I Love the Oldness of Things

Last week I had a field trip for work and we got to go to the amazing Butterfly House here in St. Louis. I've been there before, but never seemed to venture out onto the grounds of Faust park, which houses the Butterfly House. Well, this time I had hours to burn so I grabbed my camera and hoofed the grounds on a beautiful 80 degree day, and took some great pictures of the old 1860-80's Faust buildings. Most of them were locked because it's still off season, but I did get a couple good "through the window" shots... 

For instance, check out the old rustic kitchen... love it. And I about passed out when I saw the turquoise fire burning stove. It took everything in my will power to not bust down a door and steal it. I think old log cabin houses are pretty cool, especially ones with a Dog Mill in front of them. I'd never seen a dog mill before until then... The old mud oven was great and I really was digging the yellow house with the hand wrapped trellis leaning on its wall. Then I chuckled a bit when I ran across this "Rules for Teachers - 1872" plaque in front of the old school house. Click on the picture to read the rules... If I was alive back then, and still the person I am today... wow, I think there'd be a witch hunt out for me! Ha ha!

>.< 

Minnie Mouse Stool for Rayn!

In between working on a rather large project that I have going on, I took the time to paint a stool for my friend M... she's the wonderful person who I have painted like 98% of the stools I've done since last July. Remember this sweet little giraffe stool? Oh yes, it's definitely ones of my favorites.

Here's a great new design I did for her... a cute Minnie Mouse theme! Of course Minnie loves her polka dots in bright colors, so I had to make sure there was a lot of that on this stool. I think the "mini" Minnie's on the side are so cute and I painted Rayn's name in the Disney font, which is quite appropriate!

Thanks for stopping by today!!!

XO

A Stool for a Lil' Rocker!!!

Check out this rocking stool I painted for a friend of mine and her son! They are huge Mushroomhead fans, just like we are, so I thought wouldn't it be cool to paint him an awesome Mushroomhead themed stool!! The Mushroomhead font is called Jean Splice, so I used that for the name on the top. The drums are water drums, which are comparable to the Blue Man Group drums, but way more rockin'! The colors change under the water, that's why I painted them blue and green. It looks amazing from a spectators point in the crowd at a concert.

But here's the kicker... the artwork on the side was drawn by my lil' rocker man himself! Of course I transferred it to the stool and painted it on, but it was his artistic version of all the band members in his favorite band. Jeff and Waylon are the singers, that's why they have "mics" in their hands. St1tch (Stitch), Lil' Dan and Skinny all play the drums, hence the "sticks" in their hands. Shmotz plays keyboard, Pig was on bass and Gravy was on guitar. And the reason their faces look the way they do is because of the masks they wear on stage. My son tends to meld the two versions of old face paint and new masks together.

Old X Face Mushroomhead

New Character Based Mushroomhead Masks

And for grins and giggles... here's my son on stage playing the water drums with the band just this past October, 2011.

^ ^ ^ ^ See? Cool water drums! My son... he was born to be on stage, I swear.

Anyways, thanks for stopping by again today! I'm booked up with commissions until May so you all will definitely be seeing some more before and afters from the lab here soon!

XO

Say hello

... to Ms. M's Mirror!

Ms. M is the proud owner of Thelma and Louise and to a nice "new to her" old mirror that got the Retro Restyling treatment. It was already a very dark brown mirror, but it needed a new coat of oil rubbed bronze to match her pulls, and a little scuffing up around the corners to make it super special. It weights a billion pounds so instead of hanging it, it's chillaxin' on top of Louise. Speaking of... check out the girls in their new crib! Ms. M moved and the girls made it through unscathed, which makes me happy! She definitely has a lot more room for her awesome bed....I'm loving the bright colors of her quilt and her home made pillow cases... Plus, there's enough room for her two new night stands that are in the lab here waiting to be worked on. Those little ladies are going to be gorgeous. :)

Thanks for stopping by today!

Stay tuned, I have more projects to share with you this week!

XO