1000 Handmade Greetings

I received my acceptance email today from Rockport Publishers today for two of my handmade greeting cards- for their upcoming book, "1000 Handmade Greetings"
I made a few cards because I saw on Etsy that they were looking for original work for this book.
For a similar book they've made see:
http://www.amazon.com/000-Greetings-Creative-Correspondence-Occasions/dp/1592530214/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208988099&sr=1-1

I am really excited to be a part of this book!!! The cards they accepted are entitled: Blue Marsh and Wooly Flower. Wooly Flower is made from the strap of a handbag :-)

I Spy Amy!

Lots of cool vibes tonight at Spoiled Silly children's boutique in Lititz, where I was the featured artist for 2nd Friday.
Thank you to you guys for buying my new necklaces!, to Kim for hosting me, and my good friends for showing up...it was a little bit of a party!
best of all was that Amy showed up, and I've missed her. Love you Ame. Party in her bathroom soon. Snacks will be served in style, and Amy will have washed her hair by then!
(oh Ame...I have to entertain you at work SOMEHOW~!)
Check out my new 2008 setup!!!!

Old Lady Decorator now Aged 35

this is what I am calling myself now....Matt got me a doily dresser runner thing, with pretty stitching on it for my birthday and a pillow that says God Bless Our Home, both from Mommalicious in Lancaster...the pillow is black and has cool raised knitted letters on it.

This week is au pair week (meeting coming up this weekend at my house), so I'm preparing for that. Also, Friday find me at Spoiled Silly in Lititz as the featured artist, sporting my new "table" made from a gorgeous cabinet door, a pot rack, and four stair spindles.

Also this week, me and my Dad are installing beadboard paneling in my tiny hall (one of my birthday pressies). It will be lovely. Everyone will have to trust my artistic instincts. I CANNOT WAIT!!!! My house was built in 1952. It is missing some features it could have to make it "cuter"...for instance beadboard (afterall it is a Cape).
Last fall my Dad put in crown molding above my kitchen cabinets (another Maggie plan). I added a wallpaper border under that. Now now....everyone is saying, "OH NO. NOT A BORDER."
guess what???? I LOVE IT!!!!! borders help you match your towels! hooray!!!! they give a bland weird kitchen an identity. Yes, this is the same girl with an Alessi cookie jar, and all Fiestaware and name this and name that....but you know what? sometimes Grandma had it right!
Remember how you felt at Grandmas house? very very content? wanna know why? because everything was clean and it matched!

so the real test would be if you came to my house and you felt all warm and fuzzy while you ate roast beef at my table.

So back to the hall...it takes a lickin. I am up and down it all day. It has hardwood floors, and now yellow walls. Soon it will have beadboard and a chair rail. Soon after that???? it will have a french door revealing that yes we do have two more bedrooms up secret door number 3. If I can find a handmade stainglass hall light, I will buy it. And then I need to get two coordinating photographs or some art that I like.

mmmm. I CANNOT WAIT.

if anyone knows where I can get purple tea towels please let me know.

Nesting....

I am at work on a chair for Vinalhaven, Maine and a commission for Strawberry in Ithaca- so I'm sort of taking a small art hiatus these last few days. It started with the exciting pickup of my retro arm chair for the living room, FREECYCLED!!!!!...the exciting part was that they just said it was green and "older" and no one had claimed it after a week (worrisome), so they reoffered it, and me and my MIL went to pick in up in my BIL's toyota SUV....
we pulled up to the house, and saw it on the porch and it was like "hooray!!! it's COOL!" I am really enjoying it in the corner of my living room, it has changed the dynamic of the house.
as if that wasn't exciting enough :-), I got a bunch of stuff for my son, my sweet boy, and this is SO funny, now has so many shorts I think he needs a new bureau.
Rachel-Marie gave me the most beautiful art today and also a beautiful necklace she made, I am speechless about it, and YOU will see me in it, so just wait!!!!

Sorry I've been MIA!

Easter. Au Pair stuff. Kid stuff. Card contest. Chair Painting. Necklace Making. FreeCycling. Artist friend wedding. (gift for artist friend making), Commission for another friend, delivering work...
in other news:
I have felt confused about my son's choice of school's in the coming years, and we went to the "Night of the Arts" at the city elementary by our house. The work was BEAUTIFUL!!!! and it lined all the walls- I kept thinking I could buy this or that.
What an old but interesting and pleasant school. It was built in the 1920's, and the tile work was so neat- the bathrooms were all different (they had the doors to them open:-) ) and I'm talking 5 or 6 different tile levels, all coordinating in each bathroom, very intricate (i'm not a tile expert, sorry if I don't make sense) ...big arched windows above stairwells, lots of stuff in the classrooms, and the kids are so diverse, and there were many arty moms, so that was very nice. I could even make friends!
My dear dear little son who loves music (and I swear will grow up to be a Maestro or a music teacher) left me and the audience of circling parents, to stand 2 feet away from the violinists playing; he stood there, chin down, and watched them by himself for three songs straight, in the middle of the empty space, with everyone wondering who this tiny little guy was. All the parents were just waiting for him to do something bad, and he just stood there, alone listening to them and watching them. The music teacher was even wide-eyed- so i'm not nuts I guess thinking he REALLY likes music.
We asked him if he wants to go to that school and he nodded, "Yep!"
I got my violin out for him tonight and he played it proudly for an hour. When I put it away he ran around saying, "OH NO! NAY NAY?!" I had to tell him that Daddy needs to go to sleep and we'll play it again in the morning.

Spoiled Silly

2nd store carrying Maggie French Folk Art- Spoiled Silly Children's Boutique on Main Street Lititz.
Very very very cute.
See store pics to the right>
thank you Kim, you were so nice today and my stuff looks so cute with the cute stuff in your store.
OH! Lancaster City Bird's new home is here! for now anyway!!!! til someone buys him!!!

I wanted to be an art teacher at age 5. I never would have expected little shops would like me- isn't life full of happy surprises?:-)

Wednesday Wednesday

Had lunch with Jody in York at the Harp and Fiddle Irish pub, after I dropped off 14 pieces of Irish themed art (from my Irish painting blitz) at the Studio and Art Bar. Will you be in York Saturday for the parade? stop in and check out my stuff. Andrea and Michele will have a booth at the parade too (the only booth!) check the booth too for my Irish items.
An extra special thanks to Betty tonight for buying one of my Mexican doors for a wedding gift. This was one I was considering keeping....
but oh well!!!!

Intellinger article

My goodness, I'm more colorful than I thought. :-)
http://articles.lancasteronline.com/local/4/217860
you really notice things like that when it's brought to your attention in black and white!
I didn't realize how bright it was in here.
but I LIKE IT!

in other Maggie French Folk Art news, I am on an Irish blitz painting St. Patty's day things for the Studio and Art Bar in York. they are super sonic cute. photos soon.

A few of my favorite things, that I'M KEEPING!!!!

I wonder how much stuff I should list on Etsy...I just keep making things and putting them on there. : )

I want to save some things for city shows, so at least somebody gets a surprise.

Today I listed a few things from last year on sale. I've never done that before. It's not good to have so many things sitting around, at least not in a very small Cape Cod house.

On the flip side though, I ran into another problem in that I've made some things I really want to keep for myself- so there! like my favorites. My friend Carrie told me to do that last year. Oh there are a few things I've sold I would have loved to keep. Senorita Burrita knows what I'm talkin about! Kiss those big orange doors for me.

In other news, My new RED glasses with orange in the inside of the frame from Italy's KILLER LOOP www.killerloop.com , should be ready soon for me...I can't wait!

a mini Maggie transformation has begun.

Good things today

Deb from the paper came to photograph me painting on the oven. to get the shot she had to sit on my sink :)
Found a piece of wood at the park.
Ice cream shop reopened.
someone is Freecycling 20+ decorating magazines to me. and I will use them in my art! (Cottage Living etc (great article on 17 women artists in the last issue, very cool),,,thank goodness these mags are on the fun side of the decorating spectrum cuz I have my share of DWELL and Architectural Digest)
65 degrees out today. went for a walk with my little buddy.
i might eat a taco tomorrow.

Bun goes bye bye

We had our good bye dinner for Bun tonight, my Thai au pair. I will miss her so much. But she is off to a good place, to care for "twins on the way!" in San Fran.

Since I am tired and sad to see her go, I just want to say this:

My au pairs are so sweet, intelligent, and interesting. And when I say that, I mean that from the depths of my soul.

If you think that foreign girls who come here are slaves and just want to get married, I challenge you to meet a few au pairs. Not only are they really cool, I look at each one of them and think that they will be something in 20 years, since they are so special now.

Royal Tea anyone?

Today, I brought seven pieces to the Royal-tea Garden Tea Room at Mulberry Art Studios.

Check out my pieces now and on First Friday March 7, when I'll be stopping by the Tea Room.

Have a little girl? Take her for a tea- I like the theme tables and they have all sorts of things to look at- handcrafted items and all types of neat things little girls and their ladies need!

Royal-tea Garden Tea Room and Gifts
19 N. Mulberry Street
Studio 212
Lancaster, PA 17603
717-701-2111
www.royaltearoomandgifts.com

IKEA on Thursday

beats a weekend there, always. My son had free reign to sprint up and down the aisles. Unfortunately that resulted in him running straight into a display coffee table. Poor kid.

I have been desperately looking for ladder back chairs for a set I am working on for the Niederhoffer family and their Maine house. I ended up getting two at IKEA to start with. They have that LL BEAN coastal look, so I think they'll be just great. Also they are unfinished which means they'll take my paint better.

(just a side note: this family is the coolest bunch of folk art collectors ever, so I am so proud to do these chairs for them. Living with them allowed me to know the freedom of folk art and painting what you feel and can do- the bolder and more honest and brave the better, what a lesson). For an experience that is more real than you'd ever believe, pick up Galt Niederhoffer's book, "A Taxonomy of Barnacles."

I guess sometimes it's hard to use salvaged everything.

Is it just mean or does going to IKEA make everyone want to have a big yard sale and get rid of half of your possessions and then go to the store and get all sorts of new stuff?

If we did that there wouldn't be much left of the contents of our house, since we have many many IKEA things- but I am itching to replace my living room rug, and my basement futon, for sure, and really make it funky.

I am beginning to brainstorm about the first "Maggie French Folk Art Spring Open House" for family and friends, so I want the house to be extra spiffy. You see, if I did that each spring, it would give me a goal every winter, and also be a celebration to end my painting all winter hybernation thing I have going on.

oh, it's too late.

bye.

Prince Street Garage

I photographed some of my new "blitz" pieces on the roof of the Prince Street garage today after we bought 50 pounds of fruit at Central Market. I thought I was going to freeze my hands off. I was going to wear my new Dansko shoes, but I ended up in my boots...it's very cold and slushy here.
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=9780374 (For some reason I can't add pics to my blog at the moment, so bear with me.)

Lancaster looks so wintry in these photos. but there's lots of fresh fruit inside!!!!

PS: I may have performed an illegal, yet very artistic action today, as I crossed yellow tape and entered the unplowed roof of the garage. Also that little red door nearly went careening to the levels below...but we won't talk about that.

Snow Blitz

The first significant snow of the year arrived last night. I am now officially on a weekend painting blitz. I completed four doors today, with a few more in the works tomorrow. (mostly small doors).
Here is what happened when I realized I could use crayons on unfinished wood!
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=9769995 (just seal it with a sealer when you're done!)

In other news I ordered my new business cards. Am I crazy?!
They say: Call for an Appt. to Visit my Studio!

but they also say a couple of cool things:

Available for Commissions and Shops
and
Support the Arts in Lancaster City!

and they look really cool :-) "Art made from Salvaged Treasures"

Moi? The one who paints on her oven?

Today Claudia came to the house to interview me for an article for the Intelligencer on marketing your craft or art business. Soon, the whole of Lancaster may know that I do the majority of my painting on top of my new oven, or on the counter next to it!

Paint one coat on a small door while the water boils for the macaroni and cheese.
Paint a second coat while your child is still eating and you are clearing the table. Warning: this is also how I got yellow paint on the top of my butter dish the other day.

Here is a picture of something else I made on my oven. :-)
Maggie's BBQ chicken pizza with cilantro, onion, and peppers on a homemade crust!

Maggie's Toy of the Last Century Award goes to....

PLAYSKOOL BLOCKS, the Nursery Kindergarten ones!

I have been DYING to find these for my son...here are photos from Ebay. Playskool came out with several block sets, but this is one I wanted. The arch, the columns. This set sold on Ebay for $39.99. I found it today at the Ephrata Goodwill for $7.94.

I haven't had this much fun playing with a toy since I was a kid. We are busy tonight building garages for the CARS cars. Talk about old school meets new.

My husband says to me: "remember THIS one?!" and holds up the triangle. what a riot.
They remind me of the Southwestern landscape when you pile them up. It's super cool.
Oh yah...the CARS movie is set out west, that's funny.

In addition to this find (which will remain in my family for the next 100 years), were many things for my art stand including a white tablecloth, a wrought iron hook holder, a retro piece of fabric, and things for my art including vintage buttons, a giant spool of green thread.

For all you arty folks out there, Ephrata is one heck of a stop. The Goodwill is good, and even better is the ReUzit shop on Main Street. It's run by Mennonite volunteers and has so many neat things including craft supplies, suitcases, toys, housewares. There is a ReUzit furniture store too on State Street, but I don't get much there except for books. If you want an inexpensive dresser or hutch that might be the place for you, and often the things are slightly mid-century, just usually a little dark for me. Oh yes, they have old library books from children's schools. That's another trip down memory lane right there.

But NOTHING tops these blocks, NOTHING!!! ok...back to building...

Lancaster City Bird

My college roommate visited today with her two boys.
She had not been to the house in over a year and a half. This was the first time she saw my 2007 art (and that consisted of the pieces I never sold- shucks) and my 2008 crazy colorful, kid inspired art and increasingly more recycled pieces (you should SEE what my dad gave me over the weekend....more on that later)
I showed her my album of art stuff, photos of Eastern Market- told her about the Indie art scene and Handmade Nation...while fruity Cheerios and Cars were flying all over my hardwood floor- :-) I showed her "Lancaster City Bird" which is my sons favorite by far.
It's one of those days where you have not too much planned and people in your life show up and make your day interesting. I am waiting now for a call from my sweetheart Mexican au pair (I am the Lancaster coordinator for Cultural Care Au Pair), as I am picking her up from the train station. She spent the weekend in NYC, lucky senorita.

Sunshiney Day - Snowy Day

Inside it's a "Sunshiney Day" but outside...oh look at my gnome!
Sunshiney Day is available on Etsy: www.maggiefrenchfolkart.etsy.com

I'm on a bit of a roll with the painting, I guess I should clean the house at some point. :-)

Sweet Maggie May...welcome to my blog!

Hi there and welcome to my blog!
This year I am really :-) embracing my inner artist...so how about I blog?
(Last year was "artist-by fire": a market, a gallery, and a restaurant accepted me within a month, when I only had about 12 pieces made). so there was lots of money spent buying an art stand and lots of supplies- this year in comparison, I am finding more and more salvaged solutions and it's been very rewarding.
I'm using salvaged house paints, Freecycle, upholstery tacks to hold my wire in place on the back of my doors, recycled clothes, buttons...oh yes my little doors...here's a pic.
It's very cold here...but my paint still dries.