Snowmen Fall From Heaven Unassembled

Love that don't you?!  I do so love snowmen. They have a way of putting a smile on your face. It's so simple. I never get tired of painting or making snowman crafts.

I wanted to leave you a bit of Winter as we make our way into Spring and soon after, Summer. Sort of sad...but for us holiday artists, snowmen live year round, as do witches and pumpkins and all other ghosties as well.

Enjoy some of my favorite snowmen.

 

May All Your Weeds Be Wildflowers

Do April showers REALLY bring May flowers, or just lots of weeds? As I look out my kitchen window and see all my garden areas that were covered in landscape fabric and then barked, I have to wonder how those pesky weeds still manage to come through! It seems in my case, the only thing Spring rain does is grow weeds. Sigh….   So between gaps in the weather this weekend, I got going plucking the weanling weeds while the soil was moist and the pulling was easy.

 
Even if it’s still cold and frosty in your neck of the woods and too early to plant, it’s never too early to plan. I’ve had a great run with the Meadow Sage I planted a couple summers ago. Every year the plants get bigger and never fail to produce lovely purple flowers through September. Between the sage and my lavender plants, I’ve not only got gorgeous color going on, but the smell is heavenly!

I read somewhere that daisy's were weeds!

Or how about working on some yard art while the weather is gloomy outside? Fashion a gate or a privacy screen from an old door. My partner-in-crime of all things creative, just removed a couple of old rustic doors from inside the loft of her barn. Perfect for repurposing. I’m sure she’ll do something totally fantabulous with them! And recently, I got to deconstruct an old house from 1937. I took out all the old panel doors and hardware, odd architectural bits and pieces and even the old sink. I've got plans!  

 

 

 

 

Book of Possibilities 2013

I saw a movie a few months ago with Queen Latifah (who I think is FABULOUS by the way!) called "The Last Holiday", and in the movie, she had created something called a "Book of Possibilities". In the book was places she wanted to go, things she wanted to do, etc... Ever since I saw that, I've been wanting to do one of my own books.

I've been gathering up bits and pieces, clippings, articles, pictures, drawings, and various other pretties and tacking them on the bulletin board in my art studio but it's not all neat and tidy and gathered together. I want something that I can open up, flip through, delight in, dream over, and add to any time I want. Kind of like the one above maybe...

For the design of the book, I'm considering something like a binder so that I can add pages in, but I also want something handmade, not a vinyl D-ring binder. I might even use a scrapbook with a cover that I can customize and make my own.

I do this sort of thing already with an "idea" book for art. I've got one of those hard bound sketch books and I either sketch directly in it, or I might cut out little doodles that I've done on other paper and paste it into the book, or I'll take a pic of pieces I've created and tape it onto a blank page then write a description around it. Just with the small amount I've done, I find I enjoy looking through and back to see some of my scrawlings or ideas. I leave it by my bed sometimes so if a thought pops into my head, I can write it/sketch it really quick before it evaporates into la-la land forevermore.

Being a Halloween fan and artist, of course this one is my absolute favorite! Note to self: Get started!

Elvis and Me - Birthday Celebration 2013 - Part 2

Didn't I say that 2013 would be a great year? Well it's sure starting off great for me! Hope for you too! Ok, now let me get to the good stuff...

Me in the back of the limo - driving up through the gates of Graceland WOW!

As you know, I got invited back to Graceland again this year as the Elvis on Tour exhibit that Elvis' folks put together for my brothers movie closed in January after a 1 year showing. 

The sign outside the exhibit

And what a beautiful exhibit it was! I brought the Golden Globe that the film and my brother won so it was on exhibit there the whole year. Now I've got it back home with me for now.

Thank you EPE for all the hard work that you did to honor the movie. I hope all you Elvis fans out there got to see it. If not, I'm sure you can go on to Elvis.com and check out past photos.

That's me (R) with Kelly, who works at Graceland. She's so fun and a By Way of Salem customer!

This year was Elvis 2013 Birthday Celebration and he would've been 78. Though I didn't get to cut his cake this year, I was still invited onto the lawn of Graceland and it was glorious! A beautiful sunny, but chilly morning, and there were a ton of fans there to mark this always-amazing occasion. Elvis' cake this year looked like the American Eagle jumpsuit he wore on his Aloha Hawaii event that was televised all over the world.

That's me (R) with Isabella Taylor Scott, the youngest fan club president. Isabella got to cut the cake this year. I cut it last year. We laughed that we are now members of the Elvis Cake Cutters Club!

Me (Middle) with Laurie (L) & Caroline (R) - fans of Elvis on Tour!

Aside from the birthday celebration on January 8th, I got to visit with a lot of friends and fans I met last year when the exhibit opened. I had a great time and I love Memphis. It's always hard to leave....

Candy, one of Graceland's horses and my personal favorite. I love this horse!

And for all of you who've never visited Memphis - well don't pay any mind to what negative things you may have heard. Memphis is a beautiful place with lots to do and see, it's home of the blues, the best BBQ, lots of history, beautiful scenery, and was also named one of Forbes best places to vacation! Don't miss it!!!

Beautiful Mississippi River

Beale Street - Home of the Blues

Sun Records - where Elvis made his first records

Leonard's - BEST BBQ & Southern food!

Memphis..

Butter Roll - the best dessert ever!

... land of boiled peanuts LOL 

13 is my LUCKY Number!

Happy New Year (almost) everyone! I'll be busy getting ready for my Memphis trip on January 5th, so I probably won't be posting this week, but I wanted to make sure and toast y'all before I leave!

And since we didn't all die on 12/21/12, I guess we can go ahead with our plans for the new year right? What's yours?  I'd like to say I was going to make resolutions but I'm not. SO done with that stuff! And we never stick to them anyway right? So why not just make some small, or big, positive changes and affirmations instead? Or maybe jot down a few items on our ever-growing wish list? Or maybe add to the bucket list?  I got a few that I'll share:

1.Time to leave all the past stuff in the past and enjoy every day!
2. Exercise! YES!!!!! I need to use the gym membership I bought 2 years ago for crying out loud!!! And get strong and flexible. Heck with being a size 6.
3. Ride my horse even more this year. Love that boy... He's my man-love. (another story...).
4. Not cut my hair. Why? I don't know. Or maybe I will..hmmm... I'm such a Libra!
5. Buy new ski boots.
6. Ski more.
7. Plan a trip to Colorado or Utah to go ski. Or better yet just move there!
8. Downsize my house. Do I really need 4 bedrooms? NO!
9. Donate to St. Judes and Pasado's Pet Sanctuary more.
10. Treat myself like the Queen that I am! LOL!

Thirteen has always been my lucky number which makes this year, 2013, my lucky year! And what better way to ring in my New Year than going to Elvis' house!! So I'm headed back to Graceland for Elvis Week on Jan 5th!  More about then when I come back.... See you soon and CHEERS!!!

Merry Christmas to All!

Merry Christmas everyone!  I hope everyone had a warm and wonderful holiday season this year. I'd like to share what Christmas means to me..

Christmas to me has always meant family. Of course I didn't realize that until I got older and was alone. Most of my family has passed; my mom and dad, brothers and sisters.  This day is bittersweet indeed.

Christmas as a child was magic! It meant the hunt for the biggest white flocked Christmas tree that my dad could get a deal on. Lol! We went to the same tree lot every year, at the corner of Moorpark and Woodman. During some really high-dollar years when those trees would be about $150, and back then in the 60's and 70's, that was A LOT of money, it would mean waiting for Christmas eve when the tree lots would be trying to get rid of their last ones. Even then they'd still be about $65, but he'd buy it anyway, grumbling the whole time. We'd tie it to the top of the car and drive it home, wrestle it into the house, flocking would be everywhere! and turn it all around to make sure we got the fullest side facing forward. My brother Phillippe was in charge of putting on the lights. I got to decorate with all the bulbs. Sometimes tinsel too. After it was decorated, I can remember sitting on the living room floor with just the lights of the tree on, how beautiful it was, and how magical...I still have all the family ornaments....

Once the tree was up, as the gifts were wrapped, my mom would put them under the tree. I think I was the only one who'd sneak to try to see what I got. Shaking each box and shifting around the contents to see if you could guess what it was. Sometimes I'd know just by the shape of the box, like when my mom bought me the Kabala fortune-telling game that I wanted so bad! It came in this weird shaped box so I knew that's what it was!

But the best gift I ever got was my Schwinn Slick Chick Stingray bicycle! It was magenta, my favorite color, with a silver glitter banana seat and a sissy bar. I LOVED that bike more than anything. Another favorite gift was a pair of ice skates I wanted so bad. My mom bought them 2 sizes too big, and even when I got older, they were always too big. LOL!

Christmas of course included our big holiday dinner. It'd be at 1:00. There were 6 of us kids, plus my mom and dad, so it was a full house every year. As we got older, there'd be husbands or wives brought along, or maybe a boyfriend or girlfriend. My dad was a chef and so he'd make most of the meal. Always a turkey, and then either a ham or a prime rib. We'd have turnips cooked with bacon fat (takes the bitterness out), baked potatoes, baked yams or sweet potatoes, THE best gravy in the entire world, green beans sauteed in butter, butter flake rolls and cranberry sauce. For dessert there'd be an assortment of pies; apple and of course pumpkin, and my dad would make plum pudding with hard sauce for my sister Yvonne. We'd have wine and champagne, and coffee with dessert. Family dinners were the heart and soul of our holidays and I think it's that tradition I miss most of all; to have my family all gathered around the dining room table.

After my dad past in 1990, there were no more holidays together as a family. A couple of times I flew down to Los Angeles to have dinner with my one remaining brother and his wife and her family, but it's not the same. My dad was the glue that held our family together. Not a day or a holiday goes by when I don't miss him, or my brothers and sisters.

So on this most special of days, Christmas, always remember that the best present you can have will always be your family. Merry Christmas!

And I Thought I was the Queen O' Crap!

I am obsessed. I really am. I am totally in love with The Junk Gypsy's. Or is it Gypsies? Either way - LOVE these girls!!! They inspire me and make me happy just to watch them in action.  I love how they dress; sorta cool, cowboy, rock, funky, romantic, eccentric with torn up jeans, awesome cowboy boots, gypsy t-shirts, sorta goth-meets-rock jackets....love it! These girls are sweet too - the kind you want for sisters or best friends. I even want their parents! And that dad -so darn handy to have around!

Ok so on to the nuts 'n bolts of WHY I love them.  So for years, I've loved decorating my house, porch, just about anything really. If I went a little edgy, I'd rein myself back in thinking that's NOT how you're supposed to decorate a home! But then, enter the Gypsies... they do all the stuff that I wanted to do 20 years ago! The result: gorgeous rooms bustin' with personality and kick! And they use the neatest pieces of dare-I-say "junk" to really showcase the personalities of each of their clients.

I think my fave room so far was the bedroom they did for this cowboy couple. The headboard was this barn gate, and the draperies were muslin drop cloths trimmed in torn up wedding dress lace. Love that girls!!! Soft dusty pink paint on the walls, then lots of shabby chic stuff all over. And of course, there's always the chandeliers - very blingy and most definitely unique.

Ever since I saw my first episode, I've been dreaming of doing my family room a la Junk Gypsy. Pull out all the stops. Decorate with things and colors I love. Heck with what's "proper" decor. Get rid of that dull, boring chandelier and bring on the bling!

And here's a die-to-attend-event! The Junk-O-Rama Prom!!!! Wear your old prom dress or head off to the nearest Goodwill or local thrift store, buy yourself one fancy formal, put on your favorite cowboy boots, and don't forget your tiara, then drive on down to Texas for an evening you won't forget! And for sure you won't, cause you can take your pic in their awesome photo booth. I definitely have put this event on my bucket list! 

Don't y'all just love that spunky Miranda Lambert!?? Well she's wearing a JG t-shirt in a lot of her videos. Pay attention next time. The Gypsies even decorated Miranda and Blake's (Shelton) wedding reception. And you wouldn't believe the Airstream trailer they decorated for Miranda!

So yep, this ol' Bags wheels are spinnin'! On my wish, or rather to-do list for the coming New Year, is to maybe expand By Way of Salem into some junkin'!  You know the old saying, "One's man trash is another man's treasure."  In my case it's more like, "Wouldn't THAT make an adorable table?!!!"

To Christmas Angels Everywhere

Dear God,
Today I pray for all the families and people whose lives were touched and are grieving because of all the precious little children whose lives were cut short by this tragedy. I pray that the Holy Spirit comes upon them to protect and comfort them and give them peace. Please Father, send special angels there to hold their hands during this very sad time.
Amen

Oh-So-Cuddly Snowmen

I've been busy painting lately. Snowmen. Lots and lots of snowmen!  These are a few of my favorites. I paint this little guy on all sorts of things; wood, rocks, canvas, clay - anything! I just think no matter how you paint snowmen, they are always cute! I have these for sale in my Etsy store and they've been selling out as soon as I list them. Must be lots of snowmen lovers and collectors, like me out there!

The Hags of Le Mistral

Did you see the movie, "Chocolat"? Set in France, the characters Vianne Rocher and her young daughter move to a small Provencal town and open a chocolate shop. Do you remember when she is walking, wearing a red cape sheltering herself from the very strong winds? That is "le mistral", a very strong cold wind which blows from the north through Provence and the Rhone Valley.

The mistral, though harsh, also blows away the dust and makes the air particularly clear and that combination of air and light, inspired many impressionistic painters to the South of France. In France, they say the mistral brings with it good health and has played an important part in the life and culture of Provence from the beginning. The farmhouses there face south with their back to the mistral and the bell towers are usually open ironworks so that the wind can blow through them.  There are also "santons" or little saints which craftsman have sculpted for generations which depict these winds.

During my visit to Provence several years ago, we were fortunate enough to tour the studio of a very prominant santonnier. The craft is handed down from generation to generation. The figurines, comprised from Provencal village life, are placed in a creche, or nativity scene as we refer to them.

Inspired by these charming figurines, gave me the idea to sculpt some hags and witches from the old country, after all witches do indeed exist in France and are celebrated at the Bonnu en Sorcellerie every year. And being French myself, and loving Halloween as I do, it seemed so appropriate n'est-ce pas? Soon I will be presenting hags and witches of the Mistral!

Candy Corn; The Flavor of Halloween

Have y'all tried the new Oreo "Candy Corn" Limited Edition cookies now available only at Target stores?  Personally, I haven't had the inclination to go track them down. Not -so-fun fact: Did you know the filling is basically Crisco and sugar? Gee makes me want to stuff a dozen down my gullet!

Kind of resembles clown jerky.... 

And while I think candy corn, are sort of cool looking, for me they're too sweet to eat. And no matter which color you bite off; orange, yellow, or white - each color tastes exactly the same. No fun there! I prefer to use them in decoration. For instance, fill up a glass vase or glass bowl with candy corn and add in a few candles. A perfect Halloween table topper!

Candy corn are definitely a Fall and Halloween staple and the candy aisles just wouldn't be the same without them this time of year.. And of course every year at this time, I even paint a few! My latest candy corn creation is a cute little "Trick or Treat" on a river rock. Just oozing sweetness!