Watercolor

On Sunday I broke out the watercolors for the first time since high school. Back in the day -- all four years ago -- I painted all the time. I took two watercolor classes and a drawing class and then my senior year an AP Art class. Our kitchen table was covered in paper and brushes almost every night. But I got pretty burned out (and probably a bit discouraged, since creating art designed to impress the AP judges was frustrating to me) and hadn't picked up my paints since then. 

But Sunday was cool and rainy and a perfect day to stay indoors and I'd be itching to pull out the watercolors again. I showed Rachael some of the basics since the school she attended from kindergarten to eighth grade was pretty focused on academics and not so much on the arts. She painted a really nice little sunset on the lake scene (I helped a little with telling her how to use the techniques, but she did the actual painting).

And I painted some flowers.

It was surprisingly hard to remember how to paint. I didn't remember how the paint flows and blends together and I couldn't remember many of the techniques. I used to know how to manipulate it and make it do what I wanted. Now, unfortunately, I don't. It's funny that only a few years can make you forget so much.

Sidenote: Don't take pictures of your painting while parts are still wet. See that shiny blue flower? Impatience=funny looking pictures.

And here's the finished project: a little print for my wall. Although the quote might have to go . . . I like it but I have one a little more related to flowers in mind.

It's not fine art by any means, but for being the result of the first time I've picked up a brush since high school, I don't think it's too bad. 

Target Mirror Makeover

I already have a big, nice upright mirror in one of the corners of my room. However, I really want a little reading nook with an armchair and the mirror corner is the only place that might be able to fit. So I started looking for a way to have a mirror in my room, but take up much less space. Enter this mirror from Target:

This one isn't actually mine, it's Kristen's. I forgot to take a "before shot." But mine was exactly the same minus the stickers. I bought it a few years ago to take to college and hang in my dorm room, so I wasn't super concerned with how it looked. Lately I've been really into silver and gold (obvious from my last project), so I decided to make this one metallic too.

I taped off the edges of the mirror and then taped on newspaper to cover the entire thing (I didn't want any paint on the reflective part, just the frame). Then I spray painted everything gold.

I like the finished project (ignore the clutter in the reflection, oops). It actually looks like a metal frame instead of a flimsy wood one.

I like that it still looks classy, but it takes up so much less room because I can hang it on the back of my door. Plus the original mirror cost something like $5 and I've had it for years, so price-wise it was perfect.

Dream Car + Weekend

I've really wanted an Audi TT for a few years, so now that I'm graduated/working/living at home I decided it was time. It took a few months of looking and a road trip to Colorado, but this baby is finally mine!

I love everything about it and it's much more luxurious than my old car (tan leather interior, heated seats/mirrors...)  Not that it's hard to be more luxurious than my 2001 Volkswagen Cabrio was.  (Side note: I didn't think these were particularly amazing pictures since they were snapped really quickly on my phone. I emailed them to my little brother, who's on a mission in Chile. He said, "It looks like you've been making good use of your nice camera. Either that or the new iPhone has an extremely nice camera." Guess someone's been gone for a long time).

The salesman in Colorado told my mom while I was out on a test drive that they were taking a $4,000 loss on the car because they'd had it for a year and no one wanted it. It had just been sitting in the showroom. They couldn't figure out why, then a few months ago someone took it on a test drive and told them that it was making a weird sound. They looked and found out that a headlight or something was loose, and figured that must be making a rattling noise. They fixed it, but still nobody wanted the car.

We bought it and were halfway home when it started making a really bad noise. I almost had a heart attack thinking we'd bought a broken car. My dad looked under the hood and found a piece of plastic that was getting caught in the fan. We're still not sure how it got in there since it was actually a cover for a Volkswagen part, but my dad had it out in a few minutes and now the car runs perfectly. Thanks, little piece of plastic, for saving me $4,000.

On Sunday I had to give a talk in church, which was an experience all in itself. I was asked to speak for 10 minutes, the guy before me 7. What really happened was the guy before me began by saying, "As most of you know, my favorite constellation is Orion" (maybe it's a conversation starter he uses...?) and then rambled on for 25 minutes. I honestly don't even know what his topic was. Ahem. So I abridged my talk in order to give the guy speaking after me at least 5 minutes for his talk. What can I say? I'm a giver. Then I spent the rest of the day split between John's house and my house. I managed to catch this uncle/niece bonding time on film phone.

Contemplating the meaning of life.

An enthralling game of "Who's that baby in the mirror?"

And my personal favorite, Alexis's "Silly John, you think I'm that easily impressed?" face.

Faux Metal Letter Project

I've always been a big fan of metal letters like the ones sold by Pottery Barn and Anthropologie. But honestly, I'm pretty cheap when it comes to decorating my room because A) I just don't like spending money and B) I change my mind all the time, which translates to buying things and deciding I don't like them a few months later. So there was no way I was going to buy any expensive metal letters. Enter Hobby Lobby. I bought this cardboard letter for about a dollar (gotta love those 40% off coupons):

And then spent all of 15 minutes spray painting it (excuse the random grass. I remembered to snap a picture of the "before" right as I was about to lay down my newspaper and start spraying. Clearly I am a super-professional blogger). I decided that I didn't really care to have a "worn" look, so a couple coats of silver worked for me. And voila. From cardboard to metal.

It's by no means a new concept, but the project is super easy, especially since the paint already adheres really well to the cardboard--no sanding or priming required. A three-year-old could do this, which makes it my favorite kind of project. If it has too many steps, I get bored/distracted halfway through and it gets thrown in a box (while I tell myself I'll "finish it later"), never to be seen again.

I'm not sure that its current spot  on top of my red roll-top desk will be permanent because I think it could work well on the collage wall I'm planning (but choosing not to work on until my bedroom is repainted). For now, it's sitting on top of one of my favorite books I bought in London, next to my little Eiffel Tower from Paris. They don't match at all and that makes me happy. The silver letter may move soon though because I'm second-guessing myself and thinking maybe this arrangement is too cluttered. Any thoughts? 

Weekending

This weekend was the perfect summer weekend -- movie theater, batting cages, picnic at the lake, bicycle riding, Hill Air Force Base Museum ... I'm still happy just thinking about it.

John made friends with a duck.

A super talented duck. (Watch it full screen so you can see just how talented).

And I fed some too, but in this picture it looks like I'm feeding imaginary ducks. She's actually there in the bottom of the picture diving for a piece of macaroni salad. This was shortly after the giant geese left, so I was feeling pretty good (if you'd been chased by an army of geese when you were little you wouldn't like them either).

Then we went to a movie (Grown Ups 2, which sadly I wouldn't recommend to anyone. Disappointing/stupid/gross. DON'T EVEN REDBOX IT). The next day we decided to test out my parents' electric bicycles. I didn't know such a thing existed before they bought them, but they're pretty cool. Once you pedal to a certain speed, the motor kicks in and they go by themselves. Or if you're lazy you can just use the throttle on the handlebars. Now THIS is summer.

I also made John come to Gordman's with me to look at some decorating stuff (he thought he was really funny and followed me down the aisles just far enough behind that I spent like 5 minutes wondering where he was, so at least one of us is easily entertained). We saw this rainbow on the way. It's not a great picture, but it was the weirdest rainbow I've ever seen (like big rainbow splotches instead of one long bow).

And now it's Monday and I'm back to work. So much for summer vacation . . . good thing I like my job.

The Photoshoot This Blog Forgot

Today I was thinking about my old roommates Courtney and Cassidee and I realized that between the business of graduation and moving out, I never posted the pictures I took of them for a senior shoot/practice session. We're going to remedy that.

We started out during the "golden hour," but I only snapped a few shots at this location because we didn't love it (this hill was pretty much the only interesting spot).

We decided to drive up Provo Canyon and that's where we took the rest of these shots. The lighting was a little darker than I would have preferred, but at the same time I think it gives the pictures an interesting mood.

Can't decide if I like this one better in black and white or color.

These pictures are so cute I die every time I look at them (that has nothing to do with me and everything to do with how natural they were in front of the camera). It was a good learning experience and I'd definitely change some things if I did it again, but overall I really loved the shoot.

Learning to Hand Letter

Lately I've been loving pretty things like this (which I actually ordered a couple weeks ago) and this (both by Lindsay Letters). They inspired me to try to learn a little bit about hand lettering. My style is different, but I'm practicing using my pen and ink (and the little kit of nibs I bought).

This is a saying I heard at girls camp every summer and I thought it would work to practice with. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. I scanned in the original ink drawing and put it on a few different colored backgrounds, but I liked how this peachy color looked. I still want to print it out on white paper and use gold foil to emboss the entire print. I think it would work really well with the "royal" concept, so I'll have to order some.

Photo Shoot at the Airport

My dad and I have been working on starting up a clothing company with a vintage aviation theme. It was my project last summer, but now that I'm working full-time and won't be going back to school we can get a lot more done. Today we did a quick photo shoot out at the South Valley Regional Airport so that we can get a photo header for our website. 

My cousin Andrew was our model since I don't know many guys outside of Provo and John's a little camera shy (which I already knew so I wasn't expecting him to pose for us).  :) I'll just share one of the pictures I took of Andrew in front of the Pitts.

I also snapped a couple shots just for fun around the airport (mostly of the Pacer in my dad's hangar).

Now I just have to figure out how to make the website . . . 

This Land is Your Land, This Land is My Land

Happy 4th of July!