Fun summer bag

I'm participating in a new swap that involves making a bag to exchange and I'm definitely in need of practice so I just wanted to play with some fun fabric I had, no real pattern or anything, and I made this one today. Definitely not quitting my day job anytime soon and I think I have a few more in my future before I'm ready to pack up and ship of my bag for an exchange but it was fun working in a new medium although it's a lot harder to deal with fabric than paper... it's much harder to just keep trimming until the line is straight! Next time, I'm getting out the pattern and going in with the multiple fabrics... all I'm saying is french blue, chocolate, polka dots and paisley (I think that's enough).

London Calling....

We're planning to head back to the UK this fall and visit London over Thanksgiving - it shouldn't be a big holiday for them. :) We're flying into New York City on Weds the week before Thanksgiving and staying the night and flying into London bright and early on Thursday. We'll do it all over again and will actually be flying back on Thanksgiving and spending the holiday on a plane and hotel room then flying back to Dallas Friday morning from New York. The housesitting and puppysitting is all arranged and I'm already looking forward to the 6 days of relaxing heaven! It's resting, breakfast, shopping/exploring, eating/resting, shopping/exploring, resting, eating, resting, then start again... heaven, I'm telling you! I've got to start the itinerary. Rolland works better with a plan and I want to get in all the places we missed last time.

This is a project I started last weekend when I did some craft shopping. It was mostly color inspired but it's also slightly on theme since it's called "Alice's Journal" and includes photos of Queen Victoria (who I love). I was working on it last weekend when my friend Lara came over for an art play day. I've also made a few new necklaces that I'll post later this week.

Have a great week!

P.S. I've also purchased tickes for Gay Bingo at the Lakewood, going with some pals (previous gig but still love the friends so the suckey job was worth it just for the truly lovely friends {see... silver lining right there!}) in two weeks and Kathy Griffin at Bass Hall in July, both should be more than a riot so I'll give you a full update.

Masked Ballerina ATC

I'm participating in a swap here and I made this piece to exchange. I wanted to make my version of a very feminine and girly tarot card but we needed to include a new technique. I used beeswax and I loved how it turned out!

I used watercolor crayons for the background and on the ballerina (I collaged her on to the piece separately) and love the colors. Added the stamped and embossed word with brown ink and silver embossing powder and then covered everything in beeswax with my handy new little black and pink iron. It looks great in the studio! :)

The beeswax finish softens the colors and ages the piece even more. I even did the back so my name plate sort of melted into the paper background giving it a great effect. I think I'm hooked. I'm planning on doing a series of cards, at least 1-10 with a similar technique. I'm really inspired with the new hunk of beeswax and iron, plus it smells great... oh, perfect for Christmas cards!

Backgrounds, backgrounds, backgrounds...

That seems to be the theme for the last week so that's what I've been working on in the studio. I've been playing with some new supplies that I've never tried before like the oil paint stick by Shiva (I got mine here since they're all over Dallas). I got two - cobalt blue and white and it was a bigger investment than I normally make in a test supply (almost $10 bucks each) but I love the backgrounds on the canvas and they dry in 24 hours with no mess! In case you wanted a testimonial - I haven't attached anything via a gel medium or any glue products so I'll keep you updated on that front. Edited to add: I got my supplies at Asel after leaving work on Friday afternoon since summer hours started (yeah, summer hours!) and a quick listen to the concert at Pegasus Square downtown at lunchtime. Last Friday was a band that included a super nice guy, Ryan, that I've worked with so you should check them out.

My other finds include a big hunk of beeswax that I'm testing out all kinds of applications on (I know I'm the last one to this party but I'm such a klutz I was concerned I would set myself on fire but once I realized I solder regularly it seemed less risky). And, I've been using the tricks from my Michael de Meng workshop to make some desperately needed bookends for my bookshelves that are packed and overflowing. I've painted the previously flag blue metal bookends in washes of yellow, ochre and the quinacridone gold - I've just got to add all the pieces/parts. I'm thinking of just adding the hot wheels sans altering for fun but we'll see. Once I have more than backgrounds of anything I'll post some pics.

I've also been playing with my new Mac but that's not anywhere near the comfort area of the beeswax, bookend altering or oil painting. :) By day, I'm an Interaction Designer and live on the computer (PC) but the Mac is throwing me. . . I think it may be smarter than I am but in the nicest way possible. It's thrown me for a loop but, I did a test run on Photoshop Elements (not even the real Photoshop that I'm saving for) and I found some new tricks. I have a crush on my brainy new Mac that knows lots of things my PC seemed to be hiding from me.

Business Card Holder Cover

I bought a bunch of these books at target, I think they're called brag books, for $1.00 and they're small 61/2 x 5 photo albums and I've used one to hold ATC's and I've made one into a holder for business cards that I've collected from vendors, swaps, shows, etc. This is the cover that I've made for it using some new paper that I found at Hobby Lobby that had crowns... and was pink. The thinner secondary ribbon was found at Michael's and is from Martha Stewart's new line.

I'm a little torn since mostly she drives me crazy with all the feelings of inadequacy she tries to instill in all women who aren't canning, creating their own crafts line, running an empire and baking muffins at 3 am but I really liked the ribbon so I caved. Clearly my morals are extremely cut and dried as long as coveting of ribbon is not involved!

More Pics of the New Studio

And here are some more pics... and in case you couldn't tell the before pics are of the yellow studio space with the bowling alley of art supplies along the wall! :)

New Studio!

This is what I've been working of for the last couple of weeks and I'm thrilled to report that with only a few minor odds and ends left to squeeze in, it's finished! I'm all moved in and have been creating! I am beyond excited and Rolland has commented that he's hardly seen me since the make-over but I love it, it turned out exactly liked I imagined (with only slightly less square footage but I can live with that). I've attached the before and after pics for you to compare.

Just to be clear - the chandelier is black, crystal and unbelievably sparkly and yes, the walls are pink and it does occasionally look like the walls "have been hosed down with pepto-bismol" to quote Sally Field. Trust me, Rolland took the opportunity to quote it every 5 minutes. We ripped out the crayon (dog chewed, not artist sloppiness) stained, glue stuck and dirt filled carpet and replaced it with what appears to be antique flooring (love Ikea laminate). Painted and replaced the shelving. I also got a brand new i-mac in addition to my PC and it's been lots of fun to play on. It deserved a new home... :) Now, we can never move.

Weather Update

I have been away from the blog due to a studio re-model (there will be pics) and plenty of new art . . . the muse has not been asleep at the wheel but the studio was in sad shape but it's beautiful now and just waiting to get the final odds and ends back in and all pulled together.

I just wanted to give a quick update to let everyone know that we're all fine after the dramatic weather over the last couple of days. It was a little scary last night on the commute home. The train doors opened at one stop to the sounds of the tornado sirens but that didn't stop our little commuter train that could from chugging on northward... into even further gusts and rain. By the time I got to my car, two blocks away from the train stop, I was more soaked than I had been in my life. The drive home was terrifying and you couldn't see more than a couple feet in front of you, at one point I did just stop in the road and wait until I could see (I felt better that the truck in front of me did too). I did make it home where the husband and I huddled in with the puppies to stay warm and watch reality TV.

OH... the back fence did fall down causing Maya the Akita to sprint off into the rain, thrilled that she could finally frolic with the neighboring puppies, she was promptly wrangled and chastised and wrangled (but she was really cute). Rolland kept trying to get the fence up and but by the time he got to the neighbors to get access to their yard, the neighbor guy had proceeded to mend. We went back to reality TV and ignored the rain... until this morning, when we discovered there was no pilot light for the water heater. OY... cold shower done and a call to the plumber has been put in. I'll keep you posted.

Hope you guys are all good and stayed safe and at least fairly dry!

Birthday weekend

This weekend was my birthday and my husband surprised me with a Friday overnight in Austin so we could wake up early and hit Fredericksburg on Saturday. If you've never been to either of these places highly recommend them. Fredericksburg is this great little town in the Hill Country with shops and gorgeous stone houses but it can be a little bit of a hike from Austin so it's worth making a weekend trip. We happened to plan ours when it was the last of winter and got hit with 30 degree temps and sleet! It was kind of cool though to drive back through the Hill Country and see the blue bonnets peeking through the ice.

I did manage to eek out a tiny bit of art this weekend in the two optometrist lens charms. I liked how they turned out and it was fun to tinker with photoshop a little. Friday night included a stop at Toy Joy in Austin so I picked out some goodies that should have some upcoming potential... :)

New Kitchen... mostly

The kitchen is finally back together after the mini-remodel. This was part of the reason for long absence with no posts. That, and the 12-14 hour days at work. I'm hoping to slow down on those too. The pics show the new counter tops we had installed which are Corian (flint to be precise) to replace the old white Formica which was stained and coved in the corners which meant it was ripping after 7 years so it was time to go. We put in a slate tile backsplash ourselves and it wasn't too bad. We've gotten to be pros at tile now and the new faucet and garbage disposal (not pictured) were installed by hubby alone and he did a terrific job. These seem like straight forward installations but not so much.

Anyway, the new stove is a dream to cook on and to celebrate I got this book which is wonderful! It's girly, a cookbook and includes the Texas Hill Country which I love so it's a must have... it's actually on my nightstand now as bed time reading. Odd I know for most people, but then again I'm a Food TV addict so there you go.

On the art front my friend Lara and I are going to the Art Guild on Tuesday night for a reception and min-class on book binding. The class should be great, I've been really interested in classes at the Guild for a while but just haven't done the research so this should be a great chance to find out more so I'm really excited. I'll keep you posted [bad pun intended... :)].

Exciting News I'm just now posting...

A few weeks ago Sarah Stewart Taylor emailed me to say a friend had found her name on my blog and she liked some of my work. I almost fell over… it was very exciting. I love her Sweeney St. George series. They are wonderful! Anyway, she asked if I would make her some cards and a charm so I did. They should be in her hands now so I’m posting the charm I made now since she should’ve received it last week. It took a little time to get done but I was thrilled with how it turned out and I really hope she likes it. I hope she likes the cards as well but since she’s going to send those on, I didn’t want to post those images… not that I imagine the recipients read this but just to be safe. :)

Anyway, you should definitely checkout her books since I think they are terrific and definitely a great way to head into the summer time reading season!

Whew, it's dusty in here!

Ok, so it's been a while since my last post. Work has been crazy busy and my connectivity issues have been driving me crazy. I'm hoping to resolve both of those things... mostly through wishful thinking. Is that the same thing as positive thinking? We've also been doing some kitchen re-modeling and I'll post pics when it's completely back together. We're at about 80% now.

I'm thinking I'm back on track artistically speaking and here's a piece I finally finished. It too has been gathering dust but it's finally done and I'm pleased with how it turned out. The first time I stamped the image on the glass and soldered the piece, cleaned the glass only to find that I had stamped the image to the wrong side of the glass ... once it was clean there was no more image! I was not happy. Much better now. :)

Happy Tuesday guys, I'll try not to go so long between posts!

And my little dog too...

I was off work today for Presidents Day so my friend, Jen, and I went antiques shopping. I scored some great finds including some wonderful cigarette cards with dogs on them (they didn't quite make it into the photo) , a cabinet card, some prisms, an old Sherlock Holmes story and blue & white dog figurine that will join the growing collection of dogs on my book shelf. I'm not quite sure what's up with the collection... I refuse to believe that I'm growing up to be the crazy dog lady but a couple of them just speak to me and I don't want them to be lonely. Okay, maybe I have crazy dog lady tendencies but they are latent and I'm not acknowledging them further!

Anyway, I have great ideas for the pieces I bought today - especially the bright green prisms. Hopefully they'll work out as hoped. Work has been a little bit crazed but I have some new art commissions that I'm really excited about and will post more here once I'm finished... I don't want to jinx myself. :)

We did do some movie catch up this weekend including Catch & Release , Because I said So and Breach. All of them were good but my husband definitely liked Breach more than the chick flicks. Although he usually likes a good chick flick he wasn't thrilled with these choices but I really liked them. I love Diane Keaton and I liked the story in Catch & Release so they were both good for me.

I'll try to do better with my posts this week. Happy Monday guys!

My Gift for Valentine Exchange

This is what I made for the Valentine's Exchange. I finally figured out how to use alcohol ink on the domino and created a background color and then stamped a layer on top of that including tiny hearts in red. It was really subtle and a heart was definitely supposed to be included in what we made so I worked a larger heart image into the collage. I sealed all the layers in between so after stamping I sealed it. Collaged. Sealed. Etc. And then put on several coats of diamond glaze at the end. I was really pleased with how it turned out.

On the illness front, I've finally turned the corner and the cough is down to a reasonable level. I'm taking only over the counter drugs now and can do things like go to the grocery store and not be too exhausted to move! Although our trip to Costco yesterday did not go entirely without incident. I know I've mentioned that I'm slightly clumsy and accident prone but that may be understating things a bit. This should clear it up for you. I bought a magazine yesterday at Costco that they put in the box of stuff but somehow it manged to fall out, slide out of the cart and fall underneath my foot at the exact moment I put my foot down mid-step and I totally wiped out in the Costco concrete parking lot. This is when my additional padding to my butt came in very handy although still sore - nothing is broken. My husband very nicely helped me up and pointed out that this would only happen to me and that it was seriously odd how the stars aligned to put all those things together at once. He blames my magazine selection "Everyday with Rachael Ray". She's not his favorite!

Yikes!

I hadn't realized it's been such a long time since my last post but I've been busy and then had bronchitis for two weeks. I haven't done much the last week but take my prescriptions, watch movies and sleep. And cough. Let's not forget the coughing from hell. It's been fairly miserable so won't bore you with all the details but not much art's been getting done but I have been able to open My Valentine's exchange gifts. You can go here to see what some of the goodies have been so far.

I'm hoping to feel better this weekend and get some projects done and have something far more exciting to write about. :)