Easter

I made Elsie and Heidi some Easter dresses this year. Elsie picked out her pattern and material and everything. For Heidi, she wasn't with me so I picked out some sparkly purple fabric with rainbow butterflies (gag!!!) that I knew she would like.

Raggedy Ann Dress

Quote from Heidi after putting on the Raggedy Ann dress I made for Elsie a few years ago: "Me and Rag are gonna match outta town!"

Frog in the Reeds and Song Giveaway! Hoo!

After months of deliberation, today I finally have come to a decision, and named my "band". I don't actually have a band, but I needed a name to put on my upcoming album, which has been recorded with some very brilliant musicians (thank you a million times Andrew, Josh, Paul, Elin and Rachel!!!), and is now in the mixing process, in the wonderfully skillful and talented hands of Daniel Smith of the Danielson Famile, in a studio in my second-favorite state.

So, the name I will call myself is "Frog in the Reeds", which is also the name of the first song I made, when I decided that making music seemed like a fun thing to do. It is an instrumental piece. To celebrate that I finally have a name, I am giving away this song. It doesn't sound anything like the music on my album. It was made with the idea that you could play it for babies or little kids or grownups who need to relax and/or go to sleep. Inspired by the Drewenski's pond in Cabot, Pennsylania, which provided the soundtrack for my summer nights growing up in the country.

You may download the song for yourself right here. (Right-click on the link to save it somewhere).

This song was unprofessionally produced in Corner of Bedroom, Butler, PA and you do not have the rights to invite people over and charge them money to listen to it. Well, I guess you could, but send me the money.

Wait, there is more! If you send a self-addressed stamped envelope to 314 Broad Street, Butler PA 16001, I will send you a hand-drawn bookmark of a frog, and I will sign it with my own signature. I might even make one of those little tassles - we'll see. I have not drawn it yet, or I would tantalize you with a picture. This offer is only available to the first 10,000 requests and it expires when I die, or move.

Have a nice day!
Love, Mary

Mail Thing

Here's a do-hicky I made to keep mail and junk and clutter off the table. I hate clutter! Do you ever feel overrun by papers? What do you do with all of it?  So glad to finally have finished this project. It's been bugging me for months. Really, I could use about 8 more of these. 

Tree of Life Dress

This is Heidi in the "Tree of Life" dress, which was a collaborative effort by mostly Rachel Galloway and a little bit me. We designed the tree of life a couple of years ago together, then Rachel took the elements and made them into a dress, using Spoonflower.com to print the fabric. Alas, her youngest daughter, the very interesting Eleanor Galloway, master of solar system facts,  grew out of it before she got a chance to sew the dress together. My Heidi is the same age as Eleanor but much smaller, and Rachel was so kind as to send the fabric to me. So I've sewed it up and tried it on and yahoo - it's perfect. Thanks Rachel!! There's also another one to come soon...

Winged Lion

Barbie Cake

I just spent all day making this birthday cake for Heidi, who is about to turn five. Five!! Oh my. Here's the link I got the instructions from. This thing is now in my freezer. I had to take the rack out so it could fit. It's a pretty huge cake, it's made from 2 mixes, 4 cakes and 3 cans of frosting. But when it was said and done, I think I only put about $12 into it (not including the barbie - we just used one of Heidi's).

Spring Show at AABC

Here's me with my paintings at AABC. My friend Marcia Furman won a prize for one of her photos. Yay Marcia!

Upright

Yahoo! I own you now!

Esther - Part II

I finished Esther today. I've documented the first part of the process in an earlier post if you're interested in the nuts and bolts. Here is the second half.

I started with a rough sketch on canvas:

Then did a very fast, loose painting with the intention of just getting color all over the canvas. At this point, it looks nothing like Esther. Not sure why I didn't get a shot of the whole thing.

Next, I spent ALOT of time on the face. I wanted to get it right first, because if you can get the face right, the rest of the stuff is pretty much a breeze. Here's a closeup of the face at this stage.

Next I reworked every bit of the canvas with a palette knife. I really glopped on paint here. I tried to bring out more depth and warmth to her face. Although I captured her pretty well, she looked pasty and cool.

A face closeup:

The table looked odd to me, so I added some color to it, and touched up a few final things. Like, the lemon now looks more like a lemon, and her arms look a little more natural. This is the finished canvas!

Here is a closeup of the finished hat.

And her face! Esther, you are a beautiful little girl!

Office

This is what my office looks like when I'm having FUN in it.

Elsie's Lyrebird

My daughter Elsie (age 6) made a lyrebird of her own! I totally love it.

Lyrebird Wall Hanging

My Lyrebird design, printed at Spoonflower, made into a stitched fabric wall hanging. The background came out too purple, I had wanted a navy blue. But other than that I'm happy with it. The lyrebird is an Austrailian native bird, known for it's ability to mimic sounds, and for the male bird's magnificent tail. This one is the "Superb Lyrebird" Menura novaehollandiae.

Psalm 40:3

He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; 
Many will see and fear 


And will trust in the LORD.

Heidi's First Sewing Project

This is Heidi's first sewing project. She is 4. You should know this about Heidi. We bought one of those infrared box heaters for our attic (playroom/sewing room), and Heidi named it. Peter the Heater.

Esther: Part 1

I snapped this photo of my friend Rachel's daughter Esther when they were visiting this summer, and I'm getting ready make an oil painting of it. To me this image is irresistable - the hat, her sly look, the bright colors - I have to paint it. So I've never done this before, but I'm taking photos of each step of the process and I'm going to post them here.

1) The original

2) Cropped to fit a long narrow canvas, which seemed to suit this compostion

3) Black and white

4) In photoshop, removing some of the unnecessary elements, the cross, the cup, the table in the background

5) Changed to outlines in photoshop so I can print what I'm going to sketch. This makes it so much easier!

6) Added my grid

7) My actual rough sketch on the canvas. It's pretty light.

8) In photoshop, I removed the stripes from the shirt, changed it to green, and manipulated the background color. I also adjusted the shadows and highlights. All this could be done when I'm in the painting process, looking at the orginal, but I prefer to get it right in photoshop, print it out, then just paint what I see.

Next step - PAINT! Stay tuned for more.

Lyrebird

What Can Man

Dogs Playing Poker

I think I finished a painting! This one has been in the works for maybe over half a year...It was my first commissioned painting, so I had nothing to do with the subject matter. I will say that it's harder to paint that way, because you don't share the passion for the subject in the same way that your client does. However, it was still fun and challenging to paint all these different animals. By the way, this is not a copy of one of the C.M. Coolidge paintings. I only borrowed the concept - and one of the dogs. All the dogs are my originals except for the little English bulldog which I adapted from his painting, "A Friend in Need".

Walking Tour of Spiders in the Woods

This (or something pretty close to it) is going to be the cover for the album I'm working on. This is a really difficult process. It is hard to step out and do something you've never done before, even when you really want to. Sometimes there is nothing and no one to encourage you, other times encouragement comes freely. It is a shaky and uncertain venture. I have to keep forcing myself to move ahead, though I hear voices saying it's pointless, why am I even trying to accomplish this...

A Song with Heidi

Heidi wanted to record this song that she likes with me. It's "One Thing Remains". I love to hear little munchkin voices singing worship.

Watery Burn

Eggplant Man

Every once in a while, you find an eggplant that just has to be.....put out there, you know?

Laundry Room Door

A while ago my mom and I painted a peacock on the glass panels of an old door that we installed going from our dining room to a powder room. Jason and I remodeled our kitchen this year, and we had a door just like it going into the laundry room, which is always a mess. Since our kitchen now looks nice, I got tired of looking at the laundry room through it and painted the door. Then I scraped half of it off with a razor blade and painted it again. I think I like it now? Not sure yet. The peacock was so much easier because I ripped the design off of a tshirt. I made this one up myself, wanting to keep the same style but a different picture. So here it is...for now.

More Dresses

My sewing room is about to be occupied as living quarters for my brother's family in moving transition, so I got really motivated the other night to finish up some unfinished projects. Heidi is in Elephant Dress, which is for sale as a sewing kit at Mamma Made Designs. Elsie is in a dress that was a collaboration between me and Rachel Galloway. This is the only good photo I got, in between the bug-bite scratching and nose picking.

Old World Birds Dress

Here is my Old Worlds Bird dress on Elsie. Size 5. I can't help being inspired by my Slovak heritage. I've always loved their artwork and traditional dress. Coming soon, this will be available as a sewing kit at Mamma Made designs.

Our Kitchen is Finally Done!

We started remodeling back in November 2010 and our kitchen is finally finished. Here are the before through the after photos with all the messy details in between.

Starting with the old...

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