Here She Is!! Miss Tiny Art Lady has Arrived!

Wow. My very own Kal Barteski Custom Tiny Art Lady! (Be kind, remember, the camera adds 25 pounds....har-dee-har-har.)

Seriously. How cool is this? Just arrived in the mail today!!

Now how on earth do I display her? I am afraid to SCRATCH it. hmmmm....I am thinking a clear frame -- no mat-maybe just those simple two pieces of glass clipped together things? Anyone have any good suggestions?

Thanks again, lovey. She ranks up there with the best presents ever : ) {smooch}

The big wait is over! My TINY ART LADY is done!

click to view larger

Weeeeeee!! Remember my lovefest for the INSPIRED event and the colored pencil class with Kal Barteski? And my instant affection for her Tiny Art Ladies? And my NONE-TOO-SUBTLE hints to hubby about wanting a CUSTOM one of my own? (Note I am skipping over my impatient rantings about it taking too long!)

YUP. It is done!! Miss Kal emailed the jpg to Rob today and it is en route to us!!!

Here is an excerpt of what he wrote to Kal: "Her favorite colors are blue and green (and pink). She is very creative and crafts all the time. She is funny, sensitive, loving, loud and playful." (You can imagine how I cringed at the "she is loud"--uh, yeah, I KNOW I am, but I don't like it! But the rest is lovely, honey! Thanks!)

And here is Kal's beautiful piece depicting his words.....I just love it.

Thanks, honey! Happy Anniversary to us. I love you.

And thanks, Kal! It is better than I could have dreamed up.

Another One About Pottery Barn Pillows

Why, Pottery Barn, why? Why must you tempt me so with your PILLOWS? I want them ALL. And so I splurged on a pair. My new strategy is to buy (or sew!) just the cases and switch 'em up every now and again (thus avoiding the OVERFLOWING MOUND OF THEM STORED IN THE CLOSET). Not sure why, but pillows are scrumptious to me.

Bought two of these: (snagged the "R" and "S" on the table there on sale at Anthropologie....will nail them up on the wall when it is late enough to start hammering....oh, in about 30 minutes? 8 am on a Saturday morning...that's 'sleeping in,' right? Think the DH will notice?

OK...maybe instead I should start whipping up some of these:

I love a BIG SQUARE pillow with a center button. And I love ANNA MARIA HORNER's fabrics....so these are pretty much PERFECTION in my book. Snagged the photo from Melissa Averinos's blog "YummyGoods" - go CHECK HER OUT. She has a fabric line coming out in August and she took tons of photos of all the booths at Quilt Market....and you will just DROOL over the fabrics and creations. I want to MOVE INTO ANNA MARIA HORNER's booth. And spend my summers in Amy Butler's. scrumptious. I want to know how these quilting/sewing/fabric designers get SO MUCH DONE?!?! Anna Maria has FIVE CHILDREN! And she PAINTS! And DESIGNS FABRICS! AND SEWS AND QUILTS. AND TAKES PICTURES! Have you seen her KITCHEN? Check out her FLICKr photostream.

Maybe I need to start mainlining coffee or something? I just want to shadow them for a week or two and figure out how they do it all.

Swirls.

How much did we LOVE Kal Barteski's class? How much do we love her TINY ART? ....these and Donna D's swatches are so inspiring to me right now. Last night I was too tired after work to really get going on a full-on project/creative session.....but I did sharpen all my watercolor pencils and started some mini-canvases of my own.... don't know if I will add them to my art journal from Inspired or use them as background papers for scrapbooking (likely not...why do I never do that?) or just make them individual works - maybe for cards or just inspiring words/phrases/thoughts to tack on my bulletin board. Lots of possibilities!

Love the CIRCLES and SWIRLS : )

Desperately Seeking Susan's Fairy Godmother!

Wouldn't it be great to have a fairy godmother appear with her magic wand and "POOF" you have two tickets (gotta take a BFF!) to SILVER BELLA!? Who wants to go?

Halloween * Bellaween

If only the WEATHER would realize I am READY FOR FALL. This 87 degrees and hazy hot and humid stuff is not what October is supposed to be all about. Bring on the chill....Halloween is just around the corner and I am LOVING the Somerset Studio September/October issue - especially the *Bellaween* art book and this DREAM IN COLOR collage by Julie Molina - OMG - how gorgeous is this?! Talk about inspired. I wish I didn't have to sleep - and I REALLY wish I didn't have to go to w o r k tomorrow (that wretched 4-letter word).

More Magazine Love....

How gorgeous is this cover? Can't get enough of the talented Anahata Katkin - took me six days trekking to 6 stores to get my hands on a copy! Tons of eye candy in this issue - some great techniques with layering of mixed media pieces to try....thinking I want to try a fabric piece one day...

Playing TAG!

Well as if being LINKED was not enough of a thrill for me, today I was TAGGED by Suzi Finer! (shut UP!). The object of the tag game is to "name five blogs that inspire you daily"....how do I chose just five?

In addition to the fabulous Ms Finer and some of the others she and Helle already tagged...here are some of my favorite blogs/sites...inspiration and eye candy galore...

Teesha Moore - This woman is amazing. I check her blog for new entries daily---and though they are few and far between I don't begrudge her--the sheer NUMBER of art journal pages she has posted on her website make me wonder how many hours of sleep she can possibly be getting a night! Oh to have been at Artfest last month! Maybe next year... (direct link to her blog http://www.teeshascircus.blogspot.com/ - let's start a campaign to ask her to post more often!)

Donna Downey: Another prolific one! Discovered her last March when I bought her Decorative Journals book ("Don't throw away your notes. Build pretty homes for them.") then took a class she taught. I've lost count of how many of the journals/minibooks I have made/gifted from her ideas....clever clever lady. She has more books in the works, she tells us...and a cd of FONTS coming, too. Can't wait! (And check out her latest pics of her studio...great organizational ideas. Oh-- and her "trash to treasure" handmade binder for her acrylic stamps....brilliant.)

Karalen Hippen aka Penelope Crackers: I discovered Miss Penelope (how great is that name?) through the Art Deck of Me Challenge on Emily's site. This girl is magic with a paintbrush! Love her stories and pictures of her family, too....what a dreamy life she has created....

Ali Edwards: "Capture Life. Create Art." The inspiring Ms Ali describes herself as a Life Artist. Love that. Love her work, her philosophy, her impeccable sense of design, her art. I admit to copying more than one of her minibooks...can't wait for her new book!

Kirsty Wiseman: In addition to being a great photographer and "digi" scrapbook artist (how kind of her to share so many free digi brushes?!? I have GOT to get Photoshop!)....this cool chick writes very entertaining posts. Love her stories--I want to hang with her!

Is that five already?! Thanks, ladies, for all the inspiration!

She did SO mean ME!

Ok...settle in...this is one of my LONG stories....

So after being out of computer-commission for a few weeks---I get back on track with my Emily (yes, she is a Goddess) Falconbridge Art Journal Deck of Me challenge....and I am cruising along...getting my cards finished and scanned and posted...and lo and behold....it happens.

I am LINKED!
BY SUZY FINER. http://suzifiner.blogspot.com/
THAT'S RIGHT. Artist/Writer/Retailer/Mom--and then some.
AND SHE LINKED ME.
AND SHE SAID SHE LIKED MY CARDS!!

And yes...I wrote and thanked her. And told her I was honored (probably have since gushed enough that she fears I am a single-white-female stalker type. But we all know I am not. Not really. Not in a dangerous or creepy way at least. Just geniuinely giddy over it!).

So.......I brag to my hubby..."guess what!! my blog was LINKED to a real artceleb! she said 'heard lots about you!' "and he says...."uh, do you think she thinks you are the famous one?" And then I tell this all to my artist/art director pal at work, and he goes "oh yeah, they think you are the famous one." Meaning the Susan Gilman of "Susan Gilman and Company" (yes...the manufacturers rep - the one every LSS owner asks me "are you THE Susan Gilman?" - like what, no disrespect, but does she walk on water or something? "Uh no. I am not THAT Susan Gilman. Would I be droppin' 60 skeet FULL RETAIL if I were? May I just have my frequent buyer card stamped, please?")

I refuse to buy into their negativity!! (but NO...I have not written back and asked "um...did you really mean ME? Not the famous one who could probably give you really cool product swag?") I will hold on to the feeling as long as possible! That's right. I have arrived.

(Can you imagine if I ever get PUBLISHED??????)

But the story doesn't end there.

From Suzy Finer's fabulous blog (is her banner gor-gee-ous or what??) - I found the woman featured in the latest issue of ME's Home Companion magazine. Have your seen this??? I went out last Friday night for a Barnes and Noble run to pick up a copy when I read Rhonna Farrer http://rhonnadesigns.com/was featured....and double my delight--there was the layout of Mary Smilove's http://marysmilove.typepad.com/my_weblog/papercrafts-themed soiree....did I want to leap into the pages or what? And guess who she is friends with? That's right. She and Suzy are friends. Suzy helped Mary with her blog banner when Mary joined the blogging cult last month. The connections go on from there -- but I'm not one to name-drop.

Now won't all the nay-sayers be feeling silly when my new friend Suzy offers to create MY banner? (Do you think it is too soon to impose? hmmmm....what would Ali Edwards do?)

Crazy Cool

How amazing is this?

Came across a reference to this in the current issue of Legacy...

New York artist John Evans created a collage EVERY DAY from 1964 through 2000.

(and I stalled on my Christmas Journal after about 20 days!)

more on the book of his works at this link: (also available on Amazon) http://www.quantucklanepress.com/catalog/book.php?bkID=64