mintagehome

Resin Art

2019-03-15T06:39:00.001-07:00

Here’s some of my new work if been working on lately. I love working with resin. It's taken me about a year to collect all the things I need to make these beautiful pieces. So now that I have everything I need to make the pieces, there’s no stopping me.

covered from head to toe in glitter

2015-02-11T14:52:00.000-08:00

This week I've been painting and glittering a custom vintage croquet set for a couples upcoming wedding in April. I set up shop on the dining room table and pretty much had a marathon all day glittering session. Lucky for me I had on the History channels Sons of Liberty, so I got a refresher in American History at the same time. After 10 hours, I was so tired I had to stop. I'm so happy with how they turned out.

I love what I do.

Recent Work

2014-09-23T13:26:00.001-07:00

Since the kids are back to school I've been spending more of my time creating. It feels so great to be doing what I love. I've been trying out some new ideas. I went back to cutting paper and have combined both paper cutting and painting. So here's a peek at my new series of collages on paper. Some are done, some have more layers to go. I'll happily take on custom work, if you'd like your own collage please let me know. Enjoy!

Monarch LOVE

2014-04-04T11:45:00.000-07:00

we spied the whole Monarch Butterfly lifecycle at our Butterfly Park this week

It's the little things like this that make my happy!

commissioned work:custom croquet set

2014-04-02T11:32:00.001-07:00

The last month or so I've before turning a vintage croquet set in to a beautiful new set for a bride. It was fun to dive into a project.

Available here:

Mintagehome

New Art

2014-01-14T15:58:00.000-08:00

I've been working a project for the last few weeks and I'm finally done. Here's how it all started. I have two talented young friends and also occasional babysitters that are both going to college to study in the art field. One wants to teach art and the other is a film maker. Every Monday they get up and head out to our beach at sunrise and go surfing. They capture the beauty of the surf on a Go Pro. Then, they let the world have a peek via Instagram. I drooled over the beautiful photos. One particular photo caught my eye and I really wanted to have it printed on canvas and hung in our bedroom. Because of the resolution, I couldn't make this happen, so I decided to paint the scene.

Here's the original photo

I just love how the beauty of nature, all my favorite colors collided in this moment and these two girls captured it.

Here is my first run through, My first layer.

My second round, adding more.

The finished piece.

This is my husbands Christmas gift. It's the biggest painting I ever done. I can't wit to get it professionally framed.

Joshua Tree Jan 2014

2014-01-13T15:48:00.001-08:00

As the kids get older it's harder to pull them out of school to go camping. We waited a long time to hit the road this school year. We finally made it to Joshua Tree over break. We camped 4 wonderful days in the park exploring all the interesting rock formations and trails. We had so much fun hiking everyday. The kids can do anything we can do. A milestone for us. It was hard to keep up with them. Here are a few photos of this magical place.

My daughter enjoying the sunset

the sunsets make the landscape more beautiful

the view on top of Ryan Mountain looking west

the view looking east

top of the mountain

This was our first time doing this hike, we will do it again next time too.

This is the best place in the park to see everything

It was a 1.5 miles straight up.

On top of Ryan Mountain, you can see all the way to the Salten Sea.

The sunset from our camp site in Jumbo Rocks.

These are the rock formation up close, we boulder over them all day.

The Joshua Trees are beautiful.

We free styled it up this little mountain to view the sunset one night.

We've been to Joshua Tree National Park over a dozen times, we love it here.

The rock on top of this mountain was about a 15 minutes from where we camped. We thought it would be nice to climb up there and watch the sunset in the valley. We were right!

Every night the sky gives us a new show.

Wow, amazing, spectacular!

Hello Moon!

The moon was so beautiful.

A trail.

We found a nice place to climb a tree.

We hadn't seen this formation since the kids were really small., It was fun showing the kids again.

the trail up Ryan Mountain

I hope you enjoyed my little tour.

Night and Day

2013-12-13T07:45:00.000-08:00

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. We have a sparkly gold and silver theme going on. I love it. Our new snow flake led lights I picked up at Ikea last week pull the whole thing together.

Nighttime

Daytime

This is my favorite room right now. It's warm and cozy. Almost every night, we've had a fire in our fireplace, we sit and watch christmas movies together.

Some New Art- Shrinky DInks Framed

2013-12-10T08:56:00.001-08:00

I was asked to help out with a classroom art project that would be auctioned off at a school event. So I hit up Pinterest and came up with a cool idea.

This is a screen shot of the image from Pinterest. There was no website to link it too. I just figured it was done with Shrinky Dinks.

Here's the shapes the class made.

I brought in plastic cups with different in diameters for them to trace circles. Then, the kids colored the plastic Shrinky Dinks with colored Sharpy Markers. Lastly, the kids cut out the shapes.

These were fifth graders, so they did an excellent job.

Here's the final Classroom Art Project.

My Mother in Law really liked the finished project and was bummed she didn't win the art at the auction. So, another idea was hatched. At Thanksgiving, I brought over all the supplies and together as a family we all made shapes. I love the idea of everyone being involved. Here's the final project.

Here it is on the wall.

Finding the right order to place all the shapes is part of the process, I wanted it to be symmetrical

CLose UP

a corner, there's no place like OM

Because this was for Gram, lot's of Love was put into it!

I sorted it by color to make the piece balanced.

The center was hearts, lovely!

And the finished piece.

(ha, I just realized all the photos are upside down, sorry)

The frame is a Ribba from Ikea.

I'm so happy withe results.

Palm Springs Aerial Tram and a Hike

2013-12-08T11:19:00.001-08:00

We've been wanting to take the kids up in the Palm Springs Aerial Tram for a while. Last time we did this was before kids. I'm happy to say, I'm in such better shape now. I kicked butt on the trail, so happy to be healthy. It was a blast. These are in random order. Basically, you began in Palm Springs and travel up the mountain 8500 feet. We packed a lunch and hiked around for a few hours. Snow ball fights, and great family memories. Enjoy!

the ride is fast and rotates very slowly

on our way up, it's a quick 10-15 minutes in the tram to go up the mountain

the trails-make sure to get your nature permit, the rangers are on the trails and check

we did the round valley loop

we found snow-snow it=s a big deal to my beach kids

we're all great hikers now, the kids can totally keep up with us

the tram up close-it holds about 80 people

almost to the top

the ride up is fast, and the car spins twice on your way up

a fallen tree-beauty everywhere

fall foliage

nice message

more snow, the kids loved throwing snowballs at each other

the view

this is the building we started at in the distance

pano

the view

couldn't decide if this was nature or man made

I'd highly recommend this family outing. The kids and adults both had a blast. We gall got our nature fix and some exercise to boot! Looking forward to doing this one again!

Craft Lab: wall hanging

2013-11-11T09:09:00.001-08:00

I haven't crafted in so long. Life is just different, my time is spent on other things. I miss crafting. So here's my first attempt at fiber art.

Planning out my colors. My sister in law is an avid knitter, so I asked here if she had any remnant yarn balls. Ask and you shall receive, I got a huge bag from her!

I used a tutorial I found on Creative Bug. I basically just made huge loops of the yarn. Each color is a different length. I had a nice piece of wood left over from our remodel, so I cut it to length. I just glued the yarn loops onto the wood. After it was dry, I cut the loops at the bottom. Once I hung the wall hanging on the wall I trimmed the bottom edge kinda like cutting bangs.

Here's it is all hung up and trimmed. This was very easy to make and kinda of free cause I had everything on hand. It was nice to get my craft on.

School Garden Fall 2013

2013-11-04T08:06:00.001-08:00

This is my forth year of tending the school garden and this year we are off the a great start. We started a garden club and every Tuesday at lunch 40 kids come over too weed and plant. We
also have a few parents who are helping out this year. I'm so excited to finally have some real help.

Over the next few weeks we will be planting our salad garden. So far the lettuce, broccoli and cabbage are in. And the kids planted sweet peas along the chain link fence. The kids are also crazy good weeders. The garden looks good!

This is what we were dealing with in September, so overwhelming.

Now things are all cleaned up and the fun part can begin!

FIreplace Update

2013-10-07T12:52:00.004-07:00

I finally got around to styling our new fireplace. We are in Love.

Etsy Love

2013-10-07T12:52:00.002-07:00

I have been looking for a fanny pack to wear while I walk and hike with my friends. I need something to hold my phone. Back in the day, like 25 years ago I had a purple nylon one that I'd wear to concerts. I started a search and it's sad out there. Most are very ugly. I was so excited to find RaisCase on Etsy. They are making some very cute fanny packs, ones I wouldn't be embarrassed to wear in public. Go check Raiscase out, she make super cute pillows too.

All photos by Raiscase

Seed Bombs

2013-10-07T12:34:00.002-07:00

We recently hosted a shower for my niece at my pad to celebrate the arrival of our newest family member baby JP. My other niece planned an adorable shower. We got all crafty and made these seed bombs. Super easy. Made with recycled materials. We got the idea on pinterest.

End of summer adventures

2013-09-02T09:21:00.000-07:00

It's our last weekend of summer before the kids go back to school. We packed a lot of fun in and we made some awesome family memories. I feel so lucky to have the chance to explore with my family so often.

We went on a night hike. At the end we met this guys hanging out by the showers. I freakin love frogs. I wish we could have made him a pet. But we let him be.

My son spied this white morning glory in the dark. Everything was pretty much black except for these.

Hello Good Year Blimp. This one went right over the house. So cool!

We camped locally and loved it. The sunsets have been amazing lately.

We camped with this rabbit.

Nice, Right?

I took the kids for donuts and had my first Cronut. It was good, but, chocolate would have been better.

got my fishin' on again.

I have rad friends, they helped clean up the garden. This was the cucumber harvest. The little onions on the left were delicious. I'm mentally gearing up for how much time I need to give the garden right now.

We spend a lot of time at the beach. I usually just sit and chill. Last week, right when we got to the beach we noticed dolphins. This is normal at our beaches. However, it was a little dolphin family, baby dolphins and all. The stayed at our little beach all day. It was amazing and exciting to watch the dolphins teach the little ones. They were doing jumps and gave us a wonderful show all day.

My latest painting. We spent a weekend in Arrowhead recently and my friends have an art studio in the basement. I was in heaven. It was fun to paint in a new space. I came home and cleaned up my garage/studio space so I can paint. I can't wait to get started this week on new projects.

I took the last month off from the gym. It was hard for me. My body needed a rest. I did manage one hike.

This summer went by really fast. We spent weeks camping at the beach and weeks camping in the mountains. Our family is so much fun.

summer stuff

2013-07-31T11:30:00.002-07:00

It's hard to believe the kids go back to school in about a month. We've been very busy. Here's some of the action.

we caught baby lizards

my neighbors are feeding us, looky a heart tomato.

martha never fails us, we made delicious stained glass window cookies

finally, i got to paint

stoking the fire

we heart nature

went to the circus, felt totally guitly

we found an amazing new place to camp.

summer moon

wild flowers

hikes to the wetlands

huge juniper trees

my new hobby

the lake

cotton candy skies

rock creek, can't wait to visit you again.

June painting

2013-06-19T12:04:00.001-07:00

Here's some of my recent paintings. Most are still works in progress. I hope to be painting every day now that the kids are home everyday.

I'm going to be trying some new painting techniques over the summer. I purchased a large role of paper so I can start painting larger pieces on paper instead of canvasses. And I also plan on doing some experiments/paintings with resins.

Lately around here

2013-05-25T13:53:00.001-07:00

We're gearing up for summer. I'm thinking about how I'm going to entertain my kids without electronics this summer. We're going to be earning our tv and iPad time. The kids will be reading and helping me around the house to earn the time on the electronics .

We've been living to the fullest around here, enjoy!

Crystal Cove State Beach was strolled with the kids. I love this beach and plan on visiting a lot this summer.

Peonies=💗💗💗

Dominos and ice cream

We have 3 tomato plants, I can't wait to eat fresh all summer.

Taco night with my dad, so yummy!

Mini golf adventures. I learned I really suck at mini golf.

The School Garden is weedy, weedy, weedy. This will be my summer project.

Our bounty from the garden. We made grapefruit carrot juice.

I thrifted these paint racks, total score. They were filled with brand new paints too! This will keep me painting all summer.

I'll never tire of dominos.

Four little squirrels were born in our neighbor's garage. The are so flipping cute.

New outdoor rug from ikea.

Sunflowers always make me smile.

Mother's Day paper airplane contest. I haven't laughed so hard in a while. This was a fun game for the whole family, young and young at heart.

We helped my daughter make a Mt. St. Helen's model. Hello foil and duck tape!

I learned that sometimes a little drawing is in order to sooth and relax after a long day. Like only 5 minutes of drawing, and it was sleepy time.

Today our house looks like this! Good things are happening around here, I'll share soon.

Bathroom Before and After

2013-05-09T08:10:00.000-07:00

The Before
Our Guest bathroom
Dark and more Dark
We have lived in our home for close to 12 years and have done only cosmetic changes to the interior. So finally we took the plunge and upgraded the main bathroom the kids and use everyday. The bathroom was starting to have some water damage and the space needed some LOVE.

The After

Light and Bright

I hit up Craigslist and found a local business going out of business. I picked up the floor tile for $5 a sf. This is my dream floor. I love it.

Our Amy Butler towels hang on the Ikea towel rack.

The double bar is perfect!

We installed a quartz counter. I love the bright white.

All the bathroom fixtures are from Pioneer.

By favorite part is the new double TP holder from Ikea.

New Trash can from JC pennies.

The decided to use our previous vanity, toilet, tub and vanity light. I just repainted the vanity to BM Flint from the Aura line.

We tiled most of the room with white subway tile from Lowe's.

The new tub fixtures are so modern and beautifully designed.

Cararra marble corner shelve are awesome!

the floor

I'm in love with this new space. It's so bright now because we added a new bathroom fan with a light and a fan that actually works. I still need to add art work and hang a ceiling mounted shower curtain system.

April Highlights

2013-05-04T06:51:00.001-07:00

School Garden Tour

2013-03-14T11:05:00.003-07:00

For the last 3 years,I've been lucky enough to take care of the school garden at our kids school. This year has been our best yet. In the Fall. the kids planted each bed with one to two varieties of vegetable. We planted this way so everyone would be able to share in the what we planted. Now that it's harvest time, we take a classes out and pull enough organic veggies to make a salad. Parent volunteers wash, prepare the salad and serve it to the class. I just love it.

I took a bunch of photos yesterday and wanted to share what going on out there.

Last week the school district delivered and spread out mulch all over the garden floor. I'm so thankful to the people that made this happen.

We're looking for parent volunteers to help lay about 30 more pavers to this path.

The carrot patch. So far this patch has feed about 6 classes, about 150 kids. We still have many more classes to go before we run out of carrots. Things I've learned about growing carrots a) If the little kids pull the tops off and leave the carrot in the ground, the carrot sends up need leaves. b) We add the carrot tops to the salads, just chop it up like an herb. c) you can plant 16 carrot seeds to each square foot in the garden. Plant in four rows of four.

Red cabbage- we grab two large leaves and add to the salad. This bed is raised high to accommodate our students in wheelchairs. It's time to add some more soil to this bed, it's sunk about a foot.

This bed is aHere we have a mix of lettuce and onions.

The onions are blooming and the kids seem to like them in the salad too.

Mystery Veggie? Anyone know what this is??

Hey mister sunflower!

When I take the classes out to the garden I just wing it. One class found a bounty of sunflower seeds on the ground and wanted to plant them, so we did. And look whats growing!

This bed features cabbage, lettuce and another mystery plant.

Kale- this bed is a slow grower, we need to plant more kale seed stat.

Kohlrabi, artichoke and lettuce. The kids sometimes spill their seeds all over the ground before they make it into the beds. We started to notice lots of lettuce ground all over the ground. One our teachers started to transplant the little seedling out of the ground and started growing them in the beds.


This class planted twice, the first round of seeds produced nothing, so they replanted and wow!

So we have a lot of lettuce!

Radish and Spinach

Our Butterfly Garden needs some love. I'm hoping a family or scout troop adopts this space soon. We need to plant some more milkweed and other monarch friendly plants.

Volunteers are awesome. One of our Grandparent volunteers taught the Kindergarten kids about soil.

Our Orange Tree- it needs some love too!

This Mural which is also the back fence, was donated by one our local Girl Scout Troops. The plants we're plant by another troop.

Apple Tree-we had one apple on the tree and now it's gone, someone or something ate it, I knew it was not for long.

So why is this year different in the garden? We have volunteers. One class has a retired principle who brings the kids outside to the garden for science. He built this worm shelter for our vermiculture bins.

The Grape Vine. I need to trim this up, it will be huge soon. The bares fruit in the summer.

These carrots are really tasty. The kids LOVE them.

So there you have it. If you have any questions about the garden let me know.

a little home improvement

2013-03-12T11:52:00.000-07:00

Well folks, some exciting things are happening right now over at our place. Our fireplace is getting a little face lift. I've been dreaming, designing and thinking about this for over 10 years now. You'd think it would be easy for me to just come up with a design? Well it wasn't. But, I think I finally have it figured out.

Mantle inspiration

wood/angles/modern

I love this fireplace mantle, I hope we can figure out how the make all those angled cuts.

Contemporary Home Office design by Toronto Interior Designer Jodie Rosen Design

My inspiration for surround
stone slab surround vs. chevron

I got the idea for the chevron from this image via Houzz

Modern Kitchen design by Toronto Interior Designer Croma Design Inc

THE BEFORE
goodbye white shiny bricks

After much deliberation, my Instragram people voted and Chevron it is for the fireplace surround.

We have big plans for the space. We are planning on getting a new TV to hang above the mantle. Then we'll add a beautiful set of cabinets to flank the fireplace. I'm thinking walnut and brass.

Hawaii 2013:part 2

2013-03-07T10:42:00.000-08:00

It's hard for me to put into words what our trip to the Big Island of Hawaii meant to me. The whole adventure brought me to a whole new space. I experienced so many positive things on this beautiful island. Kalani is like no other community I've ever been. The people that call this place home, were so welcoming and genuinely nice. It was so refreshing to be around other people like me who also care about our planet. All my experiences put together added up to an amazing journey. If I was to use one word to describe the whole trip it would have to be Love. How great is that? Here are some of my favorite photos.

My new turquoise trekking shoes. Perfect for walking on lava rock.

lava rock and a coconut.

i see love everywhere

Aqua-phonics anyone?

beauty overload

my future house

pops of color

Kehena Beach, black sand.

Pahoa coast line

trail to the lanai, the most delicious healthy food, served three times daily.

slowing down, being quite, feeling the love + paradise

the spinner dolphins were out playing, my sweet heart got to swim with them.

arrived and found this as we drive to our destination

the black sand beach is pretty amazing.

Aloha,
Gaby

February stuff

2013-02-23T09:30:00.001-08:00

We made a gold ninjago box for my sons Valentines. We used Gold spray paint and a Sharpy to do this. So simple, he loved it and now he has a place to store all his little ninjago ninjas.

This adorable broken pigeon decided to live at our house for 24 hours. We seriously fell for this little birdy. We called him kickstand, cause his messed up wing dragged on the ground.

My fish tail braid. I still need to work on my technique. My long hair is always a crazy mess. Everyday day is like a new crazy hair adventure. Pinterest has opened a whole new hair world to me. I love the tutorials.

Our new sputnik chandelier.

I'm teaching myself how to paint. Here's my attempt at a landscape. This is Yosemite at sunset. This is a meadow we ride our bikes to, drink some vino and be one with nature as the sun lowers in he sky. Oh, I miss this place.