Bright Bird

Happy June! I thought I would share with you all the Artist Trading Cards (ATC's) I made for June's trade. The theme was Creative Challenge using rubber stamps...my! what a hard challenge since I never use rubber stamps. Actually, I have to hold myself back from all the tempting stamps, papers, inks, paints, embellishments, books and the like. I can talk for hours with friends about products, companies and blogs.

Here is the picture of the ATC's I made entitled "Bright Bird":


Right now I go to Nichole Heady's blog {capture the moment} a lot. She once designed for Paper Crafts Magazine (a really great magazine for ideas for cards and other projects) and now co-owns and designs clear stamps for a marvelous company, Papertrey Ink. What is also amazing is that Nichole Heady is only 28, is married with 3 kids which makes me feel rather old and lazy...anyway, have fun looking at her work, the Papertrey Ink design team's work and enjoy Papertrey Ink's products! I am excited about this month's releases.

Blast From the Past

This was a draft post dated September 28, 2007...I think it is time to dust it off and publish the sucker. Please remember that I was writing about the past and it may not properly reflect what I now feel. I have been working on my perception as perception is so incredibly important! In fact your mind can persuade you of quite remarkable things and some of them aren't healthy in the slightest.

I have been meaning to share a very special blog with you, dear reader. I think the minute you begin reading Orangette you realize what a blog should be: personal, warm, friendly, witty, informative, whimsical and charming. In fact, it is little wonder that Molly met her husband through her blog. For a lovely little real life romance centered around food (a certain lemon cake actually) check out the link to their Food Network profile.

I think this brings home how blogs can bring people together. I know that in the food blogging world (yes, there is one) fellow bloggers have established friendships exchanging ideas, tips, stories, recipes and information. They also actually visit each other. I find this sweet and amazing as I find it hard to even catch up with friends that live in the same city. I think it opens my eyes to what lives other people lead that seem to have sweeping vistas.

For me most trips are carefully, nearly painfully pondered where I have to skirt around possible problems and constraints: financial, time, logisitics, not to mention the huge clothing dilemna. I make everything much harder than it should be and it is all due to insecurity on my part. The actual travelling I relish, it is the process prior to the journey that bothers me. I have this fear of what people from my past will think of me to the point I have hidden when I have seen someone from high school in a store. This is arrogant on my part as I don't think they would necessarily remember me anyway. I usually remember people while they forget. The problem is this fear extends to family and friends. I hide from them too. When I didn't I had to prepare myself for it and I wasn't always successful....

In July of 2003 I went to a college friend's wedding in Maine. The trip in general was fantastic and the wedding lovely, but the night before the wedding I was struck with such waves of sadness, embarassment and a sense of not belonging or fitting in that I couldn't eat (a highly unusual occurance for me) and sat reading some local paper fighting back tears for which I luckily snapped out of later that evening and was in good spirits for the rest of the weekend. Still, I felt awful about my moodiness and inability to deal with the emotions in a "normal" way. In the back of my mind the episode only reinforced my own ideas of being socially inept and too damaged to be much of a friend. I had faced a similar situation at my maternal grandparents' 50th Wedding Anniversary a few years before in which I felt paralyzed by a feeling of profound alienation and shame at being me whilst surrounded by family.

The years following college I had a crisis of identity and I forgot how to related to others. My world became smaller and smaller as I tried to find meaning and understanding about myself. My route diverged from the norm quite radically. I didn't pursue a career nor did I pursue a romantic relationship. My feelings of alienation only increased until I became isolated, anxious, and ashamed. I assumed it would be better to stay out of people's lives than corrupt them. Yes, dear reader, I was maudlin.

Links and the Mighty Dollar

It only took me 10 months or so to add links to the blogs I have mentioned. Nothing like promptness to keep this blog active and fresh! I think I could mention dozens if not hundreds of blogs. So, I will only add to my list when I actually blog about them. How cool is it that the woman behind Cupcake Project left a comment on my blog thanking me??? Pure class. I will never stop marvelling at how people can find you in this vast world of ours.

On to another subject a couple of Saturdays ago (or three who can keep track which is why I blog and journal) was a day to weed through old cookbooks. We are talking about microwave and lite cookbooks along with other cookbooks mostly dating from the 1970's and 1980's. Five boxes later we took them to our local Half Price Books and received less than $40.00 for the lot (including some stellar dvd's like Honey) which we burned through (and more) with new purchases that fit into a single bag. A lesson in the value of the dollar and inflation, dear reader! What is even more enlightening is that we were estatic with that they took everything. What a feeling of freedom and lightness!

Design Crush

I have been searching the web for seventies design, textiles and the like. I am firmly in the love with the graphic quality of seventies prints. I have always admired the bohemian meets psychedelic meets Victorian design found in England during the 1970's, but haven't had much appreciation for other aspects of the 1970's. How wrong I was! I have stumbled on numerous really cool blogs today and I have to share this blog: Cassapinka. She chronicles the making of a home including offbeat finds and what she does with them. I adore her style and I am enamored with the wallpaper she chose for her entryway. It a gorgeous black & white cherry blossom design from the 1970's (see right. Look at that woodwork too!).

Have I mentioned by penchant for black & white? I love how colors pop off black & white (like intense red, turquoise, lime green, pink & orange) Black & white is also unbelievably versatile, timeless, bold, fresh and elegant all at once.

Also look at her awesome finds like the Amy Leonard Sculptural Lamps (July 25, 2007 entry). How cool are they?!? I love the idea of using found objects to create a story under glass. Fantastic, in my opinion. I think her taste in art is grand.

Under the July 14, 2007 post is actually an x upholstered chair I have seen before and really liked...after scanning through her pictures I can't write down all the things I love although there is a picture of another blogger's bedroom and I want that black & white rug for my bedroom!

Yes, I realize I am gushing like a schoolgirl because simply put: I am giddy over this stuff!

Fumbling with Design

I have been contemplating design lately. The Holidays are drawing nearer and nearer and I still haven't a clue of what my card design (or designs) is going to be. Do I go elegant, fun, festive, funky or traditional? I really want to do special handmade cards this year...in fact I feel compelled to do them this year. I think a lot of my indecision stems from my being unsure of what my style is (something I have mentioned in an earlier post). I have noticed this frustrating inability to be cleanly and clearly me from my attempts at making artist trading cards (ATC). They aren't me. Rather the cards are a proximity of what I can do in a given amount of time with a certain theme. I ponder the themes for weeks and I am only compelled to do something by the deadline and often it is a compromise rather than any fulfillment of a "vision".

I think it may be time to exercise my creative muscles like I have with writing. For the past few weeks I have not only been writing on this blog, but more regularly writing in a personal journal. My journal has to be some of the most boring writing around, but I am learning to write consistently and not worrying about the quality nor the content as that is not the point. The personal journal is a means of chronicling my life and having an outlet rather than something to entertain others or even myself. I need to do a similar thing only visually to open up my artistic horizons and learn more about myself as a creator. I know what I am drawn to: art with a historic twist; incorporates a story as words and letters are important and beautiful to me; a touch of elegance and/or the ornate; a sense of chaotic movement; bold colors and ideas and an aspect of dark emotion (perhaps even morbid humor) and deep passions. How can I use these elements to create something that is me and that has the quality I desire? That is the question.

I have a circus themed ATC I am working on right now and I have decided to deal with elephants. For some reason I have this idea of an elephant feeling demeaned and angered by how it must pose, perform and is treated with little care for all her effort. I have named my fictional elephant Jade. I think for this theme I will also carve an elephant stamp--it is amazingly fun and gratifying to carve stamps. At right is a little of my preliminary planning for the circus ATC's (by the way the handwriting is the handwriting I have when it is for myself--it is a bit messier).

The other theme in October is orange. Now, I am a lover of orange, but I haven't a clue what my handle is on the color. I think it may be the 1970's...I keep thinking of the oranges found in the decor then (not to mention shag carpeting, macramé, owls, wooden beads, dark wood paneling, avocado green and harvest gold appliances and zigzags) and how many of my peers are now inspired by those same colors from their childhood and the reemergence of the popularity of orange in interior decorating.


In my search of Edward Gorey's illustrations (one of my favorites), I found Reusch Sketchbooks, a blog of an artist who posts images from his numerous sketchbooks. I haven't had a chance to at too many of his art, but what I have is intriguing to me. I especially like the first two sketches on the
Monday, March 5, 2007 entry on first glance.

Summer Under the Stars Begins

During the month of August every year TCM runs its Summer Under the Stars. Each day is dedicated to a chosen movie actor and each year the stars are different although there usually are superstars that show up each year (like Spencer Tracy, Jimmy Stewart, John Wayne, Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn), although this year there are fewer of these than previous years. Dear reader, I am sure you will be amused to know that I was nearly in raptures when I found out there would be a day dedicated to Vincent Price this year. I am an odd duck.

Summer Under the Stars is kicked off today with renowned raven-haired beauty, Elizabeth Taylor. I grew up believing Elizabeth Taylor one the greatest beauties of all time as my mom was a fan. Through the years I have seen several of Elizabeth Taylor's films from the time she was a young girl through her later years. I enjoy her sultry screen presence in the 1950's and 1960's best. Who can forget Maggie the Cat? Or more recently I saw a deliciously strange Southern gothic film Reflections in a Golden Eye co-starring Marlon Brando which I am convinced was an inspiration for American Beauty.

Before coming into work I caught the tail end (no pun intended) of one of Taylor's earlier films, Courage of Lassie (strangly enough the collie's name in the film was Bill and not Lassie, but you can read more about that if you are interested by clicking the link for the movie) which is one of those child and their dog movies. I feel more than a little sheepish to admit I am easily swayed by the emotional manipulation found in these films. Ah well, I am a sap. I only have to think of the ending scene of My Dog Skip to become damp-eyed.

Oh, and for those who enjoy reading blogs about movies, here is TCM's with several contributors and they cover a gambit of interesting topics related to film: Movie Morlocks.

Blogging about blogs

The two or so people who came on here yesterday may notice a change in the appearance of this brand new blog. I am personalizing it a bit and using my rusty and out-of-date Photoshop skills gleaned at college some ten years ago to add a dash of color and interest. I imagine I will be playing with the look of my blog a lot because:

1. I am fussy. I have perfectionist tendencies that cause all sort of havoc in my life.
2. I love the appearance of things. As much as I wish I were much deeper than I am my eyes sway me something fierce. Put a length of bright satin ribbon in front of me and I will follow the saturation of light as if mesmerized. Forget it when what I am viewing is food, I am lost in sensory admiration.
3. There is a lot to live up to out there in the world of blogs.

I must admit to being swept away with blogs and more specifically the gorgeous food blogs out there. If you want to be impressed with creativity and artistry not to mention tempted by culinary delights go trolling on the web through food blogs. You will be amazed, delighted, flabbergasted and astonished by the vast array, talent, effort and beauty. I have favorites some due to their content, some due to a whimsical and thoughtful voice, others because they are just downright lovely and tickle my aesthetic sensibilities, others have scrumptious recipes and then others surpass many magazines in their ability to photograph and style food. Then there are a few that meet all these criteria. I imagine I will revisit this remark in more detail.

The first food blog I am going to mention is Cupcake Bakeshop. I have always adored cupcakes as they are dainty, pretty and have such a strong connection to childhood. The cupcakes featured in Cupcake Bakeshop are not those remembered from childhood these are the adult, chic, gourmet versions with startling flair and incredibly exotic combinations such as Chocolate Cupcake Stuffed with Ginger Caramel, Frosted with Mango Ganache, and Topped with a Mango-Ginger Won Ton. Cupcakes are afterall a hot trend.

My second favorite blog is the art blog. My art scene is not "fine art", but the more colorful, fanciful, fun and usually feminine found in magazines like Somerset Studio, Cloth Paper Scissors and Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion. I am talking about altered art, collage, artist trading cards, multi-media, art collaboration and assemblage art. The art is personal, intentionally imperfect and a complete cornucopia of different elements, time periods, inspiration, color, tools and techniques. The publishers of Somerset Studio are going to soon be releasing a book about blogging: Artful Blogging.

One of my favorites also featured in the book is by Michelle Ward and I especially appreciate her Street Team. She issues challenges and people using her unmounted stamp line Green Pepper Press step up to the challenge. I am in love with her images, especially her WayWard Collection which are gothic, lush and decadent as is Michelle Ward's work at the moment.

Yes, I have a lot to learn, especially how to take a decent photograph.