A Splash of Color

Meet my newest great niece...Katie...born April 7th.
What a sweet little bundle of pink polka dots!

The newest photo on Facebook today.  

I raised boys so no pink in my house.

Polka dots and stripes....my favorites!

Home Opener

Today it was all about the Red Sox.  It was the first home opener we've ever been to...and although they lost...there was a lot of excitement and plenty of memorable moments.  And it's always fun to be at Fenway.

This is one happy baseball fan! We got there plenty early to wander a bit and watch batting practice.

And....one happy couple! I don't think I'll ever remember to look into the camera when taking a selfie.....

A Splash of Color

This image came through my Tumblr feed and it made me smile...the men in my life are Simpsons fans.  It was done by Diego Cusano, an artist who combines drawings and real life images into funky art. Check him out here.

Work Weekend

It was a work weekend in Maine...and it's coming along.

Friday was filled with dusting, shaking, and vacuuming drywall dust...and a little furniture arranging. This morning I primed all the newly mudded walls and patches....next weekend I can start to paint. Things are just plopped.....I'll spend a lot of time restyling the spaces and rethinking the art. That will be the fun part and I'm almost there. The new open space has a good feel.

I love the new bookshelf in the kitchen....I still have to paint it...but that can wait.  I'm so glad I have a prominent spot for Adam's stars. I'm going to keep my garden cross stitch where it is...and am auditioning different pieces to hang below.                                                                

I think I will go with this moth print I bought from Holly at Golly Bard.  I love her work!   The colors and subject are just right with the cross stitch...and I love the whimsy.  I also love this sweet little bike made out of wire I found at a new shop in Lexington.                                                                   

Grateful

I am extremely grateful that a few of my pieces have sold.  Everything will stay up until the next artist is ready...which I think will be sometime in May.

Simple and Significant

Anybody a "Mad Men" fan?  Here's a quote from Don Draper. The "M" succulent planter photo came through my Tumblr feed and I put the little quote image together digitally.  

Creative Cleaning

"Any activity becomes creative when the 

doer cares about doing it right or better."  

John Updike

We're hosting a small dinner party on Sunday so I'm putting the craft supplies away and cleaning my house....well the main floor anyway. I generally need a party to motivate me to dust...but when I do...I enjoy interacting with my my stuff.  I enjoy my art and my collections...because like I keep saying...they bring me joy.

I was dusting the shelf on the side of a library table (my puzzle table) in the living room where I keep some children's games, puzzles, and books...and I paused to go through my collection of ABC books. It shifted my attitude.

Here are a few pages from the sweet  Little Bird's ABC book.

Then...this afternoon I had a great conversation with my mother-in-law.  Not only did Margie share the quote at the top of this post...but she had a couple of great cleaning stories...and I love a good story. While cleaning she would tell herself that she could only keep the things she touched and took care of....wow, I love that! And I laughed out lout when I heard her second story. To keep her moving along and focused when Margie cleaned she used to tell herself that Doris, her mother-in-law, was on her way for a visit and was at Johnson's Corner....about 15 minutes away.  If you knew Doris...you would understand the reason to hurry it up and do it right. Doris was...to put it kindly...fastidious....she literally used comb the fringe on her oriental rugs every night before she went to bed.  I'm not kidding...I witnessed it more than once.

Thanks for the great stories Margie! I enjoyed creatively taking care of my house today.

Thinking Inside the Box!

I thought this was one of the most clever things I've seen in a long time. Recently it was my great nephew Liam's birthday.  Everyone who went to the party got their picture taken inside a big box....expect my oldest brother Ed who leaned on top of the box.  Then Liam's dad eliminated the background and put this collage together. I think it's absolutely awesome!  Nice job Sandy, Lucas, Liam, and Evan!  Way to be thinking inside the box!

Unexpected "Happy" Horizons

As I was finishing putting things up this morning patients were coming in and out of the office...one word I kept hearing was "happy."

This bouquet sold today...as did one of the mobiles. There are several mobiles hanging in other rooms.



I learned a lot during this process....what worked and what I would have done differently. I will probably reflect a bit more....but for now it's up...and apparently it's happy.

My write up on one of the walls.

Now It's Done!

If you're a Project Runway fan you will understand this...if not...sorry. I am always puzzled by the fact that the finalist have 3 months to make their collections for fashion week....but they generally end up racing around at the last minute tweaking, reworking...or even making whole pieces.  But now I understand. 

I put up my little show tomorrow morning.  I've had a couple of months to prepare...but....I saved too much for today including another little tweak on "The Piece." 

After seeing the photo in the last post....I realized the white buttons were wrong...these are better....NOW it's done. Thanks Joan for helping me mount it on the canvas....it worked out well and I am pretty happy with "The Piece." Tomorrow it will be hanging on a purple wall in the office....and eventually it will look nice in either of my houses.

I wan't kidding...this is what's on the back.

This little piece I called "Serenity" I started it a while back...but forgot about it....so I basically made the whole thing tonight.  It's a photo of a sunset on the coast of Maine...with a little bit of gold ribbon and a tiny little quilt block.  The window  of the matt is only about 4 inches.  This is the kind of thing I want to do more of. I like mixing photos in with collages papers and fabric. 

Splash of Spring

I got the idea for these felted lotus pods at a craft show in Portland. I started making them with multiple colors in each one...but they were too busy so I kept the palette a little tighter. I've also been working on a few felted pussy willow branches. I pulled off the fuzzy buds...and with super tacky glue replaced them with tiny little felted ones for a little splash of spring.

 

I'm going to put the bouquet on the table in the waiting area to break up the long wall. One thing's for sure....it's going to be colorful. 

I've been walking by "The Piece" for a few days....something was off...not right...missing.  I finally decided that the rainbow strip was too "flat" compared to the rest....it needed to be quilted...it needed texture. Oy!

So off it came....thank goodness it was just hand stitched.  You have a little peak at my "hidden" binding on the back....more on that later.   

I topstitched the strip with gray/blue thread and settled in with HGTV and sewed it back on.  I think it's much better. Tomorrow I need to attach it to the canvas...and that worries me a little. 

Playing With Photos

A couple of 70 degree days helped my mini daffodils pop open.  Yesterday they were closed up tight.                                                                                          

While I was up in Maine a few weeks ago....I played around with photos....and today this one got framed.

I punched a bunch of photos squares and edged them all with a black sharpie. I like to cover the white edges...and the black gives each square a nice little frame.

This is how it looked at the beginning of the day...but I ended up trimming it down for framing...partly because I thought it was too busy...and partly because I already had a really nice matt with a black bevel that was just perfect. 

My matt was 9 by 11...not a standard size...so I opted for a black metal frame.  I bought sets of the lengths I needed and put it together today. Sometimes the sliver edge shows...but you can solve that problem by covering them with a black sharpie.

"That Piece"

I was talking with a a friend earlier this week and she said she hoped I had "that piece" in my show that said "I'm a serious artist"...and price to say that.  Yikes! I'm not even sure I AM a serious artist....but I was hearing what she was saying.  It was similar to the focal point Becky was talking about a while back. I thought I had a focal point...it was fun...but it wasn't really "that piece." And I thought my paper tube mirror was pretty cool...it wasn't "that piece" either.

I mulled it over all day long....woke up in the middle of the night and realized I could still make "that piece"....and I had some of the parts and all of the supplies. So Tuesday morning I got busy....and as of a few minutes ago it's almost done.  (10:00 p.m. Thursday)

It's 12" by 36" and will be mounted on a black canvas. It's been quite a process over the last three days. I took a few pictures along the way and I want to share some of what I learned...but that will be another day because I'm tired. This was a good thing for me to do...and I will probably even call it "That Piece." 

The Space

Today was a creative and productive day which started with a walk with Anita. There were all kinds of signs of spring including carpets of blue scilla.


I checked out the space for my show and took a bunch of pictures which will help me with my planning. As you walk in the front door of the medical building there's a whole bank of windows on the right looking into the waiting area.  There are all kinds of jigs and jags to the hall way so plenty of opportunities for small groupings of things. I'm not sure I'll have enough to fill all the spaces...but it is what it is.  It certainly will be different.

My Own Happy Colors

Yesterday I posted a lovely picture I saw on Tumblr of colorful spools of thread....I was reminded today that I have my own happy colors.  I have been collecting these charming wooden spools for quite some time. I think all thread comes on plastic these days.

 I even have photos of spools of thread.

And...best of all I found an old spool box with a glass cover from the American Thread Company at a flea market a while back. It came with a few spools...and I was able to fill it up with what I had.  I have a spot all picked out in my craft/sewing room to hang it...I just have to figure out how.