I Pintered and I Failed....Wall Art Take 2

I saw this on Pinterest and I thought it was cool and neat and awesome.  So I decided to attempt to make one.

original pic from here
pinterest link here

So I made a smaller version with different colors.  I hate mine.  There are just too many things wrong with it.  The colors.  Too much white.  Too much of a contrast.  Too much brown.  The zigzag lines are too big.  They bled through.  Basically I just hate it.  Luckily acrylic paint is cheap as were the canvases I bought, so I will probably just paint over it.

I made this male model I found in my living room pose with the art to make it more exciting and to distract from the actual "art work".

I also made this one.  I don't hate it as much but I'm not in love with it.  Also the squares at the bottom being smaller than the other squares will slowly and steadily annoy me over time until I go crazy most likely.

Maybe abstract art is just not my thing.

Any ideas for cheap DIY wall art?

Craft Room Renovations Part 2 aka Why I Baked B 2.5 Birthday Cakes...

I might have jumped the gun a bit the other day on my craft room renovations post by starting with the curtains.  I actually started with the floor.  Or should I say, Hobie and B started with the floor.

Our house has wood floors under the carpeted area.  When we moved in, we (well some people who knew what they were doing) took out the carpet and refinished the floors in our bedroom.  This time I decided we could totally do it on our own.  And by we, I meant Hobie and B.  I supervised.

I did remove all the stuff from the room (well except the bed, I'm weak).  So we had this......

Then B and Hobie got to work on pulling up the carpet.  At one point I was going to help B carry all the old carpet downstairs to throw away.  When he realized just how little arm strength I have, he decided that dropping the old carpet out the window would be easier.

So then we had a carpet less room with some beat up old hard woods underneath.  B did a bunch of stuff that involved pulling out staples, sanding, using this big machine and painting it with something.  I went and bought him lunch.  Hobie did very little to help at this point.

So that was over Thanksgiving.  The floor was looking pretty good.  One day when we are super rich we may get the whole thing redone to match the newer hardwoods in the hall and den but for now these DIY refinished hardwoods are pretty good.

By Christmas break I had moved all the furniture back in and then found my curtain fabric and decided that I hated the light green walls.  So I headed to my favorite place (psike) Lowe's and bought some paint samples.  I brought them back and painted them on the wall and hated them all.  So I went back to Lowe's and bought some more.  I finally found one I liked (it's the far right one by the way).

Then we bought the rest of the paint supplies and painted.  If I had known that I was going to paint the walls I would not have moved all the furniture back in.  Oh well.  I actually helped with the painting.  Hobie just watched (can you say lazzzzy?).  Painting the trim was not my favorite thing ever.  But I did it and there's only a few highly noticeable things for me to touch up.

So that was our Christmas break.  At one point I was all "yeah, B I'm going to paint this room by myself over Christmas break."  Then a day later I realized I didn't actually even know what supplies I needed to paint a room by myself.  So B helped me (a lot) and that's the story of why I baked him 2.5 cakes for his birthday. 

Have you ever painted a room on your own or pulled up carpet to find some decent hardwoods?

Who wants to come help me paint the basement?

Making Stuff is Fun....Old School Edition

And by Old School, I mean the tenth grade.  The other day when I went to visit L-Fab after her toe surgery at my parent's house, something dreadful happened.  My mom forced me to take a bunch of stuff from my old bedroom to my house.  I have been avoiding this for years.  But she wouldn't let me leave without taking several boxes of stuff and my two guitars.  (That's right, I have 2 guitars and know approximately 2 chords on the guitar.  I really tried to learn multiple times in college, it just didn't take.)  However, I found some wonderful stuff in these boxes...photo collages, books and of course the best find....my tenth grade art work.

So here we have two wonderful pieces from Art 2, aka tenth grade art circa 1996...

Ok so this is a picture of my parent's house.  Why is it blue and purple?  My parent's house is not blue and purple.  I guess we were supposed to use some weird color scheme and I picked the one that involved blue, green and purple (cool colors??? IDK).  I mean I do love purple but this is just a little strange looking.  But look up there above the garage...that's my old bedroom. 

This next picture is a real winner.  It is my version of a butterfly........

...featuring an actual stick of butter with butterfly wings.  Deep right?  Yeah I'm not so sure.  But I do remember thinking this picture was super cool.  I like the wings and the amazing background that gets darker and darker as you go up.

So those were pretty much  my two masterpieces of the year.  I didn't take any formal art classes after that in school.  There was no time with yearbook, typing and calculus and stuff.

So what do you think of my wonderful tenth grade art work?

Should I have gone on to Art 3 instead of being on the yearbook staff?

Does anyone think my mom should want to keep these precious gems at her house?

Is it really that hard to learn the guitar?