Herb Garden Mosaic

I've been wanting to make some mosaics for the garden for a long time now. It's spring finally and Ron is slowly turning the garden into a paradise, so it was time for me to get going with the mosaics. My supplies are a bit low, but I was able to find enough to whip up this mosaic for our newly planted herb garden. It's the first time I've done letters with broken shards, not an easy task, but it worked. I want to do a few stepping stones and the mail box next!

Our new wine barrel herb garden. We've planted basil, sage, oregano, cilantro, chives, tarragon and chives. A rosemary bush is right next to the wine barrel on the right. Cooking with fresh herbs is so amazingly yummy!

Embroidery Projects

I've gotten back into one of my favorite hobbies lately: embroidery. I did a lot of it when I was in high school and college, but when I had a family I simply haven't had time for it. Lately it's been my creative outlet since I haven't had much time for sewing. The great thing about embroidery is that you can take it with you anywhere! It's a relaxing and fun textile art. I'm actually getting close to completing the gnome embroidery. I plan to mat and frame both of these and do another one so I can have a grouping to decorate with. I'll post pics of the finished projects.

Mushroom gnome still in progress. I plan to mat it with the cute woodsy floral printed fabric behind it. I got this design free on line.

Sun bonnet girl - I started this years ago and had originally planned for it to be all satin stitched. I'm getting more realistic though and may not fill in the entire design!

Vintage Wooden Window Key Holder

I've been in need of a key holder for a long time now. I tend to misplace my keys a lot, oy! But I just couldn't seem to find an attractive one, one that fits my style, etc. The other day I was out in the back yard and saw this old wooden window in Ron's window pile which he plans to use for his green house. I had a spontaneous creative inspiration to turn it into a key holder! So I went out and bought some ribbon, hooks, and dried flowers and wa la - key holder! I taped the flowers behind the frame to hold them in place, and laced the ribbon through the holes in the hinges and knotted it. I may end up looping the ribbon through the hinges instead, just to make sure it doesn't come loose. I measured out even spaces for the hooks and screwed them into the wood. Ron got a special hanging device for it since the window is heavy. It's hanging in the hallway so it's hard to get a front shot of it, but I think you'll get the idea. You could also put pictures behind the window, dried leaves, or anything you like!

I got the dried lavender, roses, and ribbon at Michael's craft. The hooks came from Rite Aid and the window is from the back fourty! ;)

Garden Art

If you know me then you know if there is something to decorate I will find it! Now that we're getting the garden ready for spring it's time to decorate. I have plans to do some more mosaics to put in the garden, but for now I found some pretty things to adorn it with. Ron hasn't seen my latest additions, so we'll see what stays. ;) I love finding unexpected art in a garden tucked away in random places. What kind of garden art do you have?

Mosaic I found at a thrift store hanging out in the rock garden.

The bamboo fence needed some art too.

One of my earlier mosaics with an aquatic theme in the rock garden.

Front porch - I did a mosaic on the pot and Ron did the stepping stone.

Pretty abalone shell catching the sun in our front yard.

Back porch - I loved these branch clippings Ron brought home from some sort of willowy tree. I used them to decorate with indoors too.

Our flowering plum in the front yard is adorned with wind chimes.

Model Making Day

Yesterday Ron and I finally cleaned out the play room closet and I was happy to discover some of Justin's birthday presents from last year that had gone missing. Deanna and Rowan, I apologize for losing them!! We had been moved in for only a few weeks when we had his party, and boxes were everywhere, so they got absorbed somehow.

Today Justin had a blast painting the model train and putting stickers on the tee pee. Mom glued the train together and made the tee pee, Justin did all the rest!

Justin loves his tee pee - it has become a garage for his cars.

Carefully painting away...

Can't you see I'm busy mom?!


Yeah, the paint brush is a bit too big for him. :)

The finished product and a very happy boy -thanks Rowan and Dee!!

Tissue Paper Decorated Chinese Lantern

I haven't gotten much crafting, art or sewing done lately, but I am almost done with one project finally! I got this idea from a friend and it's turning out so cute. This is a Chinese lantern I'm decorating with layers of colored tissue paper. I cut out stencils then traced the images onto the tissue paper. I found a good paper glue, although it's still tricky to get the tissue paper glued on lightly so the paper color doesn't bleed. Sarah designed the lantern, instructing me what she wanted on it and where to place things. It's one of her birthday presents although it's very belated! When the light shines through the designs it's very pretty. I'll have to post a pic when it's all finished and hanging in her room.

Busy, Busy, Busy!

So I haven't been doing much blogging lately...mainly because I'm super busy working on projects for the "T'Was The Night Before Christmas" ballet. I've been designing, sewing, painting, etc. for the past few weeks. It's so much fun, but it's also a lot of hard work! Since we did this production last year we are using many of the same costumes. This year I've been doing more detail work. Some of the classes had a preview show the other day, so I got some pics of some of the costumes I've been working on:

This is Sarah's modern dance class. She's fourth from the left. They are moon light, and they dance to the Moon Light Sonata. I designed and made these costumes.

This is "Ginger Snap." Her costume is sooo cute! I sewed the M & M's onto her costume and did some alterations.

Last year I painted the treasure box and music box stage props. This year we're selling pirate eye patches and bun wreaths. They will be in these mini boxes which I painted.

I added this pic because I thought it turned out so cool! You can't use flash when people are dancing because it can throw their balance off and cause injury. So, I took this pic without the flash on slow shutter speed. It is the prima ballerina doing a pa de deux with the pirate king. I can actually see both of their faces in the pic.

Mosaic for Niger

Our friends Donnie and Allison are moving to Niger Africa to work with the native peoples there. They had a silent auction fund raiser to help raise money for their trip last night and had asked me to donate one of my mosaics for the cause. I haven't done any mosaic work since Justin was born really - like I have the time, ha! But, I managed to get this one done miraculously! I think it will make a cute candy dish or decor piece to brighten up the holidays. This picture is clickable, so you can see the details.

"April Diane Designs" Logo

Ron designed my graphic logo for "April Diane Designs", my kids' clothing line. I absolutely love how it came out! Going with the vintage theme, he used a picture of a vintage carousel horse. The picture was taken while we were on vacation in Seattle last summer, so it has sentimental meaning to me. I'm hoping to take my clothes down to Ship Wreck this week, so be looking for my logo soon!

North Country Fair

Once a year every September our town has an arts and crafts fair known as the North Country Fair. Our craft fair is one of the most unique fairs I've ever encountered, much like the town we live in. Boothes line the plaza and artist sell their wares. One can find jewelry, ceramics, pottery, mosaics, crafts, hand sewn items, you name it. (Ron bought me a hand made bag as an early b-day present!) A variety of dance performances go on from belly dancing to swing. On Saturday the All Species Parade took place. This is the best part of the fair in my opinion. People dress up like animals and march around the plaza in a tribal fashion...like I said, unusual. Here are a few pics from today's festivities!

Ron and Justin checking out the scene

Justin and his hand made pottery "cat" mug dad bought him

flamenco dancers performing

Getting Into Digital Art & Design

Recently our church asked for graphic design/art volunteers. Of course I jumped at the chance! They asked me to work on a graphic for our next series: eighteen///3. In a nut shell it involves our church working with kids through mentoring and other amazing ways. If you're interested in finding out more about the series you can go to my link for Catalyst - my church. I don't think the graphic is up on the web site yet, but it will be soon.

It was so much fun working on this graphic. I absolutely love Photoshop and I could spend hours, (seriously), working on images. I got this photo on line, tweaked it a bit, then found a cool font and messed around with it. Ron helped me out since he has had experience with designing.

Part of the reason I was excited to do this graphic is that I plan to go back to school to finish up my art degree with the ultimate goal of becoming a graphic designer. It has been a life time dream of mine to get an art degree. I was able to get an AA in transfer studies and art, so all of my general ed is out of the way, wohoo! When I go back I will be able to take art classes with a focus in graphic design. Justin will be going to pre-school in about a year and a half and I plan to take classes while he is in school. So, that's the big plan I have coming up in the near future...stay posted, more to come on this!

"Beach Reflections" Digital Triptych

(Double click on the image to see it larger.) Now that Justin is a little older I've had the chance to dive back into my creativity. I love to write, read, listen to music, and be out doors, but art is by far my first love. Besides painting and doing mosaics my next love is digital art. I took a class in college and was amazed with the diversity and creativity it lends itself to. The fact that you can manipulate images and add just about any effect you want is amazing to me. You can make pictures come alive and create a mood that no other medium even comes close to creating. I plan to go back to school in about a year and a half, (when Justin goes to pre-school), to get my degree in studio art, with an emphasis on digital art and design. I'm starting to get excited about finishing a life long dream to get my art degree, but that's another story for another day....

The Story

When the kids and I were up in Oregon this past summer I was determined to out to the beach and hunt for agates. My Grandma used to take me to the beach to go agate hunting when I visited her in the summers, and while I lived in her town for a few years. A visit just wouldn't be the same without a beach outing. So, my Aunt Mimi and Ruthie and I loaded the kids into the car and off we went. We made sure to go when it was low tide, so we had the best chance to see the rock beds. We got to the beach and the wind was whipping so fast it took my breath away. I had forgotten how cold and sharp the Oregon wind can be. But that didn't stop us. My aunts and Sarah looked for agates, and I looked after Justin and got a load full of pictures!

The Process

When I got home and saw the middle image (yellow coat), I knew these pictures were meant for a digital image. At first I was going to make three separate pictures, but decided a single triptych (meaning 3 images), would look best together in the same picture, (thanks for the advice Allison!) I've never done a digital image that turned out so simple, but I'm happy with the crisp lines and simplicity of it. I think my favorite part of the image is the upper left picture. I love the fact that there is a shadow and a reflection in the water at the same time, very cool.

Seascapes Dance Performance

Sarah had her Spring ballet performance in June and it was incredible! The performance was in the Van Duzer (Humboldt State University's Theater.) The dances were all based on various sea creatures and sea life. Sarah was a damsel fish. I had the privilege of being able to work on costumes, props and set design. I painted the clam shell and treasure box you can see in one of the pics. I learned how to construct hats out of foam, wow was that an experience! It was much more challenging than I would have thought. You sculpt the foam with a razor blade, (very carefully!) I made and painted the damsel fish fin hats for Sarah's class (9 students in all.) I also made a puffer fish costume and hat, dolphin hats, painted the sea turtles, worked on the sea rock, and did more that I can't remember!

Our beautiful damsel fish

Seascapes Set (Clam Shell & Treasure Box I painted)

Some of the dancers the night before the performance painting UV light paint on the turtles I painted. When the lights went out in the dress rehearsal the cracks in the turtle didn't show up (they were supposed to be bright blueish) so we had to coat them the night before and they looked fantastic the day of the show!

Sarah with her dance teacher Erin - we love her!

After the show

Art Show!

I have a mosaic art show at US Bank in Arcata for the month of October. I have nine pieces in the show and most are older pieces, but there are a few new ones. Another mosaic artist, Brooke Fox, is also showing art there. I haven't done a show since Justin was born, so it feels good to get my stuff out there again. I'm feeling inspired to get back into doing mosaics again. So in my free time, (ha ha), hopefully I can start doing more art. So check out my show if you can and let me know what you think!