the art nest

its up!! the art nest website designed by my incredibly talented niece rachelle is up and running today. there is still a bit more tweaking to do. i never realized how much work went into starting a new business and launching a website! candice and i will be hosting our first art retreat at a cabin in the mountains of park city, utah June 20-24th. we are so thrilled to have three amazing artists coming to teach.

if you haven't seen misty mawns gorgeous paintings check out her blog. such lovely work and an amazing person. nina bagley first introduced me to misty at the last art and soul retreat in portland. i am so excited misty has started teaching and can't wait to take her 'spontaneous art' class.

sally jean alexander just published a beautiful book 'pretty little things'. she will be teaching collaging and soldering in her class 'the gothic pendant'. sally jean will also be the guest artist at a trunk show at one of my favorite stores dear lizzie in highland while she is here in utah. i can't wait to see in person more of her lovely, sparkling work.


kristin steiner is the third artist that will be teaching at the retreat. she is a fabric artist that has been working in mixed media art for the past 6 years. i adored 32 artful playthings that was on the cover of cloth, paper, scissors in spring 2006. she will be teaching the class 'i am a woman who' a fabric book that incorporates dying, stamping, layering and collaging with fabric.

you can see more of what is happening with the art nest here.
leave a comment, i would love to know what you think of the website!

spring secrets

i am working on a spring secrets round robin book exchange with four other artists, lilia, melissa, kari , and cassondra . our books will travel around to each artist to work in, then return home at the end of june. my inspiration came all in one day when i found the carved book box from italy (see earlier post for the before picture) and a lovely book called 'a bouquet of flowers'. i picked up both for $1.00. inspiration comes in small packages sometimes. to get us started before we start sending our books out we did a little spring trade. here is a close-up of what i am sending out to the gals.

this darling little art-to-go portfolio was made by the piggy story. i am making a little covered book to go with the crayon folio for my little artist. she can't wait to get her hands on those brand new crayons. magic.

art night

it was art night on thursday, such a fabulous evening! we met at amandas house. this is a picture of her studio right inside the front door. gorgeous high ceilings with shelves that go all the way up. the amazing blue desk was rescued from outside where it was a carpentry bench. amanda painted and distressed it. the giant idea board takes up most of the wall and has so many cool things to look at.
amanda put together the little buckets full of goodies for each of us.

of course dinner was so delicious! the husbands are wondering if we are really getting together for the food and not the art.
these cupcakes from dear lizzie were scrumptious. nothing like a dark chocolate cupcake with creamy chocolate frosting.
love the sweet wrappings and little egg nests on top.

the pictures i took of us at midnight were really terrible. why don't i just get one of all of us in the beginning when we still look cute? so here is rena, the only picture of any of us that looks great.

two new art gals came this week, cathy and jacqueline. that makes nine of us. i wrote in my blog only last year how much i wished for an art group like this. well if you are out there and want an art group in your area start one! we started out small and needed a little boost but here we are. we are actually hosting our own art retreat in june, more details later but wowie, the teachers are going to knock your socks off.
cathy brought her line of milk paint to demo for us and i think we bought everything she had. the powdered paint is so cool, i am planning to paint over my italy box for the spring secrets RR i am working on. you can mix it to any consistency and even use it with pva glue. can't wait to play. check out her site at Vintage Paint Works. she has some very cool online tutorials for working with milk paint on many surfaces, plus some great free downloads of vintage ephemera.


i am totally busy working on the art retreat website and blog, can't wait to post everything. J.

fun mail

it has been so fun to open the boxes and packages that have come from Klutz in the mail the past couple of weeks. when i work on a book i can't really post anything about the projects i have designed until the book is published. then when the book arrives months later i am always so surprised and pleased at how everything turned out!

i had fun working on the scoubidou book, such funky colors and projects it looks like a bubblegum rainbow. the lacing stuff is much cooler than the old flat lanyard plastic that people used to make keychains out of. Karen Phillips did a wonderful job putting this book together.

paper purses is a darling little book i worked on for tiny girls. ready to decorate little paper purses with all the sparkly stuff to glue on. i loved the punch outs to go inside the purses illustrated by Nancy Wolff-money, stamps, lipstick, keys, sunglasses, and cards.
very sweet.



then for the big surprise, here is the wendy's kids meal toy that will be out some time this month based on my rescue trucks book. the little cars for the kids meal are magnets that move around on a little track. i guess we will be headed out to wendy's for frostys and kids meals!

easter chicks

i have chicks on the brain.

every year i bring home a little batch of chicks to raise, then when they are jumping out of their box we send them to live at the farm.
chicks do not like their pictures taken. peep, peep, where are the other chicks? i finally set him in this little rasberry basket so he would hold still for a minute. i found a whole stack of these vintage berry baskets at a yard sale last week.

these chicks were at borders for 2.99 for the dozen. so very cute and tiny.

i stuck one in stacies basket. a little thank you for saving the day on monday. the pink bunny looks a bit demented.


after the big princess party livi fell asleep on the couch with her crown still on. she looks like an angel when she is sleeping.

my favorite find yesterday for 50 cents was this carved book box from italy. the cover is wired on and opens to an opening just waiting for a handmade book.

just hatched

just hatched these tiny chicks. i cut out an even half dozen, still working on the other two. they kept me busy this weekend while i was sick. i also finished these eggs, one for each of my children. now i have to think of something wonderful to put inside.

i found these vintage egg shaped salt and pepper shakers at the antique store and filled them up with more of my glass glitter collection. the three tiered vintage jewelry box i thought would be a good home for my vintage necklaces and flocked japanese silk scarfs.


so i rescued this piece from the trash, bat girl hates it. i love the colors and the weather/mood spectrum. if you live with a teenager i am sure you can relate!!

pastel easter

i ordered some mache eggs from blumchens this year and have been waiting for a time to decorate them. easter is only a week away so time to get busy. this is my first egg in a nest of crepe paper garland.
lots of pastel lovlies to be had this week as the yard sale season has begun again. so many pretty old things, where am i going to put all this stuff?

the easter bonnet i bought for the flowers. tons of the tiny velvet ones that i like to use. the lace dress is the one great grandma wore to aunt peggys wedding 50 years ago. i have the matching hat in a pale hat box shaped in an octagon.

new ribbons from my shopping day on tuesday. had to wrap them up so i could look at them on my desk.
this whole bag of crotchet and tatting threads was $1, the pale blue 3 tier jewelry box was also$1. i feel wonderful about buying this stuff because i know it is going to a good home and i will use it!

i have been thinking today about all the friends i know who are at artfest right now having such an amazing week. i have been to art and soul and loved the whole experience, can't wait to go to artfest next year!

random house

i bought this book last year at art and soul vendors night and have been waiting for the right inspiration to hit me.
i have decided it will be my random house, an address book of all things houseful. . .
i didn't paint over the cover as i liked the original blue and yellow fabric of the book so much. i've decided it will be my lucky book since the vintage piece of shamrock lace was found on st. patricks day. i think i would like a giant shamrock growing outside my window.

art for the day. . .

all the gals met for our art group on thursday and i decided to make a day of it.
candice and i headed out for lunch and then shopped some antique stores for some great junk.
here is the stack of suitcases she got to organize her cool stuff in her studio closet, $40! i took the shot right in the antique mall by the checkout, so they thought i was a bit weird.


the crazy quilt would make a great apron we decided.
candice also got a great bag of sewing stuff for a dollar and she let me have the tomato pincushion that for some reason i felt like i had to turn it into a pumkin yesterday.


art night was spent looking through marilyn's cool alphabet book she is working in, tasting desserts(ok, so we might need to plan the pot luck thing if we all bring desserts) and making crotched rings from sherri's book.

we only started taking photos at midnight so sorry marilyn we did not get one of us all. we made some great plans to meet next month and then started working on plans for a cabin art retreat this summer up by Park City. i can't wait to see which teachers say yes they will come!! oh and i know this is not the best photo, what do you expect with the camera propped on a cake stand, but look at the smiles ladies. thank you for really making our art group work, it is such a dream for me.


then saturday we went a little crazy after eating lucky charms for breakfast to celebrate st patricks day and went a bit green. love you both!

easter eggs

lame, i havent been able to upload photos for a bit. blogger had a tiny vacation i think.
i found these two vintage german paper mache eggs this past weekend out junking. inside the eggs is the most beautiful, fragile paper lace surrounding little images of chicks and eggs.


i love the vintage wire egg basket from a yard sale years ago. back then i bought it even though i couldn't think of a thing to do with it. i usually have it on my deep window sill with an ostrich egg inside. the wire basket folds inside out to make several different shapes. it is really rather bizzare.


i sent a trade off to dorte in denmark this week. the paper for the tag and trim pack are from Cosmo Cricket the dutch girl:sofie line. such wonderful designs and colors. i sent off a few of my favorite blue, red, and cream trims and a small flower girl postcard i made from the paper quilt image.

infestation

vintage doll pantaloons nicely moth eaten.
sewn and burned collage.

so maybe i'll start a new group called 'termite art'
the outward expression of the inward horror of having your house eaten from the inside out!
i honestly couldn't believe how fast i whipped out this piece. wonderful to channel some of my frustration into something tangible. the burning felt very satisfying.

i am not a squeamish person. i was not the one tearing the house apart when the blow snake i caught and brought home escaped out of its cage. i have an extensive insect collection, i never scream when i see an enormous spider, and i even raised monarch caterpillars once.
but this termite infestation has me freaked out!
we have heard them at night eating the walls. at first we thought it was mice. i am actually sparing you the very gory close-up photographs of the carnage because i don't want my site tagged for censorship. oh yeah baby, no pretty pastel chickies on this post today.

peep.

feeling like spring today, thought i would drop by to introduce you to one of my favorite peeps.
i started a little series of easter baskets 3 inches tall using vintage trims, wallpaper, and hankies. i am inviting 12 ladies in my neighborhood over this month to dinner and to make a bit bigger version of these baskets for an easter gift. after i get the invites made and the kit ready i'll give you a peep.
happy spring, Julie