Hand-Stenciled Wall

I was getting bored with my living room wall and decided that a much need change was in order. If you are a renter like me, you will know what I am talking about. I asked permission to paint a stencil on the wall of my landlord. Luckily he said YES!  So, I then of course turned to Pinterest for inspiration. I found this link for a template at Jones Design  Co. and decided to use it. http://jonesdesigncompany.com/decorate/painted-wallpaper-a-tutorial/. I decided to go with white paint (house paint) like she did in her tutorial and instead of using pencil to trace the template, I used white chalk. Which is better because you don't have to go over and erase where you went off track. I bought chalk (because I ran out) at Walmart for 47 cents, for a whole pack. I originally had this wall painted for FREE because I found left over white paint in my rental house. But thanks to the chalk thing, it is now my 47 cent wall. I know I am such a big spender. Pictures of my lovely progress are below! I will post the finished product later. The first photo is just the chalk stenciling. It is a tedious process but I love my wall so far!

Crazy Dreams

Last night I dreamed that my husband was a lion, all furry and huge similar to the one from Chronicles of Narnia. To add to the strangeness, I had to take him to church. He came in with me, my mother freaked out when she saw him. I was nervous to bring him in, but he seem to handle it just fine, he hung out underneath the bench during sacrament. He never attacked me or anyone and then we left to go home. And then I woke up. Take about the weirdest dream ever. 


So I decided to look up what it means, the closest I could find on it was what the meaning behind see a lion in a dream. On the website, Dream Moods Dictionary it reads: "To see a lion in your dream symbolizes great strength, courage, aggression and power. You will overcome some of your emotional difficulties. As king of the jungle, the lion also represents dignity, royalty, leadership, pride and domination. You have much influence over others. You also need to exercise some restraint in your own personal and social life. Alternatively, a lion represents your need for control over others. You have to be in charge." I guess I see my hubby as a powerful person. 


My dreams have been really strange lately, as noted above. Luckily, I am on summer break and job searching as I write here. Hopefully I will be able to find a summer job! Until then, have some crazy dreams and tell me all about it if you would like. 

The Mirror, The Queen, and Snow White

I have completed my silhouette cut out of a fairy tale story of my choice, that being of Snow White. I wanted to show more of the Queen's involvement in the story so she is in the center and in the mirror's reflection. I hope you all like it! It was very hard and time consuming.

Calamity Annie

Stephen and I watched Calamity Jane, can you believe that he had never seen it before? He thought it was pretty hilarious! My favorite part of the movie is when Calamity and Wild Bill Hickok are singing "I Can Do Without You." I was singing along with this part and Stephen thought I was crazy.

We are trying to throw a birthday party for me coming up in the next week or so to go see Jester'z Improv Comedy and invite a few friends and family. I have not seen them perform since Stephen and I first started dating. I am pretty excited for my birthday. I tried convincing Stephen into letting me open my presents yesterday because I was suppose to be born a week before I actually was. He wouldn't go for it though :(. 

I am pretty much bogged down with assignments already for this semester. Creating calamity and a paint mess everywhere in the house! I am currently working on three, no make that four. The first one that I have been working on for several hours today is painting with acrylic paints, the color wheel. We are suppose to make it without brush marks, which is soooo unbelievably hard to do! The second one is contour lines for my drawing class, the third is a black and white paper cut are of Snow White and the Evil Queen, and the fourth is a color slide transitioning between two colors such as red and green and combining them smoothly in one inch squares on bristol. I am exhausted already. Hopefully I can get at least half that done before tomorrow. Well, better get back to work. I will post pictures later of my art projects.

Home Decor and Fun Craft Creations

New Blog design and name! I figured that a blog style and name that fitted what we are trying to find is better. So, Persons' Paradise sounded like a great idea. I feel that even though things are not always easy or enjoyable that I should find the paradise in the disaster.

We have been in our new rental house for a few months now, and still getting things situated. Stephen last night put up the living room curtains, he even made the curtain rod himself! I made some poms for just fun decoration and to bring in some color, plus it is my birthday coming up next month. I can't believe that I will be turning 24. I still have to think whether I am 18 or 20 still.

 The Poms I made, they are addicting to make! I got the idea from above.
The painting of the mountains and river, I made last year.
I still need to work on it a bit, seeing as the river looks more like Grand Rapids. Pretty choppy looking.

Photograph of temple statue that I took last semester in Photography class.

We are still working on the kitchen island that my parents gave to us for Christmas...still in progress mode, but I will post some pictures of that here later. We cut the back board for it and are positioning the tile on it to see how it looks. I have been busy in school this semester. I made the Dean's List for the Herberger Art School in ASU! Stephen is in his last semester of rotations for Pharmacy, he will be graduating in June, which we are very excited for! Other than that we are just running along the normal route of life, school, work, cleaning and decorating a house.