It's All Relative

Everybody has family members that aren't actually related. Am I right?

You know, like uncles and aunts and grandparents and sisters and brothers. You call them that, but they're really just someone that you hang out with a lot and so it feels like family.

Facebook is a prominent example. I personally only have two extra sisters. (yes, I had to go look.) But some people go crazy with it. As in, the "related to" section is longer than their entire history record of status updates. Or something close.

Quick thought: have you ever seen a non-relative claim a "relation" other than sister, brother or spouse on facebook? I myself have never received a relationship request asking me to confirm that I was somebody's grandmother. Neither has anybody asked me to be their "second cousin twice removed". I bring it up because I think it would be hilarious. Let me know if you see anything like that, k?

I digress.

I have an aunt. Not really, of course. She's related, but she's not an aunt. Technically, she's my first cousin once removed... So you see why I call her aunt.

She asked me to do a painting for her daughter (my second cousin, not removed at all) of her special Bible verse, Isaiah 45:2-3. Back in October. *cough* I'm really on top of things. I'm not done yet, but really close.

It's where I got the idea to put a custom listing on my Esty shop.

So here are some pictures! I like taking pictures.

So, yeah. I put you through long, agonizing spiels about calling people things that they're not and modern social media just in order to post some photos of my currant project.

But you read it.

If you object, just add me as your great-great grandfather on facebook. That'll teach me. ;)

Olivia

I like the name Olivia. It's a nice name. I don't know why, it just reminds me of the colors pink and yellow, of kites on a windy hill, or an antique rocking horse. Yes, it's a nice name.

When I think of the name Olivia, one of the first things I think of is a little picture book pig, who in turn reminds me of a few little girls I know.

Partly because these little girls owned the Olivia books, and partly because they acted like Olivia, are why these girls are brought to my mind.

When I was young I was very shy. Painfully shy is a term often used. That was me. (I recently had someone questions me as to the validity of this statement. I suppose because I seemed not-shy. But it's true.) I remember the absolute terror of accidentally grabbing a stranger's hand instead of a parent's. The humiliation of that episode, seemingly slight to everyone else, haunted me for years, probably.

So imagine my horror when I started babysitting girls who were certainly NOT shy. Quite otherwise. Although I hope I have sufficiently gotten over my own shyness, finding audacity in children under eight still shocks me. I really cannot relate to that. I often think it's adorable, but totally beyond my comprehension.

I think of all this when I think of Olivia.

But recently, I've begun to think of something else.

Last summer I went to Desperation with my youth group. That's another story entirely. Just know that it's an awesome youth conference put on by the New Life church youth group. Thousands attend.

In the buzzing foyer, along with lots of merchandise and people, was a booth for Compassion International. If you haven't heard of it... you live under a rock. But that's ok, I've heard the undersides of some rocks are really nice. Anyway, it's a child sponsorship organization. I had been thinking for a long time of being a sponsor, but procrastination is a fickle friend. So instead of putting it off any more, I went to the table, gave them my info, and walked away with an envelope.

Her name is Olivia. She'll be four this month. She lives in Burkina Faso, Africa. According to her letter, she likes to play with bottles and gather wild nuts with her sister. She has a dog named Kare. She drew a motorcycle for me. Maybe she will take art lessons in school.

The picture I have of her makes me happy. She's standing there in a soft white dress, ribbons fluttering around her in the breeze, dark, tidy cornrows, and an unreadable expression in her deep, brown eyes. Wild African desolation in the background makes her look like a little dessert rose.

 

Even more exciting was the first letter I received from her- I could read the original translation; it was in french! Of course, that in itself was translated from her original African language (probably Moore) which isn't written. But she will learn french once she starts attending school! Then she can write me letters herself in french, and I'll write her back in french! *sigh*

Why in the world are you telling me about some girl in Africa, you ask? Well, I have an idea. I just took a very round-a-bout way to get to it.

I think I'd like to offer a custom painting for people of their sponsor child. It would be a more artistic than a picture (let's face it: most pictures of sponsor children aren't as nice as mine.) and then a percentage of the proceeds would go to Compassion International itself. Doesn't that sound like fun?! I think so.

So, be looking for it in my shop in the coming weeks. Or, if you can't wait that long, email me and I can start painting right away! :)


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Rubicon Kind of Excitement

I admit.

I get really excited about little things. A green blade of grass poking through the spring snow. The smell of wet, and the sound of near thunder. The rare occasions when I wake up early. Clever business logos. The color blue. Eggs Benedict. Weekends. Socks. Fruitcake. Sunshine.

Paper.

You're thinking, yeah right. No one gets excited about paper.

You have not met the lady who prints my posters. I can see her now, briskly walking back and forth in the back room, looking for the perfect weight and texture. Her eyes light up when she finds the one. "Look at this one!" she practically bounces, "Isn't that fabulous?! Oh, and I've got this new vellum that you just have to see!" It's so very easy to be happy around happy people.

I may not quite have her enthusiasm for everything printable, but when she showed me her new paper the other day... I fell in love. (no, I am NOT being dramatic.) It's for the Epson printer!!! It's heavy!!! It looks and feels like watercolor paper!!! The texture is amazing!!! It's called Elegance Velvet!!! Be excited!!!

I'd kinda always regretted the fact that my prints are so different from my original paintings. It's almost as if they lost some of their original character and handmade look. They look like the "mass produced" version, as they are. They look shiny and slick. They also have a few glitches, because they were just done on a digital scanner/printer. It's... ooh-kaaayyy.

Then why in the world would I have had them printed that way? What if I did my prints on an Epson printer, amazing quality, with that awesome paper, then what? It would be eight times as expensive, that's why in the world.

But you know what? I'm gonna do it. I'm going to bite the bullet. I'm going to swallow the pill. I'll cross the Rubicon. ... Who am I kidding, this is gonna be WAY BETTER!!!

Oh... wait. What do I do with all that inventory under my bed? All the *really-absolutely-fantastic-but-not-as-fantastic-as-they-could-be* posters, already packaged?

Now, everything in the store is fifty percent off! From today, November 15, through January 15, 2012, get all the prints you've been wanting! Perfect for Christmas gifts! This is exciting!

Whoa. New prints AND a sale? Two exciting things in one blog post? This is crazy. You might feel a little bit dizzy.

Don't worry. This happens a lot with art. The side effects are not permanent.

Usually.

End of an Era

Ah, it's the end. Blue Nutmeg, as we know it, is over. Well, not "kaput" or anything. Oh, no. Of course not! Can you imagine me not painting???!!! Oh, goodness, no. I'm just, say, moving things around.

In January, I had very set ideas as to what I was going to paint. I usually have very set ideas. In January, I had very organized plans about how I was going to paint. I'm usually very organized. In January, I failed to realize that I was being unspontanious and un-artsy. I usually fail to realize my un-artsy-ness. (I'm not sure if that's true, but there was a theme here I couldn't break, so...)
Note: My set ideas, overorganization and un-artsy-ness are not limited to the month of January.

The point being, I decided to make all my paintings the same size. 12"x16". Now, I'm not saying that I did. I tried. The first two I kind of forgot to measure... And the latest one was downsized based on printing paper. Not everything works out, ok?

But partly because that's a lot of paper to paint, and partly because it's a lot of wall space that people may not have, I've decide to downsize to 8"x10". So, as far as marketing and all that goes, I'm "starting a new line". That's code for "I'm doing something different".

For the first one, I used a painting that I had done a year ago and added words!!! *corner cutter* Wait, what? Who said that?

It's actually one of my favorites so far. Be looking for it- I'll put it up on the website soon!

But as far as the bigger ones go, well, it has been a good era. It's been fun, but now we must say goodbye, for the time being at least. Who knows, maybe I'll resurrect it again. Kind of like Lazarus, but not. Yeah, definitly not.

A Find

Last year, on a very nice day in summer, I went garage saling. I do that sometimes. Usually I look around and notice that there aren't very many "good" items, but I continue browsing to be polite. On occasion I find something that has potential to be interesting, if it isn't  too old, or too warn out, or too broken. But it's a very rare to come across "a find."

So, I was garage saling. When we pulled up to the house just on the side of the road I thought it was probably going to be one of those polite browsing sessions. Lots of smiles and pretending-to-be-interested, but really nothing but some flower pots and unheard-of VHS titles.

I was wrong. In a few minutes I spotted "a find." It was next to the house, behind a table, hidden* in the shadows. Sure, it was covered in fake moss and parts were rusty and broken. But that didn't matter to me at all. It was exactly what I had been looking for, even though I hadn't particularly known that three minutes earlier. It doesn't matter whether or not you know what your looking for, as long as you know it when you see it.

And if you're me, the price also plays an important role in the "exactly what I had been looking for" criteria. But you see, it was perfect in every respect, even price. Although I may, or may not, have gotten it for five dollars less than what the lady asked for it because I asked. It's possible.

But of course, I've left you waiting. It was a dress form! Smile.

Of course the immediate problem was to get rid of the moss. My mom had questioned the wisdom of buying it in the first place, on the objection of the moss. To be fair, I have seen green, mossy dress forms which looked very whimsical and woodsy, and a little bit like Grecian statues that have been overgrown with lichen over time. Unfortunately, that's not what this one looked like. It looked a bit more like someone had drizzled hot glue over the whole thing and dumped a large bag-full of peat moss on top of that. And it smelled like dust.

So that very day we put her (the dress form) in the driveway and proceeded to remove the moss. Easy, right? Not right. We found that we had to use a heat gun and chisels. You know, like what you would use to chisel wood? The really sharp carving-type tools? Those.

Step number two: cover the ugly discolored foam with something else. There were lots of options of methods I could have used; paint, paper-mache, fake flowers, glitter... ok, so maybe glitter would have been a bit excessive. My choice was a layer of batting covered with fabric. Just a plain ivory cotton. Sounds simple.

Until you start to think about it.

Sooo... how do you do that? I looked online for dress-form-covering-directions and found some... but not any helpful ones. It was mostly people who said "...and then I covered the dress form in fabric and this is what it looks like!...) Wait... so how did you do that?

After years I've finally come to the conclusion that if at first the internet doesn't help, wing it!So I wung it. ;)

I actually sewed it to fit the form. And made it up as I went along.  And it only took me about a year from start to finish! Super speedy. ;) I also added some antique-looking upholstery tacks, which remind me of miniature railroad spikes.

So here she is. I've named her Cachette (ka-'shet) which means hiding place* in French. (see first asterisk)

She's made my room that much smaller. But that's ok. She's a very good hat-holder.

Back in the Swing

I had a ton of great ideas for this summer. My book list was a least a yard long. (Ok, you got me. I didn't actually write it out. But if I had, I bet it would have been at least a yard long!) I imagined long, lazy days of hiking, camping, and swimming in lakes in the middle of the woods. I had a pretty long project list too. Some sewing, some beading, some knitting, and of course, lots of painting.

I read, I went hiking, camping, and swimming in lakes in the middle of the woods, I did some sewing, some beading and some knitting. (TWO make-up-the-pattern-as-you-go hats, thankyouverymuch!) So, I didn't exactly get to all of my yard-long book list. And there are still some project pieces, waiting to be finished, hanging around my room. I'm never really finished with those sorts of things. :)

So... painting... Yeah. I listed the last poster on June 21st. Since then, well, I haven't done anything.

What happened?

Life.

Which means that I lost motivation. That geeky Star Wars painting I posted about?  I really tried. I pro'lly tried too hard. So, um, that's not gonna happen. As in, there are other paintings I'm supposed to be doing.

I find it ironic. I had all that free time this summer. And now, on the first day of school for me, I'm telling you that I've got the painting bug again.

So stay tuned! 'Cause I'm back in the Swing of things. :)

Galaxy kind of Geeky

Pretty recently, my family went on a vacation to California. Although I could write a lot about CA, I will abstain. Instead, I want to talk about the drive home. Through Utah.

Yes, Utah.

If I didn't know better, I would say there was nothing in Utah. Nothing except rock and an occasional scrub bush. I'll be honest, I slept through a lot of it. I probably missed a lot of action. Maybe there was something amazingly exciting and dangerous. It's possible that I would never encounter something so incredible again. Or maybe not.

No offense to people who live in Utah. It's not that I don't like them. I just don't particularly like Utah.

Ok, so maybe that isn't true. There was one thing in Utah worthy of note that made me laugh really hard. (note: that isn't hard to do, but it felt good after being in the car all morning.) What was it? A sign. An advertisement. Is this normal for me? Yes. And it still cracks me up.

My mom was looking at me and my brothers like we were crazy.

But that's not really important to the story. I just had to put the picture up. 'Cause I like it.

Anyway, somewhere in the Middle of Nowhere, Utah,  my brother wanted to watch a movie with me. We had borrowed some movies for the drive, so we flipped through them to see what our options were. Batman, Evan Almighty, Bolt, Superman Returns, Star Wars.

Now here is the kicker. The big climax... I had never seen Star Wars.

I know, I know, I live under a rock. In fact, if you ever have any doubt as to whether or not I've seen a certain movie, the answer is a 94% chance of "No." and a 93% of "No. I've never heard of it." I'm not kidding. Really.

So anyway, we watched Star Wars. The second episode, but we can overlook the fact that I don't do things in the right order, because at least I watched it. Right? You're probably wondering where in the universe I'm going with this. What does this have to do with anything? Do you have a POINT???!!! Yes, but patience you must have.

I'm doing a geeky poster. Yes. You guessed it. Galaxy kind of geeky. I'm sketching it out now, but it seems like it's taking light years. That's right. Pun intended.

Don't worry, I'm still doing a Bible verse. And I hope that the finished product will be really pretty. But I KNOW that it will be awesomely geeky. For inspiration, I just watched Episode 5. Incidentally, I also watched it while riding in a car. Again, we will overlook the fact that I don't do things in order.

Also, considering the fact that my brother's name is Luke, I may need to take advantage of the "Luke, I am your father!" quote and make something geeky for my dad. *giggle!*