Here's some stuff I made

Here's some stuff that I made over the last few months. Despite a fairly fallow, lazy season, there's always something I'm puttering around with. The past week or two I've been fighting the inertia of winter and self-doubt and making an effort to get my butt in the studio.

I'm fascinated with Mary lately. Here's a little nativity doll I made.


The latest dress. Still playing around with lots of ideas for these.




Several months ago I bought a bunch of blank canvases with the idea of playing around with paint and collage. It turns out canvas and paint are very intimidating. This piece has been sitting around in various stages for months. It was feeling blah so yesterday I added some outlining. The stem and leaves are fabric, the petals are my collaged, painted paper and the center is a bottle cap.

Hearts

Funny how life changes your perspective. A little more than a year ago hearts made me gag. But then my dad had his heart fixed and then someone came along and took on the job of fixing my heart. And now hearts are showing up everywhere.



A handmade valentine for my valentine.


ATC's for trading at Artfest. I can't wait!


Blistered pearls I got from Mom yesterday. The picture doesn't begin to do them justice, but I'm too lazy to go try again. I'm completely fascinated with these.

Moving forward

I took ACTION this weekend and finally did some things I've spent a lot of time thinking about the past few months. Like baking. Nothing special, just a blueberry coffee cake, a favorite recipe from Fannie Farmer's Baking Book, but a nice way to slip back into actually baking instead of thinking "hmm, I should bake something..."

Also got into the studio (now that I actually have a workspace and can find things). Again, nothing special, just get in there and slap some paint around. It's amazing how easily I get caught up in it, how ideas start to flow once I get in there and get moving. It's just a matter of overcoming the inertia.


I also took action to buy this fabric for the duvet cover from Home Sewn by Kaari Meng. OK, I know it sounds crazy that I had to TAKE ACTION to buy fabric, but while I'm excellent at buying random stuff, when it comes to a project like this I tend to...agonize..."is this the exact perfect choice that will make me happy every day? Oh dear, I'd better think about it some more..."


This is SO pretty. Action is such a good word!

A New Year

You know it just wouldn't be the same if I actually posted about things when they happen! LOL!

Anyway, as always this time of year, I've been reflecting on the year past and the year to come. Last year my resolution was to make a lot of art. What I underestimated last year, was how much of my time and energy would be required to finish unfinished business, to tie up loose ends, to get myself fully outfitted and squarely on the path of the life of my choosing. It turns out that when you have to get divorced, sell your house, get a new job, have surgery and meet someone new...well, that stuff takes a lot of energy. And that's ok. I feel good about 2008. I accomplished a lot, I had a lot of fun and a lot of wonderful time with family and friends, and I'm in a good place now.

So here's the thing, while I ran short on time and energy for doing, I did do a lot of thinking about the kinds of things I WANT to spend my time doing. And now I'm teetering on the edge of the pit of just sitting around thinking about what I want to do all the time. Sitting is SO comfortable!

So rather than make a resolution, this year I'm going to do the thing where you pick a word for the year. Christine Kane has a good guide for this and that's where I found my word: Action. I'm still getting comfortable with this word. It's not a word that's among my favorites (create, imagine, laugh, joy, kindness, etc.), but that's ok. The fact that I'm not completely comfortable with it means that it's the challenge I need. Just that little daily reminder to stop sitting and thinking and get up and start doing. Whew. Scary.

Since it is the 4th already, I'm happy to report that so far this year I've taken action to clean up and organize my studio. I never really finished unpacking that room. I just got it to a semi-functional point and went with it. 16 months later, semi-functional has deteriorated to not-functional-at-all. Lately I can't even find anything. So I've added some storage, rearranged to make better use of space and assigned permanent homes for things like fake flowers, alphabet stamps, bottle caps. Plus, I've created actual work space! LOL!

Happy New Year everyone!

Again with the snow

Or rather, again and again and again. As of yesterday morning we've had 69 inches, 61.5 in the month of December alone. I'm ready for summer now. Today. Please.

Scene from a Happy Christmas

Hope everyone had as happy a Christmas as Emily did!

Snowed in

So, um, it finally snowed...



19.4 inches in 24 hours, 24 inches total over 36 hours. My trusty Saturn handles really well in the snow, but Thursday I couldn't get out of my driveway. No worries, as my office, along with the rest of the city was closed. The MALLS were closed! The state patrol told everyone to stay home unless they had a major emergency.



Friday was a snow day as well...everyone was still stuck. Pistol and I went for a very short walk to check out the snow.



Mostly we hung out on the couch, crocheting and cuddling.

Family portrait

Man, I HATE losing to the Cougs. But we did have a LOT of fun!


AshLee covered her bases - that's Vandal gear underneath her Husky gear.