Dane

I recently finished this painting for a friend from childhood. Dane is her second child, and he just came into the world last week! Welcome, baby Dane! Her bedding was a mixture of different fabrics, each tied together with these colors. This is going on a wall that is green and white striped, so I wanted to make the main color the dark blue. This one was pretty detailed!

Her mom requested the scripture to be somewhere on there. I wasn't sure how I was going to make room for it with all of that pattern, but ended up using the vines as a cut-off point to leave the bottom open for lettering.

Here's some of the fabric that I went off of

The stripes on the canvas were not matched to the fabric. The rest of the pattern on the canvas pretty much matched what the fabric looked like, so I wanted to vary it up a little. I hope Ashli and Dane are enjoying his precious nursery!

Hudson Charles

About 10 years ago, I met Sara. We met the summer we both began OT school, in gross anatomy. Sara is funny and witty, and you don't want to get on her bad side.....he he he. Apparently I was the only person whose foot she would touch and not get grossed out by! And believe me when I say we had to palpate/touch/probe...whatever you want to call it.....each other a lot in kinesiology lab. Well, miss Sara has a sweet little girl named Holly, and now she's expecting a little guy in September, who will be named Hudson. I did a painting as a gift for her, and when I asked her if she had any requests, she just said "be creative!". So, here is her painting!

Photo courtesy of Toys R Us website

This is her baby bedding. It's Nojo My Little MVP bedding. The colors are super cute together. When I saw it, the things that stood out to me were the plaid and all the stitching (which you can't really see in this picture, but trust me, it's there!).

Her finished painting! I have not yet figured out where in my house or what time of day gives me the best pictures, but believe me when I say the colors matched well. She sent me the valance so I could see them in person.

Instead of doing little baseballs, soccer balls, or footballs, I went with simple green dots around the sides, and mixed up brown stitching inside the dots, then outside the dots. And added some highlights of course!

I used the stitching throughout the painting. It's on the border here, and also frames the box his name is in. I had a challenge with the plaid, making it look like it did in the bedding. In the bedding, it's the same pattern overlaying each other (if that makes sense?), but one is darker than the other. It's sort of transparent. To recreate that, I watered down my paint, then watered it down some more.

Here's the painting up next to the valance. Sara - send me a picture when you get it all together! Can't wait to see it!

Massey Monogam

A friend of ours, Clay, is getting married next month to his sweet fiance, Kristen. We just met her over 4th of July weekend! They seem so perfect for each other! For their shower, I painted a little something small (a 12x12), with their monogram on it. I had NO IDEA what colors they like, but just went with a combination of neutrals that seemed to go together. Their shower was only the 2nd time we'd been around Kristen, and we found out when they opened the gift that these are the exact colors in their wedding!! Crazy!! Sometimes I pray before I start a painting that I will have creative ideas and paint something that will be meaningful and special for the person receiving it. How amazing is that?? She was so happy with it she said they are going to display it somewhere the day of their wedding. What a beautiful gesture! Many many blessings to Clay and Kristen for a long life of joy and happiness together!

Romi Romi

This name makes me think of that Billy Idol song "Mony Mony"....I don't know why, but it does! Hence, the title of this post! I just finished this painting for Romi, who I don't know but I did know her momma growing up. She was my best friend's aunt Marcy. Now she has a daughter named Romi who just turned 11, and I was asked to paint something for her bedroom that she just had redone. I got a strip of fabric, which I didn't take a picture of, but it was the black and white damask-ish pattern that you see in the middle section. Really cute. I was asked to be creative - and I can do that! The other colors in the room are green and bubblegum pink. I have to say, I really love how this one turned out. May be one of my favorite ones to date.

Some funky pink and black zebra print for the border

Instead of a straight edged border, I did a fancier one. I accented with a little gold to make it stand out.

Just love that black and white pattern. I am asked regularly if I free hand everything on my paintings, and yes I do. I don't use stencils or tracing paper or anything like that. I just look at it and try my best to reproduce it on the canvas. Same with fonts. I print them out onto a piece of paper, and then write them out much bigger on canvas.

A different angle

I love this girl's name. It's cute and short. This is the only green in the painting. I really hope this suits Romi's new room!

Baby Tess

When we lived in Albuquerque awhile back, we got involved with our church there and met a bunch of young couples (most of us at the time did NOT have any children!). One of the couples we became friends with were Adrian and Trisha. Well......just a few short years later and now we ALL have children, multiple children!! They just welcomed their third precious child into the world last month, and I just had to paint something for sweet baby Tess! This baby is such a blessing, and is destined for true greatness! I even got to spend a weekend with their family during the first few weeks of her life helping and celebrating her arrival! So for our sweet friends - hope you love the painting!

Her bedding is Glenna Jean - the quality of this bedding is awesome. It's nice and thick, and the patterns are lots of fun. I was suprised Trisha picked out anything with pink - she's a purple and orange kinda gal. But, I just love this. This is the picture from a baby bedding website.

I brought the bedskirt back with me to match the colors just right. There are so many different shades of green and pink, I didn't want to be off! Trisha requested dots and more dots! So, here's my take on that.

I decided to do layers of dots because in the bumper, the sections are all different. Some are solid pink or green with dots, solid black with dots, or a variety.

A little dot border for the second frame

Here's the painting up against the bedskirt. The colors were right on! I really liked the whimsical font for her name - I thought it went well with all of those DOTS!

Wash, Brush, Swim!!!

Here is my latest painting project that I just finished up! Three canvases for a boys' bathroom. I was asked to do these by the interior designer, but they're going to a sweet family that used to live behind us when we built our first house here in Carlsbad. Those boys are growing up! I think they're now around 10 and 7!! Anyways, they just moved into a home on the river (for those of you not native to here.....that would be the Pecos River, which runs through our town). Tami (the designer) wanted something fun for their bathroom that would say "wash", "brush", and then some funky swimtrunks to hang over their potty! The fabric I was going off of was

fab-u-loso!!

All 3 together

A little different view

Brush!! Oh so important for those teeth (and hair I guess!)

Wash....equally important for many other sorts of reasons!!

I was given free reign when it came to these. I just love Andree, the boys' mom, and knew that she would like something fun and funky.

a little close up of those wild flowers

amazing fabric....beautiful stripes and great colors

I really hope this looks fun in their bathroom! Loved painting them!

Birthright

A few weeks ago my crazy, extra large family got together for Easter at Nana and Pappy's house. I'm talking about 40-50 people there, and I think some were missing!!!! We have multiplied you could say! Anyways, my Aunt Rita (mom's twin) was telling me about an organization that she in involved in in Odessa, TX where she lives called Birthright. I googled it, and they have a website that explains their services. It sounds like a wonderful organization that was established quite some time ago to help women through an unplanned pregnancy, offering many different services free of charge. The Odessa chaper was having a silent auction fundraiser, and Rita wondered if I wanted to paint something as a donation to auction off. I said "Surely!!", and came up with this 12x12 painting. I wanted to do something fun that could be used in any situation (not just for a new baby, for example).

Okay. I took the pictures after I had wrapped it in cellophane getting it ready to ship. But, you can still see what it says. Cheetah print wrapping around edges, hot pink center, lime green dots around the circle. Beautiful scripture!

Rita asked me if I had business cards.....which I didn't. She said I should probably attach one in case people were interested in having something painted. So, that's when I was inspired to come up with a name of sorts for what I do. Couldn't think of anything really good at the time, so Sweetie Pie Paintings it is (for now!!). I put my name, number, and blog address on there, just in case!! You never know who may see my work and want to order something!!

All wrapped up with a sweet little ribbon, tied and ready to go. Aunt Rita said that the bidding went well on it and it went to a lady who really wanted it. I am thankful that I got to give a little piece of me to an organization that is such a blessing to women!