Magic in the Air, and Bit of a Scattered Post....

Remember the movie Chocolat, where the clever north wind blows magic into the little French village?

We awoke this morning to just such a wind - dark, bluish-grey clouds moving very quickly, interspersed with sunlight, and the loudest wooooosh through the trees.....

Merlin and Arthur were behaving the way cats do when something is afoot - running from window to window, wide eyed, and a little agitated.

Taking it as a sign, I descended the stairs, put the Chocolat soundtrack in the CD player, lit some candles, filled the tea kettle and set right to work sketching a new piece with a gypsy theme. More on that later...

First I have to show you yesterday's project - a wine bottle holder and two hand painted glasses. I've listed it on eBay with an offer to personalize the glasses. How fun would this set be for an October wedding or anniversary!?

The wine shown here (not included) is a bottle of "Witch's Brew" a wonderful collector turned me onto last year when we were up in Michigan for the Ghoultide Gathering. I loved the bottle so much I had to grab a case on the way out of town, hehe....A wine connoisseur I'm definitely not, my method for choosing wine entirely based on the cool label and limited budget factors. ;)

Moving right along, the Fairy Tale Princess chest is listed again, with the reserve dropped to $300. A commission on this chest would run almost three times that, but I'm trying to think about the economy, and do need to sell it. I'm also offering personalization on this one, at the base of the chest. Soooooooo, if you know any real life fairy princesses...

Let's see....what else? Oh! My workspace is completely organized now! Thanks to Courtney, who was home for a weekend visit, and decided to brave years worth of accumulated art supplies (some purchased twice because I'd lost the first ones!), scraps of paper, paint, old hardware, glitter, wood, gourds, glue, material, ribbon, wire, varnish, brushes, canvas....well, you get the idea. I knew it was bad last summer when a friend visited and declared "It looks like Michaels threw up in here!". I knew she was right, but lacked the time to actually DO anything about it. Enter my darling daughter, who has amazing organizational skills (no CLUE where she gets that from) and presto-chango - CLEAN workspace!

YAY for great kids.

That's about it for today....I'm off to pour another cup of tea and work on that gypsy piece now - which I hope to share later. In the meantime, have a magical, creative day, all!

♥ Carolee

Commission Fun!

I just have to share the most recent commission - soooooooo much fun to paint this one.

Meet Sir Winston Churchill.....


Winston is the resident shop cat at East Chatham Wines and Spirits, in East Chatham, New York, and a very handsome fellow indeed.

Here he is again in one of the photos I used for reference - perched atop some wine boxes, the better to survey his kingdom....


Isn't he sweet? And doesn't this look like a FUN shop?! I wish I were closer...but then, I could do some serious damage to the bank account in a place like this (LOVE my red wine!)

East Chatham is a bit outside Albany, very near the NY/Mass state line (I looked it up), so if anyone is in the area, do drop in. There's no website yet, but you can email the proprietors for info and directions at ecws@taconic.net. :)

That's about it for tonight....I'm off now to sculpt a moon face, then to the Land of Nod.....

Sweet Dreams!
♥ Carolee
PS - If you'd like your own furbaby painted, just shoot me an email, and I can give you an estimate and time frame. :)