Lovebird Ladybird

come into my lair!

I've been working hard on rearranging and organizing my studio. It had gotten to the point that for couple weeks I wasn't really using it. It was too messy, filled with too many piles and just too bleh. Moving furniture around always makes me feel better. It is the cheapest therapy there is. I highly recommend it. Here are a few photos of my newly beautified art-making digs:

I don't know if you can tell, but there's a piece of wood grain paper poking out of a folder. I stopped in at a local scrapbooking/stamp store and bought myself a couple of pieces of Hambly papers. They are kinda pricey (for my taste, at least) but they are totally rad and they are hand screened so I really can't complain. I got the gold faux bois and a silver piece with hot pink dandelions.


I'm a big fan of things hanging from the ceiling, as you can tell.


And finally, this is what I see when I'm working at my table. This is my newly updated inspiration board (or whatever they happen to be called). Hooray for new-old spaces!

On a side note, I went to this free estate sale today. They had been selling stuff all weekend and then gave the rest of it away today. These kind of things work out well for someone like me who usually buys the junk people don't want knowing that I'll have some sort of use for it later. I went today and all of that junk was free! Sweet!

A cool old flower pot I found is getting spray painted with the amazing teal I picked up recently. Photos tomorrow! xo.

My dad is awesome

Yep. He is. In fact, I am a lucky duck and have two parents that are totally amazing. One thing they did from the get go was to encourage me to use my talents. My dad has a saying that I am constantly reminded of, "Use the right tool for the job." (or something real close to that. ha.) Anyway, it's something that I'm reminded of when I'm working on a project or thinking about a goal. Use the right tool for the job. You'll be glad you did.

I think about it a little more and realize that we've all got a lot of tools. Actual, physical tools as well as skills. I'm gonna call them tools in this case. Applying the logic of "use the right tool for the job", I get to thinking about my skills. What I'm good at and which of those things that I'm actually USING.

I wrote out a list of goals this morning. Things I want to accomplish before the year is out. There are five of them and I'm keeping em to myself for the time being, but the overreaching theme in terms of accomplishing them is to use the tools that I have in a different way. There are a couple other actual, tangible things I'll need; business cards for one, but what I really need to do is use my talents in new ways.

And off we go!

P.S. New library display! This summer's theme is so great: Be Creative At Your Library. Awesome.

Making this display got me way into the idea of exploring giant origami. You know those little balls that you blow into? Wouldn't it be cool to make those in a giant size? Soon, soon. xo, y'all.

good day

I've had a pretty awesomely productive day! Woke up to a greygrey misty rainy day and decided that today needed to be a full on art making, garden working extravaganza. In the art making department I got the cover to my latest art journal done. The book itself is 98% full and I've been contemplating my next move. What book to use, size, papers, etc. All that good stuff. I've also been meaning to get the cover of this thing taken care of. I found these cool door knob cover things (not sure of their actual name) in a free pile down the street awhile ago that ended up fitting perfectly:

The other stuff on there is some old jewelery scraps from my stash of that sort of thing. Dearest liquid nails, I like you a whole lot.

Prior to finishing this baby, I got some work done in the garden. Transplanting, putting up a trellis for the cucumbers to climb (eventually!), pruning, etc. This is my first year back to gardening after a few years of nothin. I am a happy camper.



Yum! Some of this lettuce is about ready to evolve into a salad.



Bell peper, sunflower, tomato and cucumbers. Theres some baby (as in, recently planted) spinach hiding in the back. That "trellis" is some weird old little fence thing that I found on the side of the house. Flipped it on its side and it will now help my cucmbers grow straight and healthier. Excellent!



Here's another view of my porch. Remember that free pile that I mentioned earlier? I scored that blue sink there, too. It is now home to a tomato and basil plant.



Strawberries in suitcases are doing pretty well. No flowers yet, hopefully soon! And in between gardening and arting this baby came into the world. I realized that I have some sort of thing for making JFK stencils. This is the second one I've done. Hmm. Good imagery for sure.



That's a stencil stamp onto old newspaper. The dots are from pennies! haha. I have a little coin stash that I use to weigh down my paper stencils and they showed their face when I flipped it to stamp it. Nice.

xo.

Inspirationalizing

The book that I was talking about the other day- the one about making paper jewelery, has been totally inspiring! I'll admit, 79% of the stuff in the book doesn't really appeal to my aesthetic, but the remainder? Oh my. I've got so many great ideas floating around in my head thanks to that book.

Many of the photos have instructions to go along with them, but I'm really enjoying (and being inspired by) the photos that are just exhibiting more work from modern jewelery artists.

There was a photo of a paper flower in the book that I think was a brooch. I have this wacky old wallpaper and used it and then hooked it onto a headband. I later remembered, thanks to a terrible pain, that I have a really big head! Headbands and I just don't get along so I sewed a barrette on the bottom and everything is right with the world again.

I've been on an earring making extravaganza as well- there's only one photo to show right now but whatev:

These are my corrugated cardboard earrings. I really love them but will be changing one thing: If you try to make some of these, take my advice- they are too light right now. I made them by tracing circles onto double walled cardboard and pulling off one side of the covering.

This leaves them with one smooth side and one corrugated side. I am going to cut two more circles, peel the paper off one side and then glue them onto the already made earrings (flat sides together). This will give them more weight and will make them look a little better.

chips & herdez = delicious

Okay, wow. It has been HOT here. I'm pretty much digging it but, whew! The humidity is killer. If feels/looks/smells like a storm is brewing. Being a fan of thunderstorms, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

I was out in the garden earlier. Things are starting to grow and that makes me happy. It's a pretty amazing thing to think that these amazing plants that will soon feed us, came from tiny seeds.  I love it!

I'm listening to randi rhodes (love her) and plotting a walk with the pup. I found this FANTASTIC book at the library today: The Art of Jewelery: Paper Jewelery by Marthe Le Van. Oh. My. God. There are some amazing things in there & after reading it I have so many ideas, I don't know what to do with them all! Just look at this bracelet on the cover:

In keeping with the book recommendations, I've got a couple more for you. I've been weeding the picture books and along the way I've been making note of books that I love. Meaning that they have stellar illustrations- I'm not reading the text so I'm really not commenting on that. Okay, so a few books you should check out that look amazing:

Sparkle and Spin: A book about words by Ann & Paul Rand

Check out all of their books (and his design work as well!) they are so fantastic!

I Love You Dude: A long short story by V. Radunsky

This is another one that you need to look at other works by this artist. There are so many other great books, this is just a personal favorite and a candidate for next tattoo. :)

 

Princess Aasta by Stina Langlo Ordal

Another tattoo art candidate- this book is just so beautiful. Go look! psst- Your local library most likely has all of these! Go do a little search over at WorldCat. They'll tell you what libraries have it in your area. Awesome!