Wintry Peacock

The M&Ms are at it again. Maggie passed out these little round glass vases for us before she taught this great technique using tape and acrylic paint.

It was a really great and fun technique!

You can see I remembered to take a before picture after I had already started my project.

It took a whole day to make the peacock feathers. I started with the video found here and added some of my own modifications, This is a great starting place if you're looking for a how to on paper feathers.

I painted an old hand fan white and then arranged the feathers around it for the peacock tail. I added some white fiber flowers to the centers of each feather.

Here is the finished project. I used a toilet paper cardboard tube as a stand to hold the feathers and then poured glass glitter around it. Disguised it with a some silver fiber and then put a "peace on earth" stamped scroll into the body.

The head of the peacock is an old baby spoon covered with some sort of wound wood fiber I found in my stash of weird things to use someday. I perched an old jewelry brooch onto it's head for the fluffy stock and added some white punched leaves at the back. The feet are the TH poinsettia die cut out and covered with mica.

If we find some place to display our projects I'll try to get a pic of all of them.

33 Years! And Counting!

Happy 33rd Anniversary of the day we met to my wonderful hubby. Still having so much fun together. Here we are in the kayak on Munsel Lake this summer enjoying the osprey and a tranquil day on the water.

Falling for Happy Feet

We have a local shoe store here in town called On Your Feet. They have hundreds of these pressed cardboard forms that come inside the shoes when they get them. They asked our local Mixed Media art group to alter some of these for a fall window display, so I gave it a whirl this week.

I was so excited to get started that I forgot to take a before pic, but I did remember to right after I painted them black. And I've been making leaves for about 3 days now. The leaves are die cut patterned paper with the Tim Holtz Tattered Leaves die and then embossed with the matching embossing folder. Then I dragged them threw a few puddles of Distress Stains (Antique Linen, Wild Honey, Ripe Persimmon, Dusty Concord, Peeled Paint and Walnut Stain).

I also cut some of the smaller Autumn Harvest Leaves and some pine cones from the Tattered Pinecone die. This is my work table with all the leaves out drying. I also spread a little crackle accents on the leaves. It makes them curl wonderfully.

Here is a close up of all the leaves and pine cones arranged on the forms. I added a few red berries for a little bright splash.

And the finished display with an autumn quote from Club Scrap's Autumn Harvest kit and a festive ribbon. So fun to have my studio up and running now so I can create to my heart's content. I'll post a pic of the window display later this month so you can see what the other gals in the group come up with.

Happy Fall everyone! My favorite time of year. 

More Boxes!!

Thought I was close to finished with the studio, and then 17 more boxes arrived from the storage locker. And these were BIG boxes. So, there was a whole lot of tweaking going on to get even more stuff packed in this space. I came to the decision that there was no way I could store fabric for quilting here, so it will be in the old dining room hutch that is at the storage locker. I should be able to "shop" there when I'm looking for fabric for quilting.

Managed to get all of my wood mounted stamps into the rubber stamp frame that Roger built for me in Arizona. It works perfectly above the desk. Also found all the altered art storage that I've created over the years. Have paints and powders and mists and doodads stored right above the desk. 

We had a piece of counter we brought from Arizona that we turned into a good shelf across the end of the work island. I have mostly things that I use all the time there and can bring down to the work surface when I need them. Just to the right of the window I have my Distress Stains, Stickles and Distress Reinkers stored.

One of my favorite quilts "Evening at the Lilipond" works great for a door. Will keep it toasty in there when winter comes. Put 2 fiber holder rings up by the fish window and have my Timmy Tag wreath living above the door, along with my altered radiation mask.

On the end of the cube storage, I was able to get my small altered shadowbox trays up for Pearl Ex, Perfect Pearls and Glitters. Still have a little room for more too! Hehehe!

I have a few more cubes to add to this corner and then I'll be at capacity. Guess I better get started creating!

Here is the sewing area. I found my deck of art fans (which I need to finish, so maybe seeing them everyday will motivate me to do that) and they fit wonderfully on the doors to the cupboard above the sewing machine. A couple of more shelves above the window and some jar storage under it and we're good to go.

Studio Almost Complete

Well, you saw all those boxes in the trailer. They're all unpacked, but there are still more at the storage locker waiting to come home. For, now though, it's a working studio, yeah!

This is the desk piled high with stuff from the boxes

And here is the desk cleared off. You'll notice a distinct lack of rubber stamps populating the storage unit. They are still in the storage locker somewhere. Going to take some digging to find them among all the other stuff in there. 

Moving to the right of the desk is the storage wall with upper cupboards and bookshelf across the top.

The middle of the storage wall has 15 paper and craft storage cubes.

And below the cubes are 2 more storage cupboards. 

Just to the right of the storage wall will be the design wall for quilting. I'm going to get about 5 more cubes to wrap around the this corner as well. 

This space has sewing storage and die cutting storage for the Vagabond.

This is the sewing table, my machine is under its cover.

Just to the right of the sewing area is the IKEA island. It's 2 IKEA carts put together and it rolls back and forth if I need more room!

The other side of the island. Each side holds 12 bins. 

I still have a couple more shelves to put up, more storage for inks and paints that are still packed and of course, all my fabric. It's ready for creating though. And I'm ready too!

New Studio: Day 1 and 2

Now that our new home has arrived and we've moved in, it's time to turn the outbuilding into an art studio. Yeah!

Day 1: New Floor! We had this tiger wood hardwood flooring we found in the discount bin at Lowes and it was perfect for the new studio. So, day 1 we put in the new floor.

Day 2:  Moving Day!  Today we moved 3 loads from the storage locker. Cupboards and cubes are in. Crafting desk and sewing table are in. And there are 40 - 50 boxes to unpack and distribute. Hope it's all going to fit!

Tomorrow the organizing starts! It'll be just like Christmas!

It's Here!

"Here she comes, just a walkin' down the street..............!"

"singin' do wa ditty ditty dum ditty do! 

Ok, enough singing! Can you tell I'm excited?

Here she is sliding between our 2 gigantic fir trees! 

and here we are! our first night in our new Tiny Home! 

Now, to fill it up with stuff!

Could it get here, like YESTERDAY!

We drove up to McMinnville yesterday to see the big reveal. Our Park Model was just getting it's finishing touches before they load up for delivery. We can hardly wait!

Here we have the outside. The living room is behind the windows on the end. Kitchen in the middle and bedroom in the back. Pretty,huh?

Looking from the living room to the kitchen. Love the peninsula/eating bar serves as great counter space too. The stove is sitting in our storage locker waiting to be installed when the pm arrives later this week. To the left is the sink with a dishwasher to the left and beautiful stainless steel fridge to the right.

Another view from the living room that shows the stairs up to the loft.

The loft looking back from the top of the stairs.

Looking down at the living room from the loft.

The bedroom closets. 1 for each of us and a space for a 32 inch tv. 

The header storage and endtables in the bedroom. Lots of great storage in here. 

Here's a close up of the kitchen sink area, dishwasher just peeking to the left. Wooden shades are throughout the model. 

Delivery should happen in just a couple of days. Will up date with the finished install!

Happy 31!!!!

We started off our 31st anniversary this morning with a trip around Munsel Lake in the Oasis. We just got our trip in before the rain started. It was a much needed and fun day off from the grind of getting ready for the new Park Model. Just 3 weeks to go!

And Ms. Pepper got to go for a spin too! Just a QDDL from Club Scrap's Bugs collection, but it worked so beautifully!

It's Gone!!!!

The old green trailer went bye bye today. Yeah! Now we prep for the new park model.

Still have some construction to do on the little buildings, but now we can get at them.

This is looking from the back to the front. You can see the boat shelter and the car parked at the front of the property.

And here it is looking from front to back. Some of that extra roof will be coming off and where the current bathroom is (behind that wood in the middle) will be gone soon.  Just about 6 weeks till we're looking at a new park model sitting in this space. Can hardly wait.