Featured on AHA today!

I am so fortunate to belong to American Holiday Artists! Suzanne is amazing at getting our work featured as we list new work. She gives all this and doesn't get paid, we couldn't afford her if we had to. She has this little fella up there right now, along with other Americana pieces by some of our other oh so talented members, so head on over and take a peek.
For those of you who like the pay it forward idea scroll on down and check out my craft it forward post. I have 3 volunteers, and am working on a new design to send their way. I have 2 openings left so if you like free stuff, check it out.

Candy, Candy anyone???

I can't decide what holiday I want to work on right now, so Americana is always a good one! Covers 4th of July, Memorial Day, President's Day, and so on. And why not? We live in the best nation in the world! So here's a candy cup sailor boy for all you patriotic folks out there.
Inspired by a great artisan, David of Chicken Lips Studios, who is the master at this, I created a little JOL candy cup. These are a lot harder than they look to create, so I probably won't be doing too many, but I do want to try a cat, a bat and an owl. Have you taken the time to check out the AHA blog lately? We sure have some talented folks over there!

WIP and Family Art History

I'm still plugging away at this doll. I painted her face, and used pastels to dust her cheeks and other features for shadows and color. I have wet wool wrapped around markers to form curls for her hair. When Emmett leaves I will be getting a design for something else done, and then working on this!
I had to share this, don't know why I haven't before. My great, great, great, great, grandfather was a designer of glassware. He has several patents, but this is the first piece I found out about, and then acquired. It's interesting how the finished piece is different from the drawing above.
Here is my Bird Pickle Dish, by Julius Proeger. The Proeger line is on my mom's side. The photo in the backround is mom with my real father on one side, and my grandma on the other. Mom is the dark haired women to your left as you look at the monitor.
Here are more examples of the dishes my gggg grandfather Julius Proeger designed. Pretty aren't they?!

Celebrating Earth Day through recycled art and gardening

I must admit that I didn't realize it was Earth Day until I saw Carries' blog at Snippetgirl. But I've been celebrating all day! I worked on a cloth and clay doll creation this morning, that will have a patriotic theme. The painted wood you see in the front of the doll will be a part of her finished creation. It was a piece off of a cable spool, that I found on the ground. Was too cool to walk past and leave.
Emmett and I spent a good part of the morning planting as I'm getting starts going to take with me to Oregon in 3 weeks. My trunk will be full of seedlings. I can't just plant one you know.
Here's a bed of peas, garlic and swiss chard. The neighborhood cats would love to use these as litter boxes so I keep chicken wire over the beds.
My Rosemary, Oregano and Chives are doing quite well and could use some trimming back.
And last but not least, some tomatoes, herbs, peppers and cauliflower almost ready to transplant. Perhaps you noticed that I've used cardboard egg cartons, and cleaned up meat trays for some of my starts. I also use toilet paper rolls for collars for my little starts to help keep the cut worms and such away. The nice thing about them and the egg cartons is that they will break down and add to the soil. They are considered "brown" compost material as they are created from recyclable material. So here's to Earth Day!

Edwin is Done!!!

Man! Talk about a photo shoot from H - E - double toothpicks! This rascally fella was all over the place! I had to catch him as I could as he was in the house, then outside, and climbing stairs and I was about ready to ground him! Anyway, he has found a place in ebay land.
Follow my ebay link to the right to get to know more about him.

Take me to your leader.......

I have a message for the President......bwahahaha...... okay, not really.... Edwin, oh yes he has a name now, was goofing off as I was starting to get him dressed. His arms kept raising up all on their own, and I was sure he was ready to jump off the ironing board!
But he decided to hold still as I told him I would take away his next birthday if he didn't watch out! He's still getting dressed so stop by tomorrow and see the finished results!

WIP and too many choices....

I've been eye balling this gourd for awhile. He has such a bumpy texture that I had to see if I could create his features to match the texture of his skin and it worked! So he is going to be a truly creepy, and fun goblin!
But now I have some choices to make. I have 4 different fabrics, an old, crinkled, black lampshade cover that I peeled off to do something else with, and several different trims. I was also thinking of little bells, beads or whatever to add some extra fun. Aaaah the fun of choosing! Check back later...I will have made some progress and post some photos. By the way, there's still 3 slots for the Craft It Forward opportunity so scroll down and check out the details.

Craft It Forward

As I was wandering through blog land checking out different sites I stumbled upon this at Tea and Honey Bread and thought it would be a wonderful way to share. Here are the details:
Craft it Forward is an art-based pay it forward-where each participant "pays forward" a random act of kindness through art. What a fun way to get and share in the art world. So (1.) be one of the first five folks to leave a comment on this post and you will receive a little creation of mine. I'm not sure what it will be, perhaps a print, or clay creation of some sort. But it will be something created by me. (2.) Be willing to post this on your blog and pay it forward to 5 other people by making the same offer to them on your blog. Please make sure you email me with full name and mailing details. Here's the contact info: info@mothersdreamartworks.com. Now lets have some fun!

Promises of good things to come.....

...unless the cold weather reported over the next couple of days takes it's toll, these lovely peach blossoms are a promise of good things to come! Heavenly gifts, sent sent from above, by the ultimate artist. I can already smell the sweet fragrance of a fresh sliced peach, juicy and bursting with flavor. Peaches for breakfast, sliced into yogurt, or over pancakes, or just by itself as a snack. Peach pie, or cobbler, spicy warm from the oven with vanilla ice cream. And don't forget peach jam on homemade bread with lots of real butter! The fun part of making jam is that you get to sample as you go. It's what all good cooks do, right? I hope that Spring has sent you promises of the good things to come as well.

Wishing you a wonderful Easter full of loving memory making. May we all take a moment to reflect on the gift Heavenly Father gave to us through His son Jesus Christ. The Atonement made it possible for all of us to have eternal life. May His love fill your life with all the good there is in the world. Happy Easter!

American Holiday Artists

See the link below for a peek at another one of our great artists! She's got a new blog and we are happy to have her in blogland.

anotherlinda: Paper doll mixed media art 6"x8"x1.5"

anotherlinda: Paper doll mixed media art 6"x8"x1.5"

Fresh Fruit is done!

Finally! It sure feels good to get a painting done for a change. Need to do this more often. I created two of these, though the lettering is different and the colors a bit different as I was playing around with color and style. I gave the other one to my stepmom for Christmas or a birthday, gosh I can't remember now. Anyway, this one has been sitting in a box waiting to get done. This is done on a 9" x 12" gallery wrap canvas so the sides are painted and it comes ready to hang. I'm putting this one up on my website at www.mothersdreamartworks.com. It can be yours for $145.

More WIPs

Fresh fruit for sale! I've been going back and pulling out things that were started and not finished. I have a real desire to get back to painting for a bit so I will start with finishing these.

Now I'm committed so someone will have to hold me to this.....lol.

Just a Little Tease for PFATT

Blooms

Time is running out!

Who will help me makes this bread?

New WIP"S for PFATT

Okay, I hope Sandy doesn't have heart failure if she sees these, I'm really farther along than it appears here....:-). I'm trying my first cloth and clay doll, who will be a patriotic angel when done.
Another White Rabbit, Alice in Wonderland style. This will be a clock when all done. Check out PFATT Marketplace on the 10th for all the new creations for Spring.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Couldn't find an edited copy, but here we all are at various ages. Mom is the beautiful lady in the top left hand photo. The photo to the right of her is me with my little sister Elain, and baby brother David, way back in 1991. We hadn't seen David since he was 4, and he was 22 in that photo. Bottom left is my sister Joanne. And the photo to the right of her is me at 13. I did this collage for something, can't remember what. Anyway, a loving wish for you today Mom, we have missed you so much! Hope you and Elain are having good times with Grandma and Grandpa and all the other's that have left this life to go back home. Love you, Sheryl

Sharing a new purchase from Chicken Lips Studios

I love getting packages and this one was no different! I was lucky enough to drop by Chicken Lips Studios in time to find this adorably fun piece up for grabs. So I ran over to etsy and snatched him up before anyone else could. If you would like to see a better photo click on this one, and get a better view. If I were you, I'd be watching for more of these! David is one of our wonderful AHA artists and we are glad to have him with us!

Roosevelt, the Dutch Chocolate Bunny

Can't seem to stay away from the computer today. I've been working on some graphic design work including updating my blog page, added this bunny to my website, and added some things to my etsy shop. I created this bunny for submission to Celebrate 365, a premier ornament collectors magazine and he was featured! Love the professional quality of the magazine and several of our AHA members also had pieces featured. You can learn more about them by clicking on the banner to the left.

Another give away from a member of AHA

Isn't this a darling little chick? Well see if you can win this adorable little creation by running over to Wings and Paws Whimsies and get that name in there. Melissa of Wings and Paws Whimsies is a recent addition to AHA and we are proud to have her join us! American Holiday Artists are some of the best, okay we are the best of the best on ebay and etsy! When you see the line up of artists we have in our wonderful organization you will surely have to agree.... now scurry on over, get your name in for the give away and then stop by our AHA blog .

That Creative Place Give Away.....

Oh what a lucky gal I am! I was visiting That Creative Place blog and signed up for a giveaway that I thought I would surely not win and to my surprise and joy I did! Here is the fabulous book and wonderful buttons I received yesterday. I'm so thrilled to be able to have the buttons for my collection, and have already used a couple of them in my new blog page design. A huge thanks to Lisa Gatz and friends for hosting this give away.

Recognize this anyone? 101st post give away answer and winner.....

Here's a look at the finished creation. Thanks so much to everyone for stopping by and taking the time to play! It was fun to see the questions and questions given, and I learned a bit from this on putting a give away together. We had two folks who got the answer correct, so to make it fair we did a drawing and the winner is......drum roll please............David of Chicken Lips Studios! A big thanks again to all who stopped by, and for those who have come by for the first time or are somewhat new, please take some time to visit the artists blogs listed on my blog. You will find the best of the best in Folk Art, Primitives, Whimsy, and get to meet some very nice folks in the process. Happy April 1st everyone!