Sneak Preview Sunday

A few days ago, I mentioned that I would be relaunching Miss Millificent's World at Etsy. This decision came from two different places: the first, because I just have to have something creative to do. There is only so much cleaning, so much puttering you can do when your kids are older, so much playing with the animal menagerie before you start to lose your mind. The second came from something I discussed here on this blog back in January: that my art just does better 'in person'. I said that in the 'real world', I'd be concentrating on more gallery pieces, so that's what I'm going to do with my mixed media artwork.

But like I said, I need to do something- create something. So, a few days ago I cleaned up my studio, took a good look around, did a little meditating (seriously), and started playing with some things that I already had (because when you're nearly flat broke, you make do with what you have), and discovered that I really, seriously enjoyed it. It also gave me the chance to use skills I already have (and tools) without killing my hands. That's Hint #1 for you.

Here is a sneak preview of one of the things that will be in my Etsy shop: an unfinished piece:


Forgive the ridges (Hint #2).

Today and tomorrow, I will be finishing things and taking artful pictures; I'll also be redesigning the banner and avatar, redoing my Entrecard and PW boxes, and getting ready to do some hella advertising. When Miss Millificent's World reopens at Etsy, I will be also having a giveaway here at the blog for two of the new pieces. It'll run for one week, and you'll have up to three chances to win!

The shop will be different; these new projects and some photography (a mix of light and dark, if you will), and for the first time in a long time, I'm excited about my shop. So, wish me luck, and stop back again in a few days for the relaunch!

Look Up!

I apologize yet again for another lousy cell phone picture, but hey, you make do with what you have. The gallery crawl was Saturday evening, and we were strolling along, going from one gallery to the next on the street, and happened to glance up at Studio 83, where my art is hanging (til the end of July! Get over there!). And lo and behold, my art is staring back at me! That's my wall there on the right. Very cool to see it visible from the street.

Even better was to go upstairs and find that one of my pieces had sold the day before. No surprise that it was a recreation of "The Raven and Lenore". Goodness gracious, can't you people get enough of that picture?? ;)

Now I have a free day to myself, as my husband and younger daughter are off to pick up my older daughter from O'Hare Airport (yay, she's finally coming home!! :D). I plan to do a little puttering around Hobby Lobby and a few antique stores, looking for cheapie deals. Stay tuned to the blog for upcoming details in the next week or so on the relaunching of an entirely new and revamped Miss Millificent's World.

July 17th Etsybloggers Blog Carnival: Hot Diggety Dog

One of the questions for the July 17th Etsybloggers Blog Carnival is: "July is National Hot Dog month! write about anything related to hot dogs."

I have a love/hate relationship with hot dogs. I can eat them at home, no problem (my only wish is that they sold Fenway Franks down South). However, most times, whenever I've tried to eat them outside the house, I get extremely nauseated by the second or third bite and can't finish. Although I am allergic to pork and can't tolerate whey, I'm sure this reaction is purely psychological. And strangely enough, corn dogs don't pose the same problem.

Anyway, there are apparently quite a few good hot dog joints in my hometown of Huntington, West Virginia (including the only place I've been able to finish a hot dog, Stewart's). One is so good and unique that it's been featured on "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives", although it was around for quite awhile before that show visited it. My mom took me to both locations three years ago so I could take pictures. It's called "Hillbilly Hot Dogs", and one of the locations is right in Huntington, near Marshall University (go Thundering Herd!).

The other location is in Lesage, West Virginia, a few miles out of Huntington. This one has a bus you can eat in. Yes, a bus. See it back there?

One of the things that definitely sets it apart are the hillbilly paraphernalia that decorates both locations. Toilets, outhouses, plastic chickens... hillbilly goodness galore. Below is one of my favorite signs at the Huntington location:

The menu's pretty outrageous, too, and of course, features a ton of different hot dogs. From "Stacey's Flu Shot" (a hot dog loaded with jalapenos and chili sauce) to the $14.99 "Home Wrecker" (a three-and-a-half pound loaded dog), they seem to think if you can cook it, you can stick it on a hot dog (or a bun). They even have one with eggs on it, which... erk.

Another cool thing about the Lesage location is that you can graffiti the place. There isn't much free room left, but if you can squeeze something in, have at it! The tables, walls, even the ceilings are decorated by hundreds of fans' hands and markers. Here is a charming duo surrounded by graffiti.

So, if you're ever in Huntington, WV, and are hankering for a hot dog, stop by Hillbilly Hot Dogs. You can even sit in the special bathtub stall to eat!

(and even after all that promo-ing, I'm sorry to say that I was unable to take more than two bites of my regular old hot dog. My younger daughter was happy enough to finish it for me. From now on, I go for the fries, etc., and the ambience!)

Wanna Be on TV?

Have you seen this? Bravo casts for an untitled art show.

Magical Elves (Peabody Award-winning Project Runway, Emmy Award-winning Top Chef) and Sarah Jessica Parker (Golden Globe- and Emmy Award-winner) and her production company, Pretty Matches, are teaming up for an hour-long creative competition series among aspiring contemporary artists who will create and compete to conquer the art world!

I'm not going to the casting call-- for one, I live too far away from any of the cities (closest would be Chicago), and secondly, I don't consider myself a contemporary artist, although technically I suppose I am-- I am alive (snerk). I've been in enough contemporary galleries to know.

I wonder how the judging will go in these, especially as they're looking to show a diverse group of mediums: "painting, sculpture, installation, video, photography, mixed-media". I mean, it's possible that an installation piece could stand out head and shoulders above the rest during a particular challenge, but are you really going to have three judges that are well-versed in all techniques? It seems a little too scattered than say "Project Runway," where it's "Sew this", or "Top Chef", where it's "Cook this."

I predict there will be a lot of "I attended this school", and some sniffing while debating what's art and what's not during the talking heads, but I think I'll still check it out to see who ends up "conquering the art world". What do you think? Are you going to watch it?

Odd Chick Out t-shirt from Zazzle.com

Hmm... I guess I'll find out how this looks after I publish it! Here is my latest t-shirt offering in my Miss Millificent's World Zazzle shop: "Odd Chick Out". You can also find the design on buttons, keychains, mugs, magnets, and a mousepad. Just check the "Miscellaneous Artwork" section!

Odd Chick Out t-shirt from Zazzle.com

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Featured Etsyblogger for June: LazyTCrochet!

June's Featured Etsyblogger is LazyTCrochet! She's got some terrific knits and crochets in her shop, ranging from scarfs to jewelry, but I'm going to focus on hats here. Ah, hats. Wish I could wear 'em without getting hat-head. And what's the deal with that? Can we have someone out there invent some hats that don't wreck our coiffs?

Moving on to some gorgeous stuff...

Yart Sale Mocha Cloche with Fabric Flower: $18. This chocolate color is beautiful and the flower quite fanciful. You can find it in the sale section of her shop!


Green Apple Cloche: $18. I'm a big green "fan", so this one caught my attention right off the bat. I also love the black ribbon accent.

Yellow Sunshine Flowered Beanie: $16. I can see this going perfectly with my younger daughter's red hair.

Check out more of LazyTCrochet's creations at the link above! And if you're hankering for more bloggy goodness, here's the link to her blog:

LazyTCrochet at Blogger

I am SO Happy!

To be honest, I'm rarely completely, 100% satisfied with almost anything artsy that I do. That I'm so happy with this series of tomato art (with the exception of Baby Beefsteak Messiah's afro) is a shocker.

For the last two days, I've been working on my final piece, which is still untitled, but inspired and patterned by/after "The Birth of Venus". I am in love with this piece. I think I did such a friggin' great job. Mr. Calm said if I wasnt selling it, he would put it in his office. I would toot my horn more, but I'm strangely physically exhausted from all the work. Here 'tis:

24"x30", mixed media on canvas. The tomatoes are once again tiny beads, and the hair is obviously ribbon (red with a pattern of tiny white flowers... like she has flowers in her hair). I used a ton of glue, a lot of hot glue, and a load of diamond glaze to hold it all together. And the background is spray-painted for that fantastic mottled cloud look. The only problem that arose while making it was realizing after I'd glued the woman and tomato vine down was that I'd forgotten to spray it all with fixative. So, there's a ton of fixative mixed in there, too.

Gah, to be an artist without having to rely on chemicals would make this place a hell of a lot greener.

I'm taking the weekend off to recover, then moving on to the next project. The fabulous Carla of Wednesday Wandered gave me the idea for it-- I owe her a ton of thanks for a great idea! So, check out her shop! Wednesday Wandered at Etsy

Humpty Tomato, Part Deux

Humpty Tomato is finished! Whew. He's glued on there with liquid concrete (or something like that... I stood in Walmart for quite awhile, agonizing over glues), and I'm giving him a couple more days flat on his back to cure, but I'm done fiddling with him. After prying the armature out of the marblex, I got to work with polymer clay. By the way, it took two whole episodes of Star Trek: TNG ("Best of Both Worlds", part one and two) to mold.

He's on a 12"x12" wood panel. I found the wonderful cutout sheet at Hobby Lobby. His "guts" are multi-colored seeds beads. Thank God all those seed beads are finally going to use.

Now I'm going to work on my third and final piece... which might be completely different than my original idea. Stay tuned!

Demons on Display

I entered four pictures in the Paducah Photo '09 Competition, and I found out yesterday that one has been accepted for the exhibit! I definitely think "Demons" is one of my best portraits, but at the same time, we all chuckle at it around here because of the way it turned out (we didn't expect the makeup to make her look so... er, downtrodden is a polite way to put it).

You'll be able to find a matted and framed copy of "Demons" on display along with roughly 75 other photographs at the Yeiser Art Center in Paducah, KY, from July 17 through August 29, 2009. We're planning on going to the opening reception on July 18, although YD has declined my invitation to come and stand next to her picture so people can look at her and say, "Oh, you look so much healthier now!"

Stay tuned tomorrow for the premiere of Humpty Tomato!

Recipe Sunday

My favorite cookies in the entire world are ones that I can't readily get ahold of. One are little packaged butter cookies from France. I forget the brand, but I recognize the skinny box. My mother-in-law sent them in a package after one of her trips home, and I started asking for them every time (but she hasn't been home in two years now... *pout*).

The other ones are from Harrod's: White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Shortbread Cookies. Actually, they're probably called "biscuits", but, same thing. A tin of these was in one of my MIL's packages. Now, I don't particularly care for shortbread. I don't like macadamia nuts. And white chocolate tastes weird to me. But put them all together, and it's a little heaven on earth. I can't believe those cookies tasted so good.

For Father's Day, I decided to make these, since my husband actually does like all three of those things. I've never made shortbread before. It's been too long since I've had the Harrod's cookies, but I do think they taste pretty damn good.

"White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies"

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup white chocolate chips
2 ounces crushed macadamia nuts

1. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.
2. Stir in vanilla, then add flour in two batches and mix well.
3. Add white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts and mix until incorporated.
4. Bake at 350 degrees until *just* golden brown.***

***Here's the tricky part. The simple shortbread recipe I used called for using a cookie press. My cookie press is up in the attic somewhere, and since it was about 95 degrees yesterday, and the attic is not insulated, there wasn't any way in hell I was gonna go searching for it (and it wouldn't have worked with these anyway). I tried rolling them in a tube of wax paper and chilling them, but these cookies, with the chips and nuts, are too crumbly to cut well.

I recommend making cookies of about one-and-a-half inches across, and about 1/4-inch thick, and baking around 17-18 minutes. The cookies should be crisp throughout-- if you're unsure, cut one in half after it comes out of the oven and make sure that no part of it looks "cakey".***

Enjoy, and Happy Father's Day!

Tomato Art in Progress

I've been working on my tomato art over the past few days. Here's the progress so far:

I finished "Beefsteak Messiah". I'm sort of 'meh' on it right now, but true to form, I'll probably like it better once I put it aside for awhile. I do like how I used the seed beads for the halos. However, I think the baby tomato Jesus looks like he has a red afro. Your opinions?


Here is "Humpty Tomato" in progress. Slow going, since I'm using clay that air dries. I think he looks hilarious right now. This will be my most difficult project, since 1: I can't paint, and he might look like more of a disaster than just falling off a wall; and 2: I still have to figure out how to stick him to the wood panel.

And... I just looked to my right, where he's drying, and saw that he's cracked at all his joints. Dammit. Might have to go to polymer clay with this one, which sucks a big one.

June 19th Etsybloggers Blog Carnival

One of the questions for the June 19th Etsybloggers Blog Carnival is: "Summer's here. Tell us about summer in your neighborhood. Do you have permanent sunshine and palm trees or do you cherish every little ray of sunshine?? What is your favorite part of summer?? Do you barbecue?? Do you wear dresses and sandals?? Are you out of school already??" I'm gonna break this down with my answers.

1. Summer's here. Tell us about summer in your neighborhood. Frankly, I have no idea. I just moved here in December. But so far, it's pretty quiet. In the evenings, I see kids further up the street and at the end of our (dead-end) side of the street playing in their yards and basketball on the sides of the road. There's a fair amount of those portable basketball hoops around here.

2. Do you have permanent sunshine and palm trees or do you cherish every little ray of sunshine?? No permanent sunshine so far, as we've had a lot of rain, but I'm glad about that-- more rain means better crops. No palm trees, either, but I don't care about those. Growing up in Florida, I always thought palm trees and palmetto bushes were fugly.

3. What is your favorite part of summer? The few days I chose to go to the wave pool. Hate to break it, but I'm SO not a fan of summer. I love spring and fall, and winter when it snows. I don't deal well with heat at ALL. Summer can take a hike.

4. Do you barbecue? Mr. Calm barbecues. I offer encouragement and set up condiments from within the air-conditioned house.

5. Do you wear dresses and sandals? Occasionally, but I'm generally a shorts and flip-flops kind of gal. I throw a shirt in there, too, just so I don't get arrested for indecent exposure.

6. Are you out of school already? Yes, I've been out for twenty-one years now. Oh, maybe you mean my kids? OD's done being a college freshman, and since YD is homeschooled, the last day of school won't come til she's done with all the books.

So, now you know that I'm not a big fan of summer. Give me fresh leaves and buds, or undulating shades of gold and cooler temps over withering heat and humidity any day.

Off to Japan!

Not me, ha, my OD, until July 13. Her first trip was for her high school graduation last year; this year, she's paid for it all herself. Right now, she and her father are driving to Chicago to catch a plane, and in two days, she'll be in Tokyo.

I'm not too worried. I'm mostly worried about the two trains she has to catch from the airport to the guest house she's staying in-- I can just imagine missing trains and the like. But I'm sure in reality she'll make it just fine.

Mostly I'm glad she likes to travel, that she's able to. What a glorious thing-- to be young, free from most responsibilites, to globe-trot.

Here are a few pix from her last trip. I don't remember what this thing is-- weirdly cute. Reminds me of a mudpuppy.


With her friend E. OD is staying with her again this time, for the last half of her trip.

Cute blue Snoopy-lookalike!

Has it Been 40 Years Already?

Mmm, whippy roses...


So, I did not make Mr. Calm the cake I had planned. He sort of insisted that I rest my hands, and the fondant I have is shot (read: too old to play with anymore... we don't eat it, but I save it to make stuff), so that cake went out the window. Still, I felt bad, because I felt I should have a hand in making his cake. I ended up going back to my store and getting the last cake left that I decorated. So, I didn't bake it, but I did decorate it. Close enough, eh?

I didn't write on it, though. Since he says it's a little depressing to turn forty, I had the woman from the bakery (not the cake decorator... she was nowhere to be found) write, "It's not the end of the world. Happy 40th, John". She added in the "B-day", which I didn't want, but, oh well.



Mmmm, chocolate whippy!

And from a birthday past...

Love the hat!

We're going to dig into it this morning, since everyone's always too full after birthday dinners to really enjoy the cake. I can't wait to see the look on his face when he tries to blow out the trick candles...

Kreativ Blogger

I got the Kreativ Blogger award again, this time from the lovely Splendid Little Stars. Thank you! Now, I'm going to rack (wrack?) my brain to come up with 8 (possibly) interesting things about myself that I may not have mentioned here before.

1. I was a church deacon for two years in my late twenties. Yah, me, right? ;) My shining standout moment? Starting off the first service of the season by being unable to light the chalice. Believe me, when you stand in front of a packed, silent congregation for over a minute, fooling with a damn lighter that refuses to light, you lose any stage fright you may have had.

2. I'm unable to whistle properly. I have no idea why. I can sort of do it by sucking in wind, but it invariably leaves me light-headed.

3. I had braces as an adult. In fact, I got them off in January of 2008. I did not opt for the breaking-my-jaw-in-four-places-to-realign-my-bite surgery, however. And I did like the way the braces made my lips fuller. Woulda liked to have kept that.

4. I am not really named after the Greek goddess. My mom had heard of the name, naturally, but when this came out, she was reminded of how she liked the name. From an aeronautics site: "The Athena was designed to simulate the re-entry environment of an intercontinental ballistic missile and was one of the few examples of sustained interstate missile tests within the United States."

Fun, huh? Thanks, Mom!

5. Connected to that, I have a name that is apparently unpronouncable (sp?) and unspellable to many. I've been called Arf, Alf, Aretha, Anthena, Thee, and my personal favorite spelling, Anthanana. Oh, and then there's always Aphrodite.

6. I am allergic to cats. That does not stop me from having them. Kitties rock! I've built up a tolerance to my own cats, but I can't really touch others without washing my hands immediately afterward.

7. I get my drawing ability from my uncle. Out of everyone I've met and seen, I still consider him the most talented person I've ever known. He draws, he writes, he is a fantastic photographer, and he's a highly regarded magician (he's published three books). When I grow up, I want to be just like him. Except that I can't do magic to save my life. Here's his site: More Magic Than You Can Shake a Stick At...

8. My favorite food to make is soup. It's serenity standing over a soup pot, inhaling the aromas, adding this and that, til it ends up a tasty mishmash of flavors.

Since I've handed this out before, this time, anyone who comments can feel free to take the award for themselves. Because I find you all interesting, too!

Bye Bye!

Aww, did you think I was leaving here? Nah, not yet.

Bye-bye, ridiculously-oversized colossal cupcakes! Bye-bye, picks! Bye-bye, yucky sprinkles! Although I have to admit, I did have fun making my little birthday cake cupcakes.


Bye-bye, weird holiday-themed cakes (this is a hat. Cant'cha tell?)!

Bye-bye, Sky, full-time cake decorator! I have nothing snarky to say about her. She was always nice and patient with a woman who hadn't stepped into the back of a bakery in twenty years.

Oh, yeah-- bye-bye, hair nets!

Bye-bye, bakery! What-- didn't you know your icing comes in buckets?

The irony of it all is, I'm a much more confident buttercream/whippy cake decorator now, but my kids are older and don't care if they get a fantastic cake anymore, and I don't live close enough to my neices to make cakes for them, either. So, I have mad... useless skilz. 'Cept for the fair, I suppose. ;)

Thanks for tuning in for all the cake decorating stories, folks! Back to art!

20 Years...

Today marks the day my husband and I have been together twenty years. Not married-- when we started dating. I only remember because of his birthday; that year, it fell on a Friday, and we started seeing each other on the Monday before.


Twenty-friggin'-years. Unbelievable. Doesn't seem that long...

I reminded him last night. Let's see if he remembers today, heh.

Stuff Wednesday

Barring being unable to get a transfer, I will be out of a job Friday or Saturday. Makes me a little sad, because I really like the people I work with, but I'm happy my hands will recover soon. On the plus side? I will not have to blow my nose to get rid of airbrush color (like the other day, after doing a watermelon cake, I found a lovely mix of green and red).

My husband's fortieth birthday is next week. His dream has always been to fly, so I wanted to do a cake modelled on the Fisher Price Little People of our youth. A man in a plane. Thing is, I can barely draw a plane, so I was worried about modelling one, but I found a great picture on the internet:

Hopefully, something like this will end up being the topper on his cake. I will, of course, post a picture when it's finished (if it's good. I don't want to embarass myself here!).

And... I'm going to see the Broadway musical "Wicked" on my birthday!! On September 9, my friend Carla and I will be sitting at TPAC, enjoying a great show. I can't wait!

Time for Tomah-toes

I got my annual invitation to make art for the Tomato Art Fest. I paid my entry fee, and I've finally come up with all three of my ideas. Now, to get down to actually making some art...

Here are my ideas:

1: My biggest piece will be a take-off on "The Birth of Venus", with strategically-placed tomatoes so to not offend the little ones. However, I'm having trouble coming up with a substitution for a clam shell. I was thinking 'tomato patch', but tomatoes are plants that grow straight up... but perhaps it's time for a little artistic license.

2: "...Humpty Tomato Had a Great Fall..." This will be a small sculpture affixed to a wood panel. Although it'll be hanging on a wall, it'll be presented in a way as if you're looking down, with H.T.'s head-body, and legs and arms splayed forward. There'll also be some splatter around the head-body, because, you know, he fell, and there are consequences when tomatoes have a great fall.

And if anyone knows of a good glue I should have that will hold that polymer clay sculpture to the wood, I'm all ears. Epoxy? Diamond glaze? Good ole Elmer's Glue? Hmmm?

3: The third piece will be either 11x14 or 16x20 in size, and it's my tomato baby piece. I have to have a tomato baby in every tomato art show. This one will have Mary holding her tomato baby, and they'll both have halos. I'll call it "Beefeater Messiah". Do you think people will be offended? Will someone hold a sign up outside that says, "Tomatoes are NOT the Messiah!"?


I also plan on making some tiny tomato drop earrings to sell. I made my own two years ago and always wear them to the fest; perhaps someone else would like a pair, too.

The Show

The group show at Studio 83 was last night. I ran around to a couple of galleries to see the new work before I headed upstairs to the gallery to stand near my work (I also took a few other breaks to hit the other galleries and get some air). It was a lot of fun, although sometimes I did feel strange just standing there. And it was hot. The dripping was gross. I'm so glad I wore a patterned dress so no one could see the waterfall down my back, although my pretty hairdo wilted and I'm sure my face matched a tomato at times.

I talked with a few patrons, a few of the other artists, and I heard some fun and interesting things. The most overwhelming comment about my work was, "It reminds me of Tim Burton." That's not a bad person to be compared to-- I'm well aware of it and I'll take it. One woman commented, "That's creepy.... I like it." A lot of smiles were directed at my wall. It was sort of funny to me when I would hear someone say something about my art, and I would just interject, "Thank you!" I guess it's as good a way as any to start a conversation.

I didn't sell anything, but there's the rest of the month to hopefully take care of that.

Here's the view out the window of the gallery. I love the blue of that glassware.


Here is one of the views from where I stood. Hello, random man in pink shirt! I'm takin' your picture!

And this is my wall again.

Now, a question: does anyone know of a good brand of pocket camera? I'm tired of taking my bulky camera places, and my cell phone just doesn't cut it. Ideally, it'd have to be anti-shake, and reasonably priced. Any pointers in the right direction would be great.

Have a good Sunday!