Tah-Dah!

If you're coming from the Emporium,

here's more of sweet Lenore

(who is SOLD now and

going to live with Leanne)---

. . .

While we were in the Halloweeny mood

we made another one-of-a-kind piece too!

This is Barnaby Bones' Boat

and you can buy it here.

(He's drifting away to Vicki's.)

. . .

Thanks!

For You Halloweeny Types

Set your clocks, all you lovers of Halloween.

Tonight's the night!

. . .

9:PM EST

Home again, home again, jiggity jig!

My baby girl is home from her travels across the ocean, hooray!

Here's a little sampling of the very many pictures she took while she was out and about.

And the little-bit-of-red-headed-gorgeousness Herself-

She has a gazillion pictures to edit and obssess over in the next few weeks, and I'm sure she'll be putting them on her Flickr thingy as she finishes them, if you want to see more.

The first of many grand adventures, I'm sure.

Something-New Sunday

The Cart's Cast of Characters got a little bit bigger this week.

This one's name is Zoee Bug. Isn't she cute?

You can see her and her new friends over in the attic.

We finished a couple more pieces too, but you'll have to wait til Wednesday the 31st to see them. Here's a little peek in the meantime-

Thursday

Today's table is full of paper mache madness.

Boats and birds and bits 'n' bobs. 

My fingers are all gluey now, and 4 paper mache pieces are warm from the oven (I lack patience) and ready for the next steps in their creation. Two of them are destined to be one-of-a-kinds, one of which will be available March 31 at the Ehag Emporium. One of these noggins will be there too (in a much more finished state), but I haven't decided which one wants to sit where yet.

I'll give you another peek and a heads-up before their debut.

In other news, my girly comes home from Europe tonight!  I was doing OK with her being gone 'til I Google-mapped where she was staying. It was at that point that I got a real idea of how very far away she was. I've been sleeping with her blankey since (shhh, don't tell her.) 

Window-Shopping Wednesday

"A little madness in the Spring

Is wholesome even for the King."

-Emily Dickenson

In honor of March coming in like a lion. . .

 MarkLong, horsedrawncarriage, SandraHealy,

berkleyillustration, coridantini, skatebird,

2blackbirds, matteart, WillRuocco.

On-the-Table Tuesday

On the table(s) today. . .

The last few pieces of our latest order await their final touches.

An invented game waits in the wings for drying time.

My kids are off for Spring Break. While the eldest in still in Europe on her Senior class trip, the youngest and I are having our own kind of nerdy fun.

A tower of clean towels waits to be put away

amidst a whole lot of starts

(and a couple of finished's that you'll have to wait til next Sunday to see).

What are you up to this on this fine Tuesday?

Miscellaneous Monday

Little things make me happy. Thanks, Dani!

This rainy day finds me tucked into my workspace, painting tiny details. It also finds me wondering if I should get a real job. Those thoughts do creep in from time to time. As cheery as I try choose to stay, the life of a working artist isn't always all cupcakes and sunshine. Sometimes it's sore hands and self-doubt and trying to make a penny into a dollar. But at the end of the day, an artist is what I am and I can't imagine being (or doing) anything else. OK, I can imagine it, but that's only because I have a very vivid imagination.

In the words of the ever-philosophical Popeye the Sailor Man:

Top to me bottom and me bottom to me top, 

That's the way it is 'til the day that I drop.

What am I?

I yam what I yam!

Something-New Sunday

Spring has officially sprung and we've been doing some
Spring cleaning on The Cart.

Our website is all prettied up and ready for company!

We've introduced a new feature too--
Something-New Sunday.
Every Sunday there will be a new design in the website house's attic. This week there are a couple of Underwater Circus sideshow-types in there, Samson and Delilah. . .

 . . .along with some Springtimey triplets, the Blossom Sisters-

The Mister also made a very silly tiny video this week,

which you can watch here.

. . .

I hope you're all having a lovely Something-New Sunday.

♥

Saturday

A little sneak peek at Sunday's silliness-

Seeing Stars

Sometimes Dylan gets a little carried away.

Wearing of the Green

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

My girly is on her way to Dublin as I type,

well on her way to being that world traveler she has always wanted to be.

Please send happy thoughts to this mommy as her apron strings are stretched so very far.

WIP's and Bunny Tails

It's looking mighty Springtimey on Tuesday's table-

There are a couple of merpeople hiding under those big flower petals that are just too odd to reveal before completion. And even then. . .What can I say? I like odd.

Speaking of Spring,
I had to share my very favorite bunnies with you-

Aren't they just the cutest things?

I made the one in the middle, and my kidlettes made the other 2 when they were little. There is just something about a rabbit tail that turns me into a high-pitched girly-girl.

Bunnies + Cupcakes = Yay!

Wanna make some bunny-head toppers

for your Springtimey cupcakes?

Now's your chance! Just print out the bunny heads. . .

. . .then cut them out and glue them to some pretty cardstock with a toothpick in between. (It's a well-known fact that bunny cuteness makes cupcakes extra yummy.)

Location Revealed

Go here to see some fabulous holiday art, and a certain Guest Artist.

Here you'll find these three one-of-a-kinds by us Cart dwellers-

A pouty-lipped punkinhead,

 a sweet-faced anthropomorphic tree. . .

. . .and a long-eared bunny rabbit

that just might prefer Halloween to Easter.

Speaking of Halloween. . .

 . . .we're officially doing the Halloween and Vine show in September.
California, here we come!

Mailboxy Goodness

Speaking of circles. . .
Lookie what I got in the mail today--

It's a super arty postcard from my very favorite Dutch artist, Kitty Kilian. Love her stuff. It's clever and gorgeous with just the right amount of smartass. Plus it's so cool and exotic with its other-language-ness. Thanks Kitty!

Don't ya just love getting stuff in the mail? I mean actual  mailbox mail, not inbox e-mail. Don't get me wrong, I love the immediacy and efficiency of e-mail, but it's always so nice to hold something in your hand that someone else held in their hand. Lovely to see the personality of penmanship. Lovely to imagine its travels over mountains and oceans. I myself have never traveled over an ocean, so this is the next best thing.

Hmmm. . .I think I gotta make some postcards!

Sneak Peek

Here's a little peek at 3 one-of-a-kind pieces that will be featured 

at a yet-to-be-disclosed location on the 13th.

(Oh, the suspense!)

Fish, Hands, and Issues

It occured to me that the worktable pictures I offer up are usually taken in the morning before I actually get to work. Most evenings I clean up my workspace so that in the morning I can be greeted by something less than a crazy overwhelming mess. But I haven't paused mid-day to snap a pic. This is when I'm actually elbow deep in working and generally too occupied with the arty goings-on to stop for a camera break. Anyway, I did that today. Here is a more truthful rendition of my worktable, mid-play--

Undone creations commingle with the flotsam and jetsam of art-making.

There are several fishy  fishes on the menu today, each little scale needing my attention.

(I go through about 4 of those little paintbrushes each month.)

My raggedy hands won't be winning any Pretty Hands awards (is there such a thing?) but I still ♥ them. Oh sure, they're fickle beasts, prone to wayward mark-making and other such shenanigans. They have a checkered past, an uncertain future, and they're never quite free of painty stains. And let's face it, they have issues, but then again don't we all?

My brain is too full of other things to come up with a title for this post.

In varying degrees of unfinished-ness, here's what greeted me this morning on my worktable.

There are 3 one-of-a-kind pieces mixed in there that will be available somewhere on the 13th, but I can't tell you where because it's a secret until then. I finished sculpting some heads too. Almost. They still need sanding (my least favorite part) before I can paint them (the super-fun part).

 And I got to indulge my love of tiny stitches on this one

while watching Project Runway on the computer. (whee!)

In other news, Spring is just around the corner.

I can just see it peeking over the proverbial garden wall.

The Shape of Things

It's all about the circles today.

I've been playing with that big circle circus of a painty quilt for quite awhile now, in my off hours. I haven't yet figured out what color the background will be, so it has been pushed aside til inspiration strikes.

Got some circular happiness in the mail too! Tiny wooden wheels and lots of old white buttons were found on ebay; and imagine my delight when I won a prize from Julie over at My Curious Tea Party and it turned out to be buttons! Can't wait to add them to my collection.

So many circle-covered possiblities!

Dr. Suess

Happy Birthday, Dr. Suess!

Heading to the library today to indulge my inner child.

“Be who you are and say what you feel

because those who mind don't matter

and those who matter don't mind.”

-Dr. Suess