Heart a Day - Day Four

All Wrapped Up - Heart a Day, Day Four

Lost track of time today, packaging orders the ribbon made itself useful.  Don't worry, I have something a little more intricate planned for tomorrow.

Fine Art Friday - French Kitchen

It's the time I year I start fantasizing about a Paris trip.

Les Cuilleres by Eva Juliet

Stacked Baguettes by littlebrownpen

La Bicyclette by Rebecca Plotnick

If you'd like to see more, check out the Fine Art Friday French Kitchen Treasury here.

Fine Art Friday is a movement started by artist Jessica Torrant that uses twitter, treasuries, blogging, flickr and facebook to find and discuss new artists and favorite works. Search the twitter hashtag #FineArtFriday to see what everyone is talking about and share your favorites! Visit the FineArtFriday blog to learn more.

Dress Yourself in Handmade - Be Mine

Casual little look with Valentine's Day in mind.

Soft Gray Drape T-Shirt by habitatclothing, $40

Copper Heart Charm Necklace by PoleStar, $24

The Letter Bag in Rosewood by moop, $133

Heart a Day - Day Three

Cold Hearted, Heart a Day, Day Three

I was so disappointed that my heart snowball didn't work yesterday, but it reminded me of some candy heart molds I had leftover from last year's Valentine candy making craft night (which also didn't work out very well).

I added some red food coloring and water and got these pretty heart ice cubes - they even turned my seltzer water a pretty shade of pink. A little red dye number 5 never hurt anyone, right?

Though I don't recommend these silicone molds for brownies or muffins (they stick) they make great ice shapes!

Heart a Day - Day Two

Sew Sweet - Heart-A-Day Day Two

So, I had this great idea to go out in the backyard and make a snow heart today - but with the windchill in the negative teens, my ears starting tingling in minutes and the huge piles of snow had turned to brittle, dry glass shards that proved to be completely un-shape-able. 

Daughter was not amused and even the dog lost patience with me, so in we went for hot chocolate and playing with buttons.  Tomorrow is another day,  I don't think the 6 foot drift against the deck is going anywhere. 

Heart a Day - Day One

Unchained Melody - Heart-A-Day, Day One

I was watching the Etsy Symposium today and the presentation by Noah Scalin really got my creative brain fired up.  He's the creator of the Skull-A-Day project where he challenged himself to make a skull image everyday to inspire his creativity energy.  At the end of his presentation he challenged the audience to think of an image like a star, flower, circle, etc and make 10 of them in 20 minutes. 

Maybe because it's almost Valentine's Day, maybe because I'm not artistically inclined, maybe because I'm a sap, but I picked a heart and had so much fun making 10 hearts out of ribbon, thumbtacks and even a coffee stain.  As he described it, I had an A-ha moment during this activity where my brain jumped off it's tracks and got creative about materials, letting go of perfection and really got revved up.  I was running around my kitchen at one point chewing bits of bread into a heart shape, leaving a trail of crumbs the dog enjoyed.

This was just the jump start I needed.  I had felt stuck in a rut lately with design, blogging, art - this was the perfect task for me!  So, I'm barreling down this track and committing to make a heart a day, some simple, some complex, some ephemeral, some found - but I'm going to stick with it, learn new techniques, allow myself to play.  I'll capture each heart and post them here, hopefully it will be fun to watch it unfold!   

Big thank you to Noah - his blog is inspiring and visually stunning - go check it out - http://skulladay.blogspot.com/p/about.html

Fine Art Friday - Afternoon Into Evening

I recently stumbled upon the work of Claire Elan on Etsy and was instantly drawn in.  Her work has a quiet calmness and as a fellow floor lounger I love how many of her figures sprawl on the ground in a state of complete exhaustion or utter relaxation.

I found the small oil painting by FaithTeArt to be a nice companion.

Home - Original Oil Painting by Claire Elan

Tea Bag Painting by FaithTeArt


You can see more in my Afternoon Into Evening Treasury here.

Fine Art Friday is a movement started by artist Jessica Torrant that uses twitter, treasuries, blogging, flickr and facebook to find and discuss new artists and favorite works. Search the twitter hashtag #FineArtFriday to see what everyone is talking about and share your favorites! Visit the FineArtFriday blog to learn more.