New art project & vacation shots

Let me introduce you to Edna Rose!

I have been on vacation and haven't done much of art and so last night

there was a moment and I just had to do something with this idea I had.

Now I'm not sure if you remember from my past posts {I think it was in the winter time I posted that},

but I love the show Downton Abbey and while I was watching it I sketched some of the

brilliant costumes and styles of the women from that show.

And I always wanted to do something further with the sketches, but didn't know what and then it hit me yesterday while looking at books and mags at the book store. 

I wanted to sew and of course paint too!

So went home and got started

Had a ton of fun making her and soon she'll have some lady friends joining her...

After I get back from my second half of our vacation that is.

For the first half of our vacation this year I dropped out of our annual canoe trip and instead stayed here at home while my dear friend Sandra came to visit, and although we technically stayed here, 

we were every where but here, we were all over the map within the Ottawa Valley and Quebec areas.

We drove around to all different small villages and towns, and we walked and checked out little shops,

did antiquing, eating in little local cafes and restaurants and of course did a ton of photography.

This is the best of having a dear friend like Sandra, she loves and goes same crazy as me about things like old barns, textures and colours {same with antiques, washi tape, fabrics, art supplies... wine, good cheese, oh and lets not forget chocolate and did I mention wine?}...  

Well anything that speaks to us and we can spend hours doing this.

LOVE IT!!!!

Here is a just a few pictures from the bunch {there is a lot}

Just love all the colours!!

We found a lot of neat little places to visit, true gems, 

and the two of my favourites were the tiny village Old Chelsea in Quebec

and the town of Almonte that located in the Mississippi Mills area of the Valley, Ontario. Both so different from each other yet both taken same huge pride in the villages, their culture, nature and they are both very artsy. You find lots of inspiration when you go there.

So I'm leaving this post again with one more picture, and this one is with 

Edna Rose posing in front of Big Ben...  Its a cute vintage tea towel I found in Almonte

and I'm going to make that in to a large cushion cover for my studio.

Happy August everyone {where did July go?}

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Coming along...

Its slow, but its coming along and here is my first flags and garlands. These once are more with the old look and small details.

And here is one of the garlands, made with antique & newer lace, buttons and hand painted letters.

Detail shot "O"

And here is two pictures from my two last morning walks, I love fall walks with all the colours and crisp air.

And there is no doubt that winter is just around the corner, we have had frost and the Rowan trees are heavy with berries {I remember my parents predicting the upcoming winter by how much berries the trees would have, and most of the time they got it right}... And by the looks of things, well, it looks like I'll have to get a new shovel for Mr B.

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And working on more stuff...

I have been busy with getting my stuff ready for the art & craft show, still a bit behind... But I'm on the roll and trying to clip, snip, rip, stitch and paint as fast I can, main thing is that I'm having fun with it. I'm still working on garlands, these once are a bit different from the other once I'm working on. Fabric is a cotton linen blend and I love the natural look and texture of it.

Then I cut the edges.

Paint with acrylic {3 different whites}

And here they are drying... More to come later on : )

In between working both at the store and here at home, it was Thanks Giving weekend and the weather was fantastic. So we went out walking in parks and hiking in the bush, enjoying the crisp air, clear blue sky and the wonderful colours of fall.
I hope all of you had a great weekend.

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Been busy...

I have been away from posting and doing anything really fun "art wise", I was working on that project for a client (I think its done, just waiting to hear the okay from my client)... And then I got hit with a summer cold, I hate colds at best of days, but when its hot and humid... It really sucks to fight a cold. But much better now, and feeling a bit better too with having a project done. So I finally got to do some fun art, art just for me and its so relaxing.

Ink and water colour painting on "Strathmore" Bristol smooth paper, I just wanted to see how it would take the ink and water colours. Its different, not sure if I would use water colours on it again.

And then I did a bit of sewing, love working with different materials together {paper, string, lace, buttons and fabrics}... The big nest, is something I did for my silk cocoons to be stored in. The smaller nest is for a friend of mine, I was thinking about one of my favourite birds {Magpie} that I really miss here. In Sweden we had tons of them, but in our yard we had the funniest Magpie couple and they took stuff from us {and all shinny and blue things}. I love them and miss them terribly. And I made another pin again.

And I got time to do a wash, my new fabric that I got from Sweden... All 10 meters of it, now hanging outside drying and waiting for me to finally sew us some new curtains for our kitchen. The new banister on our deck came in handy : )

Now, on to my next project!!

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just because

Now that the kids are back down from their Easter sugar rush, I found some time for "Me Time" and I spent it by sewing (my therapy). I just love it, I find some scrap pieces of fabrics, lace and buttons and I just start to cut and sewing and after an hour or so, I had five button pins done. A few months back I saw something like it in a market and thought that I should give it a try, finally did it (not sure about the black one on bottom left, may have to re-do it)... But I had fun!!

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sweets, flowers,crafts & walks

It has been so far a good weekend, because the kids were home I didn't get much drawing or painting done, well none actually. But late Friday evening I did a bit of sewing while watching the opening for the Olympics (had to see what my tax money got spent on). I made this small flower with border (calling it X's & O's), never done blanket stitching before, so that was new... can you tell I never done that before? The striped fabric, I'm thinking of making a border and then use the flower fabric (that's in the flower) for the back, and make a pillow for my daughter's room.

Saturday, I finally got Charlie his new shoes (he injured his paw on salt, and they like to salt the streets around here)... Here you can see him sporting his new shoes, cool eh! (I know, he looks so impressed, not) I picked orange, not because it's one of my favourite colours, but so if they fall of I can spot them easier in the snow.

And here is the flowers my daughter picked out in store and the cake she made today for Valentine's day... It was important to her that we would have a cake today, I just feel sorry for her that the cake fell apart as she spread the icing on, but all the sugar and pink covered it up well : )

Now, I'm looking forward to a new week, and I have made up my mind that I have to have a "Art goal & challenge" for me, and it will be (beside from my work of illustrating and painting) that I have to sketch something each day. I need to do this for me... Now the question is, will I be able to do it, we see and I let you know. I hope all of you had a great weekend & Happy Valentine's Day

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Hearts, Love, Kisses, Hugs...

Wishing all of you a very Happy Valentine's Day, I hope your weekend will be blessed with lots of kisses and hugs...

I made this Valentine's garland for my daughter, she loves anything with hearts, pink and glitter. I found this cute frame and painted it white and I'm going to make to a cork board for her room so she can pin all her art work, pictures and what ever else a girl likes to collect (her old cork board has taken one too many pins and its falling apart). oxoxoxox

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wine bottle art

I'm trying on to get the right fabric bag for my wine bottle art, I like the fabric (linen cotton blend), but I still got the size wrong... Maybe there is something to the old saying... "measure twice cut once". But I'm happy with how the rest turned out, reminds me of spring.

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mid week, so much to do... side tracked again

Well its Wednesday again, and so far it has been a busy week. I just got two paintings (in ink and water colour) done and tonight I have to cut the matting and then frame them. On Friday I hand them in for a juried art show that will be coming up in mid February, due to them being in a juried show, I cant post them here yet.

But in between I had to let my self get a bit side tracked again, so I went out with a friend of mine (and as always its trouble when the two of us go out together, we never come home empty handed). I found this neat retro looking TV dinner plate, but instead of corn, meat and potatoes coming to mind, I thought more of needles, thread and buttons. Something to hold my small sewing stuff, so they don't go rolling of my table each time I work there. I thought that's pretty cute and hey, I got it on sale...

Then I sat down and just had to do something, so I made this small sewing kit for my bag... Because you never know when your pants will rip, a button will fly of or something needs to be kept together. I know it looks funny, its my first and I made it out of scrap pieces and without any patterns (all from top of my head).

Any how, back to work, or maybe I can side track a bit more : ) Hmmm, I wonder what I could make this time?

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patches found a home

Well, my little girl loved the patches and she wanted them in the frame that's in kitchen, and what a good idea that was... Perfect, or as what my girl calls it "romantic Paris".

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busy... got a bit side tracked

Hello everyone, I have been busy with painting, trying to get done for a art show (due date is just around the corner). And I have been busy with a gallery space that I coordinate for upcoming shows, there was one just this past weekend.

Any how, while painting I have to take breaks so the paint can dry in between, so I checked out a few blogs and got inspired (side tracked) and just had to sew something for my daughter (as pink is not my sons colour). I put together a few patches for a larger picture, a Valentine's day picture. I just cant get over how much fun it is to sew paper, fabrics and other things together. So far two patches, and we see what will come here after.

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agenda cover up

I just love my Moleskin agenda, but its a bit boring looking so I just had to spice it up a bit (and solve my problem of always losing my pen at the wrong time).

I made a simple sleeve (cover for my agenda, by using old fabric scraps, yarn (its the yellow under the green ribbon), ribbon and a old perfume pouch that is now housing my pen.

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wine bottle art

I wanted to post theses before, but with old computer problems I had to wait. As you know, I like to try out new materials and I just love sewing with mixed media. We went to a small gathering after the holidays, and I didn't want to just bring a bottle of wine as a hostess gift, so I found these old pages from a old 1930's games book and some left over fabrics and paper.



It turned out pretty good, so now I'm trying to put some together with less of the winter holiday look to them... Maybe something with greens and white, hmmm.

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