Flutter And Flowers

Bears and painting!  Website update soon!

Hugs, K.

Wild Flowers

I painted some wild flowers. This will be my first ever painting offered for sale. It's 11 X 14, acrylic on canvas. $115, including US shipping. If you would like to have the very first one....e-mail me!

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    Hugs, Kelly

Water Lilies

I am still painting.  I saw some water lilies in Denver this weekend and I was inspired.  It may not be Monet, but it was fun and I kinda like it!

Hugs, K.

Getting Closer...

I think I am on the right track maybe...but tomorrow it's all about bears!

Painting Again...

Well I have managed to use a little more wild abandon, but...I still need more work!

Starfish

Long ago when I was in college I used to paint.  Mostly water color, but I was quite good at it.  

That was a long time ago!  

Recently I have rediscovered my love of painting but I am not good at it any more. I got it into my head that I wanted to paint a starfish.  I have no idea why.  I just did.

Now that it's done I have realized something interesting about myself and my work...I need to let go more.  Things are too centered and too meticulous.  I think painting should have a wild abandon sort of element to it.  I guess we won't be selling this one.  

I need to find that free and wild part of me.  I rather suspect I need to find that part of me with the bears too.  I have known I have been too meticulous and restrained for too long.  It's that constant struggle to let things evolve naturally and yet have perfection.  Those two things don't go hand in hand.

It's really no wonder artists drive themselves crazy!

More paintings and bears to come...stay tuned.

Hugs, Kelly 

Website Update And Other Stuff

I apologize for not posting since I returned from my trip.  It's been a flurry of activity around here!  I am nearly overwhelmed.  But let me back up a bit first...

I will start with Thursday before last.  R was out of town, and it was bitterly cold and snowy.  As I have told you before I am the clumsiest person ever.  It was evening, and I was walking across the floor.  That's it, just walking across the floor and I lost my balance and fell down.  I felt a searing pain in my knee.  But I shrugged it off thinking it was a momentary thing.  By 2 AM I was tempted to go to the ER the pain was so great.  But it was cold...snowy...2 AM...and I was home alone so I chose not to go.  I decided it would probably be better by the next day.  I was wrong.  It's still bothering me.  I never did go to the doctor.  I suppose I should have.  But it will heal eventually.  It's slowing me down in all the things I want to get done though.

I left the following Monday for Montana.  I had a lovely visit with my parents.  We didn't get to do quite all the things my Mom wanted to do because of my knee, but that was ok with me.  I went to visit them, not run around and do stuff.

While I was gone R was painting the living room and foyer.  I always have to go away when he does house repairs or renovations.  I have some sort of odd defect that I cannot stand to watch people do things that involve tearing things up and making a mess.  I can tear things up and make a mess and it doesn't bother me a bit.  I am just an odd little ball of contradictions...what can I say!  *grins* 

When I got home it was completely shocking. You can stare at paint chips all you want, and it never gives you a real indication what it's going to look like. It's much brighter than I had imagined. Of course I have been staring at white walls for 12 years. I like it, but it's really bright.  Of course everything had been removed from the walls and furniture so I had nothing to break it up when I first saw it.  I have been slowly but surely putting everything back.

I have also been slowly but surely working in between putting everything back.  I wish I could focus on one thing and then the other, but my knee won't allow it so I keep switching between putting things back, cleaning and working.  I have a bear in progress, a lamb cut out and several ideas for new things.  This means hopefully a whole new animal or two!  Also there should be a new snowman or two, for those of you who like to collect them from me.  So I am going to have a small website update on the 2nd of December with some holiday pieces for you!  I used Marzipan in the pic above (she has been adopted already) since I don't have anything new ready just yet, but I will be giving you sneak peeks as I go along.  Stay tuned for those!

In the mean time have a lovely day, and I am off to work some more!

Hugs, K.

Happy, Grumpy & Reminder

Despite what you may think, this is not a post about dwarfs...Snow White is no where in sight.  But lets go ahead and start with grumpy and get that out of the way.  Then we can move on to happy things!

Ok so I am feeling a bit grumpy about Etsy.  I haven't made a post about Etsy in years, but I really do need to get this off my chest.  I don't rely on Etsy much, but I figure for 20 cents a pop, it's worth it as an online portfolio to reach people who might not see me otherwise.  I like to shop on Etsy sometimes though.  They implemented a feature a while back where they had suggested items from your favorite shops on the front page.  It was great.  I really liked seeing what people whose work I like and buy, have made recently.  It certainly prompted me to buy a few things that I might not have.  It was also handy for the girl on the go.  Plus my own page views have dropped by about 95%.  But with this new person in charge they have removed it.  Apparently the thinking is that people should pay for extra advertising. Money hungry little buggers.  They also removed the pounce and a couple other features that were effective.   On top of that they have removed the just listed section!!!  This seems so counter intuitive to me.  They were still making a profit from the items sold, probably more than they will on the items sold through people who will pay to advertise.  So why...why Etsy...WHY?  I am not going to pay for advertising through them.  I just do not understand this cut off your nose to spite your face line of thinking they constantly employ.  Ok small rant over...now on to the fun stuff!

Now for the happy!  YAY!  As you see I have posted a pic of my dining room.  (Penelope snuck into the pic under the chair...I didn't even notice.)  This weekend we finally...FINALLY started redoing the house.  R painted the walls.  Isn't it lovely!  He also bought me a new china cabinet which I need to put the stuff back into.  But that's for tomorrow.  Today I have to put up Halloween decorations.  I also want to repaint the painted part of the chairs white. 

When I used to live in a condo I dreamed of the day when I had a house and could decorate it any way I wanted.  I had a million ideas.  But when we moved into this house 12 years ago the trouble was I had a million ideas!  I couldn't settle on anything.  So a while back R put his foot down and said pick something woman it's time!  I am so glad he did.  I had forgotten how much I love color.  Of course we are both Leo's so naturally we have to have warm colors.  I don't care for cool colors in my home. 

When I go to visit my parents in a couple weeks he is going to do the living room and kitchen.  I can't wait.  It's going to be beautiful!  I already have ideas for the bedroom and the downstairs too.  My house is going to be fabulous!  At least I think so.

Lastly I want to give you a reminder...tomorrow night is the drawing for Caution Mouse so be sure to enter if you haven't already!

Have a lovely day!  Hugs, K. <3

Edit:  One trip to World Market later and we have new chair cushions, lantern and placemats!

Sneak Peek And A Reprieve

I have been so stressed this week you have no idea.  I have been trying to get everything done before I left on Monday to go visit my Mom.  While I was looking forward to seeing my parents, I was not looking forward to the two day drive.  Especially when I had to finish mice and pumpkins and decorate for Halloween and pack all my things from my china cabinet and curio cabinet and pack my clothes for the trip and clean...and do a mountain of laundry...and...sigh~

When I got up this morning I knew I wasn't going to get it all done.  Ok well I could have if I didn't want to sleep from now until then, but I am sort of fond of having a little sleep because it makes me more alert and functional and just generally more pleasant.  So I finally broke down and called my Mom and told her I wasn't going to leave until Tuesday. 

Why all the packing you ask?  Well because R was going to take the week off and paint while I was gone.  Why was I driving you wonder?  I have things I wanted to take to my Mom and flying wasn't an option to get them there.

But my Mom said they were going to come around the beginning of December so she could pick stuff up then.  And she suggested perhaps I shouldn't come at all.  But I felt bad.  I had promised to come and I don't like to break a promise.

So since I don't have to take all sorts of things now, I am flying!  But not for three weeks.  Which lifted a weight right off my shoulders.  Now I have time to get everything done properly and then go!  YAY!  Plus it also means I can actually stay longer at their house.  YAY!

Now about this sneak peek and pumpkin by candlelight you see above...well when I posted the last group of pieces I had done, my little pumpkin man was adopted within five minutes.  I know a lot of you e-mailed about him and were disappointed you missed him.  So I have two more.  They aren't dressed yet, but they will be later today and posted then.  I just thought I would give you a heads up that they are coming!  Until then...I am going to go off to bed.

Hugs, K <3

Just Another Neurotic Episode From The Life Of An Artist

Some years ago R and I decided to redecorate the guest room. We got a lovely daybed, quilts, some beautiful book cases, a vintage table and a tiffany lamp. We wall papered the room in a nice floral to give it a warm homey feel. We also decided to put in new carpet. We found a discontinued piece of very thick velvety pile at a good price and R bought the whole roll.

As it turned out there was enough on the roll to also do my work room next door. I decided that if R was going to put new carpet in the work room, I wanted to fresco paint it first. I thought a nice rich carmelly parchment look would be just the thing since I don't really care for cool colors in my house. I like it to have a warm feeling. I painted the ceiling and the doorways a periwinkle. Now I am sure that might sound odd...but I wanted it to look like Mexico under a night sky. It's very pretty.

Little did I know what I was in for when I started the project. Now when you have been in business nearly 3 decades you tend to amass a lot of supplies for your work. I am never going to run out of lace, silk flowers, ribbons, buttons, findings, beads and a whole assortment of other doodads...not ever. Then of course I have the basic bear components which include hardware, mohair by the tubs full, stuffing supplies, etc. On top of all that my work room also houses my bear collection, dozens of books, a dress makers dummy, a small scale version of stone henge, a castle and a whole host of other curiosities. Oh yeah...and my sewing machine and work table, a pie safe, desk and hutch, several trunks and an amoire.

By the time I got it all boxed up, the room painted with paint that R bought which was a nice paint...but didn't really lend itself to fresco painting and reduced me to tears of frustration a couple times, carpet put in and everything unpacked and put back, it took three months.

I organized everything nicely when I put it away. Before that it was sort of stored in shelves and boxes and drawers in a rather neat but eclectic way. I knew where every single thing I owned was too. Since I organized it years ago I haven't been able to find a thing I want when I want it.

Yesterday I finally decided it was time to clean up the work room again. In particular the closet. *Bangs her head on the desk for a moment* I took half the stuff out of my overly full closet and realized with horror that I am never going to get it all back in. (Ok I will but it's quite intimidating to have it all out) The closet is full of plastic tubs filled with mohair and ribbons and other supplies, and my very large assortment of hat boxes. There are also bags of things...tulle, crinkle paper, velvet fruits, unpainted wooden boxes, hats, doll clothes, and the list goes on. Most of those things are in multiple colors or large groups because I had an idea at the time I bought them.

Some of those ideas came to fruition and some haven't...yet. When I put it all back the first time I thought it would be easy to find if I grouped like things together. I was wrong. Apparently my brain can't process such a concept. I am going to have to figure out a new system that will allow me to find what I want. Maybe if I colorize things like my clothes closet...I never have any trouble finding what I want in there.

I have considered making nice groupings of supplies in little boxes or bags and selling them in my Etsy shop. My only concern with doing that is the moment I sell something I am sure I will find out a week later I needed that particular thing.
I guess I will decide once I start putting it all back and can fully assess what I have.

My dream is to have a little stone cottage out back, separate from the house where I can work and keep all my stuff. Even though it never spills over into the rest of the house, I would like to have something I design the way I want it with shelves, cupboards and everything I need to stay organized and find what I want easily.

I should have worked on it tonight, but somehow watching a little TV and making this blog post seemed much more appealing. Sigh~