Muppets Bohemian Rhapsody

Something fun break from the busyness of the holidays.

Muppets Bohemian Rhapsody on YouTube

Rittenhouse Needlepoint

I had the chance to be in Philadelphia last week. While there I decided to check out Rittenhouse Needlepoint to see if they carried any Maggie Co handpainted needlepoint canvases and potentially some of my geishas.

It was located right on the corner at 1737 Chestnut on the second floor. The shop was sun filled and inviting. There were multiple racks of handpainted needlepoint canvases. I took a look at several and thought that they were art piecess in themselves. There were lots of intstuction books as a wall full of colorful thread.

In the corner was a seating area with comfy chairs and couch for people to come and work on their needlepoint projects and chat.

I taked with Russell who freely gave me lots of information about painting canvases. I decided to purchase a couple of feet so I could try my hand at it. Russell recommended a 14 gauge canvas for painting. He also pointed out that one thing that makes a good painted needlepoint canvas is to paint the stitch. It takes all the guess work out of stitching the canvas with regards to what color thread to put where.

While their custom painters use a special paint for the needlepoint industry, acrylic paints can be used by the novice painter. What is important is that the paint does not bleed -- especially when someone has put alot of work into stitching the canvas as steam can be used in the finishing process.

I am tempted to try painting the Animal Stackers I finished recently. But probably should start with something a little simpler, like my fish. They hold painting classes for those who are interested when they have at least 4 people signed up. Contact them if you are interested.

How cute are these?

When we went to the Wheaton Arts Center last week, we of course had to stop at the museum shops.

We were walking past the Brownstone Emporium when I saw a pair of these slippers in the window. I thought they were just the cutest things and had to go in and get a pair for our future grandchild.

Wheaton Arts Center

Went to the Wheaton Arts Center in Millville NJ the other day. Watched a glass blowing demonstration. Have seen demos at Simon Pearce in Chadds Ford, PA and on HGTV before.

One of the apprentices talked about the process during the demo. There was a huge brick furnace with several gloryholes and several other glass artists working on some art pieces. The glass artist who was doing the demo took about 20 minutes to shape the bowl he was creating. I asked the apprentice how much the fuel cost to create that one piece. He hadnt been asked that question before, but figured that based on how much it costs to rent furnace time, it probably was about $15-20 worth. And the sand/silica probably only cost about 35 cents.

We happened to go on the day that Tropical Storm Ida had begun to affect the mid atlantic coast. It was cold, rainy and windy. We thought that it would be nice and warm in the glass blowing building, but actually wasnt overly warm. The brick furnace was shaped like an upside down wine glass and apparently the tall design of the stack created an extremely strong draft.

Side Note:
We did have a nice time there in spite of the crummy weather. Lots of glass to see at the glass museum. We looked at the gift shops located across from the studios and museum. There were several things that we really liked.

They are having a Holiday Studio Sale Thanksgiving weekend and the following first weekend in December. Definitely worthwhile going to if you are looking for something unique.

Animal Stackers on the Wall, Purdy paint brushes and curtains.

The Animal Stackers painting fits perfectly in this spot. My daughter is currently 6 months pregnant and they only just finished installing hardwood floors by themselves the week before I arrived. They did a really nice job.


While at my daughter's, they wanted the nursery painted. Carribean green was their color choice. It took 4 coats of paint. 1 coat of white to cover the initial wall color that had patches of green test paint all over. 1 coat of carribean green mixed with some white. Then 2 coats of carribean green itself. And 4 times to cut in along the molding and ceiling.

When we went to pick up the paint, I picked up a brush for cutting in. I just happened upon the Purdy XL Dale paintbrush. I am in love with the brush and bought a couple to bring home with me. It made cutting in sooooo easy. Even in the very corners where the molding came together.
My daughter also requested I make curtains. Unfortunately I was painting when she went to the fabric store. The white cotton, crinkly satin chocolate brown, and dark brown wide wale corduroy was a bit of a challenge to put together. Did manage to at least make them functional.

The painting on the wall is by Gary Simon. I picked it up at the Unforgettable Art fundraiser for the Alzheimers Association in Rockford last spring. The plant in the corner is a money plant. Supposedly safe to eat any part of it. The cats were eyeing it when they brought it home.

Animal stackers -- done, I think.

Pending approval, I do believe I am done for the most part.

Nearing completion of Animal Stackers.

Made changes again. Decided that the animals got lost on the blue diamonds in the background, so lighten them some. May end up lightening them some more, but for now I am okay with them.

Warmed up the pink in the elephant to that of the flamingo and started cleaning up the blanket. At this point I am planning on whatever pattern to include orange - maybe just a big star. Blocked in a bird on the elephant trunk, a mouse in the cheetah's paw and a chicken on top of the alligator. Yet to sketch in a frog. Planning to put it on top of the flamingo or monkey, or maybe both.

Finalizing some decisions on Animal Stackers

Done painting for the day. Added spots to the cheetah and cleaned up the lines around most of the animals. Started on the elephants blanket. Got some correcting to do on the black and white border. Not sure what kind of a pattern I will use on the blanket. Also have a few more creatures to add to the stack.

Yet another change to Animal stackers

While I liked the soft colors of the diamonds in the background in the previous progresses, I was not happy with how they went with the other colors that were developing. I thought that I needed to darken the blue. Didnt care for that. But whitening the pale cream diamonds made the difference. And you will also note that I changed the elephant to pink.

Filling in color in Animal stackers

Filled in the colors of the monkey and flamingo. By this time I have also already started to change the giraffe to brighter colors.

Changing mind again on Animal Stackers.

Have now changed my mind yet again and removed the clouds. Because I have put the monkey on top of the giraffe and not hanging from the tree, I felt I needed to balance the composition. So have added a flamingo on top of the meerkat's head.

Additions to Animal Stackers

For some reason I thought I should put clouds in the background. In the process of working out the colors.

Animal Stackers yet another change

I did not like the sky in the previous progress. So opted to make soft diamonds. I dry brushed while the diamonds were still wet and added some white if there wasnt quite enough paint.

Stackers progress

Decided to put a blanket on the elephant so I could add some other colors to separate it from the hippopotamus. Didnt like the alligator looking off to the right on the first sketch. So traded places with him and the cheetah and make him look a bit more forward. Also decided to squeeze a zebra in between the two as I was planning to either use black & white checks in the bed or border of the elephant blanket.

New stackers

My daughter asked me to do a painting like the Animal Stackers painting I had done before for the nursery. But she wanted some different animals.

Just getting started. It is going to be approx 12x33. Not sure I like the alligator looking off the canvas. So will probably turn him around somehow.

With the recent saturation of the Christmas song about a hippopotamus I am not sure why I havent done a painting of one before this. So will probably make this one available as a print or giclee once it is completed.

Dining room curtains and light fixture

More curtains from Walmart panels.

Because the shorter panels are a vertical stripe, I decided to run the stripes horizontally at the bottom for contrast -- not likely that I would be able to match up the stripes otherwise to extend the length. This way, I only had to buy two extra panels instead of double the amount for the living room. Each of the tab panels cost $13. So I thought that was not too bad a deal.

I am not sure I have them high enough. So plan to do that by either by raising the bracket, running a stitch along the top of the tab pocket, or maybe just sew up a scarf so it is all closer to the ceiling.

My husband also installed the new lighting fixture from Costco. It only cost $75. Have seen similar ones at Home Depot and Lowes for twice that. It probably could be hung a little higher, but better to start out too low than too high. Will just need to remove a few chain links to do that.

I find you attractive -- New Innocent Spam

Been thinking it has been awhile since the last Innocent Spam. This one was pretty simple.

For those of you who are new readers, Innocent Spam are drawings inspired from my email spam folder -- Wouldnt it be nice if all spam were innocent? The complete series is on my website.

Just bought a rug.

I just bought this rug from Overstock.com

Rugs are 15% off plus I had a 10% off Omail coupon.

Day 5 progress -- Loper tradition painting class

Progress from today's class.

Focused on correcting things. Below is a photo from last week for comparison. Today's image looks brighter than last week. I dont attribute that to changes in the painting as much as just different lighting.

I think I worked on everything except for the small pitcher to the left.

Next week we start with a live model, who will only be there for 3 sessions due to scheduling. Then back to tweaking the still lifes for the last two weeks.

Living room curtains

"Finished" the curtains for the living room the other day.

They are almost 9 feet long and are a bit more spruce green than appears in the photo. Found them at Walmart of all places. No, not 9 foot ones, but standard 7 foot ones. I bought an extra set and cut off the bottom end with the stripes and sewed them to the bottom each panel -- you can tell by the wider brown stripe in the middle of the stripes.

I was going to have just the panels on either side, but they kept on slipping back to the middle because the curtain rod was too small. So it was either get a new rod -- which I was really hesitant to do cause I HATE to put up hardware --, get or create tiebacks, come up with some sort of stopper to put on the curtain rod to hold them back, or create some valances to put between. Seeing as I had all those extra panels that I had scavenged the bottoms from, I thought that the valances would be the easiest thing to do.