My 15 Minutes of Fame

Its finally here... my 15 minutes of fame! I am officially a published crochet designer! Release in late August The Crocheted Prayer Shawl Companion: 37 Patterns to Embrace, Inspire, and Celebrate Life (by Janet Bristow, Victoria A. Cole-Galo) contains my Sisters Shawl pattern. This pattern was created for and presented to my sister Marcy. Not only did my pattern make it into this fabulous book but I also got the pleasure of modeling my own shawl for the spread! 


Recently I attended the book's release party which was a very special event for my family and me. It was the day which I was finally able to present my sister with the shawl (the publishers were still in possession of the it)... it was a long anticipated union! To see more about the wonderful pattern/inspiration book and (see photos from the release party) visit Mary's Melange. 


To purchase your copy of the The Crocheted Prayer Shawl Companion visit the Amazon link below. See also the first book by Bristow and Cole The Prayer Shawl Companion: 38 Knitted Designs to Embrace and Inspire. 

  

Painting en Plein Air

My finished plein air painting

For a few years now we have been talking about it... plein air painting that is! At the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, CT to be exact. (The Florence Griswold Museum is known as the Home of American Impressionism. Click here to read the story of the Flor Gris.) And we finally took the plunge...I was an art student in school years ago but it had been probably 12 years since I had painted! And I had NEVER painted en plein air (a French expression which means "in the open air") so this was going to be a bit outside of my comfort zone.

The lady painters today included my mother, my sister, and myself. The materials (a canvas board, a clip board to hold the canvas, acrylic paints - in white/red/blue/yellow, brushes, a bucket of water and either a small folding chair or a rug to sit on) were included in the price of admission to the gallery/museum. This event is a no brainer. The grounds are gorgeous with gardens, flowers, rolling greens, and a sweet view of a marshy river) and the atmosphere is just teeming with the vibe of impressionists of 100 years ago. The weather was amazing (77, sunny with fluffy clouds, and a cooling breeze that made me actually WANT to wear on of their plaid, paint coated smocks... oh yeah, well loved smocks are included as well).

TAKE THIS AWAY AS YOUR ART FLIRT FOR THE WEEK: WORK ON A PROJECT OUTDOORS... EN PLEIN AIR... paint, drawn, sketch, mold, dance, sing, play your guitar... just blog about it or take a picture and send it to us in the comments of this post or email to christina@iartflirt.com.

Here are a few pics of our adventure... I hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoyed our day!

The Lady Painters with supplies in hand

My supplies

My mother and sister in action

My view

Painters were scattered about including these two young artists trying their hand at plein air painting.
What a great way to spend an end of summer day!

Here I am in action. Man, I look serious!  LOL

Our palettes post painting... Kind of works of art all on their own! 

My finished piece

My sister with her finished piece

Mother's finished piece

Me with my finished piece

FREE Art/Craft Supplies!

No, it's not a giveaway... these are free art supplies you can easily find on your own! In a world where the economy is suffering along with our mother earth I have been thinking of objects that are either found or sort of converted from objects that I already own or have procured in some way... in order to turn them into art/crafting supplies.

Here are a few of my favorite things to use.... What can you add to our list? Please let us know what your favorite FREE art supplies are... I, for one, am always looking for ways to save!

• Sea Glass: Who can resist those gorgeous, mysterious, aged treasures of the beach? I certainly can't. I am so disappointed when I hit the beach and there is none to be found. I have been making jewelry for a few years now and have been wire wrapping sea glass to create unique pendants, bracelets and earrings. I decided to learn how to drill the sea glass to make more professional looking pieces. Here is a really well done tutorial on drilling sea glass! 

• T-shirt Yarn: I am obsessed with yarn and I love having a reason to clean out the t-shirt drawer so this was a no brainer for me! Simply put, if you do this one right you can make a really nice looking ball of yarn, easily change color, and make a really nice recycled product such as a nice cotton market bag! Click here for a sweet tutorial on how to make lovely t-shirt yarn! To REALLY recycle all of this shirt you can use the left over parts of the shirt as a rag or cleaning cloth. Oh, and there is always yarn made out of plastic shopping bags... that can be made pretty much the same way as the t-shirt yarn. 

• Those Cardboard Coffee Cup Sleeves: I started feeling guilty throwing away all of those little cardboard coffee sleeves so I started saving them and then looking into what I can make with them. I loved what I found! Make those sleeves into handy notepads for your purse or for a unique gift! Click here to see how! Oh and I am totally going to make one of these for my new Droid! Click here to see a tutorial on how to turn a coffee sleeve into a viewing stand for your phone... ha!

• Would you like to donate craft supplies or handmade items to a worthy cause? Click here to see a listing of places that would love your generosity!

Nature as Art

I recently took a trip to Rhode Island with my family and the beaches there are covered with the most beautiful and smoothest rocks you have ever seen. Each one is a work of art in and of itself. I would get up from my beach chair and just wander around picking up the stones that spoke to me. Some were light, some were dark, some had rings of other materials running thru them. I am told that one with a ring all the way around is a "wish stone" and that I should wish on it and throw it into the sea to make that wish come true. When I found one like that I could never bring myself to toss it. It was just too lovely.

I wanted to take some of these rocks home and enhance their beauty in my own way. I used a Sharpie Pen and some simple patterns to make a decorative rock for my bookshelf! They remind me of summer and they are so fun and easy to create.

Some other ideas of using Nature as Art can be as simple as making leaf rubbings with your child (great for the upcoming fall season), or a mosaic out of beans... or as complex as an entire castle made of twigs.

Please share with us YOUR "Nature as Art" by leaving us a link to your piece in our comments section!

And the winner is... Eclectic RelARTivity!

Thanks to everyone who participated in our poll. We really couldn't have made that decision without you!
Sincerely,
Christina & the ladies of Eclectic RelARTivity

Midsummer Festival at Florence Griswold Museum: Home of American Impressionism

Princess B on the steps of the Florence Griswold home.

What a beautiful day we had yesterday for the Midsummer Festival in Old Lyme, CT! The weather was perfection, the scenery stunning and the good times abundant! Check it out... I'll try to keep it brief! I don't usually share personal pictures of myself or my family on this blog but some of these are so wonderful to me I could hardly resist. I guess you can call this a peek into knowing me a lil' better. ;)

We started out with a prime parking spot (always a plus) in between the two destinations of the day... The Lyme Art Association and the Florence Griswold Museum (known as the Home of American Impressionism and a great place to visit any day of the year!). We had our four year old in tow so a bee line to the kid friendly stuff was in order. First stop was the Lyme Art Association as we had seen two giant bulls enjoying a shady spot on their lawn as we drove past. I think I was as excited as "Princess B" was to get close to these giant beasts! Ok, they were not beasts... they were actually VERY sweet (if a bull can be sweet). Both were resting and chewing in the shade of a large tree and were enjoying all of the attention. Actually I think they hardly noticed us at all.

(Click on images for a larger view.) 

This is me taking a tentative first look at "Roll".

Princess B was not afraid at all.

Sharing a moment.

Can I sit on him?

A gentle giant for sure.

Then we moved on down the lawn to see some more farm animals including... donkeys, goats, chickens, and my favorite - the alpaca! I was having visions of what I could crochet or knit with that wonderful yarn that he was wearing! He was soooo soft! Rumor had it (and the flyer said so) that there would be artists paining/drawing farm animals and if we brought out drawing supplies we could join in the fun. There was a painter (complete with painterly hat) painting a sheep. We stopped by to check it out but we were much too busy and excited to stop and draw one of our own. 

Princess and I watch the painter and inquire about paint choices.

After a quick peek at the used book sale we moved on to the Florence Griswold museum for kids crafts, pulled pork sandwiches, an intriguing "castle" made of branches (actually an amazing exhibit by Patrick Dougherty called "The Rambles") and to watch Princess chase butterflies near the water. I won't bore you with any more narration as I think these pics will speak volumes for themselves. I hope you enjoy them.

Daddy & Grammy head to the castle.

Me, Princess, & Grammy in the castle.

 

      

 

Me and my family.

There were many things on the list of exciting to do's at this festival (and I'm sure I could have done some damage at a vendor's yarn table) but we saw all the things we needed to see on this day. And we will make a point to come back next year. Check it out if you find yourself in midsummer Connecticut next year... maybe we will see you there!

POST #100! Looking back at my favorite iArtFlirt moments

Dear Readers,

Wow! This is my 100th post! Woot! Woot!

Inspiration Art Flirtation began blogging on 1/31/09 and has undergone many changes since then (obvious changes and changes behind the scenes). Some changes took us offline and some changes inspired us to get back into the groove. I wanted to take this opportunity to share with you my 5 favorite blog posts in celebration of my blog-tennial. If you have been following along all this time you may recognize these... if not... then I hope you take them as just one more reason to follow along or at least check in now and then. Enjoy!

But first lets get a little refresher on how to "flirt" with an inspiration... click here for a "how to" participate on Inspiration Art Flirtation.

And my favorites are....

• Love Story - How they met posted 2/14/09 (Yes, these are my lovely parents!)
• Haiku Friday  posted 5/15/09 (I think I'm going to get back to doing a Haiku Friday... who's with me?!)
• StoryFlirts - A Tribute to Storypeople posted 5/17/09 and don't forget to check out the actual contribution to this post by Brian Andreas himself! (Awesome to have the inspiration himself participate in our flirt!)
• Creating Digital Collage posted 5/30/10 (I'm loving the whole digital collage thing.)
• Art in My Hood post 7/18/2010 (This was just really fun and I love the pics.)

Thanks to everyone who ever participated in our flirts and those who just dropped by for a visit!

Sincerely,
Christina