Sew Many Moments

 Recently, I had the opportunity to plant a seed and pay forward something that was given to me many years ago. I had an idea to pass on some knowledge my grandmothers shared with me when I was a child. 

Wordless Wednesday

credit: Renée Parker

 

Wordless Wednesday

 

Things I Make for Me: Hard Reset

* This post was originally written on the previous Tuesday, 8/19/2025. 

Today was a routine series of events. Actually, no. It was not. Because some days I'm highly effective, moving through my to-do list like a juggernaut, blasting things off of my plate.

That's not quite how things went this day.

Wordless Wednesday

credit: Renée Parker

Weird Wednesday

I've had my eye on it for months. Today it just fell off! 

Pocket Passion

In my opinion, people should [as a rule] carry tiny notebooks or sketchbooks everywhere. It should be a common practice. And I don't just mean artists. Yep, it's an analog concept in a digital age. But hear me out...

For Keep's Sake

If you've ever encountered my work, you may know that recycling, reworking and reusing things is kinda my thing. Recently I took a gift given to a loved one and turned it into something else they'll hopefully continue to enjoy. 

Reading into Things

I try to be intentional with gratitude every day, but today, my gratitude meter has been hovering even higher than usual. Yesterday (on Christmas Day) I enjoyed family, food, and a fun gift exchange.

A Look Up

Autumn Artistry

The natural world is a common source of inspiration for many artists. We find endless amounts of color, texture, and form in nature to inspire our work. For me, being outside seeing trees, bodies of water, wildlife, and the changing seasons, will always and forever feed my soul. Whether in exotic far away locations, or natural beauty found close to home, there's just... a thing about nature. Something that is healing, centering, nurturing. 

Up, Up, and Away

A few weeks ago I decided to raid my inventory of stored work to find something to put in an empty spot on a wall. These are paintings that are (or have been) available for purchase online or elsewhere. 

Chaos > Stagnation

If you walk into my studio, you might wonder why I have SO many projects going at the same time. 

Almost everywhere you look in here, there is a work in progress. Some just begun and some just a few mere steps from completion.

paper Process

 It's been a busy start to the week. So much so that I've already missed one of my items on a new content schedule I've created for myself. More on that later. 

Anyway, since I'm in the trenches, I thought I'd just let you peek over my shoulder at one of the things I'm working to complete: a pair of remakes of an ornament that sold last year in my Etsy shop. These are a customer request. Here are snapshots of just a few of the steps.

An Ode

I've long felt that part of an artist's (of any discipline) job was to move people to see the world around them from a fresh perspective. And since color, texture, and pattern have always stirred the muse for me, I'm sharing this.

Monday on Target- Focusing!

The other day something made me realize that I forgot to plan. Yeah, that sounds pretty silly.

Many of us are good at setting goals and putting new things into practice, like exercise, reading, starting a garden, etc. But then we get busy and sometimes lose sight of what we meant to do and why we started.

I've had success with something that I'm sure many people dispel as "hokey", silly, or pointless. But for me, it's been effective- I've seen results. And with new developments in my personal and professional lives, it occurred to me that I was falling off in one area in particular. One that seems to affect all the other areas. My vision boards. 

About Faces

coincidence: my face for #womenempoweringwomen 
trending recently on Instagram

Recently I launched my very first virtual art exhibit. After some planning, writing, and more editing than I initially bargained for, it was finally live online. Not just with art, but with interactive links and info related to the content. The name of the show is "Faces", and the topic is, well, faces. 

I created it in response to the cancellation of in-person events caused by the pandemic, and to the surge of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Pandemic Living

Recent weeks mired in the mess of a global pandemic have basically meant an upheaval of life as we know it. For some of us.

What I mean by that is that as a professional artist, introvert, (okay,  add Scorpio to the list of offenses), and general homebody, the idea of staying/working/eating/exercising/existing from home is, by no means a stretch. It's actually pretty routine for me, (and many of my introverted artist friends!). Don't get me wrong, I love to explore, interact with other humans, get fresh air as much as the next person. But doing all the major things of life from home is not uncommon for me, it's sometimes preferred.

Things I Make for Me: Nesting Instincts

What is it about a rainy Sunday at home that inspires a certain range of activities for me? Reading, relaxing, snoozing, and today, nesting. Post late morning coffee and a few magazines, I found myself drawn to clean up and pretty up a little corner in my bedroom. This corner was already a spot that held a nightstand and a little gallery of elders. A sort of abstract family tree of parents, grands, and great grandparents, arranged in a manner loosely guided by feng shui (courtesy of Google University) to watch over and inspire me. Today I carefully disassembled most of it, cleaned and dusted, and reassembled with some additions. I was already happy with this corner, but allergies and ideas motivated me to address the state of it. Here it is now, clean and reworked.

 

It is still a work in progress, and I hope to find more old pictures to add. As a bonus, I had the time to clean the dust off of the ceiling fan in said room. I'm NOT lazy about cleaning, lol. In fact, the control freak in me requires that I clean throughout the week. But, like pretty much everybody else, I'm always busy.

But home is my sanctuary, my escape. So I'm happy to have found time to make it even more comfy. And now back to my regularly scheduled Sunday stuff. Which, after I wrote this, involved me concocting an apple pie cinnamon roll cake thingee from my overactive imagination for my sister-in-law's birthday. So much for a lazy Sunday (what is wrong with me?), lol.

Throwback: A Rare Repro

Recently I did a rare recreation of an old watercolor painting for a customer. I say rare, because I almost never revisit paintings. I guess I feel I might not be able to capture the spirit of the original. 

But I took this on partly because this is a long-standing loyal customer, and partly because I wanted to see if I could do it, maybe improve on it armed with greater experience and knowledge. Of myself, the subject matter, and some of the natural elements in the composition. 

For reference to the original, I used the only print of this painting that I have in stock. My approach was to block in things just like the original, then see if I felt like adding a little something as far as color, lighting, form, etc. Here's the process in a few photos.

print next to new sketch

starting color wash

details

fleshing out the background

finally, the hands

done!

I have to say that I was surprised that I didn't end up altering much. Given more time, I might have done so, but since there were constraints and a budget in place, I had to find a stopping point. Also, I could now imagine recreating other versions of this concept. Learn more about the inspiration behind this piece and purchase the print I have available in my store at the link below.