The Creative ARK

Henri Hopper

2008-10-31T15:55:00.004-04:00

Lola and I came across Henri Hopper's blog and she loves him! don't you think they would make a great couple? :o)

Kitchen Lust

2008-10-31T15:08:00.006-04:00

I've been in dream house mode lately.... I am in love with those "farmhouse" sinks! I saw they sell them @ ikea (white ceramic) for about $300... I just think they are soooo spectacular--- I also love the architecture of the kitchen in the other picture-- I wouldn't say that this is exactly what I want-- but it's definitely inspiring to say the least!

Retro Chic "old look new style"

2008-10-28T18:11:00.007-04:00

I am in LOVE LOVE LOVE with Orla Kiely's clothes/ bags/ stationary/ kitchen/ living room--- basically everything she makes! I don't own anything yet but I intend to! If I had a few g's to spare I'd spend it here... it's retro chic inspired without being too convoluted.

HUBBA HUBBA

2008-10-23T11:58:00.003-04:00

Just wanted to share with you this AWESOME dress! I'm going to one of my best friend's weddings this weekend and needed to find a dress! I came across Miss Braches, INC and fell in love with this dress! she custom made the dress for me in a week! I tried it on as soon as it got here and it fit perfectly! I LOVE it!

Building a room CEILING!

2008-10-12T23:39:00.011-04:00

ok This was a really long journey for this. In the center of the room we need a recessed ceiling! That's right recessed. Now I need to clarify that I want the shape of the recessed part to be much like the picture-- EXCEPT we aren't going to ruin our design with all of those recessed lights! In the very center of this ceiling is going to be our chandaleir-- now we can have rope lighting hidden at the top that would put out a soft glow around the top of the ceiling if we needed that (we don't want the rope to be seen--we just want to see a soft reflection of the light off the ceiling.

Now the even trickier part! in the recessed part of the ceiling I want it PAINTED-- painted in such a way I can't find any examples of this. But here in lies a lesson! I couldn't find a picture of a ceiling with the paint that I want on it-- but that doesn't mean that I have a bad idea or that it shouldn't be done. When you can't find your inspiration in an obvious way you need to think outside the box. So what I wanted was a light french blue (very faded) ceiling (remember this is only in the recessed part) with a gold diamond pattern over the top (again very light and airy)-- well I couldn't find this-- so I found inspiration in a tie-- and a pattern on the floor-- the tie is more for a color reference (though slightly off what I really want) and the flooring is more for the pattern (the light wood being the gold and the darker wood the blue).

And to cap it all off-- MOULDING! Wow! How beautiful is this?

Building a room 4th installment

2008-10-12T22:31:00.012-04:00

ok so originally I had this in mind for the room--- white wainscoting, elaborate chair rail and then a french blue for the wall color--- I've been searching for the french bed I have in my mind and haven't found one that quite fits the bill--- soooo in my search I came across this bed! it's an antique and absolutely beautiful.
It's so beautiful-- so we're going to use it in the room-- but this causes a problem because we don't want a blue bed with a french blue walls.--- so the new thought is this shabby chic french antique bed-- with "tea stained" colored walls above the white wainscoting now this solves our problem with the color of the dressers and floors-- we're going to go with the dark mahogany colored floors and the white dressers-- to make update this look we are going to utilize my favorite rug from anthropologie I have in a previous post (so you don't have to hung I'll include it).
See how great these colors are playing off each other-- it's updated french chic! Even the pattern in the rug plays really nicely off the pattern of the upholstry of the bed!

Now comes the really tricky part. We need a chandaleir-- crystal and preferably french inspired-- but the tricky part is that you are already making a beautiful room with a lot of statments-- you don't want to get too crazy with the light fixture or you'll outdo all the work with selecting items that pop to move your eye around the room-- in short we want interest but not too much interest!This is the Chandaleir I found. What I love about it is that it looks like it's dripping crystals-- the only thing that needs to be changed is the crystals need to clear and the base white!

Now on to the ceiling-- I'm having trouble finding what matches what's in my mind (what else is new)-- so I'm going to leave you with this post until I find it-- or something comprable!

Building a room PILLOWS

2008-10-10T16:16:00.010-04:00

I would pop the room with color in a delectable pillow like this one by Meringue Designs now what I would do is either place this on the fabulous Martha Stewart Settee OR place it on the bedding (tbd).

I think this Green pillow would be nice to pop off the settee-- this one would go on the bed itself.
I found this pillow on etsy.com by Sun2Create
I chose this pillow because it's going to not only pop the settee but it also pulls in the french style.

Lastly for a bit of whimsy (and to add some "french blue") we have this fabulous fun pillow by Maries Cosy Cushions. It's fun and remains sophisticated while helping to ground the room.

Building a Room Continued

2008-10-10T15:50:00.007-04:00

I keep going back and forth on the dark furniture vs the white-- I actually own the low dresser and would really like to pick up the lingerie chest and the piano key chest! I'm going to have to think on this room and figure out which way I want to go with finishes. I would imagine if I did white furniture -- I'd want a deep dark mahogany floor. All of the dressers are Stanley Furniture.

The top image of the settee is actually from Martha Stewart-- I think it would make the perfect accent to this room (or any room for that matter)-- I LOVE LOVE LOVE this piece!

Building a Room

2008-10-10T09:53:00.007-04:00

Ballooning Over Paris"

This is an idea I have to build or "design" a complete room virtually with objects I find on the net or in magazines. I was inspired by an image I saw of a canvas print you can order on allposters.com. Now I normally have a very mod inspired taste-- but I think this would be a perfect design for either a baby's room or a shabby chic guest room. Right now I know where I want to go with the design for this room but I want to hunt down pictures to convey my ideas to you! I'll start with posting the inspiration and continue adding to this room as I go!

Lola the French Bulldog

2008-10-09T20:56:00.005-04:00

This is my super sweet French Bulldog-- her name is Lola! She's about a year now-- but this is my favorite picture of her!

My Dream Ring BLING!

2008-10-09T20:33:00.010-04:00

I LOVE this ring! I'd like to pull together some money to purchase this beauty! Perfectly chic--

Eye Candy Chair

2008-10-09T14:19:00.000-04:00

My new FAVORITE shop!

2008-10-09T11:25:00.002-04:00

One of my friends recently introduced me to a shop down town Cincinnati called "H igh Street" -- it had the most beautiful and unique items in it! Please visit the shop virtually if you don't have
the opportunity to do so in person!

One thing I was introduced to @ High Street was Lodis brand purses! I fell in love immediately!

If I had $900 dollars!

2008-10-09T10:55:00.000-04:00

If I had $900 this is what I would buy! It's from one of my favorite stores-- ANTHROPOLOGIE!
The most shabby chic, yet retro rug I've ever seen-- it's a nice progression from a traditional rug! Simply FANTASTIC

It's a MOD thing

2008-10-09T10:17:00.000-04:00

I simply LOVE Mod/retro furniture! Particularly Eames and Knowles type furniture! I drew inspiration from my love of mid century modern and the new fashion print series I've been creating! This is a spin off in the direction of delectable design!

Please let me know what you think!

Getting my Etsy.com site off the ground

2008-04-26T14:24:00.000-04:00

So I've recently been trying to promote my artwork and etsy.com site pretty much anywhere I can. It's taken a lot of my time trying to find good places to link my site up to and get to know more people in the community here are some sites that I have found most helpful so far!

WE LOVE ETSY I think what's most helpful about this site is that it's very much like Myspace.com or Facebook.com. The site allows for you to look at other artists and "add them" as friends -- but the best part about this site is the networking! The site is actually set up for you to add your etsy.com link, blogspot link, personal website link, and flicker page link. This means that if someone comes across your work they can explore your artwork from several sources-- and only makes each one of your sites that much more effective-- the more exposure the better. I have only just joined this site about a day ago and have already had 5 people add my etsy shop to their favorites.

Another helpful site has been Promo Blog for Etsy This site will allow you to post up to 4 imgaes on the blog per week-- this not only helps promote your shop to other etsy members-- but also helps bring your shop out of the haystack of Etsy. It's also great that you can get feedback from people as well in the comments.

All Things Hand Made is a blog where they actually link up to your esty site and showcase the items that you've marked as the featured items in your shop. The one downside to this site is it's actually hard to find your own shop! Everything is broken down into categories such as "illustration" or "jewelry" and you must stay within that category. The main rule for this site is that you must always have 3-4 items marked as featured on your esty account-- which shouldn't be hard as long as you're actively selling.

If you're looking for a site that's a little more up and coming there is Amateur Illustrator-- this is basically an online art forum which currently only has slightly over 3000 members. The site is a little more hard to navigate but there is the chance for some exposure-- especially with a smaller audience your artwork is much more visible.

I have been part of a group called Illustration Friday for about two years now (although I haven't participated in a year or so) basically what this group does is emails out a topic for the week on Friday--- you have until the following Friday to post your artwork that fits within the topic. For example this weeks topic was "wrinkles" so there were many people who posted artwork of older people with wrinkles or cute little dogs with wrinkles-- or wrinkled clothing etc. It reminds me a lot of when I was in college and had a topic or guideline I had to meet. What's great about this site is not only the exposure of your work but also getting to look @ everyone else's work and how they "solved" the topic with their artwork. There is no stipulation as to if you have to create a new work of art or if you satisfy the topic with a piece you made a long time ago. -- I love this site-- and it's always fun and a challenge to make your artwork and post before the deadline.

I've also been exploring other avenues such as posting to art blogs just to get my name out there and also creating my own facebook and myspace groups and accounts.

I basically wanted to blog to help let everyone know what I've been doing to try and be successful with my art. I've gone so far as to actually email people on the etsy.com site who do a lot of business but as of yet no one has been interested in sharing their "secrets to success" with me. -- while I have not yet been successful I'm still new to the process and just trying to build up my base right now. Please feel free to share any tips with me-- or let me know how helpful this post was to you!'

Thanks for reading!

Flower Power Fashion

2008-04-23T22:04:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone!

Just an update-- I just finished up a new piece last night-- it's now posted on my ETSY.com website for sale for $20 + S&H. Let me know what you think!

The NEW BLOG!

2008-04-20T23:00:00.000-04:00

Hi Everyone!

Welcome to my blog! This blog is an attempt to fill you in on my artwork--- now that I'm graduated from college with degree in Fine Art-- but have been working for a bank for 3 years-- I've decided to try and do all I can to get my name and artwork out there! I hope you enjoy the progression of this blog which I hope will help introduce you to not only my artwork, but me as an artist as well. I think it will be interesting to watch the natural progression of not only my artwork but this blog as well.

I plan to update this page as I am working on new artwork and as I post the items to sell. I want to create somewhat of an open forum for discussion on my work and where you, as my reader feel I should go with it.

As of two weeks ago, I started selling my artwork on Etsy.com. This is a great website to simply get your work out there-- regardless of whether or not it sells. Please check out my site and let me know what you think! : http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5040542

With that my friends I bid you good night!