Orangewillow Art

Making Lemons into Sweet and Tasty Lemonade

We moved into this house 17 months ago and to say I wasn’t happy about it would be putting it lightly.  When you get married its nice to buy a home together, not inherit one from your husband’s previous marriage.  To make matters worse we both want to live in the city again and really do not like the layout of this house.  My husband said there wasn’t much on the market when he was shopping for a home and was just so tired of looking he settled on this home.

Thanks to the current economy even though he has owned this house for 5 years we owe about what its worth.  We have toyed with the idea of renting the house out so we can move into the city but the house payments are steep and often leave us hurting each month so to gamble that a renter will pay on time just isn’t a risk we are willing to take.  In the meantime we have 3 kids in a 3 bedroom house and my husband and I work at home.  What does this mean?  Neither of us can get work done.

Since my husband is the primary income earner he needed an office so step one was solving that issue.  Step two was finding a place for the kids to play that would not wake the baby, allow me to stop picking up toys 24/7 and provide me with time to work myself.  It took quite a long time but I think we have finally turned this lemon into some sweet and tasty lemonade.

Enjoy these before and after pics.

what will be the entry way and the office, previously our formal dining room

where the french doors will go

future home of the new office, so glad to say goodbye to the carpet and hello to dark wood throughout the first floor.

My new workspace in the office

So much storage in the new office it makes my toes curl!

Our beautiful new french doors.  The office gave us enough room for a desk for Josh, myself, and the kids as well as massive storage.  I will get some zoomed out pictures of the complete renovation soon.  We have some finishing touches to get done and after we do I thought I would do an entire blog post about diy when it comes to your home and the money it saves as well as the pride it gives you.  BTW, anyone thinking about laminate flooring I highly recommend it.  We thought it was time intensive and a little heavy on the back but overall an easy way to make a home look spectacular for very little money.

Now onto the second issue… where do the 2 oldest kids play so that they don’t wake the baby during naps, so their toys aren’t all over the house, and where I can have some quiet time to work?  We wanted to finish the basement but even doing it ourselves we would be looking at a $7,000 - $10,000 investment so what options do we have?  Get creative!  Make those lemons into some lemonade again.

Instead of spending a fortune refinishing a basement of a home we prefer not to stay in we made a temporary playroom for very little money.  Re-use and repurpose things you already have.  Why spend money or stick things in a landfill when down the road a little paint or some sewing it becomes usable in another way?  Above is the before of our basement.

another shot of the before basement

in progress

using IKEA panels to section off a fair sized “room” of the basement

add rugs, floor mat, blanket, pillows, desk and chair, toys, child safe space heaters and what do you have?  A play room where the kids can make a huge mess without hearing mom nag them every 5 min to pick their stuff up.  A play room where they can squeal, laugh and scream without threat of disturbing their baby sister. A play room where they can feel the freedom to be who they want to be.  A mom who can have a moment away to allow her to appreciate the time we are together even more.

As a result of these easy changes Josh and I have been spending the entire day working and actually finding a way to be productive!  I am halfway done with a new painting which I will share soon.  This evening family popcorn and movie night!  Yay!

Goodbye 2009 and Hello… 2010

So here is the obligatory 3 kids in front of the tree photo.  The kids were a bit restless so it wasn’t worth getting creative, just happy to grab a shot.

The holidays put me in the mood to finish my seasons paintings which are available in the shop.

Penelope has been growing by leaps and bounds.  She seems to eat from the time she wakes to the time she sleeps.

Some backyard football was played at Thanksgiving… well I guess front yard football to be exact.

Lots of cooking happened.

Wonderful family nights were had.

The new year was welcomed in surrounded by the ones I love.  I wish everyone love and happiness in 2010.  You are responsible for yourself and your own happiness.  If you want to be happy then nobody can stop you because you will find it in all the little things around you.

Family Fun in the Fall

Families are an ever evolving entity.  They change, grow, sometimes two families meld into one and sadly sometimes they fracture.  Life can be so hard but when you find that perfect person to travel through it with things suddenly seem so much simpler and easier.  My partner in life, husband, and amazing father to my children makes the path of life so much simpler and fun.

We recently added a third child to our family (March 2009) who has brought us tremendous joy.

We have been lucky enough to enjoy this new fall and Penelope’s first Halloween with our other children.  We get to watch the three of them interact with one another and I can’t think of a better inspiration than your children.  Enjoy some pictures of our family fall fun.

Haircuts and Painting…

Okay, so they are not exactly related but I just have to show Zoe’s new haircut.  I took Zoe to the salon to have her hair cut and they never seem to do what I ask.  They never shape it up and I am left with a wild child.  I decided I would shape it and then take it to them for the finishing touches.  It ends up I learned quite a bit in those 3 months of hair school I took years ago.  She looks soooo cute!

This is a picture from Zoe’s first class at the Cincinnati Academy of Ballet.  I can barely stand it, her spring recital is sooo far away.

This is the painting I just finished for my sister’s new place.  We exchanged paintings and its nice to have a piece of hers in my home.  I think this painting will fit her color scheme perfect.

In other painting news I decided to open an ebay store in addition to my etsy store to more showcase my paintings.  I have made a couple sales and am wondering if I made a mistake.  Apparently paypal now that its owned by ebay sucks!  They are holding my funds for 21 days or until I get a positive review.  Seriously?!  ANNOYING!  Heres some of the paintings that are for auction right now.

On top of other new realistic art, big eyed girls, and my photography I am trying to get 10 or more of these abstracts done a month.  I am tired just thinking about it!

Flowing works

New work has been flowing out of me lately.  I have revisited old work and built off those ideas, I have been hard at work getting together my abstract show for Chicago, and hard at work on several commissioned pieces.  Penelope still has a large need of my time but with Zoe and Brayden starting pre-school I have been managing to find time to create.

I just finished this one for the Chicago Show, still not named:

Heres one I am revisiting.  A few simple additions and this gal will be done.

sorry for the bad picture but it was night time.  This is another old one I am revisiting and once I add the rain drops she will be finished.

I have a few other works in progress I haven’t snapped pics of but I must admit, I am very excited to be back to work.  I have also been snapping lots of pictures and working on my photography skills.  I got a new lens extension I was playing with around my birthday.  Check these out from the new lens adapter.

I was also fortunate enough to photograph my first wedding which was an absolute blast!  I was lucky because the bride was the daughter of a friend so it was very relaxed and I felt very comfortable with the shoot.  Also its fabulous that for my first wedding shoot I had one of the most beautiful brides I have seen as my subject.

The time came for our dog Cocoa Channel to visit the doctor for the dreaded have no babies visit.  She bounced back in a day and is just as hyper as ever.

Around the same time as Cocoa’s surgery we went to Nashville for a conference Josh wanted to attend.  Some of you may not know but Josh took a job for a company based out of Nashville so we have actually been visiting the city often and plan to continue our visits.  Though it is a city I can see myself living in one can never say what the future holds for them so we are focusing on our lives in the here and now and whatever comes down our path we will examine at that time.  With that being said I got some great pictures of us at the hotel, The Gaylord Opryland.  The hotel was beautiful and it was nice to spend the time mostly alone with Josh.  I say mostly because Penelope is still too young to leave with anyone.  She was happy most of the time though so no problem there!

We upgraded to an atrium room and let me tell you, I could have lived on that balcony.  BEAUTIFUL!

The room inside was incredible as well.

A view from the balcony.

Penelope was enamored by it all!

A trip full of memories I will cherish for a long time to come.

That about wraps things up.  I have enjoyed getting back to work including blogging.  The last 6 months vacation I have taken to get to know my new daughter and bond as a family unit has been so amazing but it is nice to finally get focused on some new projects.  I have also enjoyed blogging again so here’s hoping I can keep it up.

Are You Ready For Some Footbaaaaalllll?

Day one of the NFL Football Season!  We made so many yummy home cooked snacks!  I think after football some painting may be in my future or drawing perhaps.  We shall see.  Enjoy these snapshots from our day of Football!  Penelope was napping which is why she is not in any of the pictures.  GO BENGALS!

Worth A Thousand Words…

After taking 2 months off to enjoy our new daughter, Penelope its time to dive back into my work.  So much has happened personally and professionally these past two months I decided a post full of photos is the best way to show these amazing events.

Moment between mother and daughter moments after birth.

A family grows

You realize how important the people around you are and how much they love you when things get tough.  The birth had some bumps and my family and husband were there with me every step of the way.  I am such a blessed woman.

Easter Eggs were found…

And Easter Eggs were lost.

Many family dinners were had

New Sister Bonded

Fun day…

after fun day…

after fun day…

after fun day was had by all.

Fun trips to the zoo…

So fun we were all sad when it was over.

There were parties with cakes!

After coming off the breast Penelope could often be found eating…

and eating…

and eating.  Apparently when I was breast feeding I must have been starving her.  Shes more than making up for it now!

And of course after all that food nothing is better than a nice nap.

Penelope sporting her first bikini

Every day these past 2 months I realized new amazing things about my handsome hubby.

But don’t worry, I did get some new paintings done!  My favorite of course being this 5 foot x 6 foot abstract called “churn”.  It will be part of a show this fall in Chicago.  I will update you all more on that as it approaches.  That about wraps it up.  Josh is working on a new website for my photography but until its finished theres not much to discuss.  I hope you enjoyed my little update and please stay tuned for regular future posts.

I’m Back… For the Moment

Its hard to believe I was doing so well with my blog posting and then just disappeared.  Honestly though I can’t say I feel a bit guilty.  I am nine months pregnant and have been on a big kick getting the house ready for our newest addition as well as resting.  I started contracting a week ago and have progressed to 2 cm but nothing else so far.  The baby is measuring large (modestly large) so they are happy to induce my labor March 31st if she has not made her arrival by then.  We are still hoping my water breaks this week but with how stubborn Zoe was I am not holding my breath.  I am very much looking forward to her arrival.

In addition to all the baby preparations this month I have been working on getting my new shop ready.  Thats right, a new shop!  I was going to open it back in December which is when I created it but I finally just listed paintings in it this week.  My orangewillow shop already has around 200 items and to add additional non-characteristic work seemed like a poor idea.  Instead I opened the new fine art store “Owens Painting”.  I also plan to open an ebay store with this style of work but with the baby delivery looming over me I decided etsy was a good first step.  Here are some samples of what you will find in my new shop:

Rather than make promises that my presence will be frequent in the near future on here I have to be honest and say sporadic at best is more likely.  A baby makes her arrival only once and these special moments are few in life so I plan to take my time and savor them.  What I do promise is like any mother take a ton of pictures and when she does arrive  and share them as soon as I can.

CLOSEOUT SALE

So my shop is having a crazy closeout sale right now, some things are so low there is no room for profit.  What you say?  I need to do some spring cleaning and get rid of out of date merchandise.  However, the items are limited and once they sell out they are gone for good so hurry and get what you can while you can.  There are originals in the CLOSEOUT section as well so don’t miss out.

Art Update

I am always working on art for other people and never seem to make time for art for my family.  I usually keep a couple paintings here and there Josh likes but overall I tend to create for my shop.  My sister was working on a painting of Zoe which made me realize I have been putting off her portrait for over a year now.  I normally freehand portraits but I always have trouble with Zoe so I graphed a photograph last night and sketched a picture of her.  Step one down, time to get the oils out.  Once I finish this one I plan to do one of Brayden and then baby Ella.  It will be so nice to have to have a family series.

Don’t worry though, I would never neglect my shop.  Here are 2 new discount paintings available while they last.