I’m in the process of cataloging, picture taking etc etc… will hopefully list each of these pieces, soon :) Will post links when I do!

Happy Tuesday everyone! :)

I say “random”, but I usually steer us towards Jordan lake because we didn’t grow up near water, so lakes are awesome! We take one windy country “church” road to another… passing churches from the 1800′s, ponds, donkeys, geese, deer and lots of tractors. But we usually end up at the lake :)

Here’s yesterday’s sunset over Jordan lake…

We also stumbled across this uber cool old general store. It’s called Bynum Front Porch where they play live local music every Friday. Pretty neat-o :)

I’ve been making jewelry to fill up this chandelier… alllmost time to reveal my masterpiece… but not quite yet ;) I’ve done new things with wire that I’ve never tried before… lots of twisting and wrapping…

And Meg… in a chair… because it’s adorable :)

The chandelier has four sides… which is perfect…

2 more weeks… hopefully less… to fill it up. Then the *theory* is to sell the pieces… but… I don’t know… I think they want to stay here ;)

Cut to my friend Pinguino. She is amazing. She organizes bizarre food challenges, makes clothing out of duct tape and is a terrific artist to boot. Oh, and she planned a trip to Antarctica to meet penguins. You know, the norm.

Last weekend she co-hosted a show called “Super Happy Tokyo Love”. I was a featured artist :)

This is what I made for the show:

The inspiration… Puccho Japanese Candy…

The necklaces are about the size of bottlecaps. I sculpted them, baked them then painted them. So fun :)

The inspiration… the Hayao Miyazaki film, My Neighbor Totoro…

The inspiration… the soot spirits from another Hayao Miyazaki film, Spirited Away

Hopefully there will be pictures from the event up, soon… there were a few pictures on facebook of the turtle race through the downtown Tokyo set. You know, like Godzilla, but with turtles. Wish I could have been there :)

Print this and use it in shadowboxes, for collage, mixed media art projects, scrapbooking, paper chain… lots of fun stuff!

A little late but… you know…

So, here are all my Christmas cards… I want to put them somewhere else so I can enjoy them later on…

So, I’m putting them into a little book for perusing later.

I used a two hole puncher and those paper prongs we used in accounting. I also added a red ribbon so I could sort of hide said prong from accounting:

You could also add a spine with a cover, more ribbon around the binding area or tie it shut with a ribbon… lots of fun ideas.

I’ve already started 3 more books done in the same way. One with postcards and other old cards I want to save. Because the prongs open up so easily, you can even add cards as you go, keeping them in chronological order. It may not be the “artsiest” of bindings, but it’s quick, easy and everything is in one place! :)

The frosting almost looks like the cross section of Irish Spring soap… not very tasty… but I may try to recreate it in real food form to prove that stripey icing can be delicious. (Tangent: Do you remember that Irish Spring commercial where the guy is standing next to a waterfall, gets out his pocket knife and carves into the cake of soap showing you its strata, all while explaining it’s freshness using a thick Irish accent? I think that has stuck with me for decades because I still LOVE the smell and color of Irish Spring… truly… it’s the little things in life, isn’t it?)

This cupcake is currently being adhered to a wood board, will be covered in glitter and shiny gold paint and hanging from green ribbon… to adorn your home in time for St. Patty’s Day :)

Okay, so I found an Irish Spring commercial… no waterfall, but you see the soap cross section and it’s hilarious nonetheless!

If you watch the other Irish Spring commercials youtube suggests, you’ll see every cliche in the book… Irish setters, Irish flags, curly red-haired boys covered in freckles, vests, harps and green filters… no leprechauns or gold though… it must not really be Irish then, hmmm? :) hehe!

It’s been rainy, gloomy and cold here in Cary… supposed to be super windy and stormy tomorrow. There are still tiny stubborn patches of snow sprinkled around where the sun can’t reach them. I’ve been perched up in my office, glittering by chandelier with a nice hot cup of tea, gazing out the window at all the rain. Every once in a while a gorgeous red cardinal will sit in the small tree out front, then decide he’s had enough and flutter away to find some shelter. I think we’re all ready for spring to arrive :)

I’ve been procrastinating on these art boards… I guess it took a gray day for me to sit down and finish what I started…

Glitter makes any gloomy day 100% better! AND it gets you thinking… what else can I put glitter on??

I have a zillion ideas swimming around in my brain (at any given moment at least)… my fingers can’t keep up and that is frustrating! I have dozens of new designs cued up to become an art board, pendant, greeting card or art journal entry… does one really need to sleep? Just wonderin’.

But sometimes, I’m so overwhelmed by the sheer volume of these ideas, that I break down and turn on (guilty pleasure alert) Judge Judy instead of creating… because I believe she’s working hard enough for all of us, really.

Normally… said ideas would be sketches, half-finished paintings, emails to myself or they get lost in the Tasmanian devil that is my office… I’ve found a new solution (Thank you Brian!). It is the elephant (aka Evernote). I will share this link, but will go into more detail further :) Long story short… it’s amazing. Double amazing if you have an iphone. And it doesn’t look like much, but utilized properly… (or semi-properly in my case) it’s the organizing tool you’ve always wanted :) More to come on that later!

Going to get some sleep… she said reluctantly :)