Cake for Marguerite

My friend Marguerite has been feeling blue, so I thought she needed some cake. It always worked for Marie Antoinette. I'm really trying to keep myself drawing on a regular basis, so I drew a picture of a young Marie and put her in a digital collage for Marguerite. The background image is from Vanessa at A Fanciful Twist, and I asked her permission to use it.

I really want a piece of cake now with colorful confetti sprinkles!

The Queen of Tarts

It's been a week since our darling grandson brought the flu germs over. We still haven't recovered from it. Oh well. When I couldn't sleep last night, I got out a pencil and decided to draw. You might remember The Queen of Tarts from my Mad Tea Parties. That's the disguise my friend Marguerite uses to join the parties. She is quite famous for her lemon tarts. The queen. Not Marguerite. Well, I know Marguerite cooks, but I don't know if she's famous for anything. Anyhow, after drawing the picture, I added a little poem.

You know you have a true friend when . . .

. . . they send you a log with little kawaii poos on it! (Kawaii poo? Yep. I know. Strange. I talk about it, though, in one of my online classes at http://purplemooseheartart.com. The Japanese have some crazy fun kawaii characters that are always good for cheering people up.)

I bet you guessed the gift was from my friend Marguerite. (She's crazy like me, and has sent me several versions of my favorite kawaii character.) Her new beau Storm was in on the venture, too. I think he gathered the log and moss. M also sent a bouncing strawberry girl. What better present could anyone ask for?! It definitely cheered me up!

Marguerite could tell I was down from all the cold, gray days and snowy weather we've been getting here in southern Michigan. M and Storm live in northern California. I sent M a snowy picture to remind her of what Michigan is like right now. (Marguerite use to live in Michigan.)

You can read some of M's fascinating posts at http://redballoontothemoon.weebly.com/blog

At least we don't live in Boston! We don't live in Maine, either, where my online friends Betty and Victor have been braving out the snow storms. Betty wrote to say they've been buying lots of groceries so they could stay hunkered in. Betty added in her latest email that she is working on a big project involving her own cute character Victorienne.

Betty knows how much I love Paris and Victorian things, just like she and Victor do. You should visit her blog to see some of the fun adventures Victorienne has. http://gossamertearoom.blogspot.com/

Since it's been a long time since I've made a post here on my blog, I'll be brave and post a picture of me singing live at an event two weeks ago. Who knew that pictures taken on a phone would make you look 50 pounds heavier?! Cameras only make you look 10 pounds heavier. Oh well.

Evidently my anxiety/depression medication was working that night, because I can't believe I got up in front of 150+ people to sing.

I thought I'd add one more photo here. No sooner did our oldest daughter, grandson and two dogs leave after staying for a week then it was time for us to dog sit our youngest daughter's two dogs. We have four of our own, so that was almost an entire month of having six dogs running around the house. They always seemed to be taking over my bed, too!

I felt extra nuts the entire time, because all six dogs followed me everywhere I went in the house. I love animals, but six dogs in one house at the same time is too much! Having cabin fever along with six dogs and three cats was about enough to push me over the edge. I haven't been participating in the usual digital challenges or many other things. Hopefully I'll get back in the swing of things soon!

Marguerite's Flowers and Rust

That's the name I gave to a mixed media painting I just finished today. I'm very excited about the way it turned out! Marguerite sent me a wonderful piece of rusted metal that fell off of her favorite trunk. She thought I could use it in some kind of art work. It just so happens I love rusty metal. She also happened to send me a picture of the trunk it came from.

The trunk certainly is a treasure!

I recently downloaded a class presented by Seth Apter through Cloth, Paper, Scissors. It's Lesson # 6 in a series, and the price was very reasonable. The lesson was called "Dimensional Stenciling." I decided to try this technique in a mixed media piece that I could also include Marguerite's gift of the rusty metal.

I first tried to paint a background using acrylics to try to simulate a piece of copper that had turned turquoise. I didn't quite get the look I wanted, but I was still happy with the results.

I used gesso to fill in a stencil to get a dimensional branch on the background. I then painted the top of a bronze colored tin candy box the size of an Altoid box with a turquoise color paint so it would also look antiqued. I glued the rusty metal from the trunk on top of that. Here is the finished result:

I have to say that after creating a piece of art like that, I finally feel like a real artist! Thanks Marguerite and Seth for the inspiration.

Surprise Gift

I've talked about my special friend Marguerite Bryant many times on my blog before. Yesterday, I received a surprise package from her. It contained a fantastic "kawaii" painting. I don't imagine everyone appreciates kawaii art. It's probably for the more crazy artists among us. Marguerite and I fit that label pretty well. If you aren't familiar with the kawaii style of art, think Hello Kitty, cupcakes with happy faces and, well, you can always do a Google search for other examples.

One of our favorites is a little pile of poo. I know. That probably sounds pretty disgusting. But look how cute this is.

Marguerite took it to a whole new level. Here's a scan of the painting she sent.

 

Each little pile is a very famous artist, kawaii style, of course. It sure put a smile on my face!

If you would like to visit Marguerite's blog and see her other work, the link is: http://redballoontothemoon.weebly.com/blog.html