wear it on your sleeve (lovebird series #9)

She was accused of being a romantic.....when did romance become a bad thing? Her head was up in the clouds......this only meant she chose to soar. She wore it on her sleeve like a tattoo and decided to never have it removed. When she spread her wings the sky lit up. The X's in the O's.....together like they should be.
"I wear it on my sleeve!" she shouted out into the night. Would she be heard? Would the night sky carry her message? The sky covered and reached everywhere, didn't it?  She believed she would be heard....after-all she was a romantic.

*this painting will be in the shop within the next couple of days

messages in a bottle

The other day I shared that I had an 5:30 in the morning urge to make something new for my shop. I am so excited about these little spice bottles. 

They have been made especially for this upcoming year. I know I have shared before my love for angel cards...but one thing I never like about the angel cards was that you were supposed to only pick one card, your one word for the day(at least this is how I was told they were supposed to be used). 
I have decide to make my own word cards, you get two words.....and you can pick as many out of the bottle as you want .....there are no rules with these little cards:)!!

You could stick one in a book for someone, you could leave one along with a tip for someone. You could keep one in your pocket with you....endless possibilities.....just how I like things:)


There is only going to be seventeen of these in my store this year because that is how many of these little spice bottles that I found at the thrift store are left. 
I love that some of them still have their original spice sticker on the outside, we all should bring a little spice with us into the New Year, right?

Every bottle has 25 matchstick size cards and I put tons of love into each card I think it really shows on the back of each one. I sprinkled some glitter, magic snow, little red hearts into each bottle...wanting to add some love, sparkle and fun to each one these......all good things to also keep with us this upcoming New Year.

*I will start putting these in the shop tomorrow.

Happy Holidays!

This year almost everything (some things were given to us) have been from thrift stores and I must say I love all the Christmas finds that now have a place in our home.

My favorite thrift store X-mas guys.

 1.A nutcracker with a broken nose now lives with us 2. A Russian Santa with his pet ox, 3. A fisherman smoking his pipe and wearing a bit of X-mas.

And all the little ornaments that graced different peoples trees for many years, now you are on ours....how happy you make me!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays Friends!

xo, kt

putting them together

What do these incredibly sweet vintage milk-glass spice bottles 

and this super intense love painting have to do with each other?

Stay tuned..... it is a work in progress.....an idea that came to me at 5:30 in the morning a must drop everything else idea...... and bike around town to find all the special little touches to make it happen idea.....


I am excited about this one......whistling while I work:)

good monday

Good Monday friends! I just wanted to let you know today Karen over at chookooloonks is giving away one of my paintings and music, 4 jazz CDs by the Jason Parker quartet, you have to leave a comment on her blog in order for a chance to win.

This is the painting up for grabs today

sewing and my lastest fashion fun

Working on napkins this weekend. I know, I do tend to go on about how much I love sewing but I do, I do! ......and these reversible napkins make me so proud that they can give you different mood settings.

I have been hitting the thrift stores, it is where I find my plates (props) for my photo shoots...I am smiling big after typing photo shoot because it consisted of me in the dinning room this morning in a pink fluffy robe with a bright green scarf around my waist because the tie is missing. I was dressed for the day, it is just that it was so cold in our house this morning.....I was standing on a chair above the table asking the kids to mind their bowls of cereal...i.e keep them out of the shot.

Anyway, I have been finding the most beautiful pins lately at the thrift stores(when I should be focusing just on my props:) and my new fashion look is using them instead of a top button on my shirts. I am liking this funky look. I wasn't sure where to put my hand when I took this photo....can you tell:)

Do you have any new fashion tips you are liking right now?

snapshots of eugene #10

I am currently reading marry your muse by jan phillips I checked the book out from the library and one thing I like about library books and used books is that someone always underlines something...not that I encourage this, just the opposite really....but what I like about it is that I don't even know this person but this particular sentence stood out to them so much so that they felt the need to underline it and how many people after them, like me, read this book paused at the underlined sentence and maybe even re-read it

the light of the world is the torch in your hand


I was able to wander around yesterday and take some snapshots of Eugene I will not sugarcoat how dreary the weather has been here lately, Eugene can get like this:) but still I found the colors of winter soothing 


1) the millrace which winds through Eugene and winter foliage

2) plenty of vintage stores here and only in Eugene would there be a solar powered hotdog joint

3) loving the small holiday touches going up in my neighborhood

Have a great weekend!

-kt

message to my peeps(lovebird series #8)

Felt the urge to paint a painting for my three peeps today....last night when in bed I wondered after the long day I had had if I had the energy to send out the positive love that I send each night.....it was hard I was not feeling it instead I felt nothing good....so I rolled over on my side instead and gave myself a break. This morning I woke up and thought about love what it means to me...will I end up being the woman who painted until she died only about love...yes I want to be that woman....what message would I give my three peeps....that even when it seems dark, it is there, right in-front of you, treat it with the tenderness it deserves, treat each other with tenderness, each one of you makes the picture complete...my small peeps that are now big and wise you are the not so secret ingredient to what makes me still love....in a such a big way that I want to paint a million paintings.

Under the stars (lovebird series #7)

She remembers two times that he asked her to stop what she was doing and come look at the stars with him. Why did they look like little white flowers to her.....she loved him and he loved her, under the stars they stood together...if you had spotted them standing there you would have seen the light twinkling between them as their love for one another lit up, too bright to go unnoticed against the dark of the night.

Thank you friends for the input on the postcards (thanks Rachel for the brainstorming session:) I am going to follow all the wonderful advice and offer them in limited edition sets, signed by me.
*This painting above will be in the shop by this weekend

just not right

Working on a painting last night and I kept saying "It is just not right" my youngest was at the table with me and kept saying "Why not?" 
If she hadn't been there I probably would have thrown my paintbrushes down, if we didn't have neighbors living below us, I probably would have jumped up and down 3 year old tantrum style, screaming my head off. But instead I just sat there sighing and looking at it, not feeling it....calm and collected adult/parent style.
"What is the story Mom" my daughter asked(she knows that each one of my paintings have a story)
"They are both trying to show off to each other, fluff their feathers, attract each other...but they got so into fluffing their feathers that they forgot about one another...... and really, no one cares about the fluff,  they want to see what is under the fluff.
"Your stories are always funny" she said, which made me smile.
I slowly started liking the painting more, when I looked at these two silly birds I thought they need my help.....I need to remove some of their fluff and let them see each other again.....paintbrushes get ready, we have important work to do.

posing a question and snapshots of eugene #9

I have a shop question and I need some advice from my dear blogger friends. I am just getting ready to print up the first five paintings from my lovebird series into postcards. One of my goals with my shop has been to make special one of a kind items for people. Do you think it would be too weird to sell only a certain amount of sets of these postcards then that is it...discontinued....and as I go on to create more in the series then I sell those postcards, limited sets again...so it is sort-of like you collect them....what do you think too weird? Please let me know what you think....can you tell I am pacing back and forth in front of my computer over here trying to decide what the right thing to do is...well maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration:)


 Karen of Chookooloonks is starting her twelve days of give-a-ways today, an item from my shop will be offered up next week...YAY! (Thanks to Dina, she gave me the heads up on this:) 


Sharing some older sunny snapshots of Eugene...I just have been so crazy busy lately that I haven't had any time to get out there and take photos...ugh!!! and I want to..... it was a beautiful sunny day today, freezing but the sunlight.... my mouth kissing my fingers Italian style, as to say "Supreme! Bella!" yes, it was that pretty today.

shouting from the rooftops and singing from the treetops (lovebird series # 6)

Shouting from the rooftops and singing from the treetops. Listen carefully, can you hear them.....their message is for you.


Have a good weekend

* I am donating this painting to Hult International they contacted me through my etsy shop, they are holding a fundraiser  here in Eugene and are still looking for donations if you are interested.

mates for life (lovebird series #5)

When I was a kid I loved checking out books from the library and my favorite ones were the encyclopedias on animals. I loved reading about them and when I ever I found out they were an animal that mated for life they instantly became one of my new favorites. I am not sure why this fact was the one I would search for when reading about animals but it was.....was I a hopeless romantic starting at age 7? Am I still one at 44?......yes...if you know me I am hopeless........I know when I see my parents, who have both remarried, that they are now with their mates for life......so what does it mean to mate for life and when does it happen? For these two birds below it started when they decided to create a new life together....this new little life that is soon going to be out on the branches with them, well it is simply mating them for life.... even with whatever comes for them, this little one is both of them and then it is also it's own.......mated to life.

Mates for life

*painting needs to dry and get varnished will try to get in the shop by the weekend

let love grow (lovebird series #4)

Does it matter who says it first "I love you" does it matter who says it last. She is confessing, giving her heart, is it her fault for loving this bird with her whole heart and not being able to keep it to herself...no I say love grows on its own you can't stop it, go ahead let it get so big the other bird can't help but feel it....yes let it grow.....let it spread.....wings open wide......ever so wide.

*Trying to get this painting in the shop tomorrow
* Update this painting is in the shop

December's vision board

I had fun with this one. Although I do feel under the crunch to get to work and staying busy this month with all there is too do!!! 
The images that called out to me this month were all simple reminders of what I really value and want to do:).


So I decided to "Get To work!" and stop and smell the roses
Joy is not in things; it is in us
- Richard Wagner

Set aside more time for painting and reading

Enjoy the outdoors..... big on my list this month Oregon is too beautiful to not take advantage of small road trips!

Mix work and play

Lounge and relax even if it is just closing my eyes for ten minutes and imagining myself in these following photos....okay maybe twenty minutes.....30mins....:)

Vision board is up right above my used and much treasured desk 

*funny story about my desk..I was biking across town and saw a three piece dresser set out on someones lawn I stopped my bike and was looking at them when a man came out of the house and said 

"If you want them they are yours" 

I asked "How much do you want for them?"

 He replied "Nothing"

I had just been wishing I had a dresser set to put in my room and on my zero budget it seemed like it was never going to happen.....and here were 3 in a funky matching set in excellent  condition for FREE.... Lucky Days!

So the next day I told my mom(she and my stepfather had hauled the dresser set home for me) all that was missing from my room now was a desk where I could work and that I was going to biked out to a thrift store and look for one.....holy smokes there was my desk an exact match to the dresser set I had taken home the day before...(insert big proud smile here)

and when my moving crew (i.e. mom and stepdad) showed up at the thrift store we could not stop laughing....what are the odds:)

fun news

If you live here in Eugene, Sundance just started carrying my postcards so you can purchase them one at a time if you so desire....grinning so ridiculously big here as I write this...I can't help it! It the first store here to carry something of mine....Yay!
Putting items in my shop like no one's business this week....playing my music loud......the place I work at(day job) has written on their menu "free high fives" at first I was a little weird about this(skeptical and freaked-out:) when a customer asked me for one, but you know what giving out high fives can be pretty contagious, sending one your way today:)

horseshoe messages

I finished my first horseshoe last night. Each one will be different,  bringing their own words to the homes(people) that they go to.  I tried to incorporate things that I have always loved, angel cards are one thing I have always enjoyed and the delicate nature of prayer flags  is another thing that I love.


 I am one of those people who believes that if we put something positive out there for others that it does make a difference.... so I am thinking as I make these this one needs these words.....a little piece of nature sewn on too.....no wait another piece of nature, the money plant which brings fortune, and I am going to tuck a little message inside of it......


This has been fun.....everything is hand-sewn on loosely...why loosely because I think...this is the way life is.....it is most definitely never stagnant, it is always changing.....so if one of these words falls off your horseshoe then maybe it means you don't need it anymore.


I loved using thread it is fragile and strong at the same time.....yes there is a lot in these simple horseshoes and they will slowly go into the shop this week.

grow, grow, grow

She is growing that is a fact. She may look small.....don't let her looks fool her. She may look like she is carry a weight on her head that is too big for her....she is balancing it just fine..... she stitched the words grow, grow, grow on her dress.....flowers are blooming on her, her little bird is nestled right under her neck where it feels safe....grow, grow, grow....I know she will flourish...I know she already is.....doesn't she know that she can pull the stitching out of her dress.....growth is written all over her.

she is going in my shop this weekend

ceramic horseshoes

For protection the horseshoe charm was placed outside buildings with the prongs pointing upward, so that the luck would not "run out," but in many buildings the horseshoe was used indoors with the prongs pointing down, so that good luck would be diffused inside the house.


How would you choose to hang yours?


 I made these last week I am not done with them yet they will have some words loosely hanging from them and maybe bits of nature before they are put into my shop. I like how the lace imprinted itself on them and how rustic their colors are. I am a fan of the horseshoe.