The "To Do" list goes on and on....

Hello my Lovelies!

Gosh, how does time get away from us so easily? 

I know how......
I've found that opening another shop is exciting, but tremendously time consuming.  Of course, to be fair, I'm not doing a great job of dividing my time wisely.  I want to make sure there's lots of goodies to peruse on the "shelves" so I get into that mental game of, "Just one more and I'll stop and work on something else" with myself.....next thing I know it's 1am!

I did take a couple days off over the weekend to go to the Scrapbook Expo and had a craft night with some girlfriends.  While they scrapped, I made more packaging materials for my own store....y'know, the stuff you need, but don't make the time for because you have more pressing things to attend to? *sigh*
Story of our lives, eh? Haha!

Well, it didn't take me all night to make those things, luckily, so I was able to make a couple new coffee cozies while we chatted.

I just barely finished putting the final touches on them today. (Hooray! I can cross something off my list!)
Here's my first ever butterfly cozy.  I thought it fitting that butterflies go through a major transformation....sorta like I do after my cup of joe in the morning ;P
So, on a cozy they went....

 

And another floral.  Nothing like flowers to brighten your day :)

 

 

Still on my list are:

• More Word of the Year Art
• Art Print Jewelry!
• Coloring my hair (be glad you can't see my scary roots right now!)

But my next post will be something truly special!  I can't wait to share how I was able to give my Husband an awesome gift last Christmas!

I'll be back soon to tell you all about it :)

 

Hope you are doing a better job than I am keeping on task,

Pencil in a hug from me,

Cam

That Cozy Time of Year & Coupon Code

Hello Everyone!

Hope all my Stateside Friends are having a lovely Thanksgiving....
I'm just checking in before dashing out the door to meet with my Husband's family and gather for our feast.

I'm still crafting though, trying my best to get my Etsy store loaded with new and fun offerings.
Here are 2 new cozies I just finished....

 

Nothing like like flowers (and a bit of caffeine) to brighten one's day....haha!

 

 

A little sweet something to have with your coffee or tea :)

 

I am excited to be able to provide Worldwide FREE SHIPPING from today thru Monday.  Just enter SHIPHAPPY into the coupon code section at checkout!

 

If you are having a sale this weekend, please let me know.....I'd love to take a peek :)

 

Hope you all have an incredible weekend....and happy shopping ;P

 

Big Hugs,

Cameron

A Warm Welcome

Well, Hello there!

I find myself with another new piece of art to share and debating whether to post it now....or save it for a dry spell.......
WHAT?!
Me, delay gratification?!  Me, not go to a party when I have a good reason to attend?! (Paint Party Friday, that is ;P)  Me, wait?!

Heck no! Especially since PPF is celebrating a whole year of creative partying!!
This'll make 3 posts in 1 week....almost unheard of around here!

So here is another reclaimed book cover 8.5 inches square....gessoed and painted over.

I cut out the cup shapes from patterned paper, used lace trim and vintage buttons on the bottom edge and crackled the tabletop.

I just love crackled anything!

Acylics, prismacolor pencils and ink make up the bulk of supplies used here.

I think this would make such a sweet Housewarming gift :)

It is waiting in my shop, if you know a good home for it.

Well, thank you for stopping by!  I hope you know you are always welcome :)

And please check out the other Paint Party Friday entries for this week!

Wonderful weekends to you all!

Cam

Corny, Cheesey and Cozy

I'm so sorry!
I told you I'd be back.....I just had no idea it would take me this long to get here!

So, I mentioned previously some new stuff I've been working on...
Been in a felty mood again!

Made some more coffee cozies...

I thought these would make cute Valentine's presents for Coffee/Tea lovers.

(or, more honestly, was spending a lot of my week catching up with the TV Series "Fringe" and needed to make something while I sat there so I didn't feel so guilty :D)

They could accompany some cheesy little saying like,

"Our love just keeps growing"

"Owl always love you"

"My heart is in your hands"

...and I made more keychains, as well...

A guy could totally put his Sweetheart's car keys on it with a little note....

"You 'drive' me wild"

Or perhaps...

"You carry my heart with you wherever you go"

What about for a friend...

"Friendship blooms with love"

I'm all about the thoughtful gift with the corny sentiment!

That's why I bought a pack of my Hubby's favorite snacks....pistachios....

so I can tell him I'm nuts about him!

A small LED flashlight for his keys...

beacause he "lights up" my life...

...and a screwdriver...

Get your minds out of the gutter! Haha!

(you know who you are)

...it is because my Life would be "screwed up" without him!

What's your favorite cheeseball Valentine's line?

Have a great weekend, My Friends!!

In all silliness,

Cameron

Elixir of the Gods!

....or what we, in my household, otherwise call COFFEE :)
Who am I kidding?
I'm the only one who drinks the stuff....the one who panics when the cream gets low...the one who doesn't care how loud the whirring of the bean grinder is on the weekends.....the one who devotes an entire cabinet to the storage and display of coffee and tea, mugs, sugar, filters....everything I need in one spot perched above the coffeemaker....

I LOVE coffee!!!
It is the one ritual that defines my mornings...
....even when it's 100 degrees outside...
...even when camping (I make it in a French press)...
I have to, want to, look forward to having a cup...every morning!

So when my suggestion for a theme was chosen over at Butterfly Effect this week....
You guessed it!  Coffee or Tea.
I couldn't wait to create something...
Now, I've made art about my love of Joe before...

You can read that post here...

But that was before I learned all the nifty mixed media techniques I know now....so I wanted to make something specifically for it  ;0)

Betty over at Pinkglitterfae Art gave me the idea to alter a board book...

You see, Maggie's school has been saving their damaged books for me.  I witnessed them throwing them away once and just had to come to the rescue.

Humpty Dumpty, true to his story, couldn't be put back together again...

So I used his pages as my substrate....

First sanding....

Then gessoing....

Does anyone else uses this gesso?  It is a serious upper body workout trying to squeeze this stuff out, it's soooo thick!

After it dried, I thought the shape was perfect for this!

Does it make you want a cup?  Makes me wish I had an actual cup like that!

If you want this one, it's in the shop :)

While looking for something to write on this piece, I came across some great coffee related sayings.

I might need to make more just to use them...haha!

"Coffee: Creative Lighter Fluid"

"A morning without coffee is like sleep"

"Forever....the time it takes that first pot of coffee to brew in the morning"

"Coffee smells like freshly ground Heaven"

...and my favorite by Josephine Baker,

"He was my cream, and I was his coffee -and when you poured us together it was something"

Hopefully you'll be able to link up and play along, too!

Here's wishing all my Buddies in the States have a fantastic Thanksgiving...

Have lots of pie....

...and coffee to go with it!

Hugs to all my Bloggy Friends everywhere!

Cam

Making Sense of it all - A Birthday Giveaway!

My birthday is on Wednesday....no better excuse for using the Creative Everyday Theme (5 Senses) to help me take stock of things to be grateful for...

Some of my Favorite Sights:

Colorful Koi swimming over smooth stones, creating gentle ripples in a clear, shallow pond

The warm reassurance in my Husband’s eyes on a particularly difficult day

The first noticeable clue of the changing of the Seasons like turning leaves, budding tree branches that were once devoid of green and that ultra-bright kind of sunshine that makes dark shadows below

My daughter’s smile



Sounds that Make me Swoon:

A myriad of birds chirping on a Spring morning

The song of a hauntingly beautiful female voice filling my soul when I want to feel feminine and alluring

“Mommy, I lub you”

Things I could Feel Forever:

An insanely soft, so soothing to rub, puppy ear

A breeze on my face, no matter whether it’s cool or warm, standing outside with my eyes closed facing the wind

The cold condensation of an icy glass that instantly revives you on a hot day

My daughter’s pudgy hand slipping into mine or her little arms around my neck

Some things that have Good Taste:

Coffee….I adore it, sweet and with a swirl of cream

Banana Sour cream Pancakes…my daughter requests these often, and though I follow a low carb eating plan, I can’t resist them!

The slight Sun screeny, salty flavor of kissing my little girl after a day outside. Though I don’t love that flavor, it represents childhood fun, safe and carefree :)


Smells that make me Smile:

A walk through an herb garden running my fingers over varieties of plants, then bringing them to my nose…mmmm lavender fingers…rosemary fingers….rose geranium…..

Damp, mountain air permeated with pine, soil and moss

Passing a bakery brimming with smells of different breads, pastries and fresh brewed coffee

Holding my daughter’s jacket up to my face…a mix of detergent, the outdoors and her, all rolled into one :)


I love my birthday...any day that others lavish me with attention is a good one in my book ;-p But as I get older, the difference between want and need becomes more clear. I don't need anything....and I realize what a luxury and blessing this statement really signifies!


My family and I are healthy, have little to complain about (though I sometimes have to remind myself of this a few times...haha) and are surrounded by friendships and beauty all around. 

**In celebration of another year of Life, I want to give the gifts to you!  Please leave a comment on this post to be considered for a drawing to be held Monday, April 26th.  The person randomly chosen for this drawing will get the Handmade Hair Accessory of their choice from my shop!  **

Thank you so much for checking in with me from time to time...your visits are another one of my Favorite Things :)

Health and Happiness to you and yours,
Cameron

Altered for a Perfect Fit

I stayed up late last nite....my first time in over a week that I got to work on something artsy.....long overdue, and sooooooo satisfying! I finished one project and loved it so much, I started and finished another! I never am able to do that! Mainly, it's cuz I usually work on 9x12 inch or larger pieces, that end up requiring large chunks of time, layer upon layer of washes and detail and the proper mood to sit down and work on the same thing I've been painting for sometimes, months! I mentioned and displayed some altered pages on a former post.....which I thoroughly enjoyed and wanted to explore further, thanks to Sheree at Raven Moon Magic. She was not only kind enough to give me the idea, but to give me helpful hints and feedback! So armed with a new larger paperback with thicker pages and hidden messages to reveal, I began the journey of uncovering Secret Truths!

Well, my obsession with coffee could definately be called a Truth.....but it's certainly no Secret!

So, it just started as a simple message about the ritual of coffee drinking. The circled words read, "Morning constant, next day the same, survivalism" I can see by your nodding head, that you understand and appreciate this statement. :)

But as I continued exploring the aspects of the page and finding random bits of info on coffee drinking on my hunt through magazine pages..... I found something interesting...something that makes my multiple cup habit good...even HEALTHY for me! Imagine that! There were articles about it reducing risks of endometrial cancer, making your muscles feel less sore when you drink some Joe before exercising....but my favorite....and the point that drives the whole page home is featured above. It says..and I quote *clearing throat* "people who reported drinking 3 to 5 cups of coffee daily were 65% less likely to develop dementia compared with those who drank 2 cups or less."

It's not even saying drink some coffee....it saying drink lots of coffee! Now that's my kind of study...I feel vindicated...haha. So happens this torn out page was the start of Chapter Five and I added 5 "coffee" rings. The image in the center is a hand-carved stamp I made years ago. Hope this tickles your craziness for the brew as much as it did mine....I celebrated it's completion with a cup!

Then I matted it and started a new page.

Within this page's text, I saw something serene....something universal. The circled words read, "Gentle whispering, shady green, it was everything." The first thing I imagined was a tree....but more than that, I wanted to convey how this tree...this spot in time is everything...right now. How our experiences, while uniquely ours, are not the only ones occuring at any given moment....how one second, one thought , one tree, one word, one glance...can be everything to lots of different someones at one time.

We are so lucky to be able to revisit those "Everything" times whenever we want...in our minds and in our hearts.

I've found that adhereing the page to a sheet of watercolor paper allows me to flow over the edges and helps keep the integrity of the soft page. I used black and white ink to highlight details of the animals and such...

I also used some of my irridescent watercolors in the tree and grass to give it some shimmer....

I'm looking forward to doing more of these fun pages. I get to relax a bit and not be so hung up on details. They're also so much quicker, and therefore, I'm able to get something done in one sitting for once!

Please have a wonderful weekend! I hope to be back on Monday with pics from Artwalk!

Off to have another cup of coffee!