Went for a little walk..... made a little mail art.

Starbucking...hanging at Starbucks

 Finishing off some pages in my 8x8 journal. More dip pen love.  I was talking to a friend about fairy tales and I wanted to do something on Snow White and Rose Red with pictures I already had in my stash.  The Instax pictures (Fuji's version of Polaroids) flip up to reveal a broom and a bear sleeping in a rose (artistic license). The bear is not glued down so you can take him out and play with him.

If you don't know the story...Rose Red and Snow White live in a cabin with their mother and one night a bear knocks on the door.  He stays with them for months and they grow to love him but he has to return to the forest and guard a cave.  The dwarf steals money from the cave and ends up getting his beard caught several times on his way home.  The girls help him each time by cutting off a small piece of his beard.  The dwarf is angry every time they cut his beard and the last time the bear shows up and give him a nice smack that leads to the dwarfs demise. As soon as the dwarf dies the bears skin falls away and he turns out to be a prince and he has a brother and you can guess what comes next...double wedding.

                         Dip pen drawing and photo collage.  That weird yellow thing is the flash of my camera.

I thought it would be fun to make my own paisley patterns and it was a bit time consuming because I had to do it all in pencil first and then go back over it with ink.  I plan on making copies and using it in other collages later on.  A portrait of one of my friends , office worker by day and she's a belly dance teacher at night. In one of her dance troupes her partner is a scientist by day and yoga teacher/ international award winning belly dancer.

sashiko

 

        I rode the commuter train up the coast to a small quilt,craft and sewing convention just to see what the vendors are selling.  I saw allot of amazing fabric and trim but the only thing I wanted were a few of the sashiko (Japanese embroidery) kits that were on sale.  I happened to open a craft book the day before going to show with information about sashiko and I wanted to try it.  Well the universe was working for me because one booth had the kits and the needlework society was there and they were giving tips to another person about it at the exact time I was walking buy.  I 'm close to finishing my practice piece and I'm made a few mistakes because you have to be careful about pulling the cord too tight and puckering the fabric.  The directions are all in Japanese but the directions have clear pictures so if you've done embroidery before you can figure it out.  Since I'm almost finished I did a little google search and found this nice tutorial on Purl Bee .  I know it takes longer but once in a while I like to figure things out for myself if I don't have a time line.