A Collage Finally Finished!

The one good thing about needing a distraction from a house that is too quiet is that it allowed me to finally finish this ice cream collage...

I had started the embroidered ice cream cone before Christmas. Then came the teacher gifts, and other Christmas presents for family that I was making. Before I knew it we were half way through January!

I made this collage on an 8 x10 streched canvas frame. I used acrylic paints, tissue paper, old ledger paper, wrapping paper and some old sewing pattern paper. I layered everything up, then incorporated my embroidery, my words, and my old buttons...

The purple is a little darker in this picture than what it actually is. I was having a very hard time with lighting while trying to take a good photograph! I can't wait for the long lightfilled days of the summer - there is nothing better then natural lighting. I hope everyone has a very Blessed week.

She Will Be Greatly Missed...

We lost our beloved Hailey this past weekend. Words cannot describe how my family feels. I knew this day would eventually come, she was ten years old and had health problems. But you are never quite prepared to say good-bye...

She was our faithful guardian, confidante, and surrogate mother to Fiona and Alexa...

She was stoic and kind until the very end. We loved her and will miss her tremendously...

She is now a giant furry angel that I know will be forever looking out for us. My father posted a beautiful sentiment on facebook about her: "Chase the squirrels and birds in your long sleep Hailey. Roll in the warmth of the summer grass. And be there for us when we too must pass."

I'm Such A Proud Mommy!

Fiona and Alexa each got an embroidery kit for Christmas from Santa Claus. Yesterday, due to freezing rain and a lot of ice, the schools were closed. The girls decided they wanted to try out their embroidery kits...

Alexa did not want me to take her picture, but Fiona was more than happy to let mommy click away with her camera! Notice that Fiona is embroidering the leaves purple; when I started to prepare the green thread for her she said that she didn't want to make the leaves green. So I asked her "what do you mean?" and she replied "mommy, you never follow the directions on your projects - you just use the colors you want to use". So - she decided that she wanted to make her leaves purple...

I think she's doing very well - and such concentration! They both sat at the dining room table for over a half an hour (pretty good, especially for the five year old) and worked on their embroidery. It made me so proud to see the two of them creating, I can't wait until they are finished. Now that the ice is over we are getting lots of snow, maybe even another snow day tomorrow, have a Blessed week everyone!

Some petit Woolen Embroidery...

I have been busy the last week embroidering for several coffee cozies that I am making. One of my New Year's Resolutions was to sell some of my art...

One might wonder what coffee cozies have to do with art?

Well, I find the coffee cozy a perfect sized pallet for experimenting with embroidery, wool, and beads. This also goes for color too - as I pick out wool color, thread and bead color, and what kind of cotton I'm going to use to line the cozy with...

The best part about making coffee cozies is that each one is a pint sized, portable, unique piece of art...

As the new year is well on it's way (being that January is almost half over!) What kind of pallet do you like to work on? I prefer smaller scaled things, sometimes looking at something blank and big scares me. Maybe that should be another resolution; make at least one piece of big art?

My First Art Journal Page of 2011!

Well I started working in my art journal. The first page was for the class I am taking through the free online class at Strathmore.com. The instructor, Pam Carriker, had us take copies of other pieces of art we had made and use them in our journal page. I am not a big drawer or doodler, and this is my first art journal so I asked myself, what do I have that I could use in an art journal?

Two things came to mind; first I have my girl's school papers - first graders and preschoolers bring home more paper than a paper factory. I save them in a large bin (important ones get filed away) and I use them for collage. The second thing I had was lots of digital pictures...

I took a picture that I had taken a couple of years ago of some sunflowers in our front yard. A yellow warbler was enjoying the seeds. I took the picture and manipulated it in Photoshop to look like a rough painting. I then cut different parts of the picture out and used them in my journal. The whole process was very stress free! I also found it very enjoyable to play around in Photoshop with no real pre-set ideas of what I wanted to do with my picture. I can't wait for week two of this class:) I hope everyone stays warm, dry, and safe this week. Happy Winter! It is snowing and is 19 degrees here in Norwalk tonight...

The Start of a Fresh New Year...

It's like a fresh clean sheet of paper... A brand new year. I actually made some resolutions this year...

I'm going to burn more candles just because I like the smell of them (I used to burn them all the time before the girls were born). I'm going go on more dates with my hubby, because we really, really, don't do that enough. And I think this is the year I'm going to sell some of my art (yes I actually said that one out loud)...

Oh - and I'm going to keep an art journal. I'm taking a free online class through Strathmore.com (the people that make lots of journals and sketch pads). I'm very excited because I originally did this just because it was free - something to spark my creativity and keep me doing different things. Well when I signed into the e-classroom, the instructor for the first workshop is Pam Carriker, a mixed media artist I am very fond of. I kind of feel like a teenager that gets to meet their favorite rock star. Well - tomorrow starts back to the daily grind; girls off to school, hubby back to work, me back to work... But before reality comes back, what are your New Year's resolutions?

Bead Journal Project for January...

I have joined the Bead Journal project for 2011 http://beadjournalproject.blogspot.com I have decided to keep my journal small, 4 x 6 and to just play around with it. I transfered a bunch of small photos (2x2) using a transparency technique and will be using those photos in my bead journal. The idea is to do one bead project a month and then post it on the blog. I've always loved beading but the extent of my beading has always been just to embellish embroidery. I plan to practice different beading techniques in my different journal projects. On a side note, the transparency transfer technique (I got from the winter 2011 issue of Sew Somerset) is very fun! I can't wait to try more...