Of Wedding Crafts and Construction Woes

Yet another month has flown right on by, and here I am closer than ever to all sorts of deadlines.  Freelance project deadlines.  Wedding related deadlines. Moving deadlines.  Sanity deadlines.... My plate doth overflow with 'to-do's'. 

So what does a girl do when she has to stay put in her pad whilst communicating with construction workers who are trying to replace her windows and doors and are conducting very loud and distracting work in general (annoyingly a very short while before she's moving out, thank you very much, management...)?  

She cracks down on some light wedding crafting to-do's!

These little blooms here are my attempt to create some traditional orange blossoms for wedding time.  

I absolutely love the look of vintage orange blossom wedding wreaths, plus I love the idea that they can be a small representation of my native Florida (state flower, y'all!).  

Sadly, actual vintage orange blossom pieces I have found are too expensive for my budget or too frail to actually wear again.  And, I have to admit, they're a touch more 'victorian' than my event, so I'm trying my hand to see if I can make something a bit more modern, but still classic.

 

Since I'm not too keen on the wax sculpting,  I figured I'd give polymer a chance here - these are from a  pearly and translucent mixture. I also have plans to use some millinery leaves and semi precious stone and pearl beads I already have to fancy it all up, and wire it to a comb.  Perhaps.  

I dunno.  It might not turning out to be my style.  Or maybe I'll come up with something I like better, or maybe, just maybe, the perfect vintage piece with a nice price tag will drop in my lap and save me one to-do. 

We'll see what happens! 

Spring Cleaning

Here's yourself a sparkly spring rainbow of vintage buttons to entice folks to get cleaning -- you never know what lovely thing you had tucked away in that cigar box in the closet!

These were my grandmother's. She gave me her whole stash (just a sliver of which is pictured here) when she decided she never wanted to sew a buttonhole again. Lucky me!

They turned up again during my spring cleaning, and I couldn't resist looking through and picking out some favorites to share.

I tell myself I'll use them for family projects and on precious clothing for future kids, but I like them all together in a box, too. It's like a little treasure box.

And they still smell like her house. That's the best part.

Sigh.

Back to spring cleaning so I can work without climbing over a mountain of craft, and so that I can make the big move soon, and so I can prevent my fiancé from calling things off when I show up to our new house with two houses worth of crap. : P

But the button box stays. And the fabric, and the sketchbooks, and the patterns, and the.....

A New Tool and the New Testament

Remember the Biblical Proportions show I participated in over Easter weekend? Yes? No? You know, the show full of spectacular biblical art from Austin's most talented art peeps?

Well, I decided to go ahead and just use my never before posted brand new piece from it as a test case for blogging from my iPhone already. Whoot! A new tool to get things done!

So here you go... I give you my Mary Magdalene. There she is in all her classic Mary Magdalenism, translated through painted plush and yarn, and there be her seven demons.

Next to a head of John the Baptist..


I have to say it feels very strange posting unedited iPhone photos. It feels very rough, unfinished and exposed to me. Sigh.

I'll just have to get used to it, cuz it's better no posts at all, verdad? Sure...

...And A Hoppy Earth Day, Too!

I surely hope everyone is enjoying their Earth Day, reveling in pretty, pretty nature -- plants animals and all!  Looks like this here kangaroo is enjoying some tulips for the occasion. Very nice!  I wish had had some more time today to get out and about and do likewise... 

Alas, it doesn't look I'll be able to plant any plants or roll around in a meadow today, so y'all have to enjoy Earth day and all that entails on my behalf.  

I've found myself overwhelmed, yet again, in the midst of a 'wedding planning, wedding DIYing, house selling, house buying, stuff packing, stuff storing, stuff moving, work doing' octuple threat, and unfortunately that has meant that crafting and blogging and the like has taken a back seat.  Not even back seat....it's rolling around unanchored in the trunk.  

Soooo.... yeah. 

I reckon today actually is a good time to remind myself to stop, collect myself, and take a breath (I can hear the Sesame Street song in my mind... ok, it's about literally breathing, but I should still make it my mantra).  Earth Day is a perfect excuse to get out and get a breath of fresh air, right? Right!

By the way, for those of you who may be curious about the hat... Why, yes! I love Minnie Pearl. 

And a very happy b-day to my brother while I'm at it!

Hoppy Easter!

Just stoppin' by with a quickie lacy-daisy bunny digi-doodle to say happy Easter to those of you who may not be keeled over in a chocolate coated candy coma.  

I hope other folks' day wasn't filled with coughing and thunderclaps, like my own.  How not festive, and yet, so very springtime...

And only 4 more days until taxes are over and done with! Let's hope I make it!

Biblical Proportions!

If you're in Austin this weekend, make sure to check out the Biblical Proportions art show over at Blue Genie and Bearded Lady.  

Two venues, two days, two celebrations, and two testaments. And gads upon gads of talented art folks. 

I have a few pieces in there (some Old, some New), but like an idiot, I didn't take any pictures of my newest piece before whisking it over there.  I'm sick, yet again, and lots of things have been slipping my sinusy mind. 

So, if you want to see my Mary Magdalene painted plush in all her yarn haired glory, you'll have to make it out to the New Testament show tomorrow evening! 

Wearin' O' the Green

I know by now, everyone who is celebrating St. Patrick's day is starting to slump into a Guinness and green beer pile of celebration, so this drawing may seem a tad late. 

But that's because I've been pretty darned sick the last couple of days (as in on again off again fevery chills), so, yeah...  I actually drew this up whilst bed resting and doodling along in my sketchbook.  When I was feeling better, I scanned it and digitally colored it.  And I like it! 

I think it's the first time I've ever posted something that style wise looks more like what most of my sketchbooks look like. Meaning, it's pencil, and very liney and simple.

Although my sketchbooks are hardly ever colored, and they generally contain far more, um... 'bizarre' drawings than this sweet little clover laden lady here. Far more bizarre, or far more cutesy, depending on my mood. 

I hope everyone had a safe and happy St. Patrick's Day! I'm glad I got to feel better enough to slouch out of bed to make a post.  Yay! Let's hope I'm all better in time for the Craftster SXSW day show on Friday, and the family wedding out of town Saturday (and the other one the Saturday after this one... everyone's gettin' hitched!). 

Live + Art = Lart?

The STAPLE! Independent Media Expo and its live art after-party at Red7 was this past weekend.  I went to both, and I larted!  At least that's what my friend dubbed it ( 'lart' being short for 'live art').  I like that, and it's easier to type out and put into verb form than 'live art' so I'm sticking with lart. If I were to sing my own version of the 'La-la-la Song' from Sesame Street, I'd stick lart in there for sure. 

 

Whatever you call it, it was great and inspiring and fun and entertaining all at once. I met a lot of tremendously cool, kind, and talented people and helped raise some money for KOOP Radio. Yay! I was also wishing very much to have a newer better camera that rocks at high movement and low lighting situations.  No such luck on the wish fulfillment, though.

Above are some pics from the event, including Brent Peeples at work on a Joker, Stan Sakai inkin' up some Usagi, and some of the products of all the lartin' goin' on.  Below is snippet of my own piece (most of those photos came out super blurry).  It involved cats, a beehive hair do, a naked lady, and cats. Very Alician. More pics over on my flickr. 

I'm off to work some more whilst singing 'The La-la-la Song' now.  Ahh, Joe Raposo!  You wrote the best songs! 

Let's STAPLE!

Awww, what a cute little staple-gator we have here!  And what is a staple-gator, you may ask?

Well, he happens to be the pseudo mascot of STAPLE! -- an indie art and media convention hosted annually here in Austin, and it's going on for the fifth time this Saturday.  

This here is just my old school inspired interpretation of the little fella I whipped up for the occasion of this very blog post.  Every artist sees him his (or her) own way, and I just happen to see him with Pac-Man eyes... 

Sooo, if you happen to be in Austin this weekend, make sure you check out this li'l groovy shindig for yourself.  It's being held over at the  Monarch Events Center and there will be gads and gads of comics, zines, books, original artwork, and even commissioned sketches there on the spot. Yippee!

I'm also stoked about the fact that Stan Sakai and Jeffrey Brown will be there in addition to some good and super talented friends of mine like Paul Adam, Kevin Peake, Kennon James and Zach Taylor (to just name a few). Last time I was able to go it was a while back, but I got to see the incredible Tony Millionaire in action.  Super fun!

Oh, and don't miss the live art after-party and KOOP benefit! I've never been able to make it to this part in previous years, but I've heard that it is an absolute legendary blast.  I may even do some live artin' myself. 

Aaaahhhhhhh! I loves me some art! 

Don't Eat The Yellow Snow

Ladies and gentlemen, for my latest foray into 'unappetizing icing' (see my previous infamous creation: the Tom Selleck cake), I present to you my Frank Zappa Utility Muffins complete with yellow snow!

It's actually just some food coloring and sprinkles on lemon buttercream icing. No bodily fluids were involved.

And for those of you left scratching your heads.... So, it was my sweetie guy's birthday, and he is a big time Frank Zappa fan. Big time. One of Zappa's well known songs is 'Don't Eat the Yellow Snow' of the Nanook of the North song saga. It tells the tale of Nanook the eskimo, his mama, huskies, and yes, yellow snow. Inspiration struck me when I found myself without the time to bake up a cake shaped like Frank Zappa's head. That's when I thought of making up some Zappa party picks to top off the 'yellow snow' capped cupcakes. Or as our friend, Paul, noted, they should really be called 'Utility Muffins.'

They were also far more portable, so we easily brought them into the pub for snacking. Win! Good thing I didn't carry out the massive Zappa portrait in frosting, then.

I drew up the Frank myself, printed it out on cardstock, circle punched the suckers out, and glued them into a fringed crepe paper and toothpick sandwich. Taa-daa! My friend, Jennifer, even made her own version for her dad's 60th birthday party. Super cute!

And on the baking end, I also doctored some cake mix (I know -- blasphemy! But I had not the time!) into a very lemony cake, and used Amy Sedaris' lemon buttercream icing recipe. Very yummy. Very quick. Very easy. I forgot to remove the paper liners from the foil cups though. Duh!I like to think that both Frank Zappa and Amy Sedaris would get a kick out of urination themed cupcakes, right? At least I'll tell myself that. I know we all enoyed them very much, and most importantly, my sweetie guy was totally surprised and thrilled.

And nobody rubbed them into anybody's eyes. But we did jab the picks into some sausage. Mmmmm! Sausage and cupcakes!