Happy Belated St. Patrick's Day!

Happy Belated St. Patty's Day!

While you are all creating wonderful cards and scrapbooks, we have been having fun celebrating St. Patrick's Day with green hats, shamrocks and lots of milk - dyed green of course!

I am always in the mood for these three little amigos and the silliness that they bring with them.  They are my own "little leprechauns" - full of mischief, full of giggles and full of movement. 

Someone should have told me that being a "Grandma" was going to be more wonderful, more magical and more work than I ever imagined.  The 3 Amigo's keep me running, smiling, and most of all - YOUNG!

Besides changing diapers, serving up a 24 hour milk bar and chasing after these active little men, I have been working on two art projects.  One for a friend - a tryptic of his granddaughter Irish Dancing, leg kicks high with her bouncing hair and another painting devoted to "Botany" which will appear in a local art studio on April 11th.

The canvases have been primed and the backgrounds painted while I work on the photos to add to them.  Both projects will be a composition of paint, Pan Pastels, and transfer immulsion that will hopefully give my projects a feeling from a past era.  

The Poloraid Transfer Immulsion technique is one that I fell in love with years ago at the Craft and Hobby Association Trade Show.  I taught the class in Cincinnatti, OH a few years back and loved teaching it. 

The Poloraid Transfers come out with a sepia tone in them and leave you feeling like you are looking at a photo taken in the 20's or 30's.  They make wonderful overlays or fabulous backgrounds depending on what medium you use as a base.  Either way, the end results are beautiful no matter what mistakes were made in the initial stages of the creative process.

I am so turned on by these projects that I am burning the midnight oil to get them on canvas and that is no blarney - so stay tuned in to see them within the next week or two.

Wishing you all a little mischief, a little green beer, and alot of fun as we move into spring!

Happy St. Pat's Day,
Laura Anne and Bella Boo, the only Irish Schnauzer on the block



DO IT NOW!

Blue.
Green.
Turquoise.
Cool Ocean Water.
Red..
Orange.
Magenta.
Flaming Hot Sunsets.
Yellow.
Pink.
Lemons.
Lemonade.
Lime.
Olive.
Citrus.
Martinis.


What color do you dream in?  Is your color quiet?  Is your color loud? 
 
Dream. Design. Draw.

DO IT NOW!

Let the artist in you come out and dance on the paper, the canvas, the fabric, the sidewalk, the dance floor, the range top, the table saw.

Today is the day to make the time to create whatever brings a smile to your face.

Be bold. Go for it.  Fail.  Try again. Try again. Succeed. Smile.

Whatever you do, DO IT NOW!

Time is short.  DO IT NOW!

Jump start your day with a smile and a plan to create. Then DO IT NOW!

Enough!  I am heading to my studio.  I am going to create.  I am smiling.....

Hope you are too!

Laura Anne and Bell Boo

2013 has opened it doors with flu, colder weather and lingering thoughts of the holiday season.

With the fiscal cliff threatening our futures, politicians who won't work together, guns, violence, and flu bugs filling up the hospital emergency rooms, I realize that now is the time to hold hands so we can all become "one".

Strong women hold hands, weak women let go...strength is in numbers and not lost in egos; strength is apologizing as well as forgiving; strength is honesty; strength is doing what is right even if it we won't be the winners.  This is the very essence of love and virtue. 

I am currently holding the hands of many, big and small, ill, healthy, young, old and even furry.  I refuse to let go.  They are the fire inside my furnace of creativity. 

I am currently working on sewing a few pair of pants and some t-shirts for "the 3 Amigos" as well as a few small stamping projects for friends.  These cloth and paper projects are keeping my mind off the news and my three week old cough.

I have had these projects laid out in my studio and on my to-do list for months but the inspiration was just not there even though the desire was. Cloth, paper, paint, ink, whatever your medium sometimes creative blocks take hold. 

Creativity can be illusive, cold and dark with no one to turn to, but over the years I have found that listening to my heart and waiting out the dark, my patience will be rewarded.  Creativity will burst forth and the projects in my mind will become more than I could have ever imagined.  The hard part is waiting out the dark, that is when we need to hold hands with one another, share a cup of coffee, tell a story or two until the darkness descends and the light rises to the top.  Believe me when I tell you, it is worth the wait!

So as we find our way through the noise that the media has created, the fiscal mess the banks, wallstreet, and our government have made and refuse to make it right for their customers and constituents, as the colds, flu bugs, runny noses, coughs and winter doldrums send us into that place called "cabin fever", I ask that you hold my hand so that I can hold yours.  We will get through this; we will prevail and before you know it the days will become longer, the shadows shorter and spring will burst forth with new and wonderful ideas so that the dead of winter turns into a distant memory.

There is a creative answer to the place we are all standing in.  Someone will find it; someone will share it; others will spread the word and all we need to do is hold hands, hold tight and listen with an open mind and heart.

Wishing you a day where the sun streams in your window with dust particles dancing about like fairies at a winter wonderland party hosted by Jack Frost!

Laura Anne and Bella Boo

WOW!  Could I use a cup of joe right about now - still a few days left of the holiday party season and my brain is as frozen and ice covered as my driveway!

 

The holidays started off with the "3 Amigos" and a stomach flu, two mommies with really bad flu bugs and colds, two daddies with sore throats and stuffy noses and one grandma and grandpa in the midst of it all.

 

Anyone who has ever had one sick child knows that there is not enough coffee in the world to get you through it - so you can imagine what it was like with three little men who needed hugs, kisses, and diaper changes around the clock. 

 

My holiday gift wish list was diapers, wipes and more diapers as we were going through 20 diapers in less than three hours some afternoons along with healthy babies before Santa made his appearance.

 

The wish list came through, the healthy boys did not.  They were treated to two visits to the doctors offices and another two visits from Santa in 3 days along with lots of gifts from family and friends. 

 

So as the New Year Holiday approaches and the "3 Amigos" are once again on the move, crawling through the house, grabbing Bella's whiskers, shaking their jingle bells to holiday music, this Grandma has a few days to be thankful all is well again and she can pull out her stamps and paints and find a few quiet moments to create artworks that no one really wants but she needs to create!

 

Where will I start?  What will be the inspiration?  How much time do I have before the next round of diapers begins...these are the days that memories are made of, that rekindle the spark of family togetherness and make for humorous stories to pass down to the generations to come.  It is what connects us, what makes us human and gives us the stamina to face whatever comes our way.  It is what I will paint, draw, sew, or sing about as I create a life worth living.

 

While it may not seem like much, it is the ordinary stuff that dreams are made of when we look back at 2012 and look forward to 2013. 

 

May your year be colorful, your coffee cups full, your brain filled with ideas and your heart filled art room never empty or void of unfinished projects.

 

Happy 2013 - I am off to get myself a cup of coffee and three hugs!

 

Laura Anne and Bella Boo

 

 



 



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