Artist. Designer. Freelancer. Mom.
This mama is soooo thankful for a little boy who LOVES to pick flowers! (And sticks, and dirt and grass). We are so thankful for God’s beautiful creation that we get to live in. Usually Turner and I end up making a craft with the flowers and plants when we’re done.
If you have the opportunity today, go pick a flower!
Lately I’ve been seizing any possible opportunity to practice my lettering. Here’s what has come out of that:
This little piece came from participating in Lauren Hom’s weekly #HOMwork challenge, which you can sign up for here.
The next two letterings were also part of #HOMwork. I lettered them with my Wacom tablet instead of on paper which was a challenge for me, but something I’d like to get better at.
(This is usually not true, just FYI).
(This is always true for me.)
Another opportunity that I’ve been blessed with is getting to design wedding invitations for my friend. I lettered the names of the bride and groom using watercolors.
I also got to address the envelopes (SO FUN!).
I’ll be posting pictures of the full invitation and other pieces from the wedding soon!
And finally, I use lettering to express gratitude for things that I love.
Thanks for reading!
For a couple of months, my front door was naked. It had no cheerful, welcoming decor to clothe it. Several different summery wreaths had been tried on, but none of them fit. It needed something unique and non-traditional in order to cohere with the rest of the home.
I searched Pinterest for non-traditional front door decor. I found inspiration and decided to build my own piece. Here’s what I did.
I found a large canvas frame and a smaller picture frame (with the glass removed). I cut the middle bar of the canvas frame and attached the picture frame to the inside with wood glue and small nails.
Then I painted the whole thing cool-green to accent the mint-colored front door. First I put some flowers on it. It looked okay, but it didn’t have enough visual weight. I wanted it to be more impactful. So I cut a bundle of greenery from my yard and attached it to the outer frame. Result:
Now that’s what I’m taking about. My once-naked door no longer needs to be ashamed.
I made some custom designed t-shirts for my family to wear on our vacation. They turned out better than I expected, so I wanted to share my process with you!
Supplies:
Step 1.
Practice drawing your design on regular paper. You will have to draw it nicely on the stencil paper, so make sure you know how you want it to look. Keep in mind that you are making a stencil, so all of the pieces of the design have to be touching so that the stencil stays together (that is why I wrote my letters in cursive).
Step 2.
Use a sharpie to draw your design on the stencil paper.
Step 3.
Tape the stencil paper to the cutting mat and use an X-acto knife to cut out your design.
Step 4.
Remove your beautiful stencil from the cutting mat and tape it face-up onto a t-shirt. (Note: if you buy adhesive stencil film, you could just remove the backing and stick it to a t-shirt. Since my design was so complex, I just taped my stencil around the edges to each t-shirt, one by one. I never removed the backing. It’s easier to do multiple shirts this way.)
Step 5.
Use the fabric paint and foam brush to paint your t-shirt. The trick is to DAB the paint-filled brush onto the t-shirt. Try not to use side-to-side/up-and-down strokes. DAB IT. You can use two different colors to create an ombre effect.
Step 6.
Carefully peel off the stencil immediately after painting it (don’t wait for it to dry). Don’t worry if there are little splatters or inconsistencies; that’s what makes each shirt unique!
Step 7.
Tape the same stencil down on another t-shirt and repeat the painting process. I did 8 t-shirts with one stencil.
Step 8.
Let the t-shirts dry overnight.
Now you can vacation in style with your awesome (and cost-effective) attire. I will also mention that I bought the t-shirts used from Goodwill. Even more savings that way!
The seasons of life sometimes seem to pass so slowly when you’re in them. But when you turn around and see how far you’ve already come, you realize just how fast time flies. I can’t believe my little boy is 15 months old. He’s been with us for over a year, yet I remember bringing him home from the hospital like it was yesterday. I’ve heard parents say that my whole life and now that I’m in the season of parenting, I understand.
Along with being in the parenting season of life, I’ve been blessed the past couple of months to find myself in a season of painting. However short this season may be, I am grateful for it because painting is one of my greatest passions. I truly believe that it is good for my soul. I have found time to do personal painting work as well as freelance painting work. I love the process of painting. From the anticipation of prep work to the fulfillment of cleaning up, each step is special.
Here are some examples of the painting I’ve been able to do. I did a personal piece that is a combination of acrylics and watercolors, a flowery watercolor piece that is being used for a ministry event, and a fun logo for which I combined paint and ink to get the look I wanted.
I painted the cabinets in our kitchen and made a few other updates. Down the road we are planning to completely remodel the kitchen, but until we can afford that, this refresh makes it much more pleasant.
My son, Turner, had his FIRST BIRTHDAY on Sunday! I went all out with the decor. We love the Lord of the Rings in this family and I’m a big fan of the Shire. It was a beautiful day for a party!
It seems that everyone has a different creative process. I have found this to be true. Some people have vast differences in the kind of work environment they prefer, the types of tools they use, or the order they do things in. Others, however, are quite similar and only vary in a few areas. While this might seem to be an obvious fact, something even more obvious is this: everyone has a different life process. Every person reaches certain levels of personal and spiritual growth at different points in their lives.
I’m a creative person, and I often feel the most fulfilled when I’m doing creative activities. However, my life process has been marked by highs and lows in creativity. I contribute these variances to seasons throughout my life when I have been struck with depression. For me, depression seems to paralyze my creativity. And my motivation to do anything. When these seasons have come into my life, I have often had the mindset of being “stuck.” Like I cannot do anything until this passes. This got particularly troublesome when I had my son. The depression hit me the hardest about a month postpartum. There’s no worse time to be “stuck” then when you’ve got a newborn to take care of. Forget about getting your creativity back. We’re talking about SURVIVAL.
After many difficult months, my postpartum depression finally subsided. I made it out and my life process resumed. My little boy even helped me by becoming extra cuddly when I was the saddest. I gradually felt more motivated to create again. I had served my time and at last I could move on with my life.
However, I recently discovered that we shouldn’t wait to be “cured” from our depression before moving on with our lives. Rather than waiting until we feel better, those of us who go through seasons of depression should walk with God through those seasons. He gives us everything we need for life EACH DAY. Our daily bread and daily grace given from God is sufficient for today. Not for yesterday. Not for tomorrow. It is sufficient for TODAY (Matt 6:34, 2 Cor 12:9). And every day is different, especially for those of us with depression and anxiety. But instead of constantly wishing for it to be over, we should live in the moment, trusting God with every second.
I want to encourage you, no matter what trial you’re going through, to make it part of your life process. Not a pause and resume. Let it shape you. Let it bring you closer to God and those you love. It might feel like you should give up, but keep going. And remember not to compare yourself with others—because everyone has a different life process.
In addition to freelancing from home, I’m now running an Etsy shop! I’m specializing in embroidery hoops with my unique designs. Embroidery is a new art form for me, but it has been really fun to learn the different types of stitches (by watching YouTube tutorials, haha). I hope you’ll check out my shop: etsy.com/shop/ReneeWilcoxDesigns.
I wanted to share the progress we’ve made in updating our house since we moved in 2 years ago. The most drastic changes have been made in the living room and the baby room.
Renee Wilcox 