  I am LOVING the results.  Soon I'll show you- it's pure vintage girly heaven!!!

Lil' Vintage Story Books #20

Welcome again to Lil' Vintage Story Books, where we share our favorite vintage children's books!

 Oh, how I love this week's book!  It is just a wonderful little story, and the illustrations are simply gorgeous!

 It's called "Almost Just Alike", written and illustrated by Joan Machado, and published in 1970.

 It's about twin girls who are almost exactly alike.

Oh, I just love the color palette in the above spread!  That rug...sigh!

 Those bunk beds- so sweet!!

 The only difference the twins have is that Judy likes BIG things and Trudy likes little things.

 I think I'd have to agree with Trudy- I tend to like little things best, too!

 They argue about which is best, so their mother suggests they ask their teacher.

 How could that be???

 Oh, that clever teacher-everything's relative!  My kids love this part!

 Which do you like best?  Big things or little things??

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Reversible Vintage Style

Okay, get prepared for photo overload today, but Miss Avery was looking extra photogenic in this photoshoot, and I just couldn't narrow it down!  

You've actually seen this little vintage dress before here.  It's reversible!  Two in one!  And the shoes and sweater were thrifted, as is the majority of her wardrobe.

 You can tell she's going to be a spoiled one.  I mean seriously, how can I resist that little face?

 "Okay, Avery, jump!"

 "I'm done now, Mommy!"

And here was her reward for posing nice for me- getting to put on some of Noah's chapstick!

Linking up here for Small Style this week!

More Questions Answered

Here is a spread I did in Avery's book this morning.  It's about her transition to a big girl bed.  Can I just say that I LOVE this color palette?  It just came about naturally with the photo and the vintage images, and I totally love it!  It's not showing up on my computer quite as nicely as it does in person, but it's just yummy!

It's interesting because I am in the process of painting her toddler bed a very similar green to the above image!  I'll show you when it's done!

Since I'm showing a piece of art, I thought I'd take the opportunity to answer a couple more questions I've gotten that are art-related.  First, I'll answer this one from Sandy:

I love the pieces you used, like the vintage boy on the bike....where did you go to get that kind of ephemera????

Well, the ephemera I use is really the result of years of collecting, but my most common source is vintage books.  And I get those from all sorts of sources- thrift stores, antique stores, Ebay,... Depending on where you live, your local library may have an annual sale on their old books.  When I lived in Seattle, this was a great source for vintage books for cheap!  However, in Florida, not so much.  Another place I get vintage images is through vintage image CD's.  Take a look on Ebay (or maybe Etsy?).  This is a great way to get a large collection all in one place from someone else who has taken the time to scan them all in!

The next question is from Michelle:

How do you keep all your supplies organized and pretty?

So the answer to this may not be the best, but I am just innately an organization freak!  I LOVE organizing and sorting and finding a place for everything.  Nothing gets me more giddy than a cute container, seriously!  Usually I buy containers first, and THEN I decide what can go in them, which is sort of backwords, but that's how much a love a cute container!  I really believe in the saying, "A place for everything, and everything in its place!".  If you can live by that rule, it makes things so much easier!

However, even though that's a pretty generic answer , I thought you may like to see how my own supplies are organized.  These are just my paper-crafting supplies for the most part, and they're all within arm's reach of my work table.  In this post, you can see the whole area a bit better, if you want a better overview.

So above is the cabinet right behind my work station.  Hopefully you can see the little labels I wrote on the photo.  The above shelves have some sewing stuff in addition to the papercrafting stuff.

 And here is the bottom of that cabinet, which is where my most used items are.

 This is on my worktable.

And this is along the wall by my worktable.  As you can see, I use EVERY AVAILABLE INCH of space!  It's a tight room, so I need as much space as I can get!

Soooo, I hope all that info was helpful to some of you!  Stay tuned, and I'll show Avery's "new" toddler bed soon!

Lil' Vintage Story Books #19

Welcome again to Lil' Vintage Story Books, where we share our favorite vintage children's books!

Today I'm showing another book from the series I talked about in the very first Lil' Vintage Story Books post.  The series is called "Adventures in Discovery"  and is published by Western Publishing Company. This particular title is "Adventures with Words".  It is written by Adelaide Hall and illustrated by J.P. Miller.

The book doesn't have a particular story.  It just has lots of examples of why words help us.  I adore this first illustration with the baby in the playpen!

Oh, swoon!  I so love the party illustration here!

Remember when these were the kinds of toys in a toy store?  Not one here that takes batteries!

Love the dog under the umbrella!

Just wonderful!  My kids only know of the newspaper for clipping coupons on Sundays- if you asked them where Daddy learns about the news, they'd tell you Chris Matthews!

That illustration of the cowboy on the television is so fab!

Such a sweet picture of the boy sleeping...

My kids totally don't understand this page.  Take a trip to the city?  Wear a particular kind of clothes for it?  Huh?!?

From time to time, I'll look online to see if I can find the books I'm missing from my collection of this series.  There's not much out there, unfortunately!  However, I did find this listing on Etsy for three of the books, including this one, if you're interested!  The price is very reasonable!

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Black & White Photo Challenge

Just a quickie post for this photo I'm entering in Paper Mama's Black and White Photo Challenge!

Arty, Arty, Art

You may be seeing a little more art and a little fewer thrifted goodies from me in the next few weeks.  That's because it's Lent.  What's Lent got to do with me making art and thrifting, you ask?  Well, this year (and last), I gave up thrifting for Lent!  While thrifting is wonderful for many reasons, it also has a pretty negative side for me as well.  I would rather thrift than do a lot of other more productive things (like cleaning, playing with my kids, doing art, etc.), and I sometimes go a bit overboard with it- there are weeks that I go out every day, especially while the kids are at school.  So giving it up for a few weeks allows me to reign my life back in and focus on some other things for a while!  

Anyway, all that to explain why I had the time to do several pieces of art this week!

I really love this first piece, which is saying a lot!  You should have seen where this piece started.  I probably did three complete paintings under there before ending up with this result.  But all the layers add nice depth to it, so all that work was not lost!  I've been inspired a lot by this artist lately...

Then I did a spread in Avery's book.  It's about how much she loves things that match.  She points out matching items probably twenty times a day to us!

And finally another page in Riley's journal.  I'm still catching up for the year I lost, so these events took place last year.  He went to his first baseball game and went camping for the first time- big events in a little boy's life!

What's interesting is that in the past week, I've done three different types of art.  One Project Life page (scrapbooking), one art journal page (collage/mixed media), and one freeform piece (painting).  I know that to someone else, they may not seem that different, but to me, they each fall into a different category.  It's nice to have all three to alternate between, since they each require a different sort of thinking and concentration-they're all fun, just different kinds of fun!