Photography Day

Monday I got to go to a beautiful home and take interior photography for Maple Ridge Cabinetry. I always love to do that! (but the editing part isn't so fun) Here are a few of my favorites from that shoot. In a few days I'll be traveling up north to do more photography, excited about the photos but not about all that driving!

Jewelry Organization

Today I dove into organizing my jewelry.. Now let me just say I am NOT a jewelery girl and the stuff I have is not anything "real"... the only thing I ever remember to wear is earrings. For the past several years my jewelery has sat in an odd 6.5" tall opening cubby on the top of our tall chest of drawers. We designed this opening to hold a reciever and VCR years ago, but once we ditched the TV and service subscription it has become a holder of all my randomly scattered jewelry, pony tail holders, evidently safety pins? and all those dust bunnies. All I had to do was clean this out and I would see I have more than enough.. and now that I am self employed I really will have hardly the occasion to wear it all. Like I said I'm not big into jewelery, diamonds are NOT my best friend, etc, etc...... so all I have is the inexpensive stuff and after a thorough cleaning of some of it I discovered I have too much and have some to give away. I had to figure out what on earth I was going to do with it to keep it organized and within view so I actually knew what I had. My bedroom is small so there is no room for dresser or surface space or even a spare drawer so I went to the wall.
I found a frame I've loved that my hubby made for me several years ago and went digging through nice handmade doilies I've been given over the years that have remained untouched in the drawer. I attached the lace to the back of the frame and hung it on the wall. All of my dangly earrings fit on this! I hope it works out ok. I had a small tin for post style earrings and then I unboxed some unused crystal candle holders (wedding gifts from 10 years ago!) that I put my 2 favorite pair of small post style earrings in. Those are really just for effect.. not super functional but I had a long space to fill - and at least those candle holders are getting used for once.
The next thing I did was went back to the stored away stuff in the kitchen cupboards and got some small cheap vases out, then went looking for some branches which I painted white. This was a challenge since I only had 6.5" vertical inches to make this fit in. On these I hung my bracelets and necklaces. Maybe now that all of this is within sight I will wear it more! and maybe... just maybe.... I can keep this neat.... and the best part is I didn't have to buy anything to make this stuff - I just went "shopping" around the house!

Painting Flower Pots

Yesterday I painted another flower pot. My co-workers gave me a beautiful keepsake azalea as my going away present when I left my job last week. (I resigned to pursue my graphic design/creative direction and fine art business full time - big step, but exciting!) When I read the plant care instructions I saw this was an indoor azalea which I didn't know there was such a thing. So I set out to get a pot yesterday and what I like to do is buy the inexpensive terra cotta pots and paint them. What I like about these is they are #1 THE LEAST EXPENSIVE POTS THEY SELL and #2 THEY ARE MADE IN THE USA! (and anyone who knows me knows how important that is) Then I just decorate them myself. I use acrylic paint and usually use a sponge brush to get the base coat down so you can't see brushstrokes, then depending on what is going on it, a combination of sponges or regular brushes work well for the designs. This is a great way to decorate your flower pots yourself and save a ton of money.

In my opinion, this beats spending 3 times as much on a plastic pot made in China. I've painted several before although this time I didn't really know what I wanted to do so I didn't have a vision when I started out - and you can kinda tell! I probably would have rather left it plain white (there is some silver in there as well) but added the blue and green. It isn't the prettiest thing but it matches my dining room and kitchen which is where it sits.

This brown pot in the second photo is one I did as a gift a few years ago. It's definitely my favorite one.

Kitty Cat Portrait

I just completed this colorful portrait of this cute little cat. I used pastel for this one which I don't get to use that often but I thought it was the perfect medium for the cats fur.... and the messy fingers are always fun too. Now I have black fingernails but - oh well : ) It's a 5 x 7 and I plan on putting it in an 8 x 10 mat and frame. Then I will be packing it up to ship off to the grand ole state of Texas for my grandmother - she doesn't know I've done it yet though so shhhhh!

New Portrait

I just finished this portrait that I've been working on for the past couple of months. I really love doing portrait work despite the fact that it can be stressful. This is the first painting on canvas of three people together that I have done so I enjoyed that challenge. We spent some time taking family photos one chilly fall Saturday morning so I would have plenty to work from. And I only ended up having to blend two photos to use for the painting. I still kept a traditional pose but tried to add a lot of color and texture in the background.

"The Cow"

This is a painting I just finished of a cow. I haven't painted a cow before but I did really enjoy it! It is large - 3' x 4' which I love to paint large but I forgot just how much paint that uses! It took me a while to find just the right cow - driving all over the county trying to find cows within sight of the road... in a county full of pasture land I saw goats, horses, miniature horses, some kind of flock of large birds but the cows were hiding. I found some that posed perfectly but after looking at the shots looked a little too young for this particular painting. Luckily I ended up finding some and had to hop a fence and slowly sneak up on them as that group of cows was pretty skittish. They were in the perfect place and when they saw me they promptly moved back around a barn and out of sight!

Tractor Painting

I saw this tractor at a Christmas tree farm for our family's annual Christmas tree trip... so of course I had to take lots of photos.... and my little niece just had to "drive" it, which was of course adorable. It is a little 8 x 10 painting on stretched canvas. I worked on this painting as warm up and breaks between painting a couple of large commission pieces. It's always good to have something to go to when you just have to put the other paintings aside for a moment.