LA WEEKEND

On out recent trip down to LA, we were hunting around for "treasures" as we like to call them.  Ray's daughter guided us through the streets of Silverlake and we ended up in Pasadena.  We drove past a 2-3 story brick building a block long.  It had gigantic fake topiaries with lights on top of the roof and the name said STATS.  So we went inside.

This is what we found.

This was part of the Halloween display

 Then we popped our heads into one of the biggest antiques stores we've ever been in.  This was an amazing place, two levels and things were crazy expensive...but still fun to look at.

 And last but not least, this is a theatre near Mekenzie's house, cool huh?....

 We had a nice visit with the family and spent an afternoon with my oldest LA friend, Patrick, (my excentric artist buddy), and stopped by in Ventura on our way home and picked up a couple treasures along the way...oh I almost forgot, this is one we brought home with us from LA...hope you had a great weekend as well...xoxo june

NEW PROJECT UPDATE

So it's been two months since my friend passed, we're actually celebrating his life tomorrow...I'm still very saddened by everything.  I keep hearing his voice in my head.  Our language was music.  But it's simply time to move forward now.


I went out and visited some, almost all, of my blogging people.  It was so nice to see what you have been up to...got some good inspiration, especially from  Blue Skies, who did something fun with an old piece of glass.  And then As Seen through My Eyes, this woman's broken glass mosaics are mind altering....she's simply the best, and she delves deeper and puts a personal spiritual meaning behind her work.  If you haven't seen either of these, go check them out.


Then you may have noticed I changed the look of my blog...this one just suits me much better than the last one.  What can I say, I love the black and white thing.  I am having trouble scanning to my computer, so the banner is not my best clear piece of work yet...but I'll fix it soon.


We are leaving for LA tomorrow to attend my niece's wedding, so will be gone a couple of days.
In the meantime, this is what I have been working on...minimal as it is.  You know I don't like showing my work mid stream...but I need to post something already and get back into the swing of things.


So here goes.


This is a finally framed piece that I bought from Shariyah...not only has she become a very kindred spirit to me...it's so strange how you can hold so much love for someone you have never stood eye to eye with..but such is the case with us.  She lives in New Zealand, and I found her through OWOH.  I bought another piece from her almost two years ago.  Her mother is the one who introduced Ray and I...when I bought a piece from one of her other daughters as well...didn't know they were all related..how strange is life?  Anyway, here is the final piece framed.   A darker version of Frida...LOVE IT!

Next is my Michael Jackson, that is most definitely in the rough...it's all over the board right now..but the idea is present.  I just love the way his hand is coming forward to reach out to you.  His big billowy white tuxedo shirt...it's really going to be something when I'm finished.  I really want to do something different with the background...I need to up my game on this one..I hope to finish it very soon.

Then here is a little project I've been doing on the side.  I saw this somewhere, done to perfection, but thought, well I can do that, why pay someone else.  So I'm using enamels, which are hard core on the air and lungs..but I did do the first one with matt finish instead of glossy...who knew that all enamels were not glossy?   Anyway, these photos don't show how much blending this really is...and they aren't cleaned up or aged or finished yet...but I do enjoy the color palette...hope you can appreciate that as well.

And the last on my list is our guest bedrooms...this first one is almost finished.  I kept it in the theme of old french country.  I found the most amazing creamy tone on tone damask that I will be making the drapery from...right now it's just hung there for effect.  The canopies are not held back yet with tie backs, which will allow the drape to hang better. All the casings and trim are antiqued old gold leaf.  The floors are black plank.  I still need two great pillows for the bed's.  The drapery rod is funky and old cream, so I kept the shelving old cream as well.  There's an old french bombay, cream of course, but you can't see it in this.  I found the old french botanicals, hanging above the headboards,  on our last trip out...oh geez!  I completely forgot about that trip...I'll have to make another post about our one year anniversary of living together trip to Tahoe...great photos of that.
But in the meantime.  I am painting an ivory and black stripe ribbon, with gold trim around the top of the ceiling, which I painted a very deep rich creamy/coco..then I'll add a little thin vine of roses sprinkled here and there.  I need to frame out the big pictures of art.  And of course I aged down the closet doors...

Here's a quick shot of the upstairs guest room/ office...just getting started on that one..will fill in later as things progress...

And last, here is a new...well obviously very old, but new to us, staircase railing...how cool it that?!  Then I finally finished my lampshades for the landing chandelier...me and my ivory/black stripe ribbons...can't get enough of those.   Oh and the green walls behind the iron are not finished at all..still in stage two of washing them out and aging.

Reminder to self....clean cobwebs before taking photos to share

So thx for all your patience and for sticking around.  Oh, and I almost forgot...my book is just about in the box.  

A couple more days of intense writing will see the final chapter complete.  I am looking forward to sharing...I know a lot of you have been waiting for this...and I aim to please.
Thx again, for all of your support...cheers!  june

PATRICK TRUJILLO

I haven't written or been a part of blogging in two whole months.  I came by just now and saw that I lost another follower.  That makes me sad.
I haven't brought any new art for you, although I have been slowly working on some new pieces..finally getting further with Michael Jackson.


I have been attempting to put a picture on this post, however, I have not been able to find the photo I wish to share, and that's a real shame as I truly wanted you to see it.  When I find it among the things I still can not locate in my new home, I will post it.
It's of my friend Pat, it's the best photo I have of him.


If you have followed me, than you know from the many posts over the past two years of my best friends Nancy and Pat.  They fill these pages and are a part of my "family of the heart" And have been for just over five years now.


I'm sad to say that my dear sweet beautiful friend Pat passed away on August 10th.  He wasn't sick for a long time or ever had a concern.  So when he had the flu and wasn't feeling good for a couple of weeks, and then his wife got the flu, no one thought anything.  However, she got better, but he didn't.  He was not feeling good and had a few tests and he basically walked into the hospital with stage four cancer and died a week and a half later.  It has been shocking and tragic.  


We saw each other every single day for the 2 years we lived on our mountain top together.  Their house was across on the other side of the property. We could see each others back porch lights.  
Pat and Nancy and I would hang out, almost nightly, and play guitar and sing and Pat would cook for us.  We would whine, "Cookies Pat, cookies"  and he would get up and make the most amazing sweets on the planet.  He always made me feel so special and pretty, and more importantly loved.  


Nancy has had an extremely hard time of things.  She stayed here with Ray and I for a week and hopped around for a month until she was finally ready to go back home.  Which is why I haven't been in touch with anyone.  I had to go help her settle back in.  I painted and redecorated the entire place for her.  She got a roommate and is just now getting settled back into her new life...alone, without the man of her dreams.
No two people could have ever been more suited to each other than these two.
They were together in high school and lived together for a few years until youth, and the seventies got in the way...so they went out on their own into new lives with other people.  But things were never right for them...so thirty years later, they found each other again and have been together ever since.  They had nine great, perfect, loving years before Pat left at the young age of 57.


We celebrated his birthday in June, which is when he started to feel bad, but of course no one even considered it was anything but the flu. Although we come to find that he had some indication from the doc that he had a mass on his colon and several in his liver.  So we suppose he was attempting to protect Nancy from the inevitable. 

Pat always made a special birthday cake for me every year.  When I walked into his party there was MY cake sitting on the table and I got upset.  I said, "Pat, what are you doing, that's My birthday cake?"  And he said, "Yeah I know, I made it for you."  I said, "What do you mean you made it for me, it's your birthday?"  And he answered, "I made it for you cause I wanted you to feel special."
I believe somewhere inside of himself, Pat knew he wouldn't be around to make my cake for my birthday this year.  I honestly believe this...so does Nancy.


Well, here are two photos of me and my dear dear friend that I miss so very much.  I still can't believe he is gone.  It's still hard to wrap my brain around it.
The one thing I have taken away from all of this is to let the people you love know you love them...it may be the last thing they take with them...and the last thing you have of them.    June

This was us at his last bd party in June, geez,
it's really hard to even look at these now

And this was us three years ago, but it's one of my very favorites.

BENJAMIN McTISH & MATHILDA WICKCLIFF on etsy

Benjamin in a dream sequence with the Cat fish

Mathilda with Charlie Horse and Amiel the Raven

I just realized today while I was working on my Etsy, that I had never included my illustrations of Benjamin and Mathilda to my shoppe.  How could this be?  Well, it took me a while to finally finish our hero, Benjamin, and Mathilda has a "mistake" on her and I was hoping to repair it..but it just can't be done. (In the meantime I have given prints of her and no one has complained.)  So just FYI, they are available for purchase on my Etsy.  Benjamin is looking very colorful, as is Mathilda, who always makes me smile.
Enjoy! xox juner

THE EBB AND FLOW OF SUMMER ( & 50% off etsy sale)

So I've not posted for a solid month!  What can I say, so much to do  the minute the sun comes out at all.  But here's a quick run down of activity.


First was the graduation from HS of Ray's youngest son Case.  That took our complete attention for several weeks before the event even came.  We had sister in laws and family who had not been to the house in many years, let alone since I moved in and literally changed everything.  This house didn't have a dinning room, just a small tiny kitchen nook that everyone squeezed around the small orchard table to eat.  Now we have an amazing dinning space, that once held the pool table and drums. Ha!  So a lot to finish off to show our new home together. But of course my kitchen ceiling is still half painted, never enough hours in the day I tell you.  Then came the graduation weekend.  I had six house guests for five days.  Fifteen people  for a beautiful hand made ravioli dinner.  Then ten for dinner the next night and ten for breakfast the last day.  SO, I'm done with that now.  Other than I mistakenly erased all my photos from the ceremony...don't ask!

At least I have one from the Prom...cute couple!

The gang on the last night....fun!

Bodhi enjoying the shade under the table...every one loved him to pieces!

          

Then right after  everyone left on Sunday morning we were off to a big birthday party for my best friends husband.  I ended up singing with the band for most of the party...but had a really good time.


            

If I look tired...I AM!

My new favorite top....LOVE it!

Just the three of us at this point...
that's the birthday boy...
and we were singing Congratulations by the Stones.

         
Next came three days later when we loaded up my car, new puppy included, and drove nine and a half hours to Las Vegas, to visit my folks for a week.  Oh, and did I mention that we painted the outside of their home while we were there!  It was only ninety degrees that week, so not so bad...ha!  But it turned out lovely and they are thrilled.   I had made the suggestion the last time I was there that I needed to do this for them...too bad for Ray, he is now a "we", so it became his promise too...but he jumped in gladly and we worked on it for a total of four days.  And I played roulette for the first time and hit a hundred pretty quickly, so we have decided that from now on  roulette is our game.  Although the next weekend my dad went out and hit a jackpot for 2160.00...and before he left he hit another for 390.!!  Well done dad!!


no pics yet...will include soon...


Then we drove ten and a half hours home, after making a couple "antiquing" stops along the way and spent the next two days not feeling my best.  Unfortunately I had a house painting job beginning on the Monday, so my rest was short lived.
We went to the first summer beach concert and had the best time.  We saw Eric Burden and the Aniamls...what a great show.  Unfortunately I don't have the photos from that one yet, so you'll have to wait on that one.  But take my word for it...he still rocks!


Don't have these photos yet...will get them in soon...too cool


So then I painted everyday for a week and did one of my best  jobs ever for a client near by.  And in the meantime I am working on a logo design for some one else and it is a very demanding piece.  I've been working on it all week and am still not done. I will be putting his web and blog together as well...so no time for anything else today.  He's a good friend and he's got a terrific idea and I'll get a percentage..so there you have it!

Before....I ended up doing the mud/texture as well as this base they had was not going to cut it.

After....kinda hard to photograph faux work, it always looks blotchy and the tones don't show through as well as they are in person...but you can get the idea.

This is maybe closer to the final color..it had a touch of green in it.

The texture I did really worked well with the
old French feeling.

Plus we went to another beach concert last week and saw the Family Stone...not as good as the last time we saw them, but still a "get up on your feet and dance" kinda show.  
Oh and best of all, we went to see Steely Dan on Tuesday night at the winery...what a terrific show!  They are my all time favorite band, starting back from my senior days in school...SO happy to have finally seen them.  Even though Donald Fagan looks like he's eighty...it was like being at a party and your uncle joe got up to sing for you...ha ha.  Although a very talented and clever uncle joe to say the least.  What a talent he is.  And Walter was there as well...it was spectacular!

Donald and the girls...amazing backups!

Walter and Donald...Steely Dan

Oh and I forgot, last month we started this whole shindig with a concert at the winery for Lyle Lovette and John Hyatt...WHAT another great show!  You would not believe how well these two sing together. It was just each of them and their guitars and they took turns back and  forth singing a song and talking. It was  phenomenal!   It was a great way to begin the season.


These are part of the erased photos...again, don't ask.


But here we are now just passing the 4th hump...the garden is  coming along and the walls in the house are getting closer to being finished and I'm exhausted!
Although I have been in a flurry of writing this past month.  The book is taking on a life of it's own...it's really exciting.  I can't wait to sit down and write everyday, the story is so alive to me.  I read my new pages every day to Ray..he says not only is it super visual...but he can't wait to hear what happens next.  Yay!  I am planning on finishing this first book up by the end of the month...here's hoping.   I can't wait to get it out there.  I know a lot of you have been chomping at the bit to get into it already....it's close.


And to put a damper on my summer activities I have put on a very unwanted 10 lbs.!  You may think this doesn't sound like much...however, I am normally very thin, I have little teeny tiny arms and wrists, ankles, legs ect.  So when I gain even as little as 3 lbs, or god forbid, 5 lbs...it really shows up on me.  So 10 lbs is insane for me.  It's all right in the middle, something I'm not used to.  I've always had a tiny waist. And of course the thigh hip thing, what is that already?  Why does that have to happen to us? And it's all a response to HORMONES!  I had to start taking some estrogen because I apparently had none, causing some pretty serious side effects...then I went overboard with the stuff and boom!  Fat every where...I put an inch and a half on my waist overnight!  I can't stand it.  Someone really needs to warn you about these things...I never saw it coming!


So now I'm back into my daily yoga routine and changing some eating habits that I began when I moved in with the boys  here....geez, they can eat!  Not enough to put this kinda fat on me, but doesn't help the situation much.  So getting back into my natural groove of things.  Hope to see the change back to my happy little thin self soon.


And another photo to enter in the how large can we grow vegies in Santa Cruz?  I handed Ray a bucket of artichoke...geez!

This photo doesn't even do it justice...this is in a very large (water stained) wooden salad bowl...this thing was MONSTROUS!

So there we are caught up for the month.  All except the art thing.
First and foremost...say good bye to Jim Morrison as he is heading off to reside in Florida. Yay!

Off to live in Florida with a very dear old friend of mine...yay!

In the meantime I have put my ENTIRE ESTY SHOPPE 50% OFF SALE to make room for my new stuff.
Everything, prints included...so no time like the present to check out my shoppe if you haven't already.


Well I got to get back to work.  Sorry for the long time away.  I need to catch up on my blogs that I follow...oh and speaking of blogs, if you are into needlepoint or stitching in anyway, you need to check out my mother's new blog...still in the baby stages, but she is a well known designer and she has a web that really shows off her work.  It's all geometric stuff, very cool indeed.  And she will be opening an Esty soon as well, where she will sell kits and threads, etc.  It's worth the visit if you are into that kind of art.


So like I said, back to the grind...Have a really happy day and keep creating!!  oxox juner

PS. I had intended to include a video of the Steely Dan concert, but for some reason it won't download to my blog...that's a real drag, cuz I took it share...oh well, if I figure it out, you'll see it next time.