A Magical Garden

Hi friends! How’s life? I hope all is well. We are preparing for our trip to Disneyland to celebrate Grace’s 8th Birthday! She is beyond excited! Claire on the other hand, has decided that sleep is rather over rated and has nightly parties in her crib – laughing, talking and calling out to me. I’m exhausted, to say the least! I’ll be glad when this little night owl phase passes.

Anyway…A couple of weeks back we visited a magical place right here in Lake Oswego – The Elk Rock Gardens. It was a gorgeous Spring morning, so Grace and I headed over there to stroll the many paths that crisscross this enchanting place. I, of course, took a plethora of pictures, so I thought I would finally share them with you…

What an amazing morning we had exploring this wonderful place! As Spring comes into full bloom, I encourage you to check out local gardens in your area! It’s so easy to forget about these precious places and just get caught up in our day to day tasks. So much inspiration can be found in nature!

Have a beautiful rest of the week!

xo,

Ivy

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Inspiration Vintage Magazine

Hello all! How’s your Monday going? We are getting crazy wind and rain here! So, I’ve been puttering around the house, cleaning, reading and avoiding my artwork. I decided I needed a little space from it all.

I must give a huge “THANK YOU” to you sweet readers that left such encouraging and understanding comments. Your words truly touched me and were extremely comforting!

A beautiful and exciting distraction came along last week:  the latest issue of Inspiration Vintage magazine, which I had the honor of contributing to! This issue is bursting with stunning pictures, delicious recipes and loads of vintage beauty! Check it out here.

My article is about my love of vintage ephemera, antique books and French perfume labels! I had a blast photographing some of my pretty old things.  Of course, not all of the images made the cut but I thought I would share them with you…

   

Thank you again for all your support! I promise more art is to come. I hope you all have a wonderful, inspiring week.

xo,

Ivy

Birthday Girl

Hello there.

Hope your weekend has been lovely so far. I was going to wait till Monday to share these but I found myself with some quiet time and thought I better take advantage of it!

Claire’s b’day was such a wonderful day. We had family in from out of town and many friends and neighbors came to celebrate our little girl. We couldn’t have asked for a better day. The sun was shining after days of rain, not a cloud in the sky and everyone was more than willing to sit outside and enjoy some food, drinks and of course, sweet Claire. Grace was incredibly excited for her sister and was helpful and supportive. She even made a “sign in” poster that she made all the guests sign as they came in. So cute!

My mother-in-law made some beautiful decorations for the house and I borrowed these great cupcake stands from a neighbor (thanks Christine!) to complete the butterfly and rose dessert table.

I got these precious paper butterflies from this Etsy shop. You can eat them too!

It took Claire a minute to figure out what to do with her cupcake…but it wasn’t long before she was stuffing her face.

She was beaming from ear to ear with all the love and cuddles she got.

So grateful for the special time I got with my family and friends…especially my Aunt Iris and Grandmother who traveled all the way from the east coast to meet Claire.

Much love to you all.

xo,

Ivy

Queen of Flowers II – A mixed media collage

Hi everyone! Happy Friday! This week flew by and I am just now getting the chance to sit down and visit with you. How has life been treating you?

I wanted to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart for the sweet and encouraging comments left after my last post. It’s always a bit scary to share my artwork – so please know that I greatly appreciate the support! Art is such a core part of me. When I actually take time to do it, I am amazed at how it fills me with happiness and peace. I was so pleased with the last collage that I did a second one. I snapped pics of my progress with my phone to document the evolution of the piece.

Similar to the last project – I started by collaging bits of vintage ephemera to the inside of an old book cover.

Enter my muse (another Anthropologie model) who I painted over, inked her face and hair and added scrapbook papers for her dress. You can also see in the upper right hand corner I added some pink acrylic paint to start balancing the color composition.

The last details were added to complete her, including a sweet antique Australian stamp (a little shout-out to my homeland!), a jeweled crown and of course a bird. Gotta have a bird.

I stamped the cover of the book with this chickadee stamp and added the word “fly”.

So there you have it, another little collage project that I was able to complete in a couple of days during Claire’s naptime. So much more fun than folding laundry!

I have just listed prints of this collage and the last one in my Society 6 shop too!

Have a beautiful weekend!

xo,

Ivy

 

Claire and the Peony

Hi friends. How are you all doing? Happy Friday. I hope your week has been lovely. It was my second week home alone with Claire while Chris was at his new job and I can honestly say that it went much smoother. Seems like we are finding out own rhythm and schedule. I do miss being able to pop into his office and say hello but I’m adjusting.

The peonies I got for Mother’s Day are in full bloom and are truly glorious. So I thought why not pair my favorite flower with my favorite baby girl…

Claire bear will be 11 months old in two days. I can hardly believe it. Almost a year has flown by and she is desperately trying to walk.

She is enamored with flowers (like her Mama) and always tries to grab at them when she gets the chance.

She was surprisingly gentle with my dear peony and I am happy to report that no flowers were injured during this photo session.

Thank you, Claire for being such a good little model for Mommy.

Have a beautiful weekend!

xo,

Ivy

More photo fun…with RadLab

Hi everyone,

How was your weekend? Ours was busy, as usual…but good. After a thorough cleaning of the house on Sunday, I felt ready to start my online class (Blog Boss) today. Felt so good to put Claire down for her nap, make a cup of tea, light a candle and sit down to class. I’ve got some homework to get to and I hope you will all be patient with me as I continue to “renovate” my blog. My goal is to share more with you and teach some of the things that I have learned along the way.

Wanted to show you another little RadLab makeover photograph today. Tomorrow, I will be drawing the lucky winner who will get RadLab for free! There is still time to enter…just go here and leave a comment about why you want RadLab.

Okay…so here is a floral shot from Grace’s birthday gathering last year. One of my favorite flowers – Ranunculus. While the shot isn’t dreadful, it could use a little love…

After RadLab and few layers of textures, I was able to give the image a dreamy quality.

Here is the RadLab recipe:

{RECIPE: Lights On 100% – Oh, Snap 80% – P.O.S. Lens 100% – Edge Blur 100% – Divine Light 65% – Claire-ify 39% – Prettizer 100% – Get Faded Winter 80% – The 600 100% – Flirt 18% – Boutwell Magic Glasses 88%}

I used a few textures to further add to the mood of this image. One layer is from the wonderful, Kim Klassen, who shares layers, textures and tutorials! She is such an inspiration. The next two layers were from Deviant Art – where you can find a vast array of free stock layers and textures to download and experiment with.

Please remember, that just because we can tweak a photo with photo editing programs, it is still important to compose your shot. You have to begin with a good photo or at least a decent one to truly get a magical end product. So don’t let those eyes get lazy, always take time to adjust lighting, camera settings and composition. Also, learn when to stop editing. Just like a painting, a photo can become overworked. Of course, like any art form this is subjective to the viewer but try to trust your instincts. I often switch a layer on and off within Photoshop and ask myself – “Does this layer/texture/effect truly add to the image?” If it doesn’t delete it.

Go check it out these fantastic resources and get inspired!

Have a lovely Monday.

xo,