Can’t believe it’s already been three weeks since the Sugar & Vice opening! (Have you seen the show yet? It’s on display until September 29th so you only have a couple of weeks to get there!)
Cool Things
New works on the horizon
While Sugar & Vice is up and living its best life at Balance Design in Atlanta, I’m taking this time to sketch, brainstorm, and work on some other exciting projects. Currently on the calendar? An amazing three piece commission for two super awesome people and my next show (coming to Athens this December!)
Sugar & Vice Opening Party Recap
Let’s talk about this past Friday: the opening of SUGAR & VICE! It was a whirlwind of amazing art, lovely people, great conversation, and lots and lots of dessert and champagne. (Oh! And an amazing 80’s/90’s playlist.) It was all I had imagined and more ❤️
I could talk for hours and still never fully express how moved I was by this community. From emails and texts, to flowers and phone calls- Instagram stories and invitation reposts, you all showered me with love, encouragement, and support and I am so very very grateful for it.
A special thanks to everyone who came to party with us, and an very special thank you to the entire team at Balance Design- without whom I couldn’t have done any of this. Thank you for believing in me and in this show and going above and beyond to make it the best!
So again- thank you! You all are the best of the best!
See the whole collection under “shop” —then “current collections” on my website.
The installation of Sugar & Vice
You guys. The show is officially installed and it looks phenomenal. Cannot wait for the opening tomorrow! Will I see you there? (Speaking of the opening, head over to the video to get a preview of the playlist 😉)
Creatively Made Summer Series- I'm teaching you to paint!
Mornin' everyone! (or technically, afternoon...) so fun and exciting news! I mentioned it briefly on Facebook a little while ago, but I will be teaching a watercolor class this summer with Jeanne Oliver's Creatively Made Home Summer Series! I met Jeanne in 2012 at Alt and was immediately taken by how real she was. She just seemed content and happy with who she was, where she was, and what she had to offer the world- which was incredibly refreshing. As our friendship grew, I was able to learn more about her passions, her goals, met her awesome husband, and pretty much just discovered how amazing of a person she was. Fast forward to a few months ago when I checked my email and found one from her asking if I'd be up for teaching a class this summer. Of course, you already know I said yes (hence this whole post. Wouldn't that be anticlimactic if I was just like "and I passed. the end. Happy Tuesday.") and I am so so so excited to do this. I absolutely love teaching people how to paint (I mean come on, I get to combine what I love doing most with talking. And by now you should all know how much I love to talk) so I'm really looking forward to this opportunity.
So, if you've always wanted to learn watercolors but never had the time, or the money, or you were embarrassed about your skill level (which is ridiculous. You rock) or whatever else, now is your chance to learn! The class is only $10ish dollars (I say "ish" because it maybe like $11) which is an absolute steal, it's an online video class that is pre-recorded so you can start and stop at your leisure, and dudes, you get to paint for fun. That alone should make you run to sign up. So don't stress about your skill level- I'm starting at the very very beginning- and will walk you all the way through to a finished painting. I'll even make up a hashtag so you can take awesome photos of it and share it on facebook and instagram so I can see your pretty pieces and tell you just how awesome you are at watercolors.
So here's the deal-
1. Go to http://jeanneoliver.ning.com and sign up for the network (this part is completely free!)
2. Browse the courses (you may have to click view all) and pick Watercolors and Flowers
3. Do a happy dance to show how excited you are. Post about it. Tell all your friends how much fun this will be. Hey maybe get them to join and y'all can take it together and have a big ol' party! Like one of those drinking and painting classes except you'll all have different unique paintings :) The possibilities are endless, people!
4. Check back often for sneak peeks, giveaways, etc. (You can also "like" my facebook page and get updates that way if you prefer.)
The perfect Valentine's Day gift- because these flowers don't die
via courtney khail
Still looking for that perfect Valentine's day gift? How about flowers? Even better, how about a one of a kind painting of flowers? That way you get the everlasting happiness of flowers without the tackiness of silk ones. (Apologies to any silk flower lovers out there- I just always associate them with a lot of dust and unnatural colors. Speaking of- there is someone who lives a little while away from our house that definitely put those fake really brightly colored bouquets in each one of their pots. The best part? The tags are still on them. It's amazing.)
And bonus points if you give a painting AND chocolate. I don't care if people think it's cheesy- if you show up with chocolate and flowers you win Valentine's day.
*Well that or a hat from the swap meet. That could win Valentine's Day too. (Oh Jay Z, I love you.)
craving: Tissue Calendar for 2013
via russel and hazel
I love physical, paper calendars. Every year I buy the same 6" pocket planner and every year I don't know what I'd do with out it. (It has month and day views so I can see everything at a glance and then the details.) When I stumbled across this on One Kings Lane, I immediately thought it was great. Maybe because it's I'm one of those people that writes things on my to do list just to cross them off (take shower anyone?) but I can't help but imagine how awesome it would be to rip off the previous day and begin anew.
Happy (almost valentine's day) weekend
so magical. found here photography by Friedrich Seidenstücker
Can you believe Valentine's Day is Tuesday? Neither J. nor I could really wait until Tuesday (we get super excited about giving gifts to each other) so we already had a mini celebration and swapped gifts. (Tickets to see the Civil Wars 3 days after we move to Denver? Heck yea! My husband rocks. Hah. Literally.) That said though, I go all out for Valentine's day so Tuesday is still going to be full of love and glitter. And maybe balloons in the shower.
Still trying to get in the spirit? Maybe these will help.
Amazing cookies for everyone in your life. (Meat cookies anyone?!)
Or make cookies and just add a little love (Anytime I make something for J. he tells me he can "taste the love." This way I could tell him there was exactly 1/4 a cup of love.) My Dad and I always played Scrabble when I was growing up, (he's a walking dictionary though so I only won if I happened to hit a triple word score or something awesome like that) so of course these made me think of him.Oh yum.
For my husband, the whittler, a box of wooden chocolates.
My friend Kristin posted about these shirts and J is now officially obsessed.
Happy weekend, everyone!
Craving: Helium Balloon Lights
Crous Calogero lights via dornob
Last week the hubs emailed these to me with the subject "awesome." He was so right. I fell hard for these. How whimsical would it be to have glowing balloons in a room? I know they are advertised for kids, but come on. I know plenty of adults who would love to own one of these for themselves.
Good Design: Watch Sculptures
Dominic Wilson watch sculptures (The detail is called adventures of a young vegetarian. It's of a girl saving a pig from a butcher.)
normally my "Good Designs" focus around typography and graphic design, but sometimes I find something that blurs the line and I have to share it.
J. is a huge watch lover- whenever he asks me to "come look at this" 9 times out of 10 it's a watch he'd like to have. And whenever we go shopping and I can't find him, I know just to beeline it to the watch section where I will find him- mesmerized by the intricate beauty of rows and rows of watches. To be honest, he acts similarly with cars, airplanes, and most everything the History Channel plays about the World Wars. It's pretty endearing.
Main point, I've now seen a lot of watches. (And WW2 documentaries.) But I never expected to see one like this. The attention to detail in the sculptures, the roundness of the glass dome, the movement (yes, I know I'm geeking out here) it's all just so well designed and designed so beautifully. Not to mention the social messages he portrays. Example: There is a man "so engrossed in his iPhone that he doesn't even notice a monkey balancing on the head of a weightlifting boy on the arm of an elderly roller skater."
This is what the artist, Dominic Wilson, said about them:
I have a new big project to show. I’ve put tiny figures onto watch hands in order to create mini animated scenes. I had the idea last year during my Speed creating project, but decided it was too good to rush. 8 month later I showed a prototype to Dezeen and they commissioned me to make a collection. The watches use customised model figures and I also made objects, like a miniature looted LCD tv. The glass domes were specially made to fit by Wearside Glass Sculptures in my home town of Sunderland at the National Glass Centre.
This is one of those pieces I'd love to own and have out for everyone to enjoy. Wouldn't you love to sit down in someone's living room to see the street sweeper watch lying on the table? I would. And then I would proceed to geek out in front of them about it the entire time I was there, because, well you know. That's how I roll.
From the Studio: DIY Watercolor Valentine's
Every year I make my own Valentine's. Something about the glue and the glitter and the paint transports me back to the days of elementary school where every one makes a "Valentine Box" and gives EVERY single person in their class a card. (I know some people may think that it's annoying to have to give everyone a card, but I remember seeing how happy and surprised some kids were to get cards and it always made me smile.) And to be honest, unlike a lot of people, I love Valentine's Day. Not the whole "I have to buy you chocolates and a cheap card or else I don't love you" mentality sometimes adopted, but the idea that for one whole day you get to go overboard in showing how much you care about someone. Or someone's. My family is really big on Valentine's Day. Like wake up to a Valentine's Day celebration complete with presents before school kind of big. What can I say, we're saps when it comes to love. Anyhow, back to the point. Given that I make Valentine's every year, I thought I would show you all a creative (and really simple) way to make some for yourself. (I taught this trick to my Alt classes as a test run and it went really well so hopefully it does for you too!)
Step One: Get all of your stuff together. You'll need paper (I wanted an A2 sized card so my paper is 8.5"x5.5" but you can use whatever size you have) a watercolor brush, watercolor paint, a bone folder (or credit card. No reason to buy something you don't absolutely need) masking fluid and an old small paintbrush that you don't care if it gets ruined because it will. If you'd like to feel fancy, feel free to place some glittery hearts around- you know, for the mood.
Step Two: Using your bone folder, fold your paper in half and crease the edges. I did a vertical fold, but horizontal would work well too.
Step Three: Using the brush you're going to ruin, paint a design on your paper using masking fluid. It doesn't need to be super thick, but you'll want to make sure the fluid makes a complete solid layer wherever you place it. I did X's and O's because my parents used to play tic tac toe over the phone when they were dating long distance and I always associate that with love and therefore Valentine's Day.
Step Four: After it has FULLY dried-test with the back of your hand never the front because it will leave oil behind and water and oil don't mix- combine a dime sized amount of watercolor paint with clean water and use that to paint over the entire design.
Step Five: Once the paint is completely dry, take a regular white eraser (or any eraser, I just like that you don't have to worry about color transferring with a white one) gently erase away the masking fluid. It should start acting a lot like rubber cement does when you rub that away. After the entire card is erased clean of masking fluid, dust off any left over residue.
Step Six: Step back and take a moment to admire your handiwork.
See? Super easy. And if you'd like, add some glitter, write a message inside and mail it off to a deserving loved one. I'd suggest in a pretty red or pink envelope because that makes it even more awesome to receive.
All photos copyright of courtney khail stationery and design. Feel free to re-post, but please give credit and be sure to link back to this post.