ooh la la!

another tembo open studio is coming your way! if you stumble into the woodlands, texas next wednesday, come by and support a handful of creative moms selling their wares, including me!
here is the evite link with directions and a list of vendors. AND here is the e-flyer done up by the lovely jennifer of silly nilly designs.

i met jennifer at my sister's open studio last week. she and her mom have silly nilly designs, a children's clothing line. when we got to talking it was just inevitable that we connect because she and i both take pictures of sidewalks. yes, SIDEWALKS! who does that?? we both agreed that when we take photos on vacation, they are more likely to be of textures and colors we like rather than site seeing photos. so yes, we could browse my photo library, and i would be able to tell you which grates are italian, and which are french. so glad we met because she is helping me fulfill the goal of connecting with other creative moms! please come if you can - there are sure to be a lot of lovely must haves!

xo

cheery cheer!

my sister (seems i start a whole bunch of sentences that way...who would i be without her??) had an open studio last week in her home and generously asked my mom and me to bring our creations over as well. it was fun to see all of our very different but equally creative work there together, and it was all in all a successful day. so funny because when we were growing up my sister always referred to me as "the creative one" and now she makes a living off of just that - being creative! though my creativity always remains a part of me, my "living" was made teaching and counseling. now i'd like to dive back into creating and seeing if anything lucrative comes of that. so in the next few posts, i will introduce ways i am trying to re-wet my feet in that department. if you read and have suggestions, please send them along!

a plate full of delectable cupcakes. what's your pleasure? chocolate or vanilla?

alphabet prints in a handmade felt pouch, which i am selling on my new etsy site!

beautiful, classic stationery made by the lovely linsey. and she says she's not the artist?!?!

and hand woven and sewn e-reader covers by lulu. the one with an image of to kill a mockingbird was my favorite. but that's two or three other posts - why i love that book so much.

i come from a family of inspiring women! how lucky am i....

paper dolls

when we were little, my sister, cousin, and i learned to make paper dolls from my granny. my granny, janie lewis, was perhaps the most grace-full, lovely person i know. she was the first female chemistry major at UT. she loved to read. she collected clocks, all of which you could hear ticking when things went hush. she was an artist. in fact, i inherited her much used paintbrushes when she died my senior year in college.

there is 70 year old paint on those brushes! some of them have little hairs that fall out when i paint, but i keep them because they were hers. granny had a way of making anyone in her presence feel like the most important person in the world, even if we were all there at once. and yet it never felt like a competition to be her favorite. we all walked away feeling like the most loved. she'd say, "linsey! come here! you have the most beautiful legs!" (she still does). and "holly! that smile!" what i wouldn't give for my children to be able to be in her presence. i only hope i inherited a modicum of her temperament. 

so when i made paper dolls to scan for an invite for my friend's baby shower, i naturally thought of granny. she lives on in our lives in small ways, and managed to leave a huge impact. even though it's been 12 plus years since she died, i think of her nearly every day. granny, if you watch us, just, well...thank you. 

linsey turned these into little note cards which you can purchase by contacting her through her website.

open studio!

my sister, linsey, is having an open studio spring sale at her home. she will feature her own work, and my mom and i will also bring some of our handmades over. my mom makes some fabulous necklaces, and i am working on digital collages, flashcards for kids, a few felties, and some useful bibs. please view the invite and come on over!

below are some of my favorite flashcards. and stroll through my blog to see some of the digital collages i will have! hope you can come....

quietude

funny. i don't really have much to say...some of you might be thinking, "for once! thank GOD!" my creative brain seems sluggish, but i keep having small visions of things i want to create. maybe it's not my brain that is sluggish, but my hands. and babies tend to occupy the hands quite a bit...
until my next wave of creative genius (insert laugh), here is a busy photoshop collage. probably quite indicative of all the things dizzying around inside my crazy head, though my outward self feels hushed.

look!

one more thing to add to my list of i'll nevers: i am actually enjoying making digital art, and i never thought i'd say that. while it lacks some of the depth and subtlety of a hand-done piece that is irreplaceable, it does have the ability to use text in a seamless way AND lovely graphic images that i can transform into a "photocopy"or "stamp." i also like the fact that i can age an image or turn it into something more pop-arty. i've taught myself a few techniques on photoshop by playing around, following other peoples' directions, and making lots of mistakes. there are so many tutorials online, but i found Elise Hennen's advice particularly helpful this time aorund. i still don't entirely understand masking, but as i stumble along, i may accidentally begin to understand...when all else fails, i can just call my sister, the photoshop princess of the universe.  seriously, she wears a tiara in her studio.

so i started with these three separate images:

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+

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i can't get away from the fact that the pointing girl looks like the actress who plays Bella in Twilight. the bottom line is it feels so good to be playing with imagery, color, and collage regularly. i forget how happy and whole i feel when i indulge my creative self - digital or otherwise. plus i love learning, and given my state of mommy-mush-brain these days, it feels particularly good to do something new.

sometimes spontaneity is all you need.

this morning my mom called, and in a voice laced with excitement and a little mischievousness asked, "can you take care of maizy tonight?" when she sounds thrilled about leaving her little furless wonder, you know something is really up. she loves that dog. maybe even more than she loves us! it is sometimes easier (and i speak from experience) to love a dog. i mean they are always happy to see you, they don't talk back, and they sit when you say sit...at least when peanut butter is involved. anyway, my mom apparently woke up this morning and decided she and my dad needed to get out of town. so they did, and i have her dog. for a moment i felt a pang of jealousy....i wanna just get up and get out of town! but 2 dogs, 2 1/2 cats, a baby, and a planner of a husband keep you pretty homebound on spontaneous saturdays.
but i just realized i had my own little burst of spontaneity this morning. we went to a 3 year old birthday party today, and i woke up with a penchant to make him a collage. not necessarily what a dash around ball of energy gets up and asks for on his birthday, but something i hope he will appreciate later. lying in bed a few images danced around my sleepy head. then i got out my scissors, photoshop, and my "collage items" picture file - all before a cup of coffee! and voila! my whirlwind spontaneous burst of creativity! so i didn't hop in my car, windows down on a breezy saturday, and head for the hill country, but my imagination took me away. and you know, sometimes i love what gets born in a matter of minutes as much as i love the piece that evolves over months. check it out...