Sunday, July 25, 2010

a week in photos.

Humph.  This really should be multiple posts, but I have been busy.  And lazy.  It's been kind of a crappy week out, so we have been craftin' it up around here.  Working on lots-o-goodies.  I have been a bit frantic to produce some beauty as of late and I am beginning to think it is because I am anticipating the dreariness of winter.  I know it is not even August quite yet, but I can feel the cold coming.  Winter is lurking.  And where winter lurks, dark and dreary gray days follow.  I want lots of color and happiness on our walls.  Let us begin.

This project is not for my walls.  Nor did I make it this week.  I actually gave it away to a sweet baby cherub a couple of weeks ago, but the pictures were still on my camera and they needed to be shared somewhere dagnabit.  Not my usual fare, but I fell in love with the wee one Lila in utero of one of my favorite ladies on this earth - so an exception was made.  The three girls in the center are embroidered from a pattern purchased here .  I had a feeling Lila would indeed be a girlie, so I began stitching them up a bit ago.  The quilled cards came later.




Excuse the shadow of my large head.  Oh well.


These are my attempt at Roses.  Um, I know.  

        

At least it's better than a baby blanket.  Guess how many baby blankets I was given when Ethan was born?  17.  Yup.

Next up is Troy's current Food Porn submission.  If you do not know about this website, well then you are like the rest of us - normal.  My husband however is obsessed.  It's not enough to be geeked out on artsy food all of the time, now he has to whore it out.  He has not had a photo accepted yet, but he is a determined little fellow.  Below is this past Tuesday's dinner of mushroom crusted rack of lamb with a leek puree, roasted shitake mushrooms and some sort of potato/squash deal.  


                                        

Our house, which we rent is on 23 acres.  Waaaay out.  Unfortunately however - our neighbor's house is right across the drive.  They are positioned to look right into our living room if they so desired.  To boot, our landlord also has his cabinet making business on the property and is here multiple times a week.  Not really the private setting we had anticipated when moving in, but alas.  We could keep the shades drawn and live like hermits, but that's not really my style.  I got the bright idea this week to make window art with the kids that would add some color to our inside world and keep some of the peepers out.  This attempt was both successful and a bit dismal.   My idea was to create 'stained glass' dots to hang on four sets of windows by melting crayons inside of waxed paper and then cutting to shape.  Easy enough.  I remember doing similar projects as a child, so how hard can it be?  Um, hard.  I bought way too many crayons, ruined a sheet, pillowcase, and my iron.  And disappointed my children due to my promise that they may iron said wax paper thingies and then getting pissed off at the mess I was making and not letting them.  Seriously it was a huge freaking mess.  Wax everywhere.  I will not do this project again.  Ever.


All the hard work and none of the fun.  It took them forever to peel all of those crayons and I think we used about eight.  


This picture does not do them justice - the dots are actually very pretty from the inside looking out.  Lots of variation in color and texture.  I was hoping it would shine color dots around the room when the sun hit, but that does not happen at all.  The other thing that sucks is how the dots appear from the exterior of the house.  They might as well be construction paper.  Not so much artsy as tacky.

Recently Troy and I decide we no longer wished to hang reproductions on our walls and would instead favor only originals - be it our own or other artist's.  In way of this new movement, we are also re-purposing some of the pictures we currently have hanging.  With the exception of one, I am very tired of the 'art' we have up.  I am also trying not to spend much money, so we have had to get a bit creative.  Our first attempt is a collective painting.  The original work was a painting I bought off Ebay a decade ago.  We first primed over it and then cut and glued foam shapes to it's surface.


The colors of the foam do not really matter since they will eventually be covered by paint, but I thought it would be more interesting for the kids to kind of see what direction we are heading.  The foam is merely there to provide dimension.  Next comes the puff paint.  Lots of puff paint.


The first phase is done, but I think it needs to fully dry before moving on.  It has been 24 hours and it is still very wet.  I bet it will be at least another 2 days before we can move on to the flowers.  I know I should have, but I did not anticipate the weight of this picture.  The paint is so heavy.

        

On a dissimilar note, I attempted to dye a dress for my cousin's upcoming wedding.  Marnie is the flower girl and we were asked to color the dress she wore in my brother's wedding last year to match their theme.  This obviously is not going to work out.

                                                    
I'm not exactly sure what happened here.  Parts of the dress just did not color at all.  Such a bummer.  Now I need to find another dress for her to wear and I do not want to.  I do not want to!! Urg.


My last photo for the day is a glimpse at my current quill work in progress.  A tree obviously.  I hope to finish this by the end of the week and then off to the framer's.  I am itching to start a bigger one.  

It's hard to see the detail.  I'll get better pictures up when it's done.





Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Try, try and try again.

We'll give it yet another go round to see if we can make this blog thing work. It is funny to look back at my previous two attempts and see how different life is now. Too much to post at once. Much sadness and much happiness as well. We shall see what this turn brings about.