mural painting at mom's house

I found these old photos the other day from maybe five years ago. The mister and I were visiting my mom's house, and she suggested that we paint a tree mural on the guest room wall together. Just the kind of project I like working on!

First, I used a nice, soft pencil (or possibly charcoal?) to sketch out the tree.

Then Mom and I used artist's acrylics to paint in the bark together. Lots of chatting, too, of course.

I'm pretty sure we were done in a day. Of course, that was before I had my kiddo. If I were to have attempted such a thing with my sweetheart in tow, I imagine it still wouldn't be done. ;)

I hear tell that Mom's since added leaves to the tree, but I haven't been out lately to take a peek for myself. There's a set of bunk beds in there now too, for the grandkids, that I always picture looking just like a treehouse.

So: what kind of projects have you collaborated on? Ever take on a big project with a parent?

Thanks for reading! If you're interested, here's a link to a previous post I did about the blue tree mural I painted in my kiddo's room. It took more than a day, as I recall, but then, I was a new mama working on my own, so I try to go easy on myself.

And here's a link to a post I wrote about repairing the mural, after my busy toddler tried to peel all the paint off his wall during nap time one afternoon.

p.s. you can make these images larger just by clicking on them, but you probably already knew that!

naptime mischief

Awhile back, I wrote about the mural I painted in my kiddo's bedroom. Here's one of the images from that post:

My guy's two-and-a-half now, and we're trying to accommodate his increasing independence. The idea of converting the crib to a toddler bed turned out to be a bad one though, so within a couple of days, we'd converted it back.

Unfortunately, one of the picture frames I'd removed from the bed's new location had left an air bubble under the paint. And, well, you can probably guess what happened from there.

All told, he peeled all the paint off of an area about eighteen inches across. He must have gotten started as soon as I'd closed the bedroom door; this wasn't the only piece of mischief he'd accomplished . . . yikes. That kid is something else.

Happily, we'd built the wall ourselves and painted it using modern paint, so lead exposure wasn't a concern here. Still, that was a bad time.

I phoned my dad for advice on fixing the wall.

His solution called for spreading joint compound over the entire area (available pre-mixed in little buckets at the hardware store), nice and thin. I let it cure for almost a week in the heat, then rolled some primer over the patch, and three coats of paint leftover from the original room painting (lucky lucky!).

Next, I pulled out my acrylic paints for repair and blended the old and new together as best I could, plus one apple.

It looks different from before . . .

but I think I actually like it better now. So far so good; the new apple hasn't tempted him yet!

So, what unexpected projects have you taken on due to your little troublemakers? Do tell!

Thanks for reading.


p.s. you can make these photos larger just by clicking on them, but you probably already knew that.


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a tree grows in the nursery

I've been planning this project since before my sweet little bird was born, and finally decided to go ahead and finish it!




While I was pregnant, a friend who stayed in the room for a few months chose the sunny yellow wall color; I decided on a blue tree.




I first drew the tree on the wall in pencil, then filled it in with zero-VOC primer. I found some soy-based acrylic paints at the craft store, which have a matte finish and a lower environmental impact. Once cured, the paint seems to adhere really well to the wall.




The tree continues from the wall onto the ceiling.




The two little blue jays are guarding a little nest with a pretty speckled egg.




An assemblage on the facing wall.




Curtains, a chair slipcover, and a Boppy cover made from some fun origami-print fabric from Ikea, and a stripe from a woven tablecloth.