Joyce Shelton's Blog

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!

Summer "summery" wrap-up!

My husband is away for a total of four weeks.  A long time for us and I miss him terribly.  But we are happily SKYPING so I get to see his smiling face with my morning coffee!  Ain't technology grand?!

He spent two weeks in CA, teaching Sacramento Jazz Band camp, and went straight from there to Scotland where he is performing at the Fringe Festival in the historic city of Edinburgh for a total of two more weeks.  Very exciting!  He's hoping to be invited back next year so he can take me!

In the meantime, I am happy to be home, and anxious to nest.  I have lots of projects, even REAL work to do.  I never get bored while he's gone, I just tear up the house, spreading piles of creativity everywhere.  So...I decide to clean my studio - never an easy task but it's particularly bad at this point. So, I say to myself, "Self, why don't you clean out that closet under the stairs?  Reorganize.. make room for the excess stuff piling up in the studio."  Good idea?... not so much.  

Long story short, my neighbor had a shower pan leak a month or two ago.  When he realized it, he stopped using it and began the remodeling process.  In the meantime, the leak had caused my living room walls to become wet and consequently moldy.  Big mess.  Our Association is responsible for the walls between our units, so I'm in the middle of that red tape process as they file a claim and schedule the entire length of my wall to be treated, removed and replaced four feet up.  No inconvenience there!  Guess it's a good thing I decided to clean.  Who knows how long that might have continued to go on.  Just when I thought I was done with construction on this place.  ::sigh::

The good news is, I was so disgusted by the bad news and the mess that was stored in that closet - now occupying space all over my living-room, that I decided to get outside and into my courtyard.  So much rain had made my weeds very green and tall and extremely healthy.  I should have taken a "before" photo, but here it is now.  Of course I just about killed myself in the beastly heat and humidity of central Florida, but I'm so glad it's done. 

Diane and BJ even created awards for me!  I can't show Diane's on my blog because of the AOL format she created it with, but thanks buddy! :~)) It was adorable!  Flashing lights and all!

Here's BJ's... I'm seriously thinking about making a little sign out of this and hanging it on my gate!

 

 

 

Welcome!  Sit a spell on my new red chairs!

Still "Summerizing"

The lovely Pocono Mountains, summer home of my in-laws.... not so lovely this summer.  Rainy and cold for the most part, but Mom and Debbie and I managed to enjoy our time together.  When we get together for this yearly event we eat, take naps, drink wine, eat some more... and on it goes.  One of my favorite things to do up there is go to the Skytop Lodge.  It is the most magnificent old hotel  with spectacular panoramic views from the top of the mountain. It's right up the road from their house.  We like to take our glass of wine out to the big back porch and sit on a rocker facing the beautiful gardens and grounds. There's always a flurry of activity and it's just great people watching fun.

The vast lobby just smells old... and rich!

 

When was the last time you crammed three people into one of these photo booths?! 

"Summerizing" Summer

Where in the world has June, July and most of August gone?  I can hardly believe I have not posted in...like... FOREVER!  Ever have a period of time in your life where you are just waaaayyy too busy? You know, the merry-go-round that just won't stop long enough for you to get off?  

Well, just so I can get a grip on why I'm not getting a grip on anything... here goes.  I don't think I can do it all in one post... certainly  I can't breeze over this first event!

Sometime in June... I begin to help my niece, Kellye plan a wedding in a little over 6 weeks.  No, she's not prego... fiance, Matt got a job offer he couldn't refuse back at college USC, Columbia, where both my talented neices are finishing their degrees in Music.  Matt can get his masters while there, so they decide to push their wedding up a whole year...did I mention we planned this wedding IN SIX WEEKS?!  ... to be held at MY HOUSE?!

A breakfast menu was decided and the theme was set based on fabrics Kellye loved from Jane Sassman's Prarie Gothic collection.   Here's the invitation I made for them.

She ordered yardage and table runners were made, ties were made for the men, luggage tags for favors... just an unbelievable amount of creativity abounded from my two girls.  I was so proud of them!

July 14th... my sister-in-law, Karyn texts me - she's sending the girls up to finish wedding stuff with out her!  Furthermore... the totally re-made dress came in and the bride still hates it and is miserable in general, but Mom needs a break, so she's coming up with my brother two days later!... I tell her if I didn't love her so much, I'd have to KILL her, but well... okay.  Somewhere after that exchange, she had a change of heart and decided to come up with them after all.  I was ever so grateful as I now had an illustration job to complete during this busy week of what was sure to be wedding chaos at my house.

By Wednesday, we were in full swing, last minute craft mode finishing up the decorations.  Always ready to be crafty and helpful, Linda joined the family and a great many large colorful pom-poms were made along with three beautiful roses that looked ever so FABULOUS on the food table.

What's this I see?  A smile on the face of the stressed-out bride?  Could it be bridezilla has been exorcised?  (just kidding, Kel!)

Could there possibly be a better way to show off these beautiful creations than surrounding Uncle Eddie with them?

I happened to capture this sweet moment while the bride and groom are planting flowers for the table top decorations.  Okay, so he was probably threatened with his life if he didn't help do this.... but after all, it's your wedding too, Matt.

Every table was different.  The clubouse was magically transformed as I have never seen it before and the breakfast was incredible thanks to our friend and caterer extraordinaire, Al Romelli.  A grits bar with all the fixin's!... pancakes, fresh fruit, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage... it was so incredibly fabulous!

Good friends Terry Myers on Sax and the magic fingers (and toes) of Jeff Phillips added class to the event with Eddie on the drums between bites.

My brother Joe, about to give his lovely daughter away... or better yet, gain his son, Matt.

We missed PJ and Leann, who could not make it, but here is most of our family.  Love those glasses on the Shelton boys!

...And it all came off with a hitch!

Okay, we all just wanted to lie around in a pile on the Sunday after the wedding and do absolutely nothing, but I had an illustration job to finish and the Natella's had to pack.  How was all this wedding stuff, that came up in two cars, going to go back to Ft. Lauderdale in one car? (now that the bride and groom had the other car) - and - how were 5 adults going to fit in that packed SUV?  It was quite comical watching them haul it all out to the middle of the street and cram it in tightly.

True confession.:  As I waved goodbye to my brother and his family, I found myself laughing out loud. The vision of Randy Quaid finally pulling away with the packed R.V., kids and dog in "Christmas Vacation" popped into my mind!  I still laugh at just the thought of it!  Guess you had to be there.  Love you all... It was fun and exciting, but all good things must come to an end so they say.  Seeya...bye!