♥ Art Therapy ♥
Just a few small pieces to ease my mind and calm my nerves as we wait to hear back about the house we put an offer on. I figured between cleaning cubbies and boxing books I could take a few breaks now and again to let off some artistic steam. The one in the back is 6×6″ and the on in the front is an ATC. I sent some time this morning shading their faces and now it’s time to choose color schemes!
For those of you who clicked the link on yesterdays post to see the house I forgot to mention that it’s the house on Wallingford. I’m desperately trying NOT to start decorating in my head so if things don’t go according to plan then I won’t be disappointed. If it’s meant to be that would totally rock though! =)
It’s snowing/hailing/raining off and on today so I’m moving our grocery day up to today as soon as my son gets home from collage in about forty five minutes. That will get it out of the way for the week and then I won’t stress about the snow and ice that’s likely to be on the roads till sometime on Saturday.
Today’s Whispering Wednesday’s secrets are…..
- I used to have over 150 house plants in a very tiny apartment.. it was much like walking into a tropical rain-forest.
- My green thumb has turned brown since living in small living quarters and lack of light
- I like to watch the birds that feed in our bird bath and want to feed the birds when we buy a home.
- I sold a painting this week and I’m tickled PINK!
- I got balloons and a mini cheesecake for Valentines day… (What did you get!?)
Well, I need to get ready for errands and shopping so I’ll see you back here tomorrow and will likely be sharing pictures of snow! Stay Warm during this nasty global warming weather!
♥ 1696 Square Feet ♥
I didn’t get a chance to post my “Whispering Wednesday” secrets as our Wednesday turned into Whirlwind Wednesday. We did a quick and crazy tour of several more homes and found this gem. It’s a HUD home and it’s handled differently than most other properties. But we liked it so much that we’re taking a chance on it. We would have to pay for the inspection but it’s so new that there shouldn’t be any problems. Three bedrooms, 2.5 baths, a big kitchen with a walk-in pantry that’s a dream come true! Laundry “room” with cabinets upstairs with a bonus room in the middle of the upstairs area. The pictures they give of this home don’t do it justice at all! It needs a bit of paint and needs the carpets cleaned but other than that it’s a wonderful place to start a new life.
The bedrooms are spacious and the fact that there are 3 bathrooms with 3 people living under one roof is a huge bonus! Mornings will go so much easier. And the space! Everyone will have a place for solice and peace and quiet. It’s a great opportunity. We came in low with our first offer and are praying they will accept but we’re willing to raise it once before moving on to find something else. I feel at peace about it and really look forward to hearing today or tomorrow whether or not we need to resubmit our bid.
Things we’d need are a refrigerator, washer, and dryer. But that’s what craigslist is for right? We decided if this happens we’d buy a new fridge and a used washer/dryer (since they will be behind closed doors.) We found a fridge online at Lowe’s for under $700 with ice and water in the door which is something we’ve always wanted.
I’ve prayed about it so now it’s in God’s hands. It’s further away from our “comfort zone” of living, but maybe that’s what God wants for us to help us grow. Only he knows for sure.
I’ll keep you posted when I know anything.
♥ Block Art ♥
I finally took the time to get these block art prints posted in my Etsy shop so I hope you hop on over and take a look. They are super affordable and fun! Great for dorms, cubicles, desks, shelfs, children’s rooms or anywhere you want a smile and pop of color. I made some of these for my nieces for Christmas this past year as I wanted to start playing with prints and I think they turned out rather sweet.
Our appointment for viewing homes today got postponed till tomorrow as the house we wanted to see the most has a renter in it and we couldn’t get an appointment today. So hopefully tomorrow we’ll be able to get in. It was a bit of a let down but it did give me the time to get these postings done.
I have some boxes ready for packing things up and I need to go through my clothes and get some in bags and ready to head to the Salvation Army… we definitely want less to move when the big day comes so we are trying to downsize our “junk” stash!
Hey! Guess what? It’s 2sdays Toys Day! Guess what I dug up for this weeks play date!?
I haven’t yet made any balloon animals but after we’re moved I’ll have room for my toys and I’ll get to play with them to de-stress and and whimsy to our daily lives. We can play pin the tail on the balloon animal. Winner winner ~ Weiner Dog dinner! ☺Until tomorrow! Have fun creating and playing with your toys!
♥ Cupid ♥
Happy Valentine’s Day! This painting was done two years ago with Valentines day in mind and I thought I’d repost it as it’s one of my favorites and the face I use as my online avatar.
This was one of my first larger sized paintings back from when I was learning all about mixed media art. I can see how my backgrounds have developed but this simple background is actually rather pretty as it is so I still wouldn’t change a thing.
What are you getting your sweetie for Valentines Day? So far I’ve gotten two cards, one from my parents and one from my kiddo. I’m fixing a nice dinner for tonight for the guys. I made cute decorative ziploc baggies with hearts on them (from the dollar store!) and filled them with chocolate hearts wrapped in pink and red foil and then I made cardstock toppers for them and with Happy Valentines stamped on and I even used red staples to attach them to the bags. They turned out really cute and since they are both chocolate lovers I’m sure they’ll go over well. I also got my sweetheart a little gnome figurine. I think he’ll get a kick out of it.
I didn’t fall asleep till around 2:00 AM last night and I woke at 4:45 AM so I’m really dragging my feet today. I’ve got no energy and my eyes are soooo tired! I thought about taking a nap earlier but now it’s getting later in the day and soon it will be time to start dinner so I’ll just do my best to reserve my energy for later.
I’ve been playing some Angry Birds and waiting for an email from our Realtor. We have an appointment for tomorrow afternoon to review one house and see one or more on our list. We’re getting excited as we like what we’re seeing now. =)
I’ll keep you posted when my lack of sleep is corrected!
♥ ‘Purr’ple Passion ♥
Another watercolor painting that I finished yesterday and promised to share with you today. My son calls this “Cat with the Creepy Forehead.” He loves most of my work but he thought the cat needed a brow of some sort. Maybe he’s right… but it’s too late now. I’m leaving her as she is.
I used baby wipes to blob paints on the background and rubberstamped deep purple flowers. The smaller lavender flowers are made from collage paper and a punch. I used leaves cut from paper napkins, and more collage paper for the cat’s body and the larger flower centers. I topped it off with some of my awesome Martha Stewart glitter and a few flower stickers on the cat. She also has a bit of bling by her eye with a tiny rhinestone set into a white flower with wee little leaves.
We are going on a 3-hour-tour of home viewing today. I think I should be a bit nervous as the last 3-hour-tour I remember hearing about didn’t turn out so well. I better pack my coconut cream pie recipe! I’ll keep you posted one way or another! Even if it’s with smoke signals! Keep an eye out! Hee!
Have a great Saturday and enjoy the last days of winter cuddled in blanket with a good book, or watching a great movie!
♥ Burst of Love ♥
It felt good to sit down today to art instead of real estate websites. I feel so much more relaxed and at easy. Today was very good therapy for me. I finished this painting along with the cat that I showed you last week. I’ll post the cat painting tomorrow. This made me think of Valentines day and it was so much fun to work on watercolor paper again. I think I’ll do a few more this way before returning to wood.
I finally got all my pink bins for my cabinet. The problem is I have two of these cabinets so now I have decide if I want to fill the other one with the bins as well. (the answer to that is yes actually…) I also have a white cart that I’m going to get a few larger bins for so that when I do get into my new studio things will be far more organized and I’ll be able to find what I want when I want it instead of going on a treasure hunt.
Tomorrow we venture out around town again to look at about ten properties, give or take depending on how many have offers on them like we encountered last week. I’m looking forward to seeing some new properties and envisioning the possibilities. It seems the good stuff is moving fast but I’m going to just take deep breaths and wait till I walk in and KNOW that this is the home for us.
I’ll take my camera and share the good stuff with you. The Overlord is using a leaf blower to clean the gutters today. He must want to go on a trip as his wife makes him clean the gutters each time he wants to go on a road trip. I hope that’s the case. I won’t have to worry about doing my peaking window surveillance when I want to go get the mail. I’m doing my best to avoid coming into contact with him.
I’m looking forward to a new episode or Merlin and Fringe tonight. We spent the last few night watching The Pillars of the Earth. If you like medieval things this is a winner but warning… it’s rated MA and is much like The Tudors as far as the rating goes. Both of these series are available on Netflix. Now we have to find another series to add to our list. If anyone has an recommendations I’d love to hear them!
I’ll be back tomorrow to share my cat painting… until then… Happy TGIF!
Quaint little dining room.
I can’t believe how stressful it can be to spend so many hours at the computer reviewing home, after home, after home and trying to evaluate them by their photos, square footage, and location. It’s not an easy task. I’ve picked out nine possible properties to look at this weekend. Some locations are awesome, so not so great. It all depends on what kind of neighborhood you find when you get there. Even with using Google maps and satellite pictures it’s still hard to see what we’ll find when we get there.
This picture above is of a property on Black Lake in Olympia, yes there is an HOA fee but it’s only $20 per month. They have a clubhouse with a pool, a dock with access to the lake and a home owners swimming area. They put out a newsletter and have a hall you can reserve for events at no cost to those who pay HOA fees, great for family gatherings or other such events. This is a type of community that relies on volunteering from member for small things, hosts things like Easter egg hunts for the kids and has several community parties each year so the community is working together to keep the HOAs down. Sounds rather fun really.
The other properties I’ve picked out are scattered around the area we wish to live in. Some are spot on but don’t feature an photo’s of the inside of the homes and some are a bit more outlying and feature a ton of photos. I learned my lesson last week that you can’t rely on a photo. They can be “staged” to show only the “decent” half of the kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, doorway…. take the picture far enough away to hide the fact that the house has no front door doorknob. … Yeah, that works for me. NOT!
It’s fun right now, but both my hubs and I agree it’s not something we would enjoy doing for more than two more weeks. We don’t want to devote every Saturday for the next 3 months house hunting. We’ve said our prayers and well take it from their. Hopefully we’ll have our dream home dropped in our laps by the good Lord very soon before interest rates rise again.
What’ I’ve learned and more in my Whispering Wednesday.
- Never trust a photograph. Photoshop and a tricky photographer can make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.
- Overload your list with houses as you never know what’s already sold or what you can actually get into.
- Location, Location, Location costs you a ton more money.
- There are far to many broken dreams ~ aka ~ Foreclosures on the market right now!
- One of the listing I put on our to-see list has already been removed from the market. If you see something…say something as lower priced homes are moving FAST!
A cold winters day would give this view from the condo we had our eyes and hearts set on till we found out today that the HOA fees are $309.11 per month. That’s added on TOP of the mortgage payment. For that price they better be doing my dishes and laundry for me along with a lot of other daily chores. You can see the lake to the right through the mist of the day. This unit is very clean, the deck needs a cleaning but it appears we won’t be the ones doing that. As sad as it is we’ll have to move along and keep looking. I hate when you start decorating in your head and your dream plug gets pulled. Seriously though $300+ per month to clean gutters once a year and blow leaves a few times a week… what could they possibly be smoking.
My heart hasn’t been into my art like I would like it to be of late. But I guess under the circumstances you can understand why. Here’s what I’m currently trying to complete along with emailing our Realtor and loan officer on a more than daily basis. Between emails I run to closets and filter through “stuff” that’s been taking up space and get it ready for a new home or toss it in the trash. I’m so looking forward to moving that my creative side is suffering from “mind clutter.”
It’s 2sday again and I finally have another toy to share. This truly is one of my all time favorite toys and it gets me into more trouble than it’s worth sometimes but I refuse to part with it. I’ve had it for years and years and have considered painting it but that might make it more conspicuous and then my victims would know when to flee so I keep it as neutral as I can. Behold! My Rubber-band gun! Take that you stinking HOA fees! /oh snap!
An oldie but a goodie! Run while you can I’ve perfected my aim over time! =)
