Foolish Friday

Knock Knock !

Who's there ?

Genoa.

Genoa who ?

Genoa any good knock knock jokes ?

Picture of a flying machine Caleb drew.  I might have it upside down  . . .

Foolish Friday

Knock Knock !

Who's there ?

Sadie.

Sadie who ?

Sadie Pledge of Allegiance.

I'm volunteering for the art docent program at my son's elementary school. The kids just completed this project in the style of Henri Rousseau making "naive" art pieces that demonstrate foreground, middle ground and background.

Children's Drawings

My son is not fond of doing art. Since I majored in art that's something of a disappointment to me. But lately he has come up with some pretty cool drawings so I have to take the opportunity to show one off. Today he finished this drawing to send to the little girl we sponsor through Compassion International in Peru. Is it just me or is there a little Van Gogh in this?

This is a drawing of one of the floating reed islands of the Uros that we visited in Peru last summer. Below are a couple of photos we took there for comparison.


The next drawing is from our sweet sponsored child in Peru. She's four years old. We love getting letters and drawings from her.


Below are a couple of pictures we took in Arequipa, Peru to show you they really do use the colors she drew on the houses there.

Featured Artist: Julie of Julieandco

carousel ribbons

I discovered the traditional Japanese art of temari several years ago and have always wanted to try it, but never found the time. It is an art with a rich history and great decorative appeal. Julie, a team mate of mine from the Christian Artist Street Team (CAST) on Etsy, makes and sells temari in her shop. I encourage you to visit julieandco on Etsy to see more.

Julie

I purchased a temari from Julie and I just want to show you how well it looks in my home on the fireplace mantel.

Julie has these in many different colors and patterns and even makes Christmas ornaments (I have one Julie made that was given to me as a gift). She does custom work as well.

cocoa and sage duet

petals

If you would like to learn more about Julie and the art of temari read this on-line article in which Julie was recently featured.

Featured Artist: Laura Evans of levansphotography

laura

love. laugh. believe

laura evans/photography - capturing life

That line is the first thing you'll see when you visit the Etsy shop of Laura Evans and it is fitting. I've so enjoyed watching Laura's shop truly blossom over the past months. Browse for a few moments and you'll soon feel like you are walking through a gallery and appreciating the world through Laura's eyes.

vintage shutters

Laura currently lives in Germany and travels around taking photos of some amazing places. She manages to capture those allusive atmospheric qualities of each place.

a moody view of the Eiffel Tower

She also playfully captures the charms of every day items like clotheslines, road signs or a blade of grass. Take a deep breath. You can almost smell the oranges, the sea air and the snow.

blade of grass

all the fun of the fair

winter's dew

Laura's Etsy Shop

Laura's Blog
Laura's Facebook
Laura's Twitter

My Craft Fair Booth

Yesterday I participated in my first official craft fair so I thought I'd show you my booth set-up.

We were limited to a 6'x6' space, which is pretty small. I used the 6 ft table they provided plus my own aluminum roll-out camping table and put them up on bed risers to raise the display 7" which is great for viewing jewelry closer to eye level. Next time I hope to have table covers that go all the way to the floor, but I do like the neutral grey of my velvet cloths.


Jewelry just doesn't sell if the light is poor so I invested in these "medusa head" lamps and fitted them with high definition Ott light bulbs for true color. I purchased white wire shelf risers to raise the lights and put my mirrors more at face level. These had the added advantage of providing extra well-lit space underneath the lights.


I was able to purchase second-hand, stacking jewelry trays which made set-up and take down much quicker and provided a nice display.

I used a digital photo frame slide show to display photos of my work on models, in other settings and also for displaying text. I have to say that it worked exactly as planned. The men were enthralled and the women ignored it. It gave the husbands something to do while the wives browsed.

The show was a valuable learning experience. Next time I will know to bring a dolly to help cart my items back and forth from my car, to put larger print on signage and to bring a higher stool instead of a low chair to use behind my raised tables.

Pinecone

My son and his friends were playing in our backyard collecting pinecones out of the mulch. We recently finished the desert landscaping in the backyard with a lot of small river rocks.

This is what they came up with. I think it is very beautiful.