fa la la la la friday

..... i went to the post office today ... 

... i mailed darla, the prize winner, her christmas canvas ..... 

... i mailed some prints out to fill some orders ..... 

... i stopped by pottery to see if i had stuff to pick up .... i had LOTS actually .... but, in particular, this: 

... i was so happy with it that i glazed three more bisque pieces that i had waiting with the same transparent green glaze ..... i think i love this so much that i am going to keep it for myself ... i hardly ever keep my own pottery ... but this seems very useful .... and is dishwasher safe ... and has three more matches on the way ..... 

.... my nativities are a bit of a problem ... i was waiting on angels and quite a few of them lost their halos .... the donkeys were fine, but those pesky angels just couldn't keep it together for me ......

my excitement for tomorrow is going to the world story telling celebration .... last year i told two stories .... this year, even better, i'm telling two stories... but one is with drew and the other is with julia .... none by myself ... i'm proud of my kids for being brave enough to get up their and do public speaking at the ripe old age of ten ..... 
.... i think my house is nearing clean enough to start doing the christmas decorating .... i believe i'll start this weekend a bit ... especially since it will be december tomorrow ..... have you decorated yet? tell me your favorite bit of christmas joy in your house .... 

happy weekend ... 

i've got my groove on ....

OH MY GOSH .... 

I AM SOOOO EXCITED

.... i have fonts

.....i've never had fonts on my blog before .....

....my blog has always been just what it was ....

....my mac and my blog didn't really get along .....

...and now they do.....yippee....yippee.....yippeeee....yipppeeeee .....yippeeee ...

OH MY GOODNESS ... you just don't even know how thrilled i am .... now i don't even know what i was about to blog about ....

...give me a moment ....

deep breaths ...hee hee whooooo...hee hee whooooo .... that lamaze breathing always comes in handy ...hee hee whoooooo .... 

ok .... i've regrouped, regathered, settled down to happy fontness ..... 

heee heee whooooo ..... 

ok ... 

i've got my groove on this week .... i have been a cleaning machine... what??? yes....i, e. beck, certified mess maker, have been on a cleaning binge ..... in preparation for christmas ... and laying a layer of christmas happiness all over my house (that's what decorating is, a layer of christmas happiness) .... but before you can lay that layer out you have to tidy up the place ... and i have been on a gung ho cleaning kick .. AND i have done art every day .... WOW...

oh wait ....WOW ....where did those time management skills come from .. who knows , but we'll take advantage while we can!!!! 

so, today, after cleaning out the library (that's what we call our living room becasue i think living rooms are archaic, anachonistic, and passe) .... after i cleaned our library, i went to allison's and i did ART ... oh wait ...i did art ... 

yippee zippy hooray ....

i did the backgrounds on these seven canvases ..... three longs, four squares .... one of the longs is four feet tall and just luscious ..... tomorrow, after my cleaning binge, i hope to do my stamping and stenciling on these so that they'll be ready for thinking .... ready for me to know what they are meant to be .... do any of them strike you as being something in particular .... does it look like it will be a mona? or a house? or a flower background ... time will tell .... 

in the meanwhile ....

let's celebrate blogger figuring out how to make blogging easier from this here mac .... 

YIPPEEEEEEEEEEEEE! 

 

203 will be about my muse ...... and then i'll announce a grand winner.....

one of the blogs that i visit with ALARMING frequency is michelle ward's ..... she, in all her artistic grooviness, leads crusades .... her current crusade is this:

michelle, i read your blog at the FIRST of the month .... and said to myself, YES, yes, i do have a muse ...i'm going to write about her the next time i don't have something specific to post of my own artsy day ..... and then i've had this artfully crammed life and never got to it ... so i'm going to tell you about my muse at the very last minute ... moments before your crusade ends .....so...... my muse..... my pretend friend ... i TALK to her when i am putting her in my art ..... yup .... and she is in LOTS of my art ......

mona lisa is my muse .... but if you know me at all, you probably knew that already ..... these above pictures are collages
-the first is " je voudrais aller a paris" .... and it is mona with some french sass and attitude ....and comfy orange shoes ... if you've been reading my blog ... you know that *i* am an orange shoe kind of girl too ......
-next is mona with such a fresh hair cut.... and just relaxing .... she's a jolt cola kind of girl trying to live more intentionally .... trying to slow her helter skelter life down by getting a pet turtle .... if that won't slow her down, what will?
-bottom left is mermaid mona ... check out that fab pink seaweed hair .....
-last is a crossover from my flower series ... in a mona vase ... titled "where ARE the keys" .... there's a glimmer of my alter ego in that title for sure......

here's another one:

this one is my flickr avatar ... one of my favorite monas ever ....the first one that i did on a three foot by three foot canvas .... that's a HUGE canvas ....way bigger than the real mona lisa ...... she is just so sassy with those pink highlights in her hair .... and comfy in her raggedy ann leggings and under shirt ...... mona has gotten quite sensible and never wears high heels to speak of .... it's all about comfy and just being comfortable being her own laid back self .......

the next one, my mona muse is with my sweet sophie sunshine ..... sophie BADLY wanted some of my art for christmas .... last year she'd picked out a four foot TALL dictionary poppy .... honey, that's way too big for a little girl room .... i didn't mention that i could SELL it for a lot of money too ! ..... so i made her this special piece .... called sophie celebrates ... and she's at a party with mona ..... i think sophie looks like the cutest paper doll in this .... and mona is her perfect party partner .... and again, a titch of that alter ego/imaginary friend thing .... i love that kind of sandal .... i do wear party hats whenever i have a chance .... and who better to give a balloon to than sophie?


this one, i was brave enough to let mona try out for a magazine ... and it worked! she was published in a magazine .... it takes a bit of brave to do that ..... but mona was brave and happy to be chosen ..... once this came back from cloth, paper, scissors, i started wearing the shoes .... how could i not? they are too cute, even if they are meant to be mona's .... a key element in the story written on the background .....the first time i wore the shoes, all my kids flipped out ...you can't wear those!!!! they're art!!!! ..... but i did ... and i do .... and now they all wear them sometimes too ... to walk the dog or get the mail or the paper .... cause they are just hanging right there in the family room ... and when you need shoes, might as well grab them .... you can come visit and i'll let you wear them too ... mona won't mind .... unless your feet are super big, that is .....


i have a flickr set full of mona's ..... go see the others ... rocky road mona is the first piece i sold in a gallery ..... map fairy mona is in my best pal al's house ... there are lots to look at .... some still available for sale even! .....

did you know i have another blog? i have my mona lisa entry in that other blog ..... it is my "serious and professional" artist's blog ... that i link to people who maybe want to know the real thinking behind my art ... not the minutia of my every day artsy grooviness .... can you believe there might be people who don't want to read blogs like this one ... harumph! serious people, i guess .... where's the fun in that .....

and speaking of fun ... tonight's the night that i am meant to announce the winner of my 200th blog post contest .... and the winner is .... drum rollllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll ..... darla .... darla, i need you to send me your shipping email ..... you have a christmas canvas coming your way ......one of these will be yours shortly ... congratulations ... thanks for playing .... thanks all of you are playing .... i had a nice turn out! .....

wow, that was some mighty bloggage ... did you make it til the end?
happy day .....
love, mona ....
i mean, elizabeth

i've now finished 12 christmas canvases ... just in time to give one away tomorrow .... i just have to pick a winner .... have you joined the contest?

i'm really quite pleased with myself ... i have finished 12 christmas canvases and it isn't even december yet ..... this one is my favorite now ......

.... it is my favorite because it has a purple donkey .... is that weird? gray just didn't seem right .... and purple is kind of like gray to me ..... so there ya go ..... a purple donkey .... i only did a donkey cause i accidentally got baby jesus too far over .... and had to fill in the edges to give it a bit better balance ..... so .... a lamb and a donkey did the trick for me ..... so it went from being "off" to be being my favorite ......

and here:

this is a mosaic of all 12 canvases .... 3 centered trees, 4 nativities, and five off center trees ..... and lots of buttons ....

tomorrow night i'll pick a winner at random ....if you didn't join the contest celebrating my 200th post, by all means, scroll down a few and sign up ..... you migh win ......

i don't have all 12 yet ... but here are three to show you.....

.....i've been working on small canvases ..... you do know, don't you, that i ADORE huge canvases ....like three and four feet? and that small is HARD for me ... but gosh, small is much faster, huh? .... i followed my usual process, with layers of papers, glazing and acrylics for the backgrounds .....





anyway .... these are some christmas gifts ...... and MOST importantly, one small canvas is my prize for my 200th blog post giveaway .... the drawing is on wednesday night .... so you still have time to sign up ..... it's a few posts below here ...... more tomorrow, i hope!! fa la la la la !!

two hundred .... hip hooray ......

200!
two hundred!
this, right here, right now, is my 200th blog post ... how can that be? i feel like i'm still new at blogging... apparently i'm not so new anymore .....
my 200th post contest is still running ... til wednesday .... in case anyone who is inclined to join the contest hasn't been keeping up because of the turkey day holiday time ..... so ..... some time on wednesday i'll pick a name .... if you haven't joined, go one post down ...... i'd love for you to join in!!

....how's that for a groovy clock? coolio, huh? i made if for my mom to give to a pal as a christmas gift .... i hope she loves it .... i have three more clocks in my immediate future to make as well ..... using all these buttons, and then some on some christmas crafts, has made me realize i'm becoming button depleted!!! .... i need to make the time to do some ebay button shopping ... but ebay turns into a HUGE time sucker for me .... like, i don't know that i can keep a blog and go to ebay ..... that's how badly ebay sucks me in!!!! but ....i'm also running low on bottle caps and keys ... i guess, now that i have 200 posts, if you don't hear from me for a while, you'll know i'm lost in the game of ebay ..... what? it's not a game? are you sure?






















..... and these are the ornaments that my children and i have been making .... glass balls with acrylic dots and a bit of fiber ...... we are doing white and silver balls .... they are turning out quite well .... we've probably done three dozen or more .... of all sizes .....















... these twelve balls, i did .... to supplement the ones that my kids did .... so there are always a few more to give ..... and that's it ..... was that momentous enough for a two hundredth post? probably not .... but .... so it goes .... just one more day of documenting my artsiness ..... and i didn't even mention that my mom went to my sunday school class this morning and i gave her a journal of her very own .... and she watercolored in it ..... i also didn't mention that my dozen six by six canvases are really starting to come together.... i hope that tomorrow i will be finished with ALL of them .... how's that for accomplished ....
ok ... 200th post over .....
don't forget to read my last post if you haven't signed up for my giveaway yet!!!
tra la la ... have a happy week .....

oh, oh, i got it .... a contest

i've been thinking of passing on doing a 200th post giveaway .... but now that i have an idea, of course i will .....
i saw this quiz and tried it ..... i am christmas .... and then i went back and tweaked my answers and became easter .... and then some more and tried to be all the holidays ....... so .... you do the contest .... and in my comments tell me what you are ..... and if it seems right to you ..... next week sometime i'll pick a name and send out one of my NEW six by six christmas canvasses .... a christmas image that i've glittered and buttoned and beautified .... join in .... celebrate my obsessive compulsive bloggage on my 200th post ....

You Are Christmas

More than most people, you are able to find magic in life's small moments. Traditions mean a lot to you, and you tend to be quite nostalgic. You are a giving, kind person who really understands the true meaning of holidays. You inspire others to be as altruistic and caring as you are. What makes you celebrate: Tradition and a generous spirit At holiday get togethers, you do best as: The storyteller. You like to recount memories with everyone. On a holiday, you're the one most likely to: Give a gift to everyone you know

What Holiday Are You?

i think these little quizzies are funny ..... this one does sound like me to me ..... but who wouldn't like to sound so good and cheerful .... i think i sounded a lot like easter too ... ha ....

happy weekend .... cheers!

18 canvases going on at once ..... can you say multitask?

... these are the six canvases i started on wednesday ..... and thursday, once the food timeline had been established and i didn't have anything to do ..... i stenciled letters onto them ... and then one of them i made into a clock ... my mom is going to give it to a pal for christmas .... and the other five? one will be a clock for drew....and one for julia .... and i have another notion of the clock i'm doing for my third child, sophie .... so that leaves three well developed backgrounds .... to do something with .... not sure if it will be before christmas or after.......

.... these are TWELVE canvases ... that's a load ... but they are small.... tiny for me .... six inches square ... i papered them and glazed them with the intention of making them christmas gifts .... like for neighbors or girlfriends or gift exchanges ...i've done a couple and they are cute ... sweet....nice ... but maybe not as special as i want them to be .... so i'm still working them out .... trying to give them that extra zinggggg ..... the problem with that, if they are really groovy, i'll want to keep some .... and then what to do with all the pals that i usually give a small gift too ...... i can't bake them cookies .... since we've already established that i'm not one to relish kitchen chores .....

all the while that i was working on the 18 canvases that i've been doing for the last three days, my mom and my three kids have all been working on art projects too .... mom has done quite a few canvases .... sophie and julia have done canvases .... GREAT sweet christmas pictures that i'm so happy to hang up for the holidays ..... all three kids and mom have worked on some wooden pieces i'd bought....santas and nutcrackers ...... sophie and julia both worked on painting boxes ..... that's a phase we are in .... i guess when i'm out of boxes that artistic phase will end ...... and then also .... we all worked on some christmas ornaments ..... dots and fuzz on glass ball ornaments ..... i'll show pics of those tomorrow ... some should be done and ready to snap .....

.... and this is my andy ..... grand husband and turkey chef .... i am SO lucky .....

i LOVE turkey on friday ..... a nice fat sandwich .... i had one for lunch ... and one for dinner!!! did you eat leftovers today? were they grand? did you art? did you shop? hope you had a happy day .......

thanksgiving day done......

..... with some mental strain, i figured out that a turkey takes 20 minutes per pound and that i was going to have four hours and forty minutes of cooking time ...... but ha, i never touched the turkey except at the grocery store .... and at the dinner table .... my husband ROCKS!!!! ..... and while that turkey was cooking, i had hours in my studio .... all three kids did some painting ... and my mom did lots of her own artsiness..... and i got LOADS of fab art time in .... as well as happy family time .... tra la la .... just what thanksgiving should be, is what my day was .... rrrrrrrp .... 'scuse me ..... too much pumpkin pie!

alas, my camera is on the other side of this room ...and i can't roll my stuffing stuffed self over there to get it ..... so instead .... i'll share with you some interesting sites that are apropos to blessings and gratitude and thankfulness ......

click away .... be happy ....

the thought provoking blog that started my web surfing on thanksgiving night

the salt monument ..... amazing look at the world's population .....

an amazing blog of a sharing artist......

you can go here and be a giver .....

do one nice thing .....

count your blessings!
hope your thanksgiving was joyful, happy and full ......
here's to a lovely tomorrow .....

happy thanksgiving ......

so..... i'm not much of a cook? do ya know that?
and this videio isn't actually of me .... a friend sent it to me ......
but let's pretend it's me ....
it's not too far from my truth!!!

is your turkey thawed for thanksgiving ... i think mine is .... well.... i hope mine is!!!

ahhhhhhh .... i had studio time today ...... i worked on six canvases simultaneously .... it is easier to do a bunch at a time ..... because, once i have out all the papers and get the gluing process going, it is just easier to keep going ..... then, whenever i want to paint, i have the preliminary steps of my backgrounds done ..... make sense?

so, these six canvases are 12 inches square .... my new "clock size" ..... my three kids have asked for clocks for christmas ..... drew specifically said he wanted a red clock and seemed disappointed that none of these were red ..... he knows they are clock size!! ... but, on a blue one, i will put red tight letters .... making it mostly red ..... aha!!! so one of them is his and he just doesn't know it .... tra la la ... i am so sneaky .....


here's today's happiness:


mom and the girls worked on the other side of my studio table while i was working on my collages ..... julia was working on a christmas tree on a canvas board .... she made a great red background ... made a tree out of a coolio groovy paper ... and added buttons for decorations ...... grandma was the hot glue gun supervisor ...... e6000 seems too too too toxic to let my little girls use it ....

.... and here are the six backgrounds i did ... all mosaiced up ...... ready to be the next thing that they are going to be ... three of them will be clocks ...what will the other three be? hmmmmmm

there's a lovely thing about getting a commission for art ... and an even lovelier thing when it is done .....

to take the best picture possible of art, this is what you should do:
-take the picture in indirect sunlight, or on a bright, cloudy day
-use a tripod
-carefully align art and camera so that when the photo is cropped, the corners are true .......

but, that would mean WAITING for the right lighting .....
or worse, NOT taking your pic at night .....

here's what i did .....
spent the morning finishing these commissioned (YIPPEEE) paintings .....
at 11, done with art, flew around my house in a frenzy doing the chores that should have been accomplished in a brisk three hours.... changed the sheets on j's bed which miraculously turned into the guest bed..... picked up things ALL over the house .... why do all these little people have MY messy gene???? ..... laundry, dishes, vacuum, straighten ..... tidy, tidy, tidy.... SHOWER my painty self, walk the dog ..... just in time for my kids to get home a bit before noon... HALF day of school, oh my! ..... out to lunch with a favorite girlfriend and her kids ...... home again, more tidying ..... hurry up and wait for the grandparents to arrive .... and they arrive!! unpack the car visit, make dinner, eat dinner, do dishes, eat cookies, send the children off to bathe and .....ahhhhhh .... sit down to the computer ... and say, oh, i should take pics of my art ..... i COULD have done it 8 hours ago in no time at all on my perfect no direct sunlight front porch ...... but no..... bring the art up to my kitchen ... turn on every single light...... put the camera on museum setting...i.e...no flash ....... no tripod ...wing and a prayer.... take the photos ... adjust them in iphoto (poorly!) ..... and there ya have it ..... these pics aren't very true colored ... but oh well .... sometimes a half way job has to be good enough!!!!

but...through all of that .... i finished these four paintings today ..... i'd been working on them all together tooooo long ..... and i am very happy with how they have turned out ......

one more thing to tick off my list!! rah .......
my parents are here ..... double rah ......
no school tomorrow... triple rah ......
are you having a happy week? hope so!

there are not enough hours in the day to do all the things i want and need to do but if something is going to fall to the wayside i hope it isn't this

my blogging is getting later and later at night .... ouch! what's a girl to do? i certainly don't want to skip a day if i can help it..... i'd worry that my two faithful readers might forget to come back ..... there are only two of you, right? oh...three ... four? what? there are 26 of you? well speak up!



going to pottery today was errand number fifty three thousand, six hundred and twenty two .... or three .... and this platter was ready for me to bring home .... i'm happy with how it turned out .... did you know that pottery is kind of a cross your fingers kind of thing? you do your best and cross your fingers, say a prayer, make a wish .... and hope it comes out of the kiln looking good ... and maybe even like you thought it would look ... this one looks good to me ...no problem spots ... but it did NOT turn out like i thought .... i didn't have the glaze thick enough apparently .... it is not green like i wanted ... so, i glazed another one today .... and used this same glaze THICK THICK THICK... now i run the risk that it'l be goopy and get bubbled or fogged or something wretched .... so ... i like this one because it came out attractive and functional .... will see what happens to the next one .....

my mom and dad are coming tomorrow!! yippee, i am lucky ..... even better than just having them here: my mom is an artist so we'll be playing in my studio ... yippeeeeee....

can you believe i didn't blog yesterday? are you mad at me? i don't know what happened!!

hooray ... my order came in from jerry's artarama .... it actually came in quite a few days ago ... and all these HUGE boxes sat in my front hall for a couple days.... but now they are unboxed and put away (more or less) in my studio ...... ready to be fabulous .... i have about six clocks to make for christmas time ... three orders ... three gifts for my three kids .... if time gets crunchy i'll just give them clocks i already made ... but i hope to make them specifically for each child ...... then the other canvases? who knows what they'll be! i have this idea in my head that i need to do some more heart art before the new year ... in the hopes that it will sell for valentine's ...... i have done lots of heart art and it always sells very well.... here's a link to my flickr set of lots of heart art ....here's my flickr heart art set..... which is your favorite ? let me know and i'll do more in that style!

... these christmas ornaments were a serendipity find .... very inexpensive at a drug store ... they are glass .....over thanksgiving the kids and i (hopefully) will paint and fuzz these up for their teacher gifts ..... most years, there is a collection for teacher gifts .... but i'd rather teach my kids about giving and make something ..... how bout you? do you have teacher gifts to figure out? this is an easy one! ... it could be neighbor gifts or girlfriend gifts too ......

i did have artsiness today .... my class this mornng was good.... in particular i used watercolor crayons ... that are just lovely to play with ...... i also spent a bit of time in my studio ... but not until after dinner .....

between church, sunday school, THANKSGIVING grocery shopping, and a meeting .... my day was FULLLLLLL ....

here's a funny grocery shopping thing .... i spent more today in ONE shopping trip than i have EVER spent on a grocery trip .... so, i came home and had everyone guess how much i had spent .... and andy's guess was 61 cents off .... less than a dollar!!! i was amazed and astonished .... and KNOW he didn't cheat cause the receipt was in my pocket .....
what are you doing for thanksgiving..... have you bought your turkey yet?

gobble gobble ....

there's hardly ever anything bad about a friday .... fridays are such a happy hopeful day of happy anticipation of what the weekend will bring ....

i picked up these two platters today while i was at pottery ..... did you read yesterday's post? yes, i wore all brown .... yes, i had white letter stickers on my shirt that said UPS ..... yes, i was one of MANY dressed as a UPS delivery guy ....and yes, i brought my snack offering in a brown box like a delivery ..... but back to the platters ..... i made these with a roller that i'm sure i mentioned in my blog .... and i glazed them each with green glazes ..... the top one is celadon with transparent green splashes.... the second is transparent green with emu green .... i glazed another, which didn't make it out of the kiln yet ... and i made others that haven't come out yet as bisque to be glazed ...YET .....

and this.... this is an angel ... larger than the angels i've been making ..... i made four of them ..... different heights and fatness and wing positions ..... i think i could just make angels for the rest of forever and be happy ..... but i'll try to stay creative and make other stuff too ... but i really like angels!

one cent two cent ..... just a little spare change

i'm so tired that i just HAVE to go to bed early tonight ...well, earlier than usual for e the night owl .... that'll be on the quiz one day ... am i a night owl or a morning dove? i never go to bed before 11 (will, i'm going to tonight i hope, so never say never) and i usually go to bed closer to twelve ...eek .... somehow i always tell myself that it is a very immature quality to stay up so late .... anyway , i digress, as usual ..... so ..... i am going to bed soon but before i could possibly do that, i had to blog!! i'm quite addicted to getting my two cents in every day ....so, long windedly, here are my two cents....

one cent: i had some studio time today ... but i have NOT been good about doing full art days lately ..... life is getting busier and busier ... i think it is the looming of the holiday season .... i think in january or february i'm going to do a canvas a day to make up for the lack of finished product at the moment ...... but, i should have a few fresh pieces in the next little bit cause i do have some holiday gift giving art to make .....

two cents: i went to an art opening today ... work of our hands opening evening .... the show is open through the weekend ..... two of my canvases (including the one in this post) sold already in the three hours of the event ..... and i saw quite a few people walking around with my prints in their hands ..... tra la la .... that feels nice .....

tomorrow i'm going to pottery ....i'm supposed to dress as a ups delivery person and bring an appetizer in a brown box .... in celebration of skip's birthday ..... he's a ups guy ..... and then my pottery teacher is off to antarctica ..... interesting thing, my pottery pals......

playing at pottery

... my artsiness today was about four hours at pottery .... hooray! .... i picked up these two platters ... the blue one is pretty big ... the black one is about dinner plate size ..... i also picked up six marys, six josephs, six jesus babies, six lambs .... and whaddaya know? the donkeys didn't make it through the same kiln cycle...no surprise there .... but, lo and behold the lovely angels stayed behind to take care of those donkeys .... i should have them in not too many days .....
i also glazed three plate/platter sort of pieces .... all in greens .... celadon with emu green, emu green with transparent green and transparent green with celadon .... or something like that ......
then ..... i made some more angels .... to fix a halo incident that two of them were involved in .... and then i also made another larger nativity .... but just mary, joseph and jesus ..... without the hoopla of angels and barnyard animals .....
that was the artsy portion of my day .....
how was your day?

happy tuesday ....

the work of our hands art work on invitation:






last night, drew and i loaded all my art display grids into my car (remind me to tell you about my car sometime, it's a great car)
..... and this morning, i loaded 14 canvases and 25 prints ..... checked out my inventory sheet and so forth, then delivered it all to st. anne's .....
at st. anne's they are having an art show .... thursday night opening .....friday saturday sales ..... sunday afternoon i pick up what's left and my grids ....... not much work for me to do this show!!

the best part is that work of our hands is an episcopal art organization ....

here's what i grabbed off their website:
"“And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.” Psalm 90:17

Our Mission:

To support and conduct art education programs and training in the arts at two inner city locations, and to conduct mini Folk-School workshops and retreats.

To encourage, support the creation of unique art, folk art and crafts and to make this work available to the public so as to encourage ownership and appreciation of the arts and to provide income for the artists..

Core Values:
We believe in the goodness of creation, and that when people create they are a mirror of the hand of the creator.

We believe that every person has a creative spirit and should be encouraged to develop and share their gifts.

We value collaboration above competition.

We value honesty, integrity, industriousness.

We value diversity."

so ... fifty percent of my sales goes towards art programs for those who woulnd't otherwise have creative outlets .... pretty nice, i think ..... and for you faithful readers, you might remember that emmaus house is near and dear to my heart and i have done week long programs with their children for a couple summers now ...... as a storyteller and an artist ...this year i did drawing journals with them ....

so anyway, that's all good, AND another fab part was how nice it was to drop my stuff, meet new people who were just so lovely and helpful and complimentary about my art ...... i set up my grids and set out my art ... i left four extra grids for them to use to display other artists ..... and on thursday i'm going to the opening ... tra la la .....

art for a good cause ... perfect ..... cross your fingers that i sell loads!!!

i should do a blog contest ..... how many of those 25 prints are going to sell??? but no, that wouldn't be very original, would it?? feel free to take a guess if you are so inclined ....?

i did a lot of art WORK today ... but not artworks .... there's always tomorrow ....i'll try to remember to take my camera to pottery!!

tra la la and happy day to you ....

?seot ruo no su peek ot tsuj yad rehto yreve no sdrawkcab drow yreve lleps ot dah ew fi tahw

tahw fi i etorw ym elohw tsop sdrawkcab?

kceb .e .... taht si ym eman .....

ko .... ti si a elohw wen yaw fo gnikniht .... gnikool ta efil ni a tnereffid noitcerid .......

whew .... that's hard to do!

did you figure out what i was doing .... or did you think it was just more typos than usual?

i've been thinking about looking at things differently ..... even in all my artsy fartsiness, i still have my usual way of looking ..... and want to be more creative, more unique in my viewpoint .... i have no idea what that means, just that i've been thinking about it ..... change is good ... new outlooks are good .....

i was watching the amazing race last night with andy ..... i said, "i guess we won't be able to go on this show til you retire" ...... he looked at me like i'd grown another head ...... he said he could NEVER do the show ... that he doesn't think he'd be any help to me at all ... "i just don't think like that" ..... he went on to tell me how creative i am ... not just in art but in my approach to everything ..... and that would help win the race .... but not only is he not creative enough (he says, i argue that still) but also, he said he would NEVER be able to eat some of the junk they have to eat on that show .... so, there you have it ...... i'm now taking applicants for someone to be on amazing race with me ..... and you have to be willing to eat the gross stuff ... i've got a weak stomach!! .... but i would have been good at the mud pole vaulting yesterday! .......

and lest you think i didn't have an artsy day ....
i planned on doing my LONG list of things to do today ... including a quick trip into pottery to glaze two platters .... so, i did that, glazed my platters .... i also made six angels and six donkeys to round out my six nativities ... small ones ..... and then ..... like i hadn't already stayed FAR longer than intended .... i made a nativity for me .... with CUTE six inch FAT figurines ..... i guess i might give them away as a gift ... but my current plan is to keep them ..... we'll see, huh?

lovely sunday

today, i spent some time in my basement studio with sophie .... she was working on a wooden box and a good sized canvas .... with her newly cleaned room she wants more art for her walls, and more treasure boxes to hold her treasureful oddities .... while she did that, i worked on three canvases that i am doing for a commission ..... i'd started them already ... but got quite a bit further along in my process now ..... the red in these photos isn't as RED as they actually are .....



and this is a picture of my studio ... i usually show you SAFE shots ... of just a smidge here or there ..... but here it is ... and this is CLEAN!!!! ... just full .... i'm very obviously a collector of clutter!!! but it is ALL what i want and need around me to do my art .... so there ya go .... if you want to involve yourself in the minutia of the picture, over at flickr i've filled it up with notes ......



and here's my question of the day .... do you have a uniform? something that you wear always for something .... like .... always do housework in particular jeans ... always exercise in a white tshirt ... those are just hypotheticals ... but ... my actual is that i have art clothes .... in warm weather i have three pairs of shorts that are COVERED in paint ..... and i wear no other only my paint clothes in my studio... and four or five tshirts ...... i have more tshirts that are paint spattered cause all three kids occassioanlly wear my paint shirts ..... and in the winter, i have two paris of jeans ... jeans that used to be my SO very favorites .... until they got tattered knees ..... and now they are tattered and paint covered .... on friday i was wearing these jeans in the morning and sophie said "you aren't going to wear THAT to school are you!? " ..... so, to be a good mommy, i changed before i went to her classroom ...... what do you wear for your messiest endeavors ..... or, gasp, maybe you aren't ever messy?

yippee...yippee.... and yipppppeeeee

yippeee.....
this mosaic is made out of my blog winners prizes .... i sent all three of them a print .. they all chose different ones .... and they all will get happy doodle-iscious big envelopes in the mail......

there is something INFINITELY appealling about drawing on an envelope .... doodling around the addresses JUST so ..... saving a space for the stamp or sticker ....... filling it up ... but not tooooo full...... then going to the post office and letting the worker admire them ..... and talking about the doodling ... and , oh, i don't mind if you ask what's in them ..... yes, that's right, i AM an artist ....oh, why thank you ..... sure, next time i'll try to remember not to seal them up so you can see the prints ...



and then there is this mail loveliness:

yippee, yippeeeeeee.....
my pal jeannie sent me a present .... she found two antique skeleton keys and thought of meeeeee .... aren't i the lucky one??
jeannie darling, you rock! thanks, honey.....


and how did i spend my day????

yippeee, yippeeee, yippeeeeeeee.....
i was going to do art today, but decided to take a go at sophie's closet ..... and i gutted it ... and purged ... and made bag upon bag upon bag to donate .... and then once the closet was done, i did the bookshelves .... and then that looked great but the desk was a wreck .... and the baby dolls .... and the bin of stuffed animals ... and the drawers under her bed ..... and every single solitary nook and cranny and drawer and box and bin and basket and shelf .... CLEAN ....not just clean .. but SO clean .... and i put in a new bedside table and lamp .... and then one thing turns into another and we did a whole redecorate .... i think we hung about 20 things up on her walls ....go check out the tags on this photo in flickr ...... she is so cute and PROUD of her new tidy and decorated space ... and i am .... well....i'm proud too of all our hard work ... but mostly ....i'm just relieved!!! .... while i did her room, andy did drew and julia's closets with them....so ....winter? bring it on! our closets are ready .....

friday fun .... and shopping .....

i woke up this morning to my little boy crawling into my bed .....
i got up and dressed in my favorite art jeans .... that i haven't worn since march or so ......
sophie said, you're going to change clothes before you come to my class room... right?
we had breakfast...
i walked the kids to school....
i walked the dog .....
i came home for a quick email check before arting in the basement .....
but WHAM .... no quick email checking for me!!!
instead i had an email from jerry's artarama ... my favorite online art store .... GREAT prices ..... and i think, they must have had a corporate meeting and said, wow, e hasn't ordered anything lately .... we better send out a coupon ..... because i only shop with a coupon ... they have the best prices and then with a coupon too? bliss ... art bliss..... inexpensive art bliss ..... inexpensive art bliss with a coupon ..... a really nice coupon .... give them a try ..... i especially like the edge canvases .... you buy them in sets of three or six .... and they are SO worth it ...... well priced ... so .... i bought six by six canvases ... 12 by 12 canvases ..... 24 by 24 canvases .... and 30 by 30 canvases ..... i skipped my usual 18 by 18 cause i still have plenty .... and my new favorite game board thing doesn't work on 18 by 18 ..... i didn't get the other fave 36 by 36 ..... cause i think i have three still ..... and i bought some mats .... to see how they are .... with gift giving of my prints in mind .....

then.... because once you get the shopping bug, you have to keep going ..... i shopped for clock bits ..... so i could make my newly ordered 12 by 12s into clocks ......

then i went to the bank and the post office .... my blogorama gifts are in the mail .... to atlanta, new york and oregon ......

then i walked the dog again ....

and then ... FINALLY ... i got to my studio and did some happy art fiddling ... nothing photo worthy .... but i'm getting there ....

but i needed to stop and have lunch ..... and saw my computer ... and decided the sooner i sent out the coupon, the better chance that some happy reader will actually decide to use it ....

on saturday, my family is doing a lung cancer walk with about 70 people from church .... in celebration of a wonderful friend whose life was lost to lung cancer .....
i'm leading children's chapel on sunday ....
i'm teaching my journaling class on sunday .....
and, i SHOULD clean closets..... getting the winter clothes more accessible...
and, i hope to get in plenty of art time ....
so, click on the jerry's artarama link ....now happy shopping ... happy weekend ......

it was a day of writing lists and lists and lists .....

i have a commission for three heart arts on 18 inch square canvases .... i did my monthly studio clean and purge and am ready to go with a new round of artsy mess making ..... these are on their way to grooviness .....

also on my list .... address my envelopes for my three blog winners ....i'm going to the p.o. tomorrow ...... i'll do that tonight while i'm watching tv .... that's the perfect time for doodling ... because the envolopes aren't really about the address, they are all about the doodle!!

also on my list ..... plan thanksgiving ....
i am having thanksgiving at home with company .... mom and dad .... haven't had a turkey day here in YEARS ......

also... plan christmas art .....
who in my family gets art? the kids have each asked for a clock ..... like these .....

clock mosaic
Originally uploaded by eeeee.

what will our teacher gifts be? i usually try to make something ...... ornaments or pottery or doodads .... i have some ceramic crosses that my kids could finish off for their teachers.....

what about the neighbors? i usually make something ..... i have a GREAT idea ... but it will be tricky .... do i want to try it?

what about girlfriends? i usually make something ..... maybe the same tricky thing i'm making my neighbors?

what about my book club ... last year i made them each an ornament .... oh my .....

good thing it is still november, or a lot of these things would get skipped ... but.... since it is november AND i'll be home for thanksgiving, i think i can fit it all in easily .... hooray!!
tomorrow i plan on quite a few hours in my studio ... tomorrow's blog should be picture-ful with new stuff .... well, i'm crossing my fingers that it will be !

nostalgia ...... heart string scrabble .... SOLD

nostalgia ...... heart string scrabble
Originally uploaded by eeeee.

i've had an artistically significant couple of weeks here ..... i've been doing shows, working out the whole how to sell prints thing ..... and i've had a proliferation of sales .... and ... it feels GREAT ....

i got a phone call today .... from a man who had been at one of the shows with his wife ....kept my card .... because he knew he wanted to buy this piece for her .... and now he has ..... he's not going to pick it up for a couple weeks, cause it is THREE large feet square ...not easy to hide .... so i can enjoy it for a bit longer...then off it goes to its new home .... hurrah ..... LOVE THAT .....


i spent the morning at pottery .....
i bought a bag of dark chocolate clay to take to so's classroom this week ... we are going to make a nativity for the school auction .....
i bought a ba of grey speck clay also .... that's my FAVORITE, favorite, favorite clay body ... grey speck ... write it down, take notes... one day i'll have a quiz.... what's my favorite clay? grey speck.... that's right....glad you know it!!!
i not only bought a bag of gray speck ... but i used the ENTIRE bag in one day ... that is extraordinary! i have had entire courses where i didn't use a whole bag of clay, and here i went gangbusters and did a whole bag in one three hour class time ....
last week, i bought a cool roller with carvings in it ... today, i used that roller for seven pieces ... all with the same pattern rolled in .... i think i actually did one BIG platter, two big platters, two small platters and one mediumish bowl..... not bad, huh?
the tricky part is that i don't love glazing .... so hopefully a couple of these will still turn out well after the glazing process ..... i think the whole glazing thing is a bit to particular for me ..... to do it well you need to be kind of particular an careful .... do you know (after nearly 200 blog posts) that i'm not particularly particular .... or careful? .... that i'm kind of a loosey goosey seat of my pants kind of artist?
that's why i am not a full time ceramicist ...... cause i don' t ADORE every bit of the process .... i really just LOVE the messy wet clay part .... but mixed media? collage? i adore all the steps ... in fact .... i think i add steps in just to have more steps ... my background process is LONG just cause i love it SO much!!
anyway .. i'm feeling very enthusiastic and validated artistically right now ... LOVE that ....
andy just got home and i told him i'd sold a painting today ..... he said: are you on a roll ...... yes, i am !!! yippee .... how groovy is that?

i have a funny story .... and i should save it for a day that i don't have anything to blog about ....
but no, i might forget to tell you ....
i read sophie a book about how to be an author, illustrator, editor, book sales rep ...... we were all talking about it at dinner .... i've always wanted to write a book .... so we ended up talking about things i've done, job wise ... things i want to do ... things i'm good at ..... things i'm not so good at .... i was a teacher before i stayed home with twin babies ..... and i was a good teacher ... i was fun but effective ..... i was really fun ... so i was telling my kids some of the stories from my good old days ... and drew said he really wishes i'd teach at his school ... i explained that i really didn't want to teach right now ...that i'm trying to make a go at being an artist .....
oh, you love books, you could be the librarian .....
me: a librarian ???.... i don't think i'd be a great librarian, do you really think i would? (in my mind i was thinking about how organized a librarian has to be...not me!!!!)
drew: NO WAY mom could be a librarian
me: why?
drew: you are WAY too loud ....librarians have to know how to be quiet .....

so.... loud and happy and artsy ... things could be worse .....

so, what did you do today?

....ack .... it is 11.30 and i'm just getting to today's blog ....oops ... i had most of the day to do it... and didn't .... and then this evening i've had some internet access issues ...i.e., no access .... my wireless is being persnickety ..... oh well ..... no matter ....
i spent the morning recovering from the last few weeks of frantic art activity ...making and doing and creating ..... and then three shows fast in a row ... my studio was well past disaster stage .... but i've now moved it back to the just cluttered look .... ... and better than just cluttered.... my tables are completely cleaned off and ready to go ... the table was SO empt that i had to put out some fresh canvases, ready to go for my next grand project .... good thing i'm not intimidated by vast white emptiness ... cause those three canvases sure look vast and white and empty ...... i got a commission two shows ago for some collage heart art .... this will be that!
..... and here is a bit of my studio that i'm not sure i've ever really shown you close up ..... these are a favorite spot .... YEARS ago when i made this space my studio i got a set of great cannisters and filled them with all manner of little lovelies .... i wish i'd bought twice as many as i did.... cause i've since added more that aren't quite the same shape or stackable lovely .......but, today i even tidied over here ...... and inventoried ... i need mor bottle caps and keys ..... ebay is calling!!! but for now, i'll go to bed .... ebay will have to wait for another day ....
tomorrow i have pottery ..... i'll try to remember to bring my camera for some extra blog fun .... tra la la .....

blog o rama winners!!!

this is the print that i personalized for heidi ...winner of my last blog give away ...... she didn't get it personalized with her family name and bless this home, but with a bible verse .....

so..... the following fortunate folks can do the same ..... or something different ... pick a print ... i have five choices on my etsy site .... post in the comment section here, or email me which print you want and how you want it personalized ......

congratulations to those of you who guessed 25 prints:

jenna.....

corey.....

and oh amanda ......

y'all let me know what you want! congratulations .....

a happy monday .....

i woke up fresh! hooray for fall back and getting more sleep!

my kids don't have school today ..... hooray for waking up to happy children!

i have an etsy site ..... hooray for getting my things in the mail pronto .... i think my recipients will be getting their personalized prints in the mail TODAY .... yippee for that, huh?

here's a pic of the envelopes i sent out:


i'm off on a big adventure now... the grocery store with three kids in tow .... but first we have to empty my entire art life from saturday's show out of my mini van ..... tra la la .... and once i get the van unloaded i'll post the winners of my giveaway .... stay tuned .....

happy day, happy week, and happy november to you .....

oh my goodness!! even with an extra hour of sleep last night i'm going to need to go to bed early!!!

i have had quite the busy weekend!!!

friday night was a pirate party and auction ..... it was amazing fun AND my sweet husband bid on and won a folk art angel for me ...... yippee .....

saturday i did a market ..... here's what my booth looked like ......

the nice thing is that i've kind of gotten good at the set up and break down of the booth ... and can get a look that i like pretty easily .... i didn't take all of my wall grids .... took five of the seven because it seemed like since it was a smaller show that i didn't need to bring it all ..... and it worked out great ..... i sold some canvases .... i sold some prints .... i sold enough for the day to be absolutely worth while ....

my family helped me load the car after wards ... and, 24 hours later, we still haven't unloaded it ..... my van is sitting in the driveway FULL of art and grids and my receipts .... i know i sold prints in the twenties .. but i'm not exactly sure .... i need to got through my receipts .... so, someone won .... and tomorrow i will tell you if it was YOU ......

so..... a whole day of art sales and busy times .... but last night i thought we should keep the kids up a bit later than usual to help them adjust their sleep patterns with the end of daylight savings .... so .... we had a twister tournament (NOT my idea!!) ..... so, we are now on game 440 for the year, i think .... or somewher close to that .....

this morning my sunday school class was LOVELY ... someone very, very dear at church died last week ( on all saints day) so our conversation and class discussions turned away from the topic at hand and more towards him ...... the funeral is tomorrow ..... i had to get a sitter since the kids don't have school .....

and then i just did HOURS of bowling with some wild and wooly children ..... so ... a busy weekend of fun and frivolity ... and not ONE SINGLE SECOND in my studio !!! i'll get right on that ..... i have some commission work to get to ......

have a happy week ....
come back tomorrow for the blogorama extravaganza giveaway winner ..... ok?

two posts in one day .... hip hooray .... it's gonna be a grand month, i believe ....

guess what ..... good news, bad news... whaddaya want first ......

did you say bad news? .... you're always supposed to get the bad news first ... my kids always want the good news first .... but maybe cause when i ask them good news/bad news... my bad news is always crazy, not bad ....so they get the good first cause they know that's the only worthwhile element to the conversation ... anyway .... i digress .... no surprise there, huh....

ok.... good news, bad news?

all right .... i actually should say good news, i'm a dope news .... what's that make you want first ..... i'm sticking with good news last as the best option .... so i'll go with the oh-dopey-me first .....

a day or so ago, on the blog post that apparently nine hundred and thirty seven people have read and 68 folks have commented on (!!!!!) ..... i announced to the world that i had just MISSED noticing and celebrating my two hundredth blog post by a couple posts .... and ... well ... that's wrong ... i was adding the year and october together ... but apparently since october is actually a part of the year, i was counting all those posts twice ... duh ..... so ..... one day, when i say, yippee, 200th post, will you just smile knowingly and not think mean thing about my iq? ... thanks .....

so....
good news?
i sold another painting .... i'm feeling a little giddy with success ....
this is what sold, purple heart:



it was at lola's .... i think i had three hearts there .....
i really love these hearts .... i think over the course of two years i've sold about 20 or more ....
i originally made a set of twelve and hung them over my fireplace .....



then, i kept making new batches ...and selling them in sets ... and made em and sold em and made em .....
i have six hanging above my desk now ... the last two sales i've done, when i strip my house of art, my kids have asked, are you taking those, you should take those, those always sell so you should take them ... but ya know, they are HIGH on the wall above a tall hutch on a tall desk .... hard to hang straight... really, hard to hang at all .... nope, i'm keeping them and i'm done with hearts .... BUT ......



i had ONE left .... a blue and green one ..... with very chunky bold strokes .... dark .... a solo piece of heart art that was originally intended to be part of a set .....



and i donated it to marist for their raffle ..... and the woman who won it LOVED my work, had bought a piece last year .... and commissioned me to make three more hearts to round out the set .... how's that for good karma? i donated something quite a bit pricier than required ... and looky there .... made an extra sale ... to, actually, a way groovy woman .... perfect ..... so now i'm thinking i should be making more of these hearts, huh? not just for the commission, but for their grand potential ..... so, that's what ....

was all that worth a second post in a day?

tomorrow, i'm setting up for the pirate ball and auction at church .... at church we often discuss giving your time, treasue, and talents for good works .... so the pirate theme is perfect because we are all giving our time, treasures and talents to make it happen AND ... we are auctioning off treasure boxes ..... so, setting up for that party and auction.... then setting up my booth for saturday .... then going to the pirate ball ..... then saturday morning, the market place ..... i'm more excited about the market place than i otherwise would be because of my blog contest.... have you voted? have you guessed? how many prints am i going to sell? don't miss out ... scroll down a couple posts and find the contest if you haven't already .....

now, to watch survivor .... i taped it .....