Christmas Greetings

I want to wish all my customers and my artist buddies a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I hope and pray that next year we will all see great improvement in our lives and our country. We all need to be Americans and not separated by silly parties or by the color of our skin or religion. Lets all stick together. What a great country this is and what sacrifice people have made to make it great and sacrificed to come here. I am so proud to be an American (naturalized) I was born in England and have very fond memories growing up there but this is now my home and I am so happy to be here. It makes me so sad to see people divided by politics because we should all want the same thing, freedom from government in our lives and freedom to practice our religion and the pursuit of happiness. God bless our soldiers overseas and at home. God bless the poor and helpless. May God bless this country and help it get back on track.
Join me in this prayer.
Kaz

Art Dolls

I sat up until 1 am this morning working on my stuff. I get in these manic artistic moods and all I can think about is making things. Some of my best work comes out of these sessions so I go with the flow. I feel like a mad scientist in my laboratory. I try all kinds of things, use things in a way they were not meant to be used. Sometimes I have what I like to call happy accidents. Something goes terribly wrong and Presto! I discover a new technique. That's what happened last night to my Santa that I am working on. My workroom looks like a tornado went through it so its time to do some clean up this morning and start the whole process again.

SOLD

Folk Art Santa Ornament

He looks better with some paint on. Can't decide what to make his hat out of yet but he is coming along.

My folk art Santa Ornament just going into the oven to bake. Don't know how I am going to finish him yet but I am thinking of flocking his beard. He will be going on eBay next week.

$49.oo plus $12 shipping

SOLD

Pug Christmas Card

I felt like drawing today but as I am looking after my grand kids that are 4,3 and terrible two I didn't know if I should chance it. As some artists know you have to go with the feeling because you know there's something trying to get out. Anyway I did this cute pug today. I took a great chance as my little Shay (Shayzilla as we call her) is inclined to make soup (as she calls it) with almost anything. She made "soup" with a full bottle of shampoo, toothpaste and toilet paper in my toilet. She was so proud of her soup she looked on with pride, as I stood there in shock. She did this all in the blink of an eye. She moves around the house like greased lightening without making a sound, truly and incredible child. What will she be able to do when she is four or eight? Yikes!! I will be older too. I won't stand a chance.

Looks like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth

Old Fashioned Santa

For Sale On eBay

SOLD

Primitive Folk Art Christmas Angel Ornament

SOLD

Christmas Blog

I am going to change my blog appearance to Christmas soon and because I mess up often, I could be down for a day or two but I"ll be back . I really need to finish some of my projects and get them listed. I am helping my husband to build an outhouse for our guests to use as a changing room and restroom by the pool for next summer, so I have been up to my ears in mud and wood. By the end of the day I am so tired and sore, all I can do is crawl to the spa and sit and soak. I am working on the sweetest angel at the moment and some Santa ornaments. I am hoping to get some work done this Sunday and all next week so keep checking back.

Folk Art Snowman

Working On Christmas Dolls

Well I am almost done with my first of the seasons Christmas doll. I had an idea for a doll but the doll sort of changed during the process. That sometimes happens. I just like to go with the flow. I get my best results that way. Maybe my next doll will be the one I have in my head. I have to do one more Halloween item and that is my grand sons Batman cape, he is coming to Nana's for a fitting tomorrow. I love to sew for my grand babies. It took me a while to get out of the Halloween mode but its beginning to feel a lot like Christmas. I have some ornaments in the works right now as well that I will be adding to my Etsy and some on eBay. I would like to thank the people that have sent me wonderful comments about my work. It means a lot to me. It feels really good to know that people out there get what I am doing and like what I do. So thank you all I really appreciate it.

Painting my kitchen black

This is the beginning of a several week project

I love this artists work her name is Tracy Flickinger. This is the journey of my ugly duckling kitchen becoming a beautiful swan of a kitchen. I had to change it but didn't have gazillions of dollars to spend on it, so as they say "necessity is the mother of invention". I did it myself. And all because of the color black and this apron.

I have a tiny kitchen that had horrible orangey stained cabinets. I wanted to do something out of the ordinary and decided that black was the color. I was very nervous about and wanted to search the web to look at some kitchens with black cabinets before taking the plunge. I couldn't find any. I found dark brown but no black so what to do, just do it that's what its only paint after all. Anyway I had my husband apply bead board to the inset parts of the doors on the bottom and around the breakfast bar and set about turning my kitchen black and we added crown molding to the top of the cabinets to give them a custom look, turned out great. I was going for a Tuscany, victoriany oldy worldy sort of feel. Something that looked like it had been there for a long time. I sanded and primed them first and set about painting them. I loved it but it was very dark and I wanted to add some sparkle to it to brighten it up so I came up with tin back splash and ceiling. YES! that is just what I was looking for. But wait it needs some more bling. I had this apron that was hanging in my kitchen with waiters on it by artist Tracy Flickinger and I thought they are just the thing to finish off my tiny kitchen. I had six long cabinets and there where six waiters. I made sure that waiters all were the same size including what they were holding so even the little fat guy was as tall as the big guy if you take in to account the serving dish he was holding. I drew them freehand on to the cupboard doors then painted them, it was so much fun to see them come together one by one.I had to do some additional artwork for the four little cupboards. As I live in wine country I decided to add some old wine bottles and a basket of bread, garlic and grapes, yummy. I wanted to add some architectural features to the underside of the breakfast bar but after checking them out at the local hardware store I couldn't believe the price of them, they were $50 each. I searched for alternatives and found two very inexpensive shelves with grapes on them but they were a yucky grey color so of course I painted them black. I added a silver polish to the edges of the cabinets to make them look as if the were worn by time and added it to the little shelves as well. I also decided to do something with the builders yucky orange peel plaster finish on the walls and ceiling. I plastered the walls and ceiling in drywall mud and painted them. I am so happy with my little kitchen and hope this helps all of you out there looking for a black kitchen like I was. Be brave it is so worth it.

Newest Halloween Folk Art Doll

SWEET AND SOUR

Well she is finely finished. Miss Candy turned out very sweet I think. She has very dreamy eyes and a sweet smile. I thought since she is so sweet I should add a bit of sour so I made a sour puss to go with her. She loves him all the same, its just in her nature. His name is Mr. Meaner a troublesome feline with a habit of biting and scratching, hence the name. I painted him in a vintage Halloween style and gave him a fish bone to finish off his ruffled collar. I am very pleased with the end results. Now on to Christmas.

SOLD

One more Halloween doll

I am working on one more Halloween doll and then I am moving on to Christmas. I really enjoy working with all the colors of Fall and its hard to put them aside. I have to switch gears inside my head. I will be doing a lot of Santas in the next few months and a few snowmen but I have some creepy ideas as well that I have to bring out. I will post my doll when she is finished on my blog.

Halloween Baby Shoes

These baby shoes are genuine vintage Jumping Jacks that I purchased from an antique store. They have the name George written on the bottom of one shoe. I wonder who that little boy was and how his life turned out. They have been hand painted in an original design on the outside and painted orange on the inside then sealed several times to protect them. They will make a very sweet table decoration or could be used on a teddy bear or doll or even worn by a child if the child is not walking yet as they could get scuffed.

Picnic Teddy

AHA task for July

We were given the task to take pictures of our garden for the month of July.

So I did

OK so I don't get any points for color but I did choose the plants and I did plant them

Still no color

nope

Aha (excuse the pun)

back to green

This is color

Wow!! At last some color, and I got artistic

It just happens to be my favorite color

Thank you for taking my mini,minor color garden tour

Morbid Marvin

There is something wrong with Marvin. He looks charming in his suave attire but do not be fooled by that and his warm smile.. He has been out trick-or-treating and his bag is full of candy, (which he is happy about) but there’s a more sinister reason for that smile. Look beneath his feet and see what his favorite hobby is. He is a bone collector and he has some treasured finds in his little box.

This is a wonderful character made from paper clay and wire armatures. His legs are wood. He is hand painted in acrylics then sealed several times. The bow tie is made from fabric, hand stitched. I gave him a vivid green shirt that is full of eyes with various expressions His little treat bag is hand made from orange scrapbook paper which I stamped inside and out then aged. Inside his bag you will find sweets hand made from various colored Play- doh that are individually wrapped in iridescent paper. They are very tiny but look like real sweets. I added a picket fence to the box he is standing on then painted it black and added Halloween art on the sides and front. The box has a little draw that opens to reveal bones that I sculpted from oven baked clay that has been aged to look like real old bones. A lot of detail went into this piece and it took quite a while to make. The photos don't do this one justice, it is a stunning piece.The whole piece stands 14 inches high and about 5 inches wide.


This is a one of a kind, Kaz Original signed and dated

Sold