April Update

Good morning! Hope you've all been having a lovely start to Spring. This weekend has been very busy around here as we try to wrap up painting and finishing in the nursery. Today it's raining outside, but here is the view from my studio window! I know the screen is in the way, but isn't that tree beautiful?? I'm so happy we have some flowering trees in our new yard. I didn't know what all of the trees and shrubs were, so it has been a wonderful surprise to see what blooms.

Lately we have been trying to hit up a few estate sales on Friday mornings when I'm off, mostly looking for furniture (unsuccessfully), but finding other cool things on occasion. This week we found this textile art, which I'm going to re-tack and clean up. I love the colors and shapes, and I think with the frame fixed and painted white, it'll look fresh and new. I also picked up this tape dispenser, which is SUPER heavy, and for anyone who wraps things, you know this is a fine quality for a dispenser. I'm thinking about whether or not I want to paint something on the side... we'll see!

If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram ---> links to the right, you know that I posted my very first brooches in my etsy shop. I am SO very happy and excited about these, and I made several to keep for myself.

One of my little bits of crazy, well known to family and friends, is that I'm extremely weird about wearing jewelry and have some unexplainable psychological aversions to certain things. I never wear necklaces and I only occassionally wear bracelets, but they can't involve chain or other things that aren't sort of solid in nature. For whatever reason, these types of materials freak me out when they touch my skin, and I feel sort of itchy and hivey. This makes me a watch/brooch person.

I am keenly aware that this makes no sense, and it's sort of bothersome because I know several wonderfully talented jewelers that do beautiful work, and they probably wonder why I'm so thrilled if they have pins or solid bracelets! Regardless, I decided to make some little wooden brooches and couldn't be more happy with how they've turned out. As a painter, it's fun to have something wearable that I've made.

Each one is unique and I've painted in acrylic and ink, and then sealed them with a varnish to protect and give them a finished shine. They'll make wonderful gifts or personal pieces. Here's the link to see the new ones in my shop. I plan to make them more often, so you'll see different ones down the road. 

 

For the next week or so, I'm going to be focused on finishing up some art and craft pieces for the nursery. One of my plans is to make some black and white paintings for the wall, since this is supposed to be the most mentally stimulating for babies. Whether that works or not, I love the clean colors and geometric shapes, so it should be fun to work on.  I'll let you see more when I'm all done.