trash and treasures

this might only mean something to my fellow artists/graphic designers, but how cool is this box of super 77 spray adhesive???

my husband works in a solvent plant and they recently changed how they attach labels to their product. which resulted in him bringing me home an entire case of extra large cans. this stuff is pretty pricey (for glue) and definitely my most frequently used product. seriously, it is amazing - well, unless you accidentally spray your fingers.

he has definitely scored some bonus points with this gift :)

art and soul

i am headed off to the portland, oregon art and soul retreat tonight. soooo excited! a week of doing nothing but creating art  - i can barely believe it.

i have packed all the supplies i need for classes, plus i am bringing a bunch of other things to do in my free time. what is the checked luggage weight limit again? i think i might go over a teensy bit!

i do have to admit that i am bit nervous for the classes though. if you have been reading my blog for a while, then you know that i am not a painter, not even a little bit. i can tell you practically anything you need to know about pretty much any art/craft out there. technique, product, i am a wealth of info. but paint? no way! it has never been a medium that i was interested in. i think the root of this is because i like the small crazy details of creating art. i like things to be controlled, precise, and to line up and with painting, that kind of goes out the window.

i will always remember an art professor i had in college who tried to shake this obsessive perfection out of us. we must have spent 3 weeks on a 24x36 drawing. major time invested in getting everything right, getting the piece to look exactly like we wanted it to. at the end of those weeks, we all had masterpieces in our hands. however, what came next was enough to send many of us over the edge. the professor told us to cut our drawings up into tiny 2x2 inch pieces and then we were tasked to make a collage out of those pieces. i swear that class has scarred me to this day!

in recent years, i have come to realize that freely expressive, over the top, explosive art is just not in the cards for me. and that is ok. so why am i taking 2 painting classes you ask?  well one class was not intended, but was a last minute switch when the instructor of my original class canceled (reserving the awful rant that i could go into) and the other one, i found really interesting. and it really is ok to step out of your comfort zone once in a while.

so i am going in with an open mind and hopefully i will come out with some new skills and knowledge under my belt. oh, and some pretty canvases as well.

i have some posts scheduled for the next few days, but if you want to here about my adventures in portland, i will be updating twitter regularly!

canvases and frames

inspiration struck this weekend and i created this fabric wrapped, embroidered canvas picture frame. the photo is a sweet black and white pic of my brother when he was a toddler playing in a field of flowers. i loved embroidering flowers on top of the real flowers and bringing them to life. to finish, i added some color with watercolor pencils and a 3-dimensional fabric flower.

now my obsession is taking over and i am scouring family photos to find more captured moments!

rearranging and reminiscing

do you guys rearrange your house all the time? i am constantly moving things from one room to the next and sometimes back again. as a little girl, i remember always wanting to move my room around and that desire has never left me. i am a person that likes change and gets a bit restless living in a house for more than 5 years (crazy, huh?), so my cure is to rearrange and redecorate. i am drawn towards little moments in decorating - the unexpected when you turn a corner. i have my grandmothers spoon collection and recently it has landed in a tiny corner of the dining room. at first, it bothered me that it wasn't more predominantly displayed, but now, i really like this vignette. the spoons displayed with some of my vintage aprons work well nestled in between the white cabinet and the wall.

my next decision was to finally bring my collection of glass spice jars out of the attic where they were placed 5 years ago on moving day. i have been waiting to pull them out until i find the perfect spice jar labels. well, i hunt and scour the internet for labels, but none of them are quite right. i know i should just make my own, but i'm being a tad bit lazy in that department.

so up they went, completely naked and unfilled. in all their emptiness, i still find them awfully pretty. as long as they put a smile on my face, i don't need to rush to fill them. at least that is what i am telling myself :)

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!