Painting Bliss

Top 10 Reason Why it's Cool to be an Artist

 

 

 

 

 

String Me Up - String Gardens

 

 

 

So lately I have been a bit of a Pinterest whore... but hey, aren't we all? Pinterest, a place full of idea sharing is just a tip of the domino that knocks down others until there is a plethora of ideas all having a giant orgy together. You naughty naughty Pinterest with all your loose ways...

Anywho! my top search on Pinterest as of late has been garden ideas... whoa, big surprise right!? You totally couldn't have guessed! Be honest, your completely floored! No? fine then... guess I'm just a silly transparent window then! It's ok, no feelings hurt! But seriously, I have found a pretty cool thing I think I'm gonna give a whirl... string gardens. Not really a "garden" per-say as much as a really modern - cool - funky garden add in.

 

 

It appears to be simple, and I like simple! Especially when simple looks so damn cool! A string garden is basically taking a plant, wrapping the root ball up in twine, then covering with moss or grass seed - then wrapping again and hanging it up like a Christmas ornament! Now, these contraptions can be hung indoors... but the problem I see with this... is that when you water it, your bound to have puddles on your floor! Funny... none of the tutorials mention the mess. Sooooooo I am going to make mine and hang them outdoors from hooks or trees.

Here is a super cool, nice, and visual tutorial if you would like to join along with me! I take no credit for this idea as my mind just didn't create it and well it's gone to big for me to even try and take the credit! Plus, taking credit for other peoples ideas is just a big NO NO! (I don't partake)... I also take no credit for the images posted here today, each picture is linked to where it came from (see me covering my artsy non photo stealing ass?).

Now, I do promise to show you my hangy thingies once I make them! I really can't wait... I went all ass ho on my gardens over the past month and so they are already done and waiting for mulch... being a creature who desires to get her hands dirty I now must supplement my need to garden with ideas such as this!

Rock on with your gardening self!

 

 

 

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Cultivate my Soul

I Was Designed...

 

 

 

I was designed for green grass

Toes sunken deep into unseens and sunshine.

 

Under a blue celestial sphere

tan shoulders - brown as my coffee,

turn a richer shade of brown.

 

I am freckled

 Head to toe

connect the dots - game of hide and seek.

 

This is the season,

my season...

the season of unfurling

and coming into my own.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spring - To Me

 

 

I sit here typing to you, eating edemame thinking about spring. How can I not with the newly exposed leaves and spring green that emanates from every inch of outside!? Spring to me is about firsts. There are so many firsts... spring is the beginning of it all and that's exactly why I love and revel in spring so deeply. I used to think summer was my favorite, and when the snow falls I say "this is my favorite!", but no it's spring. You wait so long for it... and anything you pine and wait for is worth it. It's the something that makes your heart pitter patter, thud thud, and boom boom until you can barely contain the sound bouncing around your ear drums. Spring is beginnings.

Spring is the beginning of warmth... bright light through the trees!

 

 

 

 

It's the beginning of color... after a season of blue, grey, and white... it's a feast for the eyes...

 

 

 

 

Spring is when children grow just a little more and try out challenges they have never attempted before...

 

 

 

Spring is birth...

 

 

 

And spring is the opportunity to be born again... into something better than before.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Turtling Season

Fruits, Veggies, and Bruchetta, OH MY!

Cloth Paper Scissors - It's Here!

 

 

Being so humble and artistically shy it's not easy for me to share big ta-doo's... but I'm just about jumping out of my skin. I have had some minor publications in Somerset Studio, but I currently have my very first serious spread in the May/June issue of Cloth Paper Scissors!!!

Maybe you remember my sweet mixed media egg owls, maybe you don't... but now you can make one of your very own, for in the current issue I have a how to article complete with step outs and an adjoining article! I am so excited, delighted, and happy to share the news with you!

 

 

 

Opening up the box that I knew contained my complimentary issues was a bit surreal... actually holding, leafing through, and seeing my work on glossy pages next to other talented artists was just mind blowing!! I am so thankful to Cloth Paper Scissors for giving me this opportunity and for being so friendly to work with. The magazine staff was kind and super responsive... they made it so easy! I hope to send them more artwork in the future in hopes of more publications.

Hope you pick up the magazine and have a look see, thank you to you if you do!!

If you love my owls and would like to give one a happy home, you can visit my etsy shop here.

 

 

Walk the Loop

 

 

One can not explain the connection to a place they may have. Perhaps it's just  a love for what's there or the feeling you get when visiting... but I feel in my heart a place you feel connected to means that somehow over time and space... perhaps a past life, you had a reason to love this spot and once again love the same place but without knowing exactly why or how.

For me... this is and has been the Liberty Loop. It's a 2.5 mile walk around a large marsh area (Audubon Reserve), where a plethora of different bird-life resides and flourishes. Egrets, herons, swans, geese, mallards, bald eagles, hawks... and well my list could go on and on of  the feathereds to be seen. Turtles... my favorite small aquatic creature perch on mounds of grasses, logs, and rocks. They mull around in depths of water that are just low enough for them to feed and wander... like a toddler in the shallow end of the pool, perfectly delighted to be doing their turtle thing.

 

 

I walk this place regularly and feel at peace. My feet take the pace of the beats thumping throughout my ears from my ipod that plays emits bands such as The Paperkites, Xx, and The Staves. This place isn't meant for anything too loud or demanding... it deserves a background set for heartbeats... not drumbeats.

 

The Liberty Loop changes by the day and season. Not only by scenery but by wildlife. My place is a place for holding hands, walking silently, and smiling at the giggling children running up on geese.

I can think clearly at the Liberty Loop, feel deeply there, and find a rhythm and space that I need to feel what I need to feel. It's a place I try and not answer texts, return emails, or even touch my phone at all unless it's related to changing a song.

 

 

Everyone needs a place to go, to feel in, to breathe in... everyone needs that serene banquet of earth and sky and feathers.

 

 

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With Little Snippets

 

 

Fingering through the pages of an old book, long forgotten and placed on the used book store shelves, it is my intent to bring home these words and transform them into my own. I sit, I snip, I place and rearrange... until the words flow into reflections of my insides turned out.

Poetry flows through my mind and out through my fingers. When I am satisfied I glue them into their final resting place, a natural toned brown journal.

As I sit with my books, I graze my eyes over the the pages looking for phrases, sentences, and single words that stick out only to me. It is my mind, my soul, and my heart that sees the words that are meant for me. I am fascinated with the thought that given the same pages, and someone else, that a whole 'nother set of words and phrases would evolve.

The words are waiting like seeds in the winter, suddenly given light and warmth... another chance to live.

This personal meditation gives me a sense of ease in a body that breathes anxiety.  This time of self expression gives me the opportunity to dilute the rush of beating wings inside my chest.

It is when the bird sleeps... 

 

 

I am a deep thinker.

I am a deep feeler...

and often times my heart is enlarged.

 

 

Cultivate my Soul

 

 

 

There's is mental relief to be had in the dirt. The release of bottled up emotions just seem to sink out through your feet and back into the earth. The ground is so receiving, malleable, and reliable. I don't pretend to be a master gardener, know every single plant by name (although I do know a ton), or think I can grow every little seed in the Burpee catalouge. What I do know is I need my garden as much as it needs me. That this winter was so long and so cold that it seemed like forever until I could get dirt under my nails and into each crease of each of my palms.

My garden never stays the same from year to year. I'm never patient to just let things grow and tend to themselves. My ADD tendencies need to move, relocate, and dig up what grew in one spot last year but seems oh so much better over here this year. I split the day lillies into smaller mounds and sink them into places that my eye has decided is just right. As I decorate my patches of dirt like I would a piece of bristol board, smoothing the surface and making things to my liking... I envision the growth to come. In my mind I can already smell the peonies and hear the buzzing of bees.

 

 

 

This year another piece of lawn is gone... less to mow right!? HA! Every pleasant and warm day has been spent building blisters on my hands and collecting mosquito bites like girl scout badges. It's a game of connect the dots from my ankles to my neck.

Tis the life of a gardener!

 

 

 

This year I will be taking a more serious approach to vegetable gardening. My husband is making a beautiful raised bed for me and I have already put up chicken wire fencing complete with burgundy green beans that turn green when cooked planted below. I want to have enough vegetables to not only provide for my own family but to give to neighbors and friends. I know that sounds a bit ambitious, but I'm an ambitious kind of girl!

What about you!? Garden plans?

 

 

 

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Fruits, Veggies, and Bruchetta, OH MY!

 

 

 

The excitingly warm spring weather here in the north east really coaxes my stomach toward a summer palette. Dreams of market bags filled with farm grown fruits and veggies makes my heart smile with delight. Spring and summer are obviously the best time to eat your heart out on things that grow by root. Until the near future when I will be able to tip toe through the market, tote over my shoulder, I will start to crave things like farm fresh produce and recipes like bruchetta.

A few days ago I carried an abundant armful of tomatoes, basil, garlic, and other ingredients out into the warm sunshine where I chopped, diced, and danced while doing so. Good tunes, good sun, and good company makes the world go round. Feeding what you made to the ones you love is a whole 'nother pleasure entirely!

 

 

 

Thankfully cutting onions outside kept them from stinging my eyes, another plus to cooking outside! I loathe cutting onions. Onions and I have only recently become friends. My whole life I have shunned them from my plate... and still only selectively allow them in dishes that I make or eat. I was a picky eater growing up and still have my moments, but allowing myself to at least try something and not turn my nose up at it has greatly opened up my culinary world. There is so much to taste and enjoy!

 

What are your favorite spring eats?