Jen Bowles Design

Works in Progress

After being scolded by  my doctor that 5-6 hours of sleep a night is not enough, I've been trying to stick to an 11pm bedtime.

It's so challenging.  So. Challenging.

I've been watching less television (good) and trying to spend less time online (in theory good, but again, so challenging).  Life is all about balance and I'm still trying to find mine, which has been off since the school year started.  By about April I should be all set...

In the meantime, I'm working on several projects, all inspired by artists  who a) blog and b) styles I admire.  I have several art journal pages underway, in the style of Teesha Moore.  She recently posted several excellent, step-by-step videos detailing her art journaling process.  You can view them on You Tube here.  Highly recommended.  I'm also working on a Katie Runnels inspired yarn wreath.  I've admired her wreaths and assemblage work for a while now and was so excited when she posted a tutorial on the Year of Color blog.  You can see tons of samples of her beautiful work on her blog and her flickr photostream.

In early October my mom attended the Art & Soul retreat in Portland, OR.  She took two classes with Lisa Kaus.  Lucky duck :-)  Recently we had an art day and she shared the process she learned in Lisa's Gridlocked class.  I made great progress on that first day.   I gathered my objects, drew my grid and figured out preliminary placements.  Next, building up layers of colors with Golden fluid acrylics and Lyra watercolor crayons.

Then it was time for me to pack up and come home.

Since then, I've been tweaking the piece.  Adding things, taking things away, re-arranging.  I still haven't glued anything down.  I think I'm just going to bust out the Weldbond and go for it pretty soon though.

Until then, I'll keep working like I have artist's A.D.D.

Hopefully soon I'll have a finished piece to share.

Maybe even 3.

A few Moleskine pages

I have a small (5x8) Moleskine notebook that I've been working in for a while  now.  I thought it would be an art journal but I'm not sure that's the case anymore.  But maybe it is...

At any rate, here are a few pages I created in there recently.

home

{inspired by the illustrations in The Plant Sitter
 by Margaret Bloy Graham. Media used: Golden fluid acrylics, Pitt pen, pencil, Prismacolor colored pencils, Copic markers}

free bird

{inspired by the bird cage--and the fact that I didn't draw a door ;-)  Media used: Lyra watercolor crayons (love them!), graphite pencil, Pitt pen, scrapbook paper, vintage paper, paper scraps, Prismacolor colored pencils}

I'm curious to see what ends up in here next.  Though the blank page can be daunting, it's usually fun once I begin.

Here's to art=fun.

Mosaic Monday

A few of my latest flickr faves...

1. tinned roses, 2. ♥, 3. looking up, 4. 025, 5. My new Candybouncer chairs, 6. yellow and white, 7. tidepool love, 8. Corner under stairs, 9. Anthropologie sled detail, 10. Don't keep calm and carry on., 11. Vintage auction paddle and chalk, 12. wire hg tent1

Hope your Halloween was Happy!

We had some last minute costume trauma/drama around here (no surprise), but we muddled through it.  Though we didn't get the best pictures of everyone, trick or treating was actually pretty fun. I went with the boys and visited with many of our neighbors.  I even got a tour of my neighbor's massive addition/remodeling project that I stare at every day but had never seen the inside of :-)

The kids got plenty of candy so they were happy.  And tired.

We had an eclectic assortment of disguises this year: Wicket the Ewok, Devil Mom, a monkey, a gorilla and Mrs. Potts.

Now all we have to do is figure out what to do with all the Halloween bounty...

Practical Project: Lego Table

My boys love Legos.

And they have a lot of them.  They have all the Legos they've received themselves over the past few years along with a huge stash that once belonged to Daddy and Uncle.  Add to that the fact that their room isn't that big & they like to leave their creations assembled, and quickly you can see why we were running out of room for Legos.

A sad situation indeed.

Then, a couple of months ago, I was reading my twitter feed and came across a tweet (& a twitpic) of her boys' Lego table posted by Ellen Crimi-Trent.  When I asked her about it, she said it was their old Thomas train table, re-purposed.  What a great idea, I thought.  I wish we hadn't donated our train table when we moved back here, I thought.

Fast forward a few weeks.  I was at my dad's house and his next door neighbor was getting ready to move from MA to MD and shedding all sorts of furniture and toys along the way.  My dad, unable to say no to virtually anything that's free, had a banged up coffee table sitting in driveway, courtesy of the relocating neighbors.

One man's trash, is another mom's treasure...

I brought the table home, sanded it, gave it a couple of coats of my favorite on-hand Sea Sparkle blue paint followed by a couple of coats of poly and poof, a new Lego table for Will & Cuyler's room!

It fit perfectly in the limited space I designated for it and the lip all the way around the top edge is perfect for keeping Legos from straying onto the ground.  All the storage space underneath is a great bonus as well.

They filled it up with a battle scene within an hour of me putting the table in their room.  That was weeks ago.  The battle scene is still there.  Apparently my next job is convincing them that it's a Lego table, not a Lego display.

Good luck to me!

Think Pink for October

Just a friendly reminder that when it comes to breast health, 'Ignorance is not Bliss'.

I called to schedule my annual mammogram a couple of weeks ago, how about you?

{quote and image, Better Homes & Gardens}

Book du Jour: Babycakes

Now that Ebby is volunteering at the library, I have an excuse to visit there every week.

I'm like a kid in a candy store.  All those books!  I can take home as many as I want?? Yes please!

Currently I have 19 books checked out of 2 different libraries.  As I see it, I could have worse addictions.

Like say...baking.

My favorite of my current batch is, for sure, Babycakes by Erin McKenna.

As you can see from the cover, it's a cookbook with "Vegan, Gluten-Free, and (Mostly) Sugar-Free Recipes from New York's Most Talked-About Bakery".  Truth be told, the picture of the cupcakes drew me in.  The fact that the recipes are somewhat healthy?  All the better.

This may be the first cookbook I've read from cover to cover.  The photography is beautiful, the subject matter enticing, the writing & anecdotes entertaining and the recipes are totally different than anything I usually bake.  But I'm up for the challenge.

Whereas we don't (currently) have any wheat or dairy allergies in our house, stocking the pantry to try out some of Erin's delectable sounding recipes has been an adventure in itself.  I did have agave nectar, but had never even heard of and/or seen ingredients such as coconut oil, garbanzo-fava bean flour and xanthan gum.  After trips to both Ocean State Job Lot (they have nice selection of Bob's Red Mill products at closeout prices) and Whole Foods, I was armed with enough ingredients to attempt the Chocolate Chip cookie recipe on page 68. 

Despite a few issues with the coconut oil (mine was solid, it works much better as a liquid--as I found out for batch #2), the cookies turned out to be...delicious.  As in better than Toll House.  Crispy on the edges and chewy in the center.  Mmmm.  The proof for me that the cookies were really good was that 2 of the 4 other members of our household also approved.  I'm so happy that Ebby is eating flax meal now ;-).

I'm still gathering (and now even replenishing) ingredients, hopefully I'll have everything I need to make the vanilla frosting for the cookie sandwiches very soon.  Oh, and the cupcakes.  Mustn't forget about the gingerbread.  It all sounds soooo good.

Even if I never make another recipe out of this book again, I'm going to treasure Erin's recipe for homemade applesauce.  It involves roasting Granny Smith apples, agave nectar and...hot water.  Hands down, the best applesauce I've ever had.

I must say, I highly recommend this book--no matter whether food allergies are an issue or not.  Unfortunately, my copy is due tomorrow at the library. I may have to renew it--or better yet, buy my own copy.

Did I Scare You?

{Petite Halloween flag, made for my mom}

Hoping to start posting more regularly again~thanks for stopping by!

Halloween Decorating

Last year when I watched one of the HGTV Halloween decorating specials ('What's With that Crazy Halloween House?' or something like that) I wrote down a whole page of great Halloween decorating ideas that I wanted to try for this year.  I was going all out--fake coffins, gravestones, ghosts in the trees.  You get the idea.

Suddenly this year came along and I wasn't into going all out.  In fact, it was hard to find the motivation to take down my interior Halloween decoration boxes from the attic.  Finally, late last week, I did. 

Here's a peek at a few of the Halloween decorating snippets from around our house...

We have a black cat in our window. 

 

One of my BOO banners hanging atop a large picture window.

Assorted Halloween spooks. 

What's that hanging from the kitchen chandelier?  A few glittered skulls of course.     

A lovely black glittered candelabra ($3.99 at the Christmas Tree Shop) 

Spreading the Halloween spirit throughout the house:  a pumpkin man on the back of the toilet. 

My favorite vintage-looking black cat candle.  He looks excited about the possibility of traveling the world.

Finally, my beloved beach rocks and starfish--spookified for the season with bloody rubber thumbs and spiders. 

Happy Halloween decorating to you!

Treasure Hunting

Last Friday I beat the crowd and took myself to an advertised "Vintage Yard Sale".  I've just started to notice more yard sales around here starting on Fridays and I must say, I like the trend.  It's much easier to make a trip when the kids are in school than on a Saturday morning (when anything can happen to derail/change your plans).

The sale itself was in a lovely part of Hull (a small, seaside town) that I don't think I've ever been to called Sunset Point.  I've been going to Hull for 35 years and even lived there for a bit after college, but had never been down into this area.  It was a beautiful, sunny fall day and I managed to snap a few pictures as I drove along the residential streets.  Great water views and some charming houses.   Loved the pergola on the front of that one house...

The sale itself was inside and very well organized.  I was the only person there so I browsed at leisure. I ended up spending $10 of my hard earned dollars (I'm working cleaning out my dad's basement and house...) on some fun treasures. 

I've been searching for an iron runner sled to use as a winter decoration on our farmer's porch ~ check!  I also scooped up a bunch of vintage sheet music, a delightful tea towel embroidered with birds and flowers and some handwritten (and amusing) postcards from the 1930s. 

After the sale, I headed to my dad's to work which happened to include a trip to the dump with his big, white work van.  I couldn't resist the little wooden stove.  I totally want to rehab it--though I'm not sure if I know anyone small enough to enjoy it anymore (*sniff, sniff*).  No matter, it was free and I'm sure I can figure out someone to give it to (or maybe donate to a school fundraiser or a preschool...).  I also picked up a random desk drawer at the swap pile.  The label holder caught my eye immediately and I need more studio storage for my spools of ribbon.  

I mean really, don't we all? ;-)