fresh picked whimsy

Shop local and save the mom & pop shops!

This is a custom canvas that I painted this week.  I sell these canvases through my good friend, Jill Sowder's store, Westwood Paper.  She followed her heart after the loss of her son, Craig, to cancer and opened her dream store in Carmel.  She sells paper gifts, unique invitations and stationery, but her specialty is custom wedding invitations and other wedding paper goods.  Jill hosted a booksigning for Anne & I this past February.  She's always supporting me in all of my artistic endeavors!

If you've never stopped in before, you really should.  Always lots of goodies to be found there!  She's located at 20 Executive Drive in Carmel behind Walgreens...next to Kroger.  I encouraged Jill to start a blog and you can read it here. 

Jill's been nominated through a local tv station for an award for best invitations store in the Indy area.  If you get a chance, click on this link and vote for Jill!  You go, girl!

a cozy little home

Nests....don't you love them?  I am crazy about them.  I think it all started with this sweet pastel picture that my daughter, K, made when she was 10. 

Isn't it cozy?  And there are 5 eggs...just like my little family.  Every since she made this...i have been drawn to nests.  I have them scattered around my house.  In the front hall...

on the fireplace hearth (this one is a real one that was abandoned on my driveway a few years ago)...

In the family room in this vase of branches that I painted white...

and this REAL one in my tree!  Wish i could see who's living up there!

In fact, i've painted quite a few of them.  Always for someone else, though, never for me.  I really do need to paint one for my little birdie family.

Today was no exception...i spent the morning working on another one for a friend/client. She's giving it to her hubby for Father's Day.  (those are some new village houses in the background there...back-to -school themed).

All done...

Another canvas is standing by for yet another birds nest commission for a client.  The paint is calling...

Score!

Ok, as promised, here are the things I scored from my family garage sale...my mom, sisters and I agreed to just take whatever we wanted from each other's stuff and sell the rest.  Some of this came from my grandparent's house, too.  This is some of the great stuff I got:

The globe has been sitting on my kitchen table since last Friday and EVERYONE is so fascinated with it.  We have a huge atlas that the kids have always loved looking through, but there's something about being able to see the whole world all at once...and to see how far away and how close to home some destinations really are. 

I have a small obsession fascination with chairs.  I love them!  The dark ladder back one is screaming for some fun paint and the one without the back (it broke off years ago), will be so cute with a bright pot of flowers on it.  One of them is going on my front porch eventually.  I just love breathing new life into them with a little paint! 

I forgot to share the funniest story about our garage sale with you.  This tall blonde lady was walking around taking pictures of all of our stuff.  My mom asked her why she was doing it and she looked a little startled.  She had very broken English.  Her two friends, who were with her, hurried over to help her and explained to us that she was a family member visiting from Copenhagen.  In Copenhagen, there is no such thing as a garage sale...  this woman thought it was so peculiar that Americans would put all of their stuff out there in their yards for perfect strangers to buy.  She was taking pictures to show her friends in Copenhagen this strange American custom.  Isnt' that funny?!  I'm afraid that I could never live in Copenhagen...a place where there are no garage sales is no place for me!  Finally, I have to be completely honest and say that i didn't know what country Copenhagen was in.  Lucky for me, I've got myself a new globe!

A ha....Denmark!

Make me an offer!

You always forget how much work it is to get ready for a garage sale and how little cash you get in return.  Everytime I have a garage sale, i always say "never again!"  And then I do.  I need to listen to me more often.  This sale was at my parent's house and it was a 5 family sale with stuff from my sisters, parents and my grandfather's house.  All the big furniture had to stay in the garage on the first day because it was rainy.  That was not fun.  Tomorrow is the last day....yahooooooo!!!! 

The kids actually had a blast helping run the cashbox and adding up the sales.  They made themselves nametags and this sign on the table cracked me up.

My grandfather loved sitting outside with us and seeing all the people.  He was NOT for sale, so i had to make sure everyone knew that and made him this tag.

In between raindrops, the kids played in the pool.  This made the time fly for them!

My favorite part of our sale was the junk swapping that we did between sisters/mom/Poppop.  We all got some special things from my grandparent's house.  Along with some other things, I got their cake toppers from their wedding and their 25th & 50th anniversaries. 

This is my very favorite thing I think that I got from my grandparent's house this week...

It's my grandmother's old spice carousel.  I cannot imagine how old those spices are in the jars...she died almost 5 years ago and had stopped really cooking decades ago.  I have all of the jars and i'm going to empty them and refill them with the beads and glitter from my studio.  I'll show you when I'm done along with some of the other lovely "swaps" i scored!  TGIF, friends!

Just yesterday she was driving a pink Power Wheels Barbie Jeep...

These rites of passage are killing me!!!!!  We are in week 2 of Driver's Ed.  She's doing awesome.  Really, she's a super driver.  Can't believe she's only been driving a week...just one week.  Tomorrow, i'm informed by the paper driving schedule supplied by her instructor, she will be driving on the interstate.  The freakin' interstate, people!!!!!!  Ugh!  I was really calm, really together about all of this and then the unspeakable happened.  Last night, 2 teenage girls were killed in 2 separate car accidents here in our hometown.  Both accidents were due to wreckless driving.  K knew one of the girls.  It's every parent's nightmare.  Just so tragic.  My thoughts and prayers for peace go out to the families involved and all who loved them.  My heart, however, continues to beat out of my chest everytime my little girl gets behind the wheel.

a LOVE-erly day!

18 years ago today I married the man of my dreams...it was our storybook dream wedding...surrounded by everyone we love...and lots and lots of yellow!!!!  I love my life with this man...we are so blessed.  Happy Anniversary, love. xo

better luck next time...

I didn't win the fresh produce t-shirt design contest. But, I am a winner. 

I'm a winner because I have the BEST friends and family and fans EVAHHHH!!!!  I am overwhelmed by the support, sweet comments, votes and cheerleading by all of you...those of you I know and those of you whom I have never met.  So many of you forwarded on a request for votes to your circle of friends and family, too.  You are all in my heart.  My "peace+love+sun" was in first place (100+votes ahead of the 2nd most voted design) for the entire duration of the online voting.  Wow...that's something!  Prior to the online voting, the powers-that-be at FP had to narrow down all of the submissions (i think there were 75+ submitted artworks) to the final 16 that people voted on.  They must have seen marketing potential in peace+love+sun to choose it as a finalist.  Ultimately, they decided to go with 2 other designs for the winners and that's okay.  The two they picked are really nice and really do look like fresh produce and I'm happy for those artists.  I am sure they are over the moon!  My design stayed true to my style and i'm proud of that.  Fresh Produce holds these contests several times a year, and I'm sure I will try again.  I do LOVE fresh produce and own many of their tshirts and sundresses.  They are so comfy and beachy.  I love that.  I had originally submitted 3 pieces and here are the other two:

 

I did have so many people tell me that they would LOVE to have a tshirt with my peace+love+sun design on it, that i'm going to seriously look into making that happen.  Personally, i'd love to see it on a beach bag or beach towel.  We'll see.  What I did learn from this entire process is that my ultimate professional goal is to license my artwork.  I have no idea how to make that happen yet, but I do believe my style is marketable and current.  I am going to work toward that goal.  Thank you again, from the bottom of my heart, for your encouragement and well wishes during the contest.  My inbox was full of "good lucks and go get 'ems" and i was stopped countless times around town by friends and acquaintances telling me that they voted for me and asking me if i knew the outcome.  Once again, I am humbled and feeling the love.