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

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!

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.

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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

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!

"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...

...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

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).