Under the Sea pillowcases complete!

Motifs from Aimee Ray of Doodle Stitching The Motif Collection. Look for it on Amazon or on Etsy under littledear.

More Mermaid Love

I've always liked mermaid images. I doodled this one in my journal over the weekend. It's not the greatest, but I only had limited supplies since I was on a trip. I drew her with a graphite pencil and then colored in with watercolor crayons. I brushed over parts with a wet brush, which works great over watercolor crayons or pencils.

You can see some other mermaids I've made here, here and here. As you can see, I like mermaids, whether painted or drawn, flat or 3D, rendered in jewelry, ATCs, collage, shadowboxes or really any medium. I even have mermaid costumes for my Blythe dolls. But I would call this just a fondness or attraction, not an obsession. An obsession with mermaids would probably involve an adult size costume, and I can safely say I do not have one. What is your "almost-obsession"?

I'm so excited! I finally 'did' some art.

I woke up just itching to paint...which is fantastic, since I've barely touched a brush in probably 10 months or more. Just haven't been motivated. But today I knew I would paint. Something big. And big-eyed.

At first, I thought I might paint a picture of a Blythe doll and started out with a face and eyes of that ilk. Then I remembered my Suzi Blu class and all the wonderful mermaids on her Web site. I had painted two 16 x 20 canvasses already from a class I took last winter: Marie Antoinette and also Rodeo Girl. And I had one empty spot next to them anyway. So I looked at some of the mermies in Suzi's group for inspiration and also a gorgeous Mermaid ATC I had received from Shonna Bucaroff of Twisted Figures. And then I was off!

I sketched; I mixed colors. I painted; I glittered. I smashed sea shells to attach along with a net-like piece of ribbon and little bottle (message in a) I had just gotten in a swap with my Zettilicious friend Jade Adams. I dug through cigar boxes for treasures and found a couple of gold 'things' for earrings and a hair ornament. I smudged with charcoal and graphite pencils. I sponged with punchinella and paint. I made bright circles for bubbles.

And then I made myself physically leave my property so I would quit touching it! Cannot wait to hang it up; I am happy. Happy to be making art again. And ideas are exploding in my head. Zentangles! Felt matroyshka ornies! Journal pages! A stitched journal cover! A china doll head with art canvas body! I am so ready.

Swaps bring out the best in friends and art

Random swaps sometimes bring the nicest surprises. Recently I was assigned to swap a spring artist trading card (ATC) with Rachel Christy in our Flickr group that I help moderate, The Faerie Zine. I was not familiar with Rachel or her work or our other partner for that matter, Patty Porter.

When I checked out Rachel's work on her Etsy site, I noticed she embellishes trinket boxes. Like me, she covers them with paper, tissue, glitter, baubles and other goodies. So we agreed to swap a paper box as well. Ironically, our box swap resulted in nearly similar boxes. I sent the pink box above shown with the Cabbage Queen ATC I made for her; she sent turquoise, and we both used a face image from Sandra Evertson.

But lucky me! Rachel was generous enough to send not one but two! boxes. Today was a great sunny day in the Midwest to photograph these. In the heart-shaped, mermaid-embellished box she tucked a bunch of ephemera/art supplies to keep me creating. Visit her Etsy shop for more goodies like these.

Yes, You Can Buy Charm!

Even though I have a zillion paper projects to do, and even though I am tempted to write a rant on the lost art of spelling and punctuation, I set aside both those needs today, and after a nap and a yummy supper at Panera, I finished these two seaside charm bracelets for my etsy shop at the early hour of 2 a.m. I would have done a third, but I have some beads to pick up Tuesday that will just make a perfect antique brass one to go with these above of silver and bronze-sort of an Olympic trifecta of charm: charm bracelets, that is, chock full of charms like shells and fossils, lampwork, a little key, a lock, hearts, a pail and shovel, fishies and more. The handmade lampwork beads, including an octopus and starfish, are by Star Girls Jewels, also on etsy. Come check out my shop http://www.hpsgsmith.etsy.com/.

A is for Asparagus and ATCs, B is for Banners, Boxes, BSU and Burt's Bees, V is for Vegas and Vacation, W is for Winter and Whining

Hello....I am typing this post with gloves on, so I will try to catch all the typos ahead of time! Why gloves? Two reasons: (multi-tasking as usual) I bought some cotton gloves and hand cream from Burt's Bees to work on my dry cuticles (it works!) and due to the slow spring and snow in Indiana and the loose storm window over my desk, it is freezing in my home office. It is also freezing in my basement studio. Yes, we have indoor plumbing and heating, but I refuse to set the thermostat ridiculously high in March! I'd rather whine!!

So enough of that! First off, thanks to Kris L. Hurst of Blissfull (sic) Elements http://krislhurst.blogspot.com/ on etsy and her website, for my beautiful new spring banner. The blog needed a facelift! So cheery! And, she is so talented; you'll see her work on many blogs.

Now, on to last weekend's art fest here (in said cold basement). I finished up two sets of artist trading cards for the ATC World swaps, and I randomly made another mermaid theme charm bracelet for etsy http://www.hpsgsmith.etsy.com/.

Plus, managed to squeeze in a traditional Easter dinner with ham, asparagus, et. al., two! naps, a couple of new articles written, magazines read, Blythes dressed and photographed and some thought given to what to pack for vacation (10 day countdown) and what to take to Art & Soul (36 day countdown). My co-workers are in Las Vegas this week but not me (zero day countdown); so I am grouchy.

I also got an email from my alma mater BSU about sending final exam goody boxes to students, and it made me cry. Why? When I lived in the dorm (back in the day and long enough ago so as not to cry), a dorm of four halls and hundreds of girls, the staff sent letters home seeking boxes of candy and gifts for all the students to open the night before Finals' Week. I was the only one who did not get one at the frenzied opening. I guess my letter got lost. It was traumatic to say the least. But, I'm sure I aced my finals for spite. That's how I rolled. I need to go send a box to someone....

What I Did on my Work Vacation a.k.a. 'The Weekend'

Did I do all this this weekend? Yup. Did I eat and sleep? Yes. Did I go out to eat, do some laundry, lose Larry the Cat in the coat closet for three hours? Check. One of my always-inspiring Art and Poetry on-line friends said it looks like I cram a month into my weekends. And I guess I do. That's because I love love love doing all this stuff so much, and there is never enough time. Whoever heard of working 5 days and having a two-day weekend? Someone needs to re-write that book! Let's put on our lawyer pants and walk down that road (fave new line from a stupid commercial).

So what have we here? A canvas for The ZNE Book Club, studying Traci Bautista's Collage Unleashed ("See Rock City"), an altered nicho or dream box from ARTChix Studios for The Faerie Zine's 3-D Fairytale box swap ("I hope you dance: In emergency, break glass for pixie dust"), 32 charms (Mermaid Ballerinas) for Art & Soul swap, Tulip earrings for Cottage Style Street Team (CSST) on Etsy, listing 3/15/08, Barbie and Cancelled Stamps (Love is the center of the Universe) for Artists' Trading Card (ATC) World Yahoo! group swaps, and nautical and purple mother-of-pearl charm bracelet I made over the weekend, listed on etsy and promptly sold. I think I may miss this one! Send caffeine!

What I Did On My Winter Vacation

So far, I feel like I have been piddling my time away, being lazy, but I guess that's what vacation is for, right? Today I got up at the sinful hour of 10:30 a.m., and at 4:30 p.m. I looked at the clock and asked myself what in the world I had been doing for the last six hours. I couldn't really think of anything! Eek. I did package up some swaps and mail stuff. I spent a lot of time reading friends' blogs. I took some pictures and uploaded them to Flickr.

I am glad to say my pictures have a static address now, which is:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lillysoflondonish/.

Makes it a lot easier to direct friends to photos like the one here of Cabbage Patch Jacob Alexander Dye. Now hold your comments! He wanted to pose like this! He got Matchbox sets. Cousins Chloe and Logan got the Cabbage Patch(es): Sophie Madison and Billy Somebody. Kids always like the boxes best.

It has been about a month since I got this glorious swap box from Michelle of Hold Dear http://michellegeller.typepad.com/ in Oregon. We've been hatching a plan, or actually she has, about a Mermaid Swap. I've been waiting until she announces her plans to post these pics, but I just couldn't wait any longer. Tonight I sorted through her goodies again, and I just feel so fortunate to have such wonderful blog friends. I can't wait to meet some of them in person next year. I also sorted and filed goodies from fellow Memory Works 'worker' Lynn Darda of Winamac, IN who sent me a huge box of Western US memorabilia and the wonderful DeBRiNa Pratt of spark*your*imagination on ebay and flickr. I have more goodies to show in future posts.

We are still enjoying all the remnants of Christmas treats here, although I spent that day in bed under the weather, and missed the Cabbage Patch opening altogether. Right now I am writing this in my new Lands End flannel pjs and contemplating a Lands End peppermint cookie...or a Godiva's...or perhaps some South Bend Chocolates...maybe some Chex Mix....or, I know! A deviled egg. Egads. Holidays + vacation = strange eating habits + strange sleeping hours. Love it!

Oh yeah, I forgot. Maybe I am lazy today because I stayed up until 2 a.m. this morning crocheting: nine hats to be exact. Lester models the one with Elmer Fudd earflaps here. They're actually for the Blythes on that 'other' blog http://bly-me.blogspot.com/.

It Wasn't Even My Birthday!

Although the plan was for a Zetti-style Holiday ATC swap at lunch, I think this "Bonus Mona" might be my favorite. I feel like I should have headlined this post "I Did Not Make These!" And, if all this sounds like code, let me explain.

It was a gathering of ARTchix as Jade, her sister Coral and mom Vonda and I gathered, never having met before, with the original intent of Jade and I swapping a holiday card and some goodies. Goodies in the art world can mean just about anything, but usually ephemera and little bits and baubles to alter with.

However, I had my binder of ATC cards that I had made and so did Jade. Plus I had some that I have gotten from swaps (and am keeping) so we had a look-fest, and then the swapping began in earnest. I had made Vonda and Coral surprise cards anyway, and Vonda had one she had made with her (the purple-gray angel here) from her ATC Cemetery and Statuary group which she gave to me. Then Jade saw some more she liked and so did I. That girl is seriously talented and so is her family. Mom Vonda just won the ARTchix Fairy Dreams swap!

They also turned me onto Crafts 2000 as well as some cool Yahoo! groups: ATC World, Altered Heads, Zetti Zoo, Cemetery and Statuary as well as Zentangles. http://www.zentangle.com/. Ah! More stuff to learn and do!

The Christmas Greetings, Eighth Dwarf and Mona are all from Jade and the Crusty Tale Mermaid on an actual canvas is from Dana of fairydustedmermaids on ebay and Flickr.

Coral's goodies are coming by post, and not faux post either! That's an ARTchix joke. Okay, so I guess we artistas are weird. But, we're a (mostly) happy lot.

A Productive Night!

I think I was so excited to register for Art and Soul (and not have the checkout hassle that some registrants did) that I was inspired to head directly to the studio. I don't think I moved for four hours. And, although I only have 5 ATCs to show for it, I am happy with them. One is for a swap with Dana of Fairy Dusted Mermaids (shhhh!) and one is for a birthday goody for Debbie Metti (shhh!) in the mailing with my Chubbyville December fat book page of "Christmas Memories" which she is hosting. These are all made with background papers from Shabby Cottage Studio, and as a design team member I say "get yourself to SCS!" My mini giftie bag and ATC are featured! Order a dozen or two.

I also spent some time on my four ornaments for the Pink Christmas Ornament Swap and planned my snowman for Viv's Snowman Swap. So, I am winding down on my holiday to-do list. Maybe I can finally get some stuff on ebay and feed my habit(s). Speaking of habits, here's a pictures of a cute button bouquet I found on etsy and a new mosaic from Flickr.

Art and Soul, look out! I am registered for Acrylic Glazes, Landscapes of the Mind and Drawing Blast- and what a blast it will all be! My instructors are Carla Sonheim, Ann Grgich and Diana Trout. "Art By the Sea" is the theme for 2008. It will be like a mini-vacation to the beach. Counting the days!

Happy Flickr Foto Fun Friday!

Beautiful eye candy from talented artists in my groups, more info by clicking here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/12448123@N07/1827190983/

Shadow Boxing and Absurd Theatre

All my little beach treasures and mermaid paraphernalia got put to good use tonight- in my beach shadowbox and my Mermaid Theatre: What Arial and Flounder Did Next. I had such fun using my beach finds: rocks, shells, sand, feathers, driftwood and some purchased goodies, like vintage postcards, beads and pieces of net. The theatre box I painted with Liquitex Baltic Green and Pearl Ex Duo Green-Yellow as well as Gesso. Inside I added vintage clip art, green micro beads, pieces of bamboo, sponge, driftwood, a 3-D Mermaid with tatas enhanced by beads and "diamond"-tipped head pins. There's also a tiny message in a bottle (inserted by me) caught on an old fishing hook which is caught in an old net, that also wrangled up some driftwood and shells.

So what does one do with a Mermaid Theatre, you ask? I've planned all along to send both pieces off for hopeful publication in one of my favorite art mags, and when they return, I am sure there's a little girl somewhere who would like it. The shadow box is for my office, unless I cave in and give it for a gift. There are a lot of beach-loving Smiths.