Artsy, With A Bit of Fartsy

Some randomness from around the house...

I saw all this neon yarn and had to have it... I was sitting on the floor in the living room playing with them and trying to be crafty. The hubs found me there and I'm pretty sure he's reevaluating his decision to make me his life partner now. Can't say that I blame the guy.

I made this. It's... Yup. I've no words. I blame Pinterest. It looks like a 5-year-old made it. No offence to 5-year-olds out there. I trimmed it at an angle and my bin looks like I gave a muppet a haircut.

I kind of want to buy a tapestry loom now and make some proper wall art that doesn't make me feel like it needs qualification for why it's even being displayed. Really wishing I was visiting home right now so I could attend this class. That's stupid... I'm sure there's classes near me. But come on! It's in Singapore! I wonder if my sister would go in my stead... She'd probably tell me to stick the entire loom in my... Oops, this took a wrong turn...

Framed art still leaned up against the wall in the living room. It's going on the walls of our bedroom and dining room but I haven't had the chance to do it quite yet.

Some of the frames we put up along the stairs. This was earlier in the week...

This is today. I can't leave things alone.... Clearly. I just thought it started way too high so I lowered the beginning frame. It looks a bit wonky right now but I've got something else going to the right of the picture of The Beast, above the Lisa Congdon print. Waiting on the handmade frame to arrive! :)

By the way, the hubs still hasn't a clue that I added another frame lol 

And the view when you're coming down the stairs.

If anyone's wondering, most of our prints are from Etsy and Society6. The latter is a bit of a mixed bag sometimes. The quality of the prints are good, but the condition in which your prints arrive is anyone's guess. The last parcel had one print with all its edges completely rippled even though it was in a tube. The parcel before that was slightly bent. And the one before that had a print missing. They replaced it, but it's just slightly irritating to have to wait almost two weeks for your prints only to have them arrive in questionable condition or not at all. I've got one more order coming and after that I think that might be it for a while or for good. We'll see.

Oh, and this has nothing to do with anything but my lovely long-armer friend Laura gave me some yummies from her garden the other day when she came to visit! Thanks Laura! :)

It Only Took A Year

We got art on the wall, ya'll! It only took an entire year! Yay! High five!

I don't know why we kept putting it off... I think after we moved in, we kind of couldn't be stuffed anymore and eventually forgot about the decorating part. So that's the wall in our living room... a bit of love for NYC / Brooklyn, Lisa Congdon, The Black Apple, Marc Johns, a hilarious Batman / Joy Division (Ian Curtis) mash-up, and one my sis gave me that I've absolutely no clue who it's by. She also gave me the Marc Johns one because that's what our tattoos are based on :)

I've thrown a quilt over the sofa because it is cooler than sitting on microsuede in the summer. Gah is it September yet?! Although, mercifully, the weather has been lovely the last few days!

It also took an entire year to finally change out the hideous light fixture in the dining room. And only because the stupid rotary dimmer decided to get stuck in the on position. It was original to the house, so we've now had it changed out and join modern times, so we thought we'd get the light fixture swopped out at the same time. 

By the way, if I'm being honest, it took about nine months for us to decide on dining chairs. We finally used the dining table for its intended purpose this week. I have no excuse. Moving on...

This one's in our bedroom, taken on the day we actually got married. 11am on a Wednesday in his parents' living room. Romantic.

This print is also in our bedroom :) I'm very aware of the grammatical horror of this print, but I really don't care. It's awesome and I like it. And now we get to stare at it from our bed for... like... ever. 

The library overfloweth. We need another shelf ALREADY. It's a sickness. This is the view the hubs has from his desk. I think it's a pretty lovely view, especially when I appear in the hallway, inexplicably dancing or making faces.

I don't know if you can see it, but there's an orange book on the top left corner, on the shelf. We went to a rare and used bookshop and the hubs found this phone directory from 1961 that had his grandparents' contact info marked. What are the odds?! So of course he had to come home with it hehe 

And yes, those are my Mr Potato Heads on top of the shelf. Spud Trooper, Darth Tater, Artoo Potatoo and Opti-Mash Prime. Oh, and Lenore, Mr Gosh and Ragamuffin. I'm classy, what can I say?

The 'Get Our Art On The Walls Already!' project started last weekend when we dragged everything we had up from the basement. I even found some prints I'd ordered and had never framed, so we took a trip to the shop to get some frames. The hubs has decided that he detests frame shopping more than anything in the history of the world. Wah wah. 

There are some prints that still need to go on the wall but I can't decide where they should go, and if I still like the frames. I've got a couple of cross-stitch pieces I did (American Pastoral and Starry, Starry Night) and I honestly don't know where to put them. So rather than slap things on the wall just to get it done, I'm going to place them here in the corner of the living room while I walk around with the frames to see what rooms / hallways I like them in. I might need psychiatric help fairly soon.

And that mirror... well... here's the thing. If I hang it, the hubs can only see his chest. If the hubs hangs it, I'll see maybe three hairs from the top of my head (humidity and frizz... what a bastard). I'm thinking perhaps it should go on the wall along the stairs so I can stand on the stair and use it while the hubs can use binoculars and use it in the hallway. The trials and tribulations of being 14" shorter than your husband...

And just to prove that I sometimes go outside, here are some things my front yard grew! This is some purple stuff!

And this is some white stuff!

The white stuff attracts many fat bumble bees!

There's also tiger lilies (I mean orange stuff!) but one of the bees looked like it was trying to plot my demise, so I decided to retreat.

OH! And there are more itty bitty baby birds! Man, they're ugly right now.

Knitta Please

I'm highly amused by yarn bombing... I still look for more knitted things whenever we're in Northampton. I'd yarn bomb my own home but I know the cats would just think it's a scratch toy for them. Bah.

There's a chick named Magda Sayeg who runs Knitta Please, and she does some amazing stuff. The following is just a very teeny weeny sampling...

Love it! Who'd imagine a little bit of yarn could add so much? Doesn't it make your eyes all kinds of happy? Go check out Magda's work, and she even has a blog if you're so inclined :)

Pictures courtesy of Knitta Please.

Little People Art Project

I just love Little People - a tiny street art project. This particular instalment named The Sights is hilarious.

Pink Lincoln

The hubs found this video for me :) I'm a huge fan of Mark Ryden's and it was a treat to watch him work.

Mind Is Blown

Pop Art Shirley

Portland-based pop artist Joey Maas has started a series of paintings of women in rock and the first he's done is of Shirley Manson. For years this has been one of my favourite pictures of Shirley and it's amazing to see it as a painting. Gorgeous.

I Want This!

Lego is releasing a model of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (my favourite museum in the city!)... and I want it please! It'll look adorable (it's only 4" high) next to my New York City in a Bag.

And a big thank you to everyone and their well wishes. It means a lot that you care :)

Alexander Girard Collection at UO

I'm in love with the Alexander Girard Collection at Urban Outfitters! They've slapped his art pieces on everything from wallart to bedding. So lovely... I want, please.

The Tree Show

Lusting after Mark Ryden's special edition The Tree Show exhibition book. 128 pages of amazing photographs and images of Ryden's work, studies and references. Signed, numbered and comes with vintage souvenirs (like the postcards below) that the original release didn't have.

 
So much want. I believe the Internet exists solely to torture me.

A-frickin-men

I saw this and could not stop laughing. You KNOW there've been times you've seen a hot mess and thought those exact words.

Artwork by Mike Monteiro.

Black Swans

Even though they're somewhat evil and would peck your face off if given half the chance, I love swans. Especially black swans since I spent 13 years in Perth, Western Australia and that's the state bird. Plus swans make me giggle because I think back to when my hubs and I went to Pemberton (southern Western Australia).

Where we stayed, there were beautiful ducks and swans etc milling around the pond. He decided to run toward them and play amongst the birds, and I followed behind, running and screaming that "No, they will attack you! They're not cute and cuddly! They're evil!". Of course he ignored me, and of course they started attacking him. Thankfully he escaped unscathed but I believe his life flashed before him.

Let this be a lesson to you men... Listen to your women. Seriously. So back to black swans...

I love everything Emily Martin of The Black Apple does, and I've many of her prints around the house to prove it. Today she unveiled this new painting (titled Red Ribbon Rescue) on her blog and I just love it. Black swan? Love. Reading? Love. Red ribbon? Love.

And that painting made me think of this one (titled To Ride A Black Swan) she did a while back. I got the hubs one of a boy sleeping on the back of a bird, and had thought of getting this so it became a pair of sorts. Now I shall wait for the former to be released as a print instead.