Auction item: A Day At Cathy Heck Studio. Winner: Alessandra, a talented freshman in high school who is already soaring with her artistic endeavors. We started the day with a portfolio review and then we got to work. We scanned several of Alessandra’s pieces so that she would be able to use her own artwork while taking her first Photoshop lesson from our Photoshop magician, Greg. After learning to rotate, feather, marqee and lasso (not the Texas kind), Alessandra was ready to create her first products. She made a set of stationery for a good friend, and two sets of stationery that could rival any on the market. We printed the products, packaged them and she was on her way. I did remind her that Photoshop is just a tool, albeit a wonderful tool, and she should NOT give up her pens, pencils and brushes. Keep making art Alessandra! We already see great things coming from your talented hands. (See Alessandra’s work below.)

This is one time that I wish we had a way to transport scents as fast as pictures. The scent of this flower is not a lovely lilac or wysteria scent, but rather the fascinating scent of the taste of Goofy Grape, the flavor of one of the Funny Face drink mixes that we used to buy when I was a little girl. We love when the Mountain Laurel blooms, and I find it sort of amazing that Mother Nature could create a scent that is the same as a fake-grape scent made by man trying to copy a scent from Mother Nature!

Here’s an old ad I found for Funny Face Drink Mixes for those of you who never were lucky enough to know Goofy Grape! And for those of you who do remember, happy fake-grape-purple-toungue-on-a-summer-day memories!

Speaking of juice…

This is me being enamored with how beautiful the orange halves look on the counter top while my diligent husband actually does the work of squeezing them. :)

When Julianna went to visit her sister, Ellen, in Berkeley over Spring Break, they stayed busy the whole time. Jules learned the many stages of the fine art of printmaking with Ellen, who is a resident artist at the Kala Art Institute. Julianna did not need any lessons, however, in the fine art of shopping. She can spot a bargain a mile away.

So…when the three of us were in grade school and prolifically producing schoolwork, my mom was always diligent about sorting and binding a “best of” for each academic year. It’s so satisfying to be able to go back and quickly get a glimpse of yourself at 8, 12 and 16 years old. However, while the uniform pages of our academic lives were conducive to a book format – the artwork produced during these years varies largely in size – and why shouldn’t it? So the question becomes, “Where will the masterpieces of childhood reside?” Under the bed? Bound up in a portfolio, never to see the light of day? In a flatfile – if you’re lucky, or if you’ve got a couple hundred extra dollars to spare and a chunk of space.

Enter: the portfolio box.

Once you’ve made one, you’ll probably want to make another, because not only do they look beautiful together, but unlike the under-bed scenario, a portfolio box, beautiful and inviting on the bookshelf in the living room cries out to you or your guests, “Open me. Discover the treasures that surely lie within!” (or something to that extent…)

It is simply a clamshell box that is large enough and flat enough to suit a substantial stack of papers. I received a professional one as part of a trade portfolio once, and modeled all the others after it. The great part is, a professional box will run from $100 up, but you can build one for about $12!

For some quick step-by-step instructions, click here.

And now you have a beautiful place to store flat artwork that also invites you to actually look at said artwork on a regular basis… Instead of a coffee table book, try a coffee table box!

Happy Sticky Fingers!

(This post is now one of the projects you can find at A Soft Place to Land’s Do It Yourself Party.)