2017

So glad that 2016 is over for all the obvious reasons. To get back on track for the new year I am focusing on all things creative.

The new year will start with creating several fabric collections that will be for sale on Spoonflower. The top 2 were gifts and will be the jumping off point for a red, black, khaki collection with some buffalo check tossed in. I will also offer these as tea towels. Each collection will have a color selection in mind as well as a black and white of the same. I don't expect the black and white collection to sell well, but I like black and white. I will be thinking about you quilters out there with this first collection.

The bottom tea towel is a recipe in my mother's handwriting. I love it. Spoonflower has a tutorial if you want to make some. These made delightful gifts for my sisters, niece and sister-in-law. I hope they will actually use them.

This is not my font or my product. I did get them as a gift and LOVE them. This is going to be my go to birthday girlfriend gift for 2017. And quite reasonably priced for bespoke stationery. Very fresh and creative and a little messy.

This Christmas and birthday season I got 2 great books both illustrating information. Before I had even written my thank you notes a friend who is a writer, artist and yoga instructor asked if I would like to exchange postcards with her weekly. I am quite excited about this. I doubt ours will be like those in this book. I know mine will be less about data and more about illustrating a thought or question or idea. If all goes well they might be shared here.

And I wish you all a hopeful New Year. Do something creative!

A Big, Darn Deal... 86% off!

Biggest collection ever offered from Outside the Line. Lots of Doodles...

3 merry Christmas fonts and a happy Birthday one.

Wedding doodles for all your DIY projects plus Holidays for the entire year.

Create Valentines and cocktail party invitations.

Add a frame, border or banner to any doodle. And don't forget a nice drop cap either.

Add anyone of these hand drawn fonts and you are good to go.

Plz read the license for commercial use.

This bundle includes fonts only. It does not include the patterns or cards.

Some of the cards can be purchased at www.jackandellapaper.com check it out, you know you want to.

To get in on this deal go here.

Minnesota Travelogue, Part 1

A couple weeks ago we took a little Fall leaf trip. I've always wanted to do that, so we headed out to the Grand Marais, starting in Duluth.

Leaves were peaking in Duluth. Lots of yellow birch and green pines. I don't know if this area has and reds or oranges. If so, those were long gone. It was cool and overcast the entire time. But we still had a great time.

We drove over this waterfall on the drive North. On the driver's side of the car was the waterfall and this was the shot from the passenger side.

Leaves were almost done in the Grand Marais. I like to take pictures of textures.

So, so happy were were told to go to Artist's Point. If I go again I would go at dawn on a sunny day to truly capture this place. As it was I was wearing a Winter coat and it was windy. Still, so worth it.

My friend Nancy would call this trip "going on a wander" and that was what we did. It was great, it was relaxing and there was no schedule.

That is all for Part 1. Next post will cover shopping and eating...

DIY Contemporary Pumpkins

Fall is here and that means pumpkins. I've done marbleized ones, drill holes and put lights in them, carved them, etc. But this year I am going to do shiny, mirror-like ones.

I think I may have mentioned a rather creative red wall in another house. Ever since then as soon as I am going to paint, my very sweet husband convinces me that he would really like to do this for me.

He attached a bungee cord to the ceiling in the basement, masked off the stem and tied a string from the bungee cord to the stem. Using a can of Rust-oleum Metallic Finish paint he sprayed the pumpkin. Also added some glitter while the paint was still wet.

After dry, I take off the tape and put a watery green acrylic wash over the stem as they are kind of brown.

The bit of red is the reflection from my red iPhone case.

Done. And Bob's your uncle.

(Bonus, the dots on the wall are the reflection of the glitter. Fun!)

in the works

Don't hate me as I say Happy Monday! Yes, I am one of those people who are happy on Monday mornings. I am sure it is because of what I do. Hard to be unhappy while doing creative things.

Meet Walter. He is the latest, greatest and last junk robot for awhile. I think he is my favorite so far. I love the counter, which works. It has sat in my work area for a couple years while I thought about it. That's me. Think about something for a year. Make it in a day. He is the last for a few years. My work space is small and robot making spills into the dining area, on the dining table with a glue station in the kitchen. Not to mention the open boxes of stuff. But it was fun to think creatively in a completely different way.

I am trying to figure out fabric design, which I will sell on Spoonflower. I colorized these drawings from my Fruit & Veggie Doodles. And I like them.

It also occurred to me that they would make a great colored font, which I might make first. Yes, there are now colored fonts. And my doodles would be darling in color. But first I have to upgrade some software and figure out how to do it. Luckily I have a guy who will help me bumble through learning this.

I also want to make some Wilderness Doodles tea towels. I live in Wisconsin where people have cabins, cottages and lake homes "up north". A set of towels made from this font would make the perfect hostess gift.

I am engrossed in the latest UPPERCASE quarterly. I have studied about half the magazine. As the tagline says, for the Creative and Curious. And I agree.

Have a creative and fun week!

September 3 for 33!

LAKE VACATION DOODLES

 

NAUTICAL DOODLES

 

WOODLAND DOODLES

As we are slipping into Fall here are the September 3 fonts for $33. To buy go here. And get out and enjoy those wonderful early Fall days!

In the works ...

I've been collecting stuff for junque robots for years. I am getting it all out making what I want and getting rid of whatever stuff is left. Rosie, on the right I made maybe 3 years ago. Betty on the left is new. Almost done, she may get a base. Harold is about half done. All very, very different. Hoping to do one a week. I'll share more as I go on.

 

I want to design fabric. Am going to start by making some tea towels using elements from Wilderness Doodles. And then doing a collection of fabric. To warm up and work my way through the technical part I made some recipe tea towels using some of Mom's recipes. I created 4-up art using Spoonflower's linen tea towel fabric. I was extremely pleased with both the quality of the fabric as well as the printing. I will still need to hem and press these. But what a wonderful keepsake with a loved one's handwriting. Here is a how-to link from Spoonflower.

While I work I watch movies or listen to books on tape. This is the genre we listen to in the car. And I am finishing it as I work. I was really surprised that Hugh Laurie can write.

British actor and comedian Hugh Laurie's first book is a spot-on spy spoof about hapless ex-soldier Thomas Lang, who is drawn unwittingly and unwillingly into the center of a dangerous James Bond-like plot of international terrorists, arms dealing, high-tech weapons, and CIA spooks.You may recall having seen Laurie in the English television series Jeeves and Wooster; Laurie played Bertie Wooster, the clutzy hero of the P.G.Wodehouse comic novels that originated those characters. The lineage from Wodehouse's Wooster to Laurie's Lang is clear, and, if you like Wodehouse, you'll probably love The Gun Seller.

Did you ever wonder what House did before he became a doctor or even a TV doctor? Well clearly he was Thomas Lang, rumpled former officer in the Scots Guards, counter-terrorist operative and gentle, chain smoking tough guy. The book's dialogue oozes the cutting wit and self-deprecating self-awareness, self-destructiveness and self-centeredness of the good doctor in the TV series. Presciently, Thomas spends the last quarter of the book speaking with a vaguely Minnesotan accent in order to persuade a bunch of terrorists-for-hire that he is one of them. I cannot tell whether I am reading House into the pre-Housian novel or Hugh Laurie has successfully embedded his novel's dialogue into the television scripts. There is also more than a smidgen of Black Adder and Monty Python floating about. It is all highly amusing. As suggested by the dust jacket art, the book is really a graphic novel without the pictures. With plenty of action, clichés, beautiful women and rather unpleasantly evil bad guys, the plot manically twists, jumps and leaps. The abiding persona of Hugh Laurie, aka Gregory House and aka Thomas Lang holds it together. - Scribd

A little mid Century spiff....

We got a lot done this year on our condo. Re stained the deck, new faucets,  re grouted the shower, new plants in the flower bed. By we, I mean John. I provide moral support and lunch.

I am still dealing with knee problems and we have almost no comfortable furniture. So it was time. Poor John, when I make a major purchase we look at things in multiple stores in multiple cities in multiple states. While we were at a local store where I was buying a new Polywood Adirondack chair that fit me John, also known as Scout on these shopping missions, headed back to the clearance corner and texted me this lime set. Needing both main floor and man cave furniture we got this. While I was really thinking about gray or black those mid Century lines totally sold me. Bonus, total time shopping for furniture less than half an hour. Go Scout!

I love mid-Century furniture. I like the lines and the small scale. It works here. To tie the blue chairs with the new green furniture John painted the wall behind the painting lime green. I am not allowed to paint anything. There was an incident in another town with a red wall, but that's a story for another time.

I do love these Bertoia Diamond Chairs. They are vintage. And were my friend Nita's. Too make our small space look bigger I use dainty legs and as much see through furniture as possible.

I can't decide if I ended up with a Barbie Dream House Living Room or a Mad Men Cocktail Lounge. Either way it is fun and fresh and a colorful update.