Painter Girl

Back Soon

As some of you know, I have been working on my Masters in Science Ed. degree for 1 year now, in hopes to complete the program by the end of this year.  I posted my "Unofficial Transcript" to show you that so far...tah dah... I have straight A's! The course is through Lesley University in Cambridge, MA, but it is totally online, so I never have to physically go somewhere for class, other than to my laptop.  This works well with my busy schedule as I am still very much engaged with my decorative painting business, Paint It!  I also teach an afterschool science class, 2 afternoons each week, for 1 hour each class.  Why am I taking these classes?  Well, for a few reasons.  One, I found I am just really interested in science and would like to explore this field more.  Two, after teaching afterschool science classes for the past five years, I see a great need for more such programs in our schools, for all grade levels.  I would like to design and implement an art/science afterschool program. I know I would not enjoy being in a traditional classroom all day, 7 days/week.  I love the freedom of afterschool, with no tests or strict rules to follow.  The kids who sign up for my classes are there because they want to be there and really have a love for science and a lot of curiosity.

At this point, I only have one toe in the science field and all the rest of me is firmly planted in the world of decorative finishings.  There are still too many things I want to do with finishes and all the wonderful products that are constantly coming on the market to play with, to not do this full time.

Some of the courses I have taken are much more involved than others and consume every minute of any spare time I might think I have.  I'm up early, usually 6 a.m. and go to bed late, typically 1:00 a.m.  I spend anywhere from 10-20 hrs each week on homework assignments for these courses.  The courses run for 8 weeks at a time, all year round, with no break.  Two weeks ago I began a Physics course, and I'm thinking this is going to be one of the toughest courses so far. :-(  It's definitely a good 15+ hrs/wk for homework. 

I've been stressed because I know I am way behind on my posts here, but something just has to go for the moment and unfortunately trying to keep up with this blog each week is just one of the things that has to not be a priority right now.  You don't want me to blow my A average, right? 

I'm still photographing every job I've been doing and I know I have to finish up posting the Wakefield job I completed, so have lots to show you.  I just can't promise I will be able to post weekly, so I hope you will understand when I miss a week or two or maybe three.  There will be more posts coming, as I am working on some very fun projects!

Right now I have to get a grip on understanding things like V av =∆d/∆t!

Back soon........

 

                                                                                                                       

 

 

 

Back on the Blogging Trail

Oh geesh, here it is April 1st, and I see what a lousy job I did with keeping up with my posts for the month of March!  Well, I know I've said it before, but I'll say it again... I will try to be better this month about posting on, at least... a semi-regular basis!  I do have a lot to show you, but March just got away with me with too many deadlines for jobs and homework for my ongoing science classes.

Today I spent some time, begrudingly, reformating my Facebook Page for "Paint It!", to the new, very unpleasant Timeline.  I just don't like anything about this new format, finding it way too busy visually, no matter how much you fool with it.  I'm done with it for now! I cropped and resized one of the treads from that yellow staircase I did, for my cover photo.  It's the Eastern Lattice Moroccan stencil from Royal Design Studio.  If you have not already done so, check out Melanie's revamped website, it looks fabulous and will give you a lot of inspiration!

My Escape is in for repair$. :-( 

 

 

 

 

 

I have this lovely Ford Focus as loaner until it is ready.  It is even bluer than what shows in this photo! Yikes, is all I have to say!  I'm trying not to be seen getting in and out of it, but since it is such a hideously bright blue, it's hard to NOT be seen!

I did manage to fold the back seats down though and cram in my ladder for a job!  I'm trying not to completely trash this car before I have to return it tomorrow.  The Ford folks told me I would not want to give it back, once I drove it.  I could not give this car back fast enough.  It has several blind spots and is very hard to put into gear (and it's an automatic!).  Then of course, there is the fact that it has zero room for storing much of anything.

All right.  I realize I'm being a little crabby here today, so I will end on a more pleasant note!  Look at this beautiful double tulip that was in my bunch of tulips I purchased this week! 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy the Holidays!

I know I have been absent from this space for most of December, but the good news is I was very, very busy with work and will have a lot of completed projects to show you in the New Year.  Now I'm up to my ears with baking and prepping for my annual Christmas Eve dinner celebration where I somehow manage to seat 10 family members in my tiny dining room.   I will be back in the New Year with an update of the two girls rooms I completed in November, the Peacock and Butterfly Room and the Tropical Room, as well as a very creative plaster finish I did with fellow decorative painter, Chris Smith. 

This year I was very blessed to have some incredible clients who allowed me to stretch my creative abilities.  I am going to pull together a little montage of some of my favorite rooms from 2011 for my first 2012 post.  Until then, I hope you all enjoy some quality time off with family and friends.  Although no longer politically correct... Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

– quilted Santa wall hanging by my Mom. :-)

 

So... Why No Blog Posts Recently?

If you are indeed, still checking in to see if I've come around to put up a new post, I whole heartedly thank you for being a faithful follower!  I have a few things on my plate this month that are leaving me with little time to crank out new posts.  Trust me, it's not that I don't want to...but there are just so many hours in a day, as much as I hate to admit to that little fact.

So, what has been consuming all of these hours, you may be asking?  One great time sucking item on my agenda, has been to get myself registered to begin taking some classes online at Lesley University.  It's been a very slow and frustrating process.  Phone calls are not returned, paperwork has been lost.  This results in more paperwork for me and more follow up phone calls.  I wish I had a dime for every time I was put on hold, transferred to another department, or my favorite... disconnected.  I decided some time ago, to return to school for my Masters in Science Education (K-8).  I'm not ready to leave the world of decorative painting, but I do have a deep fascination for the sciences and totally enjoy my after school Mad Science classes I teach twice/week.  I'm thinking I would like to be able to design and implement some after school Science programs for this age group that combine art and science... the science of art, or the art of science... so to speak.  Going back to school is a step in that direction.  Because ALL of the classes will be online, I will be able to keep the same schedule I have now, only more frazzled!

I have also been developing some new concepts for my PetMats.  I had to let the PetMats slide after the holidays so have done no new PetMats nor any promotion.  My former next door neighbor, Lisa Cohen, who is a wonderful photographer, called me with a proposal I could not refuse.  She knew about my PetMats and this fit in nicely with her new foray into pet photography, SnapTails.  She has arranged for us to have a little opening, March 2nd, from 6-8 pm at Durty Harry's in Charlestown, MA.   Durty Harry's  offers  "Do It Yourself" dog wash stations, as well as gifts and treats to further pamper your pooch.

I'm very excited about my new PetMat designs.  While I will still be carrying breed specific PetMats, I am introducing a line of pet quotes PetMats.  Here is a sneak preview of a few:

I will have these, and more, on my Etsy site shortly.  As always, a portion of all sales will be donated to Angel/MSPCA.  More about this event later next week.

 

 

In my studio, I'm up to my eyeballs in mirrors these days!  I have 14 of these huge mirrors from hair salon that I am redoing.  Here is a "before" shot.  The salon owners want them to be a very dark brown now.

 

 

I've rearranged my small, messy studio to be able to accommodate 4 of these mirrors in one room and 1 more in the adjacent room that is normally just used for laundry and household storage.  It's hard to tell from these photos, but the mirrors are about 3' wide by 4' tall. They are lightweight, made of molded styrofoam, but very awkward to move solo.  Luckily, it's school vacation week here and I've been able to recruit a few of my friends who are teachers to give me a hand transporting them.  I'm doing seven at a time, so I don't leave the salon mirror-less!

Of course, the ever ominous task of preparing for my 2010 tax return looms large! Here's where I'm at... still entering numbers into my spreadsheet and hoping for the best. (which would mean I hit the Lottery, a zero in a million chance since I never even play!)

 

 

Paint It! is now on Facebook

I recently created a Page for Paint It! on Facebook.  You can see my Facebook Badge over to the right in the sidebar.  I'm still trying to figure out how this actually works, but if you care to go over to the Paint It! Page, I think you can say you Like It?  I'm not sure what, exactly I will be posting over there, but it will be related to decorative painting.  I've been doing a lot of research about social networking/social media and have attended a few seminars about all of this recently.  Quite honestly, I'm a bit overwhelmed by it all, but certainly do see the benefits and know I need to get on board with all of this a little more!

This blog was started in March of 2007.  I started it because I thought it would be fun to chronicle each job I work on, from start to finish.  This blog will remain true to that format.  It's not a DIY blog or a How To blog, although sometimes I do go into detail about a finish or project.  Mostly it is just to show you the general process, without getting too technical about it all.  It's also here to feature what's current, at least in this neck of the woods, with decorative surface finishes.

The main purpose of a Page on facebook is so more people can find my services, should they be looking for such in the Boston/Greater Boston/MetroWest area. 

I am also being told I should be on Twitter.  I've had a Twitter account for a while now, but am basically inactive with that form of communication.  I just don't really get it.  Who cares what I am doing at any given moment of my life?   Today at a seminar we were told that the Tweets should not be all about us, they should be little bits of information you want to get out. I think I will try to use it to Tweet about upcoming workshops, networking events, etc. that might be of interest to people.  I have to say, it's a low priority for me at this time, but I may give it a try to see what happens. 

I'll be attending another event about Social Networking in October, so I'm sure this topic will be cropping up here again.

Monograms

Good friend and fellow decorative painter, Regina Garay, recently wrote an interesting article about Monograms, and featured a room I did a few years ago.  Regina was a guest blogger for this article, which you can read here.  The room featured, is the library at the Daniel Webster in Marshfield, MA.

Photo above by Chris Smith

Chris Smith and I worked with Interior Designer, Marc Bordet, to create this elegant library.  While Chris labored on the ceiling design, I worked on the stenciling on the walls, custom designing the DW monogram.  Thanks for the shout out, Regina!

 

Finally... the Second Bathroom

Although Susan and I finished these two bathrooms a few weeks ago, I just haven't been able to sit down and write this post.  After working all day, I'm finding it difficult to keep up with all the social networking sites and then have time left over to write my own blog posts.  However, I have been working on a few projects lately that I think you might enjoy seeing, so I'm going to try to spend a little more time right here on my own blog.

I had the opportunity to use one of my all time favorite stencils from the Stencil Library for this job.  If you follow this blog, you will recognize it right away since I've used it on several other jobs, as well as in my own home.

This elegant Fennel design works best done quite simply.  We just used an off-white and added some pearl highlights.  The charcoal background was a perfect canvas to make these pop.

This closer shot shows the pearl highlighting.

There area lot of mirrors in this Master Bath.  A Fennel grouping was painted to the left of the toilet and around the jacuzzi.  You see the Fennel reflected in the mirrored wall, which gives the illusion that it is also on the mirror.

Another view of the Fennel grouping surrounding the toilet.

This grouping is also reflected in the opposite mirrored wall.

Lastly, we added a small grouping near the sink, which also reflects in an adjacent mirror.

A Little Updating

So, as you may have noticed, I did a little work today on this site.  I can't tell you how painfully long it takes me to make changes to this site, which is why I undertake this task so infrequently. 

I decided to give the blog a new Banner.  For this I used a photo of myself in one of my favorite pair of paint overalls (note my pinned buckle).  Although I did buy 2 new pair some time ago, my oldest ones are still my most favorite ones.  Getting the lettering on there and the whole thing to fit into that space is what took me forever. 

My next agonizing job was to find an updated photo of myself.  My brother Chris took some absolutely horrid pictures of me at Christmas, so I could/would not use those!  It was quite a challenge to find a recent head shot of myself where my neck did not resemble a Turkey's Neck.  I just recently realized how wrinkled my neck is, how droopy my eyes are now, and how "jowellie" I've become.  I much prefer to look at myself in the mirror before I put my glasses on.   I am now at that age where I must hold my head up and at a certain angle when my picture is being taken.  Candid shots are quite frightening.

Finally, I did some work on the links in the sidebar.  Some of them no longer worked, I added a few new ones and deleted some.  I still have a few more I want to add, but just cannot work on this site any longer.  I need to get my January/February e-newsletter out, so on to that.

The Week Ahead

Well, I can already see, it is not going to be a very exciting week for me as far as work goes.  I have 3 jobs on 'stand by', waiting for various contractors to finish up so I can get in there and do my thing.  In the meantime,  I am going to try to use a few days this week to get some office work done.  I will attempt to tackle all the projects I dislike: tax prep, filing, and more filing.

I did update some of the blog sites in my sidebar here.  Doris Glovier now has two blog sites, one for her artwork and one for her photography. After many years as a decorative painter, Doris is now pursuing a new creative path.

Two new blogs have been added to the Design Blogs listing: the Estate of Things and the style files.  Check them out for some great decorating ideas!

I finally got around to updating the link to Renovation Therapy, formally Upstate NY.  Sorry for the delay, Jean!  A very down to earth gal, Jean writes a very entertaining blog and always brings a smile to my face, showing all of us her home improvement projects and shopping finds!

Also under the Home Improvement category, I have added Door Sixteen.  Here, Anna Dorfman-Stark shares her renovation of a 1890’s Victorian row house she shares with her husband in Newburgh, NY.

Finally, I have added a "Fellow Decorative Painter" category.  These are Decorative Painters who also have blogs.  There is some amazing work to be found here, so be sure to stop by and check them out!  

While I feel it is important to share all of this information, it takes me FOREVER to get this task done! 

Revisting a few issues

This week I have been working at a new client's home and revisiting two old dilemmas.  One is being faced with a huge house with ALL white walls.  When I first entered this lovely home, I was a bit taken aback by these white walls because my client dresses very colorful, has very contemporary tastes with her furniture, rugs and accessories, and clearly has no fear of bold colors and interesting textures.  She and her husband have lived in this house for six years.  They are both ready for some change and very open to the idea of bringing in some color, but non-the-less, there is a lot of hand holding here during this first stage!

The first floor is large and open.  As you enter the front door, you stand in a very open two story foyer.  From here you can see the dining room, living room and kitchen.  These are the areas I am concentrating on this week. 

I started off by applying a Lusterstone finish to the fireplace wall in the Living Room.  This is the largest wall in the room and very visible from the foyer and the back hall entrance, which the homeowners use, coming in from the garage.  It's a mess because of me, not because they are messy homeowners! Look at that great chandelier in the foreground.  That is over a small kitchen table. There are a lot of such accents in this house, which led me to believe some color on the walls would not be too hard to sell.

Here's a closer look at the finish.  The color is Tequila Sunrise and in this shot you can see how it shimmers and has highs and lows.  The finish is smooth, but appears textured and has a lot of depth.  That fireplace has got to go.  I will be tackling that later!  I don't know what these builders are thinking when they put up a 15' high wall and then stick such a tiny fireplace in the middle of it.  Something on a much grander scale would have been a better fit for this large room.  But, it is what it is, so I will try to make it work a little better in this space. 

Now, this wall, being 15' is a bit out of my comfort zone when it comes to heights.  For many of you who do this type of work, you are probably laughing, but it is no laughing matter when you are afraid of heights and have to get right up to that ceiling line with the base color, plus 3 layers of the finish.  Per usual, I thought I'd be fine with this, but when it came to working around the fireplace, that's when I called it quits.  I was on an A frame ladder, for most of this wall, but then had to switch to an extension ladder to reach the wall with the hearth jutting out at the floor level.  I spent a fair amount of time agonizing about it all, tried going up and down the extension ladder a few times, then got on the phone and begged Stacy to come and do this top section! Luckily, she lives nearby this job, so came over to rescue me. :-)

With the Lusterstone wall out of the way, I moved on to the opposite and adjacent walls to do a simple one color soft rag finish.  The wall opposite the fireplace also goes up to 15' for most of it, then slopes down to a more manageable height.  This wall I actually could do myself, because I did not have to straddle a fireplace hearth.  Still, it was an uncomfortable height for me and you can bet I was gripping the wall for dear life all the while I was up here.  One of my tricks to get the very top portion of the wall and not have to step higher than the third run from the top, is to duct tape a wooden stirrer stick to my brush handle for an extension.  You may laugh, but it works!

This shows a corner of the Living Room, where the one color rag finish meets the Lusterstone wall.

Next week I will be featuring the Dining Room and Kitchen/Hall spaces that adjoin this room.  In the photo above, you can see I have already base coated the formerly white Dining Room walls, purple.  That is just a base color. A deeper tone, in Lusterstone will be applied to those walls.

I've made a new furry friend here.  She is loving her new perch, atop the overturned hassock on the chair.