CharmingShopLife

January 20, 2014

Home Sweet Home

The first time we stepped into our house, It felt so different from what I felt with the other houses we had looked at and/or bid on. I guess you could say it was true love. Maybe that's really cheesy, (Okay, it is cheesy.) but I got butterflies and I knew it was the one.

I remember walking in and seeing our kitchen nook first thing, and feeling like I didn't even need to see any more. That won me over instantly. The more I saw, the more I wanted to live here. Every detail was extraordinary, and honestly that's very tough to find these days. Everyone wants to "update" or do renovations to their homes. This home was in tact and ready for me to restore. (And of course fill with antiques.)

Here are just some of the crazy details of my house that I would never change. As long as I'm living here, these original details will stay!

Here's my sweet little built-in table that I couldn't part with.

Having this fancy valance above my kitchen window is pretty cool. If you're wondering what the circle is, it's a cut-out for an outlet! I have a red General Electric clock to put up there, but when you have a fear of heights you procrastinate with these things...

These gingham and floral patterned contact papers were inside some of my kitchen cabinet drawers. They're dirty and old, but I love finding surprises like this!

This is a photo of our art room. There are a couple things I love in here. The built-in wall storage and the original hardware. We have these knobs all over the house.

The wackiest area has to be our side door and going down into the basement. This is an area we haven't touched and only use for storage. On the left you can see my steps have this weird side ledge with built-in tin planters. At least that's what I've decided they are. Upon closer inspection they are actual baking tins, which have been placed inside there. It's a crazy DIY of the past! On the right you can see my super weird, milk/letter door. It's kind of the best.

I truly have the weirdest blinds. They're on the outside of the house, and there's a crank inside to open and close them! I lifted it up for you to see, but it actually lays flat against the window frame. Our kitchen window is exactly the same, except it's moved with a string pulley system. We have a wall divider beside our front door. Lots of people have these and lots of people knock theirs down. I love mine and it's great for extra storage or shelving.

Our door is so incredible to me. I really enjoy the natural light that comes through it.

As soon as the weather warms up we'll paint it a nice bright red colour.

What I've learned as a homeowner is to be patient. You can never really be prepared. You think you know what you're in for, but you find out very soon that you're wrong. You just have to learn to laugh at all the things that don't work out. My house is hilarious. It's quirky, demanding and likes to break here, there and everywhere. The things I clean or fix don't stay that way for long. But all in all, living here is a dream. I never thought I'd have a house this young, but I do. I love this little Mid Century "dollhouse" and I really didn't think I'd find such an ultimate vintage item to own.

Does your home have any cool features or details that make you fall in love over and over?

I want to know!

Have a great day!

Marissa xo

January 17, 2014

New Artwork Coming Soon

Mixed Media Pattern Collage, Entitled "His Favourite" (Unfinished, work in progress.)

I haven't blogged in a little while, and that's because I've been exclusively working on a new set of art pieces to add into the shop. As I said before, I've marked down ALL of my jewellery to make room for new artwork (and possibly new confetti come springtime!) I already have three pieces in the works at this moment.

(This one above being one of them.)

Lately I've been trying to get our art room organized. When you have two artists living under the same roof and sharing a tiny space, things get out of control fast. There are pencils and paints and brushes in every box and area possible. I couldn't tell you where anything is exactly. So this January my goal was to get this area cleaned up. Regrettably, that stopped fast when I found my old portfolio and found some new inspiration in it.

I only really held my unfinished pieces in there. The ones I was stuck on and couldn't bring myself to finish. In fact a lot of them are from high school. It's always weird to look back on your old work, don't you think? I feel like I know my artistic path now and back then it was more like trial and error. I didn't have a real system for creating art. I felt like now I could be able to breathe new life into them, when I couldn't before. So now my thought was to take all the unfinished pieces I still loved, and transform them them with my current style. It almost feels like collaborating with my 18 year old self.

This piece in particular is from 2008. I was nearing the end of high school. I was at a very cool place in my life artistically. All I thought about was creating, and I really did spend all my time doing just that. This piece was a result of my constant work, but I never finished it. I always loved it's peachy tones and collaged circle of children sitting quietly in the bottom corner. Adding what I know now, I think, has made it even better than I could've made it five/six years ago.

As you probably guessed, all my pieces will feature multi-layers of retro-inspired designs and patterns. There will be lots of collaging, lots of colour and lots of movement. I'm really proud of starting all these old pieces up again. It feels like such a sad waste to let them stay half-done. If I still feel something for them, why wouldn't I keep elaborating on them?

Anyway I only wanted to share this unfinished piece with some of its new additions, so you can see what's kept me away from here for a while. I promise I've got so many pieces to wrap up and start photographing and/or scanning to list in the shop. I want to take CharmingShop in a new direction for 2014. This time with my art more in focus.

Thanks for listening to my personal art rantings,

Marissa xo

P.S. If you want to see more of my art process, follow me on Instagram. (Click the link on the right side of my page.) It seems like my only posts these days are art posts!