Madness in a month

Well, just when I thought things could only go back to normal.....

*laugh* Ah, but such is my life. :)

Well, remember how I was supposed to start arting again after July ended? 'I'm taking a break!' I said. 'I'll pick it back up in August' I said. Well, little did I know that August was going to be a complete rollercoaster!

Kanis and I for the last three weeks have been on the craziest ride of our lives (so far I'm sure). We were this <---> close to buying a house. Yup, a cute and unique little chalet inspired house with a massive garage for him, and a tall and 'Isa' type room for my studio. It screamed both of us (which is amazing considering Kanis and I were looking for what seemed to be an impossible house...). After showing the house to both his family, and my parents, we decided to jump in head first, and man, did we ever end up getting a headache!

I guess it's important to mention that we're first time home buyers, and are currently renting an apartment in Bedford, Nova Scotia. Nothing wrong with our current living conditions. Just feeling like things are getting a little bit tight (thanks to me and my art/supplies no doubt!) *laugh*

We were both in love with this house, and were excited and nervous to get the ball rolling. Unsure of what was to come, we went in with a slightly hesitant air of determination. To make a long story short, for the next three weeks our lives would center around this home. We fought for it, argued for it, paid to have it inspected, almost walked away from it a few times. In the end, though, our battle was lost. The house wasn't meant to be ours and we have had to return to the normal hussle and bustle of our lives.

The only downside to the last three weeks? Apart from spending large amounts of money, we have completely let the apartment fall into sad dissaray.....Poor thing. Everthing is a complete mess...And art making? I haven't touched a piece of paper since the whole house ordeal began...And I know that is really really bad...I've got a lot of stuff to work on for the next three months, and it is going to take every free moment in these next months to get everything made...

So why am I on here?

 I just wanted to let you guys know why it appears I have dropped off the face of the earth...Nope, I haven't been eaten by giants, or hidden myself into the deepest darkest cave (although the studio sometimes looks like one!!) I have just been dabbling in adult business and getting my first taste of 'grown up' life. Kind of a scary but exciting at the same time.

So what have I learned?

That life can't be necessarily put on hold when dealing with larger, more important issues, and that I just have to squeeze art making into every little free break that surfaces. I've learned to not count my chicks before they hatch, and most importantly, that there are always more fish in the sea, and that we will one day find the perfect house. And with this in mind, we go forward with positive attitudes, and me, I am going to go clean up my studio.

Again.

:)

Mini vacation coming to an end..

Eeek! It has been a long long long time since I've written on here...Actually one day short of a month. That is really really bad.

It's been a hectic month though, and it has just started to settle down enough for the dust to clear and for me to get my head screwed on straight again.

I took a little vacation to visit my sis in Montreal at the end of June, which was lovely and busy. I decided to bring her back to Nova Scotia with me, so we packed all of her stuff up, stuffed it into a cargo van which was driven by Kanis and my brother Alex (who magically appeared in Montreal one day to help) and voila, in a series of unscheduled snags, we came out victorious! Once again the Pineau family is complete and I'm loving it. You never really realize how much you miss someone until you see them again and spend time with them. This is especially true about family.

While I was in Montreal, apart from packing, I spent most of my evenings working on earrings and brooches. I employed Michelle to give me a hand coloring (which she loved, thank goodness.....If you could only have seen the number of things we worked on....Most people would have run away screaming with their hands in the air!!) I think I must have finished and baked about 100 pieces..and that wasn't even all of it.

The reason for the rush?

The week after I returned to Nova Scotia I had the Lunenburg Festival of Crafts to attend. I thought I'd prepared myself before leaving for Montreal, but upon returning to my studio, realized I had a list ten feet long of things I still wanted to make to bring with me.....And so began the burning of the candle at both ends...

Yup, late nights (or I guess, early mornings...), millions of piles of half completed art (poor Kanis...he's given up trying to organize them...) and no time for housework (again, Kanis was amazing). I was working a full week to boot..Through all the hard work, and with much help from Kanis and Michelle (*hugs*) I managed to finish everything, pack everything, and breathe!!

It was my first time attending the Festival of Crafts, and it was lovely. Lots of amazing work and food (I ate so much food!!) It was a long weekend, but totally worth it. I got to visit with Kanis's sister (hello Brenda!) and some new friends. I met some amazing people at the sale, and had a chance to catch up with some fellow crafters. All the hard work paid off in the end.

Once everything was packed up and stuffed back safely into our apartment, I decided, with a giant sigh, that I was going to take the rest of July off from arting.

And so here we are. That is the madness that has happened up to this point.

Don't worry though. August is almost here, and my brain is bursting with a million new ideas for some great art! I'm going to begin working on new stuff for HalCon, which I will be vending at this year. More details to follow :) I've also got to start making my Christmas inventory. I've only got 4 months to make 3 different shows worth of art.....But don't worry, the panic button is safe and sound, at least until the end of October :)

I've included some pictures of my booth at Lunenburg to show off some of the goodies I was selling. Hope you enjoy!!

Et voila!! My mini mobile shop (and Kanis)

Some of my original art that I had for sale.

A sampling of some of the Christmas ornaments I had available. Christmas in July anyone?

See the Zombie pincushions? Yup, those bad boys will be available for sale at HalCon this November!!

Some earrings and brooches. Also, can you spot Lucky, the window gnome??

Ah, my buoys. Some of these guys will be available to buy at a great new shop opening up in Lunenburg. It's called Dots & Loops Handmade and it's going to be beautiful. I'll have more information soon, along with some pictures of the shop.

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer!! Keep an eye on my blog in August, because as I finish making things, I'll post pictures on here and on my Facebook group. Lots of oddities to come! :)



Fredericton and Mobiles

Well, I thought I would upload the pictures from Fredericton right quick before tackling my final project for class tonight.

So here they are:

This is Kanis and I on our way to Fredericton Friday evening. Notice all the stuff in the backseat?

A view of the Fredericton Crafters Spring Sale.

Another shot of the sale.

Right across from my booth.

Packing up for the trip home.

Loaded to the point of bursting. Aw, I love you civic!!

On another note, I finished a new mobile the other weekend to give to my best friend Kristin on her baby shower. One of the themes for the baby's room is frogs and mushrooms in lovely blues and greens and brights. The first thing that popped into my head when I was looking at her fabric samples was gnomes! And so I set about making her the most fantastic gnome mobile I could possibly come up with!

Here's what the final result looked like:

Yeah for gnomes!! I completely fell in love with making this mobile. Once it was done I knew right away I had to make another one, and so I am in the process of doing just that. My second gnome mobile will be available to buy at the Lunenburg Festival of Crafts on July8-10. I will be in booth 55, so if you'd like to add a little bit of gnomie magic to your space, come see me :)

I am on my way to Montreal tomorrow for a week to visit my little sis, and will take lots of pictures to upload when I get back!! Have a great week everyone!!

My trip to Fredericton

This is turning out to be a week of new adventures and some new endings so I thought I'd share a few of these happenings before skipping into my studio to finish a collage that is due tonight!! (nah, I am not a procrastinator!)

Well, Kanis and I somehow managed to squeeze everything into the civic this past weekend. I had the hard challenge of trying to repack 5 large tupperware bins worth of art and display items into only two bins and a few small boxes...Eek! With a slightly panicked determination, I managed to expertly pack everything as required, and everything fit beautifully into the car!!! It was a little short of a miracle though.....I think I have as many display pieces as I do art!

We left Nova Scotia with absolutely lovely weather. The sun was shining and it was warm. Needless to say we drove out with a pep in our step at around 5 o'clock (a few hours ahead of schedule I may add!). We stopped only once in Truro to pick up a tarp ('just in case' I kept saying) to cover up the lattice displays that we had strapped to the roof of the car.

Good thing we picked up that platic lifesaver!! By the time we arrived in Fredericton, it had started to rain.

And it rained and rained and rained and rained!!! I'm talking cats and dogs. Bucket loads. All night Friday and all day Saturday.

The rain eased up enough for us to bring in all of the art into the Charlotte Street Arts Center for the sale (thanks Mother Nature!!) and we only suffered one fatality due to the rain. The straps that were tying down the lattice to the car were tied inside the car because we did not have a roof rack. Well, the straps absorbed large amounts of water, and so began to drip.... inside the car!!! When we went to leave on Saturday morning to set up for the show, we were horrified to see that the inside of the car was soaking wet!! All of the boxes in the back seat were wet...Luckily we had somehow packed all of the cardboard boxes and signs and prints into the trunk, which remained dry. Only one little three tiered box (which was being housed inside a cardboard box...) got drenched, and so destroyed. But it's okay! Considering what could have happened, I was alright with throwing only one thing away.

Other than that, the show was lovely! The crafters at the show were fantastic, and I met some really great people!! The show was definitely worth the trip up from Bedford, and I'm really glad Kanis and I ventured out. A lot more work goes into preparing for an out of province show, but I think I'm getting the hang of it, and the next one should go a little bit more smoothly. Practice makes perfect right?

I'll add pictures shortly so check back!! :)



New Art, and a new Craft Sale

Well, I kind of feel like I'm slacking off with this blogging thing, but to be completely honest, the weeks are flying by way too fast, and that by the time I realize what's going on, I've whipped through my days off and am once again back to the grind. What I need to do is take these reins and say "Whoa mon petit cheval!" and slow things down a little I think. (that french saying, by the way, is one of my favorite things my parents used to say to me and my brother and sister when we were young. Awww, I love you mom and dad!!)

Alright! Now that that has been said, onwards with the updates!

First up, the most exciting news is that I am going to be participating in the Fredericton Crafters Spring Sale next weekend (Saturday, June 18) in Fredericton, New Brunswick!! Yup, Kanis and I are going to attempt the impossible and stuff our poor little green Honda Civic with boxes and bags and pillows and clothes and totes of art and go on a little road trip! This will be my second time selling my work outside of Nova Scotia, and I'm really looking forward to this little sale. Come say hello at the Charlotte Street Arts Centre at 732 Charlotte Street. The sale starts at 9 and ends at 4. Lots and lots of great things to see!! If you'd like more information about the sale, click here.

Next up, a new piece of art that I will be showing off for the first time in Fredericton: The Frog Prince!!!

Yup, I did it again. Another Frog Prince thingy. Truthfully the story is probably one of my all time favorite stories. I have played with the story numerous times, tweaking the pictures and narratives. I've actually written my own version of the story, illustrated it with plexiglass intaglio prints I did while at NSCAD, and bookbound the story so that it was accordion folded. I have made a mirror with the little green prince on it, and made wooden blocks, dunce caps and ornaments as well. And now, I have a 24 inch collage of him too!! Here he is:

Hope you enjoyed the newest pictures! Lots and lots more to come. Once I'm done all of the new oddities, I'll have tonnes of stuff to post!!

Geocaching and some New Art

So much for writing these once a week eh? *laugh* In all fairness it has been a pretty crazy week. Two craft nights with some of my best gal friends, a night class at NSCAD, my boyfriend's birthday, inventory at work, and all of the other artsy things squeezed in there too. Well this week promises to be a little bit slower, so I'll probably get on here a few more times. I've got lots of good ideas floating around in this noggin of mine :)

A couple weekends ago a bunch of adventurous friends and I went geocaching for the day down in the Sheet Harbour area of Nova Scotia. We left relatively early on Sunday morning (not too early though!) and spent the day treasure hunting! (For those who haven't been geocaching before, basically all you need is a hand held GPS unit, some coordinates you can get from the geocaching website, and a sense of adventure.) I've got two craft shows and a trip to Montreal coming up in the next two months, and I've been a little bit preoccupied making what seems like a million earrings and pins, so when the option to take a Sunday off came up in conversation, I jumped on it and decided to take a day off! 

The day was amazing, although the weather was a little bit foggy, rainy and overall icky. It didn't put a damper on our trip though!! While we were searching for these caches, I starting taking pictures of all of the beautiful places and things that kept surfacing around every turn in the road. By the end of the day I realized I'd taken a tonne of photos. I guess I can't really escape art after all huh? I've included a few of the best shots so you can see what I mean.

And check out this amazing house! We spotted it on the way to Sheet Harbour and on our way back I made sure Brian stopped the car so that I could grab a few photos. 'Art is Life' definitely applies to this Nova Scotian folk artist!

Speaking of art, I also wanted to include a few photos of my  most recent collage. This idea had been brewing in my imagination for what seemed like forever, and finally, one day at work, we received the most perfect wooden panel for me to execute my vision! Good thing I work at an art supply store huh?

I'm completely addicted to fairy tales, and like to remake them in my slightly kooky style, and so yesterday I locked myself up in my studio while Kanis (my boyfriend) went to work, and finished the piece last night before bed! Really happy with it. I'm going to have it for sale at Lunenburg I think.

Can you guess what fairy tale this is?

If you guessed The Princess and the Pea then hurray!! I tweaked it a little with a play on words (as always) but I am really really pleased with the outcome. Each mattress was cut out individually and antiqued, and the princess was made up of 14 pieces (some as tiny as 4 mm large...(her shoe strap) eek!)

Hope you enjoyed the pictures! More to come soon!

My first post and some spring cleaning!

Well, this is it.

My first post!

Have to say it has been a long time coming, but I'm a little bit of a procrastinator, and I apparently needed to wait for the perfect time to launch myself into the vast world of blogging. Can't really pinpoint what exactly caused me to wake up one morning and sit down at my computer for an hour and a bit to get everything organized, but something nipped me in the butt. I guess it was just the right time!

Well, along with getting inspired to get this blog train going, I also realized that my studio was in the most desperate need of a good spring cleaning. I recently participated in the Halifax Crafters spring sale, and two months up to that weekend things were insane. My studio somehow magically transformed into this mess of piles and nonsense and it got to the point where I was avoiding my studio altogether. I guess you could say the 'zen' wasn't there anymore. The only thing to do?

Take a grenade to it.

Nah, just kidding. I cleaned up after myself and made things all pretty again. Now I'm ready to rock and roll and things are looking peachy!

Oh and hey, I've included some before and after photos just to let you all see exactly what I was talking about up above.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out the madness that is my little life here in Bedford Nova Scotia! Plenty of news and photos to come!