The Garden of Pink Shadows

catching up...

Hi everybody... wow, I feel like I've been on hiatus! Let's see.. since I wrote in last, my college freshman daughter Emily had a head injury in cheerleading practice and ended up in Greenwich Hosp. for a CAT scan. That was pretty scary, but the scan was ok - tho I kept bugging her when she got home, waking her up every two hours and making sure her pupils were even.. yikes. 

Then we had to go to a follow up at her own doctor who was less concerned about the head injury (the scan was normal, btw) than the fact that she fainted afterwards. This is the third time this has happened to her and the dr. is quite sure it is due to orthostatic hypotension (I think I've spelled that right) likely brought on by dehydration and being overheated - basically when you get up too fast you get a "head rush" and get dizzy and may fall down. So... now her cheerleading coach isn't sure she can be on the team - and this is her first time being on any athletic team and she's been loving it.. so this is still not figured out..

On the good side of things we had a wonderful visit with my aunt Ann and uncle Jack in Southampton, NY. They have a gorgeous house on the water and everything was so nice, pretty, comfortable and lovely. We haven't visited with them in years and it was so wonderful. We took the ferry back to CT and it was one of those warm sunny days, the Sound was so calm it was very soothing and nice.

And then.. our internet went out...! We have that "triple play" thing with our internet, home phone and TV all through the cable company and this has been the third or fourth time it's gone out - and the longest. It's been ridiculous - plus the fact I get very bad cell reception at home.. ugh.. it's been just awful but "c'est la vie" is my current mantra when things go wrong.. 

Then I get back to Typepad and EVERYTHING HAS CHANGED!!! arrrggghhhh... I need to update my blog (not to mention everything else.. my poor Etsy shop...) I can't seem to get buttons in my side panel.. But I'm still working on it!

 

Meanwhile let me just tell you that I am thrilled to be participating in the Joli Paquet Holiday Pretty Little Kits "..a gathering of creative artist friends offering you exclusive seasonal kits and FREE tutorials!" You should definitely go check it out! There are already many beautiful tutorials and decorating ideas. My tutorial will be on December 10th, but kit previews will be this weekend!

 

I'm also participating in the Angel Paper Doll Swap which will be a lot of fun.. I'll let you know more about this soon! (assuming Comcast Cablevision won't let me down again!!!!)

something different.. (for me)

I - like so many others - have always admired Teesha Moore's unique and bold style. Especially ever since I spent some time with them years ago at an art festival we both taught at in Florida. I sat with her books, paging thru them (gently!) touching them and admiring the vast amount of pen, line, texture.

Yesterday I came across her new series of "how to" journal videos on You Tube: check them out here. And so this morning I went and did a couple of pages in my Autumn journal, a la Teesha.

 

Now first of all, these pages were already painted - too bright and bold. This was one of the first things I did in this journal, in a bright mood I guess! - then changed direction in this book to the more subtle hued pages I've shown recently. It is mostly Golden paints tho (one of Teesha's recommended paints) The black square is black gesso, the October bit I had added previously. The paper is more like cardstock, not the watercolor paper she suggests - and the pages are a bit small and feel cramped.

After putting down a few elements on each page, I decided to concentrate on the right hand one for now. I had a few magazine pages, some collage images I'd printed out, and a couple of Nancy Baumiller's Collage with CrowAbout sheets. 

I'll tell you - it bugged me to put such a BIG head on the page.. I did not switch out the eyes as T. often does, but I did add a Burbury print hat I rather like! I like her coat a lot too!Her mittens? Her little bull friend..? not as sure. I realized after scanning the background color really was too bright and wish I'd toned it down first (I did a little bit on this one in Photoshop.) No words really yet because T. hasn't put up a video yet about lettering so I thought I'd wait and see what she does!

This was a lot of fun tho - I think I'm going to try her "Amazing 16 page journal" made from one sheet of watercolor paper (see the link to you tube above) and do a whole book this way. It is unmistakably  Teesha-esque - no denying that! - but fun to try a new approach to collage.

so.. I love Gloom, too!

This morning I drove Em back to college.. about a 50 minute drive thru new england-y countryside. It was kind of grey and gloomy - and gorgeous! Gosh I love the mood of a grey autumn day! Some of the trees are already bare and skeletal, some are these amazing bursts of color - like a splotch of bright pastel on dark paper, know what I mean?

We were going to listen to this: Nightmare Revisted which we had just bought on iTunes, but unfortunately it didn't download correctly (this led to a lengthy issue for me later in the day where I tried to update but ended up erasing everything off my iPhone and had to start again from scratch.. arrgghhh.. see below*) so we listened to the original. (I still have not fully listened to this one but what I heard I enjoyed and recommend - if you are into that kind of stuff!)

Hmm.. I don't know exactly how to say this but.. I'm glad Halloween is over! There's so much hype and preparation (more on this next time) I begin to hate it! I was actually starting to think Christmas yesterday, which was a shock to my kids because they know I usually will not think Christmas until after Thanksgiving! And it was making me kind of sad to feel like I was "done with autumn" - but this morning's drive reminded me how much I love the second part of autumn - the gloomy part! (after all my last name is McCobb/macabre... hahaha...!)

 

On the drive back I listened to this audiobook: The Gates by John Connolly. We have a two book a month subscription to audible.com - my husband thinks it is a very worthy indulgence since he drives about two hours daily and loves listening to audiobooks while he drives. I get one and he gets one - usually. Sometimes he gets two!

I've been listening to this on and off over the past week - and I'm not sure if it's a children's book or not! I haven't read John Connolly before. I don't think he's normally "young adult" but this has an amusingly dark Roald Dahl type feeling to it - but it's pretty dark - I mean just read the full title! (and I admit the dachshund - pronounced dack-suhnd by the British narrator - was an influence on my downloading it!) It's quite funny though.. so that went well with the day's mood, the gloom, my being enthralled with the gloom, and torrents of dry leaves blowing up over the windsheild now and then.

So... this is the book I'm currently reading..(are you detecting a theme here?)  The Seance by John Harwood It's a good old gothic thriller type of thing. If you're possibly interested but not sure, click on my link to Amazon and watch the video of Harwood talking about his book. That's what sold me - he cracks me up! Ok, I think "gloomy" is funny also!

 

*Now... about the business with the iPhone... So my iPhone was wiped clean! (SO infuriating!) and I'm reloading stuff onto it, and I really don't put much video onto my iPhone, and didn't feel like reloading any of the old stuff I'd had on there... so.. I splurged on this! I have a soft spot for this not very well received movie, and have always wanted to own a copy.. so.. I got it from iTunes.

So now my day is complete.. I drove thru the lovely gloom - just a few miles away from the actual Sleepy Hollow!, I listened to various Tim Burton songs and odd hellish funny novels, somehow accidentally killed my iPhone, then resurected it, took my dack-sund for a blood test.. and rounded that out with a bit more Burton.. Not a bad day! IF you are into that kind of thing!

A Happy Halloween Giveaway!

I was going to giveaway some Halloween ephemera images.. but since you have all probably already made all the Halloween art you're going to, here are some Autumn Pixies you can have fun with at least through Thanksgiving! Just click on the images to enlarge,  download and print out - have fun!!

 

 

 

new stuff

I've been working away like a little... chipmunk? on various projects lately... Oh how I wish I had more work surfaces! I need a large table for each art form! But still, they'd overlap.. I'm trying to be better about cleaning up, if not after a working session then before. There's something very calming about that, but still by the end it's all intermeshed again.

 

Having fun with my autumn journal which as you may see scrawled in the upper image is like a story slowly unfolding itself. All those nostalgic, cosy and mysterious autumn associations.. fairy tales, woods, my grandparents' farm house, their chickens, grandma's needlework, grandpa's woodwork, etc... it's a big part of me.

Then I created this little Harvest Girl as part of an art exchange. She kind of cracks me up! There is something so off in her proportions and that funny look on her face... Well.. she kind of created herself so.. she is what she is!

She goes with this little guy.. an autumn pixie I suppose..!

Lovely Vintage Ribbon Tags

I just added these beautiful vintage ribbon tags to my etsy shop.. satins, grosgrain, velvet.. each with a bit of millinery, a bit of scrap - and some with a tiny sparrow charm.. please go take a look!

 

More lovely autumnal items coming soon - and stay tuned for a giveaway later this week!

Sunday Post

Another bit of a journal page. Unfortunately I'm having laptop issues so I can't share them right now..

Halloween Goodies

Yesterday I showed you some pages from my new Autumn journal and mentioned it had been given to me by Lilia - but I realized I never showed you the outside! 

Look at all these goodies she sent me!! And aren't they wrapped so fantastically? I just love that orange ruffle and the other vintage trims..

And here's what was inside all those fancy packages! The lovely Halloween journal at left and a ton of fun Halloween clip art and goodies.

Here's a tag I made with some of the stuff...  I also did a Halloween trade with Carol Moore and haven't downloaded my photos from that.. so I'll save those for the next post!

wild again, beguiled again..

I love autumn.... Today I stood in front of a prickle bush (the kind with the big thorns and bright red berries) just gazing at it and smiling, smitten. Ok, maybe I am in love with autumn.

 

I get so darned sluggish in summer.. after the initial exuberance of all the trees and flowers and warmth and sun.. frankly (this feels blasphemous to say..) I get rather irritated by summer. This definitely corresponds with the maddening chirping of cicadas, the poison ivy I inevitably get, the humidity, the weeds winning the war, and my slacking off with watering my container gardens resulting in wilting. 

Sigh.... those tomatoes were so damn good though..

 

But autumn... Autumn will give me color everywhere without my needing to haul buckets! Autumn looks good in all weathers. Fog and drizzle only make her brighter. She is a couture designer using color with wild abandon. Even the poison ivy is gorgeous! (and easier to see when it's bright red - and don't worry, I know from experience I can still catch it even if it's not green) Everything just makes me smile..

 

And maybe best of all, it inspires me.. not just the color, but the magic, the New England-yness, the craziness that we all put giant squashes by our front door - why do we do that?? -not to mention the ghouls and goblins that are just normal to have in your front yard now. I love the mystery of nature: the crows seem to caw louder now (so much better than cicadas!) and the moon gets brighter.. and it all just makes me happy.

 Maybe I'm weird... (but I bet you are too!)

These pages from a Halloween journal I was gifted recently by the very sweet and talented Lilia Meredith of Flea Market Studio. Thank you Lilia!

 

Time Catcher Chandelier

I have a new tutorial just added to the Year of Color blog for my "Time Catcher Chandelier"

"I have had a bag of watch parts sitting around my studio for a while, not knowing what to do with them. When I was coming up with a project for "Black and White" month, the black and white watch faces caught my eye - and imagination..."

To read the rest and get directions to make your own, visit A Year of Color

Individual Time Catchers, such as these, will be available in my Etsy Shop later this week!