A Glimpse of the Madness

I made this inspiration bulletin board a few years ago after
seeing a similar one in Ballard Designs. It's an evolving canvas
that reflects what I'm into at the moment.

These antique cookie containers came from my Italian grandmother. They're perfect for holding rolls of ribbons.














The softie bear is a favorite etsy purchase from the talented M. Patrizio.
















More goodies to inspire my creative juices...

the baby and bird are made by the talented Nicole Bowen














The naughty little dolls are from this girl and the fancy birdie is from one of the sweetest, most genuine people, Alicia.

Happy Friday

I thought I would share with you a little collage I made at Art & Soul last year in Lesley Riley's class. Lesley is such a great instructor. She is an expert in fabrics and collage and just has a lovely way of making everyone feel good about the work they are doing. She's one of those teachers who honors and celebrates the creative process in each student and makes you feel like what you are doing is worthwhile. I hope to take more of her classes in the future. With the new year upon us, I am busy cleaning and organizing my art room and facing the nasty truth that I enjoy shopping for vintage treasures and art supplies a tad more than I like to actually make things. Can you relate? So, I'm bundling lots of brand new scrapbooking embellishments, papers, ribbons and the like and selling them on ebay. I'm overwhelmed by all the stuff and, as a result, have become (ahem) creatively constipated. Time to let it go and let it flow!

Day Trip to Hico

My husband and I took a fun day trip to Hico, Texas. Why you ask? Well, Hico is the new home of the fabulous Homestead store. If you've ever been to Tim and Carol Bolton's original Homestead store in Fredericksburg, Texas, you know what a visual feast their store provides. The Hico store is just as cool. First of all, it's in an old restored opera house, decorated with vintage, funky finds such as old mounted fish on plaques, a grand marble church altar, apothecary bottles, stuffed pheasants in bell jars, tattered, one-eyed teddy bears, bolts of what I like to call "dusty" colors - faded, muted, antique-y, Grandma like patterns and colors, without that annoying old person smell. Such a visual treat. It's hard to believe that such a cool store exists in such a small town. Bummer that they didn't let me take pictures in the store, but I did snag this one of the side of the building.