We Call Home...

I don't typically enter blog giveaways... just because usually I don't read the blog post until AFTER the winner was already announced... time is not in my favor these days.  But, there are a few blogs that I stay "on top of"... and Lindsay's... is one of them. She had an amazing birthday giveaway, that I entered... and I won. Yes, me... the person who never wins... won something fabulous! Lindsay is well known for her "State Love" paintings... and she made it into this season's "Stitch/Craft/Create" magazine... with a tutorial on how to create these lovely state paintings. For her giveaway she was giving away 2 lucky readers (I was one of them!), a copy of the magazine and the "ingredients" (canvas, paint, paintbrush) to create a state love painting all on our own.

When the package arrived in the mail, it already felt like a piece of artwork, that I didn't want to open...but wanted to open... at the same time. She had me at washi/decorative tape....

So many lovely goodies inside... 

After reading up on the tutorial, I got to work... Now, you're probably thinking that I would paint "New Jersey" (my home state) or "Pennsylvania" (the hubby's home state)... but nope.. I decided on "Ooooooklahoma" ... It's the place where we are at now in our lives... Just felt like the PERFECT state to pay homage to. I decided to use grey as the background (when Lindsay asked me which background color to send), because it's "neutral", and because I knew it was going to go in my guest room, on the wall over the bed, with a medley of other prints/fun finds/art pieces. I started and finished it all within an afternoon (with plenty of interruptions)... and placed a little turquoise painted heart right over the spot on our state, that we call home.