Sunday, December 12, 2010

Reclaimed Wood Assemblage Art Piece

I have completed my first assemblage piece for FindersKeepers which can now purchased at my Etsy shop here! There will be more to come soon. This piece is made completely out of reclaimed wood. Each piece has been sanded and oiled with a natural oil to bring out the beauty of the color and wood grain. Here are a few photos of it!






Friday, December 10, 2010

New artwork in progress

The past several years I've been creating a lot of collage and assemblage artworks. I love finding small treasures and discarded objects and incorporating them into my artwork. A few years ago I started creating assemblages out of discarded wood. I just love finding old weathered wood, even better if it has old text and paint on it! Here are a few I've created.





When I started FindersKeepers Designs, my intention was to create these in a smaller scale, a more mail and budget friendly size so they could be purchased in my shop. Instead I started creating pillows and got pretty busy making them. Well last weekend I finally started work on my first wood assemblage piece for FindersKeepers and I'm pretty excited about it! I'm hoping to finish the first one this weekend. Once completed I will be taking photos and posting them here. It will be for sale in my Etsy shop and there will be more to come! So in addition to pillows FindersKeepers will soon be selling wall art pieces made almost entirely of recycled/found materials. Check back soon for photos!

Thursday, December 9, 2010

FindersKeepers Designs now in local San Diego store!

Good news! If you live in San Diego or are just visiting you can now purchase a few of my pillow designs at Pigment located a 3827 30th Street, San Diego, CA 92104 in North Park. This store is one of my favorites in San Diego! They have so many cute modern home furnishings and accessories! Go check them out!




Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Eco friendly decorative pillow

Just finished this deer pillow last night! It's made completely out of eco-felt which is made from 100% post consumer recycled plastic bottles. This little pillow prevented a few plastic bottles from going into the landfill! It's soft too!

Monday, November 29, 2010

Feeling Groovy

Remember those groovy room beads that people hung in their windows and doorways in the 1960's? Those were my inspiration for this retro looking pillow! The RETRO BEADS pillow is now available in light blue and orange! Fabric was designed by me and can only be found in my Etsy shop. Buy it at the FindersKeepers etsy shop here

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Office Sneak Peek Photos!

I have finally gotten around to painting the office/2nd bedroom! Here are a couple of sneak peek photos. There is still a lot of decorating left to do in the room so once I'm finished I'll be posting more photos. I need to figure out how to hide all the ugly electrical cords, anyone have any good ideas?

I mixed the green color myself. I took this photo when the lighting wasn't great, it's actually a bit lighter than it appears in these photos. The next set of photos I take I will make sure it's nice and bright in the room so the color shows better.

The Pratt desk is from West Elm, when I saw this design I knew this was the desk for me! I love it's mid-century modern design and the white metal drawer is a great contrast with the dark walnut wood. I already had the white eiffel chair so it was a perfect match!




The crow pillow in this photo is one of my designs and can be purchased in my shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/amyburkhart

Friday, November 19, 2010

Logo at last!

So I've been meaning to design myself a logo for quite sometime now but I just never seemed to be able to find the time. This week I started playing around with some ideas but I just wasn't completely happy with them. As I was driving my long and boring commute home from work today it finally came to me and this is the result!

For some reason some of my best ideas have come to me while sitting in traffic and staring at the tail lights in front of me. I guess it's my brains way of dealing with traffic!


Thursday, September 23, 2010

Bathroom Makeover

What is the most difficult thing about having a tiny restroom? Taking photos of it. This is the only bathroom in our 820 sq. ft. bungalow but it's fine for us. We looked at a lot of houses and let me tell you, a lot of bathrooms we saw were downright SCARY! So we were fortunate enough that this restroom overall was in good condition and although the original sink in gone the vanity put in it's place is decent looking and clean. It's not anything we would choose, but hey, it works for now. The plumbing on the other hand was a whole different story but I'm not going to bore you with that story. When the budget allows it we plan on putting in a pedestal sink, something reminiscent of the 1940's to match the bathtub, storage shelves, new lighting and new flooring. For now though we are just working with what we have.

So this is a photo of the bathroom when we moved in. Not bad, at least the original bathtub and bathroom door are still in place. The arrangement seems a little weird to us. You would think the bathtub would be next to the window, perhaps somebody moved it, who knows with these old houses.


These are some after photos.

I actually liked the spa blue that was originally in the bathroom. I repainted it using a similar color just a few notches darker. New molding was installed around the bathroom window which really gives the room more of that early cottage feel. The crown molding and baseboards still need to be installed but we are waiting until the bathroom gets it's full makeover (someday).

The cafe curtain I made myself. I stitched on a small bird to go with our bird theme. The window is currently our only ventilation in the bathroom so I went with the cafe curtain so we could open the top half of the window. (I had to hang it slightly higher than half way since our neighbors can see into our window.)

My cat just loves to model :)

I'm in love with our bird cage shower curtain! It set the stage for what has become a bird theme bathroom.


Bird prints above the toilet are by one of my favorite artists, Charley Harper.

Vanity, lighting and mirror were already in the house when we purchased it. It's fine for now but someday when the budget allows it we are going to change it out for something more period style. Also, it's too big for this tiny restroom.

I built this little white shelf out of some leftover wood from another project. New molding around the door. I didn't show the entire door because we haven't refinished it yet. It's on the to-do list along with a million other things!













Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Busy, busy, busy

We are making good progress on the house again! I'm hoping to get some new photos posted up by the end of this weekend. We have pretty much completed all the exterior painting, just a couple doors left to paint and we have started working on painting all our new molding which really takes a long time. In the meantime here is my latest pillow creation which can be purchased at my etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/listing/56919911/yellow-and-grey-petal-pillow-cover-14-x


Each petal is hand cut by me out of felted wool and machine stitched onto 100% cotton grey fabric.


Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Deer Teal Polka Dot Pillow

Between working on the house, making items for my Etsy shop and working my full time job I just haven't had the time to blog or take photos. Hats off to those of you who manage to do it all, it's not easy! Here is my latest pillow cover creation. I love the applique deer head although let me tell you, those antlers were easy to cut out of felt! You can purchase this lovely little pillow at FindersKeepers

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Vintage Car Collage Pillow


I love to make collage art so I decided, why not a collage pillow? I found this great vintage car fabric which I paired with a teal polka dot fabric and added a applique number three. I really like to use numbers and letters in my art, it must be the graphic designer in me! This pillow can be purchased at my etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/amyburkhart

Friday, August 6, 2010

Retro Beads Pillow


So I FINALLY took time out to make a pillow out of the fabric I designed. I really like the way it came out! I'm hoping to make a table runner and a few other creations out it as well. The fabric is 100% organic cotton and it's super soft! I have so many other fabric design ideas, there just isn't enough time in the day. You can purchase these pillow covers in my etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/amyburkhart


Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Construction zone

Our house is currently a messy, dusty construction zone. BUT the molding is looking great!

Friday, July 23, 2010

European Vacation

So I just returned home from a two week vacation to Europe. We visited Berlin, Prague and London. It was a wonderful trip and a much needed vacation, I will post a few photos soon. Now it's time to get back to house work! My dad is coming down for one week to help install all our molding so updated photos coming soon! He already finished 3 windows and 2 doors while we were gone and it looks fantastic!

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Mid-Century California Modernism Masters

Back in March I went to the Mingei International Museum to see the Masters of Mid-Century California Modernism show they had going on. I wanted to take home almost everything there! The show focused on Evelyn and Jerome Ackerman who helped shape the California Mid-Century Modern era. I was just thinking about their artwork today and thought I would share a few images of their work. You can see more on their website as well as a great story of their history here. The LA Times also did a good story which you can read here.

I would love to own this pottery, so beautiful!









Wednesday, June 23, 2010

We've been blogged!

Beth Zeigler, a contributing editor for Apartment Therapy blogged about our little house on Apartment Therapy today! See it here. Thanks Beth!

It's funny because she wrote that the room is blue, it's actually very very grey but looking at the photos I took I see the color looks blue-grey. Looks like I need to make an adjustment on my camera. I'm so use to seeing grey I didn't even notice the photos looked kind of blue. The color is called Sweatshirt Grey by Ralph Lauren but it appears Home Depot has replaced the Ralph Lauren paint with Martha Stewart. Such a bummer because I really like Ralph Lauren's colors.

You can read Beth's personal blog here. She has a lot of great organization ideas!

I think this photo below shows the grey pretty true to it's color.






Molding



All the molding has finally arrived! Looks like I've got more painting to do. This is really going to add the finishing touches that the house is missing. I'll post photos when it's complete, won't be for at least a month though.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Still painting...

So it's been awhile since my last post. Why is this you ask? Because we are STILL painting the outside of the house. If you have the money I highly recommend hiring somebody to do it because it's hard work and our house is only 820 sq ft! If you're crazy like us though you can paint it yourself, saving a lot of money. Don't think you're going to finish in just 2 or 3 weekends though, oh no, try 2 or 3 months, 5 or 6 even!



Inside the house we used Home Depot Behr paint but I decided for the outside to splurge and use the Sherwin Williams Duration paint. I read a lot of good things about this paint and I didn't want to be back outside painting the house again in another 2-3 years. This paint must be made out of gold because it costs $48/gallon. It goes on really well though and sticks! Plus they guarantee it will last for the entire time you own your home. What I want to know is if it doesn't last do they not only give you free paint but somebody to come paint too? We just have one side of the house left and the garage and then we are done! I'm so ready to move on to the landscaping, I have so many ideas!

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Retro Radio

I found this vintage radio at the local swap meet and since I seem to be obsessed with the color orange I just couldn't pass it up!

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Tea Towels

I adore these cute tea towels from Tikoli I've had my eye on the tree design for sometime now, I think it's time I finally order it!

Friday, May 28, 2010

Living Room Before & After

We are mostly finished with our living room in our 1940's cottage. The wood floors have been refinished, one of the only things we didn't do ourselves. Some things I believe should be left to the professionals and this was one of those jobs. We prepped and painted everything, and let me tell you, old plaster walls are not fun to prep. Sadly all the original molding was gone when we got the house so we plan on installing molding that will look like it's always been there (hopefully). Furniture arrangement was a challenge in such a small space, especially where to put the T.V. but I'm happy with the results! See below for before and after photos.

Living Room Before


After



The assemblage art piece was made by me. Made out of found wood I collected from different places. The color scheme for living room mainly came from this piece and the orange sofas which I already owned.


We still have all the molding to install but besides that the living room is mostly done. In the lower right hand corner you can see a sample of the baseboard we plan to install. The black and white pillows are made by me and can be purchased at my etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/amyburkhart The mid-century chairs I found on Craigslist and I plan to refinish them one of these days. Another project on my growing to-do list!




The living room flows straight into the dining room. Both rooms are very small. The house is only 820sq ft.



The coffee table is a mid-century modern table I found on Craigslist. The kidney shaped ceramic piece I found on ebay. The print above the sofa is a 1969 poster designed by Ellamarie Woolley.





I'm a huge Charley Harper fan. When I saw this bird print with gourd bird houses I just had to have it!

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Texas to California Road Trip

Back in November, right before we moved into our new house, we went to visit my fiances family in Texas. While we were there we picked up his truck and drove it back to California. I've been so busy with the house I'm just now really getting a chance to look at the photos I took. Here is a sampling from our trip below. We stopped in a small town called Marfa, TX, I wish we had more time there I would have loved to have taken more photos, such a cool artsy little town!




Thursday, May 13, 2010

Dining Room Before & After

Dining Room before the start of renovations.



This photo was taken before any renovations had been done.



This photo was taken after a new paint job and the floors had been refinished.




The final result!

The mid-century modern table and chairs was a excellent find on Craigslist. The hanging lamp I won on Ebay.



I've been really interested in living vertical walls for sometime now so when I came across the Wally pocket from http://www.woollypocket.com/ I decided these pockets would be perfect for creating a living wall in our dining room. I love the end result! It's so beautiful and out of reach from our cats who love to munch on plants. I can't wait until the plants grows in more! It's living art!




All that is really left is to install the baseboards.