Make your own canvas

I've been cruising around on the blogosphere and I came across a great blogger who does all kinds of artistic stuff (which I'm always a fan of) and she had this great idea to change soap boxes into canvas. Canvas is kind of expensive and I have no money but I do have lots of little boxes from food and so I took her idea and used it to make my own art boxes. She uses soap boxes which is a nice idea since they are small and the cardboard is a little stronger but I don't buy soap in boxes so instead I used a fudge mix box and a barilla pasta box. I buy old books at the library store for like 25 cents and then you can use the pages. So here's a quick run through if you don't want to click on the link.

1. Find some boxes that can close up (my torn up cereal boxes Ella keeps ripping open, don't work)
2. Rip some pages out of an old book (book pages are good quality paper and the ink doesn't smear)
3. Use some masking tape to close up the box and reinforce corners to make it stronger.
4. Put layers of modge podge and paper on boxes.
5. Be sure to have a nice area of newspaper set down so you don't get modge podge anywhere.
6. You are done, let them dry and then add cool art to it. (I'll show you my completed art when I am done)

Love all the creativity out there, hope you all are doing great, maybe if I get going again I can get some more followers which would be totally sweet. Have an awesome Memorial Day!

(p.s. Awesome book to check out that gets you in the thankful for our armed forces spirit is Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand)
  

Tomatoes!!!

Last year I grew my own tomato plants, then I almost killed them, and then they came back at the end of the year. This year I bought some plants from the nursery and I put them in containers so I could move them around.

I also tried something new because usually my tomato plants get  huge and take a while to get tomatoes going so I read a book on growing tomatoes in las vegas and it said to limit the amount of water and fertilizer until the plant produces fruit so the plant produces faster and doesn't put as much work into growing. So that's what I did and voila I now have tomatoes growing and my plants aren't huge.

Good Bye Water Street Studio

Yes, it is soooo long to that idea. It was a great one and I'm sure it would've succeeded but the Lord has other things in store for me.

I thought everything was going well and then I tried to get a line of credit and that didn't work and I felt really low about that. I thought I would just dust myself off and go about it another way but the next day I couldn't shake this feeling that I was doing something wrong. So Warren and I prayed about it together and we got a muddled answer. Not really a yes or a no. Then Warren gave me a blessing and I realized that it wouldn't really work out. I mean it would, but it would also be very hard on my family and I wouldn't be spending enough time with Eleanor. So I figured it out, that the Lord was letting me decide. Which really kind of sucks because then I have to really weigh things, but oh well.

It would have been nice if I hadn't done this at all, but it was a good growing experience for me. *sigh* I'm getting kind of tired of trying sometimes. We will see what comes of this. Thanks for the feedback.

Summer break is in less than a month, I suppose I will be working on some projects then.

Water Street Studio here we come!

Yeah like the name? Water Street Studio

I was going to call it The Studio, but there were already companies with that name, and I like this one better.

I filed all my paperwork, got an IRS number for the company and I've done all my graphs and charts and my business plan! Whooo thats alot of stuff. I've been thinking about this constantly it feels like for the past month, but that is ok. I like staying busy, it keeps me sane. :)

Thursday night was a good night, we went to the temple, haven't been there in quite a while. Made my spirit all happy and I was able to do some great heartfelt prayers and feel a little closer to my Savior, which is always nice. :)

So now I am looking at financing. I'm going to talk to a couple banks on Tuesday and see if they can hook me up, if not than we are going to do it on our own. Not as much fun but atleast it will get going. I'm going to have to make a page on facebook, maybe a twitter account, and a website. Again, more work but thats good because I know that this is what I am supposed to do and we will do it. :)

Then all my lovely friends can come over and do some art, and it will be tons of fun.

Art School

Alright, so I have had an interesting month. March was kind of nasty, we were all sick for like the whole month. Warren, Eleanor, and I had a cough at the beginning, then we got better for a week and then Warren went on a trip and when he came home he shared some germs and I got Bronchitis, Ella got pink eye, then I got pink eye, then I got a sinus infection where my face was all swollen, ha it was sooooo much fun. So now it is the end of April. Spring break was pretty good, we had a friend from Panama visiting so I got to do the touristy thing all week. Also around that time I came up with an idea.

Art School


I thought about what I want to do with my time, and how I really can't continue subbing because we want to have another kid next year and I can't afford babysitting with my sub pay so I'd basically be at home. Which I don't mind, I've gotten better at it now that Ella is a little older and more fun to play with. She also understands and can answer stuff. So I thought of teaching art classes.


Las Vegas, even though it is a pretty big city does not have much in the way or art and creative places to go. You can take some classes at the rec centers, but that is about it. Now they are also cutting a lot of funding to the schools so they won't have much art either. There fore it would be a good business to be an art center.


So I am all jazzed about this idea, but let me tell you, it is a ton of work! I found a location, in downtown henderson which is awesome because they do all kinds of events and if you are a business there you get a free booth and free publicity! Also there are alot of art galleries down there and they do art events all the time. 


So here is what I am thinking for the art school. 
1. I still need to come up with a name, so any help in that area would be great.
2. It has 3 rooms, so 1 room will be a play area so little kids can play in there while an adult takes a class or while a sibling takes a class.
3. The 2nd room will be a regular studio room where we will have classes like painting, drawing, sculpture, and ceramics. Also probably some photography.
4. The 3rd room......Heres the thing I am trying to decide. I was researching art studios and there are some good ones in CA and one of them I really liked their idea. You pay a studio fee like 6$ an hour, then you pick out an object like a birdhouse, mirror, jewelry box, or something else then in this room you have all kinds of materials that you can use on your object. Kind of like the build a bear idea but it is a very creative environment with a brainstormng area, glue  area, and then all kinds of paints and cool stuff. 


So I could do that for a room, or I could have another studio space for teaching classes or knock out a wall and have a big studio space for classes. Any ideas? 


I am super jazzed about this whole thing, and I believe it will work out and this is the space to do it in, but I would also love some feedback from my friends because everybody always has good suggestions and ideas. 


I am hoping to open it up some time in July so I can get some kids in looking for good activities. 


Alright, hope all of you are doing good and thanks for stopping by.


Melinda

Peach crumble, Ooooo the goodness.

I have peaches that I canned last summer that have a delicious flavor so I decided to make a peach crumble. I used little ramekins so we could have individual dishes and they looked gorgeous in their own containers. :)

Here is for 2 servings

Filling:
2 large peaches pitted and cut unto chunks( I eyeballed it since mine were sliced and canned)
1 Tbs lemon juice
1 Tbs flour
3 Tbs brown sugar
1/2 Tsp sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
little less than a 1/4 cup of gold raisins

Topping:
1/3 Cup flour
1/4 c rolled oats
3 Tbs brown sugar
3 Tbs white sugar
1/4 stick cold unsalted butter cut into pea size pieces
pinch of salt
1 Tbs cold water
Ramekin
Food Processor

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 Degrees F

Toss the peaches in a large bowl with filling ingredients and stir to combine. Divide between two ramekins.

Topping:
Combine all ingredients in a food processor except for water. Pulse until combined, about 30 seconds. Stir in the water, you want it kind of clumpy.

Top each ramekin with the topping. Sprinkle it and don't pack it down.

Place ramekins on a sheet tray and bake for 20-25 minutes or until filling is hot and bubbly.

Art bleach shirt

So the other day I was doing laundry and I accidently  spilled a little on my green shirt. I was quite perturbed because I had just found this shirt in the back of my closet and I loved the fit of it. So I put a little bleach in a glass, put a towel inside the shirt and I painted this flower on the bottom with bleach. I added to the ones in the middle to give them a little different shape and voila! I have a cool, artsy looking shirt that happened because of an accident. Nice huh?