Silly Blogger!

Well, Blogger is being silly and won't let me type any more on the previous post! It isn't letting me type after I post photos on this post either! Does anyone know what I am doing wrong? Anyway, the photo above is me with some of my products in a gift shop, and the mansion photo in the post below is were we had high tea. It is called the Miramont castle and is in Manitou Springs. Manitou is a very artsy, hippy village, with lots of galleries and cute boutiques. I liked the paintings on all the windows:

Spending Time Together

Today I am thinking about what a treasure it is to spend time with the people you love. My dear mother is visiting and she is sitting beside me sewing as I type this. Mum, Margaret, and I spent the weekend down in Southern Colorado in Colorado Springs and Manitou and we so enjoyed being three girls together!

Have a Blessed Easter!

Multi-media Paper

I recently purchased some of the new Multi Media paper from Strathmore. This is a portion of a painting I just finished and I did like the new paper very much. Some of the pros are that it took watercolor washes quite well, and colored pencil worked much better on it than on the coldpress paper I had been using. For this painting I used watercolors, watercolor crayons, and colored pencils.

Some of the cons were that the watercolor seemed to have less depth, and the washes seemed more flat. Also, I was unable to lift highlights out with clean water, like I do with regular watercolor paper. I think I will try hot press watercolor paper at some point, as it will probably have the same texture as this paper, and I can buy it in a block, which is what I prefer. Watercolor paper comes in different textures: rough, coldpress, and hotpress. Coldpress had a medium texture and is more absorbant than hotpress.

All told though, I enjoyed using this paper and playing with my new watercolor crayons, and can't wait to start a new painting tomorrow!

New and Fun

I recently bought some Caran D'Ache watercolor crayons, and I am having such fun with them. This is a portion of a painting I did using the crayons for the background. I did a crayon layer, then a thin acrylic layer, then more crayons on the top. It is such fun to color again like I did as a child! For more detailed area, you can use the crayons just like a pan watercolor, and load your wet brush directly from it. I also purchased some mixed media paper to try instead of my usual watercolor paper, so I get to play with that next!

Sample Time!

I love opening the front door and finding a great big box from one of my manufacturing partners. This week I got boxes from Carson Home Accents and Bits and Pieces Puzzles. I'll just show you a few things, but trust me, my basement is getting full! Here is a Summer floor mat from Carson. I am ready to see flowers again, aren't you?


I put this flag straight outside. I know I should have waited until after St Patrick's Day to put out Easter decorations, but I couldn't wait. We are having hurricane winds today, so I had better check this morning to make sure it hasn't blown half the way to Timbuktoo! (You know, I never realized what a dull gray my carpet was until I took these pictures!)

Here is my first shaped puzzle. It was difficult to design it to work within the hat shape, but it was a fun challenge. I think I'll get this one set up in the family room this weekend. It will be a good project for wintry weather!Finally, here is a picture from our trip to Estes Park last weekend. Estes Park is the gateway to Rocky Mountain National park and is an hour's drive away. The town is rather touristy, but the views are spectacular. I was pleasantly surprised to see my Aeropostale line on display in one of the shops!

Harvest Abundance

I am always so happy to see how my art turns out when it is published, so I was very pleased to see my new fabric line, Harvest Abundance, from Wilmington Prints. I love how the color palette came out on this line!
This is one of my favorite patterns from the line. I think Autumn is my favorite season to design for. I love the warm, cosy feeling of the reds and ochres. It makes me want to snuggle up in my nest. I am a homebody at heart!
Here are some more patterns. I think these will be a lot of fun for quilting. I know Mum can hardly wait to get her hands on them! The line will be in shops in May, so she still has a little while to wait, I'm afraid.

This shows how many designs I needed to paint for this line. I love how Wilmington put them together. It was such fun to paint all the coordinating pieces! I admit, sometimes I get a little bored when I am painting a big collection, I do sometimes get tired of the same palettes, but sometimes I start on something that just feels so good that I just can't stop painting it.

One of the nice things about Wilmington is that they create lots of patterns using the fabrics. Mum is going to make the Stack and Whack placemats for me, which will look lovely in my kitchen. I am so lucky to have someone who loves to quilt so much!