Saturday morning illustrations

I finally got a chance to watch my newest favorite cartoon yesterday, and it was a rerun. And I've only seen two episodes! It's called "Jacob Too-too" (I think). The illustration is so cool, it reminds me of those pen and ink illustrated books that I remember reading as a kid. The story lines that I've seen so far have been ok, but really it's just drawn in a cool way. Especially the house they live in-from the outside you can see the architectural details, and from the inside, the layout of the house is interestingly drawn.
This reminds me of the Inspire me Thursday creative challenge for this week-architecture. I'll try to finish my project and post it in a day or two.

Home Sweet Home

I've had this idea for awhile to use my beloved fabric to create a beeswax collage. I had this picture in my mind of these little houses, and I've been dying to use my teeny tiny buttons, so when I saw the challenge for Inspire Me Thursday was "Home", I got down to work, and it was alot of fun. I've had the little lingerie clothesline fabric for awhile, and haven't thought of anything to do with it, so it was one of those perfect, everything-falls-into-place moments. I think I'll do a series of these with different types of architectural shapes. And, maybe I'll bust out my REALLY eensie-weensie buttons that are so adorable!!!

Check, check, check

SOLD (ask me about custom orders, and there's a similar chocolate corduroy with a pink lining coming up soon:)
Well, I accomplished alot over the past couple of weeks: distressed leather laptop bag-check. Brown corduroy purse with turquoise lining-check. I even got one vest made with all the wool suiting I bought a couple of weeks ago-check. I debated on what size to make it, cuz I'd like it to be available to the masses, but in the end I made it my size. Which may be what size the masses are, I don't know. I HATE being my own model, but did it anyway. I've been half-heartedly doing the Biggest Loser competition at work, and seeing myself in my shop was horrendous! The two top losers at work have lost like 13 pounds, and I think I've lost five. We started like the second week of January, and it's now March 3rd, so I have alot of work to do. But putting myself online and realizing what I really look like gave me a big push and I did the treadmill.
So now I bought more fabric, and have lots of new things in the works, but then that means I have to model again. Plus, the back-up plan is if no one buys the clothing I put in my shop, then I get to keep it, but if I do lose 20 pounds, then it really won't fit that great. Oh well, it's more important to feel better, and I can always sew more clothes. PLUS- all of it is going to sell out anyway:)
We're having a four day weekend right now, because Thurs. and Fri. were snow days at school-YEAH!!!! I know I'm getting spoiled, but I just want to stay home and create! I was going to add a pic of me with the vest on, but I just don't want to look at it again- I seriously had to take like 40 pics just to get 3 or 4 decent ones. Here's the corduroy purse though, and I love how it looks in my shop, with the zebra chair (that I reupholstered myself last summer) in the background.

Domino Insanity!

Wow, I got totally inspired and started making some resin-sealed origami dominoes, and I haven't been able to stop! It's fun to have that feeling when you are working on something. They may not be rocket science, or as deep and symbolic as my latest collage, but darnit, they are fun.
Also, I made a trip to the fabric store today, and with tax money in hand, bought a LOT of fabric. Everything I bought was on sale, so I'm saving my 40% coupon for another day (probably this coming week). Seriously, though, I have a major fabric addiction. I sold a large messenger bag a while ago on my etsy shop, and I still have about 2 yards of the gorgeous chocolate brown corduroy left, so I got some Kona cotton in pink and light turquoise (to use for the linings), and I will make some smaller purses this weekend. As soon as I get done with this post, I shall begin my new adventure in sewing. First I must finish the faux distressed leather laptop bag that I started last weekend. I'm SOOOO happy that Monday is Pres. Day, so I can stay home and create. God Bless the Presidents!
BTW, the collage pictured was a pretty deep, heartfelt, symbolic idea that came to me while driving a few weeks ago. I'll try to write more about it tomorrow, but it's for sale today in my etsy shop. Good night everyone:)

SNOW DAY!

Yeah! We finally got a snow day today. Teachers and students alike rejoice! My daughter (almost 14) is still blissfully sleeping in at 10:30, so I decided to get some catching up done. I never have time to blog except on the weekends, and for the past couple of weeks have had lots of technology issues with my old laptop. Now I have a new computer, and I'm hoping with fingers crossed that my files on my old hard drive are going to be retrievable. Oh well, life will go on if they aren't coming back, but Sasha (aforementioned teenager) only wants to know what will happen to her extensive ipod library. :(
We've been at eachother a little lately, actually me towards her, because I get so tired after disciplining kids at school all day, and then have to come home and do it here. I'm actually just being lazy, because I'm to the point where I want to work on my stuff, and have a life. She is a good girl though, and I'm hoping it continues throughout the next couple of years.
Well, I've had to get my butt in gear for the biggest loser competition at work-a couple people have lost 10 pounds since we started 5 or 6 weeks ago, and I've only lost a few. I know alot about exercising, and how to work out, so I am on the move now, and very sore I might add. We have 13 weeks of students left before summer (I'm not counting spring break) and I cannot wait to have time to do things. My etsy shop slowed down a little, but I didn't have any more items ready to list every day anymore. I need to pump up my inventory. I was worried about not having a set 'style', but I'm just forging ahead with the ideas that I have, and I can't rush art. It has to have time to develop. I'm reading Art and Fear right now, and it talks about that very thing. So my 'plan' has been working pretty well-the one where I work on a certain thing on a certain day of the week. It doesn't really matter if I follow it or not, as long as I'm working on something. So far, so good. I've got a couple of collages that are almost finished, and a distressed faux leather laptop bag that's almost done, and a few ideas for beeswax collage also. (Never done one before, but I bought and adjustable tabletop burner at Walmart for less that 10 bucks, and I'm excited to get started). Most of the research I've done calls for a quilting iron to smooth out the layers, so I may have to invest a little more $$. I'm just wary about buying too many supplies if I'm not going to use them. I love to supply shop way too much. I'll try not to leave so much time in between blogs, maybe I should add "blog" to my daily plan list. Ha! Notice my "extras" section-maybe we need to add another day to the week?

A week of growth

I've been having some success on Etsy, and I'm feeling so hopeful that it's going to keep going. I'm still trying to 'find' my niche in art, and I keep bouncing back and forth between sewing, altered jewelry, and collage. I know it's ok to do different things, I just want a 'style' that people can recognize. The only way to get farther on this quest is to do the work. So tonight I made a plan of sorts, where I just randomly picked a day of the week to do a certain thing. It was very quick, and if it says 'collage' on Saturdays, and on a particular Saturday when I have a chance to work I'd rather work on something else, then that's fine, but at least it gives me a starting point. We'll see how it goes.
Work was better this past week, too. I got really excited doing cityscapes with the 3rd graders, although I've done that lesson a thousand times before. It sort of morphed into a mixed media experience, and it was fun. Love it when that happens, and it's not just about discipline and behavior management, but actually about art-I know- what a concept-art in art class!

Thoughts for the weekend

Wow, thank God it's Friday night. I'm watching Nanny 911 (don't get me started on child-rearing-ha!) and I need to get busy working on some art. I was totally inspired by yet another etsy artist, Danah Kim (not sure if male or female) from Seoul, Korea: now based in Brooklyn. Amazing work, beautiful style, and I love the stitching on the collages. I have done some sewing on paper (I used gold thread and fall silk leaves on my wedding invitations) and it is very cool. I love to sew so much that it's wonderful whenever you can blend two art forms that you love. Anyway, check this artist's work if you can (see link to right-dkim art).
The weekend is a great time for me to spend time in my studio (a corner of my living room),but I feel guilty at times if I feel like I should be giving attention to other things. A main concern that I have that comes between me and art is my almost 14 year old daughter. She's doing well in school, but we don't live in the school neighborhood, so she has no friends around. It's been this way most of her life, and I transport her wherever she needs to go, but I just wish I could find a way to get her more involved in something she would enjoy with peers. I try to get her to do artsy stuff with me, but she loses interest fairly quickly; she's happier doing sports,etc.
Well, my goal this weekend is to finish a couple of collages, finish a laptop bag that I started sewing, and maybe clean the house a little. Maybe I'll get it all done!

It's a new day

Well, I've been trying to log in for over a week, and I'm having lots of issues with blogger. Hopefully they are solved now. I'd like to join the etsy blogger group, but I may have to start a new blog in typepad or something.
I've been working on a series of new collages, and it's really been fun. I am amazed at the rich symbolism and ideas that I get from the Bible. I was reading Proverbs the other day, and I kept getting idea after idea. This collage was inspired by something I heard Joyce Meyer say about "Why are gold and diamonds always hidden in mountains?"
I think she was saying we have good in us, but sometimes it takes some digging to find it, under all of the other crap. After I started thinking about mountains, and gold, I got this idea that I am searching for a new way of making my art. A new discovery about myself. I've always expected every artwork to be perfect, instead of letting myself play and experiment. So since I love trees, birds, nests, etc., I got the idea of the bird is looking for the treasure (the egg), and it felt like me, searching for this wonderful, free, creative part of myself, but it's been buried for so long. (It's kind of hard to see in the pic, but there is an egg in the center of the gold dust that I glued down.)
After re-reading the Artists' Way book, I've noticed that I see that perfectionist tendency in myself now when it's happening. So now I feel a little stuck, and I don't know what to do. On the land, there needs to be something, but I'm frozen. I love how the pinks in the sky came out, and I guess I'm afraid if I add something, and it looks bad, that... I guess I don't even know what I'm afraid of.
Anybody out there reading the Artist's Way, and understand what I'm talking about?

I've been trying to decide on some goals for 2007. I know that I need to set up a website under my name, I just haven't gotten around to it yet. Technology is soooo hard (Whine) sometimes-actually when I just do it, it's never as hard as I thought it was going to be. I also want to join more groups like art unraveled so I can do more swaps and branch out more. Sometimes it seems like it's hard to break into new things, like I'm an outsider and everyone else it already at the party. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way. I love my studio time, and I try to get everything else done so I can work. My daughter (13) is such a tomboy/sports freak that it's hard to get her interested in art, but occasionally she will sit with me and do a project. I cherish those times. Also our Biggest Loser competition is starting this week at work, so I lifted weights yesterday and I'm getting on the treadmill tonight! The computer will not suck me in and let me avoid my commitment!

New Year

Woo-hoo! I made my first sale on etsy this week. It's an awesome feeling, especially after all the work switching over to a new name and re-doing my banner, etc. There are so many amazing artists on that site, that it's hard not to worry that I'll get lost in the pack. I just keep trudging forward, and I'm still trying to find my niche anyway (in the art world). I love altered art, and so many other forms of art, sewing, photography... I need to focus my energies a little better. (Isn't there some saying about too many irons in the fire?) Here's some new work I've listed on etsy that I've had alot of fun making.
It's back to school on Monday-I'd rather be at home with my daughter working in my studio and decorating my house, but such is life. I'm grateful for such a creative job, I just wish the adults I work with were more gracious. I guess I should be thinking about my goals for this year. I know I want to create a website under my own name, so that my other sites can be linked to it, and people actually know who I am, but I just haven't done it yet. We're having a 'Biggest Loser' competition at work, and I'm entering it next week, so another goal is to work out and walk more regularly. I know my dog will appreciate that too. Isn't Weezer cute? (See pic)
So they are going to declare the winner by the percentage of weight lost, and I need to lose about 25 pounds, so I hope that's enough to win the contest. If some people have more to lose than me, they have until May, so that makes me nervous because they could do it. I've also talked my husband into lifting some weights with me (he's so darn skinny!-In his words-he's "sleek" ). I love him the way he is for sure, but it would be great if he had more energy and felt better. He's 40 (and quit smoking a month ago), so there's never been a better time to start. I should post before and after pics of us, but I don't think I have the courage! (Weezer is not really demon-possessed, it just looks that way because of the flash).