Ya know. Just a quick afternoon project :)

Sadly, my apartment is STILL not completely put together. I still have about 8 boxes lining the walls of my room, my walls are all bare, and my new awesome desk is covered in junk... Great way to break in a new apartment. 


I think I just like doing things for other people instead of finishing my own projects. I went over and spent probably 3 hours or a little more doing this mural for a FABULOUS friend. She has been asking for a piece of art from me longer than anyone and I've been totally slack and until the other day have never given her a piece of my work!! I hope she likes this and LeAnn if you read this, I promise I'll still get you that tin you've been asking for :) 


I'm horrible at remembering to take before pictures. The room is a pale green and I came in to add the tree as a fun little accent piece.

My fabulous photographer, LeAnn, captured me in action. This was also my first ever live audience! LeAnn and her two roommates decided to join me. We all decided it was just really relaxing to paint while listening to Michael Buble  :)

TA DAHH!!

LeAnn, I hope you love your tree and I'm sorry it has taken me so long to finally do something for you! It was so great to just chill with you and your girls while doing what I love most! 


Ok, my goal is to get my room completed by next Saturday. Reed has the day off tomorrow, hopefully I can bribe him and a few other strong boys to carry my hippo of an armoire up two flights of stairs! Wish me luck!!

Work in progress

Finally, my internet has somewhat of a constant connection. I have so much to catch you all up on!! I feel like I have been going non-stop for almost the entire month of August. I just want to give a quick glance in to what my life has been like this month. The first weekend in August my best friend, Kailey, was getting married so I had a joyous weekend full of wedding festivities followed by tons and tons of family time. Reeds mom came in town to visit family and I was hanging out and visiting the Walpole/Lathrop family everyday for the entire first and second week of August. Then I moved up to Clemson on the 16th unpacked (from the car not the boxes yet) did a few projects and left on the 18th to visit Ross and Leslie (Reeds brother and sister-in-law)for the weekend. After a fabulous time with them we headed back to clemson to continue unpacking my apartment. Now classes are starting tomorrow and I am still not completely set up in my room. However, I have a lot of works in progress that I thought I could share and even get y'alls opinions on. 


First project: Corner Desk
I found and awesome website: Ana White Home Maker

This sight has some pretty awesome plans for all sorts of projects. The project I was looking for was a simple corner desk big enough to use as an art table too. The plans on here are so detailed that it made it simple enough that I could modify the project to fit exactly what I needed. These are just some photos of the process Reed and I went through to get me this great looking desk.  (this was a half day project, but we also took a few breaks so we didn't rush anything) 

^My empty corner

^Reed is such a fabulous helper. Actually, I am more of the helper. I promise I helped. I sanded, measured and painted while Reed did all the cutting, glueing and nailing. 

^Fence posts used as the legs 

^Reed did a fabulous job cutting the exact shape I needed for a desk and even added trim to give it a more finished look!

^Installing the desk in my room! It was pretty late when we got to this point. I think this was about 11 or 12 at night. This project was done the first full day we were back in Clemson so we were exhausted! 

^MY DESK!! So, yes this is finished but it is still a work in progress. I haven't set it up fully and I have bed-risers making my file cabinet tall enough... But look at how fabulously big it is! That drawing pad is 18"x 24" and it has plenty of space!! 


Second Project: Chicken wire wall 
This project I got my inspiration from Under the Sycamore.

I love the idea of hanging chicken wire on the wall to allow the decorations on the wall to constantly change with out much hassle. I couldn't decide which wall to use in my bedroom, plus I also thought it was worthy of the living room, so thats where it ended up. Mine did not turn out as good as the one above from Under the Sycamore but I thought I would show you the beginnings of how it looks. 

Sooo, it turned out to be a little harder than I thought. I also think I should have gone with the more expensive wire because this was very loose and hard to keep tight against the wall. 

 And this is where I need your help. I haven't decided what to hang on it yet. I'm thinking about either having paper flowers like in the picture from Under the Sycamore, or getting either belts or old fabric to weave across (diagonal?). I really am stumped when it comes to finishing this project and it looks pretty messy and strange the way it is so I REALLY want to finish it ASAP! 

And my last project for this week: painting the armoire! 

This piece of furniture weighs about as much as a baby hippo. Reed and Kevin (Reeds roommate) have been trying to convince me it is not needed in my bedroom which is in an apartment on the second floor. However, I know differently and I hope that I can bribe them with a home cooked meal. This beast of an armoire was used as my art cabinet back at home in Columbia and I thought it needed a bit of a face lift before being put in my apartment here in Clemson. These are really rough before and after pictures but they should do for now. 

 See why I say it is the size of a small hippo. The armoire was dropped off at Reeds house so I could paint it before getting it in my apartment. 

I chose to paint it with the dry brush effect to make it look more  antique than a flat solid color. I also haven't finished the paint job. The four squares at the bottom are not painted yet and I am going to add some cute contact paper for the inside cubbies instead of painting them. I am also unsure about the handles. I think I like them because they are so unique but I am also thinking about maybe getting something a little more colorful since my entire bedroom seems to be white at this point. 


So, this was a long post. I told you I had a lot to catch you up on! As of right now I have a million more ideas for my bedroom but have only started the ones I've shown you. Hopefully within the next two weeks (before I start work at Razzberry Fizz) I will have my entire room finished and will be able to show off all of my final products!! 

a "quickie" post

Ok, I'm still in the process of moving. It has been a week and I am still living out of suitcases and piles of clothing on the floor. And a lovely surprise at this new apartment is that the internet is extremely moody. So, I haven't been able to update you guys as much as I was hoping too. Butttt, maybe this will keep you guys checking in. Suspense is a good thing, right??


All of that a side, this post is gonna be short and to the point because I don't know how long my internet connection will last!!


A few weeks ago I was able to finish two signs for my Aunt and Uncles new beach house in Cherry Grove, SC. They renamed the beach house from "Penny Pincher" to "Absolute Paradise", which is very fitting because the house looks like absolute paradise and I hope I get a chance to visit very soon!! Anyway, along with a new name they needed new signs to advertise their rental. I was given the dimensions, name of the house and was told to go from there! This is what I think of when the word paradise is mentioned and luckily it fit perfectly in line with what my Aunt and Uncle wanted!! 

(The two signs are identical so I didn't feel the need to post them both.)

Hopefully the moving process will end soon and maybe by some miracle my internet will decide what it wants to do. I hope you guys keep checking in because I promise I have LOTS of fun new projects I want to share!! 

Mural, mural on the wall... continued

I'll admit it, I have been finished with this project for about a week now. However, I have been unbelievably busy and I am just not a professional blogger yet; so, often blogging is put on the back burner. But I still want to show you guys the finished room!


Before I show you the final product I want to share the process of painting the canvas for above the bed. 

This is the canvas and pillow case from the PB sheet set. The canvas was 36" X 48". Yes, HUGE I know.

I wanted to give you guys a close up of the pattern. Obviously it's pretty busy. For both the mural and the canvas I selected bits and pieces of the pattern to blow up and replicate.

TA DA! FINISHED!! This canvas took me about 5 or 6 hours to sit down and paint. I don't know why it took me so long, the only reason I can think of would be the fact that I was sitting on the floor in the middle of my living room. So it wasn't exactly the most comfortable situation. Next time I paint a large canvas I am definitely investing in an easel! 

Oh, I also realized that the canvas was almost too large to fit in my jeep. So I wanted to share with you the adventure I took just to get the canvas about 10 miles down the road. 

Even with the lack of visibility in the Jeep I managed to get the canvas there safely :) 

The canvas will be hung above the bed but we just propped it on the headboard for the time being. 

YAYYYY! All finished! Kinsey got her room finished, well almost finished. They are still planning to add a small chandelier and a fun chair in the corner. But for the most part all of the "big" projects are done! I love the color that these paintings brought to the room and I also really really enjoyed painting on such a large scale. 

Hopefully I will get to do another mural soon! I'm thinking about painting some picture frames on my wall next, I'll let you know how it turns out. 


WARNING: School is starting in less than a week so I may be off the radar for a few days while I get everything set up in my apartment and ready for classes. But don't worry I'm going to document the entire thing so that when I finally do get time I can keep you up to date on all my projects!! 

Mural, mural on the wall...

As I am sure you have figured out by now I have recently been working on a mural. This mural is part of a larger project (in fact I am pretty much supplying all of the artwork for a 3rd grade girls bedroom). This mural is the first mural I have ever been hired to do. My junior year of high school I planned a mural that myself and 13 other girls painted on a wall of a school in Nicaragua. These are just a view of the panels painted on the school wall in Nicaragua. 

The whole process of painting the mural above is really interesting but I'll save that for another time because I want to tell you about my most recent mural!


For the past few days I have been planning and painting a mural based off of a Pottery Barn paisley bed sheet set. And lucky for you guys I documented my process!! Obviously I took a few before pictures of the empty wall:

 This room is adorable, but was in desperate need of some art. So, I blew up a few pieces from the print and framed the built in shelving with them. I thought maybe I could share some of my in progress pictures with you guys, I hope they aren't too boring. 

The mural part of this project only took 2 days (after a few days of planning) and I think it came out pretty nicely. 

So, this was my first commissioned mural. I hope this is the first of many because I really enjoyed painting on such a large scale. And I guess this will also be my first double entry blog post! Once I finish the rest of the room I will show you guys the entire room completed! 

"One shoe can save your life" -Cinderella

So, shoes are some of my favorite things. I enjoy having shoes that are different and are something that will express my personality. I've even done some personalizing to a few of my shoes and I wanted to show them to you! 


These are a pair of Nine West boots that I bought from Goodwill for $3 and then added my personal touch. 

These are my Toms I received this past Christmas. Tom's is a great company that started a "One for One" movement, for each pair of shoes sold the company gives a pair to child in need. This pair was my third pair of Toms that I chose to personalize with my own art work. I'm passionate about other things besides my art and shoes. I've visited the country of Nicaragua four times and have grown to love it as a second home. The images I've chosen for my Toms reflect Nicaragua. I have painted the national bird, the guardabarranco, and an iguana. I've also painted the verse "In His hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind." Job 12:10. The composition of these images express where my heart is and gave me a great looking pair of shoes :) 

This pair of shoes doesn't have a cool story. I just LOVE heels and wanted to personalize a pair. Sadly, I haven't had an occasion to wear these yet but I do love the fun lines! 

This is another pair of Toms I did for a friend. He requested I incorporate his favorite color (green), ultimate frisbee, soccer, The Cardinals baseball team, and Job 40:4-5. So, all of that I combined in to this unique pair of Toms! Hope you like them Boone!! 

Painting on shoes is something I really enjoy. It is a unique canvas that allows me to express myself in a different way than paper. Trying to combine different elements along the contours of a shoe can create a really elegant piece of art. Not to mention shoes are seen by a lot more people than a piece of art on the wall!