Deann's Altered Art & Such

I do YuDu !

2009-04-01T22:53:00.004-05:00

Today I got a yudu screen printing machine and made my first screen print!
This photograph I took of Max:
Became this printed on a tshirt ! (it looks a tad funky since the tshirt is just hanging on the hanger. I'll try for one with the shirt on tomorrow when there is actually sun!).
"muffin" is what I often call max because he's my little love muffin :)

Christmas and bdays...working on new art

2009-01-03T00:42:00.011-05:00

Art Stuff

no idea why, but now that it's after christmas, i'm in the mood to make christmas crafts. i've been dying bottle brush trees fun and funky colors. it looks like some wierd christmas tree farm.

i've even managed to glitter some of them, but the glue is not working real well, so i will have to try and figure out another method to keep them from shedding too much.

I got my trees at Home Depot (who knew they had them?) and returned all the overpriced ones I'd gotten at Michaels. i like the "sugared" looking ones best, and for sure I am going to make some for Valentines day.

I'm doing my yearly clean out of my studio and have managed to take out a cupboard and move cabinets and I'm really hoping to have a much more functional studio in 2009!

Christmas stuff

every year, since the kids have been born, I've taken their pictures in front of the Christmas tree. Some day, I'll be organized enough to make a photo book out of them !

note to self: remember not to tell travis to make a dorky face !

I thought I'd try to do something fun/artsy with pictures of the dogs in Christmas outfits....

most of them came out like this....

Max refused to contribute and chose to play with his new ball instead.

but Henry was my little star ! ho ho ho

Birthday stuff

and then there were the birthdays...

i can't believe i'm old enough to have a 16yr old. he wanted chocolate pie for his bday "cake"...I made baby ones.

Henry's 1st bday was in December, but due to a huge snow storm, i wasn't going to brave it to get the ingredients I was missing for his cakes. He's ok with getting them later :)

Max's 2nd bday was in november. I made Pup Cakes. he moved so fast to eat his that the pictures didn't come out too good!

Emily's bday was in november too. I guess there was some sort of "pie for cake" thing this year!

updated blog links

2008-09-19T07:57:00.006-05:00

I've found the most interesting blogs by following links on blogs I love... I've finally gotten around to updating my blog links.

What you'll find now is an eclectic mix of blogs that I try to visit at least every other day...some art, phenomenal writers, home decor, and pugs... it's really more of a reflection of me now! I'm sure I'll be adding to this list as I go, but this is a good start (since I've done no new art).

Max joins our family!

2008-09-07T23:24:00.004-05:00

Max, a black pug, is the newest addition to our family as of Thursday.
He is the sweetest thing and I'm really thrilled to have him.
Yes, three dogs is enough and we'll be stopping now!

here's a few pictures of the newest beast:

ahhh, the dog days of summer

2008-08-18T20:48:00.002-05:00

If no answer...I'm in the Garden

2008-08-05T11:56:00.003-05:00

We've had gloriously not-too-hot weather and as usual, I'm trying to soak up as much sun and get yard time as possible.
Here's an update on how big the sunflowers are now.
oh, you can't tell that the sunflower is over a foot wide from that picture ? Here's Emily (all 5'3" of her) standing next to them for some perspective. I love her pose when I requested she stand there !
My asters have finally started blooming. I'm a little frustrated that it took so long when I winter sowed them and they were the first things to come up, but they look fantastic now.

There are many, many more yard pictures to be posted, but I must mow the lawn while the doggies are napping.

Lordy, Lordy look who's 40

2008-07-17T23:30:00.004-05:00

today was my birthday... I cannot believe I am this old.
I took a few self portraits for posterity....
I like this black/white one the best-

here I am in color -
yeah, not a good hair day, but when it's almost 90 and really high humidity I'm lucky my bangs even stayed straight!

Black and White

2008-07-08T23:22:00.003-05:00

One of my Yahoo groups is working on a black and white book to submit for publishing...
here's my page. You can't read it too well in the scan, but the text I found in my local paper says "there's more to us than black and white". I was so happy when I found that !

Photos from my garden

2008-07-05T23:39:00.003-05:00

I spent a little time this afternoon taking photos of the flowers in my garden.
Here are a few of my favorites:

Kiss Me Over the Garden Gate (aka love lies bleeding). These are 4feet tall !

Sunflower in my front yard:

Sunflower in the side yard:

Sunflower on the other side yard:

Zinnia in the side yard (3ft tall!):

Oh no, where's my mommy?I think I see her !

Some of the pots that had plants in them:

Some pots my friend gave me (will have plants next year). I love the colors in this one.

The Yard - during

2008-06-25T17:29:00.004-05:00

as promised (to who? I've no idea if anyone ever reads my sporatic postings anymore!), here are the "during" pictures of the front curb and side yard.

Here's the front curb now:

here it is before (June 5th):
and here's a closeup of now (I am going to have to move some of these already!)

the side yard now:

here it is before (May 29th):

here it is up close - the fence is 4ft high and the sunflowers are almost there already!

Here are some photos from my front yard.

The peeing boy statue was my birthday present last year - you can't see him peeing since it's blocked by the delphinium.

One of my planted chairs. I love chairs in the yard. The whole front yard is purple, yellow, and white after my alma mater Nazareth College.
this is the succulent chair. It was a tad more full last year, but I lost a few over the winter. Behind it, the tall daisies are about to bloom...below it are the coreopsis, petunias (both grown from seed this year) and my lavender.
More yard pictures to come as things start blooming !

The Yard - before's

2008-06-23T23:23:00.005-05:00

I have spent every single day working in the yard or greenhouse since March - not a whole lot of that reflected here, is there?

I thought I'd share a few before pictures from the end of May/beginning of June.
Tomorrow I'll share how they look now (I just love a good before and after, but since it's past midnight, the pictures would be a tad dark now, eh?)

I've spent lots of time looking at other people's garden photos, but most of them live where it was warm much earlier than upstate NY. We have had really odd weather this year with it being 80s for a bit in April then 40s end of May going to 90s in the beginning of June. This can be a bit exasperating, but I tend to plant heavy (and too close together!), so I don't worry much if a few things don't make it. This is the first year I've grown nearly all of the annuals in my yard. Anyhow....

Here's the front curb. I have always hated mowing it since it's just a bit larger than one pass with the mower and a real challenge around that tree. Now I put plants in it every year... there are a couple perennials, but normally I fill it with annuals since they stack the salty snow right there in the winter time.
Here's one side of the back yard- tantilizing view of the neighbor's parking area, isn't it? I can't put in a real/solid fence because there is a drain that runs directly under the property line and the village has an easement to access it.
Stay tuned for updated pictures tomorrow !

Spotlight on Sam

2008-06-23T23:18:00.003-05:00

I thought I'd share a few more pictures of Sam.
He is the funniest dog, like a big dog trapped in a little dog body. He spends his days in the backyard burying his bone and then stealing Henry's !

here's a rare pose from the curious little guy:

Here he is wondering why I am calling him - he has things to do and discover !
Here he is in action. I love how his mouth looks in this picture even though my camera takes terrible action shots.
and here are the two best buddies together (awwww aren't they cute? they're just waiting for a treat or they'd never be still this long!)

My Peony

2008-06-23T23:13:00.003-05:00

I have the coolest Peony... don't ask me what the variety is (but if you know, please leave a comment!). It is not the classic peony...only two layers of petals. It is gorgeous, but it only lasts 2 days, 3 tops since inevitably as soon as the blooms open, it rains.

Here's the proof:

Before

After

Plant Sale was...

2008-06-23T23:00:00.004-05:00

a bust.
No one wants plants when it's over 90 :(
well, I shouldnt' say no one, but pretty much no one. So sad after all the time I spent getting ready for it it. I bet I melted off 20lbs sitting in the sun waiting for buyers though!
Here's one of the beautiful signs I painted (the other was a "sandwich board" kind of sign):

New Art

2008-06-23T22:45:00.003-05:00

There was a minor plumbing err explosion in my studio and I'm still trying to get up there and clean when I can... it's too distracting to be up there and *just* clean and not make any art...

I actually finished this piece I started a while ago. It began with pages from a vintage book, texture and plain (black/white) eyes and turned into this - not sure what my mood was since I never use red !

Henry gets brother - meet Sam !

2008-05-15T22:10:00.004-05:00

Henry has a new Pekingese brother named Sam. He is so adorable and looks like a little lion.
He hasn't quite figured out what "say cheese" and "look over here" mean yet...we're working on it.

This is my New York

2008-05-15T22:05:00.002-05:00

someday...when people hear "new york", they'll think of this instead of NY city ! (this is two minutes from my house just off Ontario Pathways)

Yard Work

2008-05-15T21:56:00.002-05:00

The past month has gone by like a whirlwind. I've tried really hard, but I cannot get good pictures of the plants in the greenhouse...one I back out of it to try and capture pictures, it gets cut off by the doors. Trust me, things have grown huge from inside the greenhouse and most of my winter sown seeds have grown and been planted in the yard. What happened to mid-May for the last frost?! guess I shouldn't have held back.

Consequently, I'm spending every day outside working on the yard (yeah!).
Look who stopped by to visit me !

It may have been the sound of the pond (thank goodness it is still covered with a net ! one year I was so excited that ducks were in my little pond until they ate all the plants and stirred everything up), but I like to think it's all the plants and edibles in my yard. There must be something good or the mole I keep trying to kill would have moved on by now.

I give it a few weeks and there should be tons of pictures of the flowers in my yard. I am so thrilled...I've always wanted to get my yard to the point where I could sit and paint the flowers and take great flower photos - it's looking like this is going to be the year !!

Walkin' Ontario Pathways again

2008-05-15T21:44:00.004-05:00

A few days ago, Henry and I took a break and went to Ontario Pathways. Here's some highlights:

Henry in the dandelions...the one time he didn't lick or sniff them...just like when you try to get your kid to do something they always do until you ask them to !

Henry on the rocks.

Henry...wondering why on earth I keep asking him to sit. I wish his face wasn't so hard to capture without just the right light. I was trying to get him in front of that waterfall back there.

On the way back, Henry got this little stick. If you have small dogs, you probably get the "kabob" treats for them...just about the same size as this stick. He carried it proudly in his mouth for a good mile and a half.

We walked nearly 4 miles down the path and it was really nice and relaxing !

Henry's first trip to Canandaigua Lake

2008-04-15T21:23:00.003-05:00

yeah, can't post without a picture of my dear little Henry. I wish someone would have told me he'd go from 7lbs to 101/2 lbs in 3 weeks !!

Emily goes to NYC

2008-04-15T21:16:00.004-05:00

No new art...I've been extremely busy in the greenhouse planting seeds (will take pictures soon, my camera battery was dead today) and working in the yard since we have had such lovely weather. The nice thing about the greenhouse is that even if it's only in the 40s outside, it's easily in the 70s inside - for someone who is always cold, this is a good thing!

Emily took a trip to New York City with her Spanish class (she's smart as a whip that girl and has a 100 in the class...still can't get her to teach me any spanish though!). Contrary to popular belief, NY is not all NY City and we are about a 6 hour drive to get there.

I thought I'd share her favorite picture - the one with the Abercrombie model. The girl's got some taste, eh? :)

Finally, some warm weather in NY !

2008-04-01T12:37:00.006-05:00

Henry and I went to Ontario Pathways today and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves in the 66+ degree weather.

He was quite curious about this walk.
and smelled a lot of new things.
and wondered, what exactly does "say cheese" mean?

You can see, not a whole lot of green here yet *sigh*. (old railroad bridge)

The sky looks like it could go either way...but probably rain, again.
The outlet from Canandaigua Lake is really flowing hard.

and I leave you with Henry on the rocks ; )

New Art - small, but it's something

2008-03-27T16:37:00.002-05:00

I made this tag for a friend's birthday.
I love this image. It came from Patty at Lisa's Altered Art (the ones from the previous 1-2-3 mingle too). I have lots more, I just need to do more than just cut them out!

Introducing: Henry !!

2008-03-19T22:11:00.003-05:00

Here he is,Henry, the little Pug puppy I am completely smitten with.
We just got him yesterday. He's just a tiny thing, but you can't really tell how small he is from the following photos....just the face of sweetness ! (notice the green toy - I'm training him to like green right from the start! hehe)

and tugging on my robe...yes, he shouldn't do that, but he also shouldn't be so quick when I'm trying to photo-op him!
oh yeah, he's workin' it now. He stands about 10" high.

I've never had a dog in my whole life, we always had cats (and have 3 now). My neighbors had a pug when I was growing up and I used to dog sit him. Since then, I always wanted a pug, but the opportunity hadn't presented itself. He is bringing me so much joy, even through the gagging of cleaning up dog poop (yuh, I have a weak stomach and dry heave every time).

I'm sure my little Henry will be showing up in lots of upcoming art :)

I'm alive - the crud still lingers

2008-03-19T22:02:00.003-05:00

I'm feeling much better now, but what I found interesting through my blog surfing is that a whole lot of people have the same grouping of over the counter drugs and kleenex and seem to have the same thing. At least for sure we know germs aren't spread over the internet.

I made some art ! this is my 1-2-3 mingle for one of my yahoo groups. There are 3 pieces of art: 1 inch, 2 inches, and 3 inches and there was no theme, just that they had to be a coherent grouping. Mine is off to Barb Burkard soon :)

I also managed to do a little seed sowing in some cake pans (they have clear plastic lids too).
They look like a whole bunch of brownies, eh? the thing is, I can see myself making that many brownies too !
I am so anxious for spring to come. If anyone could spare some and send it to western NY, I'd really appreciate it.

Still not 100%

2008-03-05T00:03:00.003-05:00

The snot factory has slowed production, but I have this *really* annoying cough now....it's like I can't cough it all out. I'm quite fed up with the whole thing.

Tomorrow I'm going on a field trip with Emily (as long as we have school since they're predicting an ice storm) to visit Keuka College with her 8th grade class "Home and Careers" - I think we called it Home Ec back in my day. I went on this with Travis last year to Oswego State and froze, but it was really funny to watch all the kids be so aghast that you can eat whatever you want in college. This probably isn't a good thing since most of those 8th grade girls pants would have been too big on me (yeah, we always hear about how kids these days are over weight, but mine are both smart and stickly things so it was quite a shock).

Anyhow, I told Emily I was going to wear something hideously unmatching and act weird. I thought I'd get the response I got when we both got our haircut (I'd told her I would make my hair bigger than it already was and sing annoying songs while we walked through the mall to embarass her. She told me "go ahead, the only person you'll embarass is yourself" !!). However, I got quite a different reaction this time - she told me don't ! and if I do anything inappropriate the teacher would make me go home. hahahaha ahhh, the thrill of having children to mess with.

I have been trying to do some art, but my muse must be off with the snotty kleenex since everything I start turns to crap. I'll try to most some pictures to illustrate what I mean soon...as soon as I stop hacking and blowing my nose :(

I'm sick

2008-02-23T12:16:00.002-05:00

I've become my own snot factory and grown real tired of blowing my nose.

I take a serious amount of vitamins (and am consistently adding a new one when I hear of the benefits ... ie: Dr Oz says to add some vitamin D, many people in the country are lacking... and since I can count on one hand the days of sunshine we've had here since we got back from Florida in November? good idea !). Apparently all those vitamins doesn't give me any super immunity against whatever is causing me to buy stock in Kleenex.
For what it's worth, I do actually feel pretty good on all those vitamins.

I hope to post some new art soon!

I'm no foodie

2008-02-16T20:01:00.003-05:00

I hate to cook, but love to bake. I especially hate to cook dinner - if we could have cookies or brownies every night, I'd be good with that...
However, I have become totally addicted to this roasted garlic as well as the mashed potato recipe on Pioneer Woman Cooks blog.
Just thought I'd share :)

Marbelizing Paper

2008-02-16T19:52:00.002-05:00

I spent the past two afternoons marbelizing paper. They aren't scanning quite as nice as they look in person, but here are a few of them:

Valentine's Secret Sister stuff ! yeah !!

2008-02-13T18:04:00.007-05:00

The wonderful Mija Marie was my secret Valentine's sister in one of my yahoo groups. She gifted me but good !
Here's a picture of the whole thing:

And the closeups:

Anatomical pages (my heart skipped a beat at these!):

The bottle cap bracelet that Mija made:

It's hard to see in this picture, but the paper is actually braille ! really cool stuff...I wonder what it says on it, but I've no blind person to ask.
Stamp carving goodies...now to decide what I'll make.
A box with a box of goodies in each "drawer". I hoped someone would give me items to help keep me organized - this, and that everything came in a plastic bin will help a lot.
let's get a little closer - that is a whole box full of yummy tatting ! and some cool craze and crackle paste which I've never seen before. Mija also sent some chip board shapes and I put some of this paste on there today and am awaiting the results !
Not pictured here is the awesome cd entitled "Controlling Creative Clutter"... that is in my cd rom drive and I read it throughout the day. It's really inspiring me to finish up in my studio and giving me some good ideas how to accomplish that better.

Oh, also not pictured is the candy she sent - I ate that already ; )

Thank you Mija !!

Thrift store finds

2008-02-13T17:56:00.002-05:00

I took pictures of the vintage thrift store finds from the other day, but I was going to wait until I could get this cool silver vase cleaned up... well, that is taking me much longer than I thought it would. The DYI channel tip about putting it on aluminum foil with baking soda - not working. Scrubbing with baking soda - working a little. Putting it in my ultrasonic jewelry cleaner works, but I can only dip about an inch of it in there... back to the drawing board on that (tips welcome!)

I love the color green of this planter and it didn't even have one chip in it ! I've planted hyacinth bulbs in it (I got a mix of bulbs so I'm really hoping NONE of the ones I planted in it are red).
This hilarious "bottoms up" cup. The bottom actually moves when you tip it.

Photo Painting and winter seed sowing aka What's Going on at My House

2008-02-11T22:57:00.000-05:00

Today I went to the art store in Henrietta and got a big (bigger than I planned, for sure) set of Marshall's photo paints to paint some black and white photos.

Here's my palette:

Here's how the dining room table looks while I'm working on some photos. Yep, that's the b/w rose one I took the other day and the sled one that's on my other blog. I should have been working in my studio, but spreading out on the dining room table was a good change of scenery.
I also got a 5x7 of the sled picture and I was working on that too.
I really, really dislike oil paints. They are way too "smushy". However, I had one of those art experiences with painting these photos where you completely lose track of time and are totally absorbed in it. It was awesome and I plan on making a LOT more of my photos black and white and painting them up. I'll scan the photos when I'm done - right now they are all drying.

What else is going on when it is like 8 here ?! Look at the forecast :(

Well ! we are doing a little winter seed sowing. I've never done this before, but essentially you sow your seeds in containers and put them outside when it's cold. Then, let nature take it's course and see when they sprout. Apparently, the seeds are supposed to be smart enough to know when it's a good time.

There are many, many more trays, but the other picture came out terrible.

We are going to plop these ones outside and the other ones we are going to put in my new (unheated) greenhouse and see what happens without them covered. I feel like a mad scientist (or perhaps biologist, eh?) I got ummm hundreds of packets of seeds from my friend who's job it is to test the germination ... so, it is like a double blind test since you're never sure how well old seeds will germinate anyhow. Very exciting stuff.

Rose study

2008-02-07T23:12:00.001-05:00

Today I started taking photos of my bargain roses from Aldi's. I thought it'd be a good time to test out the color settings on my camera. I think the results are interesting and surely they'll find their way into some of my mixed media pieces.

Close up of the vase with the drop of water on the leaf from me filling it:

My lovely thrifted vase (49cents! and it's green):

Camera set to "warm" color:

Camera set to sepia:

Camera set to black and white:

Camera set to "natural" - and this is actually a true color representation. They are the softest pinks and yellows and smell really amazing. That doesn't happen much with roses when you buy them anymore.

Then, I started messing with it a bit - wouldn't this be lovely on a Valentine with some soft white scripty text?

One of the other roses. It looks so lovely that I wish I could just crawl into that center section.

Passing on my award...

2008-02-05T18:52:00.000-05:00

I had a really hard time of this... I visit so many blogs that I've literally got 6 separate folders with blog addresses (which I tried to organize and now have a hard time finding what I'm looking for). I tend to visit a lot of different kind of blogs, and what I noticed in trying to narrow it down to 10 is that all of them have a LOT of eye candy and that is usually combined with writing that inspires me or intrigues me to learn something new.

The rule is:“Give the award to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel happy about blogland. Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on. Beware you may get the award several times.” (I can't copy/paste the image to my blog posts, so I just saved it to my hard drive).
So, without further a do:
These people make my day:

1- Cindy at My Romantic Home - Cindy inspired me to start thrifting again and really inserting more of myself into my house

2- Layers upon Layers - love this blog...lots of artsy information and inspiration!

3- snipHits(or misses) aka Geek Betty - talentented writer, fantastic photographer, and can work a vintage dress better than anyone I've ever known.

4- Tracey at Notes from a Cottage Industry - Tracey inspires me in so many ways, but mostly to lead a more beautiful life

5- whatever - an eclectic mix of home and plain ole funny stuff with fantastic photography

6 - Adventures of the Card Lady - oh my...her cards are to die for. I wish I had an occaision to order some from her. I really admire people who can make just one thing. I'm just not that disciplined.

7 -Sweet Paul - warning ! do not look at this blog if you are even the tiniest bit hungry because you will be drooling at his photos. When I was growing up, it never occured to me that "food stylist" could be a job. I'd only want to photograph deserts !

8 - Susan at Ilka's Attic - more eye candy and inspiration. Susan is really generous with information too.

9- My Canadian friend Debby and her Inner Reflections - more art! (and hey, I own some of it)

10- Ginny at Ginny's Small Studio - more art...I aspire to have a studio as clean as hers...someday!

my first blog award !

2008-02-05T18:12:00.000-05:00

wowee ! I got a blog award ! this is a really wonderful surprise for me as my internet has been down for two days... the cable guy came today and it turns out the internet was going through the regular cable lines (I live in the country/small town and I got cable when it was first available...8yrs or so ago? and times have certainly changed). Anyhow, he was awesome and ran a ton of extra cable all over the place and my cable is now running super fast.

I want to think about who to give this to and get a little caught up with my online "stuff" before I pass it on.

Please stop over and visit M & Co who blessed me with this award. I visit her blog every day and it's like a little piece of Norway in my home :)

blog makeover

2008-02-03T10:46:00.000-05:00

my blog has a new look !
I liked the other one, but it was starting to feel like too much white space on the sides. I'm really happy with the green (of course, hehe).
I also have a new header. One of the unexpected benefits of taking photos for my 365 blog is that I have a lot more photos to play with. I'm really pleased with the header too ... for those of you who may have been trying to view my blog whilest I was editing, my apologies. The ole html is finally coming back to me and I had to really struggle with getting the header to show the right size and not be slammed against the top.

I spent (way too many hours) perusing dafont.com thanks to an older post of Michelle Ward's.
Michelle kindly helped me find a font I wanted. This was especially great because if anyone asks me which font something is, I probably don't know.... I could also own a cd, hear the song, and not be able to tell you who sings it. I can only quote from one movie - Rock n' Roll Highschool.
oops, got off on a tangent - anyhow, to the talented and generous Michelle:

Today's Art

2008-02-02T21:43:00.000-05:00

Bird Girl

close up:

Winged Woman:
finally, finished my nevertheless canvas for my studio- yeah!

Marbling Paper

2008-02-01T16:01:00.000-05:00

I thought I'd marble some paper as a reward to myself for all the cleaning out of my studio that I've been doing. I got some pretty mixed results and probably was more frustrated than enjoying it.... witness the results:

The good:

The bad:
and the ugly (even my scanner won't scan the whole thing!):
I need to get some different stuff to treat the water since what I have works great for the first few and then, not so much.

My Valentine's Day mantle

2008-02-01T15:47:00.000-05:00

I've gotten caught up in a ton of home decor blogs lately which inspired me to do a little sprucing up to my faux fireplace mantle.

It's pretty difficult to get good pictures because it is really dark here (and that weird snow/rain/freezing rain/ice temperature) with of course, no sun...again *sigh*

this isn't the ribbon I picked out to hang my coffee filter rose wreath ... remember I am cleaning up my studio? you know what that means...now I can't find anything... oh well, this one looks ok.

I got the red feather tree at Target 90% off.

Closeup of cupid on a candle:

the pages Sanna did in my Artistic Journey journal, with a tiny nest:
right side cupid:
the looove nest:

Cool things in my bathroom

2008-02-01T15:42:00.000-05:00

Chopper Hoppers in a little cabinet (they're vintage denture holders):

potpourri:

and with our powers combined...

2008-01-28T10:43:00.001-05:00

I took these four pictures:

Banyan Tree (Selby Botanical Gardens)-

really cool clouds in Siesta Key, Florida-
picture of a vintage girl from my collection -
another vintage picture from my collection -

and after an hour or so of editing/playing, made this !

Digital manipulation- my psychedelic flower

2008-01-28T09:01:00.000-05:00

I took this original flower photo at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, Florida. It's a lovely flower, but the photo is lacking some pizazz.

A little fun in Photoshop and voila ! (it looks great bigger) I can picture this above a sofa in some scandinavian white-washed house. It probably would look great in my studio too, but alas I am out of ink .... that, and my printer doesn't print as big as I'd like.

Who knew this could happen?

2008-01-27T21:34:00.001-05:00

old ad I found while cleaning out my studio - at the top it says it will come in a plain brown wrapper. hahahahaha

Opinions please

2008-01-27T21:24:00.000-05:00

I started this canvas a long time ago (when I was all ambitious and thought for sure I could do a big 18x24" canvas) I loved the old ad I found in papers that were under my floor (my house is over 100 yrs old). I love the texture and colors. But, now I am stumped as to how to finish it.

Please, any ideas and suggestions !

behind the scenes in my studio - the sepia edition

2008-01-27T21:14:00.001-05:00

my studio looks so much more "romantic" or "mysterious" or something in sepia. I love these pictures!

this is the same as the earlier post in color, but I changed the camera setting to sepia (rather than changing in Photoshop).

doll parts in a metal bucket

my Golden mediums. Apparently when I go to buy more, I can't remember if I get soft gel, regular, or heavy - I do know I always get matte ! the baby on top of one of them - I made that in high school art class.
I need to know what time it is ! the Ganesh is from India. Noooo, I'm not using that aqua net back there on my hair - it works as good a fixatif you can buy in the art store for setting pencil drawings so they don't smear. Just to the right of the clock is this cool stamp(?) I got that looks like a tin type - maybe they used it to print in a newspaper? I really don't have any idea, but you have to have it at just the right angle to see the image.
My sink. I'd welcome anyone who'd like to come over and clean my stamps please. The gourds are fully dried from when I used to paint them like Santa for ornaments and were on one of the top shelves. They'll be going to eBay as soon as I can get myself organized. And yeah, that brush shouldn't be soaking in the water all the way past the ferrel. What I know for sure is that I will be throwing it out when I'm done painting my studio.

behind the scenes of my art studio

2008-01-27T20:48:00.000-05:00

I thought I'd share some pics of my studio. It's still a WIP (work in progress), but I am making a lot of headway !

the new color is a little off in this picture - I'll have to try to take a picture during the day and see if the color comes out a little bit better.

I've been working on a big (18x24") canvas that says "nevertheless" to remind myself of the word I picked this year (see this long post). It is not at all coming out like I envisioned and I put some molding paste over the embossed letters. It turned it this cool rusty color.
doll heads are now on a shelf in my studio. the bowl is full of gesso'd and waiting to be gesso'd heads.
the bottom shelf above my sink has all of my paint brushes and sponges and soaps.

The next post is going to have all the pictures I took with my camera set to sepia.

Thank you fellow shoppers

2008-01-25T19:12:00.000-05:00

Dear fellow Michael's Shopper,
I wanted to thank you for leaving your ad behind at the Victor Michael's - in the entrance, right next to the lovely "photo" boxes. I didn't manage to get a Rochester paper on Sunday and only got the crappy Canandaigua one so I'd missed out on the valuable 40% off coupon. I've had a trying week without much to show for accomplishments and that ad (and the coupons it contained) made my day since we all know how over priced Michael's is. It looks like you are probably a scrap booker based on all the items you'd circled in blue ink. Too bad I didn't meet you there or I'd offered up the scrapbook I have (still in plastic!) and all the papers I bought because they were pretty and then sat in my studio unused. Just so you know, I used the coupon to get more Golden texture medium which I had nearly run out of.
I'll probably think of you when I use the included coupon good next week for something I talk myself into since the store didn't have the sterling silver wire or paints to colorize photos which are what I really came there for.
Again, thanks.

Dear confused Home Depot shopper,
Thank you so much for deciding you didn't care for the lovely light grey-green egg shell paint you specifically requested to be mixed - it ended up in the "Oops" paint for $5. It's a real bargain for that great Behr paint and looks just terrific in my studio. If I knew who you were, I'd show you some photos when it is done and you'd understand what you missed out on.
thanks !

I've got a bunch of half finished things in my studio - here's hoping next week is more productive !

Rose Wreath: this >< close to being finished

2008-01-22T12:46:00.000-05:00

I'm just about done with the rose wreath. It could probably use a few more roses, but my fingers just can't wrap anymore wire around it... maybe in a few days I'll make more. For now, I'm pretty darn happy with it.
I took it in the bathroom (where there is a little better light) to take the pictures. It's a bit more shabby chic looking in there too.
I'm still going to add a ribbon hanger too - need to check my stash for what I have.

Work in Progress

2008-01-18T09:10:00.000-05:00

I'm working on a Valentine's Day wreath of coffee filter roses. If you haven't made these yet, you should give them a try - they really look real. I'm working on them at night while I watch (usually bad) tv. Be forewarned, if you do a lot of them, your finger tips will start to hurt!

I don't use the same exact pattern as provided on that link - I did a little autopsy on some of my roses a while ago to get outside petals that I liked better.

What I'm Reading

2008-01-16T10:16:00.000-05:00

I was going to start a post about "what I'm reading"....and then I realized that usually by the time I start reading something, I've finished it that night. As serendipity would have it, I was going through my (terribly disorganized mess of) favorites and thought I'd check in with my friend Bev and see what was new with her. By the way, don't get too jealous, but the header on her blog is from MY journal ! it is sooooo gorgeous in person and I'm so thrilled to have it.
On her site, there's a link to 'how fast do you read'.
My results:

You read between 850 - 900 words per minute. Virtual Speed Reader. (The average rate is between 200 - 250 words per minute.) It is assumed that you did not skim the words nor fail to understand the meaning of what was read.

I knew I was a fast reader, but I didn't think I read that fast !

What I've polished off in the last week:

Robert Parker Now and Then Finally, another Spenser novel. I much prefer those. I am probably pretty close to owning all of his books in hardcover, mostly first edition

Janet Evanovich Plum Lucky I love Janet Evanovich - she's easily my favorite author. To be fair, her books are not exactly difficult reading but they always make me laugh out loud. I have every one of her Pum Series books in first edition except one. I also am the proud owner of a personally signed book from her that says "Happy Birthday Deann" : )

I currently keep going back to Kaleidoscope ideas + projects to spark your creativity by Suzanne Simanaitis. This book is much more fabulous than I thought it would be when I bought it in a fit of disappointment that I actually owned all of the altered art books that were in stock at my local Borders...and I had a coupon... no coupon should go unused ! I talked myself into a bit thinking that if I really didn't like it, I could always pass it on for a secret sister swap in one of my yahoo groups. Well, no way it is getting passed on now !

This book is not my ususual "eye candy" sort of book, even though it is filled with wonderful pictures. I am not one of those people who buy a book with projects in it and then replicate them down to worrying that I don't have exactly the same stamp or color of paint.... usually I buy them for inspiration and the instructions are secondary, if used at all.

There is one section in the book called "That Voice Inside Your Head" that I find especially goood. It's difficult to summarize, but essentially it's about how as an artist you can be really hard on yourself and how to over come that and go with the ebb and flow of creativity. It says there is a magic word to help you - Nevertheless! as in, I don't feel like making something, nevertheless, I am going up to my studio and just play with my paints. Or, I feel stuck and I can't do anything creative and my muse has run off with someone else, nevertheless, I am going to give myself a break and today might not be the day to be creative.

I've had the luxury of spending a lot more time surfing blogs lately. Perhaps I am looking for the elusive inspiration, but I've found a whole lot of really good ones. I know a blog is really good when I go back and read all of the archives! The new list:

Ali Edwards - her post for pick a word for the year really speaks to me. I'm picking "nevertheless"

My Romantic Home - reminds me of myself and how much I miss thrifting and the inspiration it brings.

snipHits (or misses) aka Geek Betty - I know I ended up here by looking at other 365 bloggers (um, not doing a self portrait every day though!). Her writing is superb and fascinating and I really wish she'd get a book deal. Think Augusten Borroughs (Running with Scissors) - that's what it reminds me of. A fascinating person and not just art.

This is a long post for me and no real art either ! I'm really going to try and put more of myself into this blog than just art....I have other addictions ; )

New art !

2008-01-13T16:59:00.000-05:00

This is the first piece I did today. It's 4"x6". I hadn't used my heat tool in a really long time so I decided to try it on this textured piece. It transferred the fly really well.

This is the second piece I did...it's not scanning too well due to having a pearlized finished on it...it is not this "stark" looking in person.
This next one is my favorite. Initially I transferred this Paper Whimsy image onto some hand dyed silk and mounted it to the 5"x7" canvas board. And there it sat for months. I didn't like the oranges and yellows, which is probably why I didn't go back to it. I transferred the bird and bees with the heat tool again. This time it didn't work as well, but I still love the effect.
The last canvas I finished today. Similar to the one above, as well as not scanning well either. Perhaps these thick cavases I need to just take photos of, eh?

Trying not to cross-post here...

2008-01-08T23:56:00.000-05:00

but I can't help but share a picture from my walk through Ontario Pathways on this unusually (high 60s) warm day here in western NY. More pics on my other blog !
I'm knee deep in organizing my studio and getting rid of supplies I haven't used in years. Plus, finding extra special things for my Valentine's secret sister in one of my yahoo groups. Hopefully I'll have some new mixed media art to share soon.

Music on websites

2008-01-06T12:14:00.000-05:00

I really wanted the text I wrote with the Amy Winehouse video below to actually show up from youtube, but no. It won't. I (heart) Amy Winehouse. As usual, Borders suckered me into buying a new cd with their special pricing over Christmas and I got the Back to Black cd. After playing it for hours - I do this with every new cd, play it for hours until I know all the words - I went and bought another one. Really great stuff. Now I see what all the buzz about her is. I put the link there so you could get a feel for what music I play whilest I am creating.

Here's the thing... notice how you have to click on it to get it to play ? this is the best part because I cannot stand it when I go to someone's blog or website and they have music playing. I think it's just rude. What if I already have some music playing? What if I were at work and stealthly surfing during a boring meeting? do I need some music blasting out? um, no... and nothing gets me to click off the website/blog faster than music. Sometimes, if I'm desperate to look, I will scroll until I find the dang thing and turn it off. I don't generally post anything "opinionated", but there you have it. Automatic music on your website/blog - just don't. people. Thanks.

Amy Winehouse -You Know I'm No Good

2008-01-04T20:32:00.001-05:00

One Journey ends... a few more begin

2008-01-03T16:58:00.000-05:00

Journey #1
My journal for Artistic Journey in Color has returned home after a year. It's really gorgeous in person - everyone's art is so much more amazing in person.

Journey #2
I really liked working on someone's journal every month...probably because it was the only thing that got me in my studio. I bought a lovely, large (I haven't measured, but I think it's 14"x14") journal (probably supposed to be a scrapbook) with the intention of making my own personal journal art. I've gotten the cover and page one completed so far.

Journey #3
I started another blog with just photos as a "365 Project"- this is where you take a photo every day. I'm hoping this will both improve my photo taking skills as well as get me familiar with my new digital camera that has more options than I know what to do with.

Studio Time
I also managed to alter a cabinet card today too. It isn't quite what I was planning when I started off, but I really like it. I usually have 4-5 projects started in my studio at one time in varied stages of drying (some things you really can't speed up with a heat tool like I want to!). I'm pretty happy that this is actually complete.

Here's a close up of the texture - even yummier in person!
Somehow I missed the fact that Tim Holtz has a blog now. I must have been under a rock somewhere. I had a grand time going through it this morning and oggling his 12 days of tags. I'm always really impressed with his instructions. I tend to wish I'd taken photos as I went along, but it would really interupt the flow of how I tend to make art.

That's a lot for today ! Hopefully I can stick with posting more often.

My Pretty new Blog !

2007-12-29T16:39:00.001-05:00

went on post overload a tad, eh?
that got me inspired to change my title bar - digitally created by moi . I'm really happy with it for now, hope you like it as much as I do.

last of our Christmas house

2007-12-29T14:34:00.001-05:00

I set goals for myself before I reached certain *ahem* ages (which I will not divulge at this time) and one of them was to learn how to do tatting. This snowflake ornament is one of the needle tatting ornaments I made from a vintage magazine pattern. I always wish I'd made more that I'd actually kept. Maybe next year I'll make more! I still haven't found some sweet old(er) lady who can teach me how to do the tatting with the shuttle, the old fashioned way.

Years ago when my living room was a mauve color, I made this wreath from vintage ornaments to coordinate with it. It hangs in my dining room now. I have countless additional vintage ornaments to make more, but I haven't figured out how I can possibly package them to be mailed that they won't get broken.
My white kitty ornament was made by mother some time in the 70's when felt was really big. For as long as I can remember, this ornament has been on the tree. I hang it low since it's one of the few that my real cats can't break or eat the feathers off of.

The star of my real feather ornaments is this beauty with the huge tail. It's more than a foot across and thankfully there is always a spot bare enough on the tree to display the whole thing in all of it's glory.
Another smaller peacock ornament that is glass with a real feather tail.
My favorite of the traditional holiday pictures. Every year I take a picture of both kids in front of the Christmas tree. It's hard for me to believe that when I first started taking them, there was no such thing as digital pictures (at least that people could afford to personally own!). Travis just turned 15 the day after Christmas and Emily is 13... I really and truly can't believe they are that old.

Christmas at our house...cont'd

2007-12-29T14:23:00.000-05:00

Oh Christmas Tree
Having 10 ft ceilings enables us to have a huge tree. This year, as tradition, we went and cut our own. There were a few stressful/exciting moments when the chain fell off the chain saw, but all went well and we got it home just fine. You can actually see the newly finished ceiling now complete with recessed lighting and a fabulous fan. I love how the one recessed light shines down on it like the bright star in the east.

Last year I bought a new angel tree topper (we always have an angel). What you can't tell is that it's about 15" high!

The very front part of the tree is my "domain" and I do all the decorating of the room facing section. The section to the left in this photo Travis decorates. Emily does the side to the right. This way both children are happy that there ornaments can be seen from a window. Poor Emily's didn't get at much viewing because the heat run is over there and many days I closed the curtain to help keep the heat in.

A vintage wooden ironing board was transformed into this many year ago when I was doing a lot of decorative painting.
My bird ornaments
I started collecting bird ornaments with real feathers a long time ago. Here's a few.

The floating feather ornaments were the first ones I did after I got divorced. There is a feather inside with some glitter and a bit of faux snow, glitter, and beads glued to the top. I still love them just as much five years later.
Another fat bird with feathers.

Christmas at our house

2007-12-29T13:59:00.000-05:00

Originally inspired by Tracey at Notes from a Cottage Industry to participate in her holiday decorations home tour, I took a bunch of pictures trying a myriad of settings on my new digital camera. I hadn't had time to online optimize the pictures until now, so...better late than never I suppose !

I'm going to divvy these up into a few posts so I can keep the pictures the way I want without too much fussing with the html (no, Patience is not my middle name!)

The (faux) Fireplace

The faux fireplace used to be Gram's (aka Big Emily who my daughter is named after). I did spent some time re-doing the finishes to coordinate with my home decor and hopefully Gram would have liked it. This is just one of my few prized items that belonged to her.

The nativity scene in the "fire" section was Gram's as well. It's very old and some type of plaster/chalk combination and some pieces are chippy or missing an ear here or there. She used to always display it in this way, but with some hay. Having three cats makes that impossible.

The Twelve Days of Christmas scherenschnitt that my mother did. Every year I say I want to re-frame it more nicely with a matt, but inevitably it gets put away with the decorations as I recieved it. The lovely baby feather tree next to it was a gift from one of my secret sister swaps.

My new feather tree ! oooh, I love it so much! Usually, every year we have two trees, one in the living room and one in the dining room. The "dining room" tree didn't happen this year in the midst of remodeling four rooms (there is no room in there!) and we decorate it as the partridge in the pear tree. This year my lovely new feather tree got the partridge and pear ornaments treatment. Next to it is the Christ the King planter, again from Gram ... she might not be with us physically anymore, but she is everywhere.

Abby's Journal - Birth of the Blues/Jazz

2007-12-29T13:14:00.000-05:00

A former co-worker took these photos at some Jazz event that the name of escapes me. The trumpet player on the left hand side was transferred on first, the paint added, and then the main image. The right hand side is a close up of the hands/guitar that was transferred on and then paint added. I did a little Google research to find just the right lyrics to go with it.

This is the last journal for me to work on and mine should be returning home to me shortly!

Frieda's Passion Journal pages

2007-12-29T13:04:00.000-05:00

Frieda's book is all about Passion and the colors red and gold. I literally had to dig for red paint,etc. (much like with Debby's pink and orange journal) since the color red and I have never been friends....seriously... I always think my worst nightmare would be to get on Trading Spacing and have Hildy as the designer who purposely picks red to paint my room since I said that was the only color I didn't want. But I digress....

Frieda loves vintage nudes, and this photo just spoke to me. I snuck a little blue into the second page the sand is just the right amount of texture and sparkle - not so garish first-grader-with-glitter as it scanned.

Theresa's Manuscript Journal- Pig Latin

2007-12-29T12:59:00.000-05:00

In one of my "secret sister" swaps, I recieved an old book that had pages I thought would be perfect for Theresa's journal. This was a switch from the Alphabetica type of pages I'd initally planned. The pages flow together perfectly, but I can't post them side by side.... I believe the text is Latin, but I've really no idea... hence the pig and the title of these pages "Pig Latin".

Playing Catch Up

2007-12-29T12:41:00.000-05:00

Dear poor neglected Blog,
I am going to attempt to catch you up. I apologize that I am much better at reading (too many) blogs and not updating you properly.
Firstly, the journal pages I haven't managed to upload yet.... each one in it's own post : )

My new fountain

2007-09-15T07:11:00.001-05:00

I got this peeing boy fountain for my birthday and I love it so much ! Two months later, the base of it is getting some moss on it which is quite lovely and gives it an older look than these pictures I took when he was new.

I call him Cesar after Cesar Millan, The Dog Whisperer. I don't even have a dog - but, I do watch the show whenever possible. I think he is one of the most fascinating people I've never met (but would like to!).

He caused quite a stir when I first put him up. People often walk by my house and stop and stare and tell their kids "look at that !". One day a lady told me 'your yard is so nice...and I love that statue!' then, added hesitantly ' I took a picture of your statue with my cell phone!' I think she was worried I would be mad. I thought it was great ! There aren't a lot of photo-ops in Clifton Springs and apparently my house is getting a little famous now which cracks me up.

Lucinda's Journal

2007-09-15T07:01:00.000-05:00

Lucinda's journal theme is A Midsummer Night's Dream. I had a few (personal) issues with doing this journal which would explain the text...not getting into it here ! it is a quote from the book. Lucinda kindly included a "no fear" version of the play with her journal which made reading through it much easier.
Her journal is very large, so I took photos of the spreads outside. That would explain why the pages look slightly wonky rather than flat.
Both of the 'people' images are transferred onto her journal. In person, you can tell much better that the one one the left has a donkey-headed man that I spent quite a while photoshopping onto the vintage picture. The best part about the transfers is that it really melts the image into the paper and doesn't look pasted onto the page.

Lisa's Journal

2007-09-15T06:55:00.000-05:00

Gosh, I haven't posted in forever...the warm weather and plant ummm addiction has mostly lead to a flurry of activity in my yard (and the addition of a green house to the back yard).
I worked on Lisa's journal in June. Her theme was "Crowns". Of course I tend to like the green page better, but both came out really nice. The second one is much more etherial in person - very soft and moody - the scan just doesn't do it justice!

Hector Falls, NY

2007-06-05T22:06:00.000-05:00

While I'm on a roll posting here, I thought I'd post some of my new waterfall pictures. For those of you reading who don't know, New York is not all NY City ( a popular misconception). There are gorgeous waterfalls in the Finger Lakes no more than an hour from my house. In our quest to find a new camping spot- and check it out before we went there - we happened upon Hector Falls. Sometimes it's good to miss a turn ! You can see from the middle picture that some moron decided that the major road around the lake should just cut off the beautiful Hector Falls- the railing is right there !! The bottom picture shows the view from the other side of the road...you really can't see the whole thing (bummer).

The falls are really awesome up close...huge and looming above you.

In true fashion, I was asked to take a picture of other people in front of the falls - it always cracks me up that this happens.... we are in the middle of "no where" and out of the blue another SUV pulls up and the (college?) kids ask me to take their picture. Seriously, every time I go some where someone asks me to- I sure wish I knew if they were happy with them !

Gale's Mystery Journal

2007-06-05T21:57:00.000-05:00

Gale's journal is really inspiring. I've oggled it quite a bit and knew as soon as I got it what I wanted to do with the "mystery" theme... love is a mystery. I suppose lust is a mystery too and what really attracts us to certain people often mystifies the people around us. Surely what I thought was really appealing in my 20s is not so appealing to me now.

I am really thrilled with how these pages came out. They are much "softer" in person and I like them soo much it will be difficult to part with them. Is the mysterious woman on the right hand side of the spread part of the couple on the left? is she spying on them? is she day dreaming? her thoughts are mysterious, love is mysterious...

They are also the first ones that I have sucessfully done ink jet transfers on. I ended up getting a new printer/scanner combo when the price of ink was more than a brand new printer. Combine the fancy new Lexmark with Walmart JetPrint photo paper and I can finally make a successful inkjet transfer.

Caryl's Purple and Green Journal pages

2007-06-05T21:49:00.000-05:00

yeah, I've neglected this blog again... I was trying so hard, but as soon as it got nice out (and did it ever, 80s and 90s in May?! it was 74 by 9am on Saturday) I've been out in the yard like a mad woman. I've already spread over 4 pickup truck loads of mulch (I'd guess 14yards or so)...made new flower beds...split countless hostas and re-dug the pond and new stream/pond in the yard. Very productive, but for those of you who don't live in a mostly cold climate, you can't image how out of shape a chick can get after being inside so long and then working in the yard so much!

Inspired by my mostly purple and green garden (technically, I strive for purple, yellow and white - the colors of my alma matter, Nazareth College), I finished Caryl's pages. The left side is really artsy-fartsy, the right side is my garden "babies" growing.

Spring has Sprung

2007-04-22T09:53:00.000-05:00

I can't believe how long it's been since I posted.

Spring has finally sprung in western NY. It's hard to believe that last week at this time a huge storm was rolling in bringing with it enough snow to cancel school the next day.
Ah what a difference a week can make - now it's in the 70s and gorgeous. Yesterday, we all went to Ontario Pathways and mountain biked/walked nearly the whole trail.

I haven't been doing a lot of arting lately, but yesterday I took the opportunity to take lots of digital pics - enjoy the eye candy!

Sludgy water along the trail.

Me and Jody and a little fun in Photoshop.

A lone flower in a sea of fallen (now brown and ugly) leaves.

Water along the trail - the algae is a really great shade of green. I love the reflection in the water on this photo.
The Sumac blossom hung on all through the winter.
Toad discovered along the path.
Me (it's a rare curly haired day) and my son-shine.

Emily found a baby salamander.

An old birdhouse along the trail.

There are a few bridges over the water (the outlet from Canandaigua lake runs along/under the path). I love the texture of this rust.
Not being a biologist, I'm not sure what the official name is for this - I've always called it "forrest lettuce" since it looks just like lettuce growing.
It's fascinating to me how some leaves just don't fall.
Emily biking down the trail. Most all of it is very flat. The beginning part has a lot of gravel which is good for preventing mud, but a bit rough on the riding. Later in the trail it's much more "wild".

My new favorite blog to visit

2007-04-09T21:53:00.000-05:00

I thought I'd also share a link while I still remember my blogspot password....
Notes from a Cottage Industry is my new favorite blog. I don't know the person who writes it, and I really want to send her an email that doesn't sound like I'm some blog-stalker (gee your site is great, I feel like we could be sisters if I had one !! ewwww).
She reminds me soooo much of when I was first divorced and discovering I could do ANYTHING I wanted to my house and didn't have to ask/barter/beg/get permission to change things...paint any ole thing I wanted and no one could complain about brushes being out or a project that stumped me being unfinished.
Her taste - impeccable...warm, yummy, gorgeous and with more personality than I seem to have time for anymore.
Her new cottage - to die for. Every change seems perfect. I've no idea how she does it.

Most days I try to remember I stayed in my house because at the time it was really enough change for the kids at one time (with the divorce) and finding a 3 bedroom apartment to keep them in the same school district, but not add to my 40minute commute was impossible. Some day I'll have this place finished enough to sell it and get a house that really feels all mine. Until then, I'll live a bit vicariously.

My Two Best Creations

2007-04-09T21:46:00.000-05:00

The "Easter Bunny" brought Travis and Emily some bunny teeth this year... they came in this cool package with gum to chew and use as polident to hold them on. Pity they don't have some bunny ears to go with them ! (shame on that slacking Easter Bunny)

Bev's Journal

2007-04-09T21:41:00.000-05:00

Bev is a sweetheart and one of my very favorite people in the whole world. She makes me want to jump on a plane and travel cross continental to get to Canada and visit her. I'm sure we'd laugh so hard my cheek muscles would hurt.

Unfortunately, the timing of the arrival of Bev's journal coinsided with "my crappy life" and I can't get the pages to come out as I'd like...you know, in my head. I imagined soft, multilayered, gorgeousness with the old Girlscout song "Make new friends, but keep the old...one is silver and the other's gold." It's silver and gold alright, but I'm just not thrilled. My time visiting with and working on her journal is up though. So, no more procrastinating and send it on I must. I'll just have to come up with some good way to make it up to her...

little girl in pink with her kitty

2007-03-25T22:05:00.000-05:00

Here's the one I keep trying to list on Etsy and it is making it enormous. So big you can pretty much see the texture on the vintage paper the text is on.

Life

2007-03-25T22:02:00.000-05:00

I love this picture from Paper Whimsy. This little girl looks just like how I feel today!

She's also on eBay.

Hurried Boy

2007-03-25T21:59:00.000-05:00

This little pendant is up for auction on eBay.

Exasperation

2007-03-25T21:41:00.000-05:00

Things aren't going well for me. First I was sick, then the furnace motor blew (to the tune of $600 by the time everything was fixed), and again back to court with my ex who drinks when he has the kids and somehow finding the money to pay my lawyer.

On top of it all, I'm trying to make some things to sell to pay for all of this stuff and let's see, Etsy keeps resizing my pictures HUGE which means they look horrifying and nothing will sell.

eBay has decided that although I am allowed to see my listings in my eBay, if I click on "view sellers other items" it claims I'm not listing anything (apparently, I'm not listing anything if I search by my seller name either).

So, I think I will just post a few pictures and their links tonight before I'm completely fed up and go to bed.

Project 10 books - Somerset Studio

2007-03-05T18:13:00.000-05:00

All three of the original 4x4 art books published in Somerset Studio's January/February 2007 Anniversary Edition went up for auction on eBay. The proceeds from them are going to benefit Bernie Berlin's A Place To Bark. Bernie works to rehabilitate dogs (and cats) who are otherwise abandoned, abused, or police confiscated and gets them into caring homes. She seems to have endless energy which I am in awe of. This is truly a worthy cause.

The books are fabulous and filled with original art from wonderfully talented artists.

Mine is in book 2 which seems to be behind in bids ! Go bid on it !!

Book 1
Book 2
Book 3

Sick & sick of snow

2007-03-05T18:09:00.000-05:00

No art? nope. I've been sick with a sinus infection and bronchitis. Therefore, no art. It's not for lack of trying, but everything I touch turns into ummm garbage. Hopefully my muse will return soon.

Today I drove home from work white knuckled and praying "please God, I don't want to die this way". There are 50+mph winds blowing the snow all over and it's bitter cold. Literally white out conditions in many spots. Driving a 4x4 Jeep is not making me feel better. Let's hope this is the last snow for the season !

Comments

2007-02-20T23:27:00.000-05:00

I made a few changes to the comments - you are now free to leave a comment without having to log into blogger or have a google/blogger id. I had no idea it was set this way until someone told me they'd forgotten their password. That being said, I did set them to moderated. You never know who might get a wild hair up you know where and post something inappropriate.
So, if you don't see your comment right away, it just means I haven't made it over here in a few days.

Self Portrait

2007-02-20T23:21:00.000-05:00

I've been working on a new logo for my Etsy store. I haven't put anything for sale on there in quite a while, but very soon I'm hoping to get new stuff listed. I wanted something bigger (bigger is allowed now!) and more reflective of my art. Oh yeah, and a chance to play with my Intuos tablet a tad more ;)
Turns out, this is way too big to look reasonable on Etsy, but I really like it anyhow. I used a vintage picture from my collection and various "art media" in Painter.

One more digital collage

2007-02-11T00:27:00.000-05:00

This one looks a lot more like my regular mixed media pieces ...and yet, it too is digital !

Digital Collage

2007-02-10T21:21:00.000-05:00

Today I got a new Wacom Intuos tablet. My old one wouldn't work on my new computer due to it having a serial connection (if that tells you anything...I had it for a long time !!). I've started playing with some of my own digital photography, vintage scans, and the brushes that come with Painter Essentials. It's always good for a creative fix to use it when you're sick of cleaning brushes, cutting things out and the inevitable cleaning up that I dread.

The text on this means "be always on the move".

Valentine's Candy

2007-02-09T18:10:00.000-05:00

Today I got some of those candy hearts- they seemed to have serious printing issues and I think only 2 or 3 actually were legible. So, I made my own on the computer :

Here's a site to go make your own Acme Heart Maker

I have some great heart shaped Altoid tins with the paint burnt off that I think I'll be working on this weekend.

if only I could return to India

2007-02-08T19:05:00.000-05:00

Today an Indian recruiter called me for a job (at the place where I already work - this happens all the time, I don't understand why recruiters can't seem to actually READ the resume's they have before calling you). I let him ramble on because I just wanted to hear him talk....

let me explain...

a few years ago I worked at a company and built a whole team of people in India from no one to over 225 people in less than two years. Since I'd had the team from the beginning and being that I love to learn about other cultures, my relationship with the managers there grew to be personal enough that we'd send packages, birthday greetings, and such. I was thrilled to actually be able to go there to train them on new project management software in person. I got to see the "real India" - their homes, meet their family's, be taken sight seeing. Then, I sadly became one of those stories you read about where someone grows a team and trains them and then gets laid off. Worked myself right out of a job. The ironic part is that the company was too stupid to figure out where the teams loyalty was after all that time - 9 of the 11 managers had left w/in six months of them letting me go. I still email and talk to a few of them - it's always wonderful when they call me.

I very much miss India. I loved it there and if it weren't for my kids, I probably would have stayed there much longer.

You've never had a mango until you've had one in India during mango season...fresh mango juice for breakfast every day for nearly a month- yummmm.

and with that, I'm adding my India-inspired art which was also published in Somerset Studio(the background is from one of the papers I'd read every day with breakfast, there's an actual stamp one of my team members saved for me, and part of my customs slip too).

AJC - Debby's Pink

2007-02-08T18:52:00.000-05:00

Artistic Journey in Color continues...

I finished Debby's Pink page for her Pink and Orange Journal since I had to take today off from work. I'm really pleased with how the page came out - almost exactly what I had in my head. I need more doll arm images! The page is actually slightly bigger than it shows, but it won't all fit on my scanner.

It has many, many layers for the background including paint and alcohol inks....so you can see them, I'm posting a closeup as well.

Now I just need to work on the Orange page.....

I'm published ! Somerset Studio 10th Anniversary

2007-02-02T10:59:00.000-05:00

I'm published not once, but twice in the newest (10th anniversary) edition of Somerset Studio magazine. The first piece is part of a collaborative 4x4" fat book(s) project which the lovely and talented Theresa Martin organized with a group of us in the Altered Art Swap Yahoo group.

The second piece is on the very first page of the Expressions section of the magazine. This has all of the "call to art" for Sommerset's 10th Anniversary (hence the 10 theme). Mine is the one with the sign language hands.

I was shocked to be in the magazine twice. I've been published before, but that first rejected piece (now off, hidden in a drawer) still haunts me. I used to go to Border's and drink Berry Mocha's and just oggle all of the eye candy in the magazine. It still astounds me that I'm actually in there !

Ode to Post Secret

2007-02-02T10:24:00.000-05:00

For this 5x7" on canvas board, I used an actual vintage image from an old magazine. Normally I make laser copies of images so as not to destroy a bit of history, but this one just called out to me. I'd glued her onto the pink, stamped background a while ago and there she sat...mocking me...saying "are you going to finish me?". Yesterday I found the perfect phrase in one of the vintage books I keep performing surgery on. I love Post Secret and read it every Sunday morning. I think this is a little too big to send in, but perhaps I'll make a print of it and see if it ends up on the site.

Romance...

2007-02-02T10:16:00.000-05:00

4x4" wrapped canvas (the design flows over the edges). I transferred the vintage image onto the canvas with Golden Gel Medium and added the stamping and vintage text. I really like these canvases, but I bought the only 3 there were. Hopefully I can find more!

Zest of life

2007-02-02T10:13:00.000-05:00

This is a 4x4" (art squared) that I put together while sorting through my piles of papers. I have a habit of cutting text out of vintage books and I must have cut this out for something else and decided it didn't really "fit" - I really like the soft color combination.

Why not?

2007-02-02T10:07:00.000-05:00

This piece is on a 4x6" canvas. The edges are wrapped in decorative paper. It has my usual texture, but I was trying out some colors I don't make a practice of combining (orange with turquoise?!). I wasn't too thrilled with it until I added the arrows. It reminds me a bit of my favorite artist-Miro.

Your Spin !

2007-02-02T09:57:00.000-05:00

Inspired by the bingo card, I went hunting for my stash of vintage game pieces and came across this spinner I saved with no idea what I'd do to it. It looks a little more "rusty" in person. It's approximately 5x5". I am going to add a hanger to it, but it's so much easier to scan it first than count on a good digital photo.

Bingo Girly

2007-02-02T09:49:00.000-05:00

A vintage bingo card became my canvas. I love this image from Paper Whimsy (that the fabulous Bev sent me in my Christmas secret sister package). The card is about 6x8". The detail picture shows the gorgeous colors and textures that are lacking from the full scan.

On with the art !

2007-02-02T09:42:00.000-05:00

ah the elusive Patience... not one of my virtues. This piece is on 5x7" canvas board. Layers of paint over texture medium, stamping, vintage image.... the usual mixed media stuff.

I've decided to upload the images one by one rather than fighting with the html to get them to display as I'd like ! (yeah, that patience thing)

What I did on vacation

2007-02-02T09:02:00.000-05:00

Normal people go somewhere on vacation. I am not one of those normal people. I unfortunately work a contract job which requires that I work a whole year until I can get a whopping 1 week of vacation time. This is still hard to take after being laid off from a job where I had 3wks vacation, personal days, sick time (not that I took any) and a much more flexible (though I worked many,many more hours than 40wk) schedule.

I spent the first days of my vacation on a mission to get new curtains for my living room after giving up on making them. My windows are not a normal size and I really need at least 95" curtains - times 3 windows makes for pretty pricey and hard to find window "treatments". I got gorgeous brown velvet ones that will require some altering (for length). Why 2 days? The ones I bought said "curtains" when there really was only 1 panel....and the store was out of any more brown, so I had to go to the one in Syracuse. Bored with this tale yet? I am - which is why no alterations have been done yet.

Wednesday I cleaned out my studio. Somewhat. For a house as huge as mine, it's very old and laid out horribly. My studio is the smallest room in the house and packed with stuff. I should count how many fake tupperware containers I got and organized - and it's still not enough, but it is a start. Now for a label maker ! There are piles of papers, vintage photos, and other goodies.... some sorted, some not so much. I can at least see my floor. I can't create if I can't *see* something. This makes no sense to anyone who isn't creative.

I have a terrible habit of stacking everything on the desk and working on my lap instead. Perhaps this should be a new resolution - stop that !

Still a bit more organizing to do with the papers. You could see the counter top at one point. I don't know why I buy them - I would much rather create a painted background 90% of the time. Some are just too gorgeous to pass up. They are (except the ones on the counter) all sorted by color and type. I had to stop attempting to organize them when I couldn't figure out what to do with a bunch of them....sorting by color doesn't work when there are multiple colors. I do have all of my cabinet cards sorted by type as well - that is something!

I may just make a box of "miscellaneous" and sort through it later. The clean countertop was much nicer.

And now it's Friday and I'm all out of "let's clean up this studio" motivation. I did get some things actually created - I'll be posting those next.

stopping now...

2007-01-27T11:43:00.000-05:00

I'm pretty sure I have this mastered as much as possible for today. There are lots more links to add and probably a few more tweaks, but enough for today....

Statues in Sonnenberg Gardens

2007-01-27T11:23:00.000-05:00

I so wish that my scanner would pick up on the metallic glow of this piece. The statues are from a digital photo I took at Sonnenberg Gardens, Canandaigua, NY. I printed the picture and transferred the image with Golden Gel Medium onto a canvas that had been prepped with texture meduim. Added paint and stamping and such. The piece really glows in person.

AJC- Sanna's Journal

2007-01-27T11:17:00.000-05:00

Sanna's journal theme is Angels with blue, gold, and grey as the colors. I had a really hard time with this one since I haven't had, to my knowledge, any angel experiences to put in the journal as she'd requested. I kept thinking "look to the sky" (for who knows what reason) and was thrilled when I found an angel who looks cloud-like. I scanned and resized the image several different sizes. Then, transferred them to the pages using Golden Gel Medium. Added paint, pastels, ink, stamps, did some sanding...and voila ! here are how her pages came out. I still need to make a pocket angel for the front, but otherwise it will soon be off traveling to the next person to work in the journal.

Artistic Journey In Color

2007-01-27T11:00:00.000-05:00

I'm in a Yahoo group where each of us has chosen a theme for our journal - this journal then travels monthly through several countries and each of the 12 artists add a spread to it. I feel really lucky to be part of this group of amazing, talented artists. The theme for my journal is "art by the month" - it seemed appropriate since there are 12 of us. I also chose the colors sepia, creme, and one other color for the artists to work in my journal. By next year, I should have some fantastic art-of-the-month to display in my living room. These two pictures are of the month I chose, January.

posting pictures?

2007-01-27T10:56:00.000-05:00

Alrighty, let's see if I can figure out how to insert a picture here ... it looks like I found it ! much like men, I didn't even read the directions. This is an ATC (artists trading card) I made for a friendship lottery in one of the Yahoo groups I belong to. I was really happy my friend Debby won that lottery and it went to her.