come to mama...

creaming butter and sugar

oh my

come to mama


real butter pound cake

my kitchen smells like heaven at the moment

Today was a HOT day, but silly me, I turned on the oven and made my very first real old fashioned butter pound cake. I hunted online and in my cookbooks for the **best** recipe. After lots of looking, I picked a recipe out of my 1975 Joy of Cooking cookbook as it looked to be the most authentic 'real' pound cake, read: lots of butter, sugar and eggs.

So I don't eat the entire thing, I am bringing a large portion of it over to my friends house tomorrow. It will haunt her, not me...

art journal

I made an art journal last night. I love making art journals. I love to add little surprises, like pockets that hold ATC's, and I'll tip-in a tag or two. The process for me is much like making an altered book. The differences are that I construct the journal- I have a wonderful zutter binding machine, and I use blank watercolor paper so that it's a usable art journal when it's completed.

As I have several art journals in use at the moment, I plan on listing this one on my etsy shop. If you are interested in it, email me. The overall size is 5" x 7". The 140# rough watercolor paper is a little smaller than 5" x 7". There are 13 pages of watercolor paper (26 if you use both sides), a pocket with one handmade ATC and colorful 'art tickets'. I also added one beautiful tag and two accordion pages that each have two flaps. Each flap has four (2 on each side) original mini-collages- eight in total. The front and back covers are all original collages, both inside and outside.

It's a great art journal that has artwork incorporated into it. It would make a wonderful gift for an artist friend, or a journal for yourself to start your own art journal! It's a labor of love for me to make my art journals.

Please email me for more information if you are interested in purchasing my latest art journal.

fabric collage of a blue heron

close up 1

close up 2


close up 3

Blue Heron, fabric collage

8" x 10"

click picture to enlarge

I can finally post this because I gave it to my friend tonight. I know she reads this blog, so I didn't want to post it until I gave it to her as I wanted it to be a surprise. I liked how it turned out. My friend has a special love of blue herons and so I made this for her. I used nothing but small pieces of fabric to create the collage. I learned the technique from Laura Breitman, a fabric collage artist.

making a new art journal

journal cover

close up of charm on journal that I also made

serendipity- see "THE MUSE" in one of the flowers?

How cool is that? (click to enlarge)

Not only do I love to keep art journals, I also love making them. I have the Zutter binding system, so I can create any size or shape and a variety of papers. This will be either the front of the back of the journal- not sure which yet...it evolves and changes as I make them. I've sold many of these on eBay and plan on offering them at my etsy shop soon. I usually include original artwork with in the journal- included as a page- just for fun.

I keep several art journals- each has a distinct purpose. One for quotes I find along the way, one for ideas, one that is a 'typical' art journal with pages of ongoing art making. One for watercolors...you get the idea...

she loves shiny things...

(click pictures to enlarge to see the shine!)

journal page about my love of glitter

glitter on transparency print of flowers


faux metal paper flower


same faux metal flower

close up of faux metal flower

I'm a magpie, a glitter whore...a glitter queen...whatever you call it - I love glitter! Which is kind of funny since in my non-art life, I tend to be non-glittery in my dress and style. But in my studio...it's all about the glitter. Yesterday I went to Michael's to get a frame for my finished collage that I am making for my friend (which I will post once I give her the collage), and the dollar bin had glitter pots...4 for one dollar...so I bought 16 pots of glitter. woo hoo!

Today was glitter day. I glued glitter to all kinds of things and added them to my art journal. It's been sooo long since I've played with my art...I felt free and happy creating absolutely nothing but pretty little things for my journal. I've missed the lightness and have made myself a promise to do more playing with my art.

do you want some cheese with your whine?

about as good as it gets with my current camera

OK, I am whining...I want a better camera. I love the one I have 90% of the time, but I cant get those amazing close up from a distance with my current camera. I want to be able to take a picture of a bird at a distance of 20 feet and get a sharp amazing picture. Playing with the camera I own, which is a digital Sony Cybershot, I just can't get that kind of picture.

I know nothing about Digital SLR cameras, which I am guessing is what I need to take the kinds of photos of which I speak. Time to do a little research...

BTW- this cardinal lives right next to my deck. He and his female companion are out there most of the day. How cool is that? And they are there year after year...sigh...

working on a collage

I've spent the weekend in my studio making a collage. I am loving this! Talking about my being stuck, being lost, losing my art...brought it right back. I am so relieved.

I am making this collage for a friend as a surprise. I would post pictures, but I think this friend may read this blog and it wouldn't be a surprise then...I'll post pictures after I give it to her. In the mean time, I emailed a picture of a work-in-progress to artist Laura Breitman, who taught me this collage process in a workshop. She loved what I am doing and it was very nice to receive such nice compliments from her; I really admire her work. Make sure you visit her website link- her work is AMAZING!

All in all, a great art making weekend!

life is funny like that...

...so I spent the entire day in my studio working on a collage...and this after I posted yesterday that I just couldn't get into making art and was going to take a vacation from art making...amazing how that works...

ha! so much for my art sabbatical...but it FELT DIFFERENT today. I was making this collage for me - for fun. Actually I am making it for a friend, as a surprise. But it's not for sale and so I have no inner dialogue yakking at me saying dumb things like... "will this sell?" or "who would buy this?" or, "hows that marketing coming along?" grrrr...

...I am so over that inner dialogue. It keeps me from making art. It slips away and I get disgusted. Then I decide to leave only to then spend the day making art. Maybe that is part of my process...I need to reach that point of feeling like I fell out of love with art, emotionally walk away from it...only to come running back...And I had so much fun today.

...sounds like a lovers spat if you ask me.

there is an internal shift happening...

Lately I can't seem to get into my studio and paint or make a collage. I think I may be suffering from some burnout regarding my art making. I have made a lot of art over the past few years. There is a part of me that needs to just stop.

A part of it is that I want to make more personal art, more experimental art- not art for sale. But even as I wrote that last sentence, I was nodding my head NO...I just think I need to stop for a time, all together.

And the very interesting thing about all of this...I am unemployed. I have the time. I have complete freedom at this point in my life to do ANYTHING I choose to do. And lately, I am choosing to read, cook, knit, garden, bake. Homey things. Quiet things. Today I took a long walk around the lakes in our town. I then sat on a park bench and took a long sun bath while I listened to a book on tape. Then I took myself to the local diner and had a delicious cup of homemade green pea soup. Before that I cleaned out my refrigerator. After the walk I sat out on my deck under the umbrella and listened to more of my book on tape. Nothing about art. Noting about painting. Nothing about collage. And I had what I would describe as a delightful day.

Maybe being unemployed is part of it. For the last 20 years I have worked as a graphic designer and for the last 10 years I have also been painting, making collages and assemblages. I am TIRED. As much as I love art, it's been my profession for a long long time and I am simply tired.

I don't think I am suffering from some sort of depression. I don't think I am quitting painting. I need to take a vacation. Let it come back to be as it wants to come. I know if I try to force it, the art is terrible.

I love READING about painting. I love looking at other peoples painting and art blogs. I also enjoy reading about painting technique. Perhaps my well is empty and I need to fill it with looking, resting, seeing and enjoying art. But right now, I just don't feel like making art. I hereby give myself permission to go 'on sabbatical' for however time I need to take...and without guilt. I will once again paint paintings, collage and make assemblages. Just not right now.

She has a way with numbers...

she has a way with numbers

(click to enlarge)

This is a paper doll I made a couple of years ago. It's about OCD. I know a person who has a touch of OCD and numbers are a big part. She was my inspiration. The body is a playing card that I altered. Her legs and arms move. You can fold up the arms and legs and her body is the size of an ATC, 2.5" x 3.5". If you look closely, I added tiny watch pieces into the collage on her body.

I've been going through older artwork and posting some of it. Sometimes it's good to look back. Art is one of those areas where I do like to look back. I usually take a picture of each finished piece. For a time I was really into making paper dolls. I sold them all - over 2 dozen of them! There is a whole world of paper doll collectors!

I'll post more this week.

altered book of the sea

La Mer, altered book

I love the ocean and I loved altered books!

I made this altered book out of a paper back- most altered books are made from hard covered books. I have a girlfriend who has a band saw and she cut the paperback into the house shape for me.

First I glued the whole book together using gel medium, I made the cover by gluing the front cover to about 10 pages to give it some thickness. Once dry, I painted the outside with Lumiere Paint and decorated it. The inside I cut out the niche using a craft knife. (Save those cut out pages- all kinds of ways to use them!) I glued the edges of the niche with more gel medium. Then I painted and decorated the inside. I the fish is a kid's plastic fish that I covered with copper leafing.

Thank God I'm a country girl...

"In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous."
- Aristotle -384–322 B.C.

I am humming John Denver's song "Thank God I'm a country girl(boy)" as I write this...I am on my deck with my computer (dont you just love laptops and wireless?) In the half hour I have been sitting here in my beach chair making a shopping list, I have seen or heard:

3 deer walked by and munched on the wild grape vines that grow nearby
a bright red cardinal sits to my left
A blue jay is screeching
A crow is cawing
a yellow swallow tail butterfly just flew by
several squirrels scurried by
bees buzzed
a moth flutterd
dandilion seeds are floating by
I can hear 3 different woodpeckers pecking
I can hear a cricket
I can hear a lawn mower mowing
I can hear the leaves rustle in the wind

...and I live 55 miles from mid-town Manhattan...how amazing is that??

I dont live on a farm however, as the song says, I live in a condo...but it's the country non the less...at night I can't leave my deck slider door open becasue local racoons and bear are known to enter houses looking for food. The deer are so close and so frequent that we know to look for deer ticks after an outing. I know dozens of people who have hit a deer while driving, myslef included. Hummingbirds are regular visitors.

Like I said, Thank God I'm a country girl...

Thank You

I came upon this image today.
It brought tears to my eyes...

"Thank You"
created by Victoria North,
used with permission by the artist.

My step-son is in Iraq on his second deployment there...and seeing this today made me think of him and all the young men and women who yesterday were mere children and today defend our country.

So often we get caught up in the everyday and we forget that they put themselves in harms way for our comfort and our freedom. May this be a gentle reminder of all those brave men and women who serve in our armed services. Please say a prayer for them today, to stay safe.

The artist sells this as a greeting card. Click here to see more about Victoria North.

transition - inner shift

transition, mixed media collage, 3" x 3"

Transition...I feel it.

Things are changing, life is changing. My husband will be taking an early retirement and we will then move to the ocean, something we both look forward to. A new experience for me. He grew up near the ocean and loves the idea of returning. Me, I grew up 23 miles from where I now live and I really want to experience something new. I have always wanted to live near the ocean. This is my chance to do so.

Along with the transition comes some anxiety. I think part of it is the leaving. I have lived here in Monroe for over 30 years. I had my children here, raised them here. Moved here with my first husband, and now live here with my second husband. Most of my life has occurred here. It will be hard to leave. I am anxious to leave, that I know. But I am excited too. It's a mixed bag of emotions.

The other thing is that things are in limbo regarding WHEN hubby is actually retiring - he works for the government, and the political climate at the moment is not so good...so he is thinking that retirement will come sooner than later. I would prefer sooner, as I have in my mind, already moved. Is that weird? I am already decorating my new home in my head. I am already walking on the beach anytime I want to. I am already cooking meals for my adult children when they come to visit. I am already planning trips north to see friends and the kids. I am already walking the boardwalk. I am ready to go.

I am ready to begin the next phase and it's all on hold. Transition on hold. Transition in limbo. Patience is not easy. I am being patient on the outside. Not so much on the inside!

Quote of the day...

Quote of the day: "Painting is just another way of keeping a diary." Pablo Picasso

Illustration Friday - Cocoon

ATC collage