Do you Pinterest?
Would you like to win a lovely little pillow like this one, made by me, especially for you?
Here's whatcha need to do:
A special wedding is coming up in our family this summer, and I am in charge of the bridal shower invitations.
In keeping with my recent dictionary-page paintings, I decided to use the same technique for the invitations. I pulled the "W" page for the "canvas" of an original painting that carries out our "tea party" theme for the shower and recognizes the surname of the couple-to-be.
Today was such a lovely day to paint in the quiet of the afternoon (save for the happy bird songs out the back door). This is my view from my desk
The irises have just begun to open up and the hoards of peonies are covered in busy ants and buzzing bees.
I kinda like this little setup. Maybe the sewing machine will have to hibernate on the floor a little longer . . . .
This is, hands-down, the busiest week of my entire year--the week after which everything on my personal to-do list gets done: planning my cousin's bridal shower, spring cleaning, the launch of my daisy troop, weed-pulling exercise . . . . but until April 30, I will eat live and breathe "Spring Into Art."
I have helped coordinate this show, sponsored by the Friends of the Nappanee Public Library, for almost a dozen years. I'm the Library's PR department, so, in a round-about way, if people don't come, it's my fault. Help me out and drive on up or down or over--from wherever you are! I've been designing, printing, posting, outsourcing and in-housing all manner of posters, fliers, press releases, invitations and signage for the past three months, and this week is where we put in the real elbow grease, call in 100 volunteers and see the payoff. I am so blessed to be able to work with two great gals of like spirit and humor who have even more to balance than I. They really help me keep life in perspective as we roll out this crazy carnival.
I'll have my own booth featuring watercolor and mixed-media paintings and will be among over 50 talented artists offering their work for sale throughout the weekend to benefit the Library.
One of the best parts about the show is the demonstrations and free hands-on workshops--you can try your hand at jewelry, watercolor, comic book making, pastels, charcoal drawing, and more! Bring the family for a make-and-take craft, get a free balloon sculpture, pick up a gift for Mom, bid on artwork in the silent auction (including one of my own framed pieces) learn a new skill and get inspired!
Just click here for all of the details and get ready to Spring Into Art!!!
It's been a week since the All Things Handmade and Vintage Market, and I'm just now finding the time to sit down and recap. My wonderful Mama accompanied me to South Bend this time and helped me create a smashing booth.
I went by "Winsome Ginger" this time around in honor of my vintage Etsy shop, and because I brought along a few antique finds.
We had a fun day, the two of us and a few customers, but at the end of it all, I was left with a big ol' pile of inventory. The next day I packed it all up in a pretty little fruit box to send to my Aunt's pediatrics office for the break room. After I put it all together, I was reminded of that little mobile zakka-mobile in my recent post and had an "Aha moment." What if this little craft booth in a box could "travel" to other sites--kind of like a cash and carry basket party? I put out a call on my Facebook Page, and got a couple of reservations within hours.
The "Zakka Box," as I call it, can be reserved up to a week to share with your co-workers, girls night in, group play date, garden party, etc. The "host" gets a free gift and 15% of the sales toward my products! Please send me a message if you're in the area and would like to be a Zakka Box host! I'm busy coming up with fun new items to keep it full and am happy to take special requests.
Yesterday, in anticipation of having this afternoon open to sew, I asked my Facebook fans for suggestions on what to stitch up for the show this weekend. They decided on an apron, so I pulled out a big ol' vintage table cloth I'd scored at a Goodwill Store and got to work on customizing a pattern. Most of the cloth was stained, but I found some salvagable spots to mix with a poppy red polka dot, and came up with this today:
Wouldn't this make a great Mother's Day gift?
I thought I would share a yummy recipe I tried last night, since we're talking "Suzy Homemaker." Throw on your favorite apron and try this next time you need a quick meal. It comes from a Rachael Ray recipe, and I used the leftover filling at lunch time today to make the best Italian chop salad ever. I just added some extra fresh lettuce, a squeeze of lemon juice and a drizzle of EVOO to revive it. Also, last night, I used the bread hollowed out from the baguette to make some homemade crutons (cut the bread into cubes, toss with olive oil, italian spice blend, S&P and toast until golden). Tell your favorite Italian restaurant salad to move over!!
Chopped Antipasto Stuffed Bread
1 crusty baguette loaf
3/4 lb. mixed assorted Italian ham and salami cut into thin slices (I used regular old American ham, salami and pepperoni)
1/3 lb. Italian table cheeses (I used shredded packaged Italian cheese blend, but fresh off the block would be better)
1 c. giardiniera (pickled Italian veggies--try Mezzeti brand), drained and chopped
1 celery rib with greens, chopped
1- 2 c. romaine lettuce hearts chopped
handful of flat-leaf parsley chopped
handful of olives pitted and chopped (I hate them, so I left 'em out)
juice of 1 lemon
3 T. olive oil
coarse pepper
fresh torn basil or a few spoonfuls of pesto (Oh, how I wish I'd had some of this on hand!)
Preheat oven to 200. Crisp the bread, cool, split, and hollow it out.
Combine the meats through the lettuce in a large bowl then dress with lemon juice, olive oil and pepper.
Fill the bottom bread with salad, mounding and packing in with the help of a spatula.Top with the basil or pesto. Set the top in place, press down and slice into individual sandwiches.
I made Nora one with only the meats and cheese, but she would have loved the pesto too. She said "I need a bigger mouth!"
Today I found something on my desk from the book fairy (aka Pat from Tech Services) that changes everything. This book:
"Zakka?!" I said to myself. "What is this curious new word?" The introduction explained it simply and kinda threw me for a loop. I was reading my very own art-making philosophy:
"The term zakka has been loosely translated to mean 'miscellaneous goods,' 'many things,' or 'sundries.' But it has grown to mean a style that embodies a kind of simple charm and uniqueness --something handmade that is useful yet pleasing.'
Could it be that I have been creating this Zakka stuff for the past five years without knowing it? What I daydream about, photograph, and stitch all day long has a name?! Glory!
kinda 'splains this:
and this
and this
Should I go on? . . . OK, you get the gist.
The term is a Japanese word that also refers to little shops throughout Asia that sell a managerie of beautiful, happy things for heart and home. Could this be some kind of link to my girlhood obsession with Hello Kitty? Do you remember standing mezmerized in front of those strawberry-plasticky-smelling San Rio kiosks in the American Greetings stores? It was heaven! I still have my little TwinStars mini stapler.
Here's a pic of a mobile zakka store! Wonder if Dan would let me use his hatchback?
Many of the projects in the Zakka Style book are created with linen, and many times I have made the comment that I need to just go out and buy an entire bolt of linen to try to satisfy my insatiable craving for the stuff. Imagine my delight when I discovered that the author, Rashida Coleman-Hale's blog is called iheartlinen ! Check out some other fantastic artists featured in the book for a better taste of the Zakka aesthetic
www.minoridesign.blogspot.com
www.melodymiller.typepad.com
www.mette-erleperle.blogspot.com (gasp! the banner is Matryoshka dolls--these people really ARE my kindred spirits!)
www.nanacompany.typepad.com
or see my budding Zakka Pinterest board.
Do you ever clean the house for the sole purpose of bringing in armloads of flowers?
I do.
Everything is blooming around here--even this little wristlet on my cutting table.
If I can quit procrastinating, it will make it to my booth at the "All Things" market, where I will be offering some specials. I'm thinking about discounting everything with a floral motif. Your chances are good with that one, so keep an eye on my Facebook Page for details. Here's the official invite.
Pin it, print it, bookmark it, share it!
I'm so excited to tell you about a couple of new places to shop for my work! February kept me busy as a bee stitching, gluing, crafting, and painting up all kinds of new art to fill Etsy orders and deliver goods to some fine shops, including Ely Lane in Plymouth, IN, and FoundRe Furnishings in Chicago. FoundRe is carrying some of my chalkboard erasers,
and Ely Lane has a trove of treasures, from fork easels to bags, tags and buntings.
Be sure to check out the Ely Lane Facebook page for hours, location and more great pics of this beautiful boutique (photo courtesy of Ely Lane Shop).
I've also been working on some new paintings for Spring Into Art, April 27 - 29. This is the fine art fair I've helped to coordinate for the past 12 years or so. We have a great roster of artists this year, and I'm proud to be among them. I hope you'll click over to our Facebook page (link above) to become a fan and check out the lineup as well as the amazing offering of FREE hands-on workshops we'll have to offer. I'll be blogging more about it later.
The next "All Things Handmade and Vintage Spring Market" in South Bend is just two weeks prior to Spring Into Art, on April 15. With all that's coming up and selling out, I'm getting a wee bit nervous about filling up my booth there! On my to-make list are a few springy handbags, some linen artsy pillow covers, and some insulated lunch bags.
I did manage to check this new organizer off my to-make list today. It will be selling exclusively at the "handmade market." It's made from gunny-sack style rugged burlap, an array of vintage fabrics, old tape measure for trim, and that awesome lined-paper fabric from Korea that my sister gave me for Christmas. Maybe you'll see one or two more hanging next to it. ??
Oh, and did I mention that I opened a new Etsy shop full of my vintage finds?! It's called Winsome Ginger Vintage, and it's really just an attempt to make my junking obsession worthwhile (or push me one step closer to crazy town, I haven't decided which).
So . . . yeah, I think I've got enough to do for a while. If you're interested in watching all of my new work take shape this spring, follow me on my Facebook Page. Cheers!
There is something stirring in me. Some of it may be procrastination today, but the core of it is a struggle, I think. The realization of it started, oddly enough, with this book.
It's called "The Wilder Life," and it was written by Wendy McClure during her adventures traveling through the Midwest to the home sites of Laura Ingalls Wilder. This is not another Laura biography or a new expose of the Ingalls family. It is a journey of the heart taken by a woman much like me, maybe like you, reaching back to her own girlhood and searching for clues to what has shaped her and what will carry her. If you have never read the entire "Little House" series by Wilder, have never wondered what exactly a slough is or how to pronounce it, have never thrown on a dowdy, oversized Good Will dress just to look and feel pathetic while hoeing the garden with your little brother, you will not get it.
Every page I turned, I felt a flutter of familiarity as McClure described the wonder she found in the Little House series. . . and on the next page I was laughing my butt off at her and her boyfriend's 21st century take on it! As I recognized myself in Wendy's memoir, I began to see that something--maybe everything-- in these books had a little part in making me who I am too.
Maybe my longing to set up a neat and tidy little house complete with a smooth checkered cloth on the kitchen table comes from Wilder's explicit descriptions of setting up house in one of many new cabins on the prairie. I think that forlorn little chicken coop in my back yard has something to do with it, and need I say anything about the 5 button jars and trunk full of vintage scraps under this table I'm typing away at?
I want to make a living on this dadblasted Prairie, and I want to pull it up out of the already-tilled and depleted cornfields, the mail order chickens, and the thrift store curtains of these rural fringes of suburbia!!
Like McClure says, her obsession with "Laura World" is not about living a "simple" life. I'm not under any delusion about that either. What's so simple about darning your socks, churning your own butter, or leading the cows out into pasture every morning and back to the barn at night? I like my modern day conveniences and the Meijer just 15 minutes away via automobile, thank you very much, and just letting the dog out in the morning is enough for me.
Yet, the next book that landed on my night stand is this: Less is More: Embracing simplicity for a healthy planet, a caring economy and lasting happiness. Are you still with me after that lengthy title? (And is it just me, or is that title itself just a little ironic?) I'm afraid I'm not still with the book. After trudging through the Acknowledgments, the Preface and the Introduction, it became pretty clear that there was some kind of weird Henry David Thoreauism going on here. Don't get me wrong. I love the guy, but really, seeing a bug crawl out of my kitchen table is not something that is going to bring me epiphany. And you're not going to hook me by ending your first essay with this sentence: "If you're out and you've forgotten your travel mug, you don't deserve coffee." I guess it was the adorable little wooden bird on the cover that sucked me in.
Another segment of Less is More presents this definition of simplicity: "freedom from deceit or guile; [ok, ok, sounds good] sincerity [I'm cool with that]; artlessness [WHA?!] . . . done!
Here's where my worlds collide and my struggle seems to bubble to the surface. I do want to live a more simple life (why else would I have requested the stupid book from Interlibrary loan in the first place). I want to make less of an impact on this world. I want to learn to be content with less, to crack a warm blue egg in to my cast iron skillet in the morning . . . but I AM CREATING STUFF EVERY DAY in this little country cottage. MORE STUFF! For who? For the others who are trying to do more with less? No. Then it must be for those who are trying to do more with more. How hypocritical is that?
So how does an artist with these perpetual wheels turning in her head, this insane need to create, to envelope her world in the beauty of "thingy-ness," with china shepherdesses on the mantel and all, reconcile this to a world that needs less? Is it as simple as campaigning for consumers to commit to handmade, repurposed and upcycled art? Is my "passion" really a spiritual gift in any way, or is it something I should turn from? Who or what is it glorifying? And is the time spent making my art a business really just complicating my life? (my toilet is running right now and has been for an hour, but I don't want to stop writing. Will you hold it against me?)
I wish I could say--as McClure notes that Ma always did near the end of a chapter, "All's well that ends well," but today there is only lingering doubt. These are the questions I'm asking as an artist here and now. These are the reasons my work lies folded on the cutting table today . . . I'm off to "jiggle the handle" and pour a cup of joe into my travel mug. . . .
I opened my new Country Living magazine yesterday to this page, and my crafty wheels started spinning.
I instantly remembered the vintage stencil set I'd picked up at a farm auction last fall and dug it out of the basement this afternoon (despite the fact that I should be sewing on 3 custom bags, but hey, technically, this is still a holiday for me).
I thought I'd put the set in my Etsy shop, but when I started working with it, I knew it was quickly going to turn into a new craft tool obsession (and they just might sneak into my decorating too).
Although I do want to eventually make a bag like the one in the spread, I started with some new key tags,
and then moved on to embellishing this medallion I had sitting on my Hoosier cabinet.
My friend, Jodi, gave me the antique lined paper with notes from a nineteenth c. science course. It ended up being too brittle to use as a hanging do-hickey, so I think I'm just going to use a series of the center circles for a long hanging garland of X's and O's for Valentine's day.
Keep an eye on my Etsy shop for the finished product and the keytags above!
