stuff about artstuff.

Spring Flies By...

Usually this time of year I can be found under my pre-SURTEX rock.  Busy designing booth displays, creating new art, organizing travel and exhibiting logistics, worrying about details, and in general, freaking out and way too busy.

And with or without me, spring comes and goes.

I've been trying harder to make this happen with me, to be present and enjoy the season, although the underside of that rock always manages to beckon me back.

But there's magic to spring, the scents and sounds that stir emotions that have been lying dormant through the cold, dark winter like seeds - sprouting unexpected and uncontrollable smiles.

I've been soaking this stuff in every chance I get, and trying to document little bits and pieces of happy-making moments with my iPhone.

Walking the dog through the cherry blossom lined streets in my neighborhood

The perfect camelia bloom in an otherwise dark alley

Time with loved ones

Even that one morning when I finally mastered the new espresso machine and had a perfect latte.

The best so far - two warm, sunny days in a row where I was able to take my studio outside and work in the backyard.  Birds singing, spring scents wafting on the breeze, birds of all sizes fluttering so closely around my head I felt like a Disney princess.

Days where I actually get to draw all day are pretty rare, considering I supposedly draw pictures for a living.  That's the price I pay for being too stubborn for an agent, but then that's another subject for another day.  Days like this remind me that I am the luckiest girl in the world, with the best job in the world, and I couldn't be more grateful for that.  Even a couple weeks before SURTEX.

It may be cloudy again today, and I am here inside, organizing, worrying, and in general, freaking out and way too busy, but it's spring.  Yesterday I smelled my first lilac bloom, and we ate our first salad from the garden.  Spring is magic, and it just gets better every day.

I Made Stuff!

When I was a little girl, I fantasized about living off the land like a pioneer woman; making everything by hand, growing, cooking, and creating every waking moment. My older brother, whom I idolized pretty much from birth, lived in a hippie commune on Washington's Olympic Peninsula for a while in the early 70s.  I was not allowed to visit that strange and magical place so the mystique surrounding the lifestyle was overwhelmingly romantic to my innocent, little-girl senses.  I adored the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, my favorite, of course, was On the Banks of Plum Creek - who wouldn't want to live in a dugout cave in a creek bank?  It's practically a Hobbit house inside a tree!

Even as an adult, the romanticism of that off-grid fantasy still lives somewhere deep inside me, but my reality is juggling running a demanding business with managing our little household here in a city neighborhood where literally everything I could ever need or want is conveniently available "just down the street".  More often than not, I suppose much like I did when I was little, I feed that pioneer fantasy vicariously - through blogs and websites of creative and clever folks who have a lot more time and energy to devote to cool DIY projects than I seem to manage.

One such project caught my eye on Pinterest last month.  It was this delicious looking exfoliating sugar scrub.  I thought, "oh that looks neat, but who has time to make their own beauty products?"  Then I saw that you basically stir 2 ingredients together and add a scent if you like.  "Well, maybe for a special occasion..."

The special occasion came soon after that: a vacation with a girlfriend where we would be in the sun a lot, and pampering ourselves a bit.  I made a little tub to take with us.  For the first batch, I avoided the fresh lemon juice from the original tutorial because I wasn't sure how fast we would go through it (I didn't want rotting lemons in my sugar scrub) but we used it fast!  This stuff makes my skin feel amazing!  I'm hooked.  Husband Guy was intrigued, and when I mentioned that I would be adding lavender essential oil to the next batch, sheepishly requested that I make some that was not so girly - maybe orange would be nice.  By this time I had actually forgotten the lemon juice option, but I think I will try a small batch of that one next time to keep next to the kitchen sink.

So here it is!  This couldn't be simpler:

The basic recipe is 1 part coconut oil to 2 parts sugar.  First I melted some coconut oil in the microwave - this only takes a few seconds, don't cook it, just start to melt it!  Take it out when it looks half-n-half (liquid vs. white chunks) and the rest will soften and melt, like butter does.

I don't measure the coconut oil before I melt it, and I only really measure the sugar by doubling whatever the amount of melted oil is in the cup.  I just pour in sugar until the total volume seems to be about 3 times the original amount of oil. 

For you eagle-eye photo-measurements noticers, part of the melted oil from the previous picture was poured back out before adding the sugar, when I realized I had less sugar than I thought!

And stir it up.

It's that easy. 

It's at this point that you can add essential oils until you like the smell.  I was afraid of adding too much, but all 3 batches so far have been very subtle (with several drops of oil in each).

Pack it into the container of your choice, keeping in mind that it hardens quite a bit once it cools back down again.  I will probably buy some regular old white sugar for future batches - the only reason that I used this more expensive organic unbleached sugar was that it was what I had in the house.

But it's pretty, isn't it?

And one final detail, if you were dumb like me and made this mess on your stove of all places, avoid that mysterious burning sugar smell next time you get ready to cook...

Ok, all better now.

If you're still asking, "who has time to make their own beauty products?" in this case, my answer is everyone!  Even with the extra stove-top cleanup this took me about 10 minutes.  I've since seen a different recipe on Pinterest that has dried lavender flowers in it, that looks cool.  The possibilities here are endless. 

The hardly-any-time aspect of this project has me a little extra intrigued with other neato DIYs from One Good Thing: homemade makeup wipes, homemade "Clorox" wipes . . . underground dugout on Plum Creek, here I come!

Unexpected Gifts from the Garden.

That is, a terribly neglected garden.

I suppose before going any further I have to admit that somehow I never got around to the fall cleanup of my garden beds.  The typical stuff that respectable gardeners do automatically after their last satisfying harvest.  Cut down spent plants, mulch, tuck everything away for a neat and tidy winter so it will be composted, fresh and ready again in the springtime.

All I can say is that I was in denial when fall came.  We never really got summer around here. I was like a little kid who can't keep my eyes open or my head up but fights to the bloody end to avoid going to bed.  No, I'm not tired!  I'm not finished yet!  My 11 tomato plants are taller than me and I've only harvested 3 ripe fruits! 3!  It's not over, it's not!  It's not! Noooooooo!

Kicking and screaming and refusing to accept it, fall and winter happened anyway.  They always do.  I normally enjoy working in the yard in the wintertime, even in the cold rain I'll be out there planting bulbs or doing whatever needs to be done, muddy and soggy and happy.  But not this winter.  The disappointment that was The Summer That Never Camewas still too fresh.  I really seemed to take it personally and I simply couldn't deal with it.  So I put on my clutter-blinders and vowed to get out and do some early spring cleanup when I was feeling a smidge less bitter about big, dumb winter.

Alright, the beds are still quite sad looking.  I know, it's March.  And my first early plant sale is in a couple weeks.  But I returned home a few days ago after a week and a half away, and saw something interesting.

I had been noticing something leafing out the last month or so, maybe an old cabbage or something, I hadn't really focused on it before.  But as I hurried past to get back into the warm house the other day, there it was, practically glowing.

The Romanesco broccoli I never got last year.

I'd planted a couple varieties of cauliflower and broccoli early last year and was pretty excited about them.  Nothing seemed to be happening until tiny buds appeared the week before I went to New York for Surtex.  By the time I returned from the show, they had all bolted and gone to seed (must have been that one day of sunshine we had in May) along with all my other early-season greens.  Sad, tall, weird Seussian flowers, all of them.

I'm not sure when this one decided to sprout back up again.  I wasn't paying attention.  But it was a smart one, growing so vigorously while all the slugs and bugs and little green worms are asleep under their rocks.  The flawless, perfectly-intact leaves span a couple feet wide.  Even after a long warm saltwater soak, not a single tiny critter floated out of this.

And it was delicious.  Crunchy-tender, and so sweet it made my mouth water.

This funny little flower the size of my fist fills me with that pre-season hope that this will be the year.  The year that the sun shines, that things grow and thrive.  I will sprout, plant, and nurture - relying on faith and hard work.  Spring is coming soon, the season of new growth, rebirth, and hope.

Nice to be reminded that even in a neglected garden, we can find unexpected gifts.

"Meet the Designer" Interview

Hey everyone!

Have you checked out the Henry Glass blog yet?  It's a fun place for everything fabric-related, featuring neato projects and quilts and goodies and giveaways.  If you haven't, today would be a great day to hop on over to see for yourself.

Why today?

Well, today there is a "Meet the Designer" interview with me!  That's pretty cool, right?  And while you're enjoying all the fun stuff on their blog, go on back a page or two where you'll also see a "Meet the Designer" interview from January with my good friend Shelly!

In addition to the blog, be sure to check out Henry Glass on Facebook, where you'll find even more goodies, giveaways, and fun stuff. 

And finally - I have been waiting to share this with you but will give you a super double top-secret uber-sneaky sneak peek of my new softie flannel fabric coming out later this month, called "Buttercup Babies". . . I can't wait to show you the rest of it!

Stay tuned for more details, here and on the Henry Glass blog, website, and Facebook Page!

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.

Rock, Paper, Scissors and Pins.

Pretty pictures make me happy.

That about sums it up.

We visually oriented folks do love our eye-candy. Inspiration. Stimulation. Comfort.

The other day, I finally gave in and joined several friends who all claim to be dangerously addicted to Pinterest.  That in itself frightened me, the fear of addiction.  But it looked so fun.  Aren't those always the last words before plunging into the abyss?

I realized, not very far into the process of pinning and organizing, that it all felt very familiar - and I suppose this may be the case, although maybe not to the extent it is for me, with many other creative friends.
I have always collected pretty pictures.  Books, magazines, catalogs.  From the latter two, I've cut out things I found useful, inspirational, or just pretty enough to want to look at another day. Recipes. Decorating ideas. Garden tips and inspiration. Things I might want to remember how to draw someday.
Before Google Image Search, there was the free magazine exchange in the lobby of my local public library branch. Every subject matter I could ever possibly need to know how to draw was covered in my neighbors' wildly varying collections of donated periodicals. I would entertain myself in the evenings happily cutting out and filing reference pictures and weird goodies.
These images fill the oversized file-drawer in my big, old oak desk.  There was a time, long ago and far away, when I intended for each and every clipped item to someday go into a beautifully organized scrapbook or cookbook, but there's also something satisfying about the hunt when flipping through a folder. I know, I'm weird that way.
Some might see this as an unnecessary conglomeration of paper clutter taking up space. Especially now that with Pinterest, I can do same thing, only better - because each picture links back to its original source, opening up worlds of information and the possibility of finding more of the same. 

I am trying to be more efficient and resource-thrifty in this digital age, and am already dealing with the emotional and practical push-and-tug surrounding the slow-but-sure transition from my Big Black Book (really, the thing that has kept me upright and able to function for decades now) to the many amazing scheduling and organizing apps integrating my iPad, iPhone, and real world. 

I'm sure I will not stop finding snip-worthy pictures and goodies in paper form, and I'm not about to send my file collection to the recycling bin.  But I can't help being a little bit excited about finally discovering this time-sucking plaything I mean valuable resource for visual inspiration and networking.

Join me, will you?

What a Difference a Day Makes.

Thanks so much for all the nice comments about my funny little studio!

This one's especially for those of you who thought the desk shot was maybe a little too clean.  The day after the blog hop post went up, I was back to work messing it up again - here's a sloppily pieced-together panorama showing the spoils of the day, complete with the remains of 9 or 10 hours worth of snacks and beverages, tossed aside like bony carcasses in my den...

Flossie doesn't mind the mess, though. 

It's actually been (mostly) cleaned back up again since then.  It was the only way I could force myself to stop drawing and start scanning and photoshopping and portfolio-updating in order to be ready for Atlanta later this week!

There's No Place Like Home.

Welcome!

I'm starting the year with something new and different (for me, that is!). I've been invited to join an uber-talented group of artist friends in a fun blog hop.  We're touring everybody's studios, how fun is that?!  It's a virtual Open-Studio tour!

You get a fun peek inside the creative spaces of 11 (yes count 'em, 11) designing friends of mine (plus me, of course).  Just click on the names at the end of this post to tour each of their studios and visit their blogs, or simply use the forward/backward arrows (also after my post) to continue along the hop!

A special thank-you shout-out to our charming (and did I mention talented?) host, The Mr. Aaron Christensen of Aaron Christensen's Embellishments, for organizing this crazy party, and for creating the fabulous graphics you see at the beginning and end of this post.  Sooo . . . without further ad0, let the tour commence!

As they say on those celebrity home tours, "and this is where the magic happens."

In this case, the magic happens in a teeny tiny room in my teeny tiny house.  It's not glamorous, spacious, airy, or usually even tidy - but it's home.  It's where I spend my days, and often my nights.  It's where I create.

I paint.

I draw. 

I'm at the computer. 

It all happens right here.

Usually with a cat on my lap

(or inside my shirt)

and a dog at my feet.

If she's not on me, Flossie is in one of her many beds or perched on the printer, watching birds in the trees and the rest of the backyard.

One of my favorite quotations is the William Morris golden rule: "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."  Beauty, of course, is in the eye of the beholder and my other golden rule is my Granddad's credo:

...and like my Granddad and Granny were, I'm happiest when I'm surrounded by my treasures.  In a space this tiny, though, storage is at a premium.

If it's not organized, it may as well not exist.  As cluttered as it gets (and it does get cluttered) there is always order to this chaos.

Bolts of fabric, handmade items for Etsy, product samples, and a giant flat-file full of large originals and prints all live quietly and out of sight in in an ever so mysterious room at the bottom of the stairs. No one ever goes there but me (well, no one has ever lived to speak of it).

I used to dream of spreading my creative wings in a large, airy studio - the same as I longed for a large, airy kitchen.  But I've got to admit, there's something very comforting about having the things I need within my reach   
 

  

and the things I love within my sight.      

   
 
 

Because really, there's no place like home.

Ok, now I'll answer those burning questions I know you're asking yourself:

Q. Why the heck does she have a piece of carpet glued to her Wacom?

A. Because I'm one of those lefties who holds my hand all backwards and the left-side scrolly bars go bezerk when I draw if I don't keep them covered.

Q. Why would someone keep a framed photo of the Next Generation crew front-and-center in her workspace? Is she that huge of a geek?

A. Well, yes I probably am that huge of a geek, but that's actually a favorite photo of my dear old dad posing with cardboard cutouts at an air & space museum. He's the handsome one in the front, pointing and saying, "Make it so."

 

Thanks for visiting! Be sure to hop on over and visit my talented friends as they welcome in the New Year with their own Studio Tour:



Aaron Christensen

Barbara Johansen-Newman

Beth Logan (well, you're already here!)

Brenda Pinnick

J. Wecker-Frisch

Karen Embry

Paula Joerling

Phyllis Dobbs

Samantha Walker

Sharon Himes

Shelly Comiskey

Sue Zipkin

Good Day to Stay Inside.

It's just not very inviting out there.

 
I mean, look at it. Yuck.

 
I've been painting at my desk with a cat in my lap all day.  What have you been doing to stay warm and dry?

Vacation Inspiration

Finally going through my photos from last month's amazingly restful, absolutely-perfect-in-every-way vacation at the beach, I was struck by the colors and suddenly needed to play Brenda Pinnick's fun color-palette game again (ok, maybe it's not supposed to be a game, but those of you who dig colors like I do understand exactly why I think it is).

From the subtle foggy morning shades on through that crazy-dramatic changes-every-few-seconds sunset smorgasboard of color, I'm now finding even more inspiration in my simple little shots of the beach...

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

When Divine Intervention is Necessary.

Sometimes, it's the only thing that's going to work.  You ever have weeks like that?

'Nuff Said.

 
 
 

Hope you're all having a lovely holiday weekend.

First Day Home from NY

...and all is well.
The show was fabulous for me but oh my, I was glad to be home and have that part of my year behind me.  The first day back home again was, wow ... probably in the running for my favorite day of the year so far.  Most of it spent right here, starting what follow-up work I could accomplish on my lap, but mostly just petting furry animals and watching the grass grow (and grow, and grow...).
I did, however, forget that day what sun actually does and ended up with a strange little sunburn, only on one leg + the other ankle.  I was just so beside myself with warmth and fresh air, it had been so long since I enjoyed either.

Although the clouds rolled back in and I have been more than busy here inside, I have since pulled the dusty old bottle of sunblock out of storage for next time. 

Here's to a summer that requires lots of sunscreen...

5 Minutes

There's a maybe-too-often-used saying around these parts that goes something like "if you don't like the springtime weather here, just wait 5 minutes because it will change."

The other day after a particularly ark-inspiring rainstorm, amazing shimmering droplets in the branches just outside my studio window caught my eye.  Well, ahem (kicking the floor sheepishly here) the window is terribly dirty (funny how I don't notice this until I try to take a picture through it) so I wasn't sure if I'd capture them, and just snapped one after another after another for about a minute.
As I suspected, the sparkling crystals barely showed up in only 2 or 3 of the shots, and don't really do justice to the magical scene I was witnessing in that moment, but what happened to the sky in that single minute was pretty cool.

One of these days I've got to wash these windows.  But that's another subject for another day ... sigh.

In other happy spring news, the adorable little vegetable seedlings I bought at the Seattle Tilth early-spring sale seem to be surviving their first week out in the cold, harsh, real world, and that makes me smile.
Such a hopeful season, spring.
Hope you're enjoying it so far.

...And Whiskers on Kittens

Just sharing a few of my favorite things.

I do hope that you have been enjoying this wonderful holiday season surrounded by loved ones and all of your own favorite things.  And just in case I'm not back here before ... Happy New Year to you all, and thanks so much for visiting.  I appreciate each and every one of you who drop by here!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

More Time.

What would you do if you had one extra hour every single day of the year?

Would you get just that much more work done?  Create more?  Would you spend it with loved ones?  Take a walk and kick leaves that have gathered in little piles on the sidewalk?  Sleep in?

It's a recurring - no, constant - fantasy of mine: extra time.

Sometimes I think this might be my favorite day of the year, just for that extra hour.  But then I quickly remember Christmas, or a hot summer day-off at the beach, or the first warm-ish spring day tending the garden ... and I guess it has some pretty stiff competition for "favorite day".  It's just another day.  Nothing special, except, of course, for that magical extra hour.

And I guess it's been long enough that I've mostly forgotten that one Sunday last spring when I cursed this day, this stolen hour.  My apologies to Spring, I'll try to make the best of it.

Enjoy your extra hour today.

A Day at the Beach.

Sometimes you just need a day at the beach.
Sometimes you need to stand and stare into the surf.
Just stand
in one place
while the waves
wash
over your feet.
Like this guy.
 

Sometimes you need to watch the birds

and search for treasures in the sand.
Like this guy.
Or have fun finding tracks in the sand
like this raccoon's
or this deer's
or even the little tracks left by grass in the breeze. 

Sometimes you need to fantasize that there's no one around and you could just live in a fort.
Sometimes you just need a day at the beach.

Autumn Light and Shadows

The other day I noticed the change.

That sort of afternoon light that you only see this time of year.  Dramatic and fallish.  You know what I'm talking about.
It illuminated the hundreds of incredible spiderwebs around my yard so beautifully (although photographing just how beautifully seems to have remained just out of my reach).
Tiny spots of sunlight filtering through the trees made ordinary plants seem to glow from within.
Ordinary objects cast dramatic shadows against otherwise ordinary siding
 

and ordinary textures became extraordinary examples of light and shadow.

An ordinary garden spider was suddenly a fabulously creepy early Halloween decoration.
And well, I wouldn't exactly call her ordinary ... but Molly even appeared a little more mysterious and dramatic than usual.
 

There's No Place Like This Place.

 
Just another ordinary ferry ride, on another ordinary summer evening. 
We around here tend to take things like this for granted, it's just how we get to the other side. 
I grew up on the other side, and it was just how I alawys got to ... well, everything. 
A perfectly ordinary way to get somewhere. 
People do it every day, to commute; to do ordinary, mundane things and get to ordinary, mundane places. 
Every so often, though, I am lucky enough to remember how extraordinary "ordinary" things really are.



 
I've always loved the colors and textures as the seawater is churned up by the ferry engines.



 
I so dig this place I call home.

So do you remember this?

And this? 
And of course this? 
And ... well, all the rest are here.

If you do, once again: extra bonus points for paying attention.

Gosh I drew these a long time ago.  But guess what?  We're finally "refreshing the line" with some new Seattle and Puget Sound themed designs.  I am excited to get drawing on this new project after all these years, since this place is one of my favorite subjects. 

Stay tuned for more about this very soon!

For the Birds.

 
All week the beach was full of birds.
 
Several hundred at a time would fly past in a cacophonous swarm
 
and settle in on the sandbar, at the surf line, to stand there.
Sometimes they would float on the surf 
but mostly, just stand there.
Facing the surf.
Molly tried this too, she found the standing still part quite Zen.
They were there in the fog and mist 
and (the few times it made an appearance) in the sun.
Crows joined them in the mornings 
and sandpipers would take over in the evenings.
Extremely high and low tides all week seemed to be bringing in a feast on the surf 
and a feast below the sand. 
All day, they'd just stand there
 
until the sun set 
then little by little they would lift off and fly away until the sun returned.

 
One of the little guys I made while playing with my Paperclay is now doing the same thing from the cabin window ... just staring into the surf all day long. 
Like the real gulls, he seems quite content to do so.