Sunflowers in April?

One of the unexpected benefits of having an on-line store is that I am now proceeding with long ignored projects just because I have the store.



Here is an Example. In August 2007 I took over 200 photos in a field of sunflowers. Those digital photos were downloaded to my PC, where there they sat. Now that I have my store, I finally reviewed the sunflower photos, selected my favorites, and have printed out the best shots for products in my store.

Having my store gave me a reason to sort through photos in April 2009 that I had never printed or shown my family since taken in 2007.



The 1st time I took photos in the field I got permission from the farmer, took a ladder into the field and shot photos by myself for almost 2 hours. That weekend I went back a second time with my family and took some pictures I thought I might use for the 2007 Christmas card. We ended up using photos from Washinton DC for the 2007 Christmas card, but this picture was one of the options I decided not to use.



Click on the images to see them larger. 

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Happy Earth Day

Today we are celebrating Earth Day, a time to pause and reflect on the state of our planet, then move forward and act to PROTECT, PRESERVE AND CONSERVE the ONLY HOME IN THE UNIVERSE WE HAVE EVER KNOWN.

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This planet is not renewable.

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I'd love to hear your reflections on earth day.

This is my earth day peace sign 5x7 available

here. It is also available at Pizzazz's in Cedarburg, and as a card at Elliot's Partyland in Mequon, the Flying Pig in Algoma, and Pizzazz's.

I also have many photos that celebrate the natural beauty of this planet in my shop at http://www.jselep.etsy.com/.

Etsy treasuries

I wanted to post two wonderful Etsy treasuries that I was in earlier this month. Both treasuries have expired by now, but I was so happy to be in them.


The first treasury featured my cookie card.
(In the upper left corner)

This treasury was created by
wirestormcreations.







This "batik boutique" treasury was created by hollyjollyshop.

Batik is a special kind of fabric that uses wax in the dying process to create a beautiful effect.

She featured my peace sign framed photograph.




(For an explanation of treasuries, click here )

April Project

Well, April is more then half gone, and spring flowers are beginning to bloom. Today the children were back in school after a long spring break.

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I dug into a project that has been beckoning me for a while. Over one year ago (or at least in 2008) I purchased an hand bound antique "book" that seems to be compilation of a "The Cottage Hearth" subscription for the year 1882. I think Country Hearth was a monthly periodical, a magazine of sorts from over 130 years ago (?). The inch and a half thick volume is crumbling, and I probably paid to much for it, but the illustrations were beautiful to me - from the height of the Victorian era, in my opinion. The "April" banner above is an example of the illustrations in this delicate volume.

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I am inspired by the illustrations and am going to try to recreate some of the bouquets, flower arrangements, and embellishments with actual flowers and photography, interpreted, of course. I hope to have an example of my interpretation in this blog before the month is out. (Uh oh, a goal)

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I also decided to feature some of my favorite illustrations as cards in my etsy store, under vintage. It will be quite different then my photography, of course, but if I can't play with my shop, who can? My interests are varied and I guess my shop will reflect that sooner or later. (I play with mosaics, and my shop has had three mosaic products for months now. So the shop is kind of varied already.)

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The dragonfly above is the first image I am considering using for a card.

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Bye for now!

My photograph is in an Etsy Treasury!

My black and white photograph of the covered bridge in Cedarburg Wisconsin was featured in this treasury on Etsy today.



A Treasury on Etsy is a mini exhibit or selection of 12 different items from different artists that is put together by a fellow Etsian - the "curator". Anyone with an Etsy account can be a curator. The curator chooses the theme of their treasury, for example colors, animal, symbol, flowers, seasons. They title the treasury, and then select the objects. I believe the objects have to come from 12 different artists.
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Many of these guest curators have a fabulous eye for selecting items that go together for their chosen theme. One thing I really love about this black and white treasury is that it makes me very aware of textures. I always feel black and white photography reveals emotions in photograph. In this treasury, I saw how much texture the black and white reveals.
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I am always honored to find out one of my artworks is in a treasury. When I saw that I was in this treasury, I decided that I would figure out how to add this to my blog. Treasuries expire, but the screen shot of them doesn't. Thank You to bstudio, the curator who included my covered bridge photograph in her treasury.

Time is flying by!

Well, April has come and time is flying by. In my Feb 28 blog entry, I said my goal for March was to post an item on my on-line store every day. I made my goal, missing only one day, the day I did my first craft show. I now have over 130 items in my store.

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I submitted an artwork to the 62nd annual Ozaukee County Art Fair (Artists are limited to 1 artwork in this fair), and my photograph "Evolution" won a ribbon. :) Notice - It is not a typo, the show has been held for 62 years! I also have 4 new pieces of art displayed in the Cedarburg Artist Guild's Main Street Gallery at the Cedarburg Cultural Center.

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In March I also did my 2nd show - selling photography at Mama Mayborne's open house ) On April 4, 2009 I participated in my first booth fee paying event, the MS Vendor Craft fair which had over 50 vendors located in a middle school - in the halls, gym and cafeteria.

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I guess my vision for my blog was to write about each of these events, and perhaps someday I will be able to achieve that vision. In the meanwhile I got a lot done - I just didn't find the time to blog about each event. We'll see what happens in the future.

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P.S. I plan on posting an item a day in my on-line store in April also. I don't plan on doing this particular goal in May. I won't be posting anything while on my scheduled vacation with my soon to be 10 year old daughter. We are supposed to pack light for our 180 mile raft trip through the grand canyon. No PC, no electricity, no buildings, just a lot of running water... I am taking some cameras though, so I hope I'll be bringing back some good photos...

Anticipation - Milwaukee's Art in Bloom event

There is so much going on in April. But one event I am really looking forward to this week is the Art in Bloom event at the Milwaukee Art Museum, April 2-5, 2009.
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Art in Bloom events are annual floral-art events held at multiple museums through out the US. (Boston's Museum of Fine Art, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Oregon and more) The Milwaukee Art Museum's Inaugural Art in Bloom event was first held last year in 2008.
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Multiple florists create bouquets of flowers inspired by works of art from the Museum's collection. The bouquets are displayed close to the inspiring art works, scattered throughout the museum. You get to see unique beautiful and inspired bouquets as you wander the art museum in a meandering tour.
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There are also lectures, demos, tours, a vendor area, and more beautiful flowers. For me, its a perfect combination of two of my loves - flowers and art.

The museum has events like flower ranging lectures and demos and landscaping lectures throughout the four days. The cost for the lectures isn't inexpensive, but the price means the museum can book top national designers and authors to fly in for the lectures. I attended a demo/lecture by Ron Morgan on flower arranging last year. Watching the top designer create 5 or more very different flower arrangements in an hour or so taught me more in 60 minutes then reading for 3 days would have. It was funny, entertaining and a great way to learn.



I had arranged to meet Kyle Zubatsky for breakfast at the museum and we got to walk through the museum together. She owns a gallery and exhibits art nationally and so walking the museum with her was a particular treat.

On Sunday I took my family to the see the Art in Bloom show.


I hope you enjoy some of the photos that I took from last year's show - I'll try to get some photos from this year's show posted after this year's event.

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I am linking up to Sunday Favorites 96 (Entry 32 of gone.)

 

Visit http://www.mam.org/bloom/ for more information.

Waiting for Spring, again...

This weekend I saw a seven robins in a group while I was waiting for my son to finish his track practice. A flock of robins. It was great. I wanted to get my camera and take photos of robins, but I didn't have my camera with me.

Spring is my favorite season. I am so ready for it to be here! Last night it snowed. We even had a winter storm warning.



I thought I would share some photos from previous springs while I wait for spring 2009 to arrive.

Click on the images to see them larger. 

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My first featured artist - Miranda

My first featured artist is going to be... My daughter.

I am very proud of this card - The artist is my 9 year old daughter Miranda. One day when I was creating valentines, she was given unlimited access to my stash and created this collage. It is fun to see what children can create with beautiful materials. She calls it "Deep Blue Ocean." She said signing the card I made from a photograph of her collage made her feel famous.

Pablo Picasso said "Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up."

I am hoping that I have remained an artist, and I know my daughter is one. I love the look that children's art frequently has. Enjoy!

The snow is almost gone!

Spring is close by, and my tulips and crocuses are beginning to poke through the dirt.

The snow is melting, and some of my heart mosaics have reemerged from under the snow.

The mosaics are the only spots of color in the garden beds, which is one of the reasons I left them out all winter.

I made seven so different heart mosaics in 2007-2008, trying out different techniques and cements. You may be able to guess which ones were earlier experiments. 

I didn't grout and seal any of these. They shouldn't be left out all winter, but the colors peeking through the snow was always so cheery, so I left them out.

My daughter made the circle stepping stone below using leftovers from some stained glass projects and other objects I found. For the next month or so, this will be about all the color we will have around here. 

 

But if you want to see spring flowers right now, go to my on-line shop and click on the flowers and spring section. I have beautiful cards and photographic prints of many favorite spring flowers.

I blog for fun and my blog is ad free.  Comments encourage me, and I sometimes need encouragement. Please leave a comment if you have time!  Anonymous comments and  comments months/years later are welcome!_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Click here for an Incredible Mosaic Collection!

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