Adrian's Embellishments

Bosch Mixer - Wow!

2011-08-14T15:00:00.000-04:00

For the past 8 months or more I have been saving for this new mixer. It has a large capacity and has an exceptionally powerful motor. The bowl is large enough for 18 to 20 Cups of flour! Yikes! That's enough to make 6 large 1 1/2 pound loaves of bread all at one time. Finally! An easy way to whip up a batch that is big enough to eat now, freeze some and give the rest to friends and family. Now all I have to do is double, triple or quadruple my favorite recipes and Saturday morning baking is one very productive 4 hour deal. Yum! By the way, it is a Bosch Universal Plus. I got it on-line from Pleasant Hill Grain for
$429.99. A lifetime investment perfect for me.

2011-08-12T18:03:00.000-04:00

Sometimes a moving picture is more fun than a pogo print!

Here's the recipe - adapted from "Bread Machine Magic" by Linda Rehberg & Lois Conway -

However, do not try to stuff these ingredients into a bread machine, this is for two large loaves. I put almost everything into a mixer, but knead the last cup or two of flour by hand. Measure out everything before you start, just so you won't miss anything -

Wholewheat - Wheatgerm- Sunflower Bread
1 C rolled oats
3 C whole wheat flour
3 to 4 C plus unbleached bread flour- there is a lot of wiggle room here. A lot depends on the brand of flour, the temperature and humidity in the room, and one's mood.... to get a dough that "feels good."
2 TBSP Gluten
3 TBSP wheatgerm
1 TBSP salt
4 TBSP brown sugar
2/3 C sunflower seeds
10 TBSP Buttermilk powder
2 1/4 C warm water
2 eggs
3 TBSP canola oil
2 TBSP active dry yeast
Mix yeast with 1C water and some of the brown sugar. Let sit 10 minutes to activate. I like to do this in a 2 C glass measuring cup because it's fun to see the yeast bubble and rise to life!
Pour into your warmed mixer bowl (I warm the bowl by rinsing it with warm water just so the yeast won't be shocked on entry into the bowl) and gradually add all the wet and then the dry ingredients, mixing slowly.
When the motor starts to growl, transfer the mass of dough onto your kneading board or counter and work in the last of the flour. Add more flour if dough is really wet, but this dough just tends to be sticky. Because it is a whole grain mixture, you really do not have to knead it for long.
Transfer it to a lightly oiled bowl. Cover bowl with plastic wrap or a damp towel to keep the dough moist and let it rise. In my kitchen which tends to be 76 degrees or more, this dough rises within 60 to 90 minutes to more than doubled in size.
Prepare two 9 x 5 inch bread pans with crisco and flour to prevent sticking.
GENTLY deflate the dough, (remember it is a living thing) and cut into two equal parts. Flatten it somewhat into a rectangle and roll it into a loaf shape. Place in pans to rise again, covered with that wrap or towel. This takes another hour or so.
15 minutes prior to baking, move the wire rack to the bottom third of your oven and heat to 350 degrees. Bake for about 35 minutes or until a baking thermometer registers 190 degrees at the center of the loaf.
If the crust is getting browner than you like, tent the pans with some aluminum foil. When done, remove the bread from the pans immediately and let cool on wire racks or until you absolutely cannot wait to cut a slice to try it out. mmmmmm. good.

Ft. Lauderdale

2011-08-02T13:08:00.000-04:00

Sometimes the best thing about taking pictures is changing them.

I have a few different programs that allow this.

The hardest part is deciding which effect I like best.

Make it look a few years old.

Make it look dreamy.

Make it look like a drawing.

Every single one is pretty to me.

Bag lady

2011-07-27T12:51:00.000-04:00

Saturday, while baking more bread, I put some gesso on a couple of used brown lunch bags and did this drawing.
It's a pretty face from a magazine done using my left hand and a # 6B graphite pencil.
I sure do like to use my finger to smudge the graphite to shade the angles of the planes of the face.

Last night, while watching a movie, I added color using pastel pencils.
What fun they are! Good control for adding color in small places. I added more pencil work and used my eraser to make the highlights whiter.

Working from a photo really does teach me more about drawing a portrait. And, I gotta say that this left hand of mine is learning ...fast.

More Left Handed Art

2011-07-22T17:31:00.000-04:00

This is Suki. I'm trying to understand the shape and shadow of oriental eyes. And working left handed sure makes you slow down. But, she is pretty, I think. This is graphite pencil, oil pastels and some watercolor for her hair.

This is Portia. I used PanPastels for the face and was sorry that even after several layers of workable fixative and more pastel, I didn't get the opacity I wanted for highlights on her skin. The rest is graphite pencil and black watercolor for her hair.

And, finally, we have Rina. Another trial for oriental eyes. These look a little off, but oh I do love the green shadowed with purple.

Glad it's the weekend. I've painted some brown paper bags with white gesso and will see how loose I can get on such a humble surface. I just can't justify using really good paper ... yet.

Left Handed Art Making-

2011-07-09T07:25:00.003-04:00

Last week Jane Davies at the Sketchbook Challenge site
interviewed Lynne Hoppe and I was immediately intrigued by her art work. She draws and paints using only her non-dominant hand. Every drawing book I've ever read has encouraged this and I've done it, but never with the idea that I should always make art that way. It just seemed like an exercise to loosen up and get the left brain activity confounded, forcing more intuitive, right brain stuff.

When I saw her work however, I knew I had to try it. It has that naive quality that I lust after. In fact, I haven't been doing much art work lately because mine seems so terribly serious. I don't want it to be serious. What I want is playful, loose, childlike and far from realism. I struggle with it and am always having conversations with my inner critic. So far, it has been winning and I haven't been drawing.

Until Tuesday. I came home for lunch and started to draw with only my left hand. Then I added oil pastel, some watercolor and you know what? I was having fun! All left handed!
Got the whole thing done in 20 minutes and drove back to work feeling pretty happy, indeed.

Meet Gertrude - her name means "warrior maiden" - I looked it up later in the day.

Wednesday, lunch time, somewhat fearfully, I did it again! This time I was having a war with my critic, but I stopped listening and in 15 minutes, I met Holly. It means, "Holy". Thanks for your support, little one, you do bring blessings of hope for this struggling artist.

Thursday. A difficult day at work. And it shows here. Plus, I was getting all bent out of shape because I couldn't get my whites to be as opaque as I wanted. I gessoed this page, so the printed ink didn't smear, but the oil pastel didn't want to smear much either.
What to do? What to do? Wait a minute, we live in the age of e-mail and kind hearted artists. Maybe Lynne Hoppe would help me. So, I did it. I e-mailed Ms Hoppe and hoped for the best.

Meanwhile, I met Gretchen. It seems those lips sure are speaking out. Her name means, "child of light."

And here we are on Friday after help has arrived. Lynne Hoppe answered my e-mail and my pile of questions and I am so grateful! She advised preparing the page with matt medium for a nice surface. It worked! Those oil pastels GLIDE on right over the printed surface and that old book page held together beautifully. Additionally, she wrote all kinds of stuff about her technique - the use of gouache right on top of oil pastel and how she gets from start to finish. Really, really helpful and generous. I feel so much better now. This little face is mostly oil pastels with white gouache in the hair, but I will be braver as time and practice go on.
This is Trixie. This name comes from the Latin, Beatrice, which means, "one who brings happiness and blessing."
Wow. Ain't that the truth.
Thank you again Lynne - from the Welsh, "waterfall or lake". Your blessings are, indeed, flowing over me.

Cats

2011-05-24T07:09:00.000-04:00

Cats: we have cats. These are some of the feral kitties that live in my backyard. Breakfast time is a good time. During the day, they lounge around the porch, play tag, chase butterflies and display how perfectly wonderful it is to take a nap.

This is Fred. So curious, looking in the open door, right up at me, turning at the sound of each camera click. Today I found out that he is a girl! She has been caught and will be neutered and adopted out to a good home. I wish I could keep her, but it is difficult to catch these feral kitties, so when we can we are spreading the love.
I miss her already.

Watercolor Journaling

2011-05-07T08:41:00.000-04:00

I've been trying my hand, or should I say brush, at watercolor painting and am finding it a fun media. Every time I go to the grocery store I look for something to draw and paint. For now it's flowers.

Right now I am truly enamored with this one kind of flower. It's a daisy, but a special kind that has a raised center and I don't know what it is called. I just love taking photos and then printing them out to sketch later in my new journal. I've been trying out lots of color combos and have found that yellows are my crack. I can't get enough of yellow!

My kitchen table is full of watercolor painty things and now every time I go into the kitchen, or pass the table to get to the laundry room, I can pick up a pencil, a brush, or some india ink and add a dab.

This sure beats crying so much which has been my modis lately. Every little thing makes me tear up. And, every thing is so beautiful, I feel as if my heart is just going to burst out of my chest. Why does even this make me cry?

Back for a visit.

2011-05-03T19:19:00.000-04:00

Every time I log in to Blogger I see the last post of August 2010 and think about how not in the mood I am for writing anything down. No excuses. Just living from day to day and wondering what's the point? I started this process as a way to journal my creative endeavors, so that one day I could look back and see what I've been doing in my spare time.

I see all the many people on the net writing about keeping a journal to document their daily lives, to catch an inspiration, to doodle, to vent, to pretend to do or be someone or some thing. And, though I have a half dozen journals started, none have ever been filled front to back. I seem to live in my head a lot. Lately, it's been annoying me enough to get me to think about writing it or drawing it or painting it, just so I can clear our some of the recurring debris.

This is one of the reasons I haven't been writing. Candy Chloe. 07/04/1993 to 03/07/2011. She was our "middle dog". She came from a friend who needed to find her a home and we took her in gladly to keep our aging and anxious doberman, Lady, company. Her joyful lust for life gave Lady many happy active years of doggie fun. She was followed by my brother's boxer, Liz and for a wonderful long while we had three large, barking, running, happy dogs in this home. Playmates for my husband and sons and constant company for me.

Time moves relentlessly on and son's grow up and move out. But every day I had company for my morning walks and late night prowls. However, as everyone knows, time takes what you love away and in 1999, Lady died at 17 years of age. In June of 2008, Liz passed at almost 14 years and now, this March, at 17 1/2 years, Candy moved on and joined them where I can not see or hear or touch or smell, or sense them anymore. In between all of that our three house cats crossed over too, and now for the first time in my entire life, I live in a house that has no pets at all. I grew up with dogs and cats and birds and even ducks in the yard. When I graduated from nursing school, I got my own apartment and immediately adopted two cats. Every time I moved, I took them with me. I was never without a furry, fuzzy, warm body somewhere in my living space.
This is really, really hard. I am in a heavy hearted place of grief that has come at me unexpectedly. I never knew how deeply involved I was with each of the critters that honored me with their love. I am not in a good way right now. Tears fall too easily when I am driving to work and happen to see doggie ears in the car in front of me. Is this heart ache that feels so very heavy going to lift soon? I feel too sad to bring in another pet right now. I feel afraid. I don't sleep well. I am distracted at work. I tell my husband I feel sad, but some part of me is actually ashamed of the depth of this feeling of loss.
I am holding onto my sanity by feeding the 25 feral cats we have in our yard, but that is a story for another day. Maybe.

Drawing again

2010-08-15T18:29:00.000-04:00

After making 27 loaves of bread, I finally decided we had enough bread in the freezer and after making 6 or 8 new pot holders, some new aprons, and things material that I can't recall right now, I found my way back to my drawing box. At first, being ever the optimist, I thought I'd practice a lot and fill up a drawing journal. Fool. I did three and was soon looking for something else. The attention span of a May fly.... ( Quick! Life is short! What can I learn next?!)

So, I found, at the bottom of my watercolor box, (I have boxes for everything) some 8 inch by 8 inch splattered paper made months ago for an on-line "Make a Journal" class with Dina Wakeley. Nice paper. Never quite made it to the journal stage. Well, the papers were just too pretty for my petty ramblings. It's craving Iambic Pentameter about the beauty and color of a life well lived... Instead, I picked up a few and saw a face in this one. It was barely a glimmer, but I saw a nice profile. This is the result of my classes with Mystele, who teaches "gut art". A fun, fun, fun way to create. Make a background, look for a story. Draw or paint it out as you see and feel it. Since I see faces in every car grill, tree shadow, pebble walk and popcorn ceiling pattern, this is a natural way to start. I was happy with my number 9 pencil. So much fun to smear! I love to use my fingers to smear. It feels like I am molding the face and not just drawing it.

See, I told you these papers are pretty.

I also "saw" this face in the pattern of the colors. This time I used a fat graphite #9 pencil, but I really was looking for something darker. Since I am working on 140 lb. watercolor paper, it's difficult to lay in a really solid black line. But, it smudges nicely.

So, at the end of the day today, I did something new. I took out a stick of charcoal and quickly drew this face.
Now, this looks like Iambic Pentameter to me.

Bread, bread, bread

2010-06-20T10:07:00.000-04:00

Creating a lower fat diet took me back to my bread making days. I used to make bread for our family and truly enjoyed the whole process.
Bread flour is a soft, soft white and has a wonderful scent.
My bread cookbooks all have a thin layer of flour even now, these fifteen years later.

Part of the fun of getting back to my favorite recipes is gathering all the supplies. Shopping for yeast and honey, wheat germ and soy flour. Oh, the absolute fun of the chase. A big bowl is all you need to knead a two loaf recipe. Here it is outside in 90 degrees of humid South Florida weather, doing its lovely risin' thing.

Pans greased and flour dusted waiting to be filled with that living, rising, yeasty loaf. I can hardly wait to see the rise above the top of the pan.

And here is one of many being given its' own time in the oven to rise and bake and fill the house with the aroma of life giving goodness.

It's hard to describe what this smells like if you've never baked bread of your own. You've just got to try it. It's amazing!

And the final product cooling on the counter. A Cornell Wheat Germ loaf that is so nutritionally balanced, it is said to sustain life if paired with a little butter, and maybe some jam and tea.

Blessings and bumps in the road...

2010-06-18T08:52:00.000-04:00

Finally! We get to meet our new granddaughter, Blanche! A family gathering in Boston for a Bat Mitzvah brings all from near and far.

My son Aaron and his beautiful, wonderful, wife Alana and their four children under the age of 5 years take the trip from across the US to be there and we finally, finally, meet their newest family member, baby girl Blanche. Isn't she just beautiful?

This is us together at the night time party to celebrate the happy event of a Bat Mitzvah for Abigail, my husband's niece's daughter.

Two hours later I was in an ambulance going to Beth Israel hospital with severe pain. Thought is was a third heart attack. Not. Perhaps a kidney stone? Not. Maybe the gall bladder... most likely.
Sigh. The fun just doesn't end.

A Lawn Skirt...

2010-05-15T10:43:00.001-04:00

A few weeks ago I got some lawn fabric on sale. I've not played with this fabric type very much because it is so thin and needs some kind of lining. This week, however, I just kept seeing this skirt in my head. Multi-tiers of soft, gauzy, un-hemmed layers. Something my home ec teacher would be scandalized about. No hems?! It's going to ravel and fall apart! Well, maybe. I'm not exactly going to play football in it. Tree climbing isn't a current occupation and I have a washing machine that has a "handwash" cycle.

I made this frothy beauty on Mother's day starting at 9 AM from the first cut of the bias, bleached muslin, A line skirt and lots of 6 inch strips of the lawn, sewing, gathering, and sewing until 12 Noon. A 90 minute break for a shower and lunch and I finished this skirt at 3:30 PM.

Wore it out to dinner with the family at 5:30 and got raves.

What a perfect day.

Rose Painted Circles skirt -

2010-05-01T10:24:00.025-04:00

Yeah! This skirt turned out just as I wished. It is full, long and perfectly gathered.

It sways when I walk. It swirls when the wind blows. It is graceful. It is Spring!

The top is my favorite knit pattern. A boat neck knit with 3/4 sleeves, I can cut it out and sew it together in l hour tops!

OK, so now I have 3 black, a purple, royal blue, rose, turquoise, yellow in addition to the new white one. Yes, this is a series....

When first beginning any project, I am tentative. How much water should I mix with the paint? Should the fabric be damp or dry? What kind of brush or foam tool will make the marks I want?

It all is a mystery until I get going and just relax into it.

And this is how it becomes what I am looking for. The paint, Pebeo transparent fabric paint, is mixed half paint and half distilled water. The brush is a size 10 beautiful watercolor brush. The fabric is dry with a slight misting of water over it. And the best part is the drip, drip fling! of paint all over that pristine whiteness.

And here are seven panels of painted, heat set and cured pieces just waiting for me. I love this so much, I let it sit on my kitchen table for a whole week for my frequent admiring glance. I think every artist experiences this at times. The work, the worry, the play, the constant striving to understand tools and the whole process of making something work. There are times when the work needs to be put aside, forgotten, dismissed, let go for some inner work to be done. And then, on impulse one goes back to the tools, the ideas, the hopes and dreams and tries again to find that this time it works. It's like seeing an old friend after a time of separation. At first we are shy, but soon the love resurfaces and the interaction flows smoothly again.

Here is the gathering foot in action. I've been aggressive in my stitch length settings and the tension is tight! The fabric is gathering up so close together, each strip is making the most perfect layer. I'm loving every minute at my machine. This skirt took about 7 hours to put together, but boy, it was worth it.

The muslin I used for this project was only 36 inches wide and each strip was cut to 6 inches in width. I had to sew a lot of strips together for each tier of the skirt.

I like to count the number of strips needed for each tier as I go along and this skirt just mushroomed!

The bottom tier, number 7, used 11 panels of 6 inch wide fabric. At 36 inches in width that makes the final hem a whopping 396 inches!

Now that is truly a skirt to twirl around and around in on a sunny, Spring south Florida day!

And, wearing a skirt like this makes doing all the insurance claims work, referrals and check writing go just a little bit easier. Happy clothes make happy people.

Note to self: find out why what I see in my post as a draft has very little to do with the final post I see on my blog. I line comments up with my photos, but it sure doesn't post out in the nice logical order I've created. grrrr.

Handpainted, multi-tiered skirt: ta-dah!

2010-04-25T10:06:00.004-04:00

Skirt front or back depending on what color top I wear.

This little skirt took about three weeks of little bits of time to put together.
The fabric painting was spread out over my lunch times at home. I could easily spread out a damp piece of fabric, open the slightly watered down paints and paint lines before having tea and a grilled cheese sandwich.

Or, if I was in the mood, I'd iron a panel or two to set the paint.

I made several panels and suddenly found myself impatient to begin putting the skirt together.

Skirt back? It's nice to have options...

First, a bias cut yoke for the top tier makes the skirt very comfortable to wear and it drapes nicely over round hips.

Next. Cut lots of six inch strips. I'm never sure how many I will use, so I cut at least 24. These were all 36 inches across.

Sew a few strips together and then begin the gathering. I have a gathering foot for my Janome machine and have learned that though it is the absolute easiest way to gather fabric, it is somewhat of a guessing game.

It works according to the stitch length and stitch tension settings. Big stitches and tight tension equals lots of gathers. However, the weight of the fabric is the one factor
that is the mysterious variable. You'd think that the heavier the fabric the more difficult it would be to gather under the foot.
Yes and no. I've made a few skirts of batik cotton and with each one, the machine settings were different for the amount of gathering that would be created.

Since this hand painted fabric was a very light muslin, I figured I'd have to go with less tension.
Not sew!

This fabric just didn't want to gather easily!!!
And it wasn't that the paint was in the way. This fabric paint is virtually unnoticeable on the fabric. I just does not change the "hand" of it at all. I'm sorry now that I was too tentative with my settings. I was afraid I would run out of fabric before getting to the last tier and so I ended up with a skirt that is not as "swingy" as I'd like.
My impatient self was very glad to finish with the elastic waist.
My perfectionistic self was unhappy with the final product.
Next: Fuchsia circles.

Painting yardage for skirts

2010-04-10T18:02:00.007-04:00

Lately I've been using up my really old bottles of Pebeo Setacolor transparent fabric paints. This stuff is at least 8 years old. They've been in a box in my garage/studio waiting patiently, as all my art supplies do, for me to get back to using them.
I have a love/hate relationship with them.
I started out coloring fabric using Dupont Silk dyes when I had my prayer shawl business back in the 90's. That meant I had to stretch silk on big home made wood frames, paint the silk, steam it, rinse it out hoping there would be no back staining, and go from there.
The results of dye on silk were always, always beautiful, but I found, after hanging up some marriage canopies on my wall, the colors began to fade all too quickly.
Annoying after all the work done. And stretching silk by putting pins into the wood frame really, really hurt my fingers. I grew to hate it.
I was tempted by silk paint (paint not dye) because all one had to do to set the color was iron your fabric. However, there was always the matter of "hand". The "hand" of the fabric changed and became a little stiff. I didn't like it. At all.

I put all of those things away when I went to work as the office manager for my husband.
And, now I am back.
This time I am using bleached muslin on a plastic bag surface and am letting the paint, which had to be mixed with a lot of water because it had thickened out so much, just do its' thing. This is a lot of fun! I am using slightly damp fabric, a foam brush and five colors. I like fabric with a lot of white in the background. Being summer 10 months of the year here makes wearing all kinds of white things OK everyday.
Fixing the color is just a matter of 20 minutes in a hot dryer and my iron. One thing I've noticed though. The fumes from the heated paint make me a little nauseous. I moved a big fan to the left of my ironing board, so now that isn't such a problem.
This stack of fabrics with lines, flowers, stripes, drips, splotches and journaling with a black fabric marker, will make a wonderful multi-tiered skirt.
So now I love the paint and don't hate the "hand". This stuff just doesn't make any difference at all on how the muslin feels.
Hey, does anybody know where I can find out how to post using more photos? Maybe it's this version of Blogger, but it won't let me put in more than five photos per post. Time to learn more. Time for an upgrade.

Pentel Dye Sticks

2010-04-07T11:09:00.003-04:00

This morning I got an e-mail from Dharmatrading.com with the usual funny note about all the amazing stuff they have to color fabric. They sell everything you could possibly need to change plain fabric or clothing into something amazing.
One of the links led me to a video previously shown on You Tube about using Pentel dye sticks.
I was inspired!
I've had the dye sticks in my box of fabric paints, but have not done much with them.

I'm one of those people who order stuff on the net because I'm excited to try something and by the time it gets delivered, I've already moved onto something else.

Not a good trait.

However, it is so nice to have supplies right there when the urge to play comes back!

Today I took a pillow case right out of the linen closet and set to work.

Yeah, yeah, I know the fabric is supposed to be "scoured" and not a bit of fabric softener or other fragrant things are "allowed".

All the books say any softening agent will prevent color from sticking. But have you noticed how when you are painting and get some on your clothes, NONE of it comes OFF.

sigh.

So, back from my morning walk, still seeing that little three minute video in front of my frontal cortex eyes, I find a small padded quilting thingy and stretch the pillow case over it so the fabric will stay in place as I work.

I must say I had a fine 30 minutes making these flowers. The dye sticks are so creamy! The red, pink, yellow and orange for the flower just glided onto the cotton. Two greens made a nice stem and leaf and I was ready to repeat.

The only problem I had was that since I work in my garage/studio, it tends to be the same temperature as outside. This morning it is about 76 degrees and the dye sticks are very soft. They got on my fingers and I had to be careful about leaving smudges.

However, smudges and imperfections are part of the beauty of anything that is handmade, so I didn't stress about it.

And, seeing a small crumb loose on the pillow case just lead to another flower near the top.

I'm going to let this this sit for a day and then heat set it.

This is going to look very pretty on our bed.

More! More! I HAVE to make more! This is really fun. Thanks Dharmatrading, for setting my soul alight.

Hand painted stuff -

2010-03-28T18:31:00.004-04:00

Have you ever visited Alisa Burke's blog? She has fun stuff to do all the time. Fun classes based on her book and all kinds of new crafty things to make or just look at and admire.
Go there - http://alisaburke.blogspot.com/ as soon as you can.

She is amazing.

Inspired by her "messy painting" techniques, I washed a couple of canvas totes that were beige and boring and turned them into these colorful bags.

This bag is for my "stuff". I got a lot of practice doing stencil painting and was surprised at how much I liked it.

Of course, following Melisa's lead, everything is supposed to be messy, so no rules are broken when you have blurred images.

Yeah! Freedom!

This is the first one I painted and got really strung out on hot pink and orange. Oh, how I love hot pink and orange.

See the black drips? Another very freeing technique that is fine to do on canvas because it is so sturdy.

It just doesn't matter that all this craft paint makes the tote a little stiff at first. Using it softens it right up.

This is the back. Looks like it could be the front, it's so pretty.

I also got some little totes to give to my grandchildren with matching coin purses, too.

If I stuff them with books, candy, toys and money, maybe they will actually use them!

Where did February go?

2010-03-21T10:57:00.006-04:00

I can see why it would be wise to post as I finish things. The weeks do go by awfully fast and the reason I started this blog was just to keep a small journal of my art work wanderings.
But, then again, I never figured on working outside of my home at the time. That really does make a big difference in the way each day is used up.
Oh well, a short list of some of February when I wasn't at the office or working on those darn insurance claims and "explanation of benefits" payment distributions.

I took a delightful class on-line with Sharon Tomlinson at http://allnorahsart.ning.com/
She is a gifted teacher and has wonderful videos on how to use craft paints to paint portraits.
Her style is loose, but not doll like. She is careful to show you what colors she is using to do the shading as she goes along.
I highly recommend this class if you are interested in seeing shading in acrylic paint.
My samples were fun to do, but not as loose as I was aiming for. I still blend, blend, blend and end up with a lot more realism than I would like. Oh well, someday, I will make it the way I want - LESS CONTROLLED!!!!

Meanwhile back at our front yard, we now have a bunny. He apparently hopped over two streets to try out the cat food I leave for our feral feline friends.
(note to self- don't put food out for hungry animals no matter how cute they are. They will think you are their mama and will keep on coming back)
This all started in 1993 when our then 16 year old cat was not eating and just sitting out front on the roof waiting for the grim reaper. Instead, a fluffy, but starving and pregnant female showed up. They fell in love. I took her to the vet for surgery, shots and a bath. They stayed outside most of the time because she was mostly feral and didn't trust the closed in space of a house. Our cat, Tabby, started eating again. And playing, and cuddling with his beautiful lady friend. The food, however, had to be outside in order to fatten her up. Long story short- he lived 5 more years and every stray in the
"we sniffed your food" range came to stay.
Now we have about 8 feral cats, 4 neighborhood visitors and this bunny who shows up for three squares a day.
I love it. When I come home from work, it's almost dark and I see many golden eyes slanted my way, and much meowing sings me into my front door. When I return with food, I get a chance to pet their furry bodies while they chow down. Bunny tries to hump everybody, but he gets swatted quite smartly by each in turn. Eventually he quits sniffing bums and lines up around the plate to chew, chew, chew the Meow Mix.

It was my 64th birthday this month and boy am I glad. One more year and I can get Medicare!
Just kidding. But, no, really, I do need to get some kind of health insurance. Really.

This is what I did to take a break from making portraits in February. I started out with an old canvas covered with lots of color that I didn't want to try to fix. I layered it with lots of browns, scratched into the paint with a stylus and then just looked for what might want to be painted. Much to my surprise, this is what I saw. So following my gut, as Mystele teaches, ( another really great teacher with amazing and fun classes) I saw these figures on a grassy plain. I see Mother and child and a symbol of one's soul.
My husband saw faceless, hooded figures with a big bird. He's very literal.
Now he is very worried about me.

Sew much more...

2010-02-14T12:27:00.006-05:00

The good thing about having a meltdown; if it's an hour, a day, a week , a month or longer is that at some point you get sick and tired of being sick and tired.

That's when you say, "Self, what is it that you know how to do that always makes you happy?"

For me, it's sewing. And anything to do with looking at patterns always, always relaxes me.

If there is a death in the family, say one of our pets has died, after the burial, I have to find a pattern store. One day, in 1991 my son Joshua's pet rat died. We took it to the vet because she was sick. She was two years old and the vet said she was not eating because she was old and there was nothing we could do for her.

Well, my 13 year old son decided it would be in her best interest to have little Estey put to sleep.

We cried.

We went home, found a box and a towel, a shovel and a tree to plant. I shoveled some. He shoveled some. We cried.

Later, when my husband got home and Josh just wanted to veg out in front of the T.V., I went to the Rag shop and sat for two hours looking at pattern books. I may have bought a pattern or three. Some fabric. Some thread.

I felt better. The tree has beautiful yellow

flowers that attracts yellow butterflies. In the hurricane of 2005, it got pushed over on its' side.
It didn't die. It is still growing, pushed over on its' side.
Estey resides under the roots of the tree.

In 1999 Tabby, our 20 year old cat died. Buried in the back yard. In June of 1999 Lady, my beloved 17 year old Doberman died. She was cremated. Her ashes are on my bookcase shelf.
2008 was a difficult year. We lost Daphne our 14 year old persian/siamese, Squirt, (from my sister Joann who died in 1993 and I got her cat), and finally, Liz our 13 year old boxer (ashes on my
case) all three died that year. I was a wreck.

I spent a lot of time at Joann's looking at and buying patterns and fabric.
Two weeks ago, I took out my box of favorites and spent some time dreaming. Later I pulled out some linen fabric and began to layout, cut and sew.
Now I have six new long, fishtail linen skirts to wear to work.
I have mourned my heart attack.
I feel better.

Melt down

2010-02-11T07:30:00.004-05:00

Had kind of a melt down about two weeks ago. See, I had two small heart attacks the end of December and the beginning of January.

This spread is a bunch of photos taken with the little Zumi camera I had in my purse while in the hospital.

I'm OK, but now on drugs that cost over $300.00 dollars every month. Made me feel kind of weird and dizzy too, the first few weeks I was taking them. There's a blood thinner that makes every pin prick bleed for an hour.

At first I was in shock. This couldn't be happening to me! I have been walking almost every morning since the birth of my second child, 34 years ago. I have been on a low fat, no meat, low salt diet for years and years since it seemed like the healthiest and sanest thing to do. grrrr

A week after I came home I got sick with a cold. Am still coughing now! Fevers still coming and going. Rats!
This is pissin' me off. This is the anger stage. Then I got sad. Now I am used to the idea. All stages of grief for the official loss of my youth. grrr.

Guess I shouldn't be surprised. My mom died of a second heart attack when she was only 60 years old.

And you know what, she died on the same date that I had my second one. January 3rd. How weird is that?

Sure do wish we had health insurance. But, maybe it's a wash. If we could pay $2000.00 a month for the basic plan we could qualify for, it would have been $24,000.00 a year. By the time we get the bill for this fiasco, with the cost of E.R. care, in patient time, blood tests, a bill from an ambulance company for transfering me to a hospital that has a cardiac cath lab, and individual physician charges, I bet it will all add up to about that.

This sucks. But, I am over it now. I am glad to still be here to have this worry. I see beauty everywhere as I always do and now am even happier I have had more time to enjoy it.

Reverse color portrait -

2010-01-24T17:25:00.002-05:00

Today I started with acrylics to do a reverse color portrait of a photo of me.
I had reversed the colors in my Paint Shop Pro software and liked the brightness of the colors in reverse.
I also fuzzed the photo a bit with the brush stroke filter.
Copying the photo was Hard!!!

Ultimately, I used less colors than the photo, but finished the exercise when I felt like I had done enough!

Sometimes, just time finishes a project for me. At least with this drawing and painting stuff.

When I make a skirt or knit top, enough comes with the final hem. That is a nice bonus with sewing. There is an obvious stopping point.

Not so with drawings and paintings!

Oh well, what are you goin' to do? I have too much paint and too much paper hanging around to quit now.

The other interesting thing is what happens when you take a photo of your work.

It's an opportunity to see glaring flaws.

This left eye crease shadowing is too well defined. The eye color is good, though.

The right eye looks OK, but I'm still working on tilted faces.

The angle of the eyes and cheekbones require a lot more attention than a full front drawing.

Additionally, I did a very fast sketch in order to get to the color and perhaps that limited the shading effects.

Still learning what I like to do.

Close up of the right side eye shows lots of color in the iris which is something I know I like to do.

Acrylic paints are a challenge! They sure do dry quickly, and sometimes that is good because I can lay another color on top to change direction.

Of course, using glaze is a option and is a really great way to go over a graphite sketch to "nail it down", but today's play was just that.

Play.

Very good, Adrian! Now smile and when you come back in a week or two, this is gonna look even better.

A graphite portrait -

2010-01-20T21:11:00.006-05:00

This weekend I picked up my pencils again to see what I could do with graphite and no paint to confuse me!

This took a few hours, but it was fun to do. I'm not so happy with the paper. It is a 9 inch by 12 inch, 65 lb. sketch pad that I am dedicating to just portraits, but the paper seems to fill up with graphite very quickly. I've noticed that drawing on watercolor paper is a lot different. The graphite smears more and I have a much easier time getting shadows and shading the way I like. Oh well, live and learn.

Does she look black and beautiful?

I think so.

January - day 2 of journal

2010-01-14T18:35:00.006-05:00

Day 2 of January journaling.
Since I was taking so many photos with my new Zumi camera, I just had to put them somewhere. This was so much fun! I know it's hard to see these photos, but they are intensely colored and slightly grainy.
so cool.
I printed out 9 to a photo page and then used a punch to cut them out. Since I just couldn't limit myself, I made a little booklet of water-colored paper and double-stick taped them down.

Adding more photos to the page is easy when you have a journal within a journal - yes?

Did some stitching to decorate and secure the booklet and the pix.
The background page is gessoed,water color spray painted and highlighted with wax pastels in rose, one of my favorite colors.
See how the booklet opens? My first.
sigh.

This is page 2. More pix, more color, more fun.
It was a chance to use some stamps to "auto journal", too.
My husband, the house, our dog, Candy is her name, the feral cats eating (they're always eating! I feed them three times a day!) the pool, the sky, my garage/studio, a messy unmade bed.
All good fodder for fun camera pix.

See! Page 2 on page 2 opens two!

And this is how it looks all closed up and done.

Happy Saturday, January 2.

My new Zumi Camera!

2010-01-14T17:55:00.005-05:00

I got a new camera!!!! It's a Zumi! Formal Name: Digital Harinezumi 2. How's that! It's a wonderful, little, digital, plastic lense camera that even takes videos!!! Yeah!!! Last year I got a Holga and loved the pix, but couldn't keep buying all that film. Now, I can take hundreds of photos and load them into my computer to pick and choose which ones to print. Oh, how I love this camera! It has two ISO settings- 100 for daylight and 800 for low light conditions and it even takes black and white photos with just a few pushes of the few buttons that are on this little camera. I got it on-line at www.photojojo.com - the place for cool photo stuff! I cannot stop taking pictures!!! My pix look like I have an old camera that is slightly amused at being asked to take pictures because it is so not perfect. Love the distortions, love the grainy-ness, love the super saturated color I sometimes get in daylight, love the strange color tinges that come up, and it is so small! Fits into the palm of my hand and I just point and shoot. There is no window to see you picture before you take it, but there is a nice review display so you can delete a photo if you want to. (I never do, I'm in too much of a hurry to get another photo and see how it turns out. Everyone is different because the effect of changing light conditions changes your photo amazingly.
My P.T. Cruiser never looked so - interesting.
Our Florida sky never looked so - painterly.
Our house never looked so -blessed by the Light.
And, I never looked so - mysteriously curvy?
Oh, I am in love with technology. Thank you PowerShovel,Ltd! Fantastic! Fun! Fully functional and all mine......

A New Year, a trial journal -

2010-01-14T17:22:00.002-05:00

OK, so I'm taking the plunge, like so many others. Taking time to do some art in a journal of sorts.
Not worrying about how much I do.
No rules.
Get to it when I can.
Do it when I feel like it.

First day of January - easy peasy because I don't have to go to work!
Yeah!
Step 1. Flop around my garage/studio with some music on and a few spray bottles of watercolors in pretty Florida colors.
Step 2. Use double stick tape to adhere some photos. So easy and so not messy.
Step 3. Sew the photos down with metallic gold thread (my favorite- hands down, all time, go for the glitter even though it shreds occasionally)

Step 4. Take some pictures.
Step 5. Admire.
Step 6. Take a nap.

Playing with Oil Pastels

2009-12-26T16:50:00.003-05:00

In July of this year, I participated in Pam Carriker's Pursue Portrait class.
Well, participate is a broad term. What I did was make several pencil drawings.
At that time, I just could not bring myself to add color to any portrait work at all.
So, for most of the class I monitored and observed what my class mates were doing and I guess I stored it away for future use.

As I was attempting to put some order in my garage/studio yesterday, I came across the sketch book with the portraits I had drawn.

And, having just gotten some Sennelier Oil Pastels over the past few weeks from Dick Blick on-line art supplies, I stopped cleaning and just sat down with this.

I soon had a sore index finger. These things are crayons. Very soft. Buttery, in fact. Nice to apply, easy to smoosh around, but doing an entire 9 in. by 12 in. area is too hard to do with one's finger!

I took up a couple of stencil brushes and used them instead of my finger and blending the oil pastel colors was a lot easier. I used the very edge for detail work around the eyelids and for coloring the iris.

The whole process was a lot easier than I anticipated. However, next time I'm going to use them on studier paper. The sketch pad paper was only 65 lbs and it didn't take long to fill up the surface and it felt as if the colors were sliding around on top of each other.

Not that it really mattered. This was an experiment and it went well.

This is what it looked like as a pencil sketch. Pam Carriker gives you a basic face to try out at the beginning of her course, so it's good for all us beginners.

I see improvements in my sketches now and thanks to Mystele's Gut Art class, I finally, finally got the courage to work with color.

So, now I have a small amount of experience with graphite pencil, colored pencils, acrylic paint, water soluble oil pastel, PanPastel and now, oil pastel.

It's no wonder my garage looks like an art supply store.

PanPastel play

2009-12-21T15:49:00.002-05:00

This is a small, about 5" X 4" size, and I'm not used to working small, angel done on a piece of office depot paper I took from my printer.
My computer had been working even slower than usual, so while cleaning up and moving files on Saturday, I made five small sketches for fun.
With a 4B pencil and the PanPastels from the 10 piece Painting Set, I smudged my way to this little angel.
These pastels are amazing! Not dusty, very intense colors and so smooth.
I'm used to working on larger spaces which gives me room to play with coloring the eyes, so this small format was - different. Just the lightest touch of the side of the Sofft tool was all that was needed to put a blend of color on the iris. The wings were fun, though.

This was a small, torn piece of watercolor paper that had a text stamp on it. I was just practicing making a face, not using anything as a reference, and before I was done, the halo appeared. sigh.
I guess all the Christmases of my childhood are seeping in because this doesn't look like just a girl to me, it looks like all the pictures of Jesus that were hung on the walls of the Presbyterian church I attended as a kid.
Of course, if Jesus was born in the middle east, he would not have looked like this, but this does look like the white Anglo-Saxon version printed in all my Bible study books.
Childhood experience really is imprinted strongly in brain and body memory.
After completing nursing school, I began studying Judaism and found its' teachings of personal responsibility for personal actions more consistent, so I converted. Now I was a stranger in a strange land. I didn't have the same background as the Jews I was meeting, but the warmness they extended to me more than made up for it. It took years for me to not want to put up a Christmas tree, though. And, memories of singing Silent Night in the church choir still peal loudly in my head this time of year.

This is the practice paper. All the stuff I've been reading about using the right kind of paper for the particular art media was suspended. Like a kid with crayons, I remembered that if you have a white piece of paper, you can color it!
Why are there so many rules? Why does everything have to be perfect? Why do I listen to everybody else?
And what's so important about being perfect, anyway?

Chanukah and PanPastels

2009-12-20T11:42:00.002-05:00

Friday night was the last night of Chanukah and so the last candle was added and what a nice space of light it makes.

This is a photo taken with no flash.

My favorite.

And, this one was taken with the auto flash. I am always amazed at the pictures this Canon Digital Elph SD800IS takes.

I've had the camera for about 2 years now and I like it because it has a function that stabilizes the image in spite of any shake your hand might do.

Sometimes however, you want a blur and boy do I have to swing my arm to get it!

This week when I came home for lunch I found some PanPastels waiting for me. Oh, do I love the mail lady!

This is a quick play with a Love stamp on watercolor paper. Wow! do these colors blend!!!

I bought some bright colors and pastels to try on some portraits.

We'll see what happens.

Glass Art Pendant

2009-12-12T14:00:00.006-05:00

A great way to use your own art is to make a pendant!
I got the inspiration from Willowing on youtube -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XT5ZOATsWw

She uses a wonderful little kit put out by Annie Howes -

http://www.anniehowes.com/056.html

It comes with some pretty papers, pendant glass, glues, bails to hang it with and some black cord to tie around your neck to wear it right away.

It also comes with complete instructions and lots of good tips.

I used some 7 mm silk ribbon and a plain hook and eye to fasten it.

Since the back was plain white paper, I added color with some ink pads and a small word stamp.

I am lazy and didn't want to go out to the copy store for prints of my art, so I used my ink jet printer and sprayed the images with fixative.

When that was dry I gently brushed on Golden's UV gel to seal the image and protect the colors from fading.

Surprisingly, when glued to the glass with diamond glue, non of the image ink ran. Whew!

I resized the photos of my artwork down to
7/8 inches and copied and pasted them in my Microsoft digital imaging software.

To print this out, I used Great White Imaging Photo Paper which is heavy and smooth, and not as thick as regular photo paper.

This was fun and easy to do. What else can I do with my art work?

Sondra - a portrait

2009-11-29T10:18:00.003-05:00

This portrait is now my favorite.

The colors are blue,purple, yellow and orange and work together nicely.

When the painting was completed and I asked, "What is your name?" It took a moment for me to hear, "Sondra".

The meaning from Greek is, "defender of mankind." I guess that explains the angel wings that came about when I didn't know what to do with the background.

The background and pencil drawing shown here is acrylic paint on cardboard with some paper towel collage and sand for texture.

I like to use water soluble graphite to do the drawing and then go over the lines with a clear glaze medium to set the lines and blur them a bit.

Doing that keeps the drawing from getting lost with the application of paints. Something that I need to do at this stage of my experimenting.

And, I still like to use gesso for the skin tones.
Mixing it with glaze, I build up the face a little at a time.

Learning about the planes of a face is fascinating. I use magazine photographs to analyze lighting and how it makes the structures of the face appear.

Adding shadows with more graphite, which blends so easily, helps me define inward spaces. Color,which still scares me, is added only a little at a time with oil pastels.

When I have feeling for the facial colors, I like to work on the eyes. I use acrylic paints and graphite to make soft, expressive eyes. And, it's fun to add color from around the whole portrait into the eyes.

A close up of the face shows some of the texture on the base of the cardboard.
I'm wondering if I will continue with this strategy.
Maybe a smooth base will be better with the kind of faces I seem to paint.
My original intent was to create folk art pieces, but I don't seem to have that in me.
Or, maybe this is just me at my beginner stage, still trying things out. Folk art may not be my style.
Mixed media is a huge and confusing art style.

Too many choices can be its' own nightmare.

However, when I see what can come to life with gesso, oil pastel and my index finger, I want to create more...

"Beauty" - a portrait

2009-11-21T17:24:00.006-05:00

This is another experiment in drawing and painting.
I still like to use white gesso for all of the white work.
I like the dull appearance , the fact that it can be watered down making light applications a nice way to build up the highlights and mostly, I like the way it feels when I rub the oil pastel into the paper

Working on a pink background helped me make color choices that were very soft and feminine. In fact, every experiment I've tried so far has been based on the colors of the base of the paper.
At this stage of learning, I do not like to fool with the background at all. Once I get some color, collage, and stamping done, I look for a way to put a face on the flat plain.

This is going to be a page in my gut art journal. It is a piece of 90 lb. drawing paper, folded in half and punched with holes ready to insert into the covers I've made. The other thing I am having fun with is the water-soluble graphite.
Oh, how it darkens when water is added. And the line softens so beautifully.
One cool thing to do is to go over the lines with glaze media. When it dries, which is almost right away, the lines don't change and I can paint over or around them without them disappearing forever.
An important thing to a newbie sketcher.

Working on this background will direct all my color choices, so I will end up with a "series".

I'm still totally enchanted with coloring eyes.
I want dreamy eyes.

Moriah - Gut Art Portrait

2009-11-14T09:57:00.002-05:00

This portrait was done in October while taking Mystele's Gut Art class. We were making covers for a journal that is to hold our thoughts and works of new art made during this on-line class.
I got so enamored by working on cardboard, I never did finish making the journal. Now I have several pieces of play on cardboard that I will probably just hang up somewhere in my home. The freedom I feel while playing on this humble substrate is just what I need right now. Too much structure on stretched canvas or even wood cut for me at Home Depot scars the play right out of me.
Am still too fragile in this art making thing. Will just move forward in quiet hesitation and hope confidence will grow with practice.

Puritan Girl portrait

2009-11-07T14:39:00.005-05:00

This little piece of artwork, and for me this IS little, measuring 5 inches by 7 inches, was done on a torn left over piece of watercolor paper that had a blend of yellows, orange, metallic gold and a few red dots stamped on it.
It just came to be. I didn't plan it. I didn't use any photos for shading reference. I didn't copy it from other work I have tried. And, I chose not to obsess about it. A first!
Sheesh, this isn't rocket science. No lives are hanging in the balance while I figure out what to do. It's just paint on paper.
Why does it always feel so momentous to do any little project? I guess it's really about being new at it. I am comfortable with fabric. Paints are an unknown to me.
And, still, I quiver in hesitation to begin a new project. I am off today. No work to go to. No shopping to be done. No laundry to catch up on. Nothing but freedom, and still I hesitate.

Oh, get over yourself! It's only paper, pencil and paint!

Gut Art - continuing

2009-10-31T16:12:00.002-04:00

This is the 9th portrait I've done while taking Mystele's Gut Art Class. Using a piece of cardboard, I applied black gesso and then added paper towels and torn book pages, plus sand for texture. Next came lots of acrylic paint. Some of it was craft paint which I like because it is so easy to apply, but I also used some heavy body paint that would add to the overall texture with brush marks and palette knife markings.

I just could not decide on a color scheme! The more I added and dried and added, the more I was unsure of the direction I wanted to go. So, at one point, I looked at the paints on my disposable palette and just sprayed water onto it. Picking up the cardboard piece, I then just smashed it down onto the paints and smushed on it with my hand.

A monoprint! Now the colors were soft and like a watercolor painting. I finally felt I was ready to begin.

Staring at the thing didn't bring up any obvious lines or areas that wanted to be developed, so I took off my glasses and suddenly the blur coalesced into a form that I was able to define with a watersoluble graphite pencil.

From then on, the painting just formed itself. The word, "diffident" drifted to mind and stayed, so I wrote it down and waited to see if something else would present itself. Nada. Okay, so this was it. The definition includes: shy, modest, irresolute and doubt. A fine description of my process for this painting.

Gut Art with Mystele -

2009-10-24T14:44:00.003-04:00

Part of the fun of taking Mystele's Gut Art class is viewing all the videos on her techniques for making all kinds of fun things. Last weekend I spent my time putting together a fun acrylic painted fabric wall hanging. Starting with some colorful cotton, I free quilted a bunch of cotton scraps and ran my sewing machine stitches round and round to make a textured surface of cotton.
Next was free application of craft paints using a palette knife. Letting each layer of color dry before adding more, kept it from becoming muddy in appearance and the colors stayed true. Once that was done, I had a very busy background, so I softened it with some gesso, and highlighted it with Liquitex Basics gold. Using a palette knife allowed the gold to ride the bumps made by my sewing and it was just the highlight I wanted.
Gazing at this background, I "saw" a face and "pulled it out" Mystele style with a water soluble graphite pencil. All that was needed after that was some softening with a black Portfolio water soluble oil pastel crayon to define the features of her face. A little lime green and purple finished the most important features and I made the skin of her face glow with a glaze of the gold acrylic.
This video shows "Maya" in her completed state. I also had a small adventure upon completion and just had to add some embroidered elements to the final piece.
This was so much fun to do! And, for once in my life I didn't worry about the "hand" of the fabric being stiff.

Gut Art Work

2009-10-16T08:58:00.003-04:00

It's about time I wrote a note to myself about my newest passion. I have finally crossed over from doing a few pencil sketches to using acrylic paint on something besides messy backgrounds.
This painting is the first one I made while doing Mystele's Gut Art Class which started at the beginning of October. She is an inspired artist and a selfless teacher. While watching the video she made of using paper bags as a substrate for art, I remembered several backgrounds I had made a year or so ago. Putting all fear aside, I gazed into the background of this painting and suddenly "saw" this face. I immediately grabbed black acrylic and a round brush and painted the outline of her face. Once that was done, I added a little green to define her nose, and there she was.
How happy am I!

Lesson 67 - A Course In Miracles Card

2009-08-23T22:37:00.008-04:00

Front of watercolor paper card-

Inspired by lesson 67 of the workbook in "A Course In Miracles", this quote is an easy one to meditate on.

"Love created me like Itself."

1. "Today's idea is a complete and accurate statement of what you are."

This is the first line of the lesson and really completes the thought, don't you think? In reforming my ideas about myself, I can remember it, ponder it, look at myself anew and more forward more peacefully.

This is the first weekend in a long time where I didn't do one single creative thing - until 9:30 P.M. Sunday night when I made this card.

I did laundry. I watched art making videos and took notes. I walked 40 minutes and had a nice swim afterwards in our deliciously warm pool on Saturday and Sunday.

I did more laundry and thought about all the things I could/should be doing. I napped. I started reading a new historical novel, a five pounder on the life of Cleopatra.

I did more laundry. Napped again and put together really simple dinners for us.

Back of card -

Spray watercolor - turquoise. A heart outlined with water soluble oil pastel and finger smudged.

Some weekends are just meant to be restful and this was one of them.

I used a calligraphy pen to write the quote, its' source and my name.

Inside of card -

I did some sewing around the letters with gold metallic thread and it shows up on the inside. I leave long tails of thread hanging.

I like the messy look. Something alien to a seamstress such as me. My Jr High School sewing teacher would not give me an "A" for this, but she might like the colors!

This is the front of the envelope.

I left some paper bare for the address, but really like the way the watercolor dots and drips all over.

The back of the envelope-

Here is the turquoise in all its sprayed and drippy glory with the stamped letters on a old book page.

I have several copies of Reader's Digest in my garage/studio that I have used for many years to lift up from the table, the silk stretching frames I used when I hand painted silk for the prayer shawls I used to make and sell. The pages are nice and yellow now and make a great background for stamping.

It's been hard for me to switch from my sewing machine and fabric paints to paper and crayons, but I am beginning to like what I am doing. And, now, as I post this, I can go into the coming week not feeling as if I wasted two whole days.

Pink-Orange-Green Heart Card

2009-08-09T12:07:00.002-04:00

Front of Card -
A happy combination of colors went into this card; pink, orange and green! 140 lb watercolor paper card set was sprayed with pink watercolor paint. See the drips! Don't you just love the drips?
Next, a swath of orange acrylic paint, followed by stamping a green heart with a hand made stamp. Hearts are easy, peasy to carve and I never get tired of making new sizes and shapes.
On top of the green is a heart I cut out of hand colored, stamped, and journaled paper that I sewed on with black thread. See all the loose thread hanging down? Oh, but my 7 th grade sewing teacher would have a fit to see such a mess!
I balanced the collage with more paper scraps and a deeply purple jewel. Sigh.
The last step was to sew a zigzag stitch using my favorite gold metallic thread. More loose threads all over the place.
Being messy is so SatiSfyinG!
This is the envelope.
I used the negative from cutting out the heart and glued it over another handmade green colored paper so I could write a legible address.

This time I had to be careful about sewing because I wanted the card to be able to go inside, so I just added gold metallic to the upper edge and did a couple of start/stop/pull threads out and cut so I would have lots of thread hanging around.

This will require "hand stamp" by the U.S Post Office, for sure!

This is a scan of the back of the card, signed by the artist, (Me!) and the back of the envelope, too.

Lots of pretty pink and orange and green to go around. And, the inside is just as pretty, too.

I am going to enter this in the color challenge at - http://colourcreatechallenge.blogspot.com/

I sure do hope they like it as much as I do.
Now, I wonder who I will send this beauty to. Hopefully it will brighten up their day as much as it has mine.

Don't you just love it when art makes you smile?

p.s. Does anybody know how to make photos pop up on a separate page to show the art close up? I couldn't find instructions on blogger.

More Handmade Cards

2009-08-08T19:05:00.003-04:00

Card front -
I'm using 140 lb. watercolor card sets to practice all kinds of techniques and materials. The front of this card has a layer of gesso that I made marks in before it dried, making the card rather heavy to hold. I then sprayed watercolors and after that blend of yellow, orange and red dried, I used oil pastels to draw the hearts.

This is the front of the envelope. I got carried away with smudging the crayons, but it sure was fun to do.

I used the same techniques for the inside of the card leaving room to do some writing when I send the card to someone, someday.

This is really fun!

A handmade card.

2009-08-01T09:28:00.003-04:00

The front of a new handmade card.

Sometimes it's fun to just forget how much you are trying to learn a new skill (drawing portraits) and just play around with color again.

I had some watercolor card sets sitting around in my garage/studio that were so old the paper was getting a yellow tinge.

That happens to me a lot. I buy supplies and then put them up on a shelf because I don't know what to do with them. Yet.

I rediscovered a bunch of liquid watercolor bottles I had gotten from Crayola and decided to put some in spray bottles and play around with them for awhile. What fun it is to spray color all over paper!!!

I had a lot of background papers made just for practice and started to cut them up and use them as stencils to spray over and through. It's really fun to use the negative paper you get from cutting out simple shapes.

After using lime watercolor sprayed and dripped on the card, I added some blue acrylic paint. A quick swath of color was just enough, but I made sure to do the envelope and inside of the card all at the same time. The more drips and splashes, the better. I need to do this kind of stuff to loosen up! I am so new at making paint related art, I tend to over think every decision.

This is the envelope. I used the negative shape for the address box and really looked forward to writing a real address inside it.

I even uncovered the sewing machine that has been sitting on my table in the garage and sewed a metallic gold thread border on the heart papers.

For someone who has sewed on fabric for 50 years or so, this was a happy, happy work.

This is the inside of the card, opened out so you can see the stitches made by the sewing machine. I was amazed at how easily the thread laid on the paper. Not one episode of thread breakage or shredding. Amazing!! This stuff is usually so picky and even using a large eyed needle and all the silicone lubricant I can slid over the spool, there is usually a time or two of threads shredding and such.

This watercolor paper was a dream to work on. I am going to make lots and lot of cards. What a wonderful way to practice collage techniques and come out with something useful, too!

This card is going to Karen. Happy Birthday!!!

SuziBlu - portrait #1and #2

2009-07-25T15:09:00.002-04:00

It was late. I was tired. My brain was scrambled from a day in front of my computer doing billing and insurance work.

There was no way I could contemplate making art.

So, what's the best way to spend an evening if the TV is just too, too silly to stare at?

Why, find some "how to make art" videos and plant your tired eyes in front of your PC.
I am taking (silly me) another course in drawing portraits, and this one is from my favorite, fabulous, forty year old fighter-for-all-who-hanker-to-create-art; Miss SuziBlu.

I'm sure you know her, she is all over the web and is truly one of a kind. An enthusiastic cheerleader who unstintingly shares her art making experience and love of all things pigment related. Oh, can she make you laugh out loud! At home. By yourself. At your computer.

I found her on You Tube last year and have been addicted ever since. She is so gracious that when you take one of her courses, she lets you download the videos, and there are a lot of them, so you can watch them anytime, anywhere. No wireless needed. No time limits. No trouble at all.

So, here I was, as I said, tired, red eyed, stiff necked and sore bottomed staring at Miss SuziBlu tell me to pick up a pencil and just draw. I had a dull #2 with no eraser left on the bitten end and my wide ruled tablet of note paper.

And, much to my surprise, instead of taking notes like I always do, I put down my ball point and picked up that ratty pencil and did a drawing while Suzi demonstrated how to make a charming, young, beautiful artful face on the video.

Before I knew it, the video was over and I had a drawing laid on top of those blue lines. How wonderful is that?

Now Suzi is in the second week of The Goddess & The Poet class and has started in on colored pencil.

I watched video #2A and got out the Moleskine purple label she recommended for the class and did another portrait today.

This is another face based on a model advertising eye shadow. It's a shame they all wear false eyelashes. It's hard to see the real shape of the eye, but oh, they are such pretty girls. I forgive Maybelline and Cover Girl and all the rest. It's wonderful to have such a plethora of pretty faces to learn on.

On of these days I am going to graduate to color. I have been stuck in graphite on the Pursue Portrait course because (a) my faces are too realistic in an awful way and (b) the last time I tried color, I got an awful mess to show for it.

This art making stuff takes years and years and I've been told it takes 10,000 hours to get good at anything.

That part's OK, but do I have 10,000 hours of play time left to work it out?

Pursue Portrait # 7 and #8

2009-07-20T22:21:00.003-04:00

The Pursue Portrait on-line class with Pam Carriker is a really nice class for me. It is really a challenge to draw a face and put some of your own into it.

I have been looking around at old photos and am not finding many with me in them at all. That's because I am always the one behind the camera.

Even when I was young, my sister, Gloria, always said, "Your turn! Get in the picture!"

Guess I didn't listen to her very often.

I took this photo with my digital camera last week and was trying to find a nice head tilt image. I'm happier with the lips and eyes and even the nose has the somewhat square shape I see in the mirror.

I got tired of looking at my face, so I ripped apart a few magazines. Photographs of women in purple eye shadow are really fun to draw!

One of these days I will get up the courage to add some color to the sketches I am making.

Now who wouldn't love to have a face like this to draw everyday?

Portrait Class continues

2009-07-14T10:03:00.004-04:00

The work continues. Looking at one's own face is such a challenge. It's difficult to be involved without being critical. This was done from a photo taken when I had my adult Bat Mitzvah in 1985. Of course, while I worked on the drawing, I was filled with conflicting memories of that day. Glad I had completed another goal, happy to be with family, but concerned about where I would be going goal-wise from here.

I shouldn't have worried. God always makes sure you have lots to learn.

A Portrait Class

2009-07-08T17:52:00.007-04:00

(Diffuse Glow)

I am taking a portrait drawing and painting class with Pam Carriker at http://www.creativeworkshops.ning.com/ and after practicing on a "generic face" that Pam created for us, I moved onto the next lesson where she encourages you to draw your own face. sigh.
This is not so much fun.
I do not have a 30 year old face. Or even a 40 year old face. 50 is just a memory and now I'm in the middle of my 60th decade and let me tell you, the invention of digital camera is fun for computer use, but not so much fun when you need a blurry version of yourself.

I remember, fondly, my first Kodak Instamatic. Point, shoot, instant flash if needed and then you send the roll away and you get 24 or 36 softly blurred images as memory keepers. Those were the good old days and I didn't even need it then. I was young. My face was unlined and thin and my skin glowed with youth!

Now, however, I have an amazing digital camera that is brilliant at capturing tons of photos one after the other and not one costs me a penny. I can shoot hundreds and still not fill up my 2 Gigabite SD card. If I want a copy of any photo, I print it out at home or have them uploaded at Snapfish and get prints for .09 cents each - a special deal...

But try, just TRY to get a soft focus shot of an old face. Grrrrr. I finally resorted to using the "diffuse glow" option on my photo editing software and after playing with it for 90 minutes, I got about 12 photos that I wasn't afraid to look at. Sheesh.
This first photo is diffused and glowing, but softly. I had to jiggle it so my face wouldn't disappear altogether.

(Digital image)

After lunch I got out my Polaroid camera and took about 10 photos of my face an arms length away. I was on the porch and it was a sunny day, so the photos were not flashed, but boy oh boy were they blurry! My arms are just not long enough for the 3 foot focus of that camera.
Having lunch settled me.
I decided to try to do a portrait, so I printed out a few of the photos that I had fooled around with and sat down with my pencil and paper.
Guess what. There was just not enough detail to get a fix on my chin.
So, I went back to my computer and took another look at all the photos I had taken earlier in the day. I had shots coming from all kinds of angles. Up close, 3/4, full front, left side, right side, smiling, teeth, no teeth, frowns, surprise!, dreamy and whatever mood I could think of to describe what was happening on my face.
How and when did my nose get so Big!?
What I realized right then was, I had some really good photos of a face. Just a face. OK, so for now it is my face, but so what? It's something to draw and someone I know. I was suddenly glad for all those pictures. I was happy with them. I felt good inside. And, I don't know why. Something inside me had changed from before lunch to after lunch. I was OKAY with these pictures and I was going to use them as is.
I printed out a bunch, thank goodness I had figured out how to set my digital camera to black and white setting, and I sat down again at my drawing pad.

(First Self Portrait)

This is what happened.
It's a near likeness. Maybe only I can see it, but it is my first self portrait. I am going to trust that it is OK. I am going to be happy with it just as it is and I am finding out that "diffuse glow" comes from within.
Who knew?

Backgrounds

2009-05-30T08:26:00.007-04:00

I've been taking an on-line class, Layer Love, with Julie Prichard, who can be found at: http://thelandoflostluggage.ning.com/.
She teaches how to make interesting backgrounds for art work, journaling and so on.
This is project number three. The base coat was yellow, next was lots of transparent washes with anything leaning toward brown. There are a few pieces of collaged elements added when the colors were just getting more aged. The final layer is made by making the paint drip down the page.
This was fun to do. It reminded me of all the color washing I did on the walls of my office at home.

This is what my walls look like. Two walls are painted in layers of blue and dioxizine purple. I started with a sky blue base coat, then with a sponge and the mixture of dark blue and purple with lots of glaze, I did lots of spongy circles all over the two walls. Three layers! For the fourth, I sponged paint here and there and sprayed water for drips.

It is dark, beautiful and restful. The other two walls are white. One wall has a bifold door closet. The other is a wall of dark wood book cases.
Funny how I never thought of it as artwork, but it is!

First Finished Mixed Media Project.

2009-05-20T18:55:00.003-04:00

This is from the class I took with Willowing. She has a wonderful workshop that shows lots of ways to paint, make backgrounds and also talks a lot about facing fears of making art. She showed how to create this image through her videos and though this painting isn't an original, she is the first I ever completed from start to finish.
Art is taught by copying. This is a copy and it was fun.

A colored pencil face -

2009-05-14T09:14:00.002-04:00

Taking a course with SuziBlu, Petite Dolls, got me to playing with colored pencils. This is the first face I colored.

Amazing how scary it is to actually color in a drawing. I had tried watercolor pencils - what a disaster! Everything has to be wet at the same time in order to have smooth transitions of color. NOT an easy thing for a novice. And, using student grade watercolor paint doesn't work well either. There really is too much filler for the color to lay down smoothly. Professional grade is a must!

I wouldn't even try acrylic at this point. The paints dry so fast, you are often chasing color after color and soon end up in a mud hole. I know using an extender is supposed to help, but I haven't yet found the correct proportions for mixing it with the paint. Another task to master.

Colored pencil, however, is a great tool for a beginner. It goes on in layers that just sit where you put them. Once a color or two is laid in, you gently burnish it to blend and soften the waxy application. If you are careful and go gently without crushing the paper, you can get a nice natural shading going. I was pleased and surprised with my first attempt. If not for this first face, I might still be cringing at the thought of applying color to anything I draw.

Art trials-

2009-05-13T10:00:00.002-04:00

I am changing my idea about myself.

For the past several months, I have been monitoring/taking mixed media classes online. Being very timid about drawing and totally afraid of what I might create, I have not been fanatically creating stuff. The fear has been getting in the way. A lot.

Slowly, however, with pencil and watersoluble oil pastels in hand, I have been splashing paint on watercolor paper. Most of the time I want to rip the page out and never see it again. Lately, though, I have just been accepting my first efforts as, just that. First efforts. Not really important in the scheme of my daily life. No one sees them. No one can make hurtful, wise-ass comments. No one can ask, "Why bother? What are you doing this for?" Enough of that goes around and around in my own head to keep me cringing at the sight of all my new art supplies. Little is made, but that's where I am, for now.

I haven't even turned on my sewing machine since March! Unheard of in this house! What? No new skirts? No new tees? No multicolored nine patch quilts? Nothing at all for my two granddaughters? sigh.

I have found this about myself. I am solo-focused. Is that even a word? I cannot switch from sewing to drawing easily. For now, if I want to learn how to draw and color, I have to just draw and color. It's bad enough trying to turn off my work brain to switch to play brain without also trying to do sew brain.

Now I know why people say childhood is a fun time. All you are expected to do as a child is learn stuff. Words, numbers, manners, concepts, ideas, new foods, walk, run, rollerskate, ride a bike. No body cares if you misspell, add it up incorrectly, or burp out loud - at first. Imperfect behavior is the natural domain of a child and if you are lucky, the adults around you gradually and patiently show you how to do all of it better. If you do fall off your bike, most likely your mom or dad or auntie will bandage you up and put you right back on the seat of that bike to see that you keep going. How nice is that!

All of that is harder as an adult. Things have become hardwired. Beliefs about limitations have settled in. New activities with body or brain come slower. I have forgotten how to be patient with myself. Now, when I was a kid, my parents often fast forwarded me to act more grown up. I was the firstborn of four and did everything first, fast and perfect. This is not easy to change, but I am trying. I don't want to get older and not have explored my abilities for fear of failure. When I am 90 (G-d willing) I want to be busy. I want to indulge my curiousity without all of this fear hounding me. And, I don't want to apologise for being born anymore.

Lomography - Holga 135

2009-03-26T22:17:00.005-04:00

I saw a small paragraph in the Sun Sentinel newspaper last December about the new popularity of plastic cameras. After seeing some of the photos taken by these low tech devices, I HAD to have one! I am SO TIRED OF PERFECT DIGITAL PIX! These photos were taken with a Holga 135. It's a plastic camera with a plastic lens and no flash. This style is cool because you can use ordinary 35 mm film and have it developed at any local store AND you can have your pix put on a CD.
This shot was taken early one sunny morning with a 400 speed film and I just love the dreamy quality of this view. Beautiful, soft, south Florida sky with green, green trees. The sun hitting the plastic lens makes the light scatter all over the place and I would have a hard time creating that effect in any of my photo altering programs.

This is a view of our pool and plastic chairs. Look how lush and dense the folliage presents itself as it pushes through several of the now absent screens of the pool enclosure. Surprisingly, most people in our neighborhood have fixed the hurricane damage that was left in October of 2005, but we kind of like to see Mother Nature pushing her way into previously forbidden spaces.

(And besides, I can swim quite naked without fear of nosy neighbors wondering what all the splashing is all about.)

This is a shot of the gable above the master bath. Look at the incredibly intense color of the sky! This camera is amazing! I just love the soft edges that blur parts of the photo. That vine attracts Zebra wing butterflies and I can't begin to tell you the joy I feel as I see them reeling about those big juicy leaves looking for the flowers to drink sweet nectar and lay dozens of eggs for future generations of little transformers.

I got this photo just while taking my morning walk down our sweetly shaded street. Look at the misty effect created, once again, by the plastic lens.

Plastic. Irregular. Imperfect.

Creating softness, reflecting the mystery that is everpresent in each newly created moment of this most beautiful day.

Skirts

2009-03-23T21:45:00.002-04:00

It's been awhile since I've done any sewing, but I caught a cold a few weeks ago and when I don't feel good, the only thing that makes me happy is to sit at my sewing machine and run fabric under the needle.
These two skirts are the first is what has turned into a series of toddler skirts for my two granddaughters.
Happily, they fit! Since they live a 5 hour plane ride away, I have to hope they're gonna be OK.
It's truly fun to sew a size 3T and 5T because a project gets done likity-split!

Been Gone Too Long...

2008-11-10T06:40:00.002-05:00

It has been a long, difficult and painful summer and I am glad it's over! In January my right knee minuscus spontaneously tore one day while I stooped down to the lower part of a filing cabinet and I could hardly walk at all.
I figured the body would heal itself, so I waited and hobbled around, living with pain all the time. The worst part of it was not being able to go for my morning walks! My body got depressed. I got depressed. I was teary a lot of the time. I am addicted to my own endorphans!

Well, by May I had had enough and went to see an orthopedic MD. He gave me a cortisone shot and said if that didn't clear up the pain, surgery was the next step.
The shot did not help. At all.

Grrrr.

I waited some more. I worked and limped through the office. And getting up from a chair was not fun at all. Think about how many times a day you get up and down from a chair or the commode. Not Fun!

Since I was stuck in a non-moving-much mode, I started to make these multitiered skirts. And, in doing so I learned how to use my gathering foot. What a neat tool for my sewing machine. I've had it for years but never used it because I figured you could never know exactly how much fabric to cut for a project ( and I honestly didn't think the little foot could posible work, it's so simple looking)

WRONG. It works great!

So I began by cutting lots and lots of 6 in wide strips, sewing them together and letting the foot have at it.

It turned out to be great fun! It was easy sewing and it didn't take me long to cut out the strips, which was the other reason why I got into making these skirts. I just could not stand and bend over my table to cut out anything complicated when I was in so much pain.

The knee crisis came crashing down on me one day in the office when all of a sudden, I just could not walk without support. We got crutches out of storage and I had the surgery two days later.

The surgery wasn't bad at all, but the healing time after it has been HORRIBLE. And, long and drawn out and seemingly neverending.

However, two weeks ago, I realized that I no longer had pain when walking or getting up from a chair. Halleluya! I actually began to feel good everyday. It's been ten long months of limitation and I am so glad it's over. No more tears for me!

And, by the way, I have made a total of 27, YES, COUNT THEM, 27 multitied skirts. Comfy to wear and now my new uniform.

Altered Tee Shirt

2008-07-12T15:21:00.002-04:00

Okay, so everybody and their grandmother (me) are now doing Tee Shirt surgery to any piece of knitted tee, old or new, that they can find.

This was my first. A very nice garment dyed blue tee that started life at $4.99 and a size Men's 2XL.

I know, I know. THAT'S SO BIG! However, I like that size because I can wash it, shrink it and then cut it out to fit me using a pattern that is the size I want for the project.

I've talked to a lot of women about their tee shirts and many have the complaint that I have; too big on top, too tight at the hip. grrrrr.

Well, if you have a pattern that you like, you can just lay it out on this big sucker and cut. You then end up with a tee that is more fitted across the top and sleeves, make the side curve in and out and have a perfect fit at the hips.

This is the front. I wanted to use it as an off the shoulder cover up and it is, indeed, off the shoulder. But just right for me. And, cool to wear here in hot, humid south Florida.

This is the back.

I used a commercial stamp and plain old craft paint to stamp the leaves and just love the way they tumble down the front and back, too.

Adding the word, "leaf" adds to the interest, the design balance, and as my hubby says, makes it unmistakably "leafy".

I didn't want the sleeves to hang down to my elbows, even though I cut them to a rather short length, so I added cut strips of fabric to the inside and outside of the sleeve to tie them up and keep them up.

The bottom is just raw edged and it rolls nicely.

A close up of the neckline shows that it, too, is raw edged with some embroidery to stabilize the edge and give it some additional interest.

Doing the embroidery by hand was a lot of fun. I hadn't been doing much hand work lately and getting back into my collection of embroidery floss, needles and thimbles reminded me again of how much I used to embroider my creations when I was a teen.

Some activities are fun forever.

Jackson Pollack Wearable Art Skirt-part 3

2008-05-04T13:24:00.002-04:00

Remembering that I started out with all my pieces laid out on a big piece of plastic on the driveway, I am getting itchy to do another project soon. Throwing paint is so much fun!

Here, I am changing the Jackson Pollack design to something else. I've added really big butterfly stamping across the front and back of the skirt. By sewing only one seam together, I can arrange the butterfly design going across the back of the skirt and around the front where it flutters in an upward motion.

Additionally, I've placed the top above the skirt front to stamp butterflies there also. Hopefully, when I wear them together, it will look like a natural movement.

At this point, I really didn't like the skirt too much. Those butterflies are really big and really bright. Oh well, as I said to myself before I started all of this, I can just toss it if I really, really hate it.

Every project has an adolescent stage that is awkward. Sometimes it's hard to push through it to see how it is going to turn out. There are days when I still wonder if I am still in that stage myself, but there isn't anything to do but to keep on trying things out.

So, now the skirt has been sewn together, hemmed and the elastic inserted into the waistband.

Since I've made this pattern so many times, I haven't even tried it on yet. I know it fits and I know the hem is perfect.

How good is that? Do you know how much pleasure it is to get so familiar with a pattern, you don't even have to fool with the fitting anymore?

It's great, that's what it is. No worry, no internal fussing, no changing in and out of clothes during the project at all!

If you look closely, you can see that I added the text to the skirt also. In black fabric ink, using a fuzzy typewriter font, I let the words drift across the front to the back: "Change is to give up what we are to become what we could be."

This is the back of the skirt.

Red paint predominates here as opposed to the front where dark blue is slashed sideways. I could have used either side as front or back since there is only one pattern piece for this bias A line skirt. That's another reason why I like using this McCall's 2172 so much.

And, simplicity in a pattern lets you go wild in every choice you make.

Sure, everyone can use a plain white skirt, or a simple black skirt to wear with a great top or an interesting jacket. But, once you get those out of the way, every skirt you make can be full of new design choices and "what ifs".

This skirt was a fun adventure. And, I did wear it. And, two strangers called to me across the street and said, "Great skirt!"

Now, how good is that?

Jackson Pollack Wearable Art Skirt-part 2

2008-04-18T08:33:00.002-04:00

Getting ready to change my "blank canvas" of color splashed linen fabric was a bit of a challenge because I didn't know ahead of time what I wanted to do with it.
I could have left it like it was and finished sewing everything up, but decided that since this was an experiment, I should just go further along.
Lately, I've been liking the color red. Wearing it is fun! So I said to myself, "if I were me, what color would I like to play with?" and there it was, red.
I have several bottles of Setacolor fabric paint that are at least 5 years old and mostly full. Again, figuring, "what have I got to lose?", I committed to the red and decided to actually use some of the many commercial stamps I've been collecting over the years. See this butterfly? It's big. Really big. It's over 6 inches across and really makes a statement. Yes, butterflies are reminders of ongoing transformation, change and beauty, but this thing is kind of blocky. Oh well. Letting it sit in a plastic bag in my garage isn't using it, is it?

I was kind of happy with how well the Setacolor by Pebeo covered the stamp and really did show up like, "WoW!" on the spattered fabric. Once I put one down, I had a hard time stopping. The little kid inside kept saying, "more, more!", but I managed to keep it down to about nine impressions across the front and back of the skirt.

Since the paint dried so fast, I hung it up and went to work on the top while the stamp was still damp. Partial butterflies were fun to do, but I wasn't all that sure about the actual design of the front of the top, so I washed out the stamp and took a break to think.

Going away from a project is sometimes the best thing you can do. While having some tea and finishing up some billing for the office, I remembered a phrase about change that really appealed to me. "Change is to give up what we are to become what we could be." I'm sorry I don't know who said or wrote that, but it stuck in my head and arrived for this project. I found a set of really neat typewriter font stamps in my stamp box and stamped the phrase out on pieces of paper. Then, it was just a matter of laying them out to see how it would look. What fun! No committment, just a chance to see how it might look!

The butterfly was the center and the words, both small and large size, fit nicely on the top.

Of course, as I looked at it, I couldn't imagine wearing the thing, but it was pretty!

I used some black fabric paint for the letters and did one word at a time. Easy!

I got so good at it, I put the phrase on the skirt too, though it doesn't show up as well because the drops and splotches have more of a pattern that pulls on your eyes, but that just doesn't matter.

This is the skirt laid out on my work table with one seam sewn and the butterflies scattered all over.

That's the nice thing about sewing something yourself. You can work with the piece nice and flat and place images over seams very easily.

I let everything dry for a few days, then pressed the painted and stamped fabric to set the paint.

The butterflies are really bright, and this is a little more garish than I am used to, but hey, who really cares? I doubt if the fashion police even have a station here in south Florida, so I will wear this thing with red dangly earrings and forget that I am over 62.

Jackson Pollack Wearable Art Skirt-part 1

2008-04-15T16:30:00.004-04:00

It was a warm and windy day here in south Florida and it seemed like a perfect day to do something I've imagined for a long time. How would it be to just throw paint at fabric?
So, here you see my initial setup. A bias cut skirt and top, just four beautiful linen pieces laid out so nicely on a tarp, held down with my usual fabric weights.
It was a sun, sun, sunny day and I was ready to go.
However, as I went back into the garage to mix up some thinned fabric paints, I came out to find my pieces flip-flopped all over and getting ready to fly down the drive way! Yikes! March winds are some serious winds, I tell ya!

Since my studio/garage is full to the brim with stuff, I was able to reach back and pull out lots of half empty paint cans to use to weigh down the linen pieces.

The fun part was the flinging of paint. All you need is a willing arm and a drippy brush to slam color down in drips and spots and slashes of color. What a surprise!
And, since it was about 70 degrees and sunny, the fabric paint dried very fast. My biggest worry was just how sneaky the wind could be. The driveway surface is uneven and little teasers of wind kept finding the smallest places to lift up the skirt and flop it over. grrrr!
I had to keep my eye on it all the time as I was mixing water into the next color or else I'd have smudges of drips and spots. Yes, I know, I know, the whole thing is supposed to be free form, but being new to this, I wanted CONTROL.

hA!

Flinging paint on an angle started to make a pattern that I liked, so I just kept slashing blue, blue and more blue. It's amazing how much paint I used. Walking around the tarp with paint brush in hand is so freeing! No wonder Jackson Pollack made so many pieces of art this way. It is mesmerizing to just fling and go.

Sometimes it's hard to know when to stop. I used about five colors and left a lot of the natural linen background.
The other thing I wasn't sure of was how the paint would feel on the fabric. I didn't want thick, stiff spots on whole areas of the skirt or top.

Considering this whole project a complete trial is the only way for me to stay comfortable and continue to change the fabric with paint. My mind set was, "it's only a few yards of fabric ($16.00 on sale) and a little bit of paint, So What iF I Ruin it! Or hate it. I can always just throw it all away....!" I have to fight my Puritan ethic of economy concerning time and money by telling it to SHUT UP for just a little while so I can have some FUN. Believe me, this voice is a nagging one that gets in the way of a lot of what I do, or a lot of times, don't do.

I tend to get hyper when I start a technique that is new to me (because of that VOICE), so after about an hour of flinging and color changes, I stopped to let the sun dry it very well, indeed.
I sat at my table inside the garage/studio and worked on carving a few rubber stamps to wile away the time and let myself be sure that I really had put as much paint on the pieces that I wanted. It wouldn't be fun to set it all up again, so I just sat for about an hour. And, besides, the weather was great! Spring in Florida means lots and lots of birdsong in the early part of the day, and my messy butterfly garden to the right of the driveway brought beautiful Monarchs careening past my head as I worked. Very cool.

Now, I just can't wait to sew the skirt together and add something to this new "blank canvas" of fabric.

Note to self: wear sneakers and socks next time.

Tie Dye - Art to Wear

2008-03-04T07:54:00.005-05:00

This is Jade Green. A beautiful blue green color that dyes up so nicely. It has a lot of the turquoise in it, so rinsing it out is a long, long process, but worth the trouble. I tried mixing up some greens this past weekend and it does take awhile to get something that is just right.
That's the thing about this dye stuff. Mixing the colors is the most challenging part of it all. Unless you are willing to measure by grams and cc's, no too dye batches will ever be the same. A good thing when you like variety.

Another item that is fun to make is this
sleep sack, a very, very soft cotton.
Made for my newest grandchild, I hope he enjoys lounging around in it day or night.

And finally, I made this little applique with just a piece of cotton stamped with one of my hand carved heart stamps. What fun to do! And, the doing only takes a few minutes!

Tie Dye - a first!

2008-02-29T09:13:00.004-05:00

Yes, it had to happen. At some point in a crafter's life, one has to give in to the impulse to use cold water dyes. I've done silk painting and dye work in the past, but that was different. There, you just pour premixed dye, heat set the fabric in a steamer and rinse. Done!
With fiber reactive dyes, there is chemistry involved!

That chemistry, though not really difficult, had put me off for quite some time. Some of the reason is that in every book or article I've read about how to mix up the chemicals and dye, the proportions for each ingredient were different. If no two authors agreed, how was I to choose what to do???

In doing my research using 6 different tie dye books, or booklets, and a two CD instruction models, not one of the authors agreed on how much dye should be used to make the stock dye solution. Nor did they agree on how much Urea should be added.

I kept reading, taking notes, comparing and so on for quite a while. Eventually, after buying all my supplies at www.dharmatrading.com , I just found a Saturday when I was completely alone with nothing to do and I set about this task.

I only used a few rubber bands on each article of clothing to keep things simple and decided to just do an ombre effect with one color of dye, going dark to light on the fabric.

This little set is a size 6 Toddler, 100% cotton, lettuce edge top and pants. It was easy to lay each piece down and dab the dye on with a sponge brush. I wrapped everything up in big plastic bags and waited, impatiently, for 24 hours before the big rinse in hot, hot water.

As it turned out, I really liked the process and the results! It was a lot of work, but it was also fun!

This tee for our newborn grandson shows a close up of the ragged heart applique that I sewed onto three of the outfits I dyed.

I made these by digitizing the design on my Janome embroidery software and then machine embroidered them out on my Janome 10000 as free standing appliques.

Hand sewing them onto the soft dyed cotton was very satisfying.

I did three colors that day. This is peacock blue. It truly is a beautiful color.

Yellow Linen Butterfly Applique Skirt

2008-02-02T08:47:00.000-05:00

This is the time of year when linen can be found in bright colors and I have been going to the Joann's Fabric and Crafts store near the office and getting their beautiful linen/rayon blends with a 40% off coupon! This color is too bright for me to wear near my face, but it's great for a skirt.

This is the front.

As you can see, I filled the skirt up with really big and simple appliques of butterflies. I have lots of butterfly attracting plants in my very messy garden and the milk weed pods have been exploding with seedlings this week. I've collected a few pods and am going to plant them in pots to replant them in different parts of the garden so I have a view of butterfly activities no matter what window I am near. They are so delightful in their dance upon the air.

This is the back.

In order to figure out the placement of these really big appliques, I layed the skirt out on my big table in the garage/studio to see how it would look. It turned out that what I had planned for the back became the front of the skirt. Somehow I just didnt' want that big butterfly that is so high to be winging its' way so near my old bottom.

Fortunately, this bias skirt is a one piece pattern. The front and back are cut out from the same pattern piece, so all I had to do was switch out the label that I sew to the inner waistband to the opposite side.

I embroider the pattern number onto the label so I know what I used later on. Three years from now I may not remember which pattern I used and that can be frustrating if I want to start up a new project using a pattern that still fits.

Although I liked the way it looked, I felt the skirt design was too empty. I took a lunch break and leafed through a couple of my painting on fabric books. One of them reminded me that I could stamp on fabric!

Now, I have never, ever stamped on a finished project. Been to intimidated I guess. What if I screw it up??? OH WELL! What do I have to lose? $10.00 and two days of fooling around? That's not going to change my universe by much, so I went back into the garage.

After looking over my carving supplies and previously made stamps, I decided simpler is better.

I ended up using two left over rectangles of carving block and mixed up some black acrylic paint with fabric medium.

Fantastic! So easy and so satisfying. All I wanted to do was add movement, a suggestion of movement, and in art one doesn't have to be specific.
The minds' eye finishes the idea that is started with just a stroke or a mark.

And, the linen took the paint up well. I liked the unevenness of it and was happy just using two sizes of stamps.

I think this is why I keep on trying stuff out. I never, ever know where a project is going to take me. It seems to develop as I go along. I have tried to plan things out, but that never works. For me, the ideas fill in as the images show up on the fabric. I have to learn to trust myself more and I think that is what I am learning. Take the inspiration, do the work and see what happens.

Animal Applique Jacket

2008-01-27T09:00:00.000-05:00

Continuing on with the animal applique motif, I made a jacket, too.

This pattern is also an old favorite, McCall's 3073, which I have used over and over again. In its' original form it is super easy to cut out and sew. The pattern has only five pieces; front, back, sleeve, neck facing and front facing and it sews together really fast!

Have you ever used the permanent pattern material that's available? I really like it! Once you have made a copy of your favorite pattern with all the changes you want, you have a pattern that doesn't rip, wrinkle or tear like the tissue paper found in most clothing pattern envelopes. AND, the best part of all - it doesn't move around on the fabric once you've placed it. No Pins! I use a few large washers to keep it on the straight of grain, but that's all. It's so easy to cut the pattern out, I just zip right through it.

Since the black linen/rayon blend provides such a nice contrast to the colorful applique, I sewed these animals on as if they are tumbling down from G-d's own hand to find a place in this part of the universe. I like the way the colors really stand out.

The back of the jacket shows a styelized(spelling?) Tree of Life giving this art to wear a hint of Genesis 1:1.

One of the things I did to this pattern before I made this jacket was to take it apart so I could sew together blocks of contrasting color.

Of course the front is easy, just cut one of each side from two different colors. For the back, I made two half patterns by adding a 5/8 inch seam to the middle fold line. I did the same thing with the sleeves. I folded them in half and made a half pattern with a 5/8 inche seam along the top edge.

Since this is such a easy fit pattern, I didn't have to worry about how the sleeve would sew into the front and back. It's not at all fitted, so it sews in perfectly if you add the sleeve right after you sew together the front and back at the shoulder.

To add more color and to make the thing look more rustic, I sewed all the seams facing the outside and finished them off with red thread in my serger. This took a little planning because I am so used to sewing everything right sides together. In fact, this was one of the few projects that I actually planned out before I cut and sewed. I did sew the facings on in the standard fashion, but I used red thread to top stitch all around.

When cutting, I had to make sure the colors would be opposite when the parts were sewn together. I drew out the jacket on a piece of paper and then numbered the pattern before I cut out each piece. That will save me time in the future when I want to make another version of this piece.

This is a closeup of the sleeve cuff. After folding it up, I added this heart applique to keep it up and I really am proud of myself... I didn't fold over the patch, I just sewed it on as is. As it frays it will be more "interesting".

Even my husband was surprised to see all of these unfinished edges. With threads already coming loose, he said, "Did you mean to do it like that?"

Mission Accomplished!

Animal Applique Skirt

2008-01-24T18:15:00.000-05:00

It seems I am now obsessed with applique.

This bias A-line skirt is a nice linen/rayon blend that is really easy to sew. I've made several of this McCall's 2172 and I like it because it's a bit narrower at the hem than McCall's 2255.

This is the front.

My usual approach to things is to try to make whatever it is in the usual way; neat, clean- edged and perfect. No messy, untrained or unkempt look to the project at all.

However, this past year or two I have been trying my darndest to loosen up! This skirt is one of those projects. Instead of trying to applique these animals onto the skirt itself, I just slapped them on some gorgeous batik rectangles and zigzagged in a loose stitch setting.

This is the back of the skirt.

One pass around the unturned edges with an open zigzag is really enough to keep the applique in place. And, it takes a whole lot less time to get each motif done. Nice!

After I had a pile of animals sewn onto the four different batik prints, I just sewed them onto the skirt with a straight stitch. I didn't even hem the rectangles.

I am so proud of myself! I am letting these fabric squares ravel and wrinkle and just do what soft cotton fabric likes to do.
And, boy oh boy, do I like this skirt?

Yes!

It looks almost as if a newbie made it and that is just what I was going for.
sigh.

Rose Linen Applique Skirt

2007-12-02T10:51:00.000-05:00

Just so I wouldn't lose my mind to everyday matters, I pulled out this rose linen, A line, bias skirt that has been hanging in my closet for three years, never worn, and opened one side seam. This is McCalls pattern 2255, my most favorite of all patterns, no doubt about it.

Thinking I have nothing to lose on something I'd never worn, I went to work drawing large flowers on my fusible web paper and hot fixed them to these black and white fabrics.

This is the front.

This is the back.

One disadvantage of A line is that it doesn't want to stand out in a photograph. Bias drape does that on a hanger, but boy oh boy, you should see how good it looks on me!

This is the right side seam view and you can see how I worked the flowers all the way around. Because I didn't want a lot of bulky seaming around the flowers, I only zigzagged (spelling?) around them using a very wide and not dense stitch.
There's enough glue on the Aleene fusible to keep these babies fixed forever!

This is the right seam view and it's my favorite side. The tall flowers are very graceful when they move and you really can't help but look at them as I swish by.

sigh.

I just love girlie stuff.

This is a close up but I'm afraid you still can't see the rose metallic thread I used to zig and zag.

Also I applied over 300 Swarovski hotfix crystals to the flowers, leaves and stems so that when the light hits them, there is a sparkle that is like a Christmas tree lit up for daytime.

Good. Very good for my creative soul.

I can see a clothes line strung from here to China with McCall's 2255 interpreted 1000 different ways.

Life is good when you have a sewing machine and glue.

Missing!

2007-10-10T07:57:00.000-04:00

This is my brother, John Lodter, a photo taken in 2000.

He is missing.

He went to a motorcycle rally in South Dakota in August with some friends and planned to drive throughout the great northwest in his new 2008 Silver Jeep Compass to do some sight seeing.

He was last seen by a friend in Ketchum, Idaho on August 28, 2007.

His last cell phone call to our house was on September 8, 2007.

He has medical issues than may effect his judgement. He in listed on the national missing persons list and we are trying to locate him through cell phone and credit card use. No helpful information so far.

He has worked as a bar tender and handyman.

If you see him, please call me at 954 290-1609.

The Lizard

2007-08-31T08:31:00.001-04:00

Yesterday when I came out of the back door of the office to get into my car and drive home, I saw the most amazing creature!

He or she was about 4 feet long and absolutely regal!

I mean look at that face!

He was quite happy to let me take about 30 photos as long as I moved slowly toward him.

We spent about 15 minutes together - so very cool!

At one point he shook his (or her) head and extended his crop while making a hissing sound. A warning to me to stay away. Fine. But oh, how beautiful you are! How can I stay away when all I want to do is worship your majesty and beauty here in south Florida where canals can bring such amazing beings on shore.

I guess I should be glad it wasn't an alligator. They can be aggressive and my getting out of the car to take pictures would probably not have been a good idea.

But oh, just look how grand and beautiful the legs and arms are! So shapely and strong looking. And look at the stripes on the tail, and the fringe of living tissue along the ridge of the back. Is that not the most beautiful collection of decorative attire you've ever seen on something so large and alive in you own backyard?

I hope I see him or her again soon. After sitting in a white walled, half cold, windowless room staring into a computer screen for hours, this was indeed a treat that lifted me back into G-d's great and grand, delightful and wonderful world of living wonders.

Carving rubber stamps -

2007-08-25T08:13:00.001-04:00

This has been a summer of trying stuff out. I have skipped from one thing to another like a fly at a picnic, buzzing around techniques, but not staying long enough on any one thing to feel like I've found home.

I've spent some time carving stamps and have done about 50 designs and find it lots of fun to do.

Only problem is - what to do with it? I don't have a clear idea in my mind about what to make or why. I'm one of those people who need a goal. A goal fires my purpose and keeps me interested. The period I'm in now is a very scattered one and I DON'T LIKE IT.

I feel an inner push to try new techniques, many of which I am totally unqualified to do, LIKE DRAWING STUFF, but the push won't let me alone.

Maybe I'm becoming ADHD at age 61.
Got Ritalin anyone?

sigh.

Our House- back gable

2007-07-07T07:52:00.000-04:00

I was preparing food for the pets when I saw a dark cloud descending, making the early evening sky dense with mist - ery. The air smelled thick and moving through it felt like a slow glid through water. Tree outlines became black against the heavy gray light and a sporadic wind whipped through the leaves shaking many free to swirl in circles descending down only to be swooped up and away again. I couldn't follow their path, the movement was so quick.

Grabbing my camera, I hoped to catch some of this difficult to explain light, but its' automatic settings insisted on a harsh flash of light, ruining the moodiness of that dark, black, down to my feet now cloud.

Moving away from the screened in porch and out the side door into the yard, I noticed the outline of the gable against the watery vapor and snapped the colision of man made precision hallowed by its' everpresent cover. The sky is always there above this roof and it changes its' clothes minute by minute. I miss most of those changes everyday because I am either under it or away from this small summit in the hours of my life.

I am envious of this little peak. It doesn't have to do anything at all but be. The view changes around it all the time. Birds perch on the round tile to sing early in the morning, but I do get to hear their song as I dress for work in the bathroom below.

How the peak experiences all of this is what I want to understand. So far, it has never let on what it does know. I've seen that sometimes the cover of the sky is a cool turquoise, or a hot blue-green. Then there's white, gray, robins egg and cielo blue, too. All colors and weights that I immediately miss because I am ... away. This gable sees and feels and knows the moods of the sky because it is like a sentinel built to oversee this little corner of the world. Maybe by taking this photo I am saying, "thank you" for just being and I hope that beingness is a good experience.

That heavy vapor coalesced right after I got this shot and drops of water splashed on the tip of the gable, cooling it, refreshing it, cleaning it, caressing it. All I could do was witness it, never knowing if this cover of dark wetness was felt as beautifully as I could see it.

Cone Flower Pillow

2007-07-04T08:27:00.000-04:00

This is my version of a cone flower. The pillow is like all the others I've been making. The size is 18 inches by 18 inches.

The fabrics are all kinds of beautiful batiks and the ruffle is a black and white stripe.

The background of this pillow is especially pretty. A wash of beautiful colors blending like watercolors and it has a spider web of gold over it that doesn't show up in the photo, but shines very nicely when the morning sun lights up my living room.

I've outlined the petals, cone and stem with matching silk ribbon making this pillow the easiest one so far. Actually, I made it before the "Squirt the Cat" pillow, and was kind of just finding my way with the colors and applique work.

The most tedious part was gathering the ruffle. I've never enjoyed making gathers - all those pins, trying to divide the fabric evenly and making it lay just right.

I remember making my very first project for 7th grade sewing class and we had to make a skirt with gathered fabric at the waistband. Ugh! I remember it being voluminous! I had so much fabric to bunch around that 22 inch waist, I just got really tired of dividing it up into halves, quarters, eights and sixteenths and even more than that, just to get it evenly spaced!

When I finally got it all to fit, put in the zipper and button and tried it on, I yelped when I bent over because I had actually sewn pins into place on the waist band!!! Ouch! I got a "B" and never, ever wore the darn ugly thing.

I'm amazed that the project didn't turn me off completely to sewing forever. But something inside me was fascinated with the idea of laying out a pattern on the straight of grain and actually ending up with a piece of clothing I could wear. I persisted and that summer made several tops - all with gathers along the hem - that looked absolutely adorable with shorts and dungarees. (that's what we called jeans back then)

From that point on, I took my babysitting money and would buy fabric for 50 cents a yard and patterns for a quarter and sewed, sewed, sewed. By high school I was good enough at it to make several prom dresses that I was very proud to wear. I made a wedding dress for my roommate in nursing school and eventually made two for myself.

When I look back on my work these days, I am amazed. I can look at what I've created and sometimes wonder, "who made this?" I mean really, who did this? How could I have been so good at this 40 years ago when I am still wondering, "how shall I make pillows today?"

Do you ever wonder how you got to be so good at something that it amazes you too?

Squirt the Cat Pillow

2007-06-30T07:51:00.000-04:00

Of course, now that I had a great photo of Squirt the Cat, I just had to use it! I printed it on cotton and found I had some really beautiful Batik fabric with all the colors so complimentary to the photo. I cut it a little off skew and put a dark frame around it making the crispness of the white stand out. Below the photo I had some fun making a few appliques that mimicked the fabric on the back and then added a fringe of beads along the bottom of the picture frame.

For the back I used a coordinating batik and another photo of Squirt the Cat. The frame on this is a bright pink organza.

The finish is the black and white ruffle making all the colors really stand out.

This is my favorite pillow now.

Squirt the Cat

2007-06-16T08:08:00.000-04:00

It's truly amazing what can be done to photos using a couple of computer programs.

This is one of our cats, Squirt. He's 16 years old now and came to me when my youngest sister died in 1993.

He had to travel from New Jersey to Florida right after the funeral and it took him one full year to come out of my bedroom/bathroom area to creep through the family room and head out to the porch. Most of the time he hid under our bed. He was not a happy cat.

I remember having to give him a bath in the kitchen sink one day because he was itchy with New Jersey fleas. He was so upset, he bit down on the middle finger of my left hand and wouldn't let go.

My impulse was to pull back, of course, but that only left him hanging off my finger. By this time I was screaming, he was growling and my 14 year old son, Joshua, was totally beside himself. "Ma, Ma! Get him off your hand! Ma! Let Go!"

Finally, I gently splashed Squirt back into the dishpan and got my heavily bleeding finger back. I put a towel over him so he couldn't get away with soap all over him.

Josh was going to be late for school, so like any good mom, I told him to go.

"What? Are you crazy? And, leave you here alone with this nutty cat!!!"

"Josh, I'll be alright. Just help me bind my finger so the bleeding will stop", I said.

"But, Ma..."

"Don't worry, I'll call Daddy and he'll call in some antibiotics. I'll be fine"

"If it was me," he said, "I'd have flung that cat across the room and slammed it against the wall!"

So, off he went to school and I got Squirt rinsed off and let him scramble back to safety under our bed.

This cat now practically owns the house. He demands to sit on my lap when I'm at my computer and has taken to mimicking me by meowing, "hello", "hello". If I don't pick him up, he won't shut up. Very demanding. And still has a tendency to bite.

sigh.

Love. It sure comes in funny packages. Over the past 14 years he's been costly with high vet charges, irritable, hissy, and downright mean always wanting his way, not ever considering our way. He's 18 pounds of gray fur, jealous of all the other pets in the house, who climbs on my husbands' chest every night to nuzzle into his beard while my husband falls asleep.

The rest of the night he is on my legs or near my head, still a nuisance, but still a perfect piece of love in a truly unique form.

Oh, and this photo was altered in Paint Shop Pro 9 with Virtual Painter Version 4 plug in. I've printed it out on fabric and am using this and other photos in my art work these days.

Applique Pillows #1

2007-06-13T10:18:00.000-04:00

As hard as it is to believe, in all the years of sewing, quilting, machine embroidery and making things out of fabric, I have never turned out any pillows!

I am amazed. And, now that I have decided to spark up the living room with some good housekeeping and new slipcovers (soon to be ironed and applied), I have discovered a new fun way to spend my sewing time.

I'm using some gorgeous batik fabrics and am linking each pillow by using some black and white fabric to frame each one. This is the first one I finished.

It was a whole lot of fun to make the applique. Another newly fresh discovery for me. I've always hesitated doing much applique work because it seemed so laborious and I just don't like to see the heavy zigzag outline on everything. However, this time I just took out some Alieen's Hot Stitch Fusible Web that I've had hanging around for at least 10 years and I free hand drew the leaves and spiral. Now I really don't know why I drew the spiral, but that's what happened, so I went with it.

It's really easy to do applique this way!!! I love it! I pressed my drawings onto the back of the fabrics, cut out around the pencil line and placed it on the background batik. I didn't want to zigzag anything, so I rummaged through my drawers and found some fuzzy yarns that coordinated nicely and just used nylon thread to nail them down onto the edges of the appliques. It didn't take much time at all and I didn't ever use stabilizers for the back of the sewing area.

Amazingly, it didn't crinkle, pull, or otherwise distort the fabric. Again, I was amazed. All the books say stabilizers are a must, but I guess the applique fairies were with me that day and I got a beautiful result. It's a shame you can't see the fuzziness of the yarns.

After that, I wanted some sparkle, so I added hot fix Swarovski crystals. They don't show up in the photo either, but it sure looks nice when the morning sun hits them. A fuzzy, wuzzy, sparkle, sparkle pillow!

Exam Room #1 - part 3

2007-06-03T13:43:00.000-04:00

In this photo of the lion mural, the basics are done and I am going home very tired, but knowing that the next day with bring me to the finish line.

Here is the mural with the final touches done to the frame and the rest of the layout. And, yes people, she is a she and she is pregnant. After all this is a Pediatric office and we want more babies, don't we???

The last photo of the mural that I can take and it has to be on an angle. Drat! The room is too small to let me back up enough to take it square on. Oh well, you get the drift. It looks good. And, this will be the last time it will be naked as the guy who installs the protective plastic is coming tomorrow to install it over the lower third of the wall art. A big piece will also go over the flowers where the parents' chair is, too.

A view into the room from the hallway. This is the first one that anyone sees. It was the last one I painted, so my technique is in its' improved state here. As you go down the hallway and see the other rooms, things change. Each room has its' own character and colorway, but the idea of putting a large piece of art on the back wall really did work out well. My husband can still see the patient's skin coloring without too much interference, so he is NOT sending everybody over to the hospital for lab work to rule out diseases that make people yellow, blue, green, red or purple!

Exam Room #1 - part 2

2007-05-24T06:43:00.000-04:00

The parents' chair corner with the three big flowers and a peak of the branch from the tree of life hanging down. Where are the apples??? I'm gonna have to go back and add some apples!

Yes, yes, yes, our garbage can corner is just lovely.

Here's the PC desk with its' far reaching branches and beautiful butterfly next to the reminder to GET YOUR INFLUENZA vaccine.

The older kids just have to take some nose drops, so it's not such a medieval torture chamber, all contrary opinions noted otherwise.
So, instead of bandaids, everybody gets some kleenex.

Sheesh! If they don't come into the office with drippy noses, we do seem to make sure they leave that way.

The lion head kind of got out of hand. She was only supposed to have a gentle mane, but it grew and grew. I know it is hard to see online, but it is even outlined in gold.
I'm telling you, it's hard to plan what your hand it gonna end up doing.

Here's that butterfly up close. I like it much better than the one in Exam Room #3. This one is like a watercolor painting and she feels much more floaty.

Smoke from the Everglades

2007-05-12T08:15:00.000-04:00

There has been fire in the Everglades for about two weeks now. We are in a drought situation here in South Florida. It's pretty common this time of year, but it hasn't been this bad in a long, long time. This looks like a foggy day. It isn't. It's smoke.

It not only looks bad, it smells bad. Flakes of ash are drifting down onto everything, like rain, or snow, only everything is turning gray. I don't know if I should go for my two mile walk this morning because it could be a health hazard. The air conditioning inside the house keeps the air comfortable, so staying in feels like a good idea.

I am so sad for all the animals who live in or near the Everglades. Where can they go? How many are dying for lack of food and clean water and smoky air. At least the birds who fly can get out, but what about the panthers and everything else that is furry? Yesterday an aligator showed up at a mall. I'm sure it was fleeing the rack and ruin of his habitat by way of one of the many canals that connect us to the Everglades.

A nice tropical storm would be most appreciated about now,G-d.

Painting Exam Room #1 -part one

2007-05-06T12:25:00.000-04:00

This is exam room #1 and it was finished with the other two rooms back in January. I put writing about it on the back burner as it seemed kind of repetitive. It is now May and I am amazed that I got all three of these room done in one week! I have to say that sometimes I amaze myself. That happens with sewing too. I look back on projects I have done and sometimes wonder who did it. I don't remember being so impressed at the time, it was just something I was immersed in and wanted to get finished. Does that happen to you, too?

I've decided once again to keep the flowers the same shape for a more unified look, so here is one beginning to emerge in the corner where the garbage can goes.

I especially liked having a waist high table to work from while doing these rooms. I covered the exam tables with a clean plastic dropcloth and lots of newspaper and was able to set my stuff out for easy reach and organization.

The corners are always "interesting" to do as I have to climb up on a ladder and pretend I am firmly planted on the ground. I don't like being up at the ceiling. And besides, it's hot up there!

Three big flowers are the backdrop for the parents' chair and the Tree of Life branches are beginning to float down from the corner. It is gradually wrapping itself all over the office, just as Mother nature makes things grow out more and more as time goes by. By the time I get the branches to meander throughout this whole office, it will be time to move because they plan to knock this old building down in about three years.

If I were anybody else I'd probably stop painting all of this and wasting my time for something that is soon going to be destroyed. However, I'm not Michaelangelo, so it really doesn't matter does it?

Coffee Room Table - in place

2007-05-06T12:04:00.000-04:00

Table in place, in the office, with an original poster given as a gift to us when we opened our first office back in 1979. The colors are only slightly faded, but it works nicely with this table.

The table had to be bolted together, so I laid it down on an old quilt and went to work.

It bolted together nicely and you can see that I didn't even bother to paint the underneath part of this table. I usually do paint the underside of things since everything I've done so far can tip over. It's like wearing a slip. It's got to be just a pretty as the showy part. However, I really doubt that this table is going to be tipped anytime soon.

Here it is with the office chairs. ugh. Those chairs have got to go! Time for another trip to the "Wood You" store for something to paint that will complement the table. This stuff just doesn't end, does it?

Painting Glass - a new hobby

2007-05-06T11:29:00.000-04:00

After completing the yellow table for the office, I wanted to put something on it that was useful, so I painted up matching salt and pepper shakers for the table. This is them. Very cute. Easy to do too. I use Liquitex Glossies, a high gloss acrylic enamel paint that is great for glass. After painting, just let it set for 24 hours, then heat set it for 45 minutes at 325 degrees. Let it cool down for several hours in the oven and wallah! After washing the items again, they are ready to perk up your kitchen (or office) and use on a daily basis.

I had a butter dish in my closet that was so boring, I never used it. For years I just put the butter on the plastic holder that came with the refrigerator and that was that. NO MORE! Now I have a fantatic piece of art that sits in its' hallowed shelf in the refrigerator door and is a joy to take out and use.
My eyes really like color.

Painting the Coffee Room Table

2007-04-22T17:57:00.000-04:00

This is what I learned about myself today.

I like high contrast color.

Now you would think that I would know this about myself by this time. I mean even when I was a teen, all I ever felt comfortable wearing was a black top with a white bottom.

The contrast made me feel comfortable, no matter what. Okay, so maybe I was subconsciously looking for balance, but I know when it all started.

It was a black cotton top and it was room enough to just pull over my head. No buttons. No sleeves. And, it had the most beautiful 2 inch black cotton lace edging that I had ever seen. I loved ironing it.

The bodice had darts and was semi-fitted giving me the appearance of perfect emerging breasts. The top was gently gathered, empire waisted and long enough to cover the waist band of my shorts if I was standing up straight. It was just a cunning little blouse.

I wore it the summer I was 14, the summer I was 15 and the summer I was 16 years old. I don't know what ever happened to it, but today's painting brought back the memory sharp and clear when I was trying to decide what to do with the top of the table I was painting for the coffee room at the office.

I had already primed the bare wood with Kilz and painted the top with white and yellow high gloss enamel so that the top was streaked with the two colors.

I loved it as it was.

From a distance it was cheerful and had a natural movement that spoke to my heart.

For two weeks it sat in my garage/studio waiting for a decision. At this point though, it looked too much like my kitchen table and I wanted to try something new, even if I had to force it. What to do?

I tried several things using chalk to try out designs on the glossy paint. Did I want something balanced and geometric? Should I use some stamped designs?

What about blocks of color or irregular shapes that would incorporate the colors of the table legs?

Do you like the legs? A base coat of Kilz, a coat of yellow and then another color dry brushed on just enough to leave hints of the yellow underneath. Then, just to jazz it up a bit, I added some stripes so that each leg has four colors and lots of movement going all the way around.

I was happy to paint this table in parts right out of the box. I didn't have to bend over once to get to a hard to reach spot.

But, grrr, I just couldn't decide what to do. My stomache just wouldn't let me settle!

Question? "If I were me, what would I like?"

Answer: "If I were me, I would paint big simple flowers and I'd use the complementary color, purple. "

High contrast!

Now I could relax and finish this thing.

Purple is the complementary color to yellow. Put them together and they both sing!

The side view shows the black and white strips and some of the color that I've painted on each of the four sides.

It's going to look so good when I take it to the office and put it all together.
I'll post a photo after I've put on a few coats of polyurethane

In this photo I've slipped the legs into the holes just to get an idea of how it will look.

Is this cool or what?

If I were me, I'd say, " I just love this thing!"

Painting Exam Room #2 - last pix

2007-04-05T23:11:00.000-04:00

Once again, I cannot believe it has been so long since I posted anything on this little blog.
Being the office manager is taking over my life!!
I think sitting in front of a computer all day long isn't exactly encouraging me to come back here a compose some prose about my creative stuff. I tend to need a lot of down time after work and can only paint or sew or do other crafty things on the weekend, and after a satifying day of getting paint under my fingernails, I am not in the mood to compute!

Oh well, such is life. Not being able to be crafty as much as I use to makes it more sweet when I can pry open a paint can or plug in my Janome computer/sewing/embroidery machine.

The above photo shows how I am protecting my art work. A piece of plexiglas on the wall prevents the chair from making its' mark or a head of hair from darkening my flower.

The main wall is protected too, from kicking feet and curious sticky hands. The plastic goes up about two feet and is working out just great.

I still have the third room to show you, so I will try to be more diligent in the coming days.

Meanwhile, go outside and enjoy the first days of Spring. It is glorious here in south Florida, not hot, not humid, not rainy. Just right.

Exam Room #2 - part 2

2007-02-13T14:07:00.000-05:00

This is the best I could do to take a photo of just the wall art. The room doesn't have much back up space for a photo taken straight on.

This is the computer corner and cabinets. The branches of the tree of life continue to move through out the office. Again, there is a bug high up in the leaves for the patient to focus on during the eye exam. This time it's a green cricket, but you'll just have to take my word for it.

This is the corner over the door with a lady buy in the tree branches. I just remembered last night that I hadn't painted any apples on this part of the tree! Guess I have to get the ladder out again. More color would be good, too.

These palm tree fronds are highly stylized. Sometimes they look like a propeller or a fan more than a tree. This is where the viewer can use imagination to piece this fantasy space all together. If you can have a pink elephant, you can certainly have all the rest of it.

Painting Exam Room #2 -Pink Elephant

2007-02-06T07:50:00.000-05:00

This is Exam Room 2. The doorway trim is painted a high gloss purple and it has a lion of Judah mezuzah on the lower right hand side. The carefully written scroll of Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and 11:13-21 is curled inside. A reminder that all we see and do are sacred.

I really enjoyed painting this pink elephant with the bird hitching a ride upon her back. Many shades of color were made from my tube of magenta just by adding water to the acrylic paint. The White wall has an egg shell finish and is rough, making it easy to get variations in color.

Purple cone flowers were my choice for this room, a complement to the color purple around the inside and outside of the door frame. Even the bee has purple stripes.

The opposite wall also has the same flower. Nice and big, towering above the trash can and exam table. Here you can see some of the brush work I did. I used my very favorite scruffy chip brush to make the brush work stand out on the elephant and sky.

Painting Exam Room #3 - part 3

2007-01-27T18:25:00.000-05:00

I wish I had taken a photo of the mural before I put the table back, but it was 7 o'clock at night and I was too tired to even think about it. This exam table happens to be red, so painting the border the same color was a good choice. As you can see, this childlike theme is very much like an 8 or 10 year old's style of art (I hope), so getting straight lines was not what I wanted to do. When I walk by the room now, I often think of it as a larg quilt with soft fabric borders floating against that white, white wall.

Here we have the lady bug in the opposite corner. It's made of plastic and is about 3 inches around, so it is easy to see. Until I painted the tree branches and leaves, she was just hanging out there all by herself. I hope she feels a little more at home now.

As you can see, there is a lot of stuff in this corner of the room. It really does help to have a lady bug in the corner when the doctor is examining your eyes. We have a "paperless" office. Everything goes into the computer instead of paper charts. It's a nice system for us. No one has to pull files and we don't have to worry about storage. Since the office is rather small, it's kind of necessary. Also, pulling up information about a patient is only a click away and is immediately available.
Well, immmediately available as long as the Server is happy. The Server and I are on good terms most days. Most days. Some days she has me going in circles. Like people, some days are better than others, so I greet her in the morning with a smile, a pat on her plastic monitor and hope that is enough to keep her content.

To complete the helpful image trio, I painted a star on the ceiling over the exam table, so when Dr. K is pushing on soft bellies, there is something overhead to see. It's amazing how much it helps to have a known object overhead instead of just ceiling tiles. I've been a patient being wheeled about on a gurney in a hospital a few times, and nothing is as frightening as looking at the world from that most helpless angle. My eyes were always looking for a comforting symbol, something familiar. Well, yes, what I was looking for was my husband, but he couldn't always go into the O.R. with me. Sigh.

In order to protect my work from sticky hands and kicking feet, we had a large piece of Plexiglas installed over the lower portion of the wall. It extends below the table pad and runs all the way across the painting, so keeping it clean will be easy. There is another piece on the chair wall to protect the flowers. People tend to lean back and rest their head against the wall while sitting down, so that plastic is as high as the highest flower petal.

So far, everybody who has seen this little multicolored zebra has loved his arrival. I do, too.

Painting Exam Room #3 - part 2

2007-01-27T17:48:00.000-05:00

Finally!One room painted! This is the view patients see as they peer into the room. The doorway is painted a high gloss turquoise and has previously been referred to as "the blue room". There is a Noah's Ark Mezuzah on the right hand side of the door frame, low enough for most children to touch if they wish to, before entering the room.

This wall was the easiest to do, I must say. Big flowers, a simple design and several colors of red and magenta on my brush made it easy. I just chalked simple outlines of the flowers on the wall, placed the chair to make sure they would gather around it nicely, put on my painting apron and just started.

This is the opposite wall. There are a couple of faucets jutting out of the wall used by the previous tenant, for I don't know what, so I just ignored them. Notice that the flower patals are shaped differently, but are the same color as the ones on the opposite wall. I have decided now that I really don't like the effect. The shape just seems lonely all by itself, not being like the rest of the flowers in the room. Oh well, subconcious thinking sometimes shows up in art. As I did the second and third rooms, I got more "sophisticated" and kept the flower theme tighter.

The corner over the door shows branches extending from the Tree of Life that is in the waiting room. I plan to have the branches flow through out the entire office, unifying the theme.

A closeup of the corner shows a plastic cricket hung on the wall. And, see the leaf jamming its' way into the roo? Neat, huh? My husband tells the kids to look up into the corner at the cricket when he is examining their eyes with an ophthalmascope. It gives them something to focus on when he comes at them with a bright light an inch away from their eye. We all feel a little surprised when doctors do such things.
Might as well have something interesting to see!

Painting Exam Room #3

2007-01-20T07:58:00.000-05:00

Since the holidays are over and kids are back in school, we usually have a lull in activity at the office. I decided to use this time to do some more painting because my husband can see patients and use the other two exam rooms without getting backed up.

And besides, one of the mom's said to me, "When are you going to do something with these white walls, Adrian!? It feels so sterile in here!"

sigh.

I know, I know. Painting the walls has been on my mind all year long, but it's been so hard to get enthused about it when I have so much to do and am still learning this job: "office manager". ( is this punctuation correct?)

However, I've also been loathe to do anything because my husband doesn't want too much color on the walls. He needs to see the skin color of his little patients. Colors reflect on skin. If a newborn comes and and he's checking for jaundice, he doesn't want any yellow on the wall, that's for sure. And what about a new patient who comes in with a bad cough. That might mean wheezing and asthma or some other obstructive airway disease. Do you think a whole lot of blue would be good for that situation?
Nope.
So, the question I go over and over is, how can I add color, make it interesting and pretty, but not interfere with the whole purpose of the room, and still keep the very serious doctor happy?

The complaining mom gave me the very solution. She ended her happy tirade with, "Why don't you at least hang up some pictures?!"

"!!!!!!!"

What a great idea! As soon as she said it, I could see it on the wall. A mural. A contained splash of color. Something childlike, as the waiting room walls are. The theme of the Creation continuing on, but in a small space.

Zounds! I think I've got it!!!

Three Knitted Hats

2007-01-20T07:37:00.000-05:00

Here we go again. A looonng tiiimmme between posts.
sigh.
Work has been busy, with the days extending into night when I do more office book work from home, leaving me too tired of looking at the computer to even think of it as a tool for fun.

Sheesh, this making a living thing gets to be a drag for those of us who love to craft.

Anyway, enough about that! I did do at least a little something each day that kept my need for color fed, if not satisfied. I decided that knitting was the best way to go as I can sit with my feet up, have mindless TV in front of me and often a kitty in my lap, too.

This rolled brim hat is so soft and easy, I just love the colors and even if I don't wear it now, I can pretend I live in Colorado near our oldest son and his family and keep in on my table ready to grab it as I go out the door into 32 degrees.

Since the colors were really lifting my spirit, I added a little fun fur and made another one to mirror it.
Now I need to find a friend to go shopping with so we can wear these hats together.
My husband wore it to bed one night, but I still think he prefers baseball caps.

And, then there were three! Another favorite color combo. I always think of irises or pansies when I use green and purple together.

These were made using Caron Simply Soft Brites! on size 10 needles, two strands. That makes a nice 4 stitches per inch gauge.

Cast on 80 stitches and knit for about 1 3/4 inches.

Change colors and increase by 10 stitiches.

Knit for about 7 1/2 or so inches from the roll (not the bottom of the knitting, the bottom of the roll) and then, decrease on the next knit row.

I decrease the 10 stitches just doing knit two together every 7th stitch.

Purl.
The next row is knit 2, knit 2 together.
Purl.
Then knit 1, knit 2 together.
Purl.
Finish up doing knit 2 together all the way across.
Purl.
Repeat the last decrease row until you have anywhere from 10 to 5 stitches left and tie it up.

Blanket stitch the back seam and add some kind of embellishment to the top.

Then, if you are like me, you can display your colorful handywork on your favorite unused space.

Yeah, yeah, I know. It’s a kitchen table. Since our youngest son moved out, we eat in front of the TV, so this table, as beautiful as it is, and yes, I painted this, too) hardly gets used as much as it should be.

Sigh.

Changing the Hallway

2006-11-10T07:08:00.000-05:00

The hallway is the first thing patients see when they come in from the waiting room and I wanted to make it colorful, but had to get something done quickly.

So, the answer is beautifully colored, high gloss doorways.

It looked like this for quite awhile. White everywhere with a cool black and white floor.

And this is back to last year when we first signed the lease.

The walls were pink and the floor covered in a gray carpeting. The first thing to go was all the pink. I like pink, but it was so very '80's!

Buckets of white paint in a washable egg shell finish covered every inch of the office, making it feel clean and new again.

It's a year later now and I have just got to get more painting done. The walls are looking scuffed and abused and not so very pristine anymore.

sigh.

Painting The Waiting Room - part 4

2006-10-15T12:42:00.000-04:00

The rainbow wall. It came out great, even if the colors are upside down.

Every garden needs a dragonfly, and lady bug on a big red flower.

The dragonfly and tulips look oh so childlike and you can see Eva our receptionist and Penney, our nurse in the window where patients sign in. If you look carefully you can see a butterfly painted over a door bell. Kids like to push on it and because of all the paint on it, it rings and rings and rings and then we get a good belly laugh - especially from 2 year olds!

Painting The Waiting Room - part 3

2006-10-08T10:54:00.000-04:00

This is the right hand side of the waiting room with the receptionist opening in the wall. I removed the partition, so anyone coming in can feel they will be noticed right away.

It was fun drawing the arc for the rainbow. And coloring it in with many shade of each color was the best part of the project for me. A few weeks later, someone told me that I had the colors upside down.

Seems to me I did a good job of being an 8 year old artist, just like I wanted.

Painting big goofy flowers is something I've always wanted to do, but never had a legal place to do it. Now, with the rent we pay, I don't have any problem at all making marks on any and all walls that we see everyday.

Painting The Waiting Room - part 2

2006-10-07T22:40:00.000-04:00

Adam and Eve are forever entwined around the force that started it all. Love. At least that's what I believe. Eden wasn't a trap, it was and is such an incredible place of beauty that it's no wonder Eve just had to find out about it. Curiosity is what leads us out of that which is known and into the unknown. Ask any artist.

My desire for these walls was to paint them in such a way that it would look like a child had used crayons on the bumpy paper teachers give you at school. I found a way to work with cheap "chip" brushes using very little paint to get the effect. In fact, I absolutely had to hold myself back at times, because my grown up me wanted to perfect the images too much. Sometimes it's very hard to go back to the 8 year old mind and body.

Now you can see why I only painted three flowers by the door. All those chairs! I was still working on this and patients had to have somewhere to sit. Sheesh!

The color of the sky is purple indicating night and the unknown, the unseen, the moon making light that helps us to see, but we're not alway sure of the way because so much is still hidden. Like curiosity. It urges forward movement, but makes no promises about the outcome.

Don't you think G-d is surprised everyday?

Painting The Waiting Room -part 1

2006-09-28T18:45:00.000-04:00

I am now beginning the saga of how I painted the waiting room of our new office. This all started in October of 2005.

Every Sunday I would drag my paints into the waiting room, clear out all the chairs and look at the bare walls, hoping for inspiration.

It got pretty messy in there at times. I didn't have a premade plan. Just the desire for color and something, well, not usually done.

Since we were beginning a whole new way of life, the Creation theme got a hold of me and I have been leaning on it ever since. Here is the birth of Adam and Eve.

Peridot Swarovski Set

2006-09-27T10:11:00.000-04:00

It seems as if I need a lot of time to recover from my painting projects. It's been at least two weeks and I haven't had even one small impulse to go near a paint can.

Instead, I have been reading, watching old movies on Turner Classic Movie channel and cleaning my sewing room on the weekends.

The nice thing about cleaning out old stuff is that you rediscover stuff started that just needs a little tweaking to finish it off. I now have several bags of that kind of stuff.

This Swarovski crystal set was one of them. I had been wearing this sterling silver and peridot goddess pendent on a sterling silver chain, but it just didn't "pop". It mostly sat in my drawer looking pretty.

Now, with all the perfect shade of green crystals with an aurora borealis finish surrounding it, I wear it as often as possible. And the earrings and bracelet make me feel so fine!

Hand Painted Table & Chairs - at last!

2006-09-13T21:24:00.000-04:00

Here they are in all their glory. A table and chairs bright enough to glow in a brightly lit waiting room.

I took this photo in the early morning when the sun was rising in the east and keeping everything way too bright. You can see that even the verticles aren't able to shut out that intense light.

My, oh, my, how the high gloss enamel reflects every ray that arrives!

This is how they sat in the coffee room waiting for me to make up my mind about what I was really going to do to them.

I watched them for about two weeks until I just couldn't stand it anymore. Sure they were OK. But not OK enough to stay that way forever.

And, of course, this is how they were when they were first born.
Pretty wood. Nicely shaped. Solid looking.

Good enough to use as they were for about 10 whole months.

Like a blank canvas for an artist,
sometimes one has to be blank while the inner workings build up enough strength to be born.

Handpainted Rose Chair - the last one!

2006-09-10T19:01:00.000-04:00

Remember this? It was the first one I talked about. A very nice color. My front door is almost this color.

But this is the shade that I love the best. A deepened rose color that I never, ever tire of. The entire back wall of our bedroom is similar to this, only I did a color wash that makes the wall look like suede from a distance. And, I made a king size quilt based on it. I think I even posted some photos of it awhile ago. I'll have to check.

The final product.

I had more trouble choosing colors for this chair than I did for any of the others. I think because I just like it so much as it was. The deep shade of rose is my favorite color to be around in our house. However, it had to change to this to be part of the group, so it let me paint it over and over until it finally said, "enough".

I especially like the brush strokes on the seat of the chair.

They go sideways!

Stuff like that just comes up as you paint.

You just never know how it's going to turn out.

Turquoise Hand Painted Chair

2006-09-09T08:29:00.000-04:00

I just adore this color. I have made quite a few pieces of jewelry with turquoise stones. It is so much like our South Florida sky. But, once again, as I looked at it for about a week, I just couldn't leave it be.

Aren't these colors great with the turquoise base underneath? I especially like the dry brush effect. It looks a little rugged, and not only allows some color to show through, it is a great technique to use on childrens furniture because you know it's going to get banged up.

I use a really scruffy "chip" brush and mix two or three colors on the brush when I paint. I start out with a deep color, mix a little white on the side and then use some acrylic paint from a tube for an even darker slice of color.

Since it's all water base paint, it is very forgiving and seems to go on nicely. When it dries there is still mostly the high gloss of the white and main color, so it is a shiny finish - mostly.

I thought about applying a polyurethane top coat for protection, but wasn't so sure it would protect the paint enough. I've used it on other projects and still find paint chipping off with use.

Oh well. Use is a form of flattery.

Hand Painted Orange Chair

2006-09-08T07:32:00.000-04:00

This chair started out orange and then became something else.

And if you look closely, you can see little splotches of the orange still trying to peak through. It was a lot of fun figuring out what colors to use to add character to this little chair.

Here it is in the darkened orange stage. It was nice. It looked good with the other chairs in their solid color life, but as with all things that live, evolution must go on.
Stasis is safe, but not very interesting.

This is the baby orange chair with its' first blush of high gloss enamel. It's a very nice orange color. Not too red, not too yellow. Just right. Except it was born into my house and as such is destined to change along with everything else. I mean is anything ever truly done?

Hand Painted Purple Chair

2006-09-07T07:34:00.000-04:00

And here it is. Kind of hard to believe isn't it? Underneath all that color is the darkened purple base. I just couldn't leave it alone.

So, now it's got green, turquoise, orange and yellow enamel first lightened with white and then dry brushed with the darker shade.

This chair just dances with color!

And there really isn't anything wrong with this at this stage, is there? The purple enamel with a darker purple dry brushed over it give it depth and sure is interesting to the eye, but as much as I like it, it told me it just wasn't done.

Sometimes the inner artist sure has a LOUD VOICE.

Our humble beginning. Oh how far we had to go and I didn't even know it. I hope this chair is happy now, because I am taking it into the office with all of its' siblings and that is the end of it's current fix up state of mind.

Now it is at the office and is waiting to be used by lots of little kids with sticky fingers, who will sit on it, stand on it and knock it over on a regular basis.

sigh.

White Wool Ease - Fun Fetti Hat and Scarf

2006-09-02T15:32:00.000-04:00

It's finished! And, I just adore it. It was fun to knit, even using those awkward circular knitting needles. Once it's all on and the yarn is not twisted, it's fun to just be able to knit, knit, knit.

You can see the first Pom Pom I've ever made here in this side view. Cute! Fluffy! A nice balance to the rolled brim!

And now I am making a scarf to go with it. I'm using double strands again, but this time I'm using a pair of short, size 13, straight needles and just knitting every row making a loose, bumpy pattern that with be stretchy and comfy to wear. Both ends will have the Fun Fetti and I plan to make it very long so it can be wound around my neck more than once, or when I wear my long black wool coat the ends will be long too.

It's a shame you can't see the sparkles of the silver that is in this yarn. It makes the hat look like new fallen snow that is sparkling in the sun. I really, really like it. I just bought some more last week, 'cause now that I'm feeling better about those circulars, I can make gifts using it.

Knitting on Circular Needles

2006-08-27T19:28:00.000-04:00

I finally did it. I finally got up the courage to try to knit something on circular needles. I haven't tried to knit anything over the past several months, but I have been collecting things knitting related. Books. I just love to look over the possibilites of what a person can do with their hands.

As with any other craft I have tried, I collect all kinds of books on the subject and immerse myself in them, sometimes for months and months at a time before I try even one technique. I guess I learn by reading and then imagine myself doing the technique, eventually just getting the urge to try it out.

I couldn't find 16 inch circular needles in any of the craft shops around here, so I went on the Internet, Googled, "circular needles" and actually bought sizes I thought I could tolerate - nothing smaller than a size 8 for me - with matching double pointed needles, too.

These have sat in a box on my desk for about 3 months. Sigh.

Yesterday, I got a book by Lion Brand Yarns, "Just Hats" and read the one thing I needed to get me going.

Make a swatch. That's my swatch up there. I wrote down how I made it and what I made it with and attached the 3 1/2 x 5 card to it with a pin. Preserved for eternity.

OK, OK every yarn book on the planet says make a swatch before making a knitted article, the exception being scarves I guess, as most scarves will definitely fit most bodies.

Most of the time, I just didn't get started on a project because I didn't have the same yarn used in the pattern and, this put me off so much, I just let all the patterns I've collected off the Internet and from my books just sit and stare at me. I was afraid.

HOWEVER, this little book gives you the pattern based on your swatch. Not the other way around. I don't have to try to find a way to match the gauge the pattern calls for. I don't have to knit 4 or 5 or more swatches hoping to match the designer's gauge.

This backwards thinking in "Just Hats" sent me forward. I made a swatch using yarn I have, the size 11 circular needles I wanted to use and then measured how many stitches per inch I was making.

3.5. Or, about 14 stitches for a 4 inch swatch. I then calculated for a 20 inch head size because the swatch felt kind of stretchy to me and I figured that with my 22 inch head, it'll probably be OK. If not, I'll give it to my petite sister. Or I'll donate it. Or, I'll hang it on the wall as "art".

Anyway, I stayed up late last night getting the first three rows cast on and knit. All the books say, "be careful not to let the first row twist". Another thing that put me off circular needles. I have a hard enough time just casting on and now I have to worry about watching how the stitches line up on this impossibly small hoop in my hands! Oh, the worry for a Type A, first born, perfectionist type!

I got through this first three rows by following a suggestion made by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, aka, The Yarn Harlot. She said to knit the first row and second row as if you are using straight needles. Go back and forth. Then, on the third row, join the stitches. By then there is enough yarn knitted to keep the stitches straightened out.

I did it. And it worked. Thank you Stepahnie!

Today, after catching up on insurance EOB's (explanation of benefits) for the office, I gathered myself in my favorite chair and knit, knit, knit!

Doesn't it look good? This is actually the inside of the hat, but you can see how I am really using circular needles, for sure.

And, it's rolling nicely, 'cause that's what I want:
A Roll Brim hat, with no back seam. Don't you think the "Fun Fetti" is a nice touch? The white wool has little streams of silver running throughout, and I just love the way it looks.

The Yarn Harlot also said in "Knitting Rules!" that an easy way to measure the length to knit is to measure from the base of the hand to the tip of the middle finger of the person the hat is being made for. Then do the decreases for the crown.

So, letting the roll roll, I'll have to knit 7 inches more and then I will almost have a hat.

I hope this works!

Swarovski Crystal Earrings - I made myself!

2006-08-26T15:24:00.000-04:00

Aren't these beautiful? Last Spring I was getting itchy to learn a new craft and decided it was high time I learned how to wrap wire so I could make more interesting jewelry designs.

These are 12mm Swarovski Crystal. The color is Aqua AB, meaning the pale blue has an aurora borealis finish on them which makes them sparkle with rainbow colors.
Beautiful!

The caps and other findings are Sterling Silver, including the wire they hang on. The earring clips are lever back wires which make losing them much less likely. I wear these alot and since I'm on the phone at work so much of the time, I don't have to worry about them falling off and getting lost. Good!

I've been practicing making more because I just think these are so pretty and have finally gotten confident enough to make some as gifts.
OK, OK , if you look closely, the spirals of wire are not exactly perfect, but if you are standing that close to me to see that, then, sir or madame, you are too darn close!

There's a reason personal space is personal space - and this is one of them!

Sunday's I Paint

2006-08-21T18:04:00.000-04:00

Sunday's are a good day to go to the office to paint. After a whole day of rest on Saturday, I'm looking forward to doing something tangible and creative. With no phones ringing or a computer demanding my eyes, I can take out my pots of paint and have at something that is naked and dress it up with color, someway, somehow. This group of kiddy size table and chairs have been in the waiting room for 10 months now, getting grubbier and grubbier with each kiddy visitor. That's a nice kind of natural aging process, but I'm just not into it. I like COLOR!

I like to start at the bottom. Using high gloss water base enamel will make everything shiny and easy to clean.

This is a base coat of a gorgeous rose color. But, it is a little "flat".

So, I took my most favorite ratty chip brush and dry brushed some magenta all over it. Now it looks interesting.

I managed to get four chairs and the table base coated in 6 hours, at which point I had to stop because I started dropping things. A sure clue to stop, clean up and go home.

This is the beginning. I plan to add more color to each chair so there will be a veritable rainbow and hopefully, a funky playful place to sit and play. But that's gonna be for another Sunday I paint.

A Long Year

2006-08-20T08:40:00.000-04:00

I absolutely cannot believe that more than a year has passed since I wrote one word in this little blog! Guess because so much has happened to change the pattern of my days, it's really no wonder.

What happened?

Well, I started working outside my house, that's what happened. Not too far outside, but outside it is. It all started when my husband told his partners he was planning to retire in two years...
Not an unexpected event, really. He thought that when he turned 62, it would be a good idea to take up other interests. Put more time into his golf game. Work out more often. Travel to Denver to see the grandchildren. You know. Just ordinary stuff.

However, it turns out that his first partner didn't agree, suddenly, on the terms of the contract that had been in place for over 20 years.

Man oh man, what a mess! Lawyers, letters, disputes, and a lot of really childish behavior(his). This man figured since he was going to be left with the practice, he could arbitraily decide what he wanted to do with it. And, if my husband, who started the whole thing in 1979, was leaving, then he could keep all the money. (And not share any with my husband, ever)

Amazing what a lack of morals allows people to do. It didn't help that we had a contract that was "loosely translatable" either.

So, what to do? It took a year, but in the end, we decided to start our own practice - again. I had helped him set the first one up back in 1979. I am an R. N. and a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, so I was his nurse, his receptionist, his bookkeeper as well as wife and mom of our two young sons. Very young.

I really didn't want to work at that time. My kids needed me and I wanted to be with them. I had never planned on having them and then handing them over to someone else to raise. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know that's really old fashioned and probably not even politically correct anymore, but even in the face of the pressure put on by the women's movement, I still felt my place was home, home, home with my kids.

After a couple of years of frantic working schedules, I did finally quit when the practice was able to support a nurse, a receptionist and us too.

Being a home suited me. Suited us. Everybody knew I was there for them. For my husband, I was his center. For my children, I was their touchstone. And, I was there to carpool, cook, shop, get the laundry done, organize family parties and take care of our pets, the garden, cheap chic decorating the house and do volunteer work at the synagogue.

As the kids grew up, I had lots of time to do other things too. I started a small business and made beautiful prayer shawls for women. A chance to develop my sewing, machine embroidery, dyeing, fabric painting, silk ribbon embroidery and beading skills. So much fun to do! Soon, I made shawls for men and boys too. I got so busy I had to hire help. It was great. Then it got so busy it got to be unfun. I was running ragged around the edges and slowly pulled back.

I was kind of in a coasting mode and soon the grandchildren began to appear. New fun! New things to do! A different phase of life. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.

And then this. Now I am back to work full time. I have set up a new office for my husband.
And, let me tell you, it ain't like it used to be.

Everything is computerized and electronic. The charts, the billing, and really fancy phones!

And, everything is dependent on the medical insurance industry. They have complete control over every aspect of running a medical practice. If they decide to take you on as a provider of medical services, you have to run everything according to their rules. They tell you what has to be hung on your walls and what has to be in the charts. And they tell you what they will pay for and what they will not. And, how much.

It's a problem just getting them to give us enough money to cover the cost of the vaccines we have to give to our little patients. And some drugs they don't even cover! If my husband feels that a child needs a certain vaccine and that patient's insurance company doesn't cover it, we have to pay for it. And, according to some of these contracts, we are NOT ALLOWED TO BILL FOR IT. We take a hit because we want to do the right thing.

If you want patients to see you, you have to have insurance plans that they use. A pediatrician is considered a "primary care physician". A gate keeper. Ugghh! That means for most insurance that most people can afford, they have to have PERMISSION from their primary doctor to see any specialist they may wish to consult.

I am beginning to hate the word: Referral.

As office manager, I have to write all the referrals. It wouldn't be so bad if all they needed was a signed prescription, but it aint' so easy as that. Sometimes it takes as long as 45 minutes or two days to get permission from the insurance company for the patient to see a specialist.

It's really sickening.

Anyway, as this post is getting too long, I'm gonna have to stop. But, since I feel as if my head is just bobbing to the surface of a routine these days, I will make an effort to show some of what I am doing again. I am painting the walls and doors of the office, making it colorful and fun for the kids who have to face big scary needles and other unexpected insults to their beautiful young selves.

Note to self (and to anybody out their who has a business of their own) :

NEVER MAKE ANYONE AN EQUAL PARTNER.