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?

Winner!

I'm really sorry for the delay in a new post. It hasn't been to draw out the suspense I promise. Since we decided not to move, we basically had to move back into our current house so I couldn't get a path to the computer for a while. But now, we're good so Jan, you're it! Woo Hoo! My hubby drew your name so it's totally unbiased on my part! He's more than uninvested in anything art related at the moment.

I think I'm liking this giveaway thing! I get to make stuff or find things I've never used and give them to a new home and keep mine slightly less cluttered! Stay tuned for more fun things to come!

Victoria Magazine, Out of Africa and high school?

I've been reading Victoria Magazine since high school. I think I started with the first copy and I was totally hooked. I loved all things old and pestered the parents to get me a carpet bag for Christmas one year (Mom came through). I was going to carry it with me on all my travels starting with the Cotswolds. The area was also very popular with Victoria Magazine. Anyway, there was an article about Isak Dinesen the pseudonym of Karen Blixen. The magazine included images of her home in Denmark, fashions inspired by the movie "Out of Africa", gardens, etc. I had a skirt that I wore forever (until eaten by an escalator in my building. It's a hazard being 5'2 and wearing long skirts) with my white shirt and felt like I could be heading out on Safari any minute. All of this is a huge build up to the fact that even though I was madly in love with the images and the idea of the movie, I had never actually seen it. I knew all along it would be a serious romantic tear jerker for me since I'm a sap anyway. Finally, I broke down and watched it.

Clearly I'm the last person on Earth not to know how amazing it was! I loved all of it. It was beautifully shot, lovely costumes and incredible acting. OY! How could I have missed out on all of this? Yet, it was definitely a movie I refused to watch with the husband. I was having none of the mocking of the romance, the laughing during the dramatic parts, faux sadness at every turn. Nope, I watched it in hour snippets when he was away and I finished the final 30 minutes today. Now, I've got a copy of my own heading to me and I plan to spend some serious studio time while watching again. Meryl Streep had some gorgeous beads on in the film that I want to re-create. Nope, I can't help myself.

In case you find yourself with some time on your hands and want to get swept away to a foreign land with a lovely film, here are some of my favorites:

Out of Africa
Enchanted April
Tea with Mussolini
A Month by the Lake - it's worth it, just stick with it!
A Room with a View
Cold Comfort Farm
Widows Peak
Chocolat

Change in the humid, hot air

So here's some news. We've decided not to get the big giant pricey house but instead, we will be staying in our smaller reasonable priced home and keep our nice savings account (finally!). This is going to require a lot of lists to get the house unpacked and back into a livable condition. I think we'll do a little updating and home improvement along the way so I'll post some before and after pics.

Also, don't forget to leave me a comment. Only two more blog posts until the giveaway.

Happy Wednesday guys!

P.S. Since we're not moving we went ahead and signed up for Uverse so we'll have HD for the Olympics. Woo hoo!

Wishing of cooler climates

Today was fairly hot again and while watching Wimbeldon this morning, I was thinking about London and the fairly mild climate. I started going through some pics from the British Museum and came across these guys. Honestly, I have no idea which room they were in but I think they're awesome.

Somehow musing about London on the 4th of July weekend seems appropriate. Slightly irreverent but appropriate. :)

Late Night Post

Well, late for me. I'm taking advantage of the 31/2 day weekend to run wild and stay up past 9 o'clock! Woo hoo. But, I'm tired now so just a quick one before heading to bed. I wanted to share some of the new books coming out that I'm super excited about.

Taking Flight by Kelly Rae Roberts
Pretty Little Felts by Julie Collings - Julie is the co-founder of the Art Nest which has to be the most amazing art retreat ever!
Rejuvenated Jewels by Amy Hanna - I was lucky enough to attend the Art Nest when Amy was there as an instructor. Her class was amazing and she's really been an inspiration. I've been incorporating her techniques into a lot of my pieces now and I'm incredibly excited she's started a blog!
A Charming Exchange by Kelly Snelling and Ruth Rae
I can't say enough about how excited I am about this one. Kelly has been incredibly supportive and such an inspiration to me so I can't wait to get my hands on this book by these two incredible ladies.

That's it, I'm headed for bed to rest up for more Olympic Trials!

Happy 4th!

There's little excitement here today. I was scheduled to go to my friend Lara's for mani/pedis - that's how to celebrate the 4th with no kids and relatives in other states- but I had a flat tire that was a little bit of an ordeal so we're re-scheduling. Instead, we watched the Olympic Trials and the thunderstorm that has come and gone. Hopefully it'll help cool us off since I'm done with the hot, hot temps of Northern Texas. I've proposed the 4th be moved to Halloween so we could go trick or treating and then have snacks for watching the fireworks. Rolland was skeptical of this catching on with anyone.

Hope you guys are having an awesome day of parades, hot dogs, burgers, veggie dogs, fireworks and fun!

Puppy Portraits

My puppy portraits of Abby and Maya arrived today and they're awesome! Jennifer Christy did the portraits from a couple of photos I emailed her and they're perfect! I love that Maya looks slightly more serious than she does most times but she's got her leopard baby just to show she's a big softy bear. I met Jennifer at Urban Bazaar and talked to her about the portraits. She was terrific about following up, showing me what she had in mind and then letting me know exactly when they shipped. She's a pro and couldn't recommend her more highly. These would make an incredible present for the dog lovers you know. Christmas will be here any minute!

Lucky 13

Yesterday was our 13th wedding anniversary. We had agreed to no gifts but today I got this in the mail along with a necklace. I had shown it to Rolland a while back to add to his gift list (he keeps a list so when holidays, b-days, etc roll around he's ready). He just remembered it's the store I go into at the forum shops and always ahhh over but nothing makes it out because the price tags freak me out. Plus, I end up thinking it's all just too much (this earns me a look every time. Clearly he's not buying that I'm a girl that knows when to stop. I'm the girl who thinks I've reached the limit and then adds glitter!). Anyway, it was a great day and maybe I snuck him a couple of new PS3 game so we were even. :)

p.s. Just remember to leave me a comment and in 7 more posts I'll draw a name and then this could be yours!

p.s.s. If you've got a sec, check out my Mom's new Etsy store. She makes awesome jewelry and finds some really cool vintage findings to add to her work.