The Wall

Remember this wall?

I've hated this wall for a really long time. It was completely uncooperative in my attempts at wallpaper removal, stubbornly refused to accept any kind of paint, and flatly rejected any texture that I attempted to apply to it. What a jerk. Even when we finally figured out that we could use oil based primer to cover the entirety of its disgustingness, the remaining wallpaper decided to peel off in huge chunks - which was awesome - but also slightly annoying since it refused to budge with the numerous chemicals, steamers, heat guns, scoring tools, hammers, chisels, etc I had previously applied against the horrid thing.

See what I mean?

Kind of annoying.

We basically ended up painting the entire kitchen with a coat of primer, peeling off wallpaper, and then painting it again. But: the result is amazing and I wish I had done this months, nay, years sooner. Can you be in love with a wall?

As you can see, I still have to paint trim, but this little step toward progress makes me so happy - I think Eric was pretty proud of me, too, since I got a lot of it done by myself (not ALL - my mom helped by peeling wallpaper and distracting my child - but a lot).

AND: this lovely wall is now the perfect spot for my Stendig calendar. Sigh. Love it.

Leah Giberson

Paintings that feel like summer....

... by Leah Giberson. Look at how shiny those airstreams are! They make me want to go camping again.

Cindy Rizza

After two weeks of solid rain, I've started looking at summery paintings to combat the dreariness. These by Cindy Rizza are just the thing to keep one dreaming of long summer days....

(you know, except for that last one).

And Our House Color Shall Be....

... (drumroll please).....

Prairie Grass!

Thank you so much to everyone who called, texted, or emailed their opinion to us. Prairie Grass seemed to be the crowd favorite with Pinecone and Smokestone tied for second and a few outlying (albiet loud) cries for "Spiceberry!" I'm so glad I'm not the only one who cares about the color of our future siding :) You guys are the best!!!

Photoshopped House Colors

Remember these colors from yesterday?

Last night, I photoshopped our house in the sample colors so we could get an idea of what each would look like. I skipped the Khaki and Spiceberry (our neighbor's house is straight up khaki, and I do not want a red house) but the rest are as follows:

Fieldstone:

 Pinecone:

Smokestone:

Prairie Grass:

Now, when we first looked at the samples, Eric's favorites were Fieldstone and Smokestone (I had no idea and just went along with him), but after seeing them on the house, we were surprised to find that we liked the greens the best. It's a bit difficult to tell what color they'll actually be since transferring sample colors from a crappy phone photo to photoshop is not an exact science, but hopefully this can give you some idea of what we're working with. Any thoughts, suggestions? We're picking one tomorrow! Ready or not!

Joël Penkman

Just so you know, we didn't do much this weekend. Well, I planted grass on Saturday, but then it snowed on Sunday so who knows if it will even grow. Boo.

Whatever.

Let's look at some artwork by Joël Penkman.

Joël Penkman is a New Zealand artist that now resides in the UK. As you can see, she paints a lot of food. Really pretty food. I love her popsicle paintings, her 100 teacups paintings, and her "Fictional Food" paintings (right column). The middle "Fictional Food" is entitled Holly Golightly's Breakfast :)

She also paints "Things." My favorite has to be these marbles. I love how they reflect the light. 

For those of us who can't afford her original paintings, she does have a few prints for sale in her etsy shop. It's probably a good thing that she doesn't have her marbles painting there or I would be really tempted.... Though a candy print is really tempting as well... So cute!

Inspring Artist: Jeremy Miranda

I'm really clueless when it comes to paintings, but I really like the work of Jeremy Miranda. I like the contrast of stark interiors with the bright airiness of his greenhouse paintings. You can see some of his studies at his blog: http://jeremymiranda.blogspot.com/ or see his portfolio at: http://jeremymiranda.com/ .

OTW: Best. Weekend. Ever

I had so much fun this weekend!!!!!! Sooooo. Much. Fun!!!!

We put flooring in our den.

If you'll remember, it used to look like this:

And then we pulled up the carpet and it looked like this for like, ever:

But then, by about noon on Saturday it looked like this:

And then at around three on Saturday it looked like this:

And then at nine last night it looked like this:

Ignore the air compressor in the middle of the floor; we ran out of trim and will finish that tonight. Also ignore the empty bookshelves. Eric promised that we can fill them after he attaches them to the wall/each other. Also happening tonight.

But that's not all I did this weekend. Eric's buddy, Clay, was in town, and while they were off doing manly things.....

......I worked on my chairs!! I'm only going to show one little pic because I have a lot more to post regarding them and a few other little personal projects. Here's a peek:

Kind of a before/after picture. This was so much fun. I want to refinish chairs always and forever.

I was so excited last night about all the progress we made, that I could NOT fall asleep. I kept planning where I was going to put furniture and what kind of rug I wanted in the den and how to arrange an "artsy corner" with my new drafting table. The fireplace room is going to be so cozy this fall! I'm incredibly excited! I hope you understand that I'm excited!!

All that tossing and turning gave me another brilliant idea. I got up this morning, ran to Home Depot for paint, and then attacked the dining room. I finally can now that the bookshelves are out of there!

Hm. You really can't tell what color this is in the picture, and it's all splotchy from drying, but it looks dope in real life. I like it a lot.

I LOVE WORKING ON OUR HOUSE!!!!!

I'll show you some of my other little projects tomorrow.....

More Kitchen/Dining

This is kind of hilarious. I've been trying to find a paint color for the dining room, but seriously, how many tries does it take?! Haha!

The winner so far is the lightest one. It's kind of a greyish green. We'll see, though. I can't actually paint until the fireplace room is finished and the bookshelves are gone from the dining room.

Besides choosing paint colors, we've been thinking about how to arrange the kitchen. We decided to pull the buffet away from the wall so we could see how a counter protruding into the kitchen would work.

Here's a picture just to help explain what I mean. This buffet is usually pushed up against the wall to the left.

Gosh that half wallpaper half turquoise wall is embarrassing. Eek. Need to do something about that.

Moving the buffet has actually been really helpful. As a result, we both agreed that having a counter there would work, it would just have to be about a foot (give or take) shorter because of the basement door.

Oh my gosh I really want this room to be fixed. I'm getting excited!!!! :)

Lookit I Made: Foxy

I've been trying to blog every day, but I totally forgot yesterday because I was too busy watercoloring!!!!!! I have no idea what I'm doing, but it was a lot of fun to mess around and see what I could make! Mostly, I just made foxes.....

Foxyyyyyy.....

 There be a lot of them. I need lots of practice, you see.

 Baby fox!

 Another baby fox!

 Papa fox!

Ope, another baby fox

Big fox!
Go me!

Over the Weekend: Patagoina & Paint

Huzzah for three day weekends! The weather was wretched, but that didn't stop us from having a heck of a time! We went to dinner at MacKenzie River on Friday night (since our camping plans were shattered), hit up the Patagonia sale Saturday (with Adam), and tinkered about the house on Sunday and Monday. I wish every weekend could be three days. Did you hear me presidential hopefuls? Campaign for three day weekends!

Here's the basic run-down of awesomeness:

Eric waiting for pizza at M.R. It took them all of an hour. But they apologized and gave us a giant discount without us having to make a scene or anything.

Saturday, we woke up to SNOW covering our garden; it got worse as we headed toward Bozeman. 

We picked Adam up in Bozeman, then headed on to Dillon for the Patagonia sale. It was fun. But there were difficult decisions to be made -

Orange with hood? Or grey without? They were running out of sizes so there weren't many options.

As you can see, I went with grey. I seriously wish it had a hood, but it fit better than the orange. Plus, aren't we the most darling matching Patagucchi couple?

We got back to Billings Saturday afternoon, ran to a friend's house for dinner, then crashed into bed.

Sunday.....I painted. Eric tinkered with his bike. It was chill.  

Lookit how midcentury my house looks in this pic! dope!!!

I ended up painting the hallway and living room white. I wish I had done a little bit of a tint so the coved ceilings stood out more, but whatevs. White is bright and fresh and will be perfectly lovely until I decide what I want everything else to look like.

Monday I did the second coat of paint and decided that I desperately needed to get out of the house. So we went to Home Depot to get dining room paint samples.

"Gulf winds" was a dismal failure. Will try again this afternoon. Perhaps "Silvermist," "Comtemplation," or "Rocky Mountain Sky" will be more to my liking.

Less of a failure -

I got a plant! It's cool! And I really the pot I found too!

But enough about me....

Eric spent the weekend working on his bike! He finally bought a fancy new road bike, so he's been working on converting his old bike into a fixed gear. He made some bull horn (is that what they're called?) handlebars and got some new wheels....etc....whatever you do to make a normal bike a fixed gear...there was a dremel involved.....blah blah blah......kind of adorable.....He was really excited, so when he finished, we took a little ride to get a movie and some beer. Lookit how cute!

The painting continues....

Eric bought me five gallons of white paint last night so that I can paint the hallway and living room, and while I haven't been thrilled with my color selections for the other rooms, I think I'm going to try again with the dining room. I think I want a color something like this.....

Not too dark, though. Imagine this with a lovely drop-leaf table, wishbone chairs, and a black drum pendant......ah-mazing! Oh, and don't forget our plan to put a door where the dining room windows currently are (hopefully coming to you this fall)..... should be dope!

I think this time I might get paint at Sherwin Williams. Our super-awesome-and-really-rad-friends Hanna & Nick gave me a Sherwin Williams paint wheel, and they have ever so many more colors to choose from. Fun fun fun!