Stencilicious!

Don't these cherries look radiant? I took this photo a couple of years ago when I first got my digital SLR and was delighted at the results. May your day be a big, fat bowl of succulent cherries.

But, wait, have you heard? My friend Mary Ann is going to be doing the most stencilicious online workshop on, what else, stencils! She has an incredible class blog set up with tons of information and her workshop is sure to be as fantastic and creative as she is. Check out her blog for some really rockin' stencil work. These are not your mother's stencils folks! There is still time to get a spot in class so go sign up here!

The studio is coming along nicely. I have some twinkle lights installed and a new ceiling fan that won't hit me in the head when I walk across the room. I also found the coolest little doodads at Cost Plus while shopping for wine yesterday. They are just the right thing needed to spice up the clean white wall surrounding my garden view window. I am also making modifications to this dreamy find to remove the light and make it a lovely hanging mobile with touches of silky pink, orange and turquoise ribbons. I will post another round of photos with the updates to my little art hideaway perhaps this weekend. Tonight is for making some art in the studio. Ciao...

Sundays are for Napping.

Unfortunately, no napping for me yet today.

On a completely random note, have you seen the outdoor Chihuly exhibit that is on tour coming to a town near you? If not, I highly recommend it. They have ours at the Desert Botanical Garden and it is viewable day and night (the sculptures light up at night). Here is a sneak peek:


We have gone once already and intend on going back on a not-so-crowded week night so we can get some really good photos. The glass was integrated in such unique and creative ways with all the funky desert plants we have around these here parts.

In other news, the farm animals are as chipper as ever. Would you like to meet a few?

This is Sir Charles Fuzzalot (we make all our own names for them...). He is the fuzziest burro I have ever seen. I wonder if he is not part horse, part burro as he is larger than all the other burros on the farm and has unique features.


And this dashing young black and white fellow is Baby Goat (he was, afterall, an itty-bitty baby when we first met him). Now he likes to play king of the hill with all the new babies. The have to keep a harness on him because he is a little frisky and can be hard to get ahold of when the vet comes to check on him. The one next to him is new and we have not named her yet. Suggestions?


This guy is Grandpa Goat (I know, not very creative but he is the oldest one in the herd). He has severe arthritis in his front legs so many times you will see him kneeling on his two front legs with his booty up in the air. The owners of the farm treat him twice a day with arthritis meds to keep his pain levels in check.


And this handsome fellow is Mr. Ed. He is the sweetest miniature horse and he LOVES carrots and apples.


And in our very own garden jungle, LuLu goes undercover so she can hunt birds. She burrows herself down into the giant lavender bushes and waits for birds and lizards to practically crawl onto her and then she pounces. We try to deter this behavior since the garden is home to a couple of dozen lizards and is a bird nesting ground for humming birds, finches, thrashers, wood peckers and doves. She did catch one of the finch babies last year (bad LuLu) when we weren't as attentive as we should have been.

LuLu was a stray in our neighborhood (we unfortunately have many strays). We do a catch, fix and release program with a local organization to cut down on all the breeding of feral cats because frankly it breaks my heart to see them all out there without a loving home and a lap to nap on. We currently have 2 former strays living indoors with us (LuLu and Zoe). When LuLu was a stray, she went to the vet to get fixed and the next morning when we released her she wouldn't leave our front door. So, we opened the door and she walked right in and has not left. Of course, she received a thorough check up, vaccinations, etc. before being released into the rest of the herd. She has been indoors now for about 2 years but she has a wild streak in her (hence the stalking of birds). We love her anyway...

In other news, my handsome and talented husband spent a good part of his day yesterday volunteering his garden expertise at a tree planting effort in Downtown Phoenix. Oh, why is that my husband with Phoenix City Mayor Phil Gordon?


I got a personal tour of the tree lined streets this morning and boy did everyone do a great job! Thanks to Mayor Phil for funding the effort!!

Earth Hour Today 8:30 PM Local Time

Hey, what would it be like if you turned out your lights and shut down your computer and television for an entire hour today? What if you did this at the same time as lots of other people in your time zone? Check out Earth Hour and see what the impact can be if you participate.

Here are 10 things you can do during the hour the lights are out:

1. Light a few candles, pour a glass of wine and talk to someone you love.
2. Charge up your iPod and put on the headphones and listen to some music.
3. Meditate.
4. Have dinner by moon light.
5. Have a party with your friends and play games by candle light.
6. Charge your laptop and watch a movie on battery power (ok, this might be cheating a teeny, weenie bit).
7. Make yourself a hot bath at 7:59 PM and enjoy a long and realxing soak.
   
8. If you live some place warm, go for a moonlight walk.
9. Make art by candle light. People actually used to this ALL the time before electricity!
10. Go to bed early and get a good night's sleep.

Nothing Like a Deadline to Get Me Moving....

Seeing as how work is looming in my schedule starting Monday, I put the pedal to the metal the last couple of days to get the studio somewhat finished. It was a lot of work (and dust....and sneezing....) but it is almost there. I know it would not have gotten this far without all the help from Vyn who gave up a lot of time these past few days to assemble shelves and furniture and carry heavy boxes from the store to the car and then from the car to the house. Thank you honey!!!

So, without further ado, here it is:

Before...

After...


The two paintings in this shot are from the lovely and talented Anahata.

Before...


After...

Chris....this is your new bed when you come to visit!

Before...
After...

I still need to put the doors on the rest of these cabinets but they were out of stock at Ikea. The black doors here are actually glass and you can put your own artwork inside these or fabric. I thought it was pretty cool to be able to change the look without changing the furniture.

I want to get some bamboo shades for the windows and get art on the wall but, that aside, it is GREAT to have a place where I can think, relax and make art without the distraction of the giant mess that was my studio when I started this project.

In total:

• 5 full garbage/recycle bins
• 7 days of cleaning, sorting, keeping/tossing, moving, painting, resorting
  
• 3 gallons of paint
• 7 bottles of wine (I think)
• Roughly $1,400 in furniture, storage, etc.
• A couple of dozen Advil for sore muscles
• A place to create - priceless!!

And I still have the weekend....

So Refreshing!

It is so darn refreshing to watch a presidential press conference where my leader is articulate and thoughtful all the while respectful of opposing opinions while still being confident. I know we are in tough times right now but I feel so much more confident that we can make it through the tough times with someone like Barack at the helm. (Note: The photo above is not mine - it is an official White House photo - no photographer name listed.)

In other news, today started out at Lux with Vyn (why fit into my work pants when I go back to the office next week??), then off to Ikea for 3 hours of studio planning and selection of the right solutions for the space. I ended up getting quite the deal on my desk. I knew I wanted a frosted glass desk for the studio. We looked at the various glass desk options and then happened to find ourselves in the dining area where they had the perfect glass dining table that would work for my desk and for $150 less than the desk (it was on sale for $99!!! Score!!!).

After we came home and dropped off the desk, we headed out to one of our favorite Mexican food places, Ritos. It is a little hole-in-the-wall place that has no indoor seating and is located in a tough part of town. They only serve burritos (bean and cheese and green or red sauce beef) and they are soooooooooo delicious!!! So we sat out on the patio and ate our very late lunch/early dinner (we call it Linner) and enjoyed the mild Spring day. We then headed to Costco for dog and cat food as well as some organic baby carrots for my furry friends at the farm. We stopped at the farm on the way home and fed the critters the entire 5 pound bag of carrots - they are so fun to feed that we couldn't stop until the carrots were all gone!

Not a very exciting day to blog about but such a great day to be in!

A Question for the Universe...

Dear Universe,

Can you tell me why, when I spend a fortune on a gorgeous kitty condo like the one pictured below, which sits empty in my living room,




...the little fuzzy darlings insist on sleeping in Costco boxes in the garage?



It is quite the mystery to me and something I would love to get to the bottom of in this lifetime.

Signed,

Curious

Thank God for Garbage Bins.

I spent a good part of the afternoon in the studio. Here is what I learned:

1. I've made a lot of bad art.

2. There are a lot of bad hair photos of me in various stages of life (the photo above is not one of them). Even though I think I have destroyed them all, each time I go through the photos they all seem to crop up. I think this is because I think about destroying them but then I decide against it and put said photos back in the box and close the lid.

3. It is okay to destroy one's bad art after the experiment is complete (see #1 above). I know some may disagree with me here. It certainly is a personal decision. For me, being able to move on from the experiments to something more fruitful that results from the experiments is key. I find bad art hanging around like a 10 pound weight around my neck. It weighs me down. If I had to look at every bad piece of art I have ever made over and over, it will probably kill all future hope for something good.

4. Keep the good art! Yes!!! This maintains the momentum and hope to keep me experimenting and making not-so-good art. Good art will come!

5. Although there are a lot of bad hair pictures of me around, I do not destroy these (see #2 above). For me, photos are like a story line of our lives. While every picture comes with a set of memories and emotions (some good, some not), I find them extremely important in helping me to remember where I have come from.

6. The cavernous bad art cave, a.k.a. my studio, is slowly being emptied out (another full garbage bin and recycle bin and 2 more boxes of donations today). I can see the floor of the entire room, I can see the back of the closet, I can see the walls. I can definitely see the possibilities for a new space with new energy forming in front of me. (Side Note: I can NOT see the top of my dining room table as all the desired art supplies that will be staying with me are sitting on it....but that is another story).

7. I truly do have the best husband ever! He has been so helpful, so patient and so understanding through this gigantic mess of mine. Today he patched holes in the studio walls so I could start painting these walls tomorrow. All the while, encouraging me and listening to me talk about all my bad art as I marched it outside to it's new home. He even offered to go to Ikea (gasp!!!) on his vacation. I must have done something incredibly noble and good in a past life to deserve such a wonderful and kind man in this life.

In other news, I was thinking about how important some places are in my life. Places that play such a key role in the things that occur in my life that I can not imagine what life would be like without these places. One of these places is our coffee hang out, Lux, which I mentioned yesterday. For me, Lux is a reprieve, a treat in my week, a ritual, a place to go with my old friends and to meet new one's. It a place where I have reconnected with people I thought I had lost contact with. It is a place to sit with my hubby and talk through ambitious plans and to dream, all while getting hopped up on caffeine and sugar. Life is good with places like this in our lives. The owner of Lux, Jeff, is so incredible and works tirelessly to create a space for community to come together. The people that Jeff employs are so kind and energetic and happy to be there. Thank God for people like this on the Earth that are so completely committed to bringing something special into being for the rest of us to experience.

What places are special in your life?