– Rig Veda

We do not own one tree (yet). It’s hard to attract birds with no trees so I have to lure them with tasty treats and luscious building materials for their homes. This was an inexpensive and simple craft that would be fun to do with little kids!
Necessary Tools & Materials: scissors, yarn (great way to use up old scraps!), suet bird feeder

1.) Wrap yarn around your hand

2.) Cut yarn

3.) Stuff feeder

4.) Wait for birds

                                                               -Anne Frank  

(Yes, that is a Deathly Hallows necklace in there…back to the post.) I’d recently bought a 5×5 wrapped canvas for my niece and decided that triangles would be the best thing EVER to put on it. I was right.

I started by painting a base coat followed by two coats of gold. I had this tape* waiting to be used for an awesome occasion such as this. I made triangles (with no rhyme or reason) on the canvas with the tape:

Once I taped the canvas, I started choosing my colors. This is the hardest and longest portion of any painting I do. This step often paralyzes me from starting a painting because it is so daunting.

I did a lot of mixing to find the exact colors I was looking for and in the end I was quite shocked proud on how well the colors meshed.

I painted several layers of each color to obtain the opacity I was looking for. Peeling the tape off before letting the final coats dry seemed to be a good idea (something I’ve learned by painting the rooms of our house.)

Notice the areas that the paint seeped under the tape? In order to sharpen the lines, I re-taped the outsides with scotch tape and re-painted the gold stripes. If I’d used a stickier tape, this would not have been an issue.

The final product turned out better than I’d hoped! I named the piece ‘Happy Glam’ for my 2 year old niece who is a very happy little girl who loves glamorous-sparkly-shiny type things.

What projects have you been up to lately? Any shapes been especially inspiring to you? Circles are still in, right?

*I would not recommend this type of tape for this project because it did not adhere to the painted canvas well, which resulted in me having to repaint the gold lines.

This is the bell tower at my alma mater, Purdue University. One of my greatest accomplishments was getting my degree.

                                                                                                                    -Eartha Kitt

-Emily Dickinson

My Tuesday Truths always have something to do with what’s going on in my life. This one is, for me, is now a mantra that helps me stay motivated in completing my art. I have two paintings that are not complete because I am afraid I won’t like the end result…but it’s silly because I don’t like how they currently look either. The piece pictured above has been like this for over a year now.

Listen to your art. Just do it.

1. Find a recipe and cook it together. Make it a theme night and play music to match the type of meal.
2. Go off the grid for the weekend- no cell phones, no TV, no computers. You’ll be amazed at what you can do for entertainment.
3. Go see a movie at the drive-in.
4. Go to a restaurant you both have never been to and order their specialty.
5. Buy 3 bottles of the cheapest wine and have your own wine tasting at home.
6. Play a board game.
7. Go bowling and order cheese fries.
8. Have a spa night. Take a relaxing bath then follow up by taking turns giving each other massages.
9. Movie or TV marathon.
10. Play some miniature golf.
11. Hit some balls at the batting cages.
12. Be in control and go to a shooting range. Be careful!
13. Put together a puzzle.
14. Go on a food crawl. Go to a different restaurant for an appetizer, entrée, and dessert.
15. Go fishing with worms.
16. Dress up to the nines and test drive a car you have no intention to buy.
17. Pack lots of blankets and drive out in the country to look at the stars. Don’t forget brownies!
18. Snuggle up by the fire and read a book with hot chocolate together.
19. Give yourself an imaginary budget. Then separately go online and pick out all the things you would buy for each other with the money.
20. Get active! Go on a bike ride, hike, geocache, etc.

I’d love to hear more suggestions on fun things to spice up a Wednesday night!