DIY extravaganza

Life has been so interesting as of late it seems like when it rains it pours and all that I can say is that I am so thankful for the times that it pours. Those dry spells are not fun, especially when it comes to your finances. I think the best thing for me to do was keep a positive outlook and believe that something will sprout up, beyond my expectations.

I have become what I have always wanted to be an artist. I am not starving but have been before, and think that when it comes down to it if I had to I would to be able to do what I ultimately love...which is everyday that I get to wake up and create and not just create, but create whatever inspires me.

I have had a few moments as of late where things feel as if I am finally doing what I was meant to do all along. I am not searching for a place to inspire me to create, and looking to leave to find somewhere to fill that creative void. I am finding it right here, in my home. A place I thought I was so different from what I wanted to be, but in reality was everything I needed, to bring out the best of who I am supposed to be.

I have been creating a lot lately and doing a lot of thrifting, garage sale-ing, etc. I look for objects that the normal eye would not see as beautiful and seek to restore them to a beauty that is relevant to today, and adds value to something that would have been seen as outdated and irrelevant.

Here are some of my photos of my recent work, I hope you find these things as fun and intriguing, as I have felt when creating them. This is only the tip of the iceberg and there are definitely more to come in the near distant future.

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My sister and I have been finding a lot of places that have literally been giving away stuff for free, so we look at the items and see what inspires us and go from there. The chair below was missing a joint and so not easily fixable but definitely perfect for a planter to sit on outside. I would define it as, shabby chic. (This is a decorating reference I never thought I would be a part of but I really do love it!)

before

after

I am not sure if you remember this stool that I bought that I was going to reupholster, but here is the before pic. I found it at a estate sale for a bargain and knew that all it needed was a little life.

before

after

I love the way the stool turned out because of how much more modern it now looks! I want to keep it but there is no room for it. So this is definitely an item I will be selling in the near distant future.

Did I mention that I may have taken a fancy to decoupage? I know...I know..I am becoming far more mature then my years for what crafting projects I have taken on. Remember those children's journals that are being sold on my etsy shop? Well I thought it would be a wonderful idea to decoupage the lampshades in the pages since, I wanted to use them for another project and this what I came up with. I think my favorite part is when they light up you can see the overlapping of the pages which to me is such a cool addition.

This little gem is an owl candle holder, it was original a very sad brown and black but with a little help from my friends at Krylon. The color I chose to spray paint this little owl is called, Ocean Blue and by far my favorite little gem.

The last thing I am going to show you, is my favorite furniture pieces. I used doilies and lace panels to create the effect shown below. These tables were really troublesome for awhile only because I learned that you should not paint when it is below 40 degrees and in our garage there is no installation so it feels as if you are outside.

So a lot of these items my sister and I will be selling at what we would call a showcase sale. A sale for us to showcase our work in person and let you all know what it is exactly that we are doing.

That's all for now...TTFN! :)

New adventures

It looks like new adventures are on the horizon for me, at least that is the dream.

I have come to a spot where I don't have any excuse not to be a fulltime crafter, because....

I work very part time and my mac just crashed, so I have more time on my hands so that I am not distracted by facebook or the internet, although most of the time I truly am using it for research. ;)

I grew up thrifting with my mom and grandma, before it was ever cool. We ate organic, bought in bulk, I always immersed myself in my art to create a world to escape to.

I have come to the conclusion that life is a masterpiece that we all paint. We can create something beautiful around us, or get overwhelmed with the troubles and things that can bog us down.

I think I heard a quote once that said, "Be the change you wish to see in the world." For me this has helped take the pressure off myself. I want to do something in the world, something big, not for fame or celebrity. But to affect in my lifetime something.

I think the change I want to bring is through my art.

If I can bring a journal into someone's life that causes that person to write down their innermost feelings, thoughts, experiences and document them... then I have affected change.

If I can redo a piece of furniture, that makes a monochromatic home feel alive.. I can affect change.

If I create a piece of art, that makes someone smile...I can affect change.

If I give and put love into every piece I create or find, then that person will feel that love.

My friend Courtney said, "How a photographer sees you is how the picture will turn out." I believe that as an artist the emotion that you are connecting with what you are making is evoked.

Okay I just had to get that all that out there....it's late and thoughts swirling in my head like a carousel...

I decided to be a better artist, designer, creator, etc that there are a few things that I need to tackle.

First and foremost.

I am deathly afraid of zippers, have never known how to put one in correctly every time I have they came out bad. So that is a goal this year is to learn how to put one in. I think I may even have to create this amazing zipper flower I found.




I want to do three photo shoots a year, not wanting to model necessarily but create the setting and all the objects within the photoshoot.

Here is one of my past shoots, in another blog, you may have seen.


I absolutely know that I need to learn to screen print. I want to create my own textiles.

For now I am focusing, on working on creating, seeking and gathering things to make my etsy shop all that I hope it could be.

Here are some more fun finds:






Oh yes I am also working on creating my official logo right now, with my fabulous friend Courtney Jade. That should be finished by next week.

But for now check out some more packaging for the items I sell.

Birthday Gift.

What to do you give someone as a birthday present when you have no money to spend? So first of all, I am going to be honest I am really terrible about giving people gifts for their birthdays. Even writing a card is something that is hard for me to do. So my New Year's Resolution was to be a better gift giver for people's birthdays.

My sister-in-law, Kelly, was the first birthday this year. I was racking my brain and finally realized that since I am already on a kick of bookbinding. Then why don't I create a book for her. (I personally love gifts that are handmade, I especially love cards from people when they write something meaningful inside...hmmpphh...my birthday is in two months...hint, hint)

As I was stating earlier, I wanted to create a book for Kelly that would be special and meaningful, I decided that maybe a little violin sheet music bound in a book could be a wonderful gift idea. So I ran with that idea and found some wonderful new ideas along the way. My favorite being thread sketching. I found this wonderful idea on another fellow bloggers, site. The concept behind it is you use a sewing machine to create a sketch, and the end result looks wonderful.

I ended up doing a small amount of thread sketching on the cover, binding the book violin sheet music and lining the inside with some of my own block print which I created. I loved the end result and just wanted to share with you.

Hope you like!

What is whimsy blue?

Some of you may be asking yourself, What is whimsy blue? Or maybe you haven't even asked that question. My sister and I have been talking for a long time about how we wanted to start our own business based on etsy. A business that includes housewares, textiles and fashion. We figured with our sophisticated taste and knack for being ahead of the trends, that we could create a company that not only brings life to things that may seem old and outdated, but how to take things and create them into something that are handmade and one-of-a-kind.

You may still be asking yourself well what is whimsy blue. My sister and I for quite some time have decided that we wanted to somehow create a name, that was representative of our mother in some way. Two words and an image that somehow could embody a little bit of her favorite things and what she brought to the world.

We knew from the beginning that a bluebird would be the centerpiece of this whole home business, but we wanted to give it a name that was not so literal, and a little more fun.

To recap on the bluebird, it has a little bit of special meaning in my families lives. My mother always said that whenever she saw a bluebird that something good was going to happen. The beauty is lately I have seen quite a few which has lead me to believe that something amazing and beautiful was on its way. I even got it tattooed on myself a few years back because it had such special meaning.

We racked our brains and it was not until my sister and I went out to dinner with my best friend Courtney Jade, (Who just so you know is an outstanding and incredibly talented photographer and model) threw out the idea, why not whimsy blue??? She was right because her favorite color was blue, and she brought a little whimsy to everyone's life. Hence the name whimsy blue became a reality.

That is the story in short. I am excited to see where this endeavor will take my sister and I. I know great things are in the future.

Posted below is a picture of my late mother. I had a dream about her this morning which made me really want to honor her for not only spreading whimsy to everyones life but love and I hope that I can do the same as she has done.

This is a formal description from our Etsy Shop:

WhimsyBlueShop is a brother and sister team based in Portland, Oregon. Our mission is to upcycle cast-off vintage items, using recombinant design techniques to bring new life to what would otherwise be discarded, with a little bit of fun and whimsy thrown in. Our items are always different, and no two are alike. We pick what we think is the best of the best, never putting anything up that we would not include in our own homes, or use ourselves. We allow for each piece to speak to us, and see potential where others may not. Our ideas come from a life-time of thrifting (even before it was fashionable) and a true desire to breathe modernity into relics from the past, as well as backgrounds in design, retail and business. Our shop was born out of a hobby, and now has become something of a passion of ours. Explore WhimsyBlueShop and see what whimsy comes your way!

Children's books turned into journals/sketchbooks!!!

So as you all know the other day I received a box of 51 books that I am going to make into journals.

I took the guts of the book out, and the inside cover of each of the journals has an image on the front and back cover of the original book. Don't worry I am using the insides of the books for another project here at the end of the month.

I completed a full five which I am very proud of. I almost want to keep them because I love them so much!!! There are are about 15 more that are ready to be bound. These should be done by Saturday.

Anyways here are some of the example of my work so far let me know what you think!

Here is the front of The Peacock Lane Journal.

The first cover page, using some of the original pages in the book.


The inside of the journal. The journal is combined with a few poems from the original book.


The end of the journal also uses some original images from the book. This is by far my favorite journal that I have created.

When in inspired...

So this week has been a really wonderful week. For one I am back home in Portland sitting next to the windows of a beautiful coffee shop overlooking Brooklyn Park in SE, and it is clear blue skys and warm enough for a light jacket. Is it really January??? I have been finding that every week I am inspired by a collective group of things, or things are going on in my head, that need to be created, changed or brought to life.

Here's to Inspiration and posititve change! CHEERS!

I have a small obsession with old books, most of which are falling apart, water damaged or just a little to dry for most of us to understand. There is so much beauty in them, I have been thinking I want to create a photoshoot using books in some way as the only material in the background. I feel that there is so much beauty in old books. Let's face the facts who has time nowadays to read old books. It takes a lot of time, and in todays world we dont have a lot of time.

I am obsessed with book art, what you can do with old books etc!! Here are some of my favorites!!

SALVATION MOUNTAIN

My friend Jalissa, Amanda and I decided that during my vacation to California that we wanted to take a road trip to Salvation Mountain. I had never even heard of this place, before they brought it up but after doing some research I thought that this could be a life changing experience.

We drove 200 miles, 3 1/2 hours to the middle of the desert. We were close to Slab City, CA the only place in the US where you can camp for free on/around these former army slabs. There are all types of people there, hippies with rv's, people vacationing from the winter up north and a lot of artists selling whatever creations they come up with. This place is the simplest form of life I have ever seen in the US.



We drove around the Saltan Sea to get to this amazing installation sculpture. The salton sea is an amazing 376 sq mile Salt Sea that is home to over 400 species of birds. Here is a picture of the sunset forming over the Salton Sea on the drive home.

You begin to see Salvation Mountain about a quarter mile away. My eyes got big and I was filled with creative energy, with the hope that this would be a place that inspires me! It did more than that it changed me and made me want to live to do art, be creative and with every breathe that I take create something beautiful!



I felt like I was on another planet. A world where lollipops, rainbows and unicorns could truly exist. A place that could only exist in my dreams. I felt like I was in Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory, Big Fish and Alice in Wonderland. I was in the closest thing to heaven that I could ever imagine, with the clear blue endless sky canvassing me in this colorful and frosted world.

STILL CANNOT BELIEVE THIS PLACE EXISTS!!! THIS HAS CHANGED ME COMPLETELY AND RECOMMEND EVERYONE GO SEE IT!! AND TALK TO THE MAN WHO CREATED THIS PLACE HIS STORY IS AMAZING!!

HERE IS A VIDEO TOUR OF SALVATION MOUNTAIN I FOUND ON YOUTUBE. PICTURES CANNOT EVEN DO THIS PLACE JUSTICE!!!

Inspired

I decided that each week I will pick a bunch of different images that inspire me. I want to do this to show you, how images when processed come out and can be used to create and inspire anything you can do! This week there are a lot so be prepared.

For me every piece of art, every fashion, print, layout, etc. starts with an inspiration a reference in time whether it be the past or something that you see today, it all can help you to be more creative.

But first the person that I would have to say inspired me to even start a blog was my best friend Courtney Jade. She is an amazing natural light portrait photographer, and whenever I feel tired, or stuck her work inspires me because she is truly doing what she loves, and that is exactly what I hope to accomplish. Her website linked above is amazing so check it out and if you are looking to get your pics done by one of the best, she is definitely the right person!





























Here are some images that inspire me:

Can I please live in this all I would want would be my computer and a coffe machine and I would be a happy camper!!!




















This is an amazing collaboration between Pendleton Wool and opening ceremony click on the pic for the link. I want all of it!!!!























This is an absolutely inscredible image!!!!!!!!






















You have got to be kidding me!! Red Bull London has a slide that goes between floors. This is my childhood dream to have in my workspace!!!






























Work it!!! Work it!! That is all!