The Art Docent Program

Today was art docent day at my daughter's school. Art Docent is a nifty program in the Alameda School District that brings parents into the classroom once a month to teach an art lesson. We do this because our district has no money to pay a real art teacher and have a real art class. I think we do pretty great anyway and we have a lot of fun learning things about art. Today was a lesson on tole paint, and using my mother and her painted kitchen as inspiration we painted picture frames:

My mother's kitchen, pretty amazing, huh? Makes you want some chips and salsa.

This is Frances' frame, I personally think its the best, however all the kids did great, it was fun to see how everyone's frame turned out, and it so reflected their personalities.

This is Frances mid-project, isn't she oozing with talent?!!

Here are all the frames hung on the bulletin board with tacks to dry, the all display so nice and I think everyone did a great job, this was a seriously fun project. Thank you to everyone I found on craigslist that donated the frames, thank you for your generousity.

Just for fun, a reminder of why we love our two year olds!

Taylor destroyed her room while cymaltaniously putting on her dragon suit, oh, how sweet.

Tole Chandeliers and Lamps....

Here are the metal tole lamps in my office, they are early 1960s, the lamp shades are vintage too....and you can see how neat and tidy I keep things....

Here are more 1960s metal tole lamps in Taylors room, the lamp shades are from Target and I found the lamps at a collective estate sale called "something to sell about", its fabulous and they hold sales around the East Bay almost every month, get on their mailing list online!

Here is a close up of my office lamp........pretty huh, thank God for vintage shopping, i.e. craigslist, the alameda flea market, and estate sales! This is a craigslist find!

This is the chandelier is Taylor's room, it fairly matches the look with the lamps and the green leaves and yellow daisys are precious. Perfect for my little princess, and she loves it too!

This little vintage treasure is hanging in my kitchen right now, however it my find a new home in my sister's nursery! It also came from a delighterful seller on craigslist!

This chandelier is extra special, the leaves are metal tole and the roses are porcelain. It is just precious and it was hanging in my bedroom for awhile, however it is big with eight lights and seriously girly and my husband was really having a tough time sleeping with a really big chandelier hanging over him, so I took it down and it found a new home in the bedroom of a little girl in the house across the street. She has a much higher ceiling so it looked more proportionate anyway....

Here is another picture of it witht the lights off, aren't the roses to die for?!

Chandeliers, Chandeliers, Chandeliers

Ok, anyone that knows me knows that I love chandeliers, in fact its not just any chandelier but antique chandeliers that need to be restored. I have restored approxiamately 25 chandeliers so far and I have 9 hanging in my house. Love 'em, just love 'em.

This was my first one, it came from a hotel that was being torn down in Torrence California and there was six on the sidewalk that were going to be thrown away, I wish I had taken all six, I only took this one.

The bottom picture is a close up of it hanging in my dining room now, and the top picture is my old dining room in my previous house in Oakland.