Come on Guys....

OK readers, if you live within a let's say an hour radius (or more), come and "Go Where You've Never Been".  Come to the Norcross Art Festival and see me!  And if you do stop by and happen to tell me that you are one of my blog friends, I have a GIFT for you.  That's right, I said gift.  It's one of my love languages, gift giving that is.  And since many of you I've never met to give a gift, well I suppose all these words I write are a little gifty....but I want to give my blog readers who come to see me a little something to say thanks.  For listening that is.  Oh, and sometimes talking with me (That means I do read your comments btw).

It's Saturday 10-5 and Sunday 12-5.  I'll be the one with the best tent display........yes, I am that confident.  See you there!!!!

New Favorite Display

I love to come up with creative display ideas for my booth.  I know many artisans do not get the idea that the right type of display, even with a little effort can draw twice as many people into your booth.   I mean think about it, a 10'x10' tent is not that big...so I can literally glance on a walk by and know I do not wish to enter the premises.   I recently attended a craft show where I literally wanted to hand out my card and offer tutoring on such subjects!  Anyhoo....that is a soapbox subject for another day.  Today I wanted to show off a little project I completed:

 I found this bust at a thrift store this summer.  I recently found her buried in my garage and took her up the The Vintage-Flea to sel in my booth.  Then when trying to decide how to display my adorable bobby pins it hit me!  A crown on that bust would be super fun!  But when I got her home she was too fancy for my Mattie booth.  Hummmm...How about I make her Mattie Blue?  And voila!  Adorable display that cost $10 for the bust, $3 for the blue spray, and the crown was made from stuff I already had lying around.  She'll for sure be a crowd pleaser.  Now, what should we name her? 

The Right Tools

Have you been reading my blog long enough to remember when I did made this booboo?

Yep.  I drilled right through that magic finger.  It was stupid....seriously.  I was holding a quarter size copper blank with my left hand, drill in right.  No pre-set hole, no stabilizer, notta.  Just stupid.  And man it HURT.  Like I've had natural child birth, and this was close.  So last week was jewelry making week and the thought of once again drilling the copper was freaking me out a tinge.  See all these blanks that need holes?  And most require 2 holes!

I decided to take my little self to Home Depot armed with a blank and the bit and ask for expert advise.  I had the best help from Justin....and together we decided this was the equipment I needed to buy to make those holes in the blanks and not my magic finger.

I bought the newest Dremel 4000 and Dremel work station.  Basically I've made a miniature drill press station.  And man.....I could drill some serious holes.  It was actually fun!  Notice my left hand is not holding the copper disc, but rather my bench block is?  Smart girl.  You guys like my safety glasses?  Billy was like why aren't you just using saftey glasses?  Umm...I think these are cooler(and I was too lazy to search for them in Mailey's room).    All I needed was a metal shard in the eyeball to make my day bright...So the sunglasses worked to prevent this.  Jewelry is now done, yipee skippee feeling for sure!! 

It is amazing what having the right tools will do to make me not only super happy, but super productive!  Now I have a few days to get displays ready for the Norcross Show.  It's getting super exciting around the studio!

Knowing Your Heart

I recently found a quote that says, "It's never to late to find out who you want to be".  Yeah, I like it too.  If you are an artist reading my blog, then you get the struggle of "finding" yourself in your art.  How do you make it yours?  How do you embrace your talents? How do you set yourself apart?  Nothing frustrates me more than being super excited about something new only to find it on the front page of etsy the next day!  Drats....back to the drawing board. 

I've not reinvented the wheel this time around with my painting subjects.  I mean, why would I?  I am a painter who uses trucks, bikes, bird, bird cages and silly flowers in my paintings.  That's who I am....and quite frankly I like my subjects.  My painting style however I believe has matured over the years.  I was not a confident painter when I started.  I am pretty sure I thought too much about what I was doing.  Now, I just paint.  In fact, I am a very fast painter.  Mostly this is because I am not going for the text book version of a bird, but rather a more Jennism styled bird. 

As in the past, I am still a lover of texture in my paintings.  But I also love lines...so this round of paintings I had an "AHA" moment of adding texture enough to write my words in, still use the black gesso, acrylics, then fill the carved lines with oil stick technique.  Yes, it was a few day process.  But I am very methodical in my processes when getting ready for a show and started 15 paintings at once.  Yes, you read this right.  Of course 1/2 of those are on their way to the Texas Round-top show with Matilda.  Yee-haw paintings!  The other 7 are making me very happy right now spread out around the art studio. 

This last one.....well I think if you really know your heart, then finding out who you want to be will come quite easy.  You just have to tell your mind what your heart is thinking is all. 

Field Trip Friday...Historic Senoia

This past Saturday I did something that quite honestly I've not done in a long time.  A girlfriend and I decided to spend the day together.  It's not that I don't have friends....don't get any funny ideas that I'm some sort of freaky recluse that only makes art and blogs about it.  Its just that...well...honestly I don't know how it is that you get to a certain age and your kids get to a certain age and the kids seem to have a more fabulous social calendar than you do.  I seriously think we adults should schedule more "play dates".  Anyhoo, we batted around different ideas, and ultimately decided to spend the day in Historic Senoia.  Why Senoia you ask?  Well, Southern Living is hosting one of its two design homes there.  And Senoia just happens to be in my beautiful Coweta County.  First stop however, was the American Legion Yard Sale.....I mean, who doesn't love a yard sale ( Amber and I do!!).

Yard Sales....I'll admit I don't attend many.  But I do love a good yard sale.  My Mother-in-law promised this would be a good one, so we started our jaunt here.  I mean, where else but in a yard sale could you find such treasures such as this artistic treat?

And how ironic that I would find treasures like this sitting right by Mr. Frowny face?  I left $20 short in my pocket and a treasure chest full of goodies.  In fact, I'm not gonna make you jealous by showing them off, just yet.  :)

After loading the truck with our treasures and bellies with amazing soft sugar cookies we headed out to Senoia.  One of the prettiest little cities in our County.  Mrs. Wendy's below I could literally just move right in.  And live that is.

We toured the Southern Living Home first, which I totally blanked on taking any pictures of, super sorry!  I think I was too mesmerized that the kitchen counter tops were the IKEA butcher block ones I desperately want...in fact the entire kitchen was IKEA (counter tops, cabinets and appliances...yep).  Floored me.  My favorite room by far in the house was the basement (four story walk up).  It had my coveted brick floors, horizontal planked wood walls, loft doors and furniture to only dream about with my 4 cats, dog, two children and hamster (OK, hamster doesn't really count I suppose since she doesn't climb on the furniture). Amber and I headed to Founders for an amazingly yummy lunch where the atmosphere and company made me feel less like a Newnan housewife and more like a diva on Park Avenue.

Here's another view of this quaint little town.  Senoia has come a very LONG way since Billy and I moved here.  They have done an unbelievable job of renovating the town and promoting tourism.  Of course it helps that a major movie production company is housed here....and Drop Dead Diva is filming here as well.  But honestly, without the true Southern hospitality, generous spirits of it's people and down home charm the city has to offer, we'd not be enjoying our Saturday here.  So kuddos Senoia!  I'm proud you're a part of our Coweta County family.  And I highly recommend you grabbing a girlfriend and spending the day here as well.  I know our day together was such a special way to reconnect.....

Gentle Reminder Scrappy Cuffs

I mentioned that I'd been doing a ton of sewing, so here is the other project from this adventure with my sewing machine and ALL it's fabulous stitches!

These are made with two pieces of fabric sandwiched with batting.  Lots of random stitching, button closures, hand stamped saying with more stitches and of course a hand dyed charm and bead!  They are super comfortable and quite a conversation piece.  I made them in 3 sizes as well so to fit all wrist sizes. 

I promise after the Norcross Art Festival, should there be any left, they will appear in my Etsy shop.  For now though, if you are interested in any pictured, please just send me an email.  They are priced at $22 each.

A Year in My Shoes

"Life is like riding a bicycle, in order to keep your balance you must keep moving."  Einstein

A year in these tennis shoes.  Man, it's hard to believe it's been a year.  When I left the Flea 2 years ago, one of the first things I did was join a gym.  And I went to the gym....day after day.....exercising.  I am one of those wack people that feels completely alive after working out.  In fact, without it I am sort of a you know what.  But for one year of working out I saw NO results.  I felt better, yes.  But no jeans size down, no shoe size down....wait, it doesn't work that way for feet does it?  Anyhoo......Exactly one year today I hired the amazing Kathleen as my personal trainer.  Yep, just like the rich and famous.  And together for the past 365 days we've taken a journey together.  She's one of those doors I am so thankful to have opened. 

If you've ever met me in person I know, I did not need to loose weight.  But that really wasn't the issue.  I wanted muscles, definition and more stamina.  It is no secret that we women folk have body issues, I imagine even hot Heidi Klum has something she doesn't like about her body.  It's finding that peace within that this is MY body and learning to love every square inch of it.  So 365 days of being more aware of what nutrition I put into this vessel, and being aware of how to push the muscles that are there folks, I am close to the point of looking in the mirror and really seeing me.  And I kind of like it. 

So I debated sharing my results...but I am so proud, so I am.  I share so much of myself with you here why wouldn't I share this.  We measure every 6 weeks.  My best was in May, I suppose the summer took its toll and I had one too many slurpees at the pool.  But here's where it stands now:

weight/ 7 pds lighter

body fat/ 1% less  (I've gone from the BAD to the good range too!)

BMI/ 1 point less  (again from BAD to good)

chest/ -1" 

waist/ -1"

hips/ -2"

thighs/ -1" 

Oh, and in case you are wondering about my routine, I was training with her for two days and doing cardio on my own for two for the first 6 months.  Then we went to one day with her, one day weights on my own and cardio on my own.  Currently I box on Tuesday, walk on Wednesday in my neighborhood, weight train with Kathleen on Thursday and Friday weights on my own.  I am generally in the gym an hour.  Well, thanks for listening and if you are thinking about starting to move your body more, do.  It has opened some creative doors that were covered in serious cobwebs for me!