The Polka Dot Pixie

Happy Spring!

2013-03-29T08:12:00.000-07:00

So far this season, we have had amazing weather in Flagstaff. I say this with slight trepidation, given the fact that it is not unheard of to have an insane snowstorm bombard us in mid-April.

April is one of my favorite months.... it's a beautiful time of year in the desert where I grew up; Ah yes, Spring in Phoenix, where we clung to the the last sigh of sweet weather before the hot breath of summer melted the lip balm right off of our mouths. While I do miss those mild winters, I'll never miss the necessity of having to use oven mitts to buckle my seat-belt in July (true story). So bring on the the April blizzard if I am to be rewarded with 75 degree temperatures on Independence Day...

This April will also be the month I turn 40...and hopefully I am going into the next decade of my life a kinder, a stronger, a wiser, a less awkward, and a more courageous person. After reading that, it sounds very much like I need to pay a visit to the Wizard. (Which by the way, who else has seen the new movie? I loved it, but it's possible that I might have been slightly mesmerized by that high wattage James Franco smile :-) )

For those of you that celebrate, Happy Easter! And lovely weekend to you all. If you are lucky enough to enjoy a bit of sunshine, I hope you have the time to get out there and collect a bit of vitamin D.

I'll post more soon about my forthcoming classes at Whimzy and Paper Tales.

Valentine's Day in my Etsy shop, discount code for blog readers

2013-01-19T11:26:00.001-08:00

I've been busy in the studio....

these guys (and a few others) have been freshly listed in the Etsy shop here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/thepolkadotpixie

25% off with this coupon code: FRIENDSANDFAMSALE

And here we go again....

2012-09-27T18:43:00.002-07:00

Off to Halloween and Vine in Petaluma, California!

Some of us will be quite upset if you cannot be there to join in on all the fun!

We'll leave the light on for you....

Regular blogging to commence soon!

Lets Go!

2012-09-13T05:56:00.001-07:00

Anybody else start singing the old Ritchie Valens song anytime anyone someone says that to you?

I will be singing all day as I head out for the 740 mile drive to goregous Danville California for the 5th Annual Tinsel and Treasures show!!!

I have a few friends coming along for the ride....

(my husband say this one should be called "he was asking for it". He was inspired by Denslow's 1903 version of the classic Nursery Tale )

If you are in the area, I'd love for you to come and say hello!

Work in Progress weekend

2012-08-27T12:31:00.002-07:00

Recently, on any given day one could come to my happy little townhouse here in Flagstaff at 3:00am and find me plugging away in preparation for my 3 upcoming Fall Shows: Tinsel and Treasures, Halloween and Vine, and Glitterfest!

My studio in the wee hours. Just me, my clay and some tunes on the IPhone.

I am mostly still in my "sculpting phase" of the process.

For efficiency's sake I will sculpt a collection of work, let the pieces dry for days, and the proceed to my gessoing and finishing process.
Here's a small sample of this year's Halloween Collection, still waiting for paint!

With the countdown clocking ticking away to my first Fall show in less than 3 weeks, wish me luck in getting it all finished in time!

A Business Vision for the Pixie Maker

2012-08-22T17:30:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! Since I have blogged last I have had so much happening personally and business wise. I have also had the opportunity to do a little reading and lots of thinking abut where I want to take my little folk art business. (Check back in a few days for a pics of my latest works in progress)

Helping me to get some clarity with that is a business mentorship course I have been doing with Jennifer Lee, author of the wonderful Right Brain Business Plan book (check it out at Indiebound... or buy from your locally owned bookstore-- support your local booksellers folks!).

One of the first things Jennifer encourages the artistic entrepreneur to do is to lay out her or his "Big Vision" via collage. Like other vision board exercises lots of people approach this by cutting inspiring images and texts out of old magazines. Since I approach art making with a vintage aesthetic, I decided to select from my huge collection of pre-World War 2 magazines. Don't worry, no magazines were actually harmed for this project, I forgo-ed the scissors in place of my digital camera and the photo editing and collaging tool in Picasa. And here's what I came up with!:

Let me know what you think :-)

A little bit of Christmas...

2011-12-19T16:47:00.000-08:00

in my kitchen....

Well actually, its a dining nook ;-). But never-the-less....

I love lots of warm and happy colors. Most of the ornaments sourced from thrift and antique shops.

Happy Christmas everyone!

Santa's Flight

2011-08-31T07:34:00.001-07:00

Santa's Flight, a photo by thepolkadotpixie on Flickr.

I'm still here!

Been busy getting ready for the Spooky Time Jingles Soiree in New Hope, PA on Sept 10. Like me, this Santa is flying out with all kinds of goodness to share! :-)

More updates coming soon :-D

18 years!

2011-02-13T12:28:00.000-08:00

Today marks my husband's and mine 18th wedding anniversary. We married young and we were completely broke, but very much in love.

I have really good memories of our wedding day. Since money was scarce, we relied upon friends and family to supply the setting, much of the food and even the entertainment.

My dress was a 1920's drop waisted gown that I found at an antique store ( along with the pearl choker) and my veil (which I fell in love with) was found at a second hand bridal shop.

My aunt had a huge backyard that she generously welcomed us to use for the setting. The fare was simple... my mom and I went to a local, mom and pop owned Italian deli and purchased trays of meats and cheeses. A talented friend made the wedding cake.

With over 100 guests we were grateful to have 3 D.J's in the family which provided plenty of music for dancing.

I have always been a bit of a romantic. I think that is why so

many of my clay characters are shown happy, lovey-dovey settings like the guys below.

I hope you have happy plans for Valentines Day tomorrow. To celebrate, I modified the image below for you to you use as you please in your Valentine's day tag or card making. Feel free to download and resize as needed . To download, left click the image and choose "save as" (note that this image is for personal use only).

Happy Valentine Day!

Storybook inspiration

2011-02-09T16:38:00.000-08:00

As I have oft mentioned, I absolutely adore vintage children's illustrations. Some of my favorite Rose Bowl flea market finds included the lovely books below...

These books have already found a happy home snuggled between the stacks of volumes in my cozy studio.

Every now and then, when looking for inspiration, I'll pour over these illustrations whilst sipping on a cuppa something good, warm and sweet.

Little Miss Muffet pictured below was in my head for more than a year (thanks to the brilliant mind of old school animator Ray Harryhausen) before I finally took the time to render her in clay.

I created the tree and "tuffet" (what is that anyway???) out of newspaper which was wrapped in masking tape and covered with handmade paper mache. I then formed the little five petal flowers out of paper clay (using a gum-paste cutter and a paintbrush) and attached them all over the greenery.

Little Miss and her charming spider friend were sculpted from paper clay over foam, wire and wood. The little spoon was made with floral wire covered in paper tape.

Foregoing the usual box, I chose a wooden tray (found at the Goodwill) to paint and polka dot to arrange the scene. I am so happy with the way these guys turned out. I hope you like them too! If you would like to purchase them they'll be on offer at midnight tonight over at PFATT marketplace.

I'll be back on Sunday with a free Valentine's Day card/tag image for your printing pleasure!

More Fleamarketing adventures

2011-01-29T07:09:00.000-08:00

I am grateful to be on the other side of what was a long and stressful week. Having found a few early morning moments to pour through my favorite blogs while listening to Pandora, I thought I should do a little posting of my own and share some photos from my last trip to the Rose Bowl Flea :-)....

While famous, I have to say the Rose Bowl Flea Market is probably my least favorite, due to the overwhelming size and scope of it. It also seems a bit pricier than other flea markets. However, on this last trip I was able to find (an even purchase) some really wonderful stuff. So much for my resolution to cut down on the clutter...

Rows and Rows of Vintage dresses... I cannot resist spending a good 20 minutes in booths like these.

This stained glass wasn't vintage, but it was lovely the way it caught the dim sunlight on that cold January morning in Pasadena...

Not even a single stem from this box of millinery was in my price range, but I liked it all so much that I needed a photo!

This=cuteness

It wouldn't be beyond me to wallpaper an entire room with vintage valentines... the graphics always reel me in... also, I've liked the word "swell" ever since watching Dobie Gillis reruns on Nick at Night when I was a kid...

Seeing all these aprons in one p;ace just made me happy...

More kitschy cuteness....

I love the glamorous figurine in the middle of this collection

Always lots of pretty painted furniture at the Flea... none would fit in the hatchback of my Nissan Versa though

And at last... this was the dress of regret.....

I contemplated purchasing this sweetheart of a dress for a good 15 minutes before the practical half of my brain won out. The Romantic in me fell in love with color, the polka dots (of course!) the drop waist, the pockets, and the lace trim, while Miss Practical reminded me of it's stains, unfix-able threadbare patches and of the 1/2 dozen other vintage dresses in my closet that I NEVER wear. So, I contented myself with of photo and a promise to don one of the old dresses that already have residence in my closet before purchasing another one.

I'll be back in a few to show you what did manage to come home with me (despite Miss Practical's protestations) and an update on some upcoming classes. Happy weekend everyone!

Laughter and Lemondrops

2011-01-14T12:29:00.000-08:00

I wanted to pop in to share the beautiful web page and work of my new friend Carrie Sherman. Her website, entitled Laughter and Lemondrops ( I just love that name!) has some magically beautiful jewelry offerings. Below is sample of her whimsical work.

I'll be back in a couple of days to share the spoils of my recent flea market adventure as well as with some updated news about classes :-). Happy weekend everyone!

Whirlwind weekend

2011-01-11T17:55:00.000-08:00

What a wonderful day of teaching at Whimzy in beautiful Tustin, California. And the group of wonderful women that took the class did an excellent job at creating their lovely bluebird boxes (pictures coming soon!). After a fun day of teaching and long night of catching up on overdue sleep, I got up early to spend the day doing a little flea market shopping at the world famous Rose Bowl Market.

When I go flea marketing, I am always on the prowl for old books (my inner librarian must have her way). Amongst the many delightful finds, I came across this coincidentally cute book created in 1914 by Thorton Burgess: Jerry Muskrat Wins Respect.

I say coincidently, because just a few days before, I put the finishing touches on this friendly frog fellow.... (based upon the old folk tale, a Frog He Would a Wooing Go). Do you see a sort of resemblance? I think these guys look related (even down to the red shoes)!

Mr. Froggy was listed on PFATT earlier this month and soon will be happily hopping his way across the country to live with a lovely customer. But in honor of day, I will have two other Valentine's inspired creations, beginning January 13th on Spookytime Jingles.

Dish and Spoon in Love

Spooky Love

I'll be back in a couple of days and have lots more to share about my classes, my flea market frenzy as well as some recent favorite finds :-)

Classes coming up!

2011-01-01T08:07:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had a good ending to 2010 and excellent start to 2011. Despite the freezing icy weather here in Flagstaff, AZ, I actually find much to enjoy about the prospect of a fresh new year "with no mistakes in it" ala Anne of Green Gables.

So have you made any resolutions? I am proud to say that I actually kept a few of my goals last year by starting a new jogging and healthy eating regime that helped me to drop about 30 pounds and quite a few dress sizes. I'd like to maintain that goal this year and increase my endurance and speed on the ole' treadmill. I also kept my resolution to return to school, and I am happy to say I am at a 4.0 so far in my grad program. It's been slow going though and I wound up only taking 2 classes last Spring and one in the Fall. Hopefully they will still be hiring librarians by the time I am finished with my program :-)

Another thing I did a lot of in 2010 was teach. And I am actively developing more classes for the new year. Coming up next weekend (in honors of Valentine's Day, which will be here before you know it) is my Lovebirds Class at Whimzy in Tustin California. I have taught this class in New Jersey and Mesa and I am excited to be bringing in to Southern California. At last check there were a few more spots open, so if you are in the area and would like to take a class, click on this link for more info.

Enjoy your weekend everyone!

2010

2010-12-27T06:49:00.000-08:00

How blessed I was this year. Although my school and work schedules prohibited me from posting much, I did snap some photos throughout the year in an effort to capture happy moments....

Teaching from coast to coast: New Jersey, Los Angeles, and Mesa..... (Art Opera, Artistic Bliss Les Sirenes and Mystic Paper)

Traveling in New Mexico, Colorado and New York

(the photos above are of me and my family enjoying stops on our summer road trip at the Red Rock Amphitheater outside of Denver and at the the International Museum of Folk Art in Santa Fe; Below is a collage of my one day solo sojourn into New York City.. Central Park, Times Square, Broadway, Harlem and the John Lennon Imagine Memorial were just a few of the sites that I explored that day in April)

Vending at beautiful shows like Glitterfest in Tustin, California, and at the NAU Holiday Art and Craft extravaganza........

And taking a little time out to enjoy some Flea and Farmers Markets!

I hope you had a wonderful year . And thank you so much for coming by, for your emails and comments over the past 12 months. Here's a toast and a wish for an even better 2011!

A gift for you...

2010-12-23T08:14:00.000-08:00

If you are like me, you may just be putting the final touches on your Christmas gift wrapping and lo and behold, you forgot to buy tags! Because it's a snowy cozy day here in Flagstaff, Arizona and I don't want to make a run to Target, I created these happy little gift tags from some of my finished Christmas creations. If you like them feel free to click on this link to download the PDF. Then you can print, cut and tag away :-) (Please note that these are for personal use only)

Available on Spooky-Time Jingles at midnight Tonight....

2010-12-12T17:23:00.000-08:00

I saved one of my favorite Santas for the Spooky Time Jingles update :-) Blog friends get 15% off (just let me know you are a blog reader). Here's the link....

Guest curating at Crescendo....

2010-11-29T11:47:00.001-08:00

If you haven't heard of this awesome project created by Jenny Doh, I encourage you to head on over and check it out! Give yourself some time to explore the site! There is a ton a great information over there! I was given the opportunity to do some guest curating this week where I get to share some blog links that have inspired me recently. Here's a bit of my own story.... (that's a picture of me and my goofy hair working on a little pixie doll below :-) )

Thankful Sale :-)

2010-11-26T04:50:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post today to let you know that you can use the coupon code THANKFUL to purchase anything and everything in my Etsy shop at 25% off until 6pm PST tonight! The way the discount code works is to put the item in your cart and during checkout you enter the code and it will reduce the original price by 25%).

I'll be posting this publicly in the store itself in an hour but I wanted to give blog readers a little heads up just in case, like me, you were doing a little handmade happiness shopping today :-)

Hope everyone had a joyous Thanksgiving!

Quick Hello :-)

2010-11-18T20:16:00.001-08:00

Hi everyone! I hope you have been enjoying your fall. We have had an unusually mild one here in the Northern AZ mountains and after last year's record breaking blizzards, I have to say I am sooo glad!

In between work, classes and jogging I have manged to get a bit of sculpting squeezed in here and there and tomorrow is the huge NAU Holiday art craft fair which I show at every year. I snapped some pics of my favorites before packing them up. Let me know what you think :-)

And a quick announcement.... I will be having my annual Etsy sale on Friday Nov. 26. Everything I list will be priced at 25% below retail for one day only, so be sure to check it out.

I am a horrible blogger

2010-09-29T22:21:00.000-07:00

warning.... long, kind of personal post ahead (mostly rant free)

I am really bad at this juggling everything bit. I don't know how so many women do it. One of my favorite food bloggers posts daily and she is a physician. Too which I say WOW! I, on the other hand, can't seem to post monthly lately. I am in my second semester of graduate school now and since I got my bachelors in '98, I had since forgotten how much work school is. And work is work too.. since getting laid off in 2008, I have had a few job transitions, and at the moment I have two part time jobs and one consulting position that takes up well over 40 hours a week. My family seems to think I should be making dinners, doing laundry and grocery shopping too..... Hope this post doesn't sound whiny, because I really like my work, I really like school and I really really love my family. I even like doing laundry! Deep inside of me lives a domestic sort of person that has always romanticized homemaking and housekeeping. I have the cookbook collection to prove it! I like blogging too, I like doing lots of stuff...I am just not so good at making time for it.

Do you ever go through those periods where you question your priorities? With a newfound jogging habit dangerously close to being back-burnered and a stack of overdue library books on "time management" that I haven't found time to read, I have had a few thoughts lately of putting away the clay and taking a sort of hiatus from doll-making. I think I am probably clay addicted so that's not likely to really happen. So I hope it's okay with those still reading if I pop in and post when I can. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed lately.

I have managed to squeeze in a tiny bit of pixie making though. In fact lots of Pixie making for Glitterfest this weekend in Santa Ana, California.

I really fell in love with these guys while I was making them. I was going to make the pumpkin man a pumpkin girlfriend, but for some reason, only a pickle shaped girl was able fit just right next to him. I imagine that they both like each other very much, he's got the arm around her so it must be the 3rd or fourth date. And she's taller, that's why he wore the top hat.

This is what too many late nights of studying does to your brain. Thanks for hanging in here with me. Come see me on Saturday here if you're nearby :-).

Some new studio pics

2010-07-25T20:17:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! I am back from the beautiful Les Sirenes event in Manhattan Beach. I must say, if you ever have the opportunity to attend one of Kim's events, do go! No detail is overlooked and it's both a pampering retreat and opportunity to create and learn new techniques. I am still in the process of editing my photos from the event, and I will be sure to post some along with a recap later this week. In meanwhile, I wanted to share a couple of photos of my new studio space (while I have it a bit cleaned up). If I could paint the walls in this rental, I think I'd go with a jadeite green or robin's egg blue, but since I cant I have done my best to infuse some color where I can.

The desk where I create, and a view of shelves overflowing with books, art supplies and flea market/thrift shop bounty...

A small nook with bins full of supplies and lots of vintage inspiration:

Here's the wide angle shot from the entry way. I am on the top floor and the light is very bright on sunny days.... The dollhouse in the corner is going to get rehabbed one of these days..

There's me, happy as a clam, pixie making :-)

Thanks for taking the tour! Let me know what you think :-)!

Busy summer....

2010-07-12T19:39:00.000-07:00

Finishing up some new work to sell at the Artistic Affair Vendor Soirée... I had these guys drying on a rack outside after applying sealant (and before the" antiquing" stage) and I thought they looked sort of happy hanging out together so I snapped a quick pic...

Okay so the little green witch doesn't look so happy, but then again she never is!!!

And here's one all finished, a bit of Christmas in July :-)

This one makes me crave sweets... hmmmmmm.....

Tomorrow is Spookytime Jingles 2 year annivesary! Head over to say hello!

I hope you all have the chance to relax and breathe a bit during this beautiful summer season!

Updates and and interview

2010-07-03T09:40:00.000-07:00

I have been blessed with some wonderful mailbox goodness lately thanks to the amazingly talented Magpie Ethel. She does awesome thing with vintage finds including these sweet spun head creations that look happy to live amongst my vintage books...

Life remains busy up here. Less than two weeks away until Artistic Bliss in Los Angeles and I am buried in paper clay trying to get 50 mermaid kits together. I love to teach, but I am always fueled by nervousness about it and it my hope that every student walks away happy and satisfied with the class. I am still in the process of getting an online sculpting class organized for those of you that have expressed interest. I'd like it to be an interactive class with video and chat and not just a series of PDF's. Still working out the technology on my end. In the meanwhile, I do a few a couple of pixie kits left. I will likely make a few more in August. (see kit samples below).

In other news, I was recently interviewed by the Glitterfest Gazette. If you want to check it out, please do so here.

Hope everyone is having a great holiday weekend so far!

Smoke gets in my eyes....

2010-06-23T10:31:00.000-07:00

Lots about these fires in the news lately. :-(

We had been enjoying out new digs and the local area immensely. A couple of weeks ago my husband I went hiking in an area known as the "inner basin" (the fires are burning not too far from this area.) It was a hot, beautiful day and we packed a picnic and hiked the two miles through this

and this

To see this....

and this

Please send prayers and wishes for rain.

On the front page of our local newspaper today was a beautiful story that brought tears to my eyes. I encourage you to pop on over and read it. (I have been weepy a lot lately... Not sure why... lots of changes going on around here. A Billie Holiday song is making me tear up even as I write this).

Speaking of being weepy, have you seen Toy Story 3 yet? Wow. I never cried so much at the end of a movie. Describing the plot of the movie alone brought tears to my eyes when I was explaining it to a coworker. The first Toy story was the first movie that I took my sweet son to see and now, much like Andy, he is growing up, becoming a handsome young man before my very eyes. Wish I could slow time down a bit.