Life is Art...

Sitting down and putting together a blog post has been exceptionally difficult for me lately and I can't quite put my finger on why because the boys are still being boys, the wiener dogs are still being wiener dogs and I still have a million thoughts running through my mind at any given time.  


Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I've still been making over furniture like a mad woman with a paint brush and a piece of sandpaper in hand or maybe it's simply because I have become too hard on myself.  I'll think of writing something and then I'm all, "no, you don't want to write about that...that's boring! Who would want to read that?"


I really must learn to silence that inner critic.  Easier said than done, right?


Devin is taking an art class as an elective this year in his first year of middle school (which by the way, is going very well so far, thank the good Lord!) and I could not be more pleased with his choice because he has never shown much interest in anything much other than sports and video games.


I  always wanted to be a good artist when I was younger but back then I simply defined an "artist" as someone who could draw well and as much time and effort as I put into it, it just never came easy for me so I eventually gave up trying.  Instead I focused on other things, like learning to play clarinet, twirl a flag, apply my makeup, accessorize with the best of them, or style my big ol' 80's hairdo to perfection.  


Yet I never saw those things as art.  I never saw my ability to put together cute little outfits or my ability to pick up on reading music and learning to play an instrument with ease as art.  I couldn't draw worth a flip so I wasn't an artist.  


But lately, I am beginning to see and understand that the definition of  "artist" is made up of so much more...


I shared the following words that I found at pinterest in my post on Monday...
I


I believe everything in life is art. What you do. How you dress. The way you love someone, and how you talk. Your smile and your personality.  What you believe in, and all your dreams. The way you drink your tea. How you decorate your home. Or party. Your grocery list. The food you make. How your writing looks. And the way you feel.  Life is art. 



I have no idea who those words belong to but when I first read them, I had sort of an Aha moment because there is so much truth in them.  Whatever you do that makes you feel the best...the most alive, whether it be working in your garden, teaching, taking pictures, cooking, writing, or painting a piece of furniture, is most likely coming from the artist within your soul and is one of your true gifts from God.  


So please, by all means, do more of that because (from the brilliant words of Howard Thurman) "what the world needs is people who have come alive"...

Art is the desire of a man to express himself, to record the reactions of his personality to the world he lives in.  ~Amy Lowell

Wonderful Words...

Because...

I am giving you the words of others today...

WORDS I TRY TO LIVE BY...

WORDS OF ADVICE...

WORDS I HAVE FOUND TO BE TRUE...

 WORDS THAT MAKE ME LAUGH (BECAUSE I CAN RELATE!)...

PROFOUND WORDS...

AND THE MOST IMPORTANT WORDS OF ALL...

Let's Paint!

The first day back to school yesterday went pretty smoothly other than the fact that Devin didn't really get any of his close friends in his classes and had rather drop dead than ride that bus with those older high school kids again.  His words: "I don't know...they were just wild and dropping the F bomb all over the place."  


Okay, okay, that was enough for me to hear.  The mornings aren't so bad with the time difference between middle and elementary schools but in the afternoon I will have a good 35 to 40 minutes after picking up Dray before getting Devin and the schools are very close and it's too far to come back home.  So looks like we'll be doing our 3rd grade reading in the car while we wait in the afternoons.   


Dracen set his alarm this morning for 6:00 and had taken a shower and was dressed and wanting breakfast by the time I got up.  You go on with your little bad 8 year old self, Dray Dray!  If this is any indication as to how our school year is going to go then I'm gonna be one happy mama.  (fingers crossed) 


In other news, I have been painting on some furniture around here like a crazy person.  It's like I was bitten by the furniture painting bug and now I have this crazy itch to constantly be making something over. I'm finding it extremely rewarding to take a a tired and worn or plain and boring piece and turn it into something I love to look at.  


This little cabinet has been in Dracen's room as a little nightstand. I believe it belonged to Charlie's grandmother and had obviously seen its better days years ago...

After painting his room last week it was really standing out as an eye sore and I had a burning itch to paint something so I took that tired old hardware off, sanded it a little, primed and painted it with some of the leftover paint I had used in Devin's room.  But of course it looked lighter over the white primer which I actually liked.  Then I freshened her (or maybe it's a him) up with a new little glass knob and spray painted the hinges with oil rubbed bronze spray paint.  Much better, I think... (and no, his whole room is not that dark...just the one wall!)

 My mother had given Charlie and me this little cabinet as a wedding gift because we had such an overflow in the kitchen at our old house.  My kitchen here is mostly white with red and black accents and I just kept seeing this cabinet black every time I looked at it...

And I know  you can't see the whole kitchen but it really goes so much better...

The following table belonged to my grandmother who died when I was four and it has been at my mother's house all these years.  It had been painted brown at one point in its life and was looking pretty sad...

Those before shots were taken in April of 2010 because that's about when I got it from my mom's garage and started trying to strip the paint.  At the time I had never painted, stained, stripped or even so much as thought about making over a piece of furniture.  I (with Charlie's help) ended up getting all the paint off the top but finally gave up on the legs and it has been sitting in the basement all this time collecting spider webs that Charlie was so kind to clean off for me before I would touch it with a ten foot pole.


I had originally thought I'd just stain the wood but that was before I found all these great do-it-yourself blogs by some amazingingly talented women and discovered Annie Sloan chalk paint which was designed specifically for painting furniture and giving it that old antique and/or distressed look.  You don't even have to sand or prime first...just start painting.  


There are really only a handful of stockist in the U.S. who sell it so I found one on the east coast and ordered a little starter kit which came with the old white paint, two waxes, a brush and a book by Annie Sloan.   


I'm so in love with this paint and how this table turned out that I ordered more in 3 other colors to use on my next victims projects around here.


She is currently residing in my bedroom...

And I can't stop looking at her...


Y'all have a great weekend!


  

School Days...

I'm not crying. I'm not. Really, I'm not. But I am a little teary because I just watched as my oldest boarded the bus to his first day of 7th grade...middle school!  I didn't expect to get emotional but as soon as my finger left the button of the camera after snapping a picture of him packing up his bag with his Mom, pleease! look on his face, I found myself fighting back the waterworks.   


I hated middle school.  Loathed it.  But I had to endure it for three grades and those still remain three of the most awkward and uncomfortable years of my life and I am now 40.  Thank God my kids aren't as shy as I was and seem to make friends easily. I mean I really, literally thank God for that on a regular basis.  


Middle school is not a good place to be when you are painfully shy which brings me to the writing prompt from Mama Kat's workshop I've chosen for this week, Top ten reasons why you're glad you're done with school ...


1.  I stink at math.  Basic math, no problem.  But start throwing logarithms and compound fractions my way and I break out into a cold sweat and begin hyperventilating.  Okay, maybe it's not quite that bad but oh, what I would have given for good ol' Google back in the day!  It's gotten us through many a math assignment since the boys have been in school.  


2.  Oral reports.  Those were my two most feared words in all my years of public and higher education.  I would have rather written five reports than to stand up in front of the class and present just one.


3.  Kickball.  I'm really not that un-athletic.  In fact, at home in my comfort zone I wasn't half bad but get me out there on the playground at school and I couldn't kick a ball three feet.  So needless to say, that whole business of lining everyone up while the two most athletic kids in the class chose their picks was not my idea of a good time.


4. Those classes where the teacher obviously just really didn't like his/her job and had no teaching skills to speak of so instead of actually teaching, had us take turns reading aloud from the text book.  I recall one class in middle school....Social Studies I think it was.  I had always made A's and B's before that class.  My mother was so shocked to see a D on my report card that I don't think she  knew whether to punish me or take me to the doctor.  


5.  I'm not a morning person so there were many, many days I found myself dozing off at my desk especially in those classes like the one I just mentioned in number four! 


6. Being called by my last name in P.E. and Band.... "My name is Diane, thank you very much!"   Which brings me to number seven...


7. My name is Paula Diane but no one ever called me Paula except of course at the DMV, the doctor's office and the teachers on the first day of school roll call which forced me to have to speak aloud in front of the class in order to correct her/him.  So by the time I got to middle school and had 6 plus teachers a day...well,  let's just say my comfort zone was completely demolished by the end of the day.  


8. The drama.  Okay, I'll admit, I could be a little overly dramatic at times.  Like say, if I scraped my knee or burned my finger or had to get a shot or didn't have a green shirt to wear on St. Patty's Day but the creation of drama just for the sake of creating it I have never, ever understood.  And middle school and high school are prime breeding grounds for DRAMA. 


9. The bus.  Luckily, neither of my boys seem to mind it though I am taking Dracen this year since his comes by the house at 6:45 (which is just all kinds of insane!) but the bus was not a fun place for the shy girl.  


10. The strict schedules. Come hell or high water (unless there is some extenuating circumstance beyond my control) I am going to be on time but monotonous schedules and routines, while I am fully capable of adhering to them, bore me to tears!  


And there you have it....ten reasons why I'm glad I'm done with school.  Now to get my two boys through the next 10 to 14 years of elementary, middle, high school and college.  But not that I'm in any hurry or anything.


Because we all know that while it seemed like forever until we grew up and got out on our own, the days and years go by way too fast when it comes to our babies...