Laundry Room Christmas Make Over Adventure

This Christmas, I'm going with a very subtle color theme in my home with earthy greens for a tranquil vibe, except for one room--my laundry room.  When we bought our washer and dryer eight years ago, the red ones popped out at me (well...really they were floor models on sale at a price we couldn't pass up), but anyway, they still popped out at me!  So, when I looked at how I would decorate for Christmas, I had to go with red and as I decorated the room I decided to use some of my paintings and handmade items that I had created over the last few years that had a snowman theme.  To say the least, it was certainly a decorating adventure, filled with lots of fun and some challenges along the way.  Please join me as I explain how I got from seascape to snowman.

Here are the before pics.

As you can see, we have a beach theme going on in this laundry/half bath with a painting I did of my daughter when she was 4 years old--now she is 20.  Wow!  Where did that time go!!!?  Above it I painted her favorite Bible verse from Psalm 139:9-10.  "If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast."

I painted the seascape painting above the cabinet when I was 16 years old from an old greeting card and the two paintings beside the cabinet are personalized with my daughter's name on the bucket.

When I decided to change out the main painting of my daughter with a giant snowman painting I had hiding upstairs, I wasn't sure at first what I was going to do with the scripture.  However after I slept on it for a day or two, I "saw the writing on the wall" so to speak.

We also had this ocean themed shelf on a small wall above our coat rack that houses clothes pins and I had purchased a red one at a second hand store, so that was an easy fix--or at least I thought so.

Lastly, this curtain on our back door,  I am embarrassed to say, was here when we bought the house.  It's pretty drab after 18 years and I can't even remember when I last washed it--oh dear!!!  Please, don't judge me! Yes, I tossed it in the washer--FINALLY, but I'm still making a replacement for my makeover and I'll probably make another one for year round in the spring.

Now for the reveal.

I dug my sewing machine out of the attic and started with 2 yards of this awesome plaid fabric that I bought at Old Country Store in Intercourse, PA.  They have a fabulous selection of fabrics, and I am a little biased too, as the owners are my neighbors (I like to support the community around me).  They sell online as well, so be sure to check out their fabrics here. https://www.oldcountrystorefabrics.com/

After I made the curtain, I gathered it in the middle with a matching handmade fabric bow and finished it with one of my hand painted snowman ornaments.  I temporarily covered the windows with parchment and hot glued some snowflake ornaments on each pane to give us some natural light and privacy in the room.  In the spring, I will pick a lighter fabric, but for now I wanted it to feel warm and cozy.

My next project was the little wall shelf.  I found this red one at a second hand store over the summer and it spoke to me.  I had no idea at the time where I would use this, but it was only a few dollars, so I picked it up for later use.  This was an easy swap, so I thought, until the top cracked as I screwed it into the wall.  I even made a larger pilot hole, but sometimes things don't go as planned.  I ended up drilling two more pilot holes to make it more secure to the wall and decided to cover up the huge crack with an antique can and my handmade ornament.  Ta-da!  All is well!

Next, I wanted to make a red and white laundry sign to go beside the white cabinet where the two small paintings were.  I had an old piece of wood in the attic that I got at a yard sale.  I used the magic of the computer to make stenciled letters, folded them in half to match up to a line I drew down the center of the board, so they would be straight when I transferred them with graphite paper and a stylus.  After some tricky measuring, I was able to paint the letters on and ended up with a half decent sign for my laundry room that will be great all year long.  Yay!

Here are some other paintings and handmade touches I added to the laundry room.

I made the snowman from an old wool sweater and the tree was made from a wooden dowel and a lot of tinsel cord.  That's my grandmother's old wooden spoon that Frosty is holding.

As you can see, I got a lot of use out of those two yards of plaid fabric--curtains, ribbons and a tank topper!!! (I am humming Rain drops on Roses now, because I feel like Maria in The Sound of Music when she made all those clothes out of curtains--oh yeah!!!)

And here is the focal point painting that I had hiding upstairs.  At first I tried to cover up the words--by matching the wall color on painted paper and taping it to the wall and that worked great (NOT!) and then I decided to use the Christmas garland that I had stored up in the attic for the last 10,000 years--oh that's right--I sold it at my last yard sale.  Don't you just hate it when you do that?!  Just when I finally needed it, it wasn't there.  So after some thought, I decided to take two wreaths, I wasn't using, like the one I have to the left of the painting and take the greens off the wire and make them into a long garland.  I know you must be laughing at me, but hey, it worked!  This is a lesson, that you should never give up when problems come your way--there is a solution if you search for it and most likely it is in your attic--ha ha!

Well, I hope you enjoyed my laundry room Christmas makeover adventure.  I will be posting more decorating adventures soon.  Thanks for reading!

Living Room Redo

Over the last few months we have been planning to redo our living room.  We got a lot of use out of the furniture over the last 17 years, but as you know, things wear out.   Here are a few before and after photos of the changes we made.

Before

Before

When you have a small room, you try to fit in as much seating as you can, like the love seat we squeezed into a small space.  Right???  I guess I like to break design rules.  However, when it came time for a redo, we decided to take a different approach this time around and get it right.

New Paint - BM Chelsea Gray

I'm not sure what the proper order is in doing a room, but as an artist, it's all about the paint!!!  Maybe some people start with a rug for inspiration, but I've been dreaming about using this color for quite a long time.  So I painted first and did the rug last.  I have a habit of breaking the design rules.

Next, we headed to several --no, make that a gazillion furniture stores until I saw this sofa....

...and this electric recliner that would actually fit in the spot and in our budget as well.  I wasn't in love with the fabric, but that was a quick fix.  

I choose this dark charcoal fabric, Pheebee Ebony for the sofa...

...and this black and white fabric, Dempsey Tuxedo, for the recliners. (It looks a little yellow in the photo, but it's black and white in person.)

Before

We also spent a lot of time running all over Lancaster County, looking for new lamps... 

                   

Before

...and a new rug.

So, here are the after photos.

The large framed print above the sofa is from my Happy Valley painting printed in a 24 x 30" size.

The rug is a salt and pepper color mix to compliment all the black and white in the room.  It is actually a piece of carpet.  We had it finished in a charcoal binding to look like an area rug, and put quality carpet padding under the rug. This saved us several hundred bucks and it feels very lush underfoot.

Sarah Table Lamp from the Crestview Collection.

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you enjoyed the redo.  Next time I'll share some holiday decorating and vignettes.

My Summer Discovery and an Indoor Herb Garden

This summer, I discovered the cause of my constant headaches and 24/7 dizziness.  After being misdiagnosed for the last 22 years, I came across the real diagnosis while doing my own research. Sometimes you just have to search things out for yourself when you can't get any answers.  In July, my dizziness was through the roof and that was enough to make me no longer "just live with it" as I was told, but to take matters into my own hands.  While researching, I came across a condition and a support group with people who were facing the exact the same issues and symptoms as I was having.

The condition is called Vestibular Migraine.  I could hardly believe it!  Now, I never considered myself a migrainer, but the headaches I randomly have are mild compared to some people. Some people with Vestibular Migraine, never get a headache, just dizziness and they are called silent headaches.   I learned early on, that if I ate certain foods, I would get a headache, so I avoided them.  Also smells like perfume and chemicals would sometimes lead to a headache or a rash.  But I had no idea, that the constant dizziness was a part of the headache, an aura, so to speak.  I believe that the reason for the 24/7 dizzies was because I ate everyday, duh, and therefore many more foods that I never suspected were also a big part of my triggers.

It hasn't been easy, but through elimination of various foods and many chemical ridden foods, plus a lot of trial and error, I am starting to have good days,  among the rough ones and mostly headache free days.  Yay!  I have seen some other areas of healing in my body as well, as I journey through eating a whole foods, mostly plant based diet, so that is also a wonderful benefit.  I'm not feeling perfect, but at least I'm well enough to enjoy my life and I feel grateful for the health I have.

Now, for today's project.  Now that I'm eating as close to the earth as I can, I thought it would be fun to set up an indoor herb garden, so I have plenty of fresh green herbs when I cook.

I had this box sitting in the garage since last winter.  My husband wondered what I was going to do with it, as it still had last fall's dead foliage in it, LOL!  So, now I think he will be quite happy to see that I am making good use of it.

I picked up some of my favorite culinary herbs at the garden center and some organic soil.

 Then, I gathered some supplies and a cute round stone and was ready to go.

I lined the box... 

...then planted my herbs.  I kept the tags as temporary markers, until I make something a little prettier to mark them.

I wrote "herbs" on the little rock to sit inside the box, but you can put a fairy or whatever you like as an embellishment.  I also have a grow light that hides at the top of my window that will give my herbs enough light.

Now, my little herb garden is right in reach as I navigate a new way of flavoring my food.  Do you have an indoor herb garden, or any tips for growing herbs indoor?  I'd love to see some photos.  If you have some to share, I will do a post on them.  Send photos to starlitestudios.art@gmail.com.

I hope you are having a wonderful fall day!  Have a great weekend.

Dinner on the Deck

  We recently refinished our backyard deck by replacing some of the boards and a much-needed fresh coat or two of stain.

Carl did the prep work and I did the painting, of course.  We make a great team!

Here is the pond and garden surrounding our deck.  The pond is right off the edge of the deck and this photo is what it looks like later in the season when all the sweet potato vines are full-grown.  We also have a japanese maple tree where the curly willow twigs used to be.  

It took a lot of patience this year to get the pond back into shape as we faced several challenges from the rough winter.  We had to replace the waterfall box, the filter, and all the piping due to freezing & cracking problems and then the loss of many fish from a pesky blue heron.  All the trees behind our pond were also lost due to severe weather and they will have to be cut down this spring, but we are happy to say that we are finally on our way to getting things back into shape.  Our neighbor was kind to offer us some beautiful flowering shade plants that they wanted to get rid of and they are starting to grow.  (Thanks, Lester & Lois!  You are a blessing!)  The challenges we faced with the pond this year were only the tip of the iceberg.  We faced several other challenges that seemed overwhelming.  Everything seemed to come at us at once.  However, we were reminded that we can trust God, one obstacle at a time and one day at a time and that He will take care of us.  He showed us his care through different people in our lives.  For this we are so thankful!

Yesterday, we decided to have dinner on the deck.  It was a beautiful day and it was nice to finally hear the tranquil sounds of the pond running again!

We had kabobs and twice-baked potatoes.  Yum!  We made the kabobs with chicken, zucchini and mushrooms, loaded them with BBQ sauce and cooked them on low heat for 20 mins.  In retrospect, they could have used some pineapple chunks or tomatoes for added color, but they were DELICIOUS!  We also made a few kabobs with the leftover chicken pieces, to add a little more meat to each of our plates.

I also had a chance to finish some small paintings this past week.  Here are the pics of them.  A few of them are still available in my etsy store.  You can see them at this link.  

https://www.etsy.com/shop/marycharlesfolkart?ref=hdr_shop_menu