Open for Business

The shop is open again! Hurray!

I've decided to just go ahead and open since there have been endless delays with the addition we're building on our house (which includes my studio).  There's no sense in waiting any longer just because the built in desks aren't ready and most of my art supplies are in storage still.  

I'm not sure when I'll be able to make new work... I was so busy creating a HUMAN BEING for most of 2012 that all my creative.. ahem... juices... were used up.  But now that The Baby has been outta my body for 9 weeks, I think I can get back to creating new work in whatever time I can manage to spare. 

Ha.

Haha.

Spare time? I'm typing this entire post with one hand and while simultaneously nursing The Baby.

Clearly I must be delusional.

Here's a picture of what the studio looks looks like now-->

I'll be sure to post a picture once I set it up!

Little Update

I have been meaning to post forever. And after procrastinating for 18 months (18! Yikes!) I've decided that perhaps I should try to post more often... Ya think?!

Life is happening, dreams of years ago made to come true. Family, love, friendship, and growth. All of that sums up the past 18 months. We have a new bundle of joy who for 8 weeks has brought so much love to our lives. The boys, now 9 and 7 couldn't love him more or be more doting. I am just head over heels over this little boy who's changed my life in the best way possible. Things are good.

The shop is closed for now, but it'll open eventually. I am working on setting up a new studio and so that needs to be done before Swell Papel gears up for 2013.

Swell Papel is Out There

Hiya Internet!

I have had the good fortune and pleasure of being interviewed by Danielle from scribe & maker and the post is up today!

Please check out the interview here.

I will be back to posting regularly soon... promise!

Happy Place

There are many lessons that I have learned in my life.  One of them is not to bother calling the hotel you just checked out of from the airport asking for the Prada sunglasses you left in your room.  Your Prada sunglasses are gone.  Get over it and move on.

But this blog post has nothing to do with life lessons or Prada sunglasses.

I've been painting outdoors recently.  Outdoors in the bright bright light, where bugs and fuzzy plant matter land on my acrylic paints as I drink Diet Coke so watered down by melting ice cubes that it tastes like nothing.  Painting outside, although charming, comes with its challenges.  One must squint one's eyes in order to see what one is painting. One ends up being blinded by the reflection of the light off of one's painting.  And one ends up looking like an artsy Clint Eastwood armed with a paintbrush and some cadmium red in a tube.

One misses her Prada sunglasses.

Anyway, I'm completely enjoying painting outdoors.  So much so that it's become my newest happy place.

DIY - Jewelry Frame

This DIY project is so easy and it looks wonderful!  Total cost was $5 for the vintage frame.  I had all the other supplies here in my house.

I encourage you to try it out... now, I'll let the pictures tell the story:

DIY - Succulent Terrarium

I got all sorts of crafty today, mostly because I was overloaded with inspiration from some of the beautiful projects and things I've seen on Pinterest.  


My project today was making 2 terrariums with a couple of glass containers I used for my wedding's dessert table.  


I had a variety of things I could have done with those containers: filled them with limes, lemons, or oranges, turned them into hurricanes for candles, or filled them with sand and some decorative seashells.  None of these things really appealed to me (it's been done SO MANY times), but when I saw a few pins on terrariums on Pinterest, I knew that's what I wanted to do.


I followed Martha Stewart's Succulents Terrariums instructions and here are the results:

Such a simple and cheap project!

One of the new terrariums found a home by our kitchen window and next to a lovely Ashley G Woodsman wall art from Urban Outfitters.  


I also want to make a big enclosed moss terrarium later on.  I'm hooked now!

Toy Photo Shoot

Over this past weekend, it occurred to me that the boys need some new wall art for their bedroom and playrooms.  I've seen that they get so creative when they make their Lego bases, that I wanted to capture that as a keepsake of their amazing and unafraid creativity.


So, this weekend, the boys and I did this awesome project where they designed their Lego bases or scenes with their Star Wars figurines and I photographed them.  I loved the results!  They look almost like candid shots one would take of people without letting them pose. 


Here are some of the final shots, some of which will end up in pretty Riba frames hanging in the boys' rooms.  Yay!