5 Trees and Other Artsy Things

If you would have asked me two years ago if I was an artsy person, I would have given you a resounding NO and a laugh. I guess I probably still would...but looking around our house, it suddenly seems that we are artistic.

I really like it. I like the decor and character that the walls of our house suddenly have.I've always been a fan of unique decorating. I have nothing against people who buy wall  hangings at Target. We have our own share of that as well. I just like it when everyone's house is different with their own pictures, creations, collections of what they like.

It would seem that we like paintings of trees, which is really by coincidence. I've done 'wine and canvas' five times now and all five times have been some sort of tree which is funny because they do lots and lots of types of paintings there. It just happened that way.

My first ever painting is the one on the top, of a curly cue tree. I did this in the winter of 2011. The one below that was my third time at Wine and Canvas, when my friend Stephanie from CA came to visit. California Redwoods....fitting, huh? The little tiny canvases there are something the kids made once with Mom. 

(By the way, a shout out to Stephanie who is a weirdo that doesn't use Facebook but I know she reads the blog sometimes. Hiiii!!!)

This one is actually Jeremy's painting, that we did on a double date to Wine and Canvas with another couple. There was a duplicate of this that I did which is in Mom's house somewhere. 

The purple Lorax trees are from my fourth time at Wine and Canvas, the first time I took Mom. It fits perfectly in our purple guest room.

Then I went off book and made my own painting of our grapevine. This is the first time I ever tried doing something on my own without a teacher's guidance. Not too shabby, but not amazing either. Wall worth? Sure, why not.

A couple of weeks ago Tessa and I had our own inpromptu art class on a Sunday afternoon. The bottom one is her's and aside from me tracing the shape of the moon, she did the rest all herself just by copying me.  I decided to hang them together.

And this is my latest painting from last weekend when I did Wine and Canvas for a fifth time with Mom and Whitney. This is the hardest one I've done, but with the best result I think. 

I *may* be close to sharing paintings with other people, especially if I could recreate this one. Maybe there's a certain newleywed in NYC who could use some wall art. I don't know. We'll see. 

Even though painting is new, we've had photo art around here for years....

  Here's a wall in our bedroom full of photos taken by us (aside from the one in the middle which is a special family picture that belonged to Jeremy's grandpa).

For his 30th, I made Jeremy this framed pic of all four of our grandfathers in their young adulthood. I'm hoping someday he catches on and makes me one of our grandmothers. Or maybe I should just drop the hint harder. There, I dropped it. Some other old family photos hang nearby

I took these barn photos when we first moved back to IN just because I loved seeing old decrepit barns everywhere again. They made me happy. I actually sold a few of these in the distressed frames, believe it or not.

Not really 'art', but here's our photo wall of fame in the hallway. If you're in our family....you're probably on there. Slapped into all kinds of mismatched frames and hung with careless abandon wherever they fit. Eventually we'll hit the ceiling or move to another wall.

Here's Jeremy's Christmas present, a photo of our own grapes printed on wrapped canvas with a verse I glued to it. He cried and I laughed at him. That's the way we exchange presents.

Is this art? A handmade menu board that I LOVE already. Made with glue, magnets and scrapbook paper on a cookie sheet and already saving our money and sanity. Having all of our recipes/dishes printed out on the cards is a HUGE helper for me since I'm not so creative in the kitchen.

Here are some shells from the Outer Banks vacation, glued to a cardboard B. Simple souveneir.

Nobody made or distressed these, they are just old. They those little things that you put in the corner of crown molding...uh, you know, what are they called? Who knows. Molding corners. I picked them up at an antique shop for $2 many years ago and slapped them on the wall. 

Here's Jeremy's art. Our giant cross made out of our grapevines. We have one, our friend has one, and now there is one hanging in the foyer of our church which kinda makes us feel famous. 

There's only enough vines to make about 1-3 crosses per year, so if you'd like one we can put you on a waiting list. Or you could buy us a vineyard and make short work of this. 

Tessa's caught the art but a little bit too.....

For her 100 day project for school, we made this awesome poster displaying 100 pieces of dog food.

I was a little paranoid that it looks like I did the work for her, and I swear I didn't. I did trace the shape of the dog with a sharpie but she did all the painting, gluing, cutting and writing. Definitely her masterpiece.

Rosie's trying to eat it as you can see. Dog ate my homework?...no seriously! Hayden literally chased us out the door and into the garage when we were loading up for school this morning. 

So our art continues to grow, and maybe I'll start to share some with other people if it's decent enough. I really enjoy it and to think....I didn't even know I did until two years ago.

Just goes to show you that even old dogs can master new creativity. Just don't turn their food into art.