Back at the lake

We came up to the lake again yesterday. It was a beautiful day so we did some swimming and sunning. A lot of my nieces and nephews are here so we got some good hang out time with them too. There is a really big antiques show near here starting this week and Tyler and I are going to go today. I love going to this show, it's MASSIVE and so fun to look around and find things. You have to have time and patience though! I'm especially excited this year because I'm hoping to find things for our new apartment and some wedding decorations. I'll let you know if I find any goodies.

I put a few wall hangings up in my shop the other day. It made me want to get back into making them! Especially autumn themed ones.

I also had some fun with simple image transfers over the weekend. I cut up photographs of mine that I had printed on printer paper and some magazine and book pages, put mod podge on the side with the image, laid it down on the surface I was working on, used a brayer to make sure that it adhered, let it sit for a minute or two then pulled it off, revealing a cool looking transfer! Very fun.

I'm going to check in over at Creative Every Day then get ready for the antiques show. Have a great day! xo

Rainy Day

It's a cool rainy day here, it's nice to have one of these every once in a while in the summer.  Once again,  I'll be working away at my to do list of cleaning, organizing my life, and making art :) My parent's house is still home base for Tyler and I as we job and apartment hunt. I was finally able to set up an art space here though which feels really nice. The third floor of my parent's house has two large bedrooms- one is now our bedroom and the other I am using as my art space (as well as the room that holds all of our shower gifts that we don't have a place for yet!!).  I've had some time in there the last few days and have worked on several things.

painted paper towel stamped collages

sewn and beaded pockets for my book project

and some bigger messy acrylic paintings

Our spring and summer have been full of art and travel and it's been amazing. We've been so fortunate. Now, we are starting to settle a bit and I've been feeling some of the uneasiness, nervousness, and doubts that come with moving to a new place. I know it's part of the process, part of getting our feet on the ground and getting settled and I try to remind myself of this, try to keep it in perspective and feel what I'm feeling and work through it. I know we are where we are supposed to be and I just have to remember that getting settled takes a while. I'm so glad I now have an art space where I can go to help me work through some of these feelings. I'm eager to get in there again this morning, but I've told myself I must take breaks so I can write thank you notes and do the laundry :)

xoxo

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On the road

I haven't had too much time to blog lately, Tyler and I have been on the road. We started a month long road trip last Monday. The first leg of our trip brought us through Ontario, up around the northern coast of Lake Superior. It was quite spectacular! And we saw a moose!

We dropped back into the States and have been in Minneapolis spending time with Tyler's family. It's been fun and busy. This weekend there were two lovely and generous wedding showers for us. It was so nice.

I've brought some art supplies with me and intend to journal along the way but it's proven difficult to find the time so far. I've done two pages, highlighting our days driving through Ontario.

I hope to fit in a bit of journaling time tomorrow. I'm going to try to be better about blogging along with our road trip. I imagine most of my posts will be travel photos and less art but that's ok. I'm so excited to be able to travel and see the country. There are so many places I've never been!

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xoxo

My First Publication

I am very excited to share with you all that I've had my first publication in Somerset Studio magazine! I am beyond thrilled to have an essay and a picture of my artwork in the May/June 2014 issue. I am a hug fan of Somerset Studio, and all of the Stampington publications, and this really is a dream come true. Thanks, Stampington!

The funny part about this is that I had no idea that I had been published until a blogging friend wrote to me to congratulate me. Stampington must have wrote to me and somehow the emails went to my junk mail folder. The other funny thing is that I subscribe to Somerset Studio but this issue was sent to my Brooklyn address just after I moved out. I thought that the magazine would come before I moved out so I didn't bother to change my mailing address before I moved. My bad! So, I would've found out a month ago had I been smart enough to change my address. Oh well.

When Tyler and I drove into Syracuse last Thursday we went straight to Barnes and Noble to pick up a copy. Here I am in Barnes and Noble, overjoyed and excited:

Here is a photo of the artwork that is featured:

It's a bit scary submitting your art and writing to publications but if you want to do it there is really no reason not to. The worst that happens is they don't use it! And that doesn't mean that what you wrote or made is "bad".  One of my goals for 2014 was to put my art out into the world more and this certainly feels like I've accomplished that goal. But I don't plan on stopping now, I'm going to keep creating, writing, and submitting and see where the rest of 2014 takes me.

xo

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Memorial Day Weekend

It was nice to end a great weekend with an email from Tam over at CardMakingArtists letting me know that my featured artist inteview had been posted! I am grateful that Tam asked me for an interview and so flattered by all of the kind things she had to say about my art. Thanks, Tam! You should check out Tam's site as there are many interesting resources, ideas, and artists featured.

My family joined Tyler and I at camp this weekend for Memorial Day. The house was full of children and it brought me right back to the days when my brothers and I would run wild around here- swimming, taking walks, riding bikes, eating ice cream and popsicles. It was great. I got to have an outdoor art session with some of my nieces that was so much fun.

Tyler and I woke up one morning to a whole pile of folded papers pushed under our bedroom door. My 4 year old niece and 5 year old niece had been busy drawing us pictures to surprise us with when we woke up. SO cute!

I even managed to check a few things off of the wedding checklist, with the help of my dad. I want to use slices of a log as table centerpieces to put candles on. My dad and I found a good size log up by the side of the road and he got out his chainsaw and sliced it up in record time! They are the perfect size, I just hope they don't crack and split too much as they dry. Also, while walking around the lake I collected last year's dead and dried wildflower stems to incorporate into the table flower arrangements (we aren't having too many flowers- trying to cut costs where we can!).

Everyone headed home last night and this morning Tyler and I are trying to get back into a routine of making that we can sustain for the next ten days or so. Before the next stage of our adventure begins! I hope everyone had a nice weekend. xo

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