Looking for Joy

 

I woke up this wet, gloomy morning from a nightmare. I've been a mom, a cleaner, a chef, and an office admin. None of that's done anything for my mood. It was definitely time for me to get down to doing something that brings me joy. 

What brings you joy?

Mediums: watercolor, pen, photoshop

Thank You

These past holidays provided so many reasons for my family and I to say "Thank you" to so many people. Being a part-time minimalist, I often take advantage of sending e-cards, but then there are a few friends and family where e-cards just aren't applicable. Sometimes, it's for those that belong to an older generation who don't use e-mail or computers; other times it can be that special someone who loves collecting sentimental notes. I broke out the sketch book and set to work using mixed media. Keep reading to see the final product.

Art for My Heart with a Fashionable Twist

Art by Agnes Cecile

 Agnes Cecile's work is beautiful and moving. If you'd like to watch some videos showing the creation of a few of her paintings, click here.

You can only imagine how excited I am to discover that she collaborated with Ilaria Nistri, a fashion designer in Milan, to use one of Agnes Cecile's paintings as a print in her collection.

Drawing Restraint by Agnes Cecile

{source}

I love it when traditional art fuses with fashion. Do you? Are any of you familiar with Ilaria Nistri's collections? I'm super excited by them. Very sleek, sexy, and modern.

Inspiration...

Where does your style come from? I've read many comments about how stylists can be inspired by artists. I've never tried that.  And then one day, I saw this beautiful tweed dress. It was a bit pricey and a little bit daunting. I love tweed. At heart, I'm a nerdy academic. Tweed, corduroy, turtle necks, thick framed glasses, you name it, you can count me in.

A whole dress made of tweed is a lot of texture and to be honest I didn't want to spend that kind of money during the holidays on myself. I settled for staring at the dress longingly each time I went by. And then one day it happened. I was cruising the clearance section and there was my dress, in my size, waiting patiently for me to come get it. The tweed's pattern has a beautiful warm set of colors for autumn/winter.

I'd never owned a tweed dress before and trying to figure out how to style it is pushing me to explore new things. I cracked open my art catalogue and found this lovely painting by Georgia O'Keeffe.

Have you ever used a painting as inspiration for an outfit? If you have I'd love to hear about it or see the photos! xoxo

{image sources: me}

My Son's Stories

My son has no notion of fashion weeks around the world and continue's to make up some wonderful tales. So I don't miss a thing, I've jotted it down, worked on an illustration for it and am now sharing it with you just as before.

The Mad Magician Jordan's rubber decked ship scooped Carowyn up just behind her knee's, and sent her bouncing along before unceremoniously dumping her at Jordan's feet. 

Jordan had barely blinked at her arrival. Instead he kept his bright green eyes fixed on some distant point of the horizon. 

"If you wanted a lift to the Palace, you only needed to ask." Jordan spoke without looking away from the horizon. 

"A ride to the Palace? To Prince Winchester's Palace? Wait. A ride? What are we talking about? What is this thing?" Carowyn's mind was still bouncing and skipping just as her body had, trying to keep up with things that seemed to be slipping by all too quickly. 

"Prince who? And you speak as if you've never seen a land rover before. Careful!" Jordan's long fingers quickly closed around the petals of a flower that escaped from Carowyn's fingers. "You wouldn't want to lose one of those now would you?"

Carowyn gently took back the small blue green flower that almost seemed to glow. "It's just a flower. I was collecting them for my wedding to the Prince. Surely everyone for miles around has heard about it."

Jordan's heavy peaked brows raised only slightly as he looked at Carowyn for the first time since her arrival. "Flowers?" With a small sigh, Jordan removed his wand from a pocket Carowyn hadn't noticed in his flowing robes. "Haltiminium Momenicus." A quick flick of his wrist  and Jordan's wand was once again out of sight and the land rover glided to a stop. "My dear, those aren't flowers. They're souls. Only a guardian can even see a tree of souls and it is a guardian's job to nurture and protect those souls. If those souls aren't soon grafted to a tree of their own, their light will fade and the souls will be lost in the void."

xoxo

My Son's Stories

I have learned first hand, how easy it is to forget those things that we adore from our kids when they are young. We age, our memories fade, and eventually we can forget. 

My son has an amazing imagination. It's something I want to be able to appreciate forever.  Everyday, he creates a new story with me so I decided to celebrate them by putting some of it here. When I get the chance, I try and do a little illustration with them for him. Here's the beginning of today's tale:

....Once upon a time, there was a girl named Carowyn. She looks to be about twenty years old but we can't really be sure how old she truly is. Where she comes from, there is no measurement of time. 

One perfectly warm summer evening, Carowyn went out to pick some flowers for her wedding to Prince Winchester. Little did she know the flowers she picked were from a tree of souls. With each flower Carowyn picked, the ground beneath her feet began to soften just a little bit more. Before she realized what was happening her feet had begun to sink into the ground below. Soon, a giant black hole swallowed her up. 

When Carowyn awoke she was in a strange land. The flowers from the tree were still clutched in her fingers as she looked around her new surroundings. Funny little cottages sat squatting on the horizon when suddenly.....

Your turn. What do you think happens next? I'll let you in on some secrets of our version. There were sails of silk, on magical land skimming boats that were captained by the mad magician Jordan, moon goblins and orcs that came out to fight on full moon nights, and massive cheese shortages that rocked the kingdom.