Visions of sugarplums dancing....

Goodness me! The fact that Christmas is right around the bend, well.....it just excites the heck out of me! Its one holiday that I love to decorate for and now I have TWO places to do it! Home and Shoppe! My partner shares the same sentiment, in fact, she probably owns more decorations and christmas "doo dads" than 3 households combined:)

I love the look of a homespun christmas, and came up with a craft idea that I had considered for a Cameo Workshop in late November (details to come). Here are a few of the templates, some have been left "empty" for a graphic application OR a photo frame for your cute kids!

 

These are all available for sale at Cameo Boutique!

you reap what you sow

I just got off the phone with the ever so inspirational Kathy vanGogh, and I tell ya, she should be a motivational speaker. Some people just naturally can light a fire within others...theres a doors song somewhere in there.

The context of our conversation really blew me away! The Cameo Boutique has now been named the official Vancouver Island Distributor for http://www.vangoghchalkpaintcollection.com/ !!

We have been working hard to make vanGogh a household name here on the island, and apparently it hasnt gone unnoticed. We are so excited to begin the process of setting up other retailers, and helping them achieve their dreams just as Kathy has helped us.

I must give thanks to one other person, my amazing aunty who backed me in this adventure. And I say adventure (not venture) because that is really what life should be:)

Getting back to it

With all this business and workshop development I haven't been able to do much rummaging or creating lately...I am feeling a bit hollow. Time to fill my cup.

I have spotted a few prospectives, and went out this afternoon to pick them up...I spent most of the night scanning pinterest (follow me?? http://pinterest.com/gryphonlove/) which is where I find my creative juices really get flowing.

I've said it before, just looking at creative stuff is inspiring! I have picked out two china cabinets, and am almost decided on what finish to apply to them...now the only decision is which one to do first!?!

Here is a before shot of one, check out the amazing cornice, and detailed carvings down the side! I already picked this one up at a great price...this is actually the photo from the ad:)

 

 

I intend to use some really bold rich coloring on this, here is a sample of the palate I will be working with. Confidence is the blue and Balsamic is the brown, I will be color blocking, and distressing some areas, look for the finished cabinet instore next week.

 

 

As always you can check out the amazing lineup of vanGogh products http://www.vangoghchalkpaintcollection.com/

 

 

 

Farmhouse Primitive

My partner Krysta (K-Rock to my L-Camino), spotted this awesome old handmade cabinet and we scooped it up! It was made very well, barnboard backing, solid shelves, somebody must have taken great care crafting this for his sweetheart:)

Here is a shot of the before...old, cracked, chipped, wormholed, and long since it was loved.

 

Now to be fair, it looks a lot better in this photo than it did when we went to pick it up! This is what the lady (who was gonna redo it) took as HER before shot...ours would have been a sanded down, half painted blue mess..yuk.

 

We hauled it home and put it in the shop, it sat for a few weeks while I pondered over and over again what to do with it. I bounced a lot of ideas off Krysta, and we must have talked about this thing like 10 times at least. And then as always, it is as though lightening strikes my brain, and I am consumed with the vision.

 

I started this by painting the "hot spots" out in the base colors. When I say "hot spots" I'm referring to the areas that I intend to distress. I always put great care into selecting these areas, they should be those most likely to naturally distress, and to keep things interesting throw a couple suprises in there. I chose from our vanGogh Chalkpaint Collection a rich GO TO base color Balsamic

 

I then went over the balsamic with the color Lipstick, at this point I also began to color block in the inside shelving, I knew I wanted the interior to really pop so I did the top of the shelves in Lipstick. I had to do a couple coats to get it really really rich red. The color is amazing, but the red pigment requires a bit of coaching to get it deep and dark:)

 

I taped off the interior and painted out the back walls in a gorgeous shade called Muse, I then also painted the entire exterior the same. Now what I feel is really worth mentioning is the coverage. It was amazing how this light shade covered all that darkness to well.

 

I decided to bring all the colors to the inside in a color block manner, so I painted the edges of the shelving in Balsamic. The exterior was already in rough shape, and I have never gone this far with distressing before. Farmhouse primitive is not my usual finish, but I was super excited to give it a shot! Here is what turned out, and has now been deemed the "cameo finish".

 

Inside of cabinet

 

 

A shot of the cornice

 

 

And a snapshot of the whole thing, please excuse my complete lack of photography skills, and this was taken all by my cell phone! hah!

 

 

The cabinet is a stunning piece, if you would like to see it in person come on by Cameo Boutique in unit #8 Whippletree Junction! For further information on vanGogh Chalkpaint, or to find a retailer in your area go to, http://www.vangoghchalkpaintcollection.com/

 

For a list of upcoming workshops at Cameo Boutique check out our website http://cameostore.wix.com/cameoboutique

 

or find us on good old Facebook!

 

whats cookin??

I love to cook, I never follow a recipe. Measuring doesnt work for me either. Something about it goes against my grain, I like to keep it loose and shoot from the hip so to speak.
This afternoon I decided to treat my kids to some muffins for an after school snack, the lack of eggs required some creativity.

What I DID have in stock was, frozen grated zuchinni from my garden as well as frozen blackberries we harvested....from there I tried to think what would work without eggs. This is what I came up with, and I have to say it turned out fantastically.

Total prep time, 5 mintues, heck I didnt even thaw the frozen stuff all the way.
preheat oven to 425

wet ingredients first. ( to let them thaw a bit)
one sandwich size ziploc of frozen shredded zuchinni
one cup frozen blackberries
1 cup milk.

throw in
one heavy hand of steel cut oats
one handful of hemp seed
half cup brown sugar
about three/four cups premix pancake powder

toss this all together to moisten, the zukes will throw off a lot of moisture as they cook. as will the blackberries. it was a really chunky batter. This batter stood for about 10 minutes while I dealt with my 4 year old...as a result it rose up nicely from the pancake mix:)

butter your muffin tin. fill muffin tins almost full.
bake for about 40 mins, do the old toothpick test to make sure it comes out clean.

Viola, easy muffins that are healthy (ish) and a great way to use up your fall harvest. It turned out the perfect dozen muffins, and they were pretty good!

conclusions and beginnings.

Today was the first vanGogh workshop in our new studio space! I had some last minute nerves, mainly due to feeling "underprepared". We only got our hands on the space yesterday, and needless to say it required A LOT of work to make workshop ready.


This morning was spent hastily gathering last minute supplies while trying not to ruin my "real teacher attire" and break into a sweat before I even got going! We even made a studio sign before the class started just to cameo up the joint.

The whole class showed up. We were off to a good start! Everyone had a great time playing with the broad color palate, experimenting with combinations, and distressing techniques. The workshop took the full 6 hours as outlined, including a couple breaks and time for chatting and product review. As the instructor, I have to say thank you to the students. As much as I taught them, I feel like they taught me more, here are some participants having some fun!

 Everybody has such a different perspective on color combos, encouraging them to step outside their comfort zones and experiment really pays off!

You can see more of what Cameo Boutique has to offer by checking out our website http://cameostore.wix.com/cameoboutique there are always updated class schedules, featured vendors and information about the services and products we provide.


Today was the conclusion of a long week of preparations, mixed with long hours of work. it also was the beginning of our future. These workshops are great for sparking creativity and selling our vanGogh product line, which you can see here http://www.vangoghchalkpaintcollection.com/

we call it euphoric diarreah

I know I know, gross! but funny! Come on nobody is too old for potty humor.

So today I began to get our new studio space set up, this involved a LOT of work, from cleaning the walkway and raking up fresh roofing mess, to scrubbing out shelving units and floors..all in preparation for the first Cameo Boutique workshop featuring the vanGogh Chalkpaint Collection!

The workshop is tomorrow, and tonight I am like a pendulum swinging between two physical reactions. Euphoria and ....well you know.

I dont know why Im so anxious, we sell an amazing product line. (check it out!) http://www.vangoghchalkpaintcollection.com/ and since I created one of the finishes I teach, really it shouldnt be too nerve wracking!

You can see what has now been deemed the Cameo Finish here, http://www.vangoghchalkpaintcollection.com/blog/

Kathy's blog is an amazing resource if you need a bit of inspiration, or just want to look at pretty stuff:)

Well If you are reading this please wish me luck....tomorrow is a big day for our little boutique