Photo Tales: Barbie-House Takeover

Cinderella: We are never, ever getting back together.

Gingham: That's too bad, he seemed like a nice guy. Are you okay?

Cinderella: Everything has changed.

Gingham: Wait, are you talking in song titles again?

Cinderella: Teardrops on my guitar.

Gingham: Stop.

Pink: Isn't this fun? Aren't we having fun? This is so much fun!

Gingham: What're you going to do now?

Cinderella: Shake it off, shake it off.

Gingham: Seriously stop.

Cinderella: Why you gotta be so mean?

Pink: Guys, something's flying in!

Grandiose: I am Grandiose, Queen of the Southern fairies and I'm here to offer an exchange. Your house for a fairy house!

Pink: Fairies are real? That explains a lot!

Gingham: Wouldn't it be small for us?

Grandiose: Heard of tiny houses? Tiny is the new big!

Grandiose: My army and I will er--take you there.

Red: Sorry I'm late, did I miss anything?

Grandiose: Is that my Pegasus?

Red: Yeah, mine was napping.

Grandiose: For the tenth time, you need to ask first!

Red: As she was saying, we need to relocate you.

Grandiose: It could be a fun adventure for you all!
Pink: Did you say fun?
Gingham: Pink, don't agree to anything yet--
Pink: YES, we'll trade you!
Gingham: PINK!
Pink: She said it'd be fun!

Pink: I thought fairy homes would be more enchanting.

Pink: All three of us squished together like the three men in the tub! So fun!

Gingham: You're not making it better. I think we've been swindled.

Pink: Ken and Barbie don't even have a tiny house yet! We're gonna be trending!

Cinderella: Are we out of the woods yet?

Grandiose: This place is ginormous! There's nothing better than relaxing by a fire indoors.

Red: While watching television!

Grandiose: If only there was another channel besides Barbie's...

Zzzzzzz

Red: Could you move your wing? It's tickling my face.

What I'm Working On...

It's been rainy and cool here which always seems to help my creative process. I'm not sure of why that is, but it just does. I create better/more often in the winter months.

This girl is a little something I've been working on lately. There is definitely some fall inspiration here, but since it's not quite a full-fledged fall, she's still in shorts.

Wishing you a great start to your Monday!

Paint + Words

I have a passion for both art and words. But I've hesitated about putting words on my paintings because I felt it was too childish or that maybe people might not get it or think it was silly or maybe just not artsy enough.

But the truth is, I adore children's art; people don't always "get" me; I am silly and I can be the one to determine artsy-enough. Why shouldn't my art reflect these parts of me? So I'm letting it. And you know what? I love it. I love putting little thoughts on my paintings. I love handwriting them. Even as a little girl, I enjoyed hours of handwriting. (Doesn't everyone?)

So now my art and words are colliding into something that feels very vulnerably me, although it looks very playful. I think it feels vulnerable because I'm opening my heart in a new way.

It feels good ~ it feels right; so I'm sticking with it. I'm also working hard to have a pre-opening of my shop by the end of this month for blog readers and Facebook fans. I know it's taken awhile, but I've had a big learning curve. I'll let you in on my struggles later. For now, I'm just painting as often as I can so I'll have my shop full by launch!

Hope you enjoyed these peeks!

Fears of Pursuing Dreams

I've been open about pursuing a few of my dreams here on the blog, so I thought it might be interesting to share some fears I've had about doing them.

Pursuing a dream can be:

1. Vulnerable.

It feels incredibly exposed to even admit you have a dream. It's like opening your soul to let the world see that you want something. It feels a little like setting a feather on the end of your open fingers and hoping it'll stay there in high wind.

But the other option is even less desirable ~ never even attempting to follow your dream. Holding onto that hope and hiding it away like a hoarder. 

2. Terrifying.

What if this doesn't work? Will I look like a fool? What if it goes nowhere? These are just a few of the thoughts making any pursuit terrifying. I often remind myself: anything worth doing is worth the risk!

3. A lot of work.

This is a no-brainer, but sometimes the amount of work can be totally underestimated. I definitely underestimated a good portion of opening an online shop. I've struggled with lots of bumps in the road of what looked like an effortless plan. But I know in the end, all that hard work will be worth it!

4. Not how you expected.

This is most certainly a definite. Sometimes our dreams take different shapes at different times. Or maybe what started as one thing will morph into something completely different. Mine have morphed several times now.

5. Exactly what you want.

As silly as it sounds, this can be the most frightening thought of all. I read somewhere that the fear of success keeps many people from taking a first step. Funny how our minds work, isn't it? But I totally get it. 

I've had moments of sheer panic when I thought, "What if this actually works?" Sounds funny because, of course I want it to work! But I think it's the responsibility following it that makes that thought scary.

Do you have fears about pursuing a dream?

Chalk Art: Porch

I wanted to try a chalk art design and thought a welcome sign would be perfect for our porch.

I started by creating a small space for the message in the middle with dark gray. The design was inspired by a mirror I saw hanging at one of our favorite restaurants. But instead of a mirror, I made a box to put the word "welcome" in and instead of neutral shades, I added brighter colors to the surrounding area.

It definitely cheered up our entryway. I think I'm going to enjoy this little sign for as long as it lasts.

What do you think I should chalk art next? Maybe a porch "rug"?

Lately...

Last week my kids were with Grandparents for their yearly "cousin camp"; so my brother, sister and I got together for "sibling camp". We had a lot of fun catching up and hanging out! I came back rejuvenated and inspired to paint ~ these girls are the result.

She was in the business of capturing stories. 

She was about to discover how courageous she could be.

She was finally at peace with herself.

I hope you enjoyed a few glimpses into my studio. What've you been up to lately?

How I Painted an Abstract Piece

I've been wanting a large, abstract art piece to hang above our couch. Unfortunately the paintings I loved were far out of my price range. Luckily, I found a large canvas marked way down at Micheals, and decided to attempt my own version of abstract art (albeit waaay out of my comfort zone).

Anytime I've tried this before, it's come out looking like a big jumbled color mess without any form to it. It didn't look like the paintings I loved. So this time I wanted to try a few different techniques:

1. I painted with a palette knife instead of brushes. This was a little awkward at first, but I really loved slapping paint around with these tools once I began!

2. I covered the canvas. I put down the first layer of paint trying to place all the colors I wanted in each quadrant of the canvas without overwhelming it. Not sure I succeeded because it sort of looked like the jumbled mess paintings from before, but I still had a few other steps to try.

3. I wanted thicker layers, so after the paint dried, I slathered molding paste onto the canvas. I just happened to have an almost full jar on hand from a previous project ~ whoo-hoo!

4. When the paste dried, I spotlighted my feature colors and made them the focus of the painting. I'll admit it was difficult trying to keep the focal colors as the focus without making them stark against the rest of the painting. The only advice I have is to add lot and lots of layers.

5. I added cascading colors. The painting still didn't look right to me, or at least not how I wanted it to look. I noticed that the art pieces I loved so much had a cascading flow to them. When I finally realized that, I began working to make my colors "waterfall" from top to bottom. 

6. I loved seeing movement with the brush strokes, so I added more of that. I wanted lots of layers and lots of texture. 

7. I added white space. I noticed I wasn't happy unless there was a large amount of white space, so I indulged myself. 

Here is the final result:

It was a fun challenge, but painting an abstract piece is much harder than it looks!

Have you ever tried a project out of your comfort zone?

I Dream of Mountains

My paintings lately have drawn more inspiration from the people around me and the ones, I assume, are around you. We all have friends with big dreams and secret passions. This painting was inspired by my good friend, Adrienne, who feels most at home in nature, especially among the mountains. I love watching her face light up when she talks about them.

I understand why she loves them; my husband and I lived in Colorado during our first years of marriage and those mountains just draw you in. They're royal and empowering. Not to mention they helped this directionally-impaired woman find her way in a new city. I knew where I was as long as I could see the mountains.

What is your secret passion? What is the thing that even the thought of it brings a happy sigh from your lips?

P.S. The reason the words look slanted in that last photo is because I was leaning the painting back to avoid a glare. They really are aligned, I promise.

Storybook Paintings

Stories...oh those dreamy woven tales. I love them in songs, poems, movies, books, or articles. I love imagining them. I love stories almost any way they can be dished up. 

But I never thought of painting as a way to tell a story.

Painting stories happened secretly; at least it was secret from me. I didn't realize that's what I was doing. Although there is always a back-story in my mind about the painting and the people in it, I never thought that was seeping into my art.

I picked up a group of my paintings from a local coffee shop recently to get new photos of them for my online shop (coming soon). 

When I brought them home and set them around my studio, it felt as if I'd brought home old friends. 

It dawned on me as I looked at each of them that they had a story, one I'd given them; and those stories were peeking out from each canvas. I'd been sad to put aside writing for awhile due to unforeseen circumstances, but picked up painting in it's place. Now it dawned on me that:

My stories had not stopped being written, I'd just chosen a different tool.

I can't express how happy that made me. I hadn't suppressed those dear stories, I'd painted them!

I hope the stories sing through to others when they look at my art. I hope they hear the tales hidden in the brush strokes.