Starry Pillow. Hand Embroidered

Here is my finished little folky, starry, colorful pillow. At my Esty shop My Good Babushka!

Happy New Year!

I'm happy to be back to blogging after my long winters nap. I'm excited about the new projects I've been thinking about and can't wait to get started!

First, I'd like to finish up some old business. These are some pictures of an embroidery project that I started before we moved.





Here is how the finished pillow looks at my etsy site- My Good Babushka. I have added a few new things while I've been away, so I hope you will visit my shop in the near future and see what goodies are in store.

Haunted Honeymoon

Several weeks of work compressed into a few photos here. Lots of filling in stitches.
You can see the finished work here. It's available for purchase at my etsy shop. Haunted Honeymoon at My Good Babushka

Miscellaneous

Here is an embroidery I've been working on- an art deco-ish inspired bit of a fancy dressed lady looking up at the moon through her telescope. The background is plain cotton, and not filled in with embroidery stitching, like the ones I do on canvas. So this one went pretty fast. The finished cushion is available at my etsy store. Astronomy Pillow at My Good Babushka



My friend Jenny from Jenny's blog Off On My Tangent sent me this really kooky yarn and I've been trying to think of just the right thing to make with it. It's really furry and muppety. It reminded me of the fluff on the cats in the classic carnival game, the cat rack. Sometimes the dolls or targets are painted as clowns, and you have to knock them down with a ball. I always wished that you could win the fuzzy target, instead of the stuffed animals that were usually the prize. So I am going to make my own cat rack target dolls and use the kooky yarn as their furry fringes


Here is my first one. Available now at my etsy shop. Cat Rack Carnival Punk at My Good Babushka

The Automaton Magician

Finished. This original painting is available at my etsy shop My Good Babushka.
Prints are also available.

Awesome Apple

I got this really cool vintage enameled metal apple jar/tin from Great Stuff. A site for great vintage thingamajigs as well as gorgeous photography by Angela Rocco.

Update from My Good Babushka- the shop

Just in case you haven't seen these works completed. Here is the pillow I was working on

And here is the white sweater-

Both are available from My Good Babushka !

A Child's Funeral

I began working on this a few weeks ago, but only recently got around to finishing it. The original is available at my etsy shop My Good Babushka. I will probably make some prints of this soon which we also be available from the same site.

Typewriter Painting

This typewriter painting is by artist Christy Boyer. I got it for my husband for Christmas and had originally intended to let him hang it in his writing room. We both love this painting so much, though, we decided to hang it in the bedroom. This photo really does not do it justice. The colors are so rich and just right, with that industrial, archaic kind of office green and really great aged ocher. I am sooooo very pleased with this piece. See her other kinds of work here.
I especially think this tea ornament is cute


But do not miss some more of her paintings proper!

This one is Joan Marries Fire from the Joan of Arc series. I love the colors of her garment.

This one is called 1945. Look at the floral pattern! It's gorgeous, and she researches period textiles to get the inspiration for these prints, and the work is well worth it.

Hand Embroidered Memento Mori in Eden

Recently finished and added to my Etsy shop this very morning.
My Good Babushka

Portrait of a Girl

Acrylic on Paper 5" x 7"

If you would like to order a custom portrait, on paper or canvas, contact me at julie_schuler@comcast.net Portraits make nice Mother's Day gifts, but if you want one completed in time, place your commission early.

Pet Portrait. Cat and Bunny

Here is my process, as I've begun another pet portrait. I was very excited that this client has tastes similar to mine. She is allowing me to put in the damask wallpaper and a Victorian wing chair. As you can see, I tore up some of my Architectural Digests looking for some good source material. I was instructed to keep this on the "cool" side with blues and tans and gold. At first I put in more of a thalo blue and brown damask, but it looked too distractfully modern. For all the curclicues of victorian decor, real victorian decor is not "distracty", so I redid it in a softer blue and gold damask. Then I put in a blue chair before I remembered my client asked for tan. So I changed it. The last thing I did was change the white roses to yellow, and I only decided that at the very end of the session, so I did not get to altar them or add the greenery that I intend to add.

Now the only thing that's missing are the pets!

Three Cats, Day Two

Here is the three cat portrait on the second and final day of work. I had to change the middle cat. I thought he looked a bit frightened before, but now he looks very cosy with his little tucked in paw. This is a work on canvas 11" x 14". It's a very nice canvas with a two inch profile, gallery wrapped, with all the stapling in the back, and the sides are painted a matching green. I will send this canvas already wired for hanging.
And now I've hit a dull patch. I haven't had a commission this week, but I hope I get some people portraits soon. Not that I don't enjoy painting pets, but I like a little variety.

Dog in Reindeer Costume- Finished Painting

Pretty self explanatory. This was a challenge because I had several photos of a dog-shaped blur to work from, some costumed and some not, but I managed to cobble them together into this very cut dog portrait. I always hate to tell people "these pictures are no good" because I know it's hard to take pictures of animals, and I don't want to be branded as "difficult" to work with. But I was breaking into the Excedrin when this one was done.

New Dog Portrait Complete

Here's the doggy portrait, all done. What a happy little guy playing on the sunshiney grass. It makes me miss summer, bugs and all.