Feeling Blue...!

I worked on another spread in Riley's Book today. This one is about his new tendency to wake up in the 5:00 AM hour- ugh! I know that this is not terribly early for a lot out there, but I was getting real used to being able to sleep until 8:00, which is when he used to wake up! It seems every week, he falls into a new schedule- it's hard to keep up! Oh well, hopefully the early rising is just a short phase, and I guess I should count my blessings that he's been sleeping through the night since two months! And anyway, he's worth any amount of sleeplessness I may have!

These photos aren't the greatest unfortunately. I couldn't seem to capture the true colors. In real life, the background is a sort of "glowing" aqua blue- so pretty! As I told Corey (the other blogging Corey!), blue has never been a favorite color of mine in art. But having a baby boy has I guess converted me! There are some glorious shades of blue out there, completely different than the navy or denim blues that I had always envisioned when I thought "blue". Watery aquas, bright turquoise (like this piece of furniture), pale, pale sky blue, misty grey-blue.... Of course, I'm sure I'll find some even more glorious shades of pink if I ever have a baby girl!

Computer Free Day

Jason took the computer to work today, and I have to say, it was quite refreshing! You never realize how often you're on the computer until you don't have one there! It was sort of nice to not even have the option to surf around. So what did I do with all my extra time (while Riley was napping of course!)? I did some art!

This is the first spread in Riley's new book. It's been a while since I've worked in his book(s) because I had houseguests for a week and I've been doing some other projects, but it felt good to be back doing my regular collage work. This spread is about his baptism. The little pocket is from his outfit. I cut the pocket off because I thought it took away from the "dressiness" of the outfit, but I saved it, thinking I may use it. And the prayer card in the pocket is from his godparents. The paper I used to "journal" on was from a card his grandmother gave him.
I'm fairly happy with the piece, although I don't think it's one of my best. It's a little too "matchy-matchy" for me, and not quite spontaneous-looking enough. And the cutesy-ness of the pocket bothers me just a touch, but again, I'm happy enough with it.

And just because I got so many nice comments about little Riley's photos, I'll indulge myself and post a couple more!

Supplies on Ebay!

I am listing a set of assemblage/altered art supplies on Ebay right now. It's a huge assortment of 3-D items that I do not need anymore. It kills me to think about how much it's all worth, because I know I won't get even close on Ebay, but anything is better than them sitting in my studio, not being used! So, if you're into that sort of thing, go bid, or if you have a blog and think your readers may be interested, tell them to go bid! Hey, I'll take all the free advertising I can get!

So, yesterday, I took a trip to T.J.Maxx... I really shouldn't have, because I have a terrible weakness for stores like that (Ross, Marshall's, Tuesday Morning). Well, here's what I came back with. Three gorgeous pillows, an aqua blue shelf, and two glittery eggy sort of garland things. Aren't they just scrumptious all together? The problem with it is that I really don't have a place in mind for any of it! We're sort of in the process of decorating our master bathroom, so hopefully they can find their way in there somewhere. But don't you agree that it all was just too good to pass up, even if they don't have a spot yet?

And finally, Riley had a little photo shoot in the glorious morning light of our bedroom the other day. Here are some of my favorites (believe me, it was hard to choose... there are about 30 more that aren't posted!).

Necklace Holder

I made this necklace holder yesterday, jumping off from an idea I got from Pam's blog. My necklaces have been hanging on a doorknob since we moved into the new house (last May!), so I was in desperate need of a better solution. In the old place, I hung them from nails on the wall, but I was never real happy with that method. What's sort of sad though is that I never have the opportunity to wear any necklaces anymore since I'm just sitting at home in sweats the majority of days! Oh well, at least they have a pretty place to hang until I'm wearing them regularly again. I love how this turned out, and how I can tuck little photos, etc. into the middle hook. Jason isn't crazy about it- I just can't seem to convert him to a lover of vintage, shabby chic style, unfortunately- but he's a man, so what do you expect? Thanks for the inspiration, Pam!


Also, here are some more snippets from the artsy questionnaire for Rice Freeman-Zachery. There were two pages to it, and this is the second page.

I'm off to my old job today for a few hours, to help out with a couple projects and make a few extra dollars. I have to bring Riley along, so we'll see how that goes. He's a very good baby, but more than three or four hours could be asking a lot of him!

Corners of My Home

I was pleased to receive this lovely piece from Delila in the mail yesterday! I love the "egg" shapes in the background, and the color is a gorgeous shade of teal. Teals and aquas are my favorite colors lately! I promptly hung it in our guest bathroom off of one of the light bulbs above the mirror. Thank you for such a beautiful piece, Delila!

Which leads me to this week's "corners of my home". I sort of took liberty with the subject and did a "room" in my home. This guest bathroom is the only room in our house right now where anything in bright pastels matches. See Delila's piece hanging up there? The shower curtain (I guess none of the photos shows it...actually, there're a couple photos on my website) has pinks, aquas, and teals in it. I love these colors and have several pieces of art which use this pallette, but as you can see, the room cannot hold much more art. So I've got to figure out how to incorporate some of these colors into some of the other rooms in my house so that as I collect more bright pastelly art, it has a place to go! Don't pay too much attention to the white walls (eek!) or the cheapo light fixture- both those things will change before I'm done with the room. Just haven't decided what color to paint and and what style of light fixture to buy. Anyway, I love the bright cheeriness in this room, and I love looking at all the fun art in there!
I'm working on my necklace holder today, so I'll post photos tomorrow when it's done!

What is Creativity?

I'm working on filling out a questionnaire for Rice Freeman-Zachary about creativity. She's collecting these questionnaires from several artists to compile into a possible book. There's a written questionnaire with lots of questions about creativity and the creative lifestyle, and then there's also a smaller questionnaire that we're supposed to "decorate" to reflect our style. I've finished the written one, and still have a bit to do on the artsy one.

Anyway, in filling out the questions, I had to think a lot about creativity. One of the questions was "How do you define creativity?" Here is how I answered:

"To me, a creative person is one who constantly has new, artistic ideas. They are never at a loss for ideas of things to make, ways to alter things, what to do. I personally don't feel like I'm an exceptionally "creative" person. I'm not the sort of person who always has a fun crafty idea in mind. In fact, quite often, I'm at a loss for ideas. Maybe it's just a question of semantics, but I instead think of myself as an exceptionally "artistic" person. Everything I do, I do artistically. If I'm decorating, I decorate beautifully and artistically. If I'm doing a piece of art, it is executed artistically. But I'm not the one to think of new ways to do transfers, or find a new use for duct tape, or create a new technique that nobody's seen before. Those things are more creative to me- I wish that I possessed a bit more of that!"

I don't know- maybe I'm just stuck on the word "creativity", but I really see a difference in being creative and being artistic. I think someone can definitely be both, but I also think that someone can be one and not the other. I personally find myself lacking an excess of creativity, but I do feel I'm very artistic.

So, that's just a little food for thought today. It was an interesting question for me, and thought others might like to give it some thought as well. The photos interspersed throughout the post are little snippets of the artsy questionnaire I did- I don't think I'll show the whole thing because of the possibility of it being in a book...

Never Mind!!

So I started a "family blog" last week, thinking I'd keep art posts and "family" posts separate. But I've decided to forget about that. It's just too hard to figure out what should go where, since everything's so intertwined. So, never mind about that post-it'll all just go here-I'll try to keep the fawning over Riley to a minimum!!

Well, I decided to finally get a haircut! My hair was about mid-back length, not so much because I wanted long hair, but more just because I hate going and getting my hair cut. But lately, it's become such a pain. It takes forever to dry, it's falling out like crazy (post-pregnancy side effect), and Riley's started grabbing onto it. So, without thinking too much about it (because otherwise I might have second thoughts), I went to Hairmasters yesterday to get it cut. So far, I really like it! It will be so much easier to take care of, and it will curl a lot nicer now since the weight's not pulling it down. And, I'm telling you, I'm going to the cheap salons from now on! In the past, I've always gone to nicer salons and paid $50+ for a haircut, but this cut only cost me $16! And I really don't see much difference in the cut either! Below is a photo from last week of my longer hair.

I know I said I'd keep the fawning about Riley to a minimum, but I had to post these photos. Just look at those eyes in the first one! And the second one was from the same "photo shoot" as the one where I was trying to take a photo of my new haircut. It just cracks me up that I'm all sweet and motherly, and he's sticking his tongue out! He's obsessed with the tongue recently- constantly sticking it out and blowing spit- fun!

Finally, I'm working on a questionnaire for Rice Freeman-Zachary about creativity, so no time to do artwork until I get it finished. However, I never posted a photo of the trade I made for Delila. She's received it, so I can show it here now.

A Fabulous Trade and a Pointy Kitty

I was thrilled to receive this piece of art from Pam Garrison in the mail yesterday! We traded, and I specifically requested this piece because of its reference to motherhood. It is really gorgeous- it has fabulous vintage papers sewn onto the background paper, with all kinds of extras like ribbon, little flowers, grommets and wire, and a fantastic glitter star which I love! She wrapped the whole thing in what appears to be old wallpaper (which will find its way into my own art for sure!) with an old school photo hanging off the ribbon. Thank you, Pam! I love it! By the way, this "Visionary" collage block is what I traded to Pam.
Pam's package had a cute drawing of a bird on the outside- she draws great birds! What's so interesting is how different her bird drawings are from my own. My friend, Tara Ross, also draws really cute birds, which are again completely different. It's fun to look at them all together- each one represents the individual artists' style so well!
Today, I decided to take advantage of Hillary Lang's free "Pointy Kitty" pattern and make a pointy kitty myself. She turned out so cute- what a great pattern! I wish I was a better seamstress. I love sewing things, but they always turn out to be just a little off- not quite as "clean" as I would like. It certainly helps to have a good pattern though!

Tomorrow, I hope to either start on Riley's next book, or make a necklace holder like Pam's...

Baby Prints

Well, this wasn't what I intended to work on today, but I'm glad it's what I ended up doing. When Riley was a few days old, Jason and I took on the task of getting his handprints and footprints for his baby album. Boy, what a task! I don't know how those nurses at the hospital do it every day! So, thinking ahead, I decided to make a couple extra sets as long as the ink was out. I thought I'd maybe like to use the prints for some art. You know, you see baby handprints and footprints all the time, on stamps or cards, etc., but when they're your own baby's prints, they are just too adorable for words, aren't they? I just can't get over how cute the little prints are!

So I've been holding onto this paper with the prints on it, knowing that I should do something with it, but never actually doing it. I couldn't ever decide what form of art I should do- a wall hanging? a page in his journal?

I bought this cute little hanger the other day, and it was lying on my art table when I went into the studio. For some reason, I decided to try the handprints page with it. The scale was really nice, so I went with it. Of course, I had to use all of the new fabrics and trim that I bought last week, and don't they look sweet? My original idea was to sandwich the whole thing in vinyl and sew around the edges when finished, but when I did it, I didn't like the glare of the vinyl, so I took it back apart. I'm a little worried about everything being exposed, but I think I'll deal with it for now. If it looks like it's getting damaged, I'll decide what to do. (I guess I'd really better keep an eye on it! As I was just writing this, my cat jumped up on the couch and walked right across the piece of art! No damage though...)

Anyway, I'm happy with the way it turned out, and happy that I finally found something to do with the page of baby prints I'd made!

A Long, Juicy Post with Lots of Photos!

Whew! Finally, things can get back to normal around here. Houseguests are finally gone. Even if it's people you enjoy being with, it's difficult having houseguests, isn't it? Anyway, I had hoped to get to do some art today. I've bought so many new materials in the past week, I've been itching to start using them! However, there's been so much piddly stuff to do that has been neglected this past week, I decided I'd rather wait until I can devote an entire day to art vs. trying to squeeze it in. So, hopefully tomorrow...

First, I'll talk about this week's "corner of my home". This is a closet off our loft that is currently being used as a decorator's warehouse, it seems! We moved into our new house in May 2005, and I am still very much in the process of decorating. If you've looked at photos of the new house or old condo, you see that I like "stuff"! So until there's a place for all the "stuff" in the new house, it has to be warehoused somewhere. Voila! The closet/knick-knack superstore! It's actually kind of nice. As I'm working on decorating, I just go to my closet and look through the selection, and "purchase" the perfect piece for the room! Good thing is, it's all already paid for! However, I must put a limit on myself at some point. I think that if there's anything still left in there come about July, it will go into a garage sale. If I could do without it for a whole year, then it's probably not all that cool. Plus, I'll need to make room for more stuff!
So, I took advantage of my mother-in-law's offer for free babysitting, and did some shopping yesterday sans Riley. I got lots of cool stuff! I found a really neat store that has two floors of shabby chic/antique-y looking things. I got these nests, bird, real quail eggs, and ribbon. I'd had the urns in my designer's closet, but wasn't sure where to put them or what to put in them. The store had the nests displayed in the same kind of urn- what a beautiful idea! And they look really nice displayed on this cabinet with the nude.




When I showed my mother-in-law the nests I had gotten, she said she'd seen a nest on the ground when she took a walk. So she went out again and brought it back. Isn't it gorgeous? It's just the perfect shape, and built so well. I was suprised at how heavy it is! The little bird who made it put a lot of work into it. I hope that she was finished using it when it fell out of the tree... Does anyone know of a good way to clean the nest of bugs, etc. so that I can display it in my house?

So, back to my shopping trip, I also got some vintage-looking flashcards that spell out "Riley" and some vintage-looking knobs (no picture) to make a necklace holder like Pam Garrison's! I'll take a photo when it's done.

Then, at an antique store, I bought these two old school books. The bottom one I like because it has a lot of relevant phrases to use in Riley's book, like "The baby can walk all by himself." And the top one has great little drawings instead of words in some sentences- so cute!
Finally, onto a craft store which I hadn't been to before. I hit the jackpot for fun fabrics! They had a whole table of reproduction 1930'3/40's fabrics, and lots of other ones, too. When I showed Jason the fabric I'd gotten, he said, "You sure like collecting stuff, don't you?" Are you kidding? You've known me eight years, and you're just finding this out? Poor guy- just realizing what he got himself into, I guess! Anyway, I'm loving all these different fabrics so much, I've got to make something like a quilt, just so that I can have samples of all of them to keep (plus they look so pretty all mixed together). Otherwise, I'm not going to want to use them in my art!
Okay, well, I guess that's enough show-n-tell for one day. Hopefully, I'll have some art to show tomorrow!