Art for the Soul was on the News

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An ‘Art for the Soul’ original necklace:)

I named my little business “Art for the Soul” for two reasons…

#1 reason: I wanted to create art because I KNOW my soul is meant to create art…and…

#2 reason: I wanted to create art that touched other people’s souls…

so I started making stamped metal necklaces with cool messages like you see above:)…

and I made a few other things…

but now I mainly just do decorated cookies and paintings…

but what I didn’t realize then (2 years ago) was…

how many blessings…

how much joy…

how many very cool experiences I would have…

because of my little business, Art for the Soul.

It is a great blessing to be doing cookie classes for Maggie, Kim, and Rob…

It gives me much joy to be helping them “fight, fight, fight” Maggie’s neuroblastoma…

…and it was cool to have our story told on “Traveling West Virginia”…

 which aired this week on WCHS Channel 8…

I hope Maggie’s Mermaids got some more donations…

…here’s the link…

http://www.wchstv.com/news/features/traveling-wv/stories/Art-For-The-Soul-43218.shtml#.VC9SUk10zIW

Cookie Decorating 101 with Brad Rice!!

Monday’s first Cookie Decorating 101 class was a blast…

I’ve told you all about it… except…

I haven’t told you about…

Brad Rice…

He’s the photojournalist from WCHS…

who came to our class to do a story…

for TONIGHT’S 5:30 broadcast on Channel 8 NEWS!!!…

for the feature story section called “Traveling West Virginia”.

Ok…back to Brad…

He’s as cute as this guy…

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You know him…

the model for romance novels…

but Brad is better…

Brad Rice

He’s just as cute…

(When I was in high school, we called it tough…

or in year book writing: “tuff”)…

But Brad is sooo much better…

BECAUSE…

He is a devoted husband…

and proud father to his college-age (MU!!) daughter..

AND…

he helped us all feel totally at ease in front of the camera…

he’s really a nice guy…

and that is sooo much better than just being tuff:)

Brad’s feature stories are archived here…

http://www.wchstv.com/news/features/traveling-wv/#.VC0uLk10zIU

Thanks for following along,

Linda

New Thoughts on Yesterday’s First Class

I couldn’t sleep last night…

Well, I woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep…

And my thoughts were on yesterday’s Cookie Decorating 101 class…

and I realized something VERY cool about my students…

and their cookies…

I had given them basic information…techniques…cookie designs to try…and loaned them my equipment…

I gave them cookies to decorate and icing to pipe…

and they created cookie ART…

They “felt” it… just like I do…

That push to turn a cookie into canvas and icing into paint…

To create something edible that is also to be enjoyed visually…

How do I know?

Just look…

Syndey's cook2

Syndey's cook3

Syndey's cook1

 Cookie Art by Sydney Wait

Thanks for following along,

Linda

Cookie Decorating 101

My first cookie workshop was today…

and…

it was GREAT!!!

I really absolutely love teaching…

I even love the prep work…

Planning exactly WHAT to teach, HOW to teach it, and WHERE to bring in each idea.

I can spend HOURS…(many hours)… on handouts…trying to make them effective learning tools…

and today I LOVED getting to know my students…

sharing my knowledge and skills with them…

and watch them have a blast with cookie art.

BUT…

I did not take any pictures:(…

Now, of course, Brad Rice, from WCHS Channel 8 did, but…

I’ll tell you more about that in a later post…

Here are some cookies I made today to demonstrate techniques…

Cookie class 101
Pumpkin Cookies!!

btw…Students, if you have photos of your cookies, I would LOVE for you to add them here)

Preparing for Cookie Decorating 101

I am thrilled…

I have over 60 people signed up for Cookie Decorating 101

I have VERY cool plans for my students…

And I needed pumpkin cookie cutters WITH leaves…

BUT…they are not for sale, even online…

so I bought a few large cutters to reshape…

including this one…

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I had NO CLUE what it was, but it had a lot metal…

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When I got home, I read the tag and turned it… a cheerleader;)

Oh, how funny…

I made this pumpkin cutter-with a leaf-a stem-and a vine…

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I know what you’re thinking…

that is one weird-looking pumpkin cookie cutter…

JUST WAIT!!!

I’ll be posting the cutest pumpkin cookies you have ever seen:)

Linda

A Cookie Story

I enjoy my work…

I create cookie art and paintings…I’m VERY happy…

…BUT…

sometimes, it goes beyond enjoying my work…beyond being happy…beyond being fun…

sometimes I am just totally filled with joy…

and…nothing is better than that feeling.

Let me tell you a little story.

While researching (googling) Hampton, New York for a bridal cookie order,

 I noticed this windmill image~

Windmill

I conferred with my client.

“Oh, yes, that is a symbol of the Hampton region,” she explained.

“In fact we’re using a custom graphic of that windmill on the wedding invitations.”

And she sent me images of the invitation, including this one…

wedding invite

And this is the cookie I created…

cook2

The client loved them. Her daughter (the bride) loved them.

I was utterly filled with joy.

Thanks for following along,

Linda

A Wedding Gift

Toni commissioned me to create a watercolor painting.

Her daughter, Erin, was married in East Hampton, NY last night.

The Hamptons are very special for Erin and her new husband, Bill:

that’s where they met… and Bill owns a house there.

This house.

Hampton House Painting
In the Hamptons

Toni and her husband had the painting framed and

presented it to their son-in-law.

hampton house painting framed
A Wedding Gift

Cookie Decorating Demo…

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Move over candy…it’s time for Halloween COOKIES!!!

Let’s face the facts…

when you’re over 50, if you don’t exercise, you can not move.

So, I exercise.

I joined CURVES last year, and I’m really glad I did!

Open House at Curves in Barboursville is going on this week.

I’m doing a cookie-decorating demonstration from 9-10 tomorrow morning…

Come try out Curves, you may like it as much as I do, and …

come see me decorating some fall cookies:)

btw… CURVES is not just for the 50+ crowd…

there are members of all ages;)

Painting #3 in the 30 paintings/ 90 days Challenge

Barboursville house painting
On Main Street

 This charming, charming house blows me away…

The owner has masterfully added a delightful variety of plants, pottery and metal pieces, dressers!…yes, I said dressers,

metal and wicker furniture, …and just an eclectic blend of very cool stuff to her front yard, front porch and the side yard~~

which is mostly covered by a driveway that she has figured out how to ROCK!…

I’m going to create several paintings from the photos I took at her house…

I did ask permission:)

The house is on Main Street in Barboursville…see if you can find it…

You’ll be glad you did:)…

You’ll notice I used my artist’s creative license to change a few things;)

And…

You may have noticed The Challenge has changed from 30/30 to 30/90…

I did that…

I had to…

to save my sanity…

I knew you would understand.

Thanks for following along,

Linda

Painting #2 in the 30/30 Challenge

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Huntington is blessed with an abundance of beautiful churches… like this one…

Trinity Episcopal Church

As you may already know, I’m painting 30 paintings in 30 days.

Over 700 artists around the world are participating, and, I believe, I’m the only one in WV.

Thanks for following along…  Linda