Trying to push myself to do more art. It’s tough! Nathan got me some awesome watercolor colored pencils for my b-day so having this new medium/tool has been helpful.
I added another dimension by gluing on acetate cut-outs and lime-green flowers. Eventually, I would like this sort of work to evolve to dense, covered mixed media… with found materials and bits of vintage papers.
By searching for new patterns and color palettes for inspiration, I’ve become somewhat interested in vintage fabric and wallpaper. I’d like to start a little collection… I already have a massive stack of vintage hankies that I’ve been collecting, but what box are they in? eek! I have to admit, I’m not completely unpacked and I’m so far from organized. But, I’ve been working on a web design project… so I have an excuse to not be organized :)
It’s taken a few months, but I’m really starting to feel the loss of not having the shop. It had a built-in passion… it came with the desire to create. Each day I would open the door and be inspired. It’s so much harder to feel the need to create here. I had tangible items, an audience and instant gratification… and input. I miss it so much.
I was joking with my friends that I need to have a wake for all the items that I left behind, and that I’m mourning the loss of. An old radio cabinet, my very old couches, a mop, sheets of plexiglass that I really could have made into something cool here… a laundry list of little pieces of the store… five years to put together and about 6 weeks to dismantle. *sigh* Well, I’m hoping, at the very least, to take these emotions and put it into my art… celebrate the joy that the shop created… and some of the frustration, too. Perhaps I can bind it all together and make a book about having your own little store… the mundane business paper pushing, the overwhelming responsibility, the joy, how rewarding it was and also all of the many annoyances. Towards the end, so many things seemed unfair… the joy was slipping away… and having to deal with outside forces… it seeped into my little magical fairy world and destroyed it. Next time… if there is a next time, I will make sure that my business is protected from the negative, that way it will thrive and grow, the way I intended it to. (And I may hire a bulldog to run the store while I get to just create… I’ll be the first to admit that I’m uber-hyper-sensitive to anything negative… or anyone who is negative, for that matter).
And here is a work in progress… I think I’m going to journal on it a bit… let vab know how much I miss her :) I think once I find closure on the closure, I’ll be able to get the website up and running again… I can once again share my passion for art and pretty little things :)
For the first time in a long time… without having to make huge plans, have someone cover for me, leave a note on the door that was out of place… I had LUNCH with my husband today, a work day… a sit-down… leisure… LUNCH at a restaurant!
It’s the small things….
I’ve been doing some layouts for our announcements (hitched, moving, etc) for family and friends on postcards… and I’m putting the series of postcards into an envelope with rounded edges and tying them with bows. That little package goes into a vellum envelope that I have been hand-addressing. Ummmm… it’s been a week and I’ve done 20. Twenty. They have taken around 30 minutes each to do. V was funny… “You don’t have to put our last names on the envelope, it will save you at least 10 minutes”. Ha. My wrist hurts. If only I was ambidextrous, I could get more done. Trivia… both of my parents are left handed and I’m right. Someone told me that makes me a genius… for. some. reason.
Oh, once… I was getting my wisdom teeth pulled (have I told you this story? Yawn if I have) and the dentist/surgeon guy, who happened to look like Larry from Three’s Company and his assistant looked like Crissy, but anywho… I was at the Regal Beagle… and they put up my x-rays… “Larry” called all his colleagues over… “Look! She has *the* hole!”
Ummmm…. well…. turns out, I have some nerve hole in my jaw that went extinct with Neanderthal, but *I* still have it! Apparently, the little hole wasn’t being used for anything, but it was there… for some reason. So, I refer to myself as the missing link from time-to-time. So, the genius theory… nice try ;)
Oh, and my surgery was bookended by Phil Collins… went out to him, came to to him… and like a Pavlovian dog, I change the channel if Phil comes on the radio, or my teeth start aching. (That wasn’t funny).
So, back to my layouts… here’s a sampling…. sans some of the words….
There are 4 postcards total…. all color front and back. I love the color scheme. The envelopes have a matching hand-colored frame embellished thing going on. I’ll take pics of the finished envelopes when they are done in 2010. They sure are perty. For those of you who want to know where I get my postcards printed… I use Got Print in Burbank/Sun Valley, please tell them I sent you :)
I think once I’m settled I will make myself available to do layouts, if you need such a thing :) I *love* doing this stuff!!
Phew… time for bed… no more talk of teeth and anthropology (which was one of my favorite classes! Very interesting!)
P.S… The store is open on Friday from 11-7 and saturday from 10-6… last chance to come see what we’ve got :)
This is year two that I’ve gotten together with Rachael and her stamping group to do Calendars! I was in charge of December this year… I made 13 advent calendars. This was a lot of x-acto knife-ing! ugh! Last year I was in charge of February and April… which weren’t as complex.
Each door had a different image inside… I wish I could get larger ones made, I think it’s such a fun idea :)
Back to work! Hope you are all staying sane in the land of cooking, shopping, wrapping and traveling :)
So, I get this text message to my phone… “Cupcake decorating party tonight at my house!” How can I say no??! Pinguino had the awesome idea to make Spooky Cupcakes…
In order of appearance… (All these pictures were taken by Pinguino or Nathan…)
Tiny naked cakes!
Pinguino’s coffee table… where the magic will happen.
Oh no! (Mr. Bill?)
8 arms, 1 eye…
More eyeball squishy things…
And everyone found a home!
And these are my little edible art pieces… the turtle (on the right… it doesn’t really, err… look like a turtle) is covered with taffy that I rolled fimo style into swirls and sliced. 5 years of fimo-ing had to come in useful someday, right? ;)
The end!
**I’m SO doing a cupcake decorating party at the store for Christmas… any takers?**
She’s in this month’s Craft Magazine with her macrame beaded curtain… a work of art! Take a look!
Click on the pictures to see the pages a wee bit bigger so you can read them!
I got a photo credit! Woo Hoo!! :)
I actually spent the day at Cathi’s with a bunch of friends… and torches and kittens! No kittens were harmed in that sentence. I have pictures on my camera phone of all the goings-on of the day. Once I figure out how to pull them off said phone I’ll share. There’s nothing like being surrounded by beginners playing with fire to get you inspired to make stuff ;)
On a side note… we are back from our vacation, still have pics to share. I’m getting ready to put out Halloween at the store and I’m completely overwhelmed by everything that is going on… but what else is new?
It’s 3:39 am. I woke myself up with the delightful “snurgle” of hay fever or a cold or whatever. You know how you are just bored enough to not want to work, but still sleepy and….well, dang it, I wish I could go back to sleep ;)
So… I haven’t been as creative as I would like lately. The store’s sale kept me so busy so I’ve been having dreams of various colored sticky dots (indicating the percentage off of a certain item) and not so much about painting, collaging or creating ;) Btw, I still have a few things on sale at the store, if you missed the “Sale”. You can still find some great bargains on certain items :)
However… I DID manage to make a few jewelry pieces:
This piece is on ebay. It’s a large smokey quartz briolette with a cluster of pink tourmaline on top. All sterling silver chain with the occassional smokey quartz here and there :) And the bidding start at 30% off the retail price.
There are more pieces in my ebay shop and I’m working on filling up the store with new jewelry, too! :)
So, big news… my lifelong friend Kristina is getting married next month so I’ll be helping to plan a wedding shower, which should be fun :) So many ideas, so little time ;) For her wedding dress, she is looking for a pink sun dress or cocktail dress that is simple, yet elegant… if anyone out there has a suggestion, we’d love to hear it ;) I’ve never been good at finding dresses, for some reason? I would always get them made or settle with something I sort of liked.
We’re going on vacation next week so at least I’ll have plenty to share when I come back ;) The store will have odd hours for the next week:
Tuesday, July 17th - 11:00 am - 1:00 pm
Wednesday, July 18th - Closed
Thursday, July 19th - Closed
Friday, July 20th - 12:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Saturday, July 21st - 12:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Sunday, July 22nd - Closed (usually closed)
Monday, July 23rd - Closed (usually closed)
Tuesday, July 24th - Closed
Wednesday, July 25th - Back to normal hours (unless I’m completely sunburned!) - 11:00 am - 6:00 pm
So, ebay and website orders may be delayed this week :)
I’m going to attempt getting some sleep… anyone else experiencing the itchy, watery eyes and having a sneeze fest? ;)
Enjoy your weekend, and this not-as-hot-as-last-year July! :)
Nathan (and I, sort of) participated in the 48 hour film project last weekend and went to the screening last night. We had a blast! This has inspired us to do more artsy film stuff. We don’t have a 35mm film movie camera, but we do have an amazing digital still camera… so we did a stop motion animation test using a box of matches:
It turned out quite well, for a 10 minute test with 70-something frames. So… we have the bug. We’re thinking of little stories to animate, both stop motion and 2d drawn stuff. I’m super excited :) It’s good experience for us both, but we are both so short on time, eek! I hope we can pull it off!
I’m convinced that Nathan is the next Spielberg ;) He has so much technical knowledge, it’s sort of humbling. I’m the one with the animation degree, but he knows soooo much more than I do! I like to build little sets, do the staging and come up with colorful characters, but he puts it all together with sound, creative camera angles and editing.
I may be turning the store into a production studio ;) hehe!
Okay, so… it’s another pun, but it makes me giggle more than it should. You see, we like to take our dog everywhere with us and the other night we were in and out of the car quite frequently and I coined the phrase “Re-leash the hound” to get ready for our next mini adventure etc and so on… Use it in a sentence tomorrow, I dare ya!
I’ve been doing the jewelry thing again… thought I would share a few pictures :)
That’s my workspace… anywhere there’s an a/c and cable tv ;)
Here’s a bracelet with Cathi’s beads and tons of dangling crystals… oh, and a loose heart pendant
Just one of my many bead boxes… this one is filled with glass cupcakes, little glass birds and other assorted goodies
A couple pairs of dangle earrings… need to make about 20 more pairs… well, that’s my goal by this Saturday at least ;)
Have I mentioned I have a thing for greens, blues and other ocean colors?
Our water heater is broken and I adore cold showers as much as the next person but… dang it! At least it’s been 90 out lately to counteract the temperature difference of my skin. I loathe hot weather, glad I live in the middle of a desert with a/c boxes that cool a 3 foot semi-circle. Sorry, grumpy… didn’t have my latte today ;)
We did, however, consume the best gelato this side of… errr… Italy. Melt Gelato in Montrose. I thought it was a “mom-and-pop”, but it isn’t! They are tucked in a little 2 story mini mall, hidden among the small businesses. Is this the wave of the future? (I’m slow) Large businesses and franchises disguised as small businesses? No, it’s been around, but I like to create long sentences about it. The gelato was amazing, they also serve crepes and we are definately going back, if not only to take pictures of their gelato sculptures! Pinguino is obsessed with pink berry frozen yogurt… that’s next on the “80 frozen treats in 80 days tour”. I should write a complete essay about frozen dessert movements. Who can forget Heidi’s Frogen Yozurt, Penguin’s Frozen Yogurt, dippin’ dots… and TCBY at the airports (Some of these are still around). Now there is Cold Stone, marble slab, 21 choices and Maggie Moo’s. Funny how the trends move all around. Why do I find this extremely interesting??
So much to do before the weekend… we are offering fresh flowers on Friday, Saturday and Sunday… I’ll post our hours in an official announcement post… aaannnnddd… need to get more Mother’s Day cards printed and jewelry made! Nothing like last minute to keep you going! :)
Important Programming Note!
Oh, and I had a few visitors from BlogLand this weekend! Sandy from Sam I am Creations (and she totally bought a bird that looks just like the one on her header) and her friend Iva (who needs to shoot me an email so I can check out her blog). Okay, I’m so horribly bad about being surprised (although, she did mention that she was coming out… talk about scattered… how do I dress myself?) because my brain just doesn’t work that way. I need to know what’s going on or coming my way every moment or I will make a bit of an ass of myself :) (This includes phone calls from someone who may have *just* left my store!) Sandy introduced herself and mentioned something about receiving a package from me and I thought…. from the giveaway? I JUST sent it, wow! the USPS sure is speedy (it was actually an ebay win from eeeearrrlly that week)! And I totally thought she was someone else and thought of a different blog in my head. Bra-ill-yiant. Me. Thank you. *Bow*. So, if you come up and introduce yourself… give me approximately 90 seconds to run to the computer, do my “ooooohhhh, that’s YOU!” bobbing, nodding head thing… then re-introduce yourself. It may just sink in after that. I never said I was smart. (*I’m good with puns though*)
Lastly…
Here’s Meg telling me we should hit the road again… it’s too hot in the house and she’s wishing the entire house was made out of ceramic tile! :)
