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An Artist’s Afternoon
This post is sponsored by eBay.
I love reading style blogs. I love when they make collections. You’d think this is because I’m really into fashion and I want to stay up on all the latest trends but that’s not the case at all. I don’t give a flip about what they are wearing in Paris or what lipgloss has the best shine. I just like style blogs because they are visual. I love to look at pictures. I could look at pictures all day long. I’d say 80 percent of the blogs I read, I just scan photos and never read a line of text. Isn’t that weird? I guess everyone’s brain is made differently and we like what we like.
This got me thinking…maybe I should make a collection. I tried a little bit with my Paris Party Planning post but maybe I should stick to things I know. Like art supplies, perhaps? Oh yeah. You can talk about your Nars lip gloss and your booties that cost five hundred dollars and I’ll just glaze over but get me started on gel medium and glue guns, googlie eyes and glow-in-the-dark paint and I’ll talk you under the table. Or talk you into coming over to my house Friday night for crafts and drinks with the girls.
Here’s a little collection I put together on eBay called Artist Afternoon.
1. Mod Podge! If you’ve followed any of my craft posts over on Alphamom, you already know what a staple this is and you’ve already got five jars of it in your well-stocked craft cabinet in five different shades and weights. It’s not your mother’s decoupage goop, though you can certainly use it for decoupaging. It’s pretty much your average white glue that works on anything without the orange applicator cap that always gets stopped up anyway. If you don’t have a bottle of this on hand, you need one.
2. Small Watercolor Painting Tin Isn’t this cute? I’ve been thinking of making my own altoid tin version but I have to admit the tiny divider thing is a selling point for me. Especially if you use tube watercolor paint, which I don’t but I might try one of these days.
3.Gloss Gel Medium This stuff is the secret to not being a starving artist. You can add a tiny bit of paint to a big glob of gel and magically the pigment from your paint will color the entire glob without weakening the color at all. This is great when you discover that you are out of some important color and you really don’t want to run to the art store to stock up.
4. Washi Tape! There are so many uses for this stuff. Even if you aren’t the DIY type you need this around for taping small notes and wrapping packages. And also color coding your power cords.
5. Googlie eyes You already know how I feel about googlie eyes. I think everyone should have a very large collection. EBay is a great place to start.
6. Coveralls. I don’t have any but I’m thinking I need some. It could be like my super hero costume for crafting.
7. Glow in the Dark Paint! I’ve been perkolating a bunch of ideas with this stuff. I might even have to break it out for Halloween.
8. Sexy Boyfriend Jeans I live in these. Baggy, comfortable and NOT frumpy.
9. Liquitex Acrylic Paint A lot of people swear by other brands but I’m pretty loyal to Liquitex. I’ve been using them since forever.
10. Super Bonder glue gun This is not Glubert, my trusty glue gun, but if Glubert suddenly bit the dust, this is probably what I’d buy because it’s red and it’s SUPER. Super Bonder to the rescue!
If you like the above, there’s more here. I hope you enjoy my collection! Be sure to follow me on eBay to check out the rest of my shoppable collections. I’ve got a few that I think you will find very interesting…let’s just say I’m using my collections to inspire some fiction writing I might be doing. Stay tuned!
(My eBay Collections were curated as part of my collaboration with eBay #FOLLOWITFINDIT)
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Something New Under the Sun! Pumpkin Patch Post
There is something new to write about pumpkin patches! What was I thinking saying there wasn’t? I always go wrong when I start writing for my critics. When I wrote my last post I was thinking about all the people who are sick and tired of looking at pumpkin patch posts. I imagined that someone would roll their eyes and make some snide comment about how I curate my photos to make my life look rosy. Well phooey. Who cares about them, right? They don’t need to read these posts anyway. You guys want to see photos of these amazing kids that are growing up like weeds. Time is flying by. I can’t treasure it enough.
I feel like we’ll blink and they’ll be teenagers.
Bethany and her kids always drive up to our house and go to the pumpkin patch with us. It’s tradition! I love that we live within walking distance of a pumpkin patch that’s open to the public.
A funny thing about where we live is that the rest of the city looks down their noses at us. This is mostly because we are the cheapest apartment complex in the whole entire town but that is saying nothing because our rent is still pretty high. The rest of the town is just seriously over-priced. It’s an older complex from the 70’s and it’s a little out of style but I don’t care because the walls are thicker, the rooms are bigger, storage areas are bigger (have you seen my closet?) and it’s right next door to a farm!! We have the best view of a nature preserve and a farm. You can’t beat that.
Some developers recently tore down an old abandoned school on the other side of us and built MILLION DOLLAR HOMES. I’m not even exagerating. These homes do not have an ocean view. They don’t even have our farm view. They are so close to each other you could literally open your window and reach out to lend your neighbor a cup of sugar. The rooms are tiny and the walls are thin. I think anyone who pays that much for that little is getting ripped off.
I guess it’s all relative. I’m sure some people in Texas who get a whole house with a yard and a view for what I pay for one bedroom think I’m completely loony.
So here we are all at our favorite right-across-the-street pumpkin patch having so much fun. We went right when they opened (because we can!) and just beat the school field trip crowds by minutes. Sometimes this pumpkin patch gets really really crowded. But we’re locals so we’ve learned a trick or two.
We wandered around looking for the most unique pumpkins. Ones with curly stems or color variations. The farm has figured out variations are what makes pumpkins sell so they’ve cross-bred them with all kinds of gourds and squashes to get really interesting pumpkins. Lumpy pumpkins, big fat pumpkins, pink pumpkins (sadly not pictured), white pumpkins, striped pumpkins and even green pumpkins. They’ve got all sorts.
Curated or not, it was a great day. I hope we keep this tradition up until these kids are bringing their kids. Blink a few times and see if it happens.
