in our house...

I'm back from my trip to Colorado. After running to three different gates to catch my flight (United could not make up there mind where they wanted the plane to leave from)...It's a good thing I left plenty of time for such shananagins...
After driving from Denver to Fort Collins, my
whirlwind began of booksignings, teaching, visiting, shopping and fun.

Here I am when I arrived at my art pal and co-author Sarah Fishburn's living room...

and here are the lovely peony sitting in my room from Sarah's own peony bush. Talk about glorious color and fragrance.

The book signings begin...at Barnes & Noble,

We loved our visit with the oh so talented Tiffini Elektra X who was a contributing artist to our book "In This House".

We made some new friends at Borders Books who took good care of us and gave us the best cup of iced coffee ever...

and then to Timeless Creations...where the original house art was on display for all to see.

The classes Sarah and I taught took place at "Creative Underground at Timeless Creations" and we had a blast with our lovely artistic students who soaked up our techniques and demonstrations and thenput their own spin on things. Hats off to you ladies for some impressive creative work.

Christi, the Creative Underground Maven, made all of us fantastic lunch...
thanks Christi for all you did...
More about Sarah and my play days around Fort Collins in my next post.

fathers are very special people...

I am off on my Colorado journey to sign some books and make some art. I will miss Father's Day at home this year. So I did not want to leave without a nod to my Dad who is a very special human being to all that know him.
So happy Father's Day to my special Dad,
to Steve the awesome father of my kids,
and to dedicated Dad's everywhere...

so do you think you can dance?

I found these old pictures of me in an envelope and it reminded me of the years I took dancing.That's my teacher Ernest Belcher, the father of Marge Champion who was a famous ballerina and dance teacher.

But it's the dancers on "So You Think You Can Dance" that I'm talking about...How amazing are they? This show is a must see to celebrate the pure joy of dance.

go lakers...

lakers

drawing day is drawing close...

late to bed...early to rise

It was frightening this morning...to arise to the news that Universal Studios was on fire. It turns out they got the fire contained...but not before the New York Street set was destroyed...and some reports said King Kong was involved too...The element of fire...with it's unpredictable ways, can be so destructive.... I have great admiration for our firefighters...and if the reports are correct, over 400 of them were on the move this morning...

Thanks for all the well wishes for Jesse...he is off his crutches and back to his old self. He had jumped over a fence (not in an escape mind you, but because he locked his keys inside and he was outside - with no shoes on his feet!) and landed on the side of his heel. They make it look so effortless in the movies...but real life can be painful.
Which brings me to the discovery I made of a group called "Society for Barefoot Living" Did you know there was such a thing? Now I love the feel of dewy grass under my feet...or walking in warm sand on a moonlit beach...but what about walking on pavement when it's so hot you can fry an egg on it...or trudging through snow without warm wooly socks or forging a rocky stream...ouch. And there is something so unattractive about dirty feet...don't you think? You learn something everyday...

I have posted a new series of unruly tableaux on my Etsy site...including the ones I have posted on my blog. They will be up there until I am outta here and I'm taking the tableaux posted on the site with me... so no shipping will be done between June 10th through June 18th. I also made a new page on my website with my complete tableaux collection if you wanna take a look...
Enjoy the beginnings of June....

a little art with my yogurt...

I've been eating this yummy yogurt lately...mainly because I dig the jars it comes in. They are sturdy, not too tall and made of glass...They make great dividers for my various pens, pencils and markers on my desk. Not only does it make me more organized...it's good for me too.

what's on the tableaux tonight?

Today the June/July "Somerset Memories" magazine arrived in my mailbox with my article on my mini Tableaux'.

I love creating these pieces of miniature art. I have some of my tableaux in my shop right now...several which I made for "Mixed Emulsions."

And once again my anniversary has rolled around again...went to the movies and thoroughly enjoyed my day with my Iron Man.

cookin' with talent....

I was totally jazzed when David Cook won Idol last night...How cool was his performance with ZZ Top? He's so original...he had me when he sang his version of this song...

the crutch of the matter

Who's that on crutches? Jesse...yesterday I spent most of it with my son in the hospital...having x-rays and getting his foot wrapped up. He didn't break it thank goodness...just landed on it wrong...and he's getting around on crutches for a couple of weeks...

Making the decision to have a child - it's momentous.
It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.
--Elizabeth Stone--

More at sketching the itch...

moo over and sketch the itch...

Hot off the presses is the Summer 2008 issue of Somerset Gallery magazine in which appears a piece of my art I called "Unruly Girls Next Door." I used my MOO cards with my girls sketches on them. It was originally for an article I wrote on MOO cards when they had just hit the market and were hot miniature calling cards. MOOS are a terrific way to spread your site address around, the printing is nice and it's a unique business card for artists to hand out anywhere.

Sometimes I feel like I have a split personality. There is this serious, introspective art that I create when I get into this inner space. And then there is this fun, happy, art I create to kind of blow off steam and just make art in all it's unruliness....
Case in point...sketching. How I love the art of sketching. I have enjoyed bringing forth my unruly girls with their fashionista style...I always had an interest in fashion design since I was a little kid. But now I am wanting to sketch more...illustrate more, get better and better and take a pen and paper with me where ever I go to interpret my life around me. I have a lot to learn...but as with anything...practice makes perfect and I am itching to learn. So I created a blog called Sketching the Itch and I just launched it to inspire me to keep drawing and moving ahead with my desire to sketch, sketch, sketch! This site will be light on words and be a journal of my sketching. When I have the time I linger over other blogs and sites with wonderful sketches popping off the pages and I have decided to list as many sketch sites on this blog as I can so I would have them at my fingertips to check them often. So if you come across any cool sketch sites put them in a comment on the site and I will add them to the sidebar for all to see.

Don't forget that my Doodle Day doodle is up on EBAY to benefit Neurofibromatosis, Inc. 100% of the final sale price will support this deserving charity hosted by Gillian Anderson. This is an original sketch made by me especially for Doodle Day with ink and watercolors. Only hours left to bid...Good Luck.

It's hotter than blazes outside...nearly 100' today...what's with that...so it's a good time to kick back and make some art in my studio.

Fun link...How many of me? Click here to find out.

unruly is as unruly does...

Check out my Unruly Ways at Artsmiths...

my mom's hands...

These are my Mom's hands, and I would like to give a big hug to my own very special Mummy on this Mother's Day... She's the best...and always has been.Here she is running my Danny Thomas Lines with me while I was in the bathtub. It was brilliant really...a night time ritual and one that worked...me being contained in one space made learning my lines for the show a breeze. My Mom was always there for me...coloring with me in my coloring book, playing Barbies with me, teaching me to knit to pass the time on the set. I was blessed...to have a Mom that was always by my side and doing what Mom's do best...

Doodle Day is underway...I made this doodle to help this charity where 100% of the final sale price will support Neurofibromatosis, Inc. Take a look at my sister Veronica's doodle also... and my old pal Bill Mumy's doodle is up on Ebay too...Don't you want a celebrities original doodle hanging on your wall??? Here's a link to the Doodle Day site if your want more information... What a great Mothers Day gift...! A doodle drawing!

Speaking of Mom's...I was invited the other night by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences to attend the "A Mothers Day Salute to TV Moms." It was a fun event.
It is always a pleasure to visit with the lovely Marjorie Lord, my TV Mom of seven years. When we filmed the show I thought she was the most glamorous woman ever, with her flouncy skirts and pearls, but I also admired her spunk. She could deliver a one liner with the best of them. Still beaming and charming today...
There were plenty of other TV Moms being recognized at this occasion...Meredith Baxter, Diahann Carroll, Bonnie Franklin, Marion Ross, Cloris Leachman to name a few...

I also saw lots of my childhood friends from my show biz life (whose TV Moms were being honored), including Jon Provost, Tony Dow, Jerry Mathers, Valerie Bertinelli, Charlie Sheen and
Anne Archer (Marjorie's real-life daughter)...It's like going to a grammer school reunion when one attends these events, since so many memories from my childhood weaved it's way among these characters. It was totally a blast.

Hope Sunday is a special day for Mom's everywhere...

sun day...

...it was a beautiful day today...luckily I was able to get outside for awhile and plant a few new veggies in my potager garden. With the sun we have been having here...I hope to see them sprouting up soon...

Rummaging through some old pics, I found this goofy picture of sister Veronica and me larking around in a sports shop when we were kids. We always had fun together...not much has changed today...crazy...funny...sister. It was Vee's birthday a couple of weeks ago...Happy Birthday Sis...

Yeah Lakers...
Here's Jesse watching the game today with Peyton...a die hard fan just like Jesse!

Have you checked out my ETSY store? Lots of olios adorned with my photo/art in my unruly shop.

Til later...

loose ends...

I've been busy...there are many loose ends I have been wrapping up...and I have contacted a bad case of spring fever cleaning. My studio looks like such a mess...and I have 3 projects in progress on my table. And...only I can do it or I won't be able to find anything.

Loose end 1:
I have been meaning to post this rowdy awesome necklace made by my friend Deb Trotter.
It was such a surprise when I received it as a gift from Deb...and I love the cowgirl spirit she embraces in her art.
Deb has also written a short article on the Artsmiths site. Check it out when you get a minute.
I was out and about the other day and the traffic was absurd. Where are all those people going? Ahhh LA...so busy all the time...but...I took a shortcut past my old house...the one I lived in over 26 years ago...and I had to stop and look at the House of Fleurs....I planted alot of those rose bushes and over the years they have gone fantastically wild. You can hardly see the house from the explosion of roses. and I was thrilled to see that who ever lives here now has nurtured those roses as one can see.
I loved this house...but once Becca was born it just was too small...and so we moved to a house we love. But I could not stop myself from reflecting on the good times I had in this home. It was a charmer...
Well back to work...sorting and cleaning and organizing and finishing up those looming deadlines.
I should take a note from Peyton...next life I think I will come back as a sheltie.