Sometimes Here Sometimes There

Important Blog Update

2009-10-02T12:43:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post to say that I'm discontinuing this blog and only updating my other one from now on. My other blog will feature both artwork and my personal stuff. I've found that I just don't have the time to keep up with two blogs so combining the two (like I had it when I first started blogging) makes more sense. So please update your bookmarks with the following URL...

http://curiouserandcuriouserdesigns.blogspot.com/

Happy weekend to all!

For those who've asked....

2009-09-30T13:21:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of our new abode!

Above : The kitchen. The cabinets are a nice blue on the outside and a fabulous pale yellow on the inside. The curtain over the window is a bit scary (Lime green with a beach theme) but hey, I can't have everything now can I?

Above : I love the open shelving! I decided to only take three of my vintage Pyrex mixing bowls out of their boxes. We're only going to be here for the winter and I don't want to have to pack too much the next time around. Aren't my vintage tin canisters and breadbox fabulous?! Their my favorite tins, I also have a tiny one that matches that's not in the picture.

Above : The living room with the dining table in the background. The table and chairs as well as the large blanket covered chair were already here when we moved in as was the tall floor lamp sans lampshade (the lampshade is mine). This picture was taken from my desk which is facing the living room so that I can enjoy the incredible view.

Above : The blanket covered chair in the living room which has been deemed the dog's chair.

I haven't really done much with the bedrooms which is why I'm not going to bother showing them. So there you have it, our little winter retreat :)

A Tale of Two Couches

2009-09-30T07:18:00.000-07:00

When we moved into our new home we were of the understanding that it was partially furnished. While the photos we saw of the house showed a decent looking couch or at least a couch that looked decent in tiny pictures, the couch that was in the house upon our arrival was far from decent. Not only quite possibly the ugliest couch I've ever seen, it was also completely worn out, torn in a number of places, saggy in the middle, covered in an entire dog worth of long white dog hairs and it smelled like a wet dog that hadn't been bathed in years. A definite runner up for the nastiest couch award for sure! Because of this I have been sitting on an uncomfortable wooden chair since we moved in. A seat which, suitable for eating meals on, is not a nice perch when tired and sore from a day's worth of cleaning, unpacking and furniture arranging. Well, those days are over! Our new comfy overstuffed piece of heaven is here and I couldn't be happier with it!!!!

Of course after the new couch was delivered it was my job to relocate the old couch to the basement. Which proved easier than one would think. While I'm only 5'4" and I have rather skinny arms this project took only about 5 minutes for me to do all by my lonesome. The teeny tiny front foyer with narrow stairs and an inconveniently placed half wall were challenging but it all worked out pretty well. Check out the pictures below to see how the couch removal progressed and to see our new happy comfy spot....

Phase one : The old couch is through the upstairs door.

Phase two : Ugly is now heading down the first flight of stairs.

Phase three : Um, well, this is the what do I do now stage.

Phase four : The wet dog has one flight of stairs left and it's outta here!

Success! Ugly is downstairs, never to be seen by my eyes again and here's my little bug trying out Mr. Comfy :)

The Biggest Yard Sale EVER!

2009-09-27T06:18:00.000-07:00

Friday's weather was blustery at best. The sky a dark blue turning grey with short bursts of sunshine quickly vanishing behind more dark clouds. Saturday was our planned outing and while we would have braved poor weather if need be, we were more than happy to see a clear blue sky greeting us Saturday morning.

The big event happened to be a gigantic yard sale held once every year. Spanning 70 miles of the island, people register their yard sales in advance to be included on a map that is available for free to anyone wanting one. This makes it a little easier for everyone to plan their day before hand.

Oliver and I stopped at as many sale sites as we possibly could throughout the day carefully selecting the ones that we thought might have vintage and antique items. Twice we made short detours to see lighthouses. The first was the Point Prim lighthouse which had a gorgeous red sand beach perfect for finding bits of sea glass. We walked on the beach a while looking for treasure and then made our way back to the yard sales. A little while later we stopped at the Cape Bear lighthouse situated on a cliff (pictured above and below).

My camera shy little bug was not very accommodating and hid behind me for each shot. Luckily for him his mummy needs to lose some poundage giving him more than enough space for a good hiding place LOL!

All in all we had a fabulous day, just look at some of the treasures (below) I found for next to nothing!

The chair is an antique that needs some work. I'm going to repaint it leaving the little ship painting as is because the little ship is what made me like the chair in the first place. The ship was painted by the elderly mother of the woman I purchased the chair from. It's very simple and folksy which I love! They had it in an old barn full of her paintings. The glass bottles are old, so far I'm unsure if they're antiques or if they're just vintage. I do know after some research that they were made by the Wheaton Company. The tin pictured was too pretty to resist priced at $1! These tins are especially nice for storing craft supplies. The bowl is an antique transfer ware wash basin, something I've actually been on the lookout for for a while. It is fairly beat up but it doesn't have any breaks or chips and the pattern is in perfect shape! The bowl is my favorite find of the day. Next we have a cute dog figure that has a similar finish to the vintage Japan dogs I collect. I don't believe it is a Japan dog but it's cute and it will look right at home with my other pups, it cost 50 cents. I also found a decent amount of scrap vintage fabric for only 50 cents and a very pretty pair of yellow curtain panels (not shown) covered in roses that only need to be cleaned and ironed and then they will be perfect for my bedroom windows! They cost a mere $3! The $3 also included a vintage floral bark cloth pillow case in perfect shape that I purchased for scrap fabric.

All in all we had a super fun day, spent next to nothing but still managed to bring home a good number of treasures and are looking forward to next year`s sale!

We're on the Island and Online!

2009-09-23T15:42:00.000-07:00

I finally have Internet! It was hooked up today and we couldn't be happier! So now I can go on and on about how much I LOVE PEI! This island is fabulous and is in my opinion the most beautiful place in all of Canada. I will say though that I don't love it more than Nova Scotia, the two are pretty much equal in my heart.

The trip was long and boring but now we're here and here we hope to stay. The house we're renting is pretty straight forward and simple but the view is lovely and I've enjoyed being able to just walk across my lawn and wade around in the warm ocean water. I am keeping my promise to NEVER wear a bathing suit ever again! I have a skirt that is the perfect length for wading around in the water, so please don't try to imagine me wearing a bathing suit, it just isn't going to happen LOL! Not that anyone would see me as our beach is private but I would know and I couldn't in good conscience put the birds in the trees through the terror of having to see me in spandex :).

Our neighborhood is lovely and it provides Liam and I with plenty of wonderful places to go for long walks. PEI isn't short on gorgeous places to visit and I'm eagerly looking forward to seeing them all! Below are some of the pictures I've taken so far. You must excuse the poor quality of the editing. Our belongings haven't arrived here yet and Photoshop is on my other computer, not on my laptop so I've been editing my photos with an inferior online program which has not been doing the greatest of jobs. It seems that when I re size the pictures they get a tad bit blurry which causes me to have to sharpen the image which in turn makes them look a wee bit grainy and well, just not nice. I can't wait to use Photoshop again!

My new backyard! This is the view I see every day from my living room windows and back deck.

This is the view just beyond the trees bordering my back lawn. If you were to go outside this photo and a little to the right you would see a lovely little private beach where I have already tested the waters a couple of times. The water is warm even at this time of year! There are huge schools of little fish that nibble my feet when I stand still in the water. Crabs of all colors and sizes are in abundance and there is a blue heron outside my dining room window every day. I've named my new long-legged friend 'Albert'.

Because of my generosity with the wild bird seed my back deck has become the place to be for the neighborhood blue jays. It seems every time I look out the window there is anywhere from one to four blue jays pecking away at the seed I leave for them every morning.

Liam and I enjoy looooooooooooooong walks around the neighborhood. If we head left on our road we come across fields of grass, wild flowers and potato crops with incredible views of the ocean and the red cliffs of our fair Island. If we head right we pass a lovely old white church with a graveyard that dates back to the early 1800's. Past the church is a bay where there are fishing boats docked and steps away from that there is a wonderful red sand beach with plenty of shells and sea glass to be found.

A field and ocean view down the road from my house. The wind is incredibly strong in this area but I love it!

Another view just down the road from my house.

Liam enjoying another walk with his mum :)

Lobster traps steps away from the beach down the road.

Liam was not fond of the beach until he discovered the joys of making footprints in the sand. When he saw me make marks in the sand with my fingertips he stopped his fussing and said very excitedly "WOW!". The sand is such a lovely shade of red and is so soft!

Fishing boats docked down the road.

Stay tuned, more posts and pictures to come!

Internet Finally!

2009-09-07T19:14:00.000-07:00

Last night's motel didn't have internet available which is why I was unable to make a post but happily tonight we're in a motel with free hook-up so here I am :) . The other night when we stopped in a small town in Ontario called Kenora we made the worst mistake a person can make while on a road trip. We paid for our room before asking to see it. From the outside it looked to be a cute little cottage. From the inside, a scary little hole infested with spiders and a rather unpleasant odor. It looked as if it hadn't been cleaned thoroughly in some time and the floors were sloping so much that when I tried to stand on one foot to put my socks on I kept falling over. In the morning I woke up extremely early took a VERY fast shower and as soon as Oliver had done the same we were out of there and on the road again. So if you are ever in a little town in Ontario Canada called 'Kenora' and you come across a motel by the name of 'Gayles'..... STAY AWAY!!!! Stay far away!

Currently we aren't sure what town we're in but our newly aquired motel room is clean, without spiders and bad smells and presently the only noise to be heard is that of our hyper active toddler who can't seem to stop bouncing off the wall's. Tommorow more driving will ensue.

On the Road and in Calgary Alberta

2009-09-05T05:35:00.000-07:00

(Photo of Calgary Alberta courtesy of TravLCox on Flickr)

We're finally on our way! And to tell the truth I'm not at all excited. I'm a live in the moment sorta gal and rarely get excited about anything until it's actually happening. Of course who would be excited about where I am right now? I'm sitting on the floor of our motel room in the dark so as to not wake my little Liam. The room is a typical cheap motel room that reeks of cigarette smoke despite the fact that it is supposedly a non-smoking room, yuck. But I have Internet here and the bed while uncomfortable is no where near the worst motel room bed I have slept on so I'm dealing quite well :) .

Thursday morning the movers arrived in their gigantic white truck and slowly loaded our stuff up. I say slowly because I've never seen anyone take so many breaks before in my life! They were very nice people though and they let Liam hang out with them in the back of the truck which he absolutely LOVED! The one man there was an older completely bald man with a rather loud deep scratchy voice and interestingly enough I did think he would have made a fabulous pirate in a movie. Liam really took to him and followed him around quite a bit chattering away. He referred to Liam as his little buddy and talked to him as if he were just that. He was definitely great with kids!

After the truck left we finished loading our car and were off and headed to Kamloops for our first day on the road. We arrived at my sister-in-law's house quite late and were very happy to get to bed after such a long and busy day. In the morning we visited with Maja, Ben, Peter and Justin for a while and then it was back on the road. Liam was really good most of the way and only started to fuss a little after we arrived in Alberta. Our portable DVD player took care of that though and with the aid of very old Disney cartoons referred to as 'Silly Symphonies' we were once again tantrum free.

So anyway, it is now very early in the morning and I'm tired so well, you get the idea.... good night (or good morning) I'm heading back to bed.

I'm Moving ..... to Prince Edward Island!!!!

2009-08-25T10:07:00.000-07:00

The title says it all! On the third of September I'll be on my way to my new home on Prince Edward Island, the most beautiful province in all of Canada! Oliver, Liam, Boo, Bingley and I will be renting an ocean-front house on two acres for about 6 months (or at least until winter is over). The below picture is the view we will be enjoying every day! Oliver has a job waiting for him as a plumbing estimator / project manager. We're VERY excited! Well, I'm excited to be going back home (back East, we're in BC at the moment). But I'm not so thrilled about the week long drive across Canada with a toddler and two dogs or about the packing I have to finish up. While we haven't been back in BC for long the short time we've been back has seemed like a bad dream. I'm just not meant to be here, I miss Eastern Canada soooooo much my heart aches. So we're all very happy and we are looking forward to more time spent in the land of Anne of Green Gables, lobster and red red earth.

The mosaic atop this post was assembled using PEI photos found on Flickr and created using BIG HUGE LABS mosaic maker.

My Reason For Being Away Sooooo Long

2009-07-17T12:25:00.000-07:00

I know I've been pretty much offline for a while now. But I had good reason. A while back I was running up the driveway, tripped on lord knows what and went flying forward landing on my hands and knees. The fingers on my right hand bent all the way backwards (very unpleasant) and I scraped a good chunk of skin off my right knee. I went to the ER and the doctor and nurse that looked at my hand were 100% certain that I broke all of the fingers on my right hand but after seeing the X-rays they were surprised to find out that there were no brakes. Still it was the worst sprain they've ever seen apparently. So of course my hand swelled up (see above images) and was completely useless. I normally have very boney hands unlike what is seen in the above images. I can't even begin to tell you how much it seriously sucks to be a right handed artist without the use of a right hand! I did a little painting with my left hand but while it turned out just as good as anything I've done in the past it was very time consuming and terribly frustrating and I did decide to take a bit of an art break (and a blogging break as well). I now have the use of my hand again although my middle finger and ring finger won't straighten out anymore and are very stiff and do ache from time to time but at least I can use my hand again! My knee still hurts if I put pressure on it so I do have to be careful and I will most likely have a scar because so much skin came off. I was never one to show off my legs anyway though so I can deal with scars :) . The most frustrating part of this has probably been having to listen to people constantly go on and on about how I should try to exercise (by bending) my fingers. They just don't seem to understand that my fingers WILL NOT bend! It's not that it's hard, or painful, it's that they won't bend. It would be like trying to bend a brick with your hands. They are stiff as a board and the likely hood of my ever being able to straighten them is pretty slim. I can live with it though, I just hope that I don't develop arthritis in them (which is apparently highly likely from what I've been told). So that's my story. There have been a number of times that I've thought about how much I wanted to blog but was unable to type and now I'm happy to be back in action :)

For You My Love

2009-06-12T15:47:00.001-07:00

This post is specifically for my husband Oliver who is away for a week building a barn and a fence for a friend. I love you sweetie soooooooooooooooooo much and I miss you muchly! Lot's and lot's and lot's of love to you!

Things I've Seen....

2009-06-12T15:40:00.000-07:00

A wild Bingley on the prowl

An encounter with the famous 'Squirrel Nutkin' who happened to have a few choice words for me

A Robin's nest I found by the wood shed!

A New Hole Added

2009-06-09T13:46:00.000-07:00

This is what I did to myself this past weekend. The earring in now is only temporary. It's long like that to allow for swelling. Once it's healed I'll get a shorter more normal looking one. While it did hurt quite a bit, it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be and I took it like a champ :). Why do I like piercings? In all honesty I really don't know. Whenever I see people with piercings and tattoos I can't help but think they look especially beautiful. Maybe it's the artist in me. And as weird as it may sound, I happen to enjoy having a large sharp needle jabbed through my skin. I know, I have issues LOL! But there are many parts of my body that I would never ever pierce. Personally I prefer the ones that are located in places that will be seen, nothing too weird here :). I had this done at Adrenaline on Granville Street downtown Vancouver BC Canada.

My Two Little Boys

2009-06-08T15:11:00.000-07:00

I sure do love my little boys! The furry one and the not-so furry one :). Liam and Bingley are very much like brothers. They play together, one always tagging along behind the other. They also fight like cats and dogs. Never so rough that they get hurt, but sometimes I feel like they are both little boys and not just one little boy and his little dog.

Photos I Photoshopped Today

2009-06-08T15:07:00.000-07:00

Enjoy!

Yesterday's Photos

2009-05-28T15:46:00.000-07:00

I just thought I'd share some pictures I took yesterday while in my in-law's yard. Enjoy!

The Importance of a Soother

2009-05-28T14:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday while in my in-laws backyard I wanted to take my son's picture. Liam is a tad bit over two and while he can survive without his soother or as he calls it his 'soos', he prefers to have it in. So in a moment of stupidity I came up with the brilliant idea of taking his soos out so I could get some soos-free photos. And it went like this,

1. soos is in
2. Liam is de-soosed and immediatly the mouth opens wide and the whining commences
3. Liam follows me around the yard with mouth wide open
4. Liam points at soos with lip hanging low and threatens to start crying
5. Liam gives up and runs down the hill into the woods to live with the fairies where they most certainly will happily give him a soos. The End

Click on the picture to see it larger :)

My Antique Sewing Machine Dreams Have Come True!

2009-05-17T23:31:00.001-07:00

And you can read about it and see pictures HERE

My First Juried Art Show!

2009-05-03T19:16:00.000-07:00

I was accepted into my very first juried art show recently and my painting won an award! You can read about it HERE if you're so inclined :)

Beautiful Weather and Long Walks

2009-04-26T22:48:00.000-07:00

Just some shots of our weekend trip to my husband's sister's home in Kamloops BC Canada. She and her husband own acreage up there that is incredibly private and provides endless hours of walking in the wilderness. There were some neat old buildings to look at and plenty of wildlife that managed to avoid my camera pretty well! Liam loves to walk so he had a great time and I had fun looking for bits of nature to take home with me. I'll post more soon about the trip, but now it's off to bed for me!

The Hummingbird Petting Zoo

2009-04-18T17:19:00.001-07:00

Today I spent about an hour or more sitting atop a ladder on my in-law's porch petting hummingbirds. Yes, you heard me right! I actually touched them! I went up there initially to try and get some photos of the little buggers but soon realized that they were rather comfortable with my being there so I figured I'd just reach out and touch one. I started out by slowly coming up underneath one while he was drinking and then gently stroking his tummy with the end of my finger. This didn't seem to phase him a bit which of course made me much braver in my actions and I gave his little tummy a nudge with my finger and low and behold he just hopped right on! He sat there for a little while and then flew away only to make room for more little bitty birds to rest atop my outstretched fingers. The above middle picture (while not a good angle to see it) shows a little bird sitting atop my finger. These little guys are very soft and terribly brave when they're hungry. No need for a zoom lens with the birds around these parts :)

Some Family Pictures

2009-04-14T17:13:00.001-07:00

Oliver is trying sooooo hard to stay awake, it's not going so well though. These are two of my 3 men sitting around on grandma and grandpa's couch.

And here is my third little man looking for lost Cheerios in between the couch cushions.

At Last!

2009-04-01T23:36:00.000-07:00

My husband and I have finally found a common interest! Antique and vintage sewing machines! We've never really had much of anything in common (I guess opposites really do attract) but I always wished we could find some sort of hobby or something that we could both find interesting. Turns out Oliver finds the researching of different machines to be an enjoyable challenge and I just love antiques and sewing related items so there you go!

We took a look at an old hand crank machine last weekend but we both felt it was overpriced for the rough shape it was in so we decided to pass on it. But no worries, we are going to be looking at a couple more in the next couple of days :)

Just the other day we came across a guy on Ebay that restores these machines and gives them incredible paint jobs using metallic car paints. This is something we are both interested in. Oliver is VERY mechanically inclined and is a perfectionist with any work he does and I hate to see old things go to waste simply because they are beat up. Now we're on the look out for cheap antique and vintage machines that we can give new life to. Not for a business though, more just a hobby if anything.

Reguvinated Singer Featherweight sewing machine with an unbelievably gorgeous new paintjob found HERE.

Another work of art! This time it's a vintage Singer Featherweight sewing machine in yellow! Found HERE.

This antique Singer sewing machine is what is called a Fiddlebase because of the shape of it's base. This one has the most beautiful rose and daisy decals I've seen! I found this gorgeous machine on Flickr HERE. Click on the above image to see it BIG!!!

Thank you Terri!

2009-03-14T15:07:00.000-07:00

The very sweet Terri Kahrs from Pringle Hill Studio awarded my new art blog with the Kreativ Blogger Award. Thank you Terri, so sweet of you to do so! It makes me happy to no end to know that someone finds my art blog interesting :). Feel free to check out Terri's blog HERE.

NEW Art Blog!!!!

2009-03-14T14:57:00.000-07:00

Hello there, nope I didn't die! I'm still here, I've been super super busy! I started a new blog strictly for art. It is where I update the world with my latest work as well as feature fabulous artist's I come across from time to time. I'm participating in Illustration Friday on a more regular basis now and I'm also going to be writing various articles from time to time about all sorts of art related things. I'm keeping on top of posting regularily so there will be plenty to look at. Feel free to stop by and maybe if you're in the mood you could leave a comment :)

Curiouser and Curiouser Designs New Blog

I'll still be posting here from time to time but not as frequently as on my new blog and all of my art stuff will be there instead of here.

Miniature Art and My Plans For the Year

2009-02-03T20:49:00.000-08:00

A little over 3.5 inches in height and a tad bit bigger than 3 inches wide, this acrylic painting on paper is of an Arabian stallion at night (hence the moon in the top right corner).

This piece is still in progress. The Arabian foal alone is only 1.5 inches in height! I haven't decided exactly what I'm doing with the rest of the painting or if it will even stay the size it is. I may just cut it down in size (who knows). This one is acrylic on paper.

Another shot of the Arab foal painting. One thing I really need to do is get a smaller brush! These paintings were not easy with the rather large brush I used. I didn't have anything small enough so I wound up using the very tip of a corner of a larger brush and because of that it took a while to paint these.

In other news, I have decided to enter a couple of juried art shows this year. I have two in mind but I'm still on the fence as to which shows I will enter for sure. One show I may just enter is an equine themed show. I have no plans to specialize in equine art but I do seem to paint them best of all and the shows are more of a way to build up a resume so to speak than they are anything else so I really don't think it matters what the subject matter is. I'm also planning on trying my hand at more of these super tiny paintings. I like the challenge and the above foal has me feeling pretty good about this small size. Next I want to try some birds, deer and maybe some other types of animals as well as more horses. Don't forget that you can click on the pictures to see larger versions.

Some Artistic Inspiration

2009-01-20T22:51:00.000-08:00

I was in the mood to share some of my tastes in art tonight. The above mosaic shows some of the stuff I've found on Flickr that I like. There is some really great stuff on Flickr! If you want to know more about any of them click on the picture and it will take you to Flickr where you can easily get to each artist's work :)

Just Some Quick Cuteness

2009-01-18T22:25:00.000-08:00

Liam LOVES trumpets! But what is better than playing a trumpet? Playing a trumpet with his grandpa of course! Uwe (Liam's grandpa on his dad's side) has two trumpets, a big one and an itty bitty perfect size for Liam one. Liam quickly figured out how to toot it (quite loudly might I add) and now he can do it every time he tries. These pictures were taken the other day in Liam's grandparent's living room. And what does Liam like to do most with grandma? He enjoys conning her into taking him for car rides up and down the street :) And how does a not quite two year old that can't talk yet con grandma? He points her towards the drawer with the car keys in it and then takes her hand and leads her to the garage of course! Sneaky little bugger :)

Birds on the Brain

2009-01-16T21:03:00.000-08:00

I am feeling stuck! I can't decide what I want to paint next and it's been driving me crazy all day long! The top picture shows what I just finished working on, well at least part of what I just finished working on. The one below it is something I finished just recently. I really love swans but I'm wanting to do something different and I just can't quite get an idea brewing in my head. Part of me really wants to do something cute and fun like children's art but another part of me wants to paint something more mature and serious. I think my biggest problem is that I really need to decide exactly what direction I want my artwork to go in in the future. Do I want to see it in galleries, being sold to parent's for their kid's nurseries, on greeting cards? I just can't decide.

I have been thinking of entering juried art shows lately but I'm unsure of how I should go about it and I admittedly have my doubts as to how well my work would do at one such event. I always imagine art galleries to be places that only display serious art or art with some sort of message behind it. My art is created just because I enjoy painting. I paint pretty pictures, that is all. I don't say to myself, "what sort of message do I want to convey?" I don't make a plan or a sketch before I start a piece, I just choose some colors and sometimes a vague idea for a subject but I just start painting and let my brushes go where they will. The ideas come as I go. Can I be taken seriously or am I just a painter of pretty pictures? I have a feeling I'll be thinking on this one for some time to come.

My Day Today

2009-01-12T15:18:00.000-08:00

Today's work, a sleepy albino hedgehog. This painting is acrylic on canvas.

The smiling face of my little bug Liam.

Today is pretty uneventful. Oliver is helping his brother renovate his basement and Liam is currently napping upstairs. This morning I finished a painting I started last night. You can see a photo of it at the top of this post. I was trying to paint an albino hedgehog somewhere in between cutesy cartoon and realistic. I think it turned out pretty well.

I'm listening to the Chronicles of Narnia movie soundtrack at the moment, well it's actually a mix of both Narnia movies soundtracks. Good music, I especially like the song by Regina Spektor called 'The Call'. Regina Spektor has some nice songs although I'll admit that a number of them are a little strange for my taste but she has such a pretty voice. Other great music I'm liking right now, Coldplay (musical geniuses!), Cocoon's album 'My Friends all Died in a Plane Crash', all of Keren Anne's albums (but especially the French ones) and last but certainly not least the 'Becoming Jane' movie soundtrack (which is heavenly).

MarmeeCraft Pretties!

2009-01-07T20:35:00.000-08:00

Do you know MarmeeCraft? Marjorie over at MarmeeCraft creates the most delightful artwork I've seen. Her style is so charming it's hard not to love the cheerful little critters her art portrays! Below are some of my favorite prints sold in her Etsy shop. Please do check them out, Marjorie is as lovely a person as her art and I'm sure you'll enjoy browsing her shop! While you're at it why don't you visit her blog? Cozy Little Whimsy Nook

'Good Day Hedgehog' print by MarmeeCraft

'Harvest Come' print by MarmeeCraft

'Favorite Things' print by MarmeeCraft

'Folkloric' print by MarmeeCraft

A Fabulous Blog That MUST be Visited!

2009-01-07T19:55:00.000-08:00

Have you been to this blog yet?! If not and you're a fan of pretty things and bright colors then you really must get over there pronto! I'm not quite sure how I managed to find it today, just a case of good luck I guess but I'm so glad I did find it! What do I love about Print & Pattern? Well besides the HUGE number of pictures I love the vintage and folksy style patterned products they feature on the blog. Really you must check Print & Pattern out!

Art and Snow

2009-01-05T23:39:00.000-08:00

Shadowboxes featuring vintage wallpaper, vintage spun cotton mushrooms and vintage spun cotton birds.

Any snow over by you? We have plenty! Right now I'm looking out the window at over two feet of it. Today some people tried to use the driveway to turn around and wound up getting stuck! They were trying to back a front wheel drive car up the steep driveway and were having quite the time of it, LOL! Luckily my lovely husband Oliver was there to save the day. He told them to drive all the way down the driveway and then turn around. That did the job and they were up and out in a jiffy! I'm not used to so much snow but I must say I am enjoying looking at it from inside the house. It's very pretty but in my opinion not all too enjoyable to go out in. I do however love the lower temperatures we're having. I'm usually too hot so the cold is pleasantly perfect for me.

As you can see by the above picture, I've been busy painting again! I finally got around to doing two gnome paintings and then there's the six bird paintings, two landscapes and one deer painting. I also did six shadow boxes recently and two collages on canvas. I tend to paint pretty quickly and almost always have some sort of artwork going. I've gotten so bad about needing to create that I even embroider during movie watching on the couch because I just can't seem to stop! I'm a fabulous multi-tasker though and can work on artwork while paying close attention to my son as well as keeping a close eye on the dogs. Liam loves to drive his cars around on the table I paint at so of course I'm always careful to make sure the paint isn't too close to the edge. The last thing I need is a painted toddler running a muck :)

New Years Bring an End to Old Tears

2009-01-02T19:35:00.000-08:00

Well another year has started and I'm hoping things will be looking up for my little family and myself this time around. Last year was a tough year, big moves, emotional times and alot of heartbreak but as I always do, I'm putting the past behind me and moving on. Alot happened that because of it's personal and stressful nature I decided against sharing it with blogland but let's just say that my life is about as dramatic as a life could possibly get, LOL! Here's to a fresh start!

Art in Gloomy Music Filled Rooms

2008-11-02T12:54:00.000-08:00

A digital collage I created today. I thought I'd try something a little different so I altered some of my photos and stuck them together in Photoshop.

Halloween is Scary to Me!

2008-10-30T14:22:00.000-07:00

This is the very first year I will be celebrating Halloween and I can't say I'm not a little nervous! I've been warned by others that this area gets hoards of kids. I'm absolutely terrified that I'm going to run out of candy! I really have no clue how to go about the whole Halloween experience, do I just let the kids grab the candy out of a bowl themselves or do I hand it to them so they don't overdo it and grab too much? One nice elderly man I was talking to at Walmart the other day told me that last year he had kids making requests! Some kids asked for soda pop but he wasn't handing out soda pop and they left empty handed! Can you imagine!? What is wrong with kids these days? If I had been allowed to celebrate Halloween when I was a kid I would have been perfectly happy with whatever I was given. Now of course I'll probably wind up with nothing but the scary mean kids knocking on my door LOL! I can't wait till Liam is just a tad bit older and we can take him trick or treating, such fun it will be! And I guarantee you I will teach my boy to be grateful for whatever he may get and to always say thank you :)

These photos were taken a little while ago as the sun was going down in my backyard.

New Artwork!

2008-10-30T08:01:00.000-07:00

Love Ewe : This painting was done on canvas. Before the paint was applied I covered the canvas in vintage book pages and then painted directly over the pages.

Old Wooden Chair : Another painting done on vintage book page covered canvas. Notice the little bird perched on the back of the chair?

This peice was also done on cavas and covered with vintage book pages. After the canvas was covered I painted it and added a little landscape painting in the bottom left corner. I then stiched the various bits and peices directly onto the canvas. Everything stiched on is either antique or vintage except for the velvet leaves which are new.

This peice was done exactly like the one above it. The items stiched to this canvas are also antique and vintage.

And this is what I do with vintage postcards that have ugly pictures on their fronts. I painted this little landscape directly onto this vintage postcard.

Another vintage postcard I painted a landscape onto.

This one I did a little differently. I embroidered a piece of fabric and then stiched the fabric onto this vintage postcard.

Another vintage postcard with embroidery.

There is more new artwork to see on my Flickr account which can be viewed HERE.

Puppy Love and Bingley Updates

2008-10-30T07:46:00.000-07:00

As you can see by the picture, Mr. Bingley fits in just nicely! I feel very lucky to have found another Chihuahua that get's along with Liam and Boo so well. When Griffin passed away I was certain I'd never be able to find another Chihuahua that would do so well with Liam but apparently I was wrong because Liam and Mr. Bingley have become good friends and seem to really enjoy each others company. Bingley is such a sweet little guy, so cuddley and affectionate. He's also my little shadow, he follows me everywhere I go. And he's become such a well behaved little guy! He rarely has any accidents now and happily goes outside to do his business. Yes, I really do love this newish addition to my family, he's such a doll!

Vintage Postcards

2008-10-30T07:39:00.001-07:00

What is your favorite thing to get in the mail? Mine happens to be one of my greatest obsessions, vintage postcards. Of all of the different things I find myself collecting, nothing gives me more pleasure than my vintage postcard collection. I love flipping through the pages of the binder I keep the best of my collection in and sifting through the endless piles of the not so perfect ones. I tend to buy them only in large lots and won't pay more than $1 a card although most I only paid a few cents for. The best thing about collecting them is that they can be found rather cheap if you know where to look and that sits very well with my strict budget :)

A Quick Post For My Husband

2008-10-04T18:55:00.000-07:00

This post is especially for my wonderful husband Oliver who is away from home for work. Oliver, I LOVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVE you SO much! I miss you and can't wait till you return to me! I'm so proud of you and I wish you lot's of luck with work and please don't forget what I look like while you're away :) I won't be able to forget what you look like because the above picture of you and Liam is blown up HUGE on my computer screen! Lot's and lot's and lot's of love, your sweetie XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Something I Do That I'm Sure You Don't Know About!

2008-10-04T18:36:00.000-07:00

Ever wonder about a person's past? What they did before you knew them or maybe even just read about them? Well here's something that I'm sure you didn't know about me. A number of years ago I was a model horse artist. I just recently started up again and found that all of that mixed media stuff I've been up to lately must have done something to me because my little painted ponies are better than ever! I fiddled with airbrushing these little ones for a couple of years but decided that handpainting them with acrylics is just so much more enjoyable while it may take quite a bit more time. There is an entire hobby dedicated to these little horses that spans the globe! My past work still to this day is winning awards for it's owners which I'll admit shocks me a bit, I'm my own worst critic. I used to bring my horses to model horse shows and compete against other artist's work. Then I would sell my horses to collectors. The above pictures are of two horses I did a number of years ago just before I quit painting them. They are super tiny little guys as you can see, one is on my dining room table and the other is standing atop my knee. The top horse will be for sale when I get around to it and the bottom horse is already sold. I specialized in these mini scale horses and in Appaloosa patterns (the spotted color for you non-horsey people). I know this sort of thing probably sounds so bizarre to many people LOL! I no longer collect model horses myself but I've decided to begin painting again whenever I need a break from my other artwork and in all honesty, the money to be made in model horse painting is just so much better than selling mixed media stuff so I'd be crazy not to paint a few horses from time to time :)

My New Art Room/Studio Unvailed Finally!!!

2008-09-07T16:46:00.001-07:00

This is the closet in my little room. There are no doors so I hung up some of my Indian fabric for a little curtain. The blue tin is a lovely vintage find from a second hand store.
These Chinese lanterns are not vintage but still lovely and they fit right in with their bright colors! I hung them from lengths of creamy yellow antique lace.
My cabinet was a purchase from IKEA. It matches my desk on the other side of the room. One of these days I think I will paint them both. The little cabinet on top was made by my mum. The vintage tin canisters on top are both finds from my favorite antique shop in Great Village Nova Scotia. I have a matching set of three of the one with the yellow lid! On top are four 100 yard rolls of vintage seam binding in glorious colors!
Here we have a cute little straw bag full of wonderful treasures! An antique photo, two antique Delineator fashion magazines in surprisingly good condition, A very large book of aged lined paper from 1921 complete with page numbers stamped on by hand, a vintage copy of 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town" sheet music and other neat things. Those are vintage rhinestone clip-on earings attached to the front of the bag.
Two lovely vintage rose patterned bowls houseing some antique Victorian trade cards as well as a roll of rose patterned vintage wallpaper border. These trade cards are just a teeny tiny part of my collection. I have about ten rolls of that wallpaper border, all 12 feet in length!

Some of the vintage books sitting atop my painting desk.
Pretty things displayed on the shelves above my desk. Three vintage plates, a Bailey's sugar pot in the bottom left corner and two gorgeous vintage velvet millinery flowers.
This adorable velvet bear was made by my mum when I was a little girl. It's wearing my vintage rhinestone bracelet. The alarm clock, also vintage, was made in Paris. I have two, one slightly different than the other. The button cards and loose buttons shown are all vintage as well as is the hanky shown hanging out of my Tiffany & Co. gift bag which is also home to an assortment of old cabinet cards.
More old books piled up on my desk. The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin is my favorite Beatrix Potter book. I'm hoping to find a first edition copy one of these days. The Horses & Ponies book was my mum's when she was young. The bible was in an auction lot that I won and while I'm not religeous I love it's worn old look. I'd have to double check but I believe that one was printed in the 1800's.
This metal K that hangs on the wall is from an old metal screen door. The pretty sparkly is a vintage rhinestone broach.

The newly painted wall shelves above my desk. I covered them in vintage book pages and then painted them with acrylics. The little shadowbox I put together to house my cute vintage plastic deer figures. Three of the horses are Hagen Renakers while the other (the littlest one) is one I painted years ago.
More vintage tin canisters, one holding paint brushes and the other paper flowers. The pink cake plate was a wonderful gift from my mum. On top of it is a vintage blue carnival glass sugar dish holding vintage rhinestone lovelies, two antique pocket watches, some swarovski crystals awaiting the right project to use them in, a blue sparkly bird and the pretty gold tiara I wore on my wedding day. The vintage glass jars hold more vintage supplies such as white velvet leaves, white buttons and some not so vintage but rather new plastic pearl beads. There you see a stack of antique postcards which are only a smidgeon of my antique postcard collection. If I could only collect one thing it would be these postcards! I love them!
Another shot of my desk. The chair is quite old and missing most of it's paint but I love it like that. It only cost me $10!
More on display on my shelves, this time we have a Baileys cup full of new velvet leaves and a vintage mother of pearl button card, a vintage salt shaker, and in the background one of my paintings and a Victorian childrens book from the 1800's, every page is covered in gorgeous color illustrations!
And last but not least, more shelf treasures! A lovely old handstiched hanky, a beautiful and fairly large antique Victorian trade card featuring yellow roses, the little horses I mentioned before and some of my Eiffel Towers.

I hope you enjoyed the tour :)

Some New House Pictures as Promised

2008-09-07T16:33:00.000-07:00

Well here they are! A sneak peak into my new home. I don't have alot of photos yet due to things still being unfinished and a real lack of furniture but this sort of gives you an idea of what things are going to look like for our new domain. I do have to apologize for the lousey first picture, it's dark and grainy and well, just not all that good.

The above picture is of the artwork currently on display above my livingroom couch. The canvas paintings were all painted by me in a sort of f0lksy style and the gold frame and framed piece of tapestry are antiques.

This picture is a shot of my front foyer/hallway seen from my livingroom. Decorations have to be sparse with a toddler about so most of my treasures are on display upstairs in my art room/studio. Don't you LOVE the old Regulator clock above the chair!? It's an antique that was given to me by my parents. I seriously adore that clock! It has all of it's parts but I need to take it in to get it fixed as it stopped running a number of years ago. It's been in my family since I was a little girl. The floors are all the old floorboards original to the house that we decided would be lovely painted a nice peanut butter color. The kitchen and laundry room have the old style lino tiles in a light green and cream colored checker pattern which goes perfectly with it's very 50's style look. I can't wait till the kitchen is finished so I can reveal how neat it looks :)

Holy Crow! It's Been SO Long!

2008-08-25T09:03:00.000-07:00

Okay so I haven't been very good at updating the old blog lately I'll admit. Life has been more than a little chaotic for us here. The house still needs work done, and I've been so busy with unpacking and the usual things I'm busy with. Mr. Bingley is doing well, he's such a doll. We've come to the conclusion that he is very much like our dear little Griffin (may he rest in peace). But with a slightly nuttier personality! Liam loves wiping apple sauce off his face and then having Bingley lick the stuff off his hands, Bingley of course does not object to it at all.

As for my art, I have done a little here and there. Most has been for my own home though, not for selling. I have more walls to dress up in this house and I want everything to be just right so I have quite a bit of work to do still before I will unvail my abode and the art that is within. Lately I've been on an early American folk art kick. I've found myself loving sheep, little red houses and other such cuteness. I'm putting my own spin on it all though! Also I work on my embroidery when I have time which is less often than I'd like. Liam loves rummaging thru my box of embroidery floss and then handing the little spools to Bingley to chew on. This of course is not something I like to encourage so it's rather difficult to sit down and get much of anything done.

My little art studio is looking lovely! I haven't been able to get very good pictures yet so I'm keeping it under wraps until my photos look at least somewhere near as good as the room itself looks. But I will say that if you love antique and vintage treasures and bright colors then you'll probably like my little piece of heaven! I love going in and just sitting sometimes. One especially lovely thing is that from my room I can hear the old town church bells and the town clock chiming. Living in a super old town full of ancient buildings is so wonderful I really can't even begin to describe it! It's like a dream come true! And I can VERY easily report that I will NEVER move back to British Columbia ever! It's like I was meant to be here.

Mr Bingley is HERE!!!!

2008-08-02T18:29:00.000-07:00

Well after what seemed like decades the wait is finally over! Mr. Bingley is here with me right now enjoying a much needed nap on the couch. He's a very sweet little guy, very happy and FULL of mischief! This puppy is so wild, he sure does keep Boo on her toes! If he's not sleeping then he's looking for something, anything to chew on. Shoes, Books, Furniture, Embroidery Hoops, pretty much everything but the puppy toys LOL! I do have my hands full with a toddler and a crazy pup to keep up with while trying to run a small home-based business, create art and take care of my new home but I'm lovin' it! Bingley is such a gorgeous little guy! Those blue eyes are sooooo blue! One is actually partially green. Boo is getting along well with Bingley, she puts up with him bouncing off of her and his chewing habit. Yes, he even chews on Boo! Mostly her back legs. She finds him irritating but not so much that she won't let him curl up with her when he's sleepy.

And, we're finally in the new house! It's still not finished. The kitchen is a mess right now, things needing to be set up like counters, cabinets and a kitchen sink. I've had to go upstairs to use the bathtub to clean dishes. Hopefully though Oliver will have the sink hooked up soon and I won't be trekking up the stairs with dishes in hand. A couple of closets need finishing and then various small details need work. But even with the work to be done this house is so lovely! I'm really quite fond of it! It's very old, not sure how old exactly but when I asked my dad what he thought he guessed at least 100 years. It's chalk full of old house charm! The wooden steps on the staircase are worn in the middle of each step which makes me wonder about all of the people who lived in this house before me, using these very stairs. I can easily say that the staircase is my very favorite thing about this wonderful little house. It's imperfections are so perfect! I don't have any decent pictures yet so you'll just have to imagine things until I can post photos :)

Antique Make-Over

2008-07-12T17:07:00.001-07:00

This has been one of my latest projects. Two antique picture frames that desperately needed a make-over. The off white one is finished and the gold one hasn't been started yet. I got the off white frame at a local estate auction for $5 and the other at the Amherst flea-market for $15. I plan on painting and distressing the gold frame to look just like the other one. The green chair is my favorite piece of furniture and definately my most humble. I got it in Great Village at an antique shop for $10, I haggled it down from $20!

Today's Photo Shoot

2008-07-12T16:49:00.000-07:00

Today I grabbed my camera and headed out the door to entertain myself while Liam napped. I took my old chippy chairs out into the yard and started shooting pictures of my new salt shaker on top of my beloved chairs who really should be named (that's how fond I am of these chairs)! Then I plopped the green chair down in the field and had Boo and Diesel model for me. Diesel (the Chihuahua on the right) is my mum's dog and is quite the little model. Of course that's really only because he's too scared to jump off the chair and he only has two facial expressions, terribly serious and scared to death! Luckily for me he modeled the terribly serious look today. Boo (the Chihuahua on the left) is my husband's girl and she is the world's worst model! Not because of her looks because she has a little deer face with such beautiful eyes. No, Boo's problem is that she's so tense and wound up that she just CAN'T sit still! And she's not afraid of jumping off the chair like Diesel is. My mum and I tried to get the new puppy "Max" to model on the chair with the others but he's so wild that all he managed to do was fall off of the chair. Needless to say I can completley understand why directors say that animal actors are the most time consuming and often times difficult to deal with in movies :)

Something New and Old (Vintage) For My Etsy Shop

2008-07-12T15:59:00.000-07:00

I'm offering art supply packets on Etsy now. Most of their contents are vintage with the odd bit of something new added in here and there. I decided to do this when I realized that I have a heck of alot of stuff and not enough time to use it all. The above pictures show some of the goodies. Feel free to check it out :)

A Wonderful Sale!

2008-07-10T14:20:00.000-07:00

Andrea over at One Hundred Wishes is having a summer sale! I just put in my order and so should you :). She has the paper flowers in the above picture on sale and they're vintage too so they're extra special! They're also selling out quickly. I was hoping for the blue ones but they were all gone so I went with the dark pink instead. I love her selection of goodies and can't wait for my order to get here! You can visit her blog HERE.

Updated the Old Website With Some New Graphics

2008-07-10T13:57:00.000-07:00

Over the last two days I've been updating my website. Removing some of the old art, adding some new art and making new banners for each individual gallery. You can see the new banners below. Be sure to click on each one to see them all full size, they're so much better that way!

More New Artwork!

2008-07-07T08:16:00.000-07:00

As you can see I've been keeping busy as of late. I forgot how much I enjoy just sitting and painting for hours at a time. The bottom picture is a 5x7" print I put together using an old magazine ad for soap and some lovely vintage wallpaper. The face from the ad is spectacular I think! The other pictures are of my latest acrylic paintings. If you're wondering about the painting with the yellow background it's supposed to be two blue vintage velvet strawberries. I love vintage velvet strawberries! I don't own any yet but I'm on the lookout for them. For now I guess my painting will have to do.

New ACEOs For the Shop

2008-07-07T08:15:00.000-07:00

A New Friend

2008-07-07T08:03:00.000-07:00

Meet Stanley. Stanley is a pigeon that decided to spend some time in my parent's yard a couple days back. As you can probably see from the picture Stanley's legs are banded which means he's not wild but rather someone's pet. Because of a large number of cats living across the street I thought it best to catch Stanley and try and find his owner. I managed to track down his owner thru the internet using the numbers on his leg band. It turns out Stanley is a girl and her owner is a teenage boy who uses her for racing. Stanley was in a race that started in Quebec and I guess she became tired and decided to take a break from flying in my parent's yard. To make a long story short, Stanley is now with her owner after having a nice vacation in an oversized birdcage in my parent's kitchen :) (Picture taken by my dad)

Just a Quick Picture Post

2008-06-26T10:08:00.003-07:00

Just thought I'd quickly post my latest creation. The deer was handpainted on paper then scanned and added to a Photoshopped background I made using vintage wallpaper and other lovelies. Have a lovely day!

The Photography Bug

2008-06-24T10:04:00.000-07:00

I have been enjoying my camera more so than usual. Maybe because the sun is shining and the lighting is finally more suitable for decent pictures. My favorite thing to photograph is my collection of vintage treasures, cups, saucers, watch faces, whatever I can think of really. I went out into the field the other day and took some outdoor pictures as well. It's amazing how beautiful a simple buttercup or daisy can be! These things are so often overlooked but sometimes a good photo is all it takes to remind us to pay better attention to the little things.

New Artwork

2008-06-24T09:52:00.000-07:00

I've been rather slow lately as far as my artwork is concerned. It's tough to be inspired and creative in such a different environment. Normally the little treasures around my home inspire me quite a bit and since I'm staying at my parent's right now my creativity just doesn't seem to be working as well as it usually does. I have done some art though, it's just taking longer than normal. The above pictures show what I've been up to. The silhouettes are available on Etsy as 5 x 7" prints for $7 and the original collages are also on Etsy. The collages were done on canvas board. I love doing collage but I sometimes try to do something a little different because I don't want to be known as just a collage artist. I prefer being refered to as a mixed media artist because I seem to dabble in so many things. I do find though that collage is what feels most natural to me, I don't necesarily need to be inspired to do collage.

Another Puppy and a Moose!

2008-06-24T09:37:00.001-07:00

Wow! Is it ever summer! The heat we're experiencing here in Oxford is almost unbearable, mostly because it is very humid. I'm sitting in my mum's art studio in front of my laptop with a tiny Chihuahua puppy fast asleep on my lap. These little ones are so warm, not the best way to stay cool in this heat but he is so adorable and much happier in my lap than anywhere else. If you're wondering, no he's not my new puppy. Mine is still too new to be here with me now but apparently Chihuahua puppies are contagious! My parent's just a couple of days ago found themselves a little bundle of joy. He doesn't have a name yet, they're undecided as far as that is concerned so right now he's just 'puppy'. He's a long haired purebred Chihuahua and so full of energy! It's sleep play sleep play sleep play all day long!

This morning we had a visitor. A male moose strolled across the backyard! Very neat to see, especially since I've only seen pictures of these critters, this was my first real moose :).

Meet Mr. Bingley

2008-06-17T09:56:00.000-07:00

This is Mr. Bingley, the new addition to my family. He is 4 weeks old at present and still with his mum at his breeder's house. Bingley is a fairly uncommon color called merle, he has lovely blue eyes and a sweet little pink freckled nose. He's a purebred Chihuahua.

This is Bingley's daddy Paco. Paco is a real sweetie and reminds me so much of my lovely little Griffin. I almost teared up when I first saw the resemblence. He has the same sort of personality Griffin had as well. I could have taken this little guy home with me, I was quite smitten. Paco is a teeny tiny little man of probably only 3 pounds or so. But he's not at all a fragile little dog. He has just as much spunk as the bigger dogs! Sooooo much like Griffin!
This is Jazz, Bingley's mum. Jazz is also a merle colored Chihuahua. She has one blue eye and one green. Isn't she lovely? Jazz reminded my husband and I of our other Chihuahua "Boo" so much! She has a similar face and personality.

The owner and breeder of these dogs was such a nice lady and I was happy to see that she seemed to be an ethical and responsible breeder who obviously loved her little Chi-babies. Oliver, Liam and I enjoyed our visit and loved playing with and cuddling the puppies. Liam was very gentle whenever we showed him the puppies and he got such a kick out of Jazz barking at him. He thought it was hillarious and couldn't stop squealing and laughing. Jazz on the other hand thought that Liam was a scary strange little person and had no problem letting everyone know her opinion of him, it was quite entertaining :)

Horrible Horrible Very Sad News

2008-06-17T07:01:00.000-07:00

This past weekend my little Chihuahua 'Griffin' passed away. I stupidly allowed him to accompany me outside when I went to see what my husband and dad were up to. Normally I'm so incredibly careful and don't let the dogs outside because of the lack of fencing but this time I let them come along thinking they would stay with me. After a few minutes my husband and I noticed Griffin was missing so we started looking about and calling him but he didn't come when called. My husband went down by the road and then yelled at me to stay by the house. He looked very upset and thats when I saw my little angel lying by the side of the road. As far as we can tell he was inspecting the ditch when he most likely spotted a cat across the street and he went dashing across the road to chase the cat just when a car was flying past. Thankfully he died instantly and didn't feel any pain. That had to have been the very worst day of my life, I don't think I've ever cried so hard. Griffin was such a joy, and knowing that he was the happiest dog in the world and that he had a very spoiled and good life full of love makes me feel a little better but nothing could ever replace him. He will always be the best dog I've ever had the honor to know and he will always be my favorite.

Of course now Boo our other Chihuahua is depressed because she doesn't know where her little friend went and she loved him so. We've been spoiling her even more now and we aren't leaving her alone at all. She's very sad and lonely. Poor thing, she keeps looking at the door and crying every now and then.

My wonderful and thoughful dad found us a new Chihuahua puppy, not to replace Griffin because no dog could ever do that, but to help with our loss and for poor Boo who needs a companion. Boo has never been alone, since she was a puppy she was always one of two dogs and being the only dog is hard for her. At first I felt a little guilty about accepting another puppy so soon, as if I were betraying my little Griffin. But a new puppy is exactly what we all need to get through this. And I think that happy little Griffin would want us to be happy again and he'd understand.

The new puppy is named Mr. Bingley. He is only 4 weeks old now so we still have to wait a little before we can take him home with us. So for now Boo will be spoiled and cuddled extra so she isn't too lonely and when she sees her new brother I'm sure she'll warm up to him quickly and love him so. And we will never ever forget our little angel Griffy who made my heart happy every day that I was lucky enough to share with him. And now I need to stop talking about him because my eyes are welling up and I'm needing a break from crying. I will post pictures later today of Bingley.

Many Pictures and Some Thoughts

2008-06-10T10:54:00.001-07:00

These are some of my latest creations. I put these little collages together on 4x4" canvas. I was planning on keeping them but decided to stick them on Etsy at the last moment. They're in the shop here. They all have some vintage pretties on them including a piece of fabric from the 1800's (it's on the pink collage).

Isn't this house gorgeous!? My husband, son, 2 Chihuahuas and I all went for a long walk yesterday around my parent's town. Oxford is chalk full of beautiful old houses. The weather was hot and we had such a nice time! Liam walked along holding my hand so well. He's getting very good at walking on his own and boy does he sure love his new found freedom! Of course he still loves being carried around too though :)

Original Artwork to Etsy

2008-06-05T09:07:00.000-07:00

Today I'm busy adding some more art to Etsy. I've listed some people portraits, cute animals, and other such lovelies so feel free to stop by my shop and take a look-see. I'll be adding stuff throughout the day until my little bug awakes from his afternoon nap.

My Latest Finds

2008-05-28T07:52:00.000-07:00

I've been going vintage crazy as of late. Shopping for old things is like going on a treasure hunt except so much better! The above pictures are of some of my latest finds. Do you see a color theme going on up there? My new favorite colors are green and yellow but I've been having difficulty passing up the occasional blue item as well. The Hardy Boys books are for my son's room, for now they'll just be a decoration but maybe someday he'll enjoy reading them. The little cow salt and pepper shakers are vintage Enesco with their sticker intact. I also found a set of three blue Amish pattern Pyrex nesting bowls, some lovely tin canisters, two fabulous old wooden chairs complete with chippy paint and other great treasures that I love so much!

I must admit that I'm getting antsy about moving into my new home. Staying with my parents has been nice and I'm comfortable here but I long for a place of my own. Most especially a place where I can set up my collections and pretty things. I also desperately miss making art! I've been embroidering to pass my time but collage is my first love and I very much want to pick up a paintbrush. I've been so inspired since I moved to Nova Scotia and feel that I really need to get that inspiration out in the form of artwork.

Farmer Me

2008-05-21T15:37:00.000-07:00

With my farm girl apparel on (pajamas and rubber wellies) I thought I'd take a few quick pictures before darkness interupts my creative process. My husband, son, two dogs and I are all staying at my parents in the country while our new home in town undergoes renovations. I haven't had alot of time outside yet with a few rainy days and a little one to take care of but this evening the rain let up and out I went for a few minutes of visiting with the horses and some picture taking.
The above picture is of my parents back fields. Pretty isn't it? Their property ends a ways back behind the woods. The weather while wet lately has been fairly warm and I haven't needed a coat when venturing outside. The horses in the pictures following are my mum's old girls "Ambra" and "Sierra''. Ambra is an Arab and Sierra an Anglo-Arab. Liam loves the horses and really get's a kick out of stroking their necks and faces. His mummy is hoping he'll turn out to be a real little cowboy when he's older! I so look forward to teaching him to ride!

My New Home!

2008-05-19T08:02:00.000-07:00

This is my soon to be new home. It's not exactly my dream house but It's old, it's roomy inside, and it's in a cute little town and I love that! As you can see it needs landscaping work done. I have plans for flower beds, some new trees, a driveway, a fenced backyard to keep my pups and my little bug safe and a vegetable garden in the back.

This is the street it's on. All of the houses are cute and old, there's a park at the bottem of the hill and according to the neighbors it's a quiet street.

Inside needs work. There is alot of work to be done infact. I love the staircase! We are going to paint the old floorboards rather than put new flooring over top to give it a quaint old country house appeal. Downstairs is going to be painted white while upstairs the walls are a creamy color.

There are three bedrooms upstairs. One for Oliver and I, one for Liam, and one for a future little someone. Downstairs there is a living room, dining room, a huge kitchen and a very large laundry room which is going to double as my art studio as it is the size of a medium sized bedroom. The ceilings downstairs are all very high which helps make the house seem even bigger inside. I love this little house!
We won't be moving in till the renovations are complete. My husband is working so hard on getting them done as quickly as he can. I'm sooooo looking forward to when I can start decorating with all of my vintage treasures!

I'm Back!

2008-05-19T07:22:00.000-07:00

Well, we arrived in Nova Scotia safe and sound. I must admit it was a tad bit boring just driving and driving. There wasn't alot to look at along the way, whoever tells you a drive across Canada is a nice trip obviously hasn't done it themselves! The scenery became rather dull after we left the mountains behind us and didn't become interesting again till we were in Quebec. If you are visiting Canada don't leave out Quebec City! It's absolutely GORGEOUS! The
old buildings and cobblestone streets are so charming, I wish we had had the time to stay a little longer. My husband and I plan to go down there sometime in the future for a long weekend.

Liam was such a doll! He rarely fussed and was usually all smiles despite the fact that most days we were driving for hours on end. We had the portable DVD player going most of the time entertaining him with his very favorite movie Pride and Prejudice. Liam loves that movie and watched it so attentively.

Both of our dogs were very well behaved. They spent most of their time sleeping which isn't anything new to them.

My husband was just thrilled about my plan to tour Canada's Value Village stores (a usually great source of second hand goodness). Oliver has a slight case of second hand phobia and is never terribly happy about my need to check out each and every second hand store we come across. I visited a Value Village store every day on our trip, sometimes I was lucky enough to visit more than one. So of course all of my souvenirs for the trip are vintage! I found so many fantabulous deals! So many pretty things for my collections!

I am so happy our drive is now over and we're in my favorite Canadian province, Nova Scotia. I love it here and already feel so at home, as if I've always belonged here. I don't miss BC at all! I do however miss my husband's brother's family, especially his daughters and I hope they will one day be able to visit!

Nova Scotia is so different from BC. The people are friendlier here. The lifestyle is slower paced, people aren't in a hurry like they are in BC. There is far less traffic, I doubt Nova Scotia has ever had a traffic jam. The buildings and houses are mostly old here, most at least 100 years in age. Some are run down others not so much. But I like that, I like the character and history of Nova Scotia's architecture. BC is so new, I don't like new. I love the small towns and villages here. In BC there are more large cities where people rarely take the time to get to know one another. Yes, I am sure that this is where I belong.

As for my artwork and Etsy..... I'm going to put my artwork on hold for a bit. Right now I am staying at my parent's place in the country and all of my belongings are packed in boxes sitting in the hay loft of my parent's barn. I will continue to sell original art on Etsy. I have a ton of artwork that isn't yet on Etsy and I have located the box it's packed in so I can keep that all going. But making art right now would mean pulling out all of my supplies and then having to re-pack them once it was time to move into our new place which is too much of a hassle right now. So Etsy will continue to thrive :). I won't be offering prints for now, just originals.

Last Post Till I'm in Nova Scotia!

2008-04-27T23:00:00.001-07:00

Well, this is the last post I'll be writing in my current mess of a home in BC Canada! After I finish typing this up I'll be moving out of the way so my husband can take our computer apart and stick it back in it's box. I might be able to get a post in while on the road with my laptop but I won't make any promises. Tommorow the movers come and take our stuff away and then we'll be on the road! I'm sure not looking forward to this drive! I hate long drives and boy will this be a long one! I'll be sure to post as soon as I'm able and let you all know how things went! Till then ....... lot's of love to you all!

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO!!!!!!!

Erraticus Zine, You MUST See it!

2008-04-27T10:52:00.000-07:00

Just recently I found in my mailbox a wonderful surprise! Erraticus zine! Have you seen it!? You must see it because it is fabulous! It's a little magazine full of beautiful artwork put together in such a way that it gave me instant inspiration. Unfortunately all of my art supplies are packed now! But seriously! I LOVE Erraticus! It's lovely! It is put together by only ONE person!Melissa McCobb Hubbell creates this piece of joy right out of her home and prints it up on her printer. How fabulous is THAT!? And the really exciting part for me? Melissa contacted me a while back about my artwork and asked if I would mind her including it in Erraticus! So, the little piece of joy that arrived in my mailbox has two pages featuring some of my collages! Neat huh?! I'm so flattered! I think I will probably subscribe once I make it to Nova Scotia, I like it that much!

Erraticus Zine Website

Melissa McCobb Hubbell's Blog

Garage Sale

2008-04-21T11:06:00.001-07:00

Well, the garage sale was a huge success! We had it this weekend and made a little over $800 selling mostly $1 and $2 items! It was a great deal of work and boy was I ever tired when all was said and done but I did enjoy myself. So many nice people came and I really enjoyed chatting and helping out my customers. One little boy, maybe 11 or 12 years of age wanted a computer game. I was selling the game itself plus 3 expansions for the game. His grandpa was going to buy him one of the games which I was selling for $5 so I threw in the 3 expansions for free and you should have seen his face light up! He was adorable! And so polite and sweet! He gave me such an excited and very happy thankyou which made the whole garage sale worth while :) . My sister and her husband showed up on Sunday and sold some of their things. They are moving as well (not to Nova Scotia though) and needed to downsize their collection of odds and ends. But, Holly (my sister) and I wound up trading items back and forth. She walked away with a set of my dishes as well as a few other decorative items and I came away from her selection of goods with a fabulous burnt orange oriental carpet and some craft supplies as well as a little Appaloosa horse pin that I couldn't resist being an Appaloosa lover. After the sale was over and Holly and Sean were on there way home, my husband and I took what was left to Value Village (our local second hand store) and I had just enough time before the store closed to snatch up some lovely old doilies as well as two fabulous lime green rice bowls that I just HAD to have. Next we drove over to my husband's brother's house for a visit and to do our van's brakes for our trip to Nova Scotia. We had a very busy but wonderful day that I enjoyed so very much!

The Chubby One Finger

2008-04-12T21:00:00.000-07:00

Is that picture too adorable or what!? Sorry, I'm being a mum right now and loving babies. I was taking a brake from packing by looking at a bit of Etsy when I happened across that lovely picture and I felt like sharing it. If you'd like to have it on a note card you can get it from Jennifer Boston on Etsy HERE.

I love chubby baby hands! When I was pregnant with my little bug one of the things I looked forward to the most was touching his hands. They were so small and chubby. Now of coarse they're huge and chubby because he's monster baby :) He likes to point at things right now with his cute little one finger. That's what we call it, his one finger, as if it's the only one he has :)! He points at everything, and if I want to make him smile all I have to do is kiss the end of that one finger and he immediately grins because his mummy is so very funny! Being a mum is pure joy, even on the tough days when you don't want to get out of bed (at least for me it is).

So Busy I Can't Even Provide a Picture for This Post!

2008-04-08T21:50:00.000-07:00

Oh my goodness am I ever busy! I have till just a bit before the end of the month to pack all of our stuff for our move from BC to Nova Scotia. And there's still soooooo much to do! I'm pretty much doing it all myself, my husband has to work on a reno job right now and that leaves me with an Etsy shop to run, a baby to care for, a house to clean, and a whole lotta junk to pack! And if that weren't bad enough, before the month is up we are going to have a huge garage sale to sell off hopefully at least half of our stuff. That means that I don't just have to pack, I have to unpack everything in storage, sort it, sort everything not in storage, then decide exactly what goes to Nova Scotia with us, what goes to the garage sale, what goes in the garbage and what goes to the second hand store. I have to do all of this in a tiny tiny tiny house with a one year old baby milling about the boxes and junk deciding just what to play with and what to destroy while mummys not paying close attention! Liam loves to unpack after I pack each box and then while I try to repack he enjoys quickly unpacking what I just repacked! It's a long process :)

It's tough getting rid of some things but at the same time I look forward to not having to think of needing storage space once we're moved. I'm really clearing things out! Anyone who shows up at my garage sale will be pleasantly surprised at the mass of very nice and well cared for treasures! No junk at this junk sale!

Introducing.......Nestlings!

2008-03-25T13:59:00.000-07:00

Here they are, the project I spoke of in my last post but didn't have pictures for. I managed to take some decent photos and couldn't wait to get them on the internet! These little birds are called Nestlings, I sculpted them from paperclay which I then hand-painted in acrylics. The nests are made of bits and pieces of yarn, ribbons, buttons, lace and other such lovlies. The white velvet leaves are vintage. Each nestling is different and I plan on making more of them as soon as I can get a chance. My favorite is the blue one which I've named Henry :)

A New Product in the Works!

2008-03-25T10:23:00.000-07:00

I've been busy trying to come up with ideas for various items to sell on Etsy lately. So far I've managed to think up two new ideas which I hope will be well recieved. The first is sort of like a dreamcatcher but not exactly. I've done five so far and am still working out the bugs and trying to improve on them. The above pictures are of 4 of the five. The pale pink and white one was my first attempt. I wasn't completly happy with it so I moved on to the next which was the last picture shown, the pale purple and white. That one turned out nicely but I think I could do better. The other two, rather brightly colored ones were my fourth and fifth tries and I'm already much happier with these. I think I still need to stop at the craft store and pick up more supplies including some more little birds and more beads.

The next project doesn't have pictures yet so I'm keeping it under wraps until I can take some decent photos of them. I will say though that I really like the results of this particular project and I think other people will probably like them too :)

Such a Lovely Weekend to be Sure!

2008-03-24T11:45:00.000-07:00

I had a very nice weekend! It was busy to be sure but I enjoyed it so! My sister Holly and her husband Sean came down from Pemberton (near Whistler BC) to stay for the weekend and we went out and had a lovely time. We ate at a favorite restaurant where they had some sort of a kitchen mishap and because they were so busy at the time everyone in the restaurant had to wait quite a while for their food. This actually turned out to be a good thing though since I had ordered a rather expensive meal and we wound up getting 40% off our entire bill because of the wait! The manager was very nice and I felt so badly for him having to go around and apologize to everyone in the restaurant. I hope there weren't any mean customers for him to deal with as it wasn't his fault and I can only imagine what a tough job it would be to have to deal with cranky customers.

My sister and I went shopping at our favorite second hand store and I came home with a number of gorgeous treasures! In the pictures above you can see them. I found a lovely tea-cup, a little sugar bowl, a huge and absolutely gorgeous dark pink Indian sari covered in embroidery, beads and sequins, a large amount of shear pale pink fabric with dark pink and yellow roses, 6 lovely white crocheted doilies (not shown in the pictures) and a fantastic vintage metal alarm clock made in France (also not shown in the pictures). We also stopped at the scrapbook store and I picked out some new ribbons that are all fabulous!

My husband and Sean went to various stores and did some window shopping and when they came back they presented each of us (my sister and I) with the most beautiful roses! How lucky I feel to have such a thoughtful husband! He also bought me some new bath towels for the bathroom in a lovely pale creamy yellow that looks so very nice with our shower curtain :)

More Goodies Added to Etsy!

2008-03-22T09:01:00.000-07:00

Last night I added the above collages to Etsy. They are all originals and are for sale at great low prices! The pink flamingo is already sold but the rest are still available. Click HERE to go check them all out :)

Somerset Studio Submissions

2008-03-16T11:58:00.000-07:00

I've decided to try submitting artwork to Somerset Studios magazine. The above images are pictures of my "Vintage Halloween" submissions. The top picture is a collaged portrait that I did with Lizzie Borden in mind. Lizzie Borden has always been a person I have found interesting and considering that she supposedly murdered her parents with an axe many years ago I figured she would make a good vintage Halloween theme for my art. The other piece is in person a very textured painting. I used cardboard, embossed papers, buttons and tissue paper to make the background and then painted over it in acrylics. Both paintings were done on canvas board, the Lizzie Borden collage is 8x10 in size and the other is 5x7.

Hugely Big Good News!

2008-03-16T11:34:00.000-07:00

Wow! So much has happened here in the last week! All three of us are down with a bad cold, AGAIN! So I'm sitting around trying to ignore my aches and pains. My husband quit his job because his boss was intolerable and verbally abusive. Ever since he quit he has been so much more pleasant to be around. The constant abuse he suffered at work was beginning to affect his mood at home. He's quite a bit happier now and I'm so very happy for him. Apparently a great many of the guys he was working with are currently searching out new employment for the very same reason!
But the biggest news of all is that we have decided to move! Not just across town though, no, we are moving across country! We have made the big decision to pack up and drive to Nova Scotia! We are sick and tired of living in BC, land of NO oportunity. Did you know that the average house in BC now costs about 1 million dollars?!! How crazy is that?! There is no future for us here, even if we worked our bottoms off and saved every single penny we would never be able to afford a home in BC. Most people, unless they start out with a good deal of money have no future in BC. We want a home of our own and would also like to have another baby before I turn 30, it's possible in Nova Scotia. We are going to sell most of our things (I'm keeping all of my vintage pretties and art stuff of coarse) and then we are going to rent a U-Haul trailer and drive the looooooooooong drive to our new home! We don't have a job or house waiting for us but there is plenty of work for people with my husband's experiance and rental houses aren't hard to come by there. We'll stay at my parent's for the first little while until we find a house and job.
I'll still be making art up until it's time for us to move and my Etsy shop will remain open. My husband has a renovation job to do before we leave so we have some cash for the trip and so we can trade in our van for something more reliable. We should be leaving in about a month and a half. I will set my computer, printer and scanner up at my parent's so that I can keep my art and Etsy going uninterupted, well except of course for the time we're driving there. It will probably be a 12 day drive, I think. Exciting huh?

Second-hand Goodness

2008-03-11T18:07:00.000-07:00

If you're anything like me you love second hand stores! I personally prefer not to buy my clothes at these stores as I like having the knowledge that I'm the only one that's been in my clothes. I do however LOVE to look for special little treasures like dishes, old tins, and other lovelies just needing a good cleaning to bring them back to life. The above pictures are of some of my favorite finds over the past few months. I only get to go to these stores when my sister is in town for a visit because my husband has "Ew! The used thing touched me! Hand me a handywipe!" syndrome and he refuses to make trips to my favorite old things store (I don't drive and we only have one vehicle anyway). My best buy is sort of visable in the third picture above, it's a vintage suitcase! It cost only $5.99 and is in pretty good condition, not a thing broken on it!

Etsy Shop Update and Plenty of New Artwork!

2008-03-09T20:11:00.001-07:00

The above images are of artwork created since the last time I posted on my blog. Some are ACEOs some are on canvas board and others were done on stretched canvas. Many are available on Etsy if you see something you like feel free to hop on over there and check them out! Also remember that all of the images on my blog are clickable for a larger view :)

In other news, I'm currently trying (or still trying I should say) to figure out commission pricing. I must admit that it is incredibly difficult to decide on such a thing! Commissions usually cost more than already made work but at the same time I charge very little for already made work as it is because I'm new in the world of professional art and I think it's best to start out incredibly affordable. I know that currently there is no way I'm being paid for my time, which doesn't bother me because I realize that to be successful you sometimes have to start out making next to nothing. But I also don't want to do commisions for too little because they are much more difficult to do (at least for me). Such thoughts are a jumble in my mind and I feel as though I will burst! The good news is that I own a very good broom and a good strong vacuum so if I do happen to burst, my husband won't have too much trouble with clean-up!

Illustration Friday.....My First Time!

2008-03-09T19:42:00.000-07:00

I've never participated in Illustration Friday before. Partly because I've never had the time and partly because I as of yet hadn't really been inspired by any of the topics chosen. But when I saw that this week's theme was "garden" I knew that this was my week to try it out! If you've seen my artwork in the past you've probably already figured out that I love flowers. I think my scrapbook paper stash has more floral prints in it than anything else and I love anything to do with roses. The above image is my contribution to this week's Illustration Friday. Enjoy!

ACEOs and other such lovlies on Etsy!

2008-02-23T15:40:00.000-08:00

Yes, I have once again updated my shop. I decided to also offer ACEOs in original and print form for those of us who are close to pennyless and would like some cheap art. So far I just have originals to offer but when I have some time I will offer tiny prints as well. You can see the available artwork in the above pictures. I really enjoy making these tiny works of art! The small size is so fun to work with. I especially enjoyed the little landscapes. I plan on doing more of these as well as other themed ACEOs. For anyone wondering an ACEO is just like an artist trading card but it is for selling rather than trading.

I also added another 5x7 collage to Etsy, this time the subject is a bunny! You can check all of my new art on ETSY HERE.

New Artwork and Originals on Etsy!

2008-02-20T18:10:00.000-08:00

Just a new artwork update this time around! The pink flamingo is a painting I recently finished which is available as an 8x10 print on Etsy. The other pictures are of two 5x7 collages I just finished today. The original collages (not prints) are both available in my Etsy shop HERE. Both collages are priced very low. That's it, for now at least!

Oh....What a Lovely Day!

2008-02-20T17:59:00.000-08:00

Today was SUCH a nice day! I worked on some collages, spent time with my little bug who was in such a cheerful mood, did my usual workout routine and then I managed to get in a half hour walk before it got dark. On my walk I visited with a sweet little bay weanling Quarter Horse and an adorable Miniature Donkey. These two are always willing to visit when I walk by, they are both super sweet. Liam also seemed to enjoy them :). I also found another bird nest to add to my collection. Definately a lovely day!

And the Winner Is.......

2008-02-14T23:49:00.000-08:00

The 7th commenter, Martha! I'll be getting in touch with you sometime tommorow to get your shipping info. Congratulations :)

Thankyou to everyone for entering my give away! I never thought so many people would enter! If you didn't win and are wanting a print please check out my Etsy shop HERE. The three prints from the give away plus many more are available there for a nice low price :).

Also I thought I'd share some new work with you all. The above pictures were just finished! First we have a brindle and white Whippet curled up in his blanket. This one is mixed media all the way! The dog was done in acrylics and colored pencil on paper and then cut out. I then strategically placed a tea towel around the paper cut out on my scanner and scanned them. Then I used my computer to make the pretty patchwork background and stuck it all together in Photoshop. The other piece is an adorable English gentleman bunny named Sir Edmund Bunny. I may offer prints of these two in the near future. In the works right now are another Whippet and a pink flamingo. Enjoy :)

An Artist I Would Like to Share With You....

2008-02-13T21:22:00.000-08:00

I don't normally do this but I really wanted to share someone else's artwork with you this time around. I came across a wonderful painter a while back named Ken Swinson whose work is in my opinion perfectly charming. I first was lucky enough to see his work on Flickr and then later on his website. Why do I love his work? It makes me happy and when I look at it it reminds me of my visit to Nova Scotia and of the countryside there and of the little old house I hope to someday own. You can check out his artwork HERE if you'd like and who knows, you may just love it as much as I do!

Also check out Ken's work on Flickr at usartdude. Now I just need to make myself "un-poor" so I can afford to buy some of it :)

Etsy Shop and New Work

2008-02-12T14:05:00.001-08:00

Boy oh boy, I've had some really frazzled nerves over the weekend and on Monday as well. Etsy is exciting but intimidating! But I'm starting to feel a little more calm now and am trying to just focus on work and taking care of my son. I keep telling myself that everything will work out and that I just have to be calm and patient, nothing happens over night.

This morning I walked into Liam's room and low and behold, he stood up in his crib all by himself! It's his first time standing up without help and he did it so easily! Next thing you know he'll be taking out the trash for his mum :).

I finished some new work today. It incorporates some past collages with new stuff. I added these to my Etsy shop as 8x10 Prints HERE . Well, back to work! Enjoy :)

New Artwork!

2008-02-09T16:50:00.001-08:00

This is a painting I finished last night just in time to list a print of it to Etsy! Just thought I'd share :)

NOW OPEN!!!! New website and Etsy shop!

2008-02-09T15:07:00.000-08:00

I know I know, I said Sunday, but I got everything finished faster than I thought I would so I've opened up my new website and Etsy shop a wee bit early. Please check it out, I worked soooooo hard on them both :). The website is full of new artwork never before seen and I did all of the graphics myself.

The prints I'm offering from my Etsy shop are reasonably priced and high quallity. I've tried to keep postage costs as low as possible as well so my work will be affordable. I plan on offering originals for sale in the future, but right now I'm just going to sell prints to get myself used to the workings of everything and then when I'm ready to I'll sell some of my originals. Soooooo nervous am I! It's one thing to post pictures to the internet but it's another thing entirely to offer artwork for sale.

I doubt I would have ever even considered doing it if it weren't for my little guy and my desire to buy a house to raise him in. All of the money I make selling art is going into savings so I can one day buy a house and get out of the misery that is renting. Wouldn't that be so lovely?! Our rent costs more than most people's mortgage payments! I can't wait for my dream to some day be a reality!

Check out the website HERE

Check out my Etsy shop HERE

A Quick Pictureless Post!

2008-02-06T12:39:00.000-08:00

HA HA! I lost two pounds! Two pounds in two days, I'm well on my way now and am feeling overly confident! I just finished a half hour of pilates and am eagerly awaiting the next set later today. And, I'm going to do something most women would never ever do.... I'm going to tell my current weight! Because what's the point in posting about weight loss excitement if I don't tell what my weight is in the first place? Sooooooo, here goes, I currently weigh 145 pounds! A little embarrasing but my goal is to lose AT LEAST 20 pounds, although I wouldn't be at all unhappy if I lost more than that :). So there you go, I'm going to keep my blog updated on my progress. Maybe I'll post my weight every week. I was so excited after weighing myself that I phoned my husband at work just to tell him the good news :).

Big Boy Shoes and Baby Books

2008-02-06T12:28:00.000-08:00

Look what Liam's daddy brought home for him (pictures above)! His first pair of real big boy shoes! He still doesn't know what to do with himself when wearing them. He no longer tries to walk, instead he now marches because he finds his big clunky feet to be very awkward :)

Here's what my first baby book page looks like. Liam was bundled in a yellow towel after he was born so I painted him like that for his book. It's not 100% finished but I figured I'd show it anyway. I'm working on this book very slowly, hopefully it'll be done before his 20th birthday (he's not yet one year of age) :)

One World One Heart Giveaway Event 2008

2008-02-05T20:10:00.000-08:00

I love joining in on fun blog events and when I read Laurence's last comment on my blog I decided to go take a look at her giveaway. It sounds like fun so I'm going to join in as well :). To find out more about this blog giveaway event click HERE. The event is called the "One World One Heart Event".

My giveaway is one high quality 8.5 x 11 print of one of the above three images. There is one winner and the winner can choose one of the three. If you don't happen to win but are still wanting a print check out my Etsy shop HERE for a large selection of available prints including the above three!

The cut-off date for entering is the 13th of February at 7:00 PM Pacific Time. To enter simply leave a comment on this post. The winner's name will be randomly drawn out of a box by my son :) . I will post the name of the winner on my blog sometime on the 14th.

Gypsy Cob Painting and Website News!

2008-02-05T19:06:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I started my quest to lose weight. I'm eating SUPER healthy, drinking plenty of water, and doing a half hour of pilates twice a day plus 100 crunches everyday. So far I'm tired but I already feel better than usual. I feel so positive about this and I'm feeling happier knowing that I'm doing something that is not only good for me but also good for my son because a happier mummy means a happier baby :). So right now I'm snacking on raw brocolli, carrots, plain almonds and gogii berries (SP?).

I got a painting finished today! The above picture is of a chestnut Gypsy Cob mare on a floral patchwork background. The horse was done in acrylics and colored pencils on paper and the background is made up of floral patterned papers patched together in Photoshop.

On Sunday I will officially be opening my new website and my new Etsy shop! I'm nervous about it but hopefully all will go well :)

A Baby Book in the Making

2008-01-30T19:53:00.000-08:00

I've started work on my son's baby book. Today I did some painting in it and I'm hoping and praying it turns out as cute as I'm imagining it to be. I also took some pictures today of some of Liam's things to put in his book. No worries, we don't let him play with the marbles yet, it will be some time till he's ready for those :). We have a large vintage mayonnaise jar full of marbles that were my husband's when he was a small boy. I love that my husband and I both have toys from our childhood that we can give to our son. I still have my very first stuffed toy given to me the day I was born! A pink bear named Pinky. Pinky has many worn spots, a rip in one ear and I had to sew buttons on for his nose and eyes because they came off long ago but I still think he's pretty lovely :).

Somerset Life and Studio Goodness!

2008-01-26T21:22:00.000-08:00

I LOOOOOOOOOOVE my husband! We went to Chapters today (a large bookstore that I'm very fond of) and I came across the latest copy of Somerset Studio magazine. What was inside? Well, it just happened to be full of Marie Antoinette themed lovelies! And an article on Sally Jean whose collages I really like :)! So of course I'm standing there in a huge busy store beaming and telling my equally happy son (who's strapped into his stroller) how lucky his mummy is to have found such a treasure when I spot something hidden behind some terribly droll modern art magazines. Could it be? It is! It's Somerset Life! Now I'm sure you're thinking "what a happy discovery!" you couldn't be more wrong! OH NO! Not another wonderful magazine that I just have to have! This was SO not good! Moments earlier, before we walked in the door, my dear husband told me that I could only have one magazine! So there I was staring sadly at two equally fabulous magazines and I had a terribly difficult choice before me, which one do I buy? Of course I choose Somerset Studio because it's cheaper and it has Marie Antoinette, but I'm so sad. How could I walk away from something so grand? So perfect? So......ME!? It was full of lovely things, so many of the things I love, French flea markets, vintage this and vintage that. But I did it, I put Somerset Life down and walked away. But, that is not the end of my story. No, there's more. This is where the story turns dark, shameful and oh so wrong. I did what I sadly do far more often than I should. I stepped into my phone booth (all in my imagination of course , there wasn't really a phone booth) and put on my cape and mask and out popped Super Kim, my secret power? Manipulation with a capital M! Yes, I did what only the naughty wives do, I put on my pout and big sad eyes and went looking for my husband to tell him my sad sad story, the story of two magazines, one destined for a life of appreciation and the other a life of being the magazine left behind, the unloved. And did my super power work? YUP! I'll admit it, I'm a very bad girl. But I did adopt two new magazines that will both be loved and appreciated and will have a forever home with my family so at least I did something good even if I went about it in an underhanded devious way :). Please stop by your local book store and adopt two magazines today, they just need someone to love!

Arabian Horse Painting Just Finished!

2008-01-24T22:02:00.000-08:00

This is my latest, and a new favorite :). I've been meaning to do some more horses for a while now but just never seem to get started. The horse was painted in acrylics and colored pencils on paper and then cut out and scanned. Next I scanned in a sheet of scrapbook paper and changed it's color slightly from a greenish color to pink and then pieced the two together in Photoshop. And there you have it, traditional art and digital all in one! The horse is a chestnut Arabian stallion.

Some Better Pictures of my Swan Painting

2008-01-22T16:21:00.003-08:00

Remember this painting? These pictures are a little better than that first one I posted a little while back. They're still a little washed out, the true colors are brighter and sharper but my camera just won't behave and I'm afraid this is as good as it's going to get. As always, click on the images to enlarge them :)

More Artwork to Gaze at!

2008-01-22T16:10:00.000-08:00

Here are some more projects I've been up to. The first picture is a little acrylic painting of a chair on a collaged background on watercolor paper that I added beads and a little flower to and then hung with a black ribbon. The second picture is a similar style project, a collage featuring vintage ephemera and an image of Marie Antoinette. It hangs from my bulletin board above my computer desk. The third is another hanging collage style painting of a tree. The rosettes are from horse shows, I removed the ribbon tails and painted the rosettes with acrylic paint. And lastly is my most recent collage. It's framed and ready to be hung :). It is covered in layers upon layers of patterned paper, vintage ephemera, acrylic paint, charcoal pencil and crackle medium. There is a lovely piece of crocheted lace stitched to the top :).

My Little Banners

2008-01-22T16:03:00.000-08:00

These are a project I've been working on for the past while now. I still have five more to go before I'm done with them. The pictures used are all paintings and collages done by myself on watercolor paper that I stitched on to triangular shaped flags made of two sheets of scrapbook paper. I then added various little embellishments such as beads, buttons and other lovely things. Enjoy :)

Sneak Peek

2008-01-19T20:09:00.000-08:00

The above picture is a sneak peek at a collage I'm just finishing up. It's full of vintage ephemera and other pretty things :). Enjoy!

My Little Buddy

2008-01-19T19:54:00.000-08:00

The above picture (taken last night while I read a book sitting on the couch) is a typical pose for my little buddy "Griffin" or "Griffy" as we call him. Griffin is a tiny little black and tan purebred male Chihuahua and is the dog of my dreams. He's always been the sweetest little guy, so friendly and full of life. The day we got him he immediately rolled over on my lap in our truck and stayed like that, sprawled out on his back till we got home. He was so comfortable with us, he never cried once even though he didn't know my husband and myself and was leaving the only home he knew.

Now Griffin is all grown up and you'd never know it! He still plays just like a puppy, pouncing on everything and biting our heels as we walk down the hall. He's always in the mood to play and has even figured out that if he brings my 11 month old son "Liam" his toys, Liam will play tug of war with him. I'm so lucky to have found Griffin, I don't know what I'd do without him. He is a very special little guy.

Thankyou Laurence!

2008-01-19T18:46:00.000-08:00

Laurence gave me her "you make my day" award! It's so nice to know that my blog is enjoyed by the people who read it, it makes it all seem more worthwhile. Sometimes I worry that my blog is far too boring but then someone leaves a comment or gives me an award and I feel so much better about it. Thanks Laurence for the award, you're too wonderful :)!

Now I get to give the award to up to ten people. Here's who I'm giving it to....

Tricia Scott
Pam Garrison
Marilyn Healey
Joanna Twinn
Wendy Ryan

These people all have blogs that I enjoy visiting. They are all talented ladies and I recommend visiting their blogs and if you have the time why don't you leave them a comment? We all LOVE comments don't we :) ? I'd give the award back to Laurence (she deserves an award too!) but that would probably be silly, so I'm just going to provide a link to her blog here because if you're anything like me you'll enjoy her blog :).

Bad Dreams, Clean Floors and Bald Babies

2008-01-17T12:54:00.000-08:00

Today is a bad day. Most days are not so glum but today just isn't feeling quite right. I feel lost somehow, like I'm stuck in a dream of some sort. Last night I was awake till 3:00 AM, then my little Bug awoke at 6:00 AM so I was up making him a bottle. He went back to bed and I stayed up long enough to eat some fat free vanilla yogurt straight out of the container, then off to bed. I had a dream. Was it a bad dream? I don't really know but I do know that it really effected the way I feel now. All I remember are a couple of the people in it were from Highschool, people I haven't seen for years and that there was a lake and possibly a small row boat, but that's it, that's all I remember. When I woke up this morning I had a hard time getting out of bed and about twenty or so minutes after waking I started to feel ill. I now feel sick to my stomach and dizzy. I have no clue why, I didn't eat anything bad. Ah well, such is life, maybe some chocolate will cure me of this grey cloud hovering above my head :).

I have a collage I need to finish today and then a large load of dishes to wash and if I'm feeling any better later on I may even attempt to give the kitchen a good scrubbing. I actually enjoy cleaning, especially the floor. I do everything the slow way, by hand. No mops or special cleaning devices. I get down on my hands and knees with a rag and I wash our floors, every last inch of them. I'm only happy and comfortable if everything is clean, a dirty or messy house could quite possibly drive me insane.

My little Liam is learning to walk! He holds our hands and walks so proudly down the hall as if he's been doing it for such a long time. He loves it and laughs and squeals with joy while he throws in a couple of quick running steps. It'll still take a while before he can do it on his own, he's a little tipsy right now, but he's getting there :). And I did something so very bad the other day! I gave Liam his second hair cut ever and it turned out to be an absolute disaster! The first haircut I gave him was wonderful but this time he just would not sit still and his hair turned out so choppy that I finally took out his daddy's electric clippers and gave his head a good buzz. He now has stubble like his dad and while it's not the typical baby haircut it actually looks really cute! Especially when he's on his dad's lap. He has a great shaped head for this sort of thing so it's not so bad. He was so good when I did it too. The sound of the clippers didn't bother him and he sat very still and behaved so well, I'm proud of my little baldy :)!