at one dollar a pop, these cameras flew into my hands faster than i could blink. i’m desperate to try them out. anyone familiar with the square shooter? advice and tips please.
how to make a matchbox pinhole. and the wonderful outcome.
tonight! imogen is singing *goodnight and go* on jay leno, i’m not gonna miss this since the closest show in her tour is in atlanta. boohoo! im about eight hours away. the tickets are only $12.50 too! but after that roadtrip and gas prices it would be so much more. how long has it been since i went to a show? oh golly, i can’t even remember.
what kind of sleeper are you? (i’ll never tell.)
i want to find the arresting elegance in my life. enter a world of refinement that shows a smattering of ridiculous too. can’t there be a fusion of those polarities? to be dignified and content with your own scars all at once. grown up with a young heart. and let some secrets slip along the way. like: the ocean scares me a little and i didn’t learn to drive till i was married. everything’s a mess but i can pull it together like a ponytail.
why am i here? because there’s not nearly enough space when i fill up and it needs to overflow somewhere.
what does your heart say today?
yesterday it was raining cats and dogs on and off all day long. but never mind that, i still drove to richmond’s spring bada-bing! and it was totally worth it to go and meet some friends! it’s so nice to put a (pretty!) face to all of you. and now my wishlist of handmade goods is literally a mile long! too bad we don’t celebrate half birthdays seriously. i came away with some gorgeous items from blossom boutique and mood swing, you treated me like i was royalty at your booth! so kristen, you’ll be getting the painting of *your life* very soon from me!
speaking of pretty little things, i have some more charms up in my shop! little special somethings hanging from vintage brass rings to go on your bag, keychain, or even on your favorite necklace strand. abigail commented the other day about the beautiful idea of the queenthings evolution, “the organic flow of creativity that continues to grow once you have made the charms.” isn’t that such a pretty thought? i like to think of my being all over the place with my artistic focus as hunger for making. my shop is pretty for pretty sake, my painting is my secret fuel.
i now leave you with a sweet little thing that max has been into lately, since being in the garden he has been finding so many creepy crawlies!
Yvonne, who plays nicely with fabrics, has tagged me with a me!me!me! and since i play nicely with those:
1. Five minutes to yourself: how would you spend them, ideally? hmm, i seem to only get spurts of five minutes, scattered all throughout the day! mommy, mommy, mommy times a million all the time, you get the picture. how about five hours? ok, i think i would go sharpen my favorite pencil and draw something in my sketchbook.
2. Five bucks to spend right now: how would you spend it? oh that’s easy! too easy! i’d be over at my new favorite etsy shop, the foundling, buying betsy carr’s recycled violet pins.
3. Five items in your house you could part with, right now, that you hadn’t thought of already? my wobbling ikea coffee table that lasted forever RIP, my broken headboard swapped for a wrought iron sleighbed! or this bed. something really vintage or really modern looking, nothing in between. the flooring and counter tops in my kitchen (replacing them for something nice, of course) and the rest of the easter candy.
4. Five items you absolutely, positively could never part with in your house? my apple book, my photographs and journals that i’ve kept since i was little, my books and my 1920s chandelier in my dining room.
5. Five words you love? darling, lovely, sick! (like, that’s siiiiick!!) sweet and precious.
many of you have asked me what to do with my pendants so i thought i would give you some ideas from some of my customers!
recently, stephanie of little birds couldn’t wait to wear hers (i’m so flattered!) and used a beautiful blue cord to wear her pendant.
jo roszkowski, a self proclaimed artsy fartsy mama, hung a queenthings silver photo charm on a trio of chains.
a fellow esty artisan, courtney filer-dougal, wrote me with the desire to create a one of a kind nature inspired necklace from one of my tree silhoutte charms.
gardening girl gayla trail wore this charm to an art show featuring her photograph in toronto.
here is a way to hang one on a simple silver cord, and the photograph above is how i wear the charm that i’ve kept for myself, made from a photograph i took. it’s one of my favorite necklaces!
i began selling them all by themselves rooted in the idea that customers could use their own creativity to come up with new ways to wear their own look. one customer told me that she and her husband always dream of visiting italy together. so she bought a charm that featured a landscape from a trip i took to italy, and she’s going to sew it into a quilt she’s crafting for their wedding anniversary. i know many of you have some charms too, let me know what you do with them!
if i’m feeling low on ideas, i ask myself:
am i steeped too heavily in others work? maybe it’s time to disconnect and draw from only my resources. no reading hundreds of blogs, magazines, biographies, no visiting museums, no idle time spent surfing the web for who’s going to make me feel like i have accomplished nothing. (because believe me, that can happen pretty easily with the whole world at my fingertips while still in my pajamas!) too much information and no time to let my mind process it all is a hindrance to my own style, take it in with moderation or not at all for a while.
or am i too withdrawn and suffering from cabin fever? then it’s time to wrap up my materials in my knapsack and get out some! the less expected the place, the more likely the inspiration. it’s everywhere, not just in fine art. always on the lookout for the next thing to gobble up.
find balance. am i ignoring other areas in my life? sometimes being so in touch with the nonverbal and unlogical can leave me feeling like a one trick pony. i have to remember that i have other passions that fuel me like cooking, music, literature, and more recently gardening. turning to mundane things can also hurl me back into my work. there is nothing like ten loads of laundry to get me back into the studio and help me realize that i have something meaningful to work on. (not that clean clothes for the family aren’t nice though)
remind myself that hitting a wall doesn’t always mean that i’m without an opportunity. pablo picasso said, “I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it.” being creative is problem solving.
it may sound simple, but with all the responsibilities i have to juggle, the thing that keeps me going is my list. i write a new one everyday, written the night before that only has on it what i want to absolutely focus on the next day. since i have so many things that i want to do in my life, no matter how hard i would work, i used to go to bed feeling restless. i’ve tried calendars, journals, day planners, the palm pilot, email reminders. but the thing that gives me the most sense of productivity and accomplishment on my terms is just a simple list. there is something to be said about the satisfaction in crossing off the last thing on it and crumpling it up at the end of the day. one of these days ill scan a picture of one to show you how varied they can be. silly things sometimes creep in on them. but they keep me going.
is my studio a tornado of a mess? an art professor that i really admire always chanted about inviting the muses like they were her sisters. and how they don’t like to come unless they feel wanted in a place worth coming to. sometimes if i’m in a slump, taking an entire day to rehaul a mess out of my space can really give my work the boost that i need.
i was outside, lots. we tilled a giant rectangle of earth for a plot of vegetables to satisfy my constant desire for the perfect tomato. and squash, some rosemary, lavendar, mint, basil and transplanted black eyed susans from last fall. the wait begins. and peeking out the windows into the backyard at my hard work is rewarding. even if the plants are yet small. i love the miracle of gardens. there’s magic in being a part of the growth. every time i leave the garden, i feel so connected.
also some new paintings, i promise to show you soon.
the funny thing about this blog fast is the longer i let the silence go unbroken, the bigger i need the feast to be. but i’m just here. hello. i missed you blog.
one more color for the scavenger hunt. morning starts with a fresh bar of my favorite soap (the smell is divine!) and what i ate for breakfast. both are fresh and invigorating, and the only red that i could find!
it’s a color i find it sneaking into my painting palette, but you won’t find it anywhere in my closet or rooms or…anywhere near me really. i guess you could say it’s a little too strong of a color for me to surround myself with. i’ve tried red, but i guess i just have so much naturally occurring on my head that it’s enough. (giggles)
have a wonderful week and i will see you again soon after my break!
