Artsy Fartsy Heart Buntings~

It's soon Valentine's Day...

In honor of the day, I have been creating some banners of "LOVE" (read as if Barry White said it) to decorate our nest.

Banners or Buntings, whichever you prefer to call them (I call them either in rotation, but not an equal and exact rotation)... OR I call them Garlands. Depends on the brain that day.

These buntings were inspired by the great and ever magnificently inspiring dottieangel...

but I am no where near as granny chic as she...

I am Reenie, and I am loud.

In life as well as my creations... I am loud.... I LIKE HOT PINK.

and even though I attempt to be more demure, the HOT PINK in me always fights through.

Learning to embrace that about myself, rather than tame it. Saves me a TON of energy.

You can see Bunting #1 HERE... made with Jackie.

Bunting #2...

Made from torn up text pages from an old craft book and prints of my artwork.

All sewn together and hung in my "in-progress", old, partially remodeled farm kitchen. 

Ignore the ugly walls please. They have become invisible to me until I take photos. ugh-o.

Also ignore the dirty dishes.

That is what happens when you work in the studio instead of the kitchen.

I ignore them frequently. (what dishes?)

Bunting #3... 

Wanted to be much louder, and so they were. 

More of my art than book pages. 

Our personal favorite lovey phrases written on where it seemed appropriate.

Sewn together over the perfect tacky novelty yarn (from my tacky yarn hoard).

(that's my actual heart in that print... from a CT scan)

 Here they are hanging in my living room... 

over the studio entryway and the bucket of wine-in-progress.

Bunting #4... wanted to be ROUND.  

So round it is... they also wanted more texture, so I added bits of lace before sewing them together.

While making this I decided upon the name for this post. 

Adding neon pink lace to a project warrants an artsy fartsy title. Hence the name of this blog post.

Here they are hanging over the hallway entry. 

This did not work with a tall, tall man in the house.

So they were moved over the slider door.  They work really well there.

Next? Making notecards. 

Will post more on those after tomorrow, when I have an artsy day planned with Michelle. 

Excited to see the heartsy fartsy art that comes from playtime with her... 

Stay tuned my fartsy friends...

Heart Buntings with Jackie~

Bunting #1... Made with Jackie Sparkles. 

Fun day with a dear friend, coffee and arting.

Simple punched hearts. 

Sewn together on the machine. LOVE.

I especially love the hearts with words.. Friendship, Tradition, Individuality...

We hung them across the beam in my living room.

The start of a mini-obsession. uhoh.

Happy 17th Anniversary~

Happy Anniversary to my best friend. Today is 17 years!

We never could have imagined so long ago that we would have two beautiful girls,
move 3,000 miles from everything we knew and would have 

so much fun together through both the good and the hard times...

It's been quite the adventure, and I look forward to many more. 

Love you babe.

This photo was taken a few months before our wedding~

We look like such kids! (like my bangs? haha)

And all fancy on our wedding day...

Here we are a month ago (not the best pic, but it's us)

love love love you darling... MWAH!

One Little Word/ Thinking Journal~

Last year I took Ali Edwards' One Little Word Class~
I created this journal to use for my class work, (heavily inspired by Mary Ann Moss and her beyond spectacular and phenomenal classes, which I beyond highly recommend.) but still have a TON of space left in it, so this year I am repurposing it for my class writings for my Hello Soul Hello Business class...

A few days ago I spent several hours in the studio adding elements to my base pages, and just wanted to share... this is before I have journaled on them (which I since have quite a bit)... will take photos periodically to share and document the progression.

This spread in Oct. 2010, not long after the book was made...

Same page spread, finished, with the right page extended and some of my photos added, 

as well as some paint and fun washi tapes...

Another before and after...

Same spread as above, with pages extended and images added but still in progression... 

(no journaling yet)~ I loved Ann's marker test doodle page so I put it on there too...

I extended this page with a print out of an older journal page (the raccoon part)...

I had scanned a few pages of a journal a few years ago, before I wrote all over it.

I printed it out full size on cardstock, cut it in half and used it here to extend the outer edges of both pages... still in progression. No collage details or journaling added yet.

This page I added a large paint sample to extend the page, then some paint and an old photo, taken right after we took our epic family adventure of moving 3,000 miles away.

Detail of the backside of above paint sample page... I love the paint color names so I let them show.

This is a copy from a CT scan I had a few years ago. That's my HEART!

Too cool. I am still geeking out over those CT images.

This is a photo (a bit blurry) of a REAL rainbow ending in our pond.

SO magical.

This was a template I used for a painting a while ago... put over to extend the page.

Still in progression... 

K. the book is calling me, I think today I will get messy with it. Paint??? hmmmm

Reenie out.

Straw Bale Couch~!

Yesterday we started to convert our barn area into a transitional studio space.
No remodeling as of yet, only repurposing the space.
It is still a tool storage/barn area, only NOW we are adding fun fort features, like a straw bale couch!

It turned out more like a chaise than a couch, due to the shape of our bales, they were long and narrow, so one was not deep enough.... so we used two for the width/depth of the seat.

Covered with some canvas tarps and an old quilt and afghan and it makes a comfy place to hang out.

We then hung some art and a few ikea lights for ambiance...

Ann is chilling out, listening to some loud music...

Wanna come hang out????

Today we will start to paint some art and make a mess out there... 

(waiting for the temp to rise a bit- no barn heat yet).

Will take more pics to share.

My 2012 Book of Madness and Dreams~

Since I learned how to bind my own journals I cannot use store-bought versions, no matter how delicious they are...
I made this particular book (link to entry about it's creation) to be used for an online class I took last fall, but I loved it so much I decided to use it as this year's "Book of Madness".... my journal, a record of my brains... (here is a link to some page progression)
Shown above with my 2012 Calendar Book peeking out...

A few weeks ago I made a closure for it, and wanted to show you what I did... (as promised in my calendar book post)~

Ezmaralda always has to have her say in whatever I do in the studio. Good thing she is so snuggly and cute. Because it's not easy working with a load of a cat in the way...

I found the perfect button in my hoard of button jars... HOT pink with some bling in the center.

I poked two holes through the cover with my awl, making a "button hole", which I used to sew the button to the cover... I used some of my waxed book-binding thread, but any thread would work just fine. You have to use your imagination a bit here, this is inside the front cover.... you can see the thread knotted under the pink tape. I taped over the thread to protect it, because I am hard on my journals. Then I wrote a note to myself... "

For the closure, I used a strand of some of my crazy handspun yarn...

Attached in the same manner as the button, and taped for it's protection. 

This shot is of the inside of the back cover...

Here is a shot of the back cover, which I probably should tape over also... 

Blurry pic, but you can see where I poked the holes. I sewed the yarn strand in with the same waxed thread I used for the button to make sure it was in extra tight...

I love how it looks peeking out.

To close it I simply wrap the yarn around the button. 

This gives me plenty of room to grow as my journal grows in thickness.

There you go! An easy closure. and pink!