Nimly used to be a circus entertainer, and for the most part, she loved her job. The children would laugh at every trick she magically mustered and every acrobatic feat she would dare! But as she got older, she realized that she had to find something new to do with her life. Oh yes, making people laugh is a wonderful thing, but was that why she was put on this earth?

She traveled the world, looking for inspiration, seeking, in vain, her life's purpose, until one day, she came to a still lake. She looked inside, and saw a beautiful blue face staring back at her. When she smiled, the face smiled back. It was then that she realized that all this time, she had been searching for what she possessed all along. Her gift, her reason for being, had all along, been her ability to smile and to make others do so, too. She smiled into the lake once again, and dipped her hand into the water, creating ripples. Each and every ripple carried a snapshot of that smile. The ripples became waves, and the waves eventually reached shore, all bringing with them, a beautiful smile. The people and animals on the beach at the moment the waves washed ashore were all filled with a joy...a joy that kept on spreading with each new person they touched...
copyright Deedra Levy 2010

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8x10 acrylic and mixed media on stretched canvas.


This painting, Two Sisters speaks of the unity of the two souls. Raised together, learning about life together. Sisters are such important figures in our lives. I just wanted to pay homage to my sisters.

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She's the newest of my creations. She's a little woodland creature.

She's made of papier mache and a few other goodies thrown in for good measure!

She's 6" tall but she's full of heart! She has so much heart that she has some to spare. She says, 'I give you my heart', and means it.

And here's a little sneak peek of her in the creation process :)

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Nine hours. Nine whole hours to clean and organize this room! I purged SO MUCH and it feels so dang good! This cube shelf is my room divider. It keeps me in touch with those in the living room, while hiding the mess that I'm prone to making!


My painting and papier mache station (you can tell by the paint and flour spattered table!)


This is Sisi's corner. She can be with me and get creative with her crayons (in the purple tub on her table) and her play doh (in the brown container on the shelf). She also has her puzzles and toys to play with. Oh - and notice my knitting basket beside the table :)




My pretty chandelier. I thought I would just add this for ambience. It always makes me smile, and things that make me smile inspire me!

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'The Offering' Mixed media & acrylic on 10x30" gallery-wrapped canvas
I just LOVED painting this piece. I was a little nervous at first because the dress, made up of illustrations from an old children's book (circa 1948) was stressing me out, but I kept at it, knowing that my paintings always satisfy me in the end.


Lots and lots of textured goodness. Ribbons, embroidery floss, rhinestones, tissue paper...

...and the wording 'Where there is great love, there are always miracles'.

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My friend down the road from me gave me this beautiful little wooden desk, handmade by her father-in-law for her son when he was little. It was a little worse-for-wear with scribbles and paint, and unfinished paint job, but I was ready for the task!!


With a little bit of semi-gloss paint, some cool, retro-style scrapbook paper, some ribbon, some mod podge, and rhinestones, I personalized it for my little lady! I also found a little knob at Michael's that matched the ribbon that I used at the top of the desk!


I found this little shelf with a drawer and hooks at Goodwill and thought it would be perfect for her dress-up clothes! I think this little girl may have tutu many of them...cuz this isn't even all of them!



And here's the wall where the pretty little desk sits. I matched the seat of the desk to the little heart hinged door on the shelf above! And notice the little cameos on the wall? The artwork on the right of the shelf was her first acrylic painting! And my step-mom found those adorable little decorative dresses that hang to the left!

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I'm forever making outfits for Sisi's babies! This one was just made out of scraps of colourful, old felted sweaters! I then used some cotton yarn to embellish the edges, some of which were crocheted, and some of which I just picked up and knit. I just sort of measured the doll and her feet and away I went! And then, of course, there had to be a cute little grey elephant added to the front to add to the cutesy effect :)

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I found this great little craft on what I thought was How About Orange, but when I went to look for it today to provide a link, I couldn't find it! But anyhow, I'm sure it's there somewhere if you want to look! It's well worth scouring because that blog is DA BOMB!! So cool. It's a crafter's wonderland! So, anyhow, these are two little cameos that I made for Sapphire's room. It was really quite easy to do. You take a profile pic of your subject, and a full body, print it out, cut around it, trace the cutout onto black paper, glue it onto some pretty scrapbook paper, and
stick it in some cute frames!

I found some cute old frames at the Sally Anne today and just decided that a fresh coat of white paint would match her room perfectly!
Here are the pictures of choice!

Profile

Full body

Et Voila! Some cute little cameos to hang in my little darlin's room!

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I love little houses. I love EVERYTHING miniature, actually. I found myself inspired after perusing etsy. There are so many adorable little miniature houses there, and I really wanted to make my own. I just love the little girl that stands beside the door. She reminds me of a simpler time.

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...and ended up NAKED! Not FUNNY!! Well, she didn't run out of money...she started out naked. That's how we found her at Chapter's. And because of her size (and tail) it was hard for us to find clothes that fit her! Sisi does NOT like her plushies to be nekkid, so I set to work, making up the pattern as I went. I made the sleeveless sweater first, and then the pants with the hole for the tail. Sisi REALLY likes the outfit, and I really like that I taught myself this skill seven whole years ago (thank you, Knitting for Dummies!) to make her things that she loves!

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Follow, follow, follow, follow, follow the yellow brick (cobblestone) road!! The mural is D.O.N.E. It took me a little longer than I thought it would, but it's done, and I do believe the little girl (and her parents!) love it. Hopefully it brings years and years of joyful imaginings with it! I can just imagine her lying in her bed daydreaming about which tower she would live in and the gowns she would wear! At least, that's what I would do...at 34 years old :)

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...follow the yellow brick...hey - wait a minute! Where's the road? Oh...there ISN'T one? Hmm...maybe I should get on that. The darn castle needs a road! Well, it WILL get done tomorrow. I'm almost done the castle...and she's a magical one!

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A friend recently came to me requesting a mural for her daughter's room. She's very into princesses and wanted a castle! Well, I had to oblige. This one is a work-in-progress, but so far I'm liking it! Full of glittery goodness! You know I'm all about that! It will be really pretty once the landscape and all the towers are done!

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Ok, so here's Abraxas. Don't let his scary appearance fool you. He's one of the good guys. He's the guardian of my son's room, and the eater of bad dreams. It's the bad dreams that fill his belly and keep him alive! He takes good care of Rayne and protects him from things that go bump in the night! Surprisingly, this REALLY large dragon took me less than 4 hours. I got really tired so he ended up having less detail than I had initially planned, but I think he's pretty cool, anyway. And all of my murals are done without the use of a projector. All freehand, baby!!

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Well, the castle and surrounding landscape are DONE! And to top it all off, I've added the drawbridge!! I'm pretty excited about it, and so is my little man! Now, today I hope to finish this all off and make the sword plaque, and a dragon mural above his bed!! And then it's on to Gryphon's room...and then back to Sisi's room. Whew.

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Mr. Shelf before the transformation!


First step after priming with the gray-tinted primer was choosing an undercolour for the shelving. I chose a goldish colour and shaded around the edges for an aging effect.

Next, I took the fabric I bought (a really pretty mottled red) and cut it into uniform diamond shapes and placed them all on each shelf to see if they fit properly (I mean, really - who measures ahead of time?) and then I used matte Mod Podge and sealed them on (and did another coat after the first one dried).

And then I found this really ornate, royal looking ribbon (maybe it was elastic?) and hot glued it on, making sure the edges were tucked under.

Then I added detail to the castle (a more mottled top, and I used a potato stamp to make the bricks!)

I even used the fabric to wrap around the legs and also decorated it with the left-over ribbon (elastic? lol)

Et Voila!!! A castle shelf!! A 40 year old, $10 shelf given a new home and child to love!

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