pure & true

pure & true: original mixed media on canvas board 12x16 (sold)
prints available in my shop (soooooon).

I'm just over here staying super-duper busy! 

Just wanted to say hello.

& happy spring!

calendars for sale

Hello friends,

I made myself and a few family members calendars last year and I loved mine so much that I just ordered new ones for 2011.  I know, I'm running a little late; there are only 25 days until the new year!  But I thought I'd print a few extra just in case any of you would like to order one.

The wall calendars are professionally printed with a spiral binding.  They are nice and simple and pretty.  I decided to make two versions this year.

Calendar 2011


click here if you want to see the images individually.


Calendar 2011::The Foodie Edition



Click here if you would like to see these images individually.

They are for sale at my etsy shop...there aren't very many, so grab one fast!

Love,
Britt

wish*full artisan trunk show

Freedom, original acrylic on canvas, 6x6

Hello, dears.  There is a virtual art retreat going on right now, did you know that?  Mindy from the Wish Studio is putting on quite an event.  The online classes have been wonderful so far. 



Tonight at 6pm EST is the opening of the wish*ful artisan trunk show and there are some great things to be had. I am delighted to be involved! This painting will be for sale there, so pop on over if you're interested.

Have a happy weekend.
xo
Britt

sharing

Last year when I was unpacking my stuff at Squam, my cabin mate, Liz, after chatting for a bit, smiled at me and said something like, "Brittany, I'm Liz Kalloch.  I'm the one who worked with you on the gallery showing at Artstream."

Ah.  My kind of girl.  I hugged her and thanked her for clueing me in on what I should have already known.  



She's such a patient and kind and easy going and artistic gal.  She guided me through the process of my first time submitting work to a gallery and made me feel so welcome and comfortable.  Well this year she's heading up the second Squam Art Show (button on my sidebar) and asked me to share a bit about my experience last year.  So if you want to hear me brag, go over and check it out!  And for all you Squammies who attended last year, I urge you to submit some of your work. 

Presenting: Compliment No. 3

I was in the hospital with a brand spanking new baby girl plopped right onto my chest and all the feelings of motherhood and humanity were spilling out uncontrollably and messy-like. One of my first compliments to my child was, “You are such a pretty girl.” I have said it a million times since then. (I do have four girls, you know.) It’s a compliment that I never tire of saying. It’s a compliment I never tire of hearing. It doesn’t matter how old I get, or what mood I’m in, it can always make me feel a little better. Let’s spread the goodness, what’d ya say?

Here is my third daughter.



How can I resist? What a pretty girl.



Okay, now I’m going to go eat her up.

tut, tut. looks like rain.

The other night while I was folding laundry, Jake was sitting on the couch with the oldest three surrounding him. They were still and quiet for once and the only peeps I heard were little fits of giggles. He had his secret weapon out: the iphone.

Have you ever seen anything like it? It is a serious tool.

Got loud children? There’s an app for that.

Then everyone starts wondering things out loud:

Is that a platypus?

What’s he doing?

He doesn’t have wings.

Then the wind came through carrying a cloud of “ooooooh”s and “that’s so cuuuuuute”s. A virtual storm of agreement that this was adorable.

“Play it again for mommy.”

So I squeeze into the fray (the screen isn’t that big, you know.) and they play it again for me. And as this little animated animal on the tiny screen feels joy, the lightning crashes and drops start to fall next to me in my own family room.



In other words, my daughter (10.5 years old) felt the joy right along with that little creature and she says, “Oh, he’s just so cuuuute! Oh, my eyes are getting wet…But it’s just so cuuuuute…I don’t know why my eyes are watering!” I tell her it’s because it made her cry and while everyone else is on to the next “best of youtube” she’s sitting there laughing and crying uncontrollably. Jake and I look at each other with that knowing look: and thus it begins. He says to the smaller children (who are now staring at thier big sister), "This is what happens when your big sister starts to become a young lady." And then she laughed and cried some more.

Here's the video if you want to watch it:



In other news, my awesome cousin Mikael started the coolest blog: Starter Home to Dream Home and I have been over there checking out all her creative projects going on in her home. And today she wrote a post about me and made me sound like a super hero. (If anyone saw me now, they’d know I’m just a sick little puppy in a messy house who has lost her voice.) You should go check out her cool projects.

My little friend Lucky Candice has posted our weekly pix at a Hop and a Skip. We’ve been doing TtV every other week. I’m going to be doing a tutorial on how to do TtV soon. It’s so much fun, you’ll want to try it out.

let's celebrate.

I’m 34 today! So in celebration, I decided to have a little sale over at the shop.
All aprons are $34.00 in honor of my birthday
and there will be free shipping on all items until Christmas.
(Because I’m tired of paying for shipping and I figured you were too.)

And now for a give-way...

I want to give someone a 4 oz. bottle of my handmade lotion.

To enter, just tell me something that you're thankful for in 3 words or less in the comments. I'll pick the big winnah on Saturday. (enter from now until Friday 11/20, midnight)

xox
Britt

Presenting: Affirmation No. 37

Life is such an interesting dichotomy of joy and pain. I find myself on top of the world and overwhelmed in gratitude and then stifling the hot tears of anger and frustration all within the same day. (Okay, sometimes the same ten minutes.) Maybe I’m weird. Maybe I’m so normal it’s ridiculous.

I’m a firm believer that I have a choice to react in love. If I make a conscious effort, I can bite my tongue even if I have the perfect retort; I can walk away even if I have the energy to fight; I can give my child a hug even if it seems like they don’t deserve it; I can let it roll off my back even if it was obviously offensive; I can forgive even if they haven’t changed their ways.

I wish I was perfect at it! But I am getting better and that’s what matters, right? Right?? Well, sometimes when I am on the verge of reacting with a human tendency instead of love (that’s right, love is better than being merely human, it is transcendent.), I say this to myself: I am a lover, not a fighter. Because fighting never got me any closer to who I want to be. Fighting never solved one single problem in my life. That’s right. I’m a lover.



Presenting: Affirmation No. 37 will be available at my shop soon. (would you rather have a print, a card, or a post card to choose from?)

friday feet

punky brewster's got nothin on my girl. (she's wearing a bright pink tunic with sequins on top.)


bouncin high


ridin the polly 'cycle


downin the cream o' wheat

my feet are running fast. gonna teach a lotion making class tonight. I'll probably have some available in my shop by monday along with a bunch of origional artwork.

happy friday!!

grateful friday & stuff

At least once a day every day this week I have been getting that feeling.

The one that feels like:

How did I get so lucky? I love my life!

Look at this place I call home.

See this family.

Feel this joy.

Blessed.

I am so unbelievably blessed.

So after spending time with a bunch of creative types last week and seeing how artists dress themselves, I came home to realize that I have another artist living here. Every morning as we've waited for the bus this week I kept thinking, she’s an artist! Look how she’s dressed! I took the liberty of taking a snapshot the last couple days:

She says she doesn't want to be and artist. I’m not saying that her version of “artist” is the same version I have in my head - she's her own kind of creative being. I think some day she'll realize that she can't help it, it's part of her: the need to create something.

I’ve been getting a lot of fan mail lately:

It’s kind of nice. It helps balance out the “you’re the worst mommy!”s and the “You’re the meanest mommy!”s. Life isn’t perfect, but I’ll take the happy and remember it;

focus on it.

I found clay board. I had never even heard of the stuff before, then I took a class with Mary Beth Shaw and I am now on a mission to stock up my art supplies with clay board. It was so fun to work with!! I suggest you give it a try. Here are a couple pieces from my class:

There is an interview with yours truly up at Art Espirit. Two of my paintings are for sale at the artstream gallery—you can check them out online by clicking here.

picture taken by my awesome sister-in-law

{Happy Birthday today, Dad-o! I love you.}

an invitation

In a little town called Rochester, there is a show where two paintings hang with my name at the bottom. I wrote it down just over a year ago on my mondo beyondo list, (I was feeling too vulnerable to post my list on line, but it sits in my journal in a drawer on my bedside table.) “become a true artist (paintings in galleries).”

Hopefully this is the beginning of a long and happy career that helps my life feel balanced and joyful.

Come join me for the opening:
Friday, September 11
5-7pm
artstream LLC
56 North Main Street
Rochester, NH 03867
http://www.artstreamstudios.com

affirmations

"take to the sky" origional mixed media on canvas, prints available at my shop

You know how when you watch your children sleep there is this love that reaches such a depth that it just might be enough to kill you? Well, I was watching my little winter birds and making all sorts of plans for their future. You know, like trying to will myself to be the perfect mother for them, sending affirmations their way. Hoping that 20 years from now they will be asleep some morning and when they wake up and stretch out the bodies that I created with my own, they will be perfectly content because they were loved enough. Loved in a way that they know their potential. Loved enough that they know their dreams are something real and tangible. Loved so that they know their beauty is inside and out. Loved so much that they have the ability to love enough to accept and forgive and say they are sorry. Loved completely.

So that’s what this painting is all about. The words say “your potential is unlimited, little ones” and the leaves hold affirmations that I would want for them. Things like: love, dream, choose, forgive, believe, soar, seek, hope…

There are prints of some of my recent paintings available at my shop now. Thanks for the love—sometimes it is hard to put it all out there. xx

sickies and stuff

I have little sickie people around me. It’s hard to be the mom of sickies. I find my blood pressure rising and having to take deep breaths. But this little family of mine gives me such a deep sense of joy and peace.

We just had family in town (kiss, kiss—we miss you already.) and my sweet daughter turned 10. (TEN!) It was a great week (although exhausting and emotional) and now I’m starting lots more projects around the house. The kids’ rooms need painting and organizing. I ‘m going to add another crib in the nursery (I’m hoping that will help with nap time) and make more fun stuff for that happy little room.

The babies are getting a schedule and sleeping more and better. Somehow the tiredness isn’t getting any better, though. They have started solid food and it cracks us all up to watch them eat. They are beginning to laugh and they keep us all entertained. The whole family gathers around them when they are awake to see what cuteness we can gather for the day.

I have committed to go to Squam Art Workshops this fall and can hardly wait! But I need to find a way to pay for it!! So if anyone needs any custom orders, now’s a good time:) I’ll be listing new items in my shop this week, so keep an eye out for gifts for friends and family. I have had several requests for prints of my paintings. (You guys are awesome!) That’s one of my biggest dreams—to paint and paint and paint {and sell my work!} So I’m trying to figure out the process of making prints and as soon as I have some, I’ll post them in my shop.

Happy Monday, people!

last minute mother's day

there's still time, friends. I send the aprons priority mail, so they will still make it in time for mom:)

giveaway!

Hello friends,

Just thought I'd send you over to twilightMOMS because they're doing a giveaway with one of my aprons! Go check it out--Georgia is having a birthday and is also giving away a beautiful photo of the forest outside of Forks, WA. Fun stuff!

Good luck!

B.

anyone want a button?

To display this image copy and paste the following code into your site:

<a href="http://cottageroaddesigns.com"><img style="border:none;" alt="Cottage Road Designs" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2416/2999698304_43fef8c342_o.jpg" /></a><br /><br />




To display this image copy and paste the following code into your site:

<a href="http://cottageroaddesigns.com"><img style="border:none;" alt="Cottage Road Designs" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2416/2999698304_43fef8c342_o.jpg" /></a><br /><br />




To display this image copy and paste the following code into your site:

<a href="http://cottageroaddesigns.com"><img style="border:none;" alt="Cottage Road Designs" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3645/3370225709_ff37a22086_o.jpg" /></a><br /><br />



To display this image copy and paste the following code into your site:

<a href="http://cottageroaddesigns.com"><img style="border:none;" alt="Cottage Road Designs" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3601/3371048150_2a62362ab1_o.jpg" /></a><br /><br />



To display this image copy and paste the following code into your site:

<a href="http://cottageroaddesigns.com"><img style="border:none;" alt="Cottage Road Designs" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3615/3371048138_05bdba1951_o.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br />

Thanks for your support, friends!

xx
B

thamk you to emily for help with the buttons! so easy to work with.

happy spring!

sweet basil hostess apron

It’s officially Spring! I feel like celebrating.

Because there are some fun holidays coming and the economy is so horrid, I thought I’d put my aprons on sale! They are now $30.00 each--to purchase, go to www.cottageroaddesigns.com

*Perfect for Easter and Mother’s Day gifts*

a giveaway

The wonderful Vanessa from I Never Grew Up is hosting a giveaway featuring my aprons. Perfect timing for holiday shopping! If you’re interested in winning an apron, head over there and check it out. Then if you don’t win, come back over and buy an apron anyway:).

flower power

I am in the process of adding flowers and flower kits to my website and etsy page for purchasing, but I thought that it would be fun for you to see the process of the flower-making for those of you who would rather do it yourselves.


step #1: start with squares--the more squares, the fuller your flower will be. In this tutorial I am using 6 squares that measure 3 1/2 inches.


step #2: fold the square into quarters.


step #3: hold the folded end and cut the edge into a semi circle. It will look like an ice cream cone while it is folded.


This is what it will look like when you unfold it...


step #4: hand sew a circle in the middle of your scalloped square. I used dark thread in this example so you could see it easily. It doesn't have to be perfect.


step #5: pull your sewing tight and it will bunch up. tie a knot to secure it.


step #6: after doing this with all the pieces, sew them together by the little center bunchy parts:)


step #7: then pull it tight and it will start looking like a flower.


step #8: sew them all together and secure with a knot. You have your basic flower and you're ready to embellish it any way you choose!


step #9: sew on button details and hot glue felt and a brooch pin on the back. I used to hand sew the felt and clasp on, but recently have found that hot glue saves lots of time and energy.

*Remember, go here or here to pre-order your aprons now!