Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day!!  My hubby is away in Europe for the next couple of weeks for work so the girls made this sign for him and posted it on Facebook.  Technology is really a wonderful thing:) 

 I will admit to being a little resentful that he gets to see Brussels, London, and France and I am here taking care of the kids and a crazy dog.  This leaves me little time to create.  But thanks to my good friend Charlie Doyle at The Fair Publishing House http://fairpublishing.com/index.php here in Norwalk, I have something to really be excited about!

Fair Publishing supplies publishing needs for Fairs and all kinds of things.  He was able to scan one of my original background collages and create a blank 5 x 7 card.  I can now work on creating card making kits...

 The idea is that each kit will contain the blank 5 x 7 card and the person buying the kit gets to put the card together with the included words and ephemera.

Now all I have to do is get the kits put together.  I really need to learn to stay up late.  I could get so much more accomplished!  My biggest problem is that after I put the girls to bed around 9:00pm I'm usually pretty wiped out.  Sometimes coffee works but I don't like drinking that much caffeine so late at night.  Anyone got any suggestions??  I hope you all have a Blessed Father's Day.

Trying A Little "Drawing"...

One of the things that I wish I could do better was draw.  I don't mean doodle flowers - I love doing that but sometimes I wish I could really draw, you know, like illustrate scenes...

I have really given thought to taking a class, but every time I have looked into it the class schedules just don't match up with my family's schedule.  So I decided that if I just started "drawing", and practicing I will get better at it.

 So here it my first real attempt at drawing a scene. I drew a picture of a place that makes me happy and relaxed.  My family always camped while I was growing up.  Some of my fondest memories are at a campsite.  So it just seemed natural for me to start with that.  Perhaps that is why I like doodling flowers so much - I seem to have a strong, calming connection with the outdoors.

Even today, my parents have long since "upgraded" to a permanent campsite with a big RV kind of camper.  But as soon as we are packed in the car and headed to "the camper" my whole sense of being relaxes. My girls are the same way - they love to be outside, with a campfire, and lazy days and nights.  Have a Blessed week everyone!

It has been Ballet Recital week here at the Shella household.  Please enjoy these photos - I will be back to crafting on Monday:) Where I have stepped out of my comfort zone just a little bit when it comes to my doodling...

Alexa was a sheep in Little Bo Peep had lost her sheep!  The wolf even tried to catch them!

Fiona was a Maypole Dancer...

These girls worked really hard all year and it paid off:)  They performed beautifully...

I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend.  We will be danced out by Sunday!  I will post my "out of comfort zone" doodle on Wednesday - stop by and check it out...

The Calmness of Coloring...

I love to color; doodle, journal, make squiggles, whatever you want to call it I love to do it.  There is something very soothing about just putting your pen, or marker, or crayon to paper.  Not really thinking about what to draw - just drawing...

I tend to draw flowers, lots and lots of them.  In fact I sometimes wish I would draw other things.  But then I start thinking too hard about it and it's no longer relaxing.  So I have to remind myself that I am drawing for me, no one else, and if I want to do nothing but draw flowers and squiggles around them that's okay...

I have been very busy with life lately, all good things but stressful just the same.  Busy to the point that I have not made enough time for me to do what I love - making art!  As most of you moms/artists know, that little thing called guilt (guilty for not doing the laundry, for making art instead of cleaning the kitchen etc.) can really get the best of us.  So I spoke with Lesley Riley at http://www.artistsuccess.com/ and boy did she kick that old guilt right out of my head...

I completed a questionnaire that had me thinking about what my goals are and what I really want to do with my art.  It ended up being pretty soul searching.  Then I had a thirty minute phone conversation with her.    Just hearing the things that I already know from someone else  - especially when that someone has been making art for more than thirty years and has been in my shoes,   really made  a huge difference in the way I see my art making.  It made me realize that it's OKAY for me to say "today I am making art".  THANK YOU Lesley for giving me the boost I needed!

And finally - I have decided to send all three of you lovely ladies that posted your favorite summer memory a magnet:)  Please send me your email addresses at cshella@yahoo.com.  And keep doodling!  It lowers our blood pressure:)

Summer, Art, and Keeping up with Life!

How does life get to be so busy!  Fiona's First Communion really through me off.  At least when it's Alexa's turn, in two years, I will have done it once - so it shouldn't be as crazy.

We are almost ready to move into our new "old" house.  My husband, Andrew, has been working really, really hard at restoring it back to it's original splendor.  Behind the garage is a never ending pile of discarded slate roofing tiles.  As soon as I saw them sitting there, piled in all their glory, I just knew I had to try collaging them.

I have also discovered that the smaller broken pieces make beautiful magnets.  I have already started selling those at Gabby Road Studios, the art gallery here in Norwalk.  They are quick to make and I can get a lot of them finished in a short amount of time.  Which is very important because lately, time seems to be the thing that I have the least of!

Finally, my parent's camper has officially opened for the summer!!  I can't wait for lazy summer evenings spent sitting around their campfire watching the girls roast marsh mellows and trying to catch lightning bugs.  And my father  - will be the biggest kid of them all.  What is your favorite summer memory?  Leave a post answering my question (by June 2nd) and I will put your name in a hat for a drawing for a magnet.  :)

Blessings ~Cassie

Doing some much needed updating!

First I must apologize for such a delay in posting!  Life has gotten extremely busy these last three months.  We are in the process of moving to a new home (same great town just a new "old" home).  Fiona made her First Communion in May and the hubby is planning a big business trip in June.  I am working on "revamping" my blog - it's only been four years!  So please bare with me while I muddle through this, in the mean time please enjoy some First Communion photos.

Letter Love 101 Class 2012

The online class I am taking (taught by Joanne Sharpe here's her blog http://joannezsharpe.blogspot.com/)

started this past Wednesday and I am so excited!  This class is a lettering and journaling class and we will be  working with different kinds of pens, markers, and journals...

I have always been told that I have very neat handwriting.  Some people have even told me that I write

the same way I was taught in the second grade.  That's not to say that I write like a second grader but

that I haven't changed it - I still add the little loop at the top of the letter "C" and I still write an "F" the

way I was taught...

I use a lot of words in my art, and all of the words I print out on vintage paper via the computer.

I would like to be able to use some of my own handwriting, I think it's another level of

expressing myself.  I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend - I am going to spend mine

practicing lots of new letters!