Painted murals

One idea I've been mulling over for a long time is the idea of creating a painted mural instead of a traditional headboard in our bedroom. It's an odd space and a traditional headboard (besides being expensive, hard-to-find, and impractical for a California King size bed we don't plan to keep for more than 5 more years), just won't fit with the window. The murals I like all seem to be trees. The big ones are made easier with a projector to trace the image onto a wall, but if you're truly gifted, you could probably freehand it, too. Here are some that I love:
Cherry blossom mural from Young House Love




















One of several awesome birch tree murals in a nursery (also love the branch and birds mobile here!)













Birch trees in a grownup bedroom! From Design Sponge.













Fantastic 3-D tree & birdhouse mural from Ohdeeoh

































Lovely simple tree mural, also from Ohdeeoh



















This gorgeous mural would be insanity to create, but maybe in a "forever" house?















This simple tree mural allegedly only took 4 hours to make, and there's a tutorial on free-handing it!












Lovely, simple line-drawing murals from Australian artist Jane Reiseger. These are lovely and charming and whimsical, but look simple enough that even I might be able to handle doing it! A good reminder that a mural doesn't have to be complicated to make an impact. More of her murals at Ohdeeoh.











I know murals can sometimes be worse than wallpaper borders on the tackiness scale. A badly -done mural can totally ruin a good space. What do you think? Is it worth it to take a risk with some paint?

Just Because

I know I before that I was going to post more... but then I got busy. Really busy. But not too busy to READ blogs. Never too busy for that. However, when it comes to posting, I think the perfect has been the enemy of the good. I've been feeling like I need a Focus and a Purpose or you, my 3 blog followers will be confused and annoyed by my randomness. But you know what? I follow a zillion blogs. I am collecting ideas from the internet all day. Mostly I print them out, and take them home and file them. Seriously, I have a specific folder I carry with me to and from work each day to collect the ideas I print out from the internet and file carefully at home, in my basket containing folders with names like "gardening", and "gifts", and "parenting". (Yes, I have a parenting folder even though I am not *technically* a parent yet. Don't judge. I believe in preparation.) Anyway, it occurs to me that that is stupid. I should be posting things here, so that they remain in a virtual collection, indexable and accessible anyplace there is internet access. And, heck, one of my 3 lovely readers might even find something I post useful or fun, or be introduced to a cool site they never would have found otherwise. Plenty of people have blogs that are just virtual collages, so why not me? It's not like I really have some aim to take over the world with my blog, so why all the insistence on Focus and Purpose? How about Just Because? (Well, because, Just Because can be hard for a type-A-ish personality like me, but that's all the more reason to give it a try.) Here we go!

This wallpaper (also pictured above) is seriously rad, but probably also seriously expensive. I think it would be awesome in a small bathroom. I am pretty sure DH would never go for it. (From That Girl via Basically Anything That is Awesome.)

I read Sam Harris' Letter to A Christian Nation and watched a talk he gave. He is an impressively smart guy. I am looking forward to watching his TED talk here. (TED is an interesting group that is about bringing smart people from different disciplines together and making their ideas accessible to all; you can learn more about it here.)

Making perfect hash browns, via the NY Times.

Found this "collage" site today through a link. Could be a dangerous time-suck. Crush Party

More tomorrow! Happy Monday!