Be Happy!

I found these illustrations by Monica Sheenan in a magazine many many years ago, but it is timeless advice. Here's my wish list to all of you for 2013! Looking forward to a brand new year full of new adventures and creative pursuits!

Singing Flurries!

Here's my entry for the last Spoonflower contest of the year with the theme of Snowflakes. I felt like I had to enter because my Spoonflower name is Snowflower. Me and the snowflakes are practically family...I love the fluffiness of snowflakes and I wanted to convey that in my illustration. But it looked kind of plain with just snowflakes so I channelled my friend Diane added some of her feathery friends. Just put a bird on it! There is a lot of really good entries this week. You can go here to see them all and vote on the ones you like. Enjoy the flurries!

My Fabric Gift Tags in the top 10

I just found out today that I made it to the top ten in the latest Spoonflower contest without even begging anybody to vote for me! There was actually a lot of fun holiday entries (see the top ten here), but I wanted mine to be non-seasonal so that you can use them all year round. Because they are also designed to be applied and sewn to hand made quilts or garments, I didn't want them to be too flashy and take away from the actual masterpiece. Kind of like a signature or an ex-libris you put in a book. If you leave me a comment below, I will send you one of my fabric label. Cheers!

My new label app

I discovered a fun little iPhone app through one of my online class. It's called Labelbox and it's a free app (of course you'll want to buy the extras label packs, fortunately they are only 99 cents each, I bought the "Going Postal" one and I am eyeing the Masking Washi Pack). Looks like it's compatible with the iPad and iPod Touch too. It's super easy to use. Here's another example of what you can do.

I took this picture in Port Townsend by the beach, thinking of my friend Martine's dream of having her little writer's studio in a Silver Bullet Airstream, which I think would be totally cool. I would love to have one too and convert it to a little traveling art studio/gallery. But that gives you an idea of what you can do with these labels, pretty fun, n'est-ce pas?

Overnight trip to Vancouver, BC

I love Vancouver, and now that I live close to the border, I can go to Canada whenever I want! I decided to get a little inspiration and go to Holt Renfrew (a must, it's their flagship store!) then walk around Robson street to finish my little shopping tour in Gastown where I found this totally awesome little store called Orling & Wu (what a cool exotic name!) I will have to do a special post later to show you all the stuff I got there...

Vive les Saisons!

Now you see where I got my inspiration for my November banner. I have been trying to do a different banner for each month...not sure I will try to do that next year, I think I will just change it with the seasons so I only have 4 to do instead of 12. Anyway, this is the month of October in my new 2013 "Vive les Saisons" Calendar. I still have a month to finish it right? Only 11 more months to design...

Motifs à la Matisse

I am a big fan of Matisse so when I saw the call for entries on Spoonflower for this contest, I just had to enter something. The goal was to design a textile that would look at home in a Matisse painting like the ones currently on display at the Nasher Museum of Art exhibition on the Cone sisters of Baltimore. Everybody has to use the same color palette. The top ten fabrics will be featured at an Art for All event at the Nasher on Dec 6, 2012. You can vote here if you feel like it until tomorrow I think... My spoonflower name is "snowflower".

San Francisco Flashback!

We went to the Bay Area (where we used to live) a few weeks ago and I have been so busy since that I haven't had time to update my blog. First we spend a whole day with my son Alex who studies Game Design at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. We went shopping in Japan town and then we had sushi at Isobune where they have the little boats going around, we love those... We also went to see my friend Megan's talk for the River Otter Ecology Project at the Randall Museum. Because I donated to the cause at the bioluminescent level, I went home with this fabulous river otter puppet that I am totally crazy about. Then, Alex took us to this fabulous place in the Haight called the Ice Cream bar. I had "fromage blanc" ice cream, so delicious but super rich.

On Saturday we were invited to my friend's Jim 60th birthday party that had a 60's theme. Dave looked pretty good with his afro. The party was a total blast and Jim's band, the Earthtones, was on fire!!! And of course Mary and I are the official Earthtonettes dancers, so we did what we could to liven up the party, but we didn't have to do much as everybody got into the spirit of the 60's so it was pretty hilarious and fun. Happy birthday Jim!!

Escapade in Ashland

Papayas in Ashland

Bento boxes at Prize

Neon Colored pencils and Rifle Paper cards at Prize

Southern Charm by Shari French at Paddington Jewel Box

On Saturday I went to Ashland to go to my favorite 3 stores for inspiration: Papayas, Paddington Station and Prize. They also just opened a second Paddington store called "Paddington Jewel Box",  so I now have 4 favorite stores in Ashland. My friend Karen and I just love Paddington Station but it gets expensive because I just have to have so many things in that store. Now with another one across the street, we are really in trouble! But I do love the new "live, laugh, love" pendant I got from Southern Charm. I just had to get it because it's my motto in life!

Lucie par ici Moodboard

I have been writing this blog for almost a year now. I started on December 6th, 2011 when our PODS arrived at our house in California. We sold the house, got rid of half our stuff and packed the rest in the PODS that we shipped to Washington state. Our goal was to settle down in Port Townsend, Wa, but there was going to be a lot of traveling in between (Canada, France and about 30 different states in the US). Since our friends and family couldn't keep track of where we were, I started this blog so they could follow our adventures. Now that we have settle down a bit in our new home in Port Townsend, I was wondering if I would keep this blog and if so, what direction would it take. I decided to enroll in the online "Blogging Your Way Boot Camp" class that my friend Aimée told me about a while ago. The course is taught by Holly Becker from the decor8. This moodboard is an exercise for the class. It describes the direction I am taking and what I want to talk about, which is art, crafts, travel, fabric and surface pattern design. Nothing different really, but it's nice to have a focus and a little structure. That's why I love to take online classes, and I always learn so much. And it's fun to share your stuff with people around the world! Cheers!

Petite robe verte

I like to rescue old books to use in art and collages, but lately, my collection is getting quite large due to a certain used bookstore in town setting out a box of unwanted books for adoption on the sidewalk. Since I can't resist taking some of the books when I walk by, I now have to come up with more ideas to use them. This rescued "Henri de Montherlant" book made the perfect background for this little green dress (also made out of a rescued sweater). I glued a few folded pages together to make it thicker to create this greeting card. I also made an envelope with this Rifle Paper Co. wrapping paper I got at little store on Granville Island in Vancouver.
That book has 250 more pages, so look for more card ideas in future post...

Altered Altoid Tin

I really miss my San Francisco Art Group.  Even if I don't live there anymore, I still try to be involved in the Round Robin Altered book exchange and last Sunday I decided to do the project they were working on from here at the same time they were meeting, so I was there in spirit and could feel their creative vibes! The theme was halloween and I tried a Myntz and an Altoid tin, turns out it doesn't really make any difference since you cover the whole thing anyway. Somebody told me that if you throw the tins on a grill, it gives them a nice patina. Well, I tried the shortcut of putting them on my gas stove. It worked but I don't recommend it for the toxic fumes that came out from the paint burning off...The color was beautiful but next time I will try them on the BBQ, with a side of sweet potato fries, yum!

Panache l'écureuil

I was browsing the internet the other day and found this book on french ebay. I remember reading this book when I was little so I ordered it and it just showed up this week. The book was originally published in 1934 in Paris in the "Albums du Père Castor" collection. The copy I got is from 1946 and was obviously well loved, as the seller said: "feuilleté par des générations de petites mains". But there is something about vintage children's book illustrations that really speaks to me, I have a whole collection that I will share with you in future blog posts. If you have a favorite childhood book, send me a picture and why you liked it and I'll feature it on my blog as part of my new weekly children's book column.

Neon Colors with Mindy Lacefield

On day 2 at Art and Soul, Portland, I took a class with Mindy Lacefield. I just love the way she uses neon colors in her artwork and have been wanting to take a workshop with her since I saw what came out of her classes at Artfest this year. She is a really fun teacher and makes you connect with your 7 year old self. What did you use to draw all the time when you were a kid? For me it was apple trees and flowers. We worked on recycled cardboard with acrylic, matte medium, collage, stamping, alcohol inks, pencil and oil pastels. We had to use at least one neon color that she provided. The name of the class was: Twirl Girls journal. We filled our handmade journals with patterned papers, watercolor papers, old maps and tied them with ribbons and fibers. Total fun! And the first time I used neon colors. I just bought a few tube just today, I am hooked now!

Art and Soul retreat, Portland

Last week I went to the Art and Soul retreat in Portland, Oregon. My first class was with Jane Davies and it was called: Abstract Landscapes. It was a really fun way to work with collage and paint. We worked on watercolor paper and really fast, trying not to over think and just let it happen! I kind of like the results, I would like to try in on canvas next time.

Overnight trip to Vancouver

We met our friend Megan and Terence in Vancouver last night, it was a blast. We had lunch at the Tea House in Stanley Park, then went to see the Matisse exhibit at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Today we walked around Granville Island for hours, so many cool little stores. We are now on the ferry back to Port Townsend. Nice to have Canada so close by!

Port Townsend Film Festival

This weekend was the PTFF downtown. Every night they have a movie playing outside and then 5 other venue showing movies from all over the world. We went to see "Not that funny" on Friday night and met the directors. It was a blast. We had hot dogs at a little food stand in town that reminds me of the "petit moulin", my favorite "stand a patate" on the way to Lac Simon.

Farm Tour

Today we went on the annual Jefferson County Farm Tour. We visited dairy farms, an Icelandic sheep and fiber llama farm, a cidery and blueberry farm where we got to pick our own blueberry and taste the many different types of ciders, and all kinds of other organic farms where you can find everything from fresh eggs to berries, veggies and flowers. We discovered many more beautiful valleys in our area that we didn't even know existed, we obviously have a lot more exploring to do...

Sock Animal Workshop

Here's the frog I created in a workshop to raise funds for the "Gathering Place" a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of adults with developmental and other disabilities. I am not sure anybody will buy him but it was pretty fun to make! Send me your old socks!

Wooden Boat Festival

This weekend was the very famous Port Townsend Wooden Boat festival. 30,000 people descended on our little town. It was pretty amazing to watch, from wooden handmade kayaks to magnificent 3 masted schooners, there was something for every taste. we watched them all sail out of the harbor this afternoon.

Whidbey Island

Yesterday was Dave's birthday and we took the ferry to Whidbey Island. We had lunch at Toby's tavern in Coupeville and shopped around the little boutiques. It's been beautiful and sunny since got back.