Robin Love

This is a custom painting ready to ship off to its new home. I love the deep frames Phillip made me this last time around. Graham Cracker seems to approve too. She kept loving all over it while I was taking photos!

Hallway Love and 2 Projects

We are going on a little more house tour today!  I LOVE this area. It is the entrance to our home.  From the front door one walks into a nice size area with a crazy 2 story foyer height.  It's open to the den, dining and a sneaky peak of the kitchen.  I'd always wanted a very open floor plan, and we got it with this home.  The walls are of course the khaki pants color (blogged about this before...).  Eventually I will be painting this area a cool gray to match the FABULOUS chandelier we received for Christmas from Dad and B.  It will get it's own post, and perhaps even a video blog about the installation.  Billy is a whippersnapper at light changing, but this changing will literally require scaffolding!  And since the scaffolding will be in place, I will probably paint then.  woohooo!!

I had trouble at first decided how to lay the area out.  This skinny area below actually originally led to a library, the door behind the giant birdcage leads to this.  But the prior owners turned that into a closet in the master bedroom.  Um....yes, you would think you'd died and gone to closet heaven like me when you see it (yes, I will be showing it off...I just have to.  It is fabulous.)  So I wanted to close the area off.  The birdcage needs a little something inside....I am thinking about piling it with my old books.  I recently saw this done in the Pottery Barn Catalogue.

The black hand painted sign is a favorite purchase at Marist this year.  Under this I felt I needed to show our family in some way (since the sign talks about our family).  AHA!  A bulletin board.  So here's how I made it:

1-  ran to the basement and chose a frame from the pile

2- strung twine back and forth attaching with a staple gun

3-  strung a few fabulous turquoise buttons on the twine

4-  selected a family photo and other trinkets that meant something to our family

5-  attached a saw tooth hanger

6-  ran back upstairs and hung it up!  tops...15 minutes  You could do this with any type of frame really.

Now below is another fun project, and yes those are hands...my children's hands actually.  We made the sculptures in art camp a few years back.  It's a very cool project to do. Just follow these steps:

1-  purchase plaster gauze rolls at the craft store.  at my store it's where the fimo clay and stuff is located.

2-  have your child lather their hand in good old fashion Vaseline and then saran wrap

3-  pose the hand as you want it.  Not too complicated though, it is a little tricky getting this off!

4-  according to the plaster gauze instructions wet the strips and wrap on your child's hand loooooosely.  seriously.  this is not a cast!

5-  allow to set.  warn your child it gets warm(not hot) as it is setting.  it's how you know it's working.

6-  using scissors cut a slit so your child can slip their hand out of the casting

7-  use more plaster gauze to band-aid where you cut the slit

8-  you may have to trim the bottom to get it to stand up

And that's it!  What a wonderful way to preserve your sweet child's hands.

So that's all for today.  A peek into a favorite new vignette in our home.  We continue to nest away.  Loving it more as each day passes.

The To Do List....(from years ago)

So you know you have them, to do lists from years ago.  In my cleaning like a mad woman to get this house ready to sell I found a few of those projects packed away in the garage.  Which was fun!  So today I finished up a project from literally 3 years ago!  Yep.  I made the pillows in the brown chair below as a little sewing project for the new art studio.  By the way, see how much the studio has changed in 3 years!!  WOW! 

Today I stitched away on 6 pillows.  Now I have to tell the truth.  I did not make the white forms for these pillows today.  3 years ago I bought the outside and insides to make more of the bird pillows above.  And never got around to doing them.  Today however, I got the itch to sew and add the fun part, the NEST.  Oh my, I am in love with the way the nest turned out.  Funny thing is the other 5 pillows have the crewel work pieces I finished up this past summer.  I had one pillow form left and thought, maybe I could make a nest with the scraps from the other 5.  And well, it's a puffy heart thing.

  And the only one so far...........

So tell me, what's in your garage waiting to be finished by your creative heart?

Share Time

So I want to take the time to share a new painting with you! And it's of some of my favorite subjects to paint, birdies and nests. I really like painting with the waxes. I do. And like I said in an earlier post the waxes were staring me down in a jar on the art desk (like $100's worth of staring). But although I love the textures, the smell and the end results of encaustics, I really miss my little mixed media paintings. I am ready to dig out the paper, glue and acrylics. The 3 paintings I finished up though I am really proud of. And intend to list them in Etsy by Monday. So check back to see when. They are all 8x10" framed in salvage wood.

Such a sweet little tweet. She's nurturing her little babies in the nest. The word Nurture was painted using a masking technique.

I hope you have a lovely weekend. Taking it easy and getting my ducks in a row for some new traveling paintings. I see VW campers and vintage trucks on the desk soon!

All Done!

Whew. 3 days straight...even in my dreams. And all have been either packed to fly over to Birmingham, or anxiously awaiting their flight into your jewelry box. See HERE! Now I can go to bed and have sweet dreams of painting. Because that's next. And I have lots of ideas up my baggy sweatshirt sleeves!

Felted Flying Friends

Remember when I stitched all those birds on the way to and from my beach trips this summer? Well, they finally have either a bird cage to rest, mold to stand, nest to lay or Eiffel tower to perch! All 29 of them are done. Whew. Seriously whew. Now to get them all posted into my flickr site here. Here's a sneak peek at a few new favorites: This one is called "Dream Big". At the top I have stamped the words "Dream Big" onto vintage paper. We all need a little reminder to do just that, don't you think?

This is "Mrs. Creamberry". She is a very robust bird, so she really needed to be a Mrs. I love all the embellishments on her nest.

And last, a "Maddie". I found this amazing blue felted wool at Hobby Lobby. I was just tickled because blue sweaters were slim pickings at the thrift store. Well, please head over to the flickr and check them ALL out. I've had a wonderful time creating them, but now I am very ready to move onto painting. I've got the Naked Art Gallery needing more wall pieces and a show in less than 4 weeks!! Oh my!