You Beta Bet My Ass!

I dont know what it is about lovely little blinking buttons saying "New and Improved" that make me think it is a good idea to click!

Blogger recently released a beta version of their new features. I am not sure when this happened. I only noticed it a couple of weeks ago. Of course I was curious! And that curiosity almost cost me my sanity! I came within 2 or 3 clicks of eliminating this entire blog! And that would make me sad! Because you see, I heart my blog!! So somethings are missing, and somethings are new. Hopefully one day soon all of the kinks will be ironed out. If you notice anything fishy, like a missing link, please email me or leave a comment. I want to make sure that the only thing that is annoying on this blog is me!

BTW-If you are having a hard time commenting on this blog, it may because of this upgrade. I dont think non-beta accounts can comment on beta accounts. Blogger says that this is something they are trying to remedy. It is a total bummer because I cant comment on other non-beta blogs, and you know how I like to put in my two cents! Oh well, I will just have to be patient!

Illustration Friday: Change

This week, the Illustration Friday theme is Change. This is "Allie", my newest piece. She is this weeks submission because the style is a little bit of a change from the norm for me.

The background is awesome antique pages from an old scrapbook I purchased at a flea market. I love the linear shapes created by the yellowed edges of the paper. I have been collecting the metal rings mounted to the canvas for a while now. The smaller ones are all found from all over. Overall, I am very excited with the end result!!

Rose Bowl Pics

Sunday was a great day at the Rose Bowl Antique and Craft Fair in Pasadena, CA. My friend Hannah and I got ourselves a booth there and it was tons of fun!!! We want to thank everyone who came out!! It was a great day. We met lots of people and everyone had such kind words for us. I love getting to interact with people and explain my work to them. Hearing first time reactions is always fun. You can see more images from the event here.

We had so much fun, we will be doing the event again in October. More info to come. We will be in the same spot we were in Sunday!

SPC-With Someone-wk 2

My second with someone portrait for the Self Portrait Challenge is a pic with my husband, Tom. I like to poke fun of him on my blog, with his funny bath bomb mishaps and the whole pond on top of the car schpiel , but really he is a good guy! Obviously he keeps me laughing! And if it weren't for him, I wouldnever have had the opportunity to pursue being an artist. All in all, I would have to say that I am a very lucky girl!

This picture was taken on a quick trip we took last month for our 1 year anniversary. We spent a few hours on a whale and dolphin watching tour, which basically turned into a really nice boat ride! Not a whale or dolphin in sight! We did see sea lions which reminded me fondly of when we lived in North Beach in San Francisco and could hear the sea lions from the wharf all the way up the hill in our apt just below Coit Tower. Their voices carry!!



The trip was lovely for us because we got to be lazy, sleep in the park, and walk around Dana Point with no distractions or pressures, schedules, deadlines . . . I can go on and on! In the evenings we got to sit out on the hotel restaurant deck bundled up while being serves Irish Coffees. It was a great, relaxing adventure!

(This was the only dolphin we saw!)

Even those of us without kids seem to still make a mental note of the time of year when school starts. I enjoy going into an office supply store and seeing the racks of folders and pens, rulers, staplers, and colored pencils. A few days ago I saw one of those sketch pads with the few solid lines with dotted ones in between, the ones in which most of us learned how to write our letters. I remember that there was a huge open space above those lines to draw whatever it was you were spelling. I loved these books. I really wanted all of my letters to be perfect. Wanted that back side of the capital B to be straight as a rod, and the two bumps to hit that dotted line just so. . . . I know, I have issues!

The drawing part, above the text, was always so fun! That was a time before inhibition. A time when if someone asked you to draw a tiger, you would draw the purplest kangaroo-looking animal and shout "ALL DONE!"

The best class I ever took in college was in my sophomore year called "Visual Literacy." I think back to the crazy projects all the time. Most of the assignments asked to have a phrase, or image, graphically depicted in several ways. It was always so hard to get the huge sheets filled in, to not automatically go for the obvious solution and to take the time to really solve the problem! The purpose of the assignment is much appreciated today!

I still get serious jitters every time I unveil a new piece, not knowing how it will be received. But one thing that I have realized is that individual aesthetic is a huge part of how each person reacts to art and imagery. I do not have to worry about the absolute perfect "text book" depiction of an image, but that the image I see in my head is equally as valid and that the final result is my expression and interpretation. I need to make sure that I am still, today, as carefree and un-jaded in my expression, as I was in those handwriting books! It is not always easy!

Illustration Friday: Farm

Yay! This weeks Illustration Friday theme is Farm! This piece, Ride, is again, not a newbie, but one of the ones I have grown immensely attached to. In the background are farm income tax papers from 1918, old personal letters and awesome horse images. It is 30"x 40"x 1 1/2".

Rose Bowl this weekend!!!

My friend Hannah, who I wrote about on Tuesday, and I are going to be participating in the Rose Bowl Flea Market this Sunday, in Pasadena, CA. Hannah is an amazing jewelry designer and we will be sharing a space in the Arts and Crafts section, which is located at the back of the stadium, as circled on the map above!

There are generally 2500 vendors, and 20,000 shoppers at this event each month. It is an awesome way to spend the day! If you come out, be sure to say hi!

Skirt! Magazine

Thank you so much to Skirt! Magazine for including my bookplates in their 7 Ways to Find Your Way article!

SPC-With Someone-wk 1

This months theme for the Self Portrait Challenge is with someone. After all that my friend Hannah did to help me prepare for my first photo shoot yesterday, I would be insane if I didn't take my first opportunity to say "Thank you Hannah! I could never have done it without you! I probably would have been a disaster without your steady hands and calm, soothing approach to reigning in my craziness! You take no crap, and no prisoners, and for that, I admire you! You are a strong beautiful woman with spunk and pizzazz! Your talents know no end! You are my soul sister! The good girl to my evil twin. I love ya like I love glue!" This girl rocks!!! Get it?

New Interview-Artist, Emerging

Deanna Wood was kind enough to want to interview me on her blog Artist, Emerging. You can see the post here.

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!!!

The New Fad

So, if mushrooms are in, does that mean owls are out?!!?? Who can keep up??!

(via decor8)

Illusration Friday: Run

I was a little stumped by this weeks Illustration Friday theme of Run, and then I started flipping through images that I have been wanting to use, but haven't found the time to sink my brush into. This is one of my favorite images.

It is a very familiar sight to see parents running down the street holding onto the front and back of their childrens bikes, trying to help their kids move beyond training wheels. I love this version from the early 1900's, although I am sure that that tiny little boy isn't going to be soloing on the motorcycle any time soon!

Plus, there is an illustration of 2 kids running from a swarm of bees on the left there, which kind of cracks me up. . . .

(You can see more detail images of this piece here)

Heart me, Baby!

I am of the habit of checking the stats for my sites pretty much everyday. And with Etsy, that means seeing who Hearts you. It is nice to be hearted, becasue then you know someone cares. I like it very much.

And so I have noticed over the past 2 days I have been at 199 hearts! One more and I will have exceeded every expectaion that I ever could have had going into this crazy art endevour! So am I offering a little incentive!

Whoever is the 200th Hearter will get 15% off their next purchase!
Runners up 201 and 202 will get 10% off!
Must be used by midnight Sept 10th.

You can see who hearts me here!

(If you are registering for a new Etsy account, please put MCaplan in the refferal box!)

What is Art?

This is a tricky question with a Pandoras Box full of answers, but none of them is the definitive right one! Art is all subjective. I think that anything you have an emotional reaction to, that you senses gravitate toward, is art.

Why is it that we have a hard time walking away from the things we find on the sidewalk?? Are those found objects considered Art simply because they are then introduced to your space and displayed??? What do you think?


I have started a new group on Flickr called Art In Your Home. It is intended to be a place to share any and all of the items you have displayed in your home, your Art.

The above is a question that I posed to the group. If you would like to comment, or say hi, you may do so here.

If you are on Flickr, join!! I cant wait to see all of the amazing art out there!