New Kitchen Wall Art

by The Big Sister

We've lived in our house for four years or so now and most of the walls remain white.  I'm slowly bringing life to our home but it's much scarier then some may think.  I blame my overly active brain - it brings a lot of ideas and design to the table but my ideas don't often mesh well together.  

Does anyone else suffer from an interior design identity crisis?  Do you change your interior design style as often as you change your socks?  Do you mix styles that only "a mother could love"?  

....random thought------------------->>> Have you ever seen the movie Cry Baby ?  The above picture has always reminded me of the character "Hatchet Face".   

...and back to business... I always wanted to go to school for interior design (what's stopping me?  ...excuses) and I'd imagine I break every rule every second of the day.  There is a serious "Sybil" design crisis happening here.  

So... my latest design "warm and fuzzy" is in the rustic / chic / modern /  eclectic / warm / upcycled  - FaMiLy.  What does that mean?  No clue.  

...and...as much as I love to post "new" content and ideas that are all mine.... I must give credit where credit is due! I have a few shout outs today as I share my latest kitchen wall update.  

I think most of you are familiar with The Graphics Fairy.  I've used her amazing graphics for many occasions so I knew it would be a great starting point for some inspiration.  I googled my tail off trying to find ideas for inexpensive printable DIY art.  I stumbled upon Twigs and Twirls' great use of the Graphics Fairy Dress Forms and fell in love!  I searched TGF's site looking for anything that could relate to my current style needs and I came up with ....

Chairs (by Graphics Fairy: Vintage Clip art French Chairs, Vintage Clip Art - Pretty Paris Tufted Chairs, Vintage clip art - Frenchy Chairs).

I took some serious inspiration from Twigs and Twirls Dress Form Wall Art (thank you!!)

Where did I start?

Do you remember these GUYS?

Did you know they started out looking like this?!

Are those sheds? porta-potties?

So, the latest modifications..

• Dry brushed the black frame to give it a more worn beachy look
• The background consists of old book pages
• Free printable chair graphics printed from The Graphics Fairy (cut and taped in the middle of the book pages)
• The End

I tested my new happy place out on a small wall in my kitchen and married a variety of styles together.  What are your thoughts?  Do they  make sense? 

Art (above) created by my niece, Karsyn

Thank you A Girl and a Glue Gun for your photo editing alternatives to Picnik now that it has shut its doors to us.  I took her recommendations and used PicMonkey in today's Post.  I don't mind it so far :)  

Thanks for reading!!

Be Back Soon...

I recently switched my focus from a creative writing blog to the more craft inspired Design DNA.  I get obsessed and dedicate myself to new projects then become bored rather quickly.  I miss the story I left behind but needed this time to clear my head.  I'll check back periodically and will hopefully have new things to share.  I just won't be as active.  Well, at least until I grow tired of my writing again.   

Cubicle Wars 2011

I work with a great group of people and although the content of our job is quite serious, we manage to cut loose from time to time.  

Last year we started the tradition of decorating our work spaces for the Holidays... some of us became very competitive!  

We'll try to top ourselves and each other every time ;)  

2010 - Team Stefanie and Corie 

That's right, we had a fireplace !!

2011 - Team Stefanie and Corie 

Welcome to our Winter Wonderland!

2010 - Team Elly and Lawinna

2011 - Team Elly and Lawinna

2010 - Team Aleah and Jason

2011 - Team Aleah and Jason

2010 - Team Jennifer and Chiquita

2011 - Team Jennifer and Chiquita

Coming soon...

Christmases past...

I've been busy making Christmas gifts for friends... Gifts that have to be mailed across the country... Gifts that I can't post until they receive them...and it's killing me!! 

I feel like it has been a lifetime since my last post and I was itching to put something out there. Here are some pics from Christmases past...

2008

________________________________________

What: 

My Charlie Brown Christmas Tree and handmade snow ball ornaments.

How: 

• I raided the backyard for branches (and glued white glitter to the tops to simulate snow)
• The snow ball ornaments were created from white string, a balloon and fabric stiffener (glue, mod podge, etc.)
• Blow the balloon up to your desired snow ball size, wet the string with the glue and wrap it around the balloon in several directions.  Let the snow balls dry over night.  Deflate and pull out the balloon. 

2009
____________________________________________

Above: Grandma's hand painted village (which Jaime {sister} and I later inherit).  Below:  Grandma's hand sewn stockings

2010
__________________________________________

Last year's Christmas card - 

featuring our beautiful children ;)

 The first Christmas away from my Ohio family :(

Below:  Grandma split her Christmas village between Jaime and I.  I proudly displayed them in lieu of a Christmas Tree (I'm scared the puppies would be too curious of the tree).

We {the Husband and I} received so many greeting cards in the mail - I just taped them to the brick fire place.   

How do you display your Christmas cards??!

Doppelganger

Doppelganger: A tangible double of a living person that typically represents evil. In the vernacular, the word doppelgänger has come to refer (as in German "doppelt(e)") to any double or look-alike of a person.

To quote Pee Wee Herman (from Big Adventure)  
"What's the Significance?" ... 

...well, I have a lot of friends that resemble famous people.  In my opinion.  

A few years back I discovered Picnik.com - such a great editing tool! To better familiar myself with its features I started my silly celeb twin project.  I even found that some of my blog friends look like famous people...

Megan from Polish The Stars 

 Kate from the frugal vegetarian

 Tara from Self Discovery

I was watching the The Haunting of Molly Hartley and I couldn't put my finger on why the main actress looked so familiar.  It eventually dawned on me that I felt like I was looking at myself.  I Googled Haley Bennett to find that maybe I don't really look like her much at all - a few similar features I suppose.  Eh, it's all I can come up with.  What do you think? 

...who is your celeb look-alike?

80's Themed Party

Table decorations

1980's party check list must haves

• Headband sunglasses
• Hot colored Velcro wallets
• Friendship Bracelets
• Slap Bracelets
• Jelly Bracelets
• Rubik's cube
• Fun Dip
• Candy Rings
• Pop Rocks

Some of the music used during the party

Song	Artist
Take on Me	a-ha
Money for Nothing	Dire Straits
Footloose	Kenny Loggins
Maniac	Michael Sembello
Maneater	Hall & Oates
Take Me Home Tonight	Eddie Money
I Ran	A Flock of Seagulls
Material Girl	Madonna
Manic Monday	The Bangles
Uptown Girl	Billy Joel
Friday I'm in Love	The Cure
Welcome to the Jungle	Poison
Don't You	Simple Minds
Eye of the Tiger	Survivor
Mickey	Toni Basil
How Will I Know	Whitney Houston
Conga	Gloria Estefan
Vacation	The Go-Gos

Splatter paint a white sheet for an inexpensive backdrop.  We originally intended on using this as the back drop for the "picture booth" but it didn't seem to have as much impact as I would have liked.

***Note the yellow piece of paper sitting on the table - on "80s" inspired scrapbook paper, I printed out fun 80s facts from 1980 - 1989.  This could even be turned into a game!

Some of the party favors - most of the candy was purchased from Oriental Trading Company

 

Pac-Man and the ghosts where cut out of construction paper and taped to the wall.  Glue-on googly eyes were used for the ghost eyes.

Old records were purchased from Goodwill - painted and splattered with acrylic paint.

 

I found family photos from the 80s and had them enlarged (walmart.com) - place them on funky colored scrapbook paper for personalized wall decor.

acrylic painted tape cassettes were hung from the ceiling with fishing line at different lengths.

 

Rubik's Cube cupcakes

It would have been like totally awesome if we could have rented an actual "photo booth" but the price was like way out of our budget!  We purchased a "rock star" scene setter from Oriental Trading and designated a wall to be the radically cool photo area!

We ordered inflatable guitars from Oriental Trading

Picnik.com was used to create the "Polaroid" effect

Use Faceinhole.com to put the faces of your friends and family on 80s pop culture!  Print them out and display them as wall art.

Tara as Pat Benatar

Brother-in-law as Mr. T

Me as JEM

My Husband as Pee Wee Herman