YoCanDu Art Studio

Today in celebration of MLK Jr. Day, My momma, Janel, and I went to YoCanDu Art studio and made some art. Janel and I both made stuff for our homes. I had previously gone with my girls from work, and made and N...but now that I am married and we have "our" house, I felt bad hanging up an N with no M. So, I brought back my sister, and mom for support, to check out this amazing place. It is a wonderful studio where you can collage, paint, mosaic and craft. Check out their web page here.

Here are some shots from our radical day:

I adore that this wall has half a cup in it. I want to do this at my house in my basement. How bomb!!

ATC (Artist Trading Cards) having from above...beautiful.

This is the finished M...next to my N that I brought to match with!!

It has all sorts of found objects, like rusted screws, washers, tiles, skeleton key, worry doll

(a boy to go with the girl on the N), and a good luck coin like the one Matt carries in his pocket everyday.

Brushes hanging in the paint area. I love that they are in ketchup bottles and color coded.

Janel making a key rack for their kitchen...Adam, don't look at this. It might be a present.

Hard at work.

Sculptural books hanging from above. I want to do this.

I want this too.

Janel's finished product.

These are the jars that are full of tiles according to color.

This place is seriously amazing. If you live in STL, you should hit it up. I cannot say how awesome this place is.

Journal Swap

So today is the first day of a journal swap I am doing with some rad ladies I meet down in Springfield, MO in November...i think it was in nov. And I cannot wait to get one in the mail. I sent mine off today...ps, mail is so expensive, I bet the pony express didn't cost $10.00 + tax. Anywho, I can't wait to see what everyone is doing. I admit, my pages are a bit lame, but I wasn't sure what to expect. I googled some images of journals people were doing today and i am overly inspired. Look at some of these amazing pages that I found.

This woman does such amazing water color. Janel, loves water color, so I'm sure she'll be doing some thing like this in hers :) Check out more of these bomb pages here.

The next three images are from this page. There is a ton of images to get ideas an inspiration from. I love working with mixed media in my sketchbooks, so I adore these pages.

Love the background of this page. I usually work on white pages, but I think I am going to steal this idea of adding paper or images first then journaling on top. This is such a cool blog, check it out here.

Again, check out this page. I love the collage work done in it. Incorporating magazine images to make a picture rocks!

I really wish I would have photographed my pages before I sent off my book. I will add them to the blog once I get it back!!!

I got hitched!!!

I'm so sorry for being the worst ever lately, well for awhile now. But the good news is I got married last month, moved into a new house with the hubs, and am finally finished unloading boxes. Since I am an avid reader of my sisters blog, which is amazing, I am jealous of how amazing she is at it and am hoping to get back into the swing of things. So here are some long awaited, not just for you, but for 7 years of dating, photos of the wedding day!! I still suck at uploading in order, so these are a bit backwards, but you'll get the idea of our amazingly awesome day!!

Below is the best sister moment ever. How special is this picture. I love my nelly-belly!!

So, We wanted to hit up Gus's Pretzels, a st.louis must if you are ever in town. But to our dismay, it was closed. My amazing bus driver, Scott of Callaway Coaches, knocked on the door, got us in for pics, and hooked us up with 5 bags of pretzels. It rocked!!

Down by the river front at the graffiti wall. It was so funny when we pulled up there was another wedding party down there and two of my groomsmen immediately started snapping like on West Side Story getting ready for a turf war. Hilarious!

Again my amazing bus driver pointed out this awesome shot. It has a beautiful fall tree and the St. Louis Art Museum in the back. It is a perfect picture, not only because I'm an art teacher and I love art, but Matt and I got engaged on the hill!!!

Our amazing photographers Whitney and Brenden Raidt. Here is their website if you need photographers, they are tops!!! http://www.wix.com/raidtphotography/Raidt-Photography-Saint-Louis

Best intimate photograph of the day!!

Barnholtz/ Maclean/ Mankus Girls in the photo booth!! ( Check the awesome peacock pin I wore in my hair at the reception!!)

Favorite picture from the day. Probably because it's a candid and looks like and old newspaper clipping. This was at McGurks in O'fallon. Grabbing a cider before the reception.

Oh yes, we found a carnival to take pictures at too. If you didn't know, it is all about the pictures!!

Another great shot, with a great effect added. Most of the carnies (is that pc?) let us on the rides for free to shoot some pics. How fun!

Fish Face...a classic. It is probably my dads favorite kind of picture. Either that or ghetto girls!!

At the grand basin below SLAM.

Listening to a reading from my favorite aunt, Sue. So glad she could be part of our day!! Best God Mother ever! we got married at Immaculate Conception of Dardenne.

My second favorite picture from the day. I just love it, for no reason, I just do.

I'm extremely excited right now. Isn't my dad handsome in the tux!!

I think this is a throw back to Matt's dad's wedding day.

It was such an amazing, surreal day. It went off without a hitch. I had a lot of help from a lot of amazing people. Thanks so much for being part of our day.

I am still waiting on the photos from our other photographers, yeah I had 4 photographers, like I said, it's all about the pictures. Take that F.B. Loves!!

Frank LLoyd Wright

I know its been awhile, but I have some major inspiration!! Frank Lloyd Wright. If you don't know anything about him, do some research!!! It is well worth it. Check out some of his amazing architecture.

This is Frank Lloyd Wright's home and studio in Oak Park Chicago.  This is tops on my list of things to see before I die.

This is an interior of one of his houses.  You can see the amazing simplicity of his homes.  Everything has a purpose and all the furniture is made specifically for this house.  FLW also did amazing stained glass windows.  Unfortunately he fell away from these in his later years.

The Fawcett Ranch House, near Los Banos, Calif., is the state’s only Frank Lloyd Wright residence in the context of a working farm. Listed for $2,700,000.  Can you believe there are actually FLW homes for sale.  Apparently Brad Pitt owns one.  I want one!!!   Anyone want to donate to the Nicole loves FLW home fund???

This is the Robbie house in Chicago.  It is on a college campus and was the center of interest in the children's book The Wright 3.  You should check it out when you get a sec.

This home I got off of this website. 

Frank Lloyd Wright Penfield House, Willoughby Hills, Ohio. 

This is Taliesin.  This is the home FLW built in Wisconsin.  It has such amazing history and an amazing story behind it.  I recommend reading Loving Frank by Nancy Horan.  It is such a beautiful book with such a great, tragic love story.

So I was luck enough to visit Frank's most famous house.......Falling Waters!!!!   a few weeks ago when heading up to Massachusetts for Janel's final wedding reception.  

It was amazing, beautiful, breathtaking, radical....I could go on and on.  It is so amazing to see what this brilliant man can do.  He really focused on interpreting and incorporating nature int his work.  If you get a chance, this was an 11.  Phenomenal!!! 

What a stellar view

This was in the living room.  A stairway that totally opened up so you could walk down, fish, and catch some dinner!

Barnholtz, when one MacLean, Ladies

The other FLW we went to later that day down the road, Kentuck Knob, had a bunch of other art.  They had this amazing Claus Oldenburg Apple there!!

I got a bit hungry.  Haha!!

They also had an amazing Jim Dine Sculpture of a flower morphing into a fan.  Very Cool!  

If you get a chance, I say look up your area and see if there are any FLW homes in your area.  They are one of a kind homes from an architecture who was way before his time.  If you are local in St. Louis I would recommend the home in Kirkwood.  It is owned by the parks and it is by appointment only.  There is also a killer home in Springfield Illinois.

Owl Art

I know its been forever, but I'm back (to let you know I can really shake it down!)

I've found some good inspiration lately with owl art. Owls are so awesome and totally remind me of my grandma's house b/c she collected them. she had all the nick-knacks, i've been in love ever since. Here are some this I've found online:

love these fabric wall hangings.  there are endless possibilities!

doe on the back of a scrabble letter.

linoleum printing.  do it one time and make multiple prints on paper, fabric, and anything else.  then you can add embellishment on top of that.

love this necklace.  don't you hate it when you grab the small image instead of enlarging it first!

tiny felt owls

how cute are these fabric broaches.  i think they could be painted on wood too!  one way to avoid cutting out those tiny pieces.

anyone out there who wants to teach me to make jewelry like this, i'm in!

all types of owls

love the idea of incorporating a page for a book into it.  wouldn't this be great in an art journal?

i love this ring.