stuff about artstuff.

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?

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.

Lodge

Looking for some outdoorsy lodgey fabric in bright, fun colors?  Well, your local Joann store has just the thing: the new Artstuff Ltd. "Lodge" designs: 4 patterns planted firmly on the playful, whimsical side of mountain.  You know, where the sun is always shining.

My friends at Robert Kaufman did a great job with these!
I especially had fun designing the map.   It's a lighter, brighter take on my Trail Map scrapbooking paper in my Great Outdoors collection by Momenta.  I had so much fun imagining the places, drawing the details, and figuring out how to make it all fit together.
I wouldn't mind hanging out in this little cabin about now.
What?  Too close to the bear caves?  Don't worry, they're nice bears.  I made them.

Anyway, here's how to find them:
And as always, please show me what you make with my designs, I absolutely love that part!

More Flotsam & Jetsam

Just for fun, a few more bits of eye candy from the beach a couple months ago...

 
As a kid I was fascinated by monster-sized bull kelp.
 
I guess I still am.



 
Extreme tides exposed all sorts of treasures, mostly tied into knots by the waves.

 
One super-low tide exposed a magical sugar-frosted wonderland, it just sparkled in the evening sun.

Flotsam & Jetsam

Buoys, floats, barnacles, rocks.  Little offerings from the tide. 

Thanks, tide.










   

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.

And I Think They're Cute, Too.

Looking back I notice a sort of unexpected recurring theme from the week at the beach.

From the handful of books I grabbed to take with us 
where I read lots of stories about how Coyote helped create the World, gave people fire, taught ancient tribes how to fish and other real practical, helpful things...

...to the visitor who joined Molly on a walk one morning. 
Not surprising then that he showed up a couple times in my little sketchbook and drawings during the week.

Really just a pleasant character overall, in my opinion.  The Coyote of legend just wanted people on earth to be happy.  He sometimes gets a bad rap for the means by which he accomplished stuff, but his intentions were usually pretty positive.  The coyote on the beach was unobtrusively and politely curious.   And if you're an animal lover and haven't ever followed the Daily Coyote link in my lurk-list in the sidebar here, I think you should.

Our Little Wrens

Alright - one more for the "better late than never" category; here's another post I found in "drafts" from early July.  I know, who does that?

Well.  Me, I guess.

Here you go:

I am a fan of these spunky little guys, what with their perky little tails and extra-pointy beaks and much-bigger-than-their-actual-size personalities. 
Our own "Porch-Wrens" fledged last week and are currently flitting around nearby trees.
 
I've been watching this guy leaping across the roof and into the trees on the other side to flee the Wrath of Wren after finding himself in the wrong tree (even though his nest is up there somewhere also).  It's hilarious to see him scrambling through branches at top speed with a teeny tiny bird right on his butt until he is an acceptable distance from the rest of the Wren Family.

A more attentive and thoughtful blogger might have shared adorable pictures of this same house with occupants peeking out (ohmygosh that was cute) but we hated to harass them any more than we already were by simply going in and out the door ... so we would pass quickly and quietly, even attempting to avoid eye contact as much as possible.

A couple times I actually ventured to the front yard with camera in hand, but was met with that beady little glare that filled me with guilt for even thinking of standing there another moment.  What is it about wrens - they always look mad at me.  I kind of dig that about them.

Why the house right inside the front porch?  I know, not exactly the most practical place to encourage birds to nest.  It started 5 winters ago during an 85-day rainstorm (yes, 85 days).  It rained so hard and for so long that apparently this guy's normally dry nighttime roost in the nearby Douglas fir had become soggy, so he relocated to the holiday garland over our front door, inside our covered porch.
 
The garland stayed up as long as we noticed him still using the roost (yes, sad dry holiday garland circled our front door well into spring) and in the mean time tried to encourage him to move a foot or two over to a nice dry house placed nearby.  Shortly thereafter he began filling the little house with sticks, moss, and clumps of dog hair; he managed to impress a mate with the new digs and that first year they had 2 nests of little babies.  And during particularly soggy periods in winters since, he has returned to his little garland-spot, although never for as long as he did that first year.

One summer the little house became inhabited by honeybees (not as tolerant of people opening and closing the front door as a wren) so the whole thing was carefully relocated to a remote area of a friend's (much larger than ours) yard for a season, and when the bees moved on the birdhouse returned home ... and without thinking better of it, we hung it back in the same spot inside the porch, and this year a new generation of our little family of wrens  returned ... and now have moved on.  Godspeed little wrens ... see you next year.

Is the Ocean Made of Diamonds or Glass?

More from my February visit to the coast.

On one afternoon walk, I was convinced it was diamonds.


 
Or was it glass?

 
I suppose it is just made of ocean.

A Conversation with the Surf.

Day 1:

Me: "Hi, Ocean."

Pacific Ocean: "Hey there ya big wuss, why ya wearing boots?"
Me: "Well it's still actually winter. I was afraid I might get too cold."

Pacific Ocean: "Really? That's never stopped you before. Whaddayer gettin' old or somethin'?"

Me: "Sigh. The Ocean is right. I totally need my toes in the surf. What was I thinking?"

Day 2:

Me: "I'm back."

Pacific Ocean: "That's more like it. Here, watch this - I know you're gonna like this one."
Me: "You're so right, Ocean. Thanks for making me come back barefoot. That's the stuff...
"This is exactly what I needed, just a little-
Hey!"

Pacific Ocean: "Gotcha! Heh heh heh."

Me: "Wait a minute - who were you calling old, anyway?"

Score: Pacific Ocean: 1, Me: wet pants.

The Legend of the Fallen Creature on the Beach

We came across this guy on a beach walk and wondered who we was, where he had come from.
Just lying there on his back, with dem teeny tiny little feets in the air.
Little Miss Agatha was pleased to be able to give him a proper dog greeting.
When your nose is only a few inches off the ground, good bottom-sniff-greetings are hard to come by.

He had landed quite peacefully, actually. From the trail of clouds, it looked as if he had been launched somewhere in central Oregon. But where ... and why?

For thousands of years, deep within the thick deep old-growth forests of Oregon where some of the oldest trees on the planet reside, there has lived a tribe of woodland creatures that no human has ever seen. The creatures are shy and secretive, and cherish their quiet life among the giant evergreens. Long before even the first Native American set foot on this continent, they erected a grand statue of Magic Wood - a monument to their society and their home in the ancient forests.
As rumors spread throughout the old-growth forest that a logging operation could be closing in on their pristine and private homeland, they realized they must relocate to a deeper, denser area. But their grand monument - he was much too large to carry with them (the creatures are very small, you see). What would they do? If they left him behind, Evil Loggers would try to cut him with their saws, maybe even burn him with fire, and the secret of the Magic Wood might be revealed. The statue must go as far from Evil Loggers as possible.

Some of the little creatures decided to build a catapult, and thrust their statue into space to live among the stars. But the older, wiser creatures realized that Magic Wood was much too heavy to make it all the way to space, and would fall short; they suggested aiming it toward a land birds had told them of: The Beach. The Beach is a magical place covered in soft sand, which would provide a gentle landing for the statue. And even better, there was a beach north of them that was the longest, straightest sandy beach on the face of the earth. This would be perfect ... a 28-mile runway in which to land.
The creatures gathered in a somber ceremony to bid farewell to their monument. Their world was changing, and all they could hope was that they could find a new little piece of forest in which to live, forever hidden from humans and their destructive ways. They watched as their grand monument launched into the sky, as if on fire - contrail billowing behind him - far, far, away, to land softly in the distant sands of the Long Beach Peninsula.
There he rests peacefully today. As predicted, humans have tried to destroy him with saws,
and with fire,

but he is made of Magic Wood, and he remains solid and constant - a silent monument to the Creatures of the Old Growth Forest.

Parent and Child

This is pretty far away, through a window, and I am awfully wiggly with my camera, but I still wanted to share the tender moment I witnessed yesterday on a neighbor's chimney ... just because it made me happy.  
The juvenile (on the left) had been sitting there a while alone, when the parent came along to groom and comfort him for a while.  I almost thought I saw her lick her finger and rub something off his cheek. 
The other parent would do a low fly-by every now and then and give them a current report of his progress and the goings on of the rest of the neighborhood.

  

 
I think there is definitely a little series of drawings here - the photos already look to me like charcoal or graphite, don't they?  I'll share them with you when I'm done!

Rainy Day Projects

Now that the weather is colder outside, it's time for nesting, holing up and working on creative projects that got put off earlier in the year. At least that's how I feel ... and if you are the same way, well, I have something for you: my 3 newest Creatables from pcCrafter.

Did you go on a family road trip this year (or last year, or the year before) and have yet to organize your photos and memorabilia into a scrapbook? Well, maybe this will motivate you to actually print those vacation photos and get out the scrapping stuff. It's called Route 66 and is loaded with fun little travel icons, borders and backgrounds that will add the perfect embellishments to your vacation memory album. Hey this stuff could even make the Griswolds' trip look fun.

And for you fans of my Love to Craft fabrics by Henry Glass, here is a coordinating Creatable: Crafty Kitties II (you get extra bonus points if you remember Crafty Kitties I). Are you planning (or have you already started) a project with the fabric? Well now you can design and print paper goodies to go with it. How fun is that?

Maybe you're making holiday gifts this year - feeling like going woodsy? Forest Critters is packed with whimsical flora and fauna in soft natural colors just begging to me made into something cute and fabulous!

I hope you enjoy using these Creatables as much as I enjoyed designing them, and as always, I'd love to see pictures of projects made with my Creatables ... please feel free to share! Thanks!

Geeking Out on Colors

So it seems that my little pile of dried up brown leaves were not actually the only maple leaves in the entire city (go figure) and I managed to gather (and photograph while still fresh) another little pile to draw (later ... one of these days when I have time).

But while I'm already geeking out on leaf color, I finally allowed myself to play this game - oh alright I guess it's not really a game but I could play it all day. This is actually (ahem, I am speaking in a very serious tone right now) an extremely important and useful design tool which I picked up from my friend Sue who got the idea from her friend Brenda, and since seeing it on their blogs have been dying to just go make color keys for every single photo I own so I can play with color palettes all day long.
No, really. You remember me, I was the kid who wouldn't let you color with my crayons because I was too busy lining them all up in rainbow order and facing the labels in the same direction so I could stare at them for hours. We're not even talking about the fact that your possible use of said crayons might change the shape of the tip, and (gasp) we will NOT discuss peeling the paper to sharpen them. Are you kidding me?

Really I was dying to see the leaf colors spread out in neat and tidy squares so I could really see them. Because I have impending client deadlines I allowed myself to play with only 1 other photo (actually shot with my crummy-little-phone-cam on a recent dog-walk) before forcing myself to step away from the computer.

But this (ahem) very important color study work really is helpful when designing palettes for new collections. If I don't limit myself to a specific palette when I start new work, I can't help but use every color in the box and while that can make for really fun art sometimes, it isn't always conducive to the products and clients for which I am supposed to be designing. So if you've got to set some kind of limit, what better reference and inspiration than Mother Nature?

Summer Passes...

It happens so quickly, this summer thing. Just when you start to get into it, the airwaves are full of "Back to School" advertising. Back to school? End of summer? Sssshhhh....stop with that. Listen to the birds, soak in some more sun.

Although most of my summer has been busy with work...new contracts, new projects, catching up (always catching up), family stuff, business stuff, life stuff. You know, just stuff. I think I've been inside here at my desk way more than out there...but when I have been out there, I've soaked it in extra hard. It's been amazing. Rarely are June and July this summerish here in the Pacific Northwest.

The bluest skies, day after day after gorgeous day.

And warm. Well, some days warmer than others.

But nice, all of it.

In June I started to see the promise of delicious treats to come.

Since then, we've been feasting on goodies from the garden. Every meal marked by something fresh, flavorful, and grown in our own backyard.

Everyone is thriving in this sunshine.

Pinks and pink-nosed-dogs, daisies and other perennials taller than me, and tomatoes ripening earlier than ever before, we are all stretching and soaking in as much as possible.

For the first time I noticed a tiny downy-woodpecker enjoying the sappy (and apparently buggy) black locust tree. The garden has also been enjoyed by our usual visitors: butterflies, hummingbirds, and songbirds, lots of bees, and this pretty little golden ladybug.

And now it's already August. How did that happen? Last night it rained all night for the first time in months. Everything smells fresh, cool...there's a calm and quiet today that there hasn't been in a while. I know that quiet...it's the sound of summer winding down. Soak it up while you can.

They're Back!

Even though right this second there's snow on the ground and something white and soggy falling from the sky, I've been hearing them. Just this past week they've been flitting about, building nests and scouring the bare brown garden beds for bugs and seeds. Chirping when the sun comes up, and puffing up all fat and feathery deep within the branches when it remains obscured behind clouds all day, wintry nip in the air. It's dark, grey and cold out my window...but I actually just now heard someone singing in the big tree (his song, translated, might be: "I'm cold let's go back to California!").  

Cold as it is, they're here...and what perfect timing for pcCrafter to feature my For the Birds collection in this week's pcHugClub! 

A little early burst of springtime...in the form of lots and lots of cute little avian images you can use in your own crafting projects. Birds, nests, birdbaths, birdhouses, butterflies and flowers...sigh. Spring is right around the corner, right? 

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!

Illustration Friday: Pretend

I can pretend that they'd be friends.        These guys are from my new Creatable collection for pcCrafter, Polar Bears and Penguins.     Yeah, so, I know. Just indulge me in my little fantasy about giant predators being soft and cuddly and enjoying the company of adorably squishy birds who live on the opposite end of the planet.

I know.

But I'm just hoping you all can join me in simply enjoying the cuteness of it.     And while you're doing that, think good thoughts about real polar bears and real penguins, and their homes on the polar icecaps, and maybe think of just one teeny tiny little thing you could do yourself to help save their homes. I'm not talking major environmental heroics here, just little stuff.  Ride a bike or walk somewhere that you might have normally driven. A little trip to the Post Office or to pick up milk at the grocery store. Turn off a light that might still be on in another room (I mean, if no one else is in there, that is...don't go leaving loved ones in the dark telling them Beth told you to do it). This stuff is simple but most of us don't think of it often.

Alright...I stopped myself for a second, and looked around, and had to go do it myself.

There were 5 lights on in other rooms that didn't need to be. See, here I am preaching conservation on the World Wide Internets and I was burning 5 unnecessary lights (and probably lots of other wasteful stuff that I am not thinking of). Smooth Beth, really smooth.

See, I often need to remind myself about this kind of stuff...and why I think it's important.

It's all about these guys.

My little friends.    

Why Not?

Why wouldn't bears be fishing from a shiny red canoe, cooking their catch over the campfire?

And who's to say that in the evenings they don't retire to a rustic, cozy little cabin, perhaps playing cards by flickering lamplight and sharing frightening tales of seeing people, yes actual people, on the trail? 

When summer is over and you're back here at home, who can tell me in all certainty that they're not living it up in high-style back there in the woods?       

I'm not going to tell you they're not; in fact, I'm going to show you exactly what it looks like when you're not there. 

You may have seen these designs before as birthday cards by Leanin Tree, but now these actual real-life depictions of life in the forest are available as 10 x 10" and 10 x 20" prints in my Etsy store. Enjoy!

Yup, It's Here.

Alright, I give in.

It's cool and crisp, the leaves around me are just starting to think about changing...quietly hinting at the gorgeous show they're about to give us.  Flossie wants to be inside my shirt all day (that's not weird, is it?!). I'm actually happy to give up bare feet for my World's Softest Socks. I made the bed with my favorite flannel sheets that Husband Guy brought me home from Montana (they have bears on them!) and I'm just about ready to head downstairs with a flashlight in one hand and the little vacuum in the other to check on the furnace before switching it on for the first time this season.

I do love fall. And for all my hemming-and-hawing I can accept that summer is over...and soon I will be pulling out tubs of some of my favorite things on earth...our Halloween decorations!

With that in mind, I'll kick off the season (better late than never) by sharing this with you:

So there's no "frost on the pumpkin" yet (at least around here) so the next best thing has to be...you guessed it (am I too predictable?) a happy crow.

This one is a garden flag by Toland Home Garden (and me, of course) available at a garden center near you now!