football weekend

Do you want to know how excited I was about the first football game of the season?! 

THIS EXCITED:

The SEC headquarters is located here in Birmingham. At work, we had a college football kickoff party, and I was on the committee, so we drove over to the SEC headquarters to pick up some prizes for the raffle we were having. I looked like the biggest tourist.. Oh well, I was excited for football!

My ma took us to Atlanta since Auburn was in the kickoff bowl playing Clemson. Here is my oh-so-chic little sister. Yes, we tailgated with some Clemson peeps, but make no mistake, that dress is navy. 

I thought this shot was funny. Both teams are the tigers, and let me tell ya what really wasn't that funny: when people kept saying "I'll tell ya one thing, I know the tigers are gonna win". Hardy-har-har. 

My ticket! Someone told me the seats were pretty good, but I think I squealed when I got to them.

We were 12 rows up! HOW EXCITING! 

And look who was there! My sweet baby Cam! 

That's him in the middle with blue jeans and navy shirt. This was a "navy" game (meaning the AU fans wore navy) and I thought it was nice he participated. I only wish he had been able to participate in the game. Le sigh. I'm so mad we lost the first game of the season. The only plus side is it's not a conference game, so there's still a chance! I mean, Alabama lost one last year, and still went all the way, right? 

In other news,

It's officially ARTWALK WEEK, YALL!!!!!

I got a lot of string art finished today for the show, including these two beauties: 

I announced this on Facebook earlier today, but guess what?!? 

I'M GOING TO BE ON TV ON WEDNESDAY PROMOTING MY ART!!! EEEEEEE! I was contacted by the producer of Talk of Alabama after she had seen some of my work on Etsy! That's a show on ABC 33/40 here in Birmingham. I am super excited!!!!!!

And a tiny bit nervous. EEK! I think they might put the segment online, but if they don't, I have already pre-recorded it on my dvr, and I will not hesitate to tape it on my phone to get it on the blog for you fine people to see. Unless I fall on my face or something embarrassing like that. 

Cross your fingers for me! 

paint chip art

Or should I say paint CHEAP art? Amiright?! 

I had a friend on Facebook comment about paint chip art (hey Katie!). She said something along the lines about how stores are probably not too thrilled with the explosion of paint chip art on Pinterest with people coming in just for free paint chips. 

I thought the same way, until I got the itch to try a project. I found an obscure sized frame from the thrift store, and I thought it would be easy to make a fun pattern with some paint chips. So I started gathering, but soon found myself totally paranoid while grabbing tons of paint chips in my stomping grounds of Home Depot and Walmart. So I came up with a little method..

First off, I only grab paint chips when I am going to buy something else, so I'm not technically coming in just to take some free samples. Since I get paranoid, I started grabbing different groups of colors on each trip (like one trip I'd grab all blues, then the next all greens). That way if anyone is watching me, they'd think "Oh, she's just painting a blue room and can't decide what color!" I've also embedded this "rationalization" into my mind, so if an employee came up to me to help, I would automatically (although probably nervously) say "Oh I'm just painting my room blue, and can't decide what color!! Tehehe. Yes, from navy to light blue, I just can't decide so I'm grabbing one of each!" Then it would probably take a weird turn where I start making up furniture and pillows I already have picked out for this so called room. If I sense someone watching me, I pick up a few chips and compare them, as if I'm actually considering buying some paint.. By revealing this, I know I'm flying my freak flag high. Who else plans these stealth missions to gather paint chips?!? 

Anywho, here is my completed project! Tadaaaa! 

For this particular layout, I used a different color for each square. I forgot to take a picture of it, but I got a square punch from Michael's (it's like a whole punch, but it's square) to make the cutting easy. 

Naturally I took a Diesel creeping picture. At least you can know the scale of the project from these shots, right?

The squares are actually raised up inside the matt board, so it's a bit three dimensional. 

I did another one as well. I can't decide what I think about it..

It's not my favorite. I couldn't decide if I should do a random pattern or more of an ombre/progression from gray to green. I went with random, dagnabbit. 

These puppies will be for sale at Artwalk! September 7 and 8 y'all! 

My booth with be in Easy Street, which is on 1st Avenue North, so come see me! It starts at 5pm on Friday night through 10pm, and goes through Saturday from noon to 6pm. Come see me! 

big ol' string art

What so quietly passed this past Saturday? 

Just the bloggie's 2nd birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MY DEAR SWEET BLOGGIE! We have come so far together! You started out just telling the story of when the house fell apart right after we moved in, but you have evolved so well. Like a fine wine (HA! what's that?!). From writing you, I have discovered tons of DIY bloggies which have inspired me to keep producing projects and rolling out posts for all to enjoy. You're the best! MUAHH! 

Onto the next post! 

So one of the new projects I alluded to last week was the big ol' string art. Instead of highlighting a city like I usually do with the smaller string arts, I just made a big state and filled it in with string! 

This baby is about 3 feet tall. 

And quite webby! 

I like her a lot, and I've gotten a good response.. at least from the neighbors and roommates! 

My roomie so nicely took a picture of me holding it up so you could see how big it is! 

Of course I had to do a cheerleading pose with it! 

I decided I should try a "regular" size one in the same style, so I did one the same size as the city-state string arts.

Look how cute the mama and baby look together! haha

Naturally this was happening two feet away.. 

Just scho schweet! hahaha! 

Soooooo what's happening this weekend? OH JUST THE START OF FOOTBALL SEASON!!!! 

YAYAYAYAYAYYYYY! 

I feel like I've neglected this upcoming awesomeness because of the stress building up to the art show, but don't you worry, there will be SEC updates. And I do not give 2 shizs if this is solely a DIY bloggie, I will write what I want. (I saw some survey where people don't want bloggers to write about things off subject. I guess they aren't from the South). 

WDE!! 

And SEC! 

tin bama

I mentioned working on some new projects, and here it one of them! 

A tin Bama! 

I totally take back saying the tin is easy to cut... this was not easy. My little paws hurt while maneuvering the metal shears. But the juice was worth the squeeze, my friends! HA! The tin is magnetic, so this baby will make a perfect place for peeps to hang their notes. 

Of course I had to slap a magnet on there for you to see.

And naturally I placed it over my favorite city..

(Auburn, duh!)

I think I'm going to stab some holes in the top to thread some rope through to hang it. 

Of course I can't get through a photo shoot without one of these..

I'll be back with pictures as soon as I add the rope..

Would you like to see the side porch pavers?!?! I told you we stacked them up on the side of the house, and they're still there waiting on me to get to work.

Nothing fancy. They remind me of subway tile. I initially thought about laying them in a running bond pattern...

but now I'm considering herringbone, because it looks awesome. Ok fine, it also has my name in it (equally as awesome).  

This picture below is actually pressed concrete (pretty cool), but the shapes are similar in size to my pavers. 

via

What do you think?! My concern is having to cut the edges that would lay against the fence and porch. Although I guess I wouldn't have to lay them at a 45 degree angle, and just line them up with the existing porch.. decisions, decisions. 

Here's what's happening at the gate right now. Remember I told you I took the fence apart? I had to rig it up so that the pups couldn't escape. 

I unscrewed all the nuts and bolts, and pulled this sucker out of the ground when my mom was here so we could get the riding lawnmower into the backyard. 

Good lord, I am such a dude. 

I tried to stick it back into the hole the next day, and of course, it wouldn't go back in the final two inches or so that it needed to for the fasteners to fit. So what did I do? I tried to dig around the tiny 2 inch wide hole, and it knocked about 4 more inches of dirt down in there. GREAT! 

What an awful picture of the hole! haha! I don't know why I didn't move the twigs out of the way, but you can see it's about 3 inches at the mouth, and once it goes further down, it's about 2 inches wide. I'm going to have to get an auger from Home Depot. I checked their website, and they make a small planting auger that should do the trick (as opposed to renting a ginormous earth/fence auger). An auger is a metal spiraled post, and you use it to drill into the ground to remove dirt. Kind of like a big ol' drill bit. The smaller ones will fit in my drill, sooooo bonus! 

Cross your fingers that it works so I can cheaply fix my redneck fence. 

new states

If this weekend had a name, it would be called Ditto, because I did pretty much the exact same thing I did a couple of weekends ago.. string art, painted frames, and made some tin flags.. with one exception. The string arts were ALL etsy orders. Can you believe it?! I had 8 come in.. EIGHT! I only finished four so far, but I finally got out of the deep south with the states.. 

Texas! 

Austin is the city on this one. 

I had a helper with me while I took pictures.. 

And the next three were for one customer. She wanted the place where she's from, the place where her hubs is from, and the place where they live now. How sweet! 

First was Jacksonville, FL. 

Yep, still had a helper. 

Denver, Colorado up next.

What a difficult shape, eh? 

Then was Magnolia, Arkansas. 

She's hanging them together, so she requested the boards be the same size. 

Texas just happened to look the best in a square as well. 

And of course, never too far away..

My sweet babies. 

In other Etsy news, I sold my first refurbished item! The gold horse head bookends! EEE!

I made a brand new tin piece today, and I'm halfway through another new fancy big piece of art, so I'm hoping to be able to show y'all something new soon!

i feel like..

This is what I feel like right now:

I only wish I had this song playing while I am running around! 

The art show is so close, so I have to hit the ground running with making string art and other goodies! I will be hibernating at home this weekend making everything my little fingers can handle. I meant to get the pictures posted of the new pavers. Nope, they're not laid down yet, my ma and I just piled them up next to the side yard, so they're ready! 

My ma came to town Monday for a tax seminar, and she brought her riding lawnmower to help me tackle the jungle that was growing in the backyard. There were weeds that came up to my waist, and my motor-less push mower was not going to handle them. Naturally, the lawnmower wouldn't fit through the gate in the backyard, sooo what did I do? I took the chain link fence apart. When I went to put it back together today, it didn't fit back correctly. OF COURSE. One step forward, two steps back. After all the mowing, cutting down bush branches, dragging them to the street, and unloading pavers from the trailer, I am POOPED. We also unloaded ma's car because she brought me lots of goodies to transform, so be looking for those coming up! THANKS, MA!

I'm hoping to sneak a couple tiny house projects in this weekend! Fingers crossed Mother Nature will lay off the rain for a couple hours so I can paint.. 

Shout out to Binky for making me watch the shrimp video. We video chatted tonight, and she wants me to help revamp her house in Auburn (aka the house I use to live in). It definitely needs some updating, so get ready for that house dive/projects! I'll be going down there a lot for football games, soooo several opportunities for progress pictures. YAY! 

you is mean

ENOUGH WITH THE INSPIRATIONAL POSTERS! 

Just kidding.. there's a chance I'll make one in the next few weeks. But for now, I have made a downgrading poster. 

you is mean, you is dumb, you is unimportant.

HILARIOUS! 

I have been selling lots of goodies on Etsy, along with trying to beef up inventory for the art show, soooooo I'll go on and apologize in advance for some of these short posts coming up. 

The art show has a silent auction this Thursday at Rogue Tavern here in Birmingham. It's called the Preamble. Everybody needs to come! Here's a link to the fb event. One of the stained string arts is up for sale! It starts at 5:30pm, so I'll be walking from work (snaps for working downtown). 

Hope to see you there!