Last Legs

New - Divesin Photographs on Wood Panels

 

I have started mounting my photographs on the same wood panels that I use for collaging.

I really like the way the colour photographs look on the natural wood. And, like the collages, it is a great way to display a piece of art without having to worry about buying a frame.

I am using recent images taken on my digital camera, as well as photographs taken several years ago with my film camera.

I'm looking forward to expanding my selection of these and updating my Etsy site with them daily.

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I am donating this set of collages to a raffle to support the DSA. They are 6x6 inches each and 1.5 inches thick. They will look so adorable in a little boy's room.

New Collages for GOT CRAFT? and Etsy

I am SO excited about tomorrow's craft fair, Got Craft? Above are some new collages that I have done. They will be for sale tomorrow and then listed on Etsy if they don't sell at GC.

The first 30 people through the door will receive swag bags full of locally made crafts. Fifteen lucky people will receive a mini collage pack, which is sort of like a sample of my collage packs. I loved making these and I love the way they turned out. They are so cute!

My full sized collage packs will be available for sale tomorrow at my table. They are also available to buy at Urban Source, a great alternative art supply store on Main Street.   

The craft fair tomorrow will be a great place to buy a gift for Mother's Day.

I will be sharing a table with my friend, Chanda, who makes these lovely magnets.

 

Earth Day

I took this picture of my tomato plants a few days ago and now they are even bigger. I now have them staked up with chop sticks, so they don't fall over. I think I will still wait a while until I take them to the garden to transplant them. The lettuce I seeded at the garden has just started to come up! The peas, however, don't seem to be doing too hot. I will give them some more time and hopefully they will perk up. Also on my windowsill I have onions, swiss chard, basil, beans, and peppers growing in little peat pots. Grow little babies! Grow!

Hopefully this will be me in a few months:

This is me now:

 

The title of the above print is "The Potential was Endless," and the caption reads "sometimes the potential stopped her dead in her tracks" which is EXACTLY how I feel lots of the time. These are prints by Corid, a cool illustrator, who's work you can find on Etsy. I love both of these prints so much and they are very reasonably priced. 

 
 
More on the gardening front - these seed bombs by Visualingual would make a really wonderful gift for an earth friendly friend.

 

My crafty friend Amanda Wood has a DIY flashcard tutorial posted on the Granville Magazine website. These are great for kids!  

Some photos I took on Earth Day:

 

Housekeeping

Heard about a very cool resource today that hooks up people with yards to people who need yards for gardening. If you are in an apartment and don't have a space to garden go have a look at this website and you might be able to find someone who has a garden to share. It is aptly called Sharing Backyards.

 

If you are ever confused about what you can put into your recycling bin this is the best website to refer to. Take care of the earth.

NEW ETSY BANNER! WOO!

Ain't it pretty?

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A while ago I asked some friends to send me signs that said "Moving On" in an effort to help me through a hard time. And they did! I received 7 signs that I put up throughout my house as encouragement, and as a reminder how fantastic my friends are. In exchange for a "Moving On" sign I told them I would make them a sign that had something on it that they needed to read. These are two signs that I mailed out.

 

Things Worth Looking At

My Love For You is an art blog curated by Meighan O'Toole. The blog is so pretty and Meighan chooses really fantastic artists to feature. The quality of work on this blog is almost overwhelming. I can only look at it in short spurts. Short spurts of goodness.

 

Penguin and Fish has a really great product for sale in support of relief for Haiti's children. I also really like all of Alyssa's stuffed animals for sale in her Etsy shop, especially the cats and unicorns.

 

Would love one of these!

Bliss in a Teacup is a life blog written by a friend of mine, Becka, who is interested in similar things as me. She likes the simple things in life, crafting, cooking healthy food, pretty photos etc. Reading her blog is refreshing, kind of like getting into my pyjamas after a shower, curling up in my quilt on the couch and watching a good movie.

Cold Antler Farm is a blog documenting the life of a writer/farmer living in Vermont. Jenna is the author of Made From Scratch, a book about "discovering the pleasures of a handmade life". I Just ordered it and can't wait for it to arrive!

 

Phaulet is a jewellery line that I adore. Paula's work is colourful, unique, really well made, and all her earrings are DOUBLE SIDED! You really have to see her work in person to get the full effect. It is gorgeous.

 

Vintage Etsy Shop Reopened

I have reopened my Etsy shop, TeacherJacket, where I am selling vintage items and supplies. Right now it is full of vintage illustration pages from dictionaries and encyclopedias such as this mushroom illustration:

 

and this climbing plants illustration, which is double sided, and features a water birds illustration on the other side:

 

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I want to mention the Awesome Showcase again. It will be on display for 3 more days so if you haven't had a chance to see it you should go down to Shine during the day, have a look, get a drink, watch some sports, fill out a "Vancouver is Awesome Because..." activity sheet. Christine McAvoy has been writing a daily blog from there.

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Nike is collecting old running shoes that will be converted into Nike Grind, a material used to make basketball courts. Bring them to any of these locations and Vancouver will get a new court somewhere. Pretty cool.

There are dropoff stations at these Nike store locations:
Nike Robson | 1124 Robson Street | Vancouver | 604.683.2221
Nike Metrotown | 1222-4700 Kingsway | Burnaby | 604.430.6453
Nike Richmond | 1592-6551 No. 3 Road | Richmond | 604.276.0015
Nike Park Royal | 4567 Canada Way | Burnaby | 604.276.0015
Nike Kerrisdale | 2120 W. 41st Avenue | Vancouver | 604.264.1246
Nike Oakridge | 650 W. 41st Avenue | Vancouver | 604.267.1972

Nauticals

digital photo from 2007

I was featured in ANOTHER blog today! It is a post featuring nautical items from Etsy.

Buy this collage here.

New Collages - That I'm Keeping!

When I made the collages for my Holiday Craft Fairs, there were three that I couldn't bare to part with. I am going to keep them and put them in my room. Unless someone gives me an offer that I can't refuse! But I really like these, because for some reason I feel like they say "Jackie" really well.

 

 

 

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Also, the other day I sat down with a bunch of art supplies and with nothing in mind, I started to create. I was trying to be "free flowing" but my work still comes out kind of intentional and boxy. This collage is similar to the work I did in high school. I like it. It is something I would consider making prints of, if there was an interest.

 

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Last, and also collage related, I have been posting collages on etsy at very low prices because I was inspired by the One Thousand Thousand Project, which is about making one million pieces of original, handmade art. Two guys have set out to do this together, and they are selling the pieces for very cheap, in order to keep them moving. The idea being, that the creation of one million pieces of art is the project, not necessarily the individual pieces. They also believe that art should be affordable to all. And so do I. You can read more about their project by clicking the link above.

Some of the pieces I have listed for $3:

 

 

 

I am hoping to continue posting art in this price range. We shall see how it goes!

Girl and Squid

 

I listed 5 of my collages on Etsy today and sold one. That was very exciting. I also spent a couple hours at the MCC Thrift store in Abbotsford. They had records for $0.01 each. I rifled through them and came up with about 40 that I could have purchased but went through my selection and pared it down to 21 records which came to $0.22 with tax. Most of them are country records. Charlie Pride, a Best of Merle Haggard etc. Pretty cool. I also bought a couple more books for collaging and buttons. An old atlas and a few old dictionaries.

 

I'm really excited about the market this Saturday but also very nervous, of course. I really don't know what to expect from the Abbotsford Farmers Market crowd. I just really love what I am working on right now and hope that it will be successful.

winter soup

I spent most of today shooting photos of and listing items for Etsy . I put some of my scarves up on my page and put some bird boxes (pictured above) on Susanne's page, PinnStudio. Suzanne is a wonderful artist that I know whose Etsy shop I run.

Today was such a Wintery day. I cooked lentil and butternut squash soup from scratch, making up the recipe as I went along and it turned out wonderfully. Didn't shower, just bopped around the house getting things done, wearing Dave's way-to-big-for-me sweatpants. Around seven I curled up on the couch and read more of Anias Nin's Diary, falling asleep with my cat, Kitten. I woke to snow! Beautiful, swirling snow, sticking to the trees and ground. If I peek outside, I can see that based on the white blanket on cars, about 6 inches fell.

I am also thriled that I sent of a package of zines to the Maltnomah County Library in Portland Oregon as per their request. I have been meaning to do that since the Zine Fair earlier this year but I didn't have the money to get more zines printed until now. I shipped them off in a maxi pad box and somehow that makes me super satisfied. It must be something about DIY and reusing materials. The fact that zines were what was in the box... the fact that Portland Oregon is where they were headed and that Portland is so wonderfully DIY.

The other night I watched White Christmas for the first time. Such a wonderful classic musical. Since watching it I have been on a classics kick, renting movies like Breakfast at Tiffany's and Guys and Dolls. Mostly movies from the 50's. The holiday season always seems to make me want to watch oldies. I remember being at my Grandparents house one time and watching Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, a 1950's musical. I think my Dad and I were dreading what we were about to endure but both of us ended up really enjoying it. I would like to rent it again to see if I still like it. I think that I will.