Flea Market Love: Nesting Tables "After"

The latest flea market project has been completed & I love it. You can see 'before' & 'during' photos from the last few weeks if you are just seeing them for the first time.

Feature Art Friday: A handsome freckled fellow

A little color...

Some days you just need a little color...

Flea Market Love: Nesting Tables Week 3

Now I feel like I'm getting somewhere with the tables. This is the fun part... once the sanding & priming are done. The designs are made from stencils I made after doodling on old file folders & then cutting them out with an exacto knife. I can't wait to see how they look when they are finished.

Feature Art Friday: Kaleidoscope Tree

Flea Market Love: Nesting Table Week 2

So here are the nesting tables after being sanded & primed. They are still a little boring, but hopefully that will change before next Monday! Here is the 'before' photo.

Feature Art Friday: playing catch-up

I'm happy to say I finally got the most recent art added to my Etsy store. This bird print is available in a 5x7 and an 8x10. This was painted as a birthday gift for a friend who loves birds, books and all things pink. I was a little lost for a while about halfway through because I was painting with colors I don't use often- but I really liked the completed art. I'm really amazed at the amount of detail you can see in the digital prints. Even in this photograph of a print of the art- I feel like it really looks like the art.

Both the Poppies and the Sea Turtles are listed as a giclee, which is a different (and more expensive) way of reproducing art. It is a pigment-ink printing process and it really truly looks exactly like the original art. I was stunned at the amount of detail that is visible- you can see each layer in the painting. This is the first time I have ever listed giclee prints but it will definitely not be the last. I'm really pleased with how they turned out.

The art inspired by the Hafiz quote is listed as a 5x5 and an 8x8 digital print, but any of the digital prints can be done in a giclee. I love this quote- the moment I heard it I pictured the art in my head.

The Visitor

I was working on this painting over the weekend (it seems that it may never be finished...) when I felt like I was being watched. I looked to my right... nobody. I looked to my left... nobody. I looked down & found myself staring right back at someone.

Mystery solved.

Flea Market Love: Nesting Tables Week 1

Have I ever told you about the dark corner in my garage? On the other side of where the cars are parked? It's full of treasures. Like these nesting tables from a flea market... I try to be good & not buy a bunch of stuff unless there is room for it in my house, but sometimes it just seems like things are too good to pass up. So I buy them & they sit in the corner of my garage. I try not to look at them because I feel bad that they never get the attention they deserve... sanding, painting & a life in a cute home, where they may preen as visitors walk in the room & shower them with attention.


It's been a dream for a while to set up my own booth of re-purposed flea market finds, but in an effort to be realistic... I have a full-time & part-time job plus the pet portraits & Etsy shop. It doesn't seem like there is time to add another layer of creativity to my life even though I would love it. Having your own booth means that you need to be prepared to keep adding new items pretty quickly if things are selling. Paying booth rent for a mostly-empty booth makes no sense... which is why I was SO excited last week when I was contacted on Etsy by a designer who is opening a brick & mortar shop about an hour from here. She asked about putting some of my art in her store. During our conversation I mentioned my love of re-purposing flea market finds & asked her if she would be interested in any of those items... she said YES! 


I pulled these tables out to work on first- I'm planning to sand & paint them & then do something special on the tops... some sort of pattern maybe. Check back the next few Mondays for updates on this project each week... & buckle up, buttercup... there is about to be some serious flea market love around here!

Feature Art Friday: Emily Dickinson Quote Mixed Media Art

Thea Foundation Arts Festival

Over the weekend, I went to the Thea Foundation Arts Festival in downtown North Little Rock.

There was dancing...

 and sculpting...

 and painting...

I love downtown North Little Rock. I love this cafe... and these chairs... people, I have serious chair-envy over the chairs at the Starving Artist Cafe. The food is great too- but man, I am crushing on these chairs.

 I seem to have a thing for old signs too. Funny how you don't realize how much you notice & photograph certain things until you look at the photos on your computer & see the trends. I have an embarrassing number of random photos of old signs. 

 Is it just me, or does this building appear to be sprouting teeth over the windows? Just me? Ok.

 This little library looks like it's in an old firehouse... if it is, I wonder if there is still a fireman's pole in there? If so, I'm jealous of the librarian who gets to play on it every day.

The art festival was cool- it was small this year but I believe it was the first time they had it. Hopefully it will grow each year- it made my hands itch to go home & paint. Have you ever heard of the Thea Foundation? It's a fantastic foundation that does great work.