Day I

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Moving Day!

I'm now officially bloggin on my brand new yay it's working website! Join me there, won't you?

Vacation!

I'm off to Merry Ol' Scotland! And Wales! And England! Yay! I'm bringing my trusty iphone, so I'll check in on emails every once in a while. But not too much, right? See you all July 1st!

Father's Day present!

I made this for Lloyd for Father's Day! Yay! It is the biggest painting I've ever done - I think 4 feet by 2 1/2 or so. I learned a lot from doing it . . . about adding a horizon line, about sketching out the layout first, and about working from the background to the foreground. Lloyd really and truly got it and loves it! Lucky me! We all have really tiny feet (says the stream of consciousness girl).

cute little states!

In doing my website, Heather made a list of states that carry my work, and the stores therein (fancy word). But it was kinda boring looking, so I made little states, and Heather will add them in for the thrill of it all. See if you can guess some of these:

You thought I died, didn'tcha?

Here I am! Just working my little fingers to the nubbins, I am! Did that sound British? 'cause I'm taking my little family to England next Tuesday, so I need to work on my accent!

And guess what! My website is an inch and a half away from being done! Yippers! Then I will take my non-blogging self over to allisonstrine.com to do my daily non blog. Ha!

DixieLand in LadyBirdLand!

Elizabeth's birthday was last week, and after the success of Lisa's picture, I knew I had to do a portrait of Dixie. And here it is! It was SO FUN to do that I'm going to start offering commissions for people's dogs on my Etsy site. I've never done a commission before, but I can imagine how fun it will be!

OOOOH! A PRIZE!!

Tonight we had our first family dinner by the new backyard, and LOOK what we found!! I must have scared the momma as I walked within one inch of her without knowing! When we looked at the nest, we could see one of the eggs on the ground. I don't know if it had just fallen that second as the mom ran away, or if it had been on the ground a while. Olivia got a leaf and carefully cradled the egg in it, then moved the egg - careful, careful! - into the nest. So cool! Picture forthcoming!

I want this...

My family thinks I'm distinctly odd for this one, but omgoshIwantthisdeerhead!!

It's so cool, but will I get disowned for having it? And where would it best fit...

May 13th...

Ooh, I keep thinking it's only been a day or two since I last blogged, and then... it's a week!

Where to begin, where to begin... I have a guinea pig on my lap - is that interesting? Little Lilly, Olivia's guinea pig is currently sitting (on a towel 'cause guinea pigs pee a TON) and eating carrot sniblets.

What else... we redid our backyard this spring, and now I want to cram it full of yard art! The funkier the better! I bought a few wonderful flowers from Coffee Pot People. This one is my favorite:



But I love them all, and will post a photo of them in situ later!

Oh, one of my favorite artists is Dolan Geiman. I bought this piece a while back




and I love it! So when the Dolan Geiman newsletter came out, offering a prize for showing your DG piece in its setting, I acted like I wanted to be the 107th caller on the radio station. I RAN RAN RAN to my camera and took a picture of the birdie on my green garage door!! I hope I win I hope I win I hope I win! (As an aside, go to Dolan's flickr site if you want to see some horrid photos of his art fair booth in disarray. I guess there was a massive storm and it ruined everything. So sad...)

Painting!!

Over the weekend it was Lisa's birthday. Her dogs, Zachie and Hazel are the shipping helpers and the doggie backbones of the entire LadyBirdLand Factory. On MY birthday, Lisa gave me a very very cool hanging Robot dude, made of license plates, and wood, with vintage salad tongs for arms. So that meant I knew it would be groovy for me to make a present for Lisa! Soo.... here it is, in all its doggie glory! Ladies and other ladies, presenting, Zachie and Hazel!



I got a ridiculous amount of pleasure from making this... for some reason seeing those little doggie faces staring back and me while I matte mediumed them down just made me giddily gleeful... yay for dog art!

Sunday Sunday!

Oooh! Check out this site:
Seven Dogs and a Baby!

They're running a Mother's Day contest - hope someone I know wins!

Quote me a quote!

What's your favorite quote? I'm running a contest on my newsletter (opt in to get yours) about quotes. Here's my fave quote today:

I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life's a bitch. You've got to go out and kick ass.
Maya Angelou


What's your quote of the day?

April 29

Wow... April's almost over, and then May and then school's out and less art for two months! Yikes and Wow! I can't believe how fast things are flying...

I've been painting more - once or twice a week with Liz. Just finished this girl:




At least I think she's finished. Last night at dinner I asked the kids what they thought of the painting. Olivia thought she needed something on her tummy, and Ethan wanted to know how I was going to scan it ('cause it's 16 x 20, instead of my more usual 9 x12 or 6 x 6).

I love her colors, and her background texture, which is a departure from the usual style. Duct tape to the rescue!

In other news, I'm thrilled to welcome a couple of new retail shops to LadyBirdLand. DabberDoo is located in a trendy area of Atlanta called Virginia Highlands. I used to hang around in the Highlands for years, and in fact met my dh there. I remember saying, "He can come visit me in town, 'cause I am NOT going all the way to the suburbs!!" Fast forward 15 years or so, and I've been comfortably ensconced in Suburbia for a while. Oh, the shame. Well, I guess now I have an excuse to get back down there. If you're ever in the area, stop in and say 'hi' for me, willya?



Let's save another shop for tomorrow, or the excitement will be too heady!!

Sunday morning...

Aww.... I had a bunch of things in my head that I wanted to post about, and now they're all gone! I need ginko biloba or whatever that medicine is for people with tiny memories...oh, yeah, ART.

Here's my big struggle: I really really REALLY want to make a good 'Friends' saying. When I go back and look through my earliest pages of sayings, the friends ones are there, incomplete but there from almost two years ago! Here's the conundrum - it's all about the pronouns. If I want to give my friend a pendant, then who is the "She"? Here are some of the ones I've been thinking of...and the only way to get around the 'she' ness is to avoid it, I think.


friends til the end

they finish each other's sentences

they will always be friends

two friends for ever

their circle of friends is a straight line

best friend is her middle name

all time bestest friends

their friendship is 14 miles long

she's a very special friend

she's a true blue me and you friend

she dares to be the best friend

she's her bestest friend in the whole world

she loves her crazy happy delicious friend (ship)

she is the mint jelly on the peanut butter of their friendship

HOW can I get around this (insert dramatic pause here)?

Friday!

Yay! Today was a brilliant day! I'm practicing my British accent - brilliant!

First, I went to Elizabeth's house and we painted and painted and painted! It feels so good to paint.. I tried a new background technique featuring duct tape. Yummy - turquoise and duct tape! I'll post pictures soon.. like Monday, when I go back to E's.

Thursday!

I just discovered an amazing woman, Brene Brown.She visited my shop, and when she emailed me, of course I clicked on her siggy. It took me to her site, where I I became instantly mesmerized. I ignored my seven year old's morning needs (yes, honey, you look fine in gym shorts and a button down shirt), didn't unload the dishwasher, and barely tasted my own breakfast, and forgot about my coffee, all because Brene. She just seems to know me, and I loved this article especially. Her blog, Ordinary Courage is inspirational. Can't wait for my book to arrive!

April 23

Yay! It's another fun day in LadyBird Land! (hmmm... LadyBirdLand... I like it, I like it...) Now there's a new way to get your LadyBird jones... it's a GRAMMY pendant and print! And the fun thing is that it can be personalized for your Nana, or Grammy, or Grandma or Bubbie or Nannie or... so far I've had all of the above, and can't wait to see what comes next. Plus you can personalize the number of baby birdies... so far six has been the most I've put on... Check it out!

Here's the print:





and here's the pendant!

Happiness is...

a happy day! It has been so busy lately... lots of packing and shipping for Lisa, and a new LadyBird for me! I had made this little running birdie here: (well, you can't see it now 'cause blogger is being silly, but it's right here. Anyhoo, I had made her a month or so ago, and was waiting and waiting for the right saying to come along, and then sweet Sandra suggested "She Runs Like a Girl" (not knowing about this running birdie). And voy-la! as we french like to say, a pendant was born!


Also, I'm thrilled to welcome LynLivy's Arthouseto the world of LadyBirds! This store sounds totally amazing. It's run by a mom named Stacey, and here's a bit of her tres cool story:




LynLivy’s Story and vision
After being home with my 2 daughters for 7 years, I finally decided it was time to get back to work. But with a young family to care for, I wanted something that would allow me to be close to them and still make a difference thru our beliefs and vision. With many years of retail management experience, a huge desire to create, an artsy childhood, lots of crafty friends, 16 glittery girl scouts, and 2 very silly clever crafty kids - an ArtHouse seemed the only logical solution!




I'm excited to be a part of Stacey's vision... the store opens May 3rd in San Antonio, Texas, so if you live nearby, stop in and say 'hi'!

Yay!

Oh, so much has happened this week! It's been a funderful wonderful week! Where to begin, where to begin... well, if you live in the Long Grove Illinois area, you can now walk on over to Artist @ Heart to pick up your LadyBirds in person! As it should be, huh?



Let's see... oooh! I'm in a book! Rubbish, the best titled book I've seen in a long time...



See the little license plate charm up on the right - that's me! The book is actually a RIOT... I did not know the author, Kate Shoup before hooking up with her for this project, but she is absofreakinlutely hysterical in print. (Or, I'm easily amused.) I giggled at her topic headings, like "What a Tool" for the supplies section, and "Forage For Storage" for another. Okay, I am easily amused - but there's plenty of funnier stuff in there, I promise!


What else... we're planning our trip to England this June, and I'm totally wanting to find little wacky out of the way artsy fartsy stores to spend my pounds on - only 1000 american dollars buys a whole British pound - yay! (insert sarcasm there...) If you know of any shops, or cool artists who might know shops, post 'em here - we're traveling in a big circle - London - Cambridge - Edinburgh - Wales - Heart of England, and so on, so there's got to be great British art shops in all those places!