Happy Birthday Mollie dear!!!!! you are 21 this year? right? right!

take a look at her wish list. . .

this weekend Marshall learned how to clap! i am almost happier about it than when he learned to walk, i’m not sure why, perhaps the sheer joy that appeared on his face the instant he made the discovery. he will be one year old sept. 9, that is not so far away!

I used to have a bulletin board, okay i don’t feel like capitalizing tonight.  anyways, i used to have one. . .i think i posted a photo once of it, then we moved the studio around and there wasn’t really a good place for i. i miss it. the other day i found a file of all my bits and pages waiting to be pinned up. i’m always forgetting my ideas and then getting reminded later by seredipitous images, so i have to constantly remind myself what i want to do by seeing my inspirational  clippings at all times. bless-ed motherhood has made it even worse than before. the forgetfullness that is. . . i really must have a wall bulletin board like the one seen behind Alexander. i think i remember seeing a fabulous picture wall in one of Thomas O’Brien’s apartment. back to A. m Q. we’ll just call him that for now. i have discovered that he is my favorite fashion designer, ‘discovered’ in that i generally clip out idea images paying no attention to who the design is attributed too, only to realize later that it was by this man. i don’t get the goatee though, did i spell that right, it looks funny. as funny as the thing itself on his chin. i would rather a full beard.

a couple of new things in the shop this week!  a wonderful summer garland with girls from the 1950s enjoying summer days gone by and the butterfly quicksilver mobile, one of our most beloved beauties, is now made entirely from vintage french papers and a recycled record jacket.  in addition to the black and white variety, we’ve also added a colorful mobile, so check them out!

coming soon:  more tags!  confetti!  and more wired garlands!

I have known my brother-in-law Cory for. . .nine years now? longer than my husband, only by a few months though. . .we met at art camp in high school, then he met my sister in college and the rest is history.  I have always thought of him as a fabulous artist, but I think this picture book is his crowning glory.  Please stop by the Portland Studios’ store and pick up a copy for yourself and one for everyone in your neighborhood. Also you must, must, must watch his youtube trailer for the book and visit his blog. Yay! more! more! more-more-more! ( a chant for you, Cory)

confession: I feel really crazy right now. Like overwhelmed. So many ideas to do! Art ideas, papery ideas etc. these are all sitting on one side of the see-saw then on the other side are - family, housework, people, sleep. I feel like its all teetering up and down really fast in my brain and everything is almost ready to fall off the ends.

What am I gonna do when I have more children, I don’t want Marsh to be alone. . .

Art makes more money than Royal Buffet, but I really like making papery things-instant gratification. . .

I love to cook, but man, carmelized onions take along time to sizzle and I don’t like TV dinners. . .

I don’t have enough money to pay for a sitter during art time. . .Hurry and move down here MOm!

I need my sleep or I get migraines, its a losing battle.

Ok, I’m done. I don’t feel like this always, just today. . . ” maybe its my hormones. . .” Cate Blanchett - Life Aquatic

Anyways, I’m trying to finish this series of collographs. . .what is a collograph you say? They aren’t as common as other printing methods. . .well, they start out as the gessoed plates above, get inked up, pressed onto paper through an etching press and then end up looking like that wonderfully textured and embossed print you see below! I love them! I love to assemble them and not quite know how its going to look in the end. It very thrilling to peel back the paper after its been rolled and see what you get. Anyways, Chris and I have set up an etsy shop soon to be opened. There are a lot of digital prints  out there for sale-honorabley making great art affordable, we’ll soon join that boat too-but I reallly want to make traditional prints affordable also. . .so I hope to have this series of prints up by the end of summer. . . The theme of the series are symbols set against brooch-like backgrounds, I really love the contrast of the representitive shape against the purely decorative elements. I have four more to assemble before I start printing them. But you know. . . its just part of that long list of things. . .

I love looking at other peoples sketchbooks. . .my favorite section in Book-by-its-cover is the sketchbooks. I’m not sure how I feel about my sketchbook practices, I have two kinds - I always have one for color swatches and themes and then I have a big one for doodles, I don’t really draw much out in detail ahead of time. . . I used too, but then I got short on time and also I like to see how a piece develops on its own as I’ m making it.

as you can see most of my inspiration comes from fashion, my magazines are so holey!

i love this mobile annie made, too, almost as much as i love the cherry mobile that sold last week.  i love the girls, this girl’s curl!, the horses galore, and every black and white delight about it.

in the shop, one of a kind, snatch it up if you can!

That is a weird expression to type out. . .anyways, I honestly never win any kind of drawings or raffles or giveaways or anything like that, but I won Uncle Beefy’s silhouette tray, his very first giveaway! I am so excited to see it in person and hold it in my own two hands! Thank you once again Beefy!

So now I am officially an artist. . .I have a portfolio on an actual website! Courtesy of my hubby, Aaron ( Mollie’s hubby) and Aaron’s website building brother Caleb. My favorite selections are the relief paintings, they are shown unframed , but for shows will be mounted under glass in shadowboxes. I hope to do many more of these, but right now I will be focusing on collagraph prints that I hope to sell in an etsy shop and on mine and Chris’s art shop online. I hope you enjoy every thing! please check back for more updates, eventually I will add a link to the sidebar. . .

My husband has also launched his site also, he is a splendid printmaker, this is one of my favorites.