Inspiration

        I bought a ton of stuff at an auction on Saturday and I'm slowly sorting thought it. The awesome part of shopping at an auction is you can get so many random things for cheap but this is also the downside. I ended up with a box of casset tapes but In the same box a vintage globe light and a kids microscope. So now begins the sorting and picking out the pieces I want and donating or selling the rest to break even on what I bought.  This time I bought a bunch of old games, children's books and photographs.  Above are the  lovely end pages from a children's book.

Lovely cabinet cards.

The peaches are all ripe and they taste amazing right from the tree. 

House warming

We went to two house warming parties this weekend and for the first one we broke with tradition and bought a gift card so we didn't have to worry about getting a duplicate gift.  I made a flat card and a few days later I decided I didn't like it so I simply cut it up for parts.  I simply cut a few slits in 5x7 paper and folded them to make the box shape. One was slightly smaller than the other so it would fit snugly inside.  The holes in the side made me think of a viewfinder and I decided to make a mini diorama and added the trees to the top portion of the box.  After I bought the gift card I used it for parts to create the dirt under the trees.The finishing touches of the house number,a poem in Latin, and a photograph.

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.

Yard Sale Saturday

    Yard Sales tend to be hit or miss and we found the best things at the last two sales that happened to be near the restaurant where we were eating breakfast.  The owner of this rug just moved from a 3,000 sq foot house to 1,000 sq house but it had a really long back yard that would be amazing to have parties in or put a giant shed for extra storage or another room.  They own a shop so they knew the history of their pieces and were offering fair prices. This rug came in two parts because it was made on a small loom used by children.  I love how bright the colors are in this rug and it made my friend a very happy new owner.

      I picked up a bunch of different fabrics that I want to turn into aprons.  I spent a little bit more on these than I usually do but it was the only thing on my stop and my own buy so I was happy to fork over the 12 bucks.  I'm the queen of the dollar sale. Battenberg lace and floral dreaminess.

goofing off

I'm currently drawing pictures of aliens with my dip pen because I can.  I painted watercolor over regular gesso and if you go back to fix any spots that don't have any color you get interesting layered results. Interesting as in your mistakes are really obvious.  So I went back in with my pen and drew the pictures I saw emerging from the page.  I took a class with the lovely Carla Sonheim a few years ago and she has a bunch of great techniques where you draw what you see in pen or paint splotches.