stuff it

After vanishing for four months you'd think I could find a more inviting title than Stuff It, and even more so because I'm about to unleash another backwards barrage of pictorial history on you. (If anyone comes here anymore, that is -- might I just be speaking to Artsyville ghosts?)

I'll risk continuing. And anyway, I'm not saying that you HAVE to stuff it, I am just saying that you CAN stuff it if you want to. I found these adorable smooth mason jars -- not the ones that have Ball embossed all over them. And then I found these cute daisy cutout lids. And then I decided to make Art Jars out of them. I have one version that is stuffed with Artsyville goodies and one version that is unstuffed so you can stuff it with your own stuff.

Here is where I show you that I wasn't a lazy ass this summer: 

I doodled up a few new creative prints, 

made a bunch of itty bitty word tiles (inchie prints)

that can be used for creative prompts, daily mantras, bookmarks, word games, hidden messages, reminders, motivators or however you want to use your words, 

Put together a bunch of little packets with tiny surprises for my orders, 

Created tiny-tiny-tiny-mini-mini-mini blank books (just an inch square)

And finished a fresh version of this one just in time for fall.

In full color. 

Enough with the shop; on to the house. This is the living-room-art-room and I'm kind of struggling with it right now. I cleaned it up for this picture, but it always seems like I am living in stacks of projects with no true functional system. I'm usually chopping paper on the floor or addressing envelopes on my keyboard. Must fix this.

Finally hung up my painting from Lisa, which had been sitting on the chair below for over a year. 

Planted a garden this year! The cherry tomatoes, despite the snappy temps, just keep going bonkers, along with the jalapenos which have turned fiery enough to power all of us to the moon. And the watermelons -- they might reach golf ball size before the first frost!

We're coming up on our Jerseyversary in a few weeks, and the last three years have been so mind boggling that every time I think I've seen it all, I realize that I haven't seen it all, as was the case a couple of weeks ago when a black bear got on the loose in our neighborhood and pulled up for a visit in our driveway. (Story here, if you're interested.)

We inherited horrible, dark, depressing, evil-spirited wallpaper in this room when we bought the house and I finally hit my limit. Ripped it out & repainted it in sea salt, caramel and chocolate. Now that I've successfully removed wallpaper, I've realized that I am now capable of doing anything. 

New curtains. We finally got a World Market in New Jersey. I have suffered so much these past three years without one. And yes those are balls of yarn in the background...

I had so many skeins of yarn that I didn't know what to do with them, so I rolled them all in balls & stuck 'em in a planter. 

Autumn means I'm back to crochet -- and I learned how to make a granny square!

 And these, whatever they are called!

 Oldest girl. At her sister's soccer game in her pajamas and a toddler hat, sewing an Olaf costume.

Two last things to share -- illustration projects-- and then I'll let you go :) The fall issue of Somerset Memories just hit the stands and I have an article/tutorial & drawing called House of Memories, which tells my tale as a chronic mover :)

And... 10 of my doodles are in the 2015 Today is Going to Be a Great Day! Page-a-Day calendar by Workman Publishing, and I'm still pinching myself! Here's a flash forward peek into the future. If you get the calendar (it's available in lots of bookstores, on Amazon, etc.) you'll probably recognize most of the pieces -- Make Time for Your Art, Star of Your Own Brightness, Something Calling, and a bunch of vintage Artsyville pieces make an appearance. I'm so excited and honored to be part of the calendar!

There are the highlights back through August... I'd retreat further, but this is already enough of a visual avalanche that you are probably ready to tell *me* to stuff it. You wouldn't be in the wrong... but that's just how things roll around here. As always, if you made it to the end, you deserve a prize!