One Thing Leads to Another-Tracking Influences

I finished up this nightstand (for the client with Not-Rapunzel's pink castle room/Tulum, Mexico home) to match a sibling's bedding...paisley, medallion flowers.

Combo of paint, scrapbook paper, ModPodge, lots of polyacrylic, and some shiny crystal drawer pulls later it earned it's $45.00 make-over.
That was last week's project.
I will travel to paint, and the distance required a hotel room or...?  Client was a friend of another trusted client, and after talking to her on the phone, decided to guest in her home while I painted two rooms for her:

1.  Dinning Room/Entry

Looking towards the left to the stairs,

To the right and straight ahead towards the great room/kitchen

And out the front windows.  You can see my blue chalk lines generously helped by a hoola hoop.

Because I needed BIG CIRCLES!

To the left, completed, looking towards the stairs.

Sideboard buffet will go on this wall.

Ahh, the shine of still wet polyacrylic sealer!  Client could not WAIT to put her new green curtains up!  You can see a peek of the strong, beautiful turquoise on the entry wall:

Making your own medallions?  Think back to your geometry lessons, bisecting circles...Circles within circles and pointed petals=two arcs.  Blue chalk showed up nicely.   Love my sidewalk chalk (the big, thick ones made for little friend fingers!)  Love my hoola-hoop tool--I bought a FLAT edged one that snugs against the wall, not the old rounded edge ones.
2.  Master Bedroom Ocean Retreat

See my art blog for more photos.

Three hour drive one way and three days of painting standing up 7 am-7 pm and I am having a day in bed reading to recover.  Couldn't do this every day, or every week, but it was fun while it lasted.  Flurry of decorating, mural-making, back to mom-me-ing.  And I think I owe a mini-quilt to a Wild Threads member?  Ooops.  That deadline is tonight?!  I am living my blog title.

Make it Fit!

I love the fabric in this dress, a shiny-satin teal paisley (Persian Pickle!)and a matte wispy version of the same pattern. After I saw this picture of me wearing it at an Alumni Association dinner, I could see how unflattering it was on me. It has sat in my closet for too long. Terrible fit in my non-waist and too long in the shoulders (it is not cool when the shoulder seam that is supposed to sit at the top of your shoulder is creeping down onto your bicep...I have narrow shoulders, thank you Grandma Laura, and a high waist. This dress was not cut out for me. Why did I buy it? Great price, fit around my chest, and that first sentence--loveLOVElove the fabric.)

So I cut it up for Emma! Minus 10 sizes, it fit her better, flattering colors...
First I carefully cut off the skirt from the bodice, sleeves off and used a Simplicity 5591 pattern to re cut the bodice. I put the pattern up against the finished edges of my dress so wouldn't have to do any edges...I took 4 inches out of the underarm.

And took the scraps from cutting down the other parts to make a quilted stomach area-- (what is this part of the dress called? Not a yoke, not a bodice, a front panel part?) You wouldn't know this is pieced from 7 scraps???