And we're off

The Prairie Village Art Show starts tomorrow. I'm ready, but nervous. I've been working so hard to get ready and I wonder how many hours I've really put in to it. I just hope that it is all worth it in the end.

Emily, Ben and my mom surprised me with my very own artist/directors chair. It's very fancy...white with a reddish canvas seat and back. Oh la la. And Chris...I mentioned that I wanted a pedestal to place a vase of flowers, business cards and a mailing list notebook. The next thing I know, he's built one for me. This is the same guy who tried to build a patio set out of 2x4's. The chairs weighed 110 pounds each. I must say he did a very fine job on the pedestal table.

For those of you in the Kansas City area, my connections (aka friends) have paid off and I'm going to have a live television interview on NBC's Kansas City Live on Friday morning. The shot should be at 10:10 or 10:40 a.m. Check it out and watch me make a complete fool of myself. Fun times!

Here's a little glimpse of the preparations...I will try to document the weekend and post next week!



Here are two photos of two of my three 16x20s. The photos don't do them justice and there is no time to scan them at the camera shop. So...you get the idea.



Stop by if you're in the neighborhood. Booth #34 across from Mr. Goodcents! Friday 5 to 9 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

A Busy Weekend

I had all weekend to get ready for the Prairie Village Art Show. No plans other than Corporate Challenge Volleyball pool play in which our team took first place...no big deal. The Director of Accounting stepped on the back of my ankle within the first two minutes of the game and she severely twisted her ankle leaving her on the sideline for the remainder of the afternoon. I admit that I was playing a little bit out of my area, but I also think she had on crappy Reeboks that wouldn't protect an ankle if you stepped on anything wrong, not to mention the most competitive volleyball player in Corporate Challenge.


For fear that I would have no pictures to take over the weekend, I snapped this shot when Chris and I headed to Johnny's to eat and drink on the patio. There was a Backyard Burger napkin stuck in the grill of my car, but Chris thought it looked like my car went to the bathroom and walked out with toilet paper on its foot.



Sunday was another beautiful day. We took Annie to the D-O-G-P-A-R-K. We have to spell it or she FREAKS! She instantly gets a foamy mouth because she gets nervous, which is proceeded by diarrhea. And I mean diarrhea every five minutes. Not only is it embarrassing, but then she starts scooting on the ground. That's about the time when Chris and I stop claiming her. She had a ball regardless.

I finished this piece last week. It's a 12x12, but since my scanner is so small I've only scanned the middle of it. It's called Prayer for a Little Home. I like the neutrals and blues because I rarely work with blue. I was happy with the way it turned out.

But not as happy as the roll I went on when I woke up on Saturday morning. I have to admit that on Friday, I actually googled "How to paint with acrylics". OK...maybe if I was going to be submitting work for an art fair, you'd think I might have an inkling about how to paint with acrylics, but NO. I learned a little bit about washes and glazes and some other stuff online. On Saturday morning, I got up and thought, I'm just going to go for it and not worry about ruining canvases and wasting time. So started a new technique and I;m sure there is a name for it, but I don't know what it is. This is the outcome...

The piece above is a 12x12 as well, so only about 10x12 is represented in the scan.

This is an 8x8 with Baby Bird stamped on it. I guess I had Thea in mind when I did this.

This is a 6x6 that I did last week st to get back in the groove again. It is simple, but I like ended up liking the simplicity of it.

I'm certainly not very good at drawing and now we all know that I don't really know how to paint. So I cheated and cut out the silhouette of a couple and then traced around the outline. I kind of liked it.

The grand total now stand at 52. I wanted 100 pieces, then I decided 80 would suffice and now I think that 60 sounds like the perfect number.

Miss Bigglesworth

For any of you that miss Moe, Eric and Kee as much as I do, Moe has a new blog all about their life and times in The Windy City. Catch up with the Chi-town folks by clicking here. I'll post a link on the sidebar for your reading pleasure.

This picture of Kee made my day.

A bit of everything

I haven't had a chance to update the blog in a week or more, so this one will be lengthy...

A couple of new pieces. These are a little different and a bit out of the ordinary for me, but I've been trying to break out of my shell a bit...

A quick trip to Salina for a family reunion and the Gerry Neustrom Young Artist Challenge - an annual high school art competition for students across the state named after my grandmother.



I've been lucky to spend some time with all of the babies in my life...Connor, Thea and Campbell.


A day trip to Sparks, Kansas for a flea market. Population: 9. My "city" friends weren't quite sure what to think, but I'm pretty sure they'll want to go again next year. Check out Mr. Marbles and the Home Kooked Vittles. We stopped in a small Kansas town (aka Methville) for gas and the world's scariest trip to gas station bathroom.







Jo and Aaron wedding reception was a blast. Who stole my camera and got a little snap happy while taking candids of all of the husbands? Hmmm...

Now on Etsy.com

In all my fury of completing a few projects, vacuuming dog hair and posting to my blog, I also found some time to post some of my new work on Etsy. This is a great place for handmade art and really fun stuff. Check it out.

This is my first time to post art on this site and we will see how it goes. One of my blog obsessions is design*sponge and the writer had been talking about collages recently. I thought I might go ahead and post some pieces in case there are more collage-obsessed folks out there that I can help.

I will update my page soon, but in the meantime you can check it out by clicking here...

Busy Bee

Have I been busy! I took today off to work of some new stuff for the art fair coming up in June. It was a great day because I got lost at The River Market Antique Mall for two and a half hours. I found some great books to use in my collages...flowers, trees, birds and dogs. One book is all about wild pigeons. Who knew pigeons could be so colorful!? I always thought they were flying rats. Anyhoo...

I took some time tonight and scanned in some of the pieces that I've been working on. These are all 6x6 on wrapped canvas, which means they are ready to hang. Enjoy...

My apologies

I apologize that I haven't been good about updating the blog lately. I don't have much to report on because I have been hard at work in my "cinder block studio" trying to get some pieces done for the PV art Show. I've determined that I need to finish two pieces each day to get the desired number of pieces for the show. Well...I'm a long way from two pieces per day. I actually plan to take the day off from work on Monday to get some pieces done!

I promise to scan and post them here as soon as they are ready for viewing.

I also have a desire to start posting a few pieces to www.etsy.com just to see what happens. It seems that all of the really great home decor and design sites that I check out refer to Etsy quite a bit. Who knows...maybe I could get "discovered" on there!?

Not much else is new in my life. I've told Chris that we need to plan a vacation just so I have something to talk about. We are boring. Check back soon.

Bring it on

I don't know about you, but I am ready for some warm weather. The lovely pictures of plants I posted last week...well, all of those plants are dead. Why did we get teased with such pretty weather and then suddenly it's cold and everything is dead!? I'm over it.

I've been a busy little bee getting ready for the Prairie Village show. I need to really get in gear to accomplish what I think I need to accomplish prior to the show.


Until next time, here is a piece that reminds me of summer...

Did I do that?

I have already told this story to a few of you, but...

I went to a bachelorette party a few weeks ago and drove myself home at 1:30 in the morning. I truly was fine to drive, only having about 3 beers.

Flash forward to Saturday morning when I pulled into the YMCA parking lot (note: Had I had more than three beers I wouldn't have even considered the Y as an option on an early Saturday morning). I pulled into the parking spot and glanced into the rear view mirror to see red blood all over the back of my rear window. "Holy s*#t! I couldn't have killed someone or something on my way home. Could I? I was fine to drive!" I got out and observed a bit more closely. I couldn't honestly rule out blood. Rather than going into the Y, I decided to head back home and try to figure this mystery out.

I pulled into the driveway, got out of the car and realized that the blood was all over the driveway and up and down the sidewalk. Whew! At least if I killed someone, it was a neighbor that was walking in front of my house at 1:30 a.m. Idiot.

I touched my finger to the "blood" and my finger was instantly stained a bright pink. Yes, pink. Woo Hoo! It wasn't blood. I was just the victim of a crazy bunch of pranksters having fun on St. Patty's.

Long story short...I couldn't decide if I should take pictures, call the police or take my car to get cleaned and if so, in what order? I took pictures. I washed my car. The paint mostly came out. I then filed a police report. Turns out it happened to a few other cars on the block. I headed back to the Y.

Just happy that it's spring

I have nothing new to report other than I did NOT get into the Smoky Hill River Festival in Salina. (Waa Waa...Debbie Downer). I'm Ok with it though because the show is the weekend following the Prairie Village art show and the thought of preparing for two shows right, when I've never even done one, is a bit daunting.


I've been struggling to lure myself into my dark basement when it is so beautiful and springy outside. Yesterday was awesome. Today is pretty, but chilly. Did everything turn green overnight or what!? I love it! And I love the Plaza Easter Bunnies. I miss you, Amy and Bess! Happy spring everyone.

Brownie Butts

If you don't receive Daily Candy's daily e-mails, you really should sign up. They send fun and clever e-mails based on the city where you live or wished you lived at least.

This came in to my inbox yesterday and I thougth it was one of the smartest things I have ever heard of...brownie butts. You know... the brownie pan edges. Not sure about you, but the edge is my favorite part of the entire batch. This company specializes in selling in only the edges, or the "butts" as they call them. It reminds me of Seinfeld's muffin tops. Anyway, it made me happy.

Drumroll, please!

A very special envelope arrived in the mail today! A "Congratulations. You've been accepted to the Prairie Village Art Show" letter! Needless to say, I'm absolutely thrilled. According to the letter, more than 350 artists applied to the show and 90 were accepted.

If you've followed my blog since I launched it back in October, you may be asking yourself, "Is the same Prairie Village Art Show that she said she talked her way into?" Well, kind of, but not really. I had a conversation with the director of the show in October and told her about my interest in participating. I was encouraged by the conversation and decided to send the director an email in February as a "reminder." She never replied, so I went ahead and went through the process of getting slides made from my electronic images. I've now come to realize that I had the wrong email address for her and she never received my email. So, I'd like to think I got in based on my work and not in my sly way of talking my way into things.

I think that it will be great to participate in my very first art show so close to home. Not only do I love the neighborhood and I'll surely have friendly faces stopping by (friends, family and blog readers...wait - my blog readers are only family and friends), but it will be so nice to try this thing so close to home. If I forgt something, it's only 3 minutes away.

Now I must get busy with my work. I've just felt so unmotivated since the holidays. This is exactly the kick in the pants that I've needed. There is so much to do. I need a tent. New supplies - canvases, paints, brushes. Antique letters and ephemera. Business cards. Credit card machine. Oy!

Luckily, I will finally have some work to share with you here. I started this blog to share my work and techniques and I've been bombarding you with stories about my dog and my bathroom. So sorry!

Anyway...yeah me! I'm SO excited.

Finished Bathroom

Woo Hoo! The bathroom is finally done. Actually it was done a week and a half ago, but I've been slow to take the pictures...

I've always loved the old look of subway tile. We choose this and then I freaked when I realized that the "good stuff"that we splurged on was made to look like handmade, vintage subway tiles, with waves on the edges and imperfections. Once the grey grout was in place I wasn't so worried about it. I'm pretty pleased with the overall look.

Here is shower curtain #2. I also bought a taupe damask shower curtain, but it made the small bathroom look smaller! Number 2 is still on a trial run.

New sink and toilet from Kohler "Bancroft"