YAPPING CAT STUDIO

The Art of Display

What is it about a well displayed shop that seems to set ones heart aflutter?  Is it the possibility that once a purchased item goes home with you, your home too could look as good?  Or is it just the in a well displayed store, one can see exactly that perfect something, that they did not even know they were looking for?

Whatever the reason, a well displayed store, for a displayaholic like me, is a joy beyond joy.  Such is the case with Bloom and Bee Swanky in Waco.  I've visited this shop many times, and each time, I'm never been disappointed.

From simply elegant...

to a sense of whimsy.

Sunday Funnies as Haute Couture.

With cross word floral accent! 

Zinc table tops were a dream.

In what looked to be a small french cafe.  Certainly made one feel as if they were in another country.

I fell in love with this whole bedroom setup!

From the colors to the shutters at an angle, truly fab.

Yummy sham! 

Lamp shade forms as spool containers.  Clever!

Beautiful from top...

...to bottom.

So, if you happen to be passing through Waco, send Hubby and kids over to the Dr. Pepper museum, while you take a stroll through another world, that is the beautiful Bloom and Bee Swanky!

-c

PS...then pop two blocks over to Olive Branch Bakery and Cafe and have a cup cake that is as big as your head!  :)

PSS to Susan and Phyllis Ann...I'm sorry I did not call you, it was a short, quick trip with a friend.  Forgive me?

Polly wolly Doodle all day? Not.

One of the Through the Window class projects was to do a page with just doodling.  OK.  That's hard.  I'm not a doodler.  Seriously.  I like to do weird hand-writing, but doodling, not so much.

I know, right?  Who doesn't doodle?  Well, I guess that would be me.  Not when I'm on the phone.  Not when I'm waiting on something.  Not in church.

Not even in boring meetings when I used to work in corporate.  I just always end up drawing circles.  Wow, Freud has to have something to say about that. 

And white space...gaaaahh.  Thanks goodness we were supposed to have allot of white space, cause yeah, I just could not think of anything else to "doodle".  sheesh.  So, yep, its supposed to look like that. 

Here's the pages in their entirety (click th pic to see the whole thing).  I have a little more Prisma Pencil color to add on the right hand side, but actually its about done. This is one of my favorite Emerson quotes, "Boughs on which the wild bees settle, tints that spot the violet petal".  I have done this page before...but this one is bigger...and supposedly more doodlie. Doodler.  Doodled.

I have to know, do you Doodle? 

-c

Its not all journaling...

I started playing around with collages too. I'm telling you, the muse, mojo, whatever you want to call it...its back.  yay!!!  This piece has been sanded, white washed, inked and stained.  LOL.  All but hung out to dry.  Actually I dried it with the hair dryer.

I love this paper.  Its old K and Company, Cut and Paste.  Its just so much fun.  And I think I've used every piece with this happy little girl now.

Her umbrella opens.  I did think it would be cute personalized too.  Great piece for a kids room.But I really liked the way this little "pocket holder" turned out.  The structure is just like this one.

And here are the goodies inside.  "Toys".  :) 

Giggle, fun.  Her umbrella opens too.  But my favorite is the plastic monkey.  Reminds me of Root Beer floats at the A & W...gah, those were the best.  Why do things like that seem so much better when we were kids?  :)

Now, I'm off to make wands! 

-c

Only Bored People are Boring?

 

Hmmm, saw that Bored People saying on Pinterest and thought it was thought provoking.  LOL.  And speaking of, Pinterest, yeah, like I needed one more thing to make me waste more time in front of the computer. 

OK, waste is too strong of a word, just anytime my eyes can feast on unlimited eye candy is really never a waste.  BUT, you know what I mean.  Just cuts that bathroom cleaning time even shorter.  gah.

And speaking of bored, you may find yourself being bored of all my journal pages this week.  Its my new obsession.  I'm just so happy to have my mojo back, I can hardly stand myself. 

Tags.  Bookmarks.  They are all just flowing out.  Actually, I had made the "Beauty" one, a while back and was not totally happy with it.  I added some stain, stamping, beefed up the hand-writing and added a napking butterfly.  Its a little better to me now.

Actually, I'm having too much fun with the book marks.  These things are huge.  I'm calling them "Big Azz Bookmarks", LOL.  I'm thinking about throwing some up on my Etsy shop. 

And HELP!  I need a really good composition book!  Its been way too long since that college class!  Can anyone recommend just a good book on basic composition and layout?  Do you think that can be learned or is it instinctive? 

That and being bored makes you boring....yeah, just some of the many great thoughts we like to ponder here at Yapping Cat. ha!

-c

Hey...Remember Me?

Quite funny just how quicly time flies, especially when you are having fun.  And its not been all work for me lately, I have managed to squeeze in a bit of fun.  And that fun came in the form of an on-line class. 

I just completed (note the wordl COMPLETED) , Teresa McFayden's Through the Window Journal classs. 

Was so proud of myself, for completeing and it opened up the old creative faucet...which had truly grown rusty. 

That makes me happy!

Hope you are having a happy Monday too! 

-c

PS...to see more of my art journal pages, take a peek here!

 

Time off...for just a bit!

Hi Y'all, I need to step away from this blog for a bit, as this blog is taking up quite a bit of my time right now. 

For those that don't know, I started Paper Cowgirl Art Retreat with Tina Wright about four years ago.  Sadly, we lost Tee to colon cancer, a year ago this January.  I decided to continue on with Paper Cowgirl, to keep Tee's dream alive and as an honor to her. 

This year, as PC continues to grow, we are offering thirteen great crafting, art, painting, altered art and jewelry classes.  As well as having a fabulous keynote speaker, Lisa Pace, of Delight in the Details, will be talking about making the change "From Artisti to Author" and signing books too. 

Our Vendor show is going to be bigger than ever (and last years was great!).  So, very much to do yet and no time to craft or play.  But I'll be back soon.  Meanwhile, check it out over at Paper Cowgirl to see what this yapping cat girl is up to! 

hugs!

-c

 

Lookie! Lookie!

Peter Pan said, "isn't it wonderful, what clever girls can do?"  Well, I happen to be the lucky recipient of one of those, oh-so-clever girls!  Lookie, lookie!  Ain't it pretty? I won, I won!  Yaaaay, me!  :) 

Love the details...the small glittered round on each banner tip, the snowflake at the top of each piece and I LOVE the colors.  So gorgeous. LOVE the color..did I say that already? 

And sweet Terri, even sent me this:

I'm such a goober for red...LOVE this! 

Adorable little details. 

And the word, "Smitten" says it all.  That's pretty much how I feel about Sweet Hub...I'm pretty smitten. Terri...you are to dear and I'm so grateful to be the lucky gal that won!  Let me show you just a peep of the cuteness on her blog:

These were on her blog today!  Too stinkin cute, I tell ya!

And love these!  She made these herself...see I told ya...clever girl!  And she has recipes too!  Oh...and check out the cute roses she made out of coffee filters, you will love em.  See?  Peter Pan would be sooo impressed.  As am I.

If you have not had the chance to check out Terri's cute blog, The Gypsy Magpie, go do it!  She has such an imagination and just makes the cutest things.  She is a very, very clever girl.

-c

 

 

Happy Valentines Day!

What? No Color!

One of the coolest perks of being the Coordinator of Paper Cowgirl Art Retreat, is that I get to work with some pretty amazing gals.  Being surrounded by all that talent can be very intimidating.  Or very inspiring, just depending on how you look at it.  Me?  I'm inspired. 

If you remember this little project, it was fun.  And I loved the concept of the whole little hanging pocket.  But the colors, never quite sat well with me. And I love color.  LOVE!

So, inspired by my (amazing, might I add) friend, Lisa Mac, over at Tarnished and Tattered, I decided to re-do the little pocket, in neutrals.  Eek.  I'm a color kinda girl.  Neutrals hard.  All vintage...even harder.

But, really....it was fun!  And kinda freeing!  Because I was staying neutral, it made choices of what to use, easier.  Even though it was a little harder to stay our of my scrabooking bins, they are usually my go to.

The finished pocket above...

And here.  One of my favorite details, was that I attached the (real! gasp!) photo to some recycle cardstock (Salt-tine box), and then cut the edges.  As I was looking for toys to fill the pocket, I grabbed a piece of white writing chalk.  I decided to just chalk the edges of the cardstock the photo was adhered to for some additional detail.  It turned out to be my favorite thing.

I tucked in some "inspirational" toys.  I wanted the pocket to be an inspirational piece.  I made shred by repeatedly printing out this Picasso quote:

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.

And then I cut it all to use as filler.  And I also did a hand-lettered card that read the same thing.  All sorts of "toys" bits of a bingo card, a fortune, a wish ticket, kiddie park tickets, etc.  All to inspire one to "play". 

Here it is stuffed and ready to be wrapped.

By then, I was really in the neutral groove and added a hand-made tag to match.

And here it is, all wrapped and ready to go! 

If you've never been over to Lisa Mac's world, go check her out.   Her blog is truly a trip down the rabbit hole into a wonderful, dream of cream, wonderfuland. 

I'm so honored to have this talented gal be involved in Paper Cowgirl again this year.  To check out her class at Paper Cowgirl in June, go to:  http://papercowgirl.blogspot.com/, and look at the amazing class she will be teaching this year! You too will be, like me, inspired!

-c

When Something gets Stuck in your Head

Kinda like gum in your hair, only better.  Is this how trends start?  One thing gets the ball rolling and is builds from there.

I'm not sure, but for me, its when one thing catches my eye, and then I keep seeing it over and over again.  And is it because, now I'm more attuned to it, so I'm looking for it, or is it really some sort of trend that has begun and I'm just now noticing.  Thoughts to ponder for sure.

For instance, here are the things that are stuck in my head right now...

The British  Flag:

(Picture from Miss Mustard Seed)

OK, because I am a British Flag Geek anyway, maybe its just me, but seems like I keep seeing the British flag EVERYWHERE lately.

LOVE this pillow.  So cool.  Even though it matches NOTHING in my decor, would love to have one.

Oh wait, thats not the British Flag!  OK, really this is just a gratuitous shot of Robert Pattinson.  But hey, ya know.  And speaking of Twilight, the trend that keeps on giving, I keep seeing what I call, "Bella Blue". 

Bella Blue

See her shirt?  That color.  And her prom dress was that sortta cobalt blue too...but I could not find a pic of it. 

Of course, Fashion Colors, (if you will click on this link, and scroll down to the title, Cloth/Spring Fashion Color Trends 2011 - you will see my Bella Blue's), come in a wide range, but the one that keeps catching my eye is that Bella blue.  The night time news anchors are wearing it constantly down here.

And while I'm rambling on about Twilight, this has nothing to do with trends, gah, I wish my hair looked like this:

The sketch for Alice's hair is the coolest.  I guess in reality its just a shag?  The sketch is way better than the wig she wears.  Anyway.

French Jars
And the last, but not least thing stuck in my head...French Jars.  Tall, clear glass, no lid, medium lip, and I think they are sooo cool.  One of the gals at work, brought several back from Round Top and I really like them.  So when I saw this in the British Edition of Country Living...well, hey, now its stuck in my head too. 

Well, there ya have it!  What's stuck in your head right now? Hopefully not gum.  Or we will have to cut it outta your hair...and then you could end up looking worse than Alice's wig.  :)

-c