Trying to stay on top of things

Today, in the midst of preparing for Halloween festivities in our neighborhood, doing some last minute decorating outside ...and maybe getting those pansies planted..... i am focused on gearing up for the rest of the fall shows-- particularly my own studio show and sale.  Tomorrow is the 1st of November and my show opening is on the 30th of November.  My "to-do" list may be more overwhelming than ever!!  In the next few days i will post some pictures of my disastrous work spaces so that i can then share the "after" photos and they will have more impact!

For now, i will share the front of this year's show invitation which my friend Patty helped me with.  It is fun and colorful and i love it!

And here is the back, which i have modified to share online (blacking out my address) ...Not that people couldn't find me if they wanted to, but it just doesn't seem prudent to post it here.  Anywhoo, here it is:

Hope everyone is having a great day.  Best wishes to those folks who were affected by the awful storm this week.  My head is filled with images of its devastating effects and my prayers are with all those recovering from it.

Hump Day Giveaway at the Inkspot Workshop Blog!

Happy Wednesday everyone!!  

check it out!  and enter to win TWO 50.00 credits-- one to  my etsy shop 

and the other to Elemen O Pillows!!

Hump Day Giveaway – Happy Home Maker

Checking in

Well, the first couple of fall shows have come and gone- in a crazy blur!  The Yellow Daisy Festival in early September marked my 11th year of doing that show.  It was a good one, despite some foul weather and a leaky tent ;o)  I had some great sales, saw lots of friends and "regulars" ;o) and made many new friends.  I collected a lot of names for my studio show and sale mailing list, and at some point in the next week or so, i will be adding those names to the address book for my show/ sale e-vite.

I also did a show outside of Chattanooga in early September as well as another wonderful show here in GA- the Norcross Fall Festival just two weeks ago.  The aftermath of these shows includes unpacking lots of work from containers, washing table skirts and tablecloths, going over inventory, entering e-mails into mailing lists, photographing work to list online, editing photos.....   and of course, making lots and lots of NEW work!!  This year marks the 5th year of my studio show and i want it to be better than ever!!  So i am creating lots and lots of new pieces to share with the folks who come!!  Between creating work for that, my etsy shop and a few upcoming gallery shows, i am keeping pretty busy.  Here is a shot of a table laden with some of the pieces that i am working on right now:

Today i am busy taking and editing photographs and listing some new items for a cool blog feature that it happening tomorrow.  I will share the link on my facebook page-  facebook.com/charityelisedesigns - as soon as it is live.

Hope that you are all having a wonderful and productive day!  Another cup of coffee for me, and i am OFF!!

What a crazy few months it has been!  Usually things ease up a bit around here after the studio show/ sale is over....  but somehow this year, life seems to have accelerated in some ways.  Obligations at the children's school, my DH being out of town, multiple illnesses back to back.... have kept us hopping around here!  My daughter's birthday party was this past weekend and i am just putting the finishing touches on a large project for the school, so i finally feel like i can breathe a little bit.  .... though i won't breathe for too long- because spring shows are just around the corner and online sales continue to ramp up.  My stamp sales to other outlets- namely the pottery supply store here in town- Atlanta Clay- have gone way up and so i need to make a more concerted effort to keep them well stocked at all times!

All in all it is good, productive stuff.  Exciting things are happening....  a book with my art in it was just published and i continue to get painting commissions (to my complete delight!)....  now to get myself well....  start taking some more walks, say my prayers and get down to business!!

Thanks for reading.  leave me a comment if you feel so moved.... it encourages me to write more!

Here are the mosaic flowers and leaves for the school auction project that i mentioned.... in this picture we are laboriously gluing on each little tiles to get ready for grout.  definitely a labor of love!

This is a shot of the birthday cake from this last weekend.  I guess i have mosaic on the brain as the two projects contain a fair amount of visual overlap!  The mosaic here is made with colored and textured (with my handmade stamps ) fondant; the smaller note-book cake is covered with white fondant and painted with edible markers and watered down food coloring... the art palette and paints are made with white chocolate. It was a lot of fun to make and a fun, colorful tribute to a fun and colorful little girl!

Studio show and sale 2011

This has been one crazy year-- and the last few months, kind of the icing on the crazy cake.  With unbelieveably mixed feelings, we had to close our wonderful tea house in early October.  The details and "fall-out" of that process continue to unfold with no great clarity....  on the heels of the closure of the shop, my husband began a long stint of working out of town which has him in Baltimore for two week stretches back for a quick weekend, and then off again!  To say that these things have been difficult on us would be a great understatement.....

With Dan out of town, i wondered if i would be able to pull off my - what is now annual- studio show and sale.  This would be the 4th year, and i hated the idea of not doing it.   It seemed like a tragedy to skip it-- it is, after all, really gaining some momentum now.... and my guest list is fairly long-- i didn't want to disappoint!  So, unsure of whether or not i really had enough work to even justify it, and not sure how exactly i would pull it all together, i went kind of nuts getting ready.  My children probably suffered the most for it....  but they are such very good sports... and actually really helped me a lot with cleaning up the house and preparing.

Somehow, it all came together.  As it turns out, it was my best show yet, and i had more than enough work to keep it looking bountiful and well stocked!  I sold lots of work-- many paintings included!  -- and this is really the most wonderful part to me-- the paintings.  because that is what i love the most!!  In the next couple of days, i will start to inventory what is left and begin packing things away.  I have a few "appointments" set up for folks who want to do a bit of last minute shopping, and then i will move forward with putting our house back together and beginning to work on creating more work!  My goal this year is to try to stay ahead of the busiest show seasons.... the key element here is to stay/ get busy working again right now and adding to the existing inventory that i have and just to keep churning it out and stocking it away.  I would really like to avoid the pitfall that seems to trap me every year; where the winter months seem to pass by without my doing a great amount of work and not getting down to business in the studio (in a serious way) until sometime in the spring.  This year i will strive to keep up with production all along, thereby (hopefully) avoiding the summer stress-out that i usually end up in.   we'll see how it goes :o)

Here are a couple of photos from the show before i take it down.  To see more, check out the album that i posted on my facebook business page: chARiTy elise studio show 2011

the last photo shows a couple of the paintings that sold.  so excited to get back to some painting!

Featured Artist at the Yellow Daisy Festival this year!

so, i haven't been here for awhile and that is because i am out of my mind preparing for THIS!!!

                                                            come and see me if you can!

                                                            Yellow Daisy Festival 2011

studio goings on

The summer is in full swing and the crunch of preparations for fall shows is on.... Normally i start panicking around March and try to dive into big-time production around that time.... Now, with the tea-house and other responsibilities added to the mix, March, April and May came and went, and here we are nearing the end of june.... starting to feel the pinch of the "closeness" of fall, and specifically the Yellow Daisy Festival; my biggest show of the year and the beginning of my craziest season.  So, these days i am diving into studio work as often and as much as possible.   These last few weeks have been packed with all sorts of different work.  My wooden magnets with funny/ inspirational quotes/ messages/ pictures are sort of a bread-and-butter item for me, and so i try to get oodles of those made before anything else.

so many bits of paper to cut....

The photo above shows a step mid-way in the process of creating these magnets.....    Another item on the list this week are bud vases.  On Monday and Tuesday i spent the day (s) making as many as i could from an entire 25 lb. bag of clay....  aching legs, feet and wrists and 263 bud vases later.....

They don't look like much now....  but after some cleaning up, sponging off smoothing, under-glazing, an initial bisque firing, some staining, more wiping off, glazing on the inside and drying out, then some glazing on the outside- in many different colors.... another firing, after which i will glue super-strong magnets on the back of each and every one.....  i will wind up with a tidy, colorful pile of something like these:

and on that note, there are really only a few available minutes for studio time today....  so i had better hop to it.  Today i need to work on a painting- the 4th revision-- for an exciting project that i am not ready to disclose to you quite yet.  stay tuned though, because i will be making a formal announcement soon.  I can't wait to tell you about it! 

It doesn't look like much yet.....