The Train Show

One of my Christmas traditions is to go to the New York Botanical Garden Train Show.

Picture from the NYBG Train Show ad

When I first started going the train show was outside and it was so very small. Over the years it has grown and moved into the conservatory. Every year they unveil one new building that was created for the show.

I remember the year the replica of the conservatory was revealed

It is absolutely amazing to see the conservatory made out of all natural material. Every time I see it I'm still in awe in how they made it look almost see through. Another big one was Yankee stadium

They even put in the spectators. Oh yeah there is a sound track playing as well with  a game. It is so much fun looking at the trains going around

To looking at the details they put into all those creations. All the building they create are New York landmarks both still standing and torn down. For the last three years I've started going to the Bar Car Nights. In addition to the show there is a special complementary drink for you to enjoy while you walk around.

This year they were show casing the creator of the show Paul Busse. They showed how he created a building from start to finish

 

Here is a few pictures  of some of his other creations. 

Amazing isn't. Oh I bet you want to see this years new creation......Macy's the largest department store in the world.

Amazing detail don't you think. I hope you enjoyed. I also hope you make time to go and enjoy the Train show yourself.

Thanks for stopping by
XOXO
Esther

Pumpkin Redo

I saw these pumpkins from Pottery barn and fell in love with the way they looked



inspiration from Pottery barn

I had these paper mache pumpkins for quite some time.

With the inspiration from Pottery barn and I thought this would be a great way to ramp up those pumpkins.  I bought some burlap in 2 different colors and found this awesome textured vinyl in the remnant pile in Joann's Fabric 70% off  Yeah!

 The first thing I did was glue a wine cork to the stems to make them longer.

 Then I tried to gluing the fabric onto the pumpkin but you know me I don't have much patience.

 I pulled out the hot glue gun and scissors and I went to town. I also glued some sisal cord between sections and around the stem.

 Here is the almost finished piece.

There are more finishing touches I want to do. But Thanksgiving day came so quickly I didn't get a chance to finish all the details.

Now to think Christmas! Oh boy! LOL

Thanks for stopping by
XOXO
Esther

Thanksgiving Day Card

I make my own greeting cards for birthdays, everyday and of course the Holidays.  For the Holiday cards I try to come up with 3 different designs. Seems like a lot, I know. I like sending different cards out especially when a I send a couple to the same address like in my Aunts case I send a different ones to her girls and a different design to her.

For this Thanksgiving this was one of the cards I created.

My process of coming up with the ideas can sometimes take several days to a couple weeks as I try to come up with ideas that I transfer into cards. This year I started a little late in the month can we say panic...yep picture me pulling out all my Thanksgiving stamps and as they are flying in the air chanting inspiration hit me please... hit me... hit me. 

 

Okay okay I wasn't that much in a panic but I was a little stressed.

I have a couple of magazines I use to inspire me and to get ideas from. I found a really cute idea that I used for this card. It was a cute butterfly card with ribbons and buttons and that morphed into my creation. I got to use a pumpkin stamp I bought last year (the top one). I fell in love with it's vintage look and the one I bought this year. Not as vintage but heck there all kinds of pumpkins right?

Here is a pictures of all the pumpkins stamped out ready for coloring in and cutting out.

 

 I really love the way it came out. And they were tons of fun to make. 

Thanks for stopping by...

XOXO

Esther

Fall Paintings

A Couple of posts ago I mentioned I was taking a class from Christy Tomplinson on Halloween and Fall painting (you can read about it here)http://www.foodwineandcreativemusings.blogspot.com/2012/11/halloween-paintings.html

The first week was all about Halloween, the second is all about Fall. There were over 7 projects to do. I did three of the seven and luckily for me I have access to the class for a year. Plenty of time to go back after the holidays and work on some of the projects I couldn't get to.

Here is the first one I worked on

This was the first time I worked on a canvas this big it is 18x24. At first I was a bit intimated by the size.... could I fill the space... would it look as cute as the smaller pieces I've done. I love that I went simpler on the background it made the pumpkins really pop. The technique for the striped pumpkin was so simple but I love the way it turned out. You just glue strips of paper and then cut out your shape. The pumpkins really came alive when I added the shading and bits of detail.

The next projects I worked on was this cute owl. Christy had said to go out to the stores and get inspiration. I saw a metal owl and I used that as my inspiration for this piece.

 

 

The second Owl was from the project Christy worked on. I did mine simpler than the one from the project. But I love the three dimensional eyes.

 

I signed up for her Winter Whimsy class can't wait to get started on that one.

Thanks for stopping by!
XOXO
Esther

Watercolors and Sketching

I had signed up for a class on Sketching a few months back. I just got started on it. Talk about over booking myself. LOL I completed week one of the three week course. This week was about Sketching and ideas. I just loved the idea she gave of. First you pick a word and then you think of a bunch of things that word means to you or you pick an object. Then you section off your page to give you thumbnails. Then you fill each little square with sketching. The first assignment was for radishes

I came up with 11 ideas. She said she did over 24 mini sketches. I would have loved to see her sketch book. The second assignment was to sketch owls

 

I wanted each of the owls to have a very different personality showing through. Our third assignment was sketching peas in a pod. And to add watercolor to our sketches. The one in the middle is one I made to reflect my little peas in pod. I really love the way it came out. One because I did the technique she taught of wet on wet and the other because it really does look like Clary and Gus hang out there. I still can't believe I did it. 

Our fourth assignment was to sketch cupcakes and also to add the watercolor.

I also incorporated her splatter technique. Just to cute. Her teaching style makes it easy to learn. and really cuts through my fears of messing up with watercolor.  I'll show you more when I complete week 2.

Thanks for stopping by...

XOXO

Esther

Halloween Paintings

 

I took a Halloween and Fall painting class from Christy Tomlinson. I've mentioned her before she is so funny and I really enjoy all her classes. I did the following 3 canvases

The Girl Bee was so much fun to create. I really think she came out so darling...

Bat Boy was a bit of a challenge for me. I never painted a boy before. I wanted him to appear much younger then he came out. 

Pumpkin man looked so simple when I watch Christy do her's. But getting the circle sizes the way I wanted was harder than I thought it would be. I'm so happy with the end result. Love them all!

There were at least 5 other projects for Halloween section alone. And she gave tons of ideas on how to create a bunch more.  One of the things she said was to go to stores and take pictures of what you like. Then sketch them out. I did exactly what she said. I will be sketching a few more ideas before the season is out. I will show you my creations for the Fall section soon!

Happy Halloween

Halloween here on most of the east coast was cancelled due to the Hurricane Sandy. I'm sure all of you have seen news so I don't need to go into it. A week or so before the storm I had taken a couple of picture of some cool decorations I thought were pretty amazing. Enjoy the show

Isn't this great! It sure looks like you are going to enter a haunted mansion. So simple but so effective

This house is so cool! So many life size figures. The owner was there while I was taking the pictures securing everything for the storm. I sure hope they made it through.

Isn't this just creepy.... I just love it.. Yep I was grinning from ear to ear.

I got so many ideas from this house. Maybe next year I'll try my hand on create more of a scene. My house you ask... my tenants kids decorated. I meant to take pictures, they did a really nice job. But on Saturday I do so caught up in securing everything outside before the storm hit it slipped my mind. I had already taken most of everything down by the time I remembered.  There were many more houses I wanted to take pictures of as well. Next year. Hope your Halloween was fun!!!

Thanks for stopping by
XOXO
Esther