Black and White for Halloween

I decided to do a little something different with my Halloween decorating this year....Black and White!  Gotta say, I'm loving it!!  This room is actually meant to be the formal living room.  Who says you can't rearrange the rooms occasionally?  :)

 

 

Thank you for peeking in!  Happy Halloween!

 

Warmest bear hugs, Aleta

Well jeez! Another year...

Another year gone by.  And what a year it has been!  Miss Macey turned four and goes to preschool two days a week now.  Tyler is now 16 months and is giving me gray hairs daily.  ;)  That's the BEST in life.  (Well, not the gray hairs.)  The not so good, well, I like to focus on the positive.  Let's just leave it at that.  And the mundane things....we moved household in March.  Though things are unpacked, the house is not as I like it to be.  So much painting to be done and so little time to do it!

My space at Monticello Antique Marketplace keeps me busy, as do bears, a little side gig - helping a friend with estate sales, and of course, the grandchildren and Bill.  So you see why I have so little time to paint.  The sad thing is that I have actually picked out paint colors and have purchased some of said paint.  I WILL get to it eventually!

So, the new house is big.  It's really big.  It's so big that I actually have a room inside the house for all my Halloween and Christmas decorations.  We also have a room designated as the Monticello room for staging all the antique goodies for the different seasons.  Is that beyond crazy?!!  Yeah, crazy AWESOME!

Oh, and my new studio space is cozy....yes, meaning small.  Smallest room in the house!  This is a good thing really.  I don't need any more stuff to accumulate in there!!  I do have plenty, and actually, my desk is chock full of ideas for this, that, and everything else!  On that note, I will close, get up there, and create something.  :)

I hope it's only a matter of days before another blog post with pretty things rather than a year.

Happy Autumn, friends!!

Warmest bear hugs, Aleta 

While I wasn't looking.

Wow!  I've been away much too long.  Looks like Blogger has changed a few things while I wasn't looking!  Time to clear away the cobwebs on this blog!!

What the heck have I been doing since March?  Working, working, working and having a new little wee grandson steal my heart!!  Yeppers, Miss Macey has a little brother, little Mister Tyler Warren, born June 7th.  We are so blessed!!  And you thought my hands were full with Miss Macey, Monticello Antique Marketplace, and The Silly Bear!  Add a grandson and a new part-time job working with an Estate Sale company.  Oh, but think of all the goodies I'll find to share with you!

 Miss Macey is now 3 years old!

Sweet baby boy, Tyler Warren.

 Newer Bears:  The Nurse and Sailor have been adopted.  Little Grey is available in my Etsy shop.

The back garden patio.  A place for sipping and dreaming.

Warmest bear hugs, Aleta

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I can hardly believe it's already March 17th. Who pushed the accelerator anyway? Thought I'd take a minute to share with you my two newest listings. Baxter is the sweet little bear up there. He's visiting Etsy. And, the sweet little chick down there is visiting Ebay for a three day auction!

Trying to get things moving along before I take some time to play "shuffle the spaces in our home" as we get ready for the arrival of our grandson in June. My studio will most likely be moving to the largest bedroom with a walk in closet!! That room has been the guestroom, which has gone mostly unused and it just seems silly to waste the space when we need it for daily life.

I'm going to try my very best to post pictures of the transition because I know how much all of you like pictures! I do too!!

Warmest bear hugs, Aleta

Red W. Blue

A quick little post......Red W. Blue has just been listed on Etsy. http:etsy.com/shop/aletabreese Been crazy busy with Easter goodies for Monticello but I did make time to finish this, the last red mohair bear for me. I'm moving back to traditional colors and more traditional bears with only a scattering of the "odd duck" here and there.

Oh, and I'll have some bears with dolls similar to my 2007 TOBY winning bear. (Pictured over there to the left.) The dolls will be handsculpted by me and nestle in antique trunks and include clothes and other assorted goodies that might be found in antique doll trunks!! Doesn't that sound delightful?!! I have one in the works right now. :)

Warmest bear hugs, Aleta

Learning Etsy and listing on Ebay again soon!

As you can see, I'm having fun playing with the clay! These two sweeties will join Miss Amelia Ruffleflounce on Etsy or on Ebay sometime this weekend.

It's a huge learning curve getting to know Etsy and learning all over again how to list on Ebay. With so many changes in my life over these past few years, my collector base for bears has dwindled as I've gone from one thing to another feeling so unsettled. As such, the traffic to my website now is....ummm.....rather spotty. ;)

One thing is for sure, it's time to start from scratch. Etsy is a great place for me to encompass all the artistic avenues under one umbrella because I don't want to give anything up. I just have to figure out a way to blend it all together in a way that makes sense. Over time it will all work out. I'm looking forward to the challenge and hope you will follow along.

Warmest bear hugs, Aleta

Full circle with new work.

Miss Amelia Ruffleflounce

One of a kind, Miss Amelia is handsculpted and handpainted with an aged fine crackle then sealed with a matte finish. Her eyes are antique shoe buttons. She has a cotton body and is weighted to sit like a proper bunny.

A piece of early 1900's christening gown was used for her bodice. The faded robin's egg blue jacket is trimmed with antique lace, a porcelain bird button, crinkly ribbon trim and a sweet little crochet dangly thingie.

Look at all those yummy yummy layers of loveliness! Four layers of vintage and antique textiles were made into knickers, slips and a skirt. Oh and those sweet little wool felt shoes with the ribbon rosettes!! So charming, right?

And last, but certainly not least, Miss Amelia wears a simple snip of white silk ribbon around her lovely ears.

Miss Amelia Ruffleflounce is available for $265.00 (US) plus postage on Etsy. Please send along a note if you are interested or visit Etsy.

A little background: Long before mohair there was clay. Many of you don't know I designed figurines and dolls for Enesco, a giftware company, years and years ago. Back then I used Fimo or Sculpey to sculpt samples that would be reproduced for production. Just recently, I found the joy of working with Paperclay! Unlike the aforementioned products, Paperclay is a medium that requires me to get the lead out and just design already! There's not much mucking about with this stuff because it starts to set up fairly quickly. What I really, really love about this medium is the ability to make truly one of a kind pieces. This stuff has a mind of it's own in the drying process so each piece is absolutely one of a kind just in the sculpt. Add the fact that each piece is then handpainted and aged, and that each doll is dressed in antique and vintage finery.....well, you get the idea.

Thank you so very much for peeking in! I'd love it if you have a moment to leave a comment. Good, bad or indifferent. It's how, we as artists, grow. Keep in mind though, for bad comments, you get the evil eye and the bird of paradise will poo in your pansy patch. *wink*

Warmest bear hugs, Aleta