Fabric on Wood art by Shellie Mitchell

2012 Calendars are in!

2011-10-31T19:14:00.004-04:00

Happy Halloween everyone! Here is London and his pumpkin before we carved it. So sweet he took it everywhere.

It's that time of year again and my handful of 2012 calendars are in. I try to pick some of my favorite images from the past year and I have to admit I really do love this one!

You can find them in my etsy shop HERE.

I need to be a better blogger as always but life always seems to be so busy. My 10 month old is mobile now and into everything and when she does nap I am outside with London. I know I will miss these days someday. They sure do seem to be slipping away fast. In fact my infant is not so infant anymore. At 10 months she is getting her molars in??? What???

Off to finish handing out Halloween candy and waiting for London and his Daddy to get back from trick or treating, so I can hear all about it!

2011-07-13T17:00:00.005-04:00

Wow is it sure hot here these days. This can be a good thing for me b/c we have been staying put a little bit more then normal which lets me get a little bit of art done! Here is a brand new piece from my "Gathering Girls" series. She is 24" x 24" and I really think she is my new favorite. I was reluctant to add a barn in the background but at my husbands suggestion I did and I am so glad it worked out for the best. She is also suppose to be carrying an old school coleman lantern, which is what she is putting the fireflies in!
Gathering Fireflies can be found HERE in my Etsy shop!

Here is another new one with that same line from the song "Ruby Love" by Cat Stevens. I adore this song and listen to it daily!
You can find this little one HERE.

And another new "Gathering girl". She is 12" x 11 7/8" and is named Gathering Firewood. She can be found HERE.

Here is a custom portrait of two grey and white Italian Greyhounds.

Here are my little munchkins, they love playing with each other!

And here is a recent picture of me, I don't take many anymore. lol

I hope you all are surviving the heat. I have a few other custom pieces I am going to be working on soon. I will try to share them as I make them (or in one big batch post!). Stay cool!

Oh the Hotness of Summer

2011-06-21T15:33:00.009-04:00

It has been a HOT and a busy summer so far. I did an outdoor show last weekend. The sun was shining and I met some fabulous folks. Actually one that lives on my block and is also an artist. This is crazy b/c the show was in Charlotte across town, I always say you just never know who you might meet!

Here is my booth set up. My dear friend Courtney of Floradora I nc. made me this awesome table clothe. I tried to make things a bit more rustic with chalkboard painted jars, twigs, an old wooden box, picnic basket and burlap!

Now onto all the art I have been busy making. This piece below was a big commission piece. It was 18" x 24" and we never gave it a name. lol

The above piece is also a bigger one and is in my shop here. It is 24" x 30 and is titled "You are my Sky Above".

I have been back into making "Gathering girls". The one above has sold but I do have some archival prints of "gathering fireflies" here.

Below is a new Gathering girl name "Gathering- Plums". I have no listed her yet as I am saving her for an upcoming show (read below to find out more about the "Shop for Shelter" show coming up soon).

Below is another new piece called "Light on in the Dark" you can find it in my Etsy shop here.

And finally here is another new piece called "Purple Flower Sun" and you can find it here!

Here are my little ones playing. Roxy is now 6 months old and 17 pounds (love those little baby rolls). London is 4 1/2 and busy as a bee these days. What an imagination he has on him! :)

And finally I would love to invite any of you who are local to a great show I have been helping to set up. It is called "Shop for Shelter" and is coming up on Thursday June 30 from 5-10pm. We will be selling art and also raising money for United Family Services, new battered Women's Shelter. This event is going to be amazing.
The show will be in the model/showcase home in Longview Country Club in Waxhaw.
The address of the show is
8908 Longview Country Club Drive
Waxhaw, NC 28173

Here is the link to our events page on Facebook!
Read over everything carefully and I hope to see you there!

Mothers day and more...

2011-05-13T16:44:00.005-04:00

We have been very busy around here lately. From hosting Mother's day (which took me a few days to clean the house to get it ready) to keeping up with a teething baby and a very active 4 yr old. I have been able to squeeze in some art and even a few more custom piece here and there. I am still working on a bigger custom piece that is still in my head but here is a little one that I finished not too long ago. It will be the blog banner for my clients blog. Fun huh!

I made a new Mountain House piece called Mountain House under Stars, and you can find it in my shop HERE. I just love the rich colors in this one and I think this might become a new theme for me...lots of rustic pieces to come!

We had family and friends over for Mother's Day and had a blast with lots of good food and the celebrations of mothers. Here is London with one of his favorite playmates (who moved away about a year ago but was in town for the weekend). Him and Bella ran up and down the halls playing tag, what fun!

Here is Scott and Roxy, there is no denying who her Daddy is, do they not look so alike in this picture?

And here is Roxy asleep on Granddaddy as always. He has the touch and anytime they watch her for me when I come to pick them up she is always asleep on her Granddaddy. Too funny.

Here is Uncle Nate (my brother) and his wife Aunt Ginger holding Miss. Roxy. Love this shot of them!

New Little Pink Cupcake piece...in the shop Here.

Camping is a big topic in our house. Scott camped out with London in the back yard a few weekends ago for his very first camp out. Here is one of our many many tents set up in the den for London. Look who likes to camp out with him (Ms. Dessa).

It has become tradition that at the end of the school year I make a piece for London's teacher. This year I found out that his wonderful 3yr/o class room teacher Mrs. Tammy loves Callalillies. So I went to work and here is what I came up with. I may offer prints of this one soon in my etsy shop.

Roxy is 5 months old today and just this week I gave her solids for the first time. She has done really well but here are a couple funny shots from her first tastes. Too cute and reminds me how fast they grow up.

Summer has officially begun here as London had his last day of 3 y/o preschool. What is a mom to do with no breaks. Well we have joined a neighborhood pool a few neighborhoods away. We bought a plastic pool for the back porch. We will continue with swim lessons (as London is quite the little swimmer). And I guess just try to stay cool. Hopefully I will get some art made somewhere in there, probably at night after the kids are in bed, but that's ok. Looking forward to sleeping in, if only I could tell the kids that is a good idea. haha

I'm still here...

2011-04-15T11:40:00.004-04:00

I know it only takes a few minutes of my time but sometimes life swirls around me so fast a few minutes are hard to spare. After being very sick with mono and strep almost the entire month of March I am finally back to making some art. It was just a little break, right?

Here are 2 new custom pieces I have finished in the last week. The top one is called "The Guardian" and features a very protective raven. Loved making this piece and I have to say he is my very first raven!

This sweet piece is another custom piece for a wonderful return customer. She always has the best ideas about what she wants and I have so much fun illustrating them!
This piece features the Archer (the name of her son) constellation in the night sky. There are fireflies buzzing about as well as they gaze up. The name of the piece is "You can't take the sky from me" with I just adore!

And now for something even cooler, I am a member of a super awesome treasury team on Etsy and they have interviewed me on our blog.
Come stop by and give me a shout if you can! Read my interview HERE!

Back to life, and hopefully I will be back here soon!

I've been busy

2011-01-18T14:38:00.005-05:00

At least I feel like I have been busy. The next four pieces are all ones I made while in the hospital on bed rest. Since I sat there most of the time by myself (other then the nurses coming in to check every few hours and family and friends who visited) I needed something to pass the time.
This piece is part of my Gathering Girl series and is called "Gathering Icicles"- you can find the original HERE in my Etsy shop. My favorite thing about this piece is that the mittens and hat I made from this tiny scrap of vintage fabric a friend gave me at an art show we did the the beginning of Nov. She is a quilter and thrives on vintage fabrics (and she has some good ones). It feels nice to put a little life back into a tiny piece she had leftover.

At that same show in November I sold the last few of my originals with owls. I thought it might be time to make some more.
This one is called "Looking Back" and can be found HERE in my Etsy shop.
I had so much fun making that one I did another similar one.

This one is a little more playful and is called "Moonlight Games", you can find it HERE.

This is the first one I made while in the hospital and a friend snatched it up right away. I just love it though so I am offering it in 8.5 x 11 archival prints HERE. It is named "Dance under a Mysterious Moon".

We have a wonderful , super happy, thick and heavy kitty named Woody. This is a portrait of him and the first piece I have made since being home from the hospital and after having Roxy.
That makes is special to me. lol
"Stripes are Nice" - in my Etsy shop HERE.

And now to my first custom piece since this past summer. Being pregnant does something too me and I had no desire to make custom pieces. Actually it was just too much pressure on me, but happy to say I am back to lovin making them! yay

This one is so special as it was commissioned by the sister-law of a friend of mine from college. I don't want to say too much more b/c I am not sure when their baby shower is and this is a gift for their little girl who is due soon. Super happy with how it turned out. It features the first verse from Bob Dylan's "Forever Young" song. It was so inspiring and really made me love what I do all over again. (Bring on the commission piece!!!!)

I made this one over the weekend. I just had this image in my head of a little hippy girl playing guitar and singing. Where the chandelier and orchid came from I am not sure but they just felt right. lol
"Hippy Girls Song" - can be found HERE - she is 10" x 12"

Life is settling in back to normal and that makes me happy. Play dates, artwork, cooking again...good stuff!

Roxy Nova....has arrived

2011-01-14T12:20:00.003-05:00

Well this little girl right here has been keeping me from being a good blogger. At 34 weeks pregnant I was put in the hospital (totally unexpected) with pre-eclampsia. I was there until they induced me at 37 weeks. It was a long journey. Really hard to be an hour from home on bed rest with a 3 almost 4 yr old who is trying to understand what is going on. My husband had to take all that time off from work to be "Mr Mom". He was fabulous by the way and keep the house and London and the pets all in order and still found time to come see me at the hospital whenever he could.

But that is all behind us now and here she is. Growing like a little weed and as sweet as can be.

She is adorable in purple!

Here she is with proud daddy! She was born on Dec. 13th 2:22pm and weighed in at 6lb. 1 oz
She is now a month old and up to 8 lbs...Yay!

Here is big brother London holding her so carefully. He is a sweet big brother who gives her lots of kisses!

Me...now a mother of 2, crazy huh?

I am going to try to post another post soon as I have lots of new work to show!

2011 Calendar!

2010-11-11T08:28:00.008-05:00

Here are two quick little shots from our Halloween this year. London finally understood trick or treating and got to go. He also helped pass out candy. If you can see from the picture above he was Brobee from YoGabbaGabba this year. So cute!

Scott carved our pumpkin for the front porch, I made the pumpkin seeds and London held the candles until we needed them for the pumpkin. Family fun!

Introducing my 2011 Wall Calendar - I have sold all but one, and I kind of hope that I get to keep it. lol Above is the cover which was one of my favorite custom pieces I did a year or so ago. I am really surprised at how quick these sold. I did have someone order 8 of them to give as Christmas present for friends and family. I can always do a special order for anyone interested, just let me know!

Here is the listing for the one I have left ....HERE.

Below you can see what piece I picked for each month. They are not the greatest pictures but in real life each one is super glossy and pretty!

Now below are a few 4D pictures of our little girls face. So cool to look to see while at the doctors on Tuesday. She is 4 lb and 4 oz according to her measurements. We are just shy of 33 wks right now so the count down has begun! Whooo hooo

Maybe she will come a wee bit early and give us the greatest Christmas gift of all!

A few new pieces

2010-10-13T12:50:00.003-04:00

Finally the heat has been lifted and Fall seems to be settling in. With the cool down I feel like I finally have some energy and a bit more motivation to make some art. The piece above is a custom wedding portrait I have been slowly working on. I am just waiting for the final approval and it will be done. :)

Here is another new piece that I personally adore. I sometimes get a phrase or line from a song stuck in my head and I want to illustrate it or make a piece that fits the phrase. This piece is called "She felt small but alive" and it is bigger then most in my shop. You can find her HERE in my etsy shop!

The beginning of the summer my mom came across a handful of 4 x 4 canvas's at a yard sale. She of course picked them up for me b/c she is awesome like that! This is the first one I have painted on. I sat outside one early evening when the air was cool and painted. It is called "We camped among the stars" and you can find it in my Etsy shop HERE.

And last but not least is a custom piece I made for a friend. She is called "I am Enough". I may offer archival prints of this one in the next few weeks so keep an eye out.

Yay for Fall and cool weather. I have an art show tomorrow so keeping fingers crossed it is a good one!
Ta Ta!

400+ sales and an Art Show!

2010-09-13T23:08:00.004-04:00

Tell me this isn't the cutest little guy. He pulled all the toys out of his old room and yelled for me to come take a picture of him. So cute, he is just keeping us laughing these days with all the funny things and phrases he comes up with.

I just got back late Sat. night from a show in the very small town of Ninety-Six, SC. Wow, was it an adventure. I went with my youngest sister (pictured below) and my childhood friend recently reconnected Courtney. We really did not fit in with the crowd or should I say the locals but had an absolute blast while there. For the most part we broke even. lol Pictured above is my booth. I just bought those new tray organizer things and I think they worked out really well.

Here is Angie's booth- she sold the most out of any of us. All those little girls coming in B-lined right for her booth. We got a good chuckle out of that.

Courtney of www.floradorainc.etsy.com really has a great work. Her set up was fantastic as usual. I don't know how she does it but I take pointers every time I see it. Plus I have warned her that she must do every show I do so that I can get her expertise and help with my own booth. She supplied the raw white material I used under my blue table cloth. It really looks nice when you cover up the legs of the table!

Here is one more shot of my booth from an angle.

And the 3 of us. We put on a good show but the show was quite spread out. Homemade Genius Festival was at least worth us checking out this year....not sure we will go back though. lol

Also, after 3 1/2 years I finally have reach 400 + sales, thanks to each and every one of my customers! You have made my Etsy work a fun one...Yay! :)

We did it!

2010-08-17T20:43:00.002-04:00

Yes we did it! I painfully went through all of London's little boy clothes (from 0-3T). As well as random things to sell and then watching my parents and Scott haul all the furniture we had to sell out to the carport in the muggy heat. We ended up selling all of our furniture and what clothes and books and toys did not sell my folks took to their house to have another yard sale in a few weeks.
We kicked it back up to IKEA on Sunday and bought our prized corner desk hutch!
Here is Scott following all 30 something steps to put it together.
He so kicks butt!

Scott adjusting it's location and then adding the doors!

Adding cork board to the inside of the doors!

And everything fits just perfect! No wires exposed for little hands to get into. Both our printers and my scanner fit in there just right! We are very happy with our purchase. Now I can focus on getting London's new room in order and better yet the new nursery fixed up. So much to do still but we are getting there! Yay!

IKEA goodness!

2010-08-09T08:37:00.008-04:00

I have been wanting these shelves from IKEA for a while and my friend Kristal got them for her playroom. Well that was the push I needed to see how totally awesome they are.

Scott was off this weekend so I got this burst of energy and inspiration (finally) to get some things done around the house. I admit I am only 19 weeks so I think it is still a little early for the "nesting phase" but if I have some energy I will take it and run with it. After what feels like an eternity of having no motivation this is a much welcomed change!

Scott put them together last night after London went to bed. I helped a little but we all know I am pretty much useless when it comes to anything heavy at this point in time. Once they were together and we moved the small bookshelf into the kitchen to house our collection of shoes I got to work filling the cubbies with toys and books! What fun to get things up off the floor and onto the shelves. We are having a yard sale this coming weekend to sell a bunch of furniture and things that we just don't have room for, so believe it or not the front foyer playroom will also become the office when it is all said and done.

Here is our next project. Like I said we are having a yard sale this weekend to get rid of so many things and hopefully make enough $ to get this bad boy! You can find it at IKEA online HERE. We saw it yesterday at IKEA and added it to our wish list. It is a beauty and a problem to our "having to move the office" issue. Very soon we will be shifting London into our current guest room/office and then the new baby will be in his old room which we will transform back into a nursery. The thing that has been stressing me out is once we moved the office (desktop, scanner, 2 printers and much more) out into one of our main living spaces then all the wires would be exposed and just waiting for a child who will probably be crawling around in a year or so to get into. This corner work station is going to solve this issue. Not only does it just take up a corner (which we now have available thanks to the new shelves) but the doors close all the cords up and we can put child locks on it. What a relief! I am a happy mama. :)

Look at all that space, it is deep too and I really thing that every thing (but the bulk of our files) will fit!!!!

Scott celebrated his birthday this week. Needless to say I am not much of a baker (I am super proud of myself when I make rice crispy treats). I picked up a little Sarah Lee Key Lime pie and it was the perfect size, not a crumb left between the two of us. lol

Last weekend my friend Eden, who I met 5 years ago when she came to the states for the first time, came to visit on her travels. She just turned 21 this week and has been to almost 20 countries. She just finished traveling South America for the past 9 months and came through for a few nights before a few more stops and then back home to Israel. What a life, she is going back to save up for a trip to India, such an inspirations!

Anyway, as you can see here London had a great time with her. She chased him and tickled him and he just thought she was great!

I must get back to going through little boy clothes among other things to get ready for this yard sale. I need to get that desk. When you think about it I have to clear one room out to get the next room cleared and ready to get the next room cleared and ready...and so on!

xoxo
S

Baby Girl!!!

2010-08-03T10:09:00.005-04:00

We are so excited to announce that our little swimmer is a GIRL! I was totally convinced that I was going to be the mom of 2 boys but was very happy with the news. Really we were just so excited to see the 4 little chambers of her heart beating strongly. Every thing looked great at the ultra sound. Now we have a lot of work to do b/c all we have are little boy clothes and shoes. lol

Hello little sweet baby girl profile. :)

Here is a new piece I finished last week.

This one is called "Mountain House" and you can find it here in my Etsy shop. I did this big open space piece but it just did not seem complete so I added a little cabin.

It is fabric on wood and 10" x 10".

It has been super hot and humid here so we gave London his first buzz cut. I think it look really cute on him. Not sure how long we will keep it this way but at least through August and probably the beginning of Sept. I can't believe that London starts 3 day 3's in a month. I think we are both ready for it though. He told me the other day that we was going to learn how to read at school. I though that was so cute.

Stay cool...it will be Autumn before we know it, I can't wait!

4th of July and a little bit more

2010-07-10T21:01:00.005-04:00

We had a nice chill 4th at home. Scott had to work both Sat. and Mon. so it was his only day off. Since we live in SC and we can legally set off fireworks (whoo hoo), Scott went down the street and bought a bunch from a little firework stand. We threw poppers which London thought was GREAT and then we introduced him to his first fireworks.

This is Scott setting off bottle rockets in the street and was also taken shortly after he set off a round of 1000 cherry bombs. London just laughed and smiled (and plugged his ears)!

Standing in excitement after many many bottle rockets.

The more we set off the more excited he got. It was really sweet and we have been setting a few off each night since. We drag our chairs out and put a stick on the ground and tell London he can not go past the stick. Super family fun!

Giving Daddy hugs after the big show! Yay for fireworks and Daddy!

The next day we had the McGaha's over for a little cookout and swim in the blow up "party" pool on the back porch. Here is London and his 2 favorite girls eating lunch. They are all total cuteness!

Scott has started learning a bunch of songs on his harmonica. Just so happens we have a kid harmonica for London. Today they were outside playing in the beach ball sprinkler and Scott was playing his harmonica. As soon as he started London came running through the front door and grabbed his harmonica, then ran right back outside. I came out with the camera and this is what I found. hehe

He ran back through the sprinkler (with harmonica in hand) for one more cool down.

I love it, one day when London can play a ton of songs we will look back at these photos and say this is where it all started. :)

Hope you are all staying cool...it is HOT HOT HOT here.

Ok so had it really been that long...but I have a good excuse

2010-06-21T16:46:00.007-04:00

And my excuse is.....
I am reaching the beginning of my 2nd trimester and this little baby #2 has been sucking out my creativity and energy. I have meant to stop by my blog a little sooner but the baby has put a damper on my motivation too. lol
But we feel very blessed to finally give London a playmate and complete or family. London will turn 4 right around the time the baby is supposed to be here (hopefully not on the same day as he turns 4, but what can ya do). We are very excited and I am just trying to make it through this HOT summer, one day at a time!

Here is a piece that I have been working on. I love how this little family of elephants turned out. I asked one of my good girlfriends for a name suggestion and she came up with the perfect name. It is called "Surrounded by Love" and it is fabric, colored pencil and acrylic paint on wood. 8" tall and 20" wide

And here are the teacher gifts I made for London's preschool teachers this year. I started this tradition last year and I think I will continue it.

I was not sure what to do for his teacher as far as subject this year so I researched some inspirational quotes and that got my wheels turning. I need to work a little bit on my handwriting but I do love how they both turned out and his teachers seemed pleased. I just hope that they realize how wonderful they were this year, London had a great time at school all year. I can't wait for him to be in the 3 yr old room (3 days a week...whoo hoo!)

I have not been taking many photos other then on my phone lately. I am telling you, I am just not my normal self while pregnant. But I did capture a little painting fun inside one day. London really just loves digging into each paint color with his wet fingers and making beautiful art on his hands. He's a kid and I think it is great that he gets super messy. I am a mom and I get super messy too! lol

And Finally, here are 2 custom pieces that I worked on for quite sometime. My client was in no hurry and I was so nausea's that I just seriously took my time. The one on the left has 3 boy fairies in an evergreen tree. They are singing and playing instruments. The one on the right featured 3 female fairies singing and dancing in a weeping willow that is suppose to be colorful b/c it is Fall.

I feel a little caught up here but I know we have been up to a lot since I last blogged. We spend lots of mornings and early afternoons swimming and playing at the Y. Summer is nice but I can't wait for the crunchy leaves of Fall and the crisp air to return. My goal this Autumn is to actually make it up to the mountains and do some apple picking. Perhaps if I write it down here I will actually go do it.
Take care and thanks for being patient with me.

Spoonflower!

2010-04-21T22:50:00.004-04:00

I am so happy with my package that was delivered today! Finally I treated myself to some of my designs turned into fabric with www.spoonflower.com
I had a hard time deciding which ones to get done first but you know I will be back for more very soon.

Cute!

My green one, this one is nice and rich in real life...oh I don't want to cut it up, but I must.

Here is "Moon Tree" in Grey. Wishing I knew how to sew with this one, I would make a pillow case or something, I feel sure.

I love how this one turned out, thinking about getting it in a light blue too.

So pretty and so fun to make!

Here is the "Moon Tree" original drawing (digitally colored). I just added the archival print to my etsy shop and I kept the background white. You can find it HERE.

I am working on London's teachers gifts and hoping to get them made soon. Still working out the details. I got the garden planted this week and we will see how it does. I am sure I will do a post with some garden pictures soon. It is full of goodies!

Afternoooons

2010-04-16T15:37:00.005-04:00

Before it gets just stifling hot around here we have been driving up to Charlotte and meeting Scott at various parks on his lunch break.

This one is in a neighborhood probably .2 miles from where Scott works and the best part is they have a covered table to eat at. So happy we started this tradition. London thinks it's great to see daddy during the day and it gets us out of the house. :) London only has a couple more weeks of preschool so I suppose I better start finding things to do now.

Tunnel slide!

Burning off energy.

Last shot here is at the house. I have 2 wonderful helpers everyday when I go to the mailbox. One a little human and one a black canine.

Hope you all are enjoying the not quite so hot weather, hopefully this pollen will be done and gone soon. Tootles :)

The hot wax and fabric meet!

2010-03-21T20:50:00.007-04:00

"Unexpected Guest" - new encaustic and fabric on wood
This one has fabric fused in between layers of wax which I have been playing with on the last few encaustic pieces. Fun!

Black bear close up...Red tent close up

Here is the piece "When Shadows Fall" that is finally finished. I love how it turned out and was the first one I added fabric too. The trick is that the fabric must be totally dry before adding the hot wax or it just get tons of tiny little holes in the wax and it chips off or cracks. If the fabric is dry (from the staflo, which is water based, water and wax resist) then the encaustic medium/paints go on very stable.

Here is how the piece "I might be dreaming" started out as a sketch. I try to get sketching done while I play outside with London. That way I can set it down quick if I need to or take it with me to another part of the yard depending upon where he is. A lot of times I get nothing done as he likes to say, "Mommy come or mommy hold my hand" as soon as I open up my sketch book.

First layer of clear medium applied. The pink sky was put down first before any of the fabric was added. This is what the medium looks like before it cools off (kind of milky).

My favorite part on this piece is the part of the sky with the petals. :)

Below is her face close up. She has details on the fabric but then I came back on top of the clear medium and fabric with some encaustic paints and touched up some detail.

This was Scott and London playing with playdoh a week or so ago. London tends to get into a heavy breathing trance when the playdoh comes out. He never really does much more then pull pieces off and play with all the tools but it sure is a good time.

Here are some fabric letters I worked on last night and today. I am going to drill two holes in each square (top 2 corners) and thread string through them. They will then become a banner that will hang on the front of my table at shows. People always seem to have questions about what medium my work is at shows. Hoping this will make them want to come up to my table and see for themselves. Of course right now I do not plan on doing any shows until Oct. and Nov. but at least I will have this ready!

Nothing too exciting going on here, just thought I would share these new pieces and project. Until next time...take care!

still here...

2010-03-10T19:52:00.008-05:00

...just been busy with life. I have been potty training for the past couple of weeks and it has gone really well but does rock the normal schedule a bit. Finally it feels like normal to be potty trained and we are getting back out into the world!

This is a silly little shot of Scott and I out for my sister-in-law Gingers b-day party...lots and lots of fun!

I have only worked on a few pieces lately and here is a custom wedding piece I just finished. It was commissions by a sweet friend who gets me to do lots of custom piece for her. I love that she thinks of me for many of her gifts, and I am truly so appreciative!
We still have not come up with a name for it but it is 12" x 14" and fabric on wood.

Here is another Encaustic piece that I finished a few weeks ago called "Can't forget this night". I had a great time stamping in the stars and really just playing around. It is in my Etsy shop right HERE if you want to check it out!

Here is another Gathering Girl that I made for my dear friend Mel. She has been doing a little shopping in my Etsy shop and got the "Gathering Green" girl for her oldest daughter but did not see the right piece for her younger one. I thought it was only fair to make a "Gathering Pink" for her sweet baby and I think she was happy with her.

We have had some really nice weather lately and this is what I bring out with me sometimes. I have the computer outside b/c we (London and I) were jamming out to some music on itunes. I never really get very much art done while we are outside playing but I like to have it scattered about anyway. lol

New encaustic piece I am working on. Here is the first layer of encaustic medium and then color. You can see a little bit of the pencil drawing directly on the wood through the encaustic paints.

London came running over to be in the picture too.

Below I have added some fabric and will be adding more wax soon.

This piece has been in progress for sometime now. I added some fabric today but still do not know where it is going. I am taking my time figuring out this encaustic stuff and having a grand old time in the meantime.

And I will leave you with this lovely image of my infected eye. I went and saw a dr. and it has cleared up with some expensive drops and a 4 x's a day cleaning regimen. I apparently have poor glands that clog very easily. I was actually happy it was not pink eye as I did not want to worry about giving it to London. 3 yr old and eye drops = not a good combo.

I will try not to be so busy and stop by more often. :)

Playing around a bit

2010-02-08T15:31:00.006-05:00

I am still on my encaustic adventure and loving every minute.
After talking with an artist friend of mine Pam, about encaustic painting she informed me that she was making some wax medium cakes the next day. I was so fortunate to get to go to her studio and soak in so much information.
All my raw materials have been ordered and I have been collecting everything I need to make my own paints. It is very expensive start up but if I paint like I want to I will not be able to afford that amount of paints I would need. Crossing fingers I mix up a good first batch as soon as everything gets here. Until then here is what I have been working on....

A few years ago my parents went to a yard sale and found a ton of leather working tools and stamps and this little letter press stamps for like $20. It was this mans kids selling his whole leather working studio full of tools and dyes. Well the cart that every thing was on was what my dad wanted so he gave us all the tools and neat stuff. I have 100's of stamps both letters and images and knew that I wanted to use them for something someday and I think I might have found the perfect non-traditional use for them. HOT WAX!!!! :)

First I dug out a bunch of sketchbooks I had been missing for a while. Scanned in this image of a moose I had drawn. Printed it out in archival inks and then cut it out. Here I am deciding where I want to encase it in wax on my gessoed board.

How about right here :)

Heating up wax....

Moose drawing is in...and then I came back in with some colored wax paints and really just dabbled some on. I had my letter stamps ready to be punched into the hot wax once I torched the last layer with the heat gun. Of course if you look close enough you will see that the "E" got punched in backwards which was not on purpose but I decided to roll with it.

Then I came back in and did a little carving. Rubbed on some black oil paint into the stamped/carved areas and then rubbed most of the extra oil paint off the surface. I love the depth the oil paints adds to the wax surface. I for see hours of fun in my future! ah

I am really happy with the end result. And this is my first Encaustic to be listed in my Etsy shop! yay
You can find "Moose" here.

I will be documenting my paint making very closely so keep an eye out for future posts on this! wheeeee (and as always thanks for stopping in).

Waxy goodness!

2010-01-27T13:47:00.006-05:00

FINALLY...after over a year of wanting to learn how to do encaustic paints (bees wax based hot paints) I have finally arrived...well sort of. I still feel a little bit like I have no idea what I am doing. For the past month I have been collecting the various things I needed. First and foremost I had to order my paints. I found some incredible sample sized paints here at thebeesknees1234 on etsy. And wow did they give me a deal. I ordered the sample pack and they sent me 12 free sample sized colors as well b/c I was lucky enough to be their first customer. I seriously feel like a lucky duck and I know I will be back for more soon.

Once I got started yesterday I realized that I did not have any white/clear. I needed some quick so I ordered some from this wonderful shop Jamieribisi on etsy that I have been eying since I got this itching to do encaustic paintings. She offers some wonderful paintings herself and tutorials and very nice earthy colors! I know I will be back to her shop too as I think I am addicted to this style of painting (even though I have lots to learn still).

I spend an hour the night before getting all my duck in a row. I took all my new paints out of the packaging and sorted them by color before putting them in bowls. I had to find an adapter and extention cord so I could plug up my griddle, heat gun and fan.

Here are a couple of shots of my work table right before I got started...again still not quite sure what I am doing...ahhh)

Once I started the first piece, I realized that I will need to order more tins and better paint brushes...specifically for Encaustic painting. (note to self...still need to do that)

I went in with no plan at all as I had a limited time to work on these while my son was at preschool. I think once I get some clear/white in there I will be able to show some fabrics through a lot better. But wow did I have really enjoy doing this...even if I am not sure I will ever attemp to sell either of these pieces- LOL

This one I included some fabric under the wax, but b/c I did not have any clear I used the silver sort of like a white. I came back in and carved in this one a little bit. Still not sure it is totally done as I feel like it still need to be cleaned up some.
Good learning experience in the end and I can't wait to make more...with a little more a plan now that I know a more what to expect!

Finally here is a piece I finished last week. It is Gesso on wood...with the boy and dogs the natural wood. Then on top of the gesso is permanent marker in many abstract layers of flowing lines (so much fun!)
You can find the prints "A Day at the Park" HERE in my shop. My husband will not let me part with the original. I usually sell the ones he loves so I thought I would be nice this time. haha

Mud Puddles and Paper Hats

2010-01-17T22:24:00.005-05:00

Being that my husband has been working his butt off lately, we finally had one full day with him home. He got back in town late last night so today being the treat that it was he went out this morning and brought back doughnuts! Yay

London thinks that it is someones (his) birthday now when we have doughnuts b/c that is what I brought to his school for his birthday (which I think was such a hit it will be tradition!).
Well at school they made him a crown and he wore it while they all ate their doughnuts. So as soon as we saw the chocolate frosted doughnut with sprinkles on it this morning he asked for a birthday hat and started singing. Scott whipped one up real quick with the classified ads and all was good! lol

mmmm

Now for the mud puddle action....

I think this is a fantastic picture of London. He was so happy to get out and get some fresh air. It rained on and off today and the sun came out on and off, but it was in the 60's so perfect weather for mud puddle jumping in your pj's!

Now London is very particular about what shoes he wears and will only wear a select few. But I told him it was rain boots or no outside today...he finally gave them a try. They were awesome as you can see in the photos! (thanks again granny and granddaddy for the rockin pirate boots!)

catching some air!

lookin cute with his drill and keys in hand

I have looked at these photos over and over and they just make me smile. Such a happy boy and so glad he loves being outside!

What a perfect Sunday! :)

I now have a 3 yr old...ahhh

2010-01-14T07:49:00.006-05:00

One of London's b-day presents :)
London with his new buddy Scout. He takes him everywhere with him. The super cool thing is you can plug him up to the computer and program in your child's name and a few other fun things. (pretty neat huh?)

This is London's friend Bella and we play with her usually a couple times a week. Let's just say at night when London says his prayers he thanks God for Bella (heehee).

London's 3rd Birthday party

Here are a couple shots from his b-day party. I really did not take too many photos as I was running around all over the place. My friend took a few when London was opening presents. If you notice...he was pretty wore out by the end of the party. A lot going on for a 3 yr old! :)

Granny helped him eat one and 1/2 cup cakes...mmmmm.

We never seem to get many shots of Uncle Nate and Aunt Ginger with London so we tried to get him to smile. Like I said earlier he was really tired by the end of the day and had no expressions left. We could not get him to smile but trust me he had a great time.

London opening some presents. Scott and I assisting him.

Drum rollllllll.......

Here is the cake that Scott made and I decorated...it is supposed to be a flashlight. lol Really we just try to have a good time making his cake every year. People were coming in and had bets on what that cake theme was going to be. We try.... :)

Here are 2 new pieces I have made

"She sent her wishes out to the World" - original fabric on wood art now in my Etsy shop :)
I just bought this fabulous red fabric and had to use it ASAP!

"His hands in my Pocket" - original fabric on wood art.
I have been thinking about doing a "tall people" series. I have so many tall friends (and family members) that it just seems right. This is I guess the first of this possible series.
In this cold weather I am finding that the polyurethane takes longer to dry so I still need to get a clean, clear, crisp photo of this piece.

I am trying to get back into blogging a little bit more regularly. Hopefully I will be able too.
Be back soon!

Happy 2010!

2010-01-01T21:48:00.006-05:00

Welcome to 2010!
Here is my first new piece after the flood of commissions I had this holiday season
She is called "Gathering - Green" and is fabric on wood (part of my "gathering girls" series)

I can't not believe that another year is gone....but I am looking forward to what 2010 will bring.
To bring in the New Year right I had to get one of Cathy Nichols calendars!
I love all of her work so I thought it would be fitting to have one of her calendars. This way I get to gaze at a new masterpieces of hers every month! ahhhh :)

If you get a chance please stop by her ETSY shop. She has been making beautiful encaustic paintings which I have been wanting to dabble in for over a year. I am slowly reading up on the process and hoping to start buying all the paints and heat gun and hot plate soon. Until then I love looking at hers and you do not know how close I have come to snatching one of her originals encuastic paintings up. They are truely stunning!

Here is a commission piece I just finished called "Continuing Love" It is for a sweet newly married couple (hope they like it) :)

And now for some shots of Mr. London. He loves to pose for the camera these days. He will be playing or doing something and as soon as he sees that camera he stops and smiles until the flash goes away. Hehe...such a little ham.

He also just turned 3 and learned how to open his own presents this year. It was a little confusing for him as his birthday is only a couple of days after Christmas. He thought he was going to have a present to open everday b/c we had let him open one early on Christmas eve. And one early before his birthay and then he has his birthday party on Sunday. Oh and then I am going to bring doughnuts to school on Tues. It is the never ending celebrations. lol

In the picture above we went to see daddy at work and have cake on his b-day. It was so sweet all Scott's co-workers gathered around and sang happy birthday for London. He loved it as you can see from the smile on his face.

After cake at daddy's office we headed over to the playground and then the arcade. That is what he wanted to do (and it was super windy and cold outside). Such a perfect day for a little boy who turned "1...2...freee"

Happy NEW YEAR ...I think it's going to be a good one!

Oh my Oh my

2009-12-18T15:29:00.005-05:00

Yes, I have a little boy, but sometimes he wants to be like mommy and have a "ponytail" as he says. Yesterday was the first day in a week that he did not have diarrhea, a tummy ache and lack of appetite. Pretty much I gave in to him for simple request such as, "ponytail mommy!"

Above is us playing outside. If the ponytail fell out he would cry and beg for another. So silly.
Then below was later in the day. He took a nap and luckily I got him off of me and onto the couch so I could sneak in a quick shower (and let me tell you what a small wonder that is, usually I shower at 10 o'clock at night).

This season has been especially busy with custom orders. I love it but it has keep me very busy and I have not had much time to make my own art...but that's ok...not complaining!
I have put up a few and some I may have posted in progress or before so sorry if I have doubled up. I have one left to finish up, and I am not 100% sure I will get it done in time and most importantly shipped out in time, but it is for a friend of mine who is being very understanding. :)

Here we go....

"Willie Hour" - 24" x 32" fabric on wood

"Spanish Mackere" - 9" x 24" fabric on wood ...the cool thing about this piece is it is meant to hang over a doorway!

"Tree of Life" - 12" x 14 Fabric on wood

"Honeymoon" - 12" x 14" Fabric on wood

"I'll bring home the turkey if you bring home the bacon" - 12" x 14" fabric on wood (love the title of this one!)

"Simon in the Starlight Lounge" - 10" x 12" fabric on wood ( love this title too and this kitty just looks like the sweetest!)

Well there you have it. And I get to let out a big *SIGH* :)

Hope you all are getting ready for the holidays...they are almost here!

Mr. Calhoun

2009-12-08T17:31:00.003-05:00

Last week we lost our beloved dog Calhoun. My husband has had him since he was 5 weeks old, hiked 600 miles of the Appalachain Trail with him. He was 13 1/2 and it was really really hard to let him go. I thought I would do a little post with a few photos. Most of my photos of him are on my desk top but if I put some on this computer I may add them later.

He is the one in the back of the top photo...Alex is the one closest to the camera. They were a tight little pack. It still hurts so much that he is gone.

Best buddies

Always in the background.

xoxox...to you sweet Calhoun :)

BLACK Friday / BIRTHDAY sale!!!!

2009-11-27T08:32:00.005-05:00

SALE***SALE***SALE

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration with friends and family! I am having a BLACK FRIDAY / BIRTHDAY sale that starts today Friday the 27th and goes until Midnight on my Birthday Tues. Dec. 1st!

I am offering 10% off of all purchases and FREE shipping. This is by far the best sale I have ever offered so take advantage and get some of your holiday shopping out of the way!

Once you make your purchase here in my ETSY shop then just wait for me to send you a revised invoice through paypal!

I thought I would also post some of my favorite shot from our thanksgiving at my in-laws. Unfortunately my dad woke up sick with the same funk we are just getting over, so we postponed Thanksgiving at their house. :(

My in-laws...Granny and Grandaddy :)

London and Scott playing upstairs in the playroom.

My sister-in-law and nephews posing for a family shot...ummm Joe is almost as tall as his mom- eek :)

London playing with Grandaddy and white kitty baby.

London and I outside. We let him run and run and run...he had to work off the huge piece of chocolate cake he ate with Grandaddy and we wanted to make sure he slept good last night (he did!)

Happy shopping everyone and enjoy your weekend!

My Dad's 60th b-day party

2009-11-18T18:43:00.005-05:00

We celebrated my Dad's 60th b-day a week or so ago. Here is London sitting on the fantastic deck that my brother built onto the back of his house. I mean seriously, my bro is talented!
Eventually he is going to cut a hole in the side of his house and put in french doors that will take you right out to the deck. Not too shabby!

Yeah, it's a BIG deck!

The one and only shot of the 3 of us. Too bad London looks like he is surprised and of course too bad he blocked Scott's face. haha

Angie bringing in the cake....ice cream cake

My Dad posing like he is going to blow out the candles. hehe

Actually Angie and Nathan and Ginger put together this presentation for my dad. My brother dug up like 2000 + slides of all kinds of pictures my Dad had taken over the years and old family photos. He digitized them all and we watched it on his big screen tv. It was really cool to see a lot of shots I have never seen before and find out a little bit more about my families history.

"She Grew to Love the Moon" - original fabric on wood piece in the shop here. I made this while chilling at the 3 day show. The show was a bit slow (for me...some people did great :) but I met lots of really wonderful folks. Who knows if they do a spring show I might try to do it again. I only do one or two shows a year but I really enjoy getting out and meeting like minded artists and crafters! I met several other etsy sellers which is always fun!

Here are a few that kept me company.

Floradorainc - Courtney was one of the coordinators and small world- we went to school together as kids and were quite good friends. She has not changed a bit and makes really lovely home decor items!

Purplecactusstudio - Great ladies who make amazing polymer clay jewelry...very colorful and fun!

Jellykoe - They have a shop full of fun little creatures. I actully bought one of the little pirate guys (arrrrthur) for London. He keeps saying "Yarrr Matey" when he sees him.

MISSALANEeous - super sweet and has just adorable bags and purses!

Here was my set up on the last day. I was kind of tucked back in the corner the first 2 days...which Im not going to lie...kinda sucked.
But there was someone who did not come back Sunday so I got to move up to the front!

There are 3 panels to this but the 3rd one is hidden by the angle.
I finally have everything put back where it belongs in the house and I can resume working on the commission pieces I have in progress. Many orders to fill before Christmas...ahhhh! :)

Art/Craft Show this weekend!

2009-11-10T09:34:00.005-05:00

As the holidays approach I have had many many custom orders. Here is one I just finished last week. I was so nervous about making the bike in fabric. I seriously was going to call her and tell her I was not sure I could pull it off. But I sat down one night and just worked and worked. My husband helped direct me on a few of the angles that I had all wrong. After adding in the extra rock, flower, trees and just a tiny little glimpse of the black and red chili pepper bandanna he wears the whole piece came together. I was so proud of how it turned out and really happy that I was able to pull it off. Hopefully my customers husband will be happy with it for Christmas!

Mountain Biker - original fabric on wood

This weekend I will be participating in a 3 day show at the

Anne-Robb- South Charlotte Banquet Center
9009 Bryant Farms Rd
Charlotte NC (Ballentyne)

South Charlotte Handmade Crafts Holiday Sale
Friday, November 13 - Sunday, November 15, 2009
9am - 4pm

If you are around and looking for handmade holiday gifts please stop by. I know there will be artist selling a variety of items. This is the longest show I have done in a while so I would love to see some familiar faces! Bring a friend!

Fall...Autumn...Fun

2009-11-09T10:37:00.007-05:00

For the past 9 years my brother and sister-in-law have had a pumpkin carving party. They kept things a little smaller this year but it was just as fun. London is finally old enough to really enjoy it. I think all the kids were super impressed with the cupcake making station...of course.

Here are a few family shots from the night. Scott and I camped out and my mom took London home which was fun for us and we got to stay up until 3 in morning with the late nighters around Dave's fire pit. Good time!

Here is Christie and I...she flew in the night before.

My Dad found the secret (not so secret) weapon of holding London's attention...yup a flashlight. My dad was in charge of grilling oysters and London thought it was fantastic that he needed a flashlight to see what he was doing.

My mom (grandma) and London

Aunt Angie and London...really love this photo of them!

My sister Christie came home from Alaska, where she has been living and working for the past 6 months. As fate would have it she applied for and was offered a full time job with the Alaskan Tourism Bureau and accepted the job the day before she flew back to NC. Today she is flying back to her new home with excitement and her sewing machine (as a carry on and she is spending the night in the Seattle airport this evening...what a pillow that will make!)
While in NC for 2 weeks she made her rounds and hung out with family and friends. She stayed with us one night and boy does London love him some Aunt Christie! He told me, "Aunt Christie gonna stay with London and mommies got to go" ha ha That is a long sentence for my little guy and he has not stopped putting long sentences together since!

We are a little sad to see Christie go but I know she will make a great life up there. Hopefully someday soon I will get to go visit...that is my goal anyway!

I know I have not blogged in a month. I thought I would just put up a few pictures from the past month.

London helping daddy with his computer...that is always fun.

Jumping outside in his playhouse.

I love this photo of him!

Park!

This is a photo of some of our friends. The two girls are Brookelyn and Emma with their dad Doug. They are straight up dare devils.

London and Scott running. Scott stopped by the park that day on his lunch break and we were happy!

Here are 2 more of the Judaic pieces I have been working on. The top one is the tree of life and the one below is sort of a collage of things....Jewish living.

Here is a piece that I never posted anywhere. I made it as a little extra something for a wonderful artist I did a trade with, Kate Savage of www.girlsavage.etsy.com She makes the most amazing Feltidermy little critters. I thought it would be fun to do a fabric piece representing one of her pieces. :)

Fort for us all

2009-10-07T08:49:00.006-04:00

Here is the fort we put up in Londons room and yes this is him passed out in it. He did this a number of nights until the plug in Aquarium we found second hand stopped lighting up. Now it is all about the IKEA "starlight" we mounted about his bed. He is back to sleeping in his big boy bed but occasionally we find him passed out in the fort again.

I also keep finding Calhoun snoozing in the fort. I think he is happy to relive his hiking the Appalachain Trail days with Scott but in a dry warm fort/tent in Londons room. I know he would be out in a tent in the woods in a heartbeat if his legs would let him. It is deep rooted in him and if you want to see him spin circles of excitement, just get out his very own backpack...but you better be ready to really take him out into the woods or that is just mean.

Sweet Calhoun

Out on a Whisper - new fabric on wood piece in my etsy shop. I finally used some of my new fabrics I ordered from www.goddesswares.etsy.com The new fabrics are so so yummy, I am sure you will be seeing them in more pieces to come!

Here is a Judaic piece I have been working on. The top picture is with the lacey scarf over her head. I am still waiting to make sure everything is as it should be before I polyurethane it. This is the first piece in 6 Judaic pieces I will be working on for a very lovely client.

"Shabbot Dinner"

Well we are out the door here in a few to a playdate with some neighbors we met at the pool this summer. It is raining again today but sometimes a rainy week here or there is kind of nice.

The crib is GONE...and few other new things

2009-09-21T21:40:00.004-04:00

Some wee little thank you note I made today. Depending upon how the making of more goes...I may makes some to sell??? We shall see for now they are for me to include in packages.

I have ordered 2 different thank you notes on etsy to include in my packages and finally decided to try some of my own. Seeing what works and what doesn't I can't wait to make some more and play around with them. The picture above are my 3 favorites out of this batch.

Over the weekend we packed up London's crib and crib tent. Acutally the crib was bought used and had some issues after a while. When Scott took it apart one side cracked so we had to chuck it. There was no turning back.

Here is Scott packing up London's big boy bed to move it over to the side where the crib was. We also brought down his fort that has been up in attic for lack of places to put it. That is now in the corner where his bed used to be.

London and I playing around with my new camera. The top photo was supposed to pick up the blue in our eyes but I think it was too over cast out. And below we set it to pick up black...I think London's eyes look cool.

And now for a custom piece I had the pleasure of working on this week. I really have the best customers and many turn out to be great friends too!
This piece was a larger version of the smaller piece "Content with being Alone - Golden Moon version" - which is still in my shop.
With the great eye of my customer we changed out a few fabrics and I think the end result turned out great!

"The Light that Shines on Me" is 20" x 20" and turns out has a beautiful story behind her.

Sometime I think some of my best work is when I have a little bit of direction from a customer. All of your ideas and input are so important and help me step out of the box in my mind to see things the way someone else does.

I am so happy that tomorrow is Fall.
Crunchy leave are on the way...which I am sure is going to drive my father in-law crazy since he told us the other day he finally got rid of all of last years leaves- hee hee. Take care everyone and start mixing up some apple cider and pumpkin spiced things- LOL

Haircut for a little boy

2009-09-11T11:22:00.005-04:00

So I finally admitted to myself that I did not have a clue what I was doing when trimming London's hair. Not to mention he is not one to sit still when he sees the scissors coming. As the bowl cut started to get out of hand, I had to do something. Last week we took a spontaneous trip into Charlotte and stopped by the ubber expensive Doolittles. They have quite the circus going on in there. After driving the steering wheel in the little car, 2 suckers and a movie playing on the flat screen right next to the mirror...his hair was finally cut. What a handsome little guy he is I might add. And if a haircut to make him look like a big boy wasn't enough, he is now sleeping in his big boy bed. We are saying bye bye to the crib this weekend and hopefully will be putting in a teepee real soon!

My folks came by the other night to see Londons new do. We had him up late b/c he took like a 5 hour nap and didn't wake up until almost 7pm..so he had a second wind of course. One of our favorite little songs to sing is "Moon Moon Moon" and when it is dark out and he is still awake he goes moon hunting. Here he is with my mom out front looking for the moon. It was hiding that night but sure was fun to look.

Pre-haircut - He acutally did not want us to take it out so we snapped a few shots. bye bye summer blonde.

Fall is in the Air - new original in my shop the original sketch on wood below

Can not wait for Fall and pumpkins and sweaters and colorful leaves and hot apple cider!

Here are two custom kitchen pieces I did for a wonderful friend. I will never tire of coffee and grits!

And Finally here is another new piece in the shop, Brown Hare Brown Hare
I love drawing new critters and I used the same grass stlye here as I did in a recent custom wedding order (in a few posts below)

It has cooled here quite a bit and I am so ready for the crispy air. It is times like this when I really really miss being in Boone, NC. Anyway, good bye summer...hello Autumn!

Maybe he'll be an artist too....

2009-08-31T20:57:00.004-04:00

"On Top of the World with You" - I have to admit I am a bit obsessed with some of these fabric combos going on in this piece, and I seem to keep using them in many of my new works. This original has sold but I do offer it in archival print in my shop.

So today it was rainy and cloudy and just not a good day for playing outside. And at one point this morning I had set up the watercolors for London (upon his request). So he finger painted and played in the water with his hands and the brush like he likes to do. And then we went on to playing with other things and I forgot to empty the watercolor water and put the paints away.

I thought that London was still playing with a bunch of new cars my mom brought his this weekend at the table. I was working on a new little piece and was not looking at him head on. I remember thinking...,"hummm he seems a little quite all the sudden" and I turned to look at him and this is the face I saw looking back at me.
Tell me he is not the cutest little blue lipped boy- ha ha.

Perhaps we will have a little artist on our hands someday...he sure does like to get into all mommy's supplies and color on whatever mommy is working on. ha ha
Whatever he ends up being or enjoying I am sure I will be happy with.

Scott has been working a lot of weekends and late nights so we get so excited when he has a whole day off to spend with us. Here is London and Scott playing their favorite game..."Tickle Tickle...turn London upside down and Tickle"

Also, notice London is holding his little light up ring we brought back from Kelsey's Bat Mitzvah Scott and I attended Sat. night (it was super fun!)

And now for some pieces I have posted in the shop but not on here yet...

This one is the 3rd one in my Gathering Girls series... She is called "Gathering - Blossoms"

And another one that is a series of sorts to my original Content with being Alone lady...
"Content with being Alone - Golden Moon version"
I love this one and am obsessed with the fabric I used in here blanket/robe thingy. :)

And finally this is another piece that goes in my Abstract Couples category.
"Marry Me" - original fabric on wood...and again many of those greens I just can't get enough of!

Oh and I had my very first artfire sale the other day. It was just a little ACEO print but you better believe I was overjoyed and doing the "happy dance" - whoo hoo

working working....

2009-08-13T18:08:00.004-04:00

Yes I know my posts have been scarce lately but it is summer and this little boy above does not let me out of his sight. We have been hoovering at the pool trying to stay cool and picnic lunches are our new favorite thing! Isn't he getting BIG (and cute of course).

The custom work has been consistently rolling in and keeping me pretty busy (besides staying busy with Mr. London- ha)

"Waking Up" this custom order is going to be put in a brand new babies nursery, which is just awesome to think of. I do love illustrating little magical piece for children of all ages.

I think I could see this one in a little girls room too. She is called "The Braided Girl in the Peacock Dress" I could not resist some of these new fabrics I just bought...actually all of the fabrics are new except the white for her skin and the brown in her hair.

And now for some custom wedding pieces....

This one turned out to be probably one of my favorite custom wedding pieces. The couple got married with the Tetons behind them and it just made for great material for me to create from!!! This one is called "The Love that we Hold" . I really felt so lucky to get to make this. I hit a few bumps in the road as sometimes fabric patterns can backfire on me but nothing a little paint did help and I am totally happy with the end result!

And here is the latest one I am still working on. Here it is in it's current state and it is pretty much awaiting final approval and then a few coats of poly. :)

If you are interested in a custom wedding portrait for you or a friend, I will be happy to discuss details with you. Just drop me a line.

Hidden

2009-07-30T14:20:00.004-04:00

New little piece in my Etsy shop called "Hidden" . I love making forest critters and have had this piece in mind for a couple of weeks. Thankfully I was very busy with custom orders this past week and just got around to making this one.
I hope you love it as much as I do. We have had quite a few little fawns come through the side yard lately. And of course the grown up deer have had a hay day with our garden which did not do as well as expected. The trees in our yard have are just too big and our garden does not get enough sun. In the fall Scott is going to trim back some limbs and hope that helps a little for our fall garden, but I think that we may be moving the main garden to a different location (which is going to be a pain in the tushie) next spring.

Custom pieces for my Artgaragesale shop :) and speaking of AGS...I am the featured seller again :) Yay!!!

"Chica Power" - custom fabric on wood original
This piece about good friends, enjoying red wine and a beautiful evening outside.

"Forever my Friend" - custom fabric on wood original
This piece is super sweet and is meant to show a lifetime of friendship between to friends. If you look close enough the girls in the water are supposed to be around 10 yrs old, but then their reflection in the water is of them as grown ladies. :)

We just had a nice little afternoon shower here and it is still cloudy. The humidity is thick and hot here lately. Little London has broken out in a mild case of heat rash so we are trying to play outside first thing in the morning or go to the pool right when they open at 11am. So hot out. I want to start taking walks in the neighborhood with London without his stroller, which he is pretty much done with lately. The only thing holding us back is the super hotness. I know that before I know it Summer will be gone and it will be wonderful Fall and we will all be longing for the next season. ha Although, I am super excited about spiced, cinnamoned, hot soups, crunchy leaves on the ground and pumpkins of course. Actually, what I look forward to the most is the breeze. :)

Giveaway, and some other fun stuff!

2009-07-25T09:02:00.004-04:00

I was asked by Grace of the sandier pastures blog to do a giveaway and of course I jumped at the chance! She has such a wonderful blog with many many giveaways and just very interesting information about her life in Dubai. Since she found me I have gotten sucked into her blog which is not hard to do. If you have not checked her out you should! Also if you want a chance to win your choice of any 8.5" x 11" archival print of mine then hop on over to her blog and see how you can enter to win...super easy! Good luck :) The winner will be chosen at random on July 31st so you have plenty of time and you can enter more then once! YAY

Now to share again with all of you one of my favorite Etsians who lives in Turkey and has become a good Etsy friend. I hope someday I get to meet her in person but she is really far away. Below is a little sampler package of her work she sent me. It truly was like
Christmas day when I opened up the neatly packaged box she sent me just because she is the sweetest lady out there. You can find Fusun's amazing work in her Etsy shop Zeustones!

So my pictures of her work are terrible b/c I took them inside with bad lighting but here they are anyway. This stone necklace is so perfect and meticulous I can not believe she does this by hand (well I do but it amazes me)!

So also in the package she sent me was a magnet, an ornament and 2 stones. She is so generous and talented my jaw was on the floor and when my husband came home he could not believe it either. So I just knew I had to do something just for her (but of course I do not know if it could ever compare to what she has made for me).

So here is the piece I have made for Fusun. I am waiting to send it to her b/c she had been traveling but I am hoping she enjoys it even just a fraction of how much I have enjoyed her work!!!

Commssioned piece for ArtGarageSale.com

This piece is still in progress and there may need to be some changes made (still waiting to hear from my client) but I thought I would share what I have so far. I have never made a fountain before and had a lot of fun trying to make a broken tiled looking fountian.

It has been a busy week for commissioned work but I feel so lucky and blest to be asked by super cool, art appreciating people to make things for them! Yay for art!!!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Sunset Brightness

2009-07-23T16:01:00.005-04:00

This week I have had the pleasure of working with a fabulous client on 2 custom pieces. Above you can see the first piece I did for her. It is a take on the below piece (which is called "A Thousand Kisses") but with a sunset sky and a little bit of blue. She is giving this piece as a wedding gift and I so hope they love it.

Also, in case anyone was wondering, when working on custom pieces I try to get the piece as close to what the customer envisions, which is sometimes different then what I see...and that's ok. Below is the original fabrics I used. The rolling green hills and the green and white fabric were traded out for blue ones and I think it was a great choice. PS- I still love the green and white fabric...so bright. :)

Sunset River Trip - original fabric on wood art
This is the second piece she commissioned. It is a take on the original river trip which I explain below that I only have in print now. The sunset goes from warm yellow and orange to a red then purple. I think the sunset makes it a whole lot of fun and I hope this makes her smile (because this one is for her self) :)

Here is the original River Trip - which can be found only in 8.5 x 11 archival prints or postcards in my shop. The original was bought as a gift to Ben from Humbleglory who I never see around etsy anymore but he was a super nice guy.

That is all for now...I must go entertain my toddler who refused to nap today. It's either NO nap or a 4 hour nap but no inbetween. Ha

weeeeekend!

2009-07-10T09:28:00.003-04:00

So finally the weekend is upon us and I am going to the mountains and my wonderful in-laws are keeping London for us! We get to go tubing down the Green river and not worry about baby-gating the steps or trying to get him to sleep when he wants to stay up way past bedtime. We are really lucky that he loves going to stay with them and they give him undivided attention...yup...super lucky and blessed!

So here is a new piece I finished last weekend. "Skinny Dip" is the name and it is fabric on wood. I have been itching to get in there and do a little more patchwork like backgrounds. Hopefully I will do a few more...next week.

Here is the original sketch I drew a few years ago. Keeping sketchbooks is so important to me b/c it is great to rediscover an image your brain had way back when. Had I made that piece when I originally drew it, it would have been totally different I can guarantee. Many of the fabrics I buy now are so different from the ones I used when I first started with my fabric on wood process. Also, they retire fabrics so unfortunately some of my old favorites I can not get anymore...unless I am lucky enough to find them on someone else's forgotten stash. ha

"Green Patch IV" - fabric on wood
I know a 4th in this series and actually it is the 5th if you count "Green Patch - Night" But what can I say I love these little 5" x 5"ers :)
And I suppose others like them too b/c the first 3 Green Patch originals sold and are now only available in 5" x 7" prints!

Here is a little summery piece called "Grass between my Toes" - I so wish we had a nice patch of grass in the yard. Hopefully someday.

Alright, I am off to finish packing, go outside and play with London, then come in and give him a bath , eat lunch, put him down in his crib long enough to pack the car, gather the dogs and head out. whew. No complaints here!

100th post...lots of new work

2009-06-30T08:23:00.007-04:00

Scott and London and Sugar bunny and Douglas all chillin - they are the best!

Yes, I finally made it to my 100th post, slowly but surely. I thought for this post I would put up a few new pieces I have completed. I have always seemed to work in spurts and the past few days have been very productive (...now if some of it would just sell- LOL). I have as of right now 372 items in my shop. Now many of those are prints of sold originals or favorite images. Acutally, probably a little more then half of the items in my shop are prints of my originals...but still...super full shop!

I just finished this one above and named it "A Thousand Kisses" it is fabric on wood and really is so vibrant in person. I must admit, I think it is a new favorite. I have really had the best time building up my stash of green fabrics. It gives me great pleasure to pair up various greens and somehow having them work well together. I will never stop making these fabric pieces and that makes me Happy!

Below is a little piece called "Tall Grass" and it is fabric on wood. We have been living in our house here in Lancaster for 3 years now and have yet to have more then a few small strips of grass. We have so many trees that they have created quite the natural space and with Scott always working and me always running around with London it just seems to stay more natural then anything. Someday we will get our grassy yard back but it could be some time and I just will continue to make grass pieces until then. My dream grass is the kind that is soft and you can roll around in it. In the winter it turns brown but always comes back green in the spring. Not sure what it is called.

More Kitchen pieces! I seem to sell my breakfast pieces pretty well and had sold out of almost all the originals so I decided to stock the shelves again.
Here is another "Kiss my Grits-Blue" I added the blue twist and rearranged things a bit from the first 2 grits pieces I made.

"Tea" original fabric on wood

"Waffles" (with blueberries) - finally I got around to making some waffles, thought it was only fitting since I have made a few pancakes already.

Finally sometimes I just want to draw on the wood. This particular piece had such nice wood grains coming through I just could not cover them up with fabric.
"The Mountains were Calling" colored pencil on wood

Hope everyone's summer is going well. I will be headed to the mountains in a few weekends and can't wait to get a little bit of that cool, crisp air!

Portrait Sketching

2009-06-22T15:49:00.003-04:00

Did a quick little sketch of London the other day. I seriously sat down for about 7 minutes and sketched quickly but some of the detail was lost when scanned in b/c I used light pencil. I used to take a sketch book with me everywhere and draw strangers, friends or honestly anyone who would sit still long enough. Thinking I need to get that skill back as it has been a while and I miss it. Sometime it is like switching gears to go from fabric on wood to painting to portrait drawing to digitally coloring thing (which I am not very good at).
This is the first of many..I hope. :)

And about my poor digital coloring skills and lack of photoshop knowledge...anyone have any Wacom Tablet suggestions. I have been eying them on ebay lately and really think I just want to get a small one to begin (unless I can get a good deal on a medium one). The mouse just isn't cutting it. I have so many drawing that I want to turn digital but with my sketchy style of drawing there always seem to be white spots where there are not suppose to be. I am open to any suggestions and hope I can get one soon so I can begin playing around. Also, I want to start creating patterns and things so that I can have some fabrics made on www.spoonflower.com
If you have not checked out spoonflower yet...it is the coolest little place and I can not wait to order some fabrics. I do not think that I will sell any...just use them in my own fabric on wood work - al least that is the plan for now.

I have a new friend...featuring Zeustones

2009-06-17T15:08:00.004-04:00

How sweet and detailed and incredible are all these? I have made a new etsy friend who lives far far away in what sounds like an enchanting, magical place just north of the Aegean Sea.
Her name is Fusun and she is so talented and lovely that I wanted to bring her work to anyone who has not had the pleasure of seeing it yet. Her shop name is Zeustones on etsy.

Here is how she makes her work....

"I use more than one type of paint in almost all of them ; acrylic, sketch marker, porcelaine paint, archival ink, crayon, permanent marker, x-ray marker, coffee, berry juices etc. I seal them with the appropriate warnish or system. They will stay as they are for many years without fading as I use the best quality of materails. But they may not be suitable to leave under sun or washed with strong detergants, as natural materials tend to fade."

WOW!

Hopefully someday I will commission her to make a set of knobs for me. I can imagine them on a dresser or my kitchen cabinets.

If you want to be swept away stop by Fusun's brilliant shop. You can find this little stone HERE and peek around to find the others..each one is a treasury for sure.

Summer...

2009-06-11T10:17:00.005-04:00

"Family, Love" Here is a custom 16" x 20" fabric on wood piece I just finished. It was ordered by the bride who is getting married this month and will be surprising her family. I hope it goes over well and it feels good to know that somehow I was part of her special day. She will be getting married in the Adirondacks, which just sounds amazing and having a lake with a dock in the piece was very important to her. I had to rework things a few times but in the end I think it turned out quite nice! I really love custom orders and fulfilling someone else's vision.

So I have been eyeing this Owlie Owl toddler sized backpack for a while now. I just ordered it so it has not arrived yet but I can only imagine it is going to be perfect for London this fall as he will be going back to the same preschool 2 mornings a week. You can find one for your child here in bratsacksbaby's shop. She makes her things from salvaged and recycled fabrics...which means they are truely all one of a kind and eco-friendly! I think this is the coolest thing and if you look at her sales and feedback you will see she has many many happy customers!

Since Summer is here London and I have been going to the pool almost everyday. As soon as I chase him down with the sunblock...he starts saying "Gutter Gutter Gutter" b/c he is just fascinated with them for some reason. It has been hot and sticky out and the mesquetios eat the heck out of us when we play in the yard, so the pool has been a lifesaver!

Here is London in his sunglasses which we have yet to take with us to the pool. He likes to wear them in the house and flip the lights on and off.

(yep armed with an aquadoodle pen- hee hee)

Stay cool and have fun!!!

Simple little Treasure

2009-06-02T12:48:00.003-04:00

So last week I was the lucky winner of an awesome and generous giveaway on Zuda Gay's Blog . I was the first to comment and I guess that #1 was the super lucky #!
The above picture is me wearing my new piece that she basically custom made for me. It came yesterday and wow what a little treasure it is. I have always adored Zuda's work but in person I can't even begin to explain how lovely and unique her work is. I will be adorning myself with this necklace probably at ever occasion I can think of as I am sure it will be quite the topic of conversation.
Now below are a few other pieces in her shop now...but if you see one you like you best get it quick b/c they go fast...and how could they not!

This one is just breath taking! I love the soft aqua blue green and can just imagine this would be stunning in the summer.
You can find this one here it is called

Softly in Green Flower Focal

I love all her red and maroon ones too. Here is another to drool over! It is in Zuda's shop here and is called
It's Red Dalia Focal Flower

And of course here is another beauty...here and it is called Striking
FLower Focal Bead

One more pic of me with my new necklace on....thank you again Zuda, you are a real sweetheart! Please stop by her shop if you get a chance...it will be worth your time!

ZudaGay's Shop

New Works & and Xenotees on London...

2009-05-23T09:03:00.006-04:00

"We Knew it was just the Beginning" - Fabric on Wood
I finally finished and named this commission piece which I think is a new favorite of mine.
It is still secret who it is for b/c she is surprising her boyfriend of a year with it on their 1st anniversary. I think that is so sweet and I am just delighted to have been asked to make a piece for them!

Green Patch III - which was sold to my fabulous friend Vicki (aka paperbeadgirl) who is on her journey to being as very successful inventor and I am so lucky to have gotten to know her over the past year! Go Vicki!

Here is another custom order I had last week. The sweetest customer bought the French toast and then asked me to make a matching (in size) Kiss my Grits and Pancakes. I just live for projects such as this and worked until they were done!

Then the next day I woke up not feeling so hot and have been sick all week. I gave it to London and we are slowly feeling a little better. I am blaming it all on the weather changes.

Good Night - original fabric on wood in the shop now. Oh I so want to go camping soon!

In the Heat of it All - New in the shop . I have been fabric shopping the past few weeks and found some fun new fabrics that I had to put to use. All of these in this piece are from my new stash! hooray:)

And finally, my husband told me I should make a piece with the beach and flip flops...so here is what I came up with.
As far as the Eye can see - this fabric on wood piece is in the shop now and boy do I wish I had a beach house to put it in - lol

London sporting his new Xenotees shirt. How cute is he. Noelle at Xenotees is the sweetest and surprised me with a sweet shirt for London with my order of the sawblade shirt for me!
He wore it all day and I have to say was quite adorable!
You can get your own here www.xenotees.etsy.com

London has been sick all week so we set up camp with his stuffed animal school. He listens to music and plays with them on the floor...I think it's sweet and thought I would share. Then when he gets burst of energy he runs laps around the blanket and his stuffed friends...so funny, and yes I have it on video!

Happy Memorial Day weekend all!
xoxo

FREE print for my 249th & 250th ETSY sale!

2009-05-19T18:39:00.005-04:00

I am so thrilled to be so close to this milestone of 250 sales. So to say thank you I will give a FREE 8.5 x 11 print of the buyers choice to my 250th sale. Right now I am at 248. I have 102 8.5 x 11 prints to choose from so go browse away!
You can view all 102 prints here.

Also to be fair my 249th sale will receive a 5 x 7 print of their choice. If you come in and want to purchase 2 things and you are # 249 and 250...yup you will get a 5 x 7 and 8.5 x 11 prints of your choice.
Happy shopping!

I have posted a few of my favorite in my shop none of which are new. Each and ever sale is very special to me and I thank you all for accepting my art into your home with open arms. I wouldn't have it any other way.
Love you all! xoxox

Artist Spotlight...and a BIG Commission

2009-05-16T14:17:00.005-04:00

Yay...I am so honored to be the spotlighted artist on www.artgaragesale.com . I have really enjoyed my time there so far and look forward to growing my shop. You can stop by my shop or many of the other talented people selling their work on AGS! It is a fantastic place to buy and sell!

"The World Around Us" is a very large commission peice I finished this week. It is all fabric on wood and is 24" x 48". What a fun project this one was. They gave me an idea of what they wanted and let me do the rest. The image instantly came to me and I drew it out right away. Doesn't get much better then that, as far as commissions go and doing what I love for a living!

I feel like the picture above would make an awesome print.

Here is the full piece. It is hard to get all the details in one snap shot but you get the gest.

Well, hubby is in Raleigh this weekend so it is London and I flying solo. We just got back from a bit of fabric shopping. London is down for a nap and I might just have to do the same. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Polarity Artist Series Lockets!

2009-05-14T15:02:00.005-04:00

How absolutely cool are these? Polarity (aka Cat or Uncorked) has the coolest and original work in both her shops. I am so excited and honored to be included in her Artist Series Lockets in her polarity shop. And be sure to check out all her other lockets. She has tracked down some of Etsy's best artist and also has many of her own designs that rock! I have found myself getting lost in both her shops from time to time as they will suck you in. There is so much to look at! A big thanks to you Cat for letting me be part of your wonderful work!

I love them...and there a few I have my eye on. I may have to splurge one of these day!

Oh and you can find them HERE :)

WOW...what a give away!

2009-05-11T18:00:00.003-04:00

Ok if you haven't seen this giveaway that I am participating in then you are missing out. There are 16 http://www.Artgaragesale.com artist participating. The total giveaway is valued at over $600. All you have to do is stop by Scoutie Girl's blog and check out some of the shops participating and comment on their work. You can enter up over and over again!

Come stop by HERE and post away...good luck!

Recipes to ponder & some teacher art

2009-05-09T08:37:00.005-04:00

Jade Plant - original fabric on wood (I may sell prints of this one b/c I like it so)

This year is London's first year in any kind of school/play program. He goes twice a week for a little over 2 hours. He has 2 main teachers and one that works with the infants but she is always in his room too. Because things are a little tight around here as far as money goes I decided to make a little piece for each of his teachers as their end of the year gift. I suppose I will see if they like them and if they do then I will probably make this a tradition where I make all of London's teacher gifts.
The hard part is I really do not know much about each of them so I decided to make things with plants...simple and sweet.

Flowers for you - original fabric on wood art

Apple Tree Swing - original fabric on wood art

Here they are all together on the front walk.

Ok now for some super yummy recipes and dinners I made this past week.

Sweet and Sour Zucchini

1 lb of Zucchini
3 tbsp olive oil
1 large garlic clove, finely chopped
3 tbsp white wine vinegar
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
3 tbsp water
3 tbsp pine nuts
3 tbsp raisins (golden or normal)
sea salt and pepper to taste
fresh flat leaf parsley springs to garnish
(optional - 6-8 anchovy fillets, canned or salted - smashed into a paste)

1) Cut the zucchini into long, thin strips. Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy skillet over med. heat. Add the garlic and then cook, stirring constantly, for about 2 minute.

2) Add the Zucchini and cook, stirring frequently, until they just start to turn brown. Add the vinegar and water. Lower the heat and simmer, stirring frequently, for 10 minutes.

3) OPTIONAL step...meanwhile, drain anchovies, if canned, or rinse if they are salted. Coarsely chip and use back of wooden spoon to mash them into a paste. Then add to zucchini.

4) Add Pine nuts and raisins into the pan. Increase the heat and stir until the Zucchini are in a thin sauce and are tender. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Add salt and pepper to taste.

5) Either serve immediately or let it cool to room temp. and serve garnished with fresh parsley.

NOTE: I did not use anchovies but instead added the rice wine vinegar to give it that sweet and sour zing. This recipe was found in my 1000 low fat recipes cookbook and it is a good one!

Here is another dinner we had this week that was outrageously good! I made some garlic and olive oil couscous and stuff the peppers.
To make the peppers it is super easy.
Cut off the top of the pepper and hollow it out. The heat like 2 tbsp of olive oil in a skillet and sear your peppers for about 3-5 min.
Then heat the oven to 425 and put the peppers in on a cookie sheet for 10 min or so or until they start to brown slightly. These pepper were so tender and just peeled like strips...yum

Paprika Garlic Chicken

2 boneless skinless chicken breast cut into chunks
Marinade-
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp of Paprika
Dash of Olive oil
1 minced garlic clove
1/3 cup of rice wine vinegar
Dash of lemon juice
Fresh chopped thyme, parsley and mint.

I put the chicken in the marinade and let it set for approx. 20-30 min.
Then I used the left over oil in the same skillet as I used for the peppers. Saute the Chicken on med-high until the marinade cooks off and the chicken begins to brown.
So tasty!

I hope you get a chance to enjoy these awesome recipes...I know we did!

"Momma"

2009-05-04T22:35:00.003-04:00

"You Deserve the World" - new in the shop here...I love the colors in this one and how it turned out. :)
Below: I hung it on the pole in the sugar snap peas in the garden. Speaking of garden I will get some updated pictures up soon. Everything is growing growing growing...so exciting!

So we have been working diligently with London on his speech. He is picking up new words everyday. Finally at almost 2 1/2 he can say "Momma". Before now and still sometimes he calls me "Dada" and my husband is "Daddy". He has been able to say the "M" sound for a long long time but would often replace m's for d's. He would say Doon instead of Moon. There is a technical name for what he does, which I can not remember, but he is improving everyday. Since last Friday he can now say....Momma, doggie, ouch, Night Light, eyes, moon and the beginning of a line from one of his nursery rhyms songs. He sings the beginning of "Go to sleep you little baby", except the last part of that line is very jibberish.
On days when he goes down for a nap but does not actually nap he calls for daddy when he is ready to get out. Today he called for Daddy and Momma!!! Yeah
It is the coolest thing to see him grow and learn and discover new things. What a treat to spend my days with my London!

Lancaster Street Market

2009-04-28T21:16:00.003-04:00

So the coolest thing happened a week or so ago. Carrie with See Lancaster (and I think the Lancaster Arts Council) found me through Etsy. I am assuming that she searched via the Shop Local feature but I am not totally sure. Anyway, she invited me to participate in the Lancaster Street Market May 2nd (this Sat.). Seems as though they did this little show last Oct. Nov. and Dec. with great success. They are bring it back every 1st Sat. starting May - Dec.

For such a small city we really do have a good art world..I am just still slowly getting involved.
The show is outside so I am hoping that the weather is nice - not too hot and NO RAIN!

I will also have a few of my moms handbags and my sister's pouches/totes for sale as well.

If you are looking for something to do Sat. come on out to Lancaster. The show will go from 10am-4pm on the corner of Main Street and Gay Street in downtown Lancaster. Hey and no sweat if you can't make this one there is always next month!

Here is a link...hope to see you there.

Lancaster Street Market

New Growth

2009-04-25T13:32:00.006-04:00

Our garden is coming along nicely! It is already getting into the 90's here during the day. We will drench the garden in the mornings and it is dry as a bone by nightfall...so we drench it again! We have everything planted but there is a portion of the garden that stays pretty shady so we are not sure if everything will grow back in that corner.

In our front yard garden we have planted a variety of tomato plants, red/yellow bell peppers, pimento peppers, hot peppers, eggplant, lettuce, spinach, carrots, radishes, sugar snap peas, yellow squash, zucchini, cantaloupe, and cucumbers. YUM
I can not wait to make fried green tomatoes!

Sugar snap peas- we are putting in something for them to grow up today.

little baby lettuce

Our little Herb nook...I cook with these all the time. I love stepping out my front door and clipping away with what I need.

Cute little blurry picture of London. I told him to smile for the camera, and he did :)

Me and London

Here is a new piece in the shop called "Sun Kissed" - I like how she turned out!

New abstract piece called "Morning"

And one more piece that is part of my Mod Kitchen Collection..."Strawberry" (notice it is in front of my garden- tee hee)

Let me know if you have a garden and how it is going. I have heard that since the economy is so crumby these days many people are giving it a go. I hope they feel the rewards of growing plants and eating them like we do. Oh and our blueberry bushes already have blueberries on them. They are plumper every day and I can't wait to taste them. ahhh

Happy gardening!

MUstache Party!!!

2009-04-14T19:50:00.006-04:00

Mustache Awards...hee hee

My sister leaves for Alaska on Sat. I am taking her on Friday to drop off her license plate and then we are going out to lunch one last time for 6 months. I know she will have another fantastic time there. She has her own place without a roommate so she can host many visitors. Unfortunately due to the broken window (a few posts down) and taxes owed I will not get the opportunity to go visit her. I am a little sad but I guess I will just experience Alaska through her stories and pictures. It is bitter sweet as I will miss her but I know that she is looking forward to going back.

Last Saturday we had a going away party for her. Last year she had a theme (knee highs and bow ties) so she thought it would be fun to have another. Can you guess...this year was Mustaches. Some of the guys started growing them as soon as they heard about the party...so funny. I wish that I had busted the camera out a little more but here are some of the better ones I snapped. Above is my sister-in-law Julie sporting one of her stashes. She actually won an award for the most Fem mustache. Christie, Nate and Ginger all helped make these hilarious Mustache trophies...ha ha.

Nate - my brother (real Mustache) , Taylor (no mustache) and Scott my husband (full beard as always)

Scott gets his mustache darkened by Kim :)

Chrisssstie and I

good ol eyeliner

Kinda creepy (LOL)

We ran into Beth that I used to work with and had her kids in after school and camp. Christie used to babysit/pet sit and house sit for her. So good to see her!

Alison, Charlotte and me . I had to use the red eye reducer so all our eyes look strange.

This is my other sister Angie and I think this picture sums up the end of the night. I love it. She is down to half a stash and the blurry background.

Anyway, cheers to a safe trip for my sister and happy Mustaches!

For Treasuries Sake...

2009-04-08T15:51:00.004-04:00

I thought this was so funny. While waiting for Treasury West to open this morning I just knew London was getting into something. I checked on him when there was 2 minutes left before 222 expired. So below is what he did in those last 2 minutes before treasury opened. Such a stinker. He also filled the dog water bowl and the cat water bowl with pieces of dog and cat food...to the point where the food absorbed all the water. Because I am at the tail end of the cat food I decided to pick it all up and put it back in their bowl (hee hee- hey I vacuumed yesterday).

And do you think London helped me pick up....NOPE. lol

Anyway, here is my treasury (pretties) ..come stop by before it expires in a few days.

look close to see all the scattered cat food.

He's a busy one! :) That's what mommy gets for trying to make a treasury.

Here is "Yellow Expedition Tent" finished and in the shop now..I'm happy with how it turned out! Now if I can just get to the woods...and soon. (I miss you nature)

In the Studio and NEW works!

2009-04-07T16:17:00.005-04:00

I have some new pieces here I am working on and then a few I finished but never posted. Above is a new camping piece that I think I love (this picture is still in progress as it has not been polyurethaned yet)! I asked my hubby last night what color I should make the tent and he said, "Expedition Yellow just like my rain jacket". This is true he has a yellow and black rain coat therefore I followed his advice and I think that is what I will name the piece as well.

Below you can see a little more of my polyurethaning process...first mix, then apply.

stirring

applying (first coat- second coat will be applied either late tonight or early tomorrow morn)

The essentials in my upstairs studio. Mallet, brush, razor blade, paint can opener, polyurethane and stir stick. :)

While I was up there with my camera I thought I would show you the backside of my studio. All of these bins are full of my sister Christies (volleyballgirl.etsy.com) fabrics. She is moving in 2 weeks back to Alaska (for 6 months to work) so I get to ship all her sales and store her art stuff again. She still has to bring her sewing machine and a few other things over in the next week or two.

Here is an 8 x 10 commissioned wedding gift piece I have just finished. It will be called "Big Sweet Love II" as it was named and modeled after the first "Big Sweet Love" I made that I only have prints of now. I live for commissioned work..some times it is nerve racking but usually it turns out to be good.

Feeling the Night lady - waiting to be cut out.

"Feeling the Night" new original in the shop here.

Also here is another new one in the shop that I showed an in-progress photo in a lower post.

"Springs First Bloom" is in the shop here.

Update on the windows...they came and took the door out yesterday. Now we are waiting of the glass to come (which hopefully they have ordered by now). Probably will not get in until next week. Hoping the den will not be dreary and boarded up much longer. Speaking of looks like rain and it has gotten chilly out today. Waiting until next week to plant garden...and it is going to be fabulous!

Cracked Glass

2009-04-02T10:19:00.005-04:00

It is hard to believe that this sweet little boy could have broken such a big piece of glass. During a tantrum on Sunday, London ran into the sliding glass door. He had no bump, bruises, or scratches on his head or anywhere - we watched him for any signs of a concussion and he showed no signs. We are not sure what he hit the window with but he put a major crack in it. Thank God he is ok and the glass did not shatter...things could have been really bad if it had...so I can't even bring myself to think about all the "what- ifs".

Our sliding glass door is HUGE and it is original to the house which was built in 1960. The window guys have been by a few times and the glass is a quarter inch thick. I think this is going to be quite a project for them and this is what they do for a living. They just don't make them like this anymore. After hearing what could have happened if the glass had shattered we decided to replace all 3 windows with safety glass. This way if they were to ever shatter they will break into a million little dull tiny pieces of glass instead of big shards that can kill you.

Let's just say LARGE broken glass = BIG $$$

Our first attempt to tape it up until the glass guys could come the next day.

They put a giant piece of Orange tape on the door over the break...but we had to rearrange the furniture to keep London from banging on it.

From our back patio.

Inside looking out.

We have now put plywood over the windows to protect them from London (ha ha). Still waiting for the window guys but they can not remove the glass until it stops raining and they can't order the glass until they remove one...b/c they are still baffled by these window and want to make sure they get it right.

3 little new ACEO's in the shop - "Little Spring Red, Blue and Green"

I hope that every one's spring is coming alone. We have been diligently moving dirt from the pile in the driveway to the garden. And actually we have moved all we can for now until my husband finishes digging out this one stump. Then the rows will be made and veggie planted. I will for sure start posting some pictures once it starts too look pretty!

mmmm Dinner!

2009-03-28T20:44:00.004-04:00

We have had a week of rain. It hasn't really been cold out but just wet and rainy. Tonight for dinner we decided to make a soup I made up a month or so ago. It is soooo easy and tasty, you will want it for leftovers the next day too!

Chicken Curry and Black Bean Soup

(recipe below)

(serves 4-6 people)

Approx 8 cups of water

1-2 boneless chicken breast

2-3 chk. bouion cubes

2 Med. carrots chopped

1 small - med. onion

1 can of Black Beans (15 oz.)

2 garlic cloves

curry powder to taste

pat of butter or margarine (or veg/canola oil if preferred)

sea salt to taste

black pepper to taste

1 cup or so of Rice wine vinegar

(optional) 15oz can of fat free chicken broth

Fill pot not quite 1/2 way with water and boil chicken whole for 5 - 10 min. Add curry powder to the water while chk is boiling. Chop all your veggies and then saute all (carrots, onion and garlic) in a pat of butter and sprinkle with curry powder and salt and pepper. Saute for only a few minutes until they begin to soften. Meanwhile remove Chk. from water. Add your veggies to the broth and then chop up your chicken and add it to the soup. Empty a drained can of black beans to the soup (and chicken broth is needed or desired). Depending upon desired about of soup you can add more water if needed. And last but not least add approx. 1 cup of Rice Wine Vinegar (this is what makes the soup)! Let it all simmer 20-40 min and serve with crackers or bread.

NOTE: To make this soup vegetarian substitute in tofu for chicken, veggie broth and veggie bouion cubes, add mushrooms for extra flavor...just that easy!

So today we had our dump truck of dirt delivered (pictures coming soon). It came about 9am this morning and I scrabbled to get shoes on London as we thought he might enjoy watching a huge dump truck dump dirt on our driveway- yipee. He was saying "DIRT" all day..so funny.

Scott spent several hours outside in the nasty rain hauling wheel barrow after wheel barrow of dirt to our future garden spot. Meanwhile, I stayed inside with London working on these. There are 3 of them and they should be finished in the next day or so...little ACEO. I am thinking I will price them at $14 each instead of the normal $12...they were a lot of work (but I loved every minute of it!)

ACEO originals - "Little Spring - blue, green and red" in progress -or rather waiting to be polyurethaned. They will be in the shop soon :) OK now tomorrow is dedicated to TAXes...which I meant to start today- YUCKY.

Multiple Rainy Days

2009-03-27T08:14:00.005-04:00

New piece that is almost done...they always look so much better once polyurethaned so keep an eye out. It will be finished later today but we are suppose to have a rainy weekend so I may not be able to get it photographed until next week.

Speaking of rain, we have had to delay our delivery of dirt for the garden. Hopefully we can get the garden going next weekend b/c the seeds planted indoors almost 6 weeks ago are ready to spread their roots and claim their chunk of the earth.

Now if you have children then you know all about being trapped indoors on rainy days. You know one rainy day here and there, no big deal, right? Well when the whole week is rainy, and you have a toddler who lives to play outside, then you have yourself a recipe for many tantrums. We have had to get a little creative this week so here are some shots of all the fun we have had while trapped inside.

This is one of my favorite things we did. London loves to color and for now he is still in diapers so we always have several large boxes waiting to go to the recycling center. Normally we just color at the table and it provides approx. 8 - 12 minutes of entertainment. Well tack on an extra 10 mins of fun when you can sit in a box and color. Almost as fun as drawing outside with chalk (almost).

Next we had the fortunate pleasure of getting the Toddler Water table delivered that I ordered online for London last week. Normally we will play with this outside as it requires your clothes get soaked and splashing in the house gets old for mommy. But it came the other day so we had to test it out (rain or shine). As you can see London started out fully dressed.

We played before naptime. When it was time to go down he did not put up a fight (score I wore him out...wrong). He actually never fell asleep but just played in his crib. I decided to be a nice mommy and keep the water table set up for him to play with after nap time which I think was the problem. He kept wanting more and more water and finally it was just a big mess on the kitchen floor so I had had enough. He watched me slowly empty one Nalgen bottle at a time. It was a slow and painful process until total meltdown while I tried to find somewhere to hide it. Ah the joys of being a mother...I acutally sat down and laughed at the whole situation. Needless to say we are waiting for the sunshine to come back out before we play with the water table (outside) again. Although the toys that came with it make for great bath fun!

Yup he tried to climb in... LOL

Lots of bath times...b/c bath's are fun! (do you see all the drawing he has done in the tub with his tub crayons- how can I not let him)?

London hanging out in our dog Alex's crate...yee haw

Granny and Grandaddy stopped by yesterday. London ran circles while singing and we all thought it was cute.

We are supposed to have 2 or 3 more days of this rainy stuff. Hopefully the sun will peek back out soon so this mommy does not go insane. tee hee :) We have a play date this morning and then we are all going to eat some of the best Thai food (from a resturant) around...hello Bo Thai! Yum

Sunny days call for lots of Shade.

2009-03-23T15:44:00.004-04:00

Original drawing on the wood...then comes the colored pencil and then fabric. I love mixing mediums and I think if my studio was not upstairs and I didn't have a "get into everything" toddler, I would be up there mixing messy mediums a lot more. ha

"I Wish you Over the Moon" - new original fabric/colored pencil piece in the shop now. I really love how she turned out. She is a little different then most of my girls with her short hair. Come see her in the shop Here.

"Green Patch II" - original fabric on wood piece in the shop now Here

Slightly different from the first green patch piece but just as lovely.

I have to say it has been beautiful around here lately. We are joining the pool again this summer but I am a little concerned with my (and London's since he is so young) sun exposure. I have been sun blocking up with my ultra sunblock (blue lizard) and yesterday we were out working on the garden and I helped Scott a little bit with a leaky faucet. Then when London got up later in the afternoon we went out to play with chalk. I actually got slightly sunburned right on my clavicle/chest area where I had my first spot of Basal cell skin cancer in Nov. I am freaking out. Is the best sunblock not enough to keep my skin lilly white (and just as importantly London's)? I usually wear my gigantic hat but just got caught up in the day yesterday. I will have to figure out something more then regularly sun blocking and wearing big hats...the sun can not get through to me. ugh

Look what we did on Saturday!

The elementary school down the street - which I am assuming is where London will go when he is old enough - had a Spring Fling Festival. Here is Scott and London going down the giant slide. My camera was being a bit poky so I didn't get any really good shots. This was the only inflatable London got on..he could have cared less about the others and really just wanted to run around in the empty gym- oooh fun. Then we went into the cafeteria and had hamburger and hot dog plates (chips and a drink) for $3 buck each..such a deal and a fun afternoon. I love when Scott gets to be home the whole weekend and we can hang as a family! yay

Happy Spring (and my brother's B-day)!

2009-03-20T09:53:00.003-04:00

Gathering - Apples - original fabric on wood piece that sold right away (to one of my favorite ladies). Here she is sitting pretty on the georgous moss in my front yard. Prints are available in the shop now.

Well it is the first day of Spring and my brother's 34th birthday. It is strange to that my brother is younger then my hubby by like a year and a half. He is my big brother and he always will be and it is just strange for me to think of that.

It is also Friday and I am looking forward to a weekend with the family (my husband and London) home and working on the garden. We plan on ordering our dump truck of really good dirt next week, so this weekend the frame will be built. We have scratched the original spot we were going to put the garden due to the lack of full sun. And in true yard fashion (and just like the last house) we will be putting our garden smack in the middle of the front yard. I can't wait. My herb garden made it through the winter and I have been using my herbs to cook with as usual. So fantastic to be able to use them all year round! I love being able to grow things!

Here are a few things I have cooked up the past 2 nights...yummm!

Plantains are a favorite of mine and who new that a ripe plantain fried lightly in a little canola oil at home is better then almost any resturant I have had them in (close 2nd to The Sugar Shack in Ocean Isle)

Orange Ginger Chicken

2-4 chicken breast

2 cups of Orange Juice

Nub of Ginger (shredded with a cheese shredder)

2 cloves of Garlic (shredded)

Dash of salt and pepper

Maridnade the chicken for at least 20 mins in all the ingredients then chop up and saute. Serve with Fried plantains and Jasmine rice...excellent dinner! (and simple)

This was my experimental Meatloaf and wow was is tasty!

Cranberry Turkey Loaf

1 lb of lean Ground Turkey meat

1/2 can of cranberry sauce (with whole cranberries)

2 cloves of garlic finely minced

1 egg

3 pieces of honey wheat bread chopped

zest of one orange

nub of ginger shredded

handful of fresh sage chopped

Dash of sea salt and pepper

Mix it all up and put it in a lightly greased bread pan. Bake at 375 degrees for 45-55 min. Served with garlic smashed potoatoes, remainder of cranberry sauce and green beans.

It turned out so moist and yummy, we will be making this one again for sure.

My little artist. We spent several hours outside yesterday making puddles and drawing in them with chalk. I ordered a toddler water table for him last night and I am sure it will be many more hours of entertainment when it gets here. We are ready for summer and afternoons at the pool. Won't it be so fun this year now that he is a little bigger and a little more independant. Well we are off to play outside and enjoy today's sunshine :)

Spring is here...Yay!

Featuring "the paper bead girl" aka my friend Vicki!

2009-03-16T10:00:00.004-04:00

About a year ago I met this wonderful customer of mine named Vicki. She bought a few pieces from me and quickly became a friend. We actually began chatting on the phone here and there about this fantastic idea/invention she had. Finally after a little push of incouragement I help Vicki go from being a buyer only to a proud shop owner. I am in no way taking much credit b/c for someone who was convinced she had no artist talent..she sure did! Her shop has been very successful and her invention (paper bead rolling tool) has been such a hit. I think she has really help others who enjoyed making paper beads but did not have a uniformed or quick way. Also, I think she has brought the art of making them to many people who never would have tried otherwise.

Vicki's etsy shop is HERE or watch a video of her showing off how to use her fabulous tool HERE

Thanks Vicki for being such a wonderful friend, etsian, facebook friend, supporter and customer of mine!

xoxox

I always love these bowls and have almost bought them for myself several time (hee hee). I do not see them in her shop right now but I swiped a picture a few weeks ago as I have been meaning to feature her.

Here is her "Paper bead roller X 2" - she sells these things like hotcakes. I believe that she makes each and everyone of them (with a little help from her family) and they are patent pending..so don't go try to make your own, just order one from her for $16- What a deal!

Could this purse be any more unique and georgous. Really Vicki has out done herself. She has many other purse designs but this one is my personal favorite!

Here is a close up of a batch of beads she had made and are for sale. They are called Neopolitan and they totally make me think of Baskin Robins- LOL

I encourage all of you to hop on over to Vicki's shop and see all her goodies, you will not be disappointed!

I just put this one up in the shop. It is drawn in black and then digitally colored. I play around with photoshop here and there and am getting a little better. I think this print looks a little better in person. I am slightly obsessed with odd shaped images so I am sure there will be more of these.

She is called "The Looker"

I participated in a show this past Sat. I used to run a show called Starving Artist and I know that sometime you can put all the advertising out there to the world and sometimes the crowds still do not make it. Well, this show was very very slow as the weather was so crappy. It was about 40 degrees and raining cats and dogs. There was actually a 5 K that ran from there that morning and there were 150 registered...it think maybe 20 actually showed up to run. I had one good sale and made some good connections. Sometimes networking with other vendors or local folks with connections can make a slow show worth it. Anyway, here was my set up and I will do a little more research with the next show....I think when there is wine and cheese involved the crowd tends to buy more. And who doesn't like a glass of wine to sip on while sitting behind your table of art- ha ha.

Off to venture out in this rain...have a great Monday everyone!

Getting Ready!

2009-03-12T10:39:00.004-04:00

I have a booth in a craft sale on Saturday. It has been since Nov. 2007 since I have done any shows and it has been a lot of work getting ready. I think I am pretty organized so far but I may have to miss my father-in-laws birthday dinner on Friday night b/c there are so many things I can not do until last minute. I have to set up my display and figure out which pieces I will hang and then get them ready to hang and put a hanging tag on them. All of which I can not do until Mr. London is in bed.

Here are a few shots of my art taking over the living room. It looks messy and is mixed in with London's toys but for the most part everything is very organized. LOL

Baskets of work...I hope that some of these sell...Im running out of room! :)

The basket on top has all of my 8.5 x 11 prints in it and the cardboard box has my smaller prints and signs for my table (pens, tape, calculator..etc.)

I have probably almost 200 original and I am not bringing any of my really big pieces...too much to deal with. Plus I really think that people are willing to part with a few bucks here and there but not so much a few hundred. :)

Well, I will take some photos at the show and post those either here or on flicker.

Wish me luck!!!

(art mixed in with my mini trampoline and one of London's toys)

High Hopes...for an Alaskan visit

2009-03-09T21:16:00.005-04:00

"Wedding Day" Original Fabric on Wood piece in the shop now.

I love making my own handmade wedding gifts when friends and family get hitched. Thought I would make one for the shop. Also, I have had many request (usually by the couple) in my etsy shop for an original wedding piece depicting them on their special day or as a happy couple. Don't know why but I just love making them!

"Lil Bacon" - Original Fabric on Wood piece in the shop and part of my Mod Kitchen Collection

We tend to eat turkey bacon here at my house for the occasional breakfast or BLT. This one is for all you Bacon Lovers out there!

London and I played together the other morning. I usually love weekends when the hubby is home and doesn't have to work. He snapped a few shots of us, doing what we do. London is playing with playdoh. We get out all of his letter magnets and punch then intot he playdoh for the reverse letter...Oh so fun.

Now..yes I am in my PJ and planting seeds in my seed starter. Many are popping up already and are just waiting for the dump truck of good dirt to arrive...oh and the warm weather.

I did plant 2 blackberry bushes and 2 raspberry plants yesterday. Going to order my blueberry bushes in a few weeks and we will be that much closer to wonderful homemade goodies!

I am getting ready for a show in Rock Hill on Sat. My etsy shop will be a bit bare for a few hours (all but my prints). Hoping to sell a bunch as I would love to be able to buy a plane ticket to go visit my sister in Alaska (she leaves in about a month to go back for 6 months). I rarely get to go on trips far far away and I just know I would love to visit Alaska. Once London was born and I quit my job we have been on a very tight budget. Keeping my fingers crossed that my plan works out...maybe I will get to go in August. I've got high HOPES!

xoxo