Lovely Clusters

Its time again for the Lovely Clusters autumn catalog, I always enjoy flipping through the virtual pages, each cluster transports me to far away places and restful times of day. I want to open up that blue door below and walk through...

 My Lotus painting Hope is featured here on the Berry Tones page,

and can you believe these chandeliers in the photograph on this page, wow!

I hope that you are having a good week! I've been recovering from the Pirate Birthday party that we had last weekend, 14 young pirates took over our garden and searched for some treasure, exciting times!

Star Shadow

In the afternoons I've been loving the way that the sun shines through this sheer paper rainbow window star that I got here. When we moved in it seemed perfectly placed in this window, right above our dining table, and I have really been enjoying the way that the shadow of the star travels around the room as the sun moves, especially now as the sun is lower in the sky with the shifting of autumn.

Spring Catalog

My work is featured on a few pages of the Spring 2011 Lovely Clusters Catalog, each page is full of juicy candy colored collection grouped by theme. You can check out the whole catalog here, its worth a peak, especially on a gray April week. That photo of Venice on the multicolored page has me day dreaming. I'm just waiting for all of the lovely May flowers we will have after so much rain!

Painting palettes and postcards

With all of the snow, slush and gray days that we have been having this winter, my painting palettes are some of the brightest colorful things around here these days. Well, besides my actual paintings of course! I noticed my palettes the other day sitting in the studio, it was one of those moments where suddenly you notice something that you look at all of the time in a new way, and thought that they looked so pretty as a grouping all together. This is the time of year when I start to long for the bright days of spring and summer.
 So, just for fun I've decided to offer my postcard sets in two new color ways as well.

There is the Fire postcard set,

and the Water postcard set,

Can you tell that I am getting my color fix!?

More felting!

Here is a peak at a few of the other things that we made in our amazing felting class, even though the class finished early this week the felt fun has been continuing here, I think that the kids and I have found a new addiction.

We loved making these felt balls, that were so easy and simple both kids could make them with little to no help, it was all about rolling the wet felt in your hands, which was very satisfying. Then I finished them with the little bands of color.

Then we learned how to make felted pouches, which was probably my favorite project. I made this lotus pouch first...

and then I helped Jasper make this pouch, since he is six and turquoise is his favorite color he wanted six turquoise stripes, it all turned out great and he has been filling it with mysterious little things ever since! He is very proud of it.

Turquoise Postcards

I am love love loving these new postcards that just came in! Its a serious Turquoise fiesta.

My favorite color, in a series of 5 paintings that I've been working on for the past month. This set of postcards is now available in my shop here, and I'm excited to share more about these new paintings soon. 

The bottom three, with the lotus and the butterfly, are part of my new Winged Blessings series, and the other two are part of a series that I am working on about Journeys.

I think that they all fit together so nicely!

Thanks so much for your enthusiasm about our Disney trip, it was such a great time with our kids and my in-laws, perfect for family reunions. The one big thing that I have learned after going for three years now is to pace your self and take days off to just sit by the pool. Disney can be exhausting, probably because it is so much fun!

Lovely Clusters

Have you visited Lovely Clusters? The site is really just chock full of beautiful things, so soft and feminine...

I love how you can find things that you are interested in on the site in "lovely clusters" of similar color-ways, what a simple yet unique idea!

I have loved having my work as a part of Lovely Clusters for quite a few months, and now Rachel Follett, the creator of Lovely Clusters is running a little contest on the site... a popularity contest of sorts. Basically the shop with the most "likes" wins, so if you could help me out by going here, and just clicking that you "like" my shop I'd be very happy, and probably even like you more although I already like you all lots!

Spring Green

Its everywhere and I
Can. Not. Get. Enough!

Some little post cards

Fresh in the shop...I had 6 of my favorite images printed up as postcards and I am offering them now as sets.
They are perfect for sharing, framing, keeping, or of course sending for any occasion.
They are available in sets of 3, and a set of 6, here.

I have a little surprise something up my sleeve for the next week or so...check back tomorrow to find out my secret.

Pink living

OK, so I can't get pink out of my system, my pink week (month?) continues! This is all from the same house in London, I am swooning over the dreamy touches. That neon mixed in with the plants, all of the wood and stone detailing, and that light!
I wish we were having more light here in Brooklyn but I can't complain as these days of rain give me an excuse to work away in the studio.
Touches of pink are working their way into all three paintings that I have been in process this week. I have been thinking about how to share more of my working process here...more of that to come next week...
as I have a feeling that the next few days will be fully occupied with Halloween fun! Pink princess costumes anyone?!

{all images via shoot factory}

pink

Lately, I've been loving pink.

Can you tell?

Right now....

I am loving...

The colors and textures of my overgrown, late summer deck garden.

These boots, they just arrived last night and I can't wait to wear them with jeans when the weather turns cooler.

This new patterned rug for our living room floor by one of my favorite fabric designers, Kaffe Fasset. I couldn't believe my luck finding it at a recent going out of business sale at one of our neighborhood boutiques. These colors will be inspiring my paintings through the winter!

This necklace by artist Malisa Batasso, I'm seriously obsessed with her jewelry and I love how she draws inspiration from so many elements of nature.

This chocolate cake that I made last week for Frank's birthday, we could not believe how yummy it was, sort of a cross between a souffle and a gooey brownie. It is chocolate heaven, easily the best chocolate cake we have EVER eaten, and super simple...here is the recipe taken directly from the book A Homemade Life that I am reading (and loving) right now. One of the goals that I have set for myself this fall is to try more of the recipes from this book.

Winning Hearts and Minds Cake
7 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

1 3/4 sticks (7 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
5 large eggs
1 tablespoon unbleached all-purpose flour
Lightly sweetened whipped cream, for serving

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F, and butter an 8 inch round cake pan. Line the bottom of the pan with a round of parchment paper, and butter the paper too.
Put the chocolate and butter in a medium microwavable bowl. Microwave on high for 30 seconds at a time, stirring often, until smooth. When the mixture is smooth, add the sugar, stirring well to incorporate. Set the batter aside to cool for 5 minutes. Then add the eggs one by one, stirring well after each addition. Add the flour and stir well. The batter should be dark and silky.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and bake for 25 minutes, or until the top of the cake is lightly cracked, the edges are puffed, and the center of the cake looks set.

The Beginning

Today she started her first day of playgroup. It is only three days a week for a few hours a day but STILL...I know that it is the beginning of her moving towards becoming who she is apart from me. As my second child she has accompanied me to drop her older brother off at playgroup for the past two years, so she was so excited to start herself, talking about it all summer. Now she feels like a "big girl", I can tell that she is so proud...and she didn't even look back when I dropped her off today, just ran in to play. I am so proud of her, so proud that she loves other children and feels so confident in her little self already...but still there is that sadness, kissing her cheek, saying goodbye. I think that the sadness is in part because I know that it is just the beginning of another part of her life. And then there is that part of me that is so happy to have a few hours to do my own work!
I loved this post today over at Maya*Made. The ever crafty Maya sent her daughter off to school with one of these lovely little lavender filled felt hearts. I was so inspired that I grabbed these lavender filled felt hearts that I made as Valentines gifts last winter and stuffed one in Carys's pocket. I love the idea of sending her off with a soft sweet smelling reminder that she will always have my heart.

My felt hearts are pictured on a hand embroidered dish cloth that my mom brought back from Mexico last year.

Maya offers a great tutorial on how to make these hearts. All you need is felt, lavender and embroidery floss. Instead of decorating mine with a button as she did, I just use circles of felt stacked on top of each other to play with color, sewn on in a star pattern. I usually put these in drawers since the lavender smells so good, but my children have also been known to serve them as "cookies" for a tea party and I love how Maya had the idea to make it into a necklace, adding an extra dimension of fun for little ones, especially for jewelry-loving little girls.