New Year, New Life, New Adventures

2016 has arrived

So a new year has arrived again.  Last year was a very hard year for me, but I am finally getting used to my new life.

3 Years ago I left my 30 year marriage.  In these last 3 years I have been trying my best to find myself.  Having never been by myself, it has been quite the adventure.  I have tried loads of different things.  In the art world I have tried mixed media, I have started a planner, I did sketching.  I also tried water colour pencils and water colour paints.  I am always trying to learn new media, and hopefully one will stick, or I will just keep doing different things, just not sure yet.

At the moment I am doing water colour paints and easy sketching.  Or more like simple sketching.  This is a class I have been doing with Junelle Jacobsen.  She is truly inspiring.    I love this, as the sketching part is the starting point, finding a subject and then breaking it down into easy shapes.  After that comes the exciting part of filling it in with water colour paints.  Finally outlining it with a black pen to make it pop.  So exciting.

Another fun hobby, hoping to make it into a business, is making bracelets from belts.  This is a class I did with Christy Tomlinson.  I just love her classes.  Making these bracelets has been so much fun.  Finding belts that are pretty to use and then taking metal sheets, cutting them into discs and then using stamps to stamp in sentiments.  Then putting it all together to make something fun to wear.

I have also been doing something else, that is not art related at all.  I have learnt to ride a motorcycle.  Bought my own bike last year, still have to get my license.  But I joined a women's bike club in town.  This has also really empowered me, and given me a new group of like thinking ladies to hang out with.

So all in all a really exciting new life ahead of me.  I am going to try and keep you updated with all my shenanigans this year.

I am going to add a mixture of pictures for you to look at.  Hope you like what I share with you today.

Art using watercolour pencils

 

 

Water colour paints

 

 

A couple of my bracelets.  You can see more of them in my etsy store at michelesnirvana

 

 

And finally my new toy.

 

Hope you all have a great weekend

 

Michele

 

xxx

 

 

 

And life goes on!!!

Since I was last on here so much has happened.  I went away with my boyfriend on a roadtrip.  He is a long haul truck driver.  It was an amazing week.  We travelled all the way from Alberta Canada to Nogales in Arizona and then back up again.  Such amazing scenery.  And we left weather that was in the -40's and eventually were in the mid twenties.

Of course once I got home not only did I have to catch up at work but I also had to catch up on my art course.  I have been really enjoying the Lifebook course although I have also found some of it really challenging.  But I must admit the teachers have been amazing and every week I learn something new.

This was a class taught by Marieke Blokland.  It was called Sugar Sugar and was really loads of fun to do.  And then put together.  The head is drawn separately and then cut out and glued to your background.

This one was taught by Tamara Laporte.  The background is done with ink sprays and then the side portrait is drawn in.  I must say the portrait was a little difficult for me.  I also did not have many inks, I would have loved to have had more colours to put in there.  But again I am happy with my end result.

This was some real fun, just using so much bold colour.  And really there were not any rules, just go with the flow.  This lesson was taught by an amazing lady.  Just loved how she taught the lesson.  Alena Hennessy you rock.

So this is just some of the work I have done over the last few weeks.  Every lesson has really stretched me, and this way I have been able to learn.

http://mariekeblokland.blogspot.nl/

http://www.alenahennessy.com/

http://willowing.ning.com/

Have added the above ladies sites, hope you will go and visit them and check out their amazing work.

Have a great week

Michele

xxx

Already Missed a Week!!!

Oh my gosh, I already missed a week of blogging.  The time just seems to fly when you are having fun!!!  I have been able to keep up with the art course I am doing, and some of it has been a real trial for me to do.  I love my art and have always enjoyed doing art, but never considered myself an artist.  I just never seem to have my own original ideas.  I always need something to work from, whether that be a picture, a photo, or doing a study of someone's art.  The second lesson went well, but for the third lesson we had to do exercises without any real direction.  We were given prompts and then had to draw.  One liners, drawing with our eyes closed, making something out of blobs of paint, and then my worse given a paragraph and then having to make poems out of the words.  Now I can tell you poetry has never been my thing!!!  LOL.  So needless to say this was really scary.  But I pushed through with my 14 year old daughters encouragement.  I was really proud of my done pieces.  Do need to add some colour to the drawings, but at the moment am caught up in week 4 lesson.  I will share some pictures of my week 2 and week 3 art and hopefully come back with my week 4 one later.  Hope you enjoy the pictures!!!

Have a great week all!!!!

This is week 2!

Week 3, envelope for art work

The artwork to go into the envelope

More artwork!

See you next week, love Michele

2014

2014 Is Here!!!!

This year I am hoping to do alot more creating.  To this end I have joined Life Book 2014 hosted by Tamara Laporte...at Willowing Arts.  I had done some of her classes in the past.  One News Years Eve I was sitting at home alone, going through my Facebook when I came across a post about the year long course.  I sat for quite a while wondering if I was brave enough to do this.  I finally realised that this is just what I needed right now.  2013 was a difficult year for me.  I had to start my life over with my 14 year old daughter.  Never been on my own before, so it was not as easy as it would seem.  So this art course is exactly what I need, to force me to have some down time.  So I will be trying to do a post at least once a week with the art that I have produced.  This last week I have completed two girls and have sketched a third ready for painting.

This one was the homework for this week.  I really enjoyed working on her, and then jumped right in and did another.

Half way through doing her, I started sketching my next girl on a canvass,

I hope you enjoy visiting my blog, and I would like to wish you all a happy 2014.

Michele

Finally

Hi everybody,

My life has been so busy..loads of personal problems that needed sorting out.  But in between I have been busy with my painting, thought I would share some pictures today of a 5ft x 5ft canvass I was asked to do for Halloween....

Hope u enjoy these

Have a good day

Wonderful summer

The summer has been so busy, with no real art time.  I do try and get some things done, but the weather has been so nice that we have been biking and walking, and swimming and all the other summer goodness.

My daughter and I have been working on some portrait painting and I have also done some ATC's for a swap.  Thought I would share those with you today.

The theme was nature, and loved being able to use different techniques and my ladies on these.

Hope you enjoy!

Have a wonderful day

Michele

New art work

Hi everybody,

I have been very busy doing my art these last few weeks.  Trying to get into doing portraits.  I am loving what I am doing.  Life has finally calmed down in my house so doing art has been a little easier.  We are now getting ready for finals, but Storm is in Grade 7, so it is now to much pressure yet.  Her tap exam went great and she got 87%.  I am a very proud mama.  Now for a couple of art pieces.

Hope you enjoy.

Have a wonderful day

Thanks

Michele

I have finally got ART

Hi everybody,

I have been crazy busy with my daughters dance festivals.  She performs 12 numbers and we had 3 festivals and our year end performances in the last 2 months.  2 of the festivals were out of town.  We are exhausted, this week she has her tap exam and then we have a quiet month till end of June and then we are off to Vegas for a week were she performs 6 of her group numbers and also her solo.

So I have finally been doing some art.  I find art so refreshing to my soul.  Creating something from nothing is very satisfying.  I have been doing a art course with Tam at http://willowing.ning.com/group/fabulousfacesdvdworkshoppers  Today I am posting a stylised portrait done with watersoluble crayons.  It has been really fun learning to do the drawing of a face and also the blending of colours.

I hope you love it as much as I do and I will be posting more of my efforts soon.

Love

Michele

MIA

Hi everybody,

Today I need to apologise for my absence.  We are in the middle of Dance Festivals, and my daughter has 4 festivals this year.  She dances in 13 numbers so it keeps us very busy.  This last week we had a festival in our town.  She did her 12 groups and her 1 solo over the course of 5 days.  She did get 13 golds, yay, but it is very busy.  This weekend we do the same dances over 2 days out of town and then a week and a half after that we are out of town for 5 days again.  In May we have year end concerts and then tap exams.  At the end of June we fly to Vegas where she has 7 of her numbers performing in a festival there. Now it sounds like I am complaining but actually we love  it.  It does leave very little time or energy to do anything else.  I do have a few things going and I will be trying to get them on my blog.

So I will be trying to get here every now and then and also visiting all the blogs I follow.

Hope everybody is having a blast with spring!

Have a great day!

Michele

Busy day!

Hello everybody,

I hope you all had a great Easter break.  We do not have any family in Canada, so we are more low keyed than most other families.  My husband watched the Masters, my mother did her thing, my daughter had a friend over and I had loads of time in my craftroom.  My nirvana, hence my blog name Michele's Nirvana, get it right!

So I got out my cute fabrics I bought last week and started sewing some new napkins.  I am trying to get into doing the tablescapes, and I needed more table linens to work with, hence the sewing going on.

I love the blue and yellows together!





In my previous post I showed you how I made my own napkin rings.  So, today I have changed them out to match my napkins.  These I started by punching heart shapes out of cardstock.  I then cut out hearts from the same fabric as the napkins.  I attached this to the cardstock heart with glue.  The tiny heart wreath shapes I have had forever do not even remember where I got them from.  The flowers were white paper roses, I sprayed them with a mist and attached them to the hearts.  I attached the velcro to the back of the hearts and now they  can be attached to the rings.  New NAPKIN RINGS!



The mugs used in my little set up today, I have had forever, and honestly I have no idea where I got them.  They are handmade and are beautiful.

Here are my two sets of napkins I have made with their matching napkin rings.



I hope you all enjoy this post and I would love to hear from you.

Have a wonderful day!

Linking to:

http://diyshowoff.com/category/other/diy-project-parade/

http://my1929charmerblog.com/sundays-best-26-par-tay/

Making my own napkin rings.

 Today I am sharing my napkin rings.  This is my first tutorial, so be patient with me.  To start making my napkin rings I took cream felt.

 I cut strips double the width I would want my rings to be.  I cut along the length of the felt piece and then cut each piece in half.
















You are left with pieces like this, that you now fold length wise to make your ring.

















I sewed along the long side and one short side so that I would be able to turn them inside out.










Turn them inside out.











Now I wanted to pretty it up.  I had a crocheted lace that I hotglued to the tube.  I also glued the short end closed.  This decoration will be on permanetly.  The other I am doing so that it can be removed and I can put on another color to match my napkins.






Now I am left with something that looks like a napkin ring.










Now I want to make my decoration for the ring.  I started with felt pieces as my base.  I wanted pink to match my napkins.  I had this fabric which I cut into squares. I do not have any further pictures of how I layered these, but you really use whatever you want to make a pretty napkin ring.






This is the completed napkin ring.  The napkin is a fat quarter cut down to size and I just zigzagged the edges.  I then used my gluegun and attached velcro to the join of the ring.








Attach the other piece of the velcro to the decoration.










Walla, and there you have it a beautiful napkin ring that can be changed to suit your need.  Just make different decorations in the colors you want and attach with the velcro.








How gorgeous is that.  Here they are with one of my favorite tea cups, the candle is another project I did long ago.  I used acrylic paint to do the flowers on the candle.








If you have made it this far with my post I thank you for your patience.  I will show you some other napkins with my rings as I finish them.

Thank you again.

Have a wonderful day.






Linking to

http://frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.ca/2012/04/feathered-nest-friday.html

http://www.thecharmofhome.blogspot.ca/2012/04/home-sweet-home.html

http://www.atthepicketfence.com/2012/04/inspiration-friday-no-59-and-giveaway.html

http://thethriftygroove.blogspot.ca/2012/04/thrifty-things-friday-53.html

http://www.fivedaysfiveways.com/search/label/Feature%20Friday

http://ivyandelephants.blogspot.ca/2012/04/hot-stuff.html

http://classyclutter.blogspot.ca/2012/04/spotlight-saturday-8.html