Early Work Offerings

Hello everyone! It has been impossibly sunny and warm and beautiful here. I admit, I have been off frolicking and reading books in the sun and have been away more than usual. But it is always time to get some pretty paintings done.

I am happy to announce that the second month of goodies at Early Work Mercantile will be available to browse bright and early on June 1! I am offering a sweet little painting called Coraline:

CLICK HERE to see purchasing info on her.

She was the first of my Civil War era girls, inspired by the beautiful and haunting photography of Civil War era children I found in a great book on fashions of the time. The painting is done in my collage style but with a rustic folk are flair. The collage is inscribed "simply blessed."

Here are three other Early Work paintings that still need good homes :) I really love this era and hope you enjoy browsing the Mercantile. i am blown away by all the talent and artisans on there! Pretty much all of my favorite early-era artists are on there, including incredible doll makers.

Hope all is well with you and yours! Hello there, summer!~
heather

A Little House Adventure

And so, we are back from the Little House! We made the trek up to Independence, Kansas with our sweet little friends Holly and Ruby yesterday and had such a fun time. We arrived around noon at the site where an old farm house stands (now converted into a Laura Ingalls gift shop) with Pa's hand-dug well still in the back yard, a replica cabin and two other local historical buildings that were moved to the site.

Ruby and Audrey channel their inner-prairie girls

It was a surprisingly chilly day for some reason (day before was broiling!) but it was so beautiful and peaceful there. So easy to imagine a tiny Mary and Laura running around chasing little prairie critters. Everything was so intensely green and the sky, though cloudy, was a beautiful dome overhead. There was still plenty of long green grasses for the girls to frolic in and I think they had a good time although they're too little to know why we were even there.

The replica cabin much like what Pa would have built.

We had a good time wandering through the area, and were the only ones there for a bit. We bought a few things at the gift shop and then sat down to have a yummy picnic that Holly made for us. I'm sure Ma would have envied our meal!~ No salt pork for us ;)

Audrey and Ruby explore the small post office on the site that was from the turn of the century

Audrey channeled her inner-Laura and ditched the sun bonnet...

It's strange to imagine that the little girls were frolicking and playing in fields and grasses that the Little House girls also played in...In real life, Laura would have been exactly Audrey and Ruby's age (two years) when she lived out in the Kansas prairie.

The Kansas Little House was a beautiful place and I'd love to go again. Even though we were all tired by the time we got home, it was a great adventure and one I highly suggest if you're a Little House fan.

If you're in the Tulsa area, basically all you do is take Highway 75 north all the way to Kansas. There are historical markers along the road that will guide you to the Little House site that is not very far from the high way on a little country road.

This is officially my second visit to a little house site--- I went to the Mansfield home of Laura and Almanzo and Rose in Missouri back when I was about 12. I totally need to go back....Maybe we can get our Little House partners in crime, Holly and Ruby, to join us some day ;)

All for now...

~H

Collaging the past

This Memorial Day we went out with my parents to the ol' cemetery to pick up our flowers from family members' graves. My mom likes to leave real flowers, and usually brings her big and beautiful pots of flowers from her own home to adorn loved ones' graves.
While we rambled through the stones (I always get caught up reading names and dates and imagining lives) I found great-great grandma Lula Mae resting near her second husband, Mr. Bowden. She was born Aug. 16, 1892. She very well could have been born here, when it was Indian Territory. It made me want to search out more about her, and especially Jim-- the father of her only son and my great-great grandfather. He is buried somewhere in an unmarked grave. I feel the need to find him...

The young Van Winkles

And being so inspired by my young and dashing great-great grandparents who lived out in the prairie but (obviously) still had great style, I've decided to use them as inspiration for my first collage for KC Willis' "Collage Camp."
We are having such fun in this class, which is completely online, and I am blown away by the creations I see made by my fellow classmates. I am modestly trying to make my own creation. I hope Lula and Jim would approve ;)


KC is an awesome teacher and the videos are great quality. I am so excited about my creations and getting to know my sewing machine... I love the richness of the texture of using fabrics. Its just something you dont get with paper. And if all goes well, I hope to enter my collage in the local art show next month :)

You saw a peek at some of my materials drying in the sun a couple of weeks ago...hope to soon have a finished product to show...slowly but surely...so much going on...

Tomorrow we'll be out and about on the neatest adventure ever. A real prairie adventure...yes, we're going to head out to the Ingalls homestead in rural Kansas. Try not to be jealous ;) I will take a bejillion photos (as always)

Til then...
~H

Rosey inspirations

Summer is here and the Little House is in bloom. I have become somewhat of an old lady about my roses...I feed them their special food and look them over and make sure they're healthy and happy and growing and count their new buds...I dont know what it is about roses that make you just want to stop and stare. But they are the prettiest part of my rambling garden....

That's the kitty Clementine walking down the walkway. I swear, she is in all my front porch photos because that is her domain. She is the front porch kitty. Her sister Annie Oakley was out on one of her adventures and so wasn't available for photos ;)

What have I been up to, you ask? Why, I have been painting between all the time we spend running around outside, reading old magazines in the sun and enjoying the miracle of library books (It feels like shopping, but its free!) I have three flapperish paintings completed for the July show and I thought I'd get them in the garden for a photo shoot:

This is "The Debutante" and you will remember her from my last post when she was only half finished! Now she has a background and is looking much more deep and spooky. Do you like her?

These pretty girls are "The Bathing Beauties" inspired by all those old timey beach photos I've been looking at. I love the look and the asian umbrellas. These are my beachy girls:

This one is little and fun-- the script says "it takes a lot of effort to look this good." And boy did it back then...how they got their hair in those perfect waves was a bit frightening. I once saw an old perm machine at the historical museum here in town...all metal with all these hooks and wire...it looked frightening!

I've got much much more to do but I'm trying to pace myself. Paint when I can and when I'm inspired. All this sun is making it difficult though...I just want to hang out and languish.

Hope you're having a great holiday weekend...

~H

summery flapper love

My mind is full of flappers at the moment. Finger waves and red lipstick. Knee socks and ribbons at the beach.

These images are my inspiration for the gallery show at Shade of Brown in July. Its going to be in the very heat of the summer, and I was thinking of warm nights out on the porch drinking iced tea, bathing beauties, debutantes, and intrigue the likes of F Scott Fitzgerald. Thinking of the wild times Margaret Mitchell was having dancing the nights away in Atlanta before she sat down to write that pesky All-American Novel.

We went by Shade of Brown over the weekend and I came home knowing I had a lot to get done. Like three rooms of space a lot to get done. But instead of feeling extremely overwhelmed I was completely excited about the challenge. It's going to be a test and I have complete free reign on it. Here's hopin' it turns out well ;)

Hehehe, I love this photo. I think I'm going to paint a couple in this pose. I think he's wearing eyebrow liner...but her face is so impish and cute. I heart flappers.

This is my first painting. She's "The Debutant." I love her mint green dress. This was her 'in process' because I love an occassional 'in process' look...she is done now, as is a second smaller painting. I've got another large bathing beauties painting almost finished now. I am on a mission.

Now someone hand me a mint julep. Let's go do the charleston....

Welcome summer sale~

Something about the changing of the season just makes me want to redecorate! And what's more fun than redecorating online without all the pesky mess? Audreyeclectic.com has a whole new look that goes more with the look of the blog and I love it. Come check it out HERE

In celebration of the new look, there is a big fun sale going on at the Audrey Eclectic Etsy shop! Free shipping on every item! There are some good deals to be had-- especially on the big wooden items. Come see! The sale runs May 18-May 20. So hurry :)

Notes, with love, from the prairie...

Hello my dear letter and postcard lovers. Here are a few 'post cards' from the prairie for you....

It was a beautiful, brilliant day today. We went strolling through an art festival-- Blue Dome Arts Festival in downtown Tulsa to be exact--- then came home and took our puppy and girl to romp and frolic in the prairie just out our back gate. The wind blew through the grasses making them roll like the sea...a sea speckled with wild flowers and flitting birds...

The wind caught her skirt and unfurled it, just like the sails of a ship...she looked so sweet....

Hello and welcome...

Here I am, the prairie mama. Sporting my new necklace made by the lovely Miss Penny at Sparrow Salvage. You can read about her in the latest Artful Blogging. Beautiful stuff!

I love to take photos of the things (and little girls!) I love. I think the place I live in is a beautiful place, but we all live in beautiful places. You just have to keep your eyes open and pay attention. Beautiful moments can happy any place at any time...

lace & love

Pretty things can be so simple, like lace and old tattered cotton drying on a rack outside.

These little treasures are part of a new art project I'm working on. Something new I'm trying. It's good to try new things. These past few years have been filled with so much new and so many wonderful things. It is good to feel like you're finally at home with yourself and where you always wanted to be but didnt know if you'd ever get there.

It's good to be home.

A postal romance

You might say war started my love with letters. I was in the third grade during the gulf war and our class each had a soldier to write to. I dont remember my soldier's name or much of what he said (unfortunately) but I do remember being dazzled by words and descriptions of a world far away from mine, of an exotic postmark and the knowledge that what I held in my hands had traveled so far to come to me.

Throughout my childhood I collected penpals. From Florida to Pennsylvania. Even a girl in Russia. In this day of Facebook pokes as tags and nudges, as well as email and (God forbid) text messages, the romance of the letter has faded for most of the world, but not for me. I still get a thrill at the mailbox when I see my name handwritten on a pretty envelope. It's true love.

The other day I received a mailbox feast-- a pretty little handwritten note from my longtime pal and beautiful artist and photographer Merle Pace as well as a sweet note and a stack of gorgeous vintage photos from the sweetest lady, Becky at The Gritty Bird. I was so touched that she would send these treasures to me. I am always touched when people take the time to write letters or notes. They are getting too rare in this world.

The other day at Deluxe I purchased these postcards from Samantha Lamb. She is a complete sweetheart, a young woman living on her own farm in southwestern Oklahoma, and she captures in her photography everything I love and find so inspiring about this prairie life. You must go check out her site!
My plan is to send some of these cards (if I can part with them!) to some of my sweetheart friends across the country, especially my dear little 'grown up' penpal Andrea over at Cider and Faun. When we discovered a mutual love of letter writing, we decided to share letters about our lives. It has been so sweet and fun and even our girls swap drawings and cards. Precious!

Letter writing is an art. It is an art that anyone can do and anyone can love. And it brings such happiness so simply. It is a life-long romance....

In the morning

Its another rainy and gray morning here on the prairie. I think morning is my favorite time. Its cool out, everything seems rested and fresh and the light is beautiful--- usually--- when the rainy clouds arent in the way.
Yesterday morning Audrey and I got up early and went to sit out on the back porch in our pajamas. We just sat and rocked and snuggled up to listen to the birds. I had a very good mother's day.

I also managed to list quite a few of my paintings on Etsy yesterday, several (Like Leona, left) have never been online. So do come visit the shop!

We're also enjoying our new floors very, very much! i am so thrilled to be done with so much carpet! Here is a little before/after shot of our living room:

Before

After

The new floors just give the whole room a new depth and they're a million times easier to clean. If you've ever had a little girl and her little puppy run through your house with mud caked feet, you'll appreciate this :)

Anyhow....next up, some commission paintings and preping for the art show in July at Shades of Brown. I can't wait to get started! Lots of dark flappers, moody girls and mystery. If you're in the area, I do hope you come to the show!

All for now....
~H

Deluxed and back

Happy Mother's Day everyone! Well, we're back from Deluxe! We had a good time and I loved seeing everyone again and meeting new vendors. Due to traffic and other things, we got there later than usual and I was still putting the last few things together when the show opened at noon. Here's a look at our booth:

The dolls' debut, Gertie Maud and Annie Maud
Beaucoup paintings

My friend Beth and her husband in her new booth! Beth runs Art by Bethany.

The whole show

For better or for worse, I still have a good ammount of paintings left over. I discovered a crafter's secret, that fall and winter shows are more successful than spring ones. I think many vendors got the old "Oh, I'll be back later" line ;) Atleast I never hear "Oh, I could make that." That is one vendor's particularly hate ;)

Anyhow, I will slowly but surely be listing everything I have on Etsy. Some of them have never been photographed or scanned, so I will need to do that. But I've got lots of lovely things to add to the store. So check back!~

~H

It's Deluxe time again!!

Hello my friends! Well, its been a long week of house renovations and being all out of sorts but the floors are in--- they are beautiful--- and its time for an event I've been looking forward to for months!

Deluxe:

If you're in the Oklahoma City area or feel like a road trip to our lovely state capitol, you must come down to the state fairgrounds and shop Deluxe! Admission is totally free, there will be door prizes, and there will be about 75 dazzling artists and crafters there. The show will be open from 12-6 pm.

Here's a bit about the event:

"Deluxe is an indie craft fair in Oklahoma City,where more than 75 artists show and sell their workto enthusiastic shoppers from all over the region.All items are handmade, no resellers are allowed.While the event has an energetic spirit and youthful vibe,our vendors and shoppers are all ages!"

I had such a great time at the Deluxe Holiday Bazaar last year. This is the booth we had in December and I am happy to say that I've probably got twice the items for this upcoming show and beacoup ornaments.

And yes, that dashing bearded man will be with me as always ;) And I even made some special paintings featuring the guys for this show :) Don't want them to feel left out!

Can't wait to see you all there! And best of luck to my good friend Beth of Art by Bethany. This will be her first show!!! So come visit us all there...see you Saturday!

In the secret garden...

Yesterday morning Audrey and I set out for an adventure. Dressed in a sweet flouncy dress, I took her to the city rose garden and there we played and ran around and took some beautiful photographs.

I've always enjoyed dressing up and having a good photoshoot ;) and to me, good photos are like paintings. And yes, I take a ton of photos in hopes of getting a few good ones. Thank goodness for digital cameras....I wouldnt be surprised if these gems came out of a disc filled with 200 pics....

We're still a bit displaced while our floors are in the process of being redone. I'm playing catch-up online while I can :) I cant wait for this week to be done, my floors in, and my paintings all packed in the truck and headed toward Oklahoma City. And some day, i wish the sun would come out....This has been such a rainy and cloudy spring!

Anyhow...hope you enjoyed your romp through the secret garden with us!

Til next time...
~H

We're Renovating

It's time....

Things are in a little upheaval now as we do some house projects. And when I say "we" I mean the professional people who know what they're doing. In truth, my part is just not to step on wet tiles. I can totally live with that!
So, I will be a little less in the loop than usual, but still around. Deluxe is ever so much nearer and I am so excited! I cant wait to see sellers like Raggedy Pageant, Sweetheartville, Hollyrocks and all the amazing crafters that will be there!
Can't wait....


PS: Dont you love this house? I've posted this pic before but I thought it was fitting. You can find it off of Highway 62 (I believe) headed toward Gateway, Arkansas. I know it was once so sweet...just needs a few updates ;)

Offerings

Happy May Day everyone! It is gray and soggy here...rain rain all weekend long. However, I do have some very nice announcements and peeks for you!
First and foremost--- the eagerly anticipated Early Works Mercantile is now open!
Please do visit and see all the amazing offerings artists from around the country are selling. Dolls, trinkets, artwork, all with a distinctly 18th and 19th century feel. So many gorgeous things!
Of course I would love you to visit my shop and see my three little paintings:

Audrey Eclectic at Early Work Mercantile

These three sweet rustic paintings are reminescent of folk art portraits created in the late 1700s/early 1800s when peddling painters roamed the countryside offering portraits for payment. Early Americans, eager to seem as sophisticated and well-off as their European cousins were eager to sit for an artist. So I present you with my own unique interpretations:
"The Gentleman Takes a Wife", "Eugenia and Eustacia" and "Country Bride."

These paintings are only available through the mercantile. So please come visit!

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In other busyness...

Yesterday I set up a mock-booth in our media room to see just how all my stuff would fit together and how much more paintings I needed. I'm pleased to say that the booth is pretty full, and i still have all my little flapper paintings to complete and display. I hope if you're in the area you'll make it out to Deluxe Indie Craft Bazaar in OKC. It is going to be so much fun, and there are tons of hip vendors participating.

Here's a peek at some of the things to be offered there:

Most of what I'm taking is small or medium sized art. In my experience, atleast, people dont seem to go for the large artwork. They like it, they just end up with something smaller and more managable. However, I did want to bring one large painting if only to be eye-catching. This is Country Angel:

Funny story about her....I painted her a few weeks ago and when I sealed her I left her outside to dry (you know, so I didnt asphixiate us all!) That morning I had an eye doctor appointment, and as I drove across the Arkansas River bridge and rain drops began to fall....I remembered...this painting was sitting out on my back porch!

I had to make a few frantic phone calls and finally my mom had to drive over to my house and stick her inside. I was so terrified that I'd made this large painting only to let it get ruined by rain! Luckily, it wasnt raining at my house and the painting is fine ;)

Anyhow...please do visit the Mercantile! You'll be enchanted. And I cant wait to see all of you going to Deluxe on May 9. What fun we'll have!~

~Heather