Life is Good! The Cleveland Museum of Art is reopened!

http://www.clevelandart.org/

I've been back in Cleveland for a year now and finally I can visit my personal sanctuary again!
I'm SO excited to see the revamped digs!!

Snippets of new drawings

Okay these are not the best pictures, normally I would scan them but the husband has the scanner on his computer so I can't. We'll have to get by with these until I'm finished!

Brief Hiatus

Well the baby's first birthday is in a couple weeks so I'm going to take a brief hiatus so I can work on his birthday cake and party plans. I'll continue to be working on my projects so I may post some pictures if they warrant it.
If you're in the USA, have a happy & safe fourth of July. Lovely Canadian neighbors, Have a wondrous Canada Day!! I love your Country and your people, such a fine lot you are!!!

Homemade Play Dough Kits: Space Boy: basic

Basic kit includes five colors:
3.5 oz of mars red, golden sun, plutonium gray, galactic blue and 2 oz stellar white. $10
Available at busylittleelf.etsy.com

New Ribbon Candy Ornaments!!

Bright Version - Fuschia, White and Lime - Listing on bzlittlechristmaself.etsy.com soon!!

Now available - Buddha Baby Half Notes!!!

Set of 5 blank notes now available on etsy!! Price: $7.50 for 5
I can add greetings to the inside if you'd like.

OH YEAH!!!!

My mom came over to visit yesterday and saw my new drawing sitting on the table. She loved it! I can't wait til I can post this series. Here's a hint: lions and tigers and ????

New Drawing!

Well, I've been working on one of my new series of prints. So far I have the drawing for one painting basically completed. I have at least 4 more in this series and then I will post them. I would post them now, but I have a feeling someone is using my prints as "inspiration" for their own site.
That said, and being a reasonable business woman I will unveil my new series when it is ready to be listed! It is very cute! Hopefully, I will be able to report more progress in the next few days!
Maybe I will even allude to the subject matter. I may even post a small section of it to peak your curiosity! I can tell you this, it will coordinate with an already existing series!! and it has something to do with animals, sort of.......NAMASTE!!

Like saying goodbye to a close friend!

Well, I sold one of my hand-stitched baby blankets. I absolutely love making them. I do everything by hand so there are slight imperfections here and there, but isn't that the beauty of handmade?

I appliquéd the little submarine on this while my baby slept on my lap. I guess I stitched most of the blanket edges while he slept on me also. It's hard not to put great love into your work when the love of your life is sleeping like an angel baby in your lap! Anyway, the little submarine is on it's way to the West Coast, I hope it finds a loving home!

My Dad

My dad passed away nearly 12 years ago and I still miss him nearly every day. They say that you marry your father (if you are a girl). I see some of my father in my husband, but I wish I saw more. My dad was funny, he died when I was 28 and even at that age I truly appreciated his company. I loved going out to lunch with him. He was a great conversationalist. I truly believe that my sister and I are able to express our opinions because of his ability to listen to us and allow us to have our own voice (no matter how silly it may have sounded at times to him). He was a gentle man. I don't know how many times he roared about not bringing another pet into the house. Then there he'd be, that same pet he claimed he didn't want anything to do with, sitting in his lap or snuggled up against him. He was glad he had girls because he was worried what kind of a father he'd be if he had boys. His own dad died when he was 4 so he was raised by his polish immigrant mom and a plethora of sisters. We found out that he'd be a great dad to boys when my sister had my first nephew at the age of 19. Justin had his dad in his life but grandpa was his pal. There wasn't a day that went by that those two weren't attached at the hip, Bones and Fatboy. I still have an image of my father driving down the road with Justin next to him, navigating, my dad's health was failing by then but we really didn't know yet, there they were driving 20 mph in a 35mph zone, a long line of traffic trailing behind (I'm sure they were irritated, but had they known the back story....)I wish my little boy could have known my dad, there is a gentle kindness that is missing in the men around us. There is something to be said about boys who have been raised by strong women (not bitchy, crazy women but strong self- sufficient women) I know my sister told my husband that I idolized my dad, that he wasn't as perfect as I said. Well truth be told, my dad was a human being, he was flawed, we all are. We wouldn't be on this planet if we didn't have lessons to learn or later to teach. I loved him because he was my dad and he loved me and did the best job he could. He was a good example of how to treat others and animals, he had a good work ethic and common sense. He made me laugh and he laughed with me. He valued family and good food and unfortunately left us all too soon. So Happy Father's Day Dad, I know as I write this that he is hearing me.

our little squirt!

So the little one turns 1 in a month. He loves Nemo(we think because he loves orange) and has both Nemo and Squirt plush from the Disney Store. Squirt seems to be his buddy, we take him everywhere (I actually panicked once and even called daddy at work because I couldn't find him when we were getting ready to leave one day. After looking everywhere, I found him under the floor of the pack n play!!!) Anyway, this was the invitation I came up with for his party (since they don't seem to make any with Squirt) I'm going to make his cake with a Nemo theme, get balloons in orange and ocean blue and of course get all the cute party supplies with Nemo et al. If the cake comes out nicely I'll post photos of it and instructions, too!

Sleep...I don't don't need no stinkin sleep!

Alrighty, it's 3:45 am and I'm awake. I've had about 5 hours of sleep so I really am not tired now. The baby is asleep, the husband is asleep, the dog is too. Two cats are upstairs and Oscar, the drunken sailor cat is cuddled up between me and the boy. I wish I could be productive but then I'd probably wake the house. I think I'll work on marketing pieces (that I can do on my laptop). It's nice and quiet, maybe I'll just sit here and enjoy the tranquility, I don't have quiet alone time anymore. I haven't had quiet alone time since I moved in with my husband. I miss it. It's meditative, I miss my quiet time. Maybe I should do this more often.....

Big Day

Well, it's a big day for my little boy. He's getting his first haircut :-( I was trying to wait til his first birthday but he never lost his newborn hair and it's been hanging in his eyes for over a month now.
My husband has been complaining about it for a few months and I kept saying 1 year, first cut 1 year. Well, it's 11 months and quite honestly, people keep calling him 'her'. So...my friend Dee is cutting his hair today (Dee is not only my friend but the best hairstylist in the entire world, I should know because she's been cutting my hair for 20 years!!) My big argument with getting his hair cut before one year was why make the boy conform to society at such a young age, he'll be required to look and act a certain way soon enough.... I still feel that way and when he's 16 and wants a purple mohawk, and his father says no, well I'll fight for his right to express himself then.
It's just hair and it'll grow out eventually! I should know(and so does Dee!) I did some wacky things to my head and I look pretty darn normal now...depressingly normal now....I'll have to do something about that!! Hi my name is Kelly and you may not be able to tell by looking at me but I'm a non-conformist and darn proud of it! Have a splendid day!!

Play Dough

Alrighty! Here's the first photo of my play dough kit. This one is "Space Traveler" and includes Mars Red, Galactic Blue, Spaceship Gray, Golden Sun, and Stellar White. The orange was made by combining the yellow and red. I'm sure you could make other shades with other color combos but I haven't tried yet. Need to figure out a price still and finish the packaging (they will be shipped in little recycled plastic Gerber containers so I want to cover their logo with a label that names the colors) Also, I made this batch back at the end of May and it's still good (it's been in the tubs and sitting at room temperature since then) I want to see how it handles if left out. It's made with all food products except for the gray and white which I added a non-toxic color additive to.(safe for kids!! although I wouldn't recommend eating it, YUCK!!! smells better than it tastes!!)

Oh Boy!

Wow, I just read an old post to see what I need to do still and realized that I still need to post a photo of the play dough. I'm going to put aside the kitchen for a day and see if I can tie up this loose end. The bug observatories aren't done yet, still working on the companion booklet, so I won't post this yet. Hopefully, I'll get these listed soon since it is bug catching season! I have sketches for the boy's armor but nothing to show yet and the 3 new series of prints are underway but I only have the research finished, I have to do sketches still and with my other obligations it will be a little while. I'll keep you posted!

Too Many Things!!

Well, I have way too many irons in the fire. I'm still trying to fine tune my studio space while taking photos to document the process, I'm painting the kitchen which has turned into a major project since this old house hasn't been loved on the way it should have been (ok, I'm the daughter of a contractor and my best friend has her own interior painting company, I have to do it right!! Lot's of patching and caulking!), I'm still perfecting the Christmas ornaments, I have started a bunch of papier mâché sculptures, I've started the planning process of 3 new series of prints, I still need to finish the packaging part of my toys for boys, I'm writing the companion booklet to my bug kits, I need to clean out my vegetable garden bed (which is overgrown with ivy and weeds!!DRATS!!), I need to get my vegetables planted and I need to mulch my flower bed. Oh, and then there's mowing the backyard and taking care of baby(which ALWAYS comes first , a good reason why everything else is moving so slowly!!) I've been working on both the studio and kitchen for about 3 weeks now, as soon as those are out of the way much more can be accomplished. It's way too hot here to worry about the garden (thank goodness! but that is changing soon) I'm hoping to get the hubby to mow the backyard but I've been asking him to trim the front hedges for over a week now so we'll see what happens there. All the other things I make a little progress here and a little progress there. I'm feeling frustrated because I have so many great ideas I want to share with everyone and I can't get them finished fast enough!! I love being a mommy but this is probably the hardest part for me because when I was a single woman I was able to spend all my time accomplishing MY goals. Now I spend most of my time making sure everyone's needs are being met. It's a learning curve, I've only been married 3 years and the baby has been here for almost a year so I'm sure I'll get my time management skills refined to suit my new life and my expanded responsibilities! If you don't see a post from me it's only because I'm working on my list!! Namaste!!

Possible Birthday Cupcake!

This is Pink Cupcakes YUMMY looking black forest cupcake. Since I'm turning 40 this year, am the baker in the house and really don't need a full cake to celebrate the day, I think this may be my choice for birthday yumminess! Anyway, check out PinkCupcakes5.etsy.com and pick your poison!!

Ribbon Candy Christmas Ornaments!

OK, as promised here is a photo of one of my Christmas projects.
Handmade polymer clay ribbon candy ornaments. Our tree is in the process of becoming a candy theme and these make me remember my Grandma (she loved ribbon candy and appropriately her birthday was on Christmas day!) These will eventually make their way to the bzlittlechristmaself.etsy.com site as soon as they are perfected and finished.