Sunday, October 12, 2014

Princess Party Face Painting

Anything would look good on this child!  What a fun day!!
Of course, not everyone wants to be a Princess...
We feel Pretty!
Love My Face....
Flower Power on My Arms,
...and a Tiara to match my Eyelashes!

Sunday, August 3, 2014

Finishing Laundry Room Mural and Home Again

Once everything is sketched in, the next step, for this type of whimsical mural,
is to "white shadow" everything, filling in sky from the ceiling down, 
all around the main elements drawn in the day before.
It's time consuming, but facilitates the young, playful feeling we're after. 
I connected the painted clothes line between tree branches, instead of poles, and then glued on and white-washed the clothes pins for hanging whatever the family chooses!
Also, since the hallway molding is painted black, continuing that into the laundry room
not only creates continuity, it also completes and finishes the scene, 
lending something of a framed look.
All in all, this was a super fun project, and one I hope to repeat!  

Then it was time to leave.  After spending priceless time with family and friends, 
I drove away and paused to gaze back on Eden 
from Sideling Hill in Western Maryland.
Mile after mile of an undulating sea of green trees and pastures, 
it always takes my breath away.  It's ALWAYS difficult to leave.
However, having traveled this journey so often, and knowing a return trip will inevitably
follow, I focus on what's ahead.  
The "I" states (Indiana, Illinois, Iowa) are peacefully pretty; 
and green scenery tapers off gradually from state to state.  
The only places I can't imagine living are--
in large sections of Idaho, Nebraska and Wyoming.  I know, one person's hell
is another's heaven.  But geez!  In some sections,
not a single tree or hill can be seen from horizon to horizon.
Cheyenne, Wyoming assaults the senses with this:
Hurrying past it and closing my vents, I gaze ahead.  Industry is far from evil, BUT, 
seriously, can't something be done to mask this monstrosity?  
Utah and Houston, TX--that goes for you, too!!
Windmills look more picturesque in the "I" states, but they make a 
heck of a lot of sense in this area!  Trains are fun to watch from a distance, too, especially in 
and out of the formations of rock which replace greener mountains of the East.
Lincoln's statue has inspired me since I first saw it, over a decade ago.  
This time the sun was setting as I gazed on those powerful features,
seeming to breath life into the rock edifice.
 For awhile, all greenery seems to vanish before your eyes;
leaving one feeling stranded on a distant planet somewhere.  
It's rather mesmerizing, but not "homey."

By the time I reach Echo, Utah, however, those amazing rocks are 
highlighted with some shrubs and trees.
This time, I got out at a rest stop and took photos.
Continuing on I-80, forestation increases.  Park City has an incomparable rugged beauty which I've never successfully photographed as I see it.  There's no safe place to pull over, but, it's Gorgeous!  Wasatch Mountain peaks, as seen here from the 215, 
hold some of the most awe inspiring scenes in the USA.  
When snow-capped, they're positively magical.
It's been almost 10 years since I got my place here, 
and the neighborhood continues to greet me with both cozy 
and sublime beauty.
Today, a friend asked, "In your perfect world, where would you live?"
I had to answer, I honestly do not know.  In my perfect world,
travel would be less arduous and imposing.  
I'd probably choose a home in a place like Maryland,
where everything is lush, lovely and beautiful.
I lived at the bottom of this lane when I was a child...
Maryland holds one spell bound all the way to her border.
But, I could drive for an hour or so, and be here, too.
It seems plausible, don't you think?  
Just beyond the green of Maryland (or Seattle--even prettier!)
there are those amazing mountains. 
 More importantly, everyone I love would be just as easy to visit, 
in the home where they've lived for decades.

Friday, July 25, 2014

The Trouble with Tape

We've all done it: stuck pictures our kids created or some other, "let's display this temporarily" thing up on the wall with masking, packaging, or Scotch tape (I wonder if Scotts invented that tape?).
Then we forget about it and it stays taped to the wall indefinitely.  Here's what happens.
It isn't pretty.  In some ways, it's worse than nail pops, holes, or anything else which can happen to  walls because some of these patches you see here are sticky and will repel paint that goes over it.  So, for a day and a half I scrubbed those sticky spots alternately with Goo Be Gone, paint de-glosser, and then acetone.   The first did very little; the 2nd worked better, but mostly started eating into the paint (not a problem, since I was going back over that, but...).  Acetone worked best, but since the tape residue had worked its way into the paint, it was hard going.  Further, wherever you see spots that have ripped off the paint and the surface of the underlying drywall, the tape's adhesives had leached through the paint and directly into the drywall.  All 4 walls were covered with this type of thing--the girls' projects having been displayed lovingly in the laundry room by the kitchen for a decade. After and along with removing stubborn old adhesives, I patched and sanded, 
spreading it on thick to help dry out what I couldn't remove.
Finally, I've primed the entire laundry room, ceiling down to the molding 
(which I'll prime too, at the end).
Now the room is finally ready to have something wonderful added!!  I'm going to complement the adjacent hallway theme, only with more color.  After doing faux finishes through out the rest of the first level, we went with something the movie "Three Men and a Baby" inspired.  Remember the caricature mural outside their apartment?  I painted all the molding black and the door panels, to create a cartoon feel, and then added family member caricatures in, and extending out of, rectangular boxes (including each of their cats--my client rescues them and we've added one every other year or so.  The portraits of the deceased cats remain with the family to cherish).
 Stay tuned for how the room develops, with a fun alternative to tape, for the next time something 
is worth putting up on the wall.  Also, the likeness of Lulu, the newest kitty, 
will go in the laundry room!

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Love Letter Finishing Touches

Jean Marie Stangert Bovello is an exceptionally talented photographer and has filled her home with family photos, both current and from long ago.  Photos of other rooms we've designed together are already on my website, including her Tuscan kitchen with its pergola ceiling, and photo gallery family room, with faux finished pillars and textured walls.
Her vision for the master bedroom is the theme "Make Love Last," weaving together all her beloved family and romantic photos.  Here's what we came up with.
First, Jeannie created Italian love letters, using real names from her ancestry.  I burned the edges of a few, both for effect and imagining an angry lover's reaction to receiving such a letter, while still incensed with the sender.  Sometimes, I actually let them catch fire and then blew them out! 
 SO FUN!  I also tore some of them around the edges and even right through the letter...
or crumpled them up, as though they'd been thrown away in a fit of temper,
only to be rescued, reopened and smoothed out to be read over again and again.
The finish I chose to connect everything together was simply some mahogany water-based stain mixed with water and glaze to add a "smoked effect" to all the edges of the walls, doorways, windows, under shelves and around the letters after applying them to the walls.
Brushing on glaze, then smoothing the tracing paper letter on top of that, 
and pushing out air bubbles with a dry brush, and sponging off residual glaze.
The letters went on crinkled and irregular, the ink sometimes smudging, as with tears.
All of which endowed them with an aged, endearing and enduring look.
There were exchanges to and from 4 couples, so a total of 8 letters, and I placed them so the replies were in the same area, with Jeannie's grandmother and grandfather on either side of the bedposts.  Sometimes I was able to place the sender near their photo.
This is a cable from the bride-to-be to her husband-to-be, promising to follow 
him anywhere during World War II.  When fragments of the burnt letters broke off, 
and clung to the glaze, we were tickled, because it added a sense of 
the fragments of passing time and memories.
Whether love hurts 
or feels like a dance,
I think all of us, like my friend and client, want to Make Love Last.

Monday, March 3, 2014

Life's been Crowded...

This really is such a gorgeous area, particularly in winter!  However, I'm working 2 jobs currently, and the Soldier Hollow Charter School is about an hour away.  Monday through Friday, I leave my home by 6 am at the latest (need prep time in the morning), 
and then race home to tutor Japanese on line for 2 hours.  Weekends are for volunteering a couple hours early morning at the temple, grocery shopping, grading papers, laundry, Church (where I teach four ADORABLE 3 year olds) and playing a bit with Ginger 
(as well as cleaning a very dirty bunny cage).  Life is very, very full!
And it can be so much fun!  We had Cultural Olympics last week, and I took South Korea to talk about, sample food, etc. for a month.  My team was awesome and we did a clip from Gangnam Style for our chant on Friday--we got 1st place for that chant. :-)
The middle school tubing party, a few weeks earlier was an absolute blast too, 
especially since Jordan and Karli were able to join us!  The students ski weekly (last ski date is today), but, I do not ski.  Instead, I made a point of making sure this tubing party 
actually happened, so I'd be able to play with my 60 students in the snow.
What an amazing day it was--sun shining and crazy fast speeds going down those slopes!
The month before that, our classrooms were full of science fair projects.  I was in absolute awe of how involved and intricately executed almost all of these kids' projects were!  
I've never seen anything like it!  They are blessed with a super enthused science teacher, who had them mummifying chickens a couple weeks later--quite an aromatic affair, 
but the students will never forget it! 
Ok, now I have less than an hour to get out of here, (I love the sunrise in Midway!) so gotta go.  
This morning in Language Arts, the students all have book reports due, new quiz terms to study, a Utah writing test to prepare for, I need to print out the pages and return all the work graded over the weekend.  For fun and to help them toward writing a persuasive essay, 
we're continuing 6th grade debates today on who John Holdbrook, 
of The Witch of Blackbird Pond, will end up marrying: Mercy, Judith or Kit.  
Spoke with a client from Maryland last night on creating wall prints from my work and I'm face painting for a children's party this month, but for now, teaching takes precedence over all, until I get the hang of it.  I should be headed East this summer to paint and will focus on the books (there was a printing problem to resolve with Amazon) when school's out, or during Spring break.
Tata for now, with love, from Ginger and Joanna!