Blog it forward has officially started! Today 10 folks are going to blog about what inspires them, the next day 10 more…until 300 bloggers have talked about what inspires them. I’m really looking forward to reading some new blogs, I LOVE reading about what inspires someone. I’m up in just over 2 weeks, so I’ve got some time to ruminate. if you wish you could have been part of the mashup, don’t let that stop you! If you do write about what inspires you, come back and leave a link in the comments and I’ll be sure to stop by and take a look!

Next up, Julie loves her messenger bag I made for her. This is not the best picture, (she was sitting at a table with an umbrella pole stuck through the middle of it. But you can see her notetaker and going green tote are in the same palette – which of course matches her clothes! Apparently her whole house is in this color palette – so next up, Julie, you need some art for your walls! As I’ve said before, I’m so lucky to occasionally have someone who just clicks with my artwork – Julie is one of those folks. She loves making jewelry and I’m trying to encourage her, and give her some “tricks of the trade” about our local scene.

The swim team at my university doubled their fundraising for Haiti goal and swam 1400 miles! Woot!

I was wrong when I showed you my last rose of winter! I’ve got another one!

This really is it though, because hubby’s cutting them all back (he’s got until Valentine’s day, the traditional deadline)

Here’s a picture of the rose garden half pruned:

I got an email on Saturday from a local gal who’d been saving my card until it was time to buy her daisy and bird loving sister a gift. Could I possibly make a clutch that had both a daisy botanical sketch and one of my birds? Oh, and her birthday was this coming Saturday, how fast could it be done?

Usually my Botanical Sketches are placed against an abstractly shaped block of color. I love the play of the line as it crosses back and forth that shape. My birds, although relatively literal, are again to me, about a few simple shapes, trying to convey movement or stillness, and often a relationship between 2 or more figures. The thought of putting these two elements together gave me some questions of scale and perspective. That evening I found myself sitting in an auditorium waiting for a concert to start, and my sketch book page is just about the size of my clutch flap, so I drew some possible placements. The next morning, my client Kathy came by, and we talked about the relative merits of each of the sketches and both agreed upon the last one I had drawn. We then pulled out some canvas to block out the color choices, and I was then able to quickly cut out a bird and wing of the approximate size. She was pleased with the plan and went about her day. I was finishing up another messenger bag, and felt no pressure, because the hard decisions were done! Although I still had to actually make the bag on a quik turnaround, there would be no hesitation as to what it would look like. Here is the fabric block out as well as my sketches. Please note – I really do NOT sketch well at ALL with a pen!

And the finished product!

I hope Kathy and her sister like it!

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I am so lucky to be able to set up my booth at one of several local Art/Craft Fairs in my hometown each year. I get to talk to lots of people about my art, sometimes they buy something, often they don’t, but I get lots of compliments and every once in a while, somebody really clicks with my work! As you can well imagine, this is totally awesome, and one of the main reasons I keep making my Everyday Art! Julie is one of those people. She purchased a note taker from me a year or so ago, and then a couple of going green totes (some as presents I believe…) and she was SO EXCITED to finally order a custom messenger from me! Of course, this was in the craziness before Christmas, and then I had those 2 commission quilts with had and fast deadlines, so here it’s February already – I hope it  was worth the wait!

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