At this moment?

1.) Xanga taking its sweet-ass time loading my photos
2.) Xanga not even showing my photos when they’re loaded
3.) Complainers. Ha!

   

I just answered this Featured Question, you can answer it too!

This is pretty much what I wake up to everyday. Ugmoe and Matilda like to “help” me make the bed.
This usually involves some tunneling under blankets and squealing for breakfast and whiskery kisses and getting fur all over the bedspread. Gee, thanks a heap, you guys.

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Oh, and that cool orange pillow in that photo – the bunny with the fangs- my best friend / sister-in-arts makes those, and lots of other stuff too. She’s a far better painter than I, and she’s working on some new collages that are really breathtaking. You all should go look. She’s amazing.

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Also- Hats! I finally got around to photographing the rest of the hats i made, just in time for spring. The snow hasn’t melted here yet, but I’m pretty sick of wearing drab winter colors myself. These are lightweight but will still  keep your ears warm until the thaw comes. You can see the rest on my Flickr.

 

     

As promised, the results of our studio-space makeover.

A little background first: Matty and I live on the first floor of  a
big old house on a hill, with high ceilings and huge windows that let
in all kinds of light. It’s even got a [defunct] marble fireplace in
the main room, which plays host to a couple of gargoyles, a Buddha,
some rocks, lots of photos and a bunch of artwork. We’ve lived here for about a year, and it is home. We absolutely love the place,
and with the exception of the stupid frigging oil furnace, we have
loved it ever since we first walked in the door.

At first we crammed all of our studio stuff into the second bedroom,
and that worked pretty well for some time. It was a little cramped
because of the narrow shape, plus the rabbit’s stuff, books, stereo,
computers, etc were all in there with us; and overall it simply wasn’t
as lovely and bright and airy as the living room. As it happens we don’t get many
guests, and we don’t do a lot of sitting around, so the front room was
always disused and vacant- such a shame!

However, this summer, I kept
finding myself wanting to hang out around the big bay window in the
front room, and sit in the sunshine that came streaming in everyday.
But all my art stuff was in the little room! So the living room wasn’t
optimally cozy for just -living- in, and the workspace wasn’t as
appealing as it could be for art-making. and as you have probably
noticed, making art is an important endeavor in this household.

This is an eclectic photo-panorama of the original studio setup; clicky for large.
There sure was a lot going on in there.

And this is the original livingroom setup, which was a total waste of space.

So then I hit on a plan: we’ll do the ol’ switcheroo on the two rooms!
Move the workspace into the big beautiful front room, where we’ll have plenty
of space to create, and set up the little room as a quiet, relaxing
lounge area.   Plus it ‘s an excuse to hit up Ikea, and what’s not to love about that?

So I drew up some plans, took a lot of measurements, and planned out what we’d need for new furniture in shelving. I got us a bunch of modular bookcases and a new desk for Matt, and as a treat I also bought the coffee table we wanted for the new loungey room; it has a glass top and compartments underneath for displaying little treasures.

Here’s our cozy room, formerly known as the studio.
Ugmoe the rabbit likes it better this way.

And voila! part of the new studio. Did I mention I have a lot of stuff? because i have a lot of stuff. yep.

Hey, this is where i write my blog! neat.

Matt’s workspace. Hey, look, a godzilla clock!

And in the big bay window, a space for painting. Oh, blank canvas, how you taunt me…….

All in all, it worked out pretty good. I’m pretty proud of my design skills on ths one. I  was able to make do with a lot of things we already had, simply by arranging them more efficiently. I still have a few things to sort out, and details like curtains and shelves and framed art still need to be addressed, but we’re really happy and it’s pretty wonderful so far!

is working on a new invention….. a hand-painted robot clock!

Seriously, I’m not the only creative person in this household. Matt is so awesome, I can’t even begin to explain it to you.

However, I am sometimes cool, too. I finished three little mosaics today, as well as the big “Marmalade” one and the top of a jewelry box. now they just need to get grouted.

There’s all kinds of neat details on this thing. like that little copper box at the bottom? it opens up and there’s a heart inside. I like the owl at the top, too. I feel like the whole thing tells some kind of story.

The photos came out kinda dark, but here’s the small mosaics I made.

cobalt & aquamarine

teal & sea green

plum & rose

I also took some photos of our new studio, where all this hot shit is happenin’, but that will have to wait for tomorrow ; )

As a late Christmas pressie, Moe gave Ugmoe a rainbow-colored pop-up tent. It makes a nice hideout for him in our new studio space, so today while he was skulking around I snapped a quick picture.

Contrary to his expression (get that camera outta my face!), he seems to be enjoying his new rabbit-fort.

Look out, she’s making more stuff.

It’s going to be a large mirror, similar to the ocean themed mosaic I started last week, but this time in orange and fuschia and purple. Tonight is the second to last night of our nifty art class, and next week we’re supposed to finish our projects, so i’m getting a head start. That means time to make more stuff!

Spring hath sprung…. more to come!

Etsy: Your place to buy & sell all things handmade Moontree.etsy.com

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YESSSSS! so. awesome! this was totally me, yesterday:

nataliedee.com

I’ve been attempting to compile images of every piece of artwork i have into my Flickr, and get it all organized. For the first time ever, I have some semblance of a complete online portfolio, and this also means I have loads and loads of creative interestingness for show-and-tell. Here are just a few of my recent faves.

This thing is so cool. It’s actually a gravestone rubbing, and I drew over it with india ink. I want to make more of these.

Neptune’s Daughter has been inhabiting my kitchen window for some time. She’s a sharpie marker drawing done on plexi. Also something I would like to do more of!

A couple of landscape paintings from my “Ghost Trees” series. The first one is pretty big and hangs over the  mantle in my studio. I’m pretty hard on myself about my own art, but I love this painting.

I have this large plastic Buddha statue I bought at the Christmas Tree Shoppe. While i was waiting at the bus station I snapped this photo with my camera phone. I think mister Buddha and i have to do another photoshoot when the weather gets nicer.

I bought this huge roll of kraft paper, and once in a while I take out my painterly wrath on a big sheet of it. Some of this ends up in the beads I make, and some I’ve cut up in smaller pieces to eventually put in collages or sell in scrap packs.

Oh, and not just art, there’s new jewelry too. Here’s some bracelets I made just in time for spring. These are going up on the ol’ Etsy sometime soon….

A nifty hat; it’s not quite spring yet, but this ought to keep one’s ears warm while the seasons are in transition.

I made a bunch of things for my Nine Divas series; after gluing the images to some scrap board and then dipping it in resin, the text and colors from the board seeped through the image. I thought it was kind of cool looking, so i made pendants.

Oh, and owls are just awesome.

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Hey, guess what? Today is my half birthday. Only 1.5 years before I turn 30!

I better get busy.