My Grandmother

I am learning to love graphic design! I'm obsessed. We are learning all about photo restoration right now. I chose to do this picture of my grandmother when she was 17. Even though this was just a small project, I was excited to do it on my grandmother. Her name was Valree Morgan Houston and she died when she was 32 years old. My mom was 5. Its strange how you can feel such a connection to someone you've never met. I've always been curious about her life, but I don't know much about her. What I do know is that she loved animals and art, and that her life and death were both tragic. I think she looks pretty in this picture and I hope that she would agree.

Fish

I know its been a while, yet again. This summer thing made me really lazy. In the past few weeks, I have started graphic design school again. We are in the process of buying a house. Needless to say, my creative juices are flowing yet again. I was recently on the graphic design website for my school and found that one of my projects from last semester was in the student gallery. I was flattered. Each of our projects for this class had to revolve around a specific phobia. I chose ichthyophobia, which is the fear of fish.

This whole graphic design thing is much more difficult than I expected. Part of the reason for that being that I have a hard time operating technology! Maybe I'm in the wrong field again. But I do enjoy learning it.

Old Dresser/New Dresser

My husband and I started a new project last week. We ended up with his old dresser that he had since he was a baby and throughout childhood. I had been wanting to trying repainting furniture for a while, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. I was nervous about trying it on this particular piece, because of its sentimental value. But of course, we just decided to wing it.

We started out by sanding the thing to death. I think we may have gone overboard with the sanding, but we wanted to be sure we got off all the shine from the finish. After priming it, we chose an off white color for the paint. After looking at a plethora of off white paint, I chose the color marzipan, for no other reason that I happen to like marzipan.(If you don't know what marzipan is, its an almond candy.)

After the paint finally dried, we sanded it a little more to give it a rugged look. I wanted to give it some nice new hardware so I ordered some from Anthropologie.com. I love the color turquoise and I think it makes the whole thing pop. Even though the knobs we chose were expensive, I didn't mind as much because the piece is so special.

It has belonged to my husband his whole life, and its our first major project we worked on together. This is our finished product. I love it!

T-shirt Rug

Its been a while. I started a new job again. I really love where I work now. I also just finished my first semester of graphic design school. Which I also love! I haven't painted in a while. I feel like I lost focus yet again. However, I have been crocheting quite a bit the past week. I think my creative juices are starting to flow again. I saw this online so I can't take all the credit. I will probably making all my old clothes into yarn from now on instead of getting rid of them. Four old t-shirts make a cute little bathroom rug.

Knitting...

So like I said last time, I haven't really painted in a while. One thing have been trying to learn how to do is knit. I've crocheted since I was like 12. I know its very "grandma" but I think its very relaxing and not very hard. Its practical and allows you to be creative.

My mom and I heard about this knitting store in Sarasota called Picasso's Moon. All you do is buy the needles and yarn and the owner of the store teaches you how to knit for free. According to this woman, I am making a purse. When I'm finished, I'm going to felt it in the washing machine so the colors will blend together and it will hide all my mistakes. I guess it will be a dark yellow.

I'm glad I'm learning how to knit, but I have to say that crocheting is much faster and easier. This purse seems to be taking forever, but I will be sure to post a picture when it is finished.