play without repercussion..

I found this article, from Cup of Jo's post on Friday, to be so interesting. Changing little things around the house are my meaningless, my time to play without consequence, my happiness.  Painting these two small canvases, framing and then hanging, are my time to let life be meaningless.

"Finding the opportunity to do something meaningless allows us to play, to take risk and fail without some repercussion that may kill us in the end."

"The power of the meaningless is found in exploring something you’re interested in, something you like, something that excites you, but without the pressure of having to make that thing your career or become a master of it or get approval."

"These thinkers and doers highlight the underlying power of meaningless activity: having faith that when you enjoy yourself, when you do things that move you, something opens inside. There is peace in that place. There is happiness. There is deep satisfaction."

 "It’s not how we’re raised, but doing things because they excite you is as powerful as doing things because they pay the rent."

"There is a beautiful thing that happens when, for a moment, we let life be meaningless and find the meaning therein."

the gallery wall

I am a sucker for a gallery wall. All of the things you love get to be so beautifully displayed on the wall. It's art in itself I think. I knew when we first moved in that I wanted to keep all of my frames and things together in one place. Just one spot where there are no rules, and anything goes. Our hallway is sort of like it's own little room, so it seemed perfect. 

Here it is at move in.

I found an inspiration photo from none other than Pinterest.

I was drawn to how unexpected the color photos felt. By expected I guess I mean a wall of perfectly placed white Ikea Ribba frames filled with black and white photographs (which I still find classic and undeniably pretty, for the record).
Without further delay, our gallery wall...

The left side. 

An engagement photo, wedding photo, and photo strips. 

I totally borrowed this idea from YHL. Hopefully I can fill it up with more keys from each place we live. So far, just one from our first apartment together as marrieds. :)

My favorite thing in the entire wall is this. I found it while going through a box of things from our wedding. It's just a sheet of paper with the lyrics to "how He loves" (the song I got to walk down the aisle to) with the chords marked above. 

And, here is the right side. 

"The Johnson's" sign was a wedding gift. I know probably everyone got one of these as a wedding gift, but I love ours. The geese and the beach scene are reprinted paintings done by my great aunt Louise.
Let's wrap it up....
Before

After

and, that would be our hallway.

pallet art: christmas edition

Pinterest (ehhh.. Pinterest.. I'm beginning to shudder every time I hear the word) is ruining lives. Or maybe just mine. I'm beginning to have a love/hate relationship with this website. Can't live with it, can't craft without it. I still peruse the pages late at night when I should be sleeping, finding the cutest craft ideas with tutorial after tutorial flowing at my finger tips, and I hate myself for it. Instead of being imaginative, I just click "re-pin" and watch my creativity slip from my soul...

I'm being extremely dramatic. I'll stop.

I just loved this pallet art that has been dominating the blog world. Even though you see it everywhere, for some reason, I find it so homey and heart warming each time. I made my own, and for free!

Scrap wood from Blake's little shop outside + white and brown paint + bark and twigs from the yard + nails and hot glue = one homey and heartwarming piece of Christmas home decor. Or in my case, front porch decor.

some of the last words from "O Holy Night," I love seeing those words. It's such a powerful song, and singing those hymns on Sunday night church service is definitely in the top 2 or 3 of what I love most about the season.

We're doing an in-depth study of the Advent with our church, and it is so joyous to remember why we have "the holidays." We are, day in and day out, lovingly and patiently waiting for our King to come and restore us and bring us home.

my wax drip

It started with this.

(snow white, bluegrass green, and bahama blue)

and this.

(taper candles in white, ivory and a darker neutral color)

Then it morphed into this...

I started with a blank canvas. Blended all 3 colors to make a sunset looking background.

The next step was like therapy.

Something about the monotonous act of watching each drip of wax hit the canvas was so soothing. It took about 12 (ish, I can't remember exactly how many) candles and a lot of man hours. I got through a TON of the Friday Night Lights episodes in the beginning stages of this project. Just a word of wisdom - make sure your AC is off, or that you're not directly under a vent. I had some wax-flying-off-the-canvas issues.

The final product.

It hangs in our bedroom between the door to the hallway and closet. It's a bright color, but I'm enjoying it. I tend to keep within the same navy, white, gray, with touches of mustard, so it's been fun to see a little bluegrass green mixed in.

I've started, with my random canvas art projects, to paint the sides of the canvas. I chose navy, big surprise! But, it makes it look like it's framed, and just a little more finished.

I love pretending like I'm an artist. ;)

copied art and a problem solved.

well, this should be short and sweet. I found a project off of one of my favorite DIY blogs. Here's the original picture from Pinterest.

and then when I saw just how do-able it actually was over here I decided to give it a go!

Here's what I came up with.

close up.

This is where the problem solving comes in.

Problem.

Solved.

now a little delight before heading to the bathroom - instead of the industrial fuse-box look which I hear may be making a comeback.

wanted: etsy prints

I have been quite in the artsy mood lately. Right now, I'm working on my own version of THIS found on Pinterest. What a crazy waste of time this Pinterest, like every social networking site, it can and will completely suck you in. So many fun gift, craft, and design ideas though. My boards are filling up!

I also have acquired quite the cart-full on Etsy. Here's the wanted list.

(^this is terrible isn't it? I'm ashamedly proud that I like this)

I can't wait to construct a collage of sorts in the new home. Maybe above the couch when you first walk in the front door? Maybe between the built-ins in the dining room? I vowed to myself to think through the decorating in the new house. I seem to get very excited with blank walls and end up putting everything up at once. I'm going to try this decorating in layers idea that I've been reading about. Take my time. Design one wall, one room, one nook at a time.

After the Pinterest-inspired painting is complete, there are plans in the works for a wax-drip painting. After some inspiration from the beach house this weekend and Blake's cousin, I'm tackling it! The whole process looks therapeutic - I'm very excited.