Joyce Shelton's Blog

And the winner is.....

My unbiased winner-picker, Heidi draws the winning name!

CONGRATULATIONS...

... SHARON, from TX!!

Please email your address to me and your mug will be on it's way to you.  :~)

Thank you all, so much for participating.  It was fun... I think I'll do it again!

  

Holiday Blog Hop

Welcome to day four of the Holiday Blog Hop!

MY TURN!

I'm honored to be among the talented artists who are participating.  Thank you Terri, for organizing us!

Here is the lineup once again: 

Terri Conrad Designs                 November 14th
Brenda Pinnick                           November 15th
Tori Higa                                   November 16th
Me                                             November 17th
Phyllis Dobbs                             November 18th           
Cherish Flieder                          November 19th
Joy Hall                                     November 20th
Barbara Johansen Newman        November 21st
Sharyn Sowell                           November 22nd

I'm not much of a paper crafter so I really had to step outside of my comfort zone to come up with  something crafty to share.  Here goes.... I love beads and I love to set a fun table so I have combined the two and made these simple wine charms from 6 of my small rectangular designs in the downloadable pdf below.  I simply cut around the shapes with my exacto knife and glued them to a rectangle cut from heavy green card stock.  I punched a hole in the top, finished it off with my grommet tool and attached a wire s-hook that I made out of inexpensive silver wire.  I then played around with a longer strip of wire, adding beads and charms and wrapped it around the stem of the wine glass.  Easy enough! (Please... replace my silver and red balls with real wine!)

 

Here's the PDF for you to download and print.  I used a good quality presentation paper or you could use photo paper so the colors come out accurate and bright.  Have fun, but please - this is for personal use only.  I ask that you respect my copyright and do not use my art for any commercial purpose with out my permission. 

Download Wine Charms

For the next part of the blog hop (the most difficult) I'm asked to answer a few questions, so here goes:

Five things we might not know about you that you'd like to share

1. I sometimes have a difficult time focusing and completing a project.
2. I could easily eat some kind of pasta dish every night for dinner and I'm not talking that yukky whole wheat stuff-give me the trashy white kind, please!
3. If you want directions to somewhere, just ask me, then go the opposite way.
4. I am a loyal friend. If you tell me something in confidence it goes no further.
5. I am useless without my morning coffee...in my favorite red cup.  Ahhh... nectar of the Gods!

Five things going on in your creative world

1. New collections always in the works for Giftcraft.
2. A fabric collection for Henry Glass that was just picked up by Hancock's.
3. I enjoy working with free-form crochet and recently I'm learning a new technique.
4. Beads, beads and more beads!  Working on jewelry designs to sell on my website.
5. Continuous experimentation with new painting and illustration styles.  I am easily bored and must play with a variety of mediums and styles - or die!

Five things that really inspire you

1. The smell of an art supply store.  I just love walking in and breathing it all in.
2. Color!!!!  Without a doubt it's the one word that describes my motivation to create.
3. The impressionist painters.  All of them!
4. Jazz... really good straight ahead jazz like the kind my husband plays.  The real deal.  No smooth jazz... definitely NO Kenny G! 
5. Other artist friends are always an inspiration.  Nothing like getting a bunch of us together for a brainstorming and art supply swapping session! (or BLOG HOP!)

So there you have it.  Leave me a (nice) comment and you will be registered to win one of my Christmas travel mugs.  Winner announced on the 24th.  Remember to visit each of the other artists, comment on their blogs, and post our invitation with our links on your blog if you have one.

Have a wonderful day and thanks for stopping by!

Blog Hop

What is a blog hop, you ask? (curiously, so did I)  In a nutshell, here's how it works:

Each of the talented artists below, licenses her art for a variety of different products.  There will be some fun projects, crafts, maybe a free pattern or "how to", and some give-aways on each blog for the next 9 days.  All you have to do is visit each blog and leave a comment.  That's it... then you're in for the  goodies!

This is a first for me.  I'm hangin' out on a limb... a fish out of water... jumpin' off the high dive... still wondering what "exciting" project and give-away I will come up with... yikes!  Anyway, the fun starts tomorrow with Terri Conrad so please join in and spread the word.  If you have a blog, you can even lift the "Blog Hop with the Artists" invitation and post it on your blog - the more who post, play & win, the merrier!  Remember, just leave a comment letting us know you visited and then on November 24th each of us will randomly select a winner from those comments for our give-aways!

1.   Terri Conrad  http://www.terriconraddesigns.typepad.com/ (nov 14)

2.   Brenda Pinnick   http://www.brendapinnick.com/blog/ (nov 15)

3.   Tori Higa   http://www.torihiga.blogspot.com/ (nov 16)

4.   ME   http://www.joyceshelton.typepad.com/ (nov 17)

5.   Phyllis Dobbs  http://phyllisdobbs.info/ (nov 18)

6.   Cherish Fielder  http://somethingtocherish.com/archivepage (nov 19)

7.   Joy Hall   http://joyhall.typepad.com/ (nov 20)

8.   Barbara Johansen Newman 

      http://johansennewman.typepad.com/designrocket/ (nov 21)

9. Sharyn Sowell  http://www.sharynsowellartblog.blogspot.com/ (nov 22)

Off to the drawing board to come up with something wonderful.  :~) 

Have a great weekend!

One Liners

Otherwise known as contour line drawings! 

I've been cleaning and sorting in the studio, among a zillion other projects strewn about my house.  For some reason, I am having a focusing problem lately.  I'm here...no, wait... I'm there.  Don't want to do anything I'm supposed to be doing.  Real work? What's that?   Maybe it's the change in the weather.  Ha... What change? 

Anyway, while browsing through my sketchbook, which rarely has anything worth sharing, I was reminded about contour drawing and just how much fun it is.  The thing I like best about it, is that the end result is just so original.  There's no other way to come up with a lighthearted sketch.  If you follow a photograph, it comes out stiff and distorted, but if you just sit with pen on paper, looking up ever so infrequently at a live subject, and let the line flow, the results are sometimes worth keeping and developing further.  Here are a couple of examples.

This was a little coffee shop in Mt. Dora where my friend, Christy and I were enjoying a cup of coffee and dessert together.  This is the type of little vignette that gets me inspired to pull out the pen and paper.  Even the watercolors now and then.

On a recent visit to Jo-Nanny's up in the Poconos, I was inspired to do a quick one of Leann, who was busy sketching.  I'm so proud of her for making this part of her everyday life as an art student.  Love her monkey slippers!  This one actually even looks like her.  Amazing!

Then there's this!  LOL!

She turned and began to sketch me sketching her.  She looks like some strange little munchkin here!  Thank heavens this looks NOTHING like her!  But I really like it.  It's quirky...with a sort of whimsical feel to it.  Again, you could never get this from a photo reference.

So next time you have 5 minutes, Give it a try.  Put your pen to the paper and try not to lift it or even look at it much.  It's fun and you might be surprised to see what you get.

 

THE apple pie!

It's beginning to look like fall in Florida.  Finally!  Subtle changes in light and temperature, mostly for those of us who have lived here long enough to notice, but welcomed changes, none-the-less.

For some reason, I'll blame it on fall, I have been craving apple pie!  It started when I ran into this little fellow in a kitchen shop near Mom's house up in the Poconos.  I had seen him before, in magazines, adorning the tops of pies, whistling the steam right out of them.  I just had to have him!  One for me, and one for Diane.

Then, we had dinner at a friend's on our way to my high school reunion in NJ.  One of my best school chums, John and his wife, Lynn were kind enough to invite us to dinner on our way over from the Poconos.  And there it was... as if she knew, Lynn made a fabulous apple pie for dessert!  It was a lovely evening and a great kick-off for reunion weekend.  It was such a treat to see what they had done to their home, an old 1800's schoolhouse.

John and Lynn, Richter in their really cool schoolhouse living room.

But, I digress.  Back to the apple pie!

As soon as we got home and unpacked, I began my search for the perfect apple pie recipe.  Being a visual person, you can imagine my excitement when I came across this fabulous step by step recipe, complete with pictures of how it should look each step of the way!  Thank you, Elizabeth McWhorter, for sharing your "World's best Apple Pie" recipe.

Here she is...right before I put her top crust on.  Too pretty not to photograph!

 

I even made my crust from scratch, again, thanks to Elizabeth's recipe.  As anyone in my family will attest to, it's all about the crust for me anyway.  If they don't eat that last saved bite fast enough, I WILL grab it - right off their plates!  My Grandma would be so proud! 

 

All of this yumminess did not come without a price, however. 

 

 

But really, is this not the prettiest sight to see coming out of this mess?

No, wait a minute... THIS is!  No words necessary.  Diane's expression of pure joy and pleasure says it all!

Tea Party Sighting!

My 15 minutes of fame... finally!  Last Sunday, my friend Nada called all atwitter.  She had been flipping around the channels and lo and behold, she caught a glimpse of something familiar on HGTV.  While chatting with the realtor, at her kitchen table this lady on the show was drinking from one of my Tea Party Mugs!  I immediately tuned in and there it was! This may seem like no big deal to most of you, but for a designer of product who sits inside like a hermit most of the time... alone with her cat... well, it was just fun to see someone actually using my art!  I'm pretty sure it was this one.

I do remember another time when I got a similar phone call from my friend, Moni, who had seen two of my prints hanging on a dining room wall on an Oprah show.  It still makes me chuckle - I knew, at long last, I had made it!  The show was all about inexpensive decorating! 

For anyone who's interested, I thought it might be a good time to share a little bit of the product design process.  I am amused at the reaction from people when I explain to them what I do.  They always seem amazed, and admit never having given much thought to the actual process involved. Here goes... from my drawing board to your kitchen table....

After the concept is decided, I sketch out the product shapes for the entire collection.

In this case, I was re-designing Tea Party for Giftcraft, which is my favorite and most popular line.

We wanted to keep it in the same color family for collectors of original Tea Party, so with the already established palette in mind, I went to work developing some new patterns to add to the mix.

I work closely with the VP of product development so once we agree on these, I hand paint each and every piece in the collection so there will be no question at the factory as to where I want what print to be placed.  Many weeks of countless hours.  Who ever says working for yourself is easy has not done it!  I go into what Eddie calls "Hermit mode".  Sometimes it's days of never leaving the house.  Thankfully he feeds and waters me!

Once this leaves my studio, it all goes to Giftcraft and they prepare it for the next step.  As is the case with most of my designs for them, Tea Party will be hand painted at the factory so it's important that my patterns look the way I want them to look and I try really hard to keep this in mind and not make them too complicated so they end up looking like my hand in the end. 

So far I've been very happy with the end result.  What do you think?

This one is my favorite guy in the whole collection! 

I plan to offer a few of items for sale on my website, coming soon. 

Oh No... MOLD!

Following a long travel day from our Alaskan cruise, happy to be home, here's what we walked into late that night.  Oh yeah... quick slap in the face!  No more maids, fancy meals, gorgeous scenery...reality immediately sets in!

It just never ends around here.  We live in a townhome that we have been remodeling for over 6 years.  Three years ago we gutted our kitchen, down to the studs, replaced the downstairs powder room, re-plumbed the entire place and are now grateful to be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. We still need baseboard and trim to finish a year-long major remodeling project in our master bedroom/bathroom and next we'll be ready to begin the last blood-sucking renovation - the second upstairs bathroom.  Everything else is pretty much just how we want it and then....this! 

It all began on a sunny, Friday afternoon back in July, when I got the notion to clean out the closet under the stairs which we use for office supplies and a variety of well - for lack of a better description - crap.  While emptying the closet, I discover MOLD behind the shelves!!!!  We have no plumbing on this wall, so I quickly deduce it  must be coming from next door.  Brilliant, I know.  Long story short, our neighbor, Jim had a shower pan leak which turned out to be the source of the problem.  So, after a month of red tape, we finally got the mold remediation company out here while we were away to remove the infected walls and test the area in both of our units.

Up until last Thursday, our living room and Jim's bedroom have been separated only by a sheet of plastic!  "Goodnight, Jim-boy!"  Luckily we are good friends so it was actually quite humorous. He had to empty his bedroom so his bed is temporarily in his living room behind a closed door, but we have been able keep our sense of humor about us and have made the best of it, carrying on daily conversations as if we are in the same room together... well, actually we are!  In fact, one day last week while I was working at the computer in the middle of my living room, the plumbers were working over there in Jim's bathroom.  I had the pleasure of being exposed to their lively conversation including their opinions on Obama's health care plan, as well as other noises involving bodily functions immediately followed by hysterical laughter.  I grew up with a brother, raised two boys and now live with Eddie, so I am all too familiar with this routine - seemingly a language or code of some sort understood universally by ALL guys!  Although I don't really get why this is so funny, I know that somehow, it is.  Suffice it to say, my unavoidable eves-dropping did provide a day of unusual entertainment.

Here's a small sampling of my daily view - there are three other rooms that resemble this mess...and there seems to be no end in sight as now we have to have our pristine white ceiling sanded and repainted thanks to the mold guys who taped their plastic to it and removed large chunks along with the tape.  Looks like this will be a familiar sight for a few more weeks at best.

It's hard to live in chaos with your stuff scattered everywhere.  I long for peace, quiet and most of all some semblance of order.

Progress is being made, however.  Last week we got a real wall.  By now, we  have become personal friends with our favorite dry-wall guy, Steve Bell and his Mom, helper-extraordinaire, Cathy.

Hopefully things will return to normal soon.  For now, we will have to say good night to Jim via phone or front door!  "Good night, Jim!"

The Last Frontier

ALASKA! 

In spite of our sadness at learning of Dad's passing, we boarded the ship, surrounded by friends and fans of both Ed Metz, Sr. and  Ed Metz, Jr , who shared our pain.  We had our moments of tears and pangs of guilt, wishing we were with the rest of the family, but knowing Dad would have wanted Eddie to honor his contract, we made the best of this wonderful trip.  Here are a few highlights from the Jazzdagen/Arbors 2009 Alaskan cruise aboard the beautiful Regent Seven Seas Mariner.  We started in Anchorage, then went on to Seward, Sitka, Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan, and ended in Vancouver, Canada.  A bittersweet trip we shall never forget.

In keeping with tradition, here is our "Here we are" photo taken from the top deck of the ship.  It was cold but a pleasant reprieve from the Florida heat.  We were blessed with sunny weather for the most part.  The scenery is beyond breathtaking.  We felt so small.

Good friend's Susan and Bill Allred and the Hubbard Glacier.

Looks like painted scenery, doesn't it? 

The amazing view from our cabin balcony.

Well this doesn't suck... having your coffee here every morning.  

Of course, there was work to do...

okay, Eddie Metz, do you really call this work?

Sharing a coke with best buddy Tom Hook... Hey didn't you old guys used to drink something else?

This is a typical view of a port on an Alaskan cruise.  Much to my amazement, Susan actually spotted my "Tea Party" collection in a gift shop here in this quaint little town of Skagway! 

We were on a whale watching excursion, so I missed the sighting,  but got to see lots of whales and other wildlife from the surrounding wilderness. 

Okay, it was a little on the freezing cold side out there on the water, but so worth it to see these amazing animals jump out of the water right before our eyes!  For a while we kept alongside a mom and her baby.  Her tail might not appear to be that large in this photo, but comparability speaking, these humpback whales are the size of a greyhound bus!  So glad Eddie caught this shot of her tail right after she crested.

Speaking of wildlife....

This happy group whom we refer to as the "Wolf Pack", bought out the ship's inventory on these exotic jackets.  Mat and Rachel Domber, Pug and Bob Wilber - aren't they stylin'?

By the end of the cruise, they even got Eddie in one.  Personally, I think they are ladies jackets, but my manly man looks very G.Qish... don't you think?

In Ketchikan we took a beautiful ride on the White Pass & Yukon Railroad.  The scenery was breathtaking... again, we are reminded just how small we are.

We tell ourselves DAILY, how fortunate we are.  To share such a great life together.  To go through the good times and tough times hand in hand...all the while enjoying careers we love. How did that happen?  Life is good and we are blessed.

"What A Wonderful World"... oh yeah.

P.S.  While we did get a glimpse of the governor's mansion in Juneau, even with binoculars, somehow we just weren't able to see Russia. (?)


Mold update tomorrow :~)

Our Dad, Ed Metz, Sr.

Where oh where have I been?!  What a month.  I really wish I would just stay up with this a little better.  It's so much work to catch up. Unfortunately the biggest news is the saddest.  Our Dad, Ed Metz, Sr. passed away on September 1st. 

Eddie and I were on our way to an Alaskan cruise and when we landed in Seattle, the first leg of our trip, we got the bad news. After talking with his Mom and brothers we made the agonizing decision to continue on to Anchorage and fulfill Eddie's contract with the people who had hired him for this special jazz cruise.  It was a bitter-sweet trip to be sure, as we wanted to be with the family, but many people had booked the cruise to see these select musicians and he had already been paid so we feel we  made the right decision to stay. 

Dad was a part time musician himself, and we all knew that would be what he would want Eddie to do. It was tough, but we made the best of it. Fortunately, Eddie had spent the entire week previous to our trip with his parents so there was peace in his heart and he was grateful that he had the opportunity to spend that quality time with Dad and was able to be there for Mom as she struggled with the daily hospital routine.  Having suffered long enough we are sad for us but grateful he is finally at peace.

We will miss you, Dad.  Your laughter, your kindness, your generosity, your music and yes, even your lectures!

To learn more about Ed. Metz, Sr. and his wonderful music, visit the Bob Crosby Bobcats website.

We will be going to New Jersey on Sept. 30th to be with the family and bury him in Bath, PA.  We'll spend the week helping Mom with whatever she needs, then head down the highway the following weekend to attend my high school reunion in Whippany, NJ.  The last minute crash diet has now begun!  And what to wear?  Something comfortable and HOT, of course ... not asking for too much there!

Alaska post coming tomorrow!

Two Big Family Events!

Congratulations to our lovely daughter-in-law for graduating with her horticulture degree!!  Yay, Michelle!  We're so proud of you and Jeff too (he worked extra hard so she could go to school)!  We love you both so much!

Also, this same month, PJ has now earned his Masters degree and is ready to teach English Literature to high school kids who will be lucky enough to have him for a teacher!  Congratulations!  We're so proud and we love you so much, Peej!

Eddie and I are so blessed with 5 wonderful children!