Jen Bowles Design

My Favorite Magazine Issue

I save magazines.
Not until the next time the recycling truck comes around, no, I save them for years.
OK, not all my magazines.  Entertainment Weekly and Time get tossed out as soon as I read them.  Better Homes and Gardens sticks around for a few months until I get around to ripping out pages that catch my eye.
But things like Family Fun (never know when you're going to need a great party idea...) and Martha Stewart Kids (more great ideas--and so nice to look at) I hold onto.  When we moved from Massachusetts to North Carolina my stash of Victoria magazines from the 90s came with us.
So it should come as no surprise that I save all of my Mary Engelbreit Home Companion issues.  I have every single issue.  Every.  Single.  Issue.  Yes, I'm a charter subscriber, thanks to the gift that keeps on giving from my Mom : - ).  And all the space my ME magazines take up on the bookshelves is well worth it.  I refer to them all the time.  Recently I was looking for some inspiration for new artwork for our recently painted downstairs bathroom.  I had a very specific article in ME that I wanted to look at.  Of course I had no idea which issue it was in, just knew what the cover looked like.  Rather than go quickly thru all my issues, I took out a few stacks and started the enviable task of looking through each and every one. 
After about 15 issues, and numerous post-it notes to mark other eye-catching ideas, I came upon the issue I was looking for.  February/March 2003.  My favorite issue.  I always love the Feb/Mar issue because they feature the Artists' Studios Tour (my passport to creativity).  This issue features the studios of Sarah Lugg, a mixed media collage artist and Cath Kidston , among others.  The whole issue is a visual feast.  The article I was looking for though was this:
It's entitled Color Me Home and features the San Diego residence of Jan Dutcher.  Although I am generally drawn to the blue/green palette (did I mention my collection of Coastal Living issues...), I love all the color and creative touches on display here.  I especially love her paintings (reminds me of Katherine at Red Shoes , love her stuff too!).  So here are a some scans of a few pages of the article. 
Happy, fun eye candy!

Around the House Handmade, Part 2

Today edition features:  My Sally Jean tiara!

My mom and I took Sally Jean's Totally Tiara class at Art & Soul (Hampton, VA) in 2005.  It was a grueling day of taping, fluxing, soldering, and wishing you had 3 extra hands.  Sally Jean is a great instructor and artist, and Mr. Sally Jean is beyond helpful but if you've never soldered before the class is a lot  to do in one day.
We worked hard  and though it's not the most perfect (by far) tiara, I was very happy to have a finished product to adorn my aching head with.

Around the House Handmade, Part 1

Just browsing around my house and thought I share a few special handmade items.
Today's feature:  Mother's Day Mosaic Birdhouse

My mom made this for me a few years ago.  Not exactly sure how she managed to fly down here with it, she's very resourceful--it weighs a ton!  Or maybe she gave it to me at some point when I drove up there, my memory's a little fuzzy on that.  I do remember what I had for breakfast  yesterday though.  I think...
Anyway, I love  this birdhouse.  Many of the items she used in the mosaic have special meaning (the marbles on the top were hers as  a child) or were salvage items (the finial) or were rescued from the swap pile at the dump. 
And yes, I do keep it inside my house--just brought it outside to take pictures.

For Someone Very Special

TimBiskup, The Jackson 500

Yes, another post about Tim Biskup .
I thought the other book I have was worth a separate post. 
According to Amazon.com,   'the Jackson 500 paintings are spontaneous compositions that contain the buds of many of Biskup's recurring characters, themes, and color theories. This volume contains the first one hundred in the series of five hundred business card-sized paintings, reproduced at actual size. A fine document of process and inspiration!'
Take a gander (and see how long it takes you to find the # of the painting as part of the composition)...

Tim Biskup, 100 Paintings

I've been meaning to post about Tim Biskup for a while.
Last spring I came across his work somewhere online and thought it was very cool.   I immediately went to Amazon and ordered 2 books depicting some of his smaller works. 
The book flap bio notes Biskup's 'fondness for mid-century graphic design, Japanese monsters and chaos' and that his 'surreal, dense, colorful paintings evoke Paul Klee...as well as animation pioneers like Ward Kimbal...and Mary Blair'. 
I couldn't agree more.
{wouldn't the inside cover design pictured below make great gift wrap...}

Trim Stock Up

Yesterday I made a Mary Jo's run.  I needed a fix.  Ball fringe, rick rack, grosgrain.  I was craving trim.  In colors for the upcoming holidays.  Golds, browns, and olive for Thanksgiving.  Reds, Greens, and Blues for Christmas and Winter.  I can't wait to see what all this trim inspires me to turn it into.

Speaking of inspiration, my darling children were inspired to create Halloween cookies last night after dinner.  Technically I created the cookies out of a mix/decorating kit we received in our Boo bag (left by the neighborhood ghost on Saturday night) and they decorated them.  They worked for a surprisingly long time on them with some pretty funny results...

Inside my Studio

We had family visitors here over the weekend and I feel like it's been a while since I've made anything or posted.  And I enjoy making things and posting.  I looked around my studio and here's what I came up with...
First, an almost completed project from Creative Escape--yes, another one.
This is the canvas memo board project we did in Heidi Swapp 's class.  I finally got around to picking out a quote and using the rub-ons to put it on the mirror.  I also finished the glass marble push pin.  I have to figure out what else is going to be on here and then pick out a place to hang it on the wall.  I seem to be running out of wall space...
While I had my camera out, I decided to take some pictures of the things that are currently taking up my wall space.  First, my wall of J's.  As you can see, I currently have 4 of them up there.  Every good designer knows that odd numbers of items in groupings, whether it be plants in the garden or letters on the wall, are more pleasing to the eye.  Obviously I need to be on the lookout for more J's : - )
Next, I have my rubber stamp shelf.  This shelf was custom built for me by my brother in law (who was one of our weekend visitors) with some assistance from me.  It holds lots of stamps and I love how it came out.  Naturally I could use at least 2 more of them for the rest of my stamps and stamping accoutrements.  Alas, no more wall space for that.
Next, a few close ups of some of my stamps.  As I may have mentioned before, rubber stamping among the first crafts I took up after college.  And by 'took up' I mean started collecting supplies for.  Of course I use them, just not as much as I should.  On top of that, I always seem to be looking for an image that somehow, among my thousands(?) of stamps, I don't have.  But I  love the ones I do have--don't get me wrong.  So here are a few close ups of a small portion of my rubber stamp collection.  They are from several different companies, if you have a question about a specific stamp just leave a comment or drop me an email and I'll do my best to give you the source.

Now I'm off to organize my clear stamps...

Laugh & Wish

I made an early  morning trip to Kohl's today.  They were having a sale.  They are always having a sale.  I was looking for a shirt to wear for a family picture we are having taken--this afternoon.  I met with surprisingly easy success and then figured I had time to go and explore beyond the Women's Sportswear department.  It is all of October 13 so of course they had several Christmas displays set up already.  I saw a few things that I liked--and they were on sale--and not too Christmas-y, so I scooped them up.
The WISH sign is about 2 inches tall by 6.5 inches long.  Though it's probably not genuine German glass glitter on there, it's certainly in the style of German glass glitter.  I was thinking it would make a fun birthday gift/decoration/present topper.
The other glittery goodie I picked up was a LAUGH photo holder.   It's much smaller, about 3 inches long by 1 inch high.  It's nice and sparkly though and for $3, it begged to come  home with me.

I guess it's never too early to put out your holiday decorations.  Perhaps I could hang my 'Peace' banner  to remind my children not to fight with one another.  Sure, that'd work...

Vintage Banner Swap--Received!

Today I received my first international swap package.  It was from Gaby in Germany and she sent my banner for Tini's Vintage Banner Swap.
Now, I don't know if Gaby knows how much I love (and miss) the ocean or if she just happened to pick a seaside theme for my banner but I love it!  The photo is darling as are all the little details--look at all the different shell buttons.  I love that the text is German, I'll just have to look at it and fondly remember where and from whom it came from. Thank you Gaby !
Gaby also sent me my first ATC.  Such a great surprise.  I love ATCs but I've only ever made 1 myself--and it's hanging on my woman in my studio.  So it's very exciting to have received a genuine ATC--from an artist and traded.  Hmmm, maybe this could be my motivation to make my 2nd ever ATC (and send it to Germany...).