December 1st

How can it be December 1st already?
Today was somehow a lot less productive - didn't get much of anything checked off my to do list.
1) chatted in forums about our sick chickens.. hoping to find an answer before we lose our sick Bantam
2) matted this little chicken painting I did which my hubby loved and wanted me to frame for him... it was destined for the trash in my opinion but I must say it looks a lot better after framing - he saw the potential :) I do not like to mat things though.. because a) it involves math. b) I have to crawl around on the floor. c) I make a mess. d) my mat cutter is so frustrating - can't get the guide to adjust or go back in the slot once it comes out so I did this one free hand. (cut away to me dreaming of a large studio with a standing height giant work table to stretch canvases, mat, measure and such.....someday)

My Day in Photos #2

Thought I would do the photo thing again today.


1) leftover turkey for lunch.. keeping it simple

2) my finished tree

3) made some gluten free Paleo Bread - will use this for some turkey sliders tomorrow :)

4) painted some furniture for someone - hope to do a few more later this week

5) found this bead weaving from collage which brought back the memory that I remember doing that at home.. very sick in bed one day..... and my old weaving bobbins and reed hook - maybe one day I'll have the space and time for a loom.. weaving is one of those things that is so incredibly time consuming for such a small result but I love knowing I created a piece of woven fabric - I still have all my weaving projects.

My Day In Photos

So I've obviously been absent from any type of blogging for awhile, Therefore I'm attempting to start back and just keeping it simple and doing a photo collage of my day.


1) tried to enlist my niece as a hat model for my crocheting projects... she was NOT having any part of it - I cropped out her cute little scowl.

2) busted out the Rudolph toys

3) do you know how long I've been looking for this hammer??? don't recall how this happened... or how this portion of it made it to the back of one of my drawers? (I was cleaning out drawers - should do that more often)

4) cooked a turkey

5) finished up this baby hat for a sweet little girl that will be arriving soon and took it to a baby shower :)

6) made a tree skirt out of this pretty fabric I got today - it's an odd shape but works for our tree, my sewing machine- which I just got back from repair- managed to break again so it is only "almost" hemmed and I was reminded very quickly during the process how sewing is just not my thing no matter how much I may want it to be. I didn't get my grandmothers green thumb or mad sewing skills... and I guess that fabric for the shower curtain project that's been waiting since March will wait longer.
7) worked on perfecting the sock bun - tried a wide cloth headband instead of a hair elastic so hopefully it won't leave the hump (and since I'm finishing this up the next morning I'll go ahead and say the bun still looks great after sleeping on it - curious to see how curls work this time)

Finally.. another painting!

So- I finally was able to finish a painting that I was happy with... although it took several layers and evolved as it went along. I started out with layers of blue and purple and green.. applied in a very Morris Louis style (just on a much smaller scale :) ). Then I kept adding layers of color until I had ruined it.. then went back with the ochres and whites to tone down the straight cadmium orange I had set it ablaze with to get a background I was happy with. The I painted the coneflower and grass silhouettes. This is I think only the 2nd triptych I've done but I really like it. As you know, I usually don't frame my pieces but this one I just felt needed a frame. So luckily - being the pack rat that I am - dug into my closet to find the wooden strips I had cut for some painting back in my college days and never did use - yes over 10 years later they do have a purpose! They were already painted black and I just had to cut them down to size and repaint the ends. I used a nail gun and just affixed the strips of wood directly onto the canvas. I was even able to use the scraps of the wood strips yesterday by stapling them together to create a base for my niece to do an art project with.

My niece's finished glass mosaic tile and seashell finished project using the frame scraps :)

Les Vacances Papillon

In my current randomness I'm doing, I created this. I had to start over on one of those absolute failures of an idea so I covered it up with a nice background of palette knife strokes of creams and greens. In an attempt to depart my failed idea which was very heavy in subject and emotion, I chose to do something more lighthearted and fun which was inspired by looking at some more decorative art a few weeks ago at someones home. I toyed with the idea of painting in some words but ultimately decided against it. I did however add in some music sheets (which I guess is a throwback to how I like to add maps to car paintings)

making more cards

Well I was really happy with the first set of cards I made by screen printing a design on cardstock and then overlaying vellum on top. I made a few more this morning. I tried to do couple more masculine ones in a fishing theme. The one with the fish is a sepia tone print of a watercolor fish I did on the hand painted note card. The fishing lures are a print of a drawing I made of the lures first. I had a few more bumps in the process with these but maybe I was just trying to rush.. or maybe it's just because I thought it was a Saturday before the alarm went off this morning!

Hand Drawn Cards

Yesterday evening I got the idea in my head to do some hand drawings on note cards. I started out drawing a couple of cars and then I painted a little watercolor bass fish. I thought these would make great Father's Day gifts because once you give the card you can mat it and frame it hang it on the wall... like a card and gift in one! I enjoyed painting the fish although it took me quite a bit longer to complete than I hoped but I promptly sold it (yay!) so I hope to do another one today. I also made some more cards today I'm excited about but I will share those later!