Muses

I've got some of my favorite inspiration pieces framed and on the studio wall where they are the perfect muses. Two of these are prints from Emily Martin and the other is from the Saint Victor Diaries. I love them and think they look awesome!

The Perfect Pink Shoes

I've found the perfect pink shoes and my husband bought them for me! Strangely, he has issues with my previous habit of spending $50 and getting 5 pairs of shoes that lasted for two months. Now, it's buy the nice shoes that last for 5 years hence these perfect pink shoes that are now on my feet. They are incredibly comfortable, pink and they have sparkles! Yes, I'm in girl heaven! I may even sleep in them.

I had avoided the ubiquitous feet pics for such a long time on this blog but I had to cave for these. I guess I could've taken their pic without the feet but somehow that seems kind of lonely. You'll just have to put up with the deformed and strangely tall second toe. At 5'2 I'll take height in any form I can find! :) Also, I love the new line of OPI specifically for Sephora. They have all the great matte colors except Metro Chic which I can't find anywhere. Damn that perfect color.

Hi ho hi ho off to sleep I go

I'm choosing to believe all of these very nice and smart people who say I need more sleep and am heading to bed early. I have some nifty pics of work in progress but that'll keep me up for way more than my bed time since I'm 105 and have to go to bed at 8:30. Also, I've got a migraine percolating that I really want to head off. 

Hope everyone's having a terrific Friday and heading into a fabulous weekend.

More Lisa Kaus inspirations

A co-worker of my husband's requested some tins of her own so I made these for her this weekend. Thanks to a tip from Tina these dried in a jiffy!

Bad Day

This was not the best day ever. I'm going to bed and hoping for a better attitude. In the mean time, I day dream about my favorite place, the British Museum, and walking through Russell Square. Where's your daydream refuge?

Weds

That's the brilliance I'm working with here. Weds sums it up. I have not fallen off the planet but it feels like it. It's been super busy and rainy here lately (rain is fine though and it's not a million degrees anymore!). Even so, I'm planning our fall getaways. The husband and I are driving to Las Vegas in mid-October with a weekend trip in Santa Fe so any must see sights along the way are appreciated (Bo, I'll bribe you with Twisted Root for some road trip to-dos). 

The pre-Halloween weekend I'm going to California to take Cindy Forrester's classes. I'm sharing a room with the lovely Kecia and darling Jen from Art Nest.  And that should tie in nicely with Silver Bella in November.  Oh yes, girliness and art fun will be had!

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.