Color Color Color!

Oh I wish I could show you a picture! Hopefully I get the disk that I need to fix my computer today. If that doesn't fix it I'll have to ask Santa for a new one. I am working on my pieces for the gallery show next month. I have to get them finished in the next few days before Thanksgiving. The piece (angel) that I am working on started out to be creamy white & beiges, elegant, but that didn't last long! Now it's eye popping, fun & in living color! I've always been mesmerized by color. When I was little I used to love the NBC peacock. Ding dong ding - that tail of color would spread & I would think it was so beautiful! haha Actually watching a color tv was cool, ok, enough, I'm dating myself! Oh & opening a new box of 64 Crayola crayons...like crack! The theme of the gallery show is "Gifts". I am doing 3 12 x 12 angels. One with a bird - gifts from the sky, another with seashells & pearls - gifts from the sea & the other with flowers & maybe fruit - gifts from the land. I have really been drawing a blank for this show which is why I have gotten such a late start. For some inspiration & a kick in the pants, I went to an "Artsy Fartsy" get together with my Swell Sisters on Saturday. Everyone took their pieces & paints, I took a pad of paper & pencil. They talked me into painting though. Everyone shared. A canvas, brushes & metallic Folk Art paints. I painted an angel with metallic paints & I have to say I really liked how it turned out. I didn't bring her home, I gave her to the Sister that shared her canvas. She was excited to have her, although it needed about 3 more coats of paint. I plan to buy some metallics to play with...after Christmas.

Quirky Night

Tonight was my monthly "QAG" meeting ( Quirky Art Group), a sub-group of the Swell Sister Society. I had so much fun. We did a journal project from Keri Smith. Collages with a catch. We had to tear out 15 or 20 pages (or as many as you can cut through) then pick a shape, I did approx 2x2 square, then cut your shape through all pages, no peeky. Then you had to collage with your cut out pieces only, no tearing, ripping or altering them. You get what you get. I used an old Gourmet magazine so mine came out with a little bit of a theme. The squares with recipes or writing is on the sides. Sister Juliana, a fantastic collage artist, brought Caran d' Ache crayons which now I have to have. They are like butter. The colors are great, they smear, blend & seem to just melt into the into paper. When you have all the paper glued to your canvas or wood, (I used wood) then you can embellish with crayon, ink, paint, whatever you want. Every time I get together with my Swell Sisters' I step outside my little box and I always have a big surge of creativity. I embellished mine with the crayons & black paint that I put in my henna bottle for a thin controllable line. I did some ACEOs last night using this wonderful little bottle. I'll take some pictures & post them. I think I am going to try this collage technique on some ACEOs and see how they turn out. So grab your old magazines & have some fun!

Surprise!

Nope not this "tuna surprise" that was actually breakfast the other day. haha Breakfast of Champions right?! I did not eat it out of the can, I did that purely for the photo. I had an uncontrollable craving for Kraft mac & cheese, then felt guilty coz I was going to eat mac & cheese -pretty much pure carbs so I added some protein to it. That makes sense right? haha The real surprise was a visit late this afternoon from some friends that just moved back from Texas. We got to meet their baby boy for the first time and he's 18 mo, so cute & sweet. Hard to believe that he is almost 2 already. Toward the end of their visit he goes up to his mom & says "hotdog hotdog" then turns around to everyone in the room and says "bye bye & heads for the door" hahaha I had made a big pot of chicken & dumplings but they didn't stay. I think they were going to have hotdogs. haha Sadly I missed my Swell Sister monthly meeting. We were to have a guest speaker tonight too. I missed last month too and was really looking forward to going & being with my art sista's. Just as I was getting ready to go our friends came by. So I'm a little bummed about missing the meeting - feeling out of the loop with everyone- but very glad I had the time with our friends tonight.

I need to apologize to my Entrecard bloggers for not dropping much & to you for not posting much lately. My computer is still not working right and it's been a few weeks. (I am saving this every few lines just in case it freezes up). The guys have determined that it is some nasty virus in our registry and we are going to have to wipe out the computer and start from scratch & hope that fixes it. We still have some back-up to do before we can erase everything though. Hopefully Hubby can do that next week and I can get back into the groove.

I am babysitting JJ until Monday while Mom & Dad are in Las Vegas for a wedding so I won't be working too much on anything. I'm still in a painting funk and have been playing with paper. I have made some charms out of recycled magazines. I will be posting a picture in a few days. I think the charms are pretty cool if I say so myself. I will probably be listing them in my Artfire shop, as it's empty at the moment. If you follow my blog you know about my problem with magazines & jars. Well I needed to get rid of some magazines. Before I can do that I have to cut out all the words & pictures I like, only then can I place it in the bin. I have boxes of cut outs and going through them is fun & full of inspiration. I could collage until the cows come home. I love collage but don't do it often. I spread out and have it all over the place. I'm a messy collager/scrapper. I could use a bigger studio. I have to hand it to full-time collage artist & scrapbookers. It is so time consuming. I'm not sure people realize just how much. I certainly didn't before I started a few years ago. I haven't sold any of my collage pieces but maybe I will in the future. I dug into my box last year & made a Vision Board. That was fun and I would like to do that again soon. My mom swears that she was finding cut up bits & pieces of paper here & there 6 months after I moved out of the house. haha One thing I liked about my old job was flipping through a loan file & sticky notes, the paper. Now it's all paperless. I fell in love with paper when I was a kid while living in Japan. I used to do all kinds of origami and the gold sheet I could never fold. I'd save it. If I have some money of my own I'd buy yarn or paper with it. I've been having lots of fun with the eyelets I bought the other day. I love how they look in paper. So polished and hammering them is thrilling. I've never used them before so I am fighting the urge to eyelet everything! Kinda like that label maker you bought then had to label everything. hahaha I am also going to be working on an album that will have lots of altered pages that have been posted on my Altered Pages Altered Thoughts blog. I've had several inquiries about selling the pages so I thought it might be cool to put them in an album. Perhaps a paper bag album & have some of them on tags as well. We'll see.

A big shout out goes to Pieces of Paper for including my Feathered Feline Friend in their great Etsy Treasury. You can check it out here.

Is It Genetic?

At one of my Swell Sister meetings a Sister brought in postcards to share. I had to have this one! I put a magnet on the back and placed it on the frig!

A little history... (to validate my qualifications to attest to the fact that males can't find anything)...I grew up with 2 brothers, a dad who can't have anything organized & no you can't touch his piles of things, I had more guy friends than I did girlfriends (I was a tom-boy, which leads me to ponder my art...another time), raised 2 sons, married a man that had 2 fathers, & 6 brothers in total... Well today while watching my grandson I noticed the first signs of the male's inability to find something! He was playing with a spoon, put it down in front of himself, then started looking all over for it. I laughed to myself, it actually does start younger than I thought! Just the other day I tweeted about this when my son couldn't find something and ElisaAlvarado a wonderful artist I met on Twitter said that she thinks it's genetic & that ovaries are location devises. I'm still laughing about that. C'mon guys no offense but you know it's true. haha

I had so much fun today! My Doodle Bug is just a joy. I think he'll be walking before his 1st birthday next month. He lets go of tables or whatever he is holding on to & stands on his own for quite a while & has honed his navigation skills in his scooter/spaceship walker. We had fun watching the Gummy Bear video on youtube, dancing & it was so hot today we went swimming in the kitchen sink! He loves spoons. Maybe he's gonna be a chef? Hopefully I can see him again this weekend.

Painting Willy Nilly

I've been painting a lot this week and I must say it has felt good. This little painting I did with the left over paints I had on my palette. Just painting willy nilly, she came to life and I love her. She makes me smile. Her eyes follow you & she seems a little mischievous don't you think? So I named her "Willy Nilly". I almost hate selling her. I listed her in my Etsy shop.

I went to my QAG (Quirky Art Group) meeting last night. It was lots of fun hanging out with a few of my Swell Sisters. We laughed a lot! We painted rocks with the intent on leaving them anonymously around town or keeping them for our gardens. I may now be hooked on painting rocks! My favorite is the round rock that I painted like the world with hearts "love makes the world go round". I am going to keep that one and I am thinking I will make a wire cage to put it in, with little hearts dangling from it and hanging it from one of my oak trees out back. I plan on taking some down to the creek just down the street. I will put them in strategic places so that people might spy them when they walk by. I may put a crawdad net in the water when I go too & see if I can catch any! I took this picture before I varnished them. The varnish really makes them look better.

I've Got The Fever?

Maybe spring fever has been my problem lately for the lack of painting I have been getting accomplished? Maybe but I've been painting this week and it feels good. I have lots of new paintings in the works and surprise! they are not all Angels!

I have been hearing about Artfire so much that I have decided to list my new little sprout paintings there and give it a try. If there are any of you out there that sell on Artfire I would really like to hear from you.

These little paintings were inspired by my new sprouts that I grew from seed. Yes you heard right. I did it. Now if I can remember to water them... Sandypetals shared with me the easiest way to start seeds. You put some soil in plastic ziplock bags, zip them up and in a few days WA LA! Sprouts. I carefully transferred mine into some old plastic 6 packs that I had. I really wish I had saved more of these. My house sits on 1/3 of an acre which is way too much for my gardening ability. I have lots of room for plants and I am really motivated now. Maybe I can do this! I just started some more yesterday, lime green zinnias, if they are as pretty as the picture I am going to love them!

I'm going back into my studio then later I'm off to Sacramento for a Swell Sister meeting. I've missed the last few and it will be nice to see all my "sisters" and get a good shot in the arm. They are all inspiring, interesting, creative, artistic, talented & supportive women.

Beautiful Recycling

Yesterday afternoon 4 of my Swell Sister's came over and we made beautiful cake/cupcake servers for our gallery opening. That's TJ doing a fine modeling job of all our wares! LOL We will be serving bite size cheesecakes on them. Initially we had planned on mini cupcakes but those are hard to find. Maybe not the "in" thing anymore ? None of us wanted to bake for over 250 + people! We bought plates, candle sticks, glasses, & vases from Thrift Stores and used an assortment of old craft bobbles, beads & stones to embellish. The sky's the limit on embellishment. We used a 2 part epoxy that dries clear to glue the pieces together and nothing is budging. It was so much fun! I wish I had a picture of all the finished pieces. Some servers had ribbon with sequins, pearls, and dripping beads. These could be really fun for tea parties and special Christmas gifts or Christmas servers and for just a few dollars. The Thrift Stores have lots of Christmas plates out now and Christmas doodads to embellish with. It's a fun way to spend the afternoon!
For a little refreshment I served a curry dip that I had never made before. I know that's brave serving something you've never made before but for some reason I do that a lot. I made it the night before just in case it was awful. The recipe said to let it chill for several hours anyway. I ran across the recipe online and it was so odd that I had to try it. I didn't follow it exactly (something else I do a lot) but I used all the ingredients. To my surprise it was super good and everyone liked it. It's a keeper and I will definitely be making it again. Here's the recipe...
2 C sour cream
1/2 C light mayo
1 Tbsp curry powder
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp horseradish
2 tsp garlic powder
2 Tbsp of Zerguts Red pepper Relish (recipe called for ketchup)

In A Black Hole

I painted all day. I finished the wings & final touches on the pink angel from the last post and the final picture will go in my slide show. I did a practice run on a piece for the gallery show, something I had in my head, to see if I'd like it. This was a canvas that had already been painted. 12 x 16 & it's 1.75" thick. What's wrong with this picture? Other than it not being fully done...where's all my colors? I normally paint with lots of color and this is out of the ordinary for me! I am torturing myself over this gallery show. The kids stopped by and say I should do the same picture but do an "aura angel" and bright spring time background. I may try it on another defunked canvas.

I am finishing up another "aura angel" with an eye popping teal background that I will be listing. I listed some things on Ebay yesterday including my little pig angel. I went to search for them today and they didn't even come up in a search! What is up with that Ebay? That's very upsetting. The best match thing they started is very unfair, everyone is paying the same price to list, which is not cheap, and they are giving some preferential treatment. If someone has bad feedback then as a buyer you don't have to buy from them. Bring back the old Ebay I say.

On my beloved DVR I recorded a bunch of Rachel Zoe Project shows on the Bravo channel, stayed up late and watched them all. I hadn't seen it yet. Her assistant "Tay" is something else, that's all I'm saying. Love the new assistant with his bow ties. *Adorable* What I determined after watching for about 15 minutes is that I am a total fashion retard. Not quite an Ugly Betty (love that show) but my closet is full of black. It's the Black Hole. Surprised? Maybe that's why I paint so much color! I love black though. The show almost made me want to go shopping or sew something. I have 3 sewing machines and they are covered in cobwebs. Clothes shopping is something I don't enjoy at all. I have to really get myself psyched up for it. I get in a funk for at least 2 days after viewing myself in the fun house mirrors they have in the dressing rooms. I hate trying on clothes. But I am slowly getting paint on everything I own so I'll have to bite the bullet & go soon. It seems every year I go shopping in the fall & winter, so I never have any summer clothes but lots of winter things. I love fall & winter it's my favorite time of year.

I feel wiped out tired today. Maybe from staying up too late, but I do that a lot, so it's odd I am feeling so beat. So I missed a SS Quirky Art group meeting tonight. I just didn't have the energy to put together the things I needed to take and then drive 70 miles tonight. Oh crap I just heard my dad's voice in my head...he said "Are you taking your vitamins?"

I Scare Myself!

The SS meeting was great, always is. We had the owner of Tanget Gallery there that spoke about Pink Week. Very interesting! Check it out! I am going to submit a pink angel for the gallery show in November. Maybe they will take it, that would be fun! Here are a few more that I worked on this week. They too have a few more tweeks here and there to do, which I will get done by tomorrow. There are several that I am going to have scanned for prints. These are all on wood.

I had a real nice lunch date with SS Carol today and we ate fish tacos at Rubio's. Don't say yuk! They are fantastic! We then went to Michael's and I got some new paint and brushes. Then Petsmart for some food for my real angels.

My husband's band The Spotted Dogs were on the radio last night. I've seen Jim play in concert with George Jones, seen him on tv, & seen him in too many clubs to count, parties, etc... but I have never heard him on the radio. The show started at 11:00pm. I had already put on my night shirt. The station which is 90.3 in Davis, CA wouldn't work in the house for some reason. So I told the dogs, let's go and we all went out and got in the car. They couldn't figure out why we weren't going anywhere, just sitting out there! It was funny. When I was tuning in the station, I felt like I was in a 50's movie, American Graffiti or Tom Hanks' movie That Thing You Do. LOL. It felt strange sitting in the car listening to the radio in the dark. I live where there are no street lights so it's dark, there are acres of land just across the street, the only lights are the neighbor's porch lights. The moon was huge last night and that's when I started thinking about vampires. I won't be watching that new show everyone is talking about , I think it's called True Blood, and I don't mind one bit being out the loop. I only have to hear about them to be scared. Thank you Stephen King. I know it's silly too and probably shouldn't even being admitting this for the world to read! Well at 12 midnight, just when the show is ending, what happens? The neighbors come out and were hanging out by their garage! Why?! I am just down hill from them and they can see right into my yard, they could see me sitting in the car and as quiet as it is, could hear the music too. They were probably wondering what the heck I was doing or were they vampires?! LOL I'm in my nightshirt and because it's dark, no street lights, my husband has our motion censored porch lights rigged to light up like a prison yard, so I had to wait out there for another 15 minutes until they went inside before I made a run for the door! Partly because I wasn't dressed and partly to escape any vampires that may have been waiting for me to get out of the car! LOL Anyway the guys did really good, they made it fun. They are playing a private party tonight and tomorrow night they are at Lucille's BBQ in Roseville. With all this time alone I hope to get lots more painting done this weekend!

Blog gone Wild

I don't know what happened but I reposted and it didn't post it, posted something I had started the other day...so I'll start over! Hope it doesn't post later again! So if you got this twice I'm sorry. I love umbrellas, especially colorful umbrellas. I found this umbrella the other day while looking at blogs. The Senz umbrella is suppose to withstand winds up to 70mph. It looks a little like a Star Wars umbrella to me. Although I think it's cool, and the guy holding the umbrella looks pretty sweet, I think I'll stick to my colorful ones, so what if they bent inside out! Fashion first haha

I have been painting away this week and still have quite a few more to get done. Here are a few that I have worked on this week. Some need a few more little tweeks before they are completely finished.

Tonight is the monthly Swell Sister meeting. I am going to try to leave early so I have a chance at getting a spot in the lot. Last month it was full so I parked in front of some one's house, there was no sign. When I got in the car I had a ticket for $35. I sent in the payment and received a notice yesterday that I owed $5 more! ? I had made copies so I called. The woman said the city raised the prices and it's now $40 for a parking ticket. She waived the extra $5 because it was not on my ticket, which was good. $40 for a parking ticket! ouch. Watch where you park in Sacramento!

Ouch. Everything Hurts

Jackie Warner kicked my hiney. I am out of shape, I sit on my butt painting for hours, etc... It's always tomorrow with me. Oh tomorrow I'll start a diet, oh tomorrow I'll workout... tomorrow never comes. At the rate I've been going if I don't do something, I won't be able to play with my grandson when he's older and will be the old gramma he doesn't want to kiss. Well Tuesday was tomorrow! I was flipping through Free On Demand clicked on Exercise TV and lo & behold there were Jackie Warner workouts. I love her show "Workout" on Bravo. I've watched it while eating chips & salsa thinking "tomorrow I'll workout". haha http://www.jackiewarner.com/ I like the fact that her exercises are boot camp style, no foo foo equipment, just blood, sweat & tears. Kickin' it old school. I decided this is it. I'm doing it. I got off my comfy chair with determination I haven't had for a while, I clicked her workout on. Honestly this was big, you have no idea of the neglect, and besides, if it was too hard I could just change the channel, sit back down and start tomorrow. LOL I started with the Core workout. I was proud of myself that I only had to stop to breathe a few times. It was hard, it hurt but it made me feel empowered. I did better than I thought I would. I do hate to think of what I looked like while doing these exercises! Not pretty. Probably disgusting. (Note to self: don't workout with Jackie when husband is home.) Yesterday it hurt to laugh, something I do a lot, or cough, bend over, twist or turn or even blog! I felt like my core was used as a punching bag but it also made me feel like if I keep it up I could be feeling pretty good about myself & maybe one day be rid of the potato sack around my middle, a 6 pack at my age, it could happen. So I let her kick my hiney again. Feeling motivated I tried the Lower workout. I surprised myself & got through the whole thing. Beaming, burning & bright red, I thought I'd do a little more of the Core again to maybe workout the soreness. NOT! I couldn't make it through the Core again I was too sore but managed to do a little. This morning I woke up feeling pretty good, not so sore, but around 2:00, it all kicked in, the legs didn't want to go up & down the stairs, which I have all over my house. ouch. awful. I was thinking how nice it would be to have a Lark! hahaha Thinking if I went to the grocery I could get on the motorized cart, after all I am disabled at the moment. hahaha So I laid low today, didn't look at Jackie, but every step I took made me think about her. Tomorrow, it's the Upper workout. I'm scared of what she's gonna do to me! But I'm determined to boot camp my butt and not even look at the scale. It's always about the scale, but not this time. I'm not even going to touch a toe to it. Just see what happens without that pressure. So I will do these workouts for the short time they are free On Demand, then I will go out & buy her dvd's no question about it.
I went to a Swell Sister planning meeting tonight, feeling a little crippled and had a blast. What a fun bunch of women! I laughed and laughed even though it hurt. Actually it's kind of nice feeling muscles I haven't felt for a while or knew I had. I was also requested to do 6 more paintings as by a previous customer. Nice! So I didn't pick up an Indie collaborative project tonight, I have too much to do for now, maybe next week. I am painting like mad tomorrow... after Jackie works me out!

Am I A Hooker? Yes & No Way!

Friday night I suggested to the Swell Sister knit/crochet group that we needed a new name besides boring "knit/crochet group". Something fun. Like Needlebugs, Yarnies, etc... Then Terry hollers out " The Hookers!" It was so funny, everyone was laughing and I think everyone agreed we would be "The Hookers".

Yesterday, after my post, my husband found out that he would have to drive alone all the way to North Shore Lake Tahoe to play a show at the Tahoe Biltmore Hotel & Casino. (He' s in the orange shirt & jeans.)My back was feeling better, I'd just have to sit there and possibly drive home, so I decided to go. I dressed in black jeans, a cute, buttoned up, 3/4 sleeve, very light, white, gray & black leopard print sweater, one of my favorites, it's cold there at night, black Clark sandals. I put a little blush on my cheeks and mascara, I'm a plain Jane, don't ever overdo the makeup and rarely wear shadow. Actually dressed how I would if I were back working in a cubicle on a business casual day. We were 1/2 way to Tahoe when I realized I forgot my rings on the counter after putting on some lotion. I felt naked.

When we got there, there were lots of people at the bar and sitting at tables and filled a lot more when my husband's band began to play. I decided that I would keep myself entertained at the bar playing video $.05 poker rather than sit alone at a table dangerously close to the dance floor. I wasn't going to dance and take a chance on throwing my back out again! So I positioned myself in a spot that I could see the band and my husband could see me. I haven't played video poker much and was trying to figure out what to hold and not hold when I noticed a nice looking man hanging in the doorway. Then from the corner of my eye, I realized that he was possibly staring. (It didn't bother me, kind of used to that, see previous post on subject.) Within moments, he very quickly comes over and sits in the stool right next to me, as if he was in a hurry, there were 2 stools next to me, he could have left one in between us. He sees my coffee, yes I was drinking coffee, he asked the bartender for a coffee, turns to me and smiles, politely I smile back. Then he leans over next to me, into my bubble *uncomfortable*, appearing to watch me play poker, so I say "should I hold the King & the Queen?" He replies "Yes". Then leans even closer to me *uncomfortable*, so I lean away a little and he asks "Do you want to make some money?" Stunned. I look at his hand directed toward me holding a large wad of money, I look back at his smiling face and meekly say "No". He smiles bigger and says "Are you sure you don't want to make some money? I don't think I am that bad looking." Me in disbelief, shook my head, maybe like a bobble head doll I don't know, but as if to say no you aren't bad looking, but all the while I was probably looking like a retard, because the only thing that came out of my mouth was "unt ahh"!! Then tells me, as he looks back toward the door, he doesn't want to be caught in the bar by his brother-in-law and has to go. Takes a big gulp of the coffee, flips through his big wad of money, grabs a bill and pushes a 10 in front of me and bolts out. I was left sitting there thinking What the?!? I have to admit after the shock wore off in a minute or so, when my brain had digested what just happened, I found it a bit flattering and insulting at the same time. His $10 lay on the bar next to me for at least an hour, which was how long it took for me to lose my $2 I had put in the machine. I felt a little dirty *laughing* as I inserted it into my poker machine but I actually played all night on that man's $10!! My luck turned out to be pretty good, however, I can't say the same for the man's! haha

When the night was over my husband asked me to drive the car to the entrance so he could load in equipment. I started up the stairway to go get the car just as a Casino Security Officer was starting down, he smiled, I smiled, and as he past me he said "My girlfriend would love that blouse"! I said "Thank you", then laughed out loud and thought to myself "She can have it! I may not be wearing it again!"And perhaps a leopard print is not the best thing to wear in a Nevada casino!" LOL What do I have some kind of Hooker mojo now?! LOL

We got home at 4:30 this morning (over a 2 hour drive) so I slept in until 10:30! I finished my collaborative piece and did nothing else. I collaged a map, painted the poles & birds then covered with beeswax and ironed. Tomorrow is a new week, I'm feeling almost like new and I will be painting like crazy! Here's the before and after of my collaborative piece...

Breaking Down

My back is still out *misery* and I only managed to finish up 1 painting this week. My husband had to drive me to one Swell Sister (SS) Meeting! I had fun regardless but didn't go to the Capitol or to the park to decorate the "wish tree". I missed all that exciting fun which involved cops! Went to another SS meeting last night but left early. It seems a little worse today. May need to break down and go to the doctor! I have too much to do to be hobbling around like I'm 90 yrs old! This is my new Aura Angel. Hey she almost seems like she saying "help me my back is out!" LOL I love how the eyes turned out in this one. They are brown, blue & green and they follow you! I love how the google ads just magically know what I post. Every time I say something about the eyes in one of my paintings my google ads go from art to laser eye surgery. haha

I finished my Indie collaborative piece and got a new one to start on. Here's the before & after...

I added shading and some bamboo. I really had to control myself so that I wouldn't turn her into a mermaid! LOL

Haiku - The Darker Side

A Swell Sister started a thread on our site for Haiku. Fun! Also wanted us to think of our Indian name. hahah I chose mine. It is Runs With Brushes! haha Then another Sister suggested a new thread for the Darker Haiku. My "Dark Side" Haiku for the day...

Devoid of feeling
hearts in chards words unspoken
their tongues retreated

Everyone's are so good someone suggested a book! Not a bad idea! I think I will post a Haiku from the thread daily on my blog, not necessarily mine but share everyone's!

I'm All Over the Place!

The Swell Sister meeting tonight was terrific. We have a new Sister, Gale Hart and she spoke. Please take a moment to check out her website & her fantastic work it's listed below. She was awesome, funny, full of info, very inspiring and I loved her hair, all wicky wacky in a funky, free, surfer, skater, sexy I just got out of bed kind of way. Cute really cute. She owns a gallery and has been involved in the art scene for quite some time. One piece of advise was to stick to one thing. UT OH. That's a problem. I'm a Gemini. That's nearly impossible. I want to do everything! Try everything! I love it all! I haven't even put some of my clay work or altered art up for sale yet. So what do you think I should stick to? What do you like best? This is a big dilema!

I got my first Indie collaborative piece back tonight as well and will be posting a picture later. I think it came out great. It's a very fun & unusual piece!

Ok if you must know, it was hot, everybody was sweating! lol

I'm so Excited! I Just Can't Hide It!

Ok well another song title! You had to know I couldn't help myself and I'd do it again! I was featured in another Treasury on Etsy http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=555 done by GenuineArticle! Her shop is http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5547931 and she sells jewelry, photographs & art. Thanks GenuineArticle!

I was also contacted by the director at APW Gallery in NYC http://www.apwarts.com/Home.html to do some of my art on old vinyl LPs for their show Oct. 3rd. What a nice surprise that was! What!?! I just happen to have some old LPs that I got at a thrift store that I was going to melt in some way, so instead I'll be painting on them! My husband would curl up in a fetal position if I touched any of his collection! hahaha I've never painted on an LP before. Do you sand the ridges first? Leave the ridges? I'll have to experiment. You can see APW Gallery photos on Flickr.com.

My Swell Sisters are soooo sweet! They didn't meet last night because I wasn't going to be there. Now how sweet is that!?! So I didn't miss all the fun after all!

On a less exciting, more somber note, I attended my friend's mother's funeral this afternoon. It was a very beautiful and touching service. My heart goes out to her and her family. She has a hard time ahead of her for a while. All of her siblings live out of state so her & her husband will have to deal with her mother's affairs alone. I got to see a few people from my old job (we have been friends for about 17 yrs but we also worked together at my last job) and it was nice seeing them. Funny how even though funerals are horrible, hard & emotional, it's always nice to see people you haven't seen for a while and you can end up having a nice time even though the circumstances that brought you together are sad.

Friday & I'm Missing All the Fun!

You know that tv commerical where the big ugly bug knocks on the door delivering pizza and wants to put it on the table? Love that commerical. Gives me the creeps but makes me laugh. Well some kind of bug knocked on my door and I must have let it in without knowing! I've got a rotten stomach bug and I'm missing my Swell Sister Knit/Crochet group tonight. I didn't want to spread all this fun around so I didn't go. I've had it a couple of days now. I did manage to crochet a little while sitting in my husband's comfy chair, drinking ginger ale and water . I crocheted some funky rocker, biker, emo, cool wrist warmers with a crocheted ring attached. I listed them on Etsy. The pictures are awful but I just didn't have the engery to do any better at the time. I was looking forward to sharing all the things I have been making to the group tonight. Hopefully it won't be another month until the next meeting. I had been looking forward to it. It's a great bunch of women and so much fun!

I didn't get any painting done the past 2 days. I have a hard wooden chair and big bright light overhead in my studio room. Not too friendly when you're feeling lousy. I do have some ideas floating around in my head which is kind of cool because I usually don't, I just go in and pick up the paints. Today I was contacted by a gallery director who said they would like me to show my art on old LPs! That was quite a compliment!! LPs what a fun thought! I have some old ones that I bought at a thrift store to melt (I gotta try everything) so I'm going to try painting on one! I'll see how it turns out. The gallery is in NY so I would have to mail in my work. I'd love to have the money to go if I was chosen!

So I'm making myself another ginger ale and going to veg out in front of the tv and watch the Olympics!

Whirly Bird

That's me today! A whirly bird. One of my favorite Beatles songs is Black Bird. Until recently I never knew that it was about a girl. duh. And I won't even tell you how old I am! Paul McCartney explained the song and said that in England they call girls "Birds"! In the US we call girls Chicks! strange. I have so many things whirling around in my head that I want to create & try today and not enough time to do everything! I was requested to do another commission & sold several prints the past few days! So I feel blessed.

A Swell Sister came over this morning, we had coffee, a nice visit and she dropped off a new collaborative project to work on. It feels like I am getting a present every time we exchange! I already had in mind something I was going to do but ended up doing something else besides my initial thought. I boiled eggs yesterday and saved the shells. I used the shells as a mosaic path. You have to take the membrane out from the inside. I laid the glue down and put a piece of shell and then pushed into the glue. It makes a lovely cracking noise and breaks into little pieces that are stuck. I did a wooden box like that once and it came out pretty cool. I decided to use the eggshells because of the birds in the picture. I added some bushes, a fence, the eggshells & painted in the fabric. I wanted to keep the spirit of the original fabric canvas. To me it feels like a garden! I can't tell you how much fun this Indi collaborative project is! It's sure is nice getting to know the Swell Sisters. Yesterday I met a Sister and passed on the altered book. I had a nice time chatting with her & found that we had a few things in common. And I got a sneak peek at mine and it is so awesome!! I have the perfect spot for it when it's done. Here's the project I got today, before & after my changes. You can click on the picture to see it larger.