Sharing some art...

...yep, that's about it.  I LOVE Alphonse Mucha's work and I've always wanted to do some pieces inspired by his work.  My idea was to recreate a piece using the original layout and colors, but incorporate my style and subject matter.  So, yeah.  This one is called "...this is what she's look like".  While I was painting, I kept thinking if one my paintings had a baby with one of Mucha's paintings, this is what she's look like.

Dia de los Muertos

On, yet another, thrifting expedition yesterday, I picked up a little pair of white canvas sneakers for Zion (the previously painted robot sneakers are still a bit big). These were only $.50!! For some odd reason, they were screaming for Day of the Dead skulls!! So I spent a couple of hours this afternoon listening to Jimi Hendrix and painting VERY tiny skulls. I don't know if it's some sort of sickness or masochistic side, but WHY in the world would I choose to paint something do detailed on something so small??? (I mean, I had to paint them with a toothpick and a VERY tiny brush....)Who knows, but I think they turned out pretty cute!

Opening Exhibit

So, I don't think I've ever actually posted about my art. The art that is my profession....hmph. Well, anyway, tonight was the opening reception for the exhibit that I am currently in. The opening turned out nice. There was a good crowd and I made some connections and met a some good people. Here's some pictures of the kids and some of my art.

Wooden Doll Makeover

Back over the summer when we put together the cardboard dollhouse, we also made a little wooden family to live in it. Well over the past few months, the family (as well as the house, actually) have begun to look a bit unkempt. So I decided to give the whole family a much needed make over. They originally had fabric scraps for clothes. It was very cute when they were first completed, but months of my girls playing with them...well, let's just say that they looked unloved. I figured painting clothes for them would be much more durable in the long run. You can see a few pictures of what the family used to look like in their home here. We will do some house and furniture touch ups some other day.


I love the little old fashion butt flap on the back on the triplets' pajamas (not that my kids have any idea what those are).

A VERY short Grandma and Grandpa (or a very tall Mom and Dad). I told them that sometimes we shrink as we get older (tee hee).

Zion's first big girl shoes

Up until now I've been making all of Zion's shoes. I really don't think non-walkers need hard shoes and I just really like making baby shoes. Anything that tiny is incredibly cute to me. But, my baby is moving on to bigger and better things and will hopefully be taking her first wobbly steps soon. Actually they would be her second wobbly steps since she actually took her first three steps last week. She took three steps and decided that walking is not for her. She hasn't made an attempt since. Despite her lack of enthusiasm for walking, I decided I should probably get her some shoes anyway and I lucked up on a cute pair of t-strap sneakers on my latest trek through our local Goodwill. There must be something written in the stars for inexpensive shoes this week. This pair set me back a whopping $2.99. And once again, I had to fresh them up with a mama-made paint job. We are into robots around here lately, so Zion's go with her big sister's new sneakers. They will be very cute on her whenever she decides to walk. Hopefully they won't be too small by then...

That's right! $2.99!

Bijou in her new shoes...

It is very difficult (as I'm sure everyone knows) to get a picture of a three year old's feet. They never stop moving them! Anyway, here's the best I could do...

Freshly painted shoes for the kid

Our local neighborhood Dollar General had a bin of $6 shoes. Now generally the idea of $6 shoes (and more so the idea of a bin of shoes) would be a turn off unless they were a really good pair of shoes on a really good markdown. But seeing as this is Dollar General...well, you get my drift. Anyway, they've had this bin of $6 sneakers for a while, but never had a size that would fit anyone in our little tribe...that is until yesterday. I lucked up a pair of black knock off Chuck Taylors, size 9, just big enough for Bijou. Being the person that I am (I have a hard time leaving well enough alone), I decided to fresh them up with a custom paint job. I wanted to make sure that they still looked like a little girl's shoes without looking girlie. I think they came out very cute. After I painted the picture on them, I covered the entire painted area with a sparkly fabric paint. She gets her sparkly sneakers and I don't have to look at princess or daisies. Everyone's happy! I will post pictures of her wearing them as soon as I can.

(Close up of sparkles!)

Really big kid art

I came across this great post over at U N Journal and thought it was a great project. So having the artsy little tribe that I do, we made it our weekend project. Our space here isn't nearly as nice the one over there, so we used the garage (fortunately it has been pretty mild the last few days). The kids did a great job and it was a good lesson is limitations, patience, and purposeful actions. The older two worked on theirs yesterday, so theirs are already hanging in their rooms. Bijou just did hers this morning so I will post pictures of it hanging after it dries.

This is Bijou's. I enjoy painting with her because she is still young enough to not be attached to painting "something". There's a freedom to preschool painting because there is more focus on the act of painting rather than the act of making something recognizable. She was perfectly content to see how the colors interacted with one another on the paper. Her biggest concern, though, was making sure she used every last drop of paint in the container. I think she succeeded.

I gave the bigger girls two more constraints. 1.) They had to leave some white paper showing, but it had to be a very small amount. 2.) They could only use the broadest side of the brush (they had two large and one small), no skinny edging. Ashni said that hers was a house with a weather vane on top and a large black snowman.



The older girls' paintings are about 5 feet tall and 2, maybe 2 and a half, feet wide. Bijou's is about 3' x 3'.

Progress and Portraits

It has been a busy couple of weeks here. I finally finished the boots and hats for the shop on the Square. They all turned out pretty cute AND I managed to print some tags for them on fabric before my printer ran out of ink. As I am still mastering the sewing machine, they are all pretty much hand sewn, but it's progress. I really wanted to get them to her before Christmas, but there were lots of other things going on around here. While I was in sewing mode, I decided to make a new pair of shoes for Zion. I had a nice wine colored wool sweater that I made into a pair of cute, warm winter Mary Janes. I also used my new hole punch (that I found for $5 at Walmart) to add some nice detail to them.


My shoe making was slowed a bit by a large family portrait that I was painting. My friend offered to trade me a washer and dryer for a portrait of her family. Can you ask for a better barter?! We have been in need of a washer since we moved into this house (a year ago). This is by far the largest family I've done, but it was good practice. I usually pride myself on being able to complete a portrait in a day or so, but this time I had to paint seven people. That stretched my work time, well, seven times (at least). I signed it and scraped my palette today so that I will not be compelled to keep touching it up (I'm prone to doing things like that). Hopefully she likes it.