Staycation

The kids were on Spring break from last Wednesday until today. Couple that with out of town guests, my very old friend Danielle brought her family to town from New Jersey.  Searching the Internet for cool things to do in Cincinnati and Kentucky resulted in one fabulous week of new-to-us day trips.

For instance, Cincinnati is home to the one of a kind American Sign Museum.  The guided tour was a wealth of information about how businesses marketed themselves with signage from the late 1800's until today. This museum also houses a neon sign manufacturer and included a demonstration of how these signs are made today. 

Day two was the Horse Park in Lexington.  We saw horse shows, took a horse pulled tour of the grounds, and even rode horses on a trail.

 Over the weekend we went to the oldest market in Ohio, Findlay Market in Downtown Cincinnati.  The food and sweets inside were amazing, but starting in April there is even more to see with outside vendors selling crafts and flowers.

On Monday our sweet sweet neighbor, Maureen, took us to a barn that houses her horse, Sunny.  The girls got to brush down Sunny and feed her a few treats.  Before that they were able to have riding lesson on Maggie, the barn owners horse.

 Tuesday was an Ohio River day.  We started in Newport with lunch at a German restaurant, shopping at the Levee and then a stroll over the Purple People Bridge to Cincinnati.  We walked a mile or so to see the Steamboat Memorial and the new parks along the Banks. We wore out the kiddos, but in a good way.

It was such a fabulous week with good weather and great company!

Flickr Find

LOVE the Library of Congress website, it satisfies all my vintage photo needs, though it can be hard to navigate.  Discovered yesterday that a small portion of the collection are located on Flickr:  HERE.


Here are just a few fantastic finds.

Enjoy!!

Soulful Houses in Print

Spring starts off with some sunshine! 

 A couple months ago I was asked to write an article for Somerset Memories on how I make these Soulful Houses. On April 1st the publication will be available.  Today I found my complimentary issue in the mailbox, honestly it is a bit surreal. 

I want to give a shout out to those who encourage and support my art...you know who you are! Admittedly I wouldn't go down this path without a little shoving...lol.

~Angie

Winter's Never Ending Tale

No surprise here, I do not like Winter.  One maybe two snowfalls and I'm ready to pack it in and call for Spring.  Lately Mother Nature has been teasing us with a sixty or seventy degree day , then bam...fifteen degrees a day later.  Not nice.

source

So bear with me a little longer, ideas are slow to none, even my sketch book is feeling unloved.  Right now we are all hibernating and dreaming of Spring.

~Angie

Whittling away at winter

I am a bad blogger, enough said.  Winter in the Midwest has been brutal and living indoors can take it's toll.  The basement is freezing so I have no interest in creating in the studio...which can be bad because then when the desire to make something happens the mess ends up everywhere in the house.  

Spent about two weeks with all my seam binding rolls, vintage bottle tops and adhesives piled up in the living room where every free evening I'd bundle up under a blanket and stitch away making ruffled layers for handmade prize ribbons.  I have no idea what purpose these can have, but I think they are freakin adorable so I just kept making until I didn't want to anymore.  Then the sun came out (feels like a small miracle) and I made an attempt at photographing in natural light.  It went well, all these are now listed in the Etsy & Zibbet shops.

Keep thinking warm thoughts, Spring has to come eventually right?!

Photography Woes

Ugh, there are some time I dread to take pictures.  I have a light box but it just doesn't seem to help.  I've had these ornaments done for over a week, finally took photos tonight, have to scrap most of them.

Grrr.

October Surprises

 Do you like surprises?

This was a semi-surprise... an article I wrote on my paper boat ornaments appear in the November/December issue of Somerset Studios!!  Found out unexpectedly on Friday at the bookstore, so worth the decision to stop by and see if the newest issues were out.  Pretty sure I walked around with a crazy grin on my face the rest of the day.  

I have a glass of wine and the issue waiting for me after the kiddos are in bed, it will be my weekend indulgence.  There are so many wonderful artists in this issue, some of my absolute favorites like Cay Kerr, Debrina Pratt & Robin Dudley-Howes.  I am so honored to be sharing pages with these women.  Lastly I have to shout out to Tina because without your sneaky, generous, & selfless ways I wouldn't have attempted this. 

On a side note I have to share that Bob's grandmother turned 100 years old on Friday. She is still very much in her right mind and though she has become more frail these last few years, she still manages to live in her own apartment with assistance from my sister-in-law.  We celebrated yesterday and got to see some extended family members for the first time in 10 years.

Just for fun Robert wanted to see how many people live to be 100.  We learned that out of the 7+ billion people on the planet there are 316,000+ who are a hundred.  That's 1 in 22,000.  Of those 22,000 only 22 will live to be 110 or a super-centenarian.  Will she be one?  She had an aunt who lived to be 105...I'm thinking her chances are pretty good!