Sunday, December 29, 2013

DIY: Painting from Vintage Book Covers

Well, I hope ya'll just had the very best holiday ever and that Santa was super good to you. All I can say is that I musta been totally well-behaved this year (and that Santa has lowered his expectations of acceptable behavior) because I really scored. I don't wanna brag but if you happen to notice my photos are just a pinch better it's because the hubs upgraded my dropped-more-times-than-I-can-remember/seven-year-old camera to some super fly thing. Thankfully it doesn't have too many bells and whistles that require extensive manual reading. Because, let's be sexist, the only person who reads manuals are the Man. For the ladies, well, there's pinterest. So you know I've already pinned "25 Super Cute Ways to Snap Super Cute Pictures While Attempting to Look Super Cute".

Speaking of The Hubs, he requested a certain handmade giftie for Christmas. He's always loved the outdoors, especially hiking and camping. Recently, he's been reading some vintage outdoorsy books with just the best covers ever. His request: paintings of the book covers.  
The photo on the left shows the original book cover I worked from. We don't own either of these books (the first editions sell for a couple hundred dollars on ebay) so I worked from images found online. My 14" X 16" painting is on the right. Even though this painting took longer because of the extra layer of color added, I'm not gonna lie, it's my fave.

For the cover of this book, I attempted to antique the canvas a little by scrapping it with a wiry brush. You can kinda see that effect at the bottom. I'm not sure if I love it but when I'm done with a project, I'm, like, done

By the way, painting these camping books has me remembering all sorts of outdoorsy adventures. Like the time my mom took me and my cousins camping on the grounds of the theme park Indiana Beach (do I have any Hoosiers in the house? Can I get a "There's more than Corn in Indy-Ana!" Which is true. There's also corny song writers.) We had an army green canvas tent exactly like the one on the cover of this book. Unfortunately, because all of us were Girl Scout Dropouts, we had no idea how to put the thing up and so, in the middle of the night when it began to rain, all of the aluminum poles collapsed on my side of the tent. And, if you know anything about canvas tents (which I did not), you are never supposed to touch them once they are wet because then the water drips in. And it did. Again, on my side of the tent. Moral of story: Don't go camping with my mother. In Indiana. In the rain. Ever.

Back to the DIY at hand, I started by painting the canvases a color that best matched the book covers. I then used that aforementioned wiry brush to kind of rough up the canvas (Canvas, Ima gonna Rough You Up!). I used chalk to sketch in the design because it was easier to see and erase than pencil.
From there, I just blocked in the dark color. Once that was dry, I used a slightly damp towel to wipe away the chalk lines.
And then there was the lettering. Ewww! I hate lettering. How did I ever forget after painting this Smoky Mountain picture? Which I only painted because I had forgotten how tiresome all the lettering in this calendar proved to be. And how difficult it is to actually get the sizing correct like in this Nashville painting. Apparently I'm a glutton for punishment. And chocolate. Where's my chocolate punishment? Cuz I could totes use some of that.
Once that first painting was knocked out, I started on this one. Which was a pinch more involved because of the addition of another color.

I kinda went at it screen printing/color-by-numbers style by layering the colors from the background moving forward.
I took a lotta liberties with the composition of this painting (read: I messed it up and had to come up with an alternative) but in the end, I kinda love this painting.
Hubs and I've been taking some seriously long day hikes. I've been in my glasses this week after contracting a delightful eye infection that left me feeling as though I were blinking over shards of glass. Lovely, right? Being out with this dude reminded me of one of the times we camped in Kentucky at Mammoth Cave. Lemme set the scene for you: it was twilight, we'd just set up camp and I took a short stroll to the ladies room (FYI: for those of you that do not camp, there is no "ladies room"). Upon my return, I heard a "chuh-chuh-chuh-CHUH-CHUH!" sound coming from the ground and I looked down to see a rattleshake frantically shaking his tail and slowly raising his head. I screamed bloody murder and with legs that felt like noodles, I ran back to the tent. "MITCH! Mitch! MITCH!!" I screamed to this dude who, after hearing my commotion in the woods, looked more annoyed than worried. "What? You're scaring the wildlife."

Oh, and speaking of wildlife that incident with the snake was only topped by the time we hiked the four miles out of our campsite and got all the way home only to find that I'd had a huge scorpion just chillin' in my backpack. When we got home and I unzipped my bag, out he popped, crawling around on our kitchen counter with a "So, is this your place? Not bad, not bad. Don't know about your decorator but I've got a coupla friends than can help you get this place lookin' sharp. You know, like my tail. Heh heh heh."

 Dear Wildlife. Suck it.
I'm kinda stoked about these paintings because it's inspired us to decorate our Tennessee-themed pad with a vintage camping vibe also. Complete with scorpions and rattlesnakes. Should be pretty sweet.

AND NOW...it's time to announce the Winner of the Best Artsty Pick Up Line Contest. Drum roll, puhlease? No?! Well, how about a rattlesnake rattle. Thank you...

I'm an artist but...for you, baby, I'll get a JOB! by Laureen!

Congrats, Laureen! 
And thank you to everyone who submitted and voted! I loved each and every line and have tested them all myself. Thanks, guys!

Monday, December 23, 2013

DIY: Christmas Tablecloth to Skirt AND Gold Dotted Boots!

Is it really any wonder that all the poor Christmas trees in my house are sans skirts?! I've just about robbed all of 'em for my current skirt-making craze! Poor naked trees. 

Well {sniff}, I hate to say it but {wiping away tears}, this just might be the last of the Christmas outfits I create this season {uncontrollable sobbing, obnoxious nose blowing}. Which is probably a good thing because, let's be honest, I just...

 Can't-Stop-Christmas-izing-My-Wardrobe.

(we can't stop; we won't stop...you know that's what Miley was singin bout ya'll.)

 It's become a sickness, kids. And it's probably for the best that the Big Day is almost here so that the Christmas-ize-ing comes to an end (huh, Christmas-ize sounds a whole lot like Jazzercise which means that I'm probably burning calories and perfecting my jazz-hands all whilst crafting away. I knew there was a health benefit in there somewheres!)
Now you may recall that this is not my first time down Christmas Skirt lane. After transforming this tree skirt to a lady skirt, I decided to give this lovely table cloth a new life. I scored it on ebay (can you believe I was the only bidder?! Wait...don't answer that) after having fallen in love with all of it's felt-y cuteness.
I mean, can I get an "aww" here? When Dasher's not running out in front of our (now demolished) car, he's prancing through the woods (wait, would that make this deer Prancer? Because he looks just like Dasher, Dancer and/or Blitzen. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO TELL 'EM APART?! At least Rudolph's got his red nose and Vixen's got her vixen-y ways. It's called bein' different, deers. Ya'll outta try it).

Okay, where was I?
Oh, yeah, I totes loved all of the woodland scenes on this table cloth. It's what made my finger twitch and hit the Click to Buy button.
However, what I WASN'T prepared for was creeper-face Santa Claus! Holy Candy Canes, ya'll! Looks like Super Paranoid Claus to me. Using my amazing felted-Santa-mind-reading-skillz, here's what I've deduced Santa is thinking:

I wonder if anyone will notice I stole Rudolph's nose?

That sales lady at JCPenny's said vertical stripes were slimming...but I'm not so sure.

Oh, Fruitcakes! My suspender just broke! If these pants fall down then EVERYONE will know I wear women's panties!

That sales lady was right, Mom Jeans aren't just for moms. I look HAWT...or do I?!

I wonder if anyone will notice I stole a baby polar bear and strapped it to my chin.

(Okay, I seriously think I could do this for hours. For your sake [and Santa's], I'll stop.)
I went about creating this skirt the exact same way I did the tree-skirt-to-lady-skirt. I simply placed my circle skirt pattern over the twice-folded table cloth and (loosely) followed the pattern directions. I'm not trying to be vague with my directions here...it's just that there's probably a much better way to go about doing this. I'm a crappy teacher. Just don't tell my students. Oh, wait, they know that already. Don't tell their parents.
You'll notice that Santa is no where to be found on the front of this skirt. I strategically placed that dude on my back side (he's on the other side of the log cabin taking a leak). 

Now! Let's chat about my other DIY in this here post: My Gold Dotted Boots!
Please don't look too closely, these babies are a hawt mess. And totally responsible for my two new gray hairs.
I began with these ankle boots I scored on Black Friday for a mere $10. I already have a black, brown and embroidered pair of ankle boots so I picked these up with the sole intent of DIY'ing them. By the way, this is off topic (like everything else here) but hubs seems to think that ankle boots are the ugliest thing known to man. It's his belief that instead of birth control, women could simply don a pair of these bad boys. I'm pretty sure he feels about these the way I feel about dudes in skinny shorts.
But! This post isn't about birth control and skinny shorts (...or is it?). Back to the DIY at hand. I started by sketching in my dots in chalk. I used the same Gold Leafing Kit that I used on this DIY. You simply paint on the adhesive and let it sit up and become tacky. "Sit up and become tacky"...that sounds like my morning routine!
Then you place the gold leafing sheet on top and rub. The deal is it's supposed to stick to the adhesive.
Which, as you can see, doesn't always work out that way. Now, I'm kinda of a mess but when it comes to my crafting, I like it to be pretty perfect-ish. And this here drove me absolutely nuts(-er). For many of the dots, I had to go back, add adhesive where the leafing didn't take and try again. In the end, I cheated a little by painting in some of the dots...and others, I just decided to let it go. From a distance, they look pretty good. Close up, I like to pretend they appear "antiqued".
I chatted in a blog post last year about my DIY Christmas decor. Read mo' here.
To finish the boots off, I'd been looking all over the place for boot toppers. Turns out you can simply turn your leg warmers inside out, fold 'em down a coupla times and, viola!, you have boot toppers!
A word about my ridiculous head piece. I found it at JoAnn's last year on the super duper after Christmas clearance rack. I added the two smaller green trees...but I still had several kids tell me, "You look like a Christmas Unicorn!" 

Kids, thank you so much for dropping by! PLEASE don't forget to click to vote for your favorite pick-up line on the right side of this post. I'll announce the winner by the end of this week!

I doubt I'll chat with you again until after the Christmas so I hope you have a merry one! Beware of the Creeper Santa and the Christmas Unicorn!

Sunday, December 22, 2013

What the Art Teacher Wore #84

Light Up Monday: There were many a chat about my light up dress and Santa shoes. I overheard one new boy ask a veteran kid: "Why is she always looking so crazy?"  As if exasperated, he threw his hands in the air, turned to the new dude and said, "Duh! She's the art teacher!" This inspired a short convo on how different artists enjoy creating in different media (mine being clothing) and how the only person who gets to day Duh! in the art room is me. Duh. light up dress: DIY here; fishnets and red tights combo: Target; Santa shoes: DIY here
What I'm about to present to you are 13 of the very best Artsy Pick-Up Lines in the Universe. Never again will you approach that paint-splattered artist of your dreams unarmed with the right thing to say. Read over these lines carefully, friends, and simply click to vote for your fave in the poll on the right. The winner and their mystery prize will be announced by the end of next week. 

Here you go:

Hey girl, your use of tints and shades color my wheels. (Miss French Fry)

Hey girl, are you related to van Gogh? Because I see stars when I'm near you. (Miss FF)

I'm Degas-ga for you! (Katie)

Hey girl, you must be a ballerina because De-GAS! You look good! (Emily)

Hey there, come to this easel often...? (Julie)

Have I told you lately I Lourve you? (Laureen)

Hey baby, you're a piece of fine a...rt! (Abby)

Baby, you are so fine, you would make an Impression on Monet. (Troutgirl)

At first I thought you were sketchy but now I am drawn to you. (Mary)

Is that a tube of Golden in your pocket or are ya just lad to see me? (Laureen)

I'm an artist but...for you, baby, I'll get a JOB! (Laureen)

You put the art in heart, baby. (Laureen)

Are you a Picasso? Because I'm going to pieces over you! (Faigie)
I've learned my lesson with these shoes: I gotta put them on when I'm outside. Otherwise, the cat confuses the feathery white boa I glued around the shoes for some sorta animal that she must claw, chase after and bite. My bleeding ankles are not a fan of the cat.
Since this week was nutz, what with the full moon and the upcoming break, I've decided to keep this here What I Wore post just as scattered. So pick-up lines and rando photos from my week it 'tis!
Tacky Christmas Day! Tuesday: But, let's be honest, I'd wear this no matter what the day. When the faculty posed for our annual Tacky Christmas Sweater photo this fact was pointed out to me numerous times. Okay, I get it, I'm totes tacky, ya'll! blouse: vintage; headband: clearance somewhere last year; table cloth to skirt: upcoming DIY!; tights: Target; leg warmers folded over as boot socks: Target; gilded gold dot boots: upcoming DIY; giant bow belt: thrifted

Instead of just tacky sweaters, the girls in my sewing group and I decided to wear our latest creations! Not only are these two ladies incredible educators, but look at those fab fashions! Heather (lovely in the middle) created a skirt from a tree skirt while Bethany (beauty on the right) sewed up that super Santa skirt. Not gonna lie, the sewing group at my school is totally rad. P.S. Is that chicken photo-bombing us or what?!
Felted Sweater Wednesday: Have any of you ever attempted felting with children? I've had a lot of kids ask about my felting adventures and express an interest...but it seems more of a small group/art club kind of thing. Any thoughts, ya'll? necklace: vintage, gift from a friend; dotted blouse: Old Navy; felted dog sweater: DIY here; skirt and tights: Target; shoes: Dolls by Nina
I was so excited to come home and find this in my mailbox! It's a lesson I wrote for SchoolArts featuring the work of my (former) fourth grade students. Blog details on that lesson here and digital SchoolArts issue here.

Mrs. Claus Thursday: This has gotta be one of my all-time fave vintage etsy finds. I freakin' love this Christmas dress. It's always a good day when I get to wear it...to bad that day usually only comes once a year! hair clip: DIY here; dress: vintage, etsy; tights: Target; shoes: thrifted, Crocs

Since I can't send all ya'll a Christmas card (although I'd love to!), I thought I'd share them with you here. This year, I uprooted four different photos from Christmas past had them made into our cards. These two were my faves simply because they are horrifying. What you see here is me, full headgear and '80's glasses receiving an OFFICE CHAIR for Christmas while my baby bro Kris looks on. I kinda look like I'm about to back hand him with a "Don't be touchin' my sweet office chair, fool!"
Of course, I can't be the only one in our household I humiliate. Here's a photo of hubs who is not at all enjoying his Santa experience. Although, to be fair, it doesn't look like Santa's having much of a good time either.
Two-Hour Friday!: I love our last day before break. A teacher buddy and I read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas on our school's televised announcements, our music teacher leads a sing-a-long of Christmas tunes during a school-wide assembly, parties are held in the classrooms (were I like to drop by and sample the goods) and then we all go home! And when I got home, I promptly took my long winter's nap. It was divine. tacky Christmas sweater: DIY here; tulle skirt: DIY here; gold leafed shoes: DIY here
Now before heading off to school Friday morning, I decided to treat myself to some Starbucks. While I was waiting in line, I noticed a guy who I thought was taking a picture of me. I brushed it off, thinking I was being paranoid until he did it again. Now. When you dress like I do, you get kinda used to odd stares and comments. And I've even had people ask if they could take my picture before for which I'm always flattered and gladly oblige. After a little bit of sleuthing, I found that not only was my picture snapped but it was also shared on Facebook. Thankfully the comments were harmless and funny but I honestly would have liked it better if the photographer had asked. Because, let's be honest, this is not my best side.
Everyday is Saturday for the Next Two Weeks! Enjoy your holiday time with all of the F's: Food, Fam and Fruitcake (the last two being interchangeable if you are in my family). sweater: vintage, thrifted; dotted top: thrifted; skirt:  Gap Kids, found at Buffalo Exchange; boots: Hunter

Don't forget to vote for the best pick-up line, ya'll! I'll be back soon with a coupla DIY's. Until then, have a great week's end!



Wednesday, December 18, 2013

DIY: Gold Leaf Fringe Shoes

I promise, if you bear with all my random ramblings, I WILL actually get to the DIY portion of this blog. But...it might be a while. So sit back, put your gold-leafed feet up and read on, yo.
First of all, lemme just start by congratulating you on your Amazing Art-sy Pick-Up Lines. If you have no idea earthly idea what I'm talking about, don't you fret. I'll set the scene for you:

Imagine you are in your very first painting class full of the usual suspects: The Patchouli-Smellin' Hippie who will paint a sad parade of Grateful Dead dancing bears on each and every canvas *; The Deep Thinker that will spend days painting his canvas a dark depressing dirt color and title it something like Reflections of My Soul #51 **; The Guy Whose Brain Never Developed Beyond Age 15 whose canvas portrays candy colored sports cars *** and demands to know, "When are we gonna paint from live models so I can see some naked chicks?!" ****
When suddenly, in walks The One...
Who DOESN'T AT ALL look like the lady in the above photo. Naw, man. That's the rando crazy chic who spends more time worrying about her outfit than what she's painting on her canvas. I'm talking about the other one. That one perfect, artsy smartsy being that you just know is the one for you. But! What do you say? 

AND this is where my Artist Pick-Up Line contest left off. Ya'll have been coming up with the best lines. I'm still taking submissions (so hop to it!) and I'll be putting them together in a post at the end of next week. Thus far, here's some gems: 

I'm an artist, but... for you, Baby... I'LL GET A JOB!

At first I thought you were a little sketchy but now I'm really drawn to you.

Hey there, come to this EASEL often?

Are you Picasso? You're looking like you're going to pieces or falling apart over me!

I know, right?! Where were the lines when I was in art school? Don't forget to leave your best submissions in the comments, ya'll. You just might be a wiener. I mean a winner. Whatever, on with the DIY!
Okay, is it just me or are these not the ugliest-cute shoes you've ever seen in your life? I kinda feel about them like I did The Deep Thinker: I love/hate them. But at $198.00 (oh, my bad, now the low low price of 69.95, gee, thanks, Anthro!) I just hate/hate them. So  I decided to invest in a gold leafing kit (in craft stores for under $10) and make my own.
Over the Top Tacky Details: tacky Christmas sweater DIY: DIY from last year, featured here; Anthro-copy tulle skirt DIY: full story here
So I decided to gold leaf these fringe shoes that had been sitting unworn in my closet since I found them in a resale shop. They were just a little too Pocahontas for my taste and I never could seem to find the right outfit to pair them with. Being fringe like the Anthro shoes, I thought I could easily transform them into an Anthro copy.
The gold leafing kit I picked up came with a liquid adhesive, a sealer and some antiquing stuff. The directions said to paint on the adhesive, allow to dry and become tacky and then apply gold leaf. Since I was working with absorbent suede, I gave the fringe a couple of coats of adhesive before attempting the gold leaf.

Now, just a word to yo mother, gold leaf is one finicky b*tch. I thought for sure I'd be able to get my gold leaf on there perfectly as you see in the Anthro shoes...um, no. It's like working with paper that's thinner than tissue and with a mind of it's own. With that in mind, I just pressed the gold leafing to the fringe, gently lifted it and if it stuck, fantastic! If not, well, that part would be without. And, after wrestling with that leafy stuff, I was cool with that. 

Because there was a lot of fringe, this was actually a DIY that took much longer than expected. So I took frequent breaks (not "smoke" breaks, mind you. Chocolate breaks work for me) and ended up working on this over the course of several days. Once each fringe was complete, I sealed it with that sealer stuff. Which smelled like Mod-Podge but tasted like glue, baking soda and a dash of paprika. Just kidding. It didn't taste like glue.
I spy with my little eye a big toe that's busted out of hose. Nice.
And there you have it! Sparkly shoes that I actually think are cuter than those Anthro ones. But that may be all the sealer I consumed talking. 

Don't forget to submit you very best Artsy Pick-Up Lines! We'll vote on the best later next week. 

AND I've not forgotten that this is supposed to also be an art teacher blog...more news on art room happenings soon, I pinky-swear, spit-shake promise!

* Yes, all of these characters are based on Real Life Art Students. That hippie? She once invited me outside for a "smoke" during a break in class. I shoulda known we she dove behind a bush at the back of the art building just what kind of "smoke" she meant. I totally froze, made some excuse about not wanting the oil on my canvas to dry and ran back to class. Needless to say, I was forever more labeled the Class Square.

** Ugh, that guy. He was one of those dudes who spent more stirring his coffee, quoting Russian authors and perfecting his Jackson Pollock-esque appearance than actually hitting brush to canvas. I always considered that guy my nemesis. Mostly cuz he was way smarter than me.

*** Oh boy. And to think I dated that dude. Yeah, seriously. To my credit, I did dump him when I found out his favorite thing to paint was NASCAR. I was not about to compete with Earnhardt, ya'll.

**** My first college roommate just so happened to be a nude model for art classes. Her name was Star (surprised?) and she was just the sweetest naked chick you'd ever wanna meet. She did have this habit where she would "forget" my at-the-time boyfriend was in the room and suddenly drop clothes. Yeah. College. I do not miss thee.

Monday, December 16, 2013

DIY: A Felted Christmas Sweater and a Contest!

You know, sometimes (ahem, most the time) I take photos that look so hokey, I just gotta make fun of myself. Case in point: in the above picture, I kinda look like I just delivered a super cheesy pick up line that I'm mighty proud of. So for the occasion, I scoured the interweb (and my imagination) for The Best Art Teacher Pick Up Lines known to man. Singles-Seeking-Artsy-Types, get that pencil and notebook ready because what I'm about to deliver is nothin' short of epic:

Baby, if you were a Sharpie, you'd be Super Fine.

Hotness, are you an alien? Because your art skillz are Outta This World.

You're so fine, I bet you'd make an Impression on Monet.

Are you a Jackson Pollock? Cuz you just splattered my heart all over the floor! (Like, ew).

Wait a minute, are you a Dali? Because anything as beautiful as you is just surreal.
Outfit details: dotted blouse: Old Navy; original sweater (pre-felting): Buffalo Exchange, Old Navy label; jeans: Target; boots: Hunter
Oh, you think you can do better than that (let's be honest, you totally can)? Well, okay then. I've decided to open this up to a little competition. Leave your very best artsy pick up line(s) in the comments. I'll share 'em in an upcoming post and we'll have a little vote for the best. THE WINNER will receive some totally awesome and amazing gift (read: I've not completely thought this through so I have NO idea what the winner will actually receive but if I were to guess I'd say it will be some unwanted Christmas gift like a stinky candle or smelly lotion. Which reminds me of the time during my first year of teaching, one of my students gifted me lotion called "Body Fantasies" that he said his dad picked out. Awk.Ward. All that to say, that's probably what the winner will receive. Which strikes me as totally appropriate).

So! Please leave your best artsy pick up lines below. I'm so excited to see what you come up with!

But, since this is supposed to be a DIY post, I guess I should talk about my latest Anthro-felted copycat sweater. Now this makes my fifth Anthro-inspired felted sweater (my first, with detailed directions here; next up was this number as well as the skirt; the most time-consuming sweater of all was this one here; and this fall's owlish sweater) and my umpteenth sweater DIY. When I saw this super cute sweater (no longer available, originally priced at $118), my first thought was "I can felt that!" So I kept my eyes pealed (does anyone else hate that saying besides me?!) at the resale shops and found this Old Navy number for $8. Take that, Anthropologie. I just saved myself a whopping $110 that I will most assuredly spend at your store sooner or later.
I began by sketching the little guy out. Feel free to steal this image for your own sweater. I did.
Once I got him placed on my sweater, I decided two things: one, my drawing was too small. So I simply laid it on another sheet of paper and drew it larger. And second, just having the dog alone was boring. I wanted something a little Christmas-y so I decided to put a wreath in his mouth and lose the tongue.
I went about felting this pup the same way I did my Crazy Cat Lady Sweater: I cut out my image; created an outline by felting 100% wool yarn around my drawing; filled in my drawing with wool roving. It's really that easy, ya'll.
The good news is, if you screw it up, you are only out what little you paid at the thrift store. And if you really really  don't like it, you can have a pick-up-line competition on your blog and simply give it away! It's truly a win-win (or a win-sorry, suckas!) any way you look at it.
Now for the wreath, I didn't have any "festive" green, just a lime and natural green. So I used a combo of them both and felted some leafy shapes. This went by fairly quickly which made me happy because I tend to be "over it" after just about an hour of any activity. Except Chocolate-Eating-Competitions. For that I'm good for dayssss.
After felting the wreath for a while, I decided I needed to add a bow. Which seems to be a bit of a theme as both the Crazy Cat Lady Sweater and the Owl Sweater feature bows.
...almost finished...
And, viola! A super grainy close up for your viewing pleasure! Once complete, I did flip the sweater inside out and give it a good ironing. And even though I'll only get to wear this Christmas-themed sweater a couple times a year, I'm glad I added the wreath. I like the bit of festive color it adds as opposed to all that black and white.
Just a little behind-the-scenes story for you: my fat furry friend here is in love with my tripod. Which makes taking these pictures a little difficult as she's usually rubbing her face all over the tripod legs causing the camera to shake when I'm attempting these cheese-ball photos of mine. When she's not slobbering all over the tripod, she's kind of dancing in and out of the legs. Hubs has likened it to a kitty cat stripper pole. To get her away from the tripod, I'm usually calling her which means she engages in a little photo-bombing. And, let's be honest, this sweet girl totally steals the show every time.

And, there ya have it, folks! 

Wait, before you go, I just gotta ask: Are you a Seurat because you have so many beautiful points!

Don't forget to leave your best pick-up lines in the comments below for the Best Artsy Pick-Up Line Contest! Feel free to enter as may as you like. Chat with you soon!