Make This: DIY "Shoes Off" Large Entryway Message, Typography Message Art

I was searching for large art pieces for my entryway to warn visitors to remove their shoes before entering my abode but there was an absence in the marketplace. The solution: customize my own for a mere $1.64! I put the sign into action and without me having to say a word everyone takes off their shoes, it's a big bold warning and the MOFO makes the command authoritative yet irreverent. Make one, your floors will thank you!:

Step 1) What do you want visitors to feel, think, or see when they enter your home? Choose your words wisely, then browse sites like dafont or fontsquirrel to find your desired fonts.

Step 2) Use your image editor of choice to choose your sign size. GIMP is free. I use and recommend Adobe Photoshop Elements. Go to File -->> New Image and enter your image size in inches or centimeters and most importantly, change your Resolution (PPI or DPI) to 300 pixels per inch to ensure high quality printing!

Step 3) Arrange your fonts to your liking. I worked on mine for an hour on and off before I was satisfied.

Step 4) Comparison shop to find the best local printer. My first estimate for a 19" x 27" sign was $40.00, my second was $1.64! If you go for a simple black and white large print like I do you can slash prices dramatically. I printed mine at Office Depot.

Here it is in my new and improved entryway which had absolutely nothing but boxes in it before! 

Step 5) Hang your sign with pride. I decided mine looked better unframed and used a combination of binder clips and a vintage hanger to display it in my hallway entryway. Love the results!

I had so much fun making this piece that I decided to make it available in my Etsy Shop along with a whole series I call Morbid Motivation for indie business owners or anyone else who needs that extra kick in the ass on the job. Let me know if you have any questions or requests for future signs in the shop or DIYs. There's a Shoes Off one, too, of course!

What are some signs you'd love to hang in your home? I think I'll work on some more thrifting ones, next...

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The Secret to Perfect Picture Hanging: How To Make Your Home an Art Gallery

Are you oddly pedantic about arranging the artwork in your home? Like you I'm slightly OCD and derive ample nerdy pleasure from creating a pleasing composition in a room... So I'm shocked I haven't heard about hanging items at "gallery" or "eye" height until recently.

The rule is simple, you hang your artwork in your home so that the center is 57" off the ground, an average for eye-level. This gives harmony to all the pieces in your home visually, helps you curate a cohesive collection, and allows visitors to view each piece with the same ease they'd view artwork in a gallery.

The Formula is thus: Measure the height of the art piece, then divide this in half. Add this amount to 57". Measure the distance from the taut wire or hook in the back to the top of your art piece. then subtract that amount from the total and this is where you'll add your nail to the wall to hang your piece at perfect eye-height.

Artwork height divided in half  + 57 - Distance from hook to the top of art

The same formula applies for an art grouping. Arrange the collection on the floor first, then measure this grouping from the top to the bottom. Divide that number in half to hang the whole group at eye-height.

My brain shut down, as it always shamefully does, when I saw the math. But when you put it into practice it's alarmingly simple. Be Not Afraid. Today I'm going to use the formula to finish hanging everything at eye level. This is perfect for my space that doubles as a back-drop for product photography as I live and work here. I firmly believe rules are meant to be broken for unique spaces but I like strictly following this one for harmony.

Got any further picture-hanging apartment-harmony-making tips? How do you go about hanging pieces perfectly? Before this I really did just go about it blindly trusting my eye to keep it harmonious.

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Happy Halloween! It's Kitschy Florida Halloween Decoration Admiration Time!

I took a bike ride around my beautiful historic neighborhood to document the Halloween decor last week. I took hundreds of photos before I (embarrassingly) had to be picked up from nearly passing out from some kind of low-blood pressure or heat exhaustion attack. That's Halloween in Florida for ya! It's still hot as hell down here by midday! Sometimes we have Halloween pool parties and fall foliage is a rare sight. The explosion of (kitsch) and color instead comes from the brave few who still outfit their homes in colorful decorations and I love them for it!

I'm going to spend Halloween like I spend every day...watching horror movies and taking as many product photos as possible. Seriously, I watch horror movies nearly every day all day, I wish it was Halloween forever :) Have fun partying, trick-or-treating, and other Halloween shenanigans. I'm turning comments off on this post but will be back tomorrow.

Check out the second photo from the last, I was photographing a house and didn't notice until I was going to bike away that they had a demonic-ass-looking doll in the top window there! The Hell! That's glorious! Also, check out this and this video with "Weird" retro Halloween special recommendations. I want to watch all of them especially the weird Scarecrow Disney-knock off one!

Got some Halloween movie recommendations of my own here and here if you're stuck indoors watching movies. Have fun today!

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Drawing a Sexy Sorceress This Halloween with Dr. Sketchy's Anti Art School

Lots of last-second Halloweening has been going on around these parts. I'm happy to say that with pumpkin pies, healthier candies, haunted explorations, horror movie marathons (my picks here and here), and last-second costume and decoration making. (Look for a post on that tomorrow me-thinks.)

My favorite Halloween event by far was a surprise Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School event. We arrived at Atticus bar at the Golden Hour, art supplies in hand and ready to sketch. With creative art all over the walls and a dark interior, it's the perfect Sketchy interior for a night of art making.

We waited inside for the fun to begin, the stage set for mischief. These are the fellow early birds getting their art supplies sharpened and ready.

For those who've missed past posts on it, Dr. Sketchy's is part burlesque show part figure drawing class. The models and stage are decked out elaborately with imagination-sparking props and costumes aplenty, the hosts are kitschy and commentary is kitschy/cutely pervy, and the model loses more and more clothing throughout the evening.

You may have a Dr. Sketchy's chapter near you, look it up if you love to draw or photograph, I'm always incredibly inspired after leaving a Dr. Sketchy's.

Slowly the model emerges from the cape and cat-eye glasses.

Enchanting a witches' brew atop the bubbling caldron.

(There was dry ice inside for the proper smokey affect. Very creative idea for a Halloween part of your own!)

Or looking up a spell in the book of curses. The elaborate book acting as a guest book for the rest of the evening.

We sketched our witch into the evening.

I sketched a few things I may have to finish coloring later. I love the group drawing camaraderie, drawing as a pack is so relaxing and stimulating.

When our model remerged there was a little less covering her. Here you see one of my favorite props other than the lovely Eva herself, a bat mobile. Get it? Batmobile! I need one of those above my bed ASAP.

For gender equality our host Edward Morningwood also lost some clothing along with our model.

She was asked to lose some more clothing but first, a tease! Damn, those big hats can be concealing in a pinch.

And then there were boobs, with fun concealing spiderweb pasties. Actually more modest than your traditional figure-drawing class where your model is fully nude.

If you're local, check out the next event in December! Have you ever attended a Dr. Sketchy's event in your area?

What kind of Halloweening are you getting into this year? I've gone haunted school sleuthing, decoration documenting, treat making, fun times!

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A-Muse: Confessions of a Closet Cat Fetishist and The Neighbor Kitties

Ah, the muse, how we love thee. My eclectic junking soul has dozens, and I'm sure you do, too. This A-Muse feature will explore my favorite art inspiration, right in time to help me complete my ambitious quest to draw 36 things in 3 months! Let's start with a childhood favorite: the feline! I'm a crazy god damn cat lady.

I've loved cats since toddler-hood, my first beloved feline was a snowshoe Siamese we named April for her birth month and our favorite Ninja Turtle's reporter. Saved from a dumpster in Naples, Italy, our April lived up to her breed's standard of being an incredibly gregarious, loving and sweetly vocal companion. (Also a rare breed, only 388 officially registered in the USA in the last decade!) My family mourned when a stray dog wrote the final chapter of her life, she'd lived with us for over a decade. (Hence why my Yuko is a strict indoor-only cat!) If I acted out my secret desires I'd have four cats. Another snowshoe, my current feline, Yuko, a calico Japanese bobtail named Usagi (Japanese for rabbit), and Lydia the Bombay.

Give it time, I'll age into a crazy collector as the years pass. I'll buy a new cat every time a man breaks my heart, by the time I'm eighty I could have hundreds! It'll be beautiful. Just me and my eight hundred cats. Just kidding. OR AM I?!

I'd love to produce a cat photography series or even publish a cat photography and/or artwork book. They're energetic subjects, their front-facing eyes expressive and their Cheshire "grins" alluringly enigmatic.

Why do the artists (notable cat fans, Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, Charles Dickens, Claude Monet, Alexander Dumas, Freddie Mercury) find never-ending inspiration in the cat? I'm sure their graceful shapes and movements play a role; they sprawl on narrowest ledges, perch proudly on the tallest spires, squeeze into clandestine cubbies, all without breaking a sweat.

No matter where I'm at in the world, I love to stop and photograph the local cats. They add life to composition and highlight or nicely juxtapose local architecture and landscapes. All the of the photos in this post were snapped on a couple of walks around my Riverside, Jacksonville neighborhood. Everything's better with cats!

Cats are cool, sleek, tough, and elegant. They're what we wish we could be. They are vengeance. They are the night. They are Catman! They sleep 12 hours a day so we don't have to. What heroes!

The Yuko, my own personal feline muse. And pissant.

I love drawing, shooting, watching, and living with them. They'll never fail to a-muse! I really let the cat out of the bag with this one, oh ho ho ho! :D I'll stop with the bad puns now.

Are kitties a muse for you, too? Feel free to share your favorite muses in the comments!

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Thrifty DIY Idea: Cheap and Easy Wall Art From Magazines

I'm on a purging/organizing kick. It's been exciting to streamline the household and make "stations" for each activity. The next necessary step was adding artwork, I can't thrive without it! Other than local art, my favorite thing to frame and display are pages from book and magazines.

I immediately swooped in on this issue of Hi Fructose at the flea market featuring one of my favorite artists, Junko Mizuno. Her weird, dark style is perfect for adding art to the kitchen, bedroom, and office area with their bright colors, intricate graphic design, and food and crafting themes- what's not to love?!

I start by...this is the heart breaking part...ripping the magazine in half at the seams right at the first page I want to take. This way I can rip out all the pages I want to use without fearing of damaging them.

Next I frame them in matching frames. It would fun to make a Junko gallery wall , but I need these pieces to add color throughout the house.

Three are now living in the kitchen. One by the new "blending station." I love the artichokes and bunnies in this piece, gorgeous!

The next two add color and life to the "tea station," I love the piece with the girl and the blender, so kitchen appropriate.

Next my office area got some love, I adore how the muted colors in the two Junko knitting pieces match my Cuttlefish anatomy poster.

Any finally two pieces are perfectly at home in my bedroom. I thought these were perfect to hang above the dresser with their feminine themes.

Ah, it's the little details that make a house a home. If there's any blank corners in your home that need warming up,  look to the thrifts for old magazines and books for art to fill the walls. I love displaying unconventional masterpieces and thrifted objects in my home.

What do you like to frame and/or display on the walls? It feels good to change things up for the new year. Look out for some home organization posts next week!

Daily thrifting updates, information, & Inspiration: Follow Thrift Core on Twitter and Facebook.

My New Job in a Raw Vegan Kitchen: A Food Story

Nine years ago I ate a cheeseburger a day. If you'd have told me I'd "grow up" to work in a raw vegan kitchen I'd laugh my ass off between bites of fast food. I've changed in the past three years...

I've evolved from junk eater to "raw vegan", a vegan that eats fresh, unheated, unprocessed fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. I've lost thirty pounds along the way. Eating healthfully has become a passion, and seeking hands-on experience preparing "living food" was the natural next step.

Food Nirvana: Cooking raw vegan and working full time is tough. Overwhelmed and hungry, I looked for local raw vegan bites and discovered the delicacies offered by local raw vegan caterer, Shakti.

My first bite of Shakti's raw vegan chocolate moose was spiritual. I need not pray nor screw my way across Asia like that chick in Eat, Pray, Love for enlightenment. Give me Eat! Addicted to Shakti's culinary perfection, the path was clear. I had to work in that kitchen!

Learning, Growing: My new job at Shakti forces me out of  my comfort zone. Balancing the blog, reselling, freelance gigs, and the kitchen is challenging, but it's supercharged my passion for Thrift Core. New experiences are clinically proven to increase creativity and I'm enjoying this energy boost thoroughly!

A Clear Path: My bank account had more numbers after the dollar sign when I worked full time as a marketer, but that number on the scale went up with it! I'm still organizing my life as a bohemian and I make a pittance of what I earned when The Man provided my pay, but I am so much more fulfilled working in my home and in Shakti's humble kitchen. 

[Former co-workers see the difference: I've got my "glow" back. I'm so fulfilled helping others.]

Working for myself I provide new homes for forgotten relics and help people realize their dreams as a freelance small business marketer. I inspire people with my blog. Now as a raw vegan cook I'm nurturing people's bodies with healthy comfort food and it closes the circle. I earn less, but I'm creatively and spiritually satisfied.

Follow Your Passion: If you're passionate about something, do it! Open your Etsy shop, start reselling, find a way to work in the field you want to. Start slow. When you dive into your passions you'll discover some of them aren't for you. You'll flub. That's the most important part.

Try shit, fall on your ass, dust yourself off and start all over again. If you're not doing this, you're not living.

So tell me...what do you want me to write about this experience in the future? Got questions? I'm here to educate!

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