Back from Portland

I took an earlier flight so I got in this morning at 5:30 am. We came home and crashed! It's been a rushed day now that I'm back home and am ready for another vacation. Portland was great but difficult to navigate... I'll post stories over the next week.

My class, Holy Rolling Hot Wheels, was amazing and I learned a lot, unfortunately I was kind of in a funk and feeling more than un-inspired so I really felt bad for Michael DeMeng who was really working hard to make sure I got a lot out of class, I did. I just really missed my studio and the thousands of odds and ends I have here. I tried to pack super light, which I did, and really under-packed in the art area. Ultimately, I think I'm really a homebody and by then I was just unbelievably home sick and wasn't feeling great. The class was fabulous and I learned a massive amount about color theory, metal craft and treating your art as something to treat as a sacred object...not in a pretentious snobby way but just that it's something you created and should be treated with respect.

It was an amazing experience, in part, because we really looked at all the pieces and talked about what was fabulous about them and what was the artist's point of view (trademark Project Runway!) and then we took all of these amazing art pieces and put them on a Hot Wheels track. It was a really lovely and charming combination of reverence and whimsy that really turned around the day for me. If you ever get a chance to take a class at Art & Soul, ArtFest, etc, I highly recommend it.

Lois Lane or Superman? What was your favorite costume?

Inspired by Halloween, I continued with the bottle caps and came up with these little babies. They inspired the question "what was your favorite Halloween costume"? I don't really remember a lot of my costumes. I remember being a clown, with an adorable outfit made by my Grandma (I think that one made the rounds for a few of us). I remember my brother getting painted up and wearing a flannel shirt and going as a werewolf, he was pretty cute. But my most memorable was in junior high heading out to the thrift store with my best friend and buying men's suits for $2.00 and venturing out to the haunted houses as game show hosts.

I hated those haunted houses as being scared is something I hate. My husband even cut-off Carnivale because I couldn't take the creepy factor anymore. But, I wore that suit jacket with a t-shirt and funky jewelry all through high school!

This is probably the last post until Monday when I get back from Art & Soul! I'm really excited and made a special trip to the bookstore to stock up for the plane ride. I got Grave Surprise by Charlaine Harris who writes the Southern Vampire series in addition to this one. She's a fabulous writer who can really bring the element of the unexpected to her work. I may have also purchase a slightly cheesy romance novel for the trip as well. :)

Otherwise, I definitely need to get a move on in the packing department. My clothes are clean but definitely still hanging in the closet. I do have directions to most all of the art stores, Sat Market and a great seafood restaurant my friend Lara is dying to visit. Of course no trip to Portland would be complete without a pilgrimage to Powell's. Anyway, the packing's not happening until I turn off the computer!

p.s. HAPPY BIRTHDAY GWEN!!! You're the best!

Boo Season Continues!

I made some fun little bottle cap charms yesterday. These were made from images scanned from my Halloween Tarot deck. It's one of my favorites. I love all of the images and the colors used are gorgeous. Typically I use earth tones and relatively neutral colors so I really admire pieces with bright rich colors and these cards get it right!

One more day and it's time to head to Portland! I'm ready for a break and my friend Lara and I have scoped out some great places to hit for shopping as well as general artiness at the retreat. I'll be away from the blogging while I'm gone ... maybe I can convince the husband to do some stunt blogging but I doubt it! :)

Halloween spirit!

October is one of my all time favorite months. Fall is my favorite season ... it used to be winter but I live in Texas so I had to give up the dream of snow. Normally, the air is getting crisp and the windows are open letting in the cooler breeze but this year it's in the 90's so not so much with the cool breeze.

I'm not giving up though. The house is decorated for Halloween, inside anyway, need to continue nagging the hubby about outside lights, and I've pulled out the Halloween jewelry. I've got enough that I think I could wear a new piece almost everyday for the month but I do have a few favorites. This pin is one of them. I made it last year when I was still pretty scared of the soldering iron but I risked it for jewelry. Seriously, you've got to have priorities!

The other pics are of what is normally my dining room table but has now been transformed into an Halloween wonderland. My husband helped with the wiring logistics which involved two trips to Fry's (electronics superstore!) for the uber-power strips. We're good to go now.

Only 2 more days until I'm headed to Portland for Art & Soul ... must go nag about outside lights. Have a happy Tuesday!

"Man with Secrets" Charm

"Man with Secrets", that's what I'm calling the new charm I made yesterday. I'm experimenting with charms using colored glass. This one has a yellow tint and has bubbles similar to antique/vintage blown glass. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, although I found out that only certain colors will really work with the glass. For instance, yellow hued papers (which I did not expect) really look better than say a cream that becomes tinted yellow.

Also, I've been busy getting the house ready for Halloween. I want it all decked out this weekend since I think it's going to be a rush getting ready for Art and Soul next weekend. I'm really excited about the trip and have found a ton of places I want to visit in Portland... I may need to plan a return trip since I'm only there for a weekend!

I'll post some house Halloween pics when I'm finished spookifying the house.

Smarts... use 'em or lose 'em!

I found myself with 5 minutes to spare today and I decided to make some art. It's not the great project I've been contemplating, it's not time consuming and complicated involving every art utensil known to man (although I did use a watercolor crayon!) but it was relaxing and fun. It was also all I had time for in a rather hectic week. I did stamp a piece of glass in anticipation for tomorrow's art... maybe 15 or 20 minutes will be found tomorrow!

The idea here is that it was fun and enjoyable. I'm spending time in the studio, with Abby puppy, and just played. It's my version of a coloring book. Sometimes I don't think I start anything because I don't have enough time or I'm not sure when I could finish, or 50 other perfectly reasonable excuses for not creating. The truth is, you go stale when you don't create or re-charge and find inspiration. It's been a rough month and it's going to get hectic with the holidays so I have to squeeze in the fun projects when I can. This piece was made using my new favorite stamp and my brand new watercolor crayons.

P.S. Also, I should have more time because I'm a little bit grounded for staying out too late last night with my friend Bo. It was totally worth it! :)

Happy Wednesday guys... the weekend is almost here!

Puppy drama and a pink computer in the making

We had a little puppy drama in our house Friday morning, Maya our Akita, was having some labored breathing and my husband had to be at work so it was just me rushing her to the vet. The thing about Maya is that she can't get in my SUV on her own. Abby, the German shepherd, hops in and is in the back reading a magazine by the time we get Maya in. She's really cute because she just puts her front paws on the seat and waits for you to lift her in. Normally, this is something my husband does but Friday morning it was me... struggling to lift the 110lbs of furry cuteness that is Maya into the backseat of my car which sits at a steep incline in the driveway. It also has stadium type seating in the back so it's very tall. Myself, not so tall. This was something to see.

So, Maya is now in the car and we get to the vet who looks her all over but wants to make sure she's okay with x-rays and blood tests. I have to come back for her a few hours later, turns out she has a urinary tract infection and will be fine with anti-biotics and otherwise she's healthy. But, needs to drop a few pounds. I say, who doesn't but after the SUV ordeal, I'm cutting back on the treats. And yes, we had to repeat the same procedure at the vet's to get her back in the SUV... it's good that she's unbelievably cute and sweet.

In other news, my husband is building me a new computer because the laptop I use for art, blogging, etc is in a death spiral and takes about 15 minutes to come on... I think he got tired of listening to me rant. I jokingly asked if my new computer could be pink and he found one! It's really pink and very cute... for a computer box!

Green Tea Ornament

I bought this great book and it helped me with my soldering for adding connectors and rings. I've always wanted to try soldering the glass bubbles and the book made it look easy. This is one of my first attempts and I have to say it's harder than I thought!

The main problem with soldering the glass bubble is adding the connector. I add the copper foil to the back but it doesn't attach very well. I've tried it by adding the foil pre-soldering and post-soldering but neither works very well. The foil won't adhere or just melts off... it's very frustrating! I plan to keep practicing but this is how it's going so far. :)

On a non-art front, the Texas State Fair is getting ready to start and I've already got our tickets. We've wanted to go but never managed it (we've been here for 11 years) but this year, my work had tickets on sale so I snapped them up and we've got a plan! I'll keep you posted on how many foods on a stick they really have.

Tacky Necklace

I made this necklace yesterday using some inexpensive beads I found at Michael's. I love them because they look like jadeite/milk glass and remind me of the 40's. I love the style from the 40's so the beads were right up my alley. My husband, however, thinks it might be the tackiest thing. Ever. I may have to agree with him, but that doesn't stop me from loving it!

Whew, I think I'm back on track

So I've finally recovered from the last two weeks of illness, it's really been longer than that but only bad the last two weeks, so I'm trying to get back into more regular posts. We'll see how I do. :)

My friend Josh came over today and took a bunch of photos of my work, and of me, for use in upcoming materials for the website, marketing, etc. We'll see what I do with the photos of me. The photos of my work will be great for updating my website and for Etsy etc.

Josh is a great photographer. He took some gorgeous shots of our Farmer's Market and beautiful nature shots of his gardens. I'm lucky to catch him while he's still building his portfolio. This is one of the fabulous things about artists, they are wondrously generous. I've never had an encounter with a fellow artist where they weren't absolutely lovely about sharing ideas, great material sources, bartering and so on and so on.

On a more weekendish note, we went to see the Black Dahlia today... highly disappointing. I should've known since it was Brian de Palma. Anyway, my husband had been dying to see it so after having taken care of me for two weeks, I can certainly stand to go see his movie! He was hoping for another L.A. Confidential but it wasn't even close. It was shot beautifully, but that didn't save it. Hopefully, I'll be able to get some art done this week and post.

This photo contains some new pieces I made today and a few old favorites. I had them all out for the photo shoot today.

Hope you guys had a great weekend!

Health Update

Ok, so I thought I was pretty recovered but not so much. I finally got over all the medicine fiasco and had everything cleared through my system but now, I've got a bad sinus infection so more drugs and still not caught up on my sleep. I'm telling you, September has not been my month! I'm really looking forward to my upcoming trip to Portland for Art & Soul.

Anyway, I'm hoping the antibiotics kick-in and I'm back on my feet soon! I realize this may be the most unexciting blog ever!

On an entirely different note, I've caught up on tivo and I can't tell you how much I love the new show Men in Trees . It's a total chick show but it's great! Hopefully my next post will be ever so slightly more exciting!

I'm back home and feeling better!

I actually had a horrible week with my bad medicine reaction. I was in the hospital on Thursday and didn't come home until Friday. My husband was fabulous though! I always knew how lucky I was to have him but you just can't imagine how great he was this week and how much he did for me. I love you sweetie!

Hopefully I'll be up and making art again quickly.

Unfortunate break

I've had to take a break from blogging as I've been experiencing a bad reaction to some medicine I'm taking. Needless to say, I've quit taking the medicine and have finally found something that seems to be helping. It's been really rough the last few days and have only made it through because my husband has the patience of a saint. It's been unbelievably tough and have realized how lucky I am to have him. Anyway, I'm not sure when I'm going to feel 100% but I'm trying. We'll see how it goes and I'll keep you posted.

Caught red pawed!

I'd hoped to get a lot of art done but I haven't accomplished much in the way of pieces. It's been more of a clean up and organizational weekend. The husband and I worked out in the garage, it's turning into shop/studio space also, so we were cleaning up stuff from the floors project, hanging peg board, organizing workbenches, etc. While doing that, I was playing in my art journal and must have dropped a watercolor crayon on the floor. Detective that I am, I deduced this from the huge red spots in the studio carpeting (next room to get new flooring) and the puppy with red paws! Thank goodness she's ok but I wasn't happy.

On other news, I've been watching my few items on Etsy with a little more vigor than is healthy. I'm excited because they've only been up a few days but some items have been viewed 39 times! While this is exciting, I also have a tendency to become pessimistic and think I have lots of people looking but not interested in my pieces. I think this is just all part of the process and you have to take some risks to get rewards... I know that ultimately, it's all a learning experience and just part of the artistic process.

Hope everyone's having a Happy Labor Day. Back to the mines tomorrow. Ugh.

I'm listed on Etsy!

I finally did it. I've dipped my toe into eCommerce. I've listed a few items, before my scanner connection died (I desperately need a new 'puter!), on Etsy. You can find them Etsy and I'm absurdly proud of myself for having figured out how to get everything up there (it's unbelievably easy) and for finally taking the first steps.

I've been really scared to try something new but I've decided that great things can't happen for me if I don't put myself out there. While this is a tiny step, it's definitely going in the right direction!

Happy Labor Day Saturday!