A Little Imagination and a Pile of Junk

scrambled and fried

 

Sunday night I finished up a huge project that had been hanging over my head and taking up every free minute for a month. It was an exciting night. Sealing the box, slapping on the postage. I didn't think I'd ever get to sleep. But then Monday morning rolled around and I woke up in the mental haze of a massive creative hangover that I'm still struggling to free myself from. Ugh. Splitting headache, near complete exhaustion, irritating weepiness, and a general heavy malaise. I want that giddy school girl excitement back.

 

 

My brain is soup. I tried to paint last night with friends and...nada. Not a spark. I guess its to be expected.

 

But there's a part of me that's ready to go! For the past few weeks I've been making notes of all the things I'm going to do with my time once the Big Project was over and I'm ready to get started. Maybe I've been reading too much of Anna Maria Horner's gorgeous blog or just needing something cool to wear in this summer heat, but I've been daydreaming about dusting off my sewing machine for weeks. Maybe sifting through my fabric piles will bring it all back. I think I'll try that. Right after I vacuum up the 1,001 gnats that decided to make my desk their final resting place last night.

 

Sorry I can't show you more than this little peek. You'll have to wait until November 2001 to see more!

mountain retreating

 

I'm already feverishly back to work on a special project that I can't share with you quite yet but our mountain getaway was everything we hoped it would be and more: namely frigidly cold! Brrrr! Who knew that an extra 4,000 ft or so higher could make that much difference in temperature? That was a lesson I'll never forget. Even the dogs were miserable. But you can't be unhappy for long in this kind of beauty.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

this is why i love etsy

 

Vintage Fiesta sugar bowl/creamer set from MyVintageDishes, $685 (no, that's not a typo)

 

Vintage Fiesta sugar bowl/creamer set from thebeezkneezvintage, $22

Hope you have a sa-weeeeet weekend!! I'll be celebrating my 16th wedding anniversary in the mountains. Rest & relaxation, here I come!

distracted

 

I should be working on my new paintings, but there are just so many distractions! My new phone and all the camera apps a girl could ever ask for, playing scrabble with my honey via phone when we both should be working, free classics to read on the Kindle for iPad--not even to mention Pinterest (again). Maybe sharing with you some of my new favorite things will get it all out of my system so I can get to work. Why not? It's worth a shot. Here's a sampling of what is cluttering up my already cluttered mind:

-I may have to start sewing again so I can have this dress in a summery version. (If I had the body for it, I would soooo want this dress, too.)

-But in a perfect world, all my clothes would come from here.

-I'm seriously thinking of giving this a try.

-I'm scared to even dip into this site beyond the fonts. (But I want to so baaad!) I'd have to tie a rope around my waist just to  make it out of there alive.

-I'm so tempted to give Bill Me Later a try just because of this site.

-Ooo la la!!

-This dress might make me blow my entire savings on a serger. Might. It might also help me use up some of the knit fabrics I've been hoarding but am too afraid to use.

-If only I actually knew 25 people.

-Where I wish we had shopped for wedding rings. That is, again, in the perfect world.

-If the math didn't make my head spin (it doesn't take much) I'd have 1,000 of these ready and waiting for my next journal.

-I will decorate my house with a 1,000 of these eventually. I will.

-Unphotographable and unforgettable.

-Home decor heaven.

Whew. I feel ever so much better. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. So now that I have serious sensory overload, I might as well do some work. Or take a nap.

i can see to the moon

I'm so far behind! These pages are from my second moleskine but I'm already halfway through with my third. I guess I've been too busy making art to keep up with posting it. I'm not complaining, though. These are the journals I carry with me everywhere because all I need is my favorite black pen, a few  permanent markers and my book. These tend to be my favorite pages because each element on the page is created from something going on around me. Most pages might not make much sense to anyone but me, but that's just how I like it. Looking through them puts me right back in time, hearing the echo of the music I was listening to, seeing the sights, feeling the same magic all over again. It's what I love most about journaling. You can't get much better than that.

 

...sitting on my SIL's back patio listening to the kids splash in the cold, green pool water...

...of all the places the kids could pick to eat...oh well, that just means the grown ups can pick the restaurants for the rest of the trip and not feel guilty about it!... 

 

...the beachy, impressionistic comforter on my SIL's guest bed...

 

...gusty winds rattling the wood frame windows and drowning out the teaching that I need to hear...

 

...drawing by the light of the TV as I sit close to my honey, soaking in the quiet of the evening together... 

 

...a new seed catalog to test my drawing skills on, what can I draw next?...

...the first time feeling of home as we return to the mountains...

 

...how far can I see?...

 

...I didn't know I could draw clouds...it's so good to be home!

singing in the rain

 

Spring Showers, acrylic & ink on paper, 19 x 25 in.

Ok. So I'm not exactly singing in the rain. There hasn't been much rain to speak of here in the high desert of Colorado. But I still feel like singing--I could sing if I wanted to--walking through our little garden and marveling at the lilies, tulips, fruit trees and bulbs I'd never seen outside of Burpee catalogs and Home Depot until we moved to Pueblo. I've always adored the fields of bluebonnets and indian paints that sprawl along the Texas highways but for years we were too far south to enjoy them. This year, however, summer has crept up and found me unprepared. Thankfully, even the 90+ degree Pueblo summer feels luxurious when you know you won't be stuck with it for the next 9 months.

 

 

 

 

Holding Onto Spring, acrylic & ink on paper, 19 x 25 in.

 

 

These new original paintings have been added to my Etsy shop so hop on over and check them out. They are larger than the canvases but because they are on paper, I'm offering them already framed and at a much lower price so everyone can hold onto Spring a little bit longer. 

newest canvases for spring

 

With art night every other week, I've been spending a lot more art time painting on canvas than usual; it helps that there are always stacks of extra canvases laying around these days. I do try to play with some ideas in my journal first, but I'm getting a lot better facing the Big Blank Canvas and jumping off without worrying that I don't know where I'm going or that there may be bumps in the road along the way. I've never had a problem painting over the whole thing if I hate it the next day (one more layer just adds to the intricate texture of the painting!) but, to tell you the truth, the more I learn to trust my instincts and just let the paint flow, the less often that seems to happen. These latest paintings I'm extremely pleased with. When I stepped back to see the finished pieces, I recognized them from my dreams.

  

After the Rain, mixed media on canvas 16 x 20 in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Petal Shower, mixed media on canvas 16 x 20 in.

 

 

 

 

 

Spring is definitely in full bloom. And I've enjoyed exploring my flowers in differing sizes and color schemes. You will find these canvases and a few more in my Etsy shop in the next day or so. Please take a look.