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Lolabelle: The Portrait

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Number 68 on my life list: “Get Lola’s portrait painted.” I had a feeling it would be the last straw in my magnificent spiral toward crazy cat lady, but, so be it. I was ready to take the plunge!

Fortunately for me, about a month ago I was in an online conversation with some blogging friends when Amy suggested Colleen might try her hand at pet portraits. Actually Amy told Colleen, “You NEED to sell custom dog portraits.” …and that was that.

Opportunist that I am, I said I didn’t have a dog, but my cat was as worthy of painterly attention, if not more, especially considering her special talent for yodeling, whisker dancing, and drinking from the bathtub (!!!!) Why, can you even imagine a cat more deserving of a portrait than Lola?

That was a rhetorical question.

So I contacted Colleen and said I’d be one of her first customers and sent her 5 or 6 photos. A few days later she showed me a preliminary sketch, which was impressive all by itself (see here process here). A few days after that I saw another one, then a few days after that guess what arrived on my doorstep?


It’s a bit like eating dinner with the Mona Lisa, but less old and with better hair.

I really was not expected to love it so much. My many, many, (many) photos of Lola are wonderful, but there is something so special about a painting made with love. The hand and the care of the artist comes through in the brushwork. When Colleen told me she at one time kept eight cats (EIGHT) I wasn’t surprised — you can see her love of cats in her work.

I wish you guys could see it in person. Pictures of paintings never do the work justice. Y’all have to come over and check it out!


Not surprisingly, in just the last few weeks, the demand for Colleen’s work has already taken off — you can see a gallery of her work right here (this little guy is my favorite).

As she launches into portrait painting empire, and as a favor to me, Colleen is offering a limited number of commission portraits to Aunt Peaches readers at the friends/family discount rate of $99. Her 8×10 pieces usually start at $150 (which is still half of what commission portraits of this quality go for these days) (believe me, I have been looking for some time). Are you interested in a one-of-a-kind work of art portrait of your fur baby?

Thought so.

Go to Colleeen’s Etsy shop. First first ten readers to enter PEACHES1 as a coupon code gets the $150 portrait (8 x 10 on canvas or paper) for $99. 

FYI: Colleens typical turnaround time is 3-4 weeks, but you can also purchase one now as a gift for someone else at a later date. Actually, some friends of mine just got married and one of their gifts was a portrait of their pooch — it wasn’t on their registry, but it’s their favorite gift. Now why didn’t I think to give them that?!


Also FYI, I just want to take a sec to clarify that this is not a sponsored post. Colleen did not ask me to do this. I am her friend, but I am also her customer and her fan. I believe in work and I’m honored to have a piece of her talents on display in my home.  And Lola feels the same…


You can’t tell from the photo, but she just said THANK YOU COLLEEN!

See Colleen’s talent in motion: Blog | Etsy shop | Facebook 

 

Pineapple Pendants

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In my never ending quest to hang random crap on my chandelier, I present my latest adventure: Pineapples.

Don’t ask why. It wasn’t on purpose. I went to the Dollar Tree luau section (yes they have a luau section) hunting for flamingos for cake toppers (which I got) ….but, they had some honeycomb paper pineapples that I could not pass up. I thought, What’s one dollar for a feat of tissue paper engineering?

So I bought six.

No judgements. The Dollar Tree has that effect on me. 

I was thinking they’d make a good garland but as soon as they were home they told me they wanted to hang out with the chandelier, Mrs. Snow. I told them Mrs. Snow was busy displaying disco balls, but they were like, “Hello we are pineapples. Disco balls are like our native habitat.”* and who was I to argue with that?

*Okay, that was a liberal use of quotation marks. You got me.

Well, I like them. They’ll probably come down in a week or two but for now they make me feel like putting on a grass skirt and hula dancing, which, in my book, is an excellnt use of six bucks.

Aloha!

Mrs. Roper’s Revenge

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My 1970’s kick continues. First it was Mrs. Roper’s kaftans, now it’s her decor.

I don’t know about you, but woven wall hangings were all the rage when it was a kid. It was awesome. Somewhere along the line they went out of fashion and up until recently you’d find them dime-a-dozen at thrift stores. Now they are hot again and Mrs. Roper has her revenge!

For those of us who were not smart enough to see this cyclical resurrection coming, we must make our own wall hangings. I’m not exactly a macrame expert, so I rely on white cotton yarn and a whole lot of little jars of dye to generate results.

The bad news is my house is now overflowing with excess bundles of custom dyed yarn. The good news is, for about $10 and precious little effort, you can make your own nifty wall hanging. Catch my tutorial over on Ilovetocreate.com!

Fingerprint Painted Party Bucket

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In the great words of the mustache guy at my local gas station,”A party ain’t no party until someone buys a bag of ice.”

He also likes to tell me about his double adam’s apple and cooking eggs on the engine of his Dodge Durango. But I digress. Mustache guy has a point: there are very few things that create the benchmarks between regular old ‘hanging out’ and full on ‘summer entertaining’ – a cooler full of bagged ice and cold drinks is numero uno.

I mean, it just feels festive. It doesn’t matter if you’re entertaining 100 people, or it’s just you and the cat – if there’s a cooler with drinks, it’s a party. Oh, snap.

This one below feels very summery, but it’s a year rounder. Best part is that it’s easy to make, inexpensive, kid-friendly, and your peeps are going to be so impressed at the results. Zero artistic skills required. If you love color and messy fingers, you are going to love this project!


This is the first of many projects you will be seeing from me where you will find all the materials at your local Michael’s store. I am proud to tell everyone that I recently joined Michael’s craft stores as one of their Makers (woot woot!). This is an exciting opportunity for me and I hope you will join myself and the other Makers in the adventure ahead. I have been shopping at Michael’s craft stores since Jesus wore short pants, so this is like coming home for me. The idea that they want to partner with me because they want to reach out to YOU GUYS makes me smile. Gosh, they have great taste in audience, don’t they?

Okay. Back to the bucket!


This party bucket was inspired by this painted tub, one of the many projects you will fine on Michael’s website. This one uses a different technique for getting the paint to work, but you get the idea. Metal safe paint + sandpaper + bucket = awesome.


Materials

Instructions
1. Prep your aluminum bucket by sanding it thoroughly. The paint will not stick if you don’t rough up the surface properly, so really take a few minutes to rub it thoroughly. Move in circles to leave a sub-texture. Or not. Your call….

Next…

2. After squirting some paint onto a disposable plate, dip one finger in the paint and daub it on the bucket. Daub it. Like a finger print — just one single move then BOOP, it’s there. Go back for more paint and make another boop right next to it. Some will be bigger, some will be smaller. Some will be pointy, some will be curvy. Embrace it!

Tip: Pattern Making
For this project, I worked in clusters of 11 boops at a time. After one cluster went down, I laid down another 11 boops right next to it. And another, and another. Eventually the surface will cover and you’ll have to fill the gaps with more or less than 11 boops, but that’s cool.  Keeping most of the clusters consistent in volume helps create a pattern that will look very purposeful. Even if you are not comfortable with painting or basic principles of composition — it’s going to look great. 

Tip: Dry Thoroughly
Be sure to let your paint cure for 48 hours before you stock it full of ice. If you don’t, the sides of the tub will build up condensation and that could mess with your paint. I experimented with this a bit, so trust me…just give it a good 48 hours and then you’ll be set to party.  

Bonus Craft
When you are done painting your bucket and find extra paint on your palette, don’t throw it away! Use that paint to swipe doodle over a box or blank envelope. Michael’s sells blank white gift bags in quantity –  you could make a whole closet full of these. Collapsible boxes are great because you can hoard them all year and then you’ll be stocked for Christmas. 

Those skinny boxes in the middle are perfect for giving away cookies  – they are actually aluminum foil boxes that I store up under the sink. Do I sound like a hoarder? Yeah. You got me. But I got you come Christmas!

Lord, why are we talking about Christmas when it’s summertime and the gorgeous weather has barely even begun? Let’s go outside…


The party is on. You bring the bean dip, and text me when you are on the way. If I don’t see you there, have a great weekend!

BTW, check out some of the other inspiring projects coming from other Michael’s Makers and their brand new blog, The Glue String. If you decide to pick up some items while you are over there, use the promo code 50MEMORIES for 50% off one regular priced item. Free shipping on orders over $50.

Giftwrap with Pompoms

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For someone who dips into their pompom stash every other day, I really ought to figure out how to spell the name.

Pompom? Pom-poms? Pom Poms?

Last week I got an email from a guy named “Christopher” wanting to buy ad space on my blog for a Chinese company that sells commercial grade pipe parts. “I think it will be a great fit for your audience and will drive many traffics to your site!” then signed it “Kristopher.”

I’m guessing his real name wasn’t Christopher/Kristopher, but he probably did that to convenience me and my lack of Mandarin. Pompoms/Pom-poms/Pom Poms don’t allow me that excuse, so I’m going to need an authority to weigh in on this (anyone know a cheerleader?). Until then, I’m keeping it squat and using one word: pompoms. Lower case? Uppercase? Damn this is hard.

Okay. Anyway. Those fluffy things — they make for good gift wrapping.

Late spring seems to be a popular time for gift giving. I like to dress up the box (especially if I’m feeling unsure about the gift inside). It’s amazing what a plain box and a little hot glue can do.

This little one is my favorite. I made it thinking I’d give it away but now it lives here. It likes me. I pet it and feed it sometimes.


For you! Who knew pompoms and leopard would look so good together?

Oh yeah. Leopard looks good with everything.

Even Christopher/Kristopher knew that.

Happy Weekend

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It’s Memorial Day weekend here in the US, which serves as the unofficial launch of the summer season. The whole dang country will be smelling of barbeque, buttered corn, and freshly washed porch furniture. I myself intend on eating chocolate covered potato chips because 1. They are good, and 2. They are patriotic (because if crispy/salty goodness dipped in chocolaty/creamy goodness isn’t a symbol of the best America has to offer, I don’t know what is).

And there is still time to make your own cocktail wreath. Woot!

     

Two-Tone Clothespins

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Ask me if I’m excited about clothespins. Just ask me. Go ahead. Ask me if I’m …DID SOMEONE SAY CLOTHESPINS?

I don’t know why they get me riled up. Something about being old fashioned, which is totally illogical since,  by the grace of Snuggle The Fabric Softener Bear, I have never had occasion to hang laundry outside. As a concept, clothespins strike me is rather exotic. Conversely, there isn’t a homely basement in America that doesn’t have a few clothespins hanging from a yard of cotton twine on the rafters. They old. They are homey. They are everywhere (especially the dollar store). And now mine are all dolled up and ready to party.

Party on, Wayne.

Party on, Clothespins.

This craft is so easy it might not even count as a craft (see for yourself). You can make hundreds of them very little money and give them away as gifts. Not that anyone has ever listed clothespins as a gift, but whatever, you will want them. Next time someone is over at your house and they see your mail has a hot pink and turquoise clothespin, they’ll be like, “Whoa where’d you buy that gnarly two-tone clothespin?!” and then you will know I am right on this one.

I am so right.


Go on now and check it out!

Rad Grannies: For UK Audience Only

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I’m really angry with Great Britain right now. First they go spell the color gray with an E, forever confusing me and my spell-checker and making me look like a wannbe run-down Princess Margaret. Then they go and bogart Downton Abbey for months at a time, selfishly preventing me from seeing it until they have their way with it. Now they go and hog the documentary I have been waiting, months, MONTHS, to see.

Bastards. 


Advanced Style, one of my favorite blogs, is now a movie. If you have been following this blog for a while you have seen my adoration for some of its stars like Iris, Ilona and Lynn. Now they are all packed into a movie, most of which takes place in New York (Hello, not London), and I can’t see it. Can you believe that? I can’t even pre-order the DVD without a British address. Seriously y’all: Unacceptable.

Welp. In the meantime, I will trust that anyone reading this in the UK right now will take a moment to look up a show time at a local theater (excuse me, theatre) and tell me how awesome it is. Just go on and rub it in. Wait and see if I care. Just you wait and see!*

*I’m lying. I totally care. Someone go and see it and tell me how it is before I bust a capillary. 

Bramble Patch: April 2014

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Dude. How is it May?

No, I’m asking. How?

Okay, so I’m behind. I usually publish Bramble Patch posts the last Friday of the month, and instead I’m posting it the first day of May. So we are just going to pretend it’s last Friday and call it vinatge, K? K!

Here are 18 offbeat holidays you can celebrate in may. Not even hardcore Pinterest holiday boards can catch up to May 22, World Goth Day.  

For anyone who is crazy about pom-poms as I am, here is how you can make a whole batch in no time at all. 

Raincoat from a twister board.

Fingerprint drawings. Cute for kids of all ages.

My quest for new podcasts continues (hint: suggestions always welcome)…I’m currently into The Lively Show‘s interviews with creative women.

Here is a video of retro sex bomb Don Draper, aka John Hamm, making an ass of himself as a dorky 25-year-old on a 90’s dating show. I do not promote this video as a moment to mock this man, but more so as a reminder that we all have the potential for vast, vast improvement.

Dang, these paper poppies are gorgeous.

Cats and the Metalheads who love them.

We started a discussion on Facebook about the color pink (prompted by this article). I predict pink is going to fall out of favor in the next few years, mostly because it is being politicized as a gender label and not just another wonderful color of the rainbow. Interesting. What do you think?

Here are eleven movies that were almost named something else. Can you imagine if Back to the Future had been called Spaceman from Pluto? Ickkkkkk! 

Just in time for Mother’s Day: Golden Girls paint-by-numbers kit.

My New Favorite Resource for Photo Enlargements

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My house is being taken over by random works of art. One by one they come to me on their accord, seeking asylum from the horrors of a world too cruel to appreciate their beauty.  I know some people think that’s crazy, but look, I have to collect something. It’s art or cats. My house will be a refuge for one or the other, and I can’t really afford that much kitty litter, so yeah, art it is. 

And we’re not talking about fancy art anyway. Some are inherited, some are gifts, some are from the thrift store…but, almost none of them are by me (I don’t like looking at my own work after it’s done) however,  occasionally, I like to look at my photographs. Especially if they hold some sort of personal significance. For a while now, I have been wanting to start taking photos of teensy things and blowing them up huge. I mean HUGE. If I could take a photo of an ant and blow it up billboard size and paste it up like wallpaper, I totally would. It would be awesome. And terrifying. But awesome.

In the meantime, I’m working my way up with a poster sized enlargement. Zam!


Now here is a game; Can you tell what is in that photo?


Look Closer.

Closer…



Cake sprinkles. On a napkin. Bet you didn’t see that one coming.

I laid down some serious bokeh in this photo so you can barely make out what it is, even in real life.  It’s actually sorta disorienting to see these teensy rainbow bits blown up so large (which is exactly what I was going for).

If you have never sent out for a photo enlargement, let me tell you, it’s super easy. You just upload the image to their site. Pretty much the same way you upload an attachment to an email. They handle the cropping and resizing. The key is to start with a LARGE image in the first place. Phone pics are fine so long as you have your resolution cranked up.

I know lots of people get their wedding pictures and family portraits blown up, and that’s cool, but I like it when folks think outside the box. Here is a list of random things that would look super cool and arty without requiring special photography skills (read: I might be doing these one day but you feel free to beat me to the punch).

A leaf from the tree that grows outside your parent’s home.
Your shoes planted in the very spot where you met your significant other.
The sand on the beach from your favorite vacation spot (not the beach, just the sand).
The pattern of a shirt worn by someone who has passed away.
A close-up portrait of a favorite childhood stuffed animal or action figure.
Dirty paw-prints on the kitchen floor.
A matchbook from the restaurant where you got engaged. 

….You know, things that mean something to you but nobody else would know without explanation. That’s what makes it personal. That’s what makes the image so special and artsy.

…Or, you could just do a big portrait of your cat. Because let’s be honest, you can’t beat giant cat photos now can you?

I’m so pleased with this piece. The enlargement came out great and they mounted it on black foam core with a hanger in the back. No framing required. Great price too. I have used other places for photo enlargements but nobody has ever mounted them like this. I’ll be coming back!

AND, because they are so cool, Imprints is offering a 25% discount to Aunt Peaches readers through June 17th. Just type the code “peaches” at checkout.

AND, because they are being double cool, they are offering to giveaway* a free 15×18” or 14×14” mounted image of your choice. You can choose anything you like. Just leave a comment below. “I’m in!” or “I want one” will do just fine. No other participation is required, but I encourage you to like them on Facebook. Just because they are neat like that 🙂 Giveaway now closed. Thank you for participating!

*Giveaway closes 5pm CST, Friday, May 9, 2014. One entry per participant. If your email is not accessible in your profile, please list it in your comment.

Special shout out to Jennifer, an AP reader who told me about Imprints in the first place (it’s her parent’s business – way to be a helpful a daughter, Jennifer!). I’m glad she put us in touch because I’m delighted with my new artwork. It’ll be here for years to come. Thank you Imprints!