Good Day, Sunshine

Getting ready to deliver my latest custom heart:

Wag

I spent all day in the basement drumming up new mosaics. Here are just a few - the rest will be posted tomorrow. Austin is closing in fast, whew! Here's my latest batch of dog bone mosaics.


Raven at Lucky Paws dog bakery in Lawrence, Kansas, calls her dogs her furkids - very fun!

I put together a quick heart for my friend, Teresa. She has been waiting a very long time for her granddaughter to come home from Thailand and she'll finally be here soon!

Woof

Lil's on 17th is our favorite restaurant. Jason and I love the atmosphere that an old, converted house provides and the owner and staff are amazing. The chef, Carmen, is from Barcelona, so I love talking with her about Spain. Last week, she was sworn in as a US citizen and I made her this special plaque - she loves the color orange and dogs. Enjoy, Carmen!

More Mosaic Hearts

Here are the last of the handmade giveaway items I did on Facebook. I made Robin this cute lil' heart with a doggie, complete with his own leash.


Lisa got the skull.

And girlie Lanette gets pink. This was really fun and hope everyone enjoys their little mosaic somethin's!

INSPIRE

This one's headed to Denver for a fund raising auction. My thoughts are with the sweet, cheerful woman who keeps on smiling despite being dealt a really tough hand.

Love is in the Air - and in My Mosaics

I've been behind with my mosaic work, but am catching up. This heart will ship out tomorrow to New York to our friends Mark and Jeanine who will be married later in the month. Best wishes to them!!

I wanted to do something really special and personalized for Mark and Jeanine. They are getting married at Housing Works bookstore in New York and I incorporated that into the mosaic. The center piece is actually the RSVP postcard that I cut down to fit right in.



This is an earring and if you look close, it features a dancing couple. I used the matching brooch in a piece not long ago.


And if you flip it over, I papered the invitation itself onto the back. Okay, how cool is this, a Velvet Underground quote on the invitation. If Jason and I were to have had an event for our wedding, this would have been right up our alley!

I'll keep the details private, but here's another view of the back.

And yes, more love in the air. Right after the awesome comic book convention that Jason and I attended in Aviles, Spain last month (great photos on my other blog HERE), our new friends Juan and Lola tied the knot. I made this frame for them and will be shipping it to the U.K. tomorrow.





More customized pieces coming soon. I'll also be building my inventory for an Etsy shop. I have people ask me about it and it's time to give it a try!

Puppy Love

I don't want to make fun of my friend, but she did make a tu-tu for her terrier, Zemi. I think she may need a hobby. Somebody who loves her dog that much needs a custom mosaic heart plaque!

Zemi, the rock star dog.

Complete with tiny perfume bottle . . .

And a polymer clay dog paw. A pic of the actual dog in the tu-tu is coming soon.

Custom Lub, Part Two

I wanted to post these last hearts that are going to Stuff today for delivery to Kurt, another fabulous customer I got to talk with for a long time during my in-store event on January 31st. I was so touched by the time Kurt took to describe each of the women in his life to me. This is a man who would not settle for wilted roses picked up in a rush so he could keep out of the dog house. I know because I have a man myself who gives great care and consideration in the gifts he gives.

We started by talking about Kurt's wife, Shell. They love the beach and look forward to spending much more time there once all the birdies have flown from the nest, as the wording in this heart implies, "We are almost there." The bottom portion of the heart represents water and the yellow and pink are the sunset. The darker blue above the setting sun is the night sky. I also had to throw in a few shells. I painted the bevel with a light tan to mimic the sand.

This is for Kurt's daughter, Nat. He described her as the rock star daughter and wanted lots of bright colors. I thought the large, chunky red and blue beads were very rock star-esque. Nat lives in Chicago and is a nanny for a great family.

Bub is Kurt's second daughter we talked about. She went to MU and loves the team colors of gold and black. He described her as high fashion and glamorous. I think the big rhinestone brooch represents some of that diva-ness.

Last, but not least, we talked about CC. CC goes to school in Arizona and loves the desert. Kurt wanted colors to represent the muted browns and soft greens found there with a pop of color to mimic the beautiful blooms that can often be found in the desert environment. I hope these hearts capture the uniqueness of each of the wonderful women Kurt described and that he's proud and excited to give them to his girls. Ahhhhh . . . have I mentioned how much I love custom art?

Custom Lub, etc.

I guess I should explain the title of this post. My toddler pronounces his v's like b's, so he says lub instead of love. He also does not recognize the shape below as a heart, he recognizes it as "a lub". Not sure if anyone would have been able to guess that one.

I've been working on lots of custom lub lately, including this blue heart featuring an antique tin toy watch. This one is for Jane's husband. Jane is a classical musician and a customer at Stuff and she is giving this gift to her husband as a paperweight. I wanted to give it kind of a masculine feel. The blue jewel piece came from a cool bag of stuff I purchased last weekend from the Mission Road Antique Mall.

This heart says Je T'aime, or I love you in French. I know this because I had to ask Brendan's French teacher to be sure I got it right. I have never been to France, but when I picture it, I don't think of bright, glossy pink; I think tarnished, antiqued, chipped, cracked, rusty, been-around-forever. I think of Henri Toulouse Lautrec hanging out at the Moulin Rouge with the cool people; the underbelly of society. Needless to say, I had a great time making this heart for a work friend's son's girlfriend. I hope she enjoys it as much as I enjoyed making it.

Big, chunky porcelain heart.

This Frenchie-esque earring came from the same cool bag of stuff as the blue jewel on the first custom lub.

And of course I had to get my chalk board fix. I am crazy about this chalkholder!!!

He's a chalk alligator I found while on my adventures with Dawn at the Jessie James Antique Mall in St. Joe, MO. Dawn and I are headed on more antique mall adventures in a couple of weeks. Yeah!!!!!

And while I'm on a French kick, this chalkboard contains some of the same dusty pink and cream antiqued elements as the French heart. The vase is made of tiny shells and looks kind of broken and banged up -- ahhhhhh . . . perfect.

A close-up of the funky vase.

That is a super cool button on the top left -- yep, part of that Jessie James stash. I am in love with buttons. I finished gluing another custom lub last night and will post it along with some others when my husband, Jason Aaron, Wizard Magazine's top comic book writer of 2008, returns from his trip to the New York comic convention. Jason, PLEASE leave your laptop!