Six Word Saturday

I confess, I love Romance Novels

They are my secret treasures, only read while in bed or alone where no one can see me. I adore the cheesy plots, where he rescues her from a dastardly fortune seeking cad, and in the end she rescues him from his bad-boy image. And throw some time travel in there - and you've got me hooked. My secret sanity last week on "vacation" was LISTENING to trashy novels on my ipod while I waited with mom at Dr. offices and sat and knitted. In my mind I was wearing silk and satin and being kissed (and MORE) by a dark handsome warrior - who protected me from all evil....ha ha - they all thought I was listening to opera!

Okay, to save my reputation - I read like a fiend and I just finished a depressing Anita Shreve novel also. Plus others to improve my mind, there are so many good books out there. And I haven't sunk to the Harlequin romance level books yet - No Siree - I have too much taste!!!

But the escape into that secret world is just such a treat....

Girlfriends Book - Lynette and Karen

Oh my...the challenge! Such gorgeous work. I can't show Karen's first page, she wants it to be a secret but here is my page for her book.
Lynette's book was started on Yupo paper, and Karen continued that medium. I didn't have any, so used rice paper, which was then too floppy to attach - I had to mount it on watercolor paper. So it's a bit thick compared to their lovely delicate work. I brayered color onto the rice paper, and then stenciled colored light molding past for the flowers. The butterflys came from some vellum envelopes that I have and the boy figure from some victorian cutouts that I had.


This is FUN. I'm finding that I am being pretty free in style and using items that I would normally not use. I can't wait until the next one shows up! Both of these are off to Suki today.

Animal Wednesday - a Froggy and Foggy morning

When I logged on this morning I couldn't figure out why everyone was posting AW a day early. Duh...I'm still out of sync!

It's been awhile since I drew an animal, so here is my attempt at a frog. (ATC sized and ready for trading when completed). I love drawing animals (and fish!) and am vowing to do more.



I also found this guy on my porch on Sunday night, isn't he just so plump and toady looking?
He hightailed it away right after this picture with a massive jump - very impressive.

Happy Animal Wednesday everyone! Go kiss a snake!

Snippets

It was a different type of vacation last week, we were in Florida again - really for the first "normal" visit since Dad died. Our other visits since February have been saturated with family holidays and there has been much diversion. This time it was just us and mom at the house. When we got there on Friday night we saw immediately that mom wasn't feeling well and by Sunday AM I had her at the Doctors for a bad bronchitis (she has a tendency towards pneumonia - yikes!). Treated that for a few days and then she came down with a UTI - and had to go back to the Dr. again on Thursday. I stayed close to home as I was worried about her, she really wasn't herself and did alot of sleeping. By Saturday AM, she was feeling better and much more like herself! So we went bike riding.

We went to one of our favorite bike parks which has miles of trails and some are rather complex and challenging. After completing our usual "easy" trails, we decided to do one that is a bit more challenging. I really did well - peddling along a narrow winding trail - and I finally realized that I was having fun. Just at that moment a small dip appeared in the trail and BOOOM - this is what happened.

I went end over end, face first into the dirt (actually my chest hit first which is one advantage of being well endowed) and I had dirt even up my nose! I was covered with sandy dirt and was basically trapped with my legs twisted around my bike. Thankfully a loud yell brought DH back to my side and he freed me, washed me off, and put me back on the bike. I was sore for a few days afterward and have some impressive black and blue marks.

I went onto quieter pleasures.

There is a quilt shop in Sarasota that is small but nice, and in the back there are little old Amish ladies hand quilting around a big quilting frame. They do quilts for people around the country, and their work is wonderful. I could sit and watch them for hours, and feel the quiet entering my soul. I went to that store to buy some thread for some slipcovers I was making for MIL (another story), but ended up with a ton of fabric and a quilt top! Here is the story. I want to make a quilt for a nephew out in California but was stumped on the pattern. Should I do baseball theme, or other sports or just color? Nothing has been speaking to me. But when I walked into this store, I saw fabric based on that sculptor "Wyman" ( I don't know if that is how you spell his name and can't find a link to a site that shows his work...since I can't spell his name!)
who does dramatic sea scenes in bronze. I know that my brother loves his work and here was all this fabric with scenes from the ocean. I was going to buy a kit that they had for the pattern and then got the bright idea of buying the sample quilt (85" x 85") - pieced by those same Amish ladies. And yup, they sold it to me for a very decent price and all I have to do it get backing fabric, and complete the quilting. I hope my nephew likes it, but even if he doesn't I know my brother will - and it might even turn into a wall hanging.

The piecing work is wonderful and while it's a bit busy for me - I would have added some plain squares, I think the California crowd will love it. (I hope).

So...that's some highlights from the week. It was a relaxing week but we didn't do our usual recharging of our batteries which we really needed. DH stayed at his mom's house, and I stayed at mine :( . This actually worked out well, DH wasn't exposed to mom's cold and I got to relax by mom's pool - but still...

We're BAACCK....

too much sun and heat. No exercise to speak of (except bike riding). Ate too much. could have stayed another week....

more posting soon.

Six Word Saturday with pictures

More organized or just hidden away?

As I clean - especially when working off nervous energy, I have to ask myself if I am organizing smartly, or am I just trying to hide things from myself so that I feel like I am in control. This time I tried to work with a purpose, so as not to have to redo anything. Most items were put into the appropriate place, excess is going to goodwill and I do feel a bit more organized.

Here is the before picture of my basement art shelves. Accessible but overwhelming to look at.
DH made me a top for the shelves (you can't see it but before it was just old cardboard boxes and some masonite sheets) It fit perfectly and we painted it to match the walls.

Here is the after picture. I got this fabric on sale for $2.00/yard when Hancock was going out of business - and I bought 8 yards and knew I'd find a use for it. It took me all of about 1 hour to make these curtains, they are velcro'd onto the plastic shelving.
Once we get the ceiling covered it will be even better. The open ceiling is prone to collecting dust - which makes me sneeze and then I snore in bed. One of my problems is that I feel obliged to recycle all the left over bits and pieces that I have in the house. My preference would have been to get totally new shelving - nice clean white with glass doors. But that cost money so I did with the plastic garage style shelving - which is functional but ugly. Everything behind the curtains is functional, nothing inspirational at all, so I'm not shortcutting the creative process. Last but not least is the pile going to Goodwill! The dog pillow is not going - love that bulldog and it took me years to finish it. But computer bags and regular bags and some crafty supplies - all OUT of this house.


I am working on another mirror frame - it's a bit more deliberate than the first one, but coming along nicely.
The sides are painted and will be decorated with dots/stripes. When it's done we'll decide which one to keep and which one to give away.

I started a new collage - here is the base. Layers of old newspaper, then stamped dress pattern fabric with items placed on top. I'm hoping for inspiration on this one, will be adding color and texture and hopefully it will look good.

Have a good week everyone. We should be off on vacation with the Moms - I may have a chance to post or not - we'll see how it all goes!

Cleaning and getting ready for vacation

We are going away for a week, to see the moms - and between working hard this week, and getting-ready-to-leave- stress and just regular life-stress - I started to feel disconnected and slightly nervous.

So, I started cleaning and rearranging. When I first noticed this pattern in my behavior, I thought it was destructive - in that I put things away and shove artwork into drawers, and hide my yarns. What I've learned this year is that cleaning and arranging is my way of trying to take control in a world that often feels so out of control. So I try to channel it into a more constructive manner, tackling things that I've put off for a long time, or making something that I've wanted to do for awhile, or finding/making a new place to put yarns and craft items.

Alot of this nervousness and anxiety has to do with Bella husbands death. I don't know Bella well, just a bit from IF. But it doesn't matter, she seemed like a nice lady, and her art is good, - she seemed to have a happy life. What is so scary is how a happy, even keeled life can change in an instant with the death or illness of a loved one. I know it happens every day, in war and in peace. I know that life appears to be unfair and shocking and frightening at the same time that it is wonderful and lovely and a gift from the gods.

But what I worry about is the randomness of it all, and the question of how to live your life as a human with wonderfully high and woefully low emotions - enjoying everything that you have - yet allowing your human-ness to exist. Should you count your blessing every minute? Do you go thru the day being a complete saint (not me) and never letting anything petty get you down? or do you worry about the toilet paper being on the roll backwards and yell upstairs like a fool when the seat is left up again. How does the saint and the sinner co-exist?

In terms of resolutions to be a better person, I made a vow a long time ago to give DH a good bye kiss every morning, even on those mornings that I wish I hadn't made that vow. That small gesture seems to tide me over for the day, whether I'm angry as hell for some reason, or goofy in love, or just having a normal human day. It's a small "thank you" to who-or what ever for the blessings that I have. Then I tromp off to work and get annoyed at the slow traffic, or pissy about some imagined slight - or whatever. How petty it all seems!

I certainly don't know the answer. My heart breaks for Bella and for other friends who have had similar losses and pains.

But my house is cleaner, somewhat organized - and I feel a bit calmer.