Found It: Tack Boxes

I found some cool old tack and nail boxes (tacks included!) and wanted to share.  I can't decide if I'm going to sell them or not, but I might have something brewing with all these little bits of hardware and nails I've found...because a person can't have too many outlets for the stuff swirling in her head.



The whole collection.

These are maroon for your maroon-colored projects!

Nail on the side conveniently tells you exactly what to expect when you open the box.



I love this one...nice graphics.

This one screams mid-century to me.  Take that, Helvetica!

For what, exactly, did they need to be sterilized?
What where they tacking here?

Thanks for looking!

I also recently uploaded a ton of Mother Goose colored book plates from a first edition (1916) book I found--beautiful illustrations by Blanche Fisher Wright--in the Etsy shop.  Frame 'em up and decorate!

Feline Friday #1: Clover

So...it's no secret I'm a cat lover and come from a long line of cat lovers.  Growing up in the country, you get used to having a sweet little whiskered friend DUMPED by a MONSTER, walking up the driveway and asking ever so politely for some food.  Would you deny this precious little life food?

Also, I hear The Internetz likes cats and thought I'd go ahead and add to it, because if you can fall in love with a cat, maybe someday when you're ready you can adopt a cat who needs a home.  You have the power to save a life!

Anyway, to kick off my first ever Feline Friday (no promises this happens regularly, but I'll try), I'm going to highlight my own beloved studio assistant Clover.

I met her as a baby kitten at a wedding at a farm.  Later that weekend I also met her brother-from-another-mother Zevon at a different farm down the road, and I was in kitten heaven.

I brought them home on Halloween, 2003, and the cuteness overfloweth.

SQUEEEEE!!!  She hung out in my bag sometimes.  So tiny her eyes hadn't
turned from blue to greeny-gold yet.

Melting from cuteness overload, Dec. '03.

As she got older I realized I had a super fluffy Maine Coon on my hands (or farmy hybrid).  She's a smaller sized Maine Coon, actually, weighing in at 13 pounds.  (Don't tell her I told you.)

She's pushing 10 years old now, and some of her orange highlights have begun to fade, but none of her spunk or LOUD-ASS MEOWING WHEN I'M TRYING TO SLEEP IN.  That's okay...usually.

Clover's been an exemplary feline specimen, with only one expensive vet appointment where a few teeth had to be extracted, including one of her top fangs, which gives her a kind of Elvis lip sometimes from the resulting under bite.

Working hard in the studio, 2013.

Being extra catty in my clean laundry pile.

Caught in mid-roll.

With her bro, our dearly departed Zevon, soaking in the sun on a winter day.
See her funny under bite thing?

She's my sweet baby; a great jumper, cuddler, and purrer.  Also loves the eating.  Dislikes include thunderstorms, being hungry, and waiting to eat. 

Most mornings when I get up and do computer work in the studio she's right there on my lap, pulling whatever's closest off my desk and on to the floor, because that's what cats do.

Oh...hello.

I'd like to extend an invitation to anyone who has a cat in their lives that they'd like to share with the world.  Guest blogging!  I am shamelessly using this to market myself, but I also am a sucker for cute, cuddly, furry things and love to hear about how their love abounds and makes lives better.

Do you have a cat (or other animal) you love to talk about?  Email me at signs444 -at- hotmail.com to get the ball rolling.  Come one, come all!

UNPlaza Art Fair

I'll be at the UNPlaza Art Fair this weekend...it started as an alternative, rival show to the hoity-toity* Plaza Art Fair on the Country Club Plaza in KC.  Now, after so many years, I'd say it's a companion show where more local, smaller-scale artists show their work.  Plus, 25% of all sales go to PeaceWorksKC, a non-proliferation charity.

So, with all my shows right now, my studio is in particularly brilliant form:


YES, I WORK HERE.

I'd love to see any and all of my dozen readers at the show!  Take an afternoon, go the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, walk the grounds of the Kansas City Art Institute, and buy some art for yourself or your loves.  It's going to be a beautiful weekend!

*I do not think it's hoity-toity, and many of my dear friends are artists in this show.  Check it out!  Support us all!

Made It: Fall Clocks Preview

I have several shows coming up so I've been trying to pad my inventory early.  Scrambling last-minute is a real drag!  Here's what you can see in my booth (I will have all the info at the bottom) or on Etsy, eventually (if I don't sell out, which would be SO GREAT). 

I've been making frameables as well, but I'm just sharing clocks today.  Also, I don't have pictures of those other things and don't really have time to take more, so...there.

8 x 8  White with brown orzos



5 x 5 Ochre with neutral giraffe scene



5 x 5 Black with blue dino

8 x 8 Silver with rainbow numbers

9 x 12 Turquoise with red-orange giraffe



8 x 8 Brushed aluminum with hot colors orzo burst




9 x 12 Yellow with grey bikes and black stars



12 x 12 Brushed aluminum with ombre orzo burst



12 x 12 Grey with silver orzo creepers



UPCOMING SHOWS

Zona Rosa Arts Festival
Friday, Sept. 13  5-9pm
Saturday, Sept. 14  10am-9pm
Sunday, Sept. 15  Noon-6pm

Northern Kansas City, MO

UNPlaza Art Fair
Saturday, Sept. 21  10-6pm
Sunday, Sept. 22  Noon-5pm

25% of all sales go to Peace Works, a non-proliferation charity
See more on Facebook

Midtown Kansas City, MO, across from the Kemper Museum of Art

Maple Leaf Festival
Saturday, Oct. 21  9-6pm
Sunday, Oct. 22  9-5pm

Downtown Baldwin, Kansas

Handmade Holidays
Saturday, Nov. 9  9-4pm

Ottawa, Kansas
1230 S Ash

Bizarre Bazaar
Friday, Nov. 29  5-9pm
Saturday, Nov. 30  10-5pm

Lawrence Art Center, 940 New Hampshire Street
Lawrence, Kansas





Trunk Show!

There's an annual show here in KC called Art Westport, and it's going on this weekend.  Me?  I'm not in it, but I AM going to set up for a one day quickie sale outside my favorite store in town: mash handmade.  It's just down (up?  north, anyway) the street from the big festivities going on in Westport, about a block, in a very convenient spot with free parking and several mega cute shops.  (Boomerang and Colfax, for example.) 

I'll be showing some Halloweeny stuff:

Long-burning candles to spook up your house or patio.

4 x 5 vinyl on paper 

New clocks:

8 x 8 White clock with Orzos

9 x 12 Silver clock with purple elephant

9 x 12 Turquoise clock with giraffe

9 x 12 Yellow clock with stars and bikes

And new Kansas/Missouri/KC themed stickers and frameables:


Vinyl on paper; 4 x 5 inches.

Put it on your bike!  Your car!  Your notebooks!  Your face!

Come by 39th and Pennsylvania this Saturday!  Tell your friends!  Get a jump on holiday shopping.  Make my day.

When you stop by, regardless of purchase, you will get a coupon from me for future use while ordering through Eighty Acres Art's Etsy page!