Hail Mary, full of grapes

December 11, 2007

I did this collage above for a winewalk we were having at our store "Folie a Deux". There was much drinking, eating and making merry. Just a whole lot of fun.

I truly cannot believe that Christmas is 2 weeks away. I have gotten only one gift so far for my son Dylan. It's getting harder and harder to get special gifts for my children. My youngest is still easy. Hannah Montana is the it thing to have for a girl 10 years old and she can never have enough clothes. To tell the truth, I think I can't get enough clothes for her because she just looks so darn cute in anything she wears. It's my fun.

On Friday, while my husband was away helping to take care of the clean up of hazardous waste down in Chehalis Washington due to the flooding, I decided to paint our bedroom. I painted it with Devine paints (it really is divine, I used it in my living room a few months ago Cocoa) in "Reflection". It's a watery frenchy blue. I painted the dresser and the mantle in our room with "Whip". I hung a chandelier up and it is on the road to being fabulous. Need a few more accessories. Hmm....Cindy Queen of Tarte sale coming up and I am sure she will have just the right piece to pull it together.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas...

This weekend I continued my Christmas decorating. We had the perfect weather for it. Sunday it snowed...ok, it teased us with a sprinkle but it sure looked good for about 10 minutes. Then Monday came the downpour. Over 10 inches of rain fell & did some major havoc. But alas not to the building where I work.

On Saturday I sent my fabulous husband on a flocking spray run. He went to 7 stores & couldn't find any. Of course this is the first year I decided we needed a flocked tree and every other year before we would see that flocking spray but none this year. I finally told him to forget it and I will just go with a silver & glass glitter tree. It turned out just wonderful but I know that it would have been outrageous had it been heavily flocked. Oh well. I am thinking Paris pink for next year.

I also purchased 10 rolls of wrapping paper. Ron, my husband, thinks I may have gone just a bit too far with my control issues. I plan on giving the wrapping paper to anyone that is wrapping a present for under our tree. I want everything to just blend together nicely. No Spongebob (is that 2 words?) or dog & kitty wrapping paper under the tree that I painstakingly picked out each ornament to work together with each other . No way was Spongebob Square Pants going take all the focus away from the first view of the tree. Do you think that's overboard? I don't...but then again? Ehh.

Christmas decorating continues

Separation Anxiety

December 3, 2007

A close-up of a beeswax assemblage I did last year.

Imogen Heap

A day at home

Decided to stay home today and get some much needed sleep and work on some projects.

This is one of my pieces called "Meet". The line is from a Sylvia Plath poem which for the life of me the title escapes me.

Checked my email today and was very excited to get an email flyer from Cindy who owns "Queen of Tarte".

I was introduced to her wares at the June flea market at Willow Nest in Washougal. Her work is fabulous. I have included her in my list of favs.

Christmas is coming!

So I began just a bit early this year. I took down the Halloween ceiling and up with the Winter white ceiling. This ceiling is over my dining room table. It changes with the season, holiday, event, etc.

I can't wait for Christmas this year. I am usually just ragged by the time the 25th hits. I pledge not to let myself do that to myself. I will plan things better so that I may enjoy the season more.

I try so hard to stay away from the malls and find quaint shops to spend my money. I plan to make a few gifts. Massage oils and cupcakes. Gorge then lube up! I can't wait to design the label for the oil. And a few art pieces for my oldest daughter Elisabeth.

Got my husband one of those turntables that have a USB thingy to plug into the computer so he can begin to take all his albums and make CDs or direct to his IPOD and there is a program with an equalizer dodad. Can you tell I don't know much about of this stuff??!! So here comes the King Crimson, Marillion, etc. etc. CDs. We don't listen to much of the same music....he is still trying to get me to appreciate his. He's a musician so he so analyzes everthing he listens to. I just like to have fun and not think about it too much.

Good night Elisabeth, your mother is 50!

It's the big 5-0 today. I don't feel any different. I am just now able to join AARP. Ugh.

I have been away for so long. So much to do. I also got a new computer so that I wouldn't have to share the family computer but it's not the same. That is why I haven't been here or Flickr in so long. All my pics are on my computer which is in the middle of my out grown craft room. I can't concentrate in there. I wanted to make sure and make some sort of post on my 50th birthday.

Decided that this was it. I have to try (I mean really try) and be more healthy. My sister and her kids and me and my youngest, Madeleine, went jog/ran around the track for 1 1/4 of a mile. Good start. I also got that new thing, the Kettle something. It's fun......for now. When I'm done with it it can become my doorstop. But I am determined not to let that happen for at least 6-8 months. I have to make this 50 thing the new 30 thing. Ha.

I will get back to posting art and pics soon. Just been in one of those slumps.

I am drinking a beautiful Malbec right now that is making my toes curl with delight. I am also trying to get use to drinking more red wine for my health along with what Dr. Oz said almonds, pomegranite juice, tomato sauce, olive oil and ???? can't think of that 5th thing. I feel bad that I am not posting a picture. Ha, found one of my second daughter Elisabeth. My most trying daughter with such a mouth on that one but love her to death.

Good night Aunties Priscilla, Edna, Grandma, Aunty Lurline and Mom

You gotta have friends....

I can't help myself. I love old tattered scary dolls. The crackly, ragged, worn the better. I like having dolls that have pieces missing. I wonder if in decades to come that all my daughter's Brat dolls with all their feet missing will attract someone like me. She can never keep their darn feet on. They are interchangeable and like their clothes, they somehow mysteriously disappear. And of course she was practicing to be a beautician by all the frizzy hair or butched hair jobs that they now sport. I remember when my Barbie's took a lickin'. Although their hair was not made to be combed back in my day. They had tight doos with little pearl earrings or was that what I put on them. You know, the ball headed needles in a variety of colors? I guess we all tried to "improve" our dolls.

Annie

Made this beeswax collage a couple years ago. Have to take pictures of more recent artwork. I was (and still am) so into wings. At Michael's they use to have feather wings for sale but I haven't been able to find any since the bird flu scare. I'm sure that it's a coincidence but that seems to be the last time I saw them for sale. I have a few left but my supply is dwindling. Used some rusty things I found at a junk yard for her "glasses".

I have found so many wonderful rusty things at "Mr. Jones" junk yard. Old windows (I think I have about 50 of them in hopes that one day soon my husband will build me a big greenhouse studio on top of the flat part of our roof) old doors, fencing materials, buckets of rusty gears and thingys. It's always an adventure rummaging through items tossed by others as junk and found by me as treasures waiting to be incorporated into some piece of art and to have a new life, new meaning.

Jack and Lulu

My little guys. I got so tired of finding little fur bunnies everyday, even though I vacuum each day, that I just took the scissors and gave them a cropping. Not too bad. A bit choppy but ok.

Tonight I am organizing my studio so that I can finish some projects and start some new ones. Looking at all the great blogs out there gives me inspiration. But before I can start to create, I have to make pretty. I can't focus on art if there is a mess in front of me. And after each project, there is a BIG mess.

I bought some semi-vintage metal cabinets. It's rusting just a bit on the top and that makes it even more beautiful to me. Ron hung them up in my studio and they look great. It's almost a Robin's egg blue. Seems to be THE color now. Or am I behind in the color times?

Isn't she lovely, isn't she fa-bu-lous....

Goodnight Mary and your little lamb

Barn sale at Willow's Nest

Last month my business partner, Lee, and I went to a barn sale at Willow's Nest. Oh did my heart skip many beats! It was fabulous. Linda & Ludmil own this property which has a barn, an old 1500 sq ft. gym & they live in the school house. Here is the website http://www.willownest.net

They hold barn sales and flea markets a few times a year. It was just simply breathtaking. The surroundings and the shopping. The sale was in the gymnasium instead of the barn. A handful of vendors were participating along with Willow's Nest owners Linda and Ludmil fabulous finds. When they opened the doors at 8, I walked in and could barely catch my breathe. So much to look at. I wish I would have taken more pictures of the inside but I was too busy shopping. We loved it so much that we are going to be a vendor in the flea market on June 23rd. I can't wait and yet I am a bit frightened. I need to produce alot of new things to take down there to sell and you should see some of the other artists work! It's a bit intimidating but I just want to be a part of it from the other side of the event. Oh and by being part of the event I do believe I may have the priviledge of being an early shopper!! I have my eye on a project that Ludmil is working on. It is a metal frame, looks like a small house, that was from France and used in a cemetery. He had a name for it but it escapes me now. A part is damaged so he is going to weld it & make it into an Aviary. Be still my heart!! He said it would be done by the June event. Now, I am not sure I would be able to afford it but we will see. I have a feeling that all that I may sell will just end up being spent there.

Goodnight Madeleine

May Day!

I cannot believe it's May already! Does time fly faster as you get older? Or is it we are just more aware of how little there is? Am I sounding like Carrie in "Sex in the City"? Ha.

Time just does seem to slip by so quickly UNLESS of course when you are at work thinking about all the things you could be doing at home that is soooo much more fun or for that matter, just getting the laundry done.

To be so lucky to love the job you have. To look forward to going to work each day. My job isn't a bad one, just isn't as challenging anymore and at my age and trying to find one that pays as well as this one does isn't that easy. Not that I am too old, but no spring chicken anymore. And where I work is pretty relaxed so that is a huge benefit. If any of my children or other family member needs my attention, there is never a hesitation in letting me go. It's understood family comes first. Oh and there is almost no dress code. As long as nothing is hanging out then it's pretty safe to say you can wear it. We very rarely have to actually see the public. All of it is done on computer and contact by phone. But I am luckier than most and that I try not to forget.

Different subject....my sister, Maddie and I were in the car. We are at a stop light and Maddie is reading a sign and pipes up from the back seat asking who in the heck would want to "Rent to Own" that pole? We had a good laugh about that one.

Up to my eyes.....

in projects and in various stages. Although I complain just a little bit about all the things I have to do, I am not sure I would know what to do with myself if I had some free time.

And yet, I create even more things to do and my mind is constantly racing on an idea for the next one. So much to do and so little time. I try to condition myself to be one of those ones that don't need a lot of sleep. I love to stay up late and love to sleep in but I feel so guilty that I had wasted the day away if I sleep in past 8. My youngest, Madeleine, is 9 years old now so we do get the luxury of not having to get up at the crack of dawn even on our days off.
My third child, Dylan, he sleeps in until 1 on the weekends. You would think that would drive me nuts, but I figure his time will come so sleep while you can honey. Now as for my oldest daughter, Elisabeth, she too use to sleep in when she lived at home. The only reason I would let her sleep the entire day away is that it was just easier on me. She is my most vocal child and I simply loved it when she rested her mouth. What is it about daughters? I have 4 children. 2 girls (9 years and 22 years old) and 2 sons (17 and 25 years). My sons you can't drag a complete paragraph out of them whereas my daughters you can't run fast enough to get away from the constant yakking. I never never ever had a moment of peace when my daughters are around. Never. I couldn't even take a shower or go to the bathroom in peace. They would be knocking at the door and the would be yelling in the crack of the door some inaudible extremely urgent question like where's my socks or something.

I digress...projects. So many I want to do, so many things I want to learn and so many classes to take. All I need is the time.

Good night chair

Folie a Deux

Some pictures taken by a fellow shop owner, Paul Uhl, who is a photographer, of our shop Folie a Deux. Collectively we are called "The Middle Floor Merchants". He took pictures of most of the shops and we now have a Myspace website. I will have the link posted to the right. Nothing great right now, but it's a start.

In August I am on the decorating committee for our Prom Night. The theme will be "One Night in Bangkok". Couldn't we all have come up with something a bit more easier to decorate?? I have some researching to do. We are going with a vintage Bangkok meets American 50's sort of theme. Will definitely be a challenge. Anyone with ideas, I would certainly love to hear them.

Good night Stella

Salad

I cannot photograph food. Not to mention I think I need my eyes re-examined!

So here is the Caesar. At the request of my sister, she wanted lots of croutons. Granted.

In the summer is when I like Caesar salads the best. I like to top it off with grilled Lemon Garlic Prawns or steak marinated in rosemary, garlic and red wine. Making my mouth water thinking about it. By the end of summer I am so tired of making it because so many people request it. So now my taste buds (and hands from cutting the artisan bread) are ready for the season.

Green grass

Break in the weather today, took this picture of part of the back yard from the deck. It's amazing how well it looks from a distance. I neglected my beds last year and this year they are full of grass. Doh! See that I left the cord out from yesterday. I never seem to put everything away. Always a tool left in the dirt, a cord, the lawnmower, etc. I have more rusty tools than anything. I think I work for hours in the yard and when I'm done, I'm done.

This is the best time of year for my yard. Everything so green and either getting ready to bloom or in bloom. Come summer, not so green. It gets pretty hot here. At least to me. Even though I am part Hawaiian, the perfect temperature for me is about 70'.

Stormy day...

Having a cup of Green Ginger tea and enjoying the stormy weather here. I am so glad I got all my weed eating & mowing done yesterday.

Was going to take a picture of my Caesar last night & my batteries went dead so will have to take one today. I am curious how it will look. There is such an art in just presenting things to photography.

Here is another one of my Laurie's. I am an out of control collector of all her work. I shamelessly have about 45-48 of her paintings and Wall Dolls. Isn't this painting cute? The cat looks like my kitty Sabrina. Just love the basket of kittens.

Got back from the nursery as well and bought some herbs. My FAVORITE herb to cook with is Majoram. It is so lovely to add to goulash and to stuff under the skin of a whole chicken.

I shall return later today.

I

Sunday..a day of rest

How I wish. Sundays seem to be my

crunch day. All the things that I hoped to accomplish and hadn't needs to be done today.

My husband, Ron, has been on a business trip to New Orleans for two weeks. I had such plans on what I was going to do while he's gone. I was going to totally gut the garage and edit putting things back in. While he's gone. That was the key. I (I wish WE) have a rule...if you haven't touched it in 5 years, it really may need to be gotten rid of. We haven't been able to park a car in there for 10 years. I have visions of moving my studio to the garage where I can have a huge long farmer's table to work on. Right now I have the old master bedroom, which is big, but I ran out of space quickly.

Ron is back today and my best layed ( or is it laid??)plans are out the window. Oh well. I am just glad he's coming home. So tonight we will barbeque up some steaks and I will make Caesar salad with my own dressing and homemade croutons. My friends rave about my Caesar salads. It is very tasty. I made it once for our office of 100 and knocked their socks off! HEY! I have a blog now. I will take a picture of it tonight!!

Good night Angel

Aunty Priscilla

I credit my Aunt with my love of cooking. When I returned to Hawaii after I graduated, I lived at my Aunt's house. My cousin Carol and I had a room with our own entrance and bathroom. Life was good.

Every morning before leaving for work, she would have breakfast made for us and when we returned, dinner was on the table. I was so very surprised that, at least the 9 months I was there, she never had a stove fire. She had this peculiar method of keeping her stove clean. She would lift the silver thingys up around the element & line newspaper up all around it. It sure did the job but what a fire hazard. She had been doing it for decades so she had it down to a science.

My Aunt hummed and la di da'd all the time. It made me happy to be in the same room with her. She loved the Mike Douglas and the Dinah Shore Show. I too became to love them.

My cousin, Father Scott, cares for her. She has Alzheimers now for 6 years. The last time she was up here I played music from the war years for her. She was so happy, sang alot of the songs & said that those were the happy years for her. She is such a beautiful woman.

It's funny how a terrible disease like Alzheimer's can be a curse and a blessing. It has protected her from retaining the memory and feeling the long term hurt of losing her daughter Carol to breast cancer in July.

Folie a Deux

Not thrilled with these pictures. That statue in the first picture is something that we just got & have to take home to finish someone's paint job on it. The first two pictures are of one room and the third is the second room. They were two shops and the owner of the building put a french door size opening between the two for us to double the space.

Next week Lee and I want to make it to a barn sale at Willow Nest. It's about 2 hours + from Tacoma in Washougal, Wa by the Columbia River. I will put a link to the right. It's hard to find things for a cheap price to pass it along to customers anymore. What once was everyone's junk is now alot of people's treasures.

Lynn Whipple

In the Great NW, today is just beautiful. I know we are known for our rain but the rain has it's pay off. We are much like England here. Weather wise that is.

A great day to get outside and do some weeding. Nah.

Going to the shop today and I will take some pictures. The ones I have are of November (except the one below). It is a very cute shop, if I say so myself, but so many people that come in say so too so it must be so.

Here is 2 of my Lynn Whipple "Ninnies" is what she calls them. Aren't they just bizarre but loveable? That is what I love about them. Just a touch over the line out there. Website link to the right!

Good night Marion

Calvary Cemetery

I love cemeteries. Catholic cemeteries. Old Catholic cemeteries. Love the religious statues. Some have pictures of their loved ones on the headstone. Just love it. There is one in particular that I go to. It's in Tacoma on Orchard. Now having been to Europe and seeing the cemeteries there, ours is nothing, but the Calvary Cemetery is the closest one to my memories of what they were like.

I am off on Mondays and last year during the spring I would go and walk around. I took many pictures there, laying down under the statutes to get a different angle. The groundskeepers began to get use to my quirkiness. I would walk around and (this is a bit weird) read their names on the tombstones out loud. I wonder how long had it been since anyone has ever said their name out loud. Some have been gone for 80-100 years. Where ever they are, do they hear me? Do they get a tingle or a warm feeling that someone had just actually said their name out loud. It's just so peaceful there. Landscaping is beautiful and the have the most beautiful peegee hydrangeas there.

Kitty looks like my Sabrina

Darn, this picture I couldn't/didn't photograph so well.

This is another one of my favorite's of Laurie Meseroll's. Who am I kidding....they all are.

You can purchase them from Jen O'Conner at Earthangelstoys.com She will do layaway! Now that is the best way to buy art! Remember Laurie is listed on Jen's site under "Mudcakes".

The little girl is holding a kitty that looks like our Sabrina. She was the runt of the litter but she is the feistiest one. She has no fear and everything fears her little scrappy thin body. She is the great huntress (which I don't like and she knows when I am not happy if she has a bird when I reach for the hose). In contrast, there is her sister Gorbie. She must weigh 25 pounds & just is one huge snowball. She can only catch bugs. She has never had to be hosed.

Marta

Sorry, about the glare on this one. I scanned an old tintype, a little bit of tinting, applied some grunge brushes & wings glued the print about 16x20 to canvas and then of course brushed beeswax on it.

I can't figure out if her face is haunting or pi**ed off. She almost has the look of Mona Lisa. Something brewing in that brain of hers. Maybe her husband forgot to put the seat down (even in out houses, don't they have or had seats??). Or she is just so tired of working all day and the last thing she wanted was to sit veeerrrrry still for a photo.

I noticed that in most early pictures, no one smiled. Is it because they all had such bad teeth? I think it's because they really had to keep still for a few minutes for the picture to take so there was a greater success rate if they didn't smile (which sometimes if you smiled to long you begin to twitch and then caused a blur). That's my take on it anyway.

Gone Walking

Another one of my Laurie paintings. I love the

colors and textures.

This painting is so rich and fabulous in person. You have to see one in person to get the full impact of one.

Laurie mentioned that she may do some landscapes. I am hoping one day for a mermaid. Fingers crossed. Hint hint Laurie! Please visit her website Mudcakes and at Earthangelstoys. Links are to the right.

Good night Madge, Ingrid, Emily and Ellen!

Fading Memories par deux

Here is my Aunty Priscilla. She's not lost or forgotten but the look on her face is so grim that I had to use it in the series.

All the pictures I have taken over the years, I wonder where they will be in 50 or 100 years. Will they still be in our family? Will someone understand the importance of family history? I hope one of my children will have the same passion and a bit of fear of that I have of being forgotten. Even if it means just opening a photo album once a year and looking back on all the relatives and remembering. I think their souls feel it when we remember or speak their name.

Fading Memories

I am facinated with vintage photos. It breaks my heart to see photos at a garage sale, ebay, antique stores, etc. I wonder where are the family of these folks? Why aren't these old pictures a family treasure? These are forgotten lost souls.

I put together a collection of these photos and purposely blurred them to make it look like they were a fading memory. They were lost and looking for someone that would love them again. One group of the photos I put behind panes of glass on a huge old window. Souls looking into the world of the living. Wanting to be remembered again.

Good Night Madeleine