Master bedroom mural project

I wasn't really expecting to paint this mural in our bedroom.  It was perhaps a project for a wall in the basement, but we decided instead to hang up a set of 6 maps that made up a World Map.  And so while I was trying to also figure out how to improve the Feng Shui in our bedroom, I then finally decided to draw the mural in our bedroom.  Plus, the ceiling is really high and it would definitely fit the inspiration that I saw when we were at Mall of America with my sister and her family (back in February).

Here's where the inspiration came home:

Yes, it's massive!!  And that's me taking photos of it.  My sister sneakily took this photo of me.  Ha!

And here's what I ended up with :-)

And so, from the beginning we go!  The dresser used to be on this wall as we enter the room:

The original plan when we first moved in was to have the bed on that wall, but somehow it didn't seem so right.  But according to Feng Shui, you should be able to look up and see the door.  Well, better start drawing and painting then!  I did mess up with the scale a bit - drawing it a bit too short.  So I had to make quite some corrections before finally getting that scale correct.  I've never drawn anything this tall before!

I only have one blue color and so in order to make it lighter, I used water to blend it:

I figured I'd make a flower below the window sill too.  Although we won't really be able to see it since we do have longer curtains now.  But why not, since the inspiration mural had them too :-)

Okay, the 2 big "trees" are complete!

I think it took me a good part of 2 mornings to do this. It would have been a lot quicker if I didn't have to do the black outline on all the flowers and stems!

The cone flowers were probably the easiest of them all:

The flowers to the left were a bit trickier.  Especially trying to make really thin black lines.  My brushes perhaps were not the best.  Yes, I'm going to blame the brushes :-P

It was a little sparse starting out, so I free-handed a few more flowers to fill it up.  I think it turned out ok!

Almost there!  Just one more flower to the far right side:

In the meantime, I've bought a Japanese curtain (splits and opens in the middle) for the bedroom door:

I was doing something on the stairwell (putting up some peel-and-stick) and as I looked up the stairs, I noticed our bedroom door.  It made me think about Feng Shui again - how stairs can affect the energy flow. I know that you're not suppose to have stairs leading directly to your front/main door.  And sure enough, you're not suppose to have a bedroom door directly facing the stairwell too!  So maybe this curtain will help??  The first night it was up, Bobby said that he was going to the "sushi restaurant" as he walked through the curtains for bedtime.  LOL!  Too funny. That cat on the curtain is too cute though :-)

Okay, flower at the far right end is done!!

And I'm not sure if you can tell, but there's a pile of eraser shavings all along the floor. Ha!

Hmmm, not so happy with this leave.  Actually I double checked the inspiration mural and it's not suppose to look like this!

Mo' better??

All done.  Ta da!!!

Although, these flowers look kinda "jumpy".  Ha!

So I made a few changes so they look a bit more "calm" and full as well:

Had to get some semi-circles around these puffy "cloud" trees too.  Okay, I think now we are finally complete!

But that means moving the bed from the opposite wall.  Urgh... this mattress is SO HEAVY!!

Almost there!!

Phew! Taking a break and decided that I should change the position of the Japanese curtain to this side of the door instead.  Ha! I can't seem to make up my mind on a simple thing.  But yes, this is it :-P

Finally!!!

Well, Charlie gave me a 7 out of 10 and Graham gave me a 7.5 out of 10.  Supposedly the critique was because I only used blue for all the flowers.  Ha!  Well, technically my options were limited to just blue and black because those are the only 2 paint colors that I have a lot of left!  This is the same blue color that I used for our front door and black for the trim around it.

Well, this project actually didn't take as long as I had expected.  I've been thinking about the Bird of Paradise for one of the walls in our toilet area:

Something like this, but now I'm thinking that might actually clash with what I already have on the mural.  So... back to the thinking cap a bit.  May need to sleep on this for a little while before I decide on another mural.  Plus, it's starting to warm up and the weeds are popping up everywhere in the front AND back yard.  Noooo...!!  There's going to be so much yard work these next few weeks :-(

Truth be told, I haven't slept very well these past 2 days since the new bed arrangement.  Maybe something with the dresser position now? But our options are pretty limited now as to how we can arrange the other furniture. Well, if anything, Bobby says that he has been sleeping well. So that's good.  Mission accomplished?!  :-D

Oh, I forgot to mention that Bobby wants me to draw a ladybug on one of the leaves.  We'll see!!

Recent happenings

Just some random happenings.  First off, what is this squirrel thinking peeking into the birdhouse? Ha!

A friend and I went to a Vietnamese restaurant for lunch a few weeks ago.  And oh my gosh, it was a robot that delivered our drinks! How cute is that:

And what happens when you accidentally tear of the paint when trying to remove sticky double-sided tape off the wall?

You cover it up with something else of course!  This signage is perfect anyway because that's really what the boys need to do when something happens :-P

And listen up!  We bought a new needle for our record player, and it works!!

And I can't figure out what to do with my orchid.  It's really struggling!  The leaves don't look healthy. I read somewhere that it might be a sign of dehydration:

So I opened up all the stuff that was within the pot and most of the roots are rotted out. Noooo...!!

There was something about soaking it during the day and taking it out to dry at night.  I'm going to try that out for a few days and then, see what happens??

In the meantime, our onion that's sitting out is growing. What the??!!

Oh yeah... this little Pancake plant might be a goner too.  I'm killing a lot of plants well lately!

Oh wait, my lemon tree has been blooming a lot flowers lately!! Maybe we'll actually get at least ONE lemon this year??!

Bobby bought another box of food in time for the Masters golf tournament again this year.  The egg salad is rather yummy. A touch of pepper and some cucumbers on top.... YUM! Oh, those BBQ chips too to go along with it :-)

Okay, here's another project.  Trying to change the Feng Shui a bit in our bedroom.  This is the before (somewhat). Yeah, it's pretty messy!

Okay, ready to draw out the mural.  This will be the tallest mural as of yet that I'm creating to recreate:

Our options are blue and black paint. There's a lot leftover from the front door paint job from last year :-)

Even the electrical outlet is getting painted.  Ha ha!  Watch out for an update on this mural!

We went to the county's STEAM event last weekend.  So many kids involved in Robotics:

Although, there was this one random kid that was picking locks.  Graham was so excited to visit his table! Graham did managed to earn himself a Twinkie by successfully picking a lock.  Ha!

This Tesla coil was pretty neat too:

The guy timed it with music.  It was loud!

OMG, these are some cool helicopter drones! Too bad they didn't demonstrate those:

Some kids did have the trebuchet outside.  Now, that was pretty neat. They were flinging soccer balls!

And looks like someone is old enough to start mowing the grass this summer:

Yup! It's Graham!

And looks like someone else (a.k.a. Bobby) is just relaxing.  Ha ha!  

Okay, daddy caught me sitting on this swing one another time:

I'm glad Bobby is letting me drag him around still to pick up pavers.  Here are the most recent ones:

I want to update this section here - between the back deck and the outdoor fireplace. The grass gets so icky when it rains too much:

Figured it would be nice to have it paved. Since these are all the pavers we were able to get for free, perhaps something like this??!

But now I'm thinking, we might use the pavers to create a raised bed.  I picked up a couple of cucumber plants from a neighbor and I have no where to plant them.  So, stay tuned!  I am picking up a trellis tomorrow for under $10.  I'd say that is a steal! Although, I technically should be calculating the gas money too??

And while outside, I notice that my (failed) blueberry plants are making a comeback from last year.  A small one, but a comeback nonetheless!  It's so small, you can barely see it next to that rubber golf ball!!

And here is the other one.  Just maybe it will grow this year??!

On a rather solemn note, my late dad's old office has finally been cleared out.  My uncle took some of the furniture and the old safe.  OMG, it took like 5 guys to carry that heavy safe out the door! 

And while my dad's chair was removed, there was totally a stain on the ground from where he sat:

And then, when the other 2 chairs were removed, you could totally see where my dad's employee sat (top left).  And then, another obvious spot where my late mom used to sit when she ran the lab (top right):

Definitely a sad moment for all of us, but I guess life goes on.  Miss them both very much XOX