Birds and Donkeys

This artwork is done by an amazing artist named Nathaniel Mather. He incorporates a lot of meaning and symbolism into his work, which I love because his inspiration is his walk with God. This is evident in most all his work. The birds represent human qualities and characteristics and the donkeys and horses that he uses suggest the strength and beauty of God. How cool?!

Here's what he says about his work..."I am processing what it looks like to paint work that is true, beautiful, and restorative, I want to reflect God's wonder and grace while wrestling with daily struggles and pain."

Im not a huge deep thinker when it comes to painting, just ask my art professors at school (drove them crazy), but I know that God gave me the ability to have a creative/talented hand. So I love to see an artist that is successful and sees God as an inspiration for what he creates, and in turn is inspirational to others, like me.

Im sharing this because I have a project (painting) that I am working on and I found Nathaniel's work, and I really liked it, and I thought maybe some of you would as well.

I was featured!

Roeshel at DIY Showoff has featured my painted floor on her blog! She has some great projects that she has done as well, if youre in need of some great ideas, go check out her blog!

My Poor Body

This is what I said as I rolled out of bed this morning. I knew I would be sore after shoveling, and raking, and painting, nailing, and cutting shoe molding. We had a busy weekend, but I feel that it was defintily worth all the soreness I feel now. I am very excited to present to you the final product of our hallway. Here's what we did:

Painted (of course) (Thank you Susannah Wiksell!)

Pulled up carpet (Will)
Sanded floors (Will)
Polyurethaned floors (Will)
Painted trim and ceiling

Changed light fixtures
Added pictures and accessories
(This did not ALL happen in one weekend-we would need a whole crew for that)

Here is our before images:

Now as I was painting our shoe molding on the back porch, I thought "I wonder if our sweet owl is out today" and when I looked up THERE HE WAS, sitting on a tree watching me!!!! He sat there the entire time as Will and I cleaned up our back yard. We decided on a name, Ernest Perchingham, because he is a dignified owl. We LOVE this owl.



Will did all the cutting....on our "sturdy" table.

And after....now I want you to take a moment and really soak all this in..the floor, the molding.. that was a lot of work.





I had to read that poster several times while nailing the molding.

Do you see those shelves, well the small one fell right on my back as I was nailing. So painful. I wasnt the nicest person during this project. Sorry Will.






The shelf in the corner was left in the basement for storage and I just repainted it..gave it new life.

Oh yes-It's the Weekend!!

Have you seen the forcast for this weekend?! Get excited. Spring makes everything seem SO much better.

Alright...so here are my plans for the weekend. I will finalize my hallway renovation! Now, hallways I don't think, get enough credit. You may think, oh it's just a hallway, paint it, throw a runner down and your done. No way, the hallway is just as important as any other room, it deserves credit where credit is due. We travel through them everyday to get to every other place in the house, why not make our walks through a little more interesting?

I also have a few more plans and suprises for my tiny group of followers (I love you!!!) that I will post and share on Monday. Okay, I will give you a hint...it is a painting.

Now enjoy these images of inspirational hallways.

Well would you look at that...its an owl!

I think this is a hallway.

Images curtosy of www.elledecor.com and www.nateburkus.com

Owl Love you Forever

Will and I have discovered lately that we have an owl, maybe more living behind our house. Now, I am SO excited about this, I love owls, I would trade both my animals for an owl, maybe even Will if he doesn't watch it. So, we've seen the owl from a distance...until yesterday. Will and I pulled into our driveway and there is an area right behind our driveway that Will has cleared for a garden, but he left one small tree....and that was where our owl was perched. He is the CUTEST thing I have EVER seen. I grabbed Will's arm and sneaked out of the car like I was on a safari. I snapped a few shots before he flew away.

What does this have to do with interior inspiration you might ask? Well...alot, owls make great assecories for you house. Here are some I found, and one that I have in my house.


Here is our owl...can you see him. Is he not the cutest thing EVER!?!

I bought this owl at my favorite antique store in Griffin, Ga. I spray painted it white to give it an updated look. If all else fails paint it white!

Master Bath: Before and After

Okay, Im sitting in my classroom watching the snowfall wondering when they're going to let us go home....hoping they let us go home.

In other news.. I have a before and after for ya'll. It's our master bathroom in case you haven't figured that out by now. The original bathroom floor was carpeted with a "mysterious" stain near the toilet (Im sorry, I know thats a little much, but I NEED you to get the full effect of this bathroom!) The walls were covered in about five feet of fake laminate tile, and the rest was an outdated wall paper. So.. this is what we changed. As for the shower...well, we are keeping it as it is until we can gut it, expand it into the closet in the study and we will tile it. Now that will be a marvelous day, well few days, maybe weeks..but it will be wonderful when that project is complete.

So now...on to the before's....

AND AFTER......Juuussst kidding!!!! This is how it looked before we bought the house. A very very sweet couple built this house, and raised their family in this house. We are honored to live here! But we needed to make some changes.



Aaaannnndddd....After! Tiled floors, fresh paint, bead board, light fixtures, vanity, and assecories!

I've been drawn to numbers lately.....so I thought it would be cute to add numbers to these bathroom jars for cotton balls, q-tips (Will said you spell that cuetips-ha!), and flossy things.


There's an embossed seahorse in the frame you just can't see it in the picture.


Opinions...thoughts.....questions?

"Check" out my floor!!

I have been very busy this weekend, working on our entry way floor. My legs are sore -its like doing twister for 5 hours but you can't move because you can't mess up the paint! But it was well worth it! Im not a mathematical person AT ALL, and when it comes to painting checks on a floor I thought that I wouldnt be able to do the measurements and it would be waaaayyy off when I got the the opposite wall. But-turns out I didnt have to do ANY measuring, all I needed was a few tiles to trace!

Here's what I used:

pencil

a few floor tiles (standard size)

a cat (you'll see in a minute)

floor paint

polyurethane (sp?)

paint brush......yeah thats it!!!!

My house owner friends.....if you have an area that needs to make a statement (like an entryway) painting the floor can give the space a more defined purpose. If you don't want to do it...call me and I will paint it for you...no joke. Just bake me some cookies and have a glass of wine ready for me when Im done, thats all the payment I need.

Dip helped....he made sure my pencil stayed in place..how sweet of him.

I layed the tiles from wall to wall, traced them, and just worked backwards. A professional probably would have laughed at this process.
Always sweep the space before you paint.

I didnt tape it off, because it would have just confused me even more so I just painted very slowly and made sure I stayed inside the lines. Lastly, poly it to protect it. Now I have a defined entryway!