Thank you so much for visiting my blog. Here you can read about my adventures in artwork, crafting, illustration, and who knows what else!
Feel free to browse around and leave comments. I do hope you enjoy your stay!
You can see more at the new blog at BeesKneesIndustries.com.
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A day of snow is a wonderful excuse to get out and take photos, so my doll and I spent some time together last week on a cozy little outing.
"Snowdoll"
"Snow Sprite"
"Lost"
"Light the Way"
"The Only Way to Travel"
"This Is Beneath Me, Human" (Not sure if that's Lydia or the doll talking, there.)
Dolly couture by yours truly.
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January was a very busy month for me, so I didn't take nearly as many photos as I would have liked, but I really love these three from my Instagram.
Lydia helped us ring in the new year. It was hard to tell if she loved the party blower or if she hated it. I don't think she knew herself.
I love having a dog as an excuse to run around outside even in cold weather. This was taken in the Peninsula Park rose garden which, though void of roses, was quite lovely in January.
I've been trying to decide what kind of farm animals I should get, and I keep having lovely experiences with every goat that I meet. I have a feeling angoras will be in my future. Lydia wasn't too thrilled with the cat on my shoulder, though. She could obviously smell someone else had been there when I got home and started angrily scratching at my coat.
Want more? You can find me on Instagram as @BeesKneesIndustries.
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I'm truly excited to see my blog coming back to life. It's been such a big part of my creative world for so long, I've really missed the time I spent away from it. To thank all of you lovely readers who have encouraged and inspired me, I'm hosting a little giveaway.
I'm giving away this hand-drawn illustration of Alice in Wonderland being mistaken for an egg-stealing serpent. It's always been one of my favorite scenes from the book, and I'd love to pass it along to a new home. The illustration is matted and ready to fit into a standard 8" x 10" frame.
How to enter:
Leave a comment on this post by midnight PST on Tuesday, February 25. Make sure to leave a way for me to contact you if you win.
You can earn extra entries by posting about this giveaway on your blog, Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Just leave a separate comment with the link for each place you mention the giveaway. (Note: Limit of four entries total per person.)
Thanks so much for participating, and good luck!
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I thought it would be fun to share some information and tips about the tools and supplies I use for the different crafts I do. I have very diverse tastes when it comes to creating, and I've had so much trial and error with the tools I use, that it might be useful for me to share some of what I've learned.
Since I've been so busy working on my house lately, and, well, I figure that painting my house is a type of creative craft, I wanted to let you folks know about a nifty little tool I discovered recently, the Shur-Line paint edger.
It consists of a small spongy pad on a handle that you use to apply paint along trim or in a corner. The handle has little wheels that roll smoothly along the surface to help keep your paint aligned nicely. Below you can see how I load it with paint using a paintbrush.
In my bedroom, I decided to do a dark blue accent wall, which I hope to transform it into a dark blue mural background sometime soon. I cut in all the corners and trim of my studio using painters tape and an angled paintbrush, so I thought the same method would work for the bedroom.
I discovered after much frustration that getting a nice straight edge between the dark and light colors was darned near impossible. However, after some research, I found out about the paint edger tool. Below, you can see the difference the second pass with the Shur Line tool made. (I still need to do the same thing with the light blue color, to clean up that wall, but let's pretend we can't see that part, OK?)
I'm so much happier with the result now, and I'm newly inspired to paint accent walls in every room. Or, hey, why not accent walls on every wall! Oh, I'm going to have fun...
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Yesterday afternoon I got to enjoy one of my favorite events: a Blythe meet. This meet's theme was (of course) Valentine's Day, so we were all encouraged to bring tiny Valentines. To make sure everyone (and every doll) had their fill of Valentine sweets, we met at Pix Patisserie, always a fun location.
I love getting a chance to meet up with my pals, hear what everyone's been up to, and see the great outfits of dolls and humans alike.
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This is how Lydia greets me every day when I get home from work. I've had to train her only to climb my shoulders when I'm wearing a thick coat, though. Her little claws get sharp!
The concerned look on my face is directly related to the wall-to-wall-to-ceiling green gingham wallpaper in the bathroom at my new house. This photo was taken during the home inspection.
I'm far too small to see saw effectively. Tony and I tried putting some physics know-how to use, but we couldn't get my side to drop at all. A friend suggested I solve the problem by never emptying the sand from my shoes when I get back from the beach. I think I'll try it!
And this is how Lydia says good morning. (That's my bathrobe belt she has in her clutches.)
I've been working recently on some new embroideries for a very exciting project that will come to fruition after tax season. I'll be sure to keep you folks updated.
Lydia even helps me make the bed. She checks for lumps under the covers.
Want more? You can find me on Instagram as @BeesKneesIndustries.
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I'll admit it, I'm hooked on miniature printables. Putting together my tiny Portland Mercury got me thinking about other tiny printable items I could make, and the timing pointed me to tiny Valentines.
The file has three different Valentines and three different envelopes for you to make.
You can keep them all for yourself...
Or you can give them to your loved ones!
To assemble them, just use a little dot of glue to adhere the bottom three flaps of the envelopes. I used a paintbrush to control the amount of glue more easily. Just make sure not to glue them shut!
Here you can see my Very Fancy Method for keeping the envelopes folded while the glue dries. You can also see how playing with depth of field transorms a disturbingly messy worktable into delicious bokeh. For the win!
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It's been a while since I last posted photos from the Bee's Knees Industries Flickr group, but there have been so many lovely items popping up over there, I just had to share.
I love the satin stitching on this Bride of Frankenstein embroidery by Melanie. It's always so much fun seeing people stitch my patterns in ways that I wouldn't have thought of myself.
Speaking of techniques I wouldn't have thought of, I adore the colorful stitching on this Sunburst Lion by Giddy Girlie, and the delicately patterned fabric she chose really adds a wonderful element to the finished piece.
The contrasting colors of this Sunburst Lion by Fred really make my day. I'm always a sucker for a lovely combination of complimentary colors.
These baby onesies stitched by Shemp3 using the Roy G. Biv and Sunburst Lion patterns are so beautifully stitched and so very sweet.
Thanks so much to everyone who has shared their work in my Flickr group. Seeing other people using my craft supplies puts such a huge smile on my face, so I hope to post these sort of photos more often.
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The home Tony and I moved into is about fifty years old, and, as such, needs a bit of updating. Some of the updates are Big Important Updates, like fixing the foundation under the tub, but most of them are small, personal preference updates, like removing the faux wood paneling pictured above.
The first set of photos shows what my art studio looked like when we received the keys to the house. The second set of photos shows what it looked like one hour later. It's Tony approved!
I decided to go with a nice shiny white paint (Behr Ultrawhite in semigloss) to give myself the big, bright art studio I've dreamed of for ages. Below you can see the room's progress the weekend after we closed on the house.
I just love my new space. This room is the first room I've ever been allowed to paint, and I couldn't be happier with it. I'll share more updates as I move along. My next steps will be to replace the copper light fixture and, well, finish unpacking my art supplies.
Oh, yeah, and that's what our socks looked like after painting all weekend.
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A few years ago, I heard about a Blythe convention here in Portland. I didn't know much about Blythe, but I thought she was cute, and I'd seen some of the fun things a few local folks did with the dolls, so I figured I'd check it out. I'm so glad that I did. I have made some truly amazing friends through the doll community in Portland.
The Blythe convention was such a hit, it made the cover of one of the local newspapers, The Portland Mercury. And so, of course, I made a tiny copy as a holiday gift for one of the friends who was involved in putting it all together. How else would you celebrate a friend's success?
Today, as my dolly and I were spending a lovely lazy Sunday reading the paper and drinking inappropriately sized beverages, she suggested I upload a free printable so that everyone can enjoy a tiny Mercury of their very own.
Download your own Blythe Mercury here
Macaron Dress by Parasol Doll.
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One of my goals for 2014 is to read one book for every week. In truth, it's been one of my goals for years, but being in school and studying for my exams got in the way every time. But every January I think, "This could be the year." And this year, I'm off to a great start.
My secret? Reading lots of kids books. Of course, that's something I do a lot of anyways, so I don't need too much encouragement, but it is nice to have some "easy wins" when trying to reach a tricky goal. And so I started off this year with some pretty fun reads.
The best part of so much reading has been the inspiration to write more. I've rekindled work on some short stories I started months and months ago, and I'm excited to see where they end.
Gregor the Overlander by Susanne Collins. After rewatching the first Hunger Games movie and seeing the second one in the theater, I was antsy to read some more Susanne Collins. Luckily, the theater I visit most often, The Bagdad, is exceptionally close to a Powell's Bookstore, so I didn't have to wait long to start reading.
The Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo. I have found a new favorite author this year. The adorable covers on all Kate DiCamillo's books won me over, and now I have a little stack of her books to enjoy. She also won a (second) Newberry Award a couple of weeks ago for Flora & Ulysses, which means I get to work towards another goal of mine: reading every Newberry Award winner.
Time Cat by Lloyd Alexander. This was such a cute story about a time travelling cat who teaches his owner about history. I even learned a thing or two while reading.
The Celestine Prophecy: An Adventure by James Redfield. I've been reading more and more new age and metaphysical books lately, and I realized I'd never read this book, which was so popular when I was younger. I really enjoyed Redfield's ideas about human interaction and have been trying to put them into practice in my daily life.
The Tale of Despereax by Kate DiCamillo. I adored this book and am looking forward to seeing the movie. One of the drawbacks about living in rural Boring is that there is no high-speed Internet available. I had to cancel my streaming Netflix subscription and switch to DVDs, which has been a great exercise in patience (and a big part of the reason I'm getting so much reading done now). Hopefully I'll get to Despereaux quickly in my queue.
(I'll make a monthly blog post of my reading here, but you can also follow me on Goodreads.)
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The area of Boring where I live is tucked nicely into the Clackamas River valley. This means that I have to climb some hefty hills to go anywhere other than my own neighborhood. My car protested the snowy roads this morning, so I get to stay home and play in the snow. (And figure out how to work from home. Tax season is upon us, after all.)
Now I'm off to make some soup, hot cocoa, and cookies. How are you folks staying warm during this cold spell?
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Well, I thought to myself, why not try to bridge this gap with a little game of catchup. Would anyone like to see what I've been up to? Here's my November, as seen by Instagram:
Going on lovely walks with my two favorite sweeties. And finding mushrooms!
And finding tiny mushrooms!
On the topic of tiny, starting a new Tiny Owl Knits project.
Going on fun car rides with another sweetie. Safety first!
Unfinished pointless projects just for fun.
Learning to process wool with a friend. Not sure we're doing it right...
Want more? You can find me on Instagram as @BeesKneesIndustries.
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Another hiatus, huh? Well, this time I have a pretty good reason. I bought a house!
And not just any house. I decided about a year ago that I really wanted to follow a crazy dream I've had since I was a little girl of having my own farm full of fuzzy, adorable animals. Well, once I finished the CPA exam, I figured I was ready to start looking and found a great realtor (Thanks, Mary!) to help me pursue that dream. Together, we found a great little house on a little-over-an-acre in Boring, OR, and I moved in two weeks ago. Yay hooray!
Tony and I have been hard at work on all sorts of projects around the house and on the property, and we'll soon have fun photos to share of gardening, chickens, ducks, bees, flowers, rabbits, goats, and alpacas, oh my! We have a lot of work ahead of us, but I am so excited to have this opportunity to follow my dream, and I look foward to sharing it with you.
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