Everything Bird!

A gift box painted to look like birch wood, full of sparkle and scraps 

collected by the "Dinkey Bird"

Christmas in July!  Sorry, this bird-princess is wearing a real mink collar.  But doesn't she look fabulous.

Waiting to hatch.

We're off to the Cabin!

It is what you hear during a Minnesota summer - a three month window where you cram as much outdoor living as you possibly can before another long winter sets in.  We don't have a cabin, but are fortunate to have friends that do.  We've made two trips so far - Bay lake with friends Mike and Liz, their daughter Ainsley and niece Kia, and the Kettle river with Kate, Greg and their nephews Sam, Ryan and Jack.

I can't say enough about how gracious our hosts were.  Liz and Mike treated us to a fantastic dinner and put us up in the sweetest little sleeping cabin equipped with all the necessities including a fireplace.

It was all about "the boys" on our annual trip with Kate and Greg; campfires, fireworks, bb guns, fishing and expeditions up the river to collect prize winning agates.  We got to meet their new puppy, Zigmund Hellmutt (clever - huh?), he is a very handsome black and gray german wire-hair - I think, he was missing most of the time.  "Has anyone seen Ziggy?"

Liz, hard at work in the kitchen.  Why isn't that girl wearing a vintage apron?

How to stay young - make brownies with 5- and 6-year old little girls, lick the batter bowl clean, best done on the floor with a little sand and dog hair.

Nice fashion statement Sam.  Did I mention that this year I shaved his head and carved lines right above his ear on one side of his head?  Wonder how that went over with mom and dad when he got home?  Next year we are all getting tattoos - handmade of course!

Katie communing with nature.  Actually, she is sulking because I beat her butt in another round of phase ten.  Happy to say that this year Sam was the victorious winner in the final cut-throat competition, not too far behind was first time player Ryan who gets the "good-sport" award.

The Artist's Survival Kit

Have you ever had the feeling of walking around with lots of big ideas in your head, but your not really sure how to execute any of them?  You have a fresh stash of vintage ephemera sitting on your desk, taunting you, whispering, "come play with me".  And then...it all comes together. You sit down and spread everything out in front of you and spend two days in a creative frenzy, neglecting all else; children, laundry, dinner, husband.  I love it when this happens.

Let me start at the beginning.  My dear friend Karla was kind enough to gift me with a sack full of paper goods from her mother, Elizabeth. Elizabeth was a school teacher - the bag was full of old Highlights for Children magazines, report cards, little class pictures of unknown children, lessons on animals, volcanos, and constellations - you name it.  I am guessing that all of this was from the late 1950s.  Hence the stash of vintage ephemera that was calling out my name.

Step two.  I had ordered some new books from Amazon.com and just because it looked so interesting, I added Wreck this Journal by Keri Smith to my cart.  I was doing my usual show and tell routine with my friends Marly and Noel, when Noel decided to jump on the computer and google the author.  Keri Smith is an amazing artist.  Her work is whimsical and silly - really fun line drawings combined with collage backgrounds.  She has all these great pdf downloads to play with on her website.  Hence the artist's survival kit.  It is a collection of printable cards that offer hilarious tips, tricks and advice on how to get through those days when you are feeling uninspired, full of self-doubt and wonder if you should have gone to school for accounting rather than try anything artistic.

So it all came together.  The cards became a bound book that I made for my uber talented artist friend, Kelli.  I used all of Elizabeth's goodies to create a collage on the back of each card.  The Highlights magazines were especially good.  There was a column about personal hygiene - how you should be respectful of the children sitting next to you in class by making sure you go to school smelling clean - had to use this one for sure!

Bird reference - hmmm, wonder where that came from?

A New Home for Glitter Goods

I just wanted to let all of my faithful blogger friends (three of you?) know that Glitter Goods will now be an offspring of my new site, Birds and Branches.  I hadn't blogged in months, I had nothing glittery to say.  Glitter Goods was born during the holiday season when I was making vintage inspired Christmas ornaments.  Needless to say my crafty endeavors have lead me down several different paths and (gasp) I hadn't used glitter in any of them.

What is Birds and Branches?  I don't really know.  I am totally enamored with anything bird and anything vintage, as always.  I think it started when I fell in love with some Amy Butler fabric that I found at Crafty Planet.  Just about the time that I started incorporating feathers, nests and eggs into my artwork, a new little tweeter came to make his home in the lilac bushes just along our driveway.  His song was like nothing I had ever heard before - a mixture of notes, highs and lows, sometimes piercing, sometimes quite irritating.  After some research, we found out that it was a cat bird.  A cat bird mimics the sound of other birds.  The other day I heard him copying the sound of our squeaky garage door.

So, my conclusion is...Birds and Branches was meant to be.

I will most likely leave Glitter Goods up for a while.  I can't bring myself to delete it entirely.  And what about those yummy recipes that I never wrote down.