Help?

I am trying to make some silhouette prints from some photos à la my friends at Young House Love and Our Humble A{Bowe}d:

And I am bad at it.  This is probably because I don't have fancy editing software like Photoshop nor do I have a steady tracing hand on the mouse.  I might have to cave and do it the old fashioned way, if the old fashioned way is putting a piece up paper up on the computer screen and tracing.

But before I do that, any suggestions on creating 8x10 white silhouettes against a light colored background out of the main subjects in these pictures and maybe some others?  I even have mats and frames already!

Feed Your Soul

Do you know about the free art project, Feed Your Soul?  It's a website that offers free art prints in pdf format for you to download, print, and display.  I'm not gonna lie, some of the stuff is a little trippy for my tastes but each month they feature different artists and there are some cute things.  Here are some of the things that I've saved in a folder for future use:

 Simple and cute.

Maybe hanging over a crib someday?

A little chaotic and oh so festive!

I'm a sucker for anything with red cups.

And for anything with birds and music.

New prints are added each month at what seem to be random intervals.  Have fun perusing! 

Pete the Cat

I am a Pete the Cat evangelist.  If you do not know this book and have or will have direct contact with anyone under or over the age of 10, you will love Pete and his white shoes!

If you are not yet convinced, then watch this:



You're a believer now, right?

We get our Pete at Little Shop of Stories in Decatur, GA, the original purveyor of Pete and his shoes.  You can get it on Amazon BUT wouldn't it be cooler to go to your local independent bookstore and, if they don't have it in stock, tell them about this gem of a book?  It will make you smile. :-)

DIY mania!

Before the mania, I would like to say that I now remember the real reason why I discontinued my previous blog: I never write anything.  So, I'm just sayin', don't let your expectations get too high.

And back to the mania.  Well, it's not really mania exactly, more like mild interest.  But I do like doing things myself.  In this way I am very much like a 5-year-old.  My recent underemployment and increase in free time has led to some redecorating (and a little too much shopping...eh).  I wanted to share one of my more successful projects -- hand-painted curtains!  This was crazy easy and also crazy cheap.  I've been looking for bedroom curtains for a year and a half and I fell in love with these Ballard Design panels that Nate Berkus used on a Oprah show makeover.

 
Soooo beautiful!  And $65 per panel.  We would need four panels.    No Ballard Design curtains for me.  Then I saw simple white curtains at Target for $8!  Regular price!  (I can't find them on the website or I'd share my find.)  I made a trip to Michaels, got the cheap craft paint, a package of stencils, and a foam stencil brush.

(hi Buddy paw)

Stencil, hang to dry, stencil, hang to dry, stencil a little bit at a time and about 4 days and 40 dollars later we had this!

It was a cheap, easy, and custom project.  Oh, and then after we rearranged our room I got excited about painting and did these -

Again, really simple: a 2-pack of canvases from Michaels, 89-cent craft paint in yellow and white, and some picture of birds and branches that I looked up on the internet.  A coat of yellow, some copying of pictures while I watched Dr. Oz and TA-DA!  ART!  And now our bookshelf area isn't so boring.

 

OK, enough of that.  These are things I thought I couldn't do and now that I know that I can, I know that anyone can!  :-)