Inauguration Day

We had lots of excitement yesterday to celebrate Obama's inauguration. The girls held a bake sale, hoping to rake it in as the inauguration crowd moved through our neighborhood toward the metro station. It wasn't as successful as their lemonade stand this summer, but still an adventure. G and Au then headed downtown for the main event, all decked out in their winter gear to brave the elements. The rest of us watched from the cozy couch.

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Silhouettes

I've played around with creating custom silhouettes digitally using Adobe Illustrator. I start with a digital photo, creating an outline using the pen tool. I love the way they look! Of course they pale in comparison to the artwork that silhouette artists create with paper and scissors, which is what I have on my mantle, but this is a fun project that I have enjoyed exploring and doing for friends.

Owl Silhouette Project

The animal of the moment for Au is the owl. This summer she has devoured Kathryn Lasky's fiction series The Guardians of Ga'hoole . Au selected the species for the project based on their characteristic sizes and profiles. I created silhouettes in Adobe Illustrator based on the photographs Au found at owlpages.com . Next we will print and frame them for her room.

Navy Bed

Painting in blue is something that I haven't done much of, so when a client was interested in painting her son's vintage white bed in navy blue, it was really a great opportunity. Annie Sloan's Napoleonic Blue wasn't quite dark enough for the room decor, so we chose to finish the piece with a generous helping of Annie Sloan's Dark Wax. I preceded this step with a layer of Clear Wax (and let it dry overnight) because I always want to have max manipulation when it comes to the dark wax application. This pictures shows the difference between clear and dark waxes. The paint, followed by the dark wax to achieve navy blue, also created depth and movement in the painted surface. A single navy blue paint color wouldn't bring that style!

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