Painting Out with the ' WILDERNESS PAINTERS'

I have been looking for a group to paint out with whenever possible and this week I found one.  Last Friday my husband found an article in the local paper about the wilderness painters.  A diehard group that paints out "plein air" no matter the weather.  After receiving the link online I decided to jump in and contact the group coordinator and find out the details

   Sunday morning was lovely.  The perfect lighting and temp.  No rain in the forecast.

  I ventured out, grabbed my supplies ( it had been since last October that I had ventured outdoors to set up) 

   Cantigny Park was the destination.  I arrived shortly after 8:30 am.  Met the group.  A wonderful group of folks who are SO talented. ( I can't wait to learn from them all...just by observing).  We all  found our own spot.  Mine was in the middle of the park,  blue spruce,  golden yews... so pretty.  Shortly after setting up... a red tailed hawk set down just about 10 feet in front of me.   You realize just how peaceful it is painting out... it is quiet and it is just you, nature and your palette.

  I finished my painting  and hearing the bells tole, I packed up and headed back to the lot to meet the group.  What wonderful work!

     I had such a nice time..I can't wait until next time.

                 Please see the link for the paintings and more information on the wilderness painters.

              

Fun With a Welding Torch!

I just wanted to share a fun piece I made while with my family to Door County several summers ago.  

We happened upon a wonderful place called Hands on Art Studio.  I LOVE the concept as Door County is known for its art studios scattered about the county.  What a lovely way to create some art of your own after being inspired in the galleries that abound.

My family landed on the site and dispersed around the studio, Aubrey and Hannah worked on mosaics and frames crafted from wood,  Aubrey created a tile for the silo where the money goes to a favorite charity.  Colin and Tony hit the welding studio to put together a wonderful metal sculpture of a "guy"... for our garden.

  

I decided to work on a sculpture.  They have a "metal buffet" for you to choose pieces from.  I chose 3 different pieces for the legs... thought to use a metal bowl piece as a birdbath... and a metal "s" shaped piece to suspend the bird feeder.  I then created a glass piece in their fused glass studio and tacked it to the frame I had welded to make it a more interesting art piece.

  

 I just love the way the light catches it!   

I love the way it looks in my eclectic garden!

  I hope you all have a chance to visit beautiful Door County sometime in your life...and while you are there stop by the "hands on art studio"  it is a treat for artists of all ages!

 

THANK YOU TO ALISON FROM ETSY ADMIN!

ANOTHER THANKS IS IN ORDER...ALISON I LOVE YOU.... I APPRECIATE YOUR FEATURING MY ITEMS IN THE STORQUE ARTICLES.  I HAVE BEEN SO FORTUNATE TO HAVE MY ITEMS CHOSEN  OFTEN!!! A HEARTFELT NOTE OF APPRECIATION TO YOU!

    MARTHA

Thank you for including me in your Treasury

  GO ETSY BLOGGERS!!!

Just a quick note to send a thank you to Mysticwynd for including me in her latest Etsybloggers Team Treasury.   I really appreciate it and Love to meet new bloggers.

         THANKS BUNCHES,

                 MARTHA

     

Old Fashioned fun!

It's time to hit the road and head out to see the Golden Gate Bridge...

My childhood stomping ground. 

 This time around it is with Thelma and Louise 

( aka Leslie, my sister ...and Jinny...you might as well call her my other sister.) 

 For a week of wine country, antiquing, cable car riding, highway 1 driving, 

beach loving, kayaking, sunset watching...wedding going

 ( ok that is the true reason to be heading West)

...but I can't wait to take it all in!

What fun we will have!  maybe the East Coast will be our NEXT big adventure!

      come along for the ride!

So nice to have Friends to show you the way!!!

Thanks to my friends at Vintology for turning me on to a new Etsy tool.

  Love this site  Craftopolis... it will show you if you are featured in any treasury's in the Main and West sites as well as Gift Guides features and... whether you are an alternate.

 It even has a timer that will show you when it is getting close to Treasury creating time!

 how fun is that!

           

What a day!

Today I received a confirmation from the Etsy bloggers street team... that I have been accepted!  I was so excited I thought I would come to my blog and write about it.  Before I did I checked out Etsy and found that I had many folks mark my shop as a favorite today... that can mean only one thing...I have been mentioned in an article or featured on the fP...sure enough  ...

   Todays  Storque article on collections was what did it.  Pez dispensers... who knew!

     

While looking at my blog.  I noticed someone had commented on one of my posts....you can see it below.  The article about the wire chandelier.  It was taken right out of Sue and Ki's book " junk market style" .... Ki found my blog and my etsy shop and left a very nice comment here on my blog.

  I am totally flattered that she stopped by and am floored yet again that Etsy admin has featured another of my items.

      thank you!  I am humbled!

Junking in Style

Today I had the pleasure of attending the wedding of LaVelle Davis to Walter Vallette

     LaVelle , fondly know as elle...met Wally while attending Church in our small midwestern town.  

  She is 75 and he is 80 or so.  Their union makes her officially...

     drum roll please.........   

  LaVelle Vallette....how is that for a name.

anyhow....After the wedding, 

I asked a friend to come " junk" with me in our local town. 

     We hopped in my Bug convertible and off we went.  We had so much fun finding all kinds of things that we can repurpose.

   I found an old 6 panel door.  A tall thin one... I am thinking of using for a thin table.  I have small castoff glass pieces that will fit perfectly into the panels.

We found 2 old metal cage like boxes.  They will be perfect for repurposing into lighting for outdoors.  Several houses down we came upon a wonderful pile of junk...great glass globes that I think I will attach to the wire cage and hang from pully I picked up this weekend.

My friend Val... found 5 little glass globes in a box.  I plan to illuminate them with tea lights in the garden.  I will just dig a tiny bit into the soil so that they are firmly placed and drop a tea light down inside.

        they will match the lights I plan to make that will adorn the trees.

             I found an old wood piece that once served as a foot stool for an adirondack chair.  I will mount that to the wall to make for an interesting shelf....

    What fun I will have.  

    I hope you had as much fun this weekend as I did!

          martha

Small But Affordable Art...A thank you to Paperwhite!

I wanted to thank " paperwhite" for featuring my little ACEO in her blog.  what a pleasant surprise!  soooooo

     THANKS!

http://paperwhitej.blogspot.com/2009/05/small-but-affordable-art.html

Insulator fun continued ...start reading from the bottom for even more fun! or read your computer upside down.

                                                                                  Enjoy!________________________Step 4.  Finished product...this time it has been converted into a pretty vase...you can                   adorn your garden with pretty pops of color where they may not usually grow.

               (root some plants in it while you are at it!)
step 3.  Hang from the cup hook and place a tea light inside...light and enjoy.  Be sure                  you do not light it if it is too close to dry dead wood.  This idea is meant to use                    with tealights only.  I don't recommend anything larger.

   
step 2.  I wired around the bottom with some very heavy but workable wire.

               I made the piece long enough that you could use the" tail" to bend into a loop to                hang on the cup hook that I screwed into the tree.

step 1....last year I placed several larger insulators in my garden...I had just pushed them down partially into the dirt.  They were wonderfully glowing.  This year, I wanted to improve on my insulator idea...and this one is a fresh idea for you to try!

  

                                                                 

fun with vintage finds

This is kind of a " how to" blog entry. 

   I had seen Sue and Ki, from the now defunked Country Home magazine, put together a very cool garden chandelier ... I copied their design.  Using some, fresh from the curbside, vintage garden wire... I bent it into a circle, adjoined the ends (by bending the wire onto itself) then attached vintage telephone insulators to the sides.  Simple process and it only took about 30 minutes.  

  I hung chain from it and in the tall branch of my very old apple tree,  I screwed an eye hook and pully.  I ran the cloths line rope from the chandelier, through the pully and down to a knot on the tree.  An old broken branch know serves as a tie 

off.

  I have knotted several areas so that I can take it down to place tea lights inside and light them for a pretty glow in my outdoor room.

     In the winter i take it down and place a squirrel proof feeder on the rope ( we always leave 1 chain link for ease of switching the items we hang).

     The Birds love it in the winter and we love it Spring, Summer and Fall.

try it... it is such a fun thing to do!

 

I can't Stand it!!!!

This little garden claw it worth it's weight in gold.

     It has made it to the front page yet again this morning!      Yippee!!!

Six treasury's at one time and a storque article...all today!

Another great day at Etsy.

  Today I have been featured in 6, count 'em Six treasury's.  I have also been featured in the Storque article "going Dutch ".

      I hope you will check them out.

          martha

Another Front Page item... I am on a roll!

I am Happy to report , yet another wonderful Etsy front page shout out!  

 I missed it as usual but my retro decanter and shot glass set was featured.  check it out for yourself.

        isn't it cute.

             Thanks to etsy Admin!

Tweet, Tweet...life is all a twitter!

Ok... so I now have an " official " twitter page... as opposed to the " unofficial" one.

     I have finally gotten my act together to link my twitter to my blog to my etsy site... I think I need a full time job doing that.

         I will, when I have time, update as to what is happening in my world.

          thanks for following me to twitter

              martha

dual front page and 3 gift guide listings...etsy life is good!!!

just a quick note.... I think I had the best featured day ever on Etsy.

  Yesterday about 10 am , my fiesta pedestal was featured in a treasury from a gal from Chicago.  What an honor to finally have an item reach the front page.  Today when I awoke I checked etsy and clicked on the Front Page...lo and behold my garden claw tool was on the front page.  2 front page items in less than 24 hours after never having one... tonight I arrived home to find 3 of my items featured in the gift guides section,

  my garden claw was in the home and garden gift guide and my nutmeg chopper was in the slow foods gift guides... I also had another item, the little vintage Camera featured in the mens gift guide... All is good at Etsy.  I am so happy and excited.   

         thanks to Etsy admin staff for recognizing my shop.

              Martha

Take your Child to work day!

It was a fun day today... it was" Take your child to work day".. realizing that I was not " working" at my real job today... I wanted my son to have a workday experience so...I let my 12 year old son stay home with me to work on Etsy ... we had to check etsy in the morning, as soon as we woke up. We had sold several items (15 to be exact) that had to be shipped. Before we could ship we had to make the little goodies I put in the boxes. We found the shipping supplies and packed things, Went to ship at the post office, 6 of the items were going out of the country so we had to write out customs receipts, we tried our hand at the automated machine for the others...Then we headed off to the office supply store to replenish shipping supplies, Tape,pens,envelopes etc...Had to stop at kinkos to check the fedex shipping cost as a special request from one of my customers... came home, tool photos of the next items to list (colin was in complete control of the photos today)...We had to come up with descriptions for the items to list. list them on Etsy... in all this... one of my items was on the front page....I realized it when I arrived home.

what a day.... in the life of an Etsian....I LOVE IT!

I have to work my " real job" tomorrow and attend a wedding and sat is my daughters bday. lots to do , there never seems to be a dull moment around here

I really did appreciate his help...he was a trooper.

martha

International buyers unite!

I have a goal... that is to find a wonderful vintage map of the world and begin to place little markers in the locations I have sold items to.

  They would be in , California, Wyoming, North Dakota, Colorado, South Dakota, Arkansas, Florida, Texas, Arizona, Utah,  Washington State, Oregon, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Virginia,  New york, Maine...Vancouver, British Columbia, Montreal, New Brunswick, United Kingdom, Sweden, Norway, Japan, New Zealand, Australia and many many more.

   I have such fun imagining places I hope to Travel to someday.  

What a wonderful international community we have on Etsy... thru the Arts , handmade and Vintage ... bringing the world together, as one!  Happy Earth Day

      I LOVE it!

Freshening up for SpRinG !!!

This week I am making a change or two to my Etsy Shop...

   I have been taking my photos on a stark white surface for a while.  This week, I will be freshening up my shop a by adding more natural backgrounds and fresh flowers.  I am hoping it will soften up a bit and be pleasing to the eye.

  I have my little pixie mascot who will be ushering in Spring by sharing her spot with a little spring chicken and some fresh daffodils.

     keep your eye open for the new fresh look.

           martha

My Latest Treasury...All A BuzZ . . ..!

    I love this one... the colors are honey , black and White.   The artists are inspiring and I have chosen some of my favorite sellers to feature this time around.  What fun.  I hope you will check it out.