EmpresstoDesign.Etsy.com Spotlight

Front of dress

Back of dress

Front detail

Well my daughter just turned 18 months old last week and that means photo time. So of course I had to find the perfect outfit for her photoshoot. Well I found it!!! I had hearted a shop on Etsy a few months back that I found in one of it's famous treasuries and knew it was the perfect outfit. I noticed she did custom dresses for little ones. Lorelei is very petite and I knew this would be the best option. I contacted the lovely shop owner Becki and she was so quick to respond and was very excited about doing this for me. She turned this adorable custom dress out in 3 days even with major serger problems but she kept in contact the whole time and about where she was in the process. She didn't have this color combination but I love aqua and red together. She paid a lot of attention to detail and when I get it I'm sure it's going to fit my daughter perfectly!! She has an adult poppy dress that I hope to own once I get some more weight off! PLEASE check out her amazing shop! You won't be disappointed. She also does custom wedding dress portraits that are beautiful.

That's it just wanted to show off some great talent!

Have a beautiful day!

Aimée

"Never Forget" - Memorial Holocaust Star

"Never Forget" - Memorial Holocaust Star, originally uploaded by creativeFlutter AKA MazerDesign.

I was honored to be a part of helping out some young boys and their mother. They decided to collect memorial stars from different people and artists to honor those who died at the hands of Hitler in WWII. I have always studied about the Jews and their plight during that time so this was near and dear to my heart. It took me quite some time to figure out what I was going to do but this came to me today and I'm sooo glad it did. You can read about their project more here.

I created it with canvas paper and acrylics, then glued it down to foam board and painted the sides. I coated it with a thin layer of beeswax and added a ribbon with glue on the back. See more in my Flickr photostream.

As for me I've been treading water lately. I have many projects that have been put on hold due to lack of time. It's summer time and my daughter is constantly on the move. She's so much fun and of course I can't resist taking her to the beach, taking her out for ice cream and all the fun summertime things you can do! She's a joy! She just turned 18 months today!! I can't believe it!! Anyways I'm sorry for not blogging sooner but life just got in the way. I'm not staying up all hours like I did before. I've started working out again at the local Curves. I used to work for a Curves and I couldn't even fathom working out at one ever again. The stupid "change stations now!" cue gets my blood boiling at times, but I can't argue with the results. I've been getting up and going at 6 am 5 days a week and it's paid off! In a month I'm down 3 inches and 3.25 pounds! I'm glad I decided to go back. It's 30 minutes to myself although I'm dead to the world when working out. I basically roll out of bed and go not a pretty sight I must say! But who cares it's for a good cause to get rid of the flab!!!!! I have a goal to shoot for too, my brother is getting married in February over in Holland and I don't want to be just another "fat" American going to Europe, I can't be!!! I refuse to fall under that category. So cheer me on and kick me in the butt if I start slacking!!! ;)

Look for new art once I get caught up with the commissions I have going. I'll be sure to post it here. Well it's way past my bed time now at 10:48:44 sec. I should catch some zzzzz's. Hope you all have a lovely weekend!

TTFN,

Aimée

Your chance to help out a family in need.

Eleigh Lecates, originally uploaded by creativeFlutter AKA MazerDesign.

Hi all.

It's been a little bit since I posted. I recently found out about a 15 year old girl named Eleigh who died in a car accident. Here is a little bit about her. Deconstructress was a friend of the family and I found out about it from a treasury on Etsy. This is what she wrote:

On June 4, 2008, my very good friends, the Lecates family, lost their 15-year-old daughter in a terrible car accident. Eleigh was the most beautiful girl and she had her entire life ahead of her. She was full of promise and her mother's best friend in the world. She was always at her mom's side. The last thing I want my friends to experience now is any financial hardship and I want to auction a dress here to donate ALL of the sale to them. (She is donating one of her beautiful handmade dresses to help and has a listing on Ebay and Etsy for it.)

I've donated a few paintings for the cause and a bookmark. 100% of the proceeds will go to help this family out. I can't imagine the grief this family is going through so if you can help this family out I'm sure it would help ease their minds. Thank you for considering this cause.

Here is the treasury with some items other Etsians are donating to help. You can also search on Etsy with her name like this "for eleigh" to see all the items that have been donated.

Aimée

Why when you try to make your life easier it gets harder?????

Whatcha think?, originally uploaded by creativeFlutter AKA MazerDesign.

UGH!!! That's what I felt like today! I LOVE being a WAHM (work at home mom) for those of you who don't know that term. I LOVE being able to spend time with my daughter and watch her grow.

What I DON'T love is not being able to just get up and go without having to pack everything but the kitchen sink before I even get into the car. This is what brings me to my point.

I am trying to make things simpler for me around here. I don't have the time to make multiple or even 1 trip to the post office with Lo, when I need to go or am ready to go she's usually napping so I usually wait until my husband J gets home. So I sent away for the biz kit from the post office to make my life a little easier. If I could print labels from home on my Mac and just place those precious packages outside on my door step the magical mail man will just whisk them away and I can continue on my day, right?

WRONG!!!!!!!!!!! I was sooooo utterly pissed today at my stupid mailman, I so lovingly put together a Father's Day gift for my FIL in Florida and it was going to be late by like a day but still that's not the point. Anyhoo, I was all excited thinking I had it all set up. I spent awhile yesterday downloading the right software, purchasing the labels and such and I was sooo proud and excited that my life was about to get simpler. Well I hear the mail man drop the mail in my box then the door bell rang, I was on the phone. By the time I got to the door which was about a minute if that I noticed he was at the end of my driveway. I looked down and the darn box was still there!!!! UGH!!! What's the point of ringing my doorbell if you're going to walk away! HELLOOO!!!!! So I sat fuming about it most of the day. Which .....

Got me thinking how I'm sooo annoyed with the fact that my life isn't easy anymore!! Don't get me wrong, I'm completely and madly in love with my daughter Lorelei, it's just all the other stuff that comes along with being a parent, for instance my completely trashed house! I feel like I'm treading water people!!!!!! It's a wonder I find time to create. So anyways that's my rave today and I'm still pissed at the mailman! Now I'm curious if he'll take one of my prints that needs to be mailed out.

Needless to say my sweet hubby took the box to the post office for me.

UGH!!!!!

Frida's Wings

Frida's Wings, originally uploaded by creativeFlutter AKA MazerDesign.

"Feet, why do I need them when I have wings to fly?" - Frida Kahlo

One of my favorite quotes by her and I wanted to do a piece based on it. This is a 12 x 16 collaged piece just finished today and newly listed. For more details about it and what I used look at the listing here.

Also I am now on Twitter for those of you who don't know Twitter it's a way to keep tabs on people you are interested in. Check it out!

We had a tornado scare today! It passed by but the sky was super ominous thankfully we were spared! Hope the weather is lovely in your area!

TTFN!

Forever Spring - JUST LISTED on Etsy

Today was a gloomy day, so gloomy I got to thinking that summer would never come. I LOVE Spring just not the gloomy, dark days we've been having lately, it was kind of depressing so I started creating this piece which just came together for me! This piece is so vivid and rich I don't want it to leave the nest. This is my job that I love and I know this must go. This piece was filled with lots of love! This mixed media piece has vintage ephemera circles with German and French text, glitter, acrylics, pencil, rubber stamps, salt, water color pens, oil pastels, Ranger Adirondack inks, white conte crayon and probably more that I'm forgetting. It's on a 16 x 20 stretched canvas. I had a lot of fun doing this piece. It is coated in beeswax so it gives it a dreamy feel. This piece has a lot of dimension and texture to it. The detail photos are before I put the wax on so they are more vivid than the first photo but you can see all the details better. This truly is a OOAK original, it's too big for me to scan so there will be no prints. You will be the only one to ever have this piece grace your home and with FREE SHIPPING how can you beat that?

A Wedding and the In-Laws

The Happy Couple, originally uploaded by creativeFlutter AKA MazerDesign.

Hi all!

It's been about a week since I last blogged and I just realized it! Things have been extremely busy and I feel like I could sleep for a week!! Some of you may not know that photography is a hobby of mine and I love doing it, well a friend of mine picked up on that awhile back and asked me to be the photographer for her wedding. TOTAL FREAK OUT!!!!! OK I'm done freaking out. I was so nervous about doing it since it's a WEDDING and I didn't want to miss any of their big moments! She assured me she had total and complete confidence in my skills and in her words, "I'm not worried about it!", I figured if the bride wasn't worried, should I be? She was the most calm and collected bride I have ever met! She was so laid back I was worried I was going to be too lax and be in the moment and forget to take the shots, we are good friends and I was really in the middle of the ceremony! Well it all worked out and I did have a few "duh" moments but managed to get every shot they wanted and then some! I took over 700+ photos!!! INSANE!!! My whole family was there telling me to chill out and eat my food at the reception and I kept telling them I was going to miss something and I almost did. I managed to get a few bites before my food was cleared by the service, ugh! So annoying because it was all I had eaten all day. I started following my friend at the salon at 8 am, then back to the hotel to get ready, then the service and the very fun reception. Needless to say I could barely walk when I got home and I almost just crashed on the couch as soon as I walked in the door but I missed my baby girl so much and had to play with her! My sweet hubby was assisting me with my photographic needs at the reception, we're such a good team. He had to run home and get his laptop so I could take more shots! I filled my CF card 3 times!!! If he hadn't been there I would have missed a ton of photos which would have been very disappointing. The bride & groom went on their happy way and they had a beautiful ceremony of which my Dad officiated so it was a family affair so to speak. CONGRATULATIONS K & L!!!

Now where do the in-laws come into the picture? Well they had come up for a visit and were going to be staying here for 10 days. They were here while the wedding was taking place and were the perfect babysitters. I can't imagine having to bring my all over the place toddler Lo. She would have loved dancing but I could just hear her little voice in the sweet chapel as I was on the stage taking shots of her saying, "mama, mama!" then getting upset as I didn't respond, boy that would have been a mess!! LOL I missed her soooo bad! We had a great time with J's parents but were so wiped out. His mom is always going and always thinking. She was on a mission to get our house organized. We have so little storage space because in the 50's I guess people didn't need storage or something? What's up with that??? It's so annoying anyways, we managed to get a toy organization system for $38 at Wal-Mart, a put together shelf and some bins, why didn't we do this sooner???? Now I'm not walking through a toy-zone worried about tripping on anything, it's wonderful. Being organized is so underrated! LOL We also organized the hall closet which I found out was mostly garbage in there, how bad is that? We also managed to put down new flooring in our bathroom. She kept us on task! First thing in the morning she would ask me what I wanted to get done and I hadn't even had my first sip of coffee! It was great though. We had a good time with them but it's nice having our home back.

Art news - I have a bunch of new ideas and I'm hoping to get to do some of them this week, we'll see how things go. I have listed 2 new items in my shop as well, Among the Blossoms and Freedom. Check them out when you get a chance.

Until later, have a wonderful day, week, month or whatever!!

I'm wedding'ed out, we have another one on Saturday and we're bringing Lo, I'll let you know how that goes!!!

OXOXOX