What Inspires You?

Dinner is cooking away in the crockpot and I've got a few precious moments in the studio.  I'm off to blogland to visit you, dear readers!

I've had a dreadful cold the past few days and have spent much time sneezing into tissues and brewing hot tea.  My gran always recommended hot tea, lemon and a drop of honey for a cure.  I would love to have tried it, but alas, when the cold strikes, I NEVER have lemon or honey in my cupboards. 

So as much as I'd like to tell you that I've been productive over the last few days, I have not!  I'm just lacking the proper energy.  But I have been searching all over for inspiration.  Where do you find inspiration, friend?

I turn to magazines, online artists and fellow bloggers.  A few of my favorite mags are from Stampington, the Somerset magazines, http://www.stampington.com/magazines/index.php.  Oh, and not to forget my beloved Victoria magazine, http://www.victoriamag.com/.  (I'm working on links, I promise).  And a few favorite mixed media artists:  Melody Ross, Donna Downey, Christy Tomlinson, Alisa Burke, Tim Holtz, Nathalie Kalbach, Anna Dabrowska and many others.  And a few specials blogs that I love to follow for more wonderful art prompts:  http://margieromney-aslett.typepad.com, http://rhonnadesigns.blogspot.com, http://justsomethingimade.com, http://www.heidiswapp.com.  The talent just boggles my mind!

Share some of your best inspiration sources! 

Once I've got an idea in my head, generally, I either jot it down or make a quick sketch in my inspiration book.  I love that book so much.  It doesn't just contain my ideas, though.  I find that lots of things make it into The Book.  Grocery lists, to-do lists, inspirational quotes and generally, anything that needs to be emptied from my head.  I may have just heard a collective gasp from you sketch-book puritans.  So sorry to offend, but the only piece(s) of paper that I haven't managed to lose is this lovely book!!

Where do you keep your ideas?

And before I go down and start serving dinner, I'd love to share my fortune cookie message:

Choose Your Own Path.

I'm taping it into my sketch book...

Loves and hugs!! 

Things to do...

Happiest of Mondays!!  I'm at home, my Mr. is at home and the kids are in school.  Mondays are my most favorite day of the week...it feels like anything is possible:  an adventure, a new friend to be made, a blank canvas or art project...and a quiet house.  Typically just me and the baby.  And who is the baby, you ask?  Here he is:

Meet Niko (pronounced neekoh).  He's my l'il pocket sized parrot - 7 inches of love and naughtiness.  Mr. Niko is a white bellied caique parrot - we rescued him 2 years ago.  I was actually looking for a lutino male cockatiel and having no luck for a year.  And then a chance trip to a pet store and guess who stole my heart!  We had no information on him aside from his birthdate, he was sick and desperately in need of a forever family.  Within 24 hours, he got that forever home.  And I got a loving, steady daytime companion.  We won't mention his rascally streak...you can ask oldest son, Ethan, who is now missing the right arrow key on his laptop.  Our wonderful vet added, "at least it wasn't a vowel!" 

Who is your companion at home?  Do you craft in the quiet hours of the morning or night?  Do you listen to the radio, cd's or a movie? 

In the meantime, I've got a bird that's clanging his ankle band on his perch, demanding a cuddle. 

Hugs and loves!

Well, hello!

At long last, something pretty is starting to happen on your new face!!  I can't wait to see where you're going and what your beautiful message will be!  I'm feeling a butterfly perhaps?  Let's see where your journey takes us...

When inspiration eludes you...

What do you do when inspiration just won't strike?  I've got a lovely 11x14" canvas...and she's on her 3rd transformation!  Or perhaps the 4th?  I lost count!  I was disappointed in image #1.  I left her on my desk thinking perhaps I'd made a mistake.  Maybe she was a masterpiece and I would wake up one morning and see the loveliness and sheer genius and fall madly in love with her and decide that I wouldn't even list her in my etsy shop because I couldn't bear to part with her!  Alas, after pondering the aforementioned image, I just couldn't embrace her.  That's okay, right?  I then decided to cover right over the image with some fabulous heavy textured painted fabric.  Clearly that'll do the job.  But it didn't!!  And it was right about here that I decided that this particular canvas was jinxed!!  Yes!!  She should be put out with the rest of the rubbish.  But some tiny part of me felt sorry for her.  And felt that she could still have life breathed into her.  And thus began the 3rd resurrection.  And as you know, that didn't work out either.

I began to worry that I was experiencing a painting/writer's block.  But I was able to paint other canvases...just not on top of that particular canvas.  She got relegated to a corner in my closet for a few months after I ripped her wording and 3D embellishments off of her face.  And yet that tiny part of me still feels an attachment to her.  I'm invested in her somehow, poor thing. 

Tonight I gesso-ed another base coat on her face again.  And I'm going to take my own advice:  be gentle.  She deserves another makeover.  I'll turn her sideways and wait for inspiration.

Dear reader, share with me what you do when inspiration evades you on one particular project?

I LOVE Mondays!

Happy, happy Monday, dear blog readers!  After an almost year-long absence, I'm back on the blog.  My post last year was created from a challenge by my chum, Dawn, during one of our business-meeting-Fridays.  I'm a techno-phobe.  There.  I've said it.  I didn't do Facebook, blogging, texting or Twitter.  Yes, I know!!  In this day and age!  If I was absolutely pressed, I'd just hand the device over to one of my many clever teenagers and beg them to help the old girl out.  So last year I was stepping out of my comfort zone and giving some things a try.  Well, after sweating/slaving over the construction of the blog, I decided to leave well enough alone and let it sit there for awhile.  And sit.  And sit.  

And now I've decided that it's time.  It's time to enter the world of social media and reach out to friends of old and friends-to-be.  And I'm pretty excited about it!!  I've actually been on my Facebook page, created an etsy shop AND signed up for Twitter.  I have so much to learn -- try to be patient with me as I navigate my way through this technical/left-brain thinking world.  Who knows -- I may even figure out how to use my cell phone properly too!  

But onward we go.  Today I wanted to give you peek at a project that I'd seen on one of Margie Romney-Aslett's seasonal video classes.  If you haven't been to visit her blog, give it a try: http://margieromney-aslett.typepad.com/im_just_a_girl/  Margie is wonderfully talented and an icon in the papercrafting world.  So here is before:

And here is after:

I know, right about now you're thinking that I should abandon the social media stuff and work on my photography skills.  Apologies!  It does really look lovely and shabby hanging in the corner of my studio!  And it's hard to see, but the side not facing you, gentle reader, has a great "junque" bow on it.  More about junque bows later...

What is on your table today, calling out for a makeover?  I'd love to hear from you!!

Hugs and loves!!