What if...I learned a few things this weekend...

1. Some brands of k-cups are designed so you can remove the coffee pod to recycle the plastic and send only the compostable parts to the landfill! Who knew?!

2. If your husband agrees to the purchase of some fancy new kitchen gadgets, it should not be assumed that he is ready for you to give it a try with a recipe using his favorite BBQ sauce that he specially ordered from Kansas when there is only one tiny 8oz. bottle left. Too risky. Don't go there.

3. Quickly scurrying around Hobby Lobby muttering "chess pieces, hedgehogs, flamingo, tea cups, mushrooms..." will get you some very funny looks...and also some great finds!

4. My first real art project of Project Wonderland may be ready for finishing! If I decide I'm done with the design, I'll have my hubby tighten everything up and we'll clear coat it!

Front Full View

Front Close Up

Back Full Veiw

Back Close Up

Caterpillar's Mushroom Garden

Mad Tea Party Garden

Red Queen's Rose Garden

Garden of Singing Flowers

A few notes:

- While the majority of the room will be inspired by the original illustrations, I also intend to highlight many interpretations of the Alice stories. I wanted this chair to be very colorful so the 1951 Disney classic was largely the inspiration for this chair's graphics. The quote, however, is from the 2010 Tim Burton film and is one of my favorite lines so I had to include it. Yes, fellow Alice nerds, the quote is wrong. I was being lazy last night and didn't confirm the quote before I painted. I will be fixing it.

- Yes, most of this I painted free-hand. The items in the "gardens" on the bottom are not entirely mine. The singing flowers were from a free printable I found online. I just outlined in black sharpie to make the details more prominent. The roses are scrapbook embellishments from the craft store that I added red to. The mushrooms and teacups were just not readily available in crafts stores so I got patterned scrapbook paper for the tea garden and water colored scrapbook paper for the mushroom garden, doodled my own shapes, cut them out, and stuck them on.

- I know the back of "Alice" doesn't exactly make sense. I didn't really want to paint the whole character so it's supposed to suggest Alice but I couldn't figure out exactly how the back would look given the way I suggested her on the front. I'm kind of ok with it. It's wonderland - nothing is quite right, right? Though if anyone has suggestions, I'm all ears.

- If you feel inspired to do something of your own like this, I highly recommend buying a piece of furniture that's structurally very good quality and maybe is just cheap because the finish is ruined. I went ahead with this one because it was VERY cheap and exactly the type of chair I wanted. I, thankfully, am married to a very handy guy so I believe he will be able to tighten the whole thing up so it's less wobbly. But this is a VERY poor quality chair. I might be more picky next time.

- Speaking of next time...I would be willing to consider making another piece like this for sale if someone really wanted one BUT it would a) be very expensive because you'll want a better quality piece to start with and because this took many, many hours for me to do, b) it probably would not be any more detailed than this because I cannot do faces or anything with detail any tinier. My skills end with doodling (remember how I had to get scrapbook materials and print off the internet for the garden items? Can't do it. ) and c) it may not turn out as cool unless it's something I'm really in love with too. If you ask me to paint a night stand like a Tardis, I might be able to make something really cool or I might completely miss the mark because I don't watch that show.

What's next? This very ugly, broken lamp!