My New Home Holiday Style

I moved into Hamden in mid October and I am very happy to say that my house on Argonne Drive now has a contract and will hopefully ride on into a new happy situation. I have found this beautiful little row home on Hickory Ave. that I am renting for a nice little monthly fee. I have these gracious dreams of living this sweet little life, making my sweet little birdie bird products, living off of my makings and painting again, in another studio space one day. Yes, this is my retirement plan. On February 15, the county will mark as being employed by them for 25 years!!! AKA, I am hoping to retire in 5 more years. So the game plans is establishing my jennyjen birdie bird business and live a happy little life making people around happy when they see my fluttering, smart-alic birds. Any who, I am downsizing and learning to live as cheap as I can without sacrificing too much. And who knows, maybe this while scheme could work and I could even live a decent life doing what I want. I love teaching, but it really is beginning to wear on my creative soul.  But back to what I want to show you. I love this new sweet house My landlord has made this place a wonderful home with great aesthetic decisions and I have made a few changes in paint and added my decor and furnishing. Here is a quick peak of the living room with my fake Xmas tree! I believe you should either be real, or be really fake! I love my tree in this space. The space is small and thank god my mom has given me her organization of furniture skills so I could figure this out. 

Bazzart 2011 Best Show EVER!!!!

WOW!!! That's about the best sound I can come up with after my day hiatus from my extremely busy crafty-teaching season. I guess you've notice my lack of posts and have probably given up on me. I am trying to get my act together and welcome 2012 with more posts and more reflective time to figure out my artistic future.

 Bazzart, is held every Friday night and Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend at the American Visionary Museum and I have been so gracious to be accepted for the past four years! I get to create my own 10 foot square shop and this year IKEA really came though with beautiful birdy bird curtains that look like they came right out my own pen! in fact many customers commented on my wall curtains and thought I had to have made them. The amount of complements and purchases let me take the day off today and clean and organize my new house ( future post to come on that one, I promise!)/ Here are some pics f my shop! I really do think I could do this for a living!

New Potholders!!!

Check out my new jennyjen birdy bird products for this summer!!! Potholders! A great way to brighten up your kitchen as well as make you smile as you pull out that apple pie out of your oven! Double and single thicknesses. yes, I'm experimenting with price and options here....patchwork backgrounds with a felt applique birdy bird. Machine washable! Come see them at Pile of Craft tomorrow before I put them in my shop!

And so the house goes.....

My House knows I'm going
I'm out
and not in a great way
a short sale
a newer way of not just giving up
not all at once
a hint, pre-sequel of foreclosure

it knows
the roof begins to leak
the oven smokes
the washer stops circulating

the trees begin to look dead around me
the flowers come up everywhere but in their allotted spaces

it is cleaned up and clutter free
we pretend we are a show house
maybe even featured in a magazine
that is what I tell it
as well as the cats

we wait for our audience
but no one has come yet

it is a dead market
and we have a red check by our name

but we will wait
and clean every dish
every morning
shine and polish every surface before we leave in the morning
awaiting our spotlight

Two More Wall HAngings!!

Two more....and to mark off February..I'm going to be listing these in my shop later today! So stay tuned!

Nothing like a SNow DAy in the SweatSHop

YEAh!!!! A day off to shovel some snow and get caught up on some household chores and a little work in the sweatshop. I'm really liking these wall hangings. Here is one more. Now I'm off to get myself snowed in (for round two) with my English lad and a bottle of Sofia Coppola ! Here's the latest of my wall hangings.

Water Tower Wall Hanging

Wall Hanging #2.....

Wall Hangings....what's new in the sweatshop!

I have really enjoyed this sketchbook project and getting myself to draw more. Everyday, if I can. And I have really enjoyed drawing with my sewing machine. So.....new this year...wall hangings....where I can concentrate on the drawing aspect and not have to get all stressed out over the construction of the hand bag or the pillow. My first one is here.....Crow Season.

it gets put in the mail tomorrow!

I'm done!!!1 All whatever pages of my sketchbook ...sent to Brooklyn. I'm thinking this was a great way to get my artistic guns going! So Glad I did it. Will do it again!!! Here are some more shots....from jackets, blankets and sheets!

The Sketchbook project

Some times we really need a creative push. The challenge of making new work that grows and shows progress as you create your line becomes a creative endeavor every year. As an art student, I had a love hate relationship with the assignments given to me by my various art professors. The hate occurred when I couldn't come up with a creative, enjoyable solution to the problem at hand. The love was accomplishing and completing the task as well as finding the many creative and artistic solutions. I decided I needed some sort of assignment to work on, to get my creative juices flowing. I found this incredible project called the Sketchbook Project. Created by the Art House Co-op out of Brooklyn New York. The Sketchbook project is open to anyone willing to take on the task and willing to pay a meager $20. The task is to fill up a moleskin sketchbook that follows a particular theme. The themes are all very creative. Some a bit challenging. I decided to let the computer pick my theme for me (you can pick a theme from the list, or have the computer gods select one for you). My theme is Jackets, blankets and sheets. I am down to my last week before I send it off. It then goes on a tour across the nation and gets catalogued and a permanent collection of the Brooklyn Art Library. Check out their site here for more info, other art house co-op projects as well as many of the sketchbook entries! Images are from BEST members : Tricia Lane's sketchbook Science Projects Gone Wrong , Jennifer McBrien's sketchbook: Jackets, Blankets and Sheets and Megan Van Wagoner's sketchbook : "...you'd be home by now"

Migration Installation

saw this at the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh and fell in love

Are you a fan????

Are you a fan of my jennyjen42 fan page on facebook? I started to list discount codes for 15% off on my fan page, for any product in my shop . I'll be listing new items as soon as my battery charges up on my camera. New listing as I can wing it, all week! Toaster covers and backpacks included!