Under the Tulip Tree

Hand Painted Model Horse

Like I've said before, Miss A may no longer be obsessed with real horses but her love of model horses (and what she can do with them) is still alive and well. This horse is from a Breyer Custom Horse Kit and she researched different ways to paint it so that it looked as realistic as possible.

Here's what it looked like before--bald, pale, and slightly alien-like. To paint it, she ground up different colors of chalk pastels and dabbed them onto the horse with a dry paint brush. Between each layer of pastels, she sprayed it with a matte fixative.

When she was done with the pastels, she used acrylic paint for the hooves, face, and eyes. Then she carefully sprayed the whole thing again with matte fixative. After that was good and dry, she painstakingly trimmed, shaped, and applied the mohair mane and tail with clear craft glue.

Just in case you're wondering what breed this is, it's an Akhal-Teke. Don't worry, I'd never heard of that breed before either.

ANY

Decorating Pottery

I've been doing lots of painting on pottery lately. It's very relaxing. Most crafts don't relax me; they usually stress me out. Like sewing, sewing stresses me out. Painting on pottery doesn't, which is probably why I decorated this little teacup for a dear friend's baby shower gift instead of sew her something. I thought about sewing a little "Baby Sleeping" sign for her door but that stressed me out so I didn't. I couldn't believe I found this teacup, actually. I wanted something small and pretty but plain and simple and not frilly, and then there it was on a Goodwill shelf. The glaze is cracked slightly but it doesn't go all the way through so I think we're good.

Did I ever tell you that I used to be a hand-letterer? Not like calligraphy or anything, but I used to do different types of lettering for different types of people. I even did a funky, custom alphabet for the inside of this Klutz book. It was a super fun gig.

I'm a doodler, too. Every piece of paper within a six-foot radius of me is covered with squiggles and triangles and loops and circles and squares. I've tried to be better about that though because I've ruined some important paperwork over the years. I haven't figured out a way to get paid for doodling yet but maybe someday I will. Until then, decorating pottery will suffice.

ANY

New Art for the Living Room

Isn't it funny how the more you make things, the more you make things? Making things fuels more ideas to make things, things you probably wouldn't have thought of making unless you were making something else, ya know? Anyway, back to the living room…

All of the little pictures came down last week. It was time to do something different, and I liked being able to see the wall color without the frames up there. I lived with the bare walls for a few days (and liked it) until I started to imagine a painting of a rustic vase of flowers with buttery yellows and greenish-blues, in a whitish frame, above this chair. So I got my paints and started painting.

It had been a long, long time since I'd used those acrylic paints and it felt surprisingly good to pick them up again. Which is convenient because there are lots of spaces to fill. I don't want to cover the walls with stuff again but I definitely need a few pieces in a few key places. Like on the opposite wall above the other chair. And maybe another one further down the wall from this one. And something else by the mirror…

See how these things get started?

ANY

I Think I Just Found A New Hobby

Seriously. It is so much fun.

You've been seeing people painting on porcelain for a while now, right? Have you wanted to try it? I know I have. I finally found some pens and got to work and I enjoyed myself immensely. Painting on something other than paper is so much more fun than painting on paper! And all you have to do is paint it on, bake your piece, and voila! You've got something new that is dishwasher safe and just the way you want it. Super, super cool.

Oh, and I just remembered I have a stack of extra white dishes in my cabinet.

And I have an Etsy shop.

The possibilities are endless…

ANY

Miss A's New Shop

Did you hear? Miss A opened her own Etsy shop! A few of her little creations are now for sale—including Duncan the Dachshund here. If you've seen her blog you know she tirelessly draws, sculpts, crochets, and makes, but you might not know that she's been wanting her own shop for a very long time. This girl is serious about her art.

If you get a moment, I do hope you'll peruse some of her new wares.

ANY

Crochet By Miss A

She is a fast and furious artist. Her ideas and drawings are all around the house and I just can't keep up with them, quite honestly. She needs an Assistant Manager or something. Or at the very least she needs to find someone who will pick up all of the projects on her bedroom floor and clean up the stuff she's got shoved under her bed.

One of her most recent projects is this crocheted panda hat that she lovingly refers to as "Endangered Lid." She was inspired by her favorite crochet pattern designer, Ana Paula Rimoli (she writes those adorable amigurumi books we love), specifically her baby hats. Arden decided to make her own version of the baby bear hat and didn't care at all that she didn't have a pattern. I am not a knitter or a crocheter so I'm not sure how to go about something like this without a pattern (or with a pattern for that matter). She said she just put together different parts and pieces from her books and mind. The unusual color palette was prompted by a yellow and orange panda she saw in the March issue of American Girl magazine, and it was always part of her plan to make a yellow and orange panda out of Sculpey clay to match the hat:

This little guy was supposed to have been pinned to the side of the hat but we haven't gotten around to that yet. We're not quite done setting up her Ravelry page and talking about her pattern shop and discussing why she needs her own Paypal account. Good gravy, you gotta get up early around here.

ANY

Weekend Hearts

We had a very unhappy girlie on our hands this weekend. She coughed and sniffed and sneezed until she went through an entire box of tissues and a whole bottle of elderberry syrup by herself. Poor thing. The weather was warm and even a little bit springy but we stayed inside and did not do much at all. I was very tempted to grab my pitch fork and get to work on my new garden beds but I was starting to feel a little twinge of something myself, so, I didn't.

Instead I put together a window garland to perk things up around here— just some paper hearts stitched together with a few bits of polka-dotted scrapbook paper inside. It's hanging from some yarn and little baby clothespins. Not too much in the way of Valentine's Day decorating but I never seem to do as much as I'd like to anyway.

Today it's warm but stormy, and my girl and I are still inside. She's just announced that it's time for a movie and I think it's time I join her.

Happy Monday!

ANY