NGANTOK: August 2009

Mary Engelbreit’s Home Companion Workshops

The information for the Mary Engelbreit’s Home Companion Workshops is now available online here! I'll be teaching two classes which are offered on the Friday and repeated again Saturday. I am so looking forward to this incredible event!

Registration starts tomorrow Sept 1st at noon CST!!!

In addition to the workshops, other exciting events include:

A welcome reception on Thursday night. Enter to win original ME art!
A tour of Mary Engelbreit’s studio
A panel of super stars—Amy Butler, Dena Fishbein, Marcia Ceppos and Mary Engelbreit—discuss “The Future of Handmade”
Giveaways and raffles. Join us for lunch on Saturday before the panel discussion and get your thank you goodie bag.
Your choice of 2 seminars led by industry specialists, will give you insight on everything from licensing to exhibiting your work at craft fairs!

Get ready!! Registration starts tomorrow Sept 1st @ noon CST!!!

Shoot it

I felt like having a little photoshoot in my room :P (not my outfit of the day, definately more night-appropriate) This abstract, almost ink stain like, printed dress was a gift from my dad. He always likes pieces that stand out. I love printed dresses because they can be worn for every occasion and don't go out of style so easily.

Mango dress - DSquared booties (my mom's)

ps. I have Chictopia now: http://www.chictopia.com/thischicksgotstyle

Ready for fall

h&m pink label dres stradivarius studded bag

zara leather biker jacket h&m pink label padded leggings

topshop padded & sequined shoulder dress h&m zip ankle boots

Hi! These are my latest buys. I bought the topshop dress and h&m pink label leggings before I went to Barcelona. For now, I have all the things I need or want for fall. I feel like I'm kind of done with shopping for a while, after visiting so many stores in Barcelona. But I´m sure that won´t last long ;)

Going to a big party in a former shipyard that lasts from 11 to 11. I'm off in an hour, so if you read this I'll probably be dancing!

illustration friday: magnify

Here's my entry for this weeks' Illustration Friday theme of "magnify"

"Rose was suddenly re-thinking her decision to buy a magnifying mirror."

When I first read the theme I thought of those magnifying make-up mirrors. And how at first it seems like a good idea to get "up close" to do your make-up, but then after looking in one, your flaws are instantly magnified and you have to remind yourself that normally people do not see you this close up!

Have a great weekend everyone!

stationery featuring YOU!

I'm super excited to announce a collaboration between myself and Feterie - modern stationery and bespoken lovelies.

We just launched an exclusive tailored stationery collection designed to pair with my custom artworks!!! The collection of paper goodies includes personalized notecards, stationery, holiday greeting and a whole lot more!

Here's how it works! Commission me to create a custom artwork (sketch or canvas orders only). After the artwork is finished, go to the Feterie web site to place your order. Feterie will coordinate with me to receive the digital file of your artwork, and you'll work with Feterie for your stationery order!

You choose from notecards,bookplates, holiday greetings and more! Shop the stationery on Feterie here or contact me for your own commissioned work of art!

If I've created a custom artwork for you in the past, and you would like cards made from it, just go to the Feterie web site, place your order and we'll take it from there.

Interested in Christmas or Holiday cards for this holiday season? Get started now and your artwork and cards will completed in plenty of time to send them out!

online biz classes and calls

On Tuesday Sept 1st @ 9pm (this coming Tuesday!) I'll be on a call with Crissy from IndieBizChicks.com as part of her Summer Biz Sessions. Only $14.95 and you can register to hear all the calls with great ladies like Jennifer Perkins, Jenny Heart and Laura Allen of the 15 second pitch!

Then mark your calendars for Sept 7th! I am also part of Laura Bray's Multiple Streams of Income Workshop. I can't wait to be a part of this one. She's covering all the bases, children's book illustration, art licensing, selling your art online and more!

Urban jungle

I'm back home! First thing to do... Unpack? Call my friends? Get some sleep? Wrong! Upload my Barcelona pictures and spam you guys with them!

My boyfriend took these and there were so many great pictures from this 'shoot'. This h&m pink label dress is something that I really like on a hanger but somehow hardly wear. Judging by these shots, I think I should!

ray ban wayfarer - h&m pink label dress - zara heels

friends and cupcakes!

Today was Hello Cupcake's 1st year anniversary so they were giving away free cupcakes! I couldn't miss out on this so my friend Lorraine and I met there and enjoyed our delicious cupcakes which tasted even better because they were FREE!! I read on the Hello Cupcake web site they gave away 2,500 cupcakes! That's a lot of yummy goodness!!

After cupcakes Lorraine and I walked over and stopped by the Textile Museum. Hard to resist the goodies in the gift shop! Fun fun fun!

Lorraine is one of my favorite people in DC. She is so much fun just being around her makes me happy! She wore a cupcake necklace to the event and brought me one to wear while were there too :)

I have posted this photo of her amazing garden at her house over by the Cathedral to my Twitter but I have to show you here again:

I have dreams of having a garden like this one day! It is like a magical fairy garden! And of course there is a GREAT story about how her neighbors did not approve of her purple painted shed! How could you not love that shed!?

Montreal - 3 cams - DP

Montreal - Sainte-Catherine Street - streaming cam
http://www.montrealcam.com/en-visitation.html

Montreal - Historical architecture in Old Montreal - streaming cam
http://www.montrealcam.com/en-placecartier.html

Montreal - Old Port - 30 sec/auto
http://www.montrealcam.com/en-svpm.html

Meet my style

I was featured in a style interview on Girlscene, a very fashionable website. You can check it out here (it´s in dutch)

kitty updates!

Those of you who follow me on Twitter or Facebook are probably sick of hearing about my pets, but this weekend I received a few emails asking about Stan and Mabel since I hadn't posted about them in a long time... so I thought a pet update blog post was due!

Here's Stan and Mabel on my yoga mat in the morning!

Actually I had purposely not posted about Mabel because we've had a little medical drama with her the last 6 weeks. It seemed as if every time I posted about one of our pets with a medical issue then my very next post would end up being about some dire prognosis that they had received. So I got a little superstitious and decided not to blog about Mabel. Seems she's on the mend now so (knock on wood) she'll be fine!

Here's Mabel showing off her belly after her recent ultrasound. She had to have her liver looked at with ultrasound when her liver levels in her blood skyrocketed to insane levels. After consulting with various internal medicine specialists and numerous tests, we still haven't quite figured out what was going on, but things seem to be heading in the right direction, her last tests have been *almost* normal. Whew! Fingers crossed!

Then if that wasn't enough visits to the vet it was time for Stanley's quarterly echo-cardiogram. Stan has juvenile onset heart disease (HCM) + asthma. So at only 3 years old we have to check on his heart every few months. His last check up was great and there had been improvement in his heart, so I was naively expecting them to tell me that he was "cured" when I brought him in this time. Not quite. His heart has shown some worsening of the disease so I was really sad about that, but we are helping him along with meds he gets Enalapril and Altenol + baby aspirin for his heart. And Flovent + Albuterol for his asthma. He is so spunky and energetic that you would never know there was anything going on!

Paul giving Stanley his asthma meds using the areoKat+ flovent

Here's a photo of Stan taking his asthma meds at night!

So that's the update on the kitties! We're still missing Toby doggie so much. It still feels like he's on vacation and will be coming back at any minute! I can't shake that feeling that it didn't really happen and he'll be back. It's been 4 months, but we're just not used to it. My good friend Bernie from A Place to Bark has been tempting me with photos of her beautiful doggies at her shelter. We're aiming for the spring to bring in a new family member to the household. Have to make sure that Stan and Mabel are OK with the idea first!

Q&A

free your creativity

Last summer, I had found a great article on the HOW Magazine web site about Freeing Your Creativity and did a little post about it, here's the post again with some additions and new thoughts!

Now that I think about it -- whenever I feel creatively flat I think it really can fall into one of the categories that is outlined in this article by Todd Henry. Once you identify how you are torturing yourself you can stop!

He talks about 3 sources of creativity killers:

1. Our Heroes - Comparing yourself or your work to another artist you admire is a sure way to to feel inferior. I agree! Sometimes if I spend too much time hopping around Etsy or various blogs, I start to feel down about my own work. Seeing all these juicy blogs makes me start to compare my work and then quickly leads down a dark road to feeling bad about my work.

2. Our Own Work - Another great point in this article is one I didn't even really think about. When you create a "pinnacle" work that you feel is above all your other works and then you compare everything else that you create to that one piece. I do this sometimes and now that I think about it, it is a creativity crusher. I am on the road to a creative block if I keep thinking to myself "if only I could make another piece as good as THAT one" oh boy!

3. Others Expectations - Imagining what others will say about a work that I am creating is a direct route to stopping the creative process. This can be a real challenge for me especially when I am making art for custom artwork orders. It's hard to push those thoughts of "will they like this?" aside and just go with the process while keeping the clients needs in mind at the same time.

The article also mentions this book - Free Play, which I did get and enjoyed although not as much as I thought I would when I first wrote about it. It was a good book. Just very cerebral. I would recommend Orbiting the Giant Hairball as a good book to feel a creative jumpstart. it's one of my favs. Also Bird by Bird. I have this one by my bed and read it again and again!

Anyone think of any other Creativity Killers to add to this list?

september workshop update

Just a note to let you know we only have a handful of spaces left in my workshop this Sept in Portland Maine! yay! If you've been waiting to sign up, now's the time! Here are the details!

South Portland Maine - September 25th-27th
Inspired Claudine's books, Collage Discovery Workshop & Collage Discovery Workshop Beyond the Unexpected, this two 1/2 day, intensive collage workshop will focus on mixed media techniques, color, and composition. You will learn a combination of painterly techniques to enhance the surface of your collage artwork, experiment with image transfer methods and more. Claudine will share with you all of her tricks of the trade! Even if you have never collaged or painted before you'll leave this workshop feeling like a pro! To register, visit the Artascope Studios Web site. Supply list also available on the Artascope Studios Web site here!

A little nude dress

Hi! I made this post back in Amsterdam so it´s not what I´m wearing today! When I was in China I tried on this nude dress and felt kind of Marilyn Monroe-ish, so you understand I had to get it. This is what I was wearing when I went for cocktails with my boyfriend and I felt like dressing up.

Barcelona is HOT and very nice! I haven´t really figured out where the best shopping is though! ;)

Dress from China - Asos belt - Zara heels - h&m blazer

illustration friday: wrapped

Here's my entry for this week's illustration friday theme of "wrapped"

I had this piece already about 1/2 way done so when I saw the theme I thought it would be the perfect incentive to finish it up!

This artwork is dedicated to my friend Kim Cochran who's having her 30th birthday tomorrow!! Happy birthday Kim!!

Happy Friday everyone!

Barcelona baby!

Reaching the grown up age of 20 (right ;)) I decided it was time for my first pair of designer sunnies. Hence the Ray ban wayfarers! This is definately an outfit I'll be wearing them with on my holiday!

About that: I'm flying to Barcelona in just a few hours and will be back @ blog the 27th. My laptop is not coming with me, but dont worry. I have some 'home made posts' that I'll put on my blog on a regular basis.

ps. I haven't had the time to respond to the comments on my previous two posts. This will probably be the same for the posts from Barcelona. Enjoy your weekend! x yara

topshop plaid - only shorts - ray ban wayfarers

new from my studio!

This is a 16x20 custom artwork that I created as a wedding Ketubah for this cute couple (and their cats too)!

The bride provided the Ketubah text in English and Hebrew and then I combined it into the artwork.

When I shipped the artwork I sent along the same pen that I used in the line drawing so they can sign it at the wedding ceremony. (some text in the Ketubah has been blurred for privacy)

It was huge (HUGE!) honor to create such an important piece for this lovely new family!

somerset studio magazine + a giveaway!

I was excited to see the new issue of Somerset Studio Magazine! At CHA Winter 2009 the Ranger booth did a house project designer challenge where each participant received a box full of Claudine Hellmuth Studio paints, mediums + sticky-back canvas and a paper mache rectangle + one piece of chipboard. We were instructed to make something "house shaped."

Here's a quick snap of most of the houses at the Ranger booth at the CHA Winter show.... after the show we sent all the houses to Somerset Studio Magazine for the article!

Here's a little preview of the article with my Circus "big top" house and you can see a peek of Tim Holtz's beachy house. To read the whole article you'll have to get the magazine!

GIVEAWAY TIME! -- contest is over! Winner has been chosen. Scroll down to see if you won!

I have one copy of the magazine to give away!!

Just post a comment below and you'll be entered to win the Sept/Oct 2009 issue of Somerset Studio. I'll choose a winner at random on Friday evening at 5pm EST!

EDITED 5:15PM EST 8-14-09

*** WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT ***

A winner has been selected using the random.org random number generator and it's #104 which is Apple!!
Apple send me your snail mail address and I will send you the magazine. Thanks for playing everyone!!

Fashion idol of the week!

Mimi from the great blog La Mimi contacted me about being Fashion Idol of the Week! I'm so excited and Mimi is a real sweetheart. Check out the interview here!

"This week’s fashion idol is a beautiful blond Yara hailing all the way from Amsterdam. Yara is one of those girls who don’t need to work hard to look good. Tousled hair, natural make up and effortless outfits is her signature look. Stopping by her blog almost daily has become a routine for me, because her posts are sweet, short, and damn hot (just like her!). Take a look at what this chic stylista had to say and then head on over to her world."

Check out the interview here!

meet me in St. Louis!

Mary Engelbreit, Barbara Martin and the Home Companion are hosting a spring weekend workshop in St. Louis. I'll be there teaching two classes at the event! (Complete workshop details to come soon)

The event will take place in this vintage luxury hotel overlooking Forest Park in the Central West End, a block from Mary's studio (which will be open for student tours - I can't wait to see it!), The event is JAM packed with Mary Engelbreit Home Companion goodness - artist talks, workshops, vendor night all with juicy twists and details which I am bursting to tell you and will link to as soon as everything is up on the web site.

>Mark your calendar and save these dates: First, registration starts Sept. 1st 2009 and the big event is April 29-May 2nd 2010 in St. Louis! Click here for more info. It's going to be an exciting event!!

easy acrylic paint transfer technique

Here's a really quick and simple transfer technique filmed at CHA Summer 2009 using Claudine Hellmuth Studio paints as your transfer medium!

Where to buy:
AT A STORE NEAR YOU: Check your local crafts/scrapbook or arts supply store for availability. In stock (sticky-back canvas only) at *select* Michael's and AC Moore Stores.

BUY ONLINE: Claudine Hellmuth Studio Products are for sale online at these locations: Somerset Shoppe, ScrapLovers, Joggles Online, Schmooze with Suze. And MANY more! Google "Claudine Hellmuth Studio" for complete results!

Faux fashion

This faux leather zip dress is perfect for layering this fall / winter. And the best part? It's only 35 euro's and available at h&m.

h&m divided: 35 euro's

Recovering zara-holic

Hi blog babes! Yesterday I pretty much wore all new zara sale stuff, including my tee dress (yes, you are dealing with a zara-holic). On the 14th I'm going to Barcelona, and since zara is a lot cheaper there I'm pretty sure I'll have an overdose.

zara dress - zara studded belt - zara studded bag - sandals from China

illustration friday: impatience

Here's my submission for this weeks' illustration friday theme of "impatience"

This was a fun piece to work on! Have a great weekend everyone!

Millenium, the movie

I went to see the movie Millenium, (in dutch: Millenium, mannen die vrouwen haten) after the book of Stieg Larsson. My god, what a story! The movie is pretty dark and intense, it keeps you on the edge of your seat at all time. At a certain point it was so disturbing I had to cover my ears & eyes. Not what you would call a 'light' movie, but definately a good one. The story is constructed really well and the realistic style of filming with landscape stills in it and unbelievably well casted actors (how fascinating is that girl?!) made it in to something very special.

Canada - Halifax
Camera at Alderney Gate offers a live view in westerly direction to the Angus L. MacDonald Bridge and Dartmouth Marina Facility. Don't miss the spectacular views at night time!
http://www.halifaxwebcam.ca/live/index.php?CURRENT_CAM=macdonaldbridge&SET_CAM=macdonaldbridge

Halifax - Ocean Terminal - DP

Canada - Halifax
Camera at Alderney Gate is showing the waterfront of Halifax: Ocean Terminal, Pier 21, Boardwalk with Cable Wharf and Historic Properties, Ferry Terminal, Purdys Wharf and Casino Nova Scotia.
http://www.halifaxwebcam.ca/live/index.php?CURRENT_CAM=waterfront&SET_CAM=waterfront

Halifax - boardwalk at the waterfront - dp

Canada - Halifax
This camera overlooks the boardwalk at the waterfront.
http://www.halifaxwebcam.ca/live/index.php?CURRENT_CAM=boardwalk&SET_CAM=boardwalk

Halifax - Ferry Terminal

Canada - Halifax
Halifax Ferry Terminal
http://www.halifaxwebcam.ca/live/index.php?CURRENT_CAM=ferryterminal&SET_CAM=ferryterminal

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