Wednesday, November 30, 2011

It Wouldn't Be Christmas Without Socks




and these socks RULE!

Faeries Dance has about 18 different styles of these mismatched socks. Who would want to go through life looking like everyone else when there are socks like these? I think I need at least 3 pair, if not all of them!!!

My very good friend, Heather sent me this link and now you have it.

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Ball of Light

Denis Smith creates wonderful pictures using "light painting" and the beautiful Australian landscapes.


Saturday, November 26, 2011

Pencil Carver

I can't remember if I posted about this artist before. If I have, this is too good not to do it again. Dalton Ghetti has had pictures of many of his carved pencil creations running around the internet for a while. They are wonderful to see and I'm just amazed how Mr. Ghetti works magic with his pencils.

(Copyright Dalton Ghetti)

Friday, November 25, 2011

Friday Night Spotlight

Tonight I am going to spotlight some blogs I like to read. I hope you will like to visit them too.

First off is the OLA Blog. Lots of interesting tips, a little humor, great things to buy and check out the piggy banks one page back.

Supergranny has some eye-opening and put-on-you-thinking-cap posts on her blog that will make you say, "I didn't know that!"

I'm not a big fan of abstract art, but for some odd reason I really like Elis Cooke's use of color, movement and texture. Her art is intriguing to me and I guess that's what an artist is always working towards.

Createology is one of the busiest, creatingist, talented artisst I read. She has way too much fun in her studio! And it shows in all the arty things she creates. Go over and look at the fun things.

Maryanne Villalba of Maryniky Designs does some of the most beautiful bead work I have seen. I love the way she has incorporated lace into her designs. Very lovely!

Enjoy your adventures and have a great weekend!



Because Everyone Needs A 5 Foot Chicken

Read about the adventures in chicken shopping with Bloggess. I think if I found this,


I'd want it too!

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Street Art

Street Art Utopia is a wonderful site for everything street art. Things like this make me smile.


Things like this are incredible. This is a drawing.


This will give you something to do for the weekend. Get lost in the links and enjoy your virtual art trip.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Really???


I am SO glad I'm retired and don't have to "dress" up anymore!!!


Christian Louboutin has created a crazy eight-inch heel shoe in the name of charity. As part of the English National Ballet’s The Summer Party auction, the designer created these insane Swan Lake style heels. Even though anyone who isn’t a trained Ballerina would snap their ankle in a second of putting them on, the sparkle and craftsmanship still makes me want to try.

Turkey vs The Fat Man


'nuf said!

Monday, November 21, 2011

Bubble Tent

Would you like to sleep in this bubble tent? I think this would be so cool set up in the back pasture for sleeping under the stars on those lovely summer nights. Especially in the Northwest where is rains all the time, this would be perfect for camping in the Spring or Fall.


Go check out the different configurations they have of these bubble tents. Too Cool!!!

I Want To Live Here


This secret Fairytale Gatelodge is for the Ardverikie Estate, Kinloch Laggan, Inverness-shire, Scotland, UK. Ardverikie House (renamed Glenbogle House) was used in the BBC drama, Monarch of the Glen.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Lion in Chains

I got this great pendant on sale at Fire Mountain Gems. Didn't know what I wanted to do with him and just started looking through all the drawers in the bead desk. I came across the chains and thought how fun the lion would look all "chained" up. Here he is in his finery.



I used gold, silver and black plated brass chains. The necklace is 18" and the length of the pendant is 6".

Friday, November 18, 2011

Friday Night Spotlight

I had a little time to kill between projects and needed a break from the beads, so I searched for paper artists and here is what I found:

Wataru Itou is one heck of a master of paper. His creation is magnificent! Wish I could live in this Castle on the Ocean.

Yulia Brodskaya was born in Russia (Moscow); prior to moving to the UK in 2004 she was interested in diverse creative practices ranging from Textile Painting, Origami and Collage to more traditional Fine Art practices. Her paper art is amazing.

At webdesignledger they have a compilation of some very talented paper artists.

Paper can be more than a book page, report or letter. I hope you enjoy the art of paper.

First Snow

Well....it's here. The first snow of the season. We're in another La Nina year and if it's anything like last year, we'll be snowbound again later in December. Today there was only 1.75", but it's still snowing. The weather people say the flow is going to change and it will be warming up to the low 50's in the next couple of days. Until then, hot chocolate, a nice hot fire and my beads will get me through! :)





Thursday, November 17, 2011

Stormy

We had the first of many wild and windy nights last night. I went out about 12:30 a.m. to see if there were any limbs down and almost got beaned by a couple of pine cones. Decided to go back in the house after that. To say it was stormy is an understatement. Got most of the leaves off the trees with all the wind, except the alders. They seem to want to hold on to most of them. It's supposed to snow tonight/tomorrow and there will probably be lots of broken limbs. Had to shut things down before I was ready because of flickering lights. We didn't lose electricity, but I've learned in the past not to ignore those clues.

So...in checking email today and going through some fun links I came across THIS. Cardboard Safari is a GREAT idea for recycling cardboard and adding something different to your decor!




The fabulous thing having a Cardboard Safari piece(s) is you can art it up any way you want. Like this from their blog:


Prices range from $12.00 to $58.00. I think I just found my Christmas present supplier this year!

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Do You Like Legos?

Growing up a girl in the 50's meant you got dolls and little girly things to play with. Not what I really wanted. I was a tomboy and liked the cool toys the guys had. We did get Tinkertoys one year, but only one set and that got boring after awhile with only so many parts you could play with. Many years later, when I had a son, I went crazy with the Legos. For Christmas one year, he got the Castle set. I put that thing together most of Christmas day. It was cool, but of course, he wanted to take it apart immediately. I told him he had to wait a week before he could destroy it. We played with the whole set up during that week and then he tore it down. I don't think it's been back together since. But, he still has all the parts and perhaps he will want to do something like this with some of those parts. I still love Legos!

Monday, November 14, 2011

Green Train Tunnel



Isn't this THE best railroad tunnel you've ever seen? I would love to take a train trip through these woods. Oleg Gordienko is the Ukrainian photographer who took these lovely pictures. What I love is, he went back and shot it in the fall. He doesn't have very many photos on this site, but they are lovely.

Sunday Quotes


This lovely, and very true, statement was heard from one of our great PAC members at the last meeting.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Vicar in a Tutu

What??? I know it's a funny name for a blog, but it got your attention didn't it?

Matt Walford is an English artist who makes fabulous art using his skills as a photographer and his computer. This piece was all constructed of the tiny watch parts pictured on the left hand side of the picture. Cool, eh?


It's amazing the things you will find when you open up an email and then follow the links to where they take you. Enjoy!

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Friday Night Spotlight

I've chosen five artists for the Spotlight tonight, which was very hard because I like all my arty links.

Can you make art with fire? Russell Maier has and it's beautiful. After going through his fire paintings, check out the rest of his art and maybe make a mandala to send to him for his World Oneness Mandala Project.

For some fun Christmas arty ideas, yes I know it's not even Thanksgiving yet, run on over to Susie Jefferson's blog 1st Floor Flat. Continue on down the page and note that not all artists have perfectly clean and organized studios, even after/when we clean them out.

My other life, before retiring, was as a bookkeeper. I have always loved office supplies and papers, I just didn't think of them as artists supplies at the time. Now I do. After seeing the art of Alison Foshee you will too.

Do you like vintage cars? We happen to own and lovely little '51 Ford Custom and I used to drive a '66 Imperial Crown Coupe. So...Bernard Corman caught my attention with his car art. It's not your usual art car kind of stuff. My favorites are his "Carp" series. I just smile when I see his art. :)

Lastly is Just Coffee Art. Andrew Saur and Angel Sarkela-Saur have been painting with coffee for several years now. Yes, just plain coffee. The lovely shades of tans, browns, and dark browns flow from the brushes and the creations are amazing.

I hope you enjoy my little collection of artists sites. Thank you for dropping by. Leave a word if you like what you see.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Yellow and Copper Necklace

I got these beads with a jewelry lot that I bought from Stell's store at OnlineAuction.com. They were part of a broken necklace at the bottom of the bag. Now...yellow is not one of my favorite colors for beads. But these have just the slightest shimmer and glimmer from small copper flakes mixed inside the bead with the yellow glass. They are very pretty. So...I made this necklace with them, incorporating some of my copper ripple beads, red transparent and small copper beads. It has an antiqued copper toggle as a closure.




Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Stop Action

I have always loved stop action movies. When I was in high school I took a photography class and we learned a bit about stop action. It takes a LOT of time and work, but the end result is magic. So...here is my little bit of magic for you today. Lost Things will entertain you.

Angela & Ithyle are the pair that created those cool Amazon Kindle commercials and have more photography for you to see at their site.


Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Inspirations From Paper Cutting

Beatrice Coron gives a talk on TED about how she came to the art of papercutting and where it has taken her. Sit back and enjoy!

Monday, November 7, 2011

Blue Spiders



Been having more fun with the beads. This time I chose a black and blue theme. Some parts are from old earrings that I disassembled. I love being able to recycle old designs into new ones.

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Holton Rower

Holton Rower in an interesting artist that uses many different media for his art. There is a YouTube video on how he does his Pour art. Very cool and makes me want to go play with my paints! Check out some of his sculptures, too. I really love the locks!

Friday, November 4, 2011

Friday Night Spotlight

Friday Night Spotlight brings you some interesting and lovely things tonight.

callmemomo starts us off with her beautiful handmade quilt and pillow set for the little baby girl in your life. This quilt is made up of 630 tiny individual squares. All squares have one shade or another of pink in them. A wonderful present, to last a life time, in a little girls life.

yogibear66 has THE best Christmas present you can buy for the gamer in the family!! The Xbox 360 4GB Console with Kinect Kinect brings games and entertainment to life in extraordinary new ways - no controller required. Easy to use and instantly fun, Kinect gets everyone off the couch moving, laughing and cheering.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Windows

Found this artist from one of the numerous arty newsletters I get. Jim Darling has an interesting style and some great ideas for subjects. Windows is a grouping I like. Not just regular windows, but what goes by outside an airplane window.


Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Falling Water

One of THE most innovative designs for a home. I love Frank Lloyd Wright and I LOVE Falling Water. So...when I find people who come up with their version of it, I like to show them off. Boing Boing has a couple of links to the variations of this famous house.

Just a little necklace

Been busy getting inventory made for the PAC show coming up on Dec. 2 & 3. Here is a little necklace I quickly put together out of copper and brass dangles and small copper beads.


UPDATE: This little necklace has been listed for sale at my store at Z'annes Bazaar.

UPDATE #2: This little necklace has been sold. I hope to find these dangles again to make one or more necklaces. I really like this design.