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I wore my wellies all day in hopes that my little one would want to go out in the snow. He didn’t.
Are we living in some kind of parallel universe?
Today, I didn’t leave home, which was nice. Usually it drives me nuts not to get out before 10, but today we even caught a little bit of Sesame Street. I admired my new pot rack, cozied up with some blankets and some favorite books, and even found the strength to part with some more Christmas decorations. You can see Hobbes is looking upset, but I told him Valentine’s Day was around the corner and he chillaxed. A little. (By the way, isn’t he cute? My cousin Lynn “Winn” made him for Christmas and give it to us with a Calvin and Hobbes book!)
Oh, wellies…..
Dear friends, do your pots and pans drive you nutso when you have to dig and clank in your lower cabinets? Mee too! I only have one spot to hang a pot rack in my kitchen, and that is smack over my window. I think conventional wisdom would say this is a bad idea, but I don’t have a curtain there and we need a bit of a screen, so why not one that functions as a pot rack? I have been eyeballing these affordable Gruntdal racks at Ikea. They are billed as pot LID racks only, but what about an extra support in the middle? My husband is not going for it. Look how the bottom rack in the top picture is buckling. Do I care? Not if it doesn’t fall of the wall. What say you, engineer friends? Or, instead of copper pots on silver rails, how about a pot rack mad out of copper pipe? I’m scared to price copper pipe, though. Yeesh.
I am playing with my food! Whee! This is one of many projects I have going right now. I would probably finish projects faster if I did one at a time, but sometimes when I’m in the middle of a project it sparks another that I never would have thought of if I hadn’t been doing the original project. Creativity begets creativity.
So, I met Sally Martin at church camp retreat in May. But it feels like years ago; and that’s a compliment. Life is funny because conversations turned toward what we like to do and next thing I know I’m taking photos for her CD cover. It’s even funnier that I’m not really a photographer and that our kids were running rampant around the house while we were trying to do this project. We started with a deep breath and a prayer, and here’s what came from it…..
I’m going to wait and buy the whole CD, but you can buy individual songs here. All I can say is, ENJOY!!!!
Front Cover
Back Cover
Some Extras…
Some Extras…
I like it! Is the tri-tone weirding you out or do you like it? Be honest.
Should I add anything about people I don’t want to talk to while I’m at it? 🙂
Who said Victoria’s Secret has no redeeming value! Although, I’m glad I didn’t ‘redeem’ this card because then I wouldn’t have it for a tracer!
My happiest creating sessions involve paint, glitter, glue, or today, all three. I don’t know what ‘metallic crinkle’ is, but it resembles Easter grass. And I hate Easter grass. But cut the metallic crinkle into little confettis and am sprinkling liberally over my still-wet and dripping magic wands. 
Also Coming to Frost Me Sweet (if there is enough room on the walls!)
Hello readers! I hope your weekend was sunshiny! We celebrated in Yakima with our little cousin…he turned one! Rest assured there was lots of frosting involved. Sometimes my subconsious creates connections, in this case, a segue, without realizing it. I wanted to tell you about the new artwork I will be showing at Frost Me Sweet here in Richland.
The cupcake that started it all (on my inspiration board)
Some ink and watercolor sketches
Some photography….
Some snippets of rice tape that I stuck on to paper and then cut into shapes. I may make one of my mini-collage- arrays out of these.
Speaking of cupcakes, doesn’t this ottoman I picked up at the Teej (TJ Maxx) look like a giant edible? Mmmm. I may take it back. Let me know if you want a heads up if I do!
Speaking of cupcakes, doesn’t this ottoman I picked up at the Teej (TJ Maxx) look like a giant edible? Mmmm. I may take it back. Let me know if you want a heads up if I do!
“What did you do today?” Isn’t that the million dollar question! I think the reason I paint instead of cook is because the results are more lasting. So here’s a peek into what I did today. Also, though I can’t stomach the transitory nature of culinary creations…I sure like to eat! So I’m thankful we all express our creativity in different ways.
Dear friends, aren’t they sweet? If you want to see how one of them was created, click here. As I shared yesterday, I’m trying to get better at sharing ‘the process.’ It is hard for me to stop and take photos and I’m trying to figure out how to do it without getting ‘thrown off’ during the creative process. When I’m in the zone, I don’t want to take photos. I would like to learn how to teach what I do, though, so this is one of the steps I’m taking.
Hi friends! Happy Monday to you. It’s raining here in the Tri Cities, so I guess I can’t call them the “Dry (something else)-ies” today. We had a lovely weekend at church camp, meaning we didn’t kill each other and had fun and everyone slept and we bonded with friends.
The other day I did a post on our coloring book, Scribbles, and today I’m back with Doodles and Squiggles! I am not the first person to blog about these books by Taro Gomi, but fortunately, I am not here to tell you about new new new products. I am here to share art and projects and beauty, so I thought it would be fun to share how my little one and I use these books. Sometimes we follow the prompts; sometimes we break the rules! But we always have fun! Later on, I will show little man a thing or two about technique, meanwhile, he is showing me a thing or two about cutting loose!
Blank page. Not anymore!!
Apropo how little man colored the angry guy neon red!
Design a shirt? Tho’t you’d never ask.
Dear friends, I just lost this awesome post I was doing about these wonderful, fat coloring books by Taro Gomi. They’re called Scribbles, Doodles, and Squiggles. They encourage not only coloring skills (and there’s nothing wrong with plain coloring books), but also divergent thinking. What’s creeping around the corner, the prompt may ask. And you get to use your imagination! Skills are important, and imagination is important. In little ones, I think we are so worried about skills sometimes that we forget to encourage imagination, and that’s why I love these books. I know my little guy likes them.
I like trying to make our styles mesh. I color the cakes, he provides the fi-yah and pizzazz!
Use bright colors, you say? On it.
Paint the walls, you say? You’ll be so glad you hired us.
Color only the things you like. Not shots.
It’s a beautiful day, huh? You don’t even know, baby.
So, I know today may not have the nicest weather if you live where I do…the Tri Cities in central Washington. But still, I dare you, sneak outside with your kids (or with yourself) at some point today, and doodle on the ground. Or the fence; or what-have-you. Go on!! By the way, if you’re wondering about these patterned chalks, the stripey ones are from Albertson’s. I believe the polka-chalks are from Michael’s. They write the same as regular chalks, but they sure are fun to look at! Also, if you don’t have a chalkboard or chalk wall in your house, it really is loads of fun. I have a huge wall that I painted with chalkboard paint. But my favorite spot is on the side of a cupboard, because it has a nice smooth surface.
…call them what you like. Make them as fancy as you like. They can be a file of tear-sheets, fancy bulletin boards or elaborate almalgamations including 3D items. But it needs to be what you like, uncensored. The point of the exercise is to find out what you really, really like. Before you make any kind of decision involving anything visual, it is good to know what you really like. Perhaps this is where a counterexample comes in handy. I painted our back office in our old house Kelly Green. A fine color, but not me. I saw this amazing office in a magazine and I emulated it; even hunting down an accent fabric. It turns out I was really in love with the accent fabric, and the way the warm fabric played against the Kelly green. But it wasn’t really ‘me.’ I once read in a book on prayer not to ever thing you are ‘above’ the Lord’s prayer. Well, in the world of the visual creation, do not think you are above the moodboard. I almost made this mistake, thinking I knew myself pretty well. After all, I have collected tearsheets over YEARS now; I ought to know, right?
But when you see my large mood board, the themes are undeniable. I like lots of white! There are pops of color, and the warm-cool combinations I like so much. But there are mostly quiet tones. I also digress sometimes into rainbows; they are so happy. But the mood board helps me understand what quantities to use–as in, much white, little color. Also, it has kept me from getting too ‘glam’ in my furniture choices. I like humble, earthy, rough feel; nature and flowers inspire me. I LOVE sparkle and girly things, but usually in juxtaposition with something grounding, like a tree stump or a rock or a piece of coral.
I should mention that there is a censoring process once you’ve amassed a lot of images. For me, it consisted of moving items to the front of my original file. Items I wasn’t as taken with moved to the back. I realized that some things I liked because they were trendy or well-presented, some things I liked because they were ‘me.’ And those are the things I have always liked, deep down, and always will like. That isn’t to say our tastes don’t change somewhat overtime. What this exercise is meant to establish is a baseline.
For another post on this blog about learning what you like, click here:
…found this picture I’d doodled in a scrapbook from the Queen’s Jubilee!
Skill Level: Easy. Paint a canvas with chalkboard paint. Stencil on alphabet with acrylic or latex paint. I bought a poster pack for another project and it included this entire alphabet stencil inside. Score! After the Paint dries, use a piece of chalk to add embellishments, if you like. See my little hidden message?
Dear friends, I saw my Mumsy on Mother’s Day, after she got off work. Before that I visited my cousin at her house. She still has some paintings I gave her when I was 13! You are not even going to believe this, but our faces in the bottom pic are about the size of my pinky nail! I am simultaneously blown away that I didn’t just make our faces bigger, therefore easier…AND that I had the ability and patience to pull this off as a 13 year old! I am 30 now and I can’t imagine sitting still for that long.
Sporting our Christmas kerchiefs? Not quite sure where those came from but I do remember posing for this picture. 
The three of us weeding. I was really keen on weeding when I was 13. Weird, I know.
Not the world’s best pic, but can you tell who’s who?
artisallaroundus 
