I Love my Creative Life!

I've taken some time over winter break to dive back into playing with sewing and such. I find that I love to embrace messiness in all that I do. I love leaving in mistakes, being loose with my work, and I especially love to create functional art that I or someone else will use.

Here's what I've been up to.

I made a tunic out of 3 t-shirts.

I made a bag out of one t-shirt...features my art from 2011.

I turned a scarf I knitted last year into a winter cap.

I made a messy stitched an old canvas bag with more of my 2011 paintings.

I had a number of old t-shirts with my art printed on them.

Now those shirts and my art have a new awesome life!

The bag is officially Ruby tested and approved.

Batty for Austin, Texas

Well my "no pain after surgery" bragging rights officially came to an end this morning...in the most creepy way.

I had just taken a shower, reached in the cupboard to get my deodorant, and when I grabbed it my poor little innocent fingers encountered a great big cockroach. I flailed and screamed, of course. I mean, who wouldn't? And then I saw some serious stars and I wailed and wailed, waking everyone in the house up. It was the most unimaginable pain that is hard to even put words to. My flailing had affected the spot in me where there had been a rib just last week, and I'd made that and the surrounding area quite grouchy.

Five minutes later I was still quite shaken but back to my "no pain" state, thankfully. And now cockroaches have been moved to my "kill on sight" list. It's not a huge demotion from my "catch and feed to the chickens" list, but they should most definitely quake at the sight of me.

<shudder>


And I created this bag out of a shirt that had one of my paintings printed on it. The painting is titled "Congress Avenue Bats". The name of the bag, however, is "Batty for Austin, Texas". The strap is long enough to be worn over the shoulder and the bag itself is close to messenger bag size. I'm so happy I saved all of these t-shirts...and my sweet husband is so happy that I'm finally doing something with them.

"Batty for Austin, Texas" - $25

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Hey, Mickey!

I've been taking the most epic naps the last couple of days. Surgery, pain killers, and the time to do it have made for the perfect storm of nap time awesomeness.

Today I took a two hour nap on the couch. My little guy happened to be walking by as I was just beginning to stir.


Little guy: "What are you doing, mom?"

Me: "I'm trying to get it to come out again."


The thing is, my left ear sticks out. A lot. So much so that my parents actually considered having it surgically "fixed" when I was a wee one. If I sleep on my left side sometimes my ear gets uncomfortably smooshed and I feel compelled to pull it back out into its correct, Dumbo proportioned, position.


Little guy: "You look ridiculous, mom."

Me: "Don't make fun of the infirm and drug addled."


And I made this bag today out of a t-shirt featuring one of Dumbo's good friends, Mickey Mouse! I think Walt would approve.

"Hey, Mickey!"... $30

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Bag of Bones

While I'm recovering from the surgery I had last Thursday, I've decided to create a series of upcycled things (bags/skirts/etc/not sure where this will lead me) out of the big pile of outgrown/unwanted t-shirts I've been saving over the years. I'm finding that not having some creative outlet in my life is just not working for me. Seriously, I only made it two days without making something.

So here is my first. I'm titling it "Bag of Bones" and I love it! I remember purchasing this shirt for my big guy at least ten years ago and falling in love with the skulls print. My big guy wore it for a number of years, then my little guy, and then it sat in a pile in the laundry room...waiting, waiting, waiting. And since my surgery was to remove part of one of my own bones I think this shirt, bag, and title are all the more delightfully appropriate.

"Bag of Bones"

I'm not selling this one because I'm so madly in love with it, but others will definitely be up for grabs.

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Moon Gaze - Part 3

I woke up the little guy this morning at the time he said he'd be getting up.


Me: "It's 7:00. I have to leave and I want to be sure you'll get up."

Little guy: "OK, mom." He leaned over and did something on his phone.

Me: "So are you getting up?"

Little guy: "It's a process mom."


"Process" clearly means several encounters with a snooze button. And so I left, hoping that he'd get up in time to get to school before the bell rang.


I'm having surgery tomorrow morning so I'll miss blogging and posting my art for the first time in over four years. I plan to be back up and running really soon.

Happily, I finished this bag for my big guy's girlfriend. Here it is shot from all sides.

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Moon Gaze - Part 2

Something happened last night that makes me feel like we're doing something right. And it fits so well into this canvas bag painting I'm doing of a woman who is so at peace with her world. Last night I remembered that we needed to put our big trash bin out to the curb for this morning's garbage pick up. Dave went out to do it and came in and said, "We have no trash."

We looked in our kitchen trash can and it was not even half full. So no trash to the curb for us this week. Makes me happy.


And I continued working on this wonderful canvas bag project.

I painted the handles and much of the background blue.

I'm getting more bleeding. I'll fix that later.

I dripped on the flower...it's OK, I've already decided that I like it.

Here's the back of the bag. The back seriously
needs to have more going on. Must think of something.

I painted the first layer on the petals.

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Moon Gaze - Part 1

My little guy had an a couple of his old friends (from way back in kindergarten) spend the night last night. I was telling one of them about my upcoming surgery and he said, "You'll be able to hula-hoop again!" I was pleasantly stunned. He was right! I had to quit hula-hooping when I got a blood clot four years ago, but now that the root cause of all of that will be gone, well, hula-hooping here I come!  It's the little things....


My big guy's girlfriend dropped off a canvas bag and a lovely request (I LOVE requests!). This morning I started on her bag.

I started by sketching out her idea.
This is the front.

This is the back.

I used watered down acrylics to add color.

Here's the beginnings of the moon.

Here's the back of the bag.

I'm excited to see how this bag turns out!

 Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale and I welcome commissions.

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!

Save a Tree

I'm sure you all have canvas or some sort of other reusable bag for taking to the stores, right? Most of mine were either given to me or I purchased for three dollars max. Well, this morning this happened.

Trader Joe's checker: "This is the bag I want."

Trader Joe's bagger: "That's the one everyone wants."

Me: "That bag?"

Trader Joe's checker: "It's the perfect shape and they don't make them any more."

Trader Joe's bagger: "I've seen them for sale on Craig's List for $35."

Me: "People are nutty."


Saving a tree suddenly seems like it may ned to be part of my retirement plan.

Click here to view my gallery.  Most of my paintings are for sale.

I'd love for you to share my art and blog with the links below.  Thanks!