stuff about artstuff.

So Lucky.

Sometimes the extra bonus goodness I get to experience from this crazy job I have is just too much, I really am constantly blessed in spite of myself! 

Art Licensing can create a very distant and removed lifestyle for artists.  Most of us who do this work alone in our studios, often quite isolated from the real world.  On one hand, that's something I enjoy about it - I tend to be happy with what may seem to most folks like an unnatural volume of peace, quiet, and privacy.  On the other hand, we are so far removed from the end consumer that it's difficult sometimes to grasp the big picture - departments and focus groups and agencies and committees, manufacturers and distributors and sales reps and retailers; the list of entities separating a licensing artist from the person who buys and lives with our products is pretty vast.  But that's just how the machine works; I could never make and sell my stuff like they do.

You don't go into this field expecting to make friends or share warm fuzzy moments.  But it happens.  The mentors, muses, and dear friends I've been blessed with make my life full and happy. 

One such unexpected friendship began a couple months ago.  A nice woman in Kentucky wanted to make a rag-quilt for a Christmas present for her grandson who loves camping.  She was searching the web for flannel with squirrels on it (!) and stumbled on my Etsy shop where I still had yardage from my At The Lake collection.  Who knew I was about to make a friend?   

We chatted online, one thing led to another, and when she had finished that one, made 2 others with more of my flannel - then offered to make me one for me.  I almost tear up just telling you about this (talk amongst yourselves) how sweet and generous is that?!

It arrived when I was in Atlanta attending AmericasMart last month.  I could hardly wait to open the package, but I didn't share it with you right away because as you can see, the blanket and I had some very important work to catch up with that first day home.

If you don't believe that this holds a prominent and beloved place in our household, take a closer look at all the pet hairs that have embedded, literally woven themselves into the fabric.  Curling up on the couch on chilly winter evenings here means there is at least one furry family member on top of you, usually two.

But in spite of the hairs, isn't that cool?  I love it, and it fits perfectly into our decor and lifestyle!

And finally, this amazing gift:

The happy recipient of the original quilt drew me a picture (look at that awesome tent and camp fire -  I love this!).

And like a true Southern Gentleman, charmed me to death with sweet compliments.

New friends, and physical, tangible reminders right here to treasure; I have so much to be thankful for, to fill my heart and make me smile - next time you catch me being a grouch or curmudgeon, you have my permission to just slap me.  I mean it.

Things That Make Me Smile: Vacation Edition

Dog walks every morning and afternoon are an every-day attitude adjustment around here, but on the beach, forgetaboutit.  It turns into an ear-to-ear grinning until my cheeks hurt thing.

At the beach, little things become fun events.

Some birds.
A boat.
A pattern.

The perfect latte in the morning is enough to bring a smile to my famously-grouchy-morning-lips (yes, we actually pack up the Breville and take it to the cabin) but it's even more fun when I pull a random mug from the cupboard and realize it's designed by my talented friend BJ Lantz!
Her cute beach design made me smile every morning (those who know me well will attest, this is a tall order).

And finally, 2 weeks of perfect sunsets, how can that not make someone smile?

Beadaliciousness.

This weekend I got to spend a wonderful afternoon with my good friend Elizabeth, and explore an amazing place I'd never been before: Shipwreck Beads.  All I can say is wow.

Imagine the size of a sprawling suburban supermarket. Now imagine that every aisle and every wall in that supermarket are filled with beads.  Only beads.  Well, throw in a little chain and wire and fasten-y things and a few tools, but other than that, only beads.  My inner crow nearly exploded from the shimmery sparkliness.
Walls of beads.

No, really - stand back and look at the wall of beads.  Floor to ceiling.
Fancy stone beads, silly plastic beads, and everything in between.  From keep-in-a-locked-glass-case beads to throw-at-Mardi-Gras beads.  Oh my.
Hung in strands and organized into tiny drawers.
Everything you could ever dream of.  I mean, if you dreamed of beads.

You push around a large flat cart full of old-fashioned school-lunch trays to organize all your tiny pieces.  Oh, the tiny pieces.
You need a couple hours to deal with the mesmirising overwhelmity of it all.  We took that time, wandered, played, imagined, and did some serious shopping. 

I learned that you overhear some of the most amusing conversations in a giant bead store.  Cute things kids say, funny things creative partners discuss - really the audio entertainment almost rivals the visual feast at times.

A surprising number of those conversations included something to the effect of, "well, yes, Michaels does have those too, but they are cheaper here." which was sort of dangerous, because every time my brain processed the words "cheaper here" spoken by a stranger in my vicinity, my unconscious bargain reflex would cause my hand to spontaneously grab something off a shelf and throw it onto my cart.  The result was - um - maybe buying a tiny bit more than anticipated (she muttered sheepishly).
The afternoon with a good friend was way overdue, and the creative excitement from the sparkly goodness - it all left me smiling all the way through to my core.  Good stuff.
Um, guess what colors I like?

I plan on spending some quality time with these goodies when I go on vacation in a few weeks.  I'll keep you posted!

Happy 4th!

Hope you are all enjoying a relaxing and fun-filled weekend with friends and family! 
(from "Patriotic Picnic", this month's pcHugClub Bonus-Creatable from pcCrafter)

The Rainbow at the End of the Thing, and the Thing at the End of the Rainbow.

Another Artstuff business-year has ended and started again (happy new year, everyone!).  Surtex is over for another year, and what a great show it was!  The mood was upbeat and the booth was busy.  I had great meetings with some of my awesome licensing partners and met some interesting new folks who I hope to work with in the near future.
Ugh, my eyes are always puffy looking in my booth photos.   I suppose it's because I always think of taking them in the morning before the show gets busy ... according to my West Coast body, it's 5:30am in this shot (ew).

Anyhoo.

I had a blast putting together my booth displays, thoroughly enjoyed connecting with dear friends, had a great time at our Artist Breakfast and really enjoyed meeting and chatting with those of you who attended the seminar (thanks for coming!).

I am so grateful for the great friends I've made over the years at this show - and was lucky enough to get to have dinner with a few of them while in NY. 
Next to me is the Amazingly Talented Amber Alvarez, and on around the table: the Amazingly Talented Jill Seale, the Amazingly Talented Andrea Mistretta, the Amazingly Talented Sue Zipkin, the Amazingly Talented Chris Chun, the Amazingly Talented Linda Jacque, and the Amazingly Talented Jane Shasky.  Although we all know I'm often guilty of it, in this case I'm not exaggerating.  Every single one of them is - well, what I said, really, and if you don't already know this, follow their links and get blown away by beautiful art and unbelievable cleverness yourself.  You'll see.

Then, suddenly it was all over. 
We said goodbye to New York for another year. 
I blinked and there I was, already over the Rockies. 
I am the person-in-an-airplane equivalent to a Golden Retriever with its head out the car window, ears and tongue flapping in the breeze.  Seriously.  If someone were to photograph a plane from the side in which I was a passenger, in the long row of little windows you would see one little round pink face practically pasted to the glass, watching the world pass below.  Even when it's just clouds out there.  I soak in the textures of white as we pass over and through, the way those little ice crystals form on the window and change shape, eventually turning into plain old drops of water back at a lower altitude.  Of course I enjoy it more when I can see land below, the patchwork passing by ... the shapes and textures of farms, cities, forests, lakes and rivers, mountains ... it's all so beautiful from up there. 
Solid white was all I got to look at once we were over Washington state though ... but then (how cool is this?!) the moment we popped out under the clouds, I was looking right at my house. 
Can you see it?  It's right there!  It's my house!

And even better: the Welcome Home Rainbow waiting for us on the ground.  These were taken from a car traveling at freeway speed (don't worry, Husband Guy was driving while I held the camera!) but look, it went all the way around, and had a ghost rainbow around it.

 
Glad to be home again, really glad to be not preparing for Surtex any more, and really really really glad to have had an awesome show.  Here in my office, there's a ton of show follow-up to finish now, but outside: I won't even tell you about the weeds - oh my.  And if I don't get to that grass soon we may totally misplace Molly next time she heads out to the backyard for a pee. 

But for now, I need to stay in here and work on that thing at the end of the rainbow.  Who knows, maybe it is a pot of gold.  A girl can dream, right?

Goodies and Giveaways

We're on the edge of a mystical and romantic weekend ... all full of hearts and love and the moon and all. And tigers. Don't forget the tigers.

To celebrate, some of my artist friends in Blogland are having neato giveaways I'd like to tell you about:

My friend Sue passed along Chris Chun's latest e-newsletter, thanks Sue, what a treat! I've only met Chris once and he was super nice, and his art is just magical. If you're not already a fan, you really ought to check it out. Chris is doing a fun giveaway in honor of Chinese New Year: 4 lucky winners will each receive one of his beautiful limited-edition silk eye-pillows, filled with lavender and flaxseed ... oh my goodness.

And how cool is this: for each eye pillow Chris makes a donation to a charity that restores eyesight in a developing country. Nice work Chris! To find out more about this and to enter his drawing, visit his blog.

And my amazingly prolific and multitalented friend Diane is doing a giveaway in honor of Valentine's Day ... she has stitched and collaged this absolutely beautiful package of goodies for a lucky winner...
If you haven't visited Diane's blog lately you should - scrolling through her many projects feels like thumbing through a copy of Victoria magazine (sigh) just look at all the pretties!

And in other news (tee hee), after telling you about them yesterday, look what Molly's nemesis left on my doorstep this morning! (Pay no attention to the messy desk the box is on).
Ooh, ooh, ooh ... you know I love this part. When I posted yesterday, I didn't even know that the windsocks have Twisting Action and the thermometers have reversible suction cups (so you can view it from whichever side of the window (or whatever else you stick it to) you like. Aahh, the fun things you discover when actually looking at something. And am I a broken record about my darn samples if I tell you they're even cuter in person? Yeah, I know. Sorry. But I can't help getting absolutely giddy when a company such a beautiful job with my designs, thanks Toland!

You know, I'm probably long overdue for a blog-giveaway myself. Hmmm. Stay tuned ... in the mean time, I've got work piling up on that messy desk of mine. How about March? We'll talk.

Adventures in Sewing I: Emergency Shower Gift

So what do you do when you need to come up with the perfect wedding shower gift with a Mexican-honeymoon theme by this afternoon but, well...you're short on cash and in a bit of a panic because you want this one to be extra special? Well, of course, you sew one-of-a-kind his-and-his matching Beth-Logan-Mexican-print swim trunks. I mean, duh.

What? You don't really know how to sew? Oh come on, you've never let lack of skill stand in the way of accomplishing your goals. Aren't you the girl who completed that triathlon a couple years ago by dog-paddling most of the swim course? Sure you are. You don't question logic or safety (or looking stupid) before you leap, you just do it.

I was sulking and staring into the corner brainstorming fabulous gift ideas when the little fabric samples caught my eye, shoved into the shelf over my desk. My 2 fun little patterns produced last year by Robert Kaufman. This was it...this is what I would do. I was determined. So I hit the old Interwebs in search of free or close-to-free downloadable patterns. I figured they had to exist somewhere out there.

For the record, I've never sewn from a pattern before. I may have "helped" Mom with something with a pattern as a young girl, but my machine-sewing experience time-line pretty much goes like this:

1. Mid-70s: a series of sundresses made with that fabric that is already elasticized along the top....requiring only 1 straight(ish) seam. I think I may have added a ruffle or two, shoulder straps, a perky little pocket...maybe some ricrac. Nice.

2. Early-80s: pegged every single pair of jeans I owned so severely I could barely get my feet through the ankle-holes.

3. Late 80s, early 90s: sewed 2 discount-bin sheets together to make a comforter cover, embellished a couple pillowcases to match.

4. Much more recently than that: Pieced and hemmed tablecloths for my Surtex booth.

You see a trend here? Long, (sort of) straight(ish) seams. No shapes, no rules, no instructions, nothing this monkey couldn't have done on his own.

So here I am, ready to embark on a new phase of my lifetime sewing journey: Found a pattern for swim trunks. Check. Found some super-light, soft black cotton for the lining. Check. Vaguely remember something about pre-washing being important; washed and dried all. Check. Downloaded, printed, let's go now...

Piecing together the pattern with matching letters/numbers to matching letters/numbers is pretty much the last step inside my comfort zone. From there on out, I have been plopped down onto a desert island, equipped with a fishing pole and compass, but no idea what fish are good for or what North means.

I am feeling proud that I can tell the difference between the parts of the pattern that are to be used and the parts that are OK left on the floor. Yes, actually proud of that.

Having once purchased a deeply-discounted pair of lycra leggings from an outlet store that I later realized had been sewn incorrectly, I think I understand the concept of grain direction (that was an unfortunate $3 purchase, maybe not so bad had I been a toweringly bony runway model); the paper is pinned to the fabric, and I am ready to cut. This is a big moment. It is also my first chance to use my rotary cutter I purchased last winter after bruising and crippling my left hand with those big heavy pinking shears, cutting all those fat quarters of At the Lake. And....oh. My. Gosh.

Do you remember the first time you used a rotary cutter? The bliss, the excitement? The amazement...the smooth cut, the ease of flow as it rolls along...I'm sorry, those of you who have used them for years have undoubtedly lost the childish enthusiasm, the gushiness that oozes from your very being with every little cut.

Oh my goodness. I find it difficult to contain myself just thinking about it.

With all the pieces cut and laid out, machine threaded, and a sudden unexpected rush of nervous excitement, I hit the instructions.

On the soundtrack for this post, this is where you insert a little tuba slide...waaaah, wooh.

It's as if I'm reading a foreign language. Each sentence read aloud over and over and over and over and over again, enunciating each word more clearly and more slowly than the last, twisting and contorting my face with each word. Am I really this stupid?

Apparently I am.

But here I go, connecting pieces and shapes that don't make sense to me...yet.

But wait, what's this?

Are you helping? I don't think you're helping.

But you're awfully cute. Alright, you can help.

Since I'm trying to do this without a trip to a store, I need to find elastic. I have to have elastic here somewhere. Somewhere in the studio. In the basement. In ancient sewing baskets tucked into shelves. I can picture it, I know it exists. A neat little roll, maybe the package was never opened. I dig around for about a half hour before giving in and hitting the rag basket. Underpants. That's it. Perfectly good elastic, hidden inside worn out holey cotton briefs. Once cut away, no one will ever know. Once sewn inside, it will never be seen. I'm pretty sure the recipients of this gift only scroll through this blog looking at pictures and don't read long-winded posts. I can only hope now that's the case. Please don't tell.

Eeeeexcellent, Smithers. We have elastic.

Which might beg the question, "Beth, do you ever sew anything without old underpants in it?" Maybe, maybe not.

Everything seems to be coming along swimmingly (yes, I said swimmingly) when I realize something is terribly wrong with the lining. These bizarre little curvy shapes have not made sense to me from the beginning, no matter how many times or how loudly or slowly (or how peppered with expletives) I repeat the simple instructions. When it comes time to sew them to the inside of the shorts, it becomes apparent that I've sewn them shut. Yup, somehow, there are only leg-holes. I know. Sad. It's been several hours already, the clock is ticking. I have a shower to get to. The lining is tossed across the room, and the shorts are finished without them. So they're not practical swimming trunks any more. We'll call them lounging boxers. Or something.

This hardly dampens the excitement when I turn them right-side out and see...it's a pair of shorts. I've actually made a pair of shorts.

The first pair took me about 5-1/2 hours. Yes, really. The second pair, about a half hour. Cutting the second pair, I even figured out how to add a personal touch...a "signature" in the seam!

They are definitely homemade. Imperfect. Corners were cut. I will admit, I do believe the lining is possibly the most important feature of a pair of swim trunks, but I will pretend otherwise for now, and feel pleased with myself for what I accomplished.

I will also pretend that I hadn't originally planned on cutting them with longer legs than the pattern showed...you know, a little less Magnum PI-ish, then forgot that detail in my excitement and confusion. I will pretend that it doesn't matter that I ran out of black thread halfway through the first pair, then ran out of navy thread halfway through the second. I will smile and skip along whimsically in my pretend world, and happily accept the results: Unlined Lounging Boxers. No problem. Keep telling yourself this, Beth, you'll make it alright.

The shower was fun, the gift was unique and personal, and all was right with the world. I hope the shorts don't fall apart or shrink into some weird(er) shape. But most important, I hope the Mexican honeymoon will be filled with happy, romantic and special memories to last a lifetime together...with or without funky little "lounging boxers".

Halfway Through.

Halfway through June already. Almost halfway through the year. Here we are, right in the middle of everything. Just like that.

I've been busy. I've been sitting here at this computer more often than, well...more often than I've been outside enjoying a rare gem of a sunshiny, dry June in the Pacific Northwest. That just doesn't happen around here. Today, the world is damp again and smells fresh. Don't get me wrong, it's been smelling pretty awesome with everything in bloom, but today...it's that nice, wet smell. The air moves a bit, but is still comfortably warm. Made me stop and realize, "hey, I'm halfway through June already."

There is still an awful lot of work to be done here at this computer in the weeks to come...deadlines to meet, projects to finish, others to start. But I have taken a few pleasant moments to breathe.

The other night there was a moon. One of those kinds of moons. The kind that makes me forget I have a humble little old unspecial camera and makes me think I could somehow capture it. As you are about to see, I can't. But what I got makes me remember how big I smiled when I saw it in person. It was, of course, oranger and crisper than this...and it was scurrying up the sky in such a hurry...busy busy busy, a sky to light up, a Moon's work is never done...can't be lurking around down here on the horizon...

You probably saw it that night too. Remember? That was nice.

Another warm and beautiful June evening, earlier in the month...I watched a really fun movie.

It was about 4 kids who had been students together at art school, then all went off and lived their lives...complete with all the various drama, love, death, and tragedy that occurs in people's lives in movies...then a quarter of a century or so later reconnected for an evening, a First Thursday gallery walk just like they'd done religiously every single month back when they were in school.

I know, this is a super-corny way to tell you what I did a few weeks ago. I'm sorry.

But it really did sort of feel like I was sitting somewhere in the dark, watching it all unfold on a big screen, eating popcorn...transformed into an entertainingly distant yet comfortably familiar world.

You know when you see a movie where several years pass and you watch characters age...and even though the actors are peeking through wrinkle-makeup and have splashes of phony grey sprayed into their hair, it's easy to imagine that they're still that exact same person because, really, it's only been about an hour since you watched them be young, right there on that same screen? It's that cinematic magic that occurs when an entire story is wrapped up in an hour or two...it's like they haven't really aged at all, and no time has actually passed...well, because it hasn't. Aside from that hour or two.

There's no way it had been more than an hour since I'd seen them last...it was just right back there at the begining of the movie when the characters were young. They had their entire lives ahead, the world to conquer. Everything was so important then. No one else could ever understand just how important. They lived for art. It's all that mattered. They usually went on the First Thursday gallery walk on empty stomachs desperately hoping to get some free food along the way. Mmm, little squares of cheese. And of course free wine.

An evening out often ended in some hole-in-the-wall serving something spicy and exotic, and always with talk of The Revolution. And that could easily go on until dawn. Easily.

Sitting over an empty plate that had only recently been overflowing with yummy Moroccan food, realizing that my particular evening would end at a much more reasonable hour than, say, dawn (ew)...I just smiled, sipped a beer, and listened to talk of The Revolution. That was a great movie. I give it two thumbs up...even though, I guess, I'm only really halfway through it.

PS...only one more day in the first half of the year, which means only one more day to enter the drawing for a full set of Mother-Earth coasters. To enter, just leave a comment on that post.

And PPS: OK everyone...I'm sorry. Not only was this a super-corny way to describe that evening, by the consistent theme in your comments I now see it was super-obscure and super-confusing as well. I do get carried away sometimes.

The 4 kids were actually ME and 3 old friends from art school. One with whom I've remained close over the years, the other 2 she reconnected with recently on Facebook and brought us all together after all these years.

We enjoyed a warm summer First Thursday wandering through Seattle's Pioneer Square art galleries...which I hate to admit I haven't done in years, either (the sun-through-the-trees photo is my only documentation, taken with my phone). We even saw another old schoolmate who now has her own gallery.

Soaking in eye-candy of every possible flavor, critiquing (as art students tend to do constantly) and in the moments in between attempting to catch up with 25 years of life-experiences...then realizing that wasn't as necessary as first thought, because we had all suddenly been transformed back to who we were and what we meant to each other back in that other life (the movie).

Sorry I got a little too poetic, vague, and esoteric in trying to express how surreal it was and how it felt like no time had passed...but I do stick by the metaphor, because it feels like the person I am now really only watches people like those kids in movies any more.

So there you go...a typically-Beth-style "quick" explanation in only 5 paragraphs!

Simple-Pleasure Food Memory #17

Crackers and butter.

In need of a super-quick afternoon snack and not feeling quite motivated enough to slice cheese (I know) this one brought me back...    

When we were very young, my friend Leslie and I always managed to get into trouble together. It would start innocently enough...but then a perfectly normal game of hide-and-seek would become hide-together-under Daddy's-workbench-until-the-grownups-were-worried-enough-to-call-the-police, and playing "beauty-parlor" with dolls would somehow evolve into a game of chop-our-own-hair-off-at-the-pigtails. One time we decided it would be fun to play "hippie"...we dressed up in fringey tie-dye stuff with lots of beads and stood by the road shouting "peace man peace, yeah yeah yeah" to passing cars. Don't ask why. It sounded like a good idea. Apparently folks were offended that 5 year olds were "protesting the Viet Nam war" in our quiet neighborhood and complained to our parents. We didn't know what that meant. But we never played "hippie" again.

In this same way, one warm July afternoon, a perfectly innocent game of dress-up with some boxes of old Halloween stuff evolved into a game of "trick or treat".  Why hadn't anyone thought of this before? This was a great way to spend the afternoon. We would dress up and parade around the neighborhood in our fun costumes, and here's the genius part: people would give us candy! Of course. Why not?

The response wasn't exactly what we 'd expected. Most neighbors didn't answer their doors. One or two asked if our mothers knew where we were. We weren't sure. Why?  These were the same folks who ooohed and aaawed over our adorable selves on Halloween...why weren't they impressed now? 

Then finally, a nice neighbor lady invited us inside and served us a plate of saltines with butter. What a fun game this was. We should play this more often.  

What we didn't realize was that she was merely getting us off the street before we embarrassed our families any more than we already had. While we were happily munching on crackers at her kitchen counter, our mothers were called and informed that we had been begging door to door in Halloween costumes. In July. When we finished the last crumbs, we were sent back to my house where we got it from my mom...and later to Leslie's where we got it from hers.  

Like a lot of things that seemed to really concern or upset adults, we didn't fully understand why this was bad. But from then on, trick-or-treating was reserved for that one day a year.

Crackers and butter on the other hand...that's just good any old day of the year.

Beth Logan 101

The goofy title is for 2 reasons: first, while I wasn't paying attention, I managed to write 100 posts. Whaddya know? So this, tada, is the 101st. The other reason...well, here:

Ok, we all know I have a procrastination issue. But eventually I get to stuff, really, I do. And here's proof. A short time ago a few months ago, I got tagged to play the 7-random-things-about-me game. Then I got tagged again. And again. It's not that it didn't look like fun (because it did) and it's certainly not that I didn't totally love reading the things that my taggers wrote about themselves on their own blogs (because I did). They are all 3 fascinating and talented people...2 of which have never driven a car. Who knew?

There's Elizabeth Metz, who I found myself drawn to over and over again when drifting through links on Illustration Friday. Her beautiful illustrations always catch my eye...and she is smart and clever and I just found out it seems we have the same favorite movie! How many other grownups do you know who still fall back on a silly fairy tale as their favorite? You can read the other 5 things I haven't already blurted out about her here.

Then there's Amber Alvarez. I was lucky to get Amber as my new neighbor at Surtex last year and she's been cracking me up ever since...she's got the biting wit of a real New Yorker but has never lost that Island sweetness. Oh and her art is awesomely adorable. I dare you to say that, along with her full name, 3 times fast. Even if you can't do that, you really must read her hilarious 7 things.

And last but certainly not least is another Surtex buddy Gina Rivas, who creates art as warm and bright and gorgeous as she is herself. If you don't already know Gina, you really ought to check out her blog & website and get to know her and her beautiful art! I only get to see Gina once a year at the show and it's been fun to get a peek into the real Gina on her new blog!

And now, the 101 part. Actually in blabbing on and on about myself so in the past 100 posts (I had a hard time thinking of 7 new things I haven't already told you) we're probably up to a much higher number, but for the sake of the post we'll still call it Beth Logan 101:

7 Random Things (most of) You Didn't Already Know About Me, in No Particular Order.

1. I have always been a grouch in the morning, even when I was little. A real bear. Growly and hairy and with claws. Ok, mostly just growly. Delicious coffee has become a very important part of my morning. But not this important.

2. When I was a little girl I named my first cat Henrietta, after that slightly creepy meow-meow-meowing puppet on Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. I think she sort of resented the name...my Henrietta was a rather crotchety and ill-tempered little kitty.

3. After dropping out of art school I went for a whole year without drawing or painting a single thing. I'll never do that again. Sometimes now I might have to go weeks at a time without putting a pencil to paper, for some reason or another. When that happens I get really cranky and can't wait to start creating again.

4. I have freakishly long toes that can bend twice....in, and then out again. Or in twice, like fingers bend. I often pick stuff up with these prehensile toes instead of bending over. I can't draw with them though. Are you familiar with these amazing people?

5. Since I've already covered my favorite movie of all time (anyone want a peanut?) we'll move to second favorite: Pee Wee's Big Adventure.

I have always been a Pee Wee Herman fan. I can't help it. Watched Pee Wee's Playhouse every Saturday morning back in the day (yes I was already a grownup then). Got Pee Wee and Chairy action figures for Christmas one year, but my first puppy Stella devoured them. Don't talk to me about shady theatres and scandal and mugshots and such. I can't hear you. My fingers are in my ears and I'm shouting "blah blah blah..." I love Pee Wee.

6. I was "legally blind" until I was 6 years old. All that means is that I had pretty lousy vision which improved after wearing glasses for a few years. It remains pretty lousy, but is much better than when I was little. I've worn glasses or contacts since I was 18 months old. I've recently started seeing better, close-up, without either of them. This really freaks me out because it means I'm that age...when people's arms aren't long enough to focus on the thing in their hand, when you hear things like, "I can't see that...I can't find my reading glasses", when you may spy me peeking over the top of my specs with that granny-gaze, squinting, entire face stretched and twisted into that scowly mug that only old people's faces can stretch into. That expression that makes teenagers cringe unconsciously. I have news for you, teenagers. You know why you cringe? It's because someday you will also make that face. Believe me. I thought I never would, but this is terrifying and horrific...I do it. I make the face.

7. 7 is actually my favorite number. My birthday is on a 7th. At birth I weighed 7 pounds and 7 ounces, and for years my mom had me convinced that I was even born at 7am. More recently, though, I got hold of my birth certificate and it says 11:45am. Oh well. But that might give you a clue as to where I got my habit of harmless story-improving exaggeration. Still I'm all about the number 7. I met Husband Guy (whose birthday has a 7 in it) on a 7th, and we got married on yet another 7th. I could go on and on...

Alright. Finally, the last part of this 7-things-game is that I'm supposed to tag 7 more people. But here's the thing: since I took so long to get around to it, every single person I know in Blogland has already done it. I'm the last one. This is what I get for procrastinating. So I'm afraid I'm going to cheat and skip the last step. But thanks to Gina, Elizabeth, and Amber for including me...it was fun! And the rest of you, have you gone to those girls' blogs yet and checked them out? Really you need to do that now.

I Know You Love Them.

Here's a design that's been around, as a greeting card, for a long, long time.  It was one of my first designs to be licensed nationally...way back when.

You can't not love chickadees. Maybe it's not something you've thought about recently (or ever). But come on. Just look at them. They're adorable. All tiny and chubby. Their little brown or black hats. The froggy little voices that repeat, "chick a dee, dee, dee..."   Those teeny tiny beaks and shiny little dots for eyes. Don't even tell me you don't like them. I don't believe you.

Speaking of chickadees, here's something fun. My friend Diane is giving away a beautiful little pillow featuring a wee chickadee that she has cross-stitched and sewn and it's absolutely adorable! She's going to do a random drawing this coming Thursday.

Diane just keeps amazing me with those busy and talented hands of hers. I don't think she sleeps...seriously. This is one prolific lady. She is constantly painting, sewing, crafting, and blogging...and her blog is a lovely place to visit...be sure to check it out. And don't forget to enter the giveaway!

I've Got My Work Cut Out for Me

But in a good way.

Look at what I got in the mail today! 

An unexpected mystery package from my sister...I laughed out loud when I opened it, and as I shuffled through the envelope of treasures, unconscious little bursts in the form of squeals, sighs, oohs, aaahs, and ohmygoshes just gushed out.

Inspired by the little package of tags I gave her on Christmas, she dug out her own collection of precious old cards and tags and has entrusted me with her collection, to scan and save for posterity...but she has thoughtfully (she has always been more thoughtful than me) taken this project to the next level and suggested we scrapbook all the originals. What a great idea! This sounds like a Sisters' Day crafts project to me...I'll do the scanning and printing, the rest we can all play with together, scrapbooking, tag-making...girls, are you in?

Speaking of having work cut out for me...I suppose this is a good time to commit to a few Resolutions for the New Year.  So here goes:

I will take more time to do things like this with people I love...life is too short to let so much time pass without creating just for the fun of it and laughing with the special people in my life. I tend to let work overwhelm everything else and while I'm doing that, the rest of the world slips by way too quickly!

I will catch up with all those fun little Blogging-Tag-Games I'm months behind on (refer to previous Resolution).

I will finish that darn bathroom project. Really, I promise.

I will exercise more, lose weight, grow more of our own food, go on more dates with Husband-Guy, ride my bicycle more, keep the house cleaner, visit family members more often, maintain a weed-free garden, ride my motorcycle more, help with more ocean-cabin projects, stick to our household budget better, catch up with those things that have been on my to-do list for more than a year, follow-through with those things I've barely made a dent in, like really learning to sew and really learning Spanish, and of course work on that pesky world-peace situation.

Oh no, you watch...I think this may actually be the year. I can feel it.

So what great things are you planning to accomplish in 2009? I'd love to hear them...

PS...alright. Just one day later, it seems from some responses I've gotten to this (emails and other outside-Blogland type communication) that maybe throwing in that world-peace part wasn't even enough to really make it painfully clear that there was a little...alright, a lot...of sarcasm intended in that last paragraph.

Sure I'd love to do all that stuff. And some of it will get done, sort of. I will certainly try to be better about most of these things. But anyone who thinks I actually believe I can suddenly do all this and run my business...um, this is me we're talking about, right? Come on, it's some sort of miracle that I manage to dress and feed myself most days.

Let me dream though, just once a year, about a perfect world, where everything is lovely and sparkling including me, fabulously lipsticked and flawlessly coiffed wearing a ruffly starched apron with adorable applques and more ric-rac than thought possible on a single apron, and maybe those gloves BJ saw in the Paris store window. And of course, not a speck of pet hair in sight. Except, of course, those which are still firmly attached to the pets.

That's what New Year's Day is all about...like the first day of math class in gradeschool when we'd get our brand new textbook...that new-book smell, smooth, white pages: no wrinkles, no doodles (doodling in textbooks was an issue I may discuss later, let's just say I spent hours after school alone in a class with a pink pearl eraser more than once in my gradeschool career). All I'm saying is let me have my new textbook today. Tomorrow I'll fall back into reality and realize I'll never accomplish all that stuff in one lifetime.

Tags, Tags, and More Tags...

This is something I've been wanting to do for years, but it's just one of those many things that get pushed back to "someday when I have more time..." But some of you amazingly creative craftsy blogging friends have inspired me to finally get around to it. Well, that and the fact that we were (for most practical purposes) pretty much snowed-in, even here in the middle of the city.

If you know me or if you have been reading my blog for a while, you already know about my family's habit of saving every scrap of every little thing that doesn't either rot on its own or run screaming when we reach for it. And yes, some that do. My grandmother was known to iron used wrapping paper and ribbons to reuse later. Since the big Christmas day celebration was always at her house, she had the motherload of used paper right there at her fingertips. And holiday cards...she was a whiz with her pinking shears, cutting out hand-written well-wishes and signatures so every card could be reused as a tag on a gift in the future. Many of these were cut again after their first or second use and became even smaller tags.

Over the years many have actually survived...some are ripped, stained with large chunks of old cellophane tape and other, more mysterious yellow or brown things.

Some have been cut to such ridiculous lengths that they are nothing but a small picture that doesn't make sense any more, maybe Santa's boot with half a squirrel next to it, cut, of course, with pinking shears. Or this guy...I think that's part of a paintbrush, he's probably writing some festive greeting or other. "Santa wuz here"...who knows what he's really doing? Poking a reindeer with a stick? I do hope that's red paint dripping from his pointy tool.  

Right up there with Aunt Peek's heavenly sweet pale green fluffy pistachio-marshmallow salad and my mom's own controversial yet mysteriously delicious tomato-shrimp aspic (I believe it's an acquired taste), these old, recognizable scraps of our family's past have always been an important part of our holiday celebrations. In the cacophony of ripping paper and children's squeals of joy, you hear, "oh I remember that card!" and "goodness gracious, you still have some of that paper?"

I've been hoarding odd little scraps of old cards that have been used on gifts to me for the last several years with the intent of scanning, cleaning up, and making new tags from them so they can continue to be part of our gift-giving traditions for generations to come. I should mention that although these are old cards, I can only assume that they are all still protected under their original copyrights and I wouldn't think of using them for commercial purposes of any kind. These are only to be shared with my own family in the same way that cutting and reusing the original cards have been for so many years.

When I finally finished my work projects last Monday morning, I cleared off my desk and got started.   

The scanning and cleaning part was the most tedious. When cleaning the images in PhotoShop, I kept noticing these little short green lines on a lot of the stuff. I couldn't figure out where it had come from and was using the clone-tool way more than I should have to erase chunks of green lines from cards that didn't seem to have anything green or liney on them. After doing this for way too long, I realized that I'd scanned this fuzzy little flocked thing early on. 

Oops. Oh yeah, note to self: thoroughly clean scanner bed before using again.

After printing them all on the big printer there was an awful lot of cutting-out to do. And assembling, but that was where the real fun began. 

Some were assembled with printed images on both sides, some with just cardstock on one side, and a few were glued to some old tags I found loose on cluttered shelves during my last hoarding trip to my favorite paper/office-supply salvage store only days before it closed for good (this is very sad, I am holding back tears as I type this...oh how I'll miss you, The Salvage Broker). I'll be OK. 

Inspired by Diane's tags that she's meticulously aged and embellished to perfection, I thought I might add a little luminescent paint to a few. This is a step I should have either played with until it looked better, or skipped altogether...I thought it might be kind of cool to just glop the paint on loosely...but well, not so much. It looks glopped on loosely (and sloppily) and they're my least favorite of the bunch. 

Then, finally (goody goody goody) I got out the glitter. We will be finding this stuff for months around here, shimmery little tidbits showing up in our clothing, the furniture, the animals, our faces...but oh boy I love me my glitter. 

Every tag got glittered. 

And glittered. 

And glittered. 

Then suddenly it was Christmas Eve. There were other gifts to make and wrap, baking and cooking to do, and favorite little traditions to keep. Chains went on the car, the alley was cleared, and the Logans actually ventured out on wheels for the first time in over a week for just enough shopping to get by.

On Christmas morning while digesting our traditional baked-frittata and homemade-cinnamon-roll breakfast I started finishing these tags with ribbons.    

This is old, old ribbon...the very last of the contents of "The Ribbon Box" at Granny's house. Everyone in my family knows what The Ribbon Box was. Those 3 words were always said with much emphasis, slowly, clearly, and usually raising at least one eyebrow while enunciating each syllable. Most family members feared The Ribbon Box. Dusty old disintegrating stuff that used to be red and green, much of it ironed flat decades ago, small hard globs of it curled with scissors until threadbare. Shiny things full of lead, and countless other unspeakable toxic dangers were held within. To me though, it was a treasure trove of wonderfulness. And in our final cleaning and clearing out of that great old house, I snatched up all contents of The Ribbon Box that hadn't already turned to dust. 

We headed out into the snow...over the Sound and through the woods to my sister's house we went. The tags were finished on my lap, in the car, on the ferryboat heading toward the Peninsula. 

With the ferry's engine chugging away below us, I packaged them up and once on the other side they were given as gifts to family members who will, no doubt, use them and reuse them for years to come...maybe even trimming off people's names with pinking shears before doing so. 

These were really fun for me to make, and even more fun to give. And I barely made a dent in the collection of hoarded card scraps. Maybe next year I should get out that flocking stuff I bought a few years ago (but never opened) and see just how horrific a mess I can make with that...

Hey, Lookie Here!

My wonderfully talented and too-kind-for-words long-distance-friend, Diane Knott, has outdone herself again. She has come up with the cleverest idea and has started an "Artist-to-Artist Interview" column in her blog.

Why do I mention this? Well...I am honored to be #3 in the series, you can check out the interview here.   

Others she has featured so far are Beth Yarborough and Dawn Edmondson. I think I'm in pretty good company, don't you? It was so sweet of Diane for including me in this...this was really fun. It's funny now that I've gone back and looked at the first 2 interviews again, I realize that many of our answers were sort of the same (except, well, I think mine were the wordiest...but would you expect anything different from me?). I didn't do it consciously...I suppose creative minds think, well, sort of a tiny little bit alike. Ish.

For those of you who don't know Diane and her work...well, you probably just think you don't, but you do. Go look at it here. See? You know her. You have seen it and loved it for years, haven't you? But did you know that she is an absolute diva with needle and thread? Ohmygosh. And that she and her (also super-talented) daughter Holly have even written a book on quilting? And just look at her blog...I just don't know where she finds the time to create all the fun stuff she crafts and sews, and paint for a living, and keep up her prolific blog, not to mention have real-life in there somewhere...she's pretty awesome. And I'm very lucky to call her a friend! Thank you Di!

Still Thinking Thankful Thoughts

After a whirlwind week/weekend. The big holiday-season-kickoff. The Artstuff Open House.

So much to be thankful for right there in that little bundle of sentence fragments. Oh boy.

Thankful for sweet friends who send me precious trinkets (that I love-love-love!) in the mail. Thankful for my amazing support-network of family and sort-of-family who is always there to help. Thankful for folks who started out as retail customers at Bumbershoot, art-shows, poster-signings, who have come to the Artstuff Open House since, well, as early as 1991, folks who now feel more like old friends than customers.

And thankful for all the nieces and nephews who impress me constantly, and even better...crack me up.

Thanksgiving morning I was still scrambling with last minute Open House preparations...meticulously cutting fat-quarters... 

 

 

finishing the last of the magnets and cards... 

...I was late to dinner.

There was a phone message from my awesome great-niece Samantha, "Auntie Beth, I just wanted you to know that I left you a Snoopy Thanksgiving dinner - and it's vegetarian." In the midst of all the stuff swirling around inside my head I wasn't quite sure what she had meant, until I arrived and saw the perfectly arranged plate waiting on the buffet, just for me... 
How hilarious is that?! Snoopy would be proud.

"...and it's vegetarian." This not-eating-turkey-0n-Turkey-Day thing has been stumping and torturing relatives for years now...but she was the first to notice that particular detail of the classic Charlie Brown Thanksgiving meal.

HILarious, Sam! I loved it.

And it was actually delicious...grazing throughout the evening I realized that Snoopy (and Samantha) knew exactly what they were doing when preparing this little feast. 
So this Open House thing...I suppose I should explain for those of you who have not been part of this with me for the past 17 years.

It started when I used to paint furniture and odds-and-ends and sell them at little galleries and shops...it was my big retail event of the year. Shortly after that I began licensing, so it evolved into an annual trunk-sale of sorts with various samples of products...prints, magnets, and miscellaneous other items along with the hand-painted stuff. 

 

Eventually it became the only time I'd get around to doing the handmade stuff, as licensing started taking up more and more of my time.    

 
The face of it has changed over the years but it remains the holiday-kickoff-tradition for me, and still for a surprising amount of awesome, supportive regulars (again with the thankfulness...these amazing folks have been there since the beginning). It's also become, quite often, that one chance I get to catch up with old friends and family that I don't get to see much during the rest of the year. 

So...thanks, everyone. Really. I couldn't do it without you. And for those of you who I missed catching up with this past weekend, I do hope I get a chance to see you at Duvall Flowers this coming weekend! And watch for lots more new items popping up on my etsy store soon, including some of the fun hand-painted stuff that usually only emerges once a year...

And now...now it's time to start catching up with everything and everybody else, and thinking about the Holidays! Happy December everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing all of you a perfect holiday spent with those you love and reflecting on all that we have to be thankful for.

I have an awful lot of that myself (stuff to be thankful for, that is) and will be basking in the company of a good portion of those (folks I'm thankful for, that is) on Thursday, but missing a few others (you know who you are, and yes I do).

And all that thankful-thinking, blessing-counting and partial-family-basking occurs in the midst of my crazy scramble of last-minute preparations for my annual Holiday Open House this weekend...it's a little nuts right now but I'll be back soon to catch up with all of you and officially kick off the festive sparklicious wonderuflness that is the Holiday Season!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

More Halloween Goodies

You may remember me mentioning I come from a family that throws nothing away.

Ever.

Well, that's apparent when digging through the Halloween boxes.

Literally generations of little-kid-made construction paper cutouts, party favors, and inexpensive cardboard decorations: from cool vintage stuff to flat-out antiques. I don't like to admit that the ones from my own childhood are considered vintage now too, but I guess they are.

Sigh. 

If you buy special napkins for a party and use all but 2 or 3, what do you do with the extras? You don't use them (they're fancy printed party napkins for heaven's sake...why look at the coin we dropped on those plates alone!) and throwing away a couple unmatched plates or napkins...unheard of. So what's left to do? Well of course, you leave them in the bottom of the box of Halloween stuff. 
And these little gems (below)...love them! Each tops a cardboard box which must have contained candy or other party favors, and they're labeled with my grandparents' first names...clever little handmade place-cards for a spooky dinner party? Probably some creative friend from their Camera Club. I wish I could see the place settings and the rest of the party decorations...maybe pictures of the party exist in one of the hundreds of little yellow boxes of slides that my sister has now (have you run across those, Mary?).   

I love the old Halloween decorations because they were, well...sorta creepy and disturbing. No one seemed afraid they might scare the children with them back then...it was Halloween for crying out loud, stop sobbing and covering your eyes, cowboy up and enjoy the creepy toys and decorations!

This teeny tiny plaster skull is on a wire (maybe he had a body at one time, or was just meant for sticking in stuff) and along with his spooky little "bejeweled" eyes, has the faded remains of sparkles on the rest of him. Or, he might have just been stored next to something sparkly. It's hard to tell. 

Have yourself a spookilicious day tomorrow!

The Joys of Never Throwing Anything Away, Ever...

...or rather, coming from a family whose tradition is just that. Sort of.

This past weekend I traveled to a small community near Seattle where some family members live, and enjoyed afternoon tea with a few relatives and family friends...and about 200 other ladies. The tea was put on by the local historical society, a newly-renewed tradition in that community from earlier in the last century. We enjoyed lovely teas from a local vendor as well as the usual dainty tasty teatime fare, all while watching a fashion show featuring over 100 years of amazing ladies' clothing: all beautifully-preserved dresses, coats, shoes, and accessories from the incredible hand-sewn prairie dress worn across the country by an early settler to a floofy flowing flowered caftain that must have hosted fabulous cocktail parties in the 1970s, and all the wonderful fashions from the decades in-between.

My sisters and I blew the dust off boxes from our closets and pulled out treasures from our family's past...teapots and teacups of course, as well as table decor and, of course...hats for us to wear.
  Our own table decor had a fashion-theme...inspired by this smartly-dressed lady in the green (and her shadow with the pink hoop-skirt and flowered bonnet) probably from an ad in Life Magazine (just guessing, because of her size) that our Granny had meticulously cut-out and saved years ago...and of course, Granny's own accessories (she was a lady who never went into town without a hat and gloves...and saved every single  piece of anything she ever owned).
  Some of the hats, including this white-feathered number with delicate rhinestones,  had belonged to our other grandmother who must have been quite a standout in church on Sunday in the farming community in Idaho where she lived.

   This little book is full of hand-colored photos of Paris, probably something brought back as a gift by one of the boys who had written Granny postcards from Europe during WWI.

More of Granny's postcard collection was put to use, scanned and copied as place-cards on the table, with our names written by my sister, a talented calligrapher. And she used probably my very favorite postcard of all as my own place-card!

Everything has been packed back away for now, but what fun to pull out all the old hatboxes full of goodies and put many of them on display...our Mom had fun seeing all those precious things she remembered. It was neat for us to share them with the other ladies at the tea, and thanks for letting me share them with you!

Something About Mary.

How perfectly fitting that this week's Illustration Friday topic is "homage", as today is the birthday of someone terribly dear to me and this little drawing was created as exactly that, an homage to my dear friend Mary.
When I got the news last year that Mary had moved on, I immediately sat down and drew this...it was all I could do at the time. I drew fast and focused...happy memories rushing and swirling around in my brain, my heart, and onto the little piece of paper.
Her little pink trailer home near Seattle. I always secretly fantasized that it was the very one in which Elvis' nurse-girlfriend lived in It Happened at the World's Fair.
That garden. Wow, the garden.
"Hey kiddo you need to come over this week I have more bulbs for you to plant in that front bed..." (and she always made sure there were plenty of extra plants, bulbs, or seeds for me to bring home for my own garden...she was just that way).
And her crazy "gargoyle" (yes I realize he's really a dragon)...more on him later (yes there are stories). For several years he has resided in a shady corner of my yard...every single time I walk through my living room he catches my eye as he peeks through the window, and makes me smile...that horrible little beloved beastie.
Funny, I didn't notice this until just now...the resemblance these guys have to this little buddy of mine.

Mary was a muse, a sensei, an extra mother, a best friend. She taught me the kinds of lessons I didn't realize I was learning until much, much later.
She opened my eyes to things I didn't know, and reminded me things I already knew but was too stubborn to realize on my own.
She gave me many gifts I appreciated immediately, and some gifts I didn't realize how much I loved until just recently.
And...oh man, if I could only write like Mary, you would never log off this blog, you would be absolutely glued to the monitor waiting for the next post...

What homage could possibly befit such an amazing soul? All I could do was draw a picture.

Her beautiful daughter-in-law and wonderful son were kind enough to share some pictures with me which I treasure. This one is the real-life shot of the funny little pink trailer, her heavenly-scented roses in full-bloom and an overwhelmingly bushy and prolific bed of strawberries at the foot of the stairs...and of course my little friend greeting (or scaring away) anyone who approached. And the Quite-Contrary one herself, long before I knew her (but this girl knew her then).

Anyway, Happy Birthday Mary...wherever you are, I'm sure it's a great party and you've got everyone absolutely in stitches...

All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned Just a Couple Months Ago in Kindergarten.

This past October I got to take a trip to Massachusetts to visit one of my best friends - an amazing artist and beautiful person who I'd been missing terribly for way too long!  It was a perfect visit...my first to New England (and timing was awesome, they're right about that fall color, wow...stunning!).

One of the highlights was spending a few hours sharing and getting acquainted with some new friends. It's been a few years (we don't need to do actual math here) since I stepped into a classroom and although I kind of still dress like a kindergartner I haven't spent time in their world for a long, long time...and yes, I learned - or rather, was reminded - some pretty important stuff:

Everybody has a favorite animal.

And everybody's favorite is different, and that's really cool.  From snakes to birds to giant graceful things to furry, cuddly, cute things, there are characteristics each of us can relate to.  And that's a pretty neat thing.  Animals rock, and we should be nice to them.

Sharing feels good.

And when others appreciate stuff I create, and when that stuff becomes part of their daily life...to hang on the wall, look at, use...that's an awfully cool gift I get.

Every person is unique.

And every person has a need to express that.  And the results are very cool.  Wouldn't it be boring if we were all the same?

It's fun to make stuff with friends.

And it's fun to make new friends.

Thanks to all my new friends for reminding me such important stuff!

And thanks to my amazing friend and her family for letting me totally disrupt their lives for a few days...I came home with great memories I'll treasure always.