boys and girls

more bowie goodness on merlin mann's kungfugrippe
Today i'm listening to early Bowie while I'm working.

And for girls...check out these beautiful bicycles. I think I love this one.


and here's life on mars, just because it's so good.

maude show details

I used up all of my printer's ink making pretty cards for the Maude show. They are supposed to be blue, but the last ten or so came out pink! Oh well.

The opening is Saturday, September 8 from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m at Maude.
133 1/2 Kentucky St. Suite F
Petaluma, CA

I have lots of new paintings, and if all goes well I will have some new prints too. I really hope that you will be able to make it.

making things helps too

My friend Spring dropped by with a need and an idea for an artsy new accessory for an upcoming event that she's attending. I used to teach feltmaking, and when she told me her idea, I got out the wool and showed her what to do, and we made a very cool merino felt collar.

95 degree August weather maybe isn't the best for feltmaking, but it was worth it.

Maybe after my show I'll make a feltmaking tutorial. It's really so much fun and it's not hard.crazy bright roving, all laid out
hot water and soap
Spring, fulling the scarf on a washboard
She even let me take a photo of her in the finished product. Well, almost finished, just needs a button.

you know what helps?

so on a morning where you are rushing to get the kids off to school and feeling overwhelmed with work and lack of money and you accidentally start a small fire in your kitchen before you have even had tea, it helps to play old beastie boys really loudly after everyone is gone.

"got a peg leg at the end of my stump-a....."

that is all.

new tags for etsy items

I made these tags yesterday for my t-shirts and other items. I screenprinted an all over design on some heavy paper from SCRAP, and cut it into strips, punched a hole and voila! tags!

printed peels?

I keep a little bowl on the counter for vegetable scraps and things that go out to the compost. I noticed these peels from an asian pear (from our tree), and they looked as though they head been printed with beautiful dark stripes, like in an engraving.

Pretty, don't you think?

first day of school

My daughter started school today. Her first day in a new school. My son started last week at a different school because he is in 8th grade now! (eep!). This is their first time going to school five days a week. I homeschooled them for the first several years and then they went to a part time school, part time homeschool program. Big changes for all of us.

Here's Z with a happy face on. She woke up so eager and excited today. I hope she feels the same way when I pick her up this afternoon.

sewing

I've been having fun sewing lately. I'm making lots of these little crayon roll ups for kids.

product shots

I spent a good portion of the day shooting photos for ebay and appleseed. I took nearly 200 photos of just things.

a few new small blocks

old embroidery

I found these when I was cleaning out some boxes in my studio. Old embroideries on hand dyed and printed linen that I did a few years back. Maybe three or four years ago. I'm trying to decide what to do with them.

new paintings for maude show

a work in progress, just a few layers in.
more works in progress. collage paintings still need encaustic. the floating seedling painting might get some more work, not sure. they might need to have eyes.
two new alphabet paintings and a small block painting that i'm keeping, on the shelf above my work table.

sketches

It feels weird to post sketches. It's kind of like walking around in your underwear or something, but I'm thinking a lot about sketching. I'm trying to make my paintings feel more loose, more free, and a little less sad.



sketches for t-shirt designs
two minute morning collage

show at maude

I'm having a show at a children's boutique in Petaluma. The store is called Maude and it's really amazing. Everything is lovingly chosen and has a certain quality. The shop owners love handmade things and seek out gorgeous handcrafted things.

The space is beautiful too, and I'm very happy that I'll be showing there. (I should have taken a photo of the space as a whole.)

shelf at Maude, with Heidi's dolls (bottom shelf) on a stack of handmade bedding. Ashley G prints, and little toys.
tabletop at Maude. Felt slippers and waldorf toys.
handmade clothes and Heidi's dolls

These gorgeous dolls are handmade by one of the shop owners,.



Maude
133 1/2 Kentucky St.
Petaluma, CA

what did i do?

oh! was that hydrangea supposed to be in the ground?

computer troubles

A broken power cord has left me off line for the past week, that is why I haven't been around at all.

more later.

new work in progress

These are some new, vintage paper collages on wood, waiting for me to draw on them and cover them in wax. I bought a new kind of paste and I really like it. It's easy to work with and for some reason isn't as messy as the Yes Paste that I used to use.

fixing up my studio

I have been working on fixing up my studio space, organizing and cleaning off my work surfaces and setting up spaces for certain kinds of work. It's very satisfying.

Lately I have been letting this room become one of those "junk rooms". The room where you plunk down all the cluttery junk that you don't know how to deal with, and then just close the door. That is no good. I am beyond lucky to have this room and a supportive family that values my creative work. So why am I not in here painting every day?

I've been thinking a lot about art making and why I haven't been working on things the way I should be, and what it might mean that I let my studio get this way. I'm still mulling it over, but I'm also trying to just get back to it.




I hung up a bunch of my paintings all together on one wall, along with a giant work in progress. That big white panel just has the background laid in and it is huge! Much larger than I normally work. I think it's over four feet tall!


I also made this little clipboard type thing so that I can hang up drawings and photos. It was very easy. I used a glue gun and I hot glued clothespins to an extra strip of wooden molding that was hanging around in my studio.

I'll post photos of the rest of the space as I finish it.

the dog ate my painting

The dog ate my painting.......

and the roots of my corn plants...

and also

smurfette. she ate smurfette's face right off.

also she ate my red shoes, but that's too sad to show a picture of.