The Street Fair report

(My Polka Dot House)

These are some of the new things I took to the street fair. The Mill Creek Street Fair, to be specific. Sigh... It was not that successful. So disappointing, I usually do well at that sort of thing. I worked, worked, worked like crazy to build up my inventory...and hardly sold any paintings or collages. Sigh. Sold lots of $3 cards, though.

(You Take the Cake!)

I just love those cake collages that people make, so I though I would try my hand at a mixed media cake. I loved how it turned out! I loved it so much, I made a little card out of it, too. This didn't sell at the street fair - but! I posted some pictures on Facebook and one of my Facebook friends messaged me and said she wanted to buy it! Hurray! And she was local, so no shipping - double hurray!

(Words Fell Like Snow)

Remember this background? Well, I finally finished it. I was going to put a coat of wax over the letters on the bottom (you may have to click on the photo to see them well), but someone in the Melange group told us that putting straight wax over acrylic is not a good idea because it will peel off. So I nixed that idea and just left it as is. I like it this way, too. I think they look more like snowflakes.

(I'm Hungry)

Oh, I love the little stylized birds! This one is just 3x10 (approx). I had someone ask if I ever painted these bigger. I have tried a few times but I just haven't been satisfied with the results yet. I think I need to get a tub of Golden's paint to ensure an even, smooth coat of opaque color. I have to drive about 30 minutes away to get Golden's, all they carry around here is Liquitex. On top of that I have to break my moratorium on buying new supplies! At this point I'm drowning in supplies and have forbidden myself to get anymore! There is currently only a trail to get through the dining room/art workspace! Partly because my DH commandeered one of my tables to use for a bike build-off - so all those supplies are on the floor right now. It won't be much better once I get the table back if I don't reorganize, though. I got a ton of those plastic shoeboxes at the dollar store to organize my supplies and Rexy's toys. I'll let you know how that works out...

(Take Flight With Your Dreams)

I'm still laughing about the exploits of Rexy and Daddy that happened last Thursday night while I was at the movies. It's a long story but it involved a flooded bathroom, a secrecy pact, and Rexy's claim that, "I can't tell you what happened. It's a secret and I'm practicing to be a spy." Later at bedtime I told a story about Goldilocks forgetting to turn off the water in the bathroom sink because she was so busy playing and Rexy looked at me in wonder and said, "That's exactly what happened in our bathroom!"

Collage Play with Crowabout #42

(Solar Powered Flight)

My first Crowabout entry...and I'm late! I forgot about the time difference. Sigh. I still want to participate, though. The sun is made from the picture of the airplane journal entry, the balloons are made from the individual words and, obviously, the picture of the man. Her belt is from the striped strip and her pedestal is made from the sign and the pic of the checkers game box. (I haven't figured out the macro function on my new camera. I may have to go back to the old one to get a proper photograph.)

In looking at this, I think I will go in and add something more to the background/sides. What do you think?

Lastly...Thanks Nancy!

The Perfect Post or...?

Where have I been?

Where have I been? I have just been here.

After the Christmas craziness, my house fell into rack and ruin (wrack and ruin?). More so than is usual for me, anyway. First, I had the brilliant notion that I wouldn't allow myself to go online or make any art until I got everything done around the house that I wanted to get done.

Hmmph! You know that saying, "If you want something done, ask a busy person to do it?" Well, I think there must be something to that. As soon as I wasn't overloading myself, I stopped doing anything. So I guess if I'm not being a part of the artistic community or making art then I'm not doing crap, basically. Add to that, if I'm not making art then I'm depressed. So that was a bad idea.

Then, it had been so long I felt like I had to give a rundown on all that had gone on in my life up to the point of my blog post. Which is silly, it's not like I had a baby or won the lottery or anything. I struggled and struggled, trying to write the perfect blog post. You know the one; it's the one where you show yourself in the very best light while also being personal , where you show great feats of artistic accomplishment, domestic aptitude, beautiful children, and a spotless

home.

Then more time had passed and then I felt like I really had to write a great post. This idea grew and grew until it was one big, ginormous, 300 ton boulder in the way of my blog writing. I think I gave myself writer's block.

Finally, finally! I gave up on that idea.

So here I am. Just me; perpetually behind, fairly slacker-ish, intermittently artistically inspired, mom, wife. Far less than picturesque. Completely lacking in the schedule-following department. (I always think that if I could come up with the perfect schedule, I could get everything done that I want to get done. Hah!)

I'm just a seeker in life. A seeker of my truth. One that doesn't necessarily include perfection.

That's a hard one to let go of. Like most of us, I love the idea of perfection. But the reality is, I don't love it so much that I'm willing to sacrifice other things in life that I love. Even if some of the things I love in life are kind of silly (like computer games).

In a perfect world I would get up early, serve my child homemade something-or-other for breakfast, effortlessly clean my house, blog, contribute to my forums/groups, and then put in a 6-8 hour day of art making while also serving a homemade lunch and dinner to the family, exfoliating, giving myself a mani/pedi, and exercising for an hour; thus leaving the evening free to spend quality time with my husband discussing art and politics. (apparently groceries magically appear in this world)

In my real world I stay up too late playing computer games, read my book in the morning after serving my child some kind of cereal or store-made pumpkin bread item, feel lucky if I either do the dishes or get a load of laundry going, seldom leave the house before noon, and if I have to go grocery shopping while Rexy's at school you can just kiss art-making good bye for the day. I do spend time with the husband in the evening - but we usually just watch TV. Forget about personal grooming - any extra time I have is spent playing with my girl, going to play dates, and struggling to keep the fallout from our pack rat tendencies at bay.

(All that being said, I still think I should create some kind of schedule...)

With all this in mind, I came across this week's Melange on Etsy Challenge. This week's challenge prompt is "Bliss." What that immediately brought to mind is Joseph Campbell's phrase, "Follow your bliss..." What does it mean to "follow your bliss?" For me it means really coming to terms with exactly who I am and what I want and then arranging my life to accommodate those things. More poetically put, "Be a seeker of truth and a builder of dreams." And so I painted this last painting. (Our 2 (!) tripods have been misplaced by the DH, so I couldn't get a full frontal pic. Above is the scanner image and below is the best I could do without a tripod.)

I so love my friend Pam Carriker's color palette that I thought I would try an homage to it. I don't think I achieved her beautiful, subtle layers. I may try to sneak some more texture into it later.

Lastly, I'll leave you with a picture of my beautiful girl. She's turned 5 and graduated from preschool since I've been blog-absent.

Not An Actual Post - But An Important One Nonetheless

If you haven't already heard, (Moss Hill Studio's) JoAnna Pierotti's husband, Ron, has been diagnosed with a brain tumor.  If he doesn't receive surgery immediately - within the week - it will cut off the blood supply to his brain and he will not live more than a month.  Ron was laid off recently due to the economy and they are currently without health insurance.  They are trying to get help through social services but are unsure if they will qualify.  If you can help even a little bit, please chip in by using the widget below.

I'm sure that all of us, at one time or another, have been helped by the kindness of friends, acquaintences, and strangers.  Here is an opportunity pay that kindness forward, if only with a kind note.  I just keep thinking what a terrible, terrible blow it would be to lose my husband and my heart goes out to JoAnna.  Please join me by sending your thoughts and prayers - and a few extra dollars if you can - her way.

I've been on a loooooooooong computer hiatus...

I'm coming back, I promise!

Famous Last Words...

Mine sounding something like, "I'm back, and I'll be here more!"

(Day 1 of the snow, when we still thought it was pretty. Pictured is a 1935 Rugby Streamline.)

What with "Snowpocalypse" here in the NW (thank you to Dawn for the awesome moniker), Two (yes, 2!!!) plagues besetting our house in one month), and the holidays, my world has been turned upside down.

First, the snow. As I was clicking on "Publish Post" last time, I looked out the window and realized it had been snowing again! In total, I think we ended up with about 18 to 20 inches in our neighborhood (not including the 3-4 inches we got this past Sunday night) over about ten days time. Can I just mention again, an average of 3 inches of snow per year! We don't even own a snow shovel. Thankfully, we kept our power. Some people lost power here, and my friend Nancy Lefko's community back east had 424,000 homes without power. I do consider us extremely lucky.

Because of the unplowed surface streets covered in over a foot of layered ice and snow we missed our family Christmas celebrations on Christmas Eve and Christmas. Luckily Rexy is too young to have huge expectations and Phil's family always had small holidays, so they were fine. I, however, was disappointed. I missed my huge extended family. I love spending time with the cousins and aunts and uncles and various in-laws, ex-roommates, and a random selection of aging dogs. It's loud, and chaotic, and there's always somebody's elbow practically hitting you in the eye when you eat - and I love it. Our little spaghetti dinner just didn't quite compare.

Which is not to say I had a bad holiday - on the contrary!

Rexy woke up only slighly earlier than usual - and when she came out to the living room she couldn't stop saying, "Look! Look!" She was just thrilled that Santa had come. As she was unwrapping her presents, she stopped to look up at me very seriously and held out one of the bows from her presents, "Don't throw these away, I want to save these." Her parents' daughter! We had a pancake breakfast, a leisurely day, and the aforementioned spaghetti dinner (supplies were getting low). Definitely a more peaceful day than is usual.

I gave two of my cousin's paintings for Christmas. (When we finally saw them.) They turned out a little more "Prim" than I meant them to. The top one incorporates the dictionary pages for dog, cat, goat, and human for my cousin with the menagerie at home. The bottom one has a repeating 07 motif for my cousin and his wife whose birthdays are both on the 7th, as is their anniversary, as well as another family member's birthday. I thought the paintings would be fun and whimsical for their respective kitchens.

Oh - and the second coming of the plague. Sigh... Even as I write this, I am stopping periodically to turn away from the keyboard and cough my lungs out - practically. This version has been going on since about the 27th. Suffice it to say we've all had it. I seem to be having a hard time getting rid of it. I spent the entire day in bed/couch yesterday. Rexy was an angel and just played at my feet all day. The best line from Rexy about her sickness, "My throat is gone, but I think I have a beaver." I didn't laugh! Now my entire family is talking about "beavers."

Lastly, Haikus! This time it's just SueAnn and I. I'm sure my inconsistency has been affecting participation - not to mention the holidays. Next post I will be writing about goals for 2009 and I will talk about future Haiku challenges.

As usual, SueAnn's Haiku contributions are things of beauty. She is definitely a poet.

She had another for the winter theme:

Edged with snow and ice
roads disappear in the night
sliding, slipping...stuck!

and for the Beginnings theme:

Starting over again,
feeling the pangs of rebirth
Begin this life rejoicing.

And from me for the Beginnings theme:

Start, start, and start again
fall down, stand up, just don’t stop.
To stop is to fade

Beauty is in each
beginning; fresh, clean, and pure.
To begin is all.

Happy New Year.

I'm baaaaaaaaack!

Yes, that's my child. Still in her pajamas at noon.

What? That black stuff? Oh, yeah. That's the pretend chicken pox she drew on her face - like Pingu - with a marker. No, it's not enough that she gives me this never-ending plague - she also has to use a black marker on her face mere days before we go face the relatives. I did manage not to laugh so as not to encourage her - but I had to take a picture - and that encouraged her. When I went to get the camera, she went over to the mirror with her marker - to get the places on her face that she'd missed!

On the bright side, though, it came off pretty easy. Turned out she'd used a dry-erase marker. Phew!

Winter Haikus

Blue Stellar's Jays hanging out in our snowy plum tree.

First, I'd like to share SueAnn's Haiku:

Frost fills the air; cold
etching glass with swirls and curves
Watching breath turn white.

Isn't that beautiful? It so perfectly captures our ideal version of winter.

And from Kayce, as always, making me laugh:

December is cold
chocolate and Schnapps
mug is all i need

Eyes peeking at me
a hat too big, scarf too long
torture is my game

From Teresa, I wish I was in Texas right now myself!

A chill in the air
Does not snow in South Texas
but very rarely

And lastly, from Liisa; although it was Thanksgiving turkey that brought her parents together, we have turkey for Christmas dinner, too.

Nineteen thirty-three,
farm girl raises turkey chicks,
sells one to my dad.

Thanksgiving turkey!
Without him there'd be no me!
You can ask my mom.

(well, that wasn't really the last one, mine is down at the bottom of the post.)

Frosty, the mini snowman


Frosta, the mini snow-woman

We're snowed in. If you live anywhere but the northwest or a warm climate you will laugh at the next sentence. We are snowed in because we have 10 inches of snow. Yep. Ten inches. (Okay, possibly as many as 12.) The Seattle area pretty much comes to a standstill at about 3 inches. I think there's about 2 snowplows and .62 of a road sander for every 100 square miles in this area. Seriously. Right now there is a huge suburban neighborhood completely without gas in their gas stations because the tankers can't get to them. The situation is almost the same in the state's 3rd largest city. In our defense, we average about 3 inches of snow a year - and we got eight inches in one night! Also, we are an area of hills, hills, and more hills. So while the main road might be passable, you may not be able to get out of your neighborhood, or even out of your driveway due to steep inclines.

What this means at our house is that my DH has been home, Rexy has been out of school, and both of them have been needing to be entertained! Rexy and I have been doing lots of crafts. The DH and I have been watching movies. And the DH has been monopolizing the computer! I started this post 4 days ago and have been stealing time here and there to fill it in.

The barn at the tree farm, appropriately named The Red Barn Tree Farm!

During my blog absence, we went to get our Christmas tree from my aunt and uncle's Christmas tree farm. I wrote about the farm extensively last year in this post and this post.

The stove used to heat the inside of the barn

I thought I would just post a few pictures from the excursion. Rexy was the happiest girl in town when I let her play in the giant mud puddle. Her hat kept slipping down over her eyes, so all of her pictures make her look eyeless - or nearly eyeless.

She's still in love with the flocked trees, but after last year's indoor "It's snowing!" experience in her bedroom we are never doing that again. (I was still finding that flocking stuff in July!)

When looking at last December's posts, I saw the free images I posted in honor of Chanukah. If you didn't get them then, here is a link to all of December's posts from 2007 which is where the freebies are posted.


And finally, some art! Well, works in progress anyway. I've been finding it strangely difficult to work on things with everyone at home. By the time they go to bed, I'm feeling so wrung out and cranky that I just want to vegetate. During the day, I find myself thinking longingly of my computer games! I guess I didn't realize how much I have come to rely on that block of time when Rexy is at school and Phil is at work and I can just be by myself. I feel like I should be a model mother and be happy to bake cookies, fold laundry, and play Chutes and Ladders with my child every day...but I'm just not that person. I love my family soooo much - but I 24/7 togetherness just makes me cranky. Am I the only one? Am I a terrible person? (Do I really want an answer to that question???)


This is a gal I'm working on and (and my last Kelly Rae background), obviously, I'm trying to figure out what color to paint her dress. I was going to ask for your opinions, but since I took this picture (4 days ago when I started this blog post!) I decided on dark red. It's almost done. I'll post a picture as soon as it's complete.

The canvas below I started about 2 months ago. I'm sort of in quandary. I'd like to use some pretty paper to add texture to the painting, but I can't quite find the right color. And I'm nervous about painting blonde hair. I'm certain I'm going to paint a woman, though. The mood of the painting lends itself to that, I think. We'll see.

In closing, I would just like to extend my gratitude to each and every one of you. Thank you for taking the time to stop by and read and comment on my blog. The last two years have been thrilling and heartwarming and full of your lovely, generous spirits - and I thank you for that. You make my world better a better place.

Merry Christmas!

Happy Chanukah!

Happy Kwanzaa!

Happy New Year!

Basically, may happiness follow wherever you go.

My winter Haiku:

Snowmen standing guard
our ice castle safe and warm
holds us close inside.

Next Haiku challenge, lets make the deadline after the holidays - January 5th, - and the theme is Beginnings.

Art Every Day!

I was reading Robin's Blog today and she was talking about making art every day. (Well, she quoted Teesha Moore saying it and then seconded it.) I had to thank her because I lose sight of that sometimes (like just recently) and I get all antsy and cranky and I don't know why...until I do a little art, and then it's like my whole body relaxes, you know?

I was on the Funky Finds blog today and saw mention of this gal's Etsy Store. Cute, cute, cute stuff!!! This is not a picture of what I bought. I can't show a picture of my purchase because I bought something for someone who's a regular visitor! Still, I'm tempted to go back and buy one of these, they're so adorable! And so is this:

She's also got some clay embellishments for halloween if you're interested!

So, on top of our moth problem (that is, hopefully, fixed now), on Saturday our dryer went out! Of course it goes out at a time when I've been avoiding doing laundry (we were busy!) and so had huge piles of it built up. So, I had to lug it all to the laundrymat. Or is it laundromat? Let's just call it a laundrette like they do in the UK. I love that name and it reminds me of the fab movie, My Beautiful Laundrette. I'll never forget how shocked I was to find that the geeky guy in A Room with a View was the punk in My Beautiful Laundrette. It took me at least half the movie to realize it. But I digress...do you know how much it costs at a coin-op laundry these days??? I guess I hadn't been to one since 1997. Yikes! $2.25 to wash and about 2.40 to dry - it cost me over $20 and I didn't bring the bedding! (I did that last night.) So that load with the Blankey was the last one I did at home, I would have done a lot more if I'd known. We're waiting on a part, hopefully this won't last long.

This is one of my early ATCs. I made it for a swap on the Yahoo Artist Trading Cards group. Its theme was "My Hometown" and the gist of this one is that it's represents a memory of my Great Grandma hanging out the laundry on the back porch and keeping an eye on the neighborhood. The shadowy figure is her and the child is me. The town is my actual hometown - Auburn, Washington - about 30 years before I was born. This is very, very early in my altered art education and I hadn't even heard of transparencies yet! So it's a little rough in spots. Still, I worked really hard on this swap, I made nine, different original cards to swap for 8. I didn't realize that people often made prints for these things. When I was done I loved them so much I wanted to keep them. I'd really put my heart into them. It was the first and last swap I ever did. Of the eight that I received only one was an orginal and no one seemed to have put a lot of thought into theirs. It was my first introduction to the "I've got 19 card albums filled with ATCs!" school of thought. To me, each one was a little work of art and the thought of them stuffed into a card album with 200 others made me cringe. I've loosened up on the cringing part (I think part of that was just shock), but I still feel that each one is special. If you would like to see the whole collection you can see it on the ZNE gallery I made for it here. I was going to put this one, below, on my blog for Illustration Friday's theme "Hero" but I forgot when I was posting and now there's a new topic.

That's my grandfather in his B-17 in England during WWII. You may recognize the picture of my Grandmother, I use it a lot - and that's my mom! He named his plane after my mom.

Right around the time I was finishing up the My Hometown swap is when I discovered ZNE. I was thrilled! I still am. What a great group of artists. The discussion boards and the Yahoo! Group are unvaryingly filled with kind, supportive, nice people with none of the silly fighting and grousing and mean-spiritedness that you sometimes find online. Every day I'm just happy to be a part of it.

Which brings me to my gratitude journal today. There's just one thing in it:

1. ZNE

Thank you all for being the great people you are. You've made my life richer and my world larger. I hope that I can return the favor in my small way. Thank you.

Banner, Yes or No? And a contest!

Well, I worked for the better part of a day on this #$!*&#$*! banner and it still doesn't quite fit! Is there a trick to sizing these things? I finally shrank it down (and considerably simplified it) to about the size of a large postage stamp (strangely, that's what it took) and this is what I got. And, on top of that, this was supposed to just be a quickie thing. So all that work didn't really go into much designing. Much of it, of course, was operator (my) error. If I'd just done a blank test rectangle to check for size, I could have saved myself loads of time. Didn't think about that until I was all done of course. Oh, well. Live and learn, right? I'll have a go at making a better one some other time. In the mean time - what do you think? Should I leave this one up there or just put the blogspot standard banner for this template back on? Please leave a comment letting me know! (You can't hurt my feelings, I love constructive criticism - when I ask for it! ;-D)

Hey Robin! This one's for you!

Here are my top ten favorite movies (posted at the request of Robin - btw, do you have a blog? I would link to you but your comments don't have a link)in no particular order except for #1. The photo at the right is from my favorite movie of all time, "Wings of Desire."

1. Wings of Desire

2. The Usual Suspects

3. A Room With a View

4. All That Jazz

5. Charade

6. Persuasion

7. Breakfast at Tiffany's

8. Best in Show

9. Auntie Mame

10. Election

Oh, okay! I can't stop at ten! Here's 5 more...

11. The Unbelievable Truth

12. Existenz

13. The Professional

14. Swingers

15. Four Weddings and a Funeral

And here's a contest for you! I will randomly pick a correct entry to win a plump, prize package of ephemera and stuff! (I was going for alliteration but got stuck, I decided that "plethoratic" wasn't a word...)

Here are my 15 reasons for liking the above movies - can you match the reasons to the movies?

a. "Oh, they always jump."

b. When is the last time you could say you loved a hit-man this much?

c. The whole movie is about flirting with death.

d. Did you know that every single song in this movie is a variation on the main song?

e. I agreed to go on that 1st date with my husband because he said he had a "Hal Hartley" sense of humor.

f. I love this because it reminds me of my single years and the great group of friends I hung with then.

g. I love a good plot twist - whenever it occurs.

h. Could Cary Grant be any more attractive???

i. Every expression that emerges onto Tracy Flick's face is priceless.

j. "Poor Charlotte!"

k. The look between Anne and Captain Wentworth when they finally realize they love each other makes this better than the Oscar winner that came out the same year and that was of the same ilk.

l. I knew these guys - and that answering machine scene, yikes!

m. This entire movie is a plot twist - at the end you have no idea what was real.

n. The most poetic movie ever, it uses actual lines of poetry by Peter Handke.

o. "We need a little Christmas! Right this very minute!"

Some easy clues, some hard ones; I promise the prize package will be worth the work you may have to put in for a couple of these.

And lastly, a movie that's just goofy fun: The Zero Effect, it stars Bill Pullman and Ben Stiller and it's just great. I'm not sure why it never caught on. Everyone that I've forced to watch it has loved it. :-D

I hope this was helpful and fun for you Robin - and everyone else!

On the art front, I have exciting news!!! My husband has a brilliant idea for making one whole wall of our dining room into cabinets and a fold-down table that I can use as a pseudo-studio in this smallest of small houses. I'm thrilled! It'll be a slow-go project, I'm sure we'll still be doing construction at Christmas, but I'm so excited at the prospect of all that storage and organization! It will be slow because it's not like we're going to give up our 900 hobbies to do this, we're just going to cram it into the schedule! We've already started clearing out the dining room so we can pull up the carpet and expose the hardwood floor. Now I know this sounds promising, but have I mentioned our furniture adoption agency? AKA as our house? There's not actually anywhere to put the things we take out of the dining room. In order to shift one of the (yes, one of them) vintage china cabinets to the hallway we had to move the vintage dental cabinet from the hallway to the middle of the living room/dining room. And in order to move the dental cabinet we had to move Rexy's gigantic easel-on-wheels/toy shelf, the vintage 50s side chair that we found on the side of the road, the faux Eames lounge chair, and one of the stripped down, vintage, metal bar stools that we use as cocktail tables. Needless to say, moving one piece of furniture (after emptying out the shelves and drawers) took all day. That just leaves the other china cabinet; the antique child's desk; the vintage, wooden, card table/art supply repository; the double-decker, red metal tool chest that holds a couple hundred pounds of beads; the vintage, triangular, 3-legged footstool (Or, as my DH refers to it, "the Death Star" - there was a little incident...); three cardboard boxes of art supplies; a wooden chest of art supplies; a vintage, metal occasional chair precariously topped with art supplies; a large dining room table (piled high with art supplies); and six chairs (2 of which have- what else - art supplies on them).

You can see our problem.

Oh, boy. It's late again. I'd better sign off. I'll talk more later about my ZNE Book Club projects and my other doings.

My Gratitude Journal:

1. Vacuums

2. Electric Fans (it's been hot here!)

3. Spray nozzles for garden hoses

4. Hot Dogs (went to a fire pit party last night!)

5. Music

Rexy loves those hats...

I'm (at long last) back! This is going to be a long one...

I've decided I love Miranda July. Here's one reason, she's warm and real and articulate and I'm now anxious to read her new book called No One Belongs Here More Than You. If her name sounds familiar it's because her indie movie - Me and You and Everyone We Know - was the talk of the town a couple years ago, if you're into those things (as I am). Here's another reason I love her, she introduced me to The Blow, a girl band from Portland that I now love. I listened to one song and had to order their newest album. Does anyone still call them albums? I'm definitely showing my age.

This lovely picture is my sweet Rexy on her new swing set on Memorial Day weekend.

I was tagged again a couple weeks ago and am just now getting around to my seven random things due to the prolonged ineptitude of Earthlink. (Nearly 3 weeks without DSL and with deafening static on the land line - this is all I'm going to say on this subject as I tend to get apoplectic when I start thinking about the continuing Earthlink fiasco.) So, here we go:
1. I'm a cookie addict

2. I'm a terrible slob (even though I vowed I'd never be like my mother!)

3. My wardrobe is 90% black. I keep trying new colors, but black always seems to just look better...

4. My husband and I were married in 2001 and we still haven't developed all the film from the wedding!

5. I've never figured out what quid pro quo means (would someone tell me?)

6. My husband and I own nearly 400 movies (let me know if you ever want a recommendation - I loooooooooove talking about movies), we got together because we both liked the same indie director (Hal Hartley), and I once saw5 movies in one day - at a film festival, but we've only been in a movie theater 3 times since our daughter was born!

7. I'm currently sacrificing family dinner for art. I can't even see the surface of our dining room table and large parts of the floor due to the enormous amount of supplies standing at the ready.

Hmmm....who should I tag? I think nearly everyone's been tagged by now! If you haven't been tagged, let me know and I will promptly tag you.

I'm so thrilled, I finally got a little quitlting iron for using beeswax! I'm currently in the ZNE Book Club and we're trying techniques from Claudine Hellmuth's Collage Discovery Workshop. Okay, wax was not one of the assigned techniques (not yet, anyway) but I snuck a little crayon wax in around the edges and down the sides (It needed more than just peeling paint!). The technique we were assigned was the "peeling paint" technique. Here is the piece I did (with the little bit of red wax thrown in):

It's 5"x7" and it's called, The Worst of These is Indifference. One of the words I hate the most in the world is "whatever." Have an opinion! ...Of course it's much better if your opinion is in accordance with my own. ;-D

While I was gone (offline) we went through another bout of sickness at our house, ugh. What that means is that I'm just as behind as I ever was. I have yet to catch up. I did get a few of the Cercles d'Ame round robin pages done for some people. Here are a couple I did for Donna Cook's Rolodex journal. I've got just a couple more things to do and then I'll be complete! I wish I could go back and do some of the earlier pages I did over again. Once I got comfortable, I started being more creative and layered with the pages.

On to my Gratitude Journaling:

1. Rexy's new Pre School teacher, Erin

2. Rexy's therapy supervisor, Tracy

3. The Internet

4. Chicken nuggets (the 1st meat Rexy has eaten!)

5. thrift stores

Oh! Another thing that happened while I was gone - Pam and I submitted our reunion story and some artwork to Somerset Studio! I'm excited, but not too hopeful. I rushed my piece (the deadline crept up on me and I changed my mind at the eleventh hour about what I was going to make!) out and I was happy with it at the time - and the UPS gal was impressed - but in retrospect I don't think it was my best work. I'd show you a picture but I'm not sure if that's against their rules. I feel like I should have made it more visually layered. I don't know. It was a flag banner made of triangles, maybe it wouldn't work if were more "busy" looking. Ugh, I could second guess this forever, I bet. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Lastly, a bit of sad news. I haven't seen or heard the neighborhood rooster in weeks. I fear the worst.

We'll miss you around here, Rooster.