This shop update is looooooong overdue, and I don’t have as many new pieces to share as I would like to. However, I have added a couple of watercolours and several photographs to my Artyologist shop this month, so I thought I ought to share them!
Also, you might have noticed already, I have now updated my shop tabs in the upper menu and sidebar of the blog. Now, if you click on “art shop” (or the pictures in the sidebar) you will be taken to my Art Shop page. Once on this page, you will see images of each item I have for sale, and when you click on the image you will be taken directly to the Society 6 page for that item. 🙂 I hope to be adding more pieces very soon, and I will update the page each time I have added a new piece of art! And as for the new pieces I mentioned in the beginning, read on!
I did the watercolour and pen above, “Hens and Chicks” last Fall. It is available as a giclée print, either framed or unframed. I also thought that this piece lent itself well to being a good stationery design so it is also available as greeting cards, in case wall art isn’t your thing. And I have also made it available as a fun phone case! 🙂 It is available for several different iPhone and Samsung phones.
The other watercolour and ink I have is “Alfalfa Bouquet“. I posted this one on my Instagram, with no plans of adding it to the shop right away, and then had several lovely people ask me to add it, so here it is! It is available as an art print, framed print, phone case or cards.
I have also now added some of my photography. I have a sort of series going on currently, as all of the pieces are of abandoned buildings. They are available as prints, framed prints or canvases.
Heritage, art print (ps. this is the door in the abandoned homestead above)
Well, that’s all for a shop update for now! I am working on a new piece, and hope to add it “soon”. 😉 Also, one other thing to note is that Society 6 often has sales and free shipping offers, so if you are interested in purchasing a piece from me (in which case, thank-you so much!!!) then I would suggest checking to see if they have a promo going on. 🙂
Last week I took a much needed holiday. Originally it was supposed to be a five day getaway, spanning from Saturday to Wednesday, but when I got back home, my new work computer hadn’t arrived yet (my other one had been sent back, since the hard drive was having problems), and so I was “forced” to take an extra four days off 😉
My friend Chantelle and I planned a while ago to go and visit one of our college friends in Calgary, as she is working there for the summer. Since Chantelle has been wanting to visit Calgary for a while, and I grew up in the area, we both thought a holiday in the city would be fun. I have already shared some pictures of Heritage Park, last week, and if you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen some of these already, but today I am sharing some of the other pictures I took during my little trip to Calgary.
—
Inglewood, Memorial Park and Lougheed House
I spent three days in Calgary, as the first two days were spent at a family gathering, so my first day in the city was Monday. We wanted to tour the Glenbow Museum, but when we found out that it was closed, we decided to go shopping in one of the older areas, a neighbourhood called “Inglewood”, instead. However, one thing we didn’t plan for was that almost everything is closed on Mondays! All of the art galleries and many of the shops we passed by were closed, which I thought was rather strange for a large city. Thus, instead of browsing, we mainly wandered around looking at old buildings, ate lunch in an English style pub, walked around Memorial Park, and then traversed the grounds of Lougheed house, because, (you guessed it) the house was closed! Even though we did get caught in the rain towards the end of the day, it was still a great time spent exploring and spending time together. And a note to the future- don’t go on a trip to Calgary on a Monday!
The grounds at Lougheed House, below.
—
Heritage Park
The second day was spent at Heritage Park, and though I did already share some pictures of the historical settlement last week, this week I am sharing some photos of the village. We had perfect weather for our day at Heritage Park; sunny, but not too hot and although at first we had thought we would spend only half the day there, we ended up spending seven hours at the park, and still not seeing everything! My favourite parts of the day were watching the street theatre my friend was in, buying a twenty-five cent newspaper which was printed on a 150 year old printing press, and visiting the Famous Five centre in the replica of Nellie McClung’s house. It was great to see the rooms where they discussed women’s right to be considered “persons”, especially since I could see the real Nellie McClung house from the apartment I was staying in. The attention to detail at Heritage Park is fascinating, and as you walk through it, you don’t feel as though you are in a park, since all of the buildings are ones that were moved there, or are authentic reproductions of historical places.
Nellie McClung’s house above, and, below, a photo of her and Emmaline Pankhurst.
The village main “street”, strawberry ice cream from the ice cream parlour, and the ranch house (below).
—
The Cityscape
The view from the balcony.
The third day, Wednesday, was, sadly, the day that Chantelle and I had to leave. After one last look at the view off of our friends apartment balcony, we said goodbye, and then headed downtown (which was only a few blocks away). Chantelle and I wandered around downtown for an hour and a half, before we left the city, because we wanted to be able to see the skyscrapers, and “experience city life”. I loved seeing the contrast of the old and the new. All of the historical sandstone buildings with a backdrop of metal and glass behind, is such an interesting sight. We also loved walking through the “+15” skywalk (which connects many of the buildings in the downtown core) and walking past, and almost going into, a building that was being evacuated! Whoops! (we were wondering why all of those people were milling around!)
Above, just a random pretty house I saw, and below, the boarding house across the street, which was overshadowed by many tall apartment buildings.
Then, after our feet were almost worn off, we left the city and headed for home. We stopped for lunch in Lacombe on the way home, because Chantelle has always wanted to see that town, and then the holiday was over!
It was a very short trip to Calgary, but it was so wonderful to just get away for a while. I don’t really like traveling, but because the nature of my day job is that I am almost always “on call”, it was actually really wonderful to literally walk away from my computer and leave the phone behind, and focus on other things for a while. And, because I wasn’t at home, I was able to take an actual break, without work staring me in the face!
Have you ever taken a very quick roadtrip somewhere? Do you like to travel, or are you a homebody? Have you ever visited Calgary?
I just got back from a short holiday in Calgary, and while I enjoyed my time in the city, it’s good to be home again. I actually grew up in a town on the outskirts of Calgary, so it was strangely like “coming home”, but also different than I remembered, since it’s been 10 years since I moved away!
My friend Chantelle and I took a trip to the city for a few days to visit a friend of ours who is working at Heritage Park for the summer. We had a great time visiting the park, as it has been close to 15 years since I last visited, and Chantelle had never visited. It was fun day stepping back in time, not only to the history of Canada in the 1800’s, but also stepping back in time to my own childhood! The best thing about a historical park is really that nothing changes- the one room schoolhouse was exactly as I remembered it from when I was in Grade Three. 🙂
I wanted to share some photos from the trip right away, before I get distracted and move onto other things. I have shared some of the photos I took on my phone already on instagram, but I also took a lot of photos with my camera, which I’ll share here.
Today’s post includes the photos of my outfit at Heritage Park. These are the only outfit photos I got while I was away, and they were taken at the Hudson Bay Trading Post replica. I look completely out of place in my 1950’s styled outfit, but there were no crowds of people here, so it was a good place to take some photos.
In the photos, does my hair seem to have a mind of it’s own, despite being styled that morning? Yes! Is my blouse rumpled, disheveled and coming untucked? Yes! Is my necklace crooked? Yes! Are my feet tired of walking and my shoulders sore from carrying around my heavy purse (with camera inside)? Yes! Is the sun in my eyes, and casting strange and harsh shadows all over? Yes! Do these photos represent real life, where I am completely living in the moment, and having a great time spent with friends? A resounding yes!
Even though these aren’t great fashion plate blogger photos, they are a great memory of a fun time spent at Heritage Park, and I would much rather spend a fun time with friends then go about worrying whether my necklace was straight.
Regarding the outfit details, there’s that homesewn tan skirt again, but this time paired with my brown lace up flats, a new thrifted white peasant blouse top, a stack of Indian bangles from Ten Thousand Villages and my new purse from Top Vintage. I really debated purchasing this purse, since online shopping and I don’t mix well, but in the end I decided that since it is basically the purse I have been searching for my entire life, I would go ahead and get it. After a small hiccup, which was resolved very nicely by their customer service, I can say that I am very glad that I did get it. It was an investment bag for sure, but the timeless and vintage shape suits my style, and it goes with almost everything I own. Although, for future reference, I will not bring it on a holiday (even though I love it!) with the thought of being able to carry my camera around in it. It was simply too heavy to have on a holiday even with the shoulder strap, and it was a real pain (both figuratively and literally) to lug around for three days with no relief. Next time I will bring a cross body bag, or a backpack. But aside from that detail, it was a great holiday, and I am sure that the purse will serve me well for purposes other than vacations!
Have you ever visited Heritage Park, or any other kind of historical village? Do you worry about your outfits, and getting outfit photos while you are on your holidays?
This post has been a long time coming. Today I am pleasedhappythrilled ecstatic to announce that I have now opened an Art Shop! This was one of my major goals for this year, and although I was originally hoping to do it in January, I suppose that July is the next best thing. 😉
I have talked here on the blog before about how I have started selling my artwork at local art shows and sales, and how I hoped to start selling online as well. Actually starting this blog was originally supposed to be Step #1 in starting to “get my name out there”. I don’t know if it’s really accomplished that at all, as I don’t post very much artwork, and mainly focus on vintage and ethical fashion here, with the odd photography post thrown in. Though the blog has turned into something other than an art blog; that’s OK as I do really enjoy it as a creative outlet for everything else.
Anyways. Once I accomplished the scary Step #1 of starting a blog, and then the intimidating Step #2 of selling and showing at local art shows, it was time to tackle the seemingly impossible Step #3 of creating an online shop.
I am the sort of person who procrastinates and over thinks things. 🙁 The more I think about something and hesitate from jumping in with both feet right away, the greater the chance is that I will never actually do it. And that is exactly what happened with the plan of opening an online shop. I was originally planning on opening an Etsy shop in January, but ran into some technical difficulties and ended up not being able to go that route. After much research, I discovered Print On Demand, and decided that this would be a good way for me to start selling online. Part of me really wanted to join the ranks of Etsy sellers and do the whole printing myself, and wrapping up packaging and all that fun stuff. However, logistically it just didn’t work out, for many reasons, one being that, since I live in Canada, the shipping prices are astronomical. Choosing to sell through a Print On Demand shop out of the USA will, I hope, be better for customers. I have decided to sell through Society 6, as they often have sales, and offer promotions like free shipping, and most importantly, they do a high quality Giclée print.
I now have an “Art Shop” tab in the upper right corner of my header. Well, actually the shop tab has been there for a while, there just hasn’t been anything on that page 🙁 But I now have an actualshop, so if you click through, or click here, it will take you to my products page, which then links over to Society 6. It has taken me a lot longer than I thought it would to get my artworks ready to sell, so right now I only have three pieces up. However, I decided to open the shop anyways, otherwise I honestly think I would never get it opened! Society 6 also offers products other than art prints, so even though I am beginning with just art prints, and framed art prints, I might offer other products in the future. Stationery, notebooks or phone cases perhaps? I have some other pieces that I have finished and which I am planning on adding to the art shop as I find the time. (Seriously it takes a lot longer than I think it will!)
I will periodically update here on the blog, when I have added new items, or when there are special promotions and I will continue sharing my artwork here. But, fear not- this is not turning into an art blog! It will remain what it has always been- Life, Art, and Style. A little bit of this and that, since I can’t stay in a “niche’ to save my life 😉
Oh, and I have also started a new Instagram account solely dedicated to my artwork, illustration and photography. I would love it if you would follow me there, and if you would like to, you can find me at: @theartyologist_studio.
I’m really excited about this new venture, so thank-you all for reading through this post, and for letting me share my exciting news with you! 🙂
I am beginning to think that the second weekend of June is marked for rain. For the second year in a row now, I have planned to host a Ladies Garden Tea, in our backyard, and though we have had sun in the days leading up to, and sun in the hours and days that follow, during the hours of the party itself, it has rained. We have decided that it will now be called simply, “The Ladies Tea”, and have given up on hoping that gardens will have anything to do with it at all!
I’m not too worried about it though, because this year we planned to host it indoors, and made our preparations accordingly, so there was no last minute scramble to move the party indoors when the day dawned with grey clouds. An added benefit of holding the party indoors, is that even if it doesn’t rain, you sometimes must contend with wind, sun in your eyes, sunburn, flies in the lemonade and mosquitoes that refuse to leave you alone. By setting up the party indoors, you avoid all these problems, and you can always open the windows to let the fresh air in (and the bugs out) 🙂
We changed things around this year, (because we were thinking ahead for once) and set up the sideboard and a table along the side of the living room, so the food and drinks would be close at hand. It worked so much better, rather than having the food in the kitchen like we did last year, as people didn’t have to break up the party in order to go in search of sweets. Last year we had so many leftovers of desserts that hardly even got touched, and this year we had very few leftovers. On second thought, maybe we should have the food in the kitchen again next year; I wouldn’t have minded a few leftovers. . . 😉
Since the party was supposed to be a Garden Tea, it had to have a summery and “gardeny” feeling to it. So, the morning of the party we went in search of flowers for bouquets. Last year we had peonies, but this year the season is late and so the peonies had not started to bloom. However, we managed to catch the very last of the dark purple lilacs. Two days before the party, I thought to myself, “The lilacs are still in bloom, and should stay so until the party”, but the very next day when I looked at them again, they had started to wilt, turn brown and fall off the hedges. Only one day before the party!!! We thought that we wouldn’t be able to get any for a bouquet, but fortunately the dark purple ones still had flowers. They were falling fast though, and if you even looked at the bouquet, I think that petals were dropping off. We got two lovely bouquets though, and paired the purple flowers with Caragana branches. Caragana is a rather strange bouquet material, but I love how sculptural and fluid the bouquets turned out to be, and yellow and purple is such a lovely colour combination. For the rest of the smaller bouquets, which we placed on the tables, we gathered wildflowers and weeds, and came up with enough material to make several miniature bouquets. All in all, the room did have a rather summery and festive feeling to it, despite the rain.
And of course, the rain didn’t dampen the spirits of those who attended the party! There were sixteen of us, some of whom were new acquaintances who came with friends, and we all had a lovely afternoon of tea and sweets and conversation. I can’t wait for next year!
Do you enjoy tea parties? Have you ever hosted an event? And have you ever been rained out?
