Countdown to Christmas— Day 26

I was lucky enough to have my best friend, Amy, over for a visit on Saturday. She and her family flew down from New Jersey for Thanksgiving to visit family and they stopped by to see little ole' me for the afternoon.

I LOVE winter. Too bad I live in Florida! Since I probably won't be able to wear cute and cozy sweaters very often this winter (unless I turn the A/C way down) I thought it would be fun to mess around with my yarn stash. So... Amy's daughter, Maddie and I made these adorable wreaths for the holidays! Amy, a self-professed non-crafter, enjoyed watching and chatting with us while worked.

Thanks for stopping by Amy!

Let the fun begin!

Thanksgiving 2010

We had a small gathering around the table this year, but our one and only guest was a very special one—my grandmother. We call her "Mamaw". She turned 93 last month and although she moves a little slower these days, she still wants to help me out wherever she can. She lives  just a few minutes away. We picked her up at 11am this morning and the two of us spent most of the afternoon in the kitchen together. We cooked up some Pole beans—an old family recipe—and a delicious sweet potato casserole. Plus, we made my favorite cranberry apricot sauce along with the rest of the traditional holiday fixin's. She also made sure I cleaned, dried and put away all my pots and cooking utensils BEFORE dinner (something I usually leave to clean up the next day). Then she made sure the kitchen was spic and span before we took her home. Needless to say, I'm exhausted but still so very thankful for my grandmother. 

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

Girls' Weekend— The St. Petersburg Women's Half Marathon

A First— Today my sister Melissa and our friend Kimber completed their first running race ever— a Half Marathon! Woohooo! And they picked a good one too! The St. Pete Women's Half ranks high in my book of races! The weather was perfect, in the 60's. The route was gorgeous and FLAT. Great medal and love the necklace charm that's attached. It was sponsored by Publix so we got all kinds of yummy goodies at the finish this morning and the pre-race Expo was great too! Cool goodie bag and lots of expo vendors— including 13.1 Pandora bracelet charms (which Melissa purchased)! We loved everything!

The Holiday Inn Sunspree we stayed at? Not so much. But no bed bugs (that we could see anyway). Note to self: scout our hotel out a little more thoroughly next time.

Can't forget to mention my other running buddies: my friend Melissa PR'd. Can I get a Woop! Woop!, Becky probably won another medal for her age group and Susan concluded that she'll never run another race without training for it. That makes two of us.

Great job everybody! Let's do it again soon!

Something for over the couch.

"Florida Fall"

acrylic on 40" x 40" stretch canvas

A belated birthday gift for my friend, Shona. I promised I would paint her a picture for over her couch because I couldn't stand the thought of her ordering one from a catalog. I painted this with various palette knives and my hands. No brushes necessary.

Halloween Costumes to die for...

My sister, Melissa and her husband went to a costume party last night. She just wanted to tease-up her blond hair and wear a black dress. But I would not allow that. I mean, if you're gonna dress up, do it right!

• Wig 8 bucks
• Glasses 2 bucks
• The reaction of her kids when they saw her all dressed up— Priceless

Oh yeah, and here's her other half, Brad. I glued his screw nubby things to his neck the first time with Household Goop and he claimed his neck was burning. Wimp. So we took them off and he ended up Super-glueing them to his neck. Go figure. He'll be wearing those for the next few days, at least!

They make quite the creepy couple, don't you think?

Happy Halloween!

The Neighborhood Boo— think outside the pumpkin!

These are a few Boo ideas I've made over the last couple of years. 

Details and contents are below as well as where you can get/make the goods.

My kids are really into Harry Potter and making potions, so I made this package full of creepy potion ingredients. I found some great labels online here and I changed them up a little adding my own potion names and descriptions. For some of the labels I used the name "C.W. Van Kowenhoven and Sons" as a homage to my husband's ancestors. That was their name back in the 1600's. It got shortened over the years to "Crownover". [Interesting tid-bit: Wolphert G. Van Kouwenhoven was one of the founders of New Amsterdam (New York)]. The Eyes of Newt box is a Martha Stewart craft. Love Potion #9 and Medusa's Sovereign Female Wisdom were my own creations. I could use some a dat Medusa stuff!

I made an economy size version of the Scare Package as well. 

For a FREE download of the Economy Size Boo Kit test tube potion labels and "Scare Package" tag CLICK HERE!

I used Martha Stewart's "Witch's Broom Favors" idea and super-sized it to make this Witch's Broom Boo. It was super easy. I used paper bags and a stick from the yard. I downloaded the Broom Parking sign here from The Diary of Dave's Wife blog. Thanks Dave's Wife!

  And finally, the Eyeballs Boo is just a plastic paint can (from the craft store), a light-up skull, eyeball bouncy balls (from Target) and eyeball chocolate candies. These are pictures from the 3rd Grade classroom door. The kids loved it!

Would love to hear some of your Boo ideas!

Meet the Moorgue Family

My best friend Kelley Moore decided to put her own twist on the Haunted Family photo idea. She emailed some shots to me last night and I doctored it up a bit. Aren't they just the picture of spookiness? 

Monday in my "ewe"niverse— My First GIVEAWAY!

I designed the Haunted Halloween Party Collection for my own soiree this year and thought I'd share it to with you. The BOO Banner—my very first giveaway! If you would like the FREE printable PDF file for this cool, spooky Haunted Halloween BOO Banner, DOWNLOAD IT HERE!

Don't forget to leave some ewehooo! love!  Let me know that you did by leaving me a comment.

Thanks for following my blog!!

The full Haunted Halloween Printable Collection is on SALE now!

GET YOUR'S HERE!

Happy Halloween week!

A Bloody Good Party.

I hosted Bunco on Friday night and continued with the Haunted Holiday theme. Here's the run down of what I did and where you can get the goods.

I used cheese cloth as the back drop and made the BOO banner. The skeleton nutracker  is from Target. I designed the paper wine tags and candy jar labels. The wine bottles have custom labels. I downloaded a set from Two Peas in a Bucket and designed a few of my own as well. The yummy marshmallow ghost cake was a h it and surprisingly easy to make from Martha Stewart. Same goes for the Ladie's Fingers. 

I knew I'd be gone all day Friday (the day of the party) at the Green Meadows Petting Farm Chaperoning Jackson's Kindergarten class, so (for once) I had to plan ahead for the menu. I made everything the day before and turned the crock-pot on before I left for the day. It worked out great! Thanks Mom for the Minestrone soup recipe. It was delish! And kudos to my talented friend Jennifer McCully for sharing her delicious Fluffy Apple Dip and Spinach & Cheese Swirls recipes with me. Everyone loved them. Thought I'd share the recipes with you too!

Be sure to check back on Monday in my "ewe"niverse for a special GIVEAWAY!

The House of Spirits

I love decorating for Halloween! The kids get so excited when I pull the bins out of the attic. Decided to take it easy on the outside this year and instead go all out on the inside. I made some new things this year, namely the "Come in and Sit a Spell" signs for the front steps. And of course, I incorporated our Adams Family-esque portraits as well.

The kids were so excited when they came home from school and saw the decked out house. Jackson ran up to his room and came down with this skeleton eraser he had gotten from the Kindergarten Treasure Box at school. He taped it on the wall himself and then proudly showed me his Halloween decorating contribution. 

The Paper Pumpkin

After you've curled up to enjoy a good book, might want to consider turning it into a pumpkin when you're done with it. This was so easy to make! I was just getting ready to call it a day and put my Mac to sleep when I came across the instructions to make this adorable paper pumpkin and I decided to stay up and make it. Here are the easy-peasy instructions The Craftberry Bush. My paper pumpkin features the pages from The Nanny Diaries.

Fall Trees

Behold— The only "color" we'll see in Florida this Fall. I wish I take the kids up north to see the leaves turn, but this'll have to do. Jackson is learning about Fall colors in Kindergarten and he's decided to collect "Fall leaves" as he calls them. I don't have the heart to tell him he's actually just collecting a bunch of dead leaves. My purse is full of his lovely collection.

This forest is suspended from the ceiling in the hallway of the kids' school. I made this forest from boxes I've been collecting for about a month now. When I spotted a Samsung flat screen TV box hanging out of a dumpster I thought I hit the mother load. I painted newspaper to make the leaves.

Happy Fall!

Monday in my "ewe"niverse— a Freaky Family Portrait

I was having another bad hair day, so I said to myself, "Self, why don't you turn your bad-hair day into a positive for once and have some fun with it?" So I did.

Happy Halloween! It's embarrassing to admit this, but we have not gotten a family portrait taken since before Jackson was born (he's 5). My poor second child. Well, thanks to my bad-hair day and my trusty assistant (and niece) Jessica, we finally got our act together for this Adams Family-esque home-spun photo shoot. Jessica assisted with wardrobe, herding the cats and a little photoshop action. Thank you Jessica!! Jackson was surprisingly cooperative wearing the coke bottle glasses and Wesley didn't have to smile for this picture anyway, so no problems there. These lovely portraits are now hung on the walls in our living room, which I've decorated for the occasion. I'll post that later this week! 

Just what "ewe" wanted to see— more of upstairs

Just thought I'd add to my post from June on the Boys' Bedroom. This is a view of the upstairs landing from the boys' bedroom. People say the upstairs looks like the hull of a (small) ship. I have to agree that it's pretty tight quarters, but we've tried to make it feel as roomy as possible.

• The Wooden Arch— As I noted before, my brother-in-law carved the arch out from a tree branch that was in his yard. You can see the arched front door downstairs. There are several arched doorways in our house, so we carried the arches upstairs as well. This arch has double pocket doors.
•Interior Colors Reflect the Home's Brown and White Tudor Style— We painted the tongue-and-groove walls white with dark stained trim to family with the traditional brown and white tudor exterior.
• The Star Light— If I had to pick a favorite thing, that star light would be it.
•The Other Rooms— The door to the left of the stairwell opens to the boys' bathroom. And behind the door on the right is my husband's office.
•Making Space for Storage— Wanting to make use of every available inch of space, we built shelves on either side of the upstairs landing that are actually "secret" doors to valuable attic space.

1. Shower—The bathroom turned out to be pretty big and with all the fantangled shower heads we put in, I kind of wish it was OUR master bathroom rather than the kids'!
2. Cabinets— Four foot high custom cabinets flank one entire wall of the bathroom bumping up to the slanted ceiling.
3. Secret Opening— The slanted wall to the left of the hanging red pirate hoodie towels actually leads to more storage space behind the shower. That's where I keep my holiday decorations!
4. Pirate— That's a pirate skeleton hanging on that towel hook. See "Ship's Hull" reference. Hence, the pirate theme for the bathroom.
5. Mirror— In an effort to try and make the bathroom feel as roomy as possible, we had mirrors cut to fit counter to ceiling surrounding the sink.

That's about it! Thanks for taking a peek! Have a great week!

Fall in Florida

"Tweeting in the Rain"

4"x12" Acrylics Painting on Stretch Canvas

I'm an artist and I commit to thrive.

Funny thing, I'm always so proud to say I had a successful fifteen year career in advertising—building brands, developing ad campaigns, traveling abroad and wooing clients. But when people ask me what I'm doing now, I have a really hard time saying, "I'm an artist". I feel like people don't take me seriously, like art is my play time while my kids are at school—not "a real job". I feel like the precious little time I have to create, and the creations themselves are undervalued. Is it just me, or are artists as a whole undervalued?

The good news is that after all these years I've come full circle and I finally have the courage to dive in and do what I love. Well, that and a husband who is incredibly supportive of everything I do and want to be. I can get lost in my own creative world. It makes my heart sing. And I'm committed to becoming a thriving artist. And what I'm realizing is that my commitment to thrive is no less important than other people and their passions. We can no longer separate one career from another. As long as we have passion, the right attitude and a complete dedication and commitment to our work we can thrive at what we do.

My name is Melanie Crownover and I'm an artist. There! I said it! 

Monday in my "ewe"niverse— The Asheville Half

Tuesday— Back from a fun weekend in Asheville with my running girls! I recommend the Asheville Half to anyone thinking about running a full marathon, but doesn't have the time (or inclination) to train for one. The route was hilly, but beautiful and we were so surprised to see all the people who came out of their homes to cheer us on. The weather was perfect, 60º and sunny.

I love Asheville! It's full of inspiration at every turn. Here are some highlights from our trip.

From the top left: Iron Sunflower sculpture at The Grove Park Inn garden; The Biltmore; Susan and Becky smiling for the camera with Susan's birthday brownies; Barber's Apple Orchard in Waynesville; Prayer Boxes by Holden McCurry; Dog sculpture that Susan said looked like something out of the game Operation; the rose garden at the Biltmore; a painting at Traditions—a store on Biltmore property; Tupelo Honey Cafe— a must restaurant; Melissa and Susan sitting at Carmel's—another yummy restaurant; The Greenhouse at the Biltmore and  the life-size Flat Iron sculpture across from the eight story Flat Iron Building in Asheville.

From the top left: a view looking up the four story, winding staircase at the Bilmore; Flowering Maple in the Biltmore gardens; pottery I love; the Balsam Mountain Inn; and a scarecrow on the farm at the Biltmore.

Thanks for a great weekend girls!

Monday in my "ewe"niverse"— my studio.

Thought I'd give "ewe" a peek into where I spend most of my time when my kids are either at school or sleeping. Wanted to do this while the room is actually straightened up because it's a lot like my kitchen— it's only clean until the next meal, or in this case, my next project. I need to give a special shout out to my parents, Chandler and Jessica for finally hanging my cork board that was propped up on crates for months and also the picture shelves that were a garage sale find from my own Mother's garage! Priceless.

A couple of years ago, I decided it would be best to move my make-shift art studio (that some might refer to as a cluttered mess) from the dining room table to our detached garage out back. Once a dilapidated storage room, this previously unused space is now my studio/laundry room. You'll notice the windows on the left give me a bird's-eye view of our tiny backyard and the ever-popular trampoline. This afternoon while I was taking these pictures, Jackson (my 5 year old) was jumping on the trampoline while constantly talking to me on our walkie-talkies. It's amazing that I got any pictures taken between transmissions of, "What are you doing Mommy?, "Come jump with me Mommy!" and "Mommy watch this!".

About the laundry thing, I like having clean clothes, but I can't stand doing laundry. So I figured if we put the washer and dryer in the same room where I create, it might be less painful for me to do the dreaded laundry. Conclusion? Still a painstaking task. 

What's with all the corks? Well, I didn't drink all that wine, just some of it. The rest of the corks were given to me by friends and family. I was collecting them pretty heavily for years with the anticipation of making a huge cork board, but I got bored with that idea. I'll find something to do with them one of these days. Same goes for my button collection... and my bucket of sticks. Don't ask.


Happy Monday everybody!

Inspired to Draw

Quick Sketch

inked and colored with Pastels

I've been reading the book,  "Drawing Lab" by Carla Sonheim. The first assignment was to draw cats. Well, I hate cats (sorry all you cat lovers out there) so I decided to draw my little buddies instead. 

The directions were to curl up in bed with a piece of paper and a pencil and spend ten minutes drawing as many cats as possible with the paper resting on a pillow. Ok, so I wasn't in bed when I did this assignment, I was at Wesley's football practice. I have to say, I've got quite the set up on the sidelines. I bring a camp chair for myself and sometimes a kid-size one for Jackson. I roll out a cooler complete with fruit, ice water an other yummy snacks and I always carry my bag of art books and magazines to peruse. Sometimes I even bring Max and Birdie to practice too!


I quickly sketched a bunch of Birdies (she's the one on the right). She was pretty easy and fun to draw. She's so teeny-tiny compared to big ole Max. Max, on the other hand, was a little more difficult to capture. His look evolved quite a bit as I drew him over and over. 


 I've always wanted to write and illustrate a children's story about my dogs. "The Adventures of Max and Birdie." Maybe one day!