It's Pumpkin Time!

To clarify... the pumpkin FLAVORED everything this time of year isn't what I mean. Now, I DO love a good pumpkin bread or pumpkin pie, but pumpkin coffee, tortilla chips, oatmeal or yogurt? Gah.

What I really love to see are the variety of pumpkins on display.  This is the Cinderella style pumpkin display at our local Garden Spot Nursery.  They always have fun decorative arrangements of whatever is in season.

My favorite pumpkin is the little Sugar/Pie Pumpkins. Smaller IS better, after all.  :) They weren't there when we visited last week, however will be in sometime soon. I use my little sugar pumpkin for display through Halloween up to Thanksgiving, and then it is frequently used for pumpkin pie.

Now that's what pumpkin is meant to do... ;)

Treasure Tuesday

Some of you may know that I have two online shops on Etsy; one shop features my artwork and a few art supplies. The other shop has a variety of vintage and antique items. Some come from our own collections, and some come from our treasure hunting at estate sales or thrift shops. (It's addicting!) 

One of my fellow vintage sellers made a comment today that totally describes what I do when I come across something that appeals to me: "I rescue  it, bring it home, care for it a while and then send it on to a new loving family". 

Similar to pet rescue, only different. ;)  

I thought it would be fun to highlight a few of the treasures from Etsy - from my shop and some of my favorite Etsy sellers too. 

Every so often I'll have a Treasure Tuesday... like today! 

This week just a few from the collectibles section of my shop: 

Colclough Bone China Tea Cup and Saucer circa 1940s

Wild Rose Porcelain Trivet - hand painted in 1950s

Large Porcelain Piggy Bank circa 1960s

Ohio Pottery Pink & Blue Flower Vase circa 1950s

Enjoy your Tuesday! 

December Bird Watching

A break in the rain Friday prompted quick trip to the Lummi Flats to bird watch. It's so gorgeous out there even without the birds. Mount Baker - the great white watcher - in the background.

Forgetting the "big" camera, I only had my cell phone. Impossible to zoom in on the Bald Eagle, Red Tail and Rough Legged Hawks, Northern Harriers, and Swans. I was able to get a (not great) photo of a blue heron hiding in the field... he was fairly close to the ditch at the side of the road.

And while we were out... saw some vintage war birds flying overhead. :) 

Happy Sunday! 

Tiny Shrines

I really enjoy creating with recycled bits such as old sheet music and vintage postage stamps. I've created a series of art pieces / ornaments using mostly vintage recycled papers. 

This series are tiny Madonna shrines using vintage postage stamps on vintage sheet music, using bits of leftover mat board as the substrate. Various inks add the colors. 

Botticelli Madonna and Child 

Correggio Madonna and Child

Instant Ancestors

I came across a binder with many old photographs at an estate sale, and am slowly adding them to my vintage shop. Here's a few that I really, really like:

Check out more instant ancestors here. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Borrowed from  http://www.scienceofrelationships.com

Free Spirit

Totally stolen from Nicola Holland. She find the coolest quotes. Enjoy!

Last of Summer

 As I sit here listening to the pouring rain, I know that the last remaining petals on the bee balm are being beaten off the stalks. *sigh*  I love my summer bee balm, and am wondering where time went. How can Fall be nearly here? I sure can feel it in the weather.

However, I have fond memories of warm summer days and dancing bee balm being worked over by the hummingbirds and honey bees. And photos and artwork to help remind me. It's enough for now.

In the meantime, I've got my sweaters and socks to keep me warm. :)

What's in My Studio

I'm still working with torn paper...

These three background pages started out with Strathmore Mixed Media paper as a base. Using Matte Medium I adhered torn vintage papers to the substrate. For two of the backgrounds I used pages from an old atlas and the other used a variety of other bits and pieces, including an old school workbook. That is the one shown on top. 

Once the papers have dried, I put a layer of paint or gesso to unify the background - or mute the colors slightly, depending on how you look at it. :) 

The page on the right has a light layer of white paint. I'll add some colored paint.... still debating on which colors to use... and more details before I determine what these will become. 

Here's an example I showed last Friday using this technique as both a background and the focal image.

And that's what I have on my work desk today. How about you?



To see what other folks are working on, check out Julia's What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday.

Works in Progress

Working on a few things this week, and must say it feels good to be in the studio.

This is a torn paper kitten in progress - as part of a swap hosted by my friend Martha on atcsforall.com. This will be placed on a 4 x 4 chunky page when done... which will be this afternoon.

These are small 3 x 3 canvases that need some tinting and will have an inspiring phrase or word when completed. 

The piece on the far right is a torn paper background on canvas panel that just got a layer of old pattern tissue. I'll attack with the paints next. :)

I'm looking forward to next week as my husband will be gone for a few days and I'll be alone in the house and can hang out in the studio without feeling like I'm neglecting things.
I don't know why, but I can get more done when he's not in the house... odd as that may seem.
Anyway, I'm behind on what I wanted to have done for the Holiday Shows, and should be able to get a lot done while I'm "home alone".

I hope your week has been creative!   Happy Friday!

Natures View

What little bit of Nature are you seeing today?  

Here's what I'm seeing: 

So what are YOU seeing? 

Check out my Facebook Page and share a photo. 

www.facebook.com/NaturesWalkStudio

Sun gold!

These are our favorite little cherry tomatoes... Sun Golds! It's hard to get enough for a salad, as we tend to eat the as quickly as we pick them. That's really the very best way to eat cherry tomotoes, pick 'em and pop 'em in your mouth. Yum!

Beatix Potter - Rescued Books

I adore the Beatrix Potter stories, and loved reading them to my kids. I came across a set of Beatrix Potters books from the 1970s... that were water damaged and beginning to falling apart. The illustrations, however, were (mostly) in good or fine condition. So I went ahead and bought them. The rescued book pages make adorable framed prints!

What a perfect idea to decorate a childs room!

Squirrel Nutkin and Mr Brown Owl

Besides using some in my journal, I'm listing several of these adorable book pages as ephemera in my Vintage shop over the next few days.  If you're interested, take a peek. 

Have a fabulous weekend! 

From the Garden - Wild Roses

Nootka roses in the back "wild" area behind the gate. These lovelies have climbed to the top of the Hawthon tree, which you can see in the picture below:  

It's not a great picture but you get the idea. 

I love this time of year. 

What's in my Studio... and EPSTeam Treasury Winning Week

A mess on the computer desk... with a small book and some vintage buttons waiting to be listing in my Vintage Etsy shop. The rolodex, glasses case and display ATCs are always there on the left. And of course the cords connecting the USB hub and camera hook up. 

Totally stoked for my Vintage shop(naturegirl22.etsy.com) to be "Treasury winner" this week with my favorite Etsy team -  Etsy Pickers and Sellers Team (EPSTeam)! A gazillion treasuries (well, 28 so far) featuring my item and one from Victoria of MyPalPeppy.etsy.com. A fun time is being had by all!

I love being part of a fun, cooperative and caring team! They are a fabulous group of supportive people, and really I wish I had such a group here locally. Seriously, it seems like most of the supportive people I have in my life are online or at-a-distant art friends.
Not sure what that says, other than I'm not apparently not searching out and developing this locally. I must work on that.

Here's the item I chose with Fathers Day in Mind

Healey Coachworks Solid Brass Precision Tire Gauge

And here's Victoria's ... isn't this the cutest little rabbit?

Spanish Rabbit Jam Pot

In other news, the garden is growing by leaps and bounds. Here's a shot of some of the foxglove that is scattered about the yard. They are one of my favorite garden flowers.

Hope your week is going well!

Sharing with WOYWW - What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday hosted by Julia. 

Breathe

Even though I'm still a very tired puppy from hosting the SeARTle Art Retreat this past weekend, I was still up early. My body knows when it gets light out, and just wakes itself up, which this morning was a bit before I really wanted to get up. *sigh*

So this busy morning I packaged up seven orders from the past few days while I was away. A trip to the post office will happen soon. For now I am working on listing items in both my Vintage Shop and my Art Shop to replace the items on their way to new owners.

No rest for the busy self employed! Although soon I'm done "working" for the day, and will be out in the sunshine that is calling me to the garden.

Timely article on Avoiding Burnout on the Esty Blog.

Happy Monday!

Happy Easter!

Wishing everyone a Happy Easter! 

Distracted etc

Have you heard about my One World One Art giveaway? Click here to find out and enter.

Abstract Seascape

This little 4 x 4 inch textured landscape painting I created a bit ago... no new work finished this week.

I'm a bit distracted of late and not creating/finishing a lot of art. So many projects in the works, and without actually working on them, I feel like I'm going into withdrawal. Soon things will calm down again.

I'm co-hosting an Art Retreat - SeARTle - April 25 - 27. While it's not a huge gathering (about 20 of us) it is going to be so much fun!  I'm quite excited! (And distracted)

Some fun news, I filling out my application and sending in the $$ for a large and popular local Holiday show. It is exciting as it will focus on my vintage items and will include some of my art.  How fun is that going to be? More on it later.

Hoping you have a wonderful week!

Sharing with Paint Party Friday, hosted by Eva and Kristin.

Creative Energy

It takes a lot of energy to be creative some days, when life is throwing other things at you. 

I have not completed any of the paintings I'd hoped to this week, however I did get some much needed sorting and rearranging done. So that's something. :)

I do have these paintings in the works... an idea based on the Flower Crazy class by Carla Sonheim. (Yes, I totally love what I learned in that class!) They are still wet in this photo. More layers to come. 

In other news... my Vintage and Ephemera shop has a sale on select ephemera packs. Here are a couple to tempt you. (Note that I get these packs only from books that are torn, missing covers or falling apart.)

Old Picture Book Illustration Packs

Vintage Book Page Ephemera Pack

So what have you been up to this week? 

Sharing with Paint Party Friday, hosted by Eva and Kristen. 

Dreams

"If your dreams don't scare you, they aren't big enough." 

Dream Swallow Ornament by Helen Campbell

I'd like to offer a challenge to address the following questions: 

1) Do you have a BIG dream? One you are willing to say out loud?

2) What are you doing RIGHT NOW to make it happen? 

3) What are you doing RIGHT NOW that is holding you back from your dream?



My answers this moment are: 

1) Yes! Being recognized and supporting myself as a nature artist and photographer.

2) a. Selling at the 2013 Holiday Festival of the Arts and researching additional live venues for 2014. 
b. Selling my art and photography on Etsy (I also have a vintage Etsy shop) and figuring out how to SELL my work on FineArtAmerica, society6.  
c. Making time to make art! 

3) Procrastinating by spending unproductive time on the internet. 


How about you?  Are you willing to share your dreams out loud? I'd love to hear them if so. :)