Huge update on my crazy life!

Wow, I know it has been a long time since I have had any time at all to sit down and write, let alone take a breather. So much has changed in my life in the last few months that I hardly know where I am most of the time.

About 2 1/2 months ago my husband and I took the responsibility of fostering 2 children in our home. Krystine is 4 years old and her baby brother, Damien, is 4 months old. It has been so long since either of us have had any small children around, and we have found out first hand what it is like having children at an older age. WOW! I wish I could bottle some of the children's energy and inject it into me!

Here is a current picture of my husband, Randy, and the kids on Father's day.

When the children came to live with us, we broke down my art studio and packed most everything up in boxes to store in the basement temporarily. My art room is now Krystine's bedroom and personal space. I have missed my creative time very much and slowly but surely I am converting a section of the basement into my new space. I can really understand how new mother artist's feel when trying to balance everything and still have some personal art time to themselves! But there is light at the end of this tunnel. With the passing of time, I am seeing our new family routines starting to take hold and more free time is starting to appear here and there. All I need now is some more energy to create art in those moments of free time!

On another note...I am excited to announce that I created an assemblage art piece to submit to a juried show in a Chicago gallery a few months ago, and it was accepted! My husband and I are flying up to Chicago for the artist's opening reception at the Woman Made Gallery in Chicago on June 29th. The exhibition, titled "Some Assembly Required", will last about a month. The piece that I created is called "Empty Nest", and is approximately 26 inches tall and 23 inches wide. When I created this piece, I wanted to capture the essence of a woman who values family and home and has gone through the process of her children leaving the nest, but now has the opportunity to spread her own wings and finish growing up herself.

I will post some pictures of the art gallery when I return from Chicago. I am almost as excited at the prospect of a few days alone with my husband without children as I am at having my art piece accepted.

More to follow later!

Playing Catch-up Again...

What a wonderful weekend!


The weather was gorgeous for the most part, and it was so nice to have the windows open to the outside without being too hot or too cold. I really love working in my art space with the window wide open. (Besides, it keeps my 3 cats interested in something other than what I am doing on my art table!)


I was able to get a new piece finished over the weekend. It is a great feeling when I finish a piece and I know it is finally done (and I won't let myself do anything more to it). This piece is called "Once Upon A Time" and it incorporates my favorite things...vintage imagery, birds, and a little whimsy. I created this collage in a 9 x 12 unfinished shadow box frame that I painted and added decorative paper to. The frame is about 2 inches deep and I have a tiny nest and egg resting inside. (Not a real egg of course!) The golden metal crown on the young princess is 3-D, as is the tiny dragonfly.
Well, I'm off to work on some new ideas for art pieces.

Before I sign off...here is another vintage photo for this week.
This is another of my ancestors. (I often wonder what they were thinking while these pictures were being taken.)
Hope you enjoy the day!

hugs,
Chris

Another Monday here again...

Where DOES the time go?!

Well, I am sending out happy productive thoughts to everyone for another great week to come! I am desperately trying to finish an art piece that is due on Wednesday, so I will be burning the midnight oil for sure. I hope everyone had a wonderful St. Patty's Day! I sure did...I went to my brothers annual corn beef and cabbage dinner at his home. He sure loves that corned beef! I guess I am still trying to acquire a taste for it, but I love that cabbage!



Here is another ancestor photo from my family scrapbook.
That is my grandmother on the right posing with her two girlfriends. It looks like they are out touring old buildings in whichever city they are in. Just love those hats!

Well, back to the grind. Have a creative week everyone!

Finally Friday!...

Good Friday morning! My favorite day of the week! Last night my hubby and I saw the new movie "Wild Hogs" at the cinema. I have to say that I wasn't expecting too much and I was very pleasantly surprised. It was a hilarious movie and had us laughing the whole time. I highly recommend this movie to anyone who wants a good laugh and some light-hearted fun.
I am looking forward to starting on a new art piece this weekend for an upcoming gallery show. I love it when I have an idea already in my head that I can't stop thinking about and I know that I will have to develop the idea into reality. I often wonder if the end results will resemble the image I have in my head. Sometimes it is totally different from the first images I imagine, but that is fun too. I will post the finished piece when it is finally completed, so stay tuned!

Here is another of my ancestor pics for this week. Have fun creating and I would love to see results! This is a wonderful photograph of my grandparents on their wedding day. Don't you just love the warm Sepia colors of this old photograph?!

Tell me Tuesday...

Well, the weekend didn't go as planned. Hubby was sick, so no winery tours. I did get to do something different that was just as good if not better. I went to my "favorite" antique shop and spent a couple of hours browsing (and a little spending too). We have a lot of antiques malls here, but my favorite is a place called "Treasure Aisles". They have the coolest old stuff there! I wanted to show what I found there over the weekend.

Isn't this the cutest 3 tiered wire basket?! The paint is a cream color and it very worn. I am tossing all kinds of ideas around in my head on what I would like to display in it. I wonder where this piece has been and what it was being used for by the prior owners. I have definitely been drawn to the shabby chic look lately.

Here is a pic of an ornate looking piece that I picked up at the antique shop. It is very heavy (wrought iron) painted in a cream color with chips in the paint and some little rust spots. I am assuming that it is a candle holder and if it isn't, well...it is now. I have to find the perfect candles to put in this piece. I just love the old look of it and the fact that it is very heavy too.

Speaking of shabby chic...I found these really cute linen panels on sale at Michael's Crafts. They have a strip of see-through white chiffon type of material at the bottom with little pink flowers embroidered on with pale blue thread. My problem was how to hang them since they were already the perfect length, but did not have any loops or top sewn to go on a curtain rod. I wanted to keep in the shabby chic look so I decided to improvise. I got silver binder clips and 2 inch paper rings from the office supply store and made my own curtain clips. I love how they turned out and they really go well on the window in my art studio.

Over the past year, I have been collecting some old door knobs that were salvaged from very old buildings and homes. I have always wanted to do some kind of wall art to show them off. I finally starting taking the knobs out and putting them together to display. Here are some pics of the things I am working on using the old door knobs.
This was an unfinished wooden shelf that I added small plaques to in different shapes. I painted the shelf and attached different door knobs that were metal and marble to the little plaques. I decided not to touch up the knobs at all and left them chipped and scratched.

I also framed 2 of the door knobs in their original door handle plates with a couple of skeleton keys. The frame was an unfinished wood shadow-box that I painted. I am trying to get these pieces to coordinate so that I can put them in a grouping on my livingroom wall.


I also found this really cool old padlock on ebay with a working key and decided to add it to my wall grouping. I framed it in a small shadow box frame with glass covering it. I mounted the lock and the door knobs on decorative papers in the background.



Well, that is enough show and tell for today. I love to hear about fantastic finds in antique malls and vintage shops, so let me hear about your wonderful vintage adventures!

Happy Friday!

Yippee! Friday once again! I am really looking forward to this weekend because my hubby doesn't work all weekend and we can do some serious socializing. We are thinking of doing the winery route this weekend. There are some fabulous wineries in Missouri, almost too many to count, and Missouri wines are really VERY good. If you are ever visiting in the midwest area and especially in Missouri, check out our many wonderful wineries especially in the Spring and Fall. Not only is the wine great, but the scenery is gorgeous!
My only regret when planning a full weekend is that I will be away from my art studio, but I think I almost love wine as much as I do my art!

Here is a little piece I made while playing in my art studio a few days ago. It started out as an idea from the cool little image of the vintage children, and just ended up the way it is. It just sort of evolved all by itself. Hope you enjoy it!

Hey there stranger! Long time no see!

Gee, it's certainly been a while since I have been online and relating. (Sorry, life just got in the way...as it has a habit of doing. Very intense family stuff happening lately, but hopefully things will quiet down a little.) I actually think I am having artistic withdrawals. Do you think they'll allow that one to be covered by insurance?!


I recently finished this new little piece that I am listing on my website for sale.
It is called "Nature's Beauty". It is created
on a 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 x 1 inch wooden board.
I love the vintage image of this little guy.
You can't see it in the image here, but there
is a cotton twill tape measure border around
the edge of the wooden board.








It has been a while since I have posted one of my ancestor photos here for use in your art work, so I went through my stash of photographs and found one of my favorites. Isn't this a "gee whiz...neat-o nifty" picture?! This was when school was grand and school spirit was even grander! That is my grandfather second from the left, and the banner they are holding reads "Missouri School For The Deaf".

Well, that's all for today.
Happy Creating!