Painted Pumpkin Patch

When it comes to craft supplies (and a good bargain), I can be somewhat impulsive. A recent outing with my husband had us right next door to Michael's when I spotted baskets of craft pumpkins outside the door.... half price! Rolling his eyes, I b-lined to the baskets and grabbed up as many pumpkins as my arms could hold.

Inspired by the MacKenzie-Childs Pumpkins, I started checkering. Little did I know how challenging checkering a round, not-so-perfectly shaped pumpkin would be. I finished the small and medium but my patience and weekend ran out.

The next weekend, feeling fresh and inspired I painted the two remaining pumpkins - but with more color and flair. Ikat print and orange make me happy, I think they go together and I felt the small pumpkin needed a neutral, so I went with leopard print. As far as I'm concerned, leopard is neutral.

Now that they're all done, we have quite the Painted Pumpkin Patch serving as the greeting committee for the Team McDaniel home.

**I entered the Painted Pumpkin Patch in Michael's #TrickYourPumpkin Sweepstakes and sure hope these cuties win me the $250 gift card that's up for grabs. I could have a lot fun living creatively with that kind of prize!

Shine on 'Merica

ALL IN THE DETAILS:  

Tank: Old Navy (also loved this one and this one) | Sunnies: Amazon

The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays - a day off work typically spent out on the lake with plenty of  fun in the sun, food and fireworks! This year was no different, we participated in all of the above and then some. We even tried our hand at slowed shutter speed, sparkler writing. It wasn't the best, but for a first try on my new fancy camera... I'll have to say not bad. Our best attempts are below (keep in mind you have to write backwards for it to look correctly on camera). 

 

In case you were wondering, that's supposed to be "USA," an "M" and a heart!

OU Wreaths - We don't cheer for the Sooners.

We don't cheer for the Sooners, but a former co-worker and her family does! When she saw my OSU wreath, she asked if I would make her an OU one. And because I'm not too proud, I agreed!

But not without POKEing a little fun with the Sooners... 

That's how I should have glued down the letters, right? Of course I didn't. Hopefully the Patrick Family is enjoying their new wreath!

Thanks to Facebook, word spread and had another request for an OU Wreath. Now the Childers' family are showing their Sooner spirit on their front door!

Even though I don't cheer for the Sooners, I sure did enjoy putting these wreaths together for the girls! Go Pokes!

OSU Wreath - This house cheers for the OSU Cowboys!

Not only is my Alma-matter ranked #1 for the 2013 season... we're also currently winning Southern Living's Best Tailgate of the South. See, true OSU fans believe in the saying, "win or lose, we still booze!"

 

Because we're getting excited for Orange Fridays and Saturday Football, I decided it was time to make a new OSU wreath for our front door! I want it to be known that "this house cheers for the Cowboys"! I started out by painting paper mache letters, checkered of course. Then gathered up a hodge-podge mix of orange, black and white fabrics with burlap and leopard serving as the neutrals and started attempting to make my plan.

 

It took me a while to figure out placement and what to include there must have been 6 test ideas before I finally got to the final design. I cut, pinned, sewed and hot glued until my little heart was content.. and here's the final product! 

4 Day 4th of July

I could really get used to 4 day weekends. When Wednesday is your 'Friday', it's amazing what all you can do. B and I spent two full days at Lake Texoma celebrating the 4th of July with fun in the sun and fireworks and still had a day and a half to spend at home before starting the week. Because laundry and other house chores is 'for the birds', I spent most of the time at home painting. 

Wanting to paint something different than my latest pieces (see them here, here and here), I whipped out this traditional yet whimsical 11x14" painting.  You'll even notice that I used a color I rarely use - red (Xmas ornaments are an exception).

After finishing the Traditional Whimsy painting, my creative juices were still flowing. To switch things up, I went for bigger and out of my comfort zone. For once, I started out without a plan and let my love for ikat and bright colors shine through in this 18x24 Afternoon Ikat piece. 

Because I still felt like painting, I painted a plain-jane initial I had stored away - Mackenzie-Childs Courtly Check inspired, of course. 

Then, I noticed a pattern in everything I paint. I always finish them off with a little gold... so I guess, adding gold is 'my signature thing'.

At this point, B looked at me and the collection of paintings/crafts we're beginning to acquire and asked what I'm going to do with all this. Good question. I have no idea and we're running out of room in our house.

I'm too chicken to open up an Etsy shop or Facebook 'fan' page just yet, but am thinking about hosting a pop-up shop (via my personal Facebook or Instagram) to see how things go. What do you think?

Terrariums, Painting and Decorating

I guess my creative juices were flowing this weekend. I kept filling the space in between normal weekend stuff with creative stuff. Somehow I managed to host an unofficial craft night, paint a 16x20 canvas and decorate a space that hadn't been decorated in nearly 4 years... in a matter of about 48 hours. 

It started Saturday, while running my errands I walked by a terrarium display at Lowe's. I've been wanting to make one, but just haven't gotten to it yet - so, I started gathering supplies. Knowing we were having another couple over for dinner, I decided us girls would have a craft night while the boys did their thing chilling on the patio. 

Terrariums are as easy as 1, 2, 3. Literally,  1 = rocks, 2 = charcoal, 3 = soil, 4 = plants, 5 = more rocks, done.

Sunday morning, when all I wanted to do was sleep in until 8am… and my body thought 6:25am was a better idea, I busted out a 16x20 canvas and painted. 
 

While B was away for most of the day, the big blank wall in our living room was really bugging me. I have purposely left the wall blank, because my Mom always said, just leave it empty until you find the perfect thing for over the couch. 

This whole time (nearly 4 years) I’ve been looking for ONE perfect thing, when I realized that space could definitely handle a couple perfect things. I laid possible items out on the floor so I could get a better visual for balance and spacing. Here was an initial stab at what the mix might look like:

 

One of my favorite parts of my married last name is the "Mc", so wanted to make use of the little 'c'. But the gold didn't look just right. I had to paint it.

Mackenzie-Childs Courtley Check-like of course.

Most of the items are result of my craft making. Two paintings by me, a big "M" I got down in Canton, TX, little 'C' from Hobby Lobby, and my 1st anniversary, paper gift to Brandon showcasing the Texas girl and the Oklahoma boy. 

The collage isn't perfect, but I love how it's quirky, colorful and ties in both Brandon and Me.

Hand-painted Wooden Monogram

 

 

Over a year ago, I pinned this painted wooden monogram to my “Wishing & Daydreaming” board on Pinterest.

 

Fast forward to last fall when I was first introduced to the Groopdealz website; my first purchase was this 18” unfinished wooden monogram. I was so excited to check-off one of my wishes from the Pinterest board. (I’ve actually purchased 5 unfinished wooden monograms to give as Christmas, birthday and even bridal shower gifts – and they’ve been a hit!)

 

I didn’t know what color I wanted to paint it immediately, so I put it away in my craft closet until I decided on a color. After a few months, I thought painting it gold would be a good neutral option. Maybe it was my spray paint selection, but the gold was off-par and not at all what I had in mind - so, back to the craft closet the monogram went. It sat in the craft closet awaiting a new paint job for a another month or two until one Saturday afternoon, I felt the urge to paint. 

 

Inspired by a few pieces of my personal, Mackenzie-Childs, Green Flower Market Collection – I was excited to take on a personal challenge to paint a floral design on something that was not just a flat canvas.  

 

 

 

 

I was ‘in the zone’ painting, until I was rudely interrupted by storms and a power outage.

 

Sunday, I resumed painting until another round of storms came. That night, Edmond was hit with a tornado just 2 miles from our house. Also, the towns of Shawnee, OK and Little Axe, OK were hit by F4 tornadoes.

 

The next day, was Monday, May 20th the day an F5 tornado went through Moore, OK Which inspired me to paint for Oklahoma. The #prayforoklahoma painting can be seen here. 

 

This past weekend, I finally was able to focus some time to finish the monogram. With some input from miss Dixie Belle, there was still some detail work to be done before it was complete.

 

Using Mackenzie-Childs ribbon, our McDaniel Monogram now hangs on our mantel! I'm so pleased how it turned out and hope we get to enjoy it in our home.

 

 

 

 

 

Threshold for Target - The Dollhouse

What I would give to be able to visit the Threshold Doll House in NYC's Grand Central Station. 

2 stories, 7 rooms totaling 1,500 square feet. A real life-sized "dollhouse" filled with 3,500 items from the Threshold for Target collection just sounds DREAMY! 

Threshold for Target first peaked my interest with their magazine and TV advertisements.The 'springy' mixture of classic and modern style while adding pops of color and whimsy is what "had me at hello."

My first Threshold purchase was our bedding for the master bedroom update. The quality of the duvet set and bed skirt is great and the price was right. 

Then they came out with the lime green and turquoise blue ikat print and I had to have it. I purchased 2 throw pillows to freshen up our pillow mix on the couches. 

I haven't found a slideshow of each room posted anywhere yet, but of the pictures I've found, the space below is one of my favorites. Not only do I love the mixture of color on a neutral couch.... but those mirrors are awesome! 

We have a big blank wall above our couch and think a statement like that might be neat.

My want-list from the Threshold Collection is pretty long. Basically, just let B, Dixie and I move into the Dollhouse and we'll call it good. Actually, if they could just move the Dollhouse to us in OK, that would be better. 

 

Dirty 'ol Chair made Quirky Plant Stand Final Product

The dirty ‘ol chair is finally complete!

After staring at it, thinking it was looking good, I realized the paint was looking too good. So I took a wet rag to chair and roughed up the paint so it looked a little less “freshly painted” and a little more “broken in”. And to tone down the brightness, I smeared dark glaze all over the chair. Once the glaze was dry, I gave the chair a nice coat of polyurethane to seal.

Now to make sense of the quirky plant stand portion of the chair, I purchased a 12” pot and filled it with some plants. Featured in the pot is a foxtail fern, peachy geranium and hot pink petunia.



Dirty 'ol Chair made Quirky Plant Stand

A few months ago, one of B’s best friends sent me a text with a picture of 3 chairs and asked if I wanted any of them before they went to the curb. At first I was hesitant because adding to my always growing project list (and clutter in the 3^rd car garage) would be risky for this wife. But, the inner hoarder in me couldn’t say no to a free chair with potential (lucky for the husband, I only came home with 1 chair).

This was my pick of the litter. Pretty dirty, a little raggedy but definitely a diamond in the rough. A little TLC and paint could do wonders.

After sitting in the garage for a few months, I decided on a plan for the chair. Painted up with fun colors, given a quirky vibe and cut out the dingy woven seat – I was going to repurpose the chair as a plant stand. Put a big ‘ol pot of flowers in the seat hole and set it on the front (or back) porch to enjoy.

I cleaned up the chair with a few dozen Lysol wipes, ripped out the woven seat and began painting.

Wanting the chair to be bright, fun and quirky, inspiration from Mackenzie-Childs should come as no surprise. Starting with the biggest area for paint, the seat became “McDaniel-Childs” (Courtly Check) inspired.

Next, I painted the arms of the chair. Who doesn’t love orange/pink and lime green/turquoise paired together in a chevron-like pattern. After I finished the arms, the chair sat for a two weeks because I was stumped.

Believe it or not, B gave me the idea to incorporate leopard (which I call, my “camo” to Brandon’s Max 4 camo). So this Sunday afternoon, I went with his idea.  wanting to accent the detail in the top of the chair back I painted it brightly to tie in all the colors used thus far – with a little gold.

Because the chair was getting so bright, I decided to leave the back rails and legs of the chair black. But of course I couldn’t leave well enough alone and added some turquoise and roughed it up.



All it needs is a coat of polyeurethane and pot of pretty flowers to make it's porch debut!