Category Archives: dogs

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Mandee-ville Open Studios

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This weekend is Somerville Open Studios and the whole town is bustling with people with street maps seeking out houses with orange balloons.  It’s a really cool event and I love going to see everyone’s studios every year but, alas, I don’t have a studio of my own (unless my drafting table in the basement counts) so I did a little public art in Union Square instead on the windows at River Dog. 

River Dog is located at 321 Somerville Ave in Union Square, Somerville.  Go check ’em out!

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Dog Days of Summer Window Painting

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Welp, it’s here again, the dog days of Summer are upon us.  Those long hot (and in New England HUMID) days towards the end of Summer characterized by frizzy hair, sweaty buns and bad attitudes.  When people start longing for Fall and the cool nights she brings. 

There are a couple things you can do about this type of weather:  you can complain incessantly about how hot it is, much to the chagrin of your co-workers, I’m sure or you can do like this guy and shamelessly hog up the kiddie pool. 
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This window painting is a remake of a June 2010 window painting I did- reduce, reuse, recycle! 

Enjoy the rest of your Summer!!
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Happy Critters Custom Playground Painting

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This custom 24″x36″ painting was made just for Vivian who turned 2 last weekend to bring more color to her “not too pinky-girly” nursery and came to me my favorite way, through word of mouth advertising.

Included in the painting are Vivan’s favorite stuffed animals, herself and of course, a girl’s best friend, her dog, Milo.   

Vivan wasn’t home to see the painting in person when I dropped it off but luckily her Mom shot me this adorable play-by-play of when she first saw it:

“I wanted to let you know about Vivian’s reaction when she first saw your painting.  She saw it as soon as she walked into her room yesterday afternoon, and did a total double-take.  Then she pointed at Dolly in the picture and said her name, and went to grab the actual Dolly from her toy bin so she could hold her just like she is in the picture.  Then she pointed at each of her “friends” in the picture and named them, and also pointed out Milo.  I asked her if she liked the picture, and she said, “Yesssss!””


Reactions like that make this job even sweeter, if that’s possible.

And, as if that weren’t enough, piggy-backed on top of all that sweetness was this painting also done for Vivian commissioned by the original word-of-mouth advertiser, the customer I painted Ryan’s Safari for.
Little V is a second generation Chinese-American, this is her birth animal, the tiger and her name written in Chinese characters.  It was painted to coordinate-with but not necessarily match the playground painting in order to keep the room from looking too “theme-y” (which is definitely a word) and topped off with a distressed white frame.

Thanks for stopping by and please don’t hesitate to contact me with questions if you’d like your own custom nursery artwork!  


…don’t be a stranger, ya’hear?

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Riverdog Doggy Daycare: Window Painting

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Liz and I painted the window over at Riverdog Doggy Daycare in Union Square last week.
  
Below is what the window looked like before….wahhhh-wahhhhh.  
(That’s the sound of something sad and lackluster.)  
We did a big Bernese Mountain Dog and dozens of little pink flowers to celebrate the arrival of Spring.  

And we also had to pay homage to Riverdog’s River-Cat, Dennis, the friendliest cat I’ve ever met and the shop’s unofficial mascot.  Dennis alone is reason enough to stop by the shop for a visit. 

Go check it out if you’re in the neighborhood and tell ’em Mandee sent you!
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Wedding Wednesday: Tchotchke Centerpiece/Favors

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…and with a little less than 5 hours left of this beautiful, rainy Wednesday I bring you:
 
                                                                                                              Picture by Kristen Mallory
WEDDING WEDNESDAY: 
TCHOTCHKE EDITION! 
For a full year before my wedding I collected tchotchkes from junk shops, second hand stores, garage sales and of course, Etsy to create my combination centerpiece/favors. 
There were a couple of rules for collecting these hollow treasures, they needed to be:
a. planters
b. under $7 (american currency) and
c. a little “off”….not exactly ugly, just “off”.
To make them into centerpieces was truly a family affair.  We (my 4 year old flowergirl, Sister and I) planted succulents in all of the tchotchkes, put them on wooden disks (cut especially for me by my loving Father), accompanied them with precious little terra cotta pots filled with small white flowers (put together by Lady, my Mom) added hand stamped signs (Made by Liz) that said, “take me home tonight!” and then they were all artfully arranged on each table by my BFF, Gina Marie.
Pictures by Meredith Mascola
The results were 100% unique, semi home-made, adorable little bits of precious that I could hardly stand to give away!!  These were SUCH a huge hit I was blown away!  People were hiding them from each other and stealing them off tables all night.  I personally saw the squirrel change hands at least 3 times, I’m still hearing stories about who the rightful owner should be.  And now the fun part is finding out where all of them went.  I love going to friend’s houses and seeing which planter everyone ended up with (aka who swiped what while no-one else was looking!) 
  
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The Ornament Factory

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I have been a veritable ornament factory this year!  I started receiving orders for them in mid-November and started painting them at the same time.  I’m happy to report that as of midnight last night I finished my final ornament of the season and it was picked up this morning!   
Here are a few of them:
Now all there’s left to do is put out cookies and wait for Santa!!
Merry Christmas!!!