June Painting Projects

I'm running away for the summer. I'm packing up my kids and bathing suits and heading up north, away from the heat, for all of July and August. 

Since I'm haven't been trying to book summer mural painting jobs, I've freed up some extra time  on weekends and afternoons to tackle some of my own home design projects.  I thought I'd share some of my efforts in one easy post. Check out what I've been getting up to and let me know what you think!

I started the month with hand painting a number of pieces of furniture including a fabric chair and side table and four plastic kitchen chairs. (I started working on redoing an old wooden coffee table, but it got too hot, so I'll finish that later). After two weeks on furniture, I figured I needed a few more kid-friendly mural elements in my house because , well, why not? I have wall space. I painted a frame wall for the kid's artwork (well, "artwork") in the playroom. Then I decided that the boys needed a bear in their room. Obviously.

What do you think?

Journaling

I've never been one to keep a journal. Well, except for the college travel journal that I found the other day from when I was going through my "writer" phase which of course immediately followed my "photographer" phase. These aren't unnecessary quotation marks, I'm sorry to say. I was terrible at both but thought that I was quite edgy and uniquely creative. I wonder if college students go through those phases today. Blogging and instagram have made constant writers and photographers out of everyone, so maybe the artist phases of the past have now just become life as usual. But I digress...

Journaling... it's never been my thing. I didn't have a diary as a kid and I only kept art journals when they were class requirements. I love the idea and am a collector of journals and sketch books like so many 

closet creatives

. So, I am giving myself a summer challenge. I bought (yet another) fresh sketch book - my NEW! 

Journal of Artistic Things and Day to Day Banality

. I will write, sketch, doodle or paint in it EVERY DAY for at least 10 minutes in hopes to improve my artistic chops and capture a bit of life by and by. I hope to share anything good in (semi) regular posts. Think I can stick to it this time? I really hope so.

T-Rex Found a Home

My kids go to a pretty magical school. It's not for everybody, but fits my dear, feral children perfectly. At Habibi's Hutch painting is a big part of the curriculum - mostly painting each other, but that's how we roll anyway, and I'm quite happy with it. I dropped my kids off last week, showed a picture of the Austin Mini Maker Faire T-Rex mural, and asked Andrew if he wanted it. "Oh yeah! We'd love that." Bam! And there it was. Right at home.

Sadly, this past weekend's rainstorm led to T-Rex's quick demise and he is no longer with us. I didn't even get a picture to show you. But, I have promised Habibi's a new mural, and this time it will be painted onto a more permanent wall which can withstand the Texas weather. T-Rex will live again!

I know that a T-Rex in downtown Austin with a UFO and a few grackles may not be the ideal mural for every school, but it fits Habibi's perfectly. It's important for things to fit. I want to keep making things that fit, and I'm always looking for places to make them.

Do you have kids in school or daycare? Could they use a mural that perfectly fits the personality of the place? Let them know about me. Share this post. I love to work with groups of teachers or kids from design to implementation. Let's keep making art together.

Painting Manly Things

We have some old, dingy Ikea furniture in our bedroom that is starting to feel sad. I generally wait until something is completely nonfunctional to replace it. Until then I come up with wonderful and creative ideas to revive the piece, talk about my ideas, think on them, forget about them for awhile, come up with other ideas, talk about those, add the projects to my to-do list, and generally procrastinate until that piece of furniture actually does fall apart. 

Early last month I needed to fill space in a 10 by 10 foot booth for an expo, so I was finally motivated (by necessity) to actually tackle one of my projects.  I took my old, dingy Ikea chair and nightstand, jumped on the hipster bandwagon, and put a bird on it. Pretty cute, right?

But then my husband started to whine a bit, because his old, dingy Ikea chair and nightstand were still sad. "Paint mine, too! But something manly." So that has been on my project to-do list for about two months now. It's amazing how easily I can avoid my own projects. I'm completely on top of projects for other people, but just can't get around to my own. Ever. No really. You should see my list.

Well, my husband finally offered to pay me to just do it already. I only charged him $20 bucks, but it was done by the end of the weekend. What do you think? Manly enough?

Being an Austin Mini Maker

I had the wonderful privilege of being selected as an official maker at the Austin Mini Maker Faire at the Parmer Event Center this past weekend. What a riot. I am completely reenergized and inspired. I had no idea how popular and fun this project would be.

Avery O Design hosted a Community Paint-By-Number Mural Project that was visited by over 100 visitors and young artists throughout the day. A number of kids came back multiple times throughout the day and a few stayed hours at a time.

Check out the amazing progression of our friendly T-Rex:

So now begins my new philanthropic goal for Avery O Design! I plan to direct 10% of all business income to philanthropic community projects with kids or free custom murals for small non-profits.

So, help me make an impact! Hire Avery O Design for a custom mural or painted furniture piece, and help make a difference in your community.

Painting with Children

I want so badly to be one of those artsy and crafty moms who comes up amazing projects to do with my kids. I bought one of those cute multipurpose easels and imagined our artistic life together would look a bit like this: we would enjoy quiet afternoons on the porch listening to jazz on the record player, paintbrushes in hand. The boys would calmly paint colorful abstract toddler art that I would later frame and hang in the playroom. I would be able to watch them happily work and complete one of my own many creative projects. 

I'm building my career as a painter. Painting with my kids just makes sense. 

But really art time at my house looks like this.

But we kind of like it this way. It still gives me something to frame and put on my wall, and now I have a couch that is ready to for a new makeover.

And So It Begins

I sort of fell into this endeavor.  The idea came to me three years ago when I painted my son's room. I was pretty proud of it and got a lot of love from the friends and co-workers I showed it off to. How could you not appreciate a room that makes this cute little guy so happy?

But, I was still working full time, and it took another two and a half years, another baby and a few more mural projects in my own home to encourage me to give this a go as a business endeavor. That and a major identity crises that came along with my entrance into stay-at-home motherhood.

Having "mom" as my sole identifier was terrifying. According to Pinterest and the plethora of mommy blogs out there, I am an epic failure. I don't have quiet time activity kits. My attempts and making zucchini tots and broccoli bites are a mess. I don't have any interesting uses for cut up pool noodles or cornstarch. When people ask what I do, I hate saying "I'm a stay-at-home mom" because I don't even feel like I'm great at it.

So I've taken a leap. Here I am with my own little startup business, hoping to bring some color into others' spaces. I'm still trying on new identifiers - artist, designer, painter. But when someone asks me what I do, the greater truth is that I build forts, I do laundry, I cuddle, I paint, I create and I just try to have a hell of a good time.