Follow your dreams.

My freelance projects as of late have been all across the board. On any given day, my creative tools range from a paintbrush to a heap of junk on the side of the road to just my lil' laptop. This week, I worked on a whimsical book cover for Glenna Rossi, a local dream worker. It had been a while since I picked up oil pastels, which is how I created the base of this design. I added the digital aspects afterward, but wanted to really capture windy, fall weather at dusk in northern NH. It reminded me how much I love the color and emotion you can get from layered oil pastels. Onward with this newfound inspiration...I think I will do some more oil pastel pieces this winter when I am working in my new shoppe studio. Thank goodness for sloves and hot cocoa! :o)

Asheville!

I just got back from my favorite city in the world. It was a whirlwind week, full of sweet surprises, creative affirmations and fantastic friends. Here are a few snapshots from my trip:

Sunshine in the city!

Some of my favorite Asheville peeps.

The Smoky Mountains!

This is the site of a new creative project I have in the works...more on that later!

Inspiration, inspiration everywhere! :o)

Iluvasheville.

I am getting ready to take a quick jaunt down to my favorite city at the end of the month and cannot wait! While I do not plan on spending a giant chunk of the winter down south this year, I am anticipating a few trips. In getting all excited to be in the heart of that wacky city for 6 fun filled days, I got to browsing through some Asheville pics from this past spring...The Sky Bar: a fantastic place to see the sunset, enjoy a glass of wine and view the whole city I took Jim up there (via old fashioned, slightly sketchy elevator) on a whim and we enjoyed a glass of white as the sun set the night before I left to come back to NH

The architecture in Asheville is so varied and beautiful. There's literally art on every street corner!

Ahhhhhhhh... IcannotwaitIcannotwaitIcannotwait. Weeeeeee!

Doin' Flipz!

I have been painting quite a few murals lately, and this one was a fun challenge. First of all, I had to paint a portion of it on a trampoline! The goal: fill a GIANT gymnastics studio with some elements that would fill the room, match the color palette and be easy to paint around. This was tricky.

These are some of the inspiring elements I came up with (note the trampoline location!)...

I think my old high school English teacher, Mrs. Beaudin would approve of this wall...

That was fun. But it certainly reminded me that I am no acrobat. :o)

Crafty Kathy: pimpin' out a vintage suitcase

This groovy suitcase was my grandma's from before she married my grandpa. It has her initials embossed on the top and is so beautiful, but the inside smells not so beautiful. So it has become a prop in my store. It already had one old label stuck to it (the middle round one), and I decided that I was going to add more bling. I picked up these labels in MY travels and decided to give some new life to this treasured vintage piece by mod podging them on. Mod Podge is awesome stuff, man. You can stick anything paper to anything: furniture, walls...anything.

And it dries clear. Now it's a beautiful piece that shares a piece of my grandma and my travels in one. I just love it! :o)

Tip: if you want to make something like this, scope out thrift stores and yard sales for old suitcases. Save those wine bottle labels or use squares of funky paper and a lil' Mod Podge to create a vintage piece of awesome!

BIRTHDAY SUSHI!

OhmygoshIlovesushi. I am beyond excited that we now have raw fish delight up the street. The restaurant has been open for 3 weeks and I have been there 5 times. I love, love, love sushi.

I got to eat this. Yum. In Plymouth, NH? Try Fugaky. You will not be disappointed. :o)

Money for gold!

Here's a cool thing that is happening around these parts! Got old gold? Friends of the Arts and Artistic Roots (the groovy co-op on Main Street that I just joined!) is having an "Out with the old, in with the new" party on August 19th. They have a gold lady there...someone who is weighing your old jewelry and giving CASH on site for it. Aaaaaand, there will be a room full of jewelry makers on site for you to spend your moola. My momma (Earthwear Jewelry) will be one of the vendors and is going to have a table of her fancy jewelry designs. This should be a ton o' fun (and FINALLY- a place for your old 80's, mismatched gold bangles to go to die!) Come on out!