Book Paper Scissors Show at the Philadelphia Main Library

My New "Other Side of the Paper Journals"

Purgatory Press from NY

Team Meeting Friday, Nov. 21

the Mew Gallery Philly Etsy Team meeting.

Ruby Red Etsy Treasury! My Red Poppy Photo!

Find me this weekend at book paper scissors with art car calendars for 2009 and photos and handmade books and cards! There will be activities, handmaking and lots of cool vendors!

Why Being Broke Makes You More Creative: ART CARS!

I was scanning old pictures of art cars into my computer today and wondering why you don't ever see them, at least here in Philly now a days. When I was broke and living in New Orleans, I made alot of really creative stuff, and creating your own art car is all about making your own fun. I spied a volvo on the way home that would make a great base for an art car. I was trying to think what my art car could be and I thought I could do a skeeball ramp on the back of the car and have parts of arcade games and foosball guys attached to the top of the car. I'm not a huge arcade fan, but I love skeeball.

What would your art car be?

I'm putting these into a calendar for the Books, Paper Scissors sale next saturday at the free library, main branch.

Rittenhouse Square Park

If you haven't visited the park lately, now's the time to go. I stopped by on Sunday because I'd noticed the leaves were changing and it was gorgeous out and the colors were fantastic. It's hard to take a bad photograph in the park, because there are so many different sculptures and lanes and features to focus on and beautiful old trees. There are plenty of benches and lots of local coffee shops to pick up a cider, hot chocolate or coffee to keep you warm while you read a book or just people watch. Kids were climbing all over the sculptures and playing tag in the dry fountain and old ladies were being pushed in wheel chairs by their aides, admiring the mini doggies with studded collars. It's nice to take a break and sit down for a while instead of running around like a crazy person all the time!

Beets! Free Food!

I stopped by the community garden today and I was planning to drop off compost and look around, but sad the season is ending, but when I got there I saw the beets! They were huge and there were these 4 ready to pick and scores of other ones will be ready now that these biggins are out of the way! And I was at the store this morning trying to decide what root veggie to roast and luckily I didn't get beets. I totally forgot I was growing them. I picked some thyme and lemon balm while I was there and I was feeling so happy I have a garden and I can get free food when I need it from the garden. Of course, I'll be tired of beets after I eat these, but it's still cool.

I've been thinking about ways to make the community garden more friendly and functional and fun and today I was thinking we should name each block of beds so people can say where their plot is. I was thinking letters, but you could also name the blocks after cities or states and you could name the paths. Like you could have the block Los Angeles and Rodeo Drive and New Orleans and St. Charles Ave. We have a fantastic community garden (18th and Wallace Streets),.

New gift wraps for my etsy shop: banana papers that are eco-friendly and pretty!

Next weekend (Nov. 8th) I'll be at the The Philadelphia Independent Craft Market with these new items:

Philadelphia Zoo

Pre-Halloween Weekend at the Zoo: I'm working on a book of the zoo's creatures and I shot some more last weekend. Each page of the book will have a collage of images of the same animal to show their behaviors. I'm going to start selling them at the Book Paper Scissors Artists Book Fair November 22 at the Free Library. I'll have several books if I get busy working (Art Cars, Art Teacher).

Penguin in the Lagoon

Mr. Gorilla Checks Out the People

Mr. Polar Bear Takes a Nap

First Frost

I hustled over to the garden before work to take some pictures of frost on the plants, but I only found a few ground covers with frost on them.



Lettuces

I did get some nice images of the turning leaves.

ETSY.com Philly Artist Treasury with My LOVE photo

My Promos Are Done!

Here are the upcycled mini card sets I made for the free tote bags the Philly Etsy team will be giving away at the Swap-O-Rama-Rama on Saturday.

Chanticleer Gardens in Wayne, PA

This weekend I visited Chanticleer with my family and we took a quick tour in the bright sunshine, but the garden is really wonderful. The gardeners are given the liberty to make changes to the beds and create furniture which includes painted pairs of Adirondack chairs to allow visitors a view down the hills.
View down the stairway into the tennis court garden.

The cutting garden and vegetable garden with two men talking on a bench at the end of the path.


Lilly pads on the pond.


Succulent plantings on the hill.


The ruins in the center offer great framing devices, creating windows onto the woods.


They'll only be open until Oct 31st when the season ends. They are on Church rd. in Wayne, PA.

Arts By the River East Falls

I showed my photographs at the Inn Yard Park today and it was really nice! The weather was beauuu-ti-ful and everyone was really cool! My friend Carrie came and helped my run the table expertly and I had a collector of my bird paintings show up to sweep four more paintings off to her home and I got lots of good advice for new places to take photos! Thanks! I'll be out there shooting soon! There were alot of dogs out with their people.
This set up was my most involved so far, but I like the look of it. It took a good hour to put together, though.
Carrie has such good sales instincts, she put the postcards in front and the cards in the lid of the box. We made the best of the time by making upcycled photo cards for the Design Philadelphia show and the Swap-O-Rama-Rama give aways.
Meeting all of the people and having fun made it all worth it! I also scored 4 vases made by kids in the Claymobile program for the Clay Studio. I love coil built ceramics and I can't pass them up! See you all in 2 weeks at 906 Christian for Design Philadelphia (Oct. 18, 10-4)!

Etsy Painting Treasury With My Side Table Painting