Fort for us all

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

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

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....

"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....

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

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!

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!