Let it Fly

Kids weekend:)

Good afternoon (almost said good morning)! My Monday is flying by.

The weekend was fun and full of action. One 8 year-old basketball game, one round of household chores, two cakes won at a school sponsored "Family Fun Day" in a great game called "Cake Walk" (kind of like musical chairs but the prizes are cakes :), and topped off with this Dr. Suess tale! Nothing makes you feel like a kid again like hanging out with an 8 and 10 year-old for two days straight :)

I also decided to sign up for a weekend workshop here in April and can't wait to get going. One of my goals for 2008 is to learn more (through workshops and courses) ,about business practices for artists. I think the timing is right for this kind of course although I was extremely tempted to sign up for any one of the hands on creative courses. Take a look at that course guide! fun, fun, fun. Maybe next year for stained glass, huh?

Hope your weekend was full of childlike adventure....;)

back soon.

On the flip side

While working on this latest stitch piece at the studio yesterday, I couldn't help but notice that the back of the work had some interesting things going on. With the thread ends showing and some zig-zagging and cross-over happening, it has this whole other "chaotic" feel on the flip side. The fronts of these pieces are somewhat orderly and have a natural progression to them that makes sense. The back side has alot of random lines and unexpected tangles.

 

Of course, as I often do, I started to think about how art reflects life. While most days seem like a straight line with little variation and dependable, predictable outcomes there is a constant undercurrent of disorder, energy, and chaos on the flip side. Unexpected cross-overs and forks in the road. Something always there to keep us on our toes ;)

I think learning to find the beauty in both sides is probably a good idea....... ?

Have a great weekend :)

And now for something completely different....

So, my daughters' school has a program where they take your childrens' artwork and can put it on a product. It could be a mug, the cover of a journal, a clock face, and in our case she chose a quilt square. Now I've mentioned here before that my sewing talents are somewhat limited by the fact that I don't have a sewing machine . I have managed to hand-stitch some small items in the past so when she said she would like a small pillow , it was easy to say yes :) (if she had said " a quilt" I would have been in serious trouble ;)

The artwork....

The process...

The back....

The front !

A little Spring time pillow :)

Have a great Thursday where you are :)

shadow, light, and me

Playin' with the sun today at the studio......

:)

Easter Weekend

Good Morning! It was a fun weekend visiting family and celebrating Easter. I managed to get in a little stitching on the road and more than enough eating throughout the weekend. Yum :) Here's some photos:

And this is a gorgeous birch tree in front of my parents home that I've been wanting to take pictures of for months now. The sun was bright and the sky was blue so Sunday was the perfect day :)

We are off to a busy start this week and my "to do" list is growing by the minute. When the sun starts to shine it seems like the calendar fills up simultaneously.

Hoping to check a few things off the list today. Enjoy your day!

All's well

After a week + of trying to outlast a nasty virus, it seems that everyone in my home is now well again (fingers crossed!) In all the commotion I've done nada, zilch, zippo on my stitch pieces and have not seen the studio walls in days. Such is life :)

Now that we are on the edge of the Easter holiday and at the very doorstep of Spring, I am set to bake cookies for sharing, filling Easter baskets for giving, and just plain looking forward to spending the weekend with family.

Here's a photo from last year......a little glimpse of Spring things to come?? you bet .....

I'll be back here next week. Take Care.

~A

Shadows from trash?

So the "trash can from trash" did cast a cool shadow.....several in fact. I may have to do a few of these.

Stay tuned :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day !

There are three Irish folk in our house and even though I am not one of them, they say everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's Day right?  Here are some green carnations in a beer mug to celebrate!

Having a whole day to print my lino blocks last week was so great and it's got me thinking and sketching again. I also saw an ad for this exhibit and I want to get into Boston asap. The first print you see when you open this link is so wonderful, I can only imagine what the other 99 are like....

Have a great Monday... :)

Trash can from trash :)

Here's the finished product !

This was fun to do but did take a bit of time so if you want to try it, leave yourself a few days. I used one catalog that was about an inch thick and then finished the top with about 20 more pages from a color magazine. Each little ring is one page. I thought this would be a great school project, and it would, but I think it would be good to have kids build these in teams. The whole process would go faster. I had some help from my daughter who was very good at making the rings!

Here's another angle:

Can you imagine the cool shadow that would be cast from this ?? I'm waiting for the sun this weekend and I'm going to try and capture it!

Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by :)

Dirty fingernails ;)

Well, yes. It was a printing day. A lovely, quiet, satisfying printing day that left me with ink under my nails and a big smile on my face. Yes, it was back to the studio today after two days home with my poor daughter and her belly-illness :(  She was a sweet patient and was off to school feeling much better today, thank goodness. So, I was off to work.

And here's what I did.......

It was time to print those blocks that have been hanging around.

And, I finished the "trash can from trash" this evening. I'll take some photos tomorrow and show you how mine came out!

Have a good night...back soon.