Sunday Sketches

I really had fun sketching this one and I really like the way she turned out.  You can head on over to Sophia's blog to see more fantastic Sunday Sketches

The gift of a letter

There are some things from the past that I often like to rekindle in my life.  One of those is the handwritten letter.  Sure with the internet age and instant emails so many of us do not write letters anymore.  I think we have lost something with that.  A handwritten letter is something you can touch and feel in your hands, you know the sender spent time with the paper too.  I have always written letters and I miss the frequency of them.

My friend Kate and I have started writing letters to one another. We live in the same town about 15 miles apart.  We still call each other and send emails but its so much fun to receive letters in the mail that we started to write one another.  I think I will start doing this with other people too. So if I have your address you might get some mail from me.  Today I even pulled out a quill pen to write.  It felt very old fashioned on one hand but oh so pleasing on an other.  When was the last time you wrote a real letter, or better yet received one.  If it been a long time perhaps its time to just let go of technology for awhile and write and send a letter to a friend or a loved one.  I can guarantee they will appreciate it.

The Nine Modern Day Muses

For the past month I have been spending my time taking the Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching Course. Its a 14 week course that I am taking with women from all over the world. The sessions have been truly amazing. I have learned so many things about the creative process, procrastination, and my own creative blocks.

One of the books we are using as a text is the Nine Modern Day Muses by Jill Badonsky. I have had this book for years but I hadn't read the entire book before I signed up for this course.  I just have to say that this book is amazing.  I think it is a must read for any creative person.  Its full of ideas, exercises, techniques and advice to help you in your creative life.  I can't recommend it highly enough.

Another one of the books we are working with is One Small Step Can Change Your Life by Robert Maurer. Oh I do love this little book. Its called Kaizen and its premise is that real change occurs by taking small steps.  I have heard of the ideas before, SARK does something similar with her technique called Micro-movements. This book covers more than just small steps, I found it invaluable.  This little book has changed the way I view many things in my life. I use the ideas in all areas of my life. Even when I am fighting with myself to just exercise I take the small step approach and its fabulous what can happen.

I started another old book journal. It seems every time I get orange splashed on the page some crows want to come land on it. Art journaling is funny that way. Fall is my favorite season so it stands to reason that would come out in my journal. Here's to enjoying all the wonders of Fall.

Work In Progress

This is the cover of the latest Remains of the Day Journal that I have been making. I used the skirt I bought at a thrift store recently for the fabric.

For the inside cover I used some cotton fabric that had crows on it, continuing with the black and white theme.

This is the back with appliquéd bits, Sarah says it looks like a mushroom but that was not my intent.

One thing that has been fun about making these is trying out all the decorative stitches on my sewing machine.  Some of them are really fun.  I have made a second one, but it will be a gift so I can't show it here.  Now that I have the cover done, its time to make all the pages.  These journals really are a long process but they are fun to make.

Sunday Sketches

Todays sketch for Sunday sketches is a painting and not a sketch.  Since I am taking a class and needed to get the assignments done I figure this can do double duty. The face was transferred to watercolor paper, collaged and then painted . I am not sure I like it, Tell me do you think the eyes look funny? Or is it just me being over critical.

To see other Sunday sketchers head on over to Sophia's blog.

Faces from Class

Its been a busy week here. I have been really enjoying the layered impressions class, I am taking with Katie Kendrik. We have been painting faces on telephone book pages. I have had so much fun with the process that I did five of them.

On this one the telephone page was transferred onto watercolor paper.

Here the paper was glued to the watercolor paper.

This was one was another transfer.

I even took a try at doing a man.

This is the last one I did, I kept the wonky look of the original. Normally I would have given her more of a forehead and more hair but I kind of like her look. These were so much fun I think I will do more at a later date.  Tomorrow I'll start working on a collaged portrait. This is so much fun.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Zen Tree and a Video

I have to interrupt my previous scheduled blogpost for a news update: My trip to Oregon has been cancelled. Dave took the trailer in for a new tire because we noticed the tread on one was bad. That is when we were told the axle was bent. Cost to repair is 1600.00, no longer under warranty. Life sucks sometimes.

I started this zentree awhile ago and finished it last week. The tree was created in a moleskine watercolor notebook with micron and faber-castell pitt pens and some pencil. It was fun. Now that I have done the zen raven and the zen tree hmm I wonder what I should do next.


 

I found this video the other day and this is such a cool idea. If you have stamps like I do, this is a new way to personalize them and make the work unique. Often I have used a paintbrush with stamping ink and sometimes it works well and other times it does not. These little nibs work great.

What I did this summer

If you remember this post  Go look at it now before you look at the rest of the post.  You'll see over 160 carded batts. I spent the summer spinning them all and here are results.

This is my kitchen table with all the skeins of yarn I spun.  I watched TV and movies while doing all these skeins.

This is a closer view of some of the colors. Now I know the question will be, what are you going to do with all of that yarn. I will pull the colors that have several skeins and save them for another project. With the rest I will weave a blanket.

As you can see I have a lot of blues, greens and purples but there are also gold, peaches and pinks.

and some neutrals too. I think I have at least a little bit of most of the colors out there. I think this will make a fantastic blanket.