by Heather Plett | Aug 2, 2009 | Uncategorized
My friend Yvonne, a gifted textile artist, handed me the piece of art you see below and said “I made this for your studio”. I think my jaw dropped open. It is so beautiful and SO perfect! And it just makes me feel so loved and encouraged! (Just like all the other pieces I’ve received.)
As I sat there staring it, I thought “it looks like my dreams taking flight”. A moment later, Yvonne said “it’s called ‘dreams taking flight’ and I thought it was perfect for what you’re working on.” Oh yes, it’s perfect! The photo doesn’t really do it justice. Yvonne hand-died all of the colourful bits of fabric. She truly is amazing and should be doing this for a living, don’t you think?
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Remember the generous stranger who poured coffee on my Wreck this Journal, at the encouragement of my friend Jo-Anne? Well… this is a delightful story… she left a comment on my blog! Turns out she’s a friend of my cousin Bev who’s been following me on Twitter and came across the video. She says she loved being part of it! (I’m so glad she’s not annoyed with me for posting the video of her online!) Now I want to meet her again to thank her – I had a feeling when she joined the fun that she was a kindred spirit.
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My decoupaged desk looks lovely! I’m quite fond of it and I’ve started to cast my eye on other flat surfaces in the house that might be decoupage-worthy. Marcel asked me to paint a dresser for him this week, and he gave me that suspicious look when I said “don’t you think plain white is a little boring?”
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Things are going remarkably well for my new website. If all goes as planned, I think I’ll be ready to launch it on Thursday. I’ve always had it in my mind that I’d launch by September, but since I’m ahead of schedule, I thought it would be fun to launch it while I’m still on vacation.
I’m so excited about the launch that I’m contemplating throwing a big party for all of the locally-based friends, family, and blog-readers that might be interested on Thursday night. The only problem is that I’ve concentrated so much of my energy on the creative stuff, that I’m not sure I can get my house looking presentable enough for a party. Stay tuned if you live close by – I’ll keep you posted.
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When I emerged from my studio one morning last night, I found the girls and Marcel all outside tearing the badly neglected, rotting deck apart. There’s something about seeing my girls with work gloves on, with hammers and power tools in hand, that just makes me smile.
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And speaking of my girls, they all have some colourful, funky new footwear for back to school.
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And I leave you with this picture, taken this morning on a lovely photo walk by the river.
(There really is no way to properly line photos up with words on blogger!)
by Heather Plett | Jul 31, 2009 | Uncategorized
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OulJbOiRpk&hl=en&fs=1&]
by Heather Plett | Jul 30, 2009 | Uncategorized
This is my fourth morning wrapped in the loving arms of my creative sanctuary. Aaaaahhhhh! This is so much fun, I’m dreaming of quitting my job and figuring out how to make a living doing what I love right here in this studio. This morning I wrote a “how I can quit my job and still have food on the table” list, and I’m pretty sure I can do this within the next year.
Part of the fun in my studio yesterday morning involved the final “chapter” of the Wreck this Journal saga – a saga that has been very closely aligned with the creating of my studio, and the dreaming and building of my new website (it’s happening people!). For this particular wrecking, I decided to explore the intersection between creativity and destruction, while I figured out a way to commemorate and immortalize the Journal as a symbol (and as a companion) of my creative journey.
Check out what I created with my wreckage! And if you stick around right to the bitter end, you’ll catch a glimpse of the “history of the artist as a young woman”. I’m won’t tell you everything, but it involves something about paper dolls and horses…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEakm5UBieg&hl=en&fs=1&]
Here are some links to some earlier wreckage…
The beginning (including the pictures of hiding a page in the wall)
Wrecking with the kids (includes bicycles, swings, and a Slurpee machine)
Wrecking with a friend (and a generous stranger)
Wrecking graveside (visiting my son’s burial place)
by Heather Plett | Jul 27, 2009 | Uncategorized
Maddy loves to paint. Once, when she was painting, I said “maybe you’ll be an artist when you grow up”. She looked at me in that long-suffering way and said “of COURSE I’ll be an artist when I grow up. I already am!” If you ask her what kind of art she prefers, she says “modern art.”
She’s having a hard time resisting the urge to take over my studio. It almost kills her when I insist on having a little mommy time alone in here. I manage to appease her now and then by letting her come in and create with me.
When she saw all the lovely art I was receiving from other people, her creative juices got going and she said “Mommy, we should paint something together and then give it away to someone on your blog.” So that’s what we’ve done. Here’s Maddy telling you all about it…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=On01LtLySq0&hl=en&fs=1&]
And here’s a photo Maddie took of the painting…
If you’d like it, just say so in the comments, and we’ll pick a lucky winner.
(I think we have a budding blogger on our hands. She’ll outpace me in no time.)
by Heather Plett | Jul 25, 2009 | Uncategorized
I’m so excited about the new art pieces that arrived in the mail while I was away! To show them off, I stretched myself a bit creatively and did something I haven’t done before – I tried my hand at “vlogging” (that’s video-logging, for the uninitiated).
If you’re new to this blog, you might want to visit this post where I showed off my creative sanctuary and asked people to help me decorate it. There’s still room for more, so if you haven’t already done so, please consider sending me something.
Click on the video below and spend a little time with me in my new studio. You’ll get to see the first three pieces hanging on my “inspiration from others” wall. And for a bonus, you’ll see the things I splurged on while on vacation – the amazing pottery mug that called out to me from a wonderful gallery in Duluth, and the swirly silver earrings that I couldn’t resist at an equally wonderful little gallery on Madeline Island. (The links aren’t to the actual pieces I bought, but to the artists’ pages – both worth visiting.)
(The video quality is a little poor due to poor lighting and a cheap low res camera, but hopefully you can still see enough to enjoy the tour.)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fi3KWZ21gL0&hl=en&fs=1&]
Here are the links to the lovely people who sent me art…
Sherri from Life After Web
My sister-in-law, also known as Accidental Poet
Andrea Pratt from Colouring Outside the Lines
by Heather Plett | Jul 24, 2009 | Uncategorized
We’re having a lovely vacation. This is my first time plugged in in 5 days and I can’t say I’ve missed it. We’ll be home soon and I’ll tell you all about it.
My friend Yvonne, a gifted textile artist, handed me the piece of art you see below and said “I made this for your studio”. I think my jaw dropped open. It is so beautiful and SO perfect! And it just makes me feel so loved and encouraged! (Just like all the other pieces I’ve received.)
My decoupaged desk looks lovely! I’m quite fond of it and I’ve started to cast my eye on other flat surfaces in the house that might be decoupage-worthy. Marcel asked me to paint a dresser for him this week, and he gave me that suspicious look when I said “don’t you think plain white is a little boring?”
When I emerged from my studio one morning last night, I found the girls and Marcel all outside tearing the badly neglected, rotting deck apart. There’s something about seeing my girls with work gloves on, with hammers and power tools in hand, that just makes me smile.
And speaking of my girls, they all have some colourful, funky new footwear for back to school.
