michelle my belle

what's- old, yellow, functional and super cool?

it's my latest find on etsy, of course.
i've always wanted a vintage coffee pot.
when i finally searched etsy to acquire one, this was one of the first ones to pop up.
and it's perfectly me.
it was a "meant to be".

and, it even works!

i plan on serving many batches of hot tea punch out of this big yellow beauty.

i'm a happy girl.

this weekend i'm DETERMINED to be productive & inspired.
i plan on running for one, since i've fallen off the wagon and didn't run a SINGLE day this week.
painting for two, still many paintings to finish.
but mostly, just using my time wisely.

xoxo-m

green party & sour grapes!

i'm having a bit of a love/hate relationship with pinterest right now.
my love of it- awesome ideas like Pure Sugar's SOUR GRAPES.

these are the easiest thing EVER.
a box of lime jello, washed WET grapes, toss in a plastic bag to coat them and viola-
you're the hit of the party!

a pretty, fairly healthy and simple snack that can even be enjoyed by adults.

wasabi peas, watermelon licorice & sour grapes
in lieu of st. patrick's day,  i was going with the theme of green.

i also tried this recipe for greek spinach dip with pita bread.
not my favorite.
but it looked pretty.

st. patrick's day cupcake toppers (free)!

st. patrick's day is already almost here!
these cute & funky st. patrick's day cupcake toppers are ones that i previously designed for a party.
i've included the free downloads for them at the bottom of this post.
i haven't quite gotten around to this years yet... not sure if it's going to happen.






do you have any big plans/traditions for st. patty's day 2012?

 
download free st. patrick's day clover cupcake topper.
download free st. patrick's day frog cupcake topper.

 

here kitty kitty painting

not quite completed but close

part of this weekend was spent weeding through my studio, working on completing all the paintings that are half done.
the bummer is, starting again after not touching them for SO long- i end up essentially repainting the whole thing over again.

perhaps i will grow out of this rotten habit someday!?!?!?!?
PLEASE say you have experience with this and you've conquered it.
give me hope that the whispered words to myself of "never again" are not lost in the wind.

i also managed an 11 mile run on Saturday!
my longest run in over a year.
it feels good to be active again.
and my body seems to be holding up. yay!

be original pencil cup

another pencil cup...
my friend had a great idea of adding a little rice to the cup to make the pencils display better.
duh! why hadn't i thought of that!

hopefully these little guys will be up on our website by early next week.

suggested by one of my studio girls, i'm making this tomorrow. yum!

p.s. thank you for all the creative & crazy ideas for the title of my last piece!  xoxo-m

having WAY too much FUN!

another painting complete.
a bit on the hedgehog-ish side.
super love him...





but still trying to come up with a title.
anything yelling out at you?
i have a few in my mind, but i've not settled on any one of them yet.
words are my weakness.
as you can probably tell with my mad writing skillzzzz.

xoxo-m

owl pencil cup photo shoot

still working on some product pics of our new Allen Designs line of pencil cups.
deciding which ones to use is the hardest part.
curious, which one is your fave?

owl pencil #1

owl pencil #2

owl pencil #3

owl pencil #4

owl pencil #5

i'm still not sure...

3 things i'm working on today...

1. i've started a new painting.
which i'm hoping to have completed today.
here's a peek...


2. i'm taking pics of our fun new pencil cups so we can put them on our website and make them available to the likes of y'all. :)

3. i'm fighting the urge to go junking and start a cool collection like this one.
i CANNOT WAIT for garage sale season!

colorful spring air

thank you for all the feedback on my last painting!
i love hearing your thoughts & opinions.

a colorful and cheerful girl emerged from this next painting.

the beginnings.

i was a little unsure what i was doing at this point so i just kept adding paint.
...that fixes everything. right?

coming together. finally.


and done.
i'm sure some of you will like this one better :)

i'm toying with the idea of trying to do a gallery show of some sort.
are any of you in galleries?
i've heard that they are really hard to get into, is this true?

protecting the sacred painting

depicted above is the painting not quite finished.
below is the completed one.

not sure i want to put this out there...
but, what do you think?

read an interesting article today on the topic of pinterest & copyright infringement.
and my heart is breaking for the the kids & family affected by the ohio h.s. shooting. so much sadness out there.