Art Play

I decided to play around and explore the 'what if's' today , so I got out some fabric and started messing around with it. This is where I'm at now - not sure where I'm going from here though lol. The original plan was start small and just see if anything worked , and I lost track of that thought about 10 seconds after I gathered up my paints. Then I moved into making what I thought would be an interesting background piece - but now I'm not sure about that either. It actually would be a good background , I'm just not committing yet. :)


Anyway , it's been a while since I posted anything remotely artsy , so I thought I'd share this just for fun. If anyone has any idea's on what they'd do with it let me know!

What is Love?

My sis sent me this yesterday , and since this is still the month of love I thought I'd post it and share. It's wisdom from the mouthes of babes , in their funny-sweet way.

What is Love?

'When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love.' Rebecca- age 8

'When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.' Billy - age 4

'Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.' Karl - age 5

'Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.' Chrissy - age 6

'Love is what makes you smile when you're tired.' Terri - age 4

'Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.' Danny - age 7

'

Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more. My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss' Emily - age 8

'

Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.' Bobby - age 7 (Wow!)

'If you want to learn to love better,

you should start with a friend who you hate,' Nikka - age 6 (we need a few million more Nikka's on this planet)

'Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday.' Noelle - age 7

'Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.' Tommy - age 6

'During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling. He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore.' Cindy - age 8

'My mommy loves me more than anybody You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night.' Clare - age 6

'Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken.' Elaine-age 5

'Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford.' Chris - age 7

'Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day.' Mary Ann - age 4

'I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.' Lauren - age 4

'When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you.' (what an image) Karen - age 7

'Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn't think it's gross.' Mark - age 6

'You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.' Jessica - age 8

And the final one The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, 'Nothing, I just helped him cry'
When there is nothing left but God, that is when you find out that God is all you need. Take 60 seconds and give this a shot! All you do is simply say the following small prayer for the person who sent you this. “Heavenly Father, please bless all my friends in whatever it is that You know they may be needing this day! And may their life be full of Your peace, prosperity and power as he/she seeks to have a closer relationship with You. Amen.“

Choose to Dance

That song makes me choke up every time I hear it , but unlike most things that make me cry , I like it anyway. I'm usually against movies that make me cry though - I want laughter , violence - ANYTHING but tears!

I joined the ART Partners Challenge happening in Trends , and this is the card I've completed.

Each of the ten partners received a stamp and one embellishment to be used on the cardstock provide from Inkastamps , and this challenge will be continued monthly , limited to the first 10 to sign up for it. We were free to use any other embellishments we chose to , but no other stamps - so of course I promptly choked lol. It's HARD not to use any other stamps when somebody says you can't - who knew?! I couldn't even use other stamps from Inka , but I persevered and this is the end result. I used watercolors , water soluble crayons and mica powder to color the stamp , and adapted a technique of Beryl Taylor's for the body of the card. I was really pleased with the way it looked , especially for the first time around.

Time to fly - need to get a roast in the oven before we all go pouf! and disappear completely - both my son and I are hungry NOW.

Maybe I'll just eat him and solve both our problems lol.

postscript 2/28 - Hey , I won the challenge! Doin' the happy dance lol!

24 Hours of EVIDENCE.

Well , here I am bright and early. It's almost 7:30 in the morning , but I've been up for quite a while , and also half the night , thanks for asking lol. I've got a fresh pot brewing and while I was putting that together lost the 'warm spot' in the bed to my son , who is taking it over to play his xbox360. My husband snuck that in there while I was out yesterday - evidently Brady needed something to do while Dan was camped out on the couch watching Nascar. Why couldn't he watch it in the bedroom and leave the xbox out here you ask? NO idea - but don't even TRY to tell me how men are the 'logical' half of the species , 'cause they ain't. I've told him at least four times I didn't want the 360 in the bedroom. And the reason I've been up for so long is that he forgot to un-forward his phone , and half the crew has called since oh 4am. Yawn. This is after a night of being woken repeatedly by the unbelievable din that comes out of his face when he has a sinus infection. By 2am , sleeping in this morning was a firm plan. Crap.

I'm not sure why I'm posting this , or even if I really will - I think I've been possessed by the issue of Artful Blogging I got , that I wasn't going to buy. I knew I shouldn't. And I often wish Somerset would just put out ONE freaking magazine w/everything in it so I could just make ONE freaking trip to B&N to get it - but I'll try to stay on topic. Blogland is an enticing thing , and has sucked more time from me than I care to admit. I ration my time there now. I knew if I bought the issue , I would find blogs I needed to visit and of course , I did. My problem with that is if I'm sitting on the computer , I'm not getting anything else done like cleaning or arting or spending quality time with my son , or even with my bf and the McBaby - I NEED to see our baby and the bf needs a girl that's grown to talk to. No matter what I'm doing , I'm usually feeling guilty for not doing something else so really , I'm just always wrong lol.

What I did not expect to find were the amount of testimonials about blogging , and being your true self and using an honest voice. Being real about your life online. You know , I like the theory. I'm not sure about the reality. My reality is that I'm actually very private , regardless of my off-the-cuff writing. I share what I share and say what I say because I'm NOT emotionally invested in it - I don't care if anyone sees it. I don't want to write something ONLINE , for crying out loud , and deeply regret it later.

But on the other hand I'm the honest sort that sort of throws things out there , and I'm nothing if not wordy. I swear I write more than I talk , I really do. In real life I'm very quiet and lost in my thoughts more often than not. When these thoughts are about how I'm going to work my next piece , I have been known to get out of the tub after shaving only one leg and forgetting to wash my hair. This sort of thing drives me nuts. (there I shared lol). I swear to you I've done it more than once and now I double-check because I know this about myself. I'm probably quiet because I'm so confused about which direction I need to point next - all those voices talking at once in there. 'Reconcile the CC/bank statements is the online service I've switched us to working out crap the early payment I sent to the CC is now on last months statement and I have to pay them AGAIN (insert swearing) we're out of bandaids milk and fresh veggies gotta get the laundry going (I should really try to get some of the mud off those clothes before I destroy my machine) and there's crap all over the floor again WHERE are my favorite jeans it's not like I wore them out and LEFT them somewhere for crying out loud , I need to make something for the challenge at Trends and how am I going to include the poetry I wrote for the other piece and keep it balanced visually - is posting on my blog a complete snore for the peoples if there's no art to go with it?" on and on. That last one was a recent thought...and THAT train of what-passes-for-thought is then interrupted by my son's illuminating explanation of how he last farted. He has more fun with this than anyone I've ever met , and really likes to analyze the different noises his butt is capable of entertaining him with. There are a lot of moments where I stop and think 'yes , this is a perfect example of yet another conversation I do NOT remember dreaming about as a young girl".

Don't think that I've missed the conflict between sitting down to write on my blog and not getting on that to-do list. Which interestingly brings up Michelle Ward. I visited her blog (sigh) yesterday , and she's apparently convinced that I should be journalling. Where does one find the time for this? Again though , her words strike a chord with me as they often have in the past. I see the need for EVIDENCE. Until yesterday , the word did not have the same importance for me that it does today , or the same connotation. I agree that it's valuable both personally and as a record of who I am for my son to have one day , but where the hell does she find the time????? I can't see making the art and journalling about it too - I'm thrilled just to get to the art , and when I do I'm making that piece - I do not have left over swatches and stuff to use to make a journal page. And if I did , I can virtually guarantee my journal page would become something else I had to 'get right' and I just don't need that kind of pressure lol. There's got to be more to that story. She arts in a more structured way than I have achieved , perhaps - making background pages and components that are ready to go when she wants to use them , maybe? Possibly at warp speed? I don't know , but I know that her life has GOT to be busier than mine , and I'm nowhere close to being organized enough to add anything else to my list.

Which makes me feel like I'm failing again. I hate that. And I can tell it's going to niggle at me , this idea of leaving EVIDENCE - I can feel it in my bones. People die young and I can too - if I die will anyone hear the tree falling in the forest? No , they won't. But he needs to. I want to leave a memory/story for my son , so he knows who I was and the things that were important to me and how he is at the top of that list even when I'm trying really hard to ignore him and finish my own thought. What if I don't die and get Alzheimers like my mom , and I'm still here but *I* don't remember anymore? There are so many things I can't ask her now and didn't think to before , and Brady will never know her as she was. It's a huge loss , something you can't really understand unless you're dealing with it. He will know his fathers side of the family , which is more than I can say , but I want him to know me too , when he's older. I'm the Mama to him , but I want him to know what his mama's loves and life were all about , and in turn perhaps his children will have the oppurtunity that he didn't have with his grandmother. I've got to get the hang of the journalling , but it should be about more than art or our trip to the zoo , and I don't know where to begin. It's such a tall order , you know?

So all of these things , from the to-do list to the EVIDENCE are some of what I have been thinking about the last 24 hours. Not all - I'm contemplating some other things too , that I'm not ready to share. Haven't even said out loud. Will I , can I - don't want to say it loud because if I don't admit it , I won't fail...Is this normal , I wonder? Is it just me that feels overwhelmed with the shoulds and idea's my busy little brain comes up with? I get so paralyzed sometimes - particularly with art , because I want to do soooo many things I actually turn away from it and stick my head in the sand , so to speak. Doesn't work well , so don't try this at home lol.

Should I post before drinking a whole pot of coffee?
(No).

My lap was just invaded by said boy with all his knees and elbows and a demand for cereal made while I kissed his back - another day begins lol. The thought of forgetting him and these moments or his crazy conversations breaks my heart. I want to hold him forever. : )

Another good reason for EVIDENCE - I might need to read my story too. I don't mean to be depressing , but it just dawned on me. I better get a lot more interesting lol.

Off I go.

5,6,9,16..,which are your fav's?

1. It's always darkest before dawn. So if you're going to steal your neighbor's newspaper, that's the time to do it.

2. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a broken fan belt and leaky tire.

3. Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead. Do not walk ahead of me, for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me either. Just pretty much leave me the he-- alone.

4. Don't be irreplaceable. If you can't be replaced, you can't be promoted.

5. Always remember that you're unique. Just like everyone else.

6. Never test the depth of the water with both feet.

7. If you think nobody cares if you're alive, try missing a couple of carpayments.

8. Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes.That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away AND you have their shoes.

9. If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you.

10. Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.

11. If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.

12. If you tell the truth, you don't have to remember anything.

13. Some days you're the bug; some days you're the windshield.

14. Everyone seems normal until you get to know them.

15. The quickest way to double your money is to fold it in half and put it back in your pocket.

16. A closed mouth gathers no foot.

17. Duct tape is like 'The Force'. It has a light side and a dark side, and it holds the universe together.

18. There are two theories to arguing with women. Neither one works.

19. Generally speaking, you aren't learning much when your lips are moving.

20. Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.

21. Never miss a good chance to shut up.

22. Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.

Teaser Art

These , my friends , are snippets of my very first altered book. It snuck up to my backdoor over the weekend , and once I finally broke into it my eye's popped. It had been mentioned my book was getting thick , but I was un-prepared for just HOW thick! I'm pretty jazzed believe me! I'm not only jazzed , I'm smug - you'd think I was single-handedly responsible for stuffing the thing - but , I am not. The girls in the RR did such beautiful work and I am thrilled not only by that , but by the stuffage in my copper pockets - I got a whole stack o' stuff , and what with being me and all I REALLY LOVE THAT! ! !

I sent it out un-bound because I wanted to bind it after all was said and done (good thing too) , so I won't show you the whole book until I'm done. And I won't be done until I'm through creating a couple of fabric panels/artworks , because I will affix those at the same time I bind. And after I bind , I'm sure I'll need to adorn it , because that's become a pretty broad expanse of spine lol. If I go with my current plan (which I might not - 's'not over til the fat lady sings) the spine is six inches wide.

Yeppers - six inches.

And just as a bonus , here's a quick snip of the panel I'm working on , which I'm kinda diggin'. I'm playing , big time. Well - big time for me. I really enjoy rending fabric lol.

Thank YOU.

I wanted those of you who have left me such nice comments to know that I very much appreciate them whether I'm able to follow up personally or not. I've found I'm losing track of who I've said thank you to and who I haven't , and I'm not entirely sure my track record is going to get better. Please know I DO appreciate the time you take to leave them , and I will do my best to send a personal response if I can. There are days I'm swimming in emails , and days I just don't have time for the computer , but there are never days you're not appreciated. Believe me , I know how big the world gets behind this screen - I have lost a LOT of hours bloghopping lol. The variety of art to view and blogs to read is dizzying , so again , thank you so much for stopping here once in a while.

Turns out Dot wasn't Distressed after all. . ,

Well , it's the last spread of the Color Chronicles Round Robin for me , and this one was for Christine. The theme she chose was 'distressed polka-dots'. Although I really struggled with the concept , once I actually got started it came together very quickly. I'm really loving working faster - I have finally learned it does me no good to plan these things in advance. I've wasted a lot of time 'thinking' , and I can't remember now if I have Ever actually followed one (the plan). If anything , I confused myself trying to put together too many ideas into one piece lol. Anyway , this was fun to do in the end , and I really hope she enjoys it.