how to make some art

How to make art for the walls of your house that have been blank for four+ years:

Step 1: Create a workspace.

This may include removing straw hats, football gloves, dead flowers, spare sheets, old mail, a dead camera, and twenty-eight cents from your table.

Correction: twenty-nine cents.

Step 2: Is it decent to go to McDonalds for the sixth day in a row for a sweet tea and small sundae? Answer: If you have to ask, the answer is "no."

Step 3: Try and remember where you put the fabric you bought last October specifically for this project. Find it hidden away in a drawer with the baby ducky fabric you bought for a baby quilt. Realize you have poor follow-through skills.  Also realize you failed to wash and/or even iron the fabric you so lovingly spent eight dollars on last fall. Decide it is nothing a little Downy Wrinkle Releaser can't fix post-project.

Step 4: Windex or clean the table in a vain attempt at removing the glitter and glue left over from last Christmas' cards.

Step 5: Assemble your materials.  Search the house for your staple gun.  Look first in the tool box, as if you've ever put a tool back where it belongs in your life. Search the tool shelf.  Search the basement. Search your craft drawers. Even search the garage, since the one and only time you can recall using it was to staple garden twine to hold up your green beans.  Finally have the presence of mind to search the tool drawer (yes, drawer), and lo! Staple gun.

Large canvas, $20 from Michael's with a coupon; Lantern Bloom by Laura Gunn fabric in Textured Stripe Turquoise, $8ish from Etsy; POS Staple gun.

Step 6: Lay the fabric right-side down on the table. Lay the canvas canvas-side down over the fabric. Pull one side of the fabric up over the back of the canvas. I used the selvage edge so I could line it up with the wood to make sure the fabric was straight.  Staple first in the center of the side, then once on either side of that to hold the fabric down.


Step 7: Begin shaking your staple gun when it stops stapling.  Check that it is not jammed and has staples. Wonder if maybe it just needs more staples, just in case.  Repeat step 5, to search for extra staple, which you just know are in the house somewhere.

Step 8: Call your mom, ask her to bring staples and her staple gun.

Step 9: Talk to your mom for half an hour about the dogs, vacation, the garden, everything but the four foot wide art project on your dining room table.

Step 10: Her staple gun works great. Shoot dirty looks at your POS staple gun, which has now been used twice in its short life.  Finish stapling the first side, then begin stapling the opposite side, pulling the fabric taut. Then staple the remaining two sides.  Staple first in the middle, then move outwards, keeping the fabric tight and without wrinkles.

Step 11: Try to figure out how to wrap the corners.  Staple really close to one end, then fold the fabric over the corner just so, then staple the heck out of it.





Stapling the heck out of it

Step 12: Trim the excess fabric from the canvas. Give to your mom, who is super duper excited to make pillows, aka dog toys, for your couch.


Step 13: Repeat step 5 for frame hangers.  Until they are found inside a shelf/drawer/toolbox, enjoy your new, uhh, shelf art!


Total Cost: Canvas- $20, Fabric- $9, Staples- free = $29
Total Time: Began at 6pm, ran out of staples by 6:30, watched an episode of True Blood until Mom came over, finished around 9:15= 3.25 hours
Actual Time Spent Not Goofing Around: 45 minutes, max.

first friday

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I had a great "Girls Night Out" Friday night with K from It's a Wonderful Life last week.  It was First Friday in Indianapolis, so we hit the town in "Eff'n Square," as it has come to be known. We went to a few galleries in the Murphy building, including the supa-swank vintage store, Indy Swank. After a few glasses of delicious wine, we walked through a few of the galleries upstairs. I hadn't intended on buying anything that night, but one of the galleries had some re-imagined movie posters up, and I couldn't pass one up! I bought a re-imagine movie poster for Breaking Away. I can't seem to find any images online, but it's done in a cinema Italiano style. I'll post pics when I pick it up this week (edit: it's the one on the far left.  It was part of a larger gallery project to benefit the Indianapolis International Film Festival. 

K and I grabbed breadsticks, and then met up with her hubs at White Rabbit, for the main portion of our evening: Hasenpfeffer!! Hasenpfeffer is a new modern-dance cabaret troupe formed by our friends, and K's former dance-mates. The show was super fun and fantastic, and I wish now I'd at least tried to take pics with my iPhone (left the real cam at home). Their costumes border on amazing. They aren't the typical Pussycat Dolls-style cabaret you find in Hollywood, but a more modern take on it. Plus, White Rabbit has amazing beer at incredible incredible prices. I even found Left Hand Brewing Co's JuJu Ginger beer. I have only found one bottle in the whole of Indianapolis until now. Maybe I wasn't looking hard enough, but WR has it in bottles. Score! (image from WR's website)


I also wore the dress I briefly blogged about in an earlier post, the Curvy Shift from Anthro. I did have to get it tailored, but it fits fabulously now, and looks dressy or more casual, and can also be slightly retro, as it did Friday night. I accessorized with a vintage brooch and some patent heels. However, to work that day I wore a gold belt, gold flats and pink sweater to make it seem more current.

2009 recap and into 2010

Well, I think it's time for the obligatory 2009 recap.  I posted 50+ times, although I hope to post more in 2010. If only my work would unblock Blogger, my life would be so much simpler!

For me, 2009 was not a spectacular year. My company filed for bankruptcy, although I do still have a job. I think I only ran about 50 miles the entire year- a sharp drop off from running 15-20 a week in 2008. I am also still single, although I don't talk much about that on this blog.  On the upside, I paid down all of my debt to my dad and on my credit cards, got LASIK, went to China, and hung out with my sis in West Virginia. I also took a rock climbing class, which was very difficult, but fun.



In March, I adopted Nellie from Anderson Animal Care & Control. She is such a pistol! She constantly wails on Bristow and makes him play with her. She also needs attention every single minute of every single day. Briz is not cuddly at all, so it's nice to have a "lap" dog, even if she does weigh 40 pounds!



I also spent a lot of time with my best friend's son, A. Isn't he cute?

Looking forward to 2010, I only have a few goals:
-Lose 15 pounds. My doc gave me the go ahead to start running- SLOWLY- once or twice a week. I'm coupling that with giving up chocolate (for now, let's be serious people) to get back into shape.
-Go on a "big" trip for my 30th birthday
-Hang up some fricking artwork in my house. I have the art, just not suitable frames.
-Be more social- I joined a dodgeball team that starts next week. I want to meet some new people, maybe branch out with another group of friends
-Finish some of these unfinished craft projects. See these? Still not done.
-Go somewhere warm for New Year's Eve. Indiana sucks in the winter.

I think that's it! I hope your 2010 is a good one!

inspiration

I've been working diligently (mostly) on my house the past few weeks, in anticipation of my sister moving in. I've spent several weekends painting her room, and I'm still not happy with it. It will double as my craft room, and I've been dying to paint it orange. It did not turn out well. Twice. I've also been working on the bathroom, and I'm thisclose to finishing, but I just can't get my act together. I've also been scouring the web for sofas, headboards, and inspiration for my walls. I have a ton of photos to put up, but no "art." Just postcards from my travels and photos of the fam.














"Sprout," redbeandesigns

















"occie ocie 1.1," birdsandwings

and my favorite! "Flora in Blue," meArtDesign