Saturday, March 30, 2013

Trinkets and Toys


 Yesterday's blog had photos of real Sweets and Treats,
today here are polymer clay versions of these goodies.

 I collected the pieces over a few years, from a variety of artists.
A great place to start is inedible jewelry on etsy.

 Of course I have plenty of doughnuts: filled and frosted.

Bright frosting sprinkled with nonpareils.

Even a dish of stacked doughnuts from the lovely PetitPlat.

Friday, March 29, 2013

Sweets and Treats

Sweets and Treats...

Can anything be more enticing than this?

Chocolate frosting and cream filling, that's the stuff.

Even better, lemon filling!

Pink and red, beautiful here too.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Pink and Red

Pink and red, two perfect colors together,
inside and out.

Splash with warm oranges and yellows...

...and touches of cool blues, purples and greens.

Put the whole fruit salad up against white,
with outlines of black, and Taah-Daaa!

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Sensational Skirts

Vladi is jazzed, his favorite things just arrived in the mail,
skirts from JaneElizabeths.  As soon as I put one on,
V curls up in my lap and falls asleep.

I adore the patterns...

And they launder so well, softer every time like good sheets.
And every skirt is under $20!

 Everyone looks good against these fabrics.

Uh-oh, that's enough focus on skirts for now...

Time to bundle up and take a walk.
There is another pretty skirt photo at the TUV blog.

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Spring Flowers

Flowers are springing up everywhere around us.

From patches of fresh dirt...

...and from under heavy rocks and bricks.

Spring is buoyant, bubbly, beautiful, and all too brief.

Monday, March 25, 2013

Brown and Orange

Even though the browns in my watercolor pallete look like
chocolate candies, I usually shy away from painting browns.

Well, except for our beautiful Bengal cat boys.


Lighten brown up a bit to orange, that's what I'm talking about!

Sunday, March 24, 2013

49 Cent Books

Goodwill in Eugene Oregon has all its books for 49 cents each.
You can basically fill a cart for well less than 50 dollars.

Art, writing, cooking, Christmas, and a huge children's collection.
I haven't filled a cart yet, but I'm working up to it :).

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Picnic Bench

This photo reminds me of the old instant polaroids,
fading quickly and everything a bit askew.

Its our picnic bench, a favorite escape acres away,
no matter how tiring the day, you can always see
big sky, hear the wind in the trees and feel like
you're on vacation.  Its spring break 2013 :).

Friday, March 22, 2013

Holiday Dinner

On special occasions we break out the Quorn vegetarian turkey,
potatoes, gravy, stuffing, corn, sweet potatoes, and cranberry sauce.
 
Its hard to say which part tastes the best, its a sum of the parts.

We celebrate a lot :).

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Brand Logo

Just for fun I've been learning about designing
the Merry Bright brand.

Apparently in my case I'm selling myself, my art and point
of view. Its scary and exciting at the same time. So Step #1
has been defining what my art is (and isn't).

Step #2: Designing a simple logo that captures
the spirit and identity of the brand.  Slight variations
of the logo can represent different ideas or products.
My favorite is Google and their frequent logo changes.

Yogi teas augments their logo with a cup of tea surrounded
by varying herbs.  My logo is a red ripe pear for Merry and a
sparkling white circle for Bright.
Its no coincidence I fell in love with this ring :).

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Cleaning the Roaches

So a recent article on how to boost creativity listed nine steps, including
embracing the surreal.  So here we are, giving Madagascar Hissing
Cockroaches a flour bath to remove parasitic mites.

Cheap paintbrushes are perfect for picking off mites that didn't
get dislodged by the flour.

The roaches don't love this, but they do stay pretty still,
even during the water "shower" that washes off excess flour.

All clean, the mom checks out two of her offspring.

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Coffee Cake

The perfect combination of fruit and cake.

Icing dripping into raspberry pools.

Usually this disappears before I can take any photos.

Just one more shot before...

...it all disappears.

More photos of Tanjiro treating himself at the TUV blog.

Monday, March 18, 2013

Southern Lady

The March/April 2013 issue of Southern Lady is gorgeous.
I don't usually buy magazines right from the newstand,
but I hunted through multiple stores to find this one.

The vibrant colors and patterns against white, wood, and glass
are right up my alley.

An eclectic mix of plates, vases, and linens...

...but all with a strong design hand directing the party.

Can't wait to add these ideas to my world.