Finally here.

a bird made from brown wrapping paper, painted green with leftover paint from a mural project Heather and I did

Finally, here I am. I've wanted to blog, but life keeps me so busy, I can't do half of the things I need to do, let alone half the things I want to do. Same for Heather. In fact, I know she's done some great creative and artistic work for her daughter's school auction, but along with everything she juggles, she missed the opportunity to take photos of her projects.

*On that note, she and I are kind of notorious for that--not taking photos of our work, in fact, I think it's safe to say we both forgot to take photos of some of the work that is now featured at Naked City Brewery/Taphouse for our most recent show together, and we were told that several of our pieces have sold (which is good, but A. it means we may have no visual record of the work we failed to photograph, and B. there is less to choose from if you haven't already checked out our show).

Anyway, I did manage to capture a few photos of a project I completed for my day job. I work at a children's boutique/store called Kibbn. We are currently emphasising a "green for Spring" theme, featuring many of the green products we carry. Jonathan Lo of j3 productions created an awesome look to accompany our theme and can be seen on Kibbn's opening web page [www.kibbn.com]. All of the pieces below were created by me, with either upcycled or recycled materials from my studio. When I first heard about this project, I was so excited, because anyone who is familiar with my art will understand that incorporating old/used/vintage/recyclables is what I'm all about. Jonathan's ideas are so inspirational, and my boss Justin is cool enough to trust I'll make something nice that will keep to the integrity of Jonathan's designs--it makes for a nice environment of creativity.

a large store sign that hangs behind the cash wrap, made from recycled cardboard, the same green paint, and recycled newspaper from the hotel down the street--oh and Justin helped with the tracing, and dang, he has the hooked up projector that Heather and I can only dream of owning for our mural projects

potted flowers created from upcycled pots, brown wrapping paper, recycled floral foam, shredded paper, recycled plastic flower stems (that I knew would one day come in handy) wrapped in vintage paper, with grocery mailer leaves, and plastic bag pom pom flowers--and I keep noticing window shoppers slowing down to check these babies out

a butterfly created from the grocery store mailer

*on another design note, I have a new creation I'm excited to reveal soon. I'll give a hint...it has to do with undersmacks (which is my term for underwear). The prototype undersmacks are being tested in the lab called life currently, and as soon as I get the feedback, I'll give a shout.

(jen)