Surrender to the Wind: Mixed Media Painting

This might be my favorite painting to date, but you've all heard that before. It's funny how attached we become to our art. Then a new shiny thing comes along and the new one is the most favorite. 

This one though - it feels like I was sharing a part of me. And that is what I've been working toward.

Before:

And After:

I love how the funky background made each flower so unique.

This was my second attempt at block letters. They are both harder and easier than you'd think. I bet practice will make a huge difference... and confidence.

I may turn this project into a class. In my opinion, it would be accessible to everyone from motivated beginners to advanced crafters. 

What do you think?

For me, I love a piece that is easy enough to do but looks wonderfully complex.

Have a GREAT weekend!

Warmly,

~~~Nicole

Signs for Local Business I Love

Neighborhood Acupuncture and Healing Arts has literally changed my life. I went to see them desperate and broken and they have slowly put me back together, vertebrae by vertebrae and with each passing week I feel myself growing stronger and adding to my abilities. Is everything roses and sunshine? Of course not. 

But I'm getting my life back a little bit more each day and it's all thanks to Heather, my Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner, and her amazing acupuncture, yoga classes, massage and herbs. And yes, that sounds like hippie, New Age bull crap but it's not. The years of schooling she's had combined with her remarkable diagnostic skills creates a very logical, targeted, remarkable, holistic, effective experience.

So when I was given the opportunity to make signs for the treatment rooms I jumped at the chance.

Each one is 4x6 and edged in gold. One side says, "vacant" and the other, "in use" and they are hung with matching hand-dyed ribbon.

Each side has four layers of glossy varnish making them both wipeable and resistant to wear and tear.

Here's a few pics of  our family - me getting acupuncture and the boys enjoying youth yoga classes with Stephen.

This month they have a 25% off Spring it On special.

Save 25% Spring into Health! This offer may be printed and shared but is only valid one per customer  The offer is only good for the following in house service: Acupuncture, Yoga & Massage This offer may not be combined with any other offer or discount  This offer is good only for 25% off in house services and has no cash value Offer Expires: 4/14/2013

 You can read about it HERE in the newsletter.

Fear: Painting on MDF

(Please click on the picture.)

Fear makes strangers of people 

who would be friends.

This is a painting... not mixed-media - on MDF. 

EEK!

I'm working on light-source, different skin-tones and NOT over-working my paint. It's really hard because all my stamping and card-making days have taught me to blend, blend,blend.

But I really like it. She might be my favorite Modern Girl of all. My boys keep telling me how pretty she is which just tickles me to no end. While it's all well and good to seek your own approval, getting praise from your teenagers is a pretty awesome feeling too.

Lately I've been trying to find my own style and have been a lot more open to failing. It's good, it brings the fun and the thrill back to creating.

That I Could Clamber to the Frozen Moon

That I could clamber to the frozen moon

And draw the ladder after me.

Please click to see this larger. There are a lot of details that really don't show up in so small an image :-)

This is the background I made:

And here are some close-ups:

And here are the canvases and the finished works

As I'm sure you've heard. My precious Google Reader is going away in July. *POUT*

While I'm waiting for Digg to build me a lovely new RSS reader, I'm going to be using Bloglovin as it seems to be where a great deal of bloggers are heading for a "follow" button.

I personally don't like it all that much but it's going to have to due in the interim. FWIW, I don't like Feedly either. Apparently I'm the I-DON'T-LIKE-IT girl.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Graffiti Canvas - Monster Love

I know I don’t stand a chance but I’m going to like you anyway.

This is my project for Michelle Kral's Life Book 2013 class

We were supposed to make a cool pop-up, card-like thing but I didn't have any large paper. So I went and cleaned my basement instead and found an old, forgotten canvas. It was painted peachy-tangerine - AWFUL!

So I spray-painted it. A lot! Using lots of fun Artistcellar stencils.

And then went to work making my creature.

Here are some close -ups:

Thanks for visiting.

Happiness is the Way Collage

There is no way to happiness.

Happiness is the way.

I really love this Basic Grey paper that I used on her dress. The red and orange pattern really work well with the pleats.

As you can see, I'm using up old alphas in my backgrounds. I just love the look and I think it adds a nice layer of texture between the paper, paint and stamping.

Available on Etsy

February Watched and Read

Watched:

We're totally obsessed with the weirdly hilarious and offbeat  Suburgatory. 

Heathers

Pump up the Volume

Grimm: Season Two

Bunheads

Side Effects: Jude Law was excellent in this. 

Warm Bodies: The kid from About a Boy is so cute now.
He just makes you go, "aw"

But as importantly we QUIT watching:

Glee

Last Man Standing

Vampire Diaries *sigh* after all these years!

FaceOff

And shows that are on the bubble

(in other words I'm thinking I might be done with them soon)

Dallas

Being Human

READ:

The first three books of Gallagher Girls series. They are simple, sweet YA novels where the girls are smart, fierce, independent and pretty normal - for spies. I passed them on to my 14YO son who is devouring them too. Note: these aren't edgy in the least.

Glory Season

The world is extremely well-developed and you can tell that an enormous amount of thought went into every detail.  That said, I wish Brin had held back on the description a bit as I found the endless descriptive pages (Life or the colored light wall come to mind) to be a little tedious.  The main character also gets knocked unconscious an awful lot. To the point where I felt like he had her get hit in the head every time a scene change was needed. ">What I loved was how you couldn't help but place yourself in the book and wonder what it would be like to live in that world, what kind of niche you would carve out for yourself, how would you handle the challenges faced.

Dreams of Joy:

I really loved this book. It as a wonderful continuation of the story of Pearl, May and Joy. Often brutal and heartbreaking, the vivid nature of the story telling transported me to China during The Great Leap Forward. One thing that struck me was how much the book felt like a retelling of Animal Farm using beloved characters in place of the animals. I mean that as a compliment.

">Note: This book could stand alone if a person hadn't read Shanghai Girls but you'd miss out on the transformation that Pearl goes through