Mural

In the past few years I have done a number of wall murals, usually in children's rooms where I feel most comfortable painting on a wall.  I feel confident the kids will like what I do!  The thought of painting something on my Mom's friends designer kitchen wall (which probably equaled the down payment on a house) on the other hand, scared me to death.

My brother and his wife moved to Vermont a couple of years ago.  He is a potter and trying his best to make a living at it.  You can see his ongoing story at  "The Potter's Stone"  .  Allison's sister and I were asked to paint a wall mural in their sunroom, we went up one weekend and after some cheese and wine, got to work.  It came out pretty great, we work well together.  We joked we'd start a wall-mural business called "The Sister's-in-law".

If I get around to scanning those kid's rooms shots, I'll throw those up for you all to see as well!

Back in bead world

So I hauled all of my beads back out this weekend.  They haven't seen the light of day since before Christmas.  I then, of course, had to spend a couple of hours re-arranging them in their little compartments, because this is what I do when I make jewelry.  This is why it is so time-consuming for me...when I first started, for months I only bought beads and hoarded them, re-arranging them, counting them, gazing at them...

However, I did learn this holiday season that I can part with my precious beads when offered cold-hard-cash money for the jewelry I make out of them.  I had a very successful sales season, and now I have to re-stock my merchandise.

Here is some of the jewelry that sold this holiday season.

T and I bought a spiffy new rug on Saturday in a nice sage green color that will make the beads I drop on the floor much easier to find than that dark, dark red rug I had before.   Rug in place,  I started in on some jewelry, you will have to forgive the pictures, I obviously need to learn how to take better pictures of jewelry, these don't show them at their best.
                                    


                                                           

                                      Tickled Pink Necklace    

Starchild Necklace

 

Smokey Earrings 

 

Lemon Leopard and Ultraviolet earrings

                                        
                                         Variety Necklace

Hope to make some more soon! 

Krypto Portraits

...I now have the Krypto portraits my friend Chrisine did for me a couple of years back...

Don't you just love them?

My creative friend

So I was very good this weekend and worked on my jewelry Friday night, Sat, and Sunday.  I'll show some pics tomorrow.

Today I want to show you my favorite Christmas present I received this year from my super-talented, creative friend Christine.  She is an amazing watercolor artist who specializes in pet portraits. 

T and I adopted a little boxer girl last year from Boxer Rescue we named Sugar.

My favorite present was the amazing portrait Christine painted of her.  
 

This picture doesn't even do the portrait justice, there is so much detail when you look at it close-up it looks like a photo.

Christine also painted my last boxer boy, Krypto.  (I'm afraid I don't have a photo of the portrait handy)  She always captures the dog's personality, check out her website!

www.christinewinship.com

SWAP SWAG

I've been getting into reading blogs by creative people lately, to try and inspire my own self.  One I really like, Cookie crumbs, linked me to another great blog, The Gregarious Homebody, who was having a Winter Gastronomy Swap.  I, trying to be more creative, of course joined up. (Not to mention it was a FOODIE swap!)  It was alot of fun,  my swap partner Doreen is a very talented Cake maker from Arizona.  After chatting to each other we found we both have a sweet tooth, and a penchant for candy.  I received my package yesterday, it was full of goodies, including some delicious Arizona Cactus Bark candy!  YUM!

Hopefully Doreen enjoyed my package full of Boston goodies as well!  

Numero Uno

So here goes...first post.

Hope I don't bore people to tears with this, but, hey, you don't have to read it, right?  I want to have a place where I record whatever creative endeavors I manage to eke out day to day.  I'm sure other stuff will make it's way in here...but I want to try and do at least one creative thing a day.  Be it painting, jewelry-making, cooking or gardening.  As you'll see, I'm not a very good writer, so I won't include that!

I'll start with some of the bigger things I've done in the recent past.

 

There was of course, THE COWS

Biography for the Sunflower Cow

Sunflowers and cows are a natural together, as everyone knows.  Popularized by painters in the nineteenth century, sunflowers are prized for their seeds, which, like cows, are delicious when roasted in the oven.






Biography for Spot the Cow

Young Spot was a simple cow, black and white like the world she grew up in.  Then, she got a sponser.  Flagship press wanted to know if she could be red and blue for a good cause.  Gladly!  Because a leopard can't change its spots, but a cow can.

Boston Cow Parade  was extremely fun!  Painting life-sized cow statues in my tiny apartment living room was quite the experience...the first week or so the cow would scare us to death when we got up in the middle of the night.

I was also chosen to paint an electric box on a sidewalk in Roslindale for Boston Shines 2009 .  Painting an electric box out on the street, in front of the RMV, by the big bus stop, was also quiet the experience!  But I have to say, the fine people of Roslindale were very supportive and had nothing but kind words for me!

The box has been tagged since then, but c'est la vie, it is pulic art after all.  I have a friend who told me "You may have the distinction of producing fine art for dogs to pee on and old people to lean on!"

                                            I may have found my niche.  ;p