Grease Sing-A-Long Hollywood Bowl

I truly love the Hollywood Bowl. I have a fond memory of my father from the Hollywood Bowl. You see they stack park you there... like bumper to bumper so you hope that everyone comes out to their car after the show in a timely manner or you can get stuck! So my Dad graciously took me and my friend Gary to see the Thompson Twins (Sept. 29th 1994, a Flock of Seagulls opened for them), and he took our old tan Van... that conveniently had our trailer hitch attached to it. My poor dad had to sit in the van for two hours while we rocked out to "Hold Me Now", but apparently he got a lot of joy from concert goer's slipping through the stacked cars and bashing their shins on the trailer hitch!  We had a fun time on the drive home hearing my Dad repeat back all of the cursing her heard and what they said. He even said one of them kicked the van then ran when he saw my Dad was still in it!LOL. I miss my Dad and his sense of humor. Isn't it funny the memories we keep? I can't recall a single fight I ever had with my Dad, although I know we did. I only remember quirky funny little moments... the ones I most cherished. Okay ON to GREASE. Definitely one of my all time favorite movies. Basically they just play the movie on the big screen with karaoke type words and you sing your heart out! I was sort of expecting this event to be filled with a bunch of 40+ women, gays and trannies, but NO! It was like a total family event. how do these kids even know Grease? Well they do, every word! It was fun singing out loud and it being okay! They also gave us some props, a comb, and yellow "scarf", a Reidell pom pom and bubbles....my favorite during beauty school dropout. I went with my friend Angelica and my girl Shyrell from the rink. We had a lot of fun, so whats next? Maybe Sound of Music?

Shyrell aka Dangerous on the Long Beach Hot Broads!

{Thousands of bubbles were blown and floated through the movie light, very cool. This was during beauty school dropout}

{me and my favorite science teacher Angelica}

{poor Jeff Conway passed away a few weeks ago, drugs were not kind to him}

{DiDi Conn actually was there presenting the film}

It was a lot of fun, we had wine and cheese before and took the shuttle so it was pretty easy. 

-Denise 

Tim Burton at LACMA

me and Terry outside LACMA

Terry at the Entrance!

I spent the first day of my Birthdaycation with my sweet friend Terry Frias. She joined me after work for the Tim Burton exhibit. One thing I realized after visiting the exhibit is I was a Tim Burton fan long before I knew I was a Tim Burton fan. You see in high school I was a drama geek and as  drama geek was always interested in indie films and short subject movies. One of those movies I fell in love with was called Frankenweenie. A story about a boy whose dog is hit by a car and he is so distraught that he decides to bring him back to life, basically Frankenstein with a boy and his dog. It came out in 1984, before Tim Burton was "Tim Burton" and it was not until I started seeing the Frankenweenie images at the exhibit that I realized it was Burtons creation.  Then I got extremely excited to see that in 2012 Burton is remaking Frankenweenie into a full length stop motion feature.  Needless to say I am thrilled! What is evident from watching Tim's career unfold, is that he always had a brilliant imagination. But he did get formal training and you can see his artwork change and progress over the years. That is probably what inspired me most, was that as an artist you are always learning, morphing and progressing. It encouraged me to learn some more fine art techniques like drawing and painting. I want to thank Terry for getting me the exhibit book as a little bday present, I love it! I also love my Pincushion Queen shirt I got as a little gift to myself.

Back to Reality

Today is my last vacation day, and I have reserved it for the cleaning and organizing of my craft room. It seems I am in a perpetual mode of cleaning this room, but I guess that is all just part of the process. I find when I am working on projects I have pin point focus; that is I only look at what I am working on in my hands... everything else simply gets, put aside, pushed aside, piled upon, scooted over, laid on top of, you get the picture! Pretty soon I have amassed a mess of epic porprotion. But the reality is, I really can't work like this, I can only cope with this "while" I am creating. Getting started on a new project is impossible in this mess. And I have left my week totally and completely inspired! From the Tim Burton exhibit, to the weekend art event with Kim Caldwell, to the shopping trip downtown, and even eating at Bottegga Louie. But more about that later, rule is... I can't do anything until I clean this room. No creating, no blogging, no Words with Friends, no shopping for newly discovered art supplies, Nothing! So I better get going, one surface at a time, because I have So many great pictures to share of my "me" week vacation!

{yikes, my desk...makeup, pajamas, paperwork, trash, oye!}

{banana box of Halloween stuff, and things I have no room for on any other surface}

{my work table, no work going on here!}

{believe it or not, under this pile, is the start of some organizing I was doing two weeks ago and never finished!}

{my jar shelf, but there are more than jars there now }

{holy crap, supposed to be my found object trays, but now they are piled over, with other "found" objects}

{Stampington returned my published art work...yippee, but here lies the box...still}

Well time to stop blogging and start cleaning!!

-Denise

Another Birthday gone by....

June 21st has came and went. I am now officially 42 years old. At 42 I can say that I find myself very happy and fulfilled. Life is very far from perfect, but in the end its all about your attitude towards what happens around you. I have tried to create my own little Drama Free zone. I stay away from toxic people, I don't overwhelm myself with commitments, and most of all I try to put myself first. I know it may seem selfish, but when I am happy, so are the people I surround myself with. So for my Birthday this year, I am taking a week of of work to spoil myself an do everything I want to do. So what's on the itinerary? Today I will work, because I have to! But after work the Birthday pamper begins with a trip to Burke Williams Spa.   Then Thursday morning I will head off to my Moms and we are going to go to Shinoda Design Center... I have actually never been! Then Mom and I will have lunch. Then I am driving out to LACMA to see the Tim Burton Exhibition with my sweet friend Terry Frias. On Friday me and my friend Shyrelle and hopefully two other friends will be going to Hollywood Bowl to the Grease Sing a Long. Then on Saturday and Sunday I am joining my good friend Kim Caldwell and so many of my other good friends for a weekend of creating art at Kims Color My World event in Manhatten Beach. Saturday night I will be having dinner with the girls. On Sunday after my workshop ends, its off to Ruth Chris Steakhouse with another dear friend Sandra and her hubby Bill. Then Monday is girls shopping trip with Kim, Andrea, and Earleen. And in addition to all this fun I bought myself a few gifts; an ipad and a new pair of skates! Oops I have spent way to much time blogging and now I am late for work......! I will be back in a week with plenty of pictures and stories! See you soon!

Published

Okay so I have always dreamed of being published in any of the Somerset Magazines. When I first started reading them I never would have though my work could be good enough to grace the pages, but after meeting so many friends who have had their work published and have encouraged me, it has finally happened! Not the way I imagined, but still it happened! One of the things I learned about getting published, is you HAVE TO SEND YOUR STUFF IN! I thought the magic magazine Genies just saw your blog and begged to publish you, but no, you actually have to submit your art work. Since I didn't want to part with any of my precious pieces, I decided to use the "calls for art" as inspiration. I created 3 canvases for their Fashion call, and one collage for their Poppy Perfection call. Months later the canvases came back in the mail, with a thank you but no thank you note. And to be honest I totally forgot about the little collage box. Then I got an etsy convo from my dear friend Marilyn Goodman. Please check out her etsy shop and blog: Cigarboxbeads.etsy.com and cigarboxbeads.blogspot.com AND her detash shop with great vintage finds at http://www.etsy.com/shop/suchandsort, and Marilyn was congratulating me for getting published. Whaaa??? Did I get published and not get notified? is it a mistake? not my artwork? different artist, same name? I had to do a little research, call the magazine, and sure enough somehow I slipped through the cracks, I am on Page 49! I never realized it because the Poppy Perfection issue had already been published and no "me" in there! I wasn't looking for myself anywhere else. I had actually browsed this issue and never saw myself in it, and it was a pretty good sized pic. So am I angry about it? No, I love Stampington publications and that issue had over 350 piece of artwork in it. I can see how I slipped though the cracks. So now I have the submission bug and hope to get even more of my pieces published. Do I NEED to be published in a magazine to feel validated as an artist? Hell NO but damn it feels good, like eye candy crack! As a matter of fact I can't wait until October when I have 5 pieces being published in Jewelry Affaire. Well I am off to check the latest calls for artwork, you can find them  here: http://www.stampington.com/submissions/ I encourage all of you artists out there to send your work in! Here is my submission:

Denise

Handwired Birdcage Workshop Photos

{Class Kit}

 I always love having workshops at Andrea Villareals home. Andrea is about as close as you can get to a real life Martha Stewart. If you don't believe me, take a look at this lunch layout for class:

{yes that is an Oreo hiding in that fresh baked chocolate chip cookie!}

Okay, enough said, Andrea has it going on in the food department!

{Here she is the hostess Andrea, please check out her blog The Freckled Star, I only wish I could write as funny as Andrea does}

{I always bring my huge stash, that way everyone gets to make their own style and themed project}

{Elaine took one look at my ballerina sample and knew that's what she wanted to do}

{Tashias in progress}

{Amys}

{Terry works intently}

{although we all laughed and had a good time, there was a lot of silence as we were all concentrating very hard on our creations}

{Elaine, deep in thought}

{Tashia}

Below are the finished projects, I just love how everyones looks like their own personal style!

{Elaines}

{Susan Shintakus}

{Tashia Jacques}

{Damn this was the only one I got of Terry Frias' and its blurry. it was awesome though! Especially after she added her bird with rhinestones dripping off its swing!}

{Mine I made during class}

{Miss Amys}

{Okay so maybe I am partial to my gracious hostess but I just loved how Andreas came out!}

The workshop was a lot of fun, thank you to all the ladies who joined in today,it was so much fun, and as always I am inspired by your designs.

-So what's next?????? Not sure yet but stay tuned for our next workshop!

-Denise

Finding Found Objects

{I love gumball machine containers, I have some ideas for these!}

Although I have resisted for such a long time, I think its time I confessed that I love making jewelry. Believe it or not, I have found there to be a lot of similarities between paper crafting, altered art and jewelry making. From paper crafting I use my knowledge of layering, depth and color mix. From altered art I use the juxtaposition of objects, composition and perspective. Put that altogether and you can just hang it on a chain and wear it! The hard part about jewelry making is that its very hard to be original. It seems that no matter what idea you have, somehow somewhere someone has done it, or something similar. But one thing for sure is that my personal style has come out the most in my jewelry. I love big, chunky, industrial, mixed metals paired with sparkly crystals and found objects. And speaking of found objects, even though I am suffering from a serious back problem right now, I decided to get out of the house I have been closed up in for three days now, and head to LB Flea and find some goodies.
     So what do you look for and how do you find it amongst the hippy clothes, old tools and junk? Well here are some tips and tricks for navigating the flea and finding those sweet surprises.

#1- don't narrow your focus too much, the minute you start looking for "dragonflys" you will not a find a single one! Try focusing on a size of object, say no more than 2 inches high.

{I was looking for some small perfume bottles and was not disappointed for once, usually what I am looking for I NEVER find}

#2- Open boxes, jewelry boxes, tins, shoe boxes, I always find hidden treasures away from the naked eye.

{OMG, I love this tiny metal sewing machine, I found this in a sewing box with a bunch of old thread}

#3- Display case theories! If I see a vendor that has, say one display case and everything else out...I stay away from the case, as they are obviously pricier items. However if everything the vendor has is under a case they probably do that for ease of set up and storage... I usually find that the items in those cases are more reasonably priced. This is only a theory, but I found it to be true!

{found these under a display case, I love the eyes that are beads on the owl}

#4- Ziplock bags, oh boy do I love a good ziplock bag full of junk! Usually they are priced to sell. Not all of the items might suit you, but if you would pay what you did for even one of the items in the bag, you got your moneys worth!

{seriously, found these little barbie ballet slippers in a ziplock bag for $5. I just wanted these so I gave the rest of the bag back}

#5- Bargaining at the "catch all" box, some vendors have a sign that says everything this box, table ect is $1. I usually pick out 6-7 and then offer $5, they usually take it.

{keys are cool, but keys on tags are a buy!}

{here was a dollar table selection, I got 7 pieces but got her down to $5. I will be putting these inside some of my wire wrapped globes....oh did I tell you I submitted those for publication to Jewelry Affaire? Can't wait to see if they get published!

-Denise