Short and Sweet....

I'm, gonna keep this blog post short, so ya'll won't hate me for my previous unendingly long ADHD posts!

Just finished this new painting.... She is a very very shabby sheep

It was my first time painting on wood which was kind of different... (except for plywood when i couldn't afford canvases )

anyway this was way nicer than painting on plywood... ;)  

ok, that's all I'm gonna say

... you didn't expect that did you...

neither did I

I've already thought about 10 other things i want to ramble about, but resisted the urge

love to you

...the end...

Leggings, Pink House, Faux Fur, and Fantasizing...

Hi Everyone...

Can you even believe how fast time is going and that it is almost Thanksgiving!  Christmas trees are out in the stores, and as much financial stress as the Holdays have brought me in the past,  I swear i still get excited about decorating with all the little white twinkle lights and glittery shiny baubles and fluff...

 

Whenever i see Christmas decor in stores i get this combination sick sinking feeling, nostalgia, and desire to decorate.  

It's a weird combination...

and tell me this.... there are so many faux trees out there... Michaels, Home Depot, Lowes...EVERYWHERE... but not one white flocked tree to be found!

  I mean they are literally the prettiest trees ever made, and no one sells them.  Well, except places online where they cost about $400.00 to $800.00 !  So that's not happening...

I bought a flocking kit once, and tried to flock my own tree .  I think I remember that you had to hook it somehow to your vacuum cleaner blowing the air out or something like that -  and when i did the flocking powder blew out the back of the bag thing and covered my driveway and every part of me in this crazy white f#!*&!?  flocking stuff, it was the worst purchase ever.  Don't buy one...

Ok, so i'm just gonna ramble on like i usually do when i've haven't talked to ya'll in a while

forgive me in advance...

*************

So check out the cool surprise that arrived for me in the mail the other day!  It is a pink faux fur jacket from my sister!  How great is this!!!

so fun...

Ok, next subject - 

A builder is building this darling house near where I live, and i want to sell my house right now and move into it.  It is the complete perfectest shade of pink ever - and check out those vintage looking windows they used... I could sooo rock this house...

subject number 10,333

it's not easy being like this

Ok so you HAVE to listen to this... A blogger I follow - Cara of    

Maskara  .....

... blogged about these leggings she found at Nordstrom's.  She had just had a baby and was talking about great post baby outfits and had on these leggings.  I went to Nordstroms and found a pair, and i dearly love them in every way.  Especially since my stomach has ALWAYS looked like a post baby stomach. 

They're cute, and they're cotton, so they're not itchy and don't feel like you have rubber bands on your legs... plus they have a wide soft waist band so they don't show your lumps.  And none of that crotch drop thing that is torture... They're comfortable enough to wear to bed, get up the next morning, put on a top and go... and believe me, i have... is that too gross?'

I love them - and not too bad a price at $38.00 a pair

Do yourself a favor and check them out...

this is a photo with me looking down at my boot... 

 

Anyway, even if you 're not interested in the leggings, you should check out Cara's blog, she is adorable and down to earth, and her blog is fun as anything... Plus she has great makeup tips...

*********

last subject, i promise...

So I was at a cute little shop in town 

Uniquitiques 

and the lady there asked me if i sold Milk Paint... and i was like uhhhhhhh no, why do you think i sell Milk Paint?  and she told me she thought since i knew Miss Mustard Seed, and had painted her cow "Eulalie" and stuff that maybe i did because she had clients who came to her shop looking for milk paint and she didn't sell it.

and she said, why don't' you do what i did, and get a storage shed kinda like this

or this... and adapt it a little to make it more cute, and open a little studio and sell your paintings and sell Milk Paint?

and I was immediately like, no that's crazy, i have to work full time to help pay our bills etc...

absolutely not, impossible... no way...

but it put an idea in my head... like hmmmm is something like that even remotely possible?

because i could paint more and maybe sell more prints and paintings if i had time to actually paint other than on the weekends - and then have time to market myself more with all the crazy social media that's out there... which is overwhelming even if one is not working...

and then I started thinking how fun it would be to dress up a little  shed with white paint, and chandeliers and well you know, i ended up with this in my brain

Sandra Fosters victorian cottage

which i think all of us have died for since we first saw it online...

but the fact is, if i'm lucky we'd probably end up with something more like this...

maybe even not this good...

but painted pink or white, with window boxes and a crystal chandelier .. even a plain box would be cute 

...and it would use all of our teeny little savings to set something like that up...

But...in the fantasy, i would have tea parties, 

(even though i don't even drink tea, hmmmm...maybe wine parties instead...) 

and little gatherings to sell my art 

(even though i've never given a party ever not ever, and i'm a total introvert)

and i would have time to paint and sell paintings and prints, 

and do yoga, and get rested and mentally stable again, maybe (ha!)

and so on....

In reality, I know i'm lucky to have a job, and health insurance, and what if i spent our meager savings on a little shed/cottage,

and then no one would buy anything from me ever again, and i'd end up penniless and wont even be able to buy my prescriptions, or even have enough money to shop at the thrift store etc... and more of the worst thing ever etc etc.... 

But then this little thing inside keeps whispering in my ear to take a chance, do something different, be brave, have faith in the bounty and magic in the universe

you know, like Marian, Miss Mustard Seed did, when she took leaps of faith... and look at where she is now or the Nester, how great is she!?

I mean I'm scared to be stuck at work until I die dealing with BS insurance companies until my butt fuses to my office desk chair, 

 but i'm also scared to take the risk to do something different and it not work out... and if it doesn't  who is going to hire a crazy neurotic freaky 60 year old lady !!? 

and then and then I'd end up stuck at home alone all day, (at least until our home got forclosed on)  - with our cat, who by the way is insane, and become a crazy wrinkled, divorced, broke old alcoholic cat lady... who dies on her sofa and no one finds her body for 3 days

I don't know guys, what do you think about the whole idea of working less, like a lot less, maybe not at all, and painting more, and risking complete financial ruin?

  ...uhhhhh ... the end...?

and the Award for the Worst Blogger in the World goes to ...

ME!

I am definitely the worst blogger ever!  

It's just that I feel like my house is a mess, and I have too many unfinished ideas and projects and paintings, and i want to rip the living room carpet up and it just seems too hard to even start, and everything in my brain feels like chaos...  

You know how it is when you feel like you have to clean up the kitchen before you can cook anything.  

I think i feel like i have to get my house and my mind in order before I can talk about anything.  But it just keeps not happening.  It's one extended period of overload that is not giving way to calm and order... 

So just to let you know I'm still here, and reading you guys whenever i can sneak a peak at while I'm at work, and that basically  I'm doing this blog post without anything whatsoever substantial to say other than "hey"! 

...but I will show you a pretty sheepskin I found at an unlikely shop the other day, 

that and this perfect shade of pink tablecloth all tossed together on the sofa...

I think just looking at pretty pink stuff makes everything better....

******

So Mr. Fractured and I decided we wanted our own child together... 

and after some discussion -  we decided to adopt a kitten.

I know there are so many adult cats that need homes, but we really wanted to raise a baby together.  

I guess that seems a little stupid, but at our age and after all we been through raising our kid's cats and dogs after the kids went on their merry ways

we wanted a baby just for us...

We went to the Durham pound and after massive paperwork and promises to go to the vet and a deposit and a waiting period we were allow to adopt our new kitten  

"Willow"

She looks so calm and sweet there doesn't she...

Well... about 80% of the time she is purring and affectionate and playful and funny

but between around 5pm and 8pm

she is a sociopath - 

she's like the tasmanian devil - crazy cat 

all claws and somersaults sideways bouncing attack kitty... 

my dogs are like what the hell, what were you guys thinking???!

But oh boy how we love her...

Mr. Fractured is such a good and doting daddy

it is totally sweet and makes me fall in love with him all over again

Oh yeah, 

dried hydrangeas and kittens...

need i say more other than i hope you don't really love your dried hydrangeas if you get a kitten

So there's that...

**********

I still have these Cafe au Lait dahlias blooming and I LOVE them

the thing is they bloom very late summer and now they are covered in the promise of so many blooms to come and it's about 3 weeks till the first frost and they cannot tolerate any frost

So i'm telling the little flower buds to hurry up and open !!!

******

I found this sweet little Madonna bust at a yard sale for $3.00 and 

she just really spoke to me

but she was kind of washed out 

so i painted her base pink and gave her a little flush on her cheeks...

I really hope i haven't defiled a priceless religious object by painting it with annie sloan and oil paint...

oops...

********

My friend had this adorable little white table at her shop and tried it out beside my sofa, and it totally brightens that whole little space up - i have two dark wood Target tables beside the sofa now... so that was fun ...

*******

 I painted this feather painting to sell at my friend's shop

but then i liked it and hung it in my house...

I'll probably sell it soon

Oh yeah, and i saw this little nest painting I did for Marian 

( Miss Mustard Seed) a couple of years ago on her blog recently.

It made me so proud to see how pretty it looks in her gorgeous house... 

But she knows how to make everything look good...

Gosh... there really is so much in the world to look at and talk about...

but I guess that's enough random subjects to throw at you guys for now...

...much love...

...the end...

A New Settee

Hi Guys!

Can you even believe summer is coming to a close!??!

The older I get the faster everything goes.  I mean really fast. Like a year seems more like 4 months fast.

 Before you know it I will be dead.  So that being said, I think it's ok to eat chocolate any time i want... right?

Anyway, Mr. Fractured and I finally took a little vacation and went to the beach.  Other than the drive down which involved apocalyptic thunderstorms that looked like F5 tornadoes were going to drop out of them,  and having to pull off the road 3 times, which made Mr. Fractured go into his "I'm being patient" mode... which really means, she's completely out of her mind... 

it turned out to be so relaxing and just beachy wonderfulness as the beach always is.  

One of the best parts of Oak Island, NC is that it is near Southport which is this little port town with boats and shops and benches and cute old houses and cottages.  

 check out what i found on the front porch of one of the little shops

This pink tattered and torn settee!

Here it is on the front porch of the little shop - that box covers up a hole in it, but i didn't care

It was love at first site...

Just look at those adorable rolled arms, and the pretty little legs

I really want it at my dining room table... but it's too short.  Soooooooo, here we go with the change one thing and completely redo everything else deal.  

I am going to have to make it taller or the table shorter or both... I know i can take at least an inch maybe two off the table base, but how to raise the settee... hmmmmm - do ya'll have any ideas on how to do that?

Plus my dining table is really too big for the room, and now the chandy doesn't hang over the center anymore 

aaannnd ... if i lower the table I may need to cut off the little apron around the round part of the table so your legs don't bang into it... and i need to move the little desk out of the way

all of that and more to infinity...

Moving stuff around did inspire me to move my "Miss Daisy" print to over my mantel and i really do like her there better than the rose that was up there

i just propped her up in front of the other painting

oh yeah, I didn't want to forget to show you guys this little cottage in Southport

How cute is that!

I could so totally live in that little pink house right near the seaport...

*************************************

hmmmm...What else has been going on...

Well, i've been growing my first dahlias and it's been an interesting experience.

I had no idea the stems could get as thick around as a quarter at the bottom... so some of them have fallen right over from the weight.  

And I was thinking I'd only get a few blooms, but they are just now coming to fruition and i'm getting lots of the amazing big flowers, and some of the stems and blooms are already up past my waist!...

so i'm pretty sure I love them!

In the spring the garden was so tidy, and i planted lots of tomatoes and some hot peppers and squash ...

By July the tomatoes had gone crazy...

like, what the heck crazy!

they are growing up all over the place, as tall as me, covering up the peppers and sage and lavender

falling over the fence

everything is now totally overgrown and messy

kinda like a cottage garden, but not in a good way !

It's like a jungle!

plus there is the occasional poison ivy in the mix

I did pick this bouquet of roses just last week

i couldn't even believe something that wonderful came out of my very own garden

So anyway, i was out weeding and cutting back stuff, and had been all up near the poison ivy with my bare hands, 

and you know how it is in the garden, you go to do one little thing, and don't put on your gloves, and end up sticking your hand in places where you just really really hope a snake doesn't bite you

and i had a skirt on because i always wear dresses or skirts because i can't really stand the way pants feel all up on my legs

 i know, weird huh...

ok and i know this is TMI but 99.9% of my life i wear undies, but for some reason didn't have any on in that moment

probably just threw on a skirt to go water the window box or something

anyway a branch of a flower or something went up under my skirt and BAM something bit me right on my ass!  and it wasn't a small little bite either!  

i was like GAAAHHHH!  

I didn't want to touch anything because i had poison ivy on my hands, but i didn't even want whatever thing that was to bite me again!!!

And of course i didn't have my undies on!  Really???!! 

I froze for about a millisecond  and  then just dropped my skirt down around my ankles with my bare bottom and everything else showing... 

I mean i didn't know what the heck horrible thing was up under there 

EWWWWWWWWW!!!

 i  didn't really have good choices here

It could've been a hornet, or even worse, a spider 

or maybe even a mutant hornet black widow spider poisonous snake for all i knew.... 

anyway, i live on a corner of a neighborhood, where cars do go by and people walk by all the time, and i had to make it into the house with the skirt around my knees without being seen... 

It was a great look

I walked in and Mr. Fractured just stood there... like uhhhhhh

and he is very polite

so he wouldn't laugh at a lady in distress

but i could tell he was holding his lips together to keep from laughing

and as i was escaping from my skirt i just said 

"don't look at me"!!!

because seriously, my bottom half is not my best half especially in broad daylight...

and that is most of the latest from cindysfracturedfairytale and fractured cottage garden 

...the end...

I Met Miss Mustard Seed !

I finally met Marian, Miss Mustard Seed !
Three years after doing her first painting "Eulalie"

 She is adorable.... and I have to tell you, it was just like seeing someone I already knew.  I mean from reading her posts and talking in the email...  seeing her in person and talking was so familiar, like being around an old friend.  
It actually kind of blew my mind how a friend from online can be just as real as a friend in "real life"

I was so happy to finally look at her face in person, and give her a big hug... it was awesome, she was awesome...

 good easy energy, a very loving spirit, and cute as hell 

But don't let her adorableness fool you...

This woman is a force of nature...

She not only has moved mountains in her home
She moved mountains in my home

Thanks to her I sell quite a few prints
and i almost, just almost 
could stop working full time and painting more..

(who do you think the car with eyelashes belongs to?)

 

Here is the new painting i did for her

 I was painting this to sell at the shop where i sell my work

Fetch Antiques and Interiors in Hillsborough, NC

.... and i started thinking ... this would look good in Marians house

So I emailed her and asked her if she wanted it, and she was like "Heck yeah"

and that was all she wrote... the painting was officially Marian's before it was even finished.

anyway, all i can say... is thank you Marian

my world is made massively better through knowing you

...the end...

I'm In Paint Color Hell .... Again

Hi gang,

I'm sorry ...  don't hate me... I know i've been so absent.  I'm just seriously overwhelmed with the whole social media thing.
 There are just so many options out there now...  
I know I love Pinterest, and then there's Facebook... so I have a personal Facebook page, and a Cindysfracturedfairytales Facebook page... and i follow a bunch of people on both of those.  And THEN, i decided I would stop boycotting Instagram as just another form of social media... and tried it, and I really like Instagram, so there's that... and then the blog, which I've totally neglected because Instagram is instant gratification... and  there is summer and the garden and life and work and trying to paint ....so... Half the time i don't have any idea where to focus my energy with this stuff, and then i get behind on all of it.  I really need to find a rhythm and balance here...
(is rhythm the hardest word in the world to spell or what...)

Anyway, thanks to a lot of you talking about it, i finally caught on and watched a couple of episodes of "Fixer Upper" 
 it is totally home decor porn!

 The season finale almost make my head explode it was so cool

So of course now I've gone completely insane again and did intense online research good enough to qualify me to become part of the the CIA to find out the colors she used  -
 and as you can imagine decided to repaint my living room, dining room, and kitchen which has entailed buying 8 thousand paint samples to try, which look absolutely nothing, nothing at all like the gorgeous wall colors in the episodes.  What the heck is the deal with that!??? 
I mean, I know i know all about how lighting and the computer monitor can change the look of the paint and all that... 

but come on... surely my walls would look something..... even a teeny weeny bit like the walls she painted!!????

Nope

so here we go...

example 1

Sherwin Williams 

 2 parts Mindful Gray to 1 part some other lighter color

now that i see it here on the blog, i like it

but in person it looked so dark

 Example 2

Benjamin Moore

Revere Pewter

see the current wall color on the left and above

Whoa don't like this one - way too dark
and how is it so blue???

Example 3
Martha Stewart
Gray Pearl

Example 2039
my current wall color on top
Mindful Gray at 50% below that
some other color under that
Edgcombe gray at the very bottom

it's becoming pretty clear that at this point that i am starting to lose it right?

lord help me and all who have been around me this weekend

you can see a giclee print of Eulalie on the table, i am proofing it for a buyer - looks good!
 

In addition i then tried each one of these same colors in my living room and it looks like i painted cold gray steel on the walls!!!
 
how is it that Joanna from 'Fixer Upper' can take these exact colors and they are soooooooooo incredibly beautiful

what the heck!

 I need an intervention...

******************************

What else has happened this summer?

Well i made this lemon meringue pie, twice in three weeks

I can't eat dairy products, so i found this recipe with no dairy and it was so darn good

 i literally ate this pie every day for one week

skipped a week

 then made it again
and ate most of that one

I mean Mr. Fractured ate some of it
but He has self control

 

*******************************

I finally started getting the urge to paint again after a 4 month dry spell, and painted this girl by the garden gate...  name suggestions?

I was lucky enough to end up with this insanely fabulous frenchy mirror

but i don't know,... it seems like it may be a little too big and fancy for my lowly little cottagy space

Below is the former mirror

What do ya'll think? 

I know the frenchy mirror is so amazing, but hmmmm...

Plus you can see my current wall color
seems so boring after seeing Fixer Upper... sigh

anyway, i'm gonna try to post more often and write less 

i realize i just blathered on about 4 different topics in this post

...as always, thanks for putting up with me... 
that's all for now

  ...the end...