Life By Lindsey Rae

So, we have to do something with the walls in our kitchen, because, they are painted with flat paint and it's the same problem as in the bathrooms where the high moisture areas don't do well with it.
I was wanting to do a tile back splash because I think that the kitchen walls can get stuff on them so easily, even if they are painted with a glossier paint, having tile will keep it cleaner looking...and be easier to clean up. I mean, it almost seems necessary to have something on the wall: you just get one single small splash of something greasy up there and it's done for. If it's too oily, you have to re-primer before you re-paint.

I told Jerrod I thought it would be a good idea, but he didn't seem to care either way. Then suddenly last week he became convinced he wanted one. So, we did some looking around....I have done quite a bit of looking around, because I know exactly what I want (surprisingly for once!) and I'm trying to find something decent priced. I want a mosaic with a glass and stone blend. I need to have glass, because I do mosaic art and I am a bit of a glass freak. But, in the case of this kitchen, I think some stone it will look good too. The blended look is really nice. We actually found something, but it's more expensive than I had hoped. Now I have to do a lot of research to find a better price!

I was able to snag a sample today from a tile-shop downtown and it looks pretty good in in the kitchen. The above picture is the sample. More browns in it than I would have thought I'd want, but it seems to work.

Today was a little warmer, finally. Not that you can expect much in January. Even in Tennessee it gets chilly in the winter. But, today was alright for January weather. I have been waiting for a day when I could spray around my house for bugs and took the opportunity to do so today.
You may think that there would not be bugs this time of year, but in Tennessee, there is. As soon as there gets a semi-warm day, they are out and about and coming to find me. As I have mentioned before, I have a deep and intense fear and hatred of most insects, so I have to prevent them from coming near me and my house whenever possible.
I have some pretty good bug spray that I got at Wal-Mart a few couple ago. It was only about $7 for a huge jug of it and I used to drench the outside of my apartment with it. It seemed to help more than when I would get the apartment to send their pest control people over. I put it around the doors, windows, baseboards and pretty much anywhere else that the instructions say to and I could think of. Hopefully this will keep them away. It took awhile to do the entire house inside and out, but it will be worth it if I don't have to see them...especially the ones that I am really terrified of. Hopefully those ones only live in Nashville and not Mt. Juliet.

Jerrod and I also went for a walk around the neighborhood. There is still a lot of construction around here and we like to see what everyone else is doing to their houses and what options they are choosing. I'm still convinced that we got one of best lots and that we made some of the best choices we could have for options.
When I look at some of these houses and at the colors some people choose, I realize a lot of people just don't have an eye for these things. It kind of baffles my mind a little bit how they can mess these things up when all the choices are just neutral, but sometimes, they just do. Just the way I need help with technical and logical things as an artistic person, people who are not artistic need artistic help with these sorts of things.
It pains my soul to see it happen. They just need someone with an eye to tell them, "No!"

Oh, another funny thing: we just had a neighbor move in behind us and one of the first things they did when they got here was install an outdoor ceiling fan on the patio. It's so funny because they keep turning it on when the temperature was practically freezing. (It is January). I guess they're really trying to cool it down outside!

Two things actually.

First: The dollar! The Canadian dollar is actually worth something! Basically equal to the almighty American dollar. A few years back this would have been great news for me and SO helpful when I was getting my money for student loans and trying to convert my Canadian money to American. I could have actually not lost money on it. However, now that I am paying them back, with the American dollars that we make, it would benefit me a lot more if the US dollar were stronger, because I could get more out of every dollar I pay back.
Why does that happen like that? It's like totally opposite of what I needed. Funny how things can work out totally backward. And unfortunately, it's one of those things that nobody can do anything about.
But it's just crazy that a few years back we only got like $0.60 on the dollar and now they are practically equal!

Another thing that I finally did was paint! I have been thinking and scheming about these paintings I want to do for months now. I have changed my mind about 300 times about what I was going to do...what colors....what size...so much, that I was terrified to actually start something for fear that I would finish it and then think of something better after it was done. These are really important to me because I want these to be for a big wall in my living room and they are going to be a focal point of the room. So, I was so nervous about actually making a decision, since I had so many ideas; I couldn't figure out what it was that I really wanted.
But on Wednesday night Jerrod had to go to Florida for an overnight business trip, so I decided that this would be a good time to work on my paintings...in the house...in the living room. (What Jerrod doesn't see will not stress him out. haha) So, since I had the opportunity to make a mess, I was forced to finally made a decision. First,I got 3 canvases...on sale for $10 each, 30"x40". (When I am done my total size artwork size combined will be 90"x40" which will be really cool, 'cause that's huge.) I started, but then I got a better idea and changed my mind again! But I think I finally have it. And I am almost finished one of them! I think I could have got more done if I hadn't changed my mind about it in the middle. But, anyway, I was finally able to mix the one right color that I wanted and I am very excited about that. I tested it a bunch first and finally I got the perfect shades. Color mixing is very, very difficult. I got some good colors though and I am just so glad that I finally made up my mind about what I'm going to do so I can stop worrying about it. I really do drive myself crazy. I love being an artist, but sometimes I think it's a curse because it can make your head hurt. I really do understand why so many creative people had/have mental disorders.
I would post a picture of what I made, but I need to finish a little more first. I have to go buy a little more paint tomorrow, since I wasted more than expected while experimenting.

Thursday night was the long awaited Nashville Zoo benefit auction. As I wrote in a previous post, I had heard about it a couple of months ago and we really had wanted to go to get a Meerkat painting.
There was quite a few different paintings there by a variety of animal "artists." I had only seen Elephant paintings previously and would like to get one of those someday. Those are actually really neat, because they elephants have a really distinct style and their paintings actually look like something, since they teach them to use a paintbrush.
Most of the paintings were animal footprints on paper. But there were some different styles too. They had one where they put paint on a horses whiskers and he put his whisker prints on paper and another where a cow had made tail prints on paper. I kind of wanted a cow painting too.

Anyhow, our goal was to get a Meerkat painting and there were 3 for sale. It was a silent auction. We bid on all of them. Jerrod wanted to get all of them, but there was a girl who was wanting 2 of them and she sniped them by sitting beside them in her wheelchair until the end of the auction. She kept watching us and was very irritated when we came over and bid them up. Fortunately for her, we had won our painting a little earlier and so we let the last two go...we thought the one we got was the best anyway. But, that other girl was lucky to have won hers because I get pretty competitive with auctions, so I might have kept on bidding just because I want to win! Jerrod wants to go back next year and possibly get another painting and build a collection. It's for a good cause, I guess. And, it's very original art!

A couple of nights ago, I was out in the garage working on a mosaic table. While I was breaking glass with a hammer on the floor (Jerrod's favorite thing to see. haha) I happened to have my head up for a moment an saw a furry tail in the air. My first thought was that it was a neighbors cat come to annoy me again, and in the moment I would have gone to try and get it away, I realized that it was actually a skunk! As I was sitting in my garage, a skunk walked right in and sat down almost beside me. I panicked! But, silently, thank goodness, because the usual kind of loud panic I usually have when I see a bug or something would have not worked out well in this situation.
I ran into the house to tell Jerrod about it and he said to just stay inside and that it would go away. But, I said, I don't think that is a good idea, because he might wander further in and decide to hide somewhere and then when won't know where he is and when we need to close the door later, we have no way of knowing if he is locked in!

So, Jerrod said to go watch him. So, I had to go watch him. I went out and stood in the driveway, behind the car and tried to keep my eye on him to see where he would go next...hoping it would be out. But, he wasn't in any hurry to leave. He made himself quite comfortable curled up in a little ball in a corner. It was in this moment that I realized that I had never before thought of how to deal with an intruding skunk. Because, trying to make him leave could be disastrous. So, I was more annoyed then anything because of the fact that he interrupted me while I was hard at work making a mess with glass.

After a little bit he finally did waddle away. I was pretty glad about that. I have seen skunks around in the flower beds and stuff before, but they have never actually tried to come inside. He better not come back though. Not that he would really care what I think and I'm pretty sure he would win if we ever got in an argument about it.

Below is a picture of the table I am working on. I get stained glass scraps and broken glass and break them with a hammer to shape them closer to how I want them. I also put silver leaf on the backs of a lot to add a metallic shine and to lighten up the color. That takes a long time. Then. I arrange them, kind of like putting a puzzle together and glue them down and then after that, do the grout. It's got a way to go until it will match the previous one I made, which is below this.
These are a few pictures of a coffee table I did last year. Unfortunately, the pictures really don't show what it truly looks like because it's almost impossible to capture the look of stained glass and mirror in a photo. It looks much better in real life...but this is a little bit of an idea.


And a few other things I made with my broken glass....The first thing I tried was this mirror covered box. I got a wooden box, painted it and covered it with broken mirror. The mirror was all free because I ended up getting a ton of it from some people on craigslist who gave me some old broken ones for free! This was an experiment to see if I would like doing mosaics.

These "Love" letters were done on letter forms with mirrors and black grout.

I found this big pot and plant stand at my appartment...someone didn't want them, so I claimed them for free! I painted the stand with textured paint and then did the rest in mosaics with the matching pot.


This globe was another Craigslist find. It was a regular globe, I got for $4. I sealed it and then got tiny pieces of glass and covered each country with a different color.
I really liked it the best before it was finished, but now wish I had not done the ocean area with mirror. It reflects too much and takes away from the colors of the stained glass. I don't like the white grout either, so I might try staining that. It has become a very heavy globe. That's a lot of glass on there!

Yesterday I got an anniversary present, even though our anniversary date is not until the 25th. UPS brought it and Jerrod asked me if I wanted to open it...he always does that to me! And it drives me crazy because of course I want my present now, but I also want to save it so I have something special on the the day. So, I decided to wait to open it. But, then he convinced me because he said he wanted to see if it was OK and check it out in case he needed to return it, since he had bought it online...and didn't want to wait until the 25th, 'cause it might be too long. What a dilemma.
So, I opened it. I guess that's a good enough excuse right? I got a waterfall fountain for the new house. That's something I always wanted in my house...its a big one...like 5 feet tall. I always wanted something like that in an an entry way, but thinking of the space in my head, I don't think I would want to put it there in the new house. However I have other ideas...my brain is way too full of too many ideas all the time, but anyhow, I think I have some places I will want to put it. It also has an Asian look to it, which of course is great. So, I'm pretty happy about it.

I always have a hard time buying something for Jerrod...just because it's so much harder buying for boys! But I had the perfect idea....I thought. Jerrod loves Meerkats...we always watch Meerkat Manor...it's the best show...really funny and very interesting and I highly recommend it. I mean look at these little guys; how can you not love them? And they are so smart with the things they do...it's hard to explain...you just have to watch it.
A few years ago I saw these paintings that were done by elephants at the Nashville Zoo. They sell them to raise money to keep them. (I learned it costs them $900 a day to feed one elephant! That's what the told me when I told them it's too expensive to go to the Nashville Zoo. haha.) The paintings were really neat and I wanted to get one in the future. An elephant can paint better than you might think. Well, the other day I was watching the news and they were showing some local happenings, one being scenes from the zoo and I saw that they had the Nashville Meerkats doing some paintings too! They like, dip their little feet in paint and then let them run around on paper or something. I thought it was the coolest thing ever! This would be the perfect idea for Jerrod because it was so original. So, I contacted the zoo and found out that they were letting the Meerkats paint to sell at an auction fundraiser, which is not until July and that's the only way to get one! It's one of those dinner auction things. So, I had to tell Jerrod about it. It was too neat not to tell him; I couldn't keep it in...I wish he could have seen them on the news. But, I had to tell him that my great idea was turning out to be not so great because I couldn't get it by our anniversary. But, he said yesterday he still wants it. So, we are gonna go to the dinner and try to get one. It's a charity thing, so it's good. Gotta keep the elephants eating. And I want a Meerkat painting!!! For Jerrod, of course. :)