DIY Floral Painting

I fell in love with the Lulie Wallace calendar at Anthropologie, which is unfortunately no longer available.  I love how bright & cheerful her paintings are & I thought they looked simple enough to try & re-create.  I was inspired mainly by “Flowers for Avery” & decided to try my hand at painting.
First, I picked up a watercolor poster board from Hobby Lobby.



Next, I lightly sketched my design.  (It’s really on there, but you can barely see it!)



Please keep in mind that I only took Art 1 in high school & I really know nothing about depth/perception/mixing colors/shading (the list goes on…) & this painting really doesn’t make much sense as far as how the flowers are situated!  Let’s just pretend they are randomly sitting on a table & this painting is a view from above & there is a random yellow ribbon on the table!

Anyway, I painted the flowers first, next the leaves, & finally, the background. 



Despite not really knowing what I was doing, I’m pretty happy with the results.



So happy that I removed the picture gallery from the nook.



I’m hoping to have it hanging soon, but first I need to fill in about 50 nail holes!

Family Room Progress

So, not much has happened in the family room since I blogged about the plans for it here. 



It looks like we will be keeping the set up as-is, but changing out the entertainment center for something smaller.  While looking at the February issue of Better Homes & Gardens, I really liked how Evette Rios set up the TV area in her parents living room.  The TV was mounted above a small wooden cabinet & flanked by two gorgeous étagères.  The only digital picture I could find was on her website.  You can see it here.  I think a similar look could be achieved by placing the TV on a wooden cabinet or dresser & flanking it with two Ikea Vittsjo shelving units painted gold.  Did you know the larger Vittsjo units are on sale for $59 right now?  Looks like I need to be making a trip to Ikea pretty soon!

I finally found a round table on Craigslist (similar to the one above) & have it situated between the two sofas.





It desperately needs to be accessorized, but I’ll probably wait until I do more work on the room (which may be a while, since I still need to finish a few details in the living room before I start the family room).