Category Archives: Design

New {year} New {room}

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I joined Creative Every Day and the theme this month is “new”. Fitting, for a new year – new goals, new resolutions, a new day with no mistakes in it (yet).

So this new year (month, really), I’ve decided to give my bedroom (and bathroom, to a lesser extent) a makeover. And by makeover, I mean, actually do something thought out and less random. A few months ago I did that for my living room – which has blue and red accents – all the paintings are blue, the side table, curtain, and throw blanket are red. The furniture doesn’t match but at least the walls and colors are relatively coordinated and it looks good enough (with a tan and red blanket over the black futon to match/contrast the brown couch) that I’m happy with it when it’s clean.

So my bedroom and bathroom have been the last to be coordinated. My kitchen is fairies (and I finally made a tablecloth today – grey with a sort of sheen) and our studio doesn’t have a theme…besides a giant green screen and a desk trying to be more things than it has room for.

My bathroom is blue & green and has frogs. It’s adorable now.

My bedroom, which is what I really want to get into, is going to be awesome. I’m getting into purple again, purples and reds and some blues. I made a painting that my husband lit as the inspiration piece/color scheme for the rest.
new bedroom piece...I feel like reds and purples are just so…rich and kind of perfect. The way they react and contrast with each other and work against our light green wall. It’s like a mix of sensual, romantic, and serene – kind of perfect for a bedroom if you ask me. The way it glows when the lights are turned on inside gives it the stained glass look that I was going for which adds an element of richness and…something I can’t put a name to. But it’s great and new and my husband is psyched too. I’ve got a 2 foot by 3 foot canvas to make a focal piece sometime this month and plans to refinish my nightstand into something that matches the color scheme.

So this is my new contribution. I’m giving our room a much needed *something* and I’m really excited about it.

 

New-ish-ness

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If you’re reading this on the blog right now (and chances are, you are), you’ve probably noticed a major color change. I missed having a custom theme ( had one once, a long long time ago) so I thought I’d make a custom background for my current theme, so it’s still a bit more me, and less boring looking, while still keeping all the wordpress functionality that I need.

I spent several hours on colourlovers making patterns and palettes and colors and so many things. At first I made a bunch with the pink color that my logo had in it, and I found a striped background and created shades of pink, which looked fantastic and fit with my logo well. But there was so much pink. Don’t get me wrong, I *love* pink, but truly, blue is my favorite color and I had a thought: Why am I even using pink if I really like blue?  So I decided to go back and edit the header on my blog and change the color to blue, and then make a blue background, because I love blue!

…Then I decided that while I was at it, and since it’s the same logo I use on etsy – I’d go ahead and fix the colors there too.

Etsy Shop Updated

I liked the pink, I really did…but I’m a blue girl – so I figured, why not just go with that?

That’s not the only thing that’s new or changed though. I found an article on Mashable (from a friend) about the new Facebook profiles that will be rolling out in October and how to activate it early. So, as I had already had a developer profile thingy from something that I was working on earlier (not web-dev…I think it was the new twitter thing needed an app or something) I just updated an existing thing and joined the new open graph profile early. My favorite feature is the cover image, and I really love the picture I put up and how all the new features look and am generally just really psyched about the full integration of it. So I thought I’d post the picture that I have up there (it’s brilliant – you can put up your couples picture, while still maintaining your face for your profile, ha!).

Facebook Cover Image

I love the way the archives (there ARE archives!) work too and the streamlined profile. It’s pretty neat. Now all that’s left is to change the colors on my fan page for Kiery’s Whimsy and get back to drawing the rough illustrations for The Balloon Lady 2.0!

Preview: Fairy

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I realized as I was painting my last piece that if I took the time to really work on the shades my paintings could look much better – but I don’t usually take that time, as I paint all at once and my acrylic paint dries quickly – but I absolutely love how it looks when I do add the shades – like in the green fairy’s gown and hair

So I decided to spend my next painting focusing on shading…and I sketched out the next one in my notebook. I’m still working out how I want the colors to look (which is why it’s black and white), but I figured something simpler with details would probably be easier than something with say….three snowflakes and two fairies.

Clay and Winter Fairies

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Over the weekend Alex and I decided to pick up some clay and explore the world of miniatures. On Sunday night we baked a few pieces and yesterday I painted mine.

The tall tree-like piece was the most interesting because I had used some candle wax to mold it around. While it was cooking the wax melted (obviously) and sort of oozed around and ended up hardening onto the clay after it dried. Painting wax is interesting, it’s sort of…smudgy.

After painting the clay and coming home from the premier of the short film we worked on all summer, Alex had to work late – so I decided I would too. I’ve been wanting to paint snow/fairies/snowflakes, and decided to give it a try. While I was sketching it out I realized that I derive my interpretations of fairies and snowflakes from Tinkerbell and The Nutcracker. Which makes complete sense, given that I grew up in Florida…and the closest thing to snow I saw was the nutcracker snowflakes…

I didn’t really want the fairies to be white and blue like the rest of the picture, so I decided to paint them green and purple – I like how they are sort of the opposite of each other and still match, and I like how the colors stick out against the blue sky and the white flakes.

Distraction

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Tuesday was the last Oil Painting class (that I missed, stupid soup) so yesterday, I decided to move my materials out of the bag they were in and into my office. Somewhere between transport I actually looked at my office, and the closet doors ajar from cardboard boxes, the cluttered floor, and stuff everywhere, and I started to actually clean everything. I didn’t have the forethought to take a before picture, because I was too busy trying to make it manageable, but in the end, it turned out beautifully with a few more additions of cardboard furniture.

I had a bunch of random workbooks and papers on the floor, so I pulled out two boxes and put them on top of each-other by my desk, to create a shelf-like thing for the books, my toys, and the routers. Which, surprisingly, looks way better than it did before.

Then I took my desk, and redesigned it, and moved it into the office from the living room, and it now serves as a supply holder/place to put drying paintings.

That project did end up taking all afternoon, but it was so worth it, and it feels nice to go in there now. I also did manage to get some illustrating done, and my husband’s birthday presents wrapped, so I feel incredibly accomplished!