30

So here it is...

At 11:11 am eastern time, I turned 30 years old.

I've had more people sing to me today. My sister sang to my voicemail, my coworker Marcia sang to me as I walked down the hall into the office, Melissa called me to sing to me, and while I was on the phone solidifying birthday plans for Saturday with Juli - her mother jumped on the other line and sang to me!

And the one person who I expected to call me bright and early this morning to wish me a happy birthday, didn't. Seriously, I had to call my mother at 2:30 to make sure everything was alright, that she was still alive, because this is her thing...she lives to call people on their birthday and sing to them! I mean, come on...everyone I know has wished me a happy birthday and the woman who bore me in her womb for 9 months, gave birth to me and nurtured me for my entire life, forgot! I'm her youngest child! I'm the spoiled one...mommy and daddy's little girl! I feel loved. My sister suggested that we disown her. I have to cut Ma some slack though - she is trying to clean the house and prepare for about 20 people for Thanksgiving dinner!

As for tonight, no great and amazing plans. There's much well wishes and singing in my family, but birthday parties are really not a big thing...unless I plan them and make my family help me, and I draw the line at planning a party for myself. That's just not as much fun! But Juli's family throws me a little party every year and their always, always fun! This year it's on Saturday and Juli is scouring her house for wrapping paper, bags and bows for my presents. YIPPEE!

I'm not sure if I feel any older or wiser or different...but I've only been 30 for little more than 4 hours and I didn't expect an immediate change. I firmly believe that you're only as old as you feel...so some days I'm still 10, other's I'm 60. But no matter what age I am, so long as I'm learning new things and having fun, it'll be a good age!

So hello 30, I'm interested to see what lies in store for us, what adventures we'll go on and what fun we will have!

What I Learned Wednesday

"still life - bottles on cloth" - india ink and china brushes

Yippee! It's back!

I missed two drawing classes in a row due to family gatherings on Halloween and then the David Bowie Disease, but I went last night. We started playing with India Ink and seeing how China brushes worked and the variations in the lines that it makes. I have to say that I didn't like the ink and brush at first. I felt that it wasn't a controllable medium and I was suddenly back to drawing like a little kid...but then, I let go. I stopped trying so hard make what I was drawing look so exact. I gave in to the flow of the brush and I really enjoyed the freedom of it, the shape of the lines and the texture.

My teacher then went on to discuss perspective (which we will be delving more into next week) and geometric shapes, letting us play with them by drawing stacked books. I wasn't exactly impressed by how my pictures turned out. I just wasn't getting the hang of it! I was having issues with the angles and trying to get them the way I was seeing them; they looked so skewed, but that was toward the end of class when I was feeling a bit dizzy. It was all that focusing, it made my head spin.

I really enjoy this class but...I'm a little disappinted. You see this was the first class of the second half of the course, so our numbers changed and a handful of the fun people from the first part of the course didn't come back. The change in numbers doesn't bother me, it's just...well, some of the people, 3 in particular, do. I like to call them the Sunshine Sisters ~ like rays of FREAKIN' sunshine, these women are. And if you can't tell, I'm being sarcastic!

To start with, they're all deaf, so you have to speak loudly and repeat yourself continously. And. They. Are. Sooooo. Negative! Everything they create is horrible and every other sentence out of their mouth starts with "I can't". I want to ask them, "Well if you can't, why the hell did you pay to take this course!?!", but I hold my tongue and try to ignore them. I'm in this class for me, to learn and hone a craft that I enjoy!

But last night was almost a "straw that broke the camel's back" moment. My teacher kept asking them to show her their work so she could make suggestions and help, to make them see what she wanted us to learn. They would hide their work and say they didn't need help, or complain that they just didn't understand what she wanted or just bitch saying, "Well I can't do that". We had the radio on just because it gets so quiet in the room and some christmas song started playing. It was random and kinda nice - a bit of a holiday jolt to get you in the mood for the coming season. These women were so vehement in their hatred of hearing Christmas music and kept repeating, "I just hate it - it's horrible. Nothing Christmas should be put out or played until a week before!" Being a lover of all things Christmas, it made me want to slap them! I am not a violent woman, I'm pretty easy going and laid back, but these women just get on my nerves!

I'm trying to see from their point of view that maybe something traumatic happened to make them hate the holiday season, or maybe they just don't like it on principle, but why spread your hate and discontent to others - does it make you feel better making others as miserable as you? And here I am blogging about it, spreading it even more by relating it to others around the world - okay, I'm stopping. They're hate and discontent is rolling off my back like water off a duck.

And on that note, I'd like to say...I love Christmas! I love the whole rosy feel of the season! And so long as I'm not battling traffic or shopping on a crazy busy day, I have a permanent smile on my face. I know better than to work in retail during the holiday season, or shop during peak hours during holiday. Some people thrive on that. I avoid it. I go out in the woods and collect pine & spruce boughs and twigs of red berries to decorate the outside of my house with. I cook, so the house smells delicious and christmasy. I watch old movies like Holiday Inn, the Bishop's Wife and White Christmas (they are my personal holiday mood booster movies).

So be prepared, I will be posting much about Christmas!

Have a wonderful day all! I have to go down the House of Reps and see if my friend's husband still has a job...oh the stress of working in an ever changing political environment!

Artistic Inspiration

Must share this link to a You Tube video that is totally amazing. It's so artistically inspiring and the details, the designs...wow! It's long, but seriously worth the watch!

Cheers!

The David Bowie Disease

So for the last 11 days, I have been suffering from Labyrinthitis...or as my sister calls it, The David Bowie Disease (as in the 80's Jim Henson movie Labyrinth, starring David Bowie and Jennifer Connelly) - it's a form of vertigo caused by an inflammation of the inner ear making you feel like you've got a severe case of the spins. My doctor thinks that it was triggered by having a flu shot 2 Wednesday's ago...and can I tell you how much this has sucked? I really couldn't watch tv, I couldn't get on the computer, I couldn't drive - I felt like I was continuously motion sick without getting sick. I had to take a medication that made me sleep and made me loopy, it was horrible!

I was walking through my house holding on to things and my mother had to come up to stay with me. I feel better now, though. I'm not 100%, but I can drive again. I still have moments when I feel like the world is pitching to the left and my vision goes blurry every now and then when I stare at the computer, but it's not near as bad as it was.

I'm back to work today and thankfully I still have a job! Well for now. With the recent election, my job relied on two things, 1) having more Democrats elected to our State Senate. We only have 35 Senate members and the D's retained the majority by only ONE Senator. ONE! Do you know how nerve wracking that is? and 2) the Leadership vote, which means that the nerve wracking sensation continues until Sunday, when the caucus will meet to vote for President, Majority Leader and Majority Whip. This didn't bother me before, my boss was a shoe-in, everyone loves her and there were no rumors floating that anyone else wanted to be President of the Senate...at least not until this morning, when I found out that there is one Senator who has made his intentions known. He will be running against my boss for her job as President...and it worries me. He's a former long running Speaker of the House from Northern Maine who has been either a Senate or House member for the better part of 40 years!! He's a very smart man, who's actually not that old (he started here when he was in his 20's) - he's the one that everyone goes to with questions because he's been here so long and he remembers everything! The consolation that I'm clinging to is that the last time he ran for Senate President, it was against my boss...and she won. So here's hoping she'll win again.

Working here is so touch and go. You're job is only guaranteed for a two year period of time. Basically, if the other Senator is voted in as President, he could keep me or he could eliminate my job or give it to someone else. There are no guarantees.

Bear with me my friends, for this will be a bit of a nail biter week for me...coupled with the labyrinthitis. ugh!

What I Learned Wednesday, 100, 16 & 30

What have all of these to do with each other?

What I learned...

was that almost my whole class was off celebrating Halloween and that we would be having a catch up session next class, so off I went back home to the scents of chicken pot pie and magic bars, but my mother adjusted the recipe and instead of a graham cracker bottom, she crunched up pretzels! YUM!!!

My family stayed for a few hours and chatted while the dogs ran rampant through the living room, wearing little doggie witch costumes, stealing toys from each other. (Yeah, we're that sad family that dresses our dogs. Sadie has a santa hat and my friend, Juli, got Molly an elf costume - Christmas is going to be great).

100....this is post number 100!!Who knew that 100 posts ago, I'd still be blogging; I'd still have thoughts and ideas and pictures and recipes and craftiness to share; that I'd virtually meet so many interesting and like-minded individuals. I'm really happy to have found my way into this little Blogiverse!

16 & 30...in 16 days, I turn 30. The big 3-0! I haven't really stopped to think what turning 30 means. I still feel 25. Things haven't really changed...well, no that's not true. 5 years ago, I was going through a rough patch with the man I was going to marry (it ended with us splitting). I was working in a retail job that I hated, passionately (I'll give you a hint - it starts with old and rhymes with slavey). I was living with my parents. I had no social life (due to the job) and really wasn't the happiest, most fun person to be aroun. So yeah, things have changed quite a bit. But I don't feel *different*, I don't feel like I've hit a turning point or anything. It doesn't feel major yet.

But I am curious. What will the year of turning 30 bring?

Alas, it is time to pack up and head home for an evening of creating! I hope your Wednesday brings wonder and joy!

HAPPY HALLOWE'EN!

The Halloween Tree - Ray Bradbury

original artwork for his story of the same title

"Twas the night of All Hallow's and all through the room

Not a creature was stirring not even a broom"

~ 'Twas All Hallows Eve by Thomas James Martin

I love Halloween (almost as much as Christmas)! I love everything about it - the tricks, the treats, the decorations, carving pumpkins, scaring yourself silly (despite not being a big horror fan). It's a moment in time when you can walk into public wearing the most outlandish things and it's completely normal! Watching Hocus Pocus, It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and reading Ray Bradbury's The Halloween Tree.

Every Halloween, my mother makes a big beef stew with chunks of potatoes and carrots, homemade bread and apple pie. The house just overflows with the scents of comfort food! My family comes over, neighbors and friends stop in to visit for a while - their halloween bedecked kids in tow. And where my house is so centrally located, we easily get over 100 kids every year!

But this year, I've felt very un-Halloweenie. My parents weren't going to come up because it's a Tuesday and Dad has to work tomorrow. I have drawing class tonight, so I wasn't going to be home. My niece was going to a friend's house, while my nephew was heading out to make mischief with his friends, so my sister decided to stay home this year. So I didn't buy candy, I didn't carve pumpkins...I didn't even decorate!

Now...well, Mum and Dad are up, Mum's baking as you read this. Both my sister and my brother (who's birthday was yesterday - happy 36th, Derek!) are coming over...and I still have a class...and there's still no candy...or jack-o-lanterns...and the house is still undecorated. And I'm sad, because I wish I had known - I wish I had decorated and bought candy and got into the Halloweenie groove!

Okay, I'm done whining; I'm over it...well not really, but I will get over it.

And by Lord and Lady, my house is going to be so decked out for Christmas, it'll look like the spirit of Christmas *heaved* her Christmas cheer up on it!

bat confetti that I found on my desk this morning - a present from my co-worker Deb!

Oh, and since I didn't post my "What I learned Wednesday" last week, I never told you that we learned about Negative Space and framing:

This is the negative space between chair legs that I did in class. And here is my homework for tonight - the negative space around my sewing machine (and of course, I couldn't get the digital the same as how I viewed it while I drew, but you get the idea):

and I caught myself putting in too much detail - I'll probably hear about it tonight! I'm not sure that I like negative space, but I understand how important it is.

Anyhoo, Happy Tricks & Treats, everyone!

Welcome Monday

What a weekend!

It started off Friday night with a farewell to my friend Melissa, who wasn't really going anywhere; she made the smart decision to leave a horrible and boring job in a more horrible office and strike out on her own, becoming a daycare provider! Yay for her! This something she really needed to do. She was just a big bundle of stress more often than not and very, very unhappy. Now she can spend more time with her husband and her two girls, she'll be at home and she's her own boss! But I miss her terribly and it's only been 1 day :^( She was my lunch buddy. We'd skip out of here most afternoons and just hang out, go shopping, get lunch or a hot chocolate, then commiserate that we had to go back to work. We were but a simple email away from each other that was normally answered in seconds flat! Thankfully she only lives a 5 minute drive from me and we've set aside Thursday nights to hang out, watch Grey's Anatomy and catch up with each other on the week.


Saturday brought rain and wind the likes of a hurricane! I skipped over to my parents with the dog to spend the night and catch up on some Christmas present crafting. Melissa let me borrow her Singer Serger and I was dying to play with it. So as the wind whipped and the rain lashed, my mother and I watched the companion video for the serger, learned to thread it and figured out what it could do...and then the power went! 30,000 people in Maine, stuck without power. Out came the candles and the flashlights and battery powered radios, the fleece pajama pants, sweatshirts and blankets; off went the furnace, the refrigerator, the ability to use the oven (thank god for a gas burner stovetop) and the ability to shower, wash dishes or use the toilet; down came the 5 gallon buckets and rope to dip them in the lake for water to fill the toilet tank, because I really wasn't about to live without a flushable toilet! And I spent the rest of the evening reading my book by candlelight and fell asleep to the sound of the freight train wind. By Sunday morning and no end of the power outage in sight, we packed it in and headed to my house, 45 minutes away. If the wind and rain hadn't been so vicious the night before, we would have left then, but it wasn't safe!


Sunday also brought the finishing of 2 projects and the start of a new one:

The World of Warcraft Imp minion for Juli and Maddie, and the Blue and Yellow Quilt Fairy for my aunt's friend. I'm very pleased with the finished product on these! The creation of the Imp proved to me that I could work outside the box when creating. His body is fabric, but his claws, horns and wings are polymer clay. He was out of the ordinary and made me create a pattern completely different from my fairy pattern! In some aspects he was easier - no wings to sew, no beading to add, no clothing - but in other ways he was more difficult because I had to figure out how to give him claws and horns and a tail. He had to be wired in certain ways and because he was all angular and hunched, he had to be propped up if he was going to look right.

The project I started, I haven't taken a picture of but I put that serger to good use and created a pair of flannel pj's pants for my sister (just need to finish the waistband and hem). The fabric is so great! It's covered in Mexican dishes, little cati, margaritas and sombreros and it's totally perfect for her! Her motto is, "When in happiness, harmony or doubt - have a margarita and everything will be that much better!" I need to get a coordinating colored t-shirt and stencil a margarita on it and buy her Coconut Lime Verbena lotion from Bath & Body Works (to her, it smells like margaritas - it's the lime).

Have a happy Monday all and I'll be back tomorrow to show you my "Negative Space" drawings (and I'm so excited, I should have my new glasses by the end of the week - I hope, I hope! Fresh, scratch free lenses, new funkier frames. I can't wait!)

Oh, and another whoo-hoo. My truck was making noises, so I brought it out to my mechanic, fearing the worst (a week being fixed and a ungodly expense); my mechanic just called to tell me it would be done tomorrow morning and the price tag wasn't going to be an arm and a leg (he said about an arm, but only to the elbow!!) You know it pays having a family friend for a mechanic!

A Week of Intentions

I know we all compose blog posts in our heads (come on now, admit it, you do, too!) but that seems all I have done this week, compose these great blog posts in my head and when I finally get a free moment to post...*poof*...gone! Or I think, "Oh, I can write about...wait, no I haven't taken the pictures yet...oh but...nope, no pictures of that either." It's very sad!

This week's "What I Learned Wednesday" was going to be all about negative space - did I take pictures of what I drew? No. And Wednesday was such a hectic day that I gave up ever trying to type what I learned, how much fun I had, how much more I need to practice and how the teacher thinks I'm too detail oriented (since when is that a bad thing?)

I finished a fairy this week and actually took pictures of her. Did I upload them to Flickr? No.

I've almost finished the Imp that Juli and Maddie requested - haven't taken pictures of him.

I've been making little snowmen and christmas tree ornaments for the December craft fair - nope, didn't take pictures of those yet, either.

There's the mail that I sent out to dear Shari - well, no I can't blog about that until she gets it. Then I can post the pictures that I did remember to take!

There were even more treasures rescued from the bowels of the garage top that could have been photographed but weren't.

It seems like a million things have happened this week: I ordered new glasses that are much funkier than the ones I currently wear, my vehicle conundrums, the new sewing machine I bought for my mother for Christmas, today being Melissa's last day here at work (*sniff, sniff* I'm really going to miss her - not that I can't just go to her house for visits, but it's not the same as having her right upstairs and seeing her everyday!) All these great and wonderful and not so wonderful things I could blog have blogged about...but I didn't.

So I'm ending this week of unfullfilled intentions with a post about what I coulda, shoulda, and woulda done, but didn't.

How boring is that?

Next week will be better. I'll have a picture taking weekend and start writing down those random, mentally composed blog posts or better yet - I'll start carrying my little tape recorder with me! If I had a cell phone, I'd leave myself messages, but I don't. I'm probably one of the few people in the world who doesn't have one permanently attached to my hand (gave it up almost a year ago - wasn't worth the cost).

Have a happy and productive weekend, everyone and next week I will be more organized!

week 3 homework

"wine by candlelight"

soft charcoal, vine charcoal and china marker

I really don't feel that I took my time with this. Funny how you can tell just by the finished product. I know I didn't focus as much as I should have and the depth is all off! At least I can recognize this and work on it for next time.

Hi, my name is Tiffany and I'm a recovering Strawberry Shortcake Addict

So this week is junk week in my town. A time that only comes around every two years...when everyone cleans out their homes, their garages and tells all their friends "Bring all your crap to my house!" You pay the town a set fee (extra for computers and t.v.'s - anything considered univeral) and you pile as much as you can on your front lawn. Then the town crews come around with dump trucks and bucket loaders and whisk your old stuff away. It leaves you with a very renewed feel!

I made my parents come look at things within my house and garage (as they still have soooo much stuff stored there) to see what we could purge. My Dad diligently (and precariously, I might add) climbed into the depths of the storage space above the garage and you would not believe the amount of stuff he got rid of! Before, there was only a small tunnel to practically crawl through to reach the other end, now there is soooo much space...it's beautiful!

During this adventure, he pulled out a lunch box and asked, "Wasn't this your sister's?", I practically screamed, "NO!!! That's mine!" but instead said, calmly, "No, Dina was too old for Strawberry Shortcake" (My sister is 8 years older than me). Inside, I was doing the happy happy dance of joy when I saw it!

My parents bought this for me back in the early early 1980's...back when my whole world was Strawberry Shortcake. I had the dolls, the village, the scented miniatures, the bedspread and sleeping bag, the night light, the big doll...I was a 5 year old Strawberry Shortcake Addict. Oh how I loved Strawberry! And this lunch box went everywhere with me. The thermos is now long gone and there are some rust spots on it, but what do you expect of a 25 year old metal lunch box? It's lucky to still be intact! When you open it up, the metal clasp that help the thermos is still there and the inside lid has an entire piece on child safety, not talking to strangers, etc. etc and was especially geared to those who walked to school, as I did. Oh, Aladdin Brand lunch boxes - you truly looked out for us! With your wise words and metal edges that hurt like hell if swung it at someone (I was a bit of a brute at times - it was the only way to keep the older boys from teasing you because they didn't expect you to fight back...or fight dirty).

When I wasn't using this for my lunch, I would pack all my mini's into it and cart them around the house, making them go on adventures. I had a very vivid imagination and every corner and crook of my house became a Strawberry Shortcake Wonderland. The bathroom sink was a great lake that had to be crossed and invariably, someone was going to "almost" drown, only to be saved at the last minute by her friends. My mother's hutch became a huge mountain that they all would scale (and yes, someone was bound to fall off the mountain face...it wasn't an adventure unless there was a daring rescue!)

The memories that flooded back with this lunch box...oh, what fun! It will now sit on the shelf in my kitchen for all to see, reminding me of the great joy it brought during childhood.

Did you have a favorite lunch box as a kid? Something chocked full of memories?

Have a "berry" nice day, everyone!

(oh, I know, that was a horrible horrible pun. I'm sorry! I couldn't resist. Bad, bad, bad!)

fly me away...

I was going through some of my pictures, trying to find something to post that I've never used. Something interesting because I'm having an uninteresting day, and I came across the pictures my friend sent me from her trip to Ireland.

I love this picture! It's the Stonehouse Restaurant (a 15 minute drive outside of Dingle), where my friend's ate. Looking at those pictures really makes me want to go! I've never been to Europe and I think it's due time. I'm turning 30 in 27 days (not that I'm counting) and there are a lot of places I've never been.

Blogging and checking out people's pictures on Flickr really makes me yearn for a new adventure. I mean I love where I live and enjoy my job, but I really think I need to take a vacation where I get on a plane and travel well outside my country and comfort zone. It's the budget that has been preventing any form of travel, but you know...others make it happen on a shoestring budget, why can't I?

Oh, so speaking of travel - this is a must share. I stumbled upon pictures by Dan Kutner via Flickr but then hit upon his actual website and wow! Take a look at his New Zealand picts (the land ones) – amazing, simply amazing!

I hope this weekend proves fun and exciting for everyone! Enjoy!

bye bye fall

these pictures almost don't look real, like they are painted.

autumn is leaving as swiftly as it rushed in. rain and wind have let loosed many a golden, rust and pumpkin colored leaf. and my lawn is calling to me to grab my rake and clean it up.

i've vowed to do a better job at composting my leaves this year. i'm actually putting them into a bin to let them biodegrade, so that i can easily use them in my gardens next year. i don't enjoy raking, so i end up leaving them until spring, when they are wet and miserable, making them harder to rake, making my back ache, which inevitably is why i don't enjoy raking. i just need to rake them now and get it over with...or mow them over and let them mulch in to my lawn...hmmmm. no, no then i wouldn't be able to use them as mulch in my garden.

ah, fall clean up - my back despises you!

i hope fall clean up (0r spring for those of you in other parts of the world) isn't such a hassle! for some reason, spring doesn't seem so much more labor intensive...though i really think it is. maybe it's the anticipation of what all your hard work will bloom into that makes it more fun than putting the garden to bed for winter. which do you prefer, spring planting or breaking it all down for winter?

happy thursday all! we're one step closer to weekend bliss!

what i learned wednesday

"bottles" using vine charcoal and black china marker.

ah...another week of drawing class!

last night we were introduced to the wonderful world of blind contour. we were not allowed to look at our paper while we drew (using china markers for this segment), only to stare at our subject; to really focus and concentrate on the shape, the edge - how it looked, how it felt. it was very much a "be the ball" moment (for those who don't know: "be the ball" - a classic chevy chase line from the movie caddyshack).

i chose a beer bottle, a wine bottle and a tea cup. to put it simply, i've seen 3 year olds draw better! but then we combined mass gesture, guiding lines and contour lines together (and were allowed to look at our paper while we drew, thankfully) and this picture of the two bottles is my result.

i really enjoyed doing this. what i was drawing actually began to look like something, rather than a roughly bottle-shaped blob o' circles! i really need to play more; to take time out, to sit down and just draw. you know the old saying about practice...so i won't repeat it!

i can't believe that the course is half over! well, this first course and then i go straight into the next 6 week course. i have only one issue - the class is only an hour and a half. i feel like i'm really just getting into the groove of it and then my teacher announces that it's time to clean up! ah, such is life.

another cool thing that came out of class last night was the announcement of an artwalk this friday night in gardiner! there will be 15 artists participating and various businesses have a map of who will be opening their studio for all to come and visit! a few businesses will be open late and will host some works by local artists who don't have a studio downtown. it's crazy how artsy gardiner is getting...i love it! it became such a diminished mill town and now there are so many little places springing up. it's really coming together as a community...and i really need to get more involved. hmmm, maybe i'll talk to the manager of the downtown revitalization program and see what ways i can get involved!

i hope you enjoyed another look inside my drawing class. if anyone has recommendations for art books for beginners, i would love to hear about them! that will be one of the things we do next week, checking out some books that my teacher recommends.

*homework for this week is to practice mass gesture, guiding lines and contour.

have a lovely lovely evening!

week 2 homework

i call this "flower pot and saki cups on a stool" - catchy title huh?

week 2's homework was to use mass guesture again.

i used soft, square charcoal, which i'm really starting to like. i never did before. i was very fond of the precision that pencils give, but i'm starting to change my mind!

and even though you really can't see it, this is set up on an old, metal easel that my dad found for me. where he found it? i don't know. and when it comes to my dad, it's best not to ask...believe me!

welcome to the pumpkin patch

despite being ill all weekend (sinus flu-bug. nothing major, just enough to keep me tired and achy and feeling yucky), it's been very productive! a couple of weeks ago, i was flipping through magazines looking for halloween gift ideas for my friend juli (every year i give her some kind of a halloween gift and try to make it as fun and creative as possible). in one magazine i found an advent calendar...of sorts. it marked down the 13 days of halloween with paper cones filled with candy and little gifts. in another magazine, i found a how-to on creating tissue paper pumpkins filled with candy to give out on halloween night...so i combined the two ideas and created this:

the 13 days of halloween pumpkin patch

i took a box top, covered it with green tissue and stuffed more bunched up, green tissue on the bottom. i bought or made 13 small gifts - all halloween related, wrapped them up in orange tissue paper, making them look roughly like pumpkins and twisted the "stems" with green floral tape. it was simple and fun and i know she'll love it. juli did something similar for me for christmas last year; she worked for an accessory store and made up 25 tissue paper roses that held many, many pairs of earrings, bracelets and necklaces. i got to unwrap one rose every day from the beginning of december to christmas - it was so much fun and she really stocked me up on earrings! so starting october 19th, juli can open one pumpkin a day until halloween for little treats like a tee-shirt, a copy of a cd i know she wants, candy, earrings, a bracelet, a pin, a an autumn scented candle, candle holder, a small decorative clay witch's hat, etc. etc.

the other thing that i worked on this weekend was a fairy house and fairy that my old roommate from university (who lives outside moncton, new brunswick) asked me to make. she said that her aunt is creating a fairy garden at her home in alberta (i think it's an indoor garden) and jenn wanted to give her something fairy and unusual to go with her new garden for a christmas present.

jenn said that her aunt loved bright colors, so i went with a festive orange...not because of the autumn season, but because i found that striped fabric (that her shirt is made of) and the colors from my stash just fell into place. you can see more pictures here, some close up and singularly of the fairy and her house.

i also have an imp that juli and my friend maddie commissioned. there are only 2 more things to do on it and it'll be done! i hope to finish that tonight (have pictures by thursday) and start work on a quilt fairy for my aunt's friend.

what i learned wednesday (the thursday edition)

Drawing Class - Week 2 (Mass Gesture), originally uploaded by faerytreecreations.

yesterday was just a loooooooooong day, but the conference was very interesting! it consisted of several workshops on the revitalization of maine's downtowns and the creative economy. i'm thankful that the conference wasn't happening today - we've had nonstop gale winds and downpours all day (and the conference was being held in several different locations from one end of waterville to the other - all of which you had to walk to). and today i'm having blogger issues...first the homepage wouldn't load, then when i finally got it to load, i couldn't upload pictures! so i'm doing this through flickr and hopefully it won't give me any trouble when i try to post it, then go back and fix it in blogger.

anyway...enough about that and on to the good stuff!

tuesday night's class was ah-mazing and the hour and a half FLEW by! we started the evening off with experimentation - using all of our tools, getting the feel for them, not drawing anything concrete, just making loose lines and seeing what the different charcoals and conte crayons and china markers would do. this was fun...and very messy! i loved it! there are 3 older women in my class who can't bear the mess that we make. they said that they are bringing gloves to the next class...i wanted to say get over it, but...to each their own! the teacher, helene, told us during the first class, "expect to get messy and don't wear good clothes". they obviously weren't listening.

(did i happen to mention that my teacher is of the "go hardcore or go home" school of thought? she wants no little drawings in her class - no small sketch pads. all work is to be done on the 18 x 24 sketch pad and should take up as much of the page as possible! needless to say, scanning these is next to impossible - so i'm taking pictures of them)

after "experimentation", helene set up a still life in the middle of the room with wine bottles, beer bottles, a tea cup, a vase, a light bulb and a jar of glue. as she did this, she talked about "mass-gesture" - about how it depicts volume and a sense of movement. she told us to move our hand as if we were touching the objects in the still life, to move our hands in a round/oval direction and to use a soft tipped charcoal.

she wanted us to really look at the still life as we drew and barely glance at what we were drawing, as "what" we were drawing wasn't as important as "how" we were drawing. she stressed paying attention to our subject, noticing the relationship between each object. we were to loosen up, draw life size or larger and relax.

she wanted a loose circular motion to be revealed in what we drew and no lines...we could blend with a fingers and give the object a little shape, but absolutely no lines - it all had to be circular motion!

i still need to learn to relax and pay more attention to the subject, but i really had fun with this!

next week's homework: to practice this technique by drawing 5 items of any shape on a table.

so much fun!! i love it!

i hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far! the weekend is almost here and i've got projects galore on the go - a ton of fairies, a fairy house, 2 bonnets and some lap quilts, plus my drawing class homework and not to mention building a doll house (but the dollhouse story will be for another post - maybe when i actually get it started). i swear every weekend from now till christmas will be packed with things to do - but that will be good, because these are fun things!

Drawing Class - Week 2 (Mass Gesture 3), originally uploaded by faerytreecreations.

wednesday

so i forgot that i'll be away all day tomorrow at a conference on revitalizing Maine downtowns and how we can reinforce our creative economy - so if i'm not too tired from it tomorrow night, i'll post my "what i learned wednesday". if i am too tired, it'll be a thursday "what i learned wednesday if we pretend thursday is wednesday".

anyhoo, i thought i would share this lovely picture taken through the tree in my backyard.

i love the color of these leaves - i think i'd like a sweater or a shirt this color.

have a wonderful wednesday!

week 1 homework

"mini heirloom pumpkins"

vine charcoal

last week, our instruction was to take 3 round objects, put them on a table and draw them. they didn't have to be perfect - this was just to gauge how well, or not so well, we draw. this is our jumping off point, what we compare our work to at the end of this 6 week class.

so here it is...my drawing - without any instruction. this is how i draw now...and in 6 weeks, my hope is that my drawings will pop off the page, will have depth and a realistic feel.

i can't wait for tonight! yippee!

i hope everyone had a good weekend (long weekend in the US and canada). i must go catch up on my blog reading and comments - i'm a little lapse in doing so!

have a great tuesday everyone and i'll see you again tomorrow for a new installment of "what i learned wednesday."

food for thought

shari's inspiration posts have made me really look around myself and as i sat to eat my sandwich i thought: "food as inspiration? hmmmm....yes, i think food can definitely be inspiring" (it inspires my tummy to rumble!)

the last of this sandwich, though not inspiring to look at right now started off very colorful and interesting, with it's bright cranberries and leafy green lettuce and golden bread (and if it hadn't smelled so yummy and if i hadn't been so hungry, i would have taken a picture of it when it was whole...too late!).

the little snackbar at my work makes the best chicken salad sandwich, called the "chicken coop". it starts off as 2 pieces of homemade apple cranberry bread, which gets slathered with chicken salad, topped with cranberries and walnuts and romaine lettuce....oh it is yummy. messy but yummy.

in further experimenting with driving pictures, i took these last night on my way out to melissa's to visit. they are veryvery blurry, but the patterns of light that oncoming cars and car brake lights make while snapped in motion are very interesting! this one is odd to me; there is an electric green streak off to the left and i cannot for the life of me figure out what it is! any thoughts?

and during my lunch, while i devoured this glorious sandwich, i had a chance to wander through some flickr pages and found junkado, whose photos are so amazing, but the titles of each one are even better! like, quirky smile funny and laugh out loud funny. i highly recommend checking them out!

well, must dash! phone calls to make, people to meet, letters to type, yada yada yada.

i hope it's as sunny and bright your way as it is here in maine!

:^)

what i learned wednesday

yay! the first installment of what i learned wednesday is here!

today's topic: me gushing over how cool this class is going to be...

my very first class was, of course, the introduction to what this class will be all about. my teacher, helene (pronounced HAH-lane) is amazing! she not only has a studio not far from where i live, but she is also an art teacher at the local community college. she's so energetic and really got us fired up! just listening to her last night and seeing some of her student's work made me believe that i can really do this. that by the end of these two courses, i will be able to make my drawings pop right off the page!

helene showed us what tools we would be using (here are the goodies that you asked about, louise) :

vine and willow charcoals
standard charcoals
conte crayons
india ink w/ chinese brushes
china markers
sharpie pens
tortillions

then of course we have to get gum and kneadable erasers, an exacto knife, masking tape, pushpins, a sketchbook, a toolbox and a portfolio - i've never had a portfolio before. i know that i can make a really inexpensive one out of cardboard...but i kinda wanted something "official", not extravagent...but something with pockets and zippers and...well...i splurged and ordered this in the larger size. it's not expensive and i know there are much better ones out there, but this will be just right for me!

we went over the outline for the class and...did i tell you that i'm doing the happy happy dance of joy? :^)

week 2 (next week) will be all about experimenting with our drawing materials and getting the feel for them. we will also be learning about volumetric drawing through mass gesture, blind contour and we'll have an intro to contour.
week 3 will be a continuation.
week 4 will be about negative shape and "viewfinder usage to locate composition".
week 5 will see us creating a value scale, laying tone and "drawing with the eraser".
week 6 is all about beginning a portrait with ink studies and we'll get to use our china markers with turps (helene said that turps really draw out the lines that china markers make, giving the image a wispy feel). the next 6 weeks will be a whole new course with emphasis on landscape and portraits - we don't have the outline for that yet.

during the last 15 minutes of class, helen did a powerpoint presentation showing us various works by different artist (some of whom are her college students) and WOW - they were so incredible and inspiring! i wish i took notes on who the artists were but i was too busy ogling the pictures. there were only three that i recognized, frida kahlo (who's work is so unusual, but it sucks you in because there is so much within each work); gustav klimt (i've always found his work very sensual and his use of color and shape has always intrigued me); andrew wyeth (whom the great state of maine claims as our own because he had a summer house here...he's really from pennsylvania - but many of his works depict maine, some bleak - some striking but all beautiful in their own right).

okay, i think i've blabbered on enough! friday night, i will be heading to artist & craftsman supply in portland for my supplies and to just hang out in the old port for a bit (something i rarely get to do since it's about an hour drive from my house).

so here's to inspiration! i know we've all been contemplating it, thanks to shari. to reviving that much needed inspiration in our creative lives, so that it may seep into our daily lives!

oh btw, we even have homework this week - we are to place 3 objects on a table and draw what we see as best we can, spending no more than 90 minutes on this! i can't wait to get my stuff so i can start playing!!!

like a kid at christmas...

i can't wait for this evening. tonight is the first night of my drawing class...the first night of 12 classes! i got the supply list and there are so many things on it that i've never used before and wonder what we will be doing with them? the teacher will be supplying what we need tonight and then it is up to us to find our supplies before next week.

i had an idea that, since i have class every tuesday until the week before christmas, i'd institute a weekly "what i learned wednesday" post to show you what new techniques i've learned and scan & upload my drawings where i've put these techniques to use.

i'm bouncing around doing the happy dance wondering when this day will be over and for this class to begin!

oh, i just can't wait!


oh, had to share this picture. it was taken through the window of my truck while i drove to work this morning. the sun was shining but near the river and in all the low lying areas the fog was so thick. it was beautiful to drive through - especially with the sun so blurrily shining through it.

there are more here (some a little blurry from the moving vehicle).

p.s. the headache and stiff neck are gone and i have freedom of motion once again! whoo-hoo!

wishing i was here

i slept wrong last night and have the worst stiff neck which turning into the worst migraine...and i'm still at work...but i'd rather be here - wandering through waist deep grass, listening to the birdsong, the buzz of bees and various insects, the water lapping the shoreline, an occasional boat puttering along.

it was warm that day, not hot, but comfortable - the perfect jeans and t-shirt weather.

a very slight breeze was blowing - barely a whisper through the tall grass.

and the sun was setting across the lake.

even after the sun set, it was warm...and so very relaxing.

so physically, i'm here at work on a very cloudy day, listening to construction and wishing away this headache...but mentally, i'm walking through this luscious field...watching the dragonflies and the butterflies...

here's hoping your mental landscape is as peaceful!

music nostalgia

since i cleaned out my room and moved things around, i've been finding old things that i forgot i had - once well loved items that got pushed to the wayside as new things found their way into my life. i took the time to reorganize my cd collection - a strangely diverse group ranging from classical to punk, rock to indie stuff and so on. 2 cd's have resurfaced from this clean&move:


edie brickell & the new bohemians - shooting rubberbands at the stars: i actually had this on tape in high school and played. it. to. death by the time i graduated. so i mourned the loss, got in my old blue buick and went to brunswick, to bull moose music to get it on cd.

i can still sing every word to every song...even after years of not having heard it.




indigo girls - swamp ophelia: this was another tape that i have since replaced with disc. with "shooting rubberbands", it somehow snuck into a collection that was fraught with concrete blonde, ani difranco, the pixies, sleater kinney, L7, the beastie boys, mazie star, the violent femmes etc. etc. so on and so forth.

music has such a way of pulling you back to a certain place, a certain time in your life...a moment made crystal clear just by lyric or guitar lick. it has a way of reminding you of a person or an object, loved or hated, and suddenly those feelings fill you once more.

* cruising around with friends in the middle of a summer night with all the windows rolled down, blasting concrete blonde and howling at the moon.

* coming home late at night from work, sitting on the porch in the dark with stravinsky or vivaldi playing softly, stressed out and crying at how much i hated my job, how the money wasn't worth the long hours and my sanity.

*singing along with joni mitchell while baking in the kitchen of an old apartment in canada and being startled when i realized that the boyfriend i was living with was watching me the whole time - smiling, he told me how much he was in love with me.

the best part is that music can produce imagines and links to things for absolutely no reason! like nick drake's "northern sky" - it makes me think if alaska. alaska? um...okay. i've never been there, never seen it anywhere other than in pictures and on tv or movies, but hearing that song conjures up images of evergreens and snow pack, mist drifting through the trees and the scent of wood smoke. how weird is that? now i'm sure we could pick apart my brain and link alaska to the song a million ways from sunday, but i like blissful ignorance of not thinking too hard on it. northern sky = alaska. i'll keep it that way. simple.

any broad, seemingly unconnected jumps your brain makes between songs and real life? or is it just me?

a cloudy T for me

really not much has happened this week.

no exciting news, no finished projects to show, no WIPs that you haven't already seen (or that i have pictures of at the moment).

it's really rather sad.

so i'm just going to share with you this picture i took
yesterday as i was heading out to work.

it's a T for me! (albiet a wispy one)

have a great day and maybe i'll have inspired words and pictures tomorrow.

early autumn evening walk

dark of night

shadows skulking with luminescent feline eyes

stars peaking through wispy, grey black clouds

orion's constant presence felt

chill autumn breezes gently caress my hair,

floating leaves down from trees up high

warm wood smoke perfumes the air with it's heady scent,

wrapping me in a quilt of familiar comfort

oh, how i've longed for this.

fall fabness

fabulous fall has arrived here in the great state of maine
and with it,
a wash out of a weekend.

i wanted to go to the common ground fair, but alas, an hour drive coupled with a trek through the woods in gale force winds and pouring rain didn't sound like a whole lot of fun to me. yup, i'm a wimp! i opted for a weekend of mostly staying indoors to finish insulating that room (yay, it's done!!) and rearranging my existing bedroom. i feel so much more organized now! my computer is in a better place with more light, my bed is in a cozy nook under the slant, my chair is by the window (and now a favorite of tallulah, as she can stretch her fat feline body across the top of it while watching the world below from on high!) and there is soooo much more floor space!

also with the arrival of fall, came the arrival of my new coat (yes, like many others i am a coat addict! and all those coat posts cracked me up, because i thought it was just me and i had just ordered this one!):
this little beauty is a 100% boiled wool pea coat, double breasted, with a stand up collar, big buttons and it's the perfect length. i found it online and picked it up for 20% off! it is perfection personified as far as i'm concerned; lightweight and oh so warm. we'll see how it holds up to a maine winter. i just wanted something dressier than my L.L. Bean parka but lighter than my heavy black wool pea coat or my thrifted long blue hooded wool coat with the toggles. ah yes, wool is our friend here in the north!

now i need to rummage through my sweater trunk to see what needs to be purged and if i need to buy any new ones. yet another addiction...sweaters! soft and fuzzy, warm and woolen.

happy weekend highlights
* set up my DSL
* dyed some bonnet fabric
* worked on my halloween tree (which i will post pictures of soon)
* i went shopping with my parents
* found copious amounts of books from university that i forgot i had. they were packed willy-nilly into boxes and crates. many were required reading for my english classes, many obscure canadian authors that i had never heard of until moving to new brunswick and started studying them. i can't wait to start rereading!
* remembered that a week from tomorrow, i will be starting 12 weeks of drawing classes! (soooo can't wait for this either)
* talked to my friend andy, who went off to law school a month ago and caught up with all the goings on in his life

tonight, i make no plans. if i get a chance to play with my fabric, then yay! if not, so be it! but i'm in great hopes that i'll get to play!

here's wishing you all as much playtime as you can handle!

i heart ray lamontagne and other friday randomness

i am in love with ray lamontagne. i’ve been listening to his latest till the sun turns black ("be here now", so becoming a favorite!) it is so mellow and dreamy (shades of damien rice?). i have to keep myself from gently swaying to each song when there are other people in the office (it would confirm their suspicions that i’m a little off my rocker). i don’t think my friend melissa and I have really listened to anything else in the last few days!

speaking of mel…the instigator! guess what she talked me into?

chickens!

yes, i am the proud owner of 10 chickens currently residing at her house with the other 15 that she ordered (and no, the pictures linked to this are not the new chicks but the ones melissa already has). i’m not allowed to get attached to them, though (i personally am not allowing myself to get attached), as they will only be with us until they are plump enough to become dinner. they’re called fryers – a chicken bred to be fast growing and can be taken to the butcher anywhere from 7 to 13 weeks. their meat is very tender and they can be broiled, braised, fried, roasted or grilled – for those of you who are not vegetarians: hungry yet?

i know that some people think it’s a bit of a stretch, a bit barbaric to go from cute little baby chicks to roast chicken dinner in the same thought-line, but those little chickies, cute as they are, will be dinner all winter long for me…and i will be grateful for their sacrifice. blessed be to the baby chicks and the dinners they will provide!

other randomness:

melissa (who’s title should actually be "grand high poobah of the fraternal order of instigators") also asked me if i wanted to do a craft fair with her in december. uh, rock on and yeah! buuuuuuuttttttt, now all i can think is…what am i going to make for this? i know it’s two months away, but if i don’t start making stuff now, i’ll have nothing to sell. so i’m definitely making my fairies/angels and some simple fleece-backed lap quilts. i’m also going to make some very simple earrings, as i've ordered the stuff for them. i'm still thinking of little things and how to display them so they are interesting. i'm going to get my brother the metalsmith to make me a tree (to hang my fairies on) out of rebar. it would look similar to a morning glory vine pole, only the ends will curl around in a swirl and i'll have him solder a star at the top of it.

tomorrow there will be happy birthday celebrations for my friend john who turns 31! (thought it was tonight but i was wrong)

i'm going to attempt to make a plexi glass window on my screen porch (if it works, i will end up making more so that the screen porch will be winter secure!)

i was supposed to do up a dye batch last weekend, but...uh...didn't, so that will be on the list of things i'd like to do...maybe i'll do that up tonight - whoo hoo, fun with dye! yippee!

***************************

this has been a very random week - not crazy busy, but no day was discernable from another; it was very blah in many spots. i'm not sure why.

so here's to fun weekends with no blah spots! have a good'n!

another WIP done!

meet hilda. she's a winsome witch, but a bit flighty!

i finished her the other day and i'm totally in love with her! but despite that love, i've put her on etsy.

she just rocks with her black and purple striped leggings (which i painted), her sparkly star dress and that funky hat! she even has sparkly eye shadow and lips (which you can't see in the pictures). even her broom is homemade (it's a tree branch and hay gathered from the field next to my parents house).

she was so much fun to make, that i've started on another one, only she has black and orange striped leggings. since this sunday is supposed to be rainy, i may take the day to work on her (make her dress and her hat, do her hair, find some broom material...)

anyhoo, had to share!

mail call

so this morning, i got up to walk the dog at the usual time (5:30, ugh) and decided to leave the house by way of the front door rather than the back (like normal) and i'm so glad i did! i found this

waiting for me on my front porch! it was a wonderful package choked full of fun stuff from the amazing and sweet paula! (when i got the mail yesterday, i didn't go out onto the porch, because i grabbed it from the mailbox on the way back from taking sadie for a short walk, then went in the backdoor) i couldn't wait to get back from the morning walk to open this package and see what was inside! i think i hurried the dog along a little more this morning than normal (poor sadie).

so here are the goodies that paula sent me:

beautiful fabric, the best orange buttons, oh so cute cards with bears on them and a portuguese craft magazine that has creative sewing ideas from embroidery and quilting to knitting and crocheting! some of my pictures are a little fuzzy, but by this time it was 6 am, coupled with the lighting in my kitchen not being the best anyway (but you get the idea).

i poured over the magazine while i drank my tea. it is so amazing! and even though it is in portuguese, much of it is self-explanatory what with the very detailed pictures. oh and the patterns!!! there are 3 huge (HUGE) pullouts of patterns. oh my god, they are amazing.

paula, this was so sweet of you! i love everything! thank you thank you thank you! what a great way to start the day...with presents from portugal on the porch (say that 5 times fast).

here's hoping for happy mail for everyone today!

tiff*

dyeing w/ tissue paper how to

Dyeing w/ Tissue Paper, originally uploaded by faerytreecreations.

i've wanted to do a tutorial for a while and this was a fun and simple project that i attempted over the weekend. it is definitely an outdoor project (which i learned the hard way...and so did my mother's living room carpet).

it's very simple, all you need are 5 things:

1) light colored cloth

2) plastic covered table (i used a garbage bag cut open. don't use newspaper as the print ink will get on the fabric)

3) spray bottle full of water

4) scissors

5) bleeding tissue paper (found it at a local craft supply shop. 20 sheets of 20 colors for $4.99)

simple instruction: set your fabric out flat on your plastic covered table. cut your tissue paper into whatever shapes you wish. spray your fabric with water so it is wet (not damp, wet) and now place your tissue paper. i tried two different sized pieces of fabric: a small and a large. with the large, i did single layers of just strips and squares and layered pieces over in places to see what colors i would get. on the small, i used the left over strips and folded them over twice to see if i would get deeper colors. then lay flat outside. once the tissue paper becomes very dull and mostly dry, peel it off and hang your fabric on the line to fully dry. there, very simple!

this was all experimental and now that i've played, i think i'll try making shapes with the tissue paper. the only bad thing about this project is that i can't wash the fabric. it would strickly have to be for wall hangings that wouldn't be washed. i tried to heat set the fabric, but excess color still ran from it, fading the colors more. i've also seen that you can fabric paint your fabric, put the tissue on it and drying it in the sun for more unique color arrangements (this also makes the colors more bold).

to see the individual pictures, go here.

and i'm having issues with blogger, so the finished projects are in the post below!

i hope you enjoyed and will maybe try this. my next attempt with this will be to try it on card stock, but i'll save that for another weekend!

have a fun filled day, all!

finished product

Dyeing w/ Tissue Paper - finished product, originally uploaded by faerytreecreations.

friday 5...make that 6

a quick friday five (unfortunately no picts) before i head home for the day to start insulating. then i'm taking the weekend off from home projects, heading to my parents and i'm going to play with fabric!

taste: this morning, mel brought blueberry muffins with brown sugar crumbled on top from slate's bakery. yummm!

see: sunny skies and ominous clouds

hear: continuous construction that thankfully stopped early this afternoon.

smell: coffee coffee everywhere! the perils of working in an office...everyone's brewing coffee at all hours of the day. it makes you crave!

touch: beads and buttons and ribbon and paper goods at the local craftstore during my lunch break.

and number six today is the sense of "happy happy fun crafty stuff that i can't wait to try out" (how's that for a sense?): i found bleeding tissue paper to use as a dye for fabric (it's extra bright and will bleed out color when you wet it. if you put it on wet fabric the color will stain through onto the fabric and create a mosaic!)

okay, gotta run! hope you all enjoy the weekend!

the busy-ness of this week

this has been such a busy week...it hasn't seemed like it, but i've found it hard to get some internet time! work has been a bit crazy busy and i haven't installed my dsl at home, so i have no home internet access for the moment.

there's nothing stopping me from installing my dsl...well, yes there is...it's called anal retentivity - as in, everything must be perfectly set up right for me to be happy. i've been wanting to rearrange my bedroom and move the desk to a more convenient spot, but part of me wants to wait until the new room is done and just move my bed and dresser and a bookshelf in there. i've come to realize that that is unrealistic, as the insulation isn't in yet and the sheetrock isn't up yet. i think the new bedroom will be an ongoing winter project (well, in regard to getting the sheetrock up, the room painted and the carpet down). so i think i just need to suck it up and move my existing room around. i just haven't been visited by the "moving muse" yet. you know, that muse that strikes you, making you - out of the blue - want to rearrange your entire home? i think my muse may be on vacation still...or she's being overshadowed by the muse that has me painting my kitchen cabinets, thinking about insulation and making fabric fairies (which i have a halloween one almost finished - she is a super cool witch with black and purple striped leggings. she just needs hair, a pointy hat and her broom! i'll post picts when she's done).

but, speaking of kitchen cabinets...they are almost done (a layer of primer and 4 coats of paint later). i need to touch up some areas and then i don't have to think about them again! and i can concentrate on that bedroom.

oh, i have an idea for this wall, rather the wall to the right, without the window - the ucky paneled one. i'm going to paint it pale pink (like the rest of the room - with green trim. i'm really into the girly pink and green thing lately) and then paint a vibrant, hot pink tree (similar to this this but without the birds and ducks and stuff...just the tree), in the corner near the window...maybe some rolling green hills and an inspirational message that i can wake up to every morning. what do you think? any suggestions on a quote?

anyhoo, must get back to work and off of my break!

have a fabulous today!

for the love of all things mini

i've always had this fascination with miniature things, especially little doll house things. so this weekend, as i waited for paint to dry on cabinets and laundry to wash, i was over taken by mini-mode and broke out the fimo, paint, a bit of fabric and bits of wood to create this little scene:

okay, so maybe i do have a little too much time on my hands, some might say i need a hobby...but isn't this a hobby?

i had so much fun making this scene. the little hutch i bought, as well the pumpkins and the little fabric leaves, but i made the hanging mini quilt, the folded mini quilt on the mini quilt rack (which i made out of wooden 2 prong toothpick things, a wooden skewer and some glue). i also made the tea set and "pottery" and the little witch's hat on the top of the hutch.

i have a doll house, somewhere....in the attic, i think...that my mother made for me. it's not too big, and only has 4 rooms but it's cute. i should dig that out. i even made mini furniture in a wood shop class in the 7th grade for it because they looked so cool (and again, the mini-fascination overtook me!). you know, the more i think about it, the more i want to find it. maybe i'll go up there when it gets cool and the wasps and spiders get out of my attic. i could take it out and dress it up for halloween and christmas! is it sad that i'm almost 30 and i want to drag out my old doll house to play with it...well not really play so much as display...yeah, that's it...display.....

anyhoo, i want to recreate this scene (not exactly, but similarly) for my sister and my mother for their houses. i think they'd like it! of course, then i'd have to go over there and change it out for the holidays and seasons...not that they'd mind of course.

well, must go, just thought i'd share my weekend mini creations. have a wonderful monday, all!

the bonnet

this is the "test" bonnet. the inside is a super soft, funky patterned flannel that i absolutely loved!









the outside is a heavy duty twill (that i got for 99 cents a yard! killer bargain) . i didn't add any ribbon since it would be a waste to put it on the test bonnet.






doesn't this seem really small on my head? do i just have a freakishly big head, or is the pattern a touch too small? (lets got with the pattern being small, so i don't get self-conscious).

it just seems really short, but that's how the picture looks. i want it to be almost shoulder length, so i can wear it in the winter. i guess i will be adjusting the pattern for it and trying again, but i think this time i'll try to dye the twill first to see how that works. i do have to say that this was by far and away the easiest pattern i've ever used! i whipped this puppy up in an hour!

(oh, and shari, i didn't forget that i promised to make one for you...i just want to make sure i've perfected the pattern to my liking before i make yours).

anyhoo, happy friday to all. have a fun-filled weekend - my will be spent attacking the kitchen cabinets with paint!

so i lied

sunlight through the trees
Originally uploaded by faerytreecreations.

yup, i'm bad. i said i was going to post a pict of the bonnet and you know what? i never took a picture of it.

i was a lazy slug last night after returning home from the dinner party. only 2 of us showed up and it was marvelous! so much better than a whole group of cackling women...and mel planned a wonderful meal of a moroccan-style veggie soup from her soup bible, a green salad with walnuts and dried cranberries, cheese and melon, olive oil and rosemary bread and i brought hummus & pita crisps. oh it was so yummy and followed up with ice cream for desert that teen brought!

it wasn't a late night, but it was when i got home, i sat in the recliner to baby my sadie and flip through the day's mail.

today has been a...well (i hate to admit it, since i am at work, but)...a waste of a day. i have done little to no real work and can't get my head out of the clouds. i'm not saying this is a bad thing, but i just keep thinking up these things that i want to do and none of them are work related. they are art related.

one of the blogs i lovelovelove because it sends me into visual overload is anahata katkin's blog. she is an amazing collagist (is that a word?) and often talks about self discovery and being the person that she wants to be, doing the art that she wants to do, etc. etc. we've all experienced these feelings. one of her...inspirations, i guess you could say is sabrina ward harrison, whom i know has been out there for a while now, but to me and my little sphere of reality, she's new. i just read her story of how she got started and wow! how amazing is she? i mean really...after reading, i delved deep into a "what am i doing - what do i want to be doing - where do i see myself with my art - how is that so many others can make a living doing what they love - am i doing something wrong?", but it wasn't a depressing tortured artist kind of thought process. i've found that since i started blogging and reading others' blogs, that a) i'm not alone and b) if i think about it, i can answer these questions. i'm feeling less wishy-washy these days! and can i tell you how great that feels!?! it's like sighing out a breath you didn't know you were holding.

here's to great revelations, i hope you all indulge!

construction rant revisited

remember how pretty it looked outside my window at work?

and then how i said that they were starting construction?

well now this is what i have to look at outside my window until they finish in november and then it'll be a parking lot.

they've ripped out all of the flowering crab apple trees and that beautiful little maple! i am very depressed about this! all to put in a parking lot! stupid parking lot - right now it doesn't matter that we need it. they have stripped a small section of beauty from this place.

well, i have to run. tomorrow should be a better post, not so cranky. hopefully i will have a picture of the newly attempted "bonnet" that i made (pattern from amy over at kingpod and angry chicken). but first, i must go home and then off to a dinner party! (wow...sounds frivolous paired with the environmentalist's outrage at trees being ripped out for a parking lot, doesn't it?)

have a lovely lovely, all!

september sun and the summer *to do* list

the sun is shining brightly through my bedroom window, while a cool autumn breeze blows through the trees and little bitty finches play outside on the twig wreath that hangs between my two windows above the porch roof. i can just see them at the corner of the window and jumping about on the roof top. i've never seen them do that before. it's those simple things that bring a smile to my face. it reminds me that i promised to fill their feeders and i haven't! that will be a *to do* before i go shopping!
speaking of *to do*'s, at the beginning of this summer, i created a list of the things i wanted to do (you can see it on the right hand side of this page). looking back over it, i've found that i accomplished just about all of these things...to some degree.

i cleaned my porch and turned it into my own little zen-happy place; i take time everyday to wander through and enjoy my garden; i went swimming and explored; i ripped down that wall and muraled my downstairs hallway; i wrote almost everyday (in my blog - which counts!); my brother taught me how to make my own fire pit and i taught myself how to make capri's and pants; i also dyed fabric, made a quilted wall hanging and a baby blanket, and i currently have 11 fairies in progress; i made many smoothies this summer and bbq'ed with friends a few times; i caught up on some old books and thanks to my friends here and blogger friends, i was introduced to different music.

now that autumn is upon us, i'll be taking more time to bake; i'll be finishing that wall and hopefully that bedroom, as well as painting the kitchen cabinets (now that it's cooler). the fencing and outdoor, backyard, garden sanctuary will have to wait until next year. and if the gas prices continue to drop, road trips will be back on the agenda for fall. there is nothing more peaceful than a drive in the country on a sunny fall day when the leaves start changing!

well, now i must go (i didn't think i'd get a chance to even post today!) - i need to feed the little finches and let sadie out before i head out for a fabric shopping extravaganza with my mother and aunt patricia! yippee!

have a happy day and a wonderful weekend!