Just an enthusiastic DIYer, kitty mom, amateur gardener and acrylic aficionado rolled into one…
So what inspired this blog, you may be asking? Well a lot of things. yes, that is me in the picture to the left and a few paintings on the wall that I did. And the guitar, well, now let’s just say that it’s a conversation piece. I did attempt to play it a few times, but then when I decided I wasn’t ready to be musically inclined I “blinged” it up with splatter paint and a few faux rhinestones.
It’s not the first object I’ve done that to. I’ve painted up a lamp, clocks, you name it…
That’s me and my cat Cosmo in the image below. Cosmo is my inspiration muse. She is a very sweet cat who loves attention. You may see her in a few other pictures here because when I get stuff out to photograph she is always looking to see what I am getting ready to do next (Cats by their very nature are so nosy -Gotta love ’em!).
In the left corner are 2 decorative wall hangings I made out of clay a number of years ago – one representing the Hammer of Thor “Mjoellner” (from Norse mythology-not the Marvel Comic series) I was interested in medieval history which inspired the second piece – it represents the cross from the Crusades in Europe.
I made both of them using a product called “Sculpey” that I use my own oven for. I later on painted and glazed them.
Where Do I Get Inspiration?
Glad you asked! I started out taking watercolor lessons in grade school. Good times! I had a great teacher too by the way. Watercolors are great, but they can be very unforgiving. Especially for a second-grader like I was at the time. Eventually I got into other paint types – gouache, tempera, and then finally, acrylics.
Some people have a craft room, I have an “inspiration station”…
The Long Story Short…
As someone who loves nature, the outdoors and animals, these are themes I incorporate into my DIY repertoire. My favorite crating tools are natural supplies, like wood and glass. I’m very much a purist at heart. My two favorite artforms are painting and sculpture, which I incorporate as well. I did study art in high school and college, I got into several niches…nostalgic country scenery, still-life realism, and “fan art”.
Meaning I had fun painting famous people and celebrities for awhile, in this picture below, I don’t know if you can tell, but that’s Debbie Harry from the 80s pop group Blondie (way over on the right, sitting on the floor):
Also, that’s Sarah Michelle Gellar of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” fame in painting no. 6, and to the far right (it’s kind of cut off) that’s Aaron Carter, younger brother of Nick. So yeah, that was my niche for awhile that I enjoyed.
You can see some of my fan art on my Gallery page.
This is one of my first assignments in college, a full-scale lifesized bust of Tom Brady, I suppose I had a crush on him back int he day. This was 2003 in case you are curious.
If you came to this blog looking for general “crafty” stuff, you may be disappointed. I cannot sew a stitch correctly, (well, a few attempts sorta went ok..) have no interest in crochet or knitting and the “fiber arts”, and I don’t care about stuff like putting scrapbooks together or little doilies. I do have appreciation for those who do excel at these things. But if your craft interests lie in raw materials of nature, like wood scraps, seashells, pieces of glass, clay etc., etc., and transforming them into things to glam up your backyard or garden, I think you will enjoy very much what I’ve got in store here.
This blog has gone through a few changes with the 6 years I have been working it, (you can read more about that here) For awhile, I had trouble narrowing my focus on what types of craft projects to talk about on here, but now that I’ve given some thought to it, what I want to scrap and what to continue to write about, I’m happy to say I I think the changes I made were well worth making.
Well, ONE greeting card, maybe, while my cats look on….
If you are familiar with a tool called the “Wayback Machine” you can look at this site from an earlier time and see a lot of craft posts that were kind of all over the place, some were topics I didn’t feel all that excited about, and since I don’t want to mislead people into thinking I’m gung-ho about scrapbooking or whatnot, I decided to unpublish them altogether and focus on the “gems” : what I REALLY was into that other people who visited were into, too.
It took a lot of soul-searching, but let’s face it, “arts and crafts” is a pretty broad category…there are blogs about crafting for kids, for teens, holiday crafts, “dollar store” crafts, etc., etc., This is not one of those sites, I have cats and fish, I don’t have actual kids, and don’t get into making holiday stuff for the front door and all that.
Some Closing Thoughts…
Well, that’s pretty much the long and short of things….It is my sincere hope you will enjoy all the different articles on here and learn something new you didn’t before, and have fun in the process!
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Some of them I will use to feed my needy cats, as well as more supplies😁🐱.
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Enjoy your visit!