Illustration Friday: Safe

I am posting one of my favorite pieces for this weeks Illustration Friday theme Safe. This is Edna. She is not a new piece. In fact she was one of the first 10 pieces I did when this all began in 2004. She hangs in my house and I am not sure I could ever sell the original piece. There may be an Edna2, or 3 someday, but Edna is mine. She has always seemed a bit sad to me. Her eyes say heartbreak, lonliness and despair. I feel like in her large black oval she has found a sort of sanctuary. Peace. Saftey. If we tried to coax her out, I am sure she would fight us. She is home.


Here is pic of where she lives in my home.

A weight off!

You had better belive that if I am going to talk about something as mundane as a haircut here, that it had better be DAMN GOOD! And it is! My curls are under control, and what I refer to as my "Jesus Hair", (flat and long on top, and then crazy wavy from the ears down) is no more! I am not even going to tell you how incredible my highlights are . . . oh wait, I just did! They rock!

I am giving a shout out to Brig, my new best friend, who has recently opened her own salon Play in Simi Valley. It is a great space that will be completely renovated as of October 1, and the vision is awesome! Wood collages, doll chandeliers, and a lounge environment are sure to bring a little spice to Simi! If you are in the LA area, I promise you that Brig and her collegues are well worth the drive. And really, lets face it, with all of the traffic in the city, Simi is closer than you think!


As Jamey said to me earlier today, it's like Self Portait Wednesday!! ;)

THANK YOU BRIG!!

Cleanliness is next to . . . I have no idea, but it rocks!

I have a confession. I am a closet organizing FREAK! I love the rearranging and reassigning that is cleaning house! I love when the garbage cans are full to the brim. The house just feels lighter, and I know that I am not going to find any crazy spider web or earwig stuck behind the tools in the closet. Yuck!

In our living room we have 3 of the largest, most useful closets of all time. However, in the 20 months that we have lived here I have failed to make the fully functional . . . until Sunday!












I think I was inspired by Alicia Paulson's amazing photos of her repainted studio, which I featured last week on Creative Swoon. I really am so relieved and excited! Everything has a home. The entry of the house is tidy. My art is no longer manipulating the space!

Dont ask what possesed me to paint this great found dresser blood red, and then crackle the outside so that it would look like veins on a ghost, or something from "The Cell." I have no idea, but it seemed like a good idea at the time apparently. Live and learn!

What is cool is that the inside of the drawers and the surface of the shelves are all collages, each with a different theme from someplace either my husband had traveled, I have traveled, or we have been together. Aaaawwww! (I know, I know! I will go get some crackers for all that cheese.)

My craft fair displays are all ready to go for selling at the Craft Fair at the Rose Bowl Sept. 10th. The yarn is were I can see it! And the little closet in the dresser serves well as a place for all things sewing/knitting. (You can tell I dont sew much, 'cause there all of my supplies fit in that box!) It is a miracle! Yeah baby!

And yes, that is a bright shiny silver label you see in the upper right hand corner of each drawer! I wouldn't have it any other way!

Who knew I could reveal how messy my kitchen and studio are, just by taking a shot of my newly improved shipping closet! As you can see, I still have A LOT of work to do!

SPC-Trapped in a Box!

Upon first glance, this image might perplex you. I am in it, and it took me a second to figure out what it was when I was cleaning off my digital camera! This SPC, my friends, is a perfect example of the crazy things I do for love.

I mentioned last month about the Pond Tour my husband and I went on, touring peoples ponds and water features around the San Fernando Valley. Well, lucky us, at the first house, directly across the street they were giving away a very large pond liner. Did I mention it was big? Yeah, not going to fit in the car! But it does put Tom one step closer to the pond he won't stop talking about. I will spare you the countless verses of how "This is EXACTLY why I keep bungies in the car! Moments like these!" Fantastic.

After we got it strapped to every visible handle and hook inside the car, I realized that we would have no way to get in the car but to climb in through the lip window in the trunk. (It's ok to laugh. You better believe I almost peed my pants!)

If I tell you that once we stopped laughing about what dumb asses we were, bungie-ing the doors shut, that my husband turned to me and said, "OK, hand me the map. Lets go to the next house." Plain as day.

Umm, hello! We NEED to go home and drop off this giant plastic tub! He protested. "Let's just do it. We will never see these people again."

Needless to say, I wasn't crawling ass first, through the window in the trunk of our car, outside of strangers homes. Not now, not ever. We drove all the way home, and then back to a house 2 miles from the first one! Was that really too much to ask?

So this is a photo that Tom took, arm out the window, body craned to get the right angle, so that I will never forget that day. And now, neither will you!

What a weekend!

I have to say this was a pretty productive weekend. I had an order I needed to get these 2 pieces done for. My client had seen the IF:Capture post a few weeks ago and was sad to see he had sold, so she ordered one! I love how they turned out! They will go great together in her home.

Saturday night I got a lesson on how to make Bath Bombs! Jamey made Blue Gardenia, in my honor(!!!). I love Gardenia! So sweet and sexy! I can't wait to try them out! Tom thought the 2 mini ones were funny, but then as he was putting them down, 1 exploded in his hand! He hulked it, and it turned to dust! He had a look of his face like he ate the canary! Too funny.

I also made home made won-tons for the very first time ever. They were intended to be get well won-tons for Jameys mom, but she wasn't up for guests, so we all enjoyed them without her. (Sorry Randee!!) I have to say that they were pretty easy, given that I just sort of made up a recipe, and yummmm! Next time we have a party, I know what the appetizers will be!!

Sunday was super busy, spent reorganizing and creating an awesome craft closet. I still need to photograph it, but once I do, I will post about it for sure! I am way too exicted about it! I am just so relieved to be organized! I know I am sick, but I am sure you can relate to how good it feels to have things in order! Be back with photos soon!!!

Friendly Posting

There was a lot of posting happening this week! I was so excited to see that I was included in the Craftzine blog! That is very cool. I cant wait for the magazine to come out! I am sure that I will learn TONS from it! Or at least have a good time drooling over the pics!


And thank you to Coxi over at Life*Fever for the lovely and kind words! Coxi is a total design devotee and finds the most beautiful items and people to write about. You can see that write up here.


There was also this sweet mention over at Collage Cat and a great Felt Club write up at Poppy Talk.

Thank you everyone!!!