Life and Olive the Above

Got Craft? is coming up this Sunday May 3rd! Also this Sunday! My birthday! If you show up and mention my birthday I’ll give you $2 off a bar of 4 oz.  soap. *Limit to one per customer.
See you at the show!

Steve and I are sick this week. Somehow it’s so much worse when both are down because it’s just such a sad sight to behold.

The Liberal Arts Students at Trinity Western University opened their graduating art show, “Gift Shop” last night at the Langley Centennial Museum in Fort Langley. The gallery space was a cute venue and a definite step up from the underground parking lot on the university campus last year and it served as a great place to mingle and run into old faces. Although a small graduating class I must say that each year I’m impressed by several of them for to work they put out especially when I spent the last 5 years in art school and, at many times, felt disappointed by the work that would come out (though of course there are exceptions). I have often felt that TWU has been a great support to their artists and has really helped to develop and challenge their skills in a unique way that is very exciting. It will be running all month at 9135 King St. and is definitely worth checking out.

Before I sign off, a photos of the sun setting on the horizon, it was so beautiful and gold I just have to share!

Well it would appear I haven’t posted on here for some time. I’ve been working away trying to get everything in order since my graduation from University in the spring.

It’s apparent that winter is settling in as I begin to read more blogs again and prepare myself for a season of craftiness. The possibilities seem endless in winter as there’s so much more time to pass indoors. I’ve been highly interested in reworking old furniture. I love freshly painted pieces that have a certain crispness. I’ve been looking through the Design*Sponge before and after section getting nearly giddy with excitement. Most recently they posted about a reworked beach house and the transformation is phenomenal.

Also an update of photography a few from trips this summer as well as some more recent shots from fall and for a more full view of my portfolio have a look at my website!

Well for me winter has always been a season of hot drinks and plenty of projects. School hasn’t always allowed for the former luxury but I have always managed regardless.

I occasionally go through some of my favourite websites seeing if any updates have occurred since my last visit (yes, I know about RSS feeds…) and this one always strikes me because of the beautiful mug and although I’m not a huge fan of Chai, I have always enjoyed brewing my own blend of spices to create a tasty cup. It’s been a long while since I did this last and I feel inspired!

(Inspired by Cookbook Catchall)

Another project I’ve got my eye on is a clutch. I’ve always had a thing for accessories and all the better if I can make it myself. I’ve got a load of great fabric just waiting to be used and this may well be one of those. I found it on Craftster.org a great place to get a little life back in the sewing room or wherever it is you create.

Today, April 17th, 2008, I ran my sewing machine needle over a metal portion of a zipper. In so doing, I have significantly altered its precious timing and it will no longer join fabric in a way that sewing machines should. Although this is likely quite fixable, I’m still lamenting that I cannot finish my weekender bag today and thus, will not be able to take it with me to Victoria tonight. I fear it will cost me a lot to get it fixed because it’s so old and I can only see that as a salesmens perfect opportunity to jack up the price. Oh Singer, I love you.

Photographed is someone else’s Singer 15-91. I couldn’t get myself to go into the back room to photograph mine as I’d probably end up sulking and feeling oh so sad and that just wouldn’t help the problem.

When it comes to photography, most of us think of portraits and landscapes, vacations and documentation.

Lets just say this is a whole other world of photography. It all started about two years ago…

Having wracked my brain about a group project a few friends and I finally stumbled upon the idea of memory and how it might play into the project. Each of us created a structure to depict a memory that stood out. I was so fascinated by what came of it that two years later I’ve come back full circle and have started crafting these strange looking things as a way of re-experiencing things that stood out from years past.

I take a somewhat childlike approach and make a fun project and here are what some of them came out like (the actual photos in the flesh are much more fascinating but they’ll make it up another day, these are my test shots as I determined what to do with them and some are not fully completed yet.)

I picked up a camera at an early age, probably before the age of ten and because I was sitting in the aisle at my cousins wedding, I was given the privilege of taking photographs. To everyones amazement the photos turned out to be great and it was then, my parents bought my my first point and shoot camera so I could take photos of my own.

Sure I went through the teenage phase of taking ridiculous photos because my friends thought they’d make a great compositions for me. They thought wrong, and I think I knew it all along but being young and impressionable… well… it happens.

So here I am, I now have a degree in fine arts from a reputable school and I became so busy with life and projects I forgot my first love of photography so I’m trying to bring it all back (well I have been for a while now but it’s baby steps).

Recently I started my own business so I got to take on a whole new type of photography that had been entirely foreign to me. Product photography. It was a matter of a tiny bit of Internet research and a little ingenuity and I made my first light box. At first it was a poor rendition of what I had seen on line but as I continued on I worked out the kinks and now, I’m well on my way to better photographs.

So it seems that when the weather gets cold both Steve and I have our minds adrift with projects, some get it in the spring, we however, get it in the winter as we get snowed into the house. We also contemplate moving around this time every year.

As of late I’ve been hooked on the Apartment Therapy Blogs and they always have so many great ideas floating about that I can hardly keep them all straight. Without the luxury of a workshop to create all the items we dream about it’s more of a collection season, sending out emails to family members to keep on the lookout for good tree clippings and other scrap woods so we can eventually make a trip to Vancouver Island where we’ll create to our hearts content.

For the couple years (maybe even longer as I try and estimate the birth of this idea) I’ve been wanting to use a few lean tree trunks to create some great west coast lamps and using a few offcuts from trees in my family’s yard to create hooks for the house such as these ones found on the apartment therapy blogs.

Yesterday evening marked an evening where we brought out old canvases and began painting over them in hopes of creating a new feel for our cozy little basement suite. We’re starting to notice that the colour of the living room walls just doesn’t classify as art and it’s looking a bit bare so hopefully February will mark a month where our house begins to look more like a home. We also continue to go through the house trying to purge any unnecessary items so that we can live a more streamlined life so we’ll spend less time de-cluttering when guests come to visit!