Feeling Creative again...finally!!!

After weeks of helping my mom and sil with health issues and hospitals, and dealing with a major sinus infection (DO NOT DELAY in seeing a doctor when you feel the symptoms starting!!!), I am finally feeling human, although exhausted all the time...and CREATIVE. After all, it's time to change the look of my home... Off with the reds and oranges, in with the cool summer blues! That means...rolling up the old rug, laying down the new, changing pillow covers, hanging new paintings in the blue shades and bringing in the blue chair. These are little changes, but what a complete difference in the looks of both the family room and living room! I even changed the "drapes". All that's left to do is to recover the ottoman with a lovely blue, green and white striped fabric. Maybe later...time for another nap!

Here's a peek of some of the changes... The Breakfast Room.

As usual, I forgot to take photos of the "before" and concentrated on the "after"...
Here are the new additions to my breakfast room wall...

This was a $.50 framed painting. The painting was done on a piece of very thin wood and the frame was in terrible shape. The inner border is a linen fabric....all surfaces were gaudy shades of gold, browns, and blacks. I used a mop brush and pounced the frame with "bright aqua green" acrylic paint. The "painting" was painted over with "mars black" to resemble a chalkboard. The writing was done with "titanium white". And that little footprint is actually cut from a print found on the internet and decoupaged onto the board. Simple...quick...and just right for my wall!

This mirror was found at an art wholesale store...$9.00. It was painted silver with metallic gold "bamboo". I had planned to cover the frame with shells...and may one day do that. But for now, it sports "cerulean blue", "lime green", and "lavender" over the silver and gold (some of which peeks through!). The Sand dollars were found on Honeymoon Island (Dunedin, FL) and are hot glued to the mirror. I did try using ZOTS for a less permanent decoration, but they were not strong enough to hold for a long period of time. They actually popped off, one at a time, during a dinner party!

The paintings are my "Beach Huts" and "Coconuts for Sale"....I have shared the huts before, but was inspired by a photograph found on "Beachsnaps blog" (thanks, Becky!). It was a scene from Matlacha...





The floats were found on a sale table at Steinmart for $1 and $3. They were painted the most awful shade of mauve (Ick!!!) With a little paint, they are now worthy of displaying. The styrofoam floats in the basket are actual crab trap markers found on the beach after a storm. (Don't you love these kinds of treasures!!!)







All of these items, paired with jars of shells (the shells were found at our local beach...Honeymoon Island; the jars are Home Goods and garage sales) and a burlap topped table, my breakfast room is ready for summer.
*All paints are acrylics by Liquitex and Amsterdam (found at Michael's)

Create!
Jane


Check out all the wonderful Thrifty Treasures at Tales from Bloggeritaville and the Tablescapes at Between Naps on the Porch. These posts will definitely get the creative juices flowing...