An Interactive Color Wheel

The Virtual Instructor is a website that I love and use in my classroom a lot. 

Here is the interactive color wheel!  Click on the above image to take you to his website.

And while you are there, check out his art lessons as well.  They are free!!

Enjoy.

Fabric Wall Art Tutorial. This is a home decor project even the NON crafty can do!

I was going to wait to show off my dining room when it was all done, however, I'm so proud of it even half done, that I had to brag!! :)

Here is the finished wall.  Follow my step by step process to make your own! It's soo easy  I hate to even tell my secrets! And how cool is this, it's a Technique Tuesday!!

1.  Go to the store and find a couple of yards of fabric that you love. You can choose a bold  pattern like mine, or you could use a smaller pattern and then cut a larger image/picture out with a template. For example, large flowers could be made with fabric with small print, using a different fabric for each petal...
2. Purchase some Heat N Bond LITE. Get the LITE if you plan to remove this image from the wall later. If you use the ULTRA, it will probably have more staying power.
3. Iron on the Heat N Bond LITE using the directions on the package.  I didn't worry about wasting some of the backing as the package was I think around $7 for enough for more than 5 yards. And it's way easier to cut the fabric after you put the backing on it.
4. Cut out the pattern or your desired image. You can see the backing on the back of the fabric. The backing tightens the fabric and allows you to cut out the image with minimal fraying.Make sure to use sharp scissors! And don't forget, move the fabric around and hold the scissors in pretty much one spot.

Below is a section cut out.

Below is the backside of the fabric.

5. Choose a small piece to start with.  It's really easy, all you do it pull of the backing paper, position where you want the piece and IRON IT ON THE WALL!! 

I started in a random spot. You might plan ahead more than me, but the really cool thing is that if you hate where you put it, pull it off the wall and iron it down again! It truly is awesome :)

 And finally, here is the pattern on the wall!

Good Luck!

And I challenge you, even all you noncrafty people, iron some fabric on the wall!

Fabric+Iron+Wall= Art!

It's still a work in progress, but I love it sooo much, that I had to show off my dining room wall!

I can't wait to finish up and post pictures of the entire dining room.

But for now, here is the motif that I put in a small section of the room. I love the whimsy and the colors. It's more vibrant that you see through my camera phone.

How did I do it?

Well, I found the pattern was perfect. I ironed on the bonding backer, cut out the pattern, ironed the pieces to the wall and there you have it.

I'll put a tutorial on here asap! You will love it as much as I do! 

A Lamp Borrowed, A Tableau in Progress

My mom collects lamps. Maybe calling it collecting is too strong of a word, but let's just say she has more than I do. So, this weekend as she was rearranging things in the house, I asked if I could borrow the lamp in the picture below.

Isn't it a great lamp!  I've always liked it. My sister's and I gave it to Mom quite a number of years ago for some occasion, so it holds special meaning to me, but in addition to that, it has just always appealed to me.

Now it's going to live at my house for a while.

Doesn't it help the tableau in progress? !? I'm still on the lookout for a plant to go into the rooster,(except that the rooster is Doug's so I'm sure at some point he is going to want to use it.)  So... I'm still on the lookout for a plant in a cool container to go with the hurricane.

And in the picture below, you can see one of my absolute FAVORITE things in a house.  Empty wall space and an uncluttered floor.  You see, it has become a pet peeve of my mine that you can walk through so very much of my house and not even know if I have baseboards or not because everything is on top of each other. 

I LOVE having some empty wall space!! I know it looks weird in the picture to have this void, but in real life it's wonderful.  (And to be honest, in order to take the picture I had to move the doll-sized highchair and a board book, so really, it's not empty space, it's just furniture free space!)

And there is another glimpse into my home.  I'm hoping soon I can post a picture of what my living room looks like when it is clean!  Don't hold your breath :)!!

Why should you have flood insurance when you live in Texas in the middle of a drought? This is why.

In case any of you dear readers didn't know, I live in Texas. Actually I live in Central Texas where water is at a premium. In fact, we are in the middle of a drought.

Things are dry. Well, they were.

Until a week or so ago. Then it rained.

Six inches in one day. On dry ground.

Dry ground does not absorb water, it causes it to flow.

How do I know this?  Look at my poor floors.

The first two pictures are of my laminate flooring in my dining room, hallway and into my living room.

Just for clarification sake, the seams should not be obvious. The seams should be flush with the rest of the board. The seams should not catch your foot when you walk. The seams should not cause you to trip. This is no longer the case. fun.

And here is my bedroom. Remember the new carpet that we put in just two months ago? Yeah, that carpet.
But the carpet is okay because we pulled it up over half of the room, took the pad out and let it dry outside and had four fans running under the carpet for days.

If only the laminate was salvageable. :(

And NO, it is NOT COVERED by our home owner's insurance policy.  Why? because once the rain hits the ground it is SURFACE WATER. It's not rain anymore and insurance doesn't cover surface water without a flood policy.  Now, if the rain had come through the roof, they would cover that. If it had come through the window, yep, that would be covered. But because it had the audacity to hit the ground first, it's not covered. Yes, I'm a little bitter.

Because really, we live in the middle of a neighborhood, in the middle of town where the closest creek bed is at least a couple of miles aways, in the middle of Texas where we haven't had more than a dab of rain in forever. But yeah, I should have been carrying FLOOD INSURANCE!

What are we going to do about the laminate? Live with it for a while and be thankful that it wasn't the whole house.