Signs of Global Warming

It's the middle of November.

This is Maine.

This is the time of year when temperatures are supposed to be chilly during the day and freezing at night & in the early morning. Major sweater weather! Maybe a little snow here and there.

This morning at: The tempature was:

61.5 degrees fahrenheit! It was only 3 degrees warmer inside the house than out!

It's muggy and raining and windy.

Anyone who denies that global warming is an issue ~ come to Maine, experience it first hand!

This weather is just so wrong.

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."