words and beauty

i haven't been feeling very wordy lately... as if you haven't noticed!

i go through ups and downs with my flow of words and right now, i am in a down swing. i am really loving beautiful pictures more than beautiful words at the moment. i guess that also explains my addiction to instagram (@linwoodavenue).

my husband teased me the other day that i talk in my sleep. he said i kept saying "oh, that is beautiful". it puts a smile on my face to know that i even dream about pretty things :)

a daisy and a muted palette

here's a new painting i made on wednesday of last week. this is my third flower painting with scalloped fabric at the top. for some reason, i need to do everything in threes.

each canvas is finished off with vintage trim that i found stuffed into a manila envelope at an estate sale. yep, i am the girl who finds stuff to do with the things people stuff in envelopes waiting to be taken to the trash.

tulips and paint

yep, i took jenni's paint something workshop AGAIN. i told her that instead of me buying paint, i would just come sit in on her class each time she has it. haha!

the subject this time was a photograph i took of a vase of tulips. i love using my own photos for her classes because it makes the piece more my own. still trying to decide if i will stamp some words in the top left sky. i am having a wrestling match with myself because lately i don't feel like something is finished until it has words on it. i really need to get over that, fast! do you feel the same? any thoughts on adding words to absolutely everything?

hope you are having a great summer filled with beautiful flowers!

blossoms and blooms

i have been completely obsessed with vases of flowers this year! every single hydrangea blossom in my yard has been cut and brought in side, and when those ran their course, i ventured into my neighbors yard for some of her gardenia blooms. some people think the smell of hydrangea is way too strong, but i say the more the merrier!

birthdays and roses

happy birthday mom!

tiny moments and the beginning of summer

this weekend marks the start of summer for us. lots of days by the pool, book reading, ice cream making, bike riding and lake visits.

i hope you all are able to let lose this summer and enjoy the tiny moments - because they are plentiful if you know where to look :)

a peony and a chuckle

peonies from my mom's yard graced the yard sale check out table. such a beautiful sight to look at all day.

and i couldn't help remembering when a few weeks earlier, i told my brother i thought my peony was sick because the blooms were infested with ants. i had been going out there everyday for a week and knocking the ants off so that they wouldn't hurt the flower. he chuckled and told me that ants love peonies and in fact help the blooms to open. :) oops - green thumb here, i tell ya!

a walk and some beauty

i walked around the atlanta botanical gardens last tuesday and of course brought my camera since i am a sucker for flower pics (and anything painted with a child's eye).

i just can't stop snapping because i love capturing their quiet beauty up close. and the colors, oh, the colors!

the gardens have a huge orchid house and these pink beauties were my favorite. each blossom filled with the tiniest orchid blooms you ever did see.

beauty and white light

no words really needed for this bunch of pics, just some fun with my zoom lens.

- i sure do love a good out of focus background (bokeh).

thank you spring in atlanta!

marks and property

you might have noticed that i started adding a watermark to my images here on the blog. i have been struggling with this for a while now because i feel that they do distract from the image and the extra step of adding one is just another thing to do, but with the arrival of pinterest, it is now needed.

let me first start by saying that i love pinterest - i haven't become obsessed with it like others have, but i definitely see it's worth. for what seems like forever, i have torn pages out of magazines of things that inspire me and i place them in a binder. actually many binders, separated out into different themes such as decorating, kids, craft, food, etc. so for me, pinterest has allowed me to do the same thing, only online which is great because i can stop buying binders.

right now, i don't think of pinterest in terms of social media, i just want a place to store cool stuff. if i had my preference, i would have all my boards be private. i have the "pin it" tab in my internet tool bar and pin when i see something i want to remember. rarely do i search in pinterest to find something. the funny thing is when i speak to people about the site, they have no idea how to pin something on their own or that it is even an option. the site is evolving into a search and repin site which in turn causes images to be taken so far down the road from their original source that no credit can be found. i know that they are working on resolving this, but for me, as someone in a visual business who's images and tutorials drive my business, it is troubling.

all i am saying right now is pinterest has entered very sticky, sticky territory. i honestly don't have an exact clear viewpoint on the subject, i just have uneasy feelings.

my career as a graphic designer has made me very sensitive to image copyrights. taking an image from a site and using it on your own or in a printed piece is simply a no no. it is stealing plain and simple. there are times when i find photos of mine on other peoples blogs and even though they link back to me, i still feel a bit uneasy that i was not contacted for approval. i push this unease down and tell myself that i have to let it happen in order to get my name out there, but really, do i? do i have to succumb to what makes me feel icky in the name of my business? the thing is, i would most likely give my approval 100% of the time if i was asked. do i want people to stop showing my work of talking about my blog? absolutely not, i just want to be kept in the loop.

i feel like this is all a mishmash of thoughts - hopefully it makes some sense.

this is a very interesting article i read last week which has made me reconsider everything. should i delete most of my boards since they are filled with others work that i do not own? am i too in violation of everything i just wrote about because the owners of this work do not know that i pinned them?

sticky, sticky territory i tell you.

but what i most want to hear about are your thoughts on having your OWN work pinned and referenced without proper credit on blogs, etc.

art and soul, part three

i was completely blown away by the flowers i saw in portland. i guess all that rain does something good! although i must say that in the 6 days i was there, i did not feel one drop of rain :) believe it or not, all these pics were taken in one grocery store. i was a huge dork and took over 60 images of all the flowers they had for sale - these are just the tip of the iceberg

the colors, the different varieties of peonies, the crazy plate sized flowers i had never seen before, all blew me away. if i lived there, i would forever have a pencil in my hand sketching everything i saw. and would probably only leave the house to go buy more inspiration!

this wraps up my trip to art and soul portland. it was truly such a fun experience. i am so excited to check this off of my list and i dare say i am hooked on art retreats. although next time i go back, i am hoping to do it as an instructor.

loveliest and beauty

this week has blissfully been filled with embroidery, sewing, and shipping etsy orders. all of which has put a huge smile on my face. i managed to photograph 2 of my new hoops and put them in the shop this morning. i just think they are the sweetest things ever! (no modesty here ;)

i love, love, love using the vintage hankies as a background for my embroidery. you also get great discoloration in the fabric since they are so old. tea-staining can't touch what nature does on its own!

brightening moods and thoughts

happy friday! this weekend has me hanging crown moulding in the dining room, hanging a new chandelier in said dining room, and all over relaxing with the family. oh, and i will most likely have a book glued to my hands, i cannot get enough of reading lately. if you ever need suggestions, check out the book links in my left hand sidebar. i put any book i am reading up there and while i can't recommend ALL of them, most are pretty good.

what have been some of your favorite books lately?

paper and clay

after hearing a bunch of artists talk about the coolness of paperclay, i knew i would not be able to resist buying a block. as if i need any other art material, geez! it sat lying in my metal office basket catch all for a few months and recently i decided to give it a try. and i have to say that this stuff really is pretty cool.

i am still experimenting with it and since the package does not come with much in the way of instructions :( there are a few things i need to fix with my technique. the above is my first attempt at making a flower wall hanging. it is roughly 4 inches in diameter and when i assembled it, i stuck a large metal safety pin in the back for hanging. this is definitely a work in progress as you can see how a few of my mini beads have fallen off during the drying process. all the missing beads are safe and sound so i will glue them back on which won't be a huge deal. i have been advised that the best part of paperclay is that you can use a super fine grit sand paper to soften up the dried piece. thinking about taking an embroidery file and going to town sanding off all the rough edges. my favorite part is the "love" notation stamped into the center. not original by any means, but sweet none-the-less.

this piece is a free form flower that has been molded onto a piece of cotton wrapped thick wire which was lying around my studio. i think i have had my pack of 50 of these for about 5 years now and never had a use for them. i am dreaming about a whole vase filled with paper clay flowers. my only mistake on this piece is that i didn't put a hook on the end of the wire to really secure it into place. since the wire is straight, it might eventually come free of the bloom. but again, glue will fix it right up, so no biggie.

my next step is painting... i did some research and practically any paint will work on material. i am thinking about acrylic since it is what i have the most of, but i want to thin it out by half so it is more of a wash and not a solid color.

all in all, it was really fun to work with something new. i find that when i am in a rut, i need to go in another direction completely to get the spark back!

blue and pink or maybe purple

i can't believe it has been so long since i posted a ttv photo. so for your viewing pleasure, here is a bloom from my gigantic hydrangea bush in the backyard. the blooms this year are so huge and plentiful that we have had bouquets in the house for weeks now.

the other day, i asked my husband what he thought about trying to change the color of the blooms next year and he looked at me like i was crazy. "don't you like the blue?" he said. well of course i LOVE the blue, but there is something so magical about being able to change the color of a flower. a sprinkle of this and a sprinkle of that onto my soil and my yard could be sporting pink blooms next year, i can't imagine not being intrigued by the thought!

storms and warnings

lately we have been plagued with really heavy rain storms in the south. a major one was schedule to hit the other night, so i promptly went out to my favorite rose bush and cut off almost every bloom to place around the house in vases. my rationale was that if i left them on the bush, there would be none left after the heavy winds and rain.

the result? they are thriving inside, so full and vibrant. don't you wish that sometimes in life we had this luxury? the warning of a large crisis ahead where you could take cover inside, wait it out and continue blooming? mind you, i have not had any crisis as of late, but you never know when one will hit.

flowers and markets

a fresh market store recently opened up in my little atlanta suburb and i am speechless. this store is exactly what my town has been missing! from a full florist to a butcher to a prepared foods counter, to an old fashioned candy bar - i think i could live here. seriously, i might ask them if i can move in.

but back to the flowers - i told my husband he never has an excuse for not buying me flowers again!

sleeping and dreaming

i haven't been sleeping very well lately. i try to go to bed early, but then before i know it, 2 hours have passed and i am still awake. thinking is my problem, i can't seem to tell my brain to be quiet!

for a while now, i have felt like i am on the right path in my life, but that maybe, maybe i haven't found that one bitty step that is missing. like i am almost to a place where my art can be recognizably mine. where someone can see something on a blog or at a show and know that it is something that i have created. but what is that one little step? what have i been missing? these are the questions i ponder.

during one 2 hour stretch of sleeplessness, i listed in my head all the things i am drawn to. at the top of this list was...

1. flowers
2. colored pencils
3. fabric
4. buttons
5. embroidery
6. graphic design
7. bright vibrant colors
8. ribbon
9. milk glass (of which i have a huge collection)
10. black ink drawing pens

that's it, this is what i think about at night when i can't sleep. i ran through many different creative ideas and think i have finally settled on something which has me so excited. it is something that incorporates all of my loves above which means i won't get as bored with a technique as i usually do. you see, i don't want to create one product and mass produce only that one product. i never want to take the creating part out of the equation.

i feel like my studio has been a little testing space all week. i cannot wait to get started in the morning and hate to stop in the afternoon. i am even pulling out paints, which if you know me, you know that is a rare thing. i am working on finishing my first idea and then i will put it out in the world and cross my fingers that you all will love it as much as i do. because i really do, and i can see it taking me far, far down my path :)

embroidery and a threesome

my embroidery cravings have gone into overdrive here on linwood avenue. this is currently the view behind my computer and i love it! as i said in a previous post, i had a few vintage embroidery hoops lying around from a yard sale which i thought would be a great way to showcase some embroidered artwork.

this piece centers around a photo i took of a tulip magnolia tree last spring. these trees are beautiful and will always remind me of the south! i printed the photo onto transfer paper, ironed it onto canvas and went to work. i really didn't have a plan for the embroidery - just wanted to highlight the flower bits. this might be my favorite one, mainly because the composition of the flower/background turned out so right.

this daffodil is 8" circular and is created from a photo i took of a daffodil garden. this one took a bit of experimenting. i first tried to do the transfer onto some yellow and white polka dot fabric, but it didn't take the transfer too well. next, i tried transferring the photo to some oatmeal colored muslin. this just turned out too dark. in the end, i used the muslin piece for the background and cut the daffodil head out of the polka dot fabric and stitched it on top. the top flower is left loose at the end of the petals which turned out to be a great affect. in the end, i really love how it turned out - even if it is a bit too dark. just goes to show me that yet again, accidents can be a good thing.

the last hoop to round out the trio began as a lovely embroidered tea towel. i really had no business buying another tea towel, but i couldn't resist the cute ducks! to this fabric, i embroidered the word "Spring" and added little freehand flowers in hot pink and tangerine.

with spring just around the corner, i am dying to get some great floral photos so i can make more of these. they are the perfect project, because they don't take too much time, but make such a big impact.

spring and wreaths

who says wreaths are just for christmas??? lately, we have had a few 70 degree days here in atlanta and it has made me wishing for spring. just because the weather is getting warmer doesn't mean that i don't want to make a yarn wreath though. i loved all the wreaths i saw on blogs over the holidays, so i decided to make one for easter. this wreath is wrapped with a creme yarn, then embellished with my stash of miniature yo-yo's. the flower petals are created out of the same circular fabric i made the yo-yos from. i was inspired to make fabric flowers from this tutorial, they looked so cool on her site, but mine didn't hold the shape i wanted them to. my stiffen spray was not the same brand she used, so maybe that was my problem. i still like how the petals turned out, just think they could have been a bit more 3-D.