Little Lina’s Lovelies Home

Packing up my bags for a little vacation time, I’ll be away until Feb. 18th-ish. So I’m closing up this boutique for the time being, then I will be back refreshed, with tons of picts to share as well! Thanks for stopping by and check back in with me after the 18th!

Warmest wishes

Little Lina

During the deep freeze of the last couple weeks, things were pretty busy. Besides creating probably the world’s best fish chowder recipe, the January painting got underway and the littlelinaslovelies boutique sold some items as well. Picture time!

This is the January piece that I am painting LIVE on my lunch hour show this week. I broadcast from 12pm to 1pm so you can sit back at your desk, veg out and watch some magic happen. You might even be inspired to throw down some paint yourself!

Original sketch

Underpainting in raw umber

Fast forward through 1 picture and you have where I am today

These got out the door after the snow melted and I wasn’t snowed in anymore!

So all in all, pretty good start to the New Year. By the way, you can keep up with my antics on my flickr site too, I post more things there than I blog about here and you can see my pictures larger than you see them here. Hope where ever you are, you’re staying warm!

So I have streamed about 3 LIVE shows now, where I am working on my acrylic painting for my Christmas cards and for December’s collaboration. I hope to finish it today so I can move on to…

Crafting a Tote

Or a little something I call functional upcycling!

Tune in here on my blog at 12 eastern standard time, Dec 10th, to see the suprising project!

At 12pm (est) I will be broadcasting from here.

This is the piece I am working on

This year Little Lina’s Lovelies and Raven Girl’s Nest packed up their bags and traveled to ICE, the Indie Craft Experience, in Atlanta. It was held by Ambient + Photo Studio in their loft like studio space.

They were even cool enough to offer free portraits in their natural light alcove. I’m so jealous they have a natural light alcove, brilliant!

I spent so much time shopping that I really didn’t photograph products as much as I would have liked. This not so well thought out shot still came out with cool colors. If you made these birds, let me know!

Random shot of vendors and shoppers, this one caught Christy Wooke, the illustrator in her booth. I think I will see her again, her site says her next stop is The Big Crafty in Asheville, NC on Dec. 6th.

After the show, and after many mouthfuls of sushi, we went to The Alcove, a contemporary arts gallery in Atlanta. I have wanted to visit this place since I think I saw them selling Audrey Kawasaki prints a year ago. Could be wrong, I have a bad memory.

Anyway, this place was full of eye candy, amazing artwork that is super fun to look at, interact with and just all around enjoy. The gallery owner, H.C. WARNER, is a very cool guy, laid back and easy to talk to, even for someone as shy as myself. He makes you feel very welcome into his space and he’s very passionate about his work.

So all in all, ICE 2009 was awesome, you should definitely go to see the fine quality work/artists there. I definitely hope to be a part of it next year.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I’m so happy to announce that Little Linas Lovelies.com now has artwork in an Art Gallery in Asheville, North Carolina. Man’s Ruin was awesome enough to display “Legendary” and the new “Her Wings” on their walls. Prints of all the artwork sold here are also available at their Gallery.

Man’s Ruin, Tattoo, Piercings and Art Gallery in Asheville, is owned by Heather Ruin. She has been tattooing for about 10 years and has held the title of “Best of Asheville” for 7 years and running! The shop is a very cool place, which is run by a female crew, who decided to display the art of locals to support the community, a great idea! Jenn Sumo manages the Art Gallery and all 36 artists who have their work there, special props to her for accepting my work!

This display will run from Sept. 1st, 2009 through Jan. 31st, 2010, so if you are in the area, stop in, get your nose pierced and perhaps a tattoo, and see Little Lina’s Lovelies all framed and kick-ass looking on the wall!

My illustration for this week’s illustrationfriday.com theme of “Modify” not only is a modification of my usual logo for littlelinaslovelies.com, it is also to let you know:

I’m now officially on Twitter > www.twitter.com/linaslovelies

Now you can keep up with my everyday antics. I sing the following song to you (sung to the Styx song Come Sail Away) Come follow me, Come follow me, Come foooolllow meee Today! Ok, that’s lovely, I hope I entertained you in some fashion.

Anyway, I hope you like this modification to my logo, I think the bird is adorable! I might be bias though. I also tweaked some things about the eye area that I didn’t like before.

Hope to see you on Twitter my fine, artistic friends!

I had a wonderfully simple birthday this year, It pretty much involved great food, playing with the new kittens, and relaxing. I got a bouquet of beautiful wildflowers with coffee first thing, thanks honey, you’re the best!

Then we sat down and fed the kittens for a bit, and played with them.

“meow meow meow!”

Then came some relaxation, watching my garden grow.

I planted Dill (pictured here) and Cilantro in my window box, they are coming up, I’m so excited. Normally I don’t have much luck with plants.

My container garden, Tommy Toe Tomatoes, I think I see about 6 little green tomatoes so far, and some buds starting. And the little red guy was a present, so cute isn’t he!

Then we went and had a wonderful breakfast, did a little shopping, and fed the kittens again. I think over all the kittens had a great day too!

Dinner was fabulous, cupcakes with home-made frosting abound, more kitten feeding, then I passed right out.

~A Wonderful day~

I found out the next day I’d lost my grandmother.
Love you Grandma, sleep peacefully.

It’s Nov. 18th and between snowflakes Carrie Harris modeled some pieces from Heaven’s View Acres. Thank you Carrie, you did a wonderful job in the 30 degree weather.

Lighting is a funny thing, I think that doing photo shoots with models definitely go better when you are outside. Light cloud cover is nice, this way your model isn’t desperately trying not to squint. The natural light is important as well.

Today most of the shots were done indoors, it was tough since the clouds outside were racing across the sky. And while I was trying to use the natural lighting from the doors and windows, I do love how the shots from outside came out. Originally we were supposed to shoot this entire shoot in and around an old barn that was painted white. But thanks to the freezing temperature I had to improvise, but like I said, I do like the end product.

Oh and in case you were wondering if your eyes were going, the shawls pictured are two different colors. The one on the left is white and the one on the right is cream colored. And these luxurious shawls are done by Jan Harris and Gail Vincent and Heaven’s View Acres. They will have a new online store coming soon.

Seventh Annual Benefit and Cabaret - New York City, NY 2008

This is the photo of my donation to SRT’S Seventh Annual Benefit & Cabaret in NYC tonight. I packaged my donations in this refurbished cigar box with my logo/illustration on the top - I love it! Talk about recycling-reusing, this came out beautifully.

Now when you open the cigar box, you see an On-The-Go Bag in Dreamy Cream and my “Sparrow To My Heart” hand-painted, bamboo necklace lovingly displayed. I added a small business card to the lid, it is my hope that when this item is displayed, they will have it open with the items.

Also I hope the benefit goes perfectly for them, it sounds like so much fun! I’ve included the information below.

Sonnet Sings: The Bard
SRT’S SEVENTH ANNUAL BENEFIT & CABARET
An Evening of Original Songs inspired by the Work of William Shakespeare

Contributors to our one-night-only benefit event include: Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Award-winning, and Grammy Award-nominated STEPHEN FLAHERTY, Ragtime, Seussical, Once on This Island, Obie Award-winner JEFF BOWEN, Eight-time Academy Award, seven-time Golden Globe Award, and six-time Grammy Award-winning composer and pianist ALAN MENKEN, Little Shop of Horrors, Disney’s The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, and many others, Academy and Tony Award-nominated, and Grammy Award-winning composer HENRY KRIEGER, Dreamgirls, The Tap Dance Kid, Sideshow, and Tony Award-winning composers, lyricists, and collaborators BOBBY LOPEZ & JEFF MARX Avenue Q.

Scheduled performers include: HEIDI BLICKENSTAFF, MATT CAVENAUGH, A Catered Affair, Grey Gardens, Urban Cowboy and the upcoming revival of West Side Story, REBECCA NAOMI JONES, Passing Strange, Wig Out!, Tony Award-nominated actress CELIA KEENAN-BOLGER, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, The Light in the Piazza, and the revival of Les Miserables, HENRY KRIEGER, performing his own work, Rick Lyon, puppeteer, designer, creator, and originator of several roles in the Tony and Drama Desk Award-winning musical Avenue Q with a surprise special guest, PAUL DAVID STORY, Equus, The Cain Mutiny Court-Martial, and cast members from the recent Shakespeare in the Park revival of Hair.

The evening will be hosted by SUSAN BLACKWELL, known for her role in SRT’s “Little Fairies” will reprise a scene from this summer’s production of Shakespeare’s Midsummer.

WHEN: Monday, November 17 from 5:30 – 8:30 pm
WHERE: Birdland Jazz, 315 West 44th Street, Between 8th and 9th Avenues

TICKETS
Reserve online through Birdland at www.birdlandjazz.com, under “Schedule” or call 212.581.3080

Tickets are priced at three tiers: $80 (includes orchestra seat, two tickets to SRT’s Spring Mainstage production, and one ticket for the evening’s exclusive raffle), $60 (general seating), and $40 (bar seating). Seating within your tier is first-come-first-served. Please arrive promptly at 5:30pm and enjoy a cocktail on SRT for the first hour!

Can’t make the event but want to contribute to SRT? You can donate online at www.sonnetrepertorytheatre.org!