Painted Cabinet Progess.....

I've been working on the cabinet in small incriments. I have all of the front of the top section completed.. whoo hoo!

The upper section has a bunch of girls painted on it since that is my favorite thing to paint lately..

The bottom section has some mixed media houses collaged on with acrylic accents.....

The doors are actually a dark blue and white checker design. In the pictures it looks black and white. the trim is painted black. I ran to Home Depot today and bought some new drawer pulls... I'm also going to add these same pulls to the doors on the top and the sliding doors on the bottom as well..

Now I'm working on one of the sides of the upper part of the cabinet. i know it's hard to see, it's just pencil drawings at the moment, but it's sectioned off into 4 sections. In the first section I'm painting my three children, in the second section I'm painting my husband's 2 children, in the third I'm painting me and my husband and in the fourth i'm painting our three cats because they're part of the family too! If you click on the images you can see them a bit bigger....

I haven't had a chance to work anymore on Beezle but hopefully I'll get some work done on him tomorrow.

I hope all of you are doing something creative! I know it's hard to pull yourself away from all of the awesome blogs out there that are participating in the O.W.O.H. Blog Event but do take some time to create SOMETHING!

Hugs,

Moriah

The Infamous Beezle.....

...in progress.......

Stay tuned for finished pics and the continuing saga of Clara and Beezle!

Hugs,

Moriah

A Little Art For Me...

About 99% of the things I create leave the studio and all I'm left with are photos. From a financial stand point, that rocks! However, I never seem to have art I've made around my own home. Well.......I'm changing that this year!


I have made a few paintings for my dining room and my living room. Now I'm working on making my studio not only functional but a reflection of me and the things that I love. I'm trying to make the space more "homey" and less "WORK space". I want to walk in this room and immediately know that I belong in it as it's the only room in my home that is truly, 100% mine. I'd love to paint the walls but we rent our home so that's not an option. I can however paint the furniture!


Almost a year ago I drug a china cabinet into my house to use in my studio. It was U-G-L-Y!!! Someone had painted it white with bright blue trim and then covered the bottom doors in a yellow and white check fabric. BLECH!!!!!! I loved the clean lines of the piece and knew I could make it look fabulous again. Needless to say, it sat in that ugly state, minus the fabric, for almost a year.


Initially I had decided to strip the paint off and bring it back to it's original state. BORING! Had it been intended for my dining room, yes, perfect. For my studio, BORING! So I gessoed the whole thing and started painting on it. I'm loving it so far! I still have a TON of painting to do but so far I'm really loving thinking about the end result! Still in progress........

A few girls along the top and some "little boxes" (houses) in the middle. I still have a ton of surface to cover but I'm having a ton of fun AND I'm ticking of one of the many projects that are waiting patiently for me to finish them.

I hope you've done something creative today and I hope you've had a chance to visit the more than 730 blogs that are currently having giveaways! I'm exhausted, but so happy to be meeting new friends out there in blogland!

OH, OH, OH....... I almost forgot...... Coming soon, I will be doing Open Studio once a week! What is Open Studio you ask? Well... I thought it might be fun to do live studio cam once a week where you can peek at whatever I've got going on in the studio that day!! I'll be able to answer any questions you have or just yak too! How cool is that? I'm not sure of an exact date yet, I have to get a new webcam first and my hubby is upgrading my computer so, it may be 2-3 weeks before I'm ready, maybe a month... we'll see. BUT ANYWAY.... stay tuned for more info on that!

okay, I'm off to bed.... HUGS!

Moriah

One World One Heart Blog Event 2010 OWOH

THE GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. NO MORE ENTRIES WILL BE ACCEPTED.

TWO WINNERS WILL BE DRAWN AND ANNOUNCED THE AFTERNOON OF

FEBRUARY 15th. GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE WHO HAS ENTERED!

Welcome, welcome! Thanks so much for stopping by my little corner of Blogland. Some of you are frequent visitors and know me pretty well by now but for those of you who are here for the first time, hello! My name is Moriah Betterly and I sell my works under the name MLB Studios mostly on Etsy. I started making art dolls in 2006 and then veered off course and focused on dollhouse miniatures for 2 years. Now I'm back to art dolls because I haven't found anything else that makes me happier!


All of my dolls are 100% original and sculpted by me without the use of molds. I work in polymer, paper and air dry clays. All of the costuming is usually sewn by hand although for larger dolls I will use the sewing machine for parts of the costuming process.

Besides making art dolls, I also create mixed media paintings, dollhouse miniatures and a stuffy here and there. In whatever spare time I can muster I create video tutorials which I share on YouTube and this blog from time to time.


I live in sunny Florida with my awesome husband and 3 beautiful, wonderfully talented children.

Whew....now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's get to the good stuff, shall we?

Lisa Swifka of awhimsicalbohemian.typepad.com has hosted One World One Heart Blog Events for the past 4 years. The goal is for bloggers to meet one another and form friendships. The icing on the cake is that everyone who participates in the event hosts a giveaway on their blog! Whoo hoo! So, without further ado.... the giveaway....

Introducing Clara....

Clara Bettlmeyer is very sad. You see tonight is the big homecoming dance. Normally Clara doesn't care about such things but this dance is special. Beezle Bradley asked her to go with him and Clara has been in love with Beezle ever since she first laid eyes on him in the 3rd grade!

Clara would happily suffer through a stupid dance if it meant she got to spend the evening with Beezle. Her mom helped her make her dress and she even put on make-up which she never does!
The problem is, Beezle never showed up to take Clara to the dance and he won't return her calls either. Poor Clara is all dressed up with nowhere to go...

Clara is 8 inches tall and is sculpted in air dry clay. She is painted with acrylics, ink, and pastels. Her costume is handsewn and her wig is made of mohair.

In Honor of reaching 200 comments, I am adding another giveaway item!!!!!!!!

A second name will be drawn on Feb 15th for this Vampire Bust. He was handsculpted by me in paperclay and painted in acyrlics..... Good Luck!






SO, HOW DO YOU WIN?????


It's really quite simple. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post before midnight EST on Feb. 14th AND leave a way to contact you should you win. A blog address or email address will suffice. Then stay tuned because on February 15th, I'll have one of my handy dandy assistants draw a name from all of the entries.


This giveaway is open to all. It's not a requirement that you follow my blog but I hope that you will so I can visit your blogs as well.

It was a pleasure meeting you and I hope you'll come back for a visit soon!


Hugs,
Moriah

On My Work Table Today...

A work in progress..... back to it!

hugs,
Moriah

Commission Finished....

I was commissioned to paint 3 little (2 inches by 3 inches) girlie paintings. I was asked to use the peachy pink color, blue and lime green. She has these 3 little frames sitting around and wanted little paintings to put in them. Now I'm off to mail these out and get back to work on the OWOH Giveaway Post! Stay tuned.

Hugs,
Moriah

Cutie Pa Tutti Frig Art

4 more magnets to adorn my frig. I warn you, the cuteness factor is high!

'Lil Boxes On the Hillside.. Frig Art

Some little magnets for the frig... "Little Boxes on the Hillside, Little Boxes Made of Ticky Tacky, Little Boxes on the hillside little boxes all the same...."

These magnets are about 3 inches square and are currently making my stark white frig look awesomely colorful.

I've Cleaned Up My Act!

I was really starting to feel like the walls were closing in on me in the studio. There was stuff crammed here and there, piled over there and hidden over here. I had this desktop that came out into the middle of the floor breaking the work area away from the computer area. I just couldn't take it anymore. So, I spent an entire day purging, cleaning, dusting (OMG the dust), reorganizing and getting more space in here to breathe.

Take a look at the before and after in the video below:

Show me your studio!

Stay warm everyone! I'm f-f-f-f-freezin'!

Hugs,
Moriah

Painting and Freezing

I know I'm going to get blasted by the Northerners for saying this but... I'M FREEZING MY TAIL OFF HERE IN FLORIDA! Our high today was a big whoppin' 45 degrees and right now it's 32 degrees. I'm in southern Florida for crying out loud! My hubby is positively giddy. He LOVES the cold. Me...not so much. I'm in sweats from head to toe, thick socks and slippers and a Snuggie over all of that. What's the hubby wearing? A T-shirt and pair of shorts! Brrrrrrrrr.

He felt sorry for me and turned on the heat today, THANK GOD! I try to let him have his cool temps because he's miserable 9 months out of the year in the Florida heat but man, I couldn't take it anymore and had to have heat. We keep it low, to save cash but 67 degrees inside is better than 50! I know, I know. You northern dwellers are laughing at me right now and saying how I should be thankful because you all have temps below zero. I am thankful we're not AS COLD, but I'm still freezing! AND...for the record...I lived up north all of my life with the exception of the last 3 years. I came to Florida thinking I'd be done with this frigid stuff! I think my mom brought the cold with her when she came for Christmas and forgot to take it back with her when she left. Errrrr. okay, enough whining....moving on..

Since I was cold and miserable today, I decided to do some painting. These are both on wood and are about 8 inches square.

It felt good to do a little painting again.

The kiddies are back to school tomorrow!! It's been a great Christmas/New Years break, but I'm ready to have silence in the house again. Even well behaved kiddies are a distraction when your studio is in your home and in the center of it to boot! It'll be nice to be able to focus again.

Okay, I'm off to crawl under the heated blanket and shake off the chills. Stay warm everyone!

hugs,

Moriah

On My Worktable Today...

Mixed media Steampunk painting on wood. More pics when it's finished! Sorry for the crappy image. Used the camera in my phone instead of my Nikon.

Free Tutorial: How to Make Miniature Scrolls

PART ONE:





PART TWO: