sneak peek

i'm such a dorky proud doggie owner. but ISN'T SHE CUTE??? she's smiling at you.

so here are a few pics of the work i've been doing around the house. this display is far from done, mostly i used screws that were already up and just trying things-- but it's coming together.
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(my little world-- dog, computer, couch, phone, snacks-- what more do you need?)

mums-- must be fall!

AND my mom came over yesterday and helped me finally rearrange the living room, which is the first room you see when you come into the house and has been somewhat neglected for the past, um, forever. But now i'm really happy with it for the first time ever. and someday we'll get rid of that horrid light fixture in the middle of the ceiling, oh, and the hand-me-down furniture... someday. (ooh ooh-- check out the super fancy Turkish Rug made my Mehmet Gurgic with natural dyes--- i'm a lucky girl!)


fabulous wall stickers from Fuchsia Home-- how wonderful! they fabulously match my Tord Boontje lamp-- yay!

one of today's horoscopes, yup.

NumeroScope - Today, September 11, 2007 You are coming into a less active period now. Indeed, you are letting yourself go with the flow and will be starting a new career as a beginner, Laurie. You want the idle life, relaxation, escape and running away from responsibilities! Concretely, you have the impression of having let go of things and this doesn't bother you a bit! But you have a desire for knowledge and an exacerbated curiosity which should allow you to keep your head above water. Your health is good, you eat well and have a balanced diet...

i suppose

i'm good at procrastinating.



i keep having this feeling that i'm forgetting something. i keep having it, like once a week. what am i forgetting? i'm not doing anyting important enough to forget! laundry? dishes? garden? homework? the dog reminds me to walk her, so it's not that. i was going to paint the front door this weekend (red/orange!!) but it's tooo humid to do that. i wanted to cook today. but it's only 5, i will wait a few hours or at least one for that. what is it? was it to tell you you are awesome? maybe. you are. whoever you are. as cupcakeshow says, 'i'm glad you're here, too. i love your shoes!'

hehe.

the tails of summer

HappyDog seems to not want to test the fence, so it should still be working even if it's off--so she can be outside even tho we don't want to since it's hot and rainy and cloudy and muggy! Below are a few more shots from the last few days, when it was hot and summery-- yay september!

Lightning

we came home yesterday to hear some sort of beeping... was it coming from the car? from the house? from a neighbor's? no... from our garage. from our new electric dog fence transmitter. oh bother. it wouldn't stop beeping, so we turned it off. haven't heard back from the installer, but HappyDog (AKA doggie#1) seems to be staying in without it-- she hasn't tested it in days.... so we'll just wait and see. but yes, we think it got hit by lightning. Hubby was here when it happened, said he thought something got hit near our house, and he smelled 'burnt toast' outside, then we discovered this:

DSCF2031.JPG, originally uploaded by Crafty Maven.

a flattened grass, which is usually standing tall, at about 5 feet high at the bottom of our hill. the fence wire runs right behind it, so maybe that was where it hit? so odd tho cuz it's supposed to be lightning protected and def. not the tallest thing in the lot!!!

Happy the happiest Dog

DSCF1989.JPG, originally uploaded by Crafty Maven.

designy

(no, not my design...but oops i don't remember where i found it. cool tho, eh?)

"Graphic design is complex combinations of words and pictures, numbers and charts, photographs and illustrations that, in order to succeed, demands the clear thinking of a particularly thoughtful individual who can orchestrate these elements so they all add up to something distinctive, or useful, or playful, or surprising, or subversive or somehow memorable.

Graphic design is a popular art and a practical art, an applied art and an ancient art. Simply put, it is the art of visualizing ideas."

- Jessica Helfand

started my online classes at the Academy of Art University today. I think it will be fun. and challenging. and boring/crazy. and inspiring. i had to remind myself a few times that it's ok if it's overwhelming, because it's been 4 YEARS since i was really in school. sure i've taken lots of classes from the time i graduated (illustrator, principles of design, watercolor, collage, mixed media, jewelery, basket-making, bookmaking, printmaking (sorta), etc.-- have done a lot of learning, but it hasn't 'mattered' in the way this does. i keep saying i might not pursue the degree itself, but what's the point really if i don't? to learn. so i better actually absorb some of this!! i think i will. the manifestation of this knowledge is in words tho, it's in the images and objects i create... so we'll see how that goes.

TPB - J-ROC Kitty Turntables (Deleted Scene)

i love canada.

"You better watch your sassy craft mouth, missy! "

i want this:
is coveting something but not really being willing to create it myself a bad thing? no i didn't think so either.

went with myHubby to 'the ten' last night. what a crazy movie. fun and crazy. it was my pick, so i had to love it. what i didn't particularly love was the rest of the audience. except one other 20's-ish woman, we were byFAR the youngest people in the audience, by like 40 years. no joke. It was at this little indie/2nd run cinema, which happens to be in our local natural history museum. which is sort of odd, and the members all get into the movies for free or cheap i think, so that's why the audience was full of grandmas. and great-grandmas. what a trip. at first i thought it was really funny, and then it was sort of just embarrassing and painful. like when rob cordry is talking about a**-raping his fellow inmate with a wistful look in his eyes. painful. sorry grandma, i didn't know it was gonna be like this. what were these people thinking?

to make it all even worse, the people behind us kept repeating the lines that were funny, and then saying 'what did he say' in an old-person raspy voice to their companions when they didn't hear it and the companion would repeat 'he said he's the 'vaginaaaa man'' 'oh my!' and that was sort of, well, distracting.

how many letters of complaint will they get? maybe i should write a letter of support. because i am one of those people hiding under a rock who misses movies like this when they're out in regular theatres and find them when the come to the museum theatre. and i like that. tho if grandma hadn't gone we'd have been pretty lonely in that theatre. which maybe wouldn't be a bad thing?

spoke too soon

it's hot. hothothot. what a crazy weather year we're experiencing. not so much fall, as August. we all forgot, as it was like 60 degrees, but now it's 87 and hot. so i'm sitting in the fan's gust and loving it. have a puppy at my feet and a dog across the room and it's so good.

finished the process of finaincial aid and home equity loan today-- what a circus. they really don't make any of it easy. but it's official, i'm 'going back to school'-- only part time to start, but someday maybe i'll be a professional designer of beautiful things, not just an ametueur. yeah.

i made these:so that's fun. Mollie designed them for her wedding, and she and her mom helped me make them-- i think they came out really cute-- they were the centerpieces for her gorgeous wedding in Tyringham. fun fun! My mom designed and arranged these gorgeous accent flowers with her friends:

that's the Tyringham Valley, just over the hill from our house. I suppose we live, therefore, on the other side of that hill-- kinda to the right, though.

what a great place! it was in an old barn with this giant chandelier-- loved it! dinner was under the tent and it was just warm enough to be out there with a sweater.


and then there were the boys. My hubby (left) got into some thumb wrestling with brotherThom... tho i guess i started it with brotherBrian first. then they got into some wrastlin' in the parking lot and later at out house. i know they enjoyed it...but hubby left with a bite mark on his shoulder. eek!

well well

it's almost fall here. everyone agrees that it feels like fall since it's cool and sort of dark, but the trees are still green and the flowers are still bloomin', which is nice. Here are some of mine, from my *new* garden:




also, our house is now green! which is more than exciting. we will be putting our shutters back up and they will be orangey-red and i'm so thrilled! i'm also planning to paint some of the details on the porch the same color, and maybe add another color. just cuz i'm crazee.
in other news, doggie#2 went home, but then had to come back. doggie#2 is not back with us, but back in foster care which is so sad, but i guess she's doing ok. we'll be visiting with her soon, and we'll see how that goes. It's sad to see a doggie who loves her family, but her family is not capable of taking care of her. so sad.

ByeBye Doggie#2

our little foster doggie went home today. sort of bittersweet-- she was a pain in the butt, but could also be super sweet and cute. we spent a busy day yesterday together running and swimming (she's a water dog!) at a nearby farm, and she spent most of the evening sleeping in my lap, which is more than adorable. Got to enjoy most of the afternoon in this amazing pool:

They say 'summer is slipping away' but i'm still enjoying it! Doggie#1 loved chasing the birds and running through the fields, though is terrified of the cows and horses.
Doggie#2? yeah, not so much afraid, more angry. So she decided to infiltrate their paddock and take matters into her own hands. She spent a good half-hour barking at the nice cows who weren't sure what was going on. mostly they just looked at her like she was crazy, and we were a little worried she'd get trampled, but alas she came back unscathed. Maybe she was trying to herd them? hmmm....
so this morning we said goodbye. Doggie#1 is lying by my side and napping. i think she's somewhat relieved (as are we) to see her go, but a little confused and depressed. they did have fun together. we wish her well back with her family, and hopefully we'll have some playdates. maybe we'll just have to find doggie#1 a new friend?? maybe.

plateLove take 2

made it to the Berkshire Crafts Fair this morning and fell in love:

Dish by Kristin Sherlaw. silkscreened slip onto porcelain. I'm told i 'have to use it' but i'm not sure i'll be able to bring my self to. i might just continue to sit here and look at it. because i love it THAT much. first really nice thing for myself that i've really picked out. and it's really nice (was lower price because it has a tiny flaw, but since i couldn't find it till i got it home, that doesn't bother me one bit. not one bit!)

i guess i should admit my dish obsession now and get it over with. who knew?

portfolio-making

I recently (ok, yesterday) had the joy of putting together a new version of my portfolio. I was a little scared and i think that's why i put it off for so long. but it was really fun. and very glorious to show it off. i think that's the scariest part-- what if they don't like it? but it's not a critique, and so what if 'they' hate it. i can't make art for everyone all the time. i hate a lot of the art out there. but it's out there. i've been, finally, slowly putting my work out there, and have received great feedback. so here's some more:
"Allium1"
--the most recent addition to my portfolio. Liquid acrylics and ink with a lazertran photo transfer on watercolor paper. It's in a "private collection" now, but i'm thinking i should get some glicee prints made. not that i know anything about doing that. but people love it. i'm also thinking of making it a series.

OH and I was placed as a winnner in the BBG flower show-- 1st place for the second year, this time with 'painted lady butterfly' -- quite a challenge to create a 'lady's hat' using only plant materials AND keeping with the butterfly theme.
A sample of more portfolio images:
This was for an assignment in my Adobe Illustrator Class-- render a 3D object.


Brag Book- created in 2004 at the Paper Source when I worked there. one of my first 'books' and a favorite project of mine.


Self-Portrait for the Berkshrire Fringe's Annual Gala 2006-- the theme was 'the art of the photobooth.' Sold to benefit the Fringe in their silent auction. booya!


Our wedding invitation 10.7.06. What fun... Did we ever know what joys cardstock and double-sided tape would bring? Oh and rubber stamps, don't forget rubber stamps. Give it up for VersaMark!

Ladies and puppies

ahh summertime...
meet Mickey-- the newest addition to the farm. He'll be a great herding dog when he grows to his full size, about 5 times the size he is now!

hugs and kisses

I got me some plate love. wow. not sure where this will hang in the house, but it will need a place of prominence. i'm so loving delving into the world of 'design'-- reading magazines and blogs and dreaming of going to shows and just loving on art and design and becoming imensly inspired. it's so fun!

i want to design some patterns, and design my own plates, place mats, table linens, pillows, skirts, aprons, notecards, notebooks, invites, t-shirts, bags, wrapping paper. ok, these ARE the things i design. yes i do. need to manufacture.

time is on our side

ok-- here we go. yes i am procrastinating, because that's just my nature. i kill time with magazines and blogs and web surfing and cooking and daydreaming just to avoid completing any simple task that does not have a time limit. and then i get all kinds of frantic when the due date does come. or i just write it on list after list and then eventually decide to forgo said project. but today is different. today i will get something done.

right after i brush my teeth.

Just another lazy summer day

cool but wet. rainy. haven't gone swimming in a while. the dog has calmed down. she has settled in just fine, can't believe she's been with us for 3 months. last week we took in dog#2 as a 'foster dog'-- a friend of a friend needed help, it was sort of an emergency, and now #2 and #1 have a rollicking good time day in and day out. and tire one another out so we don't have to worry about as much chewing and general mayhem caused by doggie#1.

this photo was taken on the second day. she's been here almost a week and they are back in this same position right now. pretty cute. makes up for the terrorizing of the cat and other mayhem caused by the general crazed nature of doggie#2.

trying to make art. the hubby got me to drink coffee this morning and i got hyper and then tired as usually happens. but now i think i'll go back to the projects with a clearer mind. delivered my second actual-framed-piece-of-artwork this past weekend to a 'private collection' in boston. thanks J+v-- when i'm famous you'll get another shoutout!

that's my dawg!


what a week!
last thursday my computer illustration class was cancelled so i decided it was a good day to visit the shelter since they're open late thursday nights and i'd been eyeing this pup for a few weeks now. she ("Happy"-- we're taking suggestions for new names) was still there so i got my boy to come see her after he got home and we fell in love. she's a handfull. well, a few handfulls, really. a little crazed. but we're working on that. all the peeps at the shelter were like 'i don't know... you haven't seen her 'bad side' yet" and we did and she bit us but not hard enough to stop us from taking her home. she also escaped from my leash-holding hand, but they say if you don't chase her she'll just come back, and she did. left her for 5 hours yesterday and all she did was carry the remote around the house, pee on the deck a tiny bit (totally housebroken tho...if i had gotten her in the crate she wouldn't have even bothered) and destroyed her squeeky toy. as was to be expected. so if we can get past the barking/jumping/growling/nipping thing we'll be just fine. she wants to learn, work, is super smart and lovey most of the time... mostly just a teenager. (13 months old)...

yay! (yet, almost too easy!)

Om Shanti Shanti Shanti

"May there be peace in your hearts, peace in your life and peace in this world"

trying to make art.
trying to connect with myself, figure out what i want to do, make, be.
trying to experience life with a little appreciation, living in the moment if i can. i spent a half-hour today holding a sleeping baby and all was right with the world. is it that easy? well... maybe.

the days really fly by. even when i get up early, i can't get nearly as much done as i want, unless maybe i don't talk to anyone or connect with anyone or go outside. but who wants to do that?

i wish...

adopting a dog was easier. boy they make it difficult, and time consuming, and you have to be so patient!

i know they don't want 'just anybody' who just thinks they want a dog to take one home and then send it back the the shelter but we won't do that! can't they see?

I'm now obsessed with Border Collies. not sure if thier 'herding' mentality will work wiht our lifestyle, but they say a mix is a good compromise, usually a little quieter and less frantically active.

here's what i want:

who wouldn't?

But alas...i must be patient. i'm really thinking two would be good, too, as they will keep each other company when we're gone.... which is often. now that i'm not working full time tho, i will be home much more. i start part time work (in theory...not all settled, but probalby will be tomorrow) next week.... i can pretty much set my own schedule, tho....