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.