Christmas gift

  
(Thought this posted on 12/28!  Oops, well, here it is a week late!)

Finished this wreath, a present for my brother just in time for his arrival, hopefully tomorrow!
The last two days have been very productive.  I think tonight we are finally ready to move into our "apartment". Now my brother can have the guest room we have vacated.  We've spent the last two days using Christmas gift certificates to start organizing.  And Miss V got her new crib put together, tonight we'll see if she likes having more room.  Fingers crossed it doesn't screw up her sleeping through the night!


Once we do a few more finishing touches I can start to get my studio put back together.  Until then I have a few more pillows and wreaths to finish as gifts.  Can't wait to tell you what hubby got me to help me get started with Etsy.  That post up soon!

Jazz

Final commission of the year is done! It felt really good to paint. I do like crafting, but for me this is truly my passion. I am hoping to work on household organizing next week and once that's out of the way I can get my studio set up! It's unseasonably warm here recently so perfect for a garage studio. Maybe it'll hold out. And hey, if not there's always the kitchen table!

Hometown Christmas, Hon!

It's beginning to feel a little like that time of year.  I took a break from wrapping wreaths and adding the finishing touches to the latest commission and headed to 34th street in Hamden tonight.

We book ended it with a yummy dinner before and a hot cuppa cocoa after.  Just a perfect night.

Tomorrow back to the grind!

I can't remember if I mentioned this or not.  And, yes I could go back and look in my post but since I am horribly bad at tagging them it would take forever.  Hubby, Miss V and I are intentionally displaced at the moment. In preparation for our next adventure we have rented out our urban row home and are temporarily in the basement apartment at my Mom's.  This all as we search for less urban home that we would like to live in.  Whew.  

This said basement apartment needed some upgrades that have taken a lot longer than planned.  So for months now we have been living sparingly and out of boxes.  But that my friends is about to change!! I think maybe even in a week we will be fully settled, able to unpack and I will be able to implement my plan to make our subterranean lair homey.

In this mess of renovating, my studio space, that is now just a stair step away as it is my Mother's garage, has been packed up a bit and is lost under debris as a casualty of making room.  

Hmm, this is a REALLY round about way to say that I am currently painting at the kitchen table again.  I am itching to get my studio put back together and really go to town on some art.  For now though, I will make the best of at least being warm and cozy, and being able to be social while I paint.  I do miss that at times.

(This painting is a commission that I am finishing up for Christmas, it's in the middle of it's progress.  I'll post the finished piece soon!)

Christmas wreath

 

I am happy to report that this week has been rather productive.  I have been able to maintain my level of motivation.  Yay me!!

I am questioning weather I should be painting or not, but I have decided that at least for now this is getting my discipline back on track and once I complete my latest pet portrait commission I will be ready to paint.

So, I am going to remain completely thrilled that I have managed to make another wreath, complete some Christmas shopping and begun to make some gifts for the "Fam" as well.

Now to catch up on some blog reading! 

some more

I am so proud. Despite Miss V's best tries, (only one nap today).  I managed to finish 4 more pillows and a wreath!!  Not to mention help clean for my Mom and Aunt's big Christmas party tomorrow night.  I feel quite accomplished.  (I think that was one too many pats on the back - I need to stave off Murphy's Law!)

So here are the other pillows and I am starting to play around with a lot of the sweater scraps too.  Now that I see them all together, I'm a bit worried that the embellishments are redundant, but as individuals I am ok with them. 

I am totally in love with the angora one that has the buttons down the front.  My Aunt has already claimed that as a gift.  I am toying with the idea of adding them to my Etsy store that I am still holding back on launching.  Perhaps I should of spent a few hours on that today.

I hope to share pics of the wreath I just finished a few minutes ago.  Really happy with it and found some great new blogs to share while learning to make it.

Chain of evidence

I have been blown away by the blogging community and sadly feel so far out of the loop. I've tried to keep up with some of my favorites. But have commented little.

Then out of the blue this week I got inspired and it took me all over the place! But it also lead to some petty theft of one beautiful felt wreath idea, and of course the sweater pillows.  It started here. I loved the pillows and knew I could do that! You can check out the results here.  From that same site I was introduced to Agnes Blum, check out her beautiful work! I almost didn't feel worthy of the attempt.  Then I saw this and fell in love how beautiful!! I wanted to steal it. The cord everything!! So then I jumped all around for felt flower tutorials, and found even more great sites. 

The best part? One evening after work I was motivated to work on the pillows. Never underestimate the therapy of making something. It's right up there with running in my book. It's different than painting to me. It doesn't require quite as much mental draining but just as much therapeutic benefits. I also surprised myself with having the patience to actually wrap the wreath.

So thank you blogging world for providing much needed resuscitation. 

TA-DA here is my wreath!!  I can't wait to make more!

Let's try this again

I am hoping that I can get back into blogging again. I've missed it! Miss V is 10 months old and not a good napper so my free time is so limited!!

Yet, I do feel like I am finally coming up for air.

I'm working on a few new projects. And finishing up a painting commission.

So hear's a taste and I promise more stuff soon!

Wonky

Everything is wonky!  There is no other word for it.  There have been a rash of small incidents at work, relationships ending, people passing away, and my dear Dakota has had surgery.  Add to that an earthquake and a hurricane and I feel very out of sorts.  

We've moved this weekend.  Our new abode looks like an episode of "Hoarders".  I am lucky if I get a box or two unpacked a day.  So we are living in disarray.  My sanity is being tried and I feel a great need for order.  

But for now I am trying to find peace with this wonkiness that I can't control.  These events that are weighing heavy on me, but can't do much to change. Lovely Miss V is in need of lots of attention these days too, I think she senses the changes.  So, I can only accomplish small tasks at a time. I keep repeating to myself; "This too shall pass."

Lawn art

What can you do with this box of bowling balls and

and these tile samples?

 If you're my  talented Aunt, THIS.....

And if you happen to have some glass teacups, there is this too!

More from another talented Aunt next!
 

So much to post! So little time!!

Just back from our family vacation in OH.  So much fun, so many things to post!  For now, here is Miss V. and her YaYa walking on the farm. Ahh, wish I was still there.
 

more from the sketch book

Here are some more of my favorite "thoughts".

Sketches

I've been flipping through sketch books lately to wet my appetite
and feeling better knowing I at least have time to sketch a page or two.  There is a quality to the sketch that never comes across in a finished work.  The speed in which it is produced makes it feel fresh, and for me the idea that it's not so precious.  I can play and experiment with imagery that doesn't always come out in my paintings.  I do find that same feeling when I learn a new medium and allow myself to be an "amateur" in my own mind.  I don't judge myself so harshly because, hey I'm just learning, right? I would love to be able to bring that attitude to every new piece, just haven't quiet mastered that yet!

It's been so nice to revisit and play again. I feel like I have all these images just waiting to become more than a sketch when I am back in the studio.  It's making me feel so much better during my hiatus.  I may just explode on that day in the near future when I can sit down at my easel or heat up some wax.
Until then enjoy my musings and doodles!

Shedder?

I had a conversation with a musician friend of mine this past week.  I was talking about how I feel like I am the opposite of a hoarder.  He said that I must be a "Shedder". I like that term, I think.  

Whilst preparing for our move I am making room by going through storage at my Mom's house.  I have an over abundance of artwork there.  Pretty much everything from high school till now.  I got rid of most of my high school work (there are slides of them for prosperity).  I also went through a lot of stuff from collage, color theory, charcoal assignments.  I did pull out a few things to save, and some of the work I still rather like.  My senior thesis work won we me the only grant I have received thus far! Although in complete disclosure I have been lax in applying the last 3 years.  But maybe there is something in revisiting these images.  In excavating these layers of my artist journey it feels good to see how far I've come and reminds me of threads or ideas that may be worth re-trying now with more experience.  

I don't feel too terribly sad as I cleaned out.  The extra space made it easier to organize my inventory.  In doing so I discovered I have quiet enough work to enter some shows. But here is a farewell to some works; 

and there was this work on paper that I would love to re-visit.

 It has even made me thing more about working on paper, until I think of the framing expense!


Well here I go moving forward and shedding all the way!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.7.4

10 Minutes

That's all it took sitting here in this swing with Miss V yesterday.  Ten minutes, in albeit sweltering heat but, there was a breeze and we were in the shade.  Miss V was content to look at her book and watch the occasional car go by.  I could have some time with my thoughts.  I had some studio time in my mind.  It was so nice to just have the quiet time, outside, surrounded by trees. It didn't last long but it had some lasting effects.  I hope this heat breaks soon so that we can have some more of those moments.