stone soup art

day 13

2011-09-13T19:59:00.000-07:00

More work on this piece...I think it's nearly finished. What would you do?

Day Twelve

2011-09-12T18:31:00.001-07:00

I have tentatively titled this one "Game Night".

Finished this class sample up. I love the blend of grinning teeth with the flowers.

Day Eleven

2011-09-11T18:17:00.000-07:00

On September 11 I worked on several wood panels...this one shows the most progress.

Had a wonderfully reflective service at church. Honoring and loving and continuing to pray for peace. May all be safe.

Day Ten

2011-09-10T21:23:00.000-07:00

Day Ten. I prepped a bunch of wood panels with my new favorite Golden Medium GAC 100. Then I painted on several panels at a time. This one got most of my attention today.

While I painted my son painted a bit on this big, big canvas.

Day Nine

2011-09-09T08:32:00.001-07:00

I love this page, I'll be scanning it for possible use later. Then I'll white wash it as I am all the other pages in here.

Day Eight

2011-09-08T08:31:00.000-07:00

I am putting a wash of zinc white over the top of these pages, for better journaling over later.

Day Seven

2011-09-07T08:30:00.000-07:00

I want to make some artsy dolls one day. Putting them in my calendar may help this to happen in 2012 :)

Day Six

2011-09-06T08:29:00.000-07:00

I love circles!

Day Five

2011-09-05T08:27:00.000-07:00

Another page from one of my class sample I've been working on.
I love the idea of making my own lattes look this pretty.

Day Four

2011-09-04T10:26:00.000-07:00

added a bit to this painting.

Day Three

2011-09-03T21:06:00.000-07:00

The artist's classroom space. Totally unpretentious. And all those art supplies so nearby to purchase!
Ground samples for playing with.
All those amazing Golden materials we learned about.
The painting station.
What I played with on Day 3. I bought some new paint, more water soluable pencils in black and red, 3 wax pencils.

Day Two

2011-09-02T22:23:00.000-07:00

Pink background, first layer.

30 days has September....

2011-09-01T23:20:00.000-07:00

September One. I coptic bound the beginnings of a new class sample. More days will be spent finishing this project.
I'm counting this as an art project today too. Day 6 of replacing the deck.

Get Your Art On....

2011-08-31T16:25:00.000-07:00

So, I clicked on a link from a friend of mine on FB (thanks Dianne)...to her most recent blog post and found she was taking this 30 days of art making challenge. And I thought, of course!, that is *just* what I need. So, I followed the link she posted (you can too Traci Bunkers) Here are her guidelines:

•I’ll make art every day for 30 days and post what I have done.
•I don’t have to finish what ever I’m working on that day, I just have to work on something.
•I have to work for 30 minutes, but can work longer if time permits.
•It doesn’t matter what I do for the art making, as long as I work on art.
•I won’t feel guilty for taking the time to work on art and I won’t have to justify why I’m doing it.
•I don’t have to go into detail in my post about how I did anything or what tools, materials I used (unless I want to).

Make your own guidelines that will work for you, so that you will succeed. This is supposed to be fun & inspiring, so it’s important to set guidelines that are realistic. If they aren’t, you might be setting yourself up for failure.

I have a show coming up in October (more details here and on FB soon), so I have to make more. This is a great time to do it. Plus, I have new class samples to make and am just itching to make, make, make....

Join me.

life affirming Art Journaling retreats

2011-08-22T22:36:00.000-07:00

Our Saturday night party

Tina painted these glorious covers for a new journal.

Sue's show and tell. Sue also made these fun kalediscopes with her iPad (one day, I'll get one of these, so love them).

Penn's show and tell. I asked for her to point out the pockets :)

Paula's colour theory practice journal. *amazing*

Paula's sewn manilla file folder journal.

Kathe's show and tell. She loves words too.

Sue taking a photo of Rose's show and tell with her iPad.

love this teabag page in Gwen's journal.

Catherine's triad exercise with acrylic paint.

Love these weekends and all the great ideas we share with one another. Thanks Gussies.

collage a day class this saturday

2011-08-17T19:49:00.000-07:00

I just returned from another Art Journaling Retreat. So life affirming. This was my favorite coffee mug for the weekend (the rainbow of faux FiestaWare was at our disposal).

One of my favorite print-able pieces I created this weekend.

I love, love, love making these quick collages!

I am so thrilled to be offering one of my *favorite*favorite* classes this weekend. There is still space! See Schack Art Center for details.

ArtSplash in Edmonds July 21-24

2011-07-15T20:01:00.000-07:00

Nearly done. Available next week at ArtSplash in Edmonds. (details available via the link)

my artwork installed at church

2011-06-19T17:57:00.000-07:00

Re worked this welcome sign.
love these hung on top of one another.

I love this evolving photo gallery of our congregants. I still have more that need to be printed and placed in the mosaic.

i heart books!

2011-06-19T17:01:00.001-07:00

And the Pursuit of Happiness by Maira Kalman

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'm so inspired by the paintings and journal style of this book! I love maira kalman's illustrations, this book made me love more of her, and united states history!

View all my reviews

Daily sketches

2011-05-26T19:13:00.000-07:00

Always in search of the perfect brush for sketching.
Love my white gel pen!

The Golden Paints Lecture. I played and played with the products left out for us to play with. If you love paints and gels and any Golden products, this is a must attend event. I had a great time and really look forward to attending a couple more of these in the future!

journal pages

2011-05-26T18:52:00.000-07:00

Playing with color and stickers. I found these heart stickers. Received them in a trade at Artfest I think. Really not my thing, but I thought I'd see what I could do with them. So the hearts started it all. And I love this page!
The start of a couple more journal play pages.

Summer in the Seattle suburbs

2011-05-20T14:42:00.000-07:00

Make 5: Between a Soft and a Hard Place

2011-05-18T22:56:00.000-07:00

Fiber and silver clay is combined to make gorgeous pure silver jewelry.
Monday, June 20 & 27
7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
Schack Art CenterEverett, Washington

Winter Holiday Journal

2011-05-13T11:47:00.000-07:00

Christmas in July. Plan now so you can move slower this December. You'll have a journal filled with ideas for the holidays (events, gift lists, kids activities, photographs) and a completely beautiful and organized Christmas to-do list and memory book. In December you add photos and 15 minutes of journaling a day.
Mondays, July 25 and August 1 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.

Schack Art Center

. Everett, Washington

I'm Bored: Journal for Moms

2011-05-13T11:36:00.001-07:00

the posts that blogger ate...
Saturday, May 21 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
The go to book to have for moments when your children need a little inspiration for their active play. All those ideas you have seen in magazines, newspapers, blogs, books, and your own childhood will be compiled in this journal. Makes a great gift for a daughter-in-law, grandchildren, best friend, neighbour. Bonus, many of these activities can lead to holiday gifts for family, friends and teachers throughout the year. Sections include: in the car, at the park, backyard and inside.

Schack Art CenterEverett, Washington

Washington coast, early spring

2011-05-07T22:07:00.001-07:00

I could ride the ferry all day long. The weather was nearly perfect too!

Vacationing with extended family on the Olympic Peninsula. We had a fabulous time.

I did get a little bit of art done too. I'll scan some of the journal pages and include them here soon.
I love photography!

blooming

2011-05-01T19:34:00.000-07:00

The new Schack Art Center is *gorgeous*, spacious, and *chock*full* of amazing art classes. I was there today for a couple of hours demo'ing several of my paper based classes....collage, journaling, zine making and more. It was a ball!

(Except for the part when I first arrived and was surprised by a leather clad motorcycle dude who I didn't see til he was *right*there*, shouting at me about ticketing and needing to move my car. I got so discombobulated that I accidentally shut the car door. whoop, whoop. and it locked with everything inside -- keys, phone, etc. 20 minutes before I was to haul all my stuff in and demo. Fortunately, I was able to use the internets to find our insurance folks and have a Pop-a-Lock guy show up in time for me to get to my space. On. Time.)

Beautiful weather today.
I love this painting, working on a couple more blooming flowers soon.

Hello Courage

2011-04-21T17:05:00.000-07:00

Did not see this sign when I parked. So tired when I left that I did not find someone to take my photo with the sign.
Start with a sketch
Add some paint

The final work. I hope it raises some money for the Bellevue School Foundation. Artist Reception is Saturday, May 14th. Silent Auction started on April 1st with the first completed work.

Painting Demo this week!

2011-04-17T22:10:00.000-07:00

I'm painting at Bellevue Art and Toys on Monday, April 18th from noon to 4
I'll be working on a journal page inspired painting. Every day in April they are hosting an artist making art to fundraise for Bellevue schools.

May 14th is the artist reception, come on down to see all the work. And perhaps bid on some of the great artwork!

My Tribe. November Guemes Island Retreat.

2011-04-01T22:35:00.000-07:00

"We evolve at the rate of the tribe we are plugged into." Carolyn Myss
Every 3-4 months a group of talented, well read, and beautiful artists connect for four days and 3 nights at our super secret location on Guemes Island. We make art, we solve all the world's problems, we make food (thanks Gwen for the planning and shopping), we eat food, we share favorite art books (and titles of great fiction reads), we share zines (we make 'em and swap 'em too), and laugh so hard our sides hurt (and we cry sometimes too). It is the best!
Penn has the most organized approach to art. I am constantly amazed by her artwork. And especially her writing. I had a dream about Penn, she is an uber famous writer, under a pen name because she's an introvert. Serious...she's that talented.
The pile of stuff I brought with me for my four days of art making. I completed a lot of what I hoped to complete.
Some images of the ferry landing and beach combing.

I love this community center/waiting for the ferry spot, filled with graffiti and community notices.
Gwen's journal in progress and Penn's organized space.
Final day, cramming for show and tell.
Love. Beautiful. Tina's journals are *so* inspirational!
Sue was a first time "Gussie", I love this show and tell shot of her because she so "embraced" her art.
Love, love, love everything about this stencil Penn created.
Paula is known for her flower drawings...wonderful!! These are daffodils Tina bought at the great supermarket in Anacortes on the way to the ferry landing.
Kathe had such a great dream one of the nights we were encamped, she worked and worked on representing the dream. Love it.
The colour combination is so glorious! Gwen's work.
Completely enamoured with this drawing by Catherine.

Looking forward to our June retreat!

Earl Lectures in Berkeley

2011-02-04T21:59:00.000-08:00

The most gorgeous worship service I've seen.
The lobby area of where we stayed. Peaceful spot for morning coffee and a book.
Beautiful light fixture in the lobby where we stayed while in Berkeley last week.
The banners I'm making these days!! Check my Etsy store.
For Abijah's 4th birthday.

Polymer Clay Journals

2011-01-06T20:17:00.000-08:00

This is another of my polymer clay journals, I love the sewing of the signatures, it one of my favorite parts of making a book. This is one of the classes I have been sending out into the world. Hopefully I'll be teaching the making of this book near you soon.

I do love having the opportunity to stay at home with our toddler, but I tell you the big art projects have certainly been curtailed now that he's so mobile. I cannot get out all my papers and leave them scattered about to fit in sewing an hour here and an hour there. The last time I tried that....well, let's just say it wasn't pretty. My carefully planned piles of "sew something from this pile to something from that pile" became related to the game of 52 pick up. One of my takes on the fun, fun, fun Remains of the Day class by the generous, real and brilliant Mary Ann Moss. I wish I could hang out with her. Instead I get to read her blog regularly and occasionally I even find the time to re-watch her fabulous videos for this Remains of the Day class.

The covers are made of polymer clay the technique is called mokume gane. If you click on a photo to see it bigger you may be able to see the shimmer in the clay.

I'm joining the sketchbook challenge....

2010-12-22T17:33:00.000-08:00

I have been wanting to sketch more, get in the journal more...and be inspired by others in the blogging world. Here I go!

Stuff I've been making

2010-12-10T15:07:00.000-08:00

A new granny square hat.
Experimenting with the plaster pages that Penelope showed us at the last Art Journaling Retreat.

stencils -- yummy!

2010-12-09T10:11:00.000-08:00

The best for adding layers and textures to my mixed media work, journals, and the tough ones are even great for little man to play with.

Check out these awesome ones that Mary Beth Shaw has created:

Run on over and play.

more progress....

2010-12-02T09:40:00.000-08:00

painting update

2010-11-30T15:44:00.000-08:00

Some holiday projects.

2010-11-30T14:16:00.000-08:00

In progress.
A mandala for my son's room.
I love the look of snow on the adirondack chairs!
Learning days of the week, and how many more days until Thanksgiving.

Cannon Beach, stormy vacation

2010-11-19T18:32:00.000-08:00

What a beautiful boy! And wow, does he love the beach! Running and jumping and climbing and laughing. The ocean kissing his toes (this time of year, in boots!)
The waves crashing on the rock are the best.
The first sunny morning. It lasted about an hour. I do love, love, love stormy weather at Cannon Beach.

be careful with your camera

2010-08-28T16:05:00.000-07:00

the long delay with the blog is primarily due to a camera that wasn't working...
I finally took it to the camera shop and discovered...that sand from the last beach trip was fully in the lens, the camera works fine, as evidenced with the camera shop photo with a different lens, the rest of the shots are with my lens, we are going to try to do a little more cleaning at home first before we buy a new lens $150 - ouch!
So, don't take your fancy camera to the beach if it is at all windy!

Collecting rocks and "Splash!"

2010-06-18T19:52:00.000-07:00

We do love our walks along the Tolt Pipeline...tossing rocks in to the creek, "splash!"

Artists' Garage Sale

2010-06-01T17:34:00.001-07:00

in Everett this Saturday only.
I'm organizing my studio, so I'm bringing a lot of my current and past work for sale at amazing prices. Time to work on my next series...I have cleared space for the easel I received for Christmas, and have 2' x 2' boards lined up to paint - BIG! Woot. So come one, come all to the sale this weekend.

Let There Be Light - class!

2010-05-19T23:27:00.001-07:00

Personalize your home with customized light switch and outlet covers. Mix clay colors to match you decor. Whether or not you have worked with polymer clay in the past you will make colorful art for yourself and gifts for all occasions. You will learn the basics of three techniques: mokume gane (multiple thin layers of colors textured and shaved), caning and photocopy transfer.

Saturday, June 19th 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Supply list sent with registration.
Register at The Ranch: Center for Arts and Craft

new journal

2010-05-05T14:22:00.001-07:00

Paula started a trend. I love this idea too...just had too many other things on my list to do for the retreat...I'm going to make one soon though....

Went to the United Church of Christ regional conference in Wenatchee. I was super pleasantly surprised by the beauty.

I made a new coptic bound journal. I filled the one I made for a (ahem) milestone birthday. This is what that one started out like. NOw it's filled and more book looking. Will try to post a photo of the completed journal soon.

Stitching close-ups.

Recycling. Cheap construction paper and cardboard containers. Love.

Artfest mini post

2010-03-31T17:20:00.000-07:00

My fourth year! Oh how I love Artfest. The best camp experience every year.

Playing with the camera on the ferry ride over to Kingston. I could ride a ferry all day long.

On the Fort Worden grounds, toward the water and Dorm 225. My resting place for five days.

Jesse Reno, beginning the process of completely changing a painting that was finished. What a great spirit he has. Take a class from him if you can, I recommend more than one day, I just started "getting" it about an hour before class was over...gonna have to finish cleaning up the studio post Artfest to break out the easel and paint, paint, paint!

Nearly complete. Now I understand, I've gotta add more random bits of paint and highlight them.

Ta da! I love it!

301 posts! who knew?

2010-03-04T17:28:00.000-08:00

...they certainly have been few and far between since little man joined us. I'm trying to increase the blogging time around here...and increase our walks to the lake, hikes in the library woods, splashing in the fountains, and keeping track of his spoken words.

And in the evenings, during naps and in the wee hours of the morning I'm working on these things

Summer Tree. Post sketch, first layer of tree paint

Summer Tree. Second layer of the tree

Summer Tree. final layers on the tree and grass, beginning of the flowers

Summer Tree with first layer of flowers, final tree and leaves, no sky yet

Artfest collaborative book process

2010-02-19T22:20:00.000-08:00

I finally sent them in...
This is the process:
The pages were painted first.

The collaged pages

Then I india ink'd some flowers, and other glorious icons all over the pages, to be cut into 4 x 4 sheets.

The completed front page
Another completed front page and a sample of the back

january gussie retreat

2010-02-11T13:35:00.000-08:00

what a blessing.
this group of women, the space and time that we have there to create, play, walk the beach, eat such fabulous (mostly) healthy food and get a little bit of sleep...priceless.
Penelope brought her one inch button making machine...Once we got started we couldn't stop creating buttons, this is a mere fraction of the beautiful buttons made.

a quick trip to the beach for some fresh air and teeny white rock collecting. {Cordelia...where is my sea glass?}

wonderful painted background technique that Gwen shared with us. I love this vibrant colour combination of hers.

custom prints available soon at my etsy store...stay tuned for the originals of these to be posted at a later time.

more retreat photos and sharing later....it's nap time...and that means I can get a little studio time in!

oh facebook :)

2010-02-07T16:56:00.000-08:00

well, there's facebook and then there is the broken camera...which has kept me from taking more photos....

however, I am trying to get back here...to post more photos and tell you more about my art making adventures.

had another "Gussie" retreat with my art journaling friends...will post photos of that soon.

blessings....

One of my pages from the Gussies Collaborative Calendar. I love my calendar so much!

Painting and painting and painting some more

My Tribe

2009-11-15T17:15:00.000-08:00

"We evolve at the rate of the tribe we are plugged into."
Carolyn Myss

I had been writing and re-writing this quote into my journals for years...put it in many of my paintings (and sold a number of them). And (drum roll please), I've found them. My art tribe! This was our second meet-up. Two of the first nine of us weren't able to be at our new site/time (though Michelle did come up for a day, so we were 10 on Saturday), we did recruit two new women for this retreat, so there are 11 total now.
These first two photos are of our first collaborative book that the amazingly talented, infinitely generous and sadly blogless Penelope created for us. It is filled with quality photocopies of a few of the journal pages we each created on the first retreat, recipes of some of the meals we enjoyed there, favorite quotes, favorite art supply sources, memories of the weekend (GSD) and so much more.

The amazingly talented, wildly generous and sadly blogless Penelope brought her coil binding supplies and taught us some great methods for coiling binding and using the holes punched for binding in other creative ways. I made three coil bound journals, and once they are filled I will likely change the binding to one of the other creative techniques she showed us. For now they will be coil bound because they lay flat for creating. The first two of these photos are of the little 4 x 4 journal I created for our son. The inside of the cover has a little snippet of his great-grandmother's quilt (my grandmother) that I have treasured since I went away to college.

This is a "junk journal" I made with some of the recycled cardboard that folks brought for the sharing tables (yes two tables filled with papers, stickers, tags, magazines, tons of fun stuff). (Have you tried these Holiday Jo-Jo's? *so* tasty!)
My second junk journal. A kleenex box as the base...note the back cover has the window where the kleenex came out, I filled the window to be viewed on the inside of the back cover and covered the opening on the back. One of the photos of the inside of this journal shows a practice card of my calligraphy for a class I took years ago. Before going on this retreat I went through my studio and put a great majority of my papers into four canvas totebags.

My notes on Sunday, trying to summarize all the tips and techniques I learned over the weekend.

Find your tribe. It's freeing and fun and worth the wait. Cannot wait until our next weekend -- in January 2010!

Art Journaler's Retreat

2009-11-11T13:05:00.001-08:00

We made books. This is one that Dawn made, accordian folds glued onto a fabric binding. I'll post more samples of them later.
Some wonderful photographs from the weekend. I have missed taking these kind of photos, capturing textures.
Four of us went for a walk to the beach and really loved the fresh air and the photo opps.
Catherine busy at work on the journal.

2009-09-16T10:21:00.000-07:00

More staycation photos. From a picnic at the Ballard Locks.

Been crocheting a bunch of toddler toys. This is a sample -- also making eggs, bacon and fruit.

what i did on my summer vacation (august journaler's retreat)

2009-09-03T20:56:00.000-07:00

Bleach pen work on a photo that Rose brought to the retreat. I heart the bleach pen. Another of my heart collages. I heart my heart shaped collages...I also made a transfer of one of my designs. I'll show y'all that later. I think I might put it on a plain t-shirt, or maybe a totebag? Hmmm.A re-worked journal page. I took a page that I had worked, re-worked and added again...And I still hated it...so I covered the whole thing with these large graphic flowers in semi-transparent, shiny acrylic paints. I love the page now. Can't decide if I'm going to journal on it too. Thoughts?
The borders are done on these 2 two-page spreads for LM's journal.

My mixed media journal i created on Friday. This was one of my top goals for the weekend, I brought a pile of various papers that I wanted to mix up and sew into a journal. I love it...and I journaled in a bit too...
Some sketching of ideas that developed from pouring through books and being at the retreat for a couple of days.

and once in august...

2009-08-31T12:09:00.001-07:00

goodness gracious! i haven't posted in a long time...
needed to get at least this one post in in august!

returned yesterday afternoon from a *delightful* journaling retreat near Mt. Baker.

view of our work area from the hallway upstairs...9 quite generous workstations ... many brought trades, others brought items to share -- magazines (Departures met with resounding success...if any readers have access to those...I'd love a little package of those in the mail, or dropped off at the house if you know me :)),
rubber stamped tissue paper,
teeny glassine envelopes,
strips of scrapbook paper,
piles of inspiring published books to pour through,
piles of our journals to pour through,
a great big box of music to journal by,
a few bottles of wine (i think we all showed remarkable restraint in only drinking with our evening meal and later),
baked goods,
homemade soup with nettles,
yummy recipes from great cookbooks,
hot tub time,
hikes,
lots of laughter,
a few snores :),
a bit of teaching,
a lot of learning,
total restoration!!!

thanks to you all ... long may the "gussies" meet and collaborate!
special thanks to Gwen and Catherine for finding this place and starting the ball rolling!

(view from Liesel's space to my mostly picked up space on Sunday morning...her final journal entry of the weekend experience).

Enjoying the "Staycations"

2009-07-21T16:44:00.000-07:00

Woodland Park Zoo. We had a great, great time. LM saw some of the animals and enjoyed the beautiful landscaping and all the people.

Had to buy a new computer...our last one crashed, we are still trying to find someone to help us get all of our photos and videos off of it so that we can print all of our photos of little man.

The 4th of July show was a bust. I am so proud of all the work that I created for it though ... and hopefully I'll have a chance to show and sell it somewhere up here soon.

painting buddhas (and more)

2009-06-18T23:24:00.000-07:00

Been knitting and crocheting lately in snippets of time. Working on a combination of granny squares and knitting...will show these when I've finished them.
Taking little trips to all the cool places in the Seattle area. Love this sculpture.

I'm so proud of my latest pieces.
Here's a sneak peek.
I'll show more after the show.
If I'm really lucky it'll be good I took photos because they'll all sell! :)

Artists Garage Sale

2009-06-03T08:56:00.000-07:00

see you in Mulkiteo on Saturday... at Rosehill Community Center 304 Lincoln Ave.

Great stuff at Great Prices. See you there. :)

http://www.artscouncilofsnoco.org/events.html
(for some reason blogger isn't letting clickable links in right now)

2009-05-11T13:58:00.000-07:00

A favorite view on our walks.

I'm working on Buddha after Buddha for my upcoming July show. We are so excited to see all of our friends and family -- maybe even a hike with LM around one or two of our favorite walking around lakes in the Bend area.
I also am continuing to sort through my art supplies to gather together piles of fabulous things to sell at the Artists Garage Sale in the Seattle area in June. (I'll post a link later when I hear for certain that I've received a space there). Out with the old, in with the new.
Thinking of new and different things to do with the booth this summer. Suggestions? I really should have styled this shot better, though this is the real look of the booth, because it was July and so hot that we couldn't really have the sides up all the way because it is *so* hot under the canopy in the heat of summer, you simply have to have the sides all open to catch any and all breezes that come through.

Teaching at the UW Experimental College- cancelled

2009-05-07T09:32:00.000-07:00

Sigh. Not enough for me to run the class at this time. Though I am hoping to offer a private class this summer. I have a couple of folks on the list for the next class. If you are interested, let me know, I'll keep you informed about the upcoming class date.

Precious Metal Clay: Create Your Own Silver Jewelry
You will learn quick and easy techniques to create professional quality jewelry today. Using techniques adapted from earthen clay, metalsmithing and polymer clay create silver earrings, pendants and charms. Experiment with texturing tools, rubber stamps, molds and canapé cutters. An innovative material, PMC is composed of microscopic particles of silver suspended in an organic binder. When fired in a kiln, the binder burns away leaving a piece of pure silver jewelry.

Skill level: no art experience necessary
Kit includes: handouts, one package of PMC+, firings for one package, use of tumbler, kiln, patinas, texturing tools and use of all materials & tools throughout the class.

Tell your friends. This class will take place on Saturday, May 16th on the UW Main Campus. Call 'em at 206.68.LEARN to register.

Randomness and Centering

2009-05-02T10:49:00.000-07:00

I am painting buddha after buddha...ever trying to find my center every day. I do plan to have a dozen for the 4th of July show in Bend. (Though I will post them to etsy in the meantime...) This one still needs to be framed...one day I'll be getting that table saw to speed up that process.

We were recently in Spokane for the Pacific Northwest Conference of United Church of Christ. I love these people! We had a great time meeting new folks, enjoying our hotel room with a great view of the river (not any of these shots, I for some reason took no pictures of our view), I love balconies! sat out there a couple of times and added sketches and ideas to my journal. LM *loved* the swimming pool...will definitely be staying at hotels with pool access from now on.

Years ago when I lived in Pullman I joined a large group of friends who ran/walked the Bloomsday Run. It was a great day. Gotta work on getting ready for another similar experience. Goals. Always with the goals.

We didn't take this ride, but it sure looked like it'd be beautiful.

LM has discovered mirrors and loves to play with the baby.
Great big batch of chili made and stored in the freezer.

Wire Play

2009-04-17T21:22:00.001-07:00

Played with wire today. I've had visions of making great 2-D (and 3-D) sculptures with wire. I made these today. Next up words and initials.

Posted a couple of things to etsy.

ArtFest2009

2009-04-06T10:34:00.001-07:00

a couple of photos...maybe I'll comment about them later. I have *lots* more to download and crop.

Circle Journal spoiler -- skip if you want a surprise....

2009-03-27T14:42:00.001-07:00

The first 5 photos are the pieces I made for my facebook friends who responded to my Handmade Pay It Forward post. Will be sending these out before heading to ArtFest. The remaining photos are of the Mermaid circle journal started by Michelle Geller. The first three of those photos are her cover, sign in pages and explanation pages. The last two photos are the pages that I made for her book. Check her blog later for all the pages...I'm sure she'll post them all sometime after she receives it at Artfest next week.

"Legalize Frostitution" (bumper sticker at Cupcake Royale)

2009-03-23T20:24:00.000-07:00

A beautiful cupcake. From Whole Foods. It tastes bleeh. Who would have thought that Whole Foods would make their frosting out of shortening? At leasts that's what it tastes like. Shortening, sugar and food colouring. Yuck.
Cupcake Royale Cupcakes. O.M.G. So, so, so good. The frosting is most definitely buttercream. And there are cream cheese based frostings too. Yum. The cupcakes were a little bit like cake mix texture (I think the denser texture seems more homemade, though I don't doubt that Cupcake Royale cupcakes are handcrafted without mixes). We took Elinor there yesterday for our first visit. We drove back into Seattle today for me to get my eyebrows threaded, pick up some art supplies for ARTFEST! and oh, while we're here let's go back to Cupcake Royale! I picked out the Salted Caramel again. And tried Coconut on White. C picked Chocolate Royale (cream cheese frosting) and Classic (chocolate buttercream frosting on white cake).

We had Fettucine Alfredo with plenty of asparagus and a big salad to contrast the cupcake consumption. And though the box says to eat the cupcakes the same day you buy them. We are having our second cupcake tomorrow. (probably).
Working on the spiritual paintings a bit. This is the first try with my new handcut Buddha stencil.

Balance and ArtFest

2009-03-13T22:01:00.000-07:00

oh my goodness.
the piles of things i'm getting rid of in the studio!
it feels good to have these things in boxes to sell at the Art Garage Sale in June!
Getting more things off the to-do list.
Next week. Etsy!

I've been contemplating balance a great deal more lately. Trying to find a way to keep the house clean, teach LM how to be a bigger, smarter, faster dude. We're getting a schedule (more or less). I'm keeping the kitchen sink empty. I'm recycling lots and lots of papers, especially as soon as I collect the mail. We bought LM his baby gate today...and his "big boy" carseat. And a bubble machine...the library lady uses one at the end of each reading and E loves it. We met Nana for a few minutes after shopping in Bellevue and he giggled and giggled at the neck kissing. Love those baby giggles!

Looking forward to ArtFest in less than three weeks. Morning walks on the beach. 10 minutes in the shower! Yummy breakfast without cooking. Class. Meeting new artists, learning from the teacher and all the rest of the students in class. Lunch - again, no cooking, no decisions, no dishes! And back to class. Dinner and hopefully that great salad with the fresh dressing again and dessert and coffee and chats about how classes went. Then at night - Journal party, Vendor night, and Show & Tell. And late night laughter with wine in the dorms! I'm so going to miss my family...but, so need this time at Fort Worden! If mama is happy, everybody is happy...right?

I'm still working on my swaps. I do have about 20 done so far. Have an idea for the rest and hope to get a pile started at Sunday's Third Place Art Meeting. Hopefully I'll prep 50, so the fun part can take place with the art ladies.

Crossing things off the list.

2009-02-25T22:20:00.000-08:00

I finished them! The front is toothy to represent "Do Not Enter" and the other side with the pocket is for holding a little spiral bound notebook and pen for family and friends to leave messages. For hanging on the outside of their bedroom door.

Here are two fronts and one back. And the next photo is the reverse of them. I couldn't decide which nephew would like which colours... so I wrapped them all and decided mom and dad could either open them before hand and label them, or the kids can get whichever they open. Made from my silk stash. I love stuffies now. So, I'm going to start sketching some new ideas. Maybe some sea monsters coming in honor of ArtFest.

Will mail them tomorrow!

Thank you Gayle for this Christmas gift! So, so good! (Corn bread mix.) And the packaging, so adorable.

celebrating life

2009-02-23T22:33:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I feel like I'm missing bits and pieces. How are we supposed to fit it all in? So for Lent this year. So many things I'm planning. Here's my list of 40 things to accomplish. In no particular order:

1. Drink more water.
2. Exercise every day.
3. No library fines.
4. Limited games on facebook.
5. One check of facebook at night.
6. 100 ArtFest trades done.
7. One piece of art created for the ArtFest gallery.
8. 10 items posted to Etsy.
9. Complete commissioned PMC pieces.
10. Write up one new class to teach.
11. Plan an art weekend.
12. Finish nephews Christmas gifts.
13. Mail nephews Christmas gifts (I know...)
14. Purge three big bags of stuff from my studio.
15. Rake and prune the windblown tree bits from our yard.
16. No more drive through lattes.
17. Write one letter a week. (yes, handwritten, snail mail and cards count)
18. Frog the turtleneck sweater for LM and pick a new pattern for the yarn.
19. Organize hallway closets.
20. Put up artwork in LM's room.
21. Put up curtains in LM's room.
22. Earthquake strap the bookcases.
23. Buy babygate for stairwell.
24. Take more photos.
25. Print more photos.
26. Send more photos.
27. Pick 3 photos for framing in special frame.
28. Start clustering artwork in the living room.
29. Create more vignettes in the living room...
30. Dining room...
31. Kitchen...
32. Bathroom.
33. Get all office supply boxes out of garage, into Office.
34. Powerwash the deck.
35. Begin searching Craigslist for deck furniture.
36. Sell old washing machine.
37. Find a great place for white Christmas lights to live year round.
38. Swim.
39. More long walks as a family.
40. More heart and love art to reflect the love we live in.

Any similar plans?

54 pieces of art!

2009-02-10T08:40:00.000-08:00

Some art! A sample of the 54 4 x 4 pages for the ArtFest Dorm 202 FatBook. Theme was the ArtFest theme for 2009 - Sea Monsters.
Started with khaki cardstock. Painted the backgrounds. Drew monsters. Crayoned 3-4 layers of colours. Painted back backgrounds. Painted petals. Wrote blog address and name on the petals. Attached a ticket to Art and petal with mini binder clips. Wrote "i come to the sea to breathe." with my favorite, favorite gel pens!

i've been on facebook

2009-02-08T21:54:00.000-08:00

my goodness. now there is a place where you can spend hours!

in other news i finally figured out how to download photos again and have a few for you. no art yet, maybe tomorrow i'll make it to those. in the meantime, a few photos to share from the last few weeks.
From a recent trip to Cannon Beach
A series of photos on a foggy walk from the library one night:

january journal pages....

2009-01-11T22:00:00.000-08:00

My goodness. We've been struggling with internet connectivity. Finally got it back -- and here are but a few of the January journal pages I've been working on. More to come later.

christmas eve

2008-12-24T09:45:00.000-08:00

Corner of our home. I'm thrilled with the tree this year. I *slathered* this small tree with lights. It's been snowing and snowing. We've had no mail delivery for days now. What happened to the USPS motto of rain, nor sleet, nor dark of night...what are the words? Anyway, what's up with that? No mail? And um, we have equally important bills and Christmas cards to get out (and receive). Sigh.
This shot from when I finished wrapping the lights all around.
There's already another couple of inches of snow on top of this. The roads are so washboardy out there. We are traveling as little as possible.
Projects are being slowly completed about the house. Finished re-doing the couch pillows (my goodness but the ones that came with the couch were *hideous*), you can catch a glimpse of the new and improved ones in the photo of the ornamented tree up top. A couple of Santa hats for LM. Unraveling thrift store sweaters (mom has been helping a lot with that). Knitting Christmas gifts. Sewing Christmas gifts. Knocking the snow off all the trees and shrubs to keep the branches from breaking under all that weight. Reading lots of stories aloud. Drinking cup after cup of hot lattes (decaf). I so am going to be more on top of this handmade Holiday next year. :)
Very disappointed in Obama's choice of Rick Warren as invocation minister. He's the kind of guy who would have spoken against interracial marriage 40-50 years ago too. He's just not the compassionate guy I hope for in a pastor (or you know, a random human).

100 thankful things

2008-12-03T13:15:00.000-08:00

so i've only seen this on sproutgirl's blog, however, she says it's floating around the blogworld (i'm sure it's true, maybe you've seen it elsewhere, and maybe one day i will too). i too am joining in that list! 100 is the norm, but others have detoured & done their own thing of course. you are inevitably supposed to tag, i'm not going to this time, but if you do it, please comment and link to your list, i love lists (who doesn't?)
~little man
~c
~my family
~my in-laws
~baby's first christmas photo cards i picked up this morning
~artfest
~flickr
~hymn sings
~npr
~podcasts
~trader joe's
~pcc
~the tolt pipeline
~paper (all kinds, beautiful scrapbooking designs, vintage ledger, wrapping...)
~yarn (all natural kinds, especially good deals at yard sales and thrift stores)
~estate sales
~filtered water
~my stainless steel water bottle
~steno pads
~painting
~michael's 40% off coupons
~ravelry
~ribbons
~our new washer & dryer (we're doing a lot of laundry around here these days)
~nov. 4, 2008
~berkeley's gourmet ghetto (especially the cheeseboard & cesar's)
~canoeing
~swimming
~glitter
~bird art
~nests & nesting
~christmas
~fresh snow fall
~the colour of autumn leaves
~the public library (within walking distance)
~good friends
~art days
~advent calendars
~recycling wool sweaters
~dyeing my own yarn
~Half Moon Bay
~friends vacation homes
~BBQing
~Third Place Books, Powell's & other awesome independent bookstores
~garage door opener
~canvas bags
~a winning lottery ticket ($50 4 years ago when we really needed $50, the ticket was a Christmas gift)
~little man's fuzzy head nestled just under my chin when he sleeps
~long walks/hikes with c, solving the world's problems, planning meals, just connecting
~a gas fireplace
~Winter Wineland
~white Christmas lights
~baby monitors
~staying up late making art
~sunsets
~sunrises
~the mist coming of the water
~concerts in the park
~bartering for stoles
~East Bay Depot for Creative Re-Use (oh, how I miss you!)

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

~king babar (and queen celeste - we need to find a queen celeste stuffie, E has two king babar stuffies, they need their mates)
~hanna andersson outlet
~lucy neatby knitting DVDs
~netflix
~6 hours of sleep in a row (i remember them fondly)
~old-fashioned popcorn with butter & salt
~our kitchen
~an outdoor bonfire
~tidepools
~golden paints
~eggnog latte with nutmeg
~my sewing machine
~creating stuffies
~clear containers
~a good haircut
~a good movie theatre seat
~nap on a thick patch of green grass
~hulu for my MSNBC fix
~Redmond Farmer's Market (San Mateo's I miss, especially the Kung Pao Tofu)
~handwritten letters and little goodie boxes
~bandanas as bibs
~morning pages (The Artist's Way - haven't practiced this for a while)
~self-serve mailing stations at the Post Office
~Pacific School of Religion
~Anne LaMott
~freshly painted walls
~the soft shade of the walls in our dining, living room, kitchen & entry way.
~small pieces of art nestled in the larger pieces
~mountain views
~Japanese dollar stores
~magazines (especially Martha Stewart, Oprah, Home Companion, Cloth, Paper, Scissors, Art Jewelry, Sunset, Dwell, any Somerset Studio)
~the silk scraps I picked up at East Bay Depot a couple of years ago

Still marching after all these years....

2008-11-16T15:15:00.000-08:00

What a great day in Seattle (and around the country) when thousands and thousands of folks marched for Civil Rights. Yes, hard to believe, but in 2008 we are still marching for Civil Rights. We have an African American President elect and we are *still* marching for Basic Civil Rights. Dude. and another popular slang -- WTF? This is the front line of the thousands who marched. I couldn't begin to capture the enormity of it all, it was spectacular.
The park just kept filling up and filling up. We moved to the Westlake Center to stand above the crowd for a wee bit of space for little man, he was too excited about all the love and justice to sleep for the longest time, but that space and relative quiet did allow him to have a bit of a nap eventually.
I love this kid's sign. "When do I get to vote on your marriage?" She put her heart into that artwork.
Partly cloudy with a chance for justice and love. Dude it reigned in Seattle.

is it called frogging?

2008-11-14T18:19:00.000-08:00

One of the random things that I wrote about a bit ago was wanting to recycle a wool sweater into yarn and to then re-knit into something that I would love. I'm gonna do it. Found this lovely sweater at a local thrift store and bought it to rip it and soak it and re-skein it and eventually re-knit it. It will become a sweater for little man and a couple of hats. Will post more photos as I really start taking it apart.

Had some time this morning to get a few pages in the baby book filled with paint. It's a multi-layer process.
He's got great balance I think for an almost 5 month old. He's so beautiful.

For some great journal making inspiration ">go here. And you can enter for a chance to win a fabulous handmade journal too.

a red cable sweater day.

2008-11-09T18:38:00.000-08:00

Look at me go...four posts in November! I love being able to upload photos again. This is the vignette above my computer station in the studio.
The entry to the studio area. Needs a few more pieces of art. This was just an area where as I was unpacking in here I put up some of my art pieces where there were already nails in the wall. Will create my own cluster of art here one day.
Baby E looks so good in this red that I had to knit him a sweater. This is 18 month size from the Nature Knits book I borrowed from my SiL. Waiting for the pieces to block and then put together and knit the turtleneck part and it'll be done! Will post a photo of LM in it on Ravelry when he first wears it.

Kirkland Sunset and another meme

2008-11-08T14:55:00.000-08:00

In the spirit of organization, I got around to answering Posie Gets Cozy One-Word-Answer meme.

Where is your mobile phone? Purse
Where is your significant other? Bed
Your hair colour? Umber
Your mother? Gardener
Your father? Puzzler
Your favourite thing? Paint
Your dream last night? Health
Your dream goal? Artist
The room you're in? Studio
Your hobby? Knitting
Your fear? Cancer
Where do you want to be in 6 years? Studio
Where were you last night? Studio
What you're not? Republican
One of your wish-list items? Jacuzzi
Where you grew up? World
The last thing you did? Rocked
What are you wearing? Sweats
Your TV? Off
Your pets? None
Your computer? Pandora
Your mood? Sickly
Missing someone? Yes
Your car? Wet
Something you're not wearing? Makeup
Favourite shop? DickBlick
Your summer? Baby
Love someone? Wholeheartedly
Your favourite colour? Crimson
When is the last time you laughed? NPR
When is the last time you cried? 12:30

Play along — it's fun! (and leave me a message if you play/ed)

a new meme, have you been tagged?

2008-11-07T10:38:00.000-08:00

Super talented Catherine Witherell tagged me for this meme, and yes...it's time for a new post and another new day....

Here are seven facts about me, random and weird:

1. I love my coffee and am very snobbish about it. Peet's Major Dickinson Decaf turkish grind is my daily coffee right now. However, usually it's Strictly Organic if I can get my head around ordering it.
2. I love to have a little heated bag at the foot of the bed at night in the winter. My feet get too hot in the night for socks, but I do love the extra toasty warmth of that heat to get to sleep.
3. I cannot fall asleep at night without reading for a bit.
4. My digital camera is a great joy to me. Taking photo after photo without worry about the cost of printing, film, etc. so freeing.
5. I brake for garage sales (estate sales, open air markets...)
6. I subscribe to 159 podcasts, though less than half seem to regularly post. I think a lot have "pod faded" though I keep subscribed in case they come back.
7. I want to pick up some sweaters from Goodwill to deconstruct and re-knit. I hesitate because the task seems a bit overwhelming right now.

Tag 7 people:
Binky
Gwen
Cordelia
Elinor
Nikki
Tara
Kristie

Took this a couple of weeks ago at the U district's Farmer's Market. They said a lot of people had taken photos for their blogs. :)
This is taken from my studio out to the front yard. I love this Japanese Maple, so gorgeous right now. And the driveway is full of beautiful red leaves too.

He loves his jumpy! He's so strong he just gets airborne and laughs and laughs.

We finally finished painting his room a couple of weeks ago too. And his crib is all ready for him. (You can see it in the background of the jumpy photo).

a new day.....

2008-11-04T21:53:00.000-08:00

amen and amen.
a mandate.
yes we did.

for a beautiful, hope-filled video head here.

I've been saddened by the number of wild and outrageous comments from "the right" on friends blogs...and then it happened here too. Anonymous commenters spewing their hatred and fear on blogs when people are simply stating their excitement for this new day, this hope that our freedoms will be restored after 8 years of an administration who would take freedom away from United States citizens, who would torture and imprison thousands of people with no trial. Who would spend hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out millionaires who made horrible business decisions in the name of more and more greed. Who would give their friends and the VP no bid contracts for hundreds of millions of dollars to fight a war that has nothing to do with 9/11 or freedom. Who took our country from a surplus budget under Clinton to the state of enormous economic chaos that we are in today (who will blame in on Obama, though this huge hole of debt is the Bush Administration's policies that will be inherited).

And what makes me the saddest about all of this? The majority of those "right" folks believe they are coming from a Christian perspective. Couldn't be farther from the way of Christ. Christ is centered upon Love and Grace and Hope. Not Fear and Greed and Shame. I say this here for the folks who have given up on church because of these people. Christ in not their way, they are following the path of their preacher, not Christ. There are good churches out there, if you'd like to find one you may have to shop around a bit, because even within denominations there are variations by church - but you could try a couple. The United Church of Christ, The United Methodists, The Unitarian Universalists . Each have searchable services to help you find a church near you. And of course, you can live a perfectable fabulous spiritual life without going to church at all. Peace be with you.

...and in unrelated news. the computer has been updated, soon, more photos.

go obama!

2008-09-29T21:35:00.000-07:00

Waiting to update our computer so that it accepts more data. (Need new chip or something that gives it more memory), so unable to post new photos. These are "old" photos from the previous camera. Miss writing here. And getting comments.

the pull of the ocean

2008-09-13T15:41:00.001-07:00

omg, did we want to go to the ocean before maternity leave was over.

what to do, what to do...it was high season (read: no hope due to budget).
one of the places we love has an email list and i said about two weeks ago, "gosh, we haven't gotten an email from them about any specials."
the next day
(no, i'm not kidding)
an email plops in.
super deals,
the final week of maternity leave is the first week of specials.
i called, our favorite room was available for the next three days, so i booked it.
we did a couple of chores on our to do list.
packed, went to an end of summer party at friends, came home early-ish to rest, sleep, begin loading the car...
and we went to Cannon Beach.

There was a negative low tide the first day we were there. I love low tides because I love me some tidepools, and I love *all* that wet sand to walk on....it makes the beach more private to me, because everyone isn't huddled walking along the smaller easy to walk section.

Little Man loved the beach. We talked all about everything we saw. And mentioned that we'd come back again and again whenever possible. And another time, when he was older, he'd get to put his feet and hands in the water. And touch the sea anenomes and starfish (if he was very, very gentle and never took anything from the sea).

I bundled LM up and took him each morning to a nearby bakery for journaling (and coffee, even though it was *bucks). Turns out, it's very difficult to journal with the cutest baby in the world. Everyone wants to meet him and ask all about him. (He slept through all of the gushing).Because I've been a bit scattered of late, I didn't get around to ordering my copies of the 1000 journal pages book (3 of my pages are in it). I bought it at my favorite store in Cannon Beach - the bookstore, and it was a staff favorite, when I went to the counter to buy it the clerk said she loved this book, to which I proudly replied, I have three pages in here. She whipped out a Post-It note pad to write down my information to tell everyone she met one of the artists. Yep, I floated the rest of the day, and did a lot more journaling too. I already love that store, but, you know, I'll go back again and again!

Oh, what a good time.

elmer fudd lives here

2008-08-23T18:02:00.000-07:00

Is this not the cutest picture ever? OMG he melts my heart and makes me laugh outloud so many times a day. This is a gift from Auntie Gayle. She sent a big box of baby stuff she picked up at her new churchs big yard sale a couple of weeks ago. As he wears the stuff I have him model a bit and send her the photos. This should ensure more boxes of gently used items to keep on coming. I may put this in the little photo montage for Christmas cards this year. Oh he is *so* cute!

Getting more journal pages, and canvases too done! Such a thrill to finding some balance every day. I re-worked a tired, old piece and love it now. (Will post that later).

Really getting into shading and depth and letting the wise women (series name) sit out for awhile until the word/s needed for that image come to me. suggestions for this one?

Ta ta for now.

Growing Adventures

2008-08-07T12:10:00.000-07:00

Weeks ago on a Saturday we went for a long walk on the Tolt Pipeline, it was a beautiful day. Later that evening we had an accident in our home. It was so incredibly horrible and frightening. He *is* wonderful (about two weeks later). Thank you to all of you who prayed and sent us so many good and powerful thoughts and prayers.

So, now, he's been himself again for more than a week. And he's smiling and giggling now. He smiles and laughs a little every time he's re-introduced to Francis the (ceiling) Fan, which he sees from the changing table. He looks so good in red that I'm planning two sweaters in his favorite deep, good red. Basic Crew and Geordie Stripe Yoke Jacket (Ravelry links).

The apple tree out front of church. I'm so excited to eat one of these this fall. Maybe enough to make a pie, or applesauce?

And this week. I made some art. A couple of pages in the journal. Got a couple more pieces of art on the wall of the studio. Need to keep doing this around the house, we have so much in boxes still.

I ran out of nails before I could finish adding the frame. Once I have this completed, I'll be posting to etsy.

Fell in love with hearts again after wandering through the Fresh Paint show at the Everett Marina on Saturday. Expect a series of these.

so in love....

2008-07-29T08:59:00.000-07:00

...with this little man. He's awake a little more everyday. We're reading more and singing songs and following eyes and just drinking in his beauty.
Most of his collection of books thus far. (Many are on the nightstand for nightly reading). Oh my goodness the books he has received as gifts! So beautiful, I'll have to share a couple in the future. Amazing children's writers out there!
Most of his collection of clothes. my goodness there are some adorable clothes in this collection! Thank you thank you to all who have handed on such sweet items. Some fabulous new pieces and dozens and dozens of hand me downs.
A couple of photos of the vast array of wonderful meals that has been coordinated for us. The meal help has been such an important part of our developing a healthy rhythm in our house. Sleep has been so far from us so much (though we have really, finally begun to nap when he's sleeping), there has been a lot of dishwashing and laundry, and still the unpacking into the new home. Oh my goodness the meals....salmon, beef stroganoff, salads, chicken, mac & cheese, mexican casseroles, fruit desserts, a little bit of chocolate.
Thank you thank you all! The top photo is cool whip mixed with a bit of fruit yogurt, so good. The next food photo is of super good oatmeal! Makes me really sure that once little man is eating solid food, I'll be making batches of crockpot oatmeal for a quick warm breakfast on rainy winter mornings.

meme

2008-07-15T17:29:00.000-07:00

Clearly the lack of sleep isn't helping me learn new computer tricks very quickly. I spent a few minutes yesterday trying to respond to this meme, only to have forgotten to cut and paste the actual picture mosiac. oh well, if you're interested, click on each link to see the corresponding Flickr photo to my answer to each question.

* Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr search.
* Using only the first page, choose an image.
* Copy and paste each of the URL’s into the mosaic maker over at FD's image maker.

The questions:
What is your first name?
What is your favorite food?
What high school did you attend?
What is your favorite color?
Who is your celebrity crush?
Favorite drink?
Dream vacation?
Favorite dessert?
What do you want to be when you grow up?
What do you love most in life?
One word to describe you.
Your Flickr name

1. Celeste Yawning, 2. bbq corn, 3. IMG06, 4. Lime Green Window Shutter, Red Flowers and a Rail, 5. Brad Pitt's housing project in the Ninth Ward. New Orleans. Louisiana. USA. December 2007, 6. Caffé del Doge - Latte Macchiato, 7. Riomaggiore, Cinque Terre, Italy, 8. David Lebovitz at Ici, 9. GREAT MOM [GRE8 MOM], 10. just another fantastic evening at the oregon coast, 11. creative embroidery, 12. Celestial*

blissed out

2008-07-15T16:55:00.000-07:00

our little man has arrived. we've been happily watching him for hours and hours -- for a couple of weeks now. he's perfect.

we're moving tomorrow!

2008-06-23T14:52:00.000-07:00

A glimpse of our new house! Yippee. All is well. We get the keys this evening. We're having the carpets deep cleaned tonight, then tomorrow morning the movers come to haul all of our belongings from this rental house to our new home! We've had things in boxes for more than four years - from when we first left Bend. Since we began packing for our move to the Seattle area we've been living out of boxes for more than 10 months! I'm so thrilled about opening up every one of these boxes to put everything in its place. And nesting. We were blessed with the sweetest baby shower and handcrafted and very thoughtful gift items for our little baby who is getting ready to join us in our new family home. Wednesday is all about finding some of the final essential baby items - washer and dryer (we had been waiting to buy a dryer until we knew if we needed an electric or gas, then we discovered that as we are chosing to cloth diaper, our washer, which doesn't have a hot water or sanitizer feature, will not work for our purposes. We also need a crib (though not as pressing, since he'll be in his co-sleeper for a good couple of months). Dresser for his room. Cloth diapers. Stroller with carseat (the midwives have been pressing for this for a couple of visits now :)). Camera. Gotta capture those special moments from the get-go. It's real! All of this amazing grace is swirling all around us and it's such a thrill.
I love this little nook for cookbooks. I think I may have culled the number down far enough to fit in here, with a little space on there for a few soft toys too.
A glimpse of the studio. (Of course, both of these photos are filled with the previous owner's items...I'll re-post similar shots with our stuff within a week or so). I love the colour of this wall, though it's a bit dark for the studio space, so it'll be painted at some point. And need a lot of super great halogen lights to really lighten up the space whose windows are under the deck.

in which a BSJ is nearly complete

2008-06-14T20:46:00.000-07:00

I've finally finished a Baby Surprise Jacket. And oh, how I *love* the BSJ! I'm so going to knit more and more of these. It was difficult to get through (I've started one three times), but I pushed through and did it! And then just to push my luck I knit the baby booties that match. Next I'm going to knit another BSJ and booties in fingering weight yarn.
I found the saw and framed two and a half of my paintings!
Went to a sketch crawl at Molbak's with a great group of artist friends. It's long been a goal of mine to do more sketching, and this day really got me jazzed about it. (I've even started sketching in pen! Next stop, washing colour in there). I took dozens of photos of the gorgeous plants and displays. This is my favourite cluster. Isn't it so artfull?
They had our favourite Alphabet cards, I took a picture to remember that they had them here, so we could go back somewhere closer for them (we registered for them at Merry Go Round in Bellevue).
Love this jolly Buddha. We still regret not having purchased two awesome Buddhas in Berkeley. We bought one for our friends housewarming gift and have never again seen such a great one. This one at Molbak's also doesn't compare to the beauty of the sitting Buddha we bought for J & B, the hunt continues.
My favourite planters in the place! I love the texture, the uniformity, the natural wonder of it. Love, love.

*And* my iPod and iTunes are talking again! Yeah! All in all a great day. (Oh, garage sales today - more baby clothes and toys, no crib still. However, we did find a push mower with basket for just $15, and we'd been just about to order one from Costco for $89 (plus tax)! Yeah us!

Whirlwind

2008-06-13T12:05:00.000-07:00

View from the guest room of our soon to be home.

Oh my gosh. This is such a crazy time in our lives. Moving 5 miles is proving to be *much* harder than we thought. I think probably because we a bit focused on bigger things. Birth classes. Reading about birth (and being a mom). And, the re-packing the items we've had out of boxes for the past 9 months. I'm *so* excited about getting into this house, getting things unpacked and in their proper places and creating the great bedroom for Sparky and his birth (that's in chronological order - in order of significance Sparky's birth is way on the top of the exciting list).

I packed my little Japanese saw and really needed it out, so I'm actually opening a few boxes trying to find it, I know it's right near the top of one of them. I had to squish it down when I was squeezing the flaps of the box together to get the tape on. I really want to finish off a couple of the bigger paintings I've done lately. The lattice is so long, it would be much easier to move in smaller pieces.

My iPod is acting up. So not thrilled about that, because I love it, and really rely on it for listening to my various NPR and art podcasts in the morning while making my latte and other morning rituals. It's not "listening" to me when I want it to pause, or connect with iTunes on my computer.

Researching cameras, because my little camera has such lag time that I know it'll be really frustrating trying to capture our little man's adorable-ness. Great recommendation came for the Canon XTI. Found one at Costco, but think there might be one less expensive elsewhere. Anyone know of a great source for cameras?

i love them so...

2008-06-10T11:29:00.000-07:00

gosh i hope i can grow these at our new house.

i do love a blurry image now and then.

a random meme (because i can't resist 'em)

2008-06-03T18:48:00.000-07:00

A meme from cosymakes:

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?
ten years ago we lived in a fabulous intentional community in Bend. I had the most perfect job for me and had two months off in the summer every year for tootling around and selling my art.

2. What are 5 things on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order)?
start baby surprise jacket
library – return and pick up reserved books
call moving companies
food coop for goat’s yogurt, watermelon, strawberries & fresh ground peanut butter
finish felted box

3. Snacks I enjoy.
fresh fruit and veggies
popcorn – old-fashioned, stovetop with butter & salt
a bit of cheese (aged cheddar or goat) & wheat free crackers
dark chocolate
rice chips

4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire.
endow scholarships at PSR, WOU, and COCC
start edible gardens at every school yard I could.
buy handcrafted everything.
create an intentional community.
spend a week in an ocean front cabin in Cannon Beach (every year).
spend two months traveling in Europe -- Paris, various Italian, Greek & Spanish spots.

5. Places I have lived

Singapore, Australia, Alaska
Oregon, New York, Wisconsin, Washington
Berkeley, San Mateo, Seattle area

6. Jobs I’ve had.
baby sitter, house sitter
hostess at a couple of restaurants.
boutique clerk
Student Government executive
self employed artist with odd jobs to pay the bills
residence hall director
director of community education centers
bead show class coordinator
development office administrator

7. Peeps I want to know more about:
I love participating in memes, but don’t like to call others out…tell me if you participate though, I love to read memes too.

i heart garage sales

2008-06-03T08:12:00.000-07:00

Still searching for a crib and dresser to go in the baby's room. Went to a big neighborhood garage sale this past Friday and then on Saturday went to a huge churchyard rummage sale. Scored all this stuff (from all of these photos) for about $30. Also got a sweet wooden stool I forgot to photograph. Lots of baby items, including a sling just like what we've been looking for - the sling alone would have been $40.
I ran out to this sale and had to get the car back within a half hour because C had a wedding in Seattle and needed to leave by 10:30. The church yard sale started at 10. So I rushed through and scanned the area for baby stuff - headed there. No crib, no dresser, no bookcase, not many baby clothes, but I picked through the toddler boy stuff grabbing everything that didn't have huge logos on them (no GAP, OLD NAVY - those are quite abundant) also, for now avoiding the cars, trucks, etc. Found a lot. Then toward the books, walked past the craft table. Nothing of interest there. Found piles and piles of books, noticed a woman with a Costco bag -- what a great idea! Wished I had one of those. I do keep about 6 canvas bags in the car, but didn't think to bring those with me to the sale. If I hadn't been on a tight timeframe I would have spent another 10 minutes or so in the books area, there were a lot of children's books.
So glad that I finally fixed the camera/computer connection issue. Totally by trial and error, but I'm finally able to use the camera again!
Hard to photograph a baby sling. I'm so thrilled about finding this. We haven't seen one like this in any of the stores we've been to, but I've seen them online from $40 - $80.
We also need a bookcase for the baby's room. Finding lots of great books and puzzles too. I even found a Babar book! (I loved them as a kid, because of Queen Celeste).

moving sale

2008-05-30T20:03:00.000-07:00

posted some things to etsy...

going to keep putting new things up regularly, i'll be sure to let you all know when they go up. and hey, if you are into etsy and ever do treasuries on etsy...please find something of mine to put up there. totally hoping to be able to do the stay at home mom thing!

blessings.

we have house!

2008-05-23T09:44:00.000-07:00

Amen and Amen.
photos later.
(so much bantering of worth and inspection stuff and *time*)

so
thrilled.

moving sale on etsy to come soon.

i have some commissioned wedding jewelry to make first.

oh! and speaking of wedding stuff.
did you hear the good news?
the supreme court of California recently said - Yes, two adult people should be able to marry! Amen and amen to that too!
Let the ceremony and party planning begin for those many couples - and their family and friends.

Zapp Application!

2008-05-01T17:54:00.000-07:00

Yikes.
Wow. I've learned a great deal in the past week or so as I tried to apply for the Fresh Paint show on the Marina in Everett. Apparently there is a wave crashing on the art show shores -- this application process online. I think there is potential for this actually making the whole process easier for artists and event coordinators. However, I'm too overwhelmed with the huge learning curve that I was up against (on deadline, of course, because frankly *a*lot* is going on in our lives right now, so I couldn't just sit down to complete this thing in one sitting, which for me makes the learning curve steeper and deeper).

So, I'm wicked proud of myself.
And.
I hope I get in.
We'll have our a bit over one month old with us at this his first art show!
So, celebrating tonight with some sparkling stuff and leftover Mongolian Grill.
yum.

Two of the photos I uploaded for this application are above (had to send one photo of my booth and three photos of my artwork - that was definitely the hardest to decide).

Art Journal, ATCs and 4 x 4s

2008-04-26T14:44:00.000-07:00

Come on in, we'll have a cup of tea, share our favorite art supplies and create in each others journals this afternoon.
A couple of pages of my notes from ArtFest. I was trying to be free with drawing and writing without thought to the look while in my classes this year. I like how they turned out.
I love to use my hands when painting -- and then it's so much fun to make prints of my hands (and photographs) rather than washing all that great colour off. I made a lot of prints of my hands page after page in my art journal and am in the process of filling out the rest of the page with other colours, quotations, journaling and more.
Really enjoying drawing the buddha -- and still painting the mandalas.
And the shrine shape that I draw into bird cages now and then too.
Side One of my contribution to the Dorm 202 Fatbook (ArtFest)

And now, back to the paint!

and now there are three...

2008-04-22T10:01:00.001-07:00

...as we grow and learn about this baby we are about to see. I am so in love with Sparky (as he's due in July). And I love making these mandalas. Another two this size in the works down in the basement studio.

Yesterday was so beautiful. We went to interview a birth center. Loved it. Booked it (last one in for July, apparently there's a baby boom in the Seattle area this July). Most important baby thing done! Then we celebrated by driving out to Snoqualmie Falls. It was so sunny and beautiful, and then a bit of hail and rain, but mostly it was so sunny and beautiful. I do love me some mountains, especially with a dusting (or more) of snow. A glorious day all around.

craziness...

2008-04-21T09:37:00.001-07:00

...and *so* beautiful! I love this little side garden and the sculpture. (All these photos are from yesterday, it's quite sunny and dry today - so far :))
Before church and the snow is coming down in big fluffy chunks.
love the rainforestyness of this basketball hoop.
The apple tree is budding...will this snow be a problem with apple production? I really hope not. I'm looking forward to picking an apple before church each morning this early fall.
my footprints to and from the apple tree.

More Mandala painting going on. Love them. Will post more photos soon.

wild weather

2008-04-18T14:19:00.001-07:00

All the rain and hail and snow means that it is always green here. So many shades of green. It really is so beautiful here.
The *big*big* one i'm working on. I'm super excited about this one...I have special plans, stay tuned.
The hand-drawn mandala is working its magic.

Keep signing up for the circle journal. So far 7 folks have signed up!

Calling my Art Tribe friends....

2008-04-16T22:44:00.000-07:00

Please join a round of Circle Journals!

Dorm 202, artists friends, family members...

Now that we are through the ArtFest fun and trading making I want to continue that art tribe feeling. A couple of theme ideas: a particular colour theme, winter holidays, rituals (birthday, wedding, baby showers…), kitchen (include some recipes), wine, coffee, tea, farmer’s markets, our studios, quotations.

My dream, 4 - 10 fun & creative fellow artists to join me. It doesn't matter if you haven't done this before! I am especially interested in meeting folks in the Seattle area, and handing off the journals at coffeehouses during art meet-up times. We will happily include folks we need to mail to as well, including international folks (please let me know if you do not want to ship international and we will work it out when coming up with the circle rotation).

Here are the basics:
1- Brainstorm and choose a theme that speaks to you. A theme you will want to see what other peoples take is on it. One that inspires you enough that you will want to look at this journal over and over.

2- Design your journal. Choose a lightweight one since we are mailing. 6x6 or 8x8 is good. Any type is OK.

3- Mail your journal to your assigned person (or plan a meet up with them to hand off) and it will make its way through the circle to be filled by your fellow journalers. Be prepared for a trip to the post office every other week to mail a journal Priority Mail (or First Class if you are sending early within the 10 days you have the journal) onto the next person.

4- When you receive a journal in the mail and have 10 days from the day you receive it to complete a layout for it. I think visual art journal vs scrapbook, I will use primarily acrylic paint, pens and paper bits. But any medium you choose to use is great. You can go digital, collage, scrap, stamping, paint, drawing...whatever medium is speaking to you at the time. I really enjoyed the wide variety I saw at ArtFest. I plan on using my best supplies and ideas when completing layouts and will keep the person who the journal belongs to in mind because I want them to be happy with what I created for them. If you will be on vacation, have big stuff happening in your life during the 10 days you will have a journal, work ahead (based on the posted photos of the journal) so that you can slip your work into the journal and not slow down the progress of the journal.

5- You MUST post your layouts. A Blog is not required, you can use a flickr account, or a message board or something of that sort. All your fellow circle journalers must be able to view your page progress.

6- After you complete all the layouts your journal should be coming home soon and will arrive back to you filled full fat and happy with layouts of your theme.
To sign up, comment on this post. If we don't "know" each other, that’s fabulous, I’ll meet some new artist bloggers! But you have to promise to stick to the time line AND post layouts as you complete them. *Seriously*

We can expect the Circle Journal project to take 2-5 months, depending on the number of participants and whether or not people take the full 10 days to send the journal on. To see some incredible ideas see: http://shopgirl.typepad.com/photos/circle_journal_2007/index.html

This invitation is open through March or until we get 10 artists signed up. Please email me with questions/suggestions.

Thanks to Andrea at -- http://www.shopgirl.typepad.com/ for the idea and the link to the great typepad photo samples.

Artfest, part 4

2008-04-15T12:02:00.000-07:00

My very own Mandala. I'm not sure if I'm done with it yet. I may put another wash - over the bold blues in the lotus petals. Originally my sketch included a crow off center in the middle of the mandala...
Saturday was unbelievably gorgeous here! And *everyone* was out and about. We walked our trail. Amid crazy bicyclists who think they are the bosses of the trail. Then we got our drinks - Jamba Juice for c and Tully's decaf wet cappucino for me and headed to the mountains...to an outlet mall for baby shopping. We'd heard there was a baby furniture outlet...no one there had heard such a thing, so that search continues. We did find lots of other special items though. Couldn't resist some cute ocean-y baby clothes, a few maternity items and a special dress for a big fancy event in May.
I found them! Yippee! So this is the basics of it. Find a photo. Glue it to wood (special wood). Use Jewelry saw (my jewelry saw, totally sub-par, need to buy a new one). Embellish. Put on chosen perch (I have to find my stash of wooden blocks to complete this one).
It's getting there. Though I have run into a problem with the lack of scrap yarn. It's 335 stitches on No. 9 needles...it does eat up the scrap yarn. We bought a couple of balls of yarn from this sweet entrepreneur at the Fremont Sunday Market - she buys up thrift store sweaters, rips 'em up, washes, stretchs and re-skeins them. We bought two to be more "background" colours of this toddler blanket. I'm always thinking of this when I go to a thrift store, never seem to find anything in the yarn weight I'd like. She might get there first.
Cutest. Making another for the Baby Shower Basket I'm making for our Simple Elegance Auction at church. Have to make baby socks, hat and a blanket too.
Two Anahata prints and a miny original collage by Karen O'Brien added to make a much more interesting vignette in the studio. My tree and my little wish house. The gold star and pink button wreath are from my Handmade Christmas Ornament swap.