Entries Tagged as: Travel

March Showers, Bring Me Flowers?

March 8th, 2008, Comments (11)

Oh, that's not how it goes. Is it March mud, bring me crud? No?

It's a typical March weekend in New England. Rather gray and gloomy. A good day to be cozied up indoors with hot chocolate and taxes... Heh. O.k., no day is great for working on taxes, but the gloom outside makes me feel like it's a day to be inside anyways.

I've had a bite on a large painting at the coffee shop which is cool and also a request for art instruction which is slightly scary, but also interesting. I think I'll go for it. I've been brainstorming ways I can do some teaching, some kind of collage/mixed-media/intuitive creating class. I'd love to lead an in-person "Artist's Way" group too, but I'm unsure of where and I also want to plan it out so that the timing works with scheduled weddings and getaways. I can hardly believe it, but in just a few weeks I'll be flying across the country for Artfest! Ack! I just ordered some cute Moo Cards of my art for trades. I've booked my flight and lodging and rental car and I need to pick up the supplies I'll need.

In another coffee shop all the way in Minneapolis, my dear friend, Jessie is having an opening for her gorgeous dog portraits. I'm so excited for Jessie and the steps she's taken to make her dreams come true. I could use a little of her determination and bravery right about now. A bravery infusion.

Jessie is doing a great promotion through April on her dog portraits, so if you or someone you know would be interested in a dog portrait, do check it out. Her work is awesome!! I'm particularly loving her painting of "Murphy."

Flowers in the Winter

January 23rd, 2008, Comments (6)

Seattlewhiteflower

Yesterday's creativity involved doodling on an old drawing, picking out colorful tulips at the store, and putting them in vases to brighten up a gray day. Flowers in your home are another super sweet and simple delight. You may think that you need a special occasion for flower buying. You don't. Treating yourself to a bright bunch of tulips is a wonderful way to take care of yourself and bring more color and creativity into your life. The pictures in this post are from my trip with the hubster to Seattle last summer. We were visiting the Pike Place Market and my mind exploded in color at the sight of the flowers they had for sale there. Gorgeous flowers in every shape and color. They seemed larger than life, so full and thick, almost surreal. Perhaps its the moist Seattle air that makes the flowers so gorgeous? And they were incredibly cheap too!

Seattlepinkflower

I mean,  look at those peonies!  I stuck my face in a few to take big whiffs and feel their soft petals. If I lived in Seattle, my home would be overflowing with flowers, I'm sure of it. Wintertime in New England, flowers are not so cheap and full, but I did find some cheery yellow tulips with reddish pink edges that look quite lovely in the blue vase I have in the window. And two extra tulips are in a little red vase in the kitchen too.

Brightening your space in small and large ways can be a wonderful way to express yourself creatively. Simply changing the arrangement of your furniture can give such a fantastic change of perspective and new energy to a space. I'm trying to figure out how to rearrange my studio right now.

Here's some more juicy inspiration for you:

- The blog housemartin is all about home decor and floral design. If you're needing some floral inspiration, do check out all the gorgeous pictures there!

- Kara of Mother Henna has a cool online exhibit of art relating to Peace on her website A Peace Of... Check out the cool art there and maybe submit something you've created!

- The website Normal Room shows pictures of interiors from around the world. Loads of fun interior spaces to see there!

- Lastly, from one of my favorite websites, decor8, check out Holly's flickr group of Creative Collections. I love the cool and quirky collections there.

Day 19 – Traveling Girl

November 19th, 2007, Comments (13)

I did a doodle of this girl on a stack of suitcases in my journal before bed one night. So, today, I flipped through my journal, saw the sketch and decided to bring her to life. I thought about the different ways I could do it with collage or watercolor or acrylics or pencil...and I decided I wanted something colorful, but with sharp black lines, sort of illustration-style. She's about 5"x7" on watercolor paper with acrylic paint and ink. I love her purple suitcase with the tag hanging off it. I think this may stem from my love of boxes which can easily move into containers of all kind which make me incomprehensibly happy. In fact, even though Bridgette claimed her post wasn't exciting, her picture of her basement studio space today thrilled me. All those little compartments and boxes and containers and drawers and doors. Eee! Love it! I get totally befuddled when it comes to creating something like this for myself, but I do adore the look of it. I bought a bunch of things from the Container Store for my office/studio and it's coming along. When we buy a house (hopefully in the spring), I'll work on some organizational pieces like the one Bridgette got from IKEA, but in the meantime, I'll work with what I've got which isn't terrible by any means, just a little cramped. And hopefully less cramped when I'm done with it.

Some people have mentioned wanting to continue doing art every day after the month ends. That's awesome! I say go for it! December is usually a busy month full of family obligations (I've got a big family!), so I won't be making that commitment, but I've had something else in mind for awhile now. I'm thinking in January that I'm going to begin a year of being "creative every day." Yes! Just like my blog name! I do find ways to insert some creativity into every day, but making this my intention for the year will be an affirmation, a sign to the Universe, that hey, I'm here and I'm committed to creating. And hopefully it will help me continue to stretch and grow in ways I might otherwise procrastinate about or avoid all together. I'd make a list in the sidebar for anyone interested in joining in (just like I did for art every day month) and there could be a new flickr group to go along with it.

I don't plan to post a piece of art every day in 2008. I will simply plan to do something creative each day. I may not post every day, but I will post about my creative acts. Anyways, I wasn't planning to talk about this tonight and it just slipped out! I'm excited about it! Anyways, I will do a more thought out post in the near future with more details about how I'm planning to do this along with an invitation for anyone to join in. For now, this traveling girl, is going to relax. I need to get some quiet time in before we head to NYC for turkey day in a few days. Ciao for now!

Plenty to Do!

September 12th, 2007, Comments (9)

I've got so much catching up to do! I'm way behind in emailing people back, so if you've written, please don't think I'm ignoring you, I'm just way behind in lots of things at the moment.

The barn at Jes's "Plenty to Do Farm"

I had a wonderful, wonderful time in Maine at Jes's mini art retreat. It was really just what I needed...a wonderful getaway in a beautiful location with an amazing hostess, spending time with great new friends, lots of art-making, good food, antiquing, and laughing. It was so much fun spending time with the super sweet and talented Jes, Tammy, Mindy, Heidi, (and Susan briefly!) We did a fun art exercise by starting with a canvas and creating a background and then passing it on so that each of us did something on everyone else's canvases. In the end we turned out 5 collaborative pieces of art that were completely different and lots of fun!

Mindy and Tammy hard at work

Saturday night we had plans for dinner at a nearby restaurant. We all changed out of sweaty art clothes and headed to dinner and when we got there, we walked into a dining room with a table set for five and at each place setting was a pot of mums with a pretty fairy wand stuck in it. For a moment I thought, "It looks like this place was decorated just for us! What's going on?" Well, these lovely ladies had planned a lovely little surprise wedding shower just for me. I was so incredibly surprised, I nearly cried. What a wonderful gesture. I'll be forever grateful for it! We ate dinner, played games that Tammy had put together, had dessert, and I got some wonderful gifts: art from Tammy and Susan, a super cool picnic basket full of goodies from Jes, a beautiful set of chopsticks from Mindy, and a delicately decorated container with candles and matches from Heidi. It was such an unexpected treat.

My fairy wand, made by Jes!

The previous night, Jes and I drove out to Tammy's restaurant and enjoyed a delicious dinner on the water. It was a wonderful evening. Jes and I got a little mixed up on the way back (because I can't read directions backwards...doh!), but we did get to see a couple drunk guys playing rock, paper, scissors in a parking lot! :-)

On Sunday, Jes, Heidi, Mindy and I went out and did some serious shopping at a flea market. I think I got enough paper goodies to last me for a year! hehe... I'll share pics of those later on. Besides the fun paper goods (books, pictures, etc), I also got a collection of old keys and clock parts, a funky old button, some lace scraps, and a rhinestone brooch (maybe for my hair for the wedding?) After we'd worked up an appetite we lunch and shopped around some more before saying our goodbye's and heading home. I had such a wonderful time, ladies. Thank you again! There are certainly more photos to share, so more later...

I had a bit of a cold over the weekend and it's gotten a little worse, so after taking yesterday to try and rest and get better, I'm a bit frustrated that I'm not all better today, but what can you do.

Tomorrow is my second hair trial. Hopefully that will go well! Oh, and I bought my veil online. I found someone who makes them online and I hope that was a good choice...seems like anything but the way over-priced salon veils would be a good choice at the moment.

Shopping, Travels and Inspirations

July 12th, 2007, Comments (4)

My tummy is super upset today. I woke up in the middle of the night with awful pain and then well, I won't go into any more details than that. Yucko. I feel a little better today, but not great. I've felt kind of tired and drained all week actually. I'm sure it will turn around soon. I think all the traveling over the weekend threw my body for a loop.

While we were in Boulder, I really enjoyed walking through this one area full of shops. The fiansor commented that it was like this place was made for me. All the colors and designs and funky hand-made products were so up my alley. It was some serious eye-candy. I also stopped in a wonderful interior design store-front that made me ooh and ahh, a bunch of galleries, and a couple antique stores. The only place I got some things at was a little shop called Bliss, just off the Pearl Street Mall area. I would give you a link to it if they had one. How can a store not have a website? Arg! But it was such a cute store full of all sorts of goodies that I just loved. I even got to see a bunch of Anahata Katkin's cards in person, which I'd never seen before. While there, I got a pair of sunglasses (I crushed mine on the plane ride trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in on the plane), a new wallet, two adorably painted tin birds on ribbon, and a silky headband. Here's a pic of the outside of the shop from jessicagonacha's flickr photostream:

Blisscolorado

I enjoyed some of the galleries we visited and was struck by the art of Maria Neary in particular. Again, no website to share for her alone, but I did find this video of her speaking about her art which is very cool. It's the third video from the top. Turns out she used to be an animator, but I'll let you listen for yourself. I also found some of her work displayed at the Blink Gallery website here. While searching for art by her I came upon an ad that someone was selling a print of hers for a great price, so I scooped it up. Since I'm working for myself now I don't feel like I have the luxury of buying too much for myself. I'm not depriving myself or anything. I'm just trying to keep a more careful reign on my spending habits. (Those items I got from Bliss, were all a gift from the sweet fiansor). There is so much great art out there I'd like to purchase! All in good time.

I've got a new post up at the Blue Tree Blog. While writing it I had a funny bit of synchronicity around the image, chakras, and lotus flowers. I love synchronicity. I do, I do. The Lotus Heart painting is now up in the shop here. Shortly, I'm going to cozy up with some art materials and fuzzy kitties and watch my not-so-guilty pleasure of the summer, "So You Think You Can Dance."

Wind in Her Hair

June 28th, 2007, Comments (8)

I woke up in such a funk this morning. Over-heated, blah, feeling sad for no apparent reason. I sat in this funk for awhile, but knew that I needed to move on and although it's tough to start, the best thing for a funk is to get to work. So, I set up at the kitchen table (I like to work in a different place everyday it seems and I don't think I've ever painted in the kitchen) surrounded myself with supplies and got to work. I had prepped a wood board with gesso earlier in the week and I'd also made a sketch on a scrap of paper next to the bed when I had an image of a woman with butterflies in her hair and words and other things, sort of like a tangle of thoughts caught in her hair which you can see when the wind blows. I sketched it out on the board and then thought for awhile about how I wanted to bring her to life. I pulled out some of the 195o's magazines I got in Seattle, some old sheet music, and some packing tape and made some quick transfers. I played around with the images I chose, I particularly loved the chair and the fish. Then I cut butterflies out of random patterns in an Oprah magazine and saved those for later. I started arranging the tape transfers on the board, glued them down and then started to paint, later collaging in the butterflies. I like how she came out, very summery and soft. I'll have her up in my store tonight or tomorrow. I thought I'd try and make it out to Mindy's Creative night (such a cool idea!), but I've got a migraine brewing and need to chill in the dark for a bit.

"Wind in Her Hair" is 8"x8" with mixed media on cradled wood board. I've still got lotus imagery in my head, so when I found a lotus image in one of the 1950's magazines I put it in her body. I was happy to have found the image, especially after seeing the most gorgeous jewelry today, one piece of which incorporates a lotus flower.

Erindolmannecklace

Oh, I love it. It's by Erin Dolman, who I found through Ullabenulla.

Other things I'm lovin today: wearing my hair in pig tails, taking a cold shower, "half baked" frozen yogurt by Ben & Jerry's, little sun dress from Old Navy, re-reading the 5th Harry Potter book before the movie comes out on the 11th, air conditioning in the bedroom.

Bearly There

June 7th, 2007, Comments (3)

Bear

Don't worry, this isn't a picture of my last moments in the state of Washington. The fiansor and I made a trip to the zoo yesterday in Seattle. They did a great job there of trying to set up animals in a habitat that they're familiar with, with lots of room to roam. The brown bears had a brook running through their space with actual fish in it for them to catch! Sometimes it felt a little scary how close they could get, as in the picture above (I don't have a zoom lens), but it was cool to get to see these magnificent animals up close.

Working away on the website today, but I wanted to stop in and send a few links your way as they've been building up and I just might burst (or forget to tell you) if I don't get them out straight away. So here ya go:

After a little bit of encouragement (hehe), the super sweet Cathy Nichols has started a blog! Yay! She plans to write about the challenges and rewards of balancing being a mom and an artist.  Be sure to check out all her awesome artwork while you're over there!

A fairly new find: Jennifer of Life Unfolds. After a bit of encouragement (hehe again), Jennifer moved her blog to one that allows comments. Hoorah! Jen is a fellow introvert who manages to do so much (she's a coach, she leads great workshops, she's just finished yoga teacher training, and the list goes on!) and is just full of creative inspiration.

Recently stumbled upon this jam-packed blog, Ullabenulla, and oh my, it's chock-full of creative inspiration. I'm loving her paper-cut art. oo la la.

I've fallen in love with the art of Jeanie Tomanek. Gorgeous, dreamy work.

I'm not sure if you've noticed the badge I've got in my sidebar now regarding donations for Bernie Berlin's incredible work. A fellow artist, Bernie does the most amazing work with animals, rescuing and placing dogs and cats who need a good home. I'm just in absolute awe of all the good she does. Be sure to check out her blog to learn more about what she does and donate a little if you can. Every little bit helps!

Ok, that should be enough to keep you busy for now. Toodaloo!