The Creative Imperative

Monday, May 27, 2013

Some Yankees and Nationals Baseball Murals

I have been painting a lot lately! The government furlough is going to have a big impact on our family's finances this year so I've been taking every painting job I can get. This is also the reason I haven't had a lot of time for blogging. I thought I'd take this opportunity to share with you one of the jobs I recently worked on...

I used a couple tips to paint the pinstripes:

Use a credit card to burnish the tape before you paint

paint one coat of the background color and let it dry before you paint the stripe color.

The stripes came out really crisp and there were only a few touchups for me to do!

I adore the family I worked for; they planned for me to paint as a surprise for their boys while they were all on a missions trip in Mexico. Everyone in the family is a die-hard Yankees fan, except for the older son. He loves the Washington Nationals.

He also had a baseball painted on his wall. I have been wanting to paint a mural like this ever since I saw the inspiration here

This is how the wall I painted turned out.

It was so much fun to do! I made a messy faux finish on the walls first with tan, off white and white paints

I just brushed each color onto the wall and then smushed them together with another brush. This is what made the "leather" of the baseball finish look old, dirty and worn.

Then I drew in the line the stitching was to follow with some chalk. I added detail from there with a light tan paint.

I then followed those lines and painted the stitches in bright red, adding more detail as I went.

I love these rooms because I am confident the boys will enjoy them for years to come! So often kids outgrow murals quickly. We have a neighbor who has the Yankees logo painted in his garage, which goes to show some boys never outgrow sports murals!

What do you think? Do you have a little (or big) boy in your life who'd love a baseball mural?

Thanks for stopping by!

Blesings,

Jamie

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Thursday, April 11, 2013

Bring Some Life Into Your Decor {the Low-Maintenance Way}

Terrariums!!! We needed something short on the mantle and I've been trying to bring more green into our home. They were the perfect solution for a Spring Mantel!

Here's the story on how to make them for yourself

1) Go get all this stuff

-glass containers

-rocks

-charcoal (to help with drainage, I got it from the pet store)

-small plants that don't need a lot of water

-soil (I used a well draining soil that is mixed with sand)

So that picture of all the things you'll need is cute, right? It all ends up looking like this

And you'll never believe where I got a lot of my plants...

The succulents are good for the open containers. The ferns and mosses do well in the covered containers.

2) Now start layering (from the bottom to top):

-rocks

-charcoal

-soil

-plants

Pay close attention to how your layers look from the outside of the glass.

You kind of have to make a hole in the center of the soil layer to get your plant's roots in there.

Here are a few of the individual terrariums

3) Water your plants next to never!

The moss in the open containers needs a little extra care in keeping them moist, but the succulents are so low maintenance! The closed containers really hold in moisture so they rarely need water. When I do water any of these plants, it's just a tiny bit until the soil is moistened.

Seriously, I have a pinterest board titled "I kill plants". It's that bad (usually) yet everything is still alive so far!

This tutorial from Apartment Therapy was a huge help to me, as was this one from the Fern and Mossery.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Blessings,

Jamie

Monday, March 18, 2013

Easter Egg Garland for the Mantel

I've really kept the Easter decorations simple this year... I feel like Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day and now Easter are flying at me faster than I can keep up with them! I at least put up a little garland.

I am *attempting* to make terrariums to put on top of the mantel so it's a little bleak up there now. I was able to use the glass bowls to anchor the garland.

You might remember these eggs from last year's Easter post

I used some of this twine to string them. 5 minutes and the project was done!

Thanks for stopping by! I'm hoping to get a few more decorations up this week... we'll see how it goes.

Blessings,

Jamie

Monday, March 11, 2013

House Tour: Purple and Gray Living Room

We have made some updates to the living room

I think this is what it looked like last time you saw it...

One of the "new" items is this table that I found at Goodwill

I really wanted to mix as many metals as I could in this area, so the brass and glass was perfect! I know a lot of people aren't ready to embrace the brass trend right now, but I'm secretly a little excited about it. That doesn't mean I'm going to go out and replace all the hardware in the house with brass, but I do like a few accents here and there.

I love how the decorative scrolls on the table mimic those found in the rug

Speaking of the rug... I am soooooo glad I splurged on it. To quote The Dude from the Big Lebowski, "It really tied the room together"

I found it at Home Goods and would go and visit it daily. I couldn't bring myself to buy it because it was $300. After a week of visiting the rug, I figured I had better buy it before someone else did!

Another newbie in the room that I haven't talked about yet is the mirror. I use the word "newbie" loosely since I bought it last summer... I just haven't talked to you about it yet.

It was another splurge; this time from Z Gallerie.

And here is a little tablescape that makes me happy. I'm trying to bring more plants into our decor.

Anyone want to place bets on how long it will take me to kill them?

Have any questions about this room? If you want to know about the really long curtains, click here. The wall color post is here. And you can learn about the slipcovers here.

What do you think of the changes? Let me know in the comments!

Blessings,

Jamie

Monday, March 04, 2013

Crocheted Coffee Press Cozy {Free Pattern!}

I gave up on my coffee press a couple years ago... the coffee would never stay warm enough by the time I got to the last cup! French press cozy to the rescue...

I was inspired by Alyssa at Hands Always Creating and all the mug cozies she has been making lately. My friend Stephanie recently taught me to crochet (I've been a knitter for years) and I love it! I kind of made the pattern up as I went. I added some ribbing for a little interest, but you can do straight double crochet for the entire thing if you want.

Crocheted French Press Cozy Pattern

What you'll need: 2 skeins sport or worsted weight yarn

(I used contrasting colors)

Size M (or similar) crochet hook

2 medium or large buttons

needle and thread

Let's get started!

Using 2 strands of yarn (you will use both strands for entire pattern), chain 16

Row 1: Skip 2 chains and DC for rest of row (14 sts)

Row 2: Chain 3. DC in first st and each st after to end of row. Turn (14 sts)

Rows 3-12: Same as row 2

***I added a little ribbing in next few rows... you can continue with a regular DC if you want through the end of the body of the pattern (rows 13 - 23)***

Row 13: Chain 3. FPDC in first st and each st until end of row. Turn (14 sts)

Rows 14 - 18: Same as row 13

Rows 19-23: Same as row 2

Tab:

Row 24: Chain 3. DC in first st and next 2 sts. Turn (4 sts)

Rows 25-26: Same as row 24.

Bind off

Other Tab:

Row 27: Join yarn at other end of row 23 with a sl st. Chain 3. DC in first st and next 2 sts. Turn (4 sts)

Rows 28-29: Same as row 24.

Bind off and weave in edges.

Sew a button to the 3rd st of row 2 and another button to the 12th st of row 2 (or you can place your buttons wherever works best for your coffee press).

Wrap cozy around your press and button through one of the sts in each tab with the needle and thread.

Let me know if you decide to make one! Thanks for stopping by.

Blessings,

Jamie