Open for Business

My New Website is Open

 

www.heresmyhart.com

My Etsy Shop is Open

https://www.etsy.com/shop/HeresMyHart

please hop on over

and you can follow me on:

 Facebook...www.facebook.com/heresmyhartrobin (Like me please)

Twitter....https://twitter.com/heresmyhartrobi

and

Instagram....https://instagram.com/heresmyhartrobin/

business name

Yesterday I worked continuously on my logo for my creative business.  I used the adobe program Illustrator and then used you tube tutorials to figure out how to do it.  I took a graphics design class and that's where I was introduced to Illustrator.  I just think it is one of the coolest programs there is because I could use this design for a business card or a billboard and it would still stay as sharp as you see it.  I am going to use the (hart) by itself for the watermark on my work when it is up on the internet.  It has turned out exactly the way I pictured it, and I am proud that I was able to get it to do what I wanted.  I think I burned up a lot of brain cells yesterday. Thanks so much for stopping by. 

afraid I was going to have to fight a hawk

I haven't been around for the past week because I have been learning about domains and building a website for a creative endeavor that I am starting.  It's not quite ready but I will be making the announcement in the very near future with all the hoopla and bells and whistles and dancers etc. etc. 

In the meantime though I have been enjoying this weather we had recently.  I was getting outside and walking and it was glorious!  I would take my camera everyday to see what amazing things I would come across to show you. 

We live in an area that has hawks living somewhere nearby.  Since the trees have no leaves right now, I have seen some very big nests in the trees that have to be for a big bird.  I had not spotted one yet but wanted to be prepared. 

Now my cat Lily loves to take a walk with me.  We found this out one day when Tom and I started for a walk and realized that she was following us.  She walked two miles all around the neighborhood.  She would, most of the time stay on the sidewalk behind us.  Once in a while she would go out along the curb but then cut up to the sidewalk again. 

Here she is following behind me.

 If you look at the garage door to the left there is another cat looking out.  She and that other cat made some eye contact and I picked her up because I didn't want any funny business.  She doesn't like me to pick her up and becomes quite "growley".  She likes to do things on her own ya know!  So getting that disaster averted we moved on and Lily is walking behind me again.  I take a corner and she takes the corner a few feet behind sometimes stopping to sniff the grass.  Lo and behold I look up and there is a hawk circling in the sky.  Then he is getting lower, and lower.  I believe he has an eyeball on Lily!

 

 

Once I picked her up and held her, much to her irritation, he disappeared.  What are the chances, I ask. I put her down and said we have had enough for today.  We start back toward home, when we got to the house with the other cat, she made a point to walk out on the curb.  She didn't want any part of that! She has heard rumors that he is no good! 

 

  

Green leaves

Dug around in my stash until I found seven different greens to make the leaves.  They range from brights to darks, grass-green to blue-green and even olive.  It should be an interesting full tree for sure, with twenty-one leaves.  Be good to yourself and do something fun.

Little Quilt Applique

Tonight I am working on pieces to applique onto this little quilt.  There is a sun up in the corner and this tree will have 20 or so leaves on it eventually.  My plans are to open an Etsy shop in the near future to start selling my work.  I am in the process of gathering all the information I need and will be opening a website for my creative business soon with a blog.  Right now I plan to keep this one for non business related information, but I will play it by ear to see how that works, it could become too overwhelming.  This is all uncharted territory so its all just written in pencil.    I designed this quilt and wanted the bottom to be layers of the earth with the top being the grass.  I wanted an interesting but neutral middle area and the three layers of blue for the sky.  I will enjoy building this little quilt down to the last stitch and sharing along the way.  Hope that you had a wonderful day. 

Two out a Three ain't bad

Second Chair in my series of three.  A nice Windsor Painted in watercolor.

Grandmothers Quilts

In celebration of warmer weather this week, I started displaying this antique quilt made by my Grandmother and my husband Tom,'s Great Grandmother with a Grandmothers Flower Garden quilt..  The iris quilt is in a very worn condition and is very thin, but there is some cotton batting in it.  It was larger, my Mom had cut away the torn and worn parts and put the yellow binding on it.  The Flower Garden quilt is in perfect condition.

I have always loved this purple iris. 

Look at her little stitches and that she changed thread color.  I feel very fortunate to have this quilt.  I don't know how old it is, my Grandmother passed away in 1967 at age 75.I don't know when she made it but she would be 123 years old now.

Fling-A-Ma-String

For you fellow cat lovers I have a recommendation...The Fling-A-Ma-String!  This is a favorite and we just received number 2 in the mail this week.  The other was worn out and the elastic was stretched like an old pair of underwear.

We can turn it on and two or three cats come from each part of the house when they hear it.  A little FYI though, get rechargeable batteries.  It can get left on when you don't realize the playtime is over.  It gives a little exercise and keeps their interest. 

Another favorite at our house is these crunchy lightweight balls.  I didn't get an action photo but she had just been playing soccer with it.  They carry them around in their mouths.  I have a large container of catnip and put it in there for a couple of days.  They become quite goofy over it then.  Another little FYI-shake it off before you give it to them....it makes a real mess if you don't. 

Found a deal on Amazon-1 dozen for $3.98.  Money well spent, like everything else, you need to get them out from underneath the furniture.  But then you also do a little cleaning, bringing out all those dust balls that have accumulated, at least at my house....maybe not yours. 

Lastly, I think Lily is funny, wedging herself between the window and the table.  If winter lasts any longer, she won't fit.  She isn't her sleek self, like she is in the summer time.  I tried to get a photo of her completely asleep and stretched out.  She wakes up and poses or is irritated that I disturbed her with the annoying click of the camera.  Who can tell?  The link for the Fling-a-ma-string. Oh and by the way..they are a little over the top with the action photo of the cat and the fling-a-ma-string.  Yeah-No...mine don't do that with it....and yours probably won't either. Take Care-Thanks so much for stopping!

 

 

Soup n Bread

This, my friends, is going to be some homemade chicken noodle soup. 

On Saturdays especially, I love to get up and make soup and homemade bread.  Have it simmering on the stove for lunch. 

I woke up at 4:30 this morning with lots of thoughts going around in my head.  I decided to not disturb my husband and got up.  I love the times where everyone is asleep and I am up doing my own thing.  I walk out to the foyer and I hear breathing!  My son is asleep on the couch (drats!)...I get him sent down to his bedroom...now...everyone is where they should be!

I am working away, enjoying the peace.

The bread is rising so nicely.
It's gonna be a good batch!

A nice close up of the texture and the indent in the middle.

Three beautiful loaves of bread, ready to double up. 

Nice and brown on top, with a heavenly softness in the middle. 
If I had a bakery I would call it "Heavenly Scent Bakery".
This is so good toasted, with melted butter and little bit of honey. 

Oh by the way, the soup was great.  Found the recipe on Pinterest.
It was supposed to be done in the Crock Pot but it worked well on the stove top.  It called for boneless, skinless chicken thighs and they were perfect. 

Click here for the recipe if you would like.

Enjoy My Friends
Thanks for checking in.

Could Spring be on the Way?

We are dreaming of spring.  Tom has been readying the rocking chairs that go by the pool.  They were chipped paint white.  We decided on fun, bright colors for the new coats of paint.  How happy these will look beside the nice blue water. (dreaming a little again). This one needs the clear coat yet.

This one needs a few more coats.  There are also little side tables that will be refinished. Yankee Candles makes a scent that smells just like suntan lotion.  I think I am going to get some.  Pool season is still two months away which is better than 8 months away when we closed it in October.  It is inching closer!  Have you been dreaming of something nice lately? 

Beauty Comes From Within

My Mixed Media picture was finished yesterday.  I changed a few items like making the buds smaller and adding more leaves.  It was fun working with all the different mediums.

  

All four sides are painted with this design and you can see a good side view of the poppy buds.  This was done on a 10 X 10 canvas and would add a nice visual element to a wall grouping.

  

Chair

Chairs can be such beautiful pieces of workmanship and there are so many different kinds.  I am drawing and painting a trilogy of chairs from around my house.  I finished the first today. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

The cats

A couple of cat stories to tell you.  This is my studio, that the cats like to look out that big window.  I had the easel up yesterday and I was in another room.  I hear CRASH-BANG-BAM!  I move quickly to the studio thinking that things have fallen off the wall and there will be a terrible mess to clean up.



Here comes this guy, practically knocking me down.  His eyes are bugged out and he is like a runaway beer truck.  He starts to take the corner and his feet go out from under him and legs are flailing till he gets up.  He has scared himself so much that he peed his pants!  I was laughing and Tom wants to know what happened.  I said Sebastian peed his pants, he got so scared!  Tom-I didn't know he wore pants! I followed his trail of dribbles for two rooms.  He jumped up on his usual bench and stayed there the whole evening.  He was embarrassed. 
The only thing that fell down was the easel, but it made a terrible noise! 

I hoped he learned his lesson. 

Here is a Simon the Cat video where he is on a rip.

This gal, I found sitting in the sink recently watching the fish.  I purchased a new bowl with a lid for the fish because I wanted my lid for my pot back.  It's a little different size and fits perfectly in this spot.  Lily, this gal and Sophie were found up on the counter moving the new fish bowl with lid.  Tom said they had it two inches from the edge of the counter.  Water was sloshed out, the fish kept bumping their noses on the plastic.  Their eyes were probably bugged out more than usual.  Now I have put rubber underneath the bowl and a metal travel cup on top, to alert us of her shenanigans.  She is a pip!  She needs some warm weather so she can go outside and catch a mouse.  I believe she brought home at least 15 last summer and fall!

So glad you stopped.
I would love to read your cat stories too.

Beauty

I shared this picture the other day when it wasn't quite complete.  I have finished it now and my inspiration for it was from a picture I saw on Pinterest.  I thought how interesting a poppy bud is.  Hard and green and a perfect oval with little fuzzys all over it.  Inside it is a beautiful flower with paper like leaves waiting to unfold. Beauty for mankind is like that also.  Kindness, empathy, being helpful, giving and being a good friend, parent, boss, child, sibling, ....it all comes from within or from your heart.   

On a similar note, I painted this collage a few years back for a very sweet, helpful and beautiful friend of ours.  She was always giving herself a hard time and I found this quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson-Truth, Goodness, Beauty are but different faces of the same all.  Whether RWE had this in mind when writing the sentence, I don't know, but this is the way I see it.  If you have truth, and goodness then you also have beauty.  They are the whole package. It doesn't matter if one is beautiful on the outside or not.

The Poppy Buds picture, I am going to keep.  There were many things that I tried for the first time.  I followed instructions from Kelly Rae Roberts book- Taking Flight, on how to make dimensional items. I liked the way they turned out, but I want to make them smaller.  If you notice one leaf has some lines on it and then I decided against that look.  I want to change a couple of colors and also I wasn't happy with the words, other than that....it's perfect! :-).  I am in the process of making another and my plan is to open an Etsy shop in the near future.  I am building my inventory right now. 

I would certainly appreciate feedback on this.  It's a little intimidating and scary to try a different venture. 

Thanks so much for stopping.

Memory Quilt

In the mornings, right after I get up and of course after feeding the cats, I work on this quilt.  If I just work an hour a day I get so much done.  The latest work has been on embroidering the bottom border.  If you wonder what the story is behind this quilt please go to the top of the blog under the banner and click into the page "CJD and the quilt".

The next part I need to address is filling in the area with the last hearts. Unfortunately I never have a problem coming up with names to add to my quilt. 

I will be tracing, writing and embroidering for the next few weeks. 

It's so comforting to see progress on this.

Thanks for stopping. 

Poppy Buds

A multi medium picture I was painting today.  It has 3 dimensional elements made with Styrofoam-redi wrap and plaster of paris.  They were fun to make and weigh next to nothing.  It is on artist wrapped 10 X 10 canvas and the sides will be painted also and it will be ready to hang.

I hope you liked.

Thanks for finding your way to my place. 

Chairs

I have been doing some drawing throughout the day.  Chairs with shadows...Each of these chairs are special to us.  A special neighbor gave us this chair that he did the seat weaving.

My Mother picked this Windsor chair up while on vacation somewhere.  It is very comfortable to sit in.  I love the wide seat.

Another one of my Mother's chairs she picked up somewhere.  It's a smaller chair and  has pretty details.  I thought it was called a thumbnail chair because the back curves like your thumb. 
Tomorrow they will be painted with watercolors.

Check back later....thanks so much for stopping. 

Happy Valentines Day-2015



Sharing the valentines I made for my guys.  I think it's ironic that my stamped you're purrfect is not straight.  The image is from Art Impressions.  It's a front-back.  I love Valentines Day because there is a lot of red, a lot of hearts and a bunch of chocolate!

Used some Washi Tape and punches on this card.  .

The paper I used for this was Noir et Chic. Here I found a little video that just shows all the papers in this pack.  There is something out there for everything!
The back of the cat amuses me

Here is Tom's card. I saw a card on Pinterest that I liked and copied some elements from it.  The scroll stamp is from Autumn Leaves.  I tried to find a link for you and I believe they have closed.  Many places sell the stamps though if you just search for it on the internet. The little hearts are a punch I have.

More Washi tape to guide your eyes across the card.  The owl is from Art Impressions and the sentiment and heart are Taylored Expressions.  There are so many wonderful stamps out there that I just pick and choose from many, many companies. 

On Sam's card I used Taylored Expression paint strokes along with star and heart punches and it's all on craft paper.

We always loved the story of Little Nutbrown Hare and Big Nutbrown Hare growing up.  I would always end the night with "I love you to the Moon and back", and he would one up me and say....Pluto!  I punched out a yellow circle for the moon and the punched a piece out of it to make the half moon.  The sentiment is an A Muse stamp.  The paper is from Glitz and it is just called Black and White.  It's nice and heavy with a double sided design. 

I hope you have a sweet and wonderful Valentines Day!

Thanks so much for stopping....from the bottom of my heart. 

God Doesn't Blink-Lesson 27

 

 

Always Choose Life

 

 

The Author Regina Brett starts this lesson out talking about the Walden by Henry David Thoreau.  She read this book while in tenth grade and a passage she remembers to this day is this:

 

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear."

 

 

Regina had two big things happen in her life that confirmed that choosing life is the best choice.  When she was 21 she found out she was pregnant and when she was 41 she found out she had cancer.  Of course her daughter was one of the best things that ever happened to her.  In her private world insider herself she felt joy at becoming a Mom and feeling that a new life is growing inside her. 

 

When she had cancer and was about ready to have treatments she wondered to herself  "maybe I won't take the treatments."  She liked feeling that way, having that choice, but the voice inside her kept saying "Choose Life".

 

When she has a decision to make like this she asks herself "what is the most life enhancing choice to make?

 

These things were one of the best things that could have happened to her.  Life took her down a path she didn't want to be on, but on those paths she realized the secret to life is to Choose Life. 

 

 

Living is so dear. 

 

I never read Walden....I am going to have to get it. 

 

Thanks for stopping by. 

 

 



Flying Lessions (not the usual :)

I invested in my Creative Business recently.  I decided to learn from the highly successful Kelly Rae Roberts and bought her tips and tricks book.  So far it has been very interesting and helpful, I am on page 54.  Along with this book I was invited into a private facebook site for only buyers of the book.  I am not totally in yet but I am looking forward to the experience. 


I bought her book "Taking Flight" a few years ago.  It was my first introduction to mixed media.  I refer back to it constantly.
Please Keep checking back to give me a bump of support on this new journey.

 

suncatchers

When I was in Noblesville in October this lovely suncatcher had to come home with me.  My studio gets a huge amount of sun from noon till around 3 p.m. on sunny days. I loved the curvy lines and the two colors for the sun.

Angie my niece gave this as a birthday gift.  We both have a love of cardinals and I also enjoy the cow bell.  This will be fun when the windows get opened in a few months.  The red glass is so pretty!  Thank you so much Angie dear!

Thanks for stopping!

Projects

 

I found this very simple video on mitering quilt corners.  Mitered corners are such a nice touch.

I build my art projects.  First it is an idea, then I sketch it out and then gather the materials.  Most of the time I don't use a pattern.  What I pictured for this piece is an outdoor scene appliqued onto the base.  I wanted lots of texture with the more primitive, woven fabric in the first border.  I like borders on my quilts, they define area and add interest.  The bottom of the base are layers of earth, the middle area has many neutral fabrics sewn together where I plan to applique a tree and leaves and whatever strikes my fancy along with embroidering words.  The top is the sky and a sun will be added in that area.  I am planning  to have a lot of hand quilting. 

I found a little quilt in these colors on Pinterest.  It was very simple 3 inch blocks.  So I again just went into my fabrics and found some that would work.  I like the pattern of the outside border.  It would add so much interest on someone's wall. I always pick patterned fabric on my quilts.  Plain fabric is ho hum, even if it is colored. 

This is going to be a couple of multimedia pictures. There will be poppies painted on them with some dimensional elements added.  They are on 10 X 10, artist wrapped canvas with the sides painted ready to be hung on the wall.  More patterns with the paper. 

My Mom's sewing machine.  She bought it maybe a year before she passed away.  I have had to learn to use it because my inexpensive little J.C. Penney machine became problematic.  My Mom passed away in 1997 but I couldn't make myself open it up.  She sewed all the time and was very tickled with this machine.  It made me sad thinking about using it.  I have since gotten over this and am enjoying her machine slowly figuring out what is what.  

I dropped my Nikon camera a few weeks ago and the lens jammed.  I made do with my phone but I love my DSLR camera.  The new lens came yesterday and I am glad to have the camera working again. 

Fingers crossed that everything keeps working now.

Till next time....