SOLD!

I had the treat this week of shipping the Embellished Goddess off to a friend of mine! She saw it on Etsy and had to have it. I hate taking money from friends but I couldn't be more thrilled that she will be wearing it. I met her five years ago when I moved to Charleston to go to the American College of the Building Arts. We only knew each other briefly but she's one of those people you get to meet every once in a rare while who just fits right into your heart and stays there.
And obviously she has spectacular taste! I like to send extra little treats off to my buyers and I had fun putting her's together. I packaged this necklace beautifully in a paper mache jewelry "casket" that I bronzed and oxidized in a matching blue green patina. I made a backing for the necklace out of some heavy Halloween paper and the lid has a window so you can see it in there waiting to be opened, a creepy little surprise!

I was reading up on coffins recently and learned that the word "casket" was hijacked by the growing undertaking industry as a churched up word for coffin. A casket is a box containing jewelry. This means I get to call my jewelry boxes caskets and I won't be wrong! I made this oval casket from a paper mache box painted in the same fashion, but with a plaster cast of a small skull on the lid. All the nooks and crannies of the plaster skull took the patina beautifully. You can just barely see the "bonus" surprise in the box on the left...



I tied both caskets up in sheer black ribbon. Everything looks good in a black ribbon.
I like t0 send everything off in style, never underestimate the value of great packaging.

Monday I will post my very first giveaway. Be sure to comment to be entered into the drawing to win the surprise item I will have posted Monday! Winner pays no shipping as long as they live in the continental US. Shipping shouldn't be too bad; remember good things come in small, gorgeous packages.

Giveaway...

Okay loyal (but small) readership; I am inspired to do a giveaway by Lulu Kellog and A Fanciful Twist.
The way it will go down is like this,
first I need some suggestions for the prize in question, it could be something from a previous post or whatever you have in mind.
Second, I will post pictures of the prize.
Third, you will leave a comment on that post.
And last I will randomly pick a name from those who have left a comment and mail the prize to the winner!
Yes this is a bribe, but hey, free art!
A few examples include (but not limited to!) a necklace,

A hand painted vintage style candy container,

Or a OUIJA board decoupaged box (this one sold, but I can make another one).
Just a few ideas! Let me know what you think. Please feel free to link this to your blog.

New Piece

I am calling this one Embellished Goddess.
I made this a few weeks ago but only listed it on Etsy tonight. I cut the face from a porcelain doll. Actually, it was a Princess Dianna doll, ha! Then again, she is pretty regal...
The Goddess has been finished with a paint containing real bronze powder. It has a true green patina, achieved by applying a catalyst to the wet paint. It takes many coats and applications to achieve this deeply aged finish.She's mounted on a silver fretwork plate that's been hand hammered and oxidized.
Her headdress is three different types of chain, all with varying patinas to blend harmoniously with the plate and porcelain.
As my sister would say, the Embellished Goddess is the ultimate "Diva accoutrement!"
More to come to my Etsy shop soon....

The White Trash Dollhouse

Imagine that this is miniature...

It would make the perfect little White Trash Dollhouse wouldn't it? I just love it! Lucky for me it's in my backyard.
I rent my house, my super cool,, extra cute bungalow that I am in love with. On the property all manner of white trashery can be found.

Just recently a group of men started coming by and stealing stuff, I'm guessing to sell as scrap metal. This week they showed up to take out one wall of the camper and leave a big mess behind. I'm wondering if they plan to return to get the other walls. I hope it stays long enough for me to get pictures of my friends posing in there in white trash attire! Think about it, the possibilities are endless...

Here are pictures from inside the two story crack house next to the camper. I think it's also haunted...

Out in the camper's "yard" are two trailer park kitties bathing in the dirt and gravel. This is Mr. Scrub on the left and his only remaining son Ashes on the right. They love hangin' out around the rubble.Okay I'm going to keep you posted on all pictures taken of the WT Dollhouse! I'm picturing girls in house coats and hair rollers, Winston hanging from lips stirring something in a frying pan in the kitchenette, and barefooted children playing in the dirt with a stick, maybe a man sitting in a lawn chair with his gut hangin' out and a cold one in his hand...

Spring is here.

My cat comes and goes through a kitty door, and she often deposits trophies she's caught outside. This was on the floor under my purse this morning.

What a treat! I love snakes and like everything else, the babies are even cuter. Here Mixie dashes away from my camera as I was shooting the little spring harbinger this morning.

It was hard to get a shot if that tiny flickering forked tongue, you have to be fast.

The only babies I ever catch are these little brown guys and beautiful green vine snakes. I imagine a baby King Snake or Black Rat Snake would be too beautiful; I wouldn't be able to turn one loose.
He has a few nicks but I turned this one loose outside up a tree and hoped that the cat wouldn't bring him back (as she has been known to do). So far so good.

I love having animals around, specifically I love having weird animals around. I miss my chickens Mildred, Suzie, Dottie and Betty and I miss Pumpkin. Pumpkin was my 'possum I "adopted" years ago. It will take one LONG blog post to tell all about her. Mayhaps a story for another day. For now I'll just say when she was a baby she lived in my sports bra and was fed my sister's breast milk for weeks. I took her everywhere, even up on three decks of scaffold when I was restoring Charlotte's historic Radcliffe Flowers building. And she was probably the only 'possum who got warm baths and Bath & Body "Sweet Pea" lotion rubbed onto her tail afterward. She was a very pampered marsupial.
I am so happy to see Spring come rolling in, the days are getting longer, the weather is getting warmer and I can open my doors all day and crack my window open all night. Little critters are everywhere. Time to start keeping my eyes peeled for roadkill that may be survived by hungry baby Virginia Opossums!
Pictures to follow if I find any...

Art Show

I got to photograph Dad's paintings Saturday.These are all recent, things he's been working on in the last few weeks. He lined them all up on the porch and I shot each one. These are just a few.
If you walk out to his mailbox and look to your right, this is what you see.

He started this one by painting the negative space.

Connie (his artist girlfriend of 20+ years) says he is fearless with color. It's an asset.

He's painted this scene of his pine trees many times. I don't even know how many incarnations of this scene there are. He lives on 32 divine acres in Marshville where he planted acres of pines when I was little. Now they provide inspiration for his painting and a haven for his nature loving soul every day.

All the trees are in orderly rows which makes for beautiful repetition in the landscape.


This is one of my favorites. This is very similar to the style he painted in during the 70s. I have a piece from that era and I never get tired of looking at it. I am so spoiled and lucky to have grown up surrounded by my Dad's art.

Our "fancy" living room in the house where I grew up was all decked out in Dad's paintings, Mom had them arranged in the most pleasing composition on the wall. I took it for granted the the first thing you saw upon entering the front door was really good art.

All those paintings, those images are burned into my mind like the faces of my family.

Can you get over this? The subtle fog in the background, the lines of the roof...

Well it's official, I'm a spoiled art snob!
My sister & I were talking about our family the other day and how any time one of us doubts ourself we just remember who we came from. "I am Dennis Pearson's daughter". "I am Sandra Pearson's daughter". That's all I need to know to understand why I am worthy of love and respect. I come from generations of exceptional skill and ability, therefore I am capable of great things.
That is a lot to live up to. I better get to it.

Cassie's 8th Farm Birthday party: Spring Bash!

Cassie's birthday was March 14, but the universe conspired to keep us from having her party at the Farm that weekend so it was moved to yesterday. I was so tired from Friday night's events that at first I couldn't even take any pictures. Misty took my camera around and got some great ones for me! This is my least favorite.


(Ellie and Emily


Kids are lined up to get their birthday cake: Sacrificial Lamb red velvet. His head slid off because I packed his neck with red cherry pie filling for when you decapitate him. He was still cool though, and yummy.
I brought out the meat cleaver too for serving him up.


It was fun because Vanessa, Karla, Jud and Cory all came out; such a treat! Karla and Vanessa are the other half of me and Brandi. The four of us grew up together, getting to see each other a few times a year between here and Mississippi. Now Karla lives in TN and the rest of us are in Charlotte so when we all get together it just feels right.
I am going to have to do an entire post on each of them. The first time I laid eyes on Vanessa she was galloping by the car as we pulled up her sweet country dirt driveway. Her pony's name was Dusty, a gray, feisty little mare! Girl and horse were one; a red streak atop a gray streak flying by, what a vision! I was struck by the impressive sight and I've had hearts popping out of my eyes ever since.
Like I said, that's it's own long post for another day.
Actually, I intend to write individual posts on all the people I know or have known who I am enamored with or who just fascinate me. I wonder if I can cover most of that this year? I have so many who I'd love to write about...Only one way to find out.

But back to the birthday party! Jim grilled up all sorts of gourmet stuff, I don't even know what all since I was so tired. Jim is always in his element in front of a grill with a Miller Lite, that's his natural habitat.
Even though it was a beautiful spring day (the first official spring day!) we had a fire, a main attraction for all kids.

Misty took a picture of her cute rain boots. Doesn't it look like a shot in a magazine or something really fancy?
She was also able to get some cute shots of Ellie, who usually eludes me when I am behind the lens.
Ellie and Rebeca play with the fire.

Cassie darts and flits about like a little humming bird.

See, another shot of Misty's; what a great picture of Connie!

Zoe is always good for some comic relief, you could write an entire book with her verbal gems. I must start recording them.

Here's the poor old mush headed lamb. The droopy stuff on the left is what became of his head.

Rebeca running around with a stick. Isn't she beautiful?

Bran & Karla cracking up in the spring house, a familiar sight! Next time I'll have to get a picture of their graffiti from the 80s inside!
The Spring House is a entity, both worthy of and in need of its own post. It is an institution, an icon of The Farm and a Sacred place.



Cassie is wild with excitement for candy fresh from the pinata!

"Cassie Q" is so pretty in the Spring House between green crepe paper and the lake.

Ellie & Danny's birthdays are right in Halloween season and Cassie's is at the Spring Equinox. Such lucky kids!
For the record, I love celebrating birthdays with the kids out at The Farm right where I grew up in the very same paradise. I'm not that sentimental about any place in Charlotte, even thought it's my hometown, therefore I love it. Nothing else can touch The Farm.
I am so grateful for it! I have so much to be grateful for and so much to look forward to. Family, friends and The Farm, just to name a few.