Who me? In a Creative Snit???

The fabulous and sweet Jan Thomason awarded me the




(definitions courtesy of Lennea)

"Unlike many other blogging awards, THIS award requires much thoughtful deliberation and strict adherence to the following CREATIVE SNIT AWARD criteria.

This award shall be presented only to worthy artists who have shown evidence of being in a creative snit.To help with the selection, we need a common frame of reference.

I found this definition of snit:

snit; noun; a state of agitated irritation; "he was in a snit"

However, I think a CREATIVE SNIT requires a somewhat different defintion:

Creative Snit; noun; a state of creative chaos, creative frustration, or a state of obsessive creativity: "she was in a creative snit."

Therefore, worthy recipients of this prestigious award should demonstrate one or more of the following criteria:

1) photos of their chaotic creative studio spaces (see my blog for example)

2) reports of staying up till the wee hours of the morning while consuming large amounts of coffee and or chocolate in order to finish a swap or prepare for a show

3) documented frustration over the creative process

4) evidence of a large quantity of art created over a small period of time

5) photos of the recipient at vendor night at any art retreat ( it goes without saying that ALL attendees at such events are either in or will soon be in a creative snit)AND FINALLY

6) ( created especially for Jan) witnessing the recipient in a SNIT at a CREATIVE EVENT!"

I'm not sure that Jan even knew about the time I stayed up all night trying to finish a magazine submission! (Or the one-hour of sleep night, or the 2-hours of sleep night, or...) She has seen pictures of my far from neat workspace - that I'm currently not working in! Hence the documentation of frustration over my creative process. If I haven't hit all the points yet (haven't been to an art retreat), I'm sure I will someday!

I hereby award the following:

1. Dana at Eccentricities Studio

2. Gina of Lilly's of Londonish

3. Pam of The Bag Lady's Art

4. Gail at Shabby Cottage Studio

Not everyone here has necessarily shown public evidence of having been in a Creative Snit, but I feel the kindred spirit through the internet connection. I'm sure they all have been in Creative Snits at one time or another.

There is no requirement for awarding this prize to others. You can if you wish and you can award as many as you wish.

An Artist and Small Business Doing a Nice Thing

Christina Marie is an Etsy artist that I ran across today who is doing her part to help displaced families in San Diego. Not only is she donating 1/2 the proceeds of all the sales for her jewelry, she's also having an online bake sale in her Etsy store for it and a Gift Certificate program to give 100% to victims of the California fires.

Stop by her Etsy shop, if only to send her a note of encouragement (although buying something would be even better. She's taking donations of as little as one dollar!):

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5094917

Does a dog go moo?

How great are these? I'm completely in love with Suzan, The Thrifty Collage Artist's work! This is just a small sampling. She gives a pretty hilarious account of her method in this post. Her layering is just incredible. I would love work that kind of layering in my pieces. I've been too chicken. I'm always afraid I'm going to "ruin" something. You know what I mean?

Rexy and I took a walk and found a toddler music class for her a block away from our house! When we walked up to read the flyer on the door of the studio the teacher came out to talk to us. Rexy immediately liked her! That's very unusual for her. There was no initial hiding of her face, or clinging to me, or even a lowering of her eyes. She looked right at the teacher and said hi. Well, right there I decided we would give it a try.

She's gone to two classes now (since it's once a week that tells me how long it has been since I posted here). It's a program called Musikgarten. Rexy seems to like it. The other 2 girls in the class are both younger, 18 months maybe, but they're all starting out at the same level musically I guess.

How cute is my girl in these pictures? Last weekend she just decided to pack her duck backpack with her current, favorite toys, sling it on, and march around the house. Occasionally she would pick up the mini pumpkin I got her and hold it out in front of her, very ceremoniously, while marching around the house. I have no idea what she was doing. Her pretend play is so good these days it could have been anything. Every now and then I would hear her say things like, "Come on, let's go over there!" and "Are you okay?" and "Time to go potty!" I guess that tells me what sort of conversations she and I have...

I've been having the worst time sleeping. I can't lay down without coughing. I've been sleeping on the couch, off and on, for the last two weeks. Of course I can't get in to see the doctor for at least two weeks. It will probably be over by then. I had to miss my altered art gathering at Room 206 the other night because I had only gotten 3 1/2 hours of sleep and then I had to chaperone a walking field trip for Rexy's class. Needless to say I was looking and feeling a little haggard by the time evening came.

The December issue of Somerset Studio came; my and Pam's story and artwork didn't get accepted. (my grammar is suspect in that sentence) They haven't sent it back yet, though, so we're still hopeful that they might use them at a later date.

This post is sorely lacking in art news - mainly because I have nothing new to report! I haven't done a single thing since before my last post. Silly me, I don't want to mess up my little storage situation. It's been such a relief to finally have the dining room table back in action that I'm hesistant to get started on a project. Whatever I do will have to be completely packed up and put away and that is not my biggest talent. The Thrifty Collage Artist is pretty inspiring to me, though, so I may be breaking through this stoppage soon.

I did enter my Darkener's Family Portrait ATC into the Green Pepper Press Street Team Art Crusade. That's Michelle Ward's site. She is so nice. I love the Art Crusade, too. Each month there's a different theme and all you do is put a link to your piece (either the picture or the blog entry - not your whole blog) in the comment section. The next day your link appears on the side bar. There's no joining of anything - maybe that's how all street teams work? I'm not sure, I keep meaning to check out the ZNE Etsy Street Team but have never gotten around to it. Anyway, the theme this month is "Goth." Well, I thought the Darkener's were pretty goth, so I went for it. I've already gotten some great feedback and I found out that a few people I've never met or talked to now have a link to this blog on their blogs. (love that technorati!) It's like finding out that people are saying nice things about you behind your back.

As usual, it's getting late. I'd better get going. Phil's going into work tomorrow (Sunday) so it's just me and my sweetie pie. I'm going to need all the rest I can get. She's been turning into a firecracker lately. Her new thing is telling jokes...3 year-old style. "Does a dog go moo? Nooooooooooo!!! Does a cat go cluck cluck? Noooooooooooooo!!!" (laughs hysterically at her own humor)

Art, Haiku, and other stuff...

Look!

While Margaret didn't make this specifically for the Haiku challenge, she must have been receiving the haiku energy I was sending out!

(artwork courtesy of the kind and generous Margaret Etzler)

It's great, isn't it? I love the great texture. Take a stroll over to Margaret's blog and let her know what you think of it!

We finally got the dining room carpet pulled up - yay! We're one step closer to getting my art supply cabinets built. Here's what it looks like. We have the dining room table pushed right up to the front window - that's it on the right with the red tablecloth. Pushed up against the wall is a bunch of my art supplies. That wall is where the cabinet is going to go. Here's another picture of the "supply wall." It looks all nice and neat doesn't it? Things piled neatly on top of the table, other things hidden under the tablecloth. Wouldn't it be nice if that were reality? First, it only looks this neat because I'm not actually using anything right now. Secondly, that's not nearly all the supplies! There are still all of these supplies that have to be crowbarred into that area. I have no idea where to put them. Right now they are on a card table in the middle of the kitchen, on the breakfast bar in the kitchen (behind the pens are more magazine holders and books and another floral basket thing full of stuff), and on the opposite side of the dining room.

So, a couple of weekends ago I went to a lecture given by Dan Hinkley at Molbaks in Woodinville, WA. Dan is commonly referred to as a "plant explorer." Many would call him The Plant Explorer. He founded a famous rare plant nursery, Heronswood, here in WA and recently began working with Monrovia to bring rare plants to more people. I was a little nervous going into the lecture because I'm relatively new to gardening. While I've absorbed a lot, and even know most of the latin names of my plants, I'm still pretty much a newbie. I wasn't sure I'd be able to keep up at a Dan H. lecture. Well he turned out to be completely charming and accessible! I've decided I love him. Uh, gardener to gardener love, that is. He was really funny. He said of one particular Euphorbia plant, "It turns out we didn't have to mail it. You just give it your address and it grows right to you." Okay, it's gardening humor...

He did tell a funny story concerning Martha Stewart. Years ago Dan got a call from the receptionist at the nursery one day when he was about 45 minutes away and she said, "Martha Stewart is circling the nursery in a helicopter and she called and asked if she could come in and take a look." "What did you say?" asked Dan. The receptionist replied, "I asked her if she had an appointment."

Too funny. No appointment? I'm sorry we'll have to turn you and your helicopter away, Martha Stewart. (Heronswood was a by-appointment-only place) Needless to say she did visit that day and if you're a Martha watcher you may know that Dan became her chief gardening advisor.

Anyway, the lecture was great and I put 15 new plants on my plant wishlist. Considering the number of plants I still have waiting to be planted it's kind of foolish of me to even have a plant wishlist. Here's a sampling of the madness, every one of these is still in its nursery pot, even the ones in the tall planter. See the yellow tinge? It shows in the picture on the left, but not the right, that the lighting when I took these pictures was positively golden. It was so odd. I did not alter the color at all. I looked out the front window and even the air itself looked golden. It was amazing. I went outside and took a bunch of pictures of the garden. Unfortunately that surreal light didn't show up well in the photos.

Here's a picture of the only part of the dining room that is even close to complete. Of course, this cabinet has supplies in it, too! (And dishes, and tablecloths and...)

Have a great weekend everyone! I'll be cheering my cousin through the finish line of the Cure Autism Now Walk (her son is also autistic, much more so than Rexy), and going to a performance of Little Red Riding Hood with Rexy and my DH. I hope she likes it!

The Hope Sees a Star Auction is Live!

Below is my entry into the Hope Sees a Star Auction which is a benefit for a memorial art piece that is being built to commemorate the lives of two ZNE members' daughters. Both of whom died this year. Losing your child is such a horrific thing even to contemplate, I can't imagine their pain. The memorial will be beautiful, a very talented mosaic artist is making it. Mosaic seems to me to be a very fitting medium for a memorial. Everyone's life is such a tapestry of different experiences that all come together to form a unique person. I often wish we had something more tangible to represent my grandmother and my mother's lives.

Anyway - Get yourself over there and bid! You won't be sorry.

Well school's officially started...we're all sick.

The title of this post pretty much says it all. Sigh... Rexy and I have been unable to sleep due to these really irritating coughs we've got. Poor DH was just dragging through his workday on Friday. We were supposed to tear the carpet out of the dining room this weekend and that definitely didn't happen.

I don't really even have the gumption to write a long post, so I'll just leave you with my first Halloween ATC/ACEO of the new month:

Poor Uncle Melville has lost his body...

Good night everyone.