Caitlin from Hue and Hum recently shared her new painting, It’s Not Fair. It immediately spoke to me and I was so happy to see she would be offering prints of this piece.
I had originally purchased the print to hang in my office; my office is in the basement and has sad, dark paneling on the walls. Unfortunately, because we’re renters, there’s not much I can do about that, so my solution has been to search for art to brighten up the room and make it a space where I can enjoy working.
The only trouble is, it feels like a shame to have this print hiding all the way in the basement where I’m the only one who gets to enjoy it. So I have a feeling it may migrate upstairs to hang in our living room instead!
Check out Caitlin’s work on her Etsy shop and be sure to check out her blog, Hue and Hum to see what she and her super-talented husband are up to as well!
I was recently contacted by Easy Canvas Prints about reviewing one of their products. I love decorating our home with photos of family and loved-ones (don’t you!?), so I jumped at the opportunity to transform one of my favorite family photos into a canvas print! It took me a while to choose a favorite photo to use. Thankfully, their website offers a great Idea Gallery to inspire your design. I eventually decided on a favorite photo of Mike and Ben that I took back on New Year’s Eve.
The Easy Canvas Prints website is SO FUN to use. They have an easy 4-step “wizard” that helps you design your very own work of art. You can choose from standard canvas sizes from 8″x8″ all the way up to a whopping 30″x40″! Their designer even displays your chosen canvas on the wall in a “virtual living room” so you can get an idea of what it will look like…
I chose an 8″x10″ canvas with a .75″ standard wrap, with the edges of the image wrapped around the sides of the canvas. The level of customization they allow is really remarkable. The Easy Canvas Prints website even offers photo retouching and conversion to black and white or sepia-tone, so you don’t have to be a Photoshop-guru to get fantastic results!
And our results?
I think that face speaks for itself! Benny loved seeing a big picture of he and his Daddy displayed in our living room. Mike commented that it almost looks like an oil painting because of the beautiful texture of the canvas.
I love the way it looks hanging in our living room! I’m looking forward to showing it off when we have friends over too.
I have to send a big thank you to Megan and Easy Canvas Prints!
I can highly recommend their service — their website easy to use, their shipping is fast, and the finished product is truly a work of art! I’m already planning to order more prints for gifts!!
Make your own canvas print at EasyCanvasPrints.com
And be sure to check out Easy Canvas Prints on Facebook and Twitter!
This has been a very, very busy week. We got the keys to the house Monday afternoon and now it’s only Thursday, but the place is beginning to look like home already. I’m in disbelief that it’s shaping up as quickly as it is. Not to say there’s not a lot of unpacking to do, but you can see the main living spaces taking shape, at least!
I’ve spent a lot of my time in the kitchen.
Tuesday night I washed every dish, bowl, drinking glass and mug that I own and put them in the cupboards. I unpacked the coffee pot (which is vital). I even found a cute little pumpkin-shaped candy dish (sitting on the stove at the moment, as a psuedo-spoon rest) amongst the junk my boxes. I thought it was quite seasonally-appropriate right now!
We also stocked the fridge…
Ok, that’s a complete lie. Actually, our cupboards and fridge are bare at the moment. Those 2 bottles of wine were Christmas gifts from last year that I have yet to uncork, and mom gave me the Asti to celebrate the new house (also has yet to be opened). In the fridge/pantry (but not in the picture) you’ll also find: a snack-pack mandarin oranges, maple syrup, soy sauce, 1 can of cream of chicken soup, 1 box of vanilla pudding mix, instant oatmeal, and assorted spices. Clearly, I can do some wicked cooking with those ingredients. Anyone up for some maple-glazed mandarin oranges in soy-chicken cream sauce? (Barf.)
Yesterday my dad, Mike and Dan (Mike’s brother) moved some of the bigger things from the storage unit to the house. I got a panicked call from Mike in the afternoon when they found this in the storage unit …
That would be the top edge of the back of my couch. With mold (mildew? unidentifiable organic fuzzy material?) or something like that. I freaked out completely. There was a whole dramatic series of events that I won’t go into … mostly only dramatic because I was terrified thinking that my mattress and couch and everything fabric-covered would be utterly ruined. (And how would I pay to replace it?! Would insurance cover it?!)
Long story short (too late!), my mother examined it and whatever those nasty goobers were, they brush right off (Yay, microfiber!) and left no smell behind at all. So I took my vacuum with the pet-brush handheld attachment and scrubbed the furniture down last night. Then went over it with Fabreeze for good measure. Then when I get some detergent for my Bissel steam cleaner, I’m going to use that on them too.
The day was saved and the living room is starting to look familiar and more like “home” again…
I was pleased as could be that my big coffee table fits in the room too. (My love for that coffee table will have to be expressed in another post…) Do you love the draperies? (They’re even nicer when they’re opened and tucked behind the nifty metal tie-back hooks! But this pic was taken around midnight last night, so I wasn’t going to open the drapes at that hour.) Mike picked out the drapes and the drapery hardware. He also hung them last night. (Whatta man!) I do need to take them back down and iron them to press out the wrinkes (they’re bad) as soon as I locate my iron, but I’ll get to that eventually.
You’ll also notice Gracie is sitting on the couch in that picture. (Stuart was off exploring somewhere and wouldn’t pose for the picture. Stinkin’ cat! haha)
So yes, Gracie and Stu have joined us at the house. Stuart was so, so happy. He couldn’t figure out what he wanted to do more: explore or cuddle. So he alternated all evening. Gracie was happy to explore, and happy to be able to play with her StuStu-Kitty, but she also looked a little lost. I think she’s used to having Kodi and Spock (my parents’ dogs) chasing her everywhere she goes, so the quietness of this house was a little weird for her.
Oh! And last night, I got to sleep in my bed. My bed. As in, my big ol’ cherry 4-poster with the smooshy pillow top mattress. (For the record, the mattress was fine — I’d forgotten we’d wrapped it in plastic before putting it in storage! Yay us!) It felt so good and was so comfy. I haven’t slept that well in what feels like ages. Of course, I had to sleep with a cat on my head and a dog between my feet — ’cause that’s what they do — but it still felt like home.
Ya’ll… it’s Monday and I’m feeling completely brain-dead.
I spent my weekend mostly covered in paint. As I think I’ve mentioned before, I had to paint our bathroom. I always seem to get temporary amnesia and think, Oh painting isn’t so bad.
No. It freaking SUCKS. You know why!? Because I can’t seem to ever paint a room without stepping in the effing paint!!
I’m not joking. I had paint covering the bottoms of both feet (thankfully I was barefoot). I also had it in my hair (despite having worn a bandanna), covering my entire left shoulder (because I backed into a wet wall on accident) and of course all over my hands.
At least it’s pretty much DONE.
I spent my evenings knitting and finishing my February Lady Sweater, which I’ve had on the needles for over a year and haven’t touched since last winter.
I’m really excited to get to wear it! If you want to read more about this sweater and my other knitting projects, have a look at my other blog: Mandi Knits.
When I wasn’t painting or knitting this weekend, I was watching marathons of Forensic Files, Snapped, Haunting Evidence, and some special on the Zodiac Killer. I don’t know WTF was up with that, but needless to say I had myself scared stupid all weekend. So last night before bedtime I threw in some good ol’ Iron Chef America to balance it out.
