Lynden Sculpture Garden

acbeilke — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 23:16:39 +0000

Last Sunday I went to the Lynden Sculpture Garden with my sister and brother-in-law. It was a beautiful day despite the fact that my appendix was a ticking time bomb ready to set off some unpleasant events later to come. It’s hard to believe that this incredible collection of sculptures was once a hidden, private collection you would never even know was there driving down Brown Deer Road. They just made it public this past May. It belongs to the super wealthy Milwaukee family, the Bradley’s.

Here are some of my favorite pictures. A nice contrast to the Forevertron pics, I think. My favorite sculpture was a bright orange round piece that rotated in the middle of a pond. It totally reminded me of a Knoll womb chair.

An almost win with Windows and Doors!

acbeilke — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 21:09:57 +0000

I had kind of a crazy week this week because I found out Monday morning I had to have surgery to remove my appendix. My mom thinks I have a curse of the children’s book illnesses now since I’ve had scarlet fever (The Velveteen Rabbit”) and now had appendicitis (“Madeline”).

Well anyways I had submitted an entry into Spoonflower’s Windows & Doors contest last week. I didn’t really talk it up to my friends or on facebook, but apparently I SHOULD have because I found out yesterday when I checked my email for the first time this week, that was only 1 vote away from the winning design! Unbelievable! A very kind Spoonflower representative emailed me and told me that they would be awarding me $50 in “spoondollars” since it was such a close race.

Here’s the link to the blog posting in which they mention me (I feel so famous!).

And here’s my painfully-close-to-winning design. It’s a fairly simple design, just red, light blue, black and white with a bit of the retro 50s look going on, which I love so much. I know 2 people already have ordered swatches so it may be making it’s way to people’s homes and craft projects soon! How thrilling!

Forevertron

acbeilke — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 02:50:49 +0000

Over the weekend my bf and I went on a wacky Wisconsin vacation in Wisconsin Dells. On the way there I insisted that we try to find something I’ve heard about on the Roadside America website called Forevertron located outside Baraboo. This incredible sculpture garden was created from scrap metal, car parts and who know what else by Tom Every, aka Dr. Evermor. He also designed some of the crazier exhibits at House on the Rock. Being at Forevertron felt like stepping onto an abandoned sci-fi movie set that had rusted over. I was so amazed at his ability to work at such a grand scale yet he took care in paying attention to small details like the face of a a single robot creature.

Here are some of my favorite pictures:

Surreal fruit

acbeilke — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 01:24:08 +0000

Well it’s that time of the week again. Spoonflower’s weekly fabric design contest. This week the theme was “Surreal Fruit”. I think a lot of people who submitted designs, myself included, were inspired by Magritte’s “Son of Man”.

You can vote here!

New apartment, new art studio space

acbeilke — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 13:15:21 +0000

I’m getting pretty well settled into my new place in Bay View. The great thing about this apartment is that it has a formal dining room which I am using as my office/studio space. This weekend I did a major organizational project in there and I’m so happy with the results. My art supplies were kind of strew about and since the square footage isn’t huge I decided the only way to go was up. So I bought a 3 foot by 6 foot tall shelving unit. Now all my craft and art supplies are in one spot and it’s amazing! It’s a vast improvement from my last apartment which I just had a small dinette space for my studio space.

I also attempted to get Martha Stewart-y by labeling all my plastic containers! Ladies if you’re reading this, I think the next craft day should be at my place.

Summer flowers

acbeilke — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 15:15:14 +0000

This week is Spoonflower’s, palette restricted Summer Flowers contest. I just looked through all the entries and there are soo many good ones! I was feeling good about my design, but I highly doubt I will place in this one because of all the awesome designs. For some reason I am getting errors on my blog every time I try to upload a picture (gotta figure that one out), but here’s a link to my new design: http://www.spoonflower.com/fabric/285630

I definitely had Garnet Hill in mind when I designed this. They always have the cutest designs for their bedding! I ordered a sample so when that comes in hopefully I will be able to upload pictures.

Mid century outfitters

acbeilke — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 19:09:33 +0000

I haven’t looked at the “apartment” section of urban outfitters in a while since I think I’m well beyond papasan chair owning age (aka college). But I checked it out today and there was some pretty cool stuff on there that looked very mid century inspired. Not too bad for pricing also. These pieces are pretty cute, but it does take some of the fun out of rummage-saling or trolling craigslist for similar items at bargain prices, which I LOVE to do. On the flip side these pieces are less likely to have stains, wear and tear and questionable smells.

Here are some good ones:

Slope chair

Jet set storage bench

Night and day convertible sofa

George side table

In other furniture news I’ll soon be the proud owner of a Jens Risom coffee table thanks to a sweet family business hook up. Pictures to come soon!

Smooth Sailing

acbeilke — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 18:58:11 +0000

Hey y’all. After taking the past two weeks off of Spoonflower fabric contest mania, here’s my latest for the nautical theme contest. Very inspired by Marimekko designs that I had on my bedspread as a kid.

Appy Father’s Day

acbeilke — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 14:41:37 +0000

My dad loves new technology. I can’t afford to actually buy him an ipad so I made an ipad themed father’s day card. The “apps” spelling out Happy Fathers Day” are things my dad likes: grilling steak, golf, wine, the Packers etc. I printed it on glossy photo paper to make it look more like a screen. You’re the best, dad!

Spoonflower 4th place!

acbeilke — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 21:00:38 +0000

Yay I placed 4th in the Spoonflower Tiki contest! I’m ordering swatches so I will post pictures of the actual fabrics when they come in. I’m so excited to see how they look!

Here’s my submission for the Medieval contest, “Lion and Unicorn Medallions”. Inspired by the unicorn tapestries. We’ll see how I fair this time, I have to say I’m pretty darn pleased with myself for getting in the top ten for the Tiki round though!