The Garden of Pink Shadows

Studio Stuff

I took some photos in my studio.. last week? And then with everything going on I never got around to sharing them..

First up is a couple of pages from my little pocket journal. This is a tiny Bright Green moleskine journal that I keep in my bag and doodle in if I am stuck somewhere. I like flipping it over and working the other way just to mix things up a bit! I have a few extra of these journals that I had a plan to pretty up a bit and sell in my shop.. maybe soon..

These are some pages from my larger journal which.. as you can see, remain unfinished. I like the Teesha Moore idea of pre priming pages with paint and maybe some stuff at the edges but I find I tend NOT to come back and finish them later..so.. maybe that idea just doesn't work for me! Also, though I love this pretty book I got in February from Rag & Bone Binders, I find I am not in love with the paper.. paint kind of slides around on the surface and glued items don't stay glued (you can see those bits at the top are springing up..) so I think I need to find or create a better book for myself. I do love that cow tho! 

Here's a little nook on my studio cupboard shelf that just feels so appropriately seasonal. I got this little doll clothes suitcase on eBay a while back and had good intentions for kitting it out with art supplies, but it currently holds assorted collage stuff (as do far too many boxes and bins in my studio..) One Of These Days  I need to open them all up, dump them all out and have a good sort!

Yes, that is Arthur from Babar lounging there..

And last but not least sweet little Holly having a snooze on the loveseat. So nice to see that in my studio vs. her begging to get on my lap after which I really can't work, and then she tends to get up ON my work table - she even dipped her ear in Mod Podge the other day! Apparently small dogs think they are like cats and can walk around on tables.. but they are much clumsier.

That's it for today. I am on my way out with Em to the mall for a quick lunch and a couple of errands, though it has just started raining AGAIN. By the way.. we are waiting for the results of a mono test for Em.. uuggghh.. her boyfriend has it and as of Sunday (the day after her 18th birthday..) she seemed lethargic, exhausted, particularly moody. It could just be post high school graduation, birthday, big party and work week exhaustion. I hope its something temporary because if its mono and she's going to be like this for a month, I may just go insane...!!

A Winner!

After receiving 24 comments for my Giveaway post, I put the numbers into a random generator and it chose.. #5! So, "Jerusalem" you are the Winner of the Giveaway! Please contact me with your mailing address and I will get it right out to you!

I loved all your name ideas.. Here are a few:

English Summer

Cherry Cobbler

Rosy Posy

Cottage Nest

and Twitterpated!

All were great..! I find that though I like to write and words usually come easily, I get stumped sometimes with names..  I had so many creative name ideas for my daughters - most of which my husband was against - but had such a hard time choosing one, so he pretty much ended up choosing: Sarah and Emily. Both beautiful names but let's face it, not the most unusual. As it turned out we had Emily's and Sarah's in our family (not that surprising with two old English/American families) that our families thought we were just wonderful to choose family names! haa..

Speaking of names I had a conversation while waiting at the vet's today with a nice woman who's dog's name was Mollie (my mother's name), who's daughter in law was named Holly (my dog's name!) and who's daughter was named Melissa (MY name!). I half expected her to be named Sarah or Emily! But she was not...

I'm trying to come up with some new kit ideas - the cuff bracelets were such a huge success! I've thought of Needle Book Kits, Fabric Quilt Collage Kits, small purse or envelope purse kits? iPod or cell phone cozy kits..? And / or more fabric cuff bracelet kits in different fabrics.. possibly denim and red/white ticking for a sort of Americana look? 

I'd love to hear thoughts and feedback on these ideas - or other ideas!

Images above are from a painting I've been working on.. more about painting, soon..!

Happy Monday!

What a beautiful, bird-singing, blue-skied, cool-breezed day! After allll the rain we have been having it is so nice to have a perfect June day. I hope we can have some more of these (albeit they may be perfect July days!) before we go into the dreaded stiflingly hot and humid nasties where all I want to do is refrigerate myself in air conditioning. I do not do well in hot humidity.

Saturday was Emily's 18th birthday. EIGHTEEN! Impossible... she's a baby... Isn't she?? Both my babies are young women now. Hmm.. their rooms don't really reflect it tho. Nor their tv show choices..! Both my girls were born in summer heat waves. How did I ever survive it??

Speaking of "Girls of Summer" that is what I named this little series of drawings I've been working on recently. They are done in pen and ink on pages from an old French novel. Each has a name (Ophelia and Maude, above) and a whimsical flowery disposition.

They are available in my Etsy shop.

Thanks to everyone who has been sending in GREAT name ideas for my giveaway! Tomorrow I will announce the winner and let you in on the wonderful creative name ideas! Meanwhile I am working on a new series of kits which will be out as soon as possible!

Hugs to all...!

New Items in Shop - and a Giveaway!!

I've just added a few new items to my Etsy Shop - three new felt needle books, and three "quilt scraps".

The needle books are similar to the ones I had listed before - approximately 3x4" with wool felt pages in shades of pink, raspberry, cream and yellow. The covers are made from vintage handkercheifs (above) and vintage look heavy cottons and linens. Decorated with ribbons, buttons, laces and image transfers from a 1926 Bird Field Guide.

These are a sweet little addition to your sewing basket - a place to keep your needles, pins and tiny bits and bobs. You could also use them as a small traveling sewing kit!

I've also listed three "bird quilt scraps" - these are from the same series as my little wallhangings, but they are left as is. I thought people might enjoy incorporating these into their own larger projects - as part of a wallhanging, a journal cover, or maybe a pillow or apron (a pocket on a tote bag??) I'd love to see how people decide to use them!

And now for the GIVEAWAY! (yes, the one I had promised for my ill fated 500th post!)

I have put together a little kit of many of the items used in my recent projects - the bird image transfers, bits of fabric, lace, ribbons, buttons - so that one of you might make your own little creations in this same pretty color scheme. Leave a comment with your idea of a NAME for this color scheme, based on these photos. I will randomly choose a winner next Monday night and announce the winner on Tuesday June 30th.

Good Luck! 

sigh...

...a sigh of relief that is! It feels good to be back to functioning again - and good to be more or less "done" with the zine. All sold copies are on their way, the remaining printed copies are already packed in envelopes, ready to be addressed and sent off to anyone who wants one. I have a box of them right here. What a luxury to just be able to grab an already stuffed envelope and send it on its way!

Erraticus is on the Etsy Showcase today! I don't know if that will gain me any sales but - who knows? Maybe! It looks kind of cute there though!

I still plan to do that "official 500th post" - any day now.. I'll let you know!

Finally!

THE FINAL ZINE IS HERE AND READY TO SEND!!!!

Wow.. has it ever been a week (or two weeks I guess!).. Let's see, there was the first hard drive crash - several days before my husband managed to back up everything onto two other hard drives and repair that one - then WHAM the second and this time fatal crash last week. I had a "corrupted node" or something like that.. Then he went and purchased a new hard drive and installed that (thank god I have a husband who knows how to do these things!) then everything had to be reinstalled, etc.. THEN I had to redo lost parts of the zine layout and quickly complete it - and print it.

In the midst of all that, Sara had to have all four wisdom teeth pulled.. and there have been days and days of preparing soft foods, making sure she gets her medications on time, and making sure one or the other ice pack is in the freezer. Today (fingers crossed) will be her first day back to work!

And Emily has been trying to complete her internship - a mural in downtown Danbury (I'll show pictures soon) - but we have had SO much rain in the last two weeks it has been practically impossible to paint. Today is the Internship Fair where they all have to do presentations of their senior internships - and she and her partner are about to run over and put the finishing touches on the mural and get it signed off - before noon. Talk about cutting it close!

Anyway... here are a few pages from Erraticus Zine #15 - my final issue ever. There is lots of summery artwork, wonderful mixed media collages by Julie Sadler, An extensive article on the Collage Play Group - and a free collage sheet provided by Nancy aka CrowAbout. Lots of reading and looking to inspire and motivate creative fun!!

 I do have mixed feelings - there are parts of zine making I love.. but after many grueling hours of bending over the dining table, collating, stapling, folding, stuffing..

and then cooking dinner.. ugh.. I am beat.

I know the economy is not necessarily conducive to zine purchasing right now, but I do hope to find homes for my remaining copies. If you would like to adopt a zine, please go here. Thank you!

Not the Official 500th Post!

Ugh...! This is Not the 500th post I had planned on! I have had a complete hard drive crash on my Mac... Needless to say I am Not happy about this at all. In addition to everything else (photos, art, music, etc. ) is The Zine! UGH!

Please Please keep your fingers crossed for me that Andy can save all my files then reinstall the whole system. He's had to do it before so Im not panicking - I hope hope that he'll be able to do it again.

Meanwhile thank goodness for my iPhone so at least I can read mail and do rudimentary stuff.

Fingers crossed!

Recent Events..

Damn, I was doing so well keeping up with blog posts and then I hit a wall. Well not literally! I guess things have been a bit busy!

The kitchen is done being painted, I'm working hard to get the zine out, and our three day weekend was pretty full.

Saturday Sara left for Las Vegas. She is 22 and works for a place called Gigmasters that books event entertainment, nationally -- if you need a string quartet, a ventriloquist, or.. an Elvis for your next event, please check out Gigmasters! Memorial day weekend was the big Celebrity Impersonator Convention in Las Vegas, so Sara went with two of her co workers. I can only imagine the many Elvis's, Cher's.. Obamas? etc that she must have seen. Apparently she saw some real live celebrities too (tho how can she be sure they are them and not really good impersonators??) I texted back and forth with her most afternoons (noonish Vegas time) where she was recovering, poolside, from the night before. I keep reminding myself she is a big grown up girl -- ahem, I mean AN ADULT -- and can take care of herself, but though I want her to have a great time, I'll be happy when she is back safely.

I did spend some time in Europe when I was her age, including a trip to The Netherlands that I extended an extra week or so. So.. sorry Mom...

Sunday we went to a dedication ceremony for a friend's son at a beautiful Unitarian church in Westport that I haven't been to in ages. The walls are all glass up in the trees so it is like being in a treehouse - or a glass boat in a leafy sea - beautiful. That was nice. Then we went to a party afterward with many toddlers and much food.

Monday we had no regular Memorial Day plans. Ridgefield has sort of the quintessential Norman Rockwell-esque Memorial Day parade, but after seeing it for years and years, including many our kids were marching in (one year I was too..!) we just don't have the desire to join the throng as much anymore - tho from our back deck you can hear bits of it and the fighter jets that zoom over go right over our house. Instead we went to this beautiful spot called Baxter Road Open Space in North Salem, NY (about 10 minutes from us) which is gorgeous paths and riding trails and hills around a central pond - one of our favorite spots for years. Andy took pictures (my camera battery was dead unfortunately) but after we picnicked he went off to take more photos and I lay on the blanket and read (almost done Julie and Julia!) under this big beautiful oak tree on a hill and it was heaven.

Yesterday was pretty much back to reality..

So.. that's what I've been up to.. The photos are various pics I've been taken with my iPhone over the weekend. I REALLY must remember to plug my camera battery into the recharger when I'm not using it!

By the way - next post is my 500th post - and there will be giveaways! so please check back!!!

Hi!

Just a quick hello from me here in my studio. As you can see, I'm wearing blue today. To go with the blue blue sky outside my window? For red, white and blue Memorial Day colors? For the "beginning of summer" (not.. really...) and swimming pool blue?

Do you go thru color phases with your clothing? For days I wasn't drawn to anything in my closet but black, white, grey and denim.. just kept passing over those pinks, greens and blues. Until today.

Jeez my hair looks frazzly.. I didn't "do" it properly after washing it yesterday, and plus its time for another cut.. and color.. I just get hi- and lo- lights every few months to mix in with the grey, but the grey is starting to win. I can't afford to dye and upkeep the whole thing and I'd be terrified to try to do it at home. What do you do?

Well.. enough of this scintilating monologue...

BUT I did want to ANNOUNCE a GIVEAWAY for my 500TH POST! which will be coming up in TWO posts (probably Tuesday) EDIT: Make that more like Friday!! Keep an eye out for it! I'm not even sure yet what I'm giving away.. but it will be something good I'm sure! :-)

Have a great almost-Memorial-Day-Weekend day everyone!!

Erraticus Finale!

Finally I have (most...) of my other current commitments up to date and I am putting my attentions into completing the FINAL ISSUE of my Art Zine, Erraticus. Oh.. of course I have mixed feelings about this. This zine has been resurrected, reinvented and reincarnated almost since the day it was born -- nine years ago? I'm pretty sure we started it in spring of 2000, Julie Sadler, Amy Peacock and I. Originally called Art Erratica Zine (after the online art group I had started) eventually when I started doing it on my own I called it Erraticus, meaning to wander and travel on a meandering path - which seemed appropriate!

Zine production, as anyone who has done it is quick to agree, is hard work. Especially when you are doing the printing, the envelope stuffing, and the mailing yourself. And in the long run, after printing costs, mailing costs, listing fees, etc.. there's little to no financial gain.
Anyhow... enough of the downside! The upside is it is really rewarding to produce this beutiful little art filled tome - and have people wat to buy it and maybe even tell you how much they LOVE it - and want more! That's the upside. That and to play magazine editor and art director with no one to answer to but yourself!
I MAY and I say "may" because why rule anything out?? - do some sort of printed book/journal thing in the future, or maybe a pdf digital download sort of thing, and if I do I will certainly be talking about it here. But as far as a regular quarterly publication - this is it boys and girls..!

So.. if you want one, please go HERE and reserve yourself one. I will add more listings as they are bought, but I don't plan to do more than 100 - 150.

Own a piece of art zine history!! :-)