Journal Page Show & Tell on Facebook

Hi all!  I'm going to be posting some journal pages over at my Facebook page with a little bit about what was going on when I made the page.  A little peek is below, but you can see the full page here -->www.facebook.com/ShellyMasseyArt or you can click on the Facebook Page link in the menu bar above.  I'll try to put up a new one every few days.  Hope you'll stop by!

Making My Happy Place

Since we moved to Ohio, I've been trying to figure out how to find my tribe of artsies/friends here in Ohio.  I decided to stop whining about it and to do something about it.  Last night was a great first step.  I invited a group of local people to start a monthly arts and crafts night.  There were seven of us happily creating and visiting in the space you see below (already conveniently decorated from Harper's birthday party).  There were so many things going on - crochet, polymer clay, ornament making, zentangling, scrapbooking, and painting.  I would have taken a picture, but we were too busy having fun!  And I finally made some progress on some orders I started a few weeks back.  (Yep, Heather and Jen, those are your works in progress!)

The Fabulous Regina Lord

Have you had the pleasure of meeting Regina Lord (http://www.creativekismet.com/)?  If so, then you and I know what a lucky duck you are.  If you haven't, I'm thrilled to be able to introduce you.  I've had the fortune of becoming friends with Regina over the last few years and watching creativity just pour out of her.  The minute you meet her, you just know she's a good soul.  She's open, quick to smile, and just plain fun to be around.

A while back, she posted the piece of artwork that you see below on her blog, and well, I begged her to sell it to me.  Instead, Regina proposed a trade, and I was IN.  We traded, and you can see in the photos below all the other treasures she sent along.  Oh, what a fun time I had opening that package!  You can peek at the beautiful wrappings of handpainted papers she made in the background.  So lovely, I almost couldn't open them.  But, of course, I knew there was super goodness inside the package, so I made myself tear into them (carefully, of course).

I hope you'll go on over to Regina's blog and introduce yourself if you haven't met.  AND she has an Etsy shop where she sells some of her sweet and beautiful work, so you can get some treasures too!

Hello. I'm four!

More photos on our family blog:  http://shellypaints.blogspot.com/2012/05/harper-is-four.html

Hide me please

In other thoughts... Harper and I were playing with the states puzzle this morning.  I decided to rearrange some of them to make my family and friends within better driving distance.  Oh, and because Ohio needs some Atlantic coastline.  Now I just need to somehow fit in Arizona, California, Texas, Florida and Georgia nearby.  We might have to stack them or something.

Life Lately

My creative life has been under seige by a mountain of not-so-creative activities - house cleaning, upheaving the entire upstairs for new carpet (see photo below- who knew new carpet would be so disruptive or so much messier than I thought), finishing wedding invitations (less creative than you might imagine), and of course work. 

I did squeeze in a few creative things.  I made birthday invites for Harper's party (we invited the preschooler girls to a painting party... WOOHOO!), and started some custom orders for friends.

Carpet installation - Thank goodness that's over.

It's a party!  Harper's getting excited.

Never again will I do wedding invites.  Ok, maybe for Harper someday.  Maybe.

Having fun playing on a custom piece for a friend.

And of course, work.

I hope things settle down soon so I can have more happy art adventures up in the studio!

Not gonna happen