Wonders never cease.

I finished a necklace today! I have to buckle down because I'm in an art show on Mothers Day and it would be best to actually have something to sell. I have been sketching and finishing components when time allows but I have failed to assemble anything in what feels like forever.

Today my sister asked to borrow the tables in my studio for a garage sale this weekend. After her husband came to pick them up I thought for sure I wouldn't want to step foot back in there for the mess I'd left behind.

Apparently I must like the chaos because I sat down in the 6 inches of space I had left on my counter top and put this together... weird huh?

Signs of Spring

Well hello there... I have been a very busy bee "changing over" all my Easter cards to Mother's Day and Graduation.

The kiddos are on spring break and Bob is on vacation, he plays Mr Mom and I try to get my stores done as quick as possible. On Monday he took them downtown to see the Red's opening Day parade.

Today I got a call while working, my brother and sister-in-law blessed the family with a new addition. She is not named yet but goodness isn't she beautiful!

I hope everyone is having lovely weather and enjoying the first signs of spring.

Angie

Unloading

It is so therapeutic to unload belongings that go unused and clutter the house. I am avid that as little as possible goes into the trash so instead I donate or sell back as much as I can.

Today I am thankful for the following:

St Vincent De Paul: a wonderful community thrift store where I dropped off a van load of unused 'stuff' today. Sadly several of these items have been in my basement collecting dust since we moved it.

(Did you know that Frank Lloyd Wright often drew his house blueprints without basements? He believed that basements fed into our human desire to keep more than we needed. In my case this is quite true.)
Half Price books because they even take old VHS and LP's.
Art teachers everywhere, especially Mrs. Smart because she seems so pleased to receive the 'stuff' that was cluttering up my work space.

Once Upon a Child second hand store who now has a kids kitchen play set I hadn't been able to part with...

and lastly to the metal recycle guy (who ever you are) who promised to haul away 2 metal doors, an old freezer, and an unused gas dryer one day next week.

Unloading feels SO good!

Angie

DIY Spring Flower Artwork

I found an old bulb catalog today and got pulled into the vibrant colors. I decided to scan the pages and run the images through a watercolor filter in Photoshop.

These are all tulip varieties, I am now thinking I should do the same with daffodil images too.

So pretty.

Have a great weekend.

Angie

Easter images and a pink disaster

I wanted to share some Easter images with you in hopes that everyone is working away feverishly on spring projects.

I will not be allowed to work on fun little projects because yesterday I discovered this disaster behind an old bathroom cabinet.

Don't you just adore the very 1960's pink bathroom (and what is up with that yellow grimy stuff..eeww). I have wanted to change out the fixtures and paint color for many years but never got the nerve. Perhaps I should have clung onto that fear a bit longer. I can't believe the damage hiding being the wall fixture. To make matters worse the wires to the outlet are no longer 'hot' and the new GFI we installed is useless. So repairing the wall will have to wait until I can get an electrician in.

No worries though I still have lots of other projects waiting to be completed. Tonight I'm headed out to pick up paint for several rooms in the house. To me putting fresh paint on the walls always provides instant gratification.

It is a very rainy and chilly day here, I have seen others around the US getting snow. Hoping spring returns soon.

Angie

House project progress

Remember this?

Now it looks like this! The wall is repaired and I started on the surround.
Drywall is on now I have to get a nice thick slab of wood to fit the top.
Here is the mud room again...
This is it now, all the joint work is done it is primed and waiting for paint. I did have help with the painting, Miss Maria spent the day at home sick Friday but you can't keep a 7 year old down once she's had her ibuprofen so I enlisted her help. Once I get color on the walls I can finish up the trim work.

All this work is so tiring and I reminded daily that I'm not as young as I used to be. These few pictures don't even show all the work we've done. On Thursday Bob had a friend from the university come and help us fix the concrete work that deteriorated over the winter. Yesterday I pulled down the mailbox and light fixture to give them a fresh coat of paint. Slowly but surely it is getting done, it helps that I have taken a few projects off the list just due to time and money constraints. Truth be told I could spend another 2 weeks doing nothing but painting but I think my body would revolt.

I hope you all are having a relaxing weekend.

Angie

Etching Metal

Carla and I finally took the leap and tried etching metal. We are spurred on by the fact that we will be doing this at our Altered States of Mind meeting in April, we wanted to make sure we could get good results.

The process we used was from Stephanie Lee's Book Semiprecious Salvage, there are some changes from the book and she has a post about it here.

(Click on the image to see the detail)

I am just so pleased with the end result. The process today used Staz-On ink and stamps to create the resist. On another day (one that is hopefully much warmer) we want to see the results using acrylic paint as the resist.

All my etched pieces are brass from a sheet I picked up at Hobby Lobby. I'm looking forward to antiquing the them to really bring out the etching.

(Update: Here they are antiqued, I used the Sophisticated Finishes- Metallic Darkener.)

Angie