Crochet

I am so inspired to get started on a crochet project. So many great images on the blogs these days. Looks like crochet is taking over the universe. Pip at Meet me at Mikes has started a crochet a day tutorial on her blog. I also found a short but sweet granny square refresher from Martha Stewart you can find here.
Meet Me at Mikes

Wren Handmade

Rose Hip

Dottie Angel

Craft Swap

********Update: Swap is postponed due to snow! New date is Feb.28th**************************************
Get ready to start your spring cleaning early! If you live in the Richmond VA area stop by the Crafter's Anonymous Craft Swap at Art 180 on Sunday Jan. 31st. Dig through all your piles of art and craft supplies and pick out stuff you can part with and you will be rewarded with a buncha new stuff. I may even find the energy to go up in the attic to find some lost treasures. I must admit I bring really good stuff to the swaps and a lot of it.

Julia Pott

Julia Pott's new wintery animals are just too perfect. You can find them on her Etsy store and you can keep track of what she is working on at her blog.

Under Construction

Sorry so few posts this week but I had a good excuse. I have been giving my work room a makeover. There is a special satisfaction in building something that is bigger than yourself. My new shelf is about 4 feet by 6 feet tall. I have storage all the way up to ceiling. And the shelves are 18 inches deep. Plenty of room to dry my canvases without Coltrane walking all over them ( i hope). The new drafting table is from Dick Blick I just wrote a review on their web site. It was quite a challenge to put together because it came with no instructions but I did my best. A tad bit wobbly but it's not like I am going to get up on it and dance or anything. Great opportunity to wipe the dust off my power drill. I still want to add some more details to the room. I put the fabric panels on the shelf. I think they add a nice touch. All this work is in preparation for opening my etsy store, rikizarris.etsy.com. I have a good assortment of images ready I just have fine tune the printing and take pictures of the finished products. I hope to have things wraped up by the end of the month. Can't Wait!

Art.com

I have found a new way to waste time. In fact I believe I may just be an expert at time wasting. Art.com has this new feature on it's site where you can pick a room to put your art work in. Its like a interior designer game app. Don't know if it is as hilariously entertaining when it is not your own art.

Xmas 2009

Look what Santa brought us this year. We totally don't deserve such nice things.
Coltrane got two new Giraffes to replace the original that was beheaded last year:

Celery colored Eames rocker that just happens to match a West Elm pillow I had:

Crazy patterned curtains from World Market. On the wall is a painting I just can't get around to finishing.

Secondhand Rose

Secondhand Rose vintage wallpaper store in New York is like a pattern museum you can actually buy from. I love the horse with the knitting at the top. Weird but fun.

Calendar Recycle Projects

Every January I reuse my Nikki McClure calendar from last year to make little greeting cards. Most calendars have little preview pages on the back. I cut these out and paint black gouache over the dates. I use a metallic paint pen to write my greeting on the gouache square and use the back to write my message. You could probably do the same thing with acrylic paint if you had a shiny calendar you wanted to use. This year I also made a beautiful poster with the cover of the calendar. I used black gouache on the background, painting over any text and added highlights to the egg with white gouache. Can't wait to cut up this years calendar and see what I can make from it.

And the winner is.....

Remodelista is the winner of 2009 Apartment Therapy Hommies contest. I had my fingers crossed for Young House Love to win because they have featured my artwork and because they are also in Richmond VA.
Apartment Therapy did a great job on their site this year. They made it easy to vote and to view all the nominated sites. Lots of great sites on their list that deserved many more votes than they got. Having your own blog is just an excuse to spend all day looking at other people's blogs. Picking your favorite is like picking your favorite music, very personal. Here are some of my new discovered favorites:
House of Turquoise
The Happy Home
Please sir
Knack
Cafe Carolina
Art Wall
Malo

John Derian Company, Inc

Wouldn't it be a fun job to be the antique print buyer for John Derian's decoupage.

Festive paper banners

Wouldn't these banners from Ay Mujer on Etsy be great for an outdoor wedding. She even can make them personalized by name and color on recycled tissue paper.

Art Wall

This has been on my to-do list for years. But I finally did it and it wasn't nearly as scary to put up as I thought it would be.
If you like what you see you can find some of these on the web:
Erica Vess at Bee's Knees Studio
Jill Bliss at Buy Olympia

Christina Flowers at Magnolia Moonlight

Nikki McClure at Buy Olympia

AND..... Coming soon my prints will be available on etsy.