Happy 4th

2010-06-28

The road less taken...or rocky ride ahead

I'm at another crossroads. I love to learn and yet I still don't recognize soon enough when things aren't working. I thought the Farmer's Market would be an outlet for all my creative endeavors but the peeps in my small town have an interest in plants and food. They are not able or willing to support my artistic appetites so I have to move on to a bigger pool...The adventure continues

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What aa difference a week makes

paper Mache Brought to you by the letter A

Paper mache clay

 I know I can't focus...
So today I made a paper mache onit and a Sally Cat....Family members know what an onit is, and soon you will too...

Sometimes we need to be reminded

Sometimes we need to be reminded

ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN
(a guide for Global Leadership)
All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in the sand pile at school.
These are the things I learned:

• Share everything.
• Play fair.
• Don't hit people.
• Put things back where you found them.
• Clean up your own mess.
• Don't take things that aren't yours.
• Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
• Wash your hands before you eat.
• Flush.
• Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
• Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
• Take a nap every afternoon.
• When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.
• Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
• Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do                                        we.
• And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.

Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.
Take any one of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if we all - the whole world - had cookies and milk at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had as a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.
And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out in the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.
[Source: "ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN" by Robert Fulghum.  See his web site at http://www.robertfulghum.com/  ]

the chair

The tree frogs think it's summer...

Okay...I'm a little punchy because it's 3:00+  a.m and I have jury duty in 5 hours...I should be sleeping but it's still 70 degrees
sssssssssssssooooooooooo

I'm browsing the internet, thinking about all the craft hours I'll miss while doing my civic duty

This week I painted the upholstery on a vintage cane chair  going in the new blue room. The green velvet was a little dated and dusty looking after 60+ years so out came my acrylics (just cheapo craft paints) a stiff paint brush, and nerves of steel...I thought about reupholstering the
seat and back but the thought of dealing with all those tufted covered buttons put that thought out of my mind.
You can use fabric medium with the paints, but using a really stiff clothing brush after the paint dries will soften the material again ...I'll post pictures tomorrow along with the garage sale find curtains (50 cents a panel)  that will look fantastic with the 'cottage y' I'm going for...I also found a topper in green that I am planning to make over in blue   with the paint brush as well because it has these really cool prisms hanging on it...you'll just have to imagine it for now.

an empty room

poly shapes with pazzles

The polymer cuts very nicely with the settings used last night, een with intricate cuts

Cutting Polymer clay with a Pazzles

Today I finally got to cut Poly clay with my Pazzles after much experimenting with thickness and blade adjustments. The clay has to be conditioned well befor rolling it through a pasta machine. I found it worked best when I put it through at 4 on my machine. To place it on my mat, I pressed it down firmly by placing a paper towel over it and then using the edge of my vinyl squeegee to apply it. I moved the rubber bumpers on my pazzles to the sides of the rollers before cutting. My settings on the Pazzle were 6 for depth, 9 for pressure and 1 for speed. Clean the blade and rollers after each cut. I will try more intricate cuts with larger pieces of clay. These pieces are about 1.5 - 2 inches.
I can't wait to try fondant next but have to get a new mat
Mari

Home!!!

After almost 4 months we are back home...I am surrounded by my stuff (way too much) and ready to tackle many projects. The first is to move my office from one of the unfinished rooms to make room for my mother , who moved in with us last year after an illness. She has STUFF too...80 years of it. After emptying her house for market, donating, trashing and giving away, there is still a barn full and personal items that fill a couple of rooms. I am remodeling the current office to make her a sanctuary to her liking, so she will feel she belongs here. I have an inspiration pic and a vision how to make it work in this room...we'll see how it goes.

MEOW MOOD

,This is the second candle order I received while on the road...Next year I'll have to bring supplies :-o

Door decal

Dressed up the RV a little bit with vinyl cut on my Pazzles...

calling it finished

Okay...The proportion is off now but I am very pleased with the skin tones...going to call her finished and move on :-o

Reinventing myself...again

Today is a new day...you can be anything you want to be
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmIaxeCzE3Y

On my easel...WIP

Tring to get the skin tones right

Isabella

Yorkie incarnate

Wiped out with a brushstroke

I wiped out a perfectly adorable Yorkie today because of innocent comments by acquaintances...I really have to learn to ignore anything said while I'm painting, or stop working while people pretend to admire a half finished piece
sigh....

3 completed Pet Portraits

WIP

This is Mick Jagger, an 18 year old Dachshund and George, the old Akita...The backgrounds on both will change

wild floorcloth

I brought a roll of canvas with me to Florida so today I started a floorcloth to commemorate last weeks visit to the Miami zoo. I love painting floorcloths...it's the 5 layers of poly and waiting between coats that gets monotonous

Pink Flamingos

Today, I pull out the Pazzles to cut SSOPF (you know who you are) flamingos by request. My husband was very tolerant of me transporting half my electronic toys to Florida for the winter so maybe it will pay off. I also want to make a Merry Christmas decal for the front window of the RV. check back for pictures. For all my northern friends, it was 87 here yesterday...yikes

It's magic, I tell you...

or alien technology...whatever...here I am being chauffeured down the New Jersey Turnpike, headed toward my 100 days in Exile  (that's my other more in-tune blog), and I'm browsing the intertubes, listening to the Carpenters on the I Pod, and writing on my Blog. If that ain't FM, I don't know what is...

Florida mode

I paint alot while I'm in Florida...These are my WIP to take before I start anything new

Craft fair frenzy

I'm just a little over half ready for Saturday's craft fair...I figure i'll make 75 cents per hour spent ;O)

Let's Pretend....

Let's pretend that I'm not leaving for Miami December 9th, only 20 days to...
Close up a 12 room house and mouse proof it
Finish 230+ items for my one craft show I managed to squeeze in while taking care of my mother 24/7, moving the contents of her house, trying to sell said house, surviving a rat bite...yadayadayada
Plan a Xmas party 4 days before we leave
Christmas shopping may have to wait til I get to Florida

Oh No! Edible art

I love this new fondant recipe...It's delicious and easy to work with...There will be no boring Christmas cookies this year.