Four Pin Friday ~ OMG!!!

Just discovered a contemporary artist I have fallen in love with.  Where have I been!?

Here are a few of many paintings from Kelly Reemtsen.

 

She is best known for her bright and bold paintings of women carrying household tools such as chainsaws or axes. Her work often investigates the role of the modern woman, deconstructing societal perceptions of gender, power and femininity. Reemtsen's paintings are characterized by their thick impasto, stark white backgrounds and anonymous figures. Her most recent body of work explores the idea of breaking the metaphorical glass ceiling, often featuring female figures climbing on objects like chairs or ladders. 

Four Pin Friday Garden Creatures

 A few years ago I made a post about scarecrows.  People seem to have upped there game since then!  Found these beauties on Pinterest recently and thought I'd share.  Makes me wish I had a vegetable garden again to build one of these for it.  

Scarecrows have really evolved since Grandma's Day!

Four Pin Friday Hand Stitched and Vintage

 I want to know the women who preserved and lovingly stitched these small pieces of precious fabrics together.

I want to know where each little square came from.  A daughter or granddaughter's school dress?  A son or grandson's home made shirt?  PJs and nighties?  Were they too worn or outgrown clothing from their family?

1930s patchwork

Feedsack squares

Love them . . . old, hand-quilted and wrinkly!

They were made for warmth, not art, and we will not know their history because they were usually never signed.  They held no value at that time.

I have a few oldies that I hold dear and have given some away to friends and family.

Four Pin Friday Artwork I Love

 On a snowy April day, Pinterest is getting a workout on my computer!  Looking for inspiration, I found these gorgeous paintings on wood panels

They look as if they were broken off an old weathered fence.  The colors are so rich over the wood grain.

Love it ♥!

Four Pin Friday ~ Olga Boznanska Impressionest

 Polish painter Olga Boznańska (April 15, 1865 - October 26, 1940) was a notable female painter in Poland and Europe and was stylistically associated with the French impressionism. Boznańska was born in Kraków during foreign partitions of Poland. She was the daughter of a railway engineer, Adam Nowina Boznański, and Eugenia née Mondan. Boznańska learned drawing first with Józef Siedlecki and Kazimierz Pochwalski locally.

Another in the series of female artists we should know and give attention to.

Four Pin Friday ~ Happy First day of May

Do you remember the lost tradition of  May Basket Day?

 They would anonymously be hung on a neighbor's doorknob 

but nowadays they don't necessarily have to be baskets

Maybe next year, when the quarantine is over, we can bring this loving giving neighborly tradition back.

Four Pin Friday ~ miniatures

I've always been fascinated with minis whether they be quilts, tea sets, dolls, whatever.

Giving little dolls their own small quilts is a sweet combination.  I found a few special examples on Pinterest this morning and added one of my own making ~

Here is my "I Spy" quilt made a few years ago ~

Inspires me to make another one ... and maybe a doll to go with it!

Four Pin Friday ~ Just for laughs

Before Lady Ga Ga there was this

Four Pin Friday ~ Old Books

Old books have a beauty all their own whether they have leather covers, yellowed pages or those soft deckle~edged pages.

I found a few decorating ideas on Pinterest of ways to arrange them artistically to show them off at their antique best.

I Opened a Book

By Julia Donaldson

I opened a book and in I strode.

Now nobody can find me.

I’ve left my chair, my house, my road,

My town and my world behind me.

I’m wearing the cloak, I’ve slipped on the ring,

I’ve swallowed the magic potion.

I’ve fought with a dragon, dined with a king

And dived in a bottomless ocean.

I opened a book and made some friends.

I shared their tears and laughter

And followed their road with its bumps and bends

To the happily ever after.

I finished my book and out I came.

The cloak can no longer hide me.

My chair and my house are just the same,

But I have a book inside me.

Four Pin Friday Lemon Oiling

Being extra ambitious today, I decided to move some furniture around.  It's never as easy as it sounds however!

Since it has been neglected for so long, oiling the wood seemed to be in order.  I like to rub lemon oil in old wood ... soaks right in and shines it up.

We purchased this piece in the early 60's when we moved to California (pre kids). Since then it has traveled to Spokane, Newman Lake and back to Spokane with us.  

I love the turned legs and beaded border on this old oak plant stand that belonged to my Grandma Reagan.  It's one of the few items I have from her.  But the memories ~ oh the memories of that beautiful woman!

I don't remember when we purchased this walnut bench but she has several moves under her belt as well.  Love the rattan woven top and the delicate design.

and my old sewing box.  I stenciled the hinged top and it has become one of my favorite baskets.

I'm getting everything back in new and different places.  I hope they will be happy there!

Four Pin Friday ~ ~ If I had a secret garden

it would be deep in the woods

 and have a babbling brook running through it

with a seating area for reading and dreaming

shady and comfy with lanterns for when the sun goes down

 

and I would tell no one where it was.

Four Pin Friday

It's been weeks since I packed up my craft room for the big move thinking surely I will be set up in our new home soon.  Well . . . things lately never seem to go as planned.  We are still in the moving mode, and I am missing my almost daily play time!

Pinterest has been giving me itchy fingers and lots of inspiration.  Needing to pick up the brush, or papers for ATCs or start up the sewing machine.  Going through withdrawals big time!!! 

Here is something I'm going to try when I'm able:

Four Pin Friday

My next project will be jazzing up an old suitcase.

Dawn and I will be working on a small (21 inch wide) old Towncraft piece of hard side luggage.  It will be used to store dress up clothes for her niece Maddy.

Pinterest provided lots of inspiration for this endeavor that we will be working on it February 3rd . . . the next Craft Day get together here.

Can't wait to see how it turns out.  Hope it will be worthy of posting.  Stay tuned!