My Vintage Stripey Afghan! :O)

This is my first afghan, years ago I started a plain white one, but only did a few rows, and never finished. So this is really my first one, I taught myself to crochet about 5 years ago, and really I only know the basics, but I have fallen in love with crocheting and love it, and I plan to do a granny square afghan for Hubby with the same colors, but the light blue will be the background, and I might add a dark pink for some centers of the squares, and a big afghan for our bed, with those colors too, lol, don't know which pattern yet, maybe a ripple? I am obsessed! :O)

I have to first of all before I go on, thank Alicia Paulson for her inspiration! It was her ripple afghan you can see it here ~ http://rosylittlethings.typepad.com/posie_gets_cozy/2007/02/ripple_finale.html#comments

that gave me inspiration to do my own! I acutally went out and got yarn and started it, no, "oh I want to do that" but never actually do it, I really did it!

Also Alicia inspired me with her gorgeous granny square afghan she is working on here ~
http://rosylittlethings.typepad.com/posie_gets_cozy/2007/03/getting_the_gra.html#comments

isn't that beautiful too! You must read her blog, it is awesome!

Anyhow so I chose colors that I love and are in my decorating, I think that the green and brown tone down all the pastels so it doesn't look like a baby blanket, and for some reason it makes it look more vintage to me. I am loving it, I love the stripes with all the florals, and the multi color is so pretty, plus it makes it more fun to work on, to see how it develops.
I did end up making a pattern as you can see, I can't help it, I am anal, lol!
The colors are, in order, brown, light pink, turquoise, white, medium bright pink, green, cream and light blue.
I am just doing a double crochet, three rows of each color. Yes, the second row of brown is a little bigger than the others, I kinda screwed that one up a little, for some reason I decided to add an extra loop and stitch, kinda like a double and half crochet, except for that doesn't exist, duh! Oops, oh well, handmade imperfections give it character, right? RIGHT?? LOL!

In the above picture I have the afghan on the couch with my comforter I made out of vintage sheets and on the other side, Shabby Chic brand fabric, and the little pillow is made from fabric from JoAnn's, and the big pillow with blue flowers is vintage sheets too.

Above is a close up of it, I am currently working on the second row of cream.

And below is where it will reside when it is done. I am so happy with it!

The pillows on the left are the JoAnn fabric, and the blue with pink flowers is Shabby Chic you can buy it here ~ http://www.shabbychic.com/merchandise/bedding/sc_bed_pllw_poplin.htm

it is the boudoir pillow sham in bella rose blue, I am in love with Shabby Chic fabrics and pillows, and have tons of their stuff, in pillow shams alone, I have 17 or 18 of them! Oh my! If Hubby counted them all he would cut me off! :O0 But more about that in another post.

So that is my work in progress afghan, I am truly enjoying it and looking forward to doing more.

Butterflies and Birdies and Peeps oh my!

Here is my easter decorating, I really enjoyed doing this, spring is my favorite season, I glittered tons of stuff this easter, the lambs, some bunny statues, the eggs in the dish, and some shells and silk flowers. I just took some waterbased Varnish, you can get it in the craft paint section, and slop it on whatever you want to glitter, then sprinkle on crystal glitter and let dry! Voila, sparkly vintage inspired decorations! They used to call it "sugaring" and used real glass glitter. I love the look it gives and plan on doing it to some of my Christmas decorations.
Can you spot the peeps below in the dish?! Aren't they adorable! I have them scattered throughout my decorating. I bought them, and the birdies, and butterflies and eggs at the craft store, the butterflies came in a big pack of several, so I had to buy 2 of them, lol, if I love something I have to buy 2 of them if I can! I am obsessed with those little umbrellas too, and scatter them around as well as the butterflies.

The pink long dish was my Grandmother's from the 50's, love that pink!

Oh, and in the picure above, on the couch is my vintage stripey afghan I am working on, more about that soon!

These lambs are vintage, they were my Mom's, same with the baskets, I glittered them both, but the baskets just the inside and the handles, I did the handles because they had broken and it hides the glue! Love these lambs so much!

More peeps below..........

And yet more peeps! Can you spot the birdie in the flowers?

Ah, I can never get enough spring, or never enough glitter! :O)

Happy Spring everyone!

I Love Painting

I started painting I think it was about the year 2000, I taught myself, just by looking at other paintings and practicing.....a lot! I use acrylics, sometimes fancy artists acrylics, sometimes just craft paint. I love doing florals the best but I also love seascapes and landscapes. I might possibly venture into portraits someday too. I used to draw, usually in pencil, it's easiest to shade, all the time when I was younger, and just decided I wanted to paint. I wanted my colors in paintings to match my decorating, so I just did it myself! :O) It is very relaxing and fun.

The artists Andrea Dern and Christie Repasy are my favorites, love their style. I have used some of their paintings for inspiration.

The last painting on the bottom right is my favorite of all, I have it above my entertainment center in the living room. It's hard to see but the background is a soft blue, with white swirly wispys almost like clouds. The ship picture is a remake of a small one my Hubby bought at walmart and he has in his den, I copied it so I could put one in our living room.

The top one on the blue wall is in our bedroom, one of my firsts, along with the all white roses. See that gorgeous robin's egg blue wall? That is the color of our bedroom, I love that color so much, turquoise and pink are my favorite colors, and sometime this summer I am painting the living and dining room a lighter shade of that color, I can't wait, but more about that at a later time.

So anyhow those are some of my paintings, I just love flowers, and colors like pink, turquoise, white and green, with touches of pinky red and brown mixed in, those colors make me happy!

Oh, by the way, sometime in the future, maybe in the summer, I will be making paintings to sell on ebay, I figured why not give it a shot??!! I will let you know when I do. I am just hoping people will like them and buy them!

Welcome

Hi and welcome to The Happy Housewife ~ Decorating Adventures!

My name is Erin and I am 36, happily married 13 years with 3 cats. I am a happy housewife :O)

I love decorating and crafty stuff, and on this blog I will show creations, I am working on a vintage stripey afghan, and my decorating, which has a shabby chic vintage vibe, and my paintings, mostly florals in acrylic, and any other decorating adventures I go on I will share with you!

Please feel free to comment or ask questions, even if the post is older, I will check them and keep in touch. I love discussing decorating with others.

Yes, this is a picture of me! :O0 This was taken this past Christmas of 06, when my Hubby and I were about to go out to his company Christmas party. Um, don't ask if the blonde is natural, heehee. I am very fair and pale, but the flash makes it look even paler oh my! That is my favorite painting I did in the background, I will show them to you on another post.

I hope you all enjoy my decorating adventures!

PS. I will normally be posting a few times a week at first, so don't worry if a day goes by without a post, I will be posting shortly!