Turkey with all the Trimmings...

Hello Lovelies~

I hope this week after the Thanksgiving holiday finds you all doing well! So much to share as usual over here in wintery Maine. Let's get down to the business piece first, shall we?

To start, after several years of not painting, I was doodling and got inspired to do a series of work inspired by 60's children's illustrations. The Top Crown Series, as I've named it, is now complete and listed in the shop for sale! These mini paintings are so cheery and fun and each piece is also accented with glittery details! I love them very much and I hope you do too. I think they will make some people very happy this holiday season!

What else? Oh, well STAG is also being stocked up with wonderful, unique, high-end vintage items for the holiday season! What better way to say you care to the men in your life than to give a special gift that you can't get at the mall? I even have some pretty things for the ladies out there, as well as vintage holiday decorations that will brighten the homes of the customers who snap them up! Just a few of these great items are shown below.

These golf shoes are about the craziest thing I've ever seen in men's footwear. Like clown shoes with a purpose.

For the ladies: A purple 100% wool blazer. Beautiful.

And for those of you who have a hard time thinking of things for that special someone, I am doing a Stag Item of the Day every weekday between now and December 20th to get those ideas percolating. Those will be posted on the STAG Facebook page!

It's not all work and no play around here, Lovelies! Oh, no. Thanksgiving was this past weekend and I joined some very good friends for a day of laughter, friendship and good food. (When your family lives across the country, your second family becomes as dear to you as your real one.) I did the baking, which included a lemon torte (hard to do, but I figured it out) and a pumpkin cheesecake with a candied pretzel crust (easier to do because I've practiced). Both were delicious. (Well, the whole day was delicious, frankly.) What a wonderful way to kick off the holiday season. I'm a very lucky girl!

This weekend, I plan on decorating my own place for Christmas and I'm very excited! There's nothing better than sitting in your living room reading or drinking a glass of wine with just the light of the tree on, no? And I will be playing my Christmas records the entire time. Because, you can't beat Bing Crosby's voice on a record with a little hiss and some cracks and pops. Don't you agree? Happy Winter, Lovelies!

Until next time: unpleasant dreams...

Inked Dames...

Hello Lovelies~

I hope you're all doing well out there! Things here are humming right along. So much to share! To start, I just shot the 6th piece in my secret project this past weekend. That's about the halfway mark as my goal was to do roughly 12 shots total. Once those are all edited, I will release the first half just to get the excitement up about this project. I think you will love it, but until then, here are some teasers from the shoot over the weekend.

My amazing makeup and hair people at work. I love those two.

Any project that calls for fake tattoos is a win!

And this was a really fun (and beautiful) pair of ladies, so after I got what I needed for the project, we played around with some head shots. Here are some of those. Aren't they beautiful? I love it when my models know how to have fun.

And, I recently decided it was time to update the sign on my studio door with something a bit fresher that also had my contact information on it so potential clients who stop by when I'm closed or who happen to pass my door know how to reach me. I decided to use a shot a took awhile ago that I've really stayed in love with. The colors, the model's look, that red hair! Love. So, here's the new sign and that sign on the door! Welcome, gang. It's time to make some beautiful...

And to wrap up, I have something totally random (and awesome) for you Kiddies. The holidays are coming, and I know you all love weird, funny things. Well, imagine my pleasant surprise when I found this amazing thing over at Archie McPhee! It's a vinyl record, made to look like meat, entitled Meat Parade. What. The. Hell. The entire thing is a riot, but I had to order a copy just to know exactly what Meat March and Slab'o'Meat sounded like. The answer: about what you'd expect. So, pick up a copy for Uncle Vernon this Christmas, he'll thank you for it!*

*He will not thank you for it.

Until next time: unpleasant dreams...

Little Engagement in the Woods...

Hello Lovelies!

I hope you are all well out there this week. I have a lot to share as usual. To start, I shot an amazing engagement session yesterday out in the woods by a lake and the crew and myself braved bats, spiders and ticks to get some amazing shots. I will be sharing those photos next week, I promise. Also, I am getting ready to shoot an amazing conceptual project at the end of the month and I shared a tiny hint on my Facebook wall last week so I'll pass it along to you Lovelies as well. Below is a hat I designed and made expressly for the shoot. It will be worn by Ms. Peacock. Can you guess what I'm shooting???

It was also my birthday this past weekend and I had a wonderful time celebrating with my friends and loved ones. The images below give you just a glimpse. A little hibachi dinner action with plenty of saki squirted into open mouths and a wonderful art doll from my very good friend Bridget over at InventingTrees (a doll who needs a name now that he's keeping my other art dolls company in my studio, any thoughts???). I wrapped it all up with a little gift to myself; a new record: Sleepwalk Guitars Dan & Dale play Thunderball. It's a great mix of tropical and jazz guitar mixed with some steel guitar for flavor. But really, it was the album cover that reeled me in... what's with the girl in the scuba outfit? I just don't know...

What else? Oh! I found an amazing site I wanted to share: Dear Photograph. Heard of it? It's such a great site and such a unique idea. Basically, people pick a photo that means something to them, and then they hold that photo in front of the location where it was taken, in some cases, many, many, years later. What you get is the past juxtapositioned on the present and the captions are also fascinating. Here are some examples, but check out the rest.

And I want to wrap up with some cute, twisted art for those of you out there who love things that are cute, but twisted. Artist Kristin Tercek has an entire line of paintings called Cuddly Rigor Mortis that convey everything from lychee zombies to oranges juicing themselves to death to skunks that emit noxious fumes. But their huge heads, big eyes and small bodies make them adorable. Twisted, isn't it?

 Until next time: unpleasant dreams.