Good Morning: Just like that....

I am asked, often, where I get my inspiration from. Truly it comes from everywhere, everything and everyone. Buttons, music, messes, old folks, young kiddies... but mostly from the riding lawn mower.

Today, for example, I saw this little piece of birch bark curling away from this fallen trunk and thought 'Surly this how faerie books are made!' Which leads to the thought 'I wonder if there are words already scribed on that strange paper? Maybe they peel away as they are completed?" and on and on it goes. Those thoughts bump around in my head. They become forgotten. They are remembered again. Then one day I'll get around to making something that kind-of-sort-a had to do with stories on birch bark.

P.S. To the ladies taking a stroll down Bullis road at 8:30 am, if you happen to be reading this, I pinky swear I was taking this photo and not crouching to pee near the trees this morning.

Scrappy little things

Finished up this piece this morning. It's a bit different than the other pieces I've been working on but I'm sort of smitten with the scrappy little frames made up of the tiny bits of Graphic 45 papers that were nudging to be used. 

I've used this particular girl in another piece a couple of years ago and am starting to feel a bit sorry for her brother who gets omitted from the pieces. Perhaps he needs his own scrappy playground.

For far too long the bird feeders at Pixie Hill have been empty. This weekend I stocked up on seed and filled all of the feeders around this old place. Today the birds finally took notice and swarmed the joint!

Crows, chickadees, woodpeckers and about a dozen blue jays were all fluttering about and enjoying their meal this morning. It's quite a thing to see several different birds feed at the same feeder at the same time.

If you don't have blue jays where you live, they are pretty rough and tumble birds. They are quite beautiful but have an awful song voice. I swear, sometimes they sound like a kid with a broken whistle!

Before long the squirrels came out and I remembered why the feeders were empty to begin with. I don't mind them taking SOME food but the little buggers eat EVERYTHING from every feeder and chase away the feathered things.

I suppose you can't blame them. If someone left free food out for me I just might gobble it all up too!

Fetch me some clover

I've just completed this piece. Mixed media on 12" x 24" canvas. Quite big for me. I love the intamcy of small pieces but the impact of the larger scale is growing on me.

I'm really enjoying mixing up my mediums. Papercrafting, painting, collage... all smashed together! Sort of a banana split of art.

The four leaf clovers on the piece are real. I have a knack for finding them and have a whole collection of them in an old tobacco container.

On the bottom edge of the canvas, out of view, is a line I cut from a children's book which reads "Fetch me some young clover leaves" I was going to put it beneath the leaping hare but it didn't quite look right so I hid it.

Chances are no one else will notice it, but we will know it's there :)

Lest We Forget

Today is Remembrance Day.




That fellow on the left is my husbands grandfather. On the top right is my own granddad. Both men served and survived.

This is my great-granddad. He survived service too but was not unscathed. He lost the ends of both of his feet to frostbite. He was also stabbed with a bayonet while pretending to be dead as opposing forces checked bodies for survivors in the trench he was laying in.

A few years ago I attended a Remembrance Day service and the veteran who spoke said something that deeply affected me: the grief and remembrance demonstrated on this day should extend to ALL who have served and ALL who have suffered in the name of war. Today is not a glorification of war, but rather a reminder of the consequences of it.

And so today I'll remember the past (heaven help us all if we ever forget) but I'll hope for the future too.

Lest We Forget

Snowballs and cottages

My house is starting to look like Santa's workshop. I don't mind one little bit but the dog is annoyed. He's a bit neurotic and doesn't like things to be placed in places he likes to lay. Sitting on the floor, watching the telly while painting toadstools drives him batty. He sits in front of me and gives me the stink eye until I give him a scratch behind the ear.

 

Despite all of the belly rubbing and ear scratching, I have managed to get quite a bit done. A small batch of cheeky snowballs are complete with lots on the way. I've put a listing up in the etsy shop for those who would like to pre-order a set of 4. $65 for a set of 4 handmade 3" ornaments. Single balls will be listed (after pre-orders have been filled) at $19.50 each.

I've also made a batch of bottled Christmas Magic and a set of these adorable Snowy Cottages. New faerie specimens, thimble gardens and little fairy landscapes are in the works too.

I know some people don't like to think about the holidays until such-and-such a date, but as a maker I'm already feeling a little like the white rabbit and checking my watch. The holiday spirit stirring already and I'm sure that by December I'll actually turn into a proper Christmas elf.

Good Morning: Light and leaves

The weather has been funny here. Cool and frosty, then warm, then wet, then cloudy, then sunny! As someone who has quite enough trouble dressing in the morning, I'd appreciate a bit of consistency so that I don't end up wearing shorts during a hail storm (hey, with my style sense it could happen).

This morning there was a damp chill in the air, but it was bright and sunny. It's miraculous what a little sunlight can do. I rambled over to the vegetable garden, which has finished bearing save the brussles sprouts and beets. There are a few things fighting against the chill. Our parsley is spreading and looks rather lush... which is funny because we haven't had much luck with it. The lambs ear is looking lovely and velvety too. Mossy patches still abound and have benefitted from the recent damp.


I think I'd rather be one of those 'weedy things' than a delicate flower. To survive and thrive after the chill, and witness the changing of the winds.

More works in progress

Every so often I am surrounded by half finished projects, waiting for everything to come together. Now is one of those times. There are boxes and stacks and piles of things waiting to be completed. Honestly, sometimes I think that if I were to choose a superpower I would have to select the amazing ability to make things dry faster.

Anywho, I've been working on some more large canvas'. Here are two that are 'in progress'.

These measure around 12" x 24" and there will likely be four of them when all is said and done. They combine paper collage and acrylic painting on canvas.

I'm also working on LOADS of little bits for this weekend's Christmas Bazaar at the Applefest Lodge in Brighton. I'll be there this Saturday from 10 till 2 if you'd like to pop in and say 'hello'.