Paint Night Party / Cocktails & Canvases

Since the spring Bella Terra Designs has added paint night parties to their services called, "Cocktails & Canvases."  "Paint Nite" or "Paint Night" parties are all the rage and understandably so ... you get together with your friends at a local bar, enjoy a "cocktail" or two, and create a work of art.  What could be more fun?!

"Cocktails & Canvases" is a step above the typical paint nite party because the experience occurs in either your home or a friend's home.  The host provides the cocktails and we provide the rest for a relaxed, fun evening.  We use quality paints and brushes, provide smocks and canvases.  Instruction and demonstration of the chosen painting is given and the instructor walks around the room assisting individuals with guidance as needed.  There is no rush to finish the painting as is sometimes the case at a bar.  Everyone goes home with a completed painting at the end of 2-3 hours.

Below are some pictures of past "Cocktails & Canvases" events.

An outside evening paint party.

An outside afternoon paint party.

Indoors having fun!

Just one of the autumn paintings to choose.

Check out my website for other autumn paintings to select from and to get more information for hosting an event.  

Hope to see you soon for a great evening!

I finally met a Gracie!

No, I'm not talking about a woman named Gracie, I am speaking of the illustrious, highly sought after, extremely expensive wallpaper called Gracie. I have heard of these papers, and seen them on line.
Nothing can hold a candle to it, it must be seen in person! Remember the brown and white floor I did a few weeks back, well that client had custom Gracie paper on 2 of her walls in the dining room. When I did the floors originally a few years back, she also hired me to paint the remaining two walls in a soft stipple to mimic the background color of the Gracie paper. I had the time to stare at the wallpaper up close and take some photos this time around. These were taken with my iPad, as I forgot my camera.

Each area is completely different then the next, not one bird repeats or flower. 

Can you see the fine lines of the feathers?

For those of you who don't know me well, I have shaky hands. When it comes to mural painting, most of my work is unaffected by it, thankfully!  But there is no way I could ever work for Gracie.  Look at the detail! The fine lines...swoon. Sigh.  Someday, I would love to paint a version of their paper, lol, a simplified version! It's exquisite and costs a small fortune. If you happen to go to their website, flip through the gallery and they list prices per panel. A lot of talent and hard work goes into these custom papers. I am glad I was able to study them closer this time around.

Antique Sewing Machine...a new life!

A few years ago, before children, I would visit garage sales. My husband and I went to one that was an estate sale. We were able to walk through the home and check out the whole space! Pretty cool. Since having kids, I have been to 0. That's going to change now!

My mom suggested I give Kyle, my oldest a dollar and then he too could have fun shopping.  We ended up scoring 2 antique sewing table bases that had been redone to have butcher block tops. One was really pretty and round. This is the one featured here.  I knew I didn't like the pale color of the butcher block but didn't want to lose the wood character.  Around the same time, I was doing a custom stenciled ceiling for a client's master bedroom. The stencil was miraculously the same size of my table! Let the painting begin!

Unfortunately I do not have the preview photos. Just imagine it pale wood color. First, I lightly sanded down the poly, then applied a dark gel stain. Then I stenciled my pattern in a dark brown stain. Next, I applied an antique crackle system. It allows just the cracks to be filled with glaze. A few layers of varnish and it's one of my favorite pieces in my home. I set it up for the fall season, hopefully the kids keep their hands off!

The ceiling pattern where the stencil originated.

 

The crackle

Our fall display. 


Linked to:
Miss Mustard Seed

Ok, so I took a little hiatus..

Ok, ok....I took a long hiatus. But its better then the year long gap between the other posts! I guess my problem being a business owner, a mom, and a wife...is that there is always something else to do.  For instance, after finally getting our 1 year old baby in for a nap on saturday afternoon at 4 pm, an hour and a half past due.  I came downstairs and my husband is sitting on the couch playing on his phone. I looked around at our toy riddled living room and sighed. I said to him, "Must be nice to just sit and do nothing!!"  I said, "Now I have to scan a jersey in to the computer to make a logo, make a sample for another client, switch paint supplies for work....cook and this house looks like a tornado hit it!"  Don't get me wrong, he is a great help around the house and has crazy hours and is most of the time a walking zombie. He deserves to rest on the couch too.  Just wish I could!

I do this at least once a week, have a mini-adult tantrum. I think I am allowed.  There aren't enough hours in the day, to get all my housework done, and my business work done. Being my husband is NYPD officer, he doesn't have any work to do at home, except for all my little projects I give him.  He is great with tools, and can build me anything. We just need time and money.

Part of the reason I wanted to start to blog was to share pictures of our house projects. Since the summer, I did manage to paint one fabulous piece of furniture, which I will share later when I have a chance to get some good photos. We also just recently painted the kitchen.

Yikes, no photos of that either.  God, I am a bad blogger.

Ok so I will switch to a job I just completed in the beginning of September. This is a fabulous client who hired a designer to create a Country French apartment for her.  I got the call to do very rich old yellowed walls, woodgrain beams in the master bedroom and a faux brick powder room.  These jobs I completed in March.  I was lucky enough to go back in September to transfer the black hole in her living room, the fireplace.

The wooden mantle was not to be touched.  The inside stone mantle came with the apartment and had a lovely shade of pink, note sarcasm. So to change that we stippled a textured material to give the look of old limestone. We then over glazed it to change the coloring and antiqued the crevices.  

Bye bye black concrete!

Just one of the many layers of the stenciling process.

Done for the day. Stones tomorrow.

The black areas were primed and base coated with regular paint for a stenciled portugese tile.  The hearth of the mantle, the floor part was a marble that had seen better days. That also was primed, and stippled with a another coarse plaster to give texture. 

In this photo you can see the strange round stones on the bottom hearth. Here is where we miscommunicated with each other. Both the client and I looked at stone walls and agreed upon a random stacked stone in a horizontal pattern.  She did not like this and wanted more round stones, and much larger.  They were changed to this. But these were too clean, new and Disney"ish".  I then changed it to be heavily distressed and can hardly see any grout.  Unfortunatly I only have the finished view from far away. Oops. Next time I'm in NYC, I will grab a better shot.

You can see that the stone is almost disappeared on the hearth.

The finished room. Both her living room and library have turquoise, orange and brilliant yellow. I love her shutters on the window.