2 for 1 Sale on all my Prints!

Need a fun gift for your schmoopie or sweet pea? Maybe for your little monkies or crazy chicks!? There's something for everyone in my etsy shop! Today's the last day of my 2 for 1 sale!! Let me know if there's something you'd like:)

http://www.etsy.com/shop/PepperedPaper

Wildflower Love

More pretty prints in my etsy shop! All peppered paper prints are 2 for 1 starting today!! This new series of thistle was inspired by my love of wildflowers, and a certain boutonniere:) I used the same technique I used for my instruments with my "peppered" drop sheets. I love the differing results of capturing the organic wildflowers versus the inanimate instruments. The peppered paper brings a liveliness to both, while the flowers seem to be flowing subtly and the instruments vibrating with energy. Maybe that's just the nature of the objects, but I like the way my technique captures both with such expressiveness. More organic and inanimate objects are definitely being peppered up soon!

Strumin' up something pretty

New work from peppered paper! My new collage pieces are made from the best kind of peppered paper- the butcher paper used as drop sheets, which keep my drafting table clean. These papers collected just the right amount of splatters, drips, strokes, and the occasional doodle or note, before being cut with care and glued with precision to create these lively pieces. I love the resulting energy and vibrancy that bring these inanimate objects to life. Look closely to appreciate the detail of the cut paper!

I'm excited to offer high quality prints of my new work, which show the detail and vibrancy of the originals. And... all my prints will be 2 for 1 this weekend, Black Friday through Cyber Monday!! Check out the special deal in my Etsy shop!

Banjo Pickin' Girl

Speaking of getting my monthly fix of live music, last week I had the privilege of attending one of Abigail Washburn's residency shows. That makes two live concerts in one week! These shows are different than a typical live show for a few reasons: they are free, there's usually a pot-luck dinner with the musicians before hand, and they're very casual, like, "let's try out this song we've never played for an audience before" kind of casual. Last week's show happened to be on Abigail's birthday! There was a huge cake, a bottle of champagne passed around with some plastic cups, and some happy flowers set on the corner of the stage. So, since it was her birthday and all, and since I just had these lovely prints made of some of my new work, and since this banjo was partly inspired by her banjo pickin'... well, I know I don't need to justify myself, but I was glad to have an excuse to sneak one of these prints up on the stage next to her flowers! Hope she likes it! And, if you do, I'm working on adding these, along with other new peppered paper prints, to my etsy shop soon! I'll let you know when it's updated.

Abigail's last residency show is tomorrow at the Relix Variety Theater on Central. Pot luck at 7pm, show starts at 8pm.

Awake My Soul

I saw Mumford and Sons last night at the Valarium. I'm pretty slow keeping up with technology so I don't have a bootlegged video to show you, but trust me, it wouldn't come close to doing it justice. The live show was powerful. I cried a few times and often had the urge to open wide my arms receiving the radiating light and vibration. Inspired by Shakespeare and Steinbeck, Mumford knows how to build up a melody and release it with felt passion, all in a short sequence of a few minutes. Go see them- wherever, whenever, as soon as you can. I don't think tickets will be just $20 next time around.

Why the rant on Mumford and Sons with all the photos from our hike in Hot Springs, NC? Two simple conclusions follow both of these activities: nature and live music feed the soul, my soul specifically, but I'm sure this is a universal thing. During our hike I also had the urge to lift up my eyes and open wide my arms to fully breathe in the beauty surrounding us. In both venues there is beauty and depth, profound stillness and energy, light flickering through shadows, passion and creativity, and life, God-breathed life. Surely once a month is a reasonable goal to set for experiencing nature and live music. After all, we're in Knoxville, where beautiful nature and live music are right at our foothills.

In these bodies we will live, in these bodies we will die

Where you invest your love, you invest your life

- from Awake My Soul, video below

I found some bootlegged videos if you're interested:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktjBXLvhM-A

and fyi, King Charles was pretty amazing with them too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itO5TW7UGRg

Pumpkin Heads and Blogiversary

Happy Halloween Pumpkin Heads! I know, I'm a few days late, but surely there's more candy to go around. Actually, we ran out of candy this year! I bought three big bags of fun size chocolate treats and thankfully they were all dropped into totes, two at a time for the early birds, oops. Really we just had to disappoint one trick-or-treater, and it was getting pretty close to 9 o'clock at that point. I love our neighborhood on Halloween- a resident witch lives across the street from us, it has lots of haunted houses I'm sure, plenty of cats, and bats for that matter, and lots of little pumpkin heads dressed up tromping through the leaves.

This year's trick-or-treaters brought a special surprise- a little girl named Ruby dressed up as a nun:) Her little brother was her guardian angel. Did you know we named our vegetable garden Ruby's Victory Garden after the last owner of our home? Well, this cute little family knew Ruby when she lived here and even named their daughter after her! We loved talking to them, and I was relieved to find out Ruby wasn't a horrible old lady but quite spunky!! We already knew a few things about her: she had a huge collection of seashells in the basement, a "Florida" room, and planted quite a few fake flowers in the yard, along with lots of real flowers too. I'm pretty sure she covered up the fabulous velvet wallpaper to protect it when renters moved in, that's my guess at least. Well, I'll never know what Ruby was really like, but I know she loved her/our house, and now I know a cute little girl was named after her. I'm sure that I would have liked her.

post script: Sunday was Peppered Paper's 1 year Blogiversary! This is my 80th post! And to think I was worried about having enough to blog about. Debriefing to come, possibly.

post post script: Don't you love my pumpkin head dolls! I found these at a flea market in Maryville, TN. I don't have many Halloween decorations, but unpacking these every October makes me happy:)