Let it Fly

I think my heart might have just leaped :)

Can't see what that says ?  

Here, let's get a close-up.......

I'm going !

Can't believe it. Seriously.

Have a great weekend while I sit and comprehend this a little more :)

Sketchbook

This young lady popped out of my head and onto the page this morning.....

I've been spending alot of quality time with my computer this past week and finally figured out how to burn my own CD's ! Yahoooo... I wanted to enter a painting of mine into this show and they accept JPEGs on CD's, so that was my immediate motivation. It feels great to get a handle on some of these computer-related details but I have really been missing my creative work and need to spend some time painting, drawing and of course stitching, to get some balance back.

And, for those of you living in an area that is currently chilly and covered with ice (like where I live) here is a very cool (no pun intended) list of Winter projects shared by Global Mama. These are great for when the kids get restless in the middle of a snow day and you are running out of ideas :)

Hope you are learning new things and enjoying your work this week :)

Snow Day

No school today! It's been the kind of Winter I remember from when I was growing up. Snowing every week . White drifts everywhere. Here's what today looks like around here......

And something to do indoors when it's time to warm up......

Have fun where you are today!

Art Collection

Good morning out there. I bought one of Susan's wonderful ink sketches last week and it arrived over the weekend. I really love this. The figures each have their own personalities and expression and she hand draws them on old book pages. Mine happens to be drawn on a page from a Japanese book and I'm dying to know what it says!

This is "Daris" :

I love his boots......

It came simply wrapped with this pretty band of paper lace, which shows how easy it is to make something look extra special. Details :)

Thanks Susan!

Ice curtains and curtains

I've had this Anna Maria Horner fabric around for awhile now and was waiting for the right time to use it. I needed a small curtain for the door that is in my studio and since I do not own a sewing machine, I cut out the size and finished the hem, edges and curtain rod channel with fusible webbing strips! You just cut the webbing to the length of your hem, fold over the fabric and iron. The whole thing took about 1/2 an hour. My kind of project :)

Have you guys checked out Illustration Friday? It's such a great idea for a site and one I've been wanting to join in with.  There are a couple of technical hurdles I need to leap over to send in an image but it shouldn't take long. They have great directions so all I really need is a free hour or so. (Ha!)

Did you notice I finally figured out how to get a Flickr badge in my sidebar? Yay! It seems the last step was messing me up when it came to saving the code and putting the badge where I wanted it on the blog. I like how it brightens things up a bit around here.

Hope your days are productive and you're enjoying your creating.

Snow and postcards

Hey out there:) This is the scene from my front window today.

Snowflakes stacked in and out....

Hikes in the woods and snow fort building kept the kids around here busy this weekend.

I went into Boston on Saturday to see "Who does she think she is?" at the Museum of Fine Arts and it was wonderful. The auditorium was packed with people and you could feel the energy and anticipation buzzing around the room. The film talks about what it is like to be a woman in the art world and the challenges women and especially mothers' face trying to find an audience for their work, and trying to balance their creating with their personal lives.. There was more humor than I thought, which was a great surprise, and there was an emotional charge felt in that room that is hard to describe. Let's suffice it to say there were gasps, sniffles and laughing heard throughout the screening and a huge round of lasting applause at the end. See it if you can.

I also had some fun with my printer in the last few days and created some postcards from one of my photographs. They will be used as thank you cards to all the people who supported the SWIM this year by purchasing the 2008 holiday ornament that I designed. Thanks ahead of time everyone! and look for one of these in your mailbox....

I bought some cardstock so the cards would be sturdy and although this batch will work out ok, I would rather have had an even heavier weight for postcards. I'll be checking out some more options before another round of printing takes place. My main concern was that the thicker paper would not get through my home printer and I didn't want to jam it up. Research is required!

Hope you enjoyed your weekend :)

back soon.

Arts and Crafts

Happy Friday out there ! 8 degrees today.....can you believe that? If you are in the Northeast, you may want to consider thermals today :)

I have been wearing one of the pendants I made in my jewelry class in November. The final touch was to add the silver metallic thread and string it on a silver chain. The patterns can really be endless depending on how you "connect the dots" with thread and what color thread you use. I love how this idea has shaped up and am going to continue to explore it this year.

Also, my son is a huge sports fan and has been patiently waiting for me to finish this Boston Celtics logo

on his bedroom wall. It was all sketched out but for some reason, the painting got put off for awhile. Well, I knocked out most of it yesterday and will finish the circle around the logo today....no excuses ;)

I think the Boston Red Sox logo is next.........

In other news, it looks like SQUAM may actually be a reality for me in 2009! I really didn't think it would be something I could swing this year but then realized I was too busy coming up with reasons why I couldn't go instead of concentrating on saving money and making it happen. It really is too easy sometimes to slide into the same old habits of why we can't do something instead of finding the means to just do it. And sometimes all it really takes is courage :) Fear is a powerful roadblock, yep. 

Have a great weekend and enjoy your work today.

Open Road

So, the Christmas tree is still standing but I couldn't stand to do nothing but chores with the newly found "back to school" freedom I was experiencing the last few days. I think laundry, grocery shopping and paying bills were enough. And so I've spent time working on sketches for the 2009 SWIM ornament, and letting my mind wander farther into the new year to make plans. These are just a couple of the exciting things I found today......

Squam Workshops 

~I didn't make this last year but..........maybe ;)

Storm King

~A very cool looking place my parents have visited in upstate New York. The catalyst for me wanting to visit is Andy Goldsworthy work onsite :):)

I'll leave you with a photo that goes with the title of this post. Where are you going to go this year?

Tree withdrawal

I think I know who will be missing our Christmas Tree the most ;) 

Hello out there! Happy New Year to all and welcome back. My ten day (maybe more like 16) break has come to an end and I'm glad to be back here. Did you enjoy ushering in the New Year? My weeks were filled with snow, gift-giving, family and friends and way too much cookie eating. (As I sit here and eat yet another chocolate covered morsel with my cup of Chamomile.) The holidays this year were sweet and calm and relaxed and even though we were busy everyday, there didn't seem to be a great urgency for anything. No chaos. No real have-to's. A whole lot of snuggling and silliness and even a new adventure thrown in to keep us awake and feeling alert.

It seems most of my creative urges have gone into baking and crocheting for the past couple of weeks, but now that the holidays are past I have ideas that need to come to life. Here's to another year of creating!

But first, to take down that tree and break the news to the cat ;)

Back soon...