Buttons, buttons and more buttons

I finally got the studio put back together enough to risk getting my button maker out. I didn't want to get it out before in case I lost pieces parts but it's so easy and straight forward that I needn't have worried. This first batch is all Wizard of Oz themed and will be sent to my sister in Kansas. I hope she likes them. The others were just betas but still turned out well.

Art Show

Every year, well the last two, we've had an art show at work. Last year I got second place in the jewelry category but this year... Best in Show! Which by the way, is a fabulous movie. Anyway, my Louvre box brought it home for me so go me!

Mostly that was the best news of the day since I spent the rest of the day fighting a serious migraine. I had to take the hard core drugs at work and my friend Mark had to drive me to Rolland's office so he could take over carpool duty. Not pretty my friends. The Olympics and the late nights are killing me. I have the headache to prove it!

Uneventful

It's been a really quiet week here in McKinney (for all the Prairie Home fans out there!). We're still working on getting the house back to normal but mostly we're watching TV and catching up on the Olympics - plus a few other items to make room for more Olympics. The plan is to settle into the living room, the one normal room we've got at the moment, with a pot of tea and cheer on the US. 

Hope you guys had a great weekend! I promise more interesting things next week - hopefully!

Perfect Presents

I saw this post and immediately followed the link to the artist's Etsy site. Now, well, it's best to say I got a good jump on Christmas and a birthday. I've got a few more people added to the list just so they can share the groovy goodness. Actually, the best endorsement is that my husband thinks these pieces are awesome. Yep, doesn't get better than that. Except this necklace, not a gift, it's all mine!

Fun Display

As part of the ongoing house re-structuring I've had to figure out how to display some of my art pieces I especially like. Luckily, the 50 million Michael's coupons I get in the mail have handily provided an inexpensive gallery style option. I've also put the coupons to good use by buying some of the inexpensive black frames allowing me to frame and mat some of the pieces for less than $10 bucks. I just use photo corners and watercolor paper then viola - it's framed! I'm not sure I've got a great expansion plan.

Since I'm still on the reading kick and really able to enjoy some of the books I've collected I wanted to share a new one with you which is My House on First Street by Julia Reed. Another memoir but this one is Southern all the way. She describes life after settling down after 40 with the loves of her life - a new husband and a new house. Then, Katrina strikes and now what. It's a gorgeous story with yummy descriptions of southern delicacies and New Orleans behind the wrought iron gates. But she also does a wonderful job of describing the potential hazards of living in paradise and the situation post-disaster. Definitely a must read.

Also, I got my copy of A Charming Exchange by Kelly Snelling and Ruth Rae. This is another yummy book with some of the most incredible pieces of jewelry and incredibly generous instructions on how to make your own lovelies. These ladies are amazing! If you don't have it (and why wouldn't you have pre-ordered?!) definitely run out and get it. Even if you have no interest in jewelry (the horror of even imagining such a thing forced me to step away from the computer for a second... I'm back now) it's a great inspiration book with techniques, colors, textures and more that provide ideas for all kinds of art and projects. Well done guys!

Happy Kitty

This is another piece I'm making from scraps found on the desk and playing with new paint colors. My new favorite color is iridescent stainless steel (coarse) in Golden Fluid Acrylics. Turns out this is the color and texture I've been trying to get by mixing 4 other products. Yep, love those experimental purchases with the Michael's coupons! Anyway, I think when it's finished I'll add glass and solder. Maybe some feet of some sort.

The other project I've finished is reading The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry by Kathleen Flinn. It's got everything. Romance, food (with recipes) and Paris. What more could you want in summer reading? I've had it forever but wasn't able to get to it with all the packing and unpacking but I settled in this weekend and just loved it.

Any great summer reads you want to recommend?

Short and sweet

We finally saw Dark Knight and I thought it was amazing. I really loved it but I also found it slightly disturbing and I'm not sure if it was the seriousness of the film or Heath Ledger's performance (also amazing). I'll have to ponder.

Fun Tins

I finished up some fun tins I've been working on off and on for a while. I can't stress how much I love Lisa Kaus who inspired these. I picked up a print when I was at Art & Soul in Portland a couple of years ago and was hooked. I've got a couple of her cupcake pieces as well. Love her! Any on these it was pretty straight forward. Mostly it was a drying process as I'm trying to show some patience and not just grab the heat gun and go to work on drying. Inevitabley, I get a little too enthusisastic and create paint bubbles. Mostly that was avoided this time around and I've got some new storage solutions for the final round of studio clean up.

Life is getting closer to back to normal after all of the not buying the house, garage sale, living in boxes mess is starting to get cleaned up. We're working on completely getting the downstairs back to normal this weekend but Rolland will have to spend some serious time in his study cleaning up before we can get the new furniture in there. I'm bribing him with movie visits in the evening after a day of hard work. :) FYI, I think I posted most of these but I did finally get his birthday shots together on fickr.

And finally, for all the geeks out there. How great was Doctor Who tonight?! Loved it. Every second was awesome with the previous season providing tiny hints and pieces all given to us with a giant pink bow (mostly). For all you non-geeks and non-sci-fi people (I'm still having trouble believing there are such people) I'm sorry but had to take a moment to gush about my Doctor Who love.

Band-aids and birthday cake!

I had this super cool cake made for Rolland's birthday. I loved it and hope he did too.

The Story of the Louvre Shrine Box

I've been working on this one for a while in stages. I painted the box then added paper, pulled the paper off, added more paper, took the paper off. I painted again. Added a few embellishments and the antique German doll I got from Kecia finally I added the glass and soldered. Note: the soldered work is not great but since it's my first box like this, I'm cutting myself a break. :) I'm also in love. The vintage and new swarovski beads are my new favorite things. They're going to be showing up everywhere!

In case you're curious, this ended up being The Story of the Louvre because the paper I had handy turned out to be a trashed $0.50 copy of a Louvre guidebook. This made up the "walls" of the shrine.

Pink Lady has a friend

It's been a hectic weekend here but it was awesome. Rolland's family came to help celebrate his birthday and help us get rid of a ton of stuff at a huge garage sale we had. The key lessons here are to definitely have it on Thursday and Friday if you can (we were completely cleared out by 1pm on Friday) and to do all of this cleaning in the fall. July in Texas, not a good idea. Anyway, it's all done and it's such a relief to pare down the clutter and get some breathing room in the house (and life).

I did find a little time to do some shopping with the fam and found a new store. Heaven really. It's Paper Source in NorthPark Mall and I found quite a few things that it turns out, I couldn't live without. Yes, I know I'm removing things from my life but this does not include yummy paper goods and a princess crown (pics to come)! So one of those finds made it's way on this piece (the subtle black rubbings) and the store inspired me to dig through my vintage and vintage inspired scrap and I came up with this delightful friend for the lady. I like the contrasting colors and just the unexpectedness of the bird.

That's it but more fun updates in the next few days as I now have a walkway and path through the studio. Although I did find a big box I had packed up that I need to unpack and I truly have no idea what could be in there. I'm slightly nervous.

p.s. If you aren't watching the current season of Doctor Who on sci-fi you're truly missing out. Also, I can now watch it in HD... I'm such a super geek.

p.s.s. The new season of Eureka starts on Tuesday! Woo hoo! I started watching this show because it's the name of the town where I was born. Turns out, there's no resemblance but I'm hooked. There's still time for you to catch up!

Happy Birthday!

Today is my sweetie's b-day and we celebrated with his family so I hope he had a really good time. He picked out his favorite restaurant and I had a cake made (pics to come) so it was a lot of fun.

The rest of the week was not so great with me being sick and getting ready for a garage sale from hell! We got it done though and it's all over so woo hoo! A longer post is coming soon.

Pink Lady

Another collage based on desk materials. I think I was testing paint colors when I made this background and then promptly buried it under all kinds of things. I got some fabulous swarovski crystals that I incorporated in to this one. She still needs a little something but my desk isn't offering up anything especially useful at this point so I'm leaving her to ponder on.

We've got a lot of the house put back together but it's definitely not out of the woods. :) We do have HD TV on the flat screen in the living room and just between us, I've found it a little distracting. HGTV and FoodTV in HD is awesome!

Altar or Display?

This is a pic of the window ledge above my bathtub. I've started lighting the candles before I take a bath and find it a really relaxing space. I also found this book in the massive house clean up and really love it. It's sort of an eye candy, instructional, inspirational book all rolled into one. I like the attitude that we are constantly creating altars and important displays in our house but just never realize it. Once the house is back to rights, I've got several vignettes to add. I love creating small little shrines and displays.

Barbara Peacock

That's the name of the centerpiece of this collage. Mostly she was made by my desk. I'm still trying to put my studio back together after the non-move and had all kinds of bits and bobs laying around on my desk so I put them all to good use playing with this background. Yep, I had this background sitting on my desk where I was playing with one of my oil paint crayons. I added some more layers, the image, a few sparklies and found some old text to make the phrase and she's done. It's kind of fun to use only the material literally at hand!

What masterpieces await you on your desk?