Monthly Archives: July, 2010
An easy way to add personalized touches to your home is to create little vignettes on window sills, shelves, tables…any flat surface
Shelves
An easy way to add personalized touches to your home is to create little vignettes on window sills, shelves, tables…any flat surface is fair game for this type of decorating. It could be a group of like items such as collection of “outdoorsy” type books on a sofa table…
a few Mason jars filled with beans or other dry foods on a buffet shelf…
a hodge podge of cutesy things on a laundry room shelf…
a grouping of ducks and clay birds in a lodge themed setting…
Or a simple houseplant arranged with a few bird houses and knick knacks on a bathroom windowsill…
It makes no difference what the subject matter is, these little vignettes help to accessorize and personalize your space while adding pleasant decorative touches that can be changed with the seasons or just with your mood. These are the things that help make your house a home.
It’s a great time to get ouside and especially early in the day before the heat gets too intense. See what nature has to offer…
Alien caterpillar?
the big guy...
So I was coming back from a walk yesterday and this big guy was just crossing the sidewalk into the front lawn. He looked like some alien caterpillar. He’s probably going to be a Luna Moth but I’ll have to consult our family expert on the subject of insects, my great nephew, Tommy. While the other kids on the ball team are looking bored in between innings, he is looking under second base to see what creepy crawlies might be in residence there! And further more, he knows what their names are!! Oh, and by the way, he’s only 7! lol. We can always learn something from the younger generations, right?
Do you have a collection (like me) that you really enjoy sharing with others? I would love to showcase your collection right here…
Collections…
Scotties on parade
Do you have a collection, big or small? I guess we all have an inclination to collect certain things that appeal to us just for the pleasure of looking at them. Just for the smile they put on our face. Just for the memories they evoke. I have more than one such collection but probably the largest collection of like objects I have would be my Scottie Dog collection. I have many Scottie Dog figurines but I also have Scotties on picture frames, Christmas ornaments, key rings, a juice glass, ash trays, a woman’s compact, a cigarette lighter, magnets, charms, a sewing thimble, a wooden box, a crocheted doily, a box of nails, a coin bank, door stops, a draft dodger, a pen, a hair barette, cookie cutters, wine bottle stoppers and umpteen pieces of Scottie jewelry, mostly pins. I’m sure there are more things that I have forgotten (my night shirt, for example) but you get the picture! And of course, every Christmas my hubby gets me a Scottie Dog calendar. I sort of stopped actively looking for Scottie Dogs but every once in a while, at the flea market or a garage sale, I’ll come across something that is vintage Scottie and I can’t resist having it! My Hubby built the shelf above my office window for displaying the bigger pieces and I have 4 other displays of Scotties haning on my office walls. They are here and there on the book shelves and there are also Scottie sun catchers in several windows of my house. I really enjoy looking at them and remembering who gave them to me or where I found them and my cleaning lady just LOVES dusting them! (Sorry, Donna) Of course my favorite Scottie collectibles have been the real live Scotties of my life: MacTavish (Tavi), Angus (Gus), Maggie and Fergus.
Do you have a collection that you would like to share with us? If so, send an e-mail with attached photos to artbymaron@gmail.com and I will showcase your collection right here too!
Our friend, Leah from from over at Creative Every Day reminds us that life has many layers so I got to thinking about some days that life had just brought little rays of sunshine into my life. These are layers of happiness…
layers of life
Our friend, Leah from www.creativeeveryday.com reminds us that life has many layers so I got to thinking about some days that life just brought little rays of sunshine into my life. Like a gathering of friends watching a local Fireman’s parade together …
Or the day my brother came by to show me his new “toy”! It was so totally out of character for him to go out and get this little red car that at first I didn’t believe it was his. I was so proud of him for following a dream and just being spontaneous!
Or the day I sneaked up on my hubby as he was just sitting on a bench taking a break from planting his veggie garden…
Or how about this shot of what that garden looks like this morning…
And one last layer. A shot of the little cousins swimming together at a recent family reunion at Promised Land State Park. It doesn’t get much better than this…
Enjoy the layers of your life!!
My favorite project from the workshop I recently attended was a picture book spread based on the beloved childhood poem, “The Owl and the Pussycat” by Edward Lear.
And they danced by the light of the moon…
the owl & the pussycat
I think this was my favorite assignment of the recent workshop that I attended because it was more like what I really went there for and that was illustrating skills. For this project, we were given a manuscript to illustrate. (Mine was the old children’s poem, “The Owl and the Pussycat”). We had to draw a lot of thumbnail sketches on a big piece of drawing paper depicting the different “scenes” that popped into our heads as we read the manuscript. We then presented our sketches to the group and after a group discussion, decided (based on the input of everyone) which thumbnail we should develop into a spread for a picture book. I was encouraged by the instructor to do it as a collage. So I did a background of watercolor on heavy watercolor paper and overlayed it with rice paper which had a lot of texture to it for the ground. The rice paper was done with colored pencils. The moon and the characters were done with watercolor and cut out from heavy drawing paper and the trees were done on tracing paper with colored pencils and then cut out. I had done three trees in different colors on the tracing paper just to see which color I liked best but everyone thought I should just cut them out and use all three so that’s what I did. I wouldn’t advise using tracing paper for this though as it curls when you apply the collage medium to adhere it to the background. I did manage to get it smooth enough in the end though. If I had it to do over again however, I would have used watercolor paper and done the trees in various shades on one color only. Sometimes you just have to go with your gut instinct. Now if an editor said to go with three colors, on the other hand, then that is what I would do. At any rate, I did like the way it came out and I did learn a few things along the way. Of course I did also manage to confuse myself further by taking this course and have been stuck in creative”limbo” ever since. But that’s a story for another day…
