Storyteller Chair

available at the DogStar Bookstore... If you are interested in buying it for yourself, your library, or bookshop, convo me, or contact Brian at DogStar books. $275 www.dogstarbooks.com/
Perfect for a story hour for kids, author readings, or in the corner of your own library...:-)

DogStar Bookstore

Tomorrow I hang my work for the DogStar Bookstore LIA exhibit, that begins July 4. Originally I had planned to bring a few things I've made in the last couple months, as my inspiration was a bit low (but my housekeeping excitement was high!)
Then Friday came, and I'm typically excited to get creative on Fridays and during the weekend (don't ask me why, but I can really pound stuff out on those days of the week.)
On Friday I decided to paint "Carnival Night" and it's heaven to me. I am so happy because I've been making things I just love, and I don't care if no one else likes them! and isn't that how it should be? :-)
Then Saturday came, and H E R E' S the kicker: my Dad had bought me this giant "captains" chair a week ago and it's been in my studio (aka basement). So I decide to paint it for the DogStar event.
And then I'm at Lowes buying black paint, and up til 3am Saturday night, and working on it Sunday, and then at Lowe's twice today (Monday) buying sealer and more sealer, and painting and now the "Storyteller Chair" is sitting on my back porch with a fan blowing on it (that was a lot of paint and sealer, it's a BIG chair!) so hopefully it won't smell tomorrow at 10am!!!! when I bring it to the bookstore.
No pictures tonight, it's a secret. It is really a great match to my Buy Fresh Buy Local Chair, and they look cool together.
So here it comes....kind of nervewracking, whipping up an enormous painted folk art chair last minute.
Here's a quote from it, and special for the DogStar:
"Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read." - Groucho Marx

"Carnival Night"

Oh.....real architectural salvage. Thank you Dad!!!!!
This will make it's big reveal on July 4 at the DogStar Bookstore on Chestnut Street, Lancaster as part of the Lancaster Indie Arts collaborative group show.

Lancaster Indie Arts

I am (proudly) the newest member of Lancaster Indie Arts...a wonderful group of local artists that inspire one another and encourage the work of independent artists in Lancaster.

check out the site: www.lancasterindiearts.com

This is my bio:

I am an artist specializing in art made from salvaged things. I love using bold colors. At the age of 5, I wanted to be an artist, art teacher, and writer.

I grew up in an army family, and lived in Maryland, Alaska, Texas, Massachusetts, and moved to Pennsylvania the summer before my senior year of high school. My mother called us gypsies. Although my father was a Lt. Colonial, he was always extremely creative, as are many on that side of my family. As coal miners in the western part of Pennsylvania, they learned to use what they had. I was always fascinated that my godfather built 3 houses for fun out of salvaged building materials he picked up on his way to and from the mines.

As a child in Massachusetts, my mother signed me up for all sorts of art classes, and so I had after school pottery class, oil painting lessons, went to Art Camp at the prestigious Groton School, painted in the desert of New Mexico, and was in the "talented and gifted" artistic program at school, which I thought was insanely elite-ist but cool at the same time (as it enabled me to get out of class all day once a month and go to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, or backstage at the Boston Symphony.)

In 1995 I graduated from Alvernia College, with a degree in Communication and a minor in Art. The school did not have an Art major, so I took all the art classes they offered, most of them taught by Sister Magnifica. In my final semester I interned, and hated working in an office and wearing suits. Later that spring, I accepted a position to spend the next year as a nanny to four children in Connecticut- in a house with over 1000 American folk art paintings. During that year I traveled to Maine, Seattle, the Hamptons, London, Switzerland and Rome with the family, and loved living amongst that much art!

Following that year, I spent the next ten working in offices (ugh). When I had my son at age 32, I decided to quit work and I started to pursue art again.

In 2007 I began selling my painted and decoupaged salvaged cabinet doors in downtown Lancaster at Eastern Market, and on Etsy. I have started to make smaller things using salvaged wood and house paints, and have sold my work at the Studio and Art Bar of York, at the Spoiled Silly Children's Boutique in Lititz, PA, at the Art is Negotiable Gallery in Lancaster, and at Senorita Burrita.

Look for two of my handmade cards in the upcoming book, "1000 Handmade Greetings" by Quarry Books.

My work is constantly evolving and I am adding more and more materials to my designs, including furniture, buttons, twigs, and wool, textiles, and paper.

I love it.

check out this cute custom bag made for me! by friedokra (Etsy)
(Adrian in Oklahoma)

I am having them made for people, and it is so fun, picking their favorite colors, and patterns, and even the font for their name or nickname.

Lovely lovely lovely weather day. I got out our camping tent and set it up in the backyard for my son. He was so excited he was shaking. It's super roomy inside and has screen windows on each side...we were lying on the floor of it, looking out at the trees and bunnies, with a nice breeze blowing...

Crazy clothes

Last night was the 12th anniversary of a car accident that nearly killed me. Each year when this time comes around, I feel a sense of nervousness, and I feel that I could be seconds away from the end. It's a chilling time for me, right when the weather starts to really heat up, ironically.
With no one knowing how long they will live, why do we spend years being uncreative with our clothes?
This year I have become more aware of my appearance in that way, and after being creative every day and loving it, it feels so odd to wear boring things and colorless things, and I realize how it will negatively effect me through the day.
Listening to people's reactions in the movie theater about Carrie's clothes in Sex and the City was so funny. Her character feels freedom to wear what she feels like.
Shouldn't life be more like that, and not so restrictive? why do people feel they have to be plain and pompous? it's kind of boring if you think about it.
if each day is more important than we realize, shouldn't our clothes be memorable and interesting to at least ourselves?
Need some inspiration?
Check out Carrie's most outrageous outfits:
http://www.hbo.com/city/sling-back/Carrie-outrageous-outfits.shtml

Upcycled Tin Can Pen Cup

This is a great example of how I've been inspired by other etsy artists, and their use of color. If you look at my favorites on etsy, all of them together are like eye candy. Looking at other peoples work and identifying what I am attracted too, has really helped me discover what I like.

Spending ten years in tan cubicles must have wreaked havoc on my mind :-).

here's my etsy description:

Made from a tin can . 3.75 in diameter, 4.75 inches tall.

made with felt, buttons, wooly goodness from knittydirtygirl, flannel cloud fabric, and parts of a wool handbag.

(The same wool handbag was also used for one of my greeting cards that was selected for the upcoming book, "1000 Handmade Greetings" by Quarry Books.)

I've wanted to make pen cups for some time, but I just finally got enough stuff (the buttons, handbag, etc. to make a cool one:-)

Too Hot for Socks

oh my God it is HOT. Eastern Market was empty yesterday, but the chair I made with the kids turned out great. Inside the open building, I was just warm, but loading my car back up, crossing back and forth across King Street, I nearly blacked out from the heat.
(loading my car after a show, is like loading the luggage of a family of five for a two week trip).
Sometime, around 10:30pm I passed out in my bed. I awoke in my clothes at 11am, the house was a mess. I still had barrettes in my hair. :-)
It is still nearly 100 degrees outside. DH is removing my black dining room chandelier with handpainted poka dot lamp shades and replacing it with a ceiling fan, the air conditioner is on, curtains are closed and I am happy as can be inside cleaning and drinking gatorade.

Look for new things added to my etsy page this week, CUZ I'M NOT DOING SHOWS FOR A WHILE! :-)

Button

I was feverishly working on three little mini pieces today during Mr. French's nap- (wood block, painted, decoupaged with fabric creating my own flower, topped with felt tabs, and a twig for hanging).
I was eating graham crackers and going through my containers to find just the right button to finish them off...
I stopped suddenly, confused...was this a bit of my graham cracker or a button?
I almost ate a button!!!

Things Recycled/or Upcycled:

so here's a list of what at my table today has been..."upcycled"

art painted on cabinet doors using salvaged house paints
pen cups made from tea containers and tin cans and parts of a knitted handbag
a table made from a pot rack, stair spindles, and a beautiful glossy cabinet door (the top)
crosses made from twigs from my yard, some made with my mom's old yarn, and vintage buttons
my sign is made from an old wicker thing my mother-in-law found
necklaces made from mahogany wood trim
personalized kid signs made from my Dad's scrap wood and my left over fabric
plaque holder box is a drawer left at our house when we moved in that I repainted
small birdie plaques are made with pieces of that same knitted handbag (a piece of that bag can also be seen on one of greeting cards in the book "1000 Handmade Greetings" due out in Feb 09.)
crosses also made with parts of handbag, left over yarn, vintage buttons

I am going to teach a class to Girl Scouts in September (a recycling art project). If anyone wants to be an artist, but is worried about the cost of supplies, and that is hindering you, remembering that you can create neat things from found objects too!