Lulu's Mixed Media - Punny Art!

Wow, April 6 and I haven't posted every day....but at least I am still posting in 2013, so you know...progress!

I am chipping away at the stack of art supplies and I haven't been back to the craft stores yet...although - I did receive my new Whimseybox yesterday - string art!  I think I will combine the supplies from this box with my new custom logo stamp from Kemble Hildreth at Standard Stamp Co,  to design a logo board for inspiration.  Thanks Kemble - I love my stamps!

Here is the art of the day - a new mixed media assemblage for the Sandbar.  It is the first in a series of Punny Art, mixing wordplay with bits of paper, tin and other ephemera.

This is Punny Art #1 - "She was just a whiskey maker....but he loved her still."

Also, for the link of the day, if you have never been to ClothPaperScissors.com, you should scamper over there for many projects, supplies and inspiration.

Finally....I'm supposed to be training for a 10k trail run in July...so off to run 5 miles today...

Enjoy!

One Art Piece per day..

Wow.  A lot of people have attempted to create one piece of art per day.  In fact, a Google search on this topic turns up close to 4 million hits.

Apparently, other artists are trying to reduce their hoarded artsy stuff pile too!

For me, past attempts to create every day - just like diets and exercise and healthy eating and learning new words - start out very strong.  I am full of purpose and inspiration and gumption.

Unfortunately, by the end of the first week I am usually slumped in front of Pinterest...again.

Lately, my best attempts to create every day include me shutting one eye and viewing the toothpaste stain on my black top, to see if a picture of it can somehow be categorized as mixed media...

But - I am one canvas down - woot woot!  A tiny space has opened up in the art pile.

Here is a tiny piece of art for today - let's see how it does over there on the etsy Sandbar.

Cheers,
Lulu

Lulu Craft Reboot

It's crazy.  I feel like I've been swept out to sea...I've been spending so much time on work, products for my store and life in general, little bits of me seem to be flow ashore and back.  I've needed to pick up some of the pieces and let others get washed away....and just like the sands of time, so have the days of my life passed....

Ok.  Too many sandbar analogies, I know.  Sorry.

Lulu 2.0 in progress, trying to bring all of the parts of my life together - so I've reached into the waves and plucked my blog out, shaking it off and giving it new life.

I start with a hoarder's confession.

Bless me Martha Stewart, for I have sinned.....I have become a craft hoarder, not an art creator.

As I look around the two rooms that make up my studio, I can see the piles of my mixed media life - the flotsam and jetsam spilling out everywhere.  In my mind, I see a cartoon idea cloud, with half-formed phrases and images circling around the clutter of canvases, paints, papers, vintage tin, markers and magazines....so many ideas and a TLC-hoarders load of items to bring them to life.

Unfortunately, I still have a full time global job.  Oh those pesky bills just keep showing up in the mailbox.....and I have only so much time to devote to my craft.

So I think I need to break up with my local and online craft and fabric stores.  Or maybe just take a break for a while.  And it's not them, it's me....although..  Really - they do have to take some blame for friending, discounting and frequent-shopper-carding me, and for stocking their shelves with tantalizing new tools.  The siren call of a new ink, paint or stamp carving tool is often irresistable..

Here is one pile in one corner of one room...

In just this room alone, I have at least 30 blank canvases, 60 paper bags, 6 boxes of crayons, three bins full of paints, 300 markers, 200 paintbrushes, over 500 sheets of craft paper, multiple Whimseybox projects, 400 fat quarters, boxes and bags and bins of paper, tin and fabric ephemera....all waiting to be manipulated, crafted, artisaned, painted, scissored, torn, inked, glued, sewn, stamped, embossed, printed, enhanced, wrapped and somehow....made into art pieces.

It's exhausting.

And my art used to be fun, and relaxing and re-energizing for me.  When I didn't have so much stuff to make the art, the ideas flowed easier and I was happier with my creations.  Now, it feels as if I pile on every tag, color, stamp or ink available and nothing feels finished until it has 12 elements crowded into every corner of the work.  Or I put off finishing a piece until I get to the store to find the latest cool tool, then bring home the bags, look around the room and just slump in front of Pinterest with a glass of wine, to search for yet more 'inspiration.'

Other than the wine, I never accomplish anything.  It's like a big sugar crafty high, that leaves me too drained to create.

So - Michael and JoAnn and A.C....if you don't see me for a while, please don't call, don't write, don't email me with 50% coupon offers or tweet new colors or Facebook me with new products.  We'll get back together in the future, to reevaluate our relationship and talk about our future.

For now, I need to work with the stuff that is surrounding me, before the cameras show up at my door for an art intervention.

As they say at Whimseybox, I need to stop pinning and start making!

Wow...is anyone still out there?  It's me, Lulu of the Sandbar.  Still here, still ummm...not blogging very much or very little or really - not at all.  For a year!  Crazy.

How did this year get away from me?  Well - I do have a job that requires me to travel overseas, and I do have a busy family and my daughter go married and there was so much DRAAAAma with the in-laws, and I've been putting a lot of effort into my etsy store...

So - Hi!

If you're still interested, you'll see many changes coming up here in the near future, so stay tuned - or rather, get tuned. in.   Again.  I hope.

Cheers,
Lu

Karma is hot and sweaty..

Damn. That's what I get for complaining about the weather. In the past four months we've had crippling tornadoes, a frickin' earthquake - on the east coast! - and hurricanes.

The local meteorologists are so excited, they're wriggling around like puppy dogs.

And me? Once again, I have proof that God is not a woman...because She NEVER would have given me flabby triceps when I most need to go sleeveless.

Don't MAKE me get the winter voodoo doll out!

OK, I really can't complain. Well - I shouldn't complain. I actually CAN complain, and do, and do so in a really fine fashion, I must say.

So I shouldn't complain about winter. Other than the day after Christmas, when Mr. Lulu and I trudged to the store to get the requisite perishables in the 8 inches that fell that day, it hasn't been too bad here.

It was even over 70 both days this weekend. And we could really use some snow for the drought we're having....

It's just....grey and cold and wintery and icky. Everywhere! And I feel for all y'all with the snow again....yoiks.

So I'm getting the voodoo doll out again. Winter, take that. and that. and that!

BRIGHT and COLORFUL for SPRING!!

Yup - blog title shamelessly 'benchmarked' from fashion headlines....apparently, color is back in for the spring, which means that I seriously have to work out now, because if I can't hide behind my black skinny jeans, big black oversized sweater and black-patterned scarf any more......yoiks. Need to lose some winter elbeeeees.

Or I could just find the skinny canvas cargo jeans with the big oversized brightly-colored summer-weight sweater and a fresh scarf!

Speaking of bright and colorful - run and scamper to a new blog on my run/scamper list - Laura Treavey and her Bright, Bold and Beautiful blog. She paints beautiful watercolors and also has this great site where you can't help but feel very motivated to bring pretty colors into your life.....which I could really use this year....Oy.

Also - the firepit launch was great - we broke a few bottles of vodka and wine to christen it, and broke out the wieneround, the s'more maker and the marshmallow tree.

Of course, I then had to use the new Lulu washer/dryer combo (story to come) to wash the smoke smell out of our clothes, and then had to wash the sheets and pillowcases because they picked up the smoke smell from our hair....sigghhhhhh....quite the production.

But hey - being outside and relaxing with some friends around the fire really made it feel as if we are finally starting to come out of the winter dulls....

And last for this sunny Sunday - one of my watercolors is featured in this etsy treasury from zuzus world - thanks for checking it out!

(huh. only two exclamation points. and here I thought I was waaaay too cheery...)

Time to use the Wieneround!

Yes, that's right - Mr. Lulu has finished the backyard firepit, it is 75 toasty degrees here and it is time to fire up the Wieneround! This is quite possibly the best firepit tool ever - no need to exert yourself or even shift your beer...your hot dog will be perfectly cooked every time.

Here's the description:

This Wieneround Fork sets a new standard in gourmet hot dog roasting by rotisserie cooking hot dogs and sausages without piercing the meat—just slip the dog inside the coiled cavity and rotate by turning the thumbwheel. With a turn of the thumbwheel, the coil holding the hot dog rotates which in effect rotisserie cooks the dog

That's right! Just slip the dog inside the coiled cavity.....I'm not saying, I'm just saying....

Of course, bratwurst / chili (for chili-cheese dogs) / coleslaw / chips / beer will round out this fine menu!

How do you roast your weenies?

Can we ever get tired of seeing the red carpet fashion?

Ummm...clearly - no.

I am completely and totally attracted and fascinated and drawn to the fashions on the red carpet. So tonight it's the Grammys, previously it was the SAG awards and the Golden Globes. Pretty soon, of course it's the super bowl of fashion parades - the Academy Awards.

But honestly, I would watch the Poulan Weedeater 2nd quarter district regional support sales pencil sharpener of the month awards, if there were a red carpet on E.

Have to see the Gaga....

Yay! Body Slam tomorrow...AKA, Airport Security

Yay! I get to go through airport security on the day before the biggest travel day of the year! Jumpy and clappy!

Actually, I'm fine with the body scan. And trust me - after having spent 16 years in the radiology business? I know that the TSAs do not care what I look like under my Spanx.

Just keeeeep moving, lady. That's it. Do the twirl. Get the backscatter. Be scanned. Keep moving. Next?

We all look alike to them on the monitor and nobody has time to think about how I could use a little o'Jillian.