Thursday, December 3, 2009

The Bigger Picture of What Lies Ahead

So.... [barstool screeching on the wooden floor as I pull it up] do you blog? Do I blog? Do I read anyone's blog?

I say to myself, "I don't know. I've been really out of touch this month. I used to have so many blog friends all over the country and then, well, I just sort of, I don't know, lost touch."

Glass lands on the bar. And I realize then that because I've been so distracted by so many things that I'm neglecting certain things. Like this.

When I first started blogging at my old blog it was for a bunch of different reasons. For this one, I've always wanted to just share my thoughts on the biz, art, friends and local scene. But the old blog was something completely different. It was like this online diary -- a type of diary that you kept under your bed when you were thirteen with a lock and key, except of course this blog was on the internet for everyone to see. But for some reason that didn't matter. In fact it was therapeutic and cathartic to write. I "met" some really great people through blogging. I was unveiling a lot. That blog lived through its purpose and I no longer need it, though. I regret some things, but really, it's who I am, so take me for who I am, or leave me.

So blogging has always been this kind of respite for me. I've always wanted to be a better writer, but realize I'm more of a visual person. Hence, the daily photos on this blog. And alas, I really wanted this blog to be more visual and artistic than the last.

But here I am. It's late at night. I need to go to bed. I'm Facebooking too much these days since it's such an easier form of social networking, I have no idea who is even in my feed reader anymore and rarely read them. When blogging becomes a job, it's no longer interesting right?

Well, sort of. I still really like to write. And I still really like to talk about all the things I wanted to start this blog for... the business, my life, a little about the kids, and a daily photo. I've had some wonderful things happen to me this month and have wanted to write, but some of the words aren't appropriate here and others I just facebooked enough about it seemed pointless. Those that know me know the experiences I have had, and that is all that matters. But on the subject of blogging, no matter how many lapses I have with blogging, it still comes back. It's still here eating at me. Needing to write. Needing to express. Needing to share. And needing to share what I create. Sometimes we get caught up in life and that's OK, we should be living anyway.

And during all this rush, all this newfound happiness, along with complexity and uncertainty, there was one thing certain yesterday when I found myself captivated by 18 3 year olds in preschool as a visiting "chef" as we made "Christmas Cake". (For those that know me, you'll know calling me "chef" of anything is quite a joke). I was certain I was in the right place at that moment while I thanked myself that I took the time out of my busy day to enjoy the moment, forget about work and all my existing troubles and be part of something that is really important. And here's the photo of the class to prove it.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving!



View from the ground of Cat in the Hat in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, 1996.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Wednesday's Photo

My awesome find in the Wexner gift shop today! Yay Mark Ryden!

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Tuesday's Photo: The Pilgrim


My favorite pilgrim home from school!

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Today's Photo: The Cooper Matriarch

On this day, in 2002, my Grandmother, Rose Cooper died. I wanted to take a second to remember her today, because she was a great lady. And I miss her very much. And I have nothing but good memories of her.

Ever since, family gatherings have never quite been the same to me, although we are all still pretty close. To me, it was the day the matriarch died, though, and the torch was passed to the next generation, which of course makes us all a little closer to the grave ourselves. But simply, if there was ever a person in my life with whom my relationship was never complicated, never strained, never second-guessed, never judged or never treated without anything but respect, it was my relationship with her.





Saturday, November 7, 2009

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Tuesday's Photo

A replenishment of inventory.

Monday, November 2, 2009

A Little Analytics Fun

Happy Monday everyone! The most favorite thing for me to do in the morning while eating my bagel and drinking my sweet nectar of Arizona iced tea, is to check my stats with Google analytics. Yesterday was a good day for the shop, and it never ceases to entertain me with the "keywords" that get people to my site. Such as:

hello betty maple syrup orange
Somewhere out there some chick named Betty is making orange-flavored maple syrup I suppose? Not sure, I but don't sell food.

fancy lady housewares
For the fanciest of ladies, yes, please shop at Revelry Press. And bring your husband's wallet.

halloween survival kit
Box wine, a xanax, and a mask (for the morning after).

half marathon necklace
hmmm, a necklace you receive for going 13 miles?

wheel thrown in the "wonky" style
The way Willy Wonka throws wheels?

Anyway, here's your photo for today. I'm cheating this a bit since it wasn't exactly taken today, but I'm adding it to my online photo gallery today.

Friday, October 30, 2009

Friday's Photo

We had a nice indian summer here in central Ohio today, and I took full advantage of it tonight as I enjoyed the comfort of my deck, sipping a well-deserved glass of wine. Oh how I wish it would last.

Here's the view from below.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Wednesday's Photo

For my friends who follow me on facebook, you'll know I posted the other day that I'm allergic to my house. Well, it seemed to be really concentrated in my studio/home office where I spend many hours a day. It got to be really obvious when I would only have sneezing fits in that room and no other room in the house. So with the windows slightly open and some good music on, 3 bags of garbage and 4 hours later I had a clean room. I know it doesn't look very organized, but trust me, this is about as organized as it gets in my world. I'm so happy! Too bad it takes so much time just to get organized so I can work. Because here it is the middle of the afternoon and I'm just starting actual work.

The official drawbacks of working for yourself: there is no cleaning staff or accounting department.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Tuesday's Photo and thoughts of NJ

When I was growing up this was something I thought was really cool:



To confirm, I still do, but since I moved to Columbus Ohio, I'm trying very hard to embrace my hometown. I grew up on the Jersey Shore and lived in either NJ or NYC for about 33 years of my life. We've been here 6 years and yet it still is hard to call it "home". NJ is really "home" for arguments sake, Columbus is a place where I moved to and settled. At least that's how I feel. Not for lack of the great friends I've made and the wonderful arts and crafts community I've found, but because there just isn't anything quite as familiar as the streets you walked when you were a kid. And I still get the warm fuzzies when I go back.

In the spirit of embracing that hometown pride, I created something brand new the other day and showed it at my recent craft show. Using that old nostalgic postcard design, I've made a new chalkboard. Not a mini, but something larger that can function as either art or something to write on. Whatever you prefer. And I'm working on getting other states and cities because I know everyone has a "home" they left a long time ago and maybe needs a little reminder of familiarity to have in their new digs.



Things that remind me of home:
warm bagels
salt water taffy
the smell of the beach
the pounding of waves
the honking of a taxi
the sunrise
a brick driveway
traffic
pushy people
that distinct east coast accent
the giants
the mets

What reminds you of home?

Monday, October 26, 2009

Monday's Photo



A minute ago he killed a mouse. Now he's looking for more.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Wednesday's Photo

Sneak peek: new art being introduced using this vintage Columbus, Ohio postcard at the Powell Gift Bazaar this Sunday, 11-4. See you there!

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Tuesday's Photo

The rocket chalkboard: so much better than a Zhu Zhu.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Monday's Photo



{click to enlarge}

Friday, October 16, 2009

Friday's Photo

Another remnant of summer lasting through the fall.



Wish me luck at Craftin' Outlaws tomorrow!

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Thursday's Photo

I've always wanted to post a daily photo on this blog, whether there was writing or not accompanied with it, but of course it just became one of those things that became overwhelming and I didn't follow through.

Well I really would like to start that up again and stick with it. I can't promise that they will all be good, or exciting, or museum-worthy or even self-promoting. I just want it to be like a photo essay of daily life and what surrounds me.

So first up: one of the last few blooms on my hydrangea plant. I see it everyday, and I wanted to remember what it looked like when I'm dreaming about spring in January.



{click to enlarge}

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Pure Revelry

Lots of happenings around "the house" these past few days. Grandma Revelry was in town for CJ's 8th birthday celebration, which seemed to go on the whole weekend between a dinner at Buca di Beppo's, a movie outing, playing with friends, cake, and lots of great gifts spread over both days. Time for the business kind of stopped over the weekend, and now today is full of catching up on things I missed.

So for business news, I'm currently running a marathon. Lots of craft shows coming up means lots of inventory to prepare, internet orders are steady, and two business client orders make up a variety of work. I'm really excited for this holiday season coming up. A bit anxious about needing to be prepared enough with plenty of inventory, because I want to really make the most of the opportunity. Back several years ago, when my business was mainly focused on invitations, my busy time was "wedding season"... which meant late winter/early spring for summer weddings, and mid summer for fall weddings. I was formerly pretty slow around the holidays. But this year is much different, and so the pace is something I need to embrace.

So, I'm going broke trying out 4 craft shows from October through December, and I'm kicking off the craft show holiday season with Craftin' Outlaws on October 17th. I'm so excited to be a part of this fabulous show. This is definitely not a typical craft show, and I'll have to refrain myself from not spending any profits I hope to make that day as a vendor!

Make sure to come see me there, because everyone who does, gets a free one of these!



Here's to profits this holiday season! (crossing fingers and toes)

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Front page news

I got a great email this morning from a fellow Etsian who let me know that we made it to the front page this morning! My second time to be featured, so I'm very lucky. There are so many great things in this list I can't decide which is the best (next to my own, of course :))!

Sunday, September 27, 2009

I made a Treasury List!

For any of my readers who know about Etsy or have shops on Etsy, you know a bit about how tricky it can be to get a Treasury list published. Well, tonight I was able to do it! I was very excited! My list is titled, "Mad about the vintage." And you can see it here. It celebrates my love for everything vintage or vintage-inspired.

It felt good to be able to make one since I have been on other people's treasury lists and haven't been able to do any payback yet. So here is my payback to the world for this week. A nice way to start it off.

Treasury list does not expire until Tuesday night at 11pm. So there's plenty of time to shop. Just sayin'. Here's one item from the list to whet your appetite.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Photo Shoot: 9/25/09

Today was the day I needed a break. I needed to get some mojo back; work on new ideas and get some new work going. Even though I have production work to do, I needed to stop thinking about that today and release a little tension by doing something creative. I have been cranking out the same things for the past couple months now, recycling old photos, old patterns, and it is getting really old to me. I feel like my products are getting stale. My kids were both off of school today, so I asked my older son who loves photography, if he wanted to come with me on a little adventure to look for something to take a picture of. And we found plenty.

We live in Northern Franklin county, pretty close to the beginning of Delaware County which is much more rural than our neighborhood. We pretty much live in suburbia thanks to good schools, safe streets and affordable homes, so it's fun to venture outside of it whenever I can because frankly, if I didn't have kids, I just wouldn't be living here.

So when we reached Delaware County, we pulled off the busy highway of Route 23 and got some great shots of the old Circle L Motel. And then a little ways down the road we pulled off onto what may have been private property due to what the sign read:


Warning: Crooks and thieves will be shot on the spot. Alarm will sound

It was starting to freak my son out a bit, but I just said, "Hey that's what an adventure is!"

After the barn and the motel, we headed back to an old cemetery that we've both been wanting to see, and got a little sad over the amount of small children buried there from the 1800s. CJ shot a video of that. He wanted to take all of his still pictures today with our old Pentax analog. I remind him constantly how to use it, and he's getting better with focusing, but the concept of adjusting the aperture and the shutter speeds seems to trip him up, so I have no idea until we get the film back how well his shots will be. He prefers film over digital. Can you imagine... an 8 year old preferring film over digital?

Anyway, it felt good to get out and get the shutter going. Here's a couple of my faves from today's photo shoot:



Wednesday, September 23, 2009

VendArt

My submission for VendArt at Wild Goose Creative!



Wild Goose bought this vintage cigarette machine that is now dispensing art! My little boxes contain a "photo puzzle." Six little cards have a small photograph and its description on one side, and the other is a puzzle piece to a large photograph. When all six cards are flipped over in the right order, you have yourself a 6x6 print that you can glue together and frame! The prints contain selected images from my website here. Because of my love of packaging I had so much fun doing these.

The studio has a big event coming up this weekend, so if you're there, get yourself a lil box o' art. It only costs $3.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Only Kids May Enter Here

One of the things I've enjoyed most about working from home since the spring is the flexibility. I really love being able to get in my car and go when I need to, or just stop and take a break to be with the kids if I feel like it. While that means longer work hours into the evening when they are asleep, it affords me the luxury that I didn't have before when I was cooped up in an office: face time.

So one of the luxuries I had missed out on in the past, is experiencing the joys of the first day of school. And I mean the very first day of preschool. Today Andrew started his first day of preschool, and I was so glad to have been there to experience it with him.

Here's the photo shoot:









Decked out in his "aloha" shirt, he confidently walked through the curtains and into his first day of preschool without trepidation.

Another milestone accomplished.

Monday, September 14, 2009

TTV

As someone who loves photography , both old and new, I've always been fascinated with the effect given to some of the more recent prints people are selling that has that vintage, ethereal look to them. At first, I assumed it was a photoshop technique. Which is something that can be done. But then recently what I learned, is that these photographs are all part of a whole movement that employs a technique called "through the viewfinder" or TTV. The process is taking a photograph of something with your digital camera through the viewfinder of another old camera. No photoshopping necesary because you get that instant vintage look: scratches, blurs and all. Colorizing the photograph can take it one step further, or whatever else you want to do with it in photoshop.

But here's my first attempt. Apparently you are supposed to use a Duaflex camera, and I only have a Graflex, a polaroid and old 35mm Bolsey. The Graflex has a circular lens so I wasn't sure about using that one. The Bolsey is a twin lens reflex, so I took the shot through the viewfinder of that and here was the result:



A little unremarkable, but I think with some practice, a better subject and maybe getting my hands on a Duaflex may bring it all together. I ran across the technique while browsing for something else while eating my lunch and I just had to do it. I have no time for this since my workload is huge, but I couldn't resist running out to my front porch and doing it right away. If you have any old cameras lying around, you should give it a try! Very fun to see the results.

Monday, September 7, 2009

Bring along a CNote

When I wrote about the Yummy! Art show that I participated in a few weeks back, I mentioned that it was my first art show. Well, that’s not entirely true. Maybe it’s like my first adult art show, you could say.

My first actual art show was on Broad Street in Red Bank, NJ in 1982:

(And how about that preppy look, huh? Was I on the cutting edge of fashion or what?)

It was all about furry animals and sea creatures, and a couple of hamsters playing “stick-up” with Davey Crockett hats. All the pictures were drawn with either watercolor or pastel. And I won an honorable mention. My short life as an artist faded away a few years after that when I became more interested in teenage stuff.

My art has always come and gone throughout my life. I attribute my early artistic endeavors to my encouraging parents who paid for art lessons with a private teacher in her home. Her name was Evelyn Leavens. She’s still a professional artist in Red Bank. You can see her work here. She’s really amazing. She was a single woman who lived in an old tudor style home not far from ours, and she painted on extremely large canvases. Like I remember a few in her dining room that was not used as a dining room. While it had a nice table and chairs in the middle, it mostly housed some of her enormous paintings. As then she had her studio upstairs, that I only saw once because she was pretty apprehensive about letting us kids see her studio. Something else I remember vividly about her is that she loved to feed the squirrels who would come up to her sunroom, where she instructed us. She even had names for the squirrels. A quirky lady. But a great inspiration.

Anyway, I probably didn’t appreciate the exposure to someone like her like I should have. And like I said, art definitely fell by the wayside through high school, emerged again in college and then took another back seat while I pursued my career in New York. Then came marriage, then came the suburbs, then came kids. And mothers out there know the rest of that story.

So after a long journey, I am doing art shows again. No more watercolors and pastels, but with my photography and other mixed media. Fresh off the last art show written about here, I’m doing another one! I’m participating in the CNote Art Show at Junctionview Studios. My piece even made it on the flyer! I circled it…



So this is not like a gallery opening or anything, and I won’t be getting an honorable mention or definitely not a blue ribbon. I’m hoping to make somewhere around a CNote! Because everything at this art show is for sale and is $100. Easy to remember, right? Just bring a cool CNote or two with you to the show and you’ll make all of us artists very happy. It happens the weekend of Sept 25th - 27th. Hey, Christmas is right around the corner, right?

Saturday, September 5, 2009

The art show reception



Ruminating.

I think this may have been the first art show that CJ was genuinely pleased with his participation. He really enjoyed Kidz Artz, but there seemed to be something about the process of working on this piece and how difficult it was to muster up the idea and then how to carry out the execution and all the procrastinating, and all the self-doubt and all the... well you know what I mean. I think he began to appreciate the process of making something. Or maybe not. It's hard to tell. He's not quite 8 years old.

All I know is that once he decided what he was going to do his focus was stellar. It was all the warming up that seemed the most difficult. It didn't take much cajoling, cheering, or mothering to get him to work on his piece, and in the end I think he was pleased with the end result. And then came the questions. And the introspection. And a little self-admiration with what he had accomplished.

"People are asking me about my artwork!" he says.

"Well what did they ask?" I say.

"Oh I don't know," he shrugs. "Just like, what does the story mean and things like that."

"And what did you say?"

"I don't know. I didn't know what to say. I just walked away."

What can we all say about our own art anyway. We just do it.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Mark your calendars: "One Roof"

Mark your calendars for another art show! This time the lovely folks from Wild Goose Creative are hosting us MAW ladies for a wonderfully collaborative art show. We will be exhibiting our work as well as work from our kids! My son and I have been scheming and talking about our art pieces all week with the hopes that execution will be in the next few days, considering drop off is Monday! (Yikes!) He is truly an apple that does not fall far from the tree, as we both are guilty of over-thinking our pieces.

But we have finally narrowed it down.

For a sneak peek, our art will have something to do with this creature:

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Suddenly last summer

So today is the last full day of summer vacation for my oldest son. And technically for my youngest son, too, even though he doesn’t start preschool until September. But his daily buddy will be gone for the weekdays after today, and so the house will return to some sort of rhythm again; a rhythm of early bedtimes and early mornings, packed lunches and homework sheets.

They are good brothers to one another considering their age difference. My youngest son does everything my oldest son does, and luckily he has been a good role model. Summer has been fun with them this year. Reflecting back, I've never been able to spend this much time with them during a summer vacation before. And so I think in the future I will look back on this as a good time, even though there had been a lot of upheaval.

So while it’s a bit bittersweet that they will now both be in school soon, I welcome the change. I welcome it because I think my youngest is very ready for school. Time for him now to understand, too what this time of year means as well. Change is in the air.






Sunday, August 23, 2009

And the Winner Is....

I would just like to thank the players of our regular contest, "Caption This!" It's always hard to decide, but after some valiant efforts it was really hard to top the first entry.

Introducing the next winner of the "Caption This!" card line from Revelry Press:



Caption written by the funny and talented, Barb Friedman.

Thanks for playing everyone! Next "Caption This" coming up on September 18th.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Caption This!

For those that don't know how to play, click here.

For those that do, have fun! Let the one-liners begin.



Click on the image to enlarge. Leave the captions in the comments.
Good luck!

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Giving back to the universe

This past week has opened me to a whole new prospective on the site I use to sells my wares. As you know I have a shop on Etsy, which is kind of like eBay for the handmade marketplace. What I hadn't learned until just recently is that there are golden nuggets of opportunity to get your shop noticed and hob knob with all sorts of talented Etsy artisans.

I posted about Etsy not long before, when I mentioned the great advice I got from a local seller. That advice is still true. What also is true with Etsy, is that it seems like if you give to the universe, it gives back. Over the last couple of weeks I had been featured on a couple things and it's been so delightful to see the response. I'm getting excited over shop "hearts" know like I used to get excited over blog comments. (They like me! They really like me!)

So anyway, back to the adage of what comes around goes around, I wanted to start featuring my favorite finds from Etsy every week. Just to give back. And show a little love. There's a few blogs out there that do the same, so I wanted to jump on the bandwagon.

My newest favorite shop is from digital artist, John W. Golden. I love his artistic style, and while it was difficult to decide what to get from his shop because he had a lot of camera themed art (and you know how I am about cameras!) I purchased this:



Lowtops Black on red in 5x5 square

I own a pair of black and white lowtops and so figured it was totally appropriate.

And the rest of this week's favorite finds with no particular theme in mind are as follows:


Fun Print Headbands


Take this job and LOVE it


City of fun carnival



Snoopy and Dennis the Menace Books



Cashmere Slippers (these are adorable!)

For more of my favorites, you can click on the widget to the right.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Flower Power

As summer moves forward, here is a bit of a pit stop.