Archive for January, 2012

Last Wednesday night a few bloggers had a mini get-together here in Austin, Texas! It was so fun!!

We all met up at a place called Painting With A Twist.

Basically, they walk you through how to paint a picture. Our night was “Painting Peacocks!”

L to R: Me, Jamie, I suck and can’t remember her name, Dana, and Jessica.

Jamie from C.R.A.F.T. planned the evening by hosting a giveaway for a free ticket, and I happily tagged along (and paid full price).

I’m sure there are painting classes like this one in your town, you might have to google it.

Here we all are just getting started…

Jamie and I…

Is Jamie gorgeous or what?!?! I’ve known Jamie for about a year and a half and am SO SAD because she just moved to Florida. Boo hoo.

Here’s Dana painting away…

And one more of Jamie taking a quick break.

Here’s my finished Peacock. Not really sure how I feel about him.

I don’t want to get rid of him because I made him! But I don’t think this will have a prominent spot over our fireplace either! Maybe the laundry room… Or my closet.

One of the instructors painted the most epic painting of all time.

I just had to get a picture.

Bob Ross is to Artists what Napoleon Dynamite is to Geeks. Two words:

Cult. Classic.

And one more time, all of us showing off our new paintings.

If you have the opportunity to ever go to a place like this, it was SO FUN!

Even the most artistically challenged person can paint by following along with the instructor. They really simplify the process and make it easy.

Thanks Jamie for having such a fun going-away night!

Today I’m turning my blog over to one of my favorite people. Rebekah from Potholes and Pantyhose and I became fast friends over a year ago (wow, I can’t believe it’s been that long!).

Not only is she a super cool gal, but she also is a blogger! Yay! I absolutely LOVE her style and sense of humor. Her blog so pretty to look at and she also has really great content.

Rebekah use to have a pretty big following online, but her blog crashed (kinda my fault. sorry!) and it took her over 8 months and a hired professional to get her up and running again. Because blog years are like dog years, she was pretty much offline for almost 7 years. She is now trying to regain her place in the blog world, and I’m more than happy to do what I can to share her with the world.

With that being said, I now turn the post over to Rebekah. I encourage each of you to head on over to her blog and give her a big ol’ bear hug. She’s got some amazing projects over there in her ample archives.

Hello, House of Hepworth readers! My name is Rebekah from Potholes and Pantyhose and I am thrilled to be a guest here today. Allison is one of my most favorite ladies in all of the blogging land.

At Potholes and Pantyhose, I share and photograph detailed tutorials of my DIY Projects, Recipes, Photography Tips and Remodeling Endeavors. Here are a few examples of projects I’ve done recently:

I made Sweet and Salty Gifts to share with all of my neighbors.

I discovered that by using a tall glass, the almond bark was easily applied on my Sweet & Salty pretzel rods. Simple-yes. Super yummy? Double yes.

While hubby was away, I decided to play. I did what any normal girl armed with several thrift store frames, canary yellow garage paint, and muriatic acid would do. I re-did our Master Bathroom! I even added a beautiful and romantic chandelier.

I hate filing cabinets. I think they are ugly, clunky and ruin the aesthetics of what could be a cool office.

But, I also need filing cabinets; we own a couple of rent houses, have a few home businesses, and I am deeply partial to organization.

So, when life gives you lemons-make a cool Mod Filing Cabinet.

Last but not least, I used an old pepper barrel purchased from a feed store to make a DIY Recycled and Cheap Rain Barrel.

With just a bit of rain, both of the barrels I outfitted underneath my gutters are brimming to the max. And my vegetable garden is reaping all the free watering benefits.

There’s so much more where this came from!

But, I bet you have a diaper to change, a job to go to, or a husband that needs his lunch packed. So, I’ll leave you with these four tutorials.

However, if you find yourself between errands or loads of laundry, make sure you stop by Potholes and Pantyhose and say “howdy”. Check out some more of my projects and let me know what you think!

Thanks again, Allison. I have enjoyed my time here immensely.

Love,
Rebekah of Potholes and Pantyhose

{Allison here again}

It just seems plain ol’ wrong for her to leave out one of my most favorite projects in the history of Potholes and Pantyhose…

Broken Glass Mirror Art

One of the best mirror projects I’ve ever seen. I’m still planning on copying this one day.

I hope you guys love Rebekah as much as I do! Thanks for hanging out with my guest today!

The gallery wall in the stairwell is outta here!

{15 months ago…}

I tried. I really tried. But this gallery wall has been a thorn in my side since day one. It makes me cray-to-the-zeeee!

I thought the issue was the wall color. So I painted the stairwell yellow to match my foyer (I also painted under the railing white).

The frames also ended up with a nice coat of white spray paint.

Still hated it. So I took all the little kitchy crap and shelves down. Maybe it will look better with just frames.

Even worse.

Then one day… I was just over it.

Totally over it.

This sofa table was moved to K’s room last week, leaving an empty spot at the top of my staircase.

See? No more table.

When I “borrowed” the table for K’s room, I didn’t really have a plan for replacing the table with something else in this now empty spot.

But two days ago, I’d looked at that eyesore of a stairwell gallery wall one. too. many. times.

And something just snapped inside me. Before I knew it, frames were a-flyin’ and I was a-huffin’ and a-hollerin’ and a-hammerin’.

Do you see where I’m going with this?

Orange Mocha Frappuccino! Er, I mean…

HALLWAY GALLERY WALL! Woop woop.

I gathered up all my supplies; frames, nails, hammer, level, chair to stand on, and I just started hammering and hanging frames.

Some people pre-measure and cut out newspaper the size of the frames and tape it to the wall.

Oh please, girl! Do you even know how fantastically lazy I am? I mean really? That would take way too long.

Plus, who cares if I screw up. It’s only a teeny tiny little nail hole. It’s not like the house is going to fall down around me.

Basically, the method to my madness consists of grabbing a frame, holding it up to the wall and eyeballing it, and then hanging that sucker up.

This honey badger don’t care! She just does what she wants.

And if it looks like gar-to-the-capital-bidge? Take it down, pull the nail out, and hang it somewhere else. Trial and error baby. Trial and error.

Finally, after a heart thumping 45 minutes, I was done.

Kinda.

I ran out of white frames.

So I started grabbing other frames to fill the gaps. Don’t worry chicklets. They will get painted white in due time. Like, either tomorrow, or whenever I decide to get back on board with this project and finish it.

Could be a day. Could be a month. You really never know when you are dealing with me.

But for now, this is the final result.

I freaking love it and think it’s so fantastic. I grin every time I walk by.

You are probably saying “oh no, girl. No no no. That does not look very good.”

Of course you are saying that! The ugly frames haven’t been painted yet. But trust me, just picture everything white. It will look fab.

And sorry the picture itself sucks so bad. I had a nice camera a year ago. And then I dropped it on the ground like 25 times. And now my photos look like that. Sorry.

Ben says when he can trust me with a camera he might consider talking about getting me a new one. I don’t blame him. I break every camera I own within a few months. Weeks. Days.

Once, when I was in middle school, my parents bought me a camera for my birthday. I was like 13 I guess.

In fact, here’s a picture of my sisters and I on my new gallery wall. Can you guess which one is me?

I’ll give you a hint. Back Right. Oh, sorry, that wasn’t a hint. O-well. And Merideth, please don’t kill me for posting this photo of you. Just tell people it was your “awkward phase”… In fact, I’m pretty sure it was everyone’s awkward phase judging by the photo from 1993.

Anyway, I just got a new camera for my 13th birthday.

I was tearing open the package to retrieve my very first, brand spankin’ new camera that was mine. All mine.

My dad says while I’m opening the brand new camera, and I quote, “Allison, be careful. Don’t drop it on the grou…”

Doh!

The camera slipped out of my hand and smashed on the tile floor.

The rest is history. Me and cameras are mortal enemies.

I’m that way with vacuums too. Don’t bring up “oreck” and “Allison” to my mom. I’m pretty sure she had to purchase at least 4 of them before I moved out.

Where was I?

Oh, gallery wall… Here’s a view from the game room.

For those of you that are so nosy you are squinting at your monitor trying to get a good looksie at my family, I’ll make it easy for you…

This is T 3 years ago:

Adorable? I think so. Drives me bonkers? You betcha.

And this is K (again, 3 years ago):

Prettiest and most ornery 4 year old I ever did meet.

Us goofing around:

Ben and his brothers like 10 years ago, maybe more:

(Ben is in the middle)

Can we all get a collective “awwwww”?

I won’t bore you with every picture on my wall. I’ll save that for when I am totally done, the frames are all painted, and new pictures are inserted. That’s when I’ll bore you to tears.

Wondering about that big ol’ empty stairwell now?

I have some BIG plans swirling around in my mind for the stairwell. You will just have to wait and see what concoction I’ve got up my sleeve for that one.

For now, I’ll leave you with my purposely-asymmetrical gallery wall. I like everything to match, but I get bored with too much symmetry.

I’ve determined people either LOVE gallery walls, or LOATHE them.

What team are you on? Team LOVE or Team LOATHE?

Do tell!

Have a great weekend!