Thursday, August 12, 2010

Stuff and Stuff

Here's some stuff I've made recently, or at least semi-recently.

I cut out this "T' all by myself with Jim's tool thingy. I don't know what the tool is called. I told Jim, "I need to use your thingy that does this." Then I mimicked cutting out a shape. He handed me the tool and I went to town. The rest of this was made with scrap wood from Jim's shop. Slap a little paint on, drill some holes for the ribbon, and wah-la!
I painted and decoupaged a large canvas in a bird and flower motif for Tralee's room. I LOVE the way it turned out.
This is just to show what our dinning table looks like when I'm in one of my creative frenzies.
I painted this for Tralee's friend Jovie. Jovie's favorite stuffy is her bear in a pink tutu. Also, Jovie LOVES the color green, and has a favorite green dress. I thought it might be cute to paint Jovie in her green dress, with bear, in a famous setting. I know I'm no Monet, but it was still fun to try.
I recently completed these skirts and camis for Tralee and her cousin Haylee.
I really love this canvas I made of Jim and me. It adorns our bedroom wall. I wasn't going to distress and stain in it, but then I decided to just go for it. Now I'm really glad I did. I love it. Also. . . notice my red fuzzy slippers. I love those too.
Here's a painting of Tralee and Corky wishing on a star. I made this right after we taught Tralee "Star light, star bright. . . " Not sure why this is underlined.


I took this frame below and did some different painting/sanding/staining techniques to age it. Then I framed some vintage sheet music with my daughter's namesake on it.
Before/After
I LOVE LOVE LOVE craigslist. In fact, the thought of going into any of the big name furniture stores to buy new furniture depresses me a little bit. I love re-using/re-purposing old things. I found two old chairs on craigslist for about $5 each. I took them home, sanded, painted, distressed, stained, and recovered the chairs with fabric and clear vinyl. I think they turned out pretty cute.
Before above/After below
In fact, all of our dining chairs are criagslist/garage sale finds. I've repainted them all. I was inspired by Monica's table in Friends. Our dinning table was a thrift store find. Jim refinished it for me. LOVE it!
I just had to put this next one in cause it's Tralee's first painting -- EVER! I painted, distressed, and stained the frame. I think Tralee is SO talented!
When we were first dating, Jim wrote me a love letter in my scriptures. He didn't tell me about it, I happened upon it one day while I was flipping through to find a particular verse. I decided to showcase my favorite love letter in a floating frame that I painted and stained. I used scrapbook paper for the background. Kind of fun, I think.
Here's the letter close-up, in case you feel like seeing Jim's mushy gushy side for a second. I accidentally cut the ending off. It says, ". . . for all eternity. - Your Love, Jim August 18, 2001"
Jim helped prune his mom's cherry trees this spring. I asked him to bring home some branches. I sprayed them purple, strung some Christmas lights through, and hung little fabric flowers on them. This purple tree is now Tralee's night-light.

I made the Jacobs sign a while ago, but never hung it. I finally decided to paint some canvases and do our family's silhouettes on them. I think they turned out cute. Now I have a proper place to hang our family name thing.
So, there you go. I've worked on some other crafts lately as well. I might post them eventually. I've been flirting with the idea of starting an etsy shop. Not sure I want to make that kind of commitment though. I'm very wishy-washy about the whole thing. I wasn't even sure I wanted to do this post. I get stressed when it come to sharing things I make. When Jim and I used to do craft fairs, I spent the first few minutes of the fair agonizing that nobody would like our stuff and we wouldn't sell one thing. We always sold almost everything. So, maybe I should just snap out of it and go for it. I'll sleep on it. . . again.

6 comments:

Amberly said...

such fun things! you are brave, talented and creative... I'm loving what you did with the chairs. and I didn't know you were such an artist... great paintings!!

Joni said...

Seriously amazing Leslie!! I wish I could do stuff like that!

Boom said...

Love it! You are so talented! Now you have to write some books and do arts and crafts for he public. Get going!

Love Mom

Hannah S said...

Talent! Great projects. You've been busy! How did you get your painting to look so much like the windborg sisters? They make loads of $$ selling their little pieces.

Leslie said...

Hannah, I didn't even realize I copied a Windborg sisters' painting. I saw their painting in a Pottery Barn kids' catalog and copied that. Turns out the painting was a Windborg piece. After reading your comment I googled Windborg sisters and found their blog . . . looks like I'll be copying some more of their cute stuff! :)

susieq said...

You did one of Corky? HA HA HA HA!! That's awesome! Great job on all of them :)