bulls eye!

Yesterday, I was on the phone with my friend Fatima.  We were talking about life, and she said she wanted things in my etsy shop so she could buy them.  I love Fatima. 

The problem is, my everyday drudgery is keeping me from working- I even have pieces made, but it’s not as quick as it seems to list on etsy.  At least, not for me.  Most of what I make is in its own category, with its own description, etc.  So, I ask ye crafters in the bunch, how do you streamline this process?  I’ve thought about writing general copy and saving it in a Word file… ?  I am hopeless in this capacity!  Any comments would be greatly appreciated. 

BUT!  I did complete some crafting (sort of) yesterday, inspired by the Teemers.  Sage has this adorable apple green pair of pants (hand-me-downs, of course) that were ready to retire to Florida- they’d had a good life, made good investment choices, etc.  I thought I’d patch them to buy a few more months out of them.  I don’t support ageism. 

 

I had some great scraps gifted from one of my mafia pals (thanks, Becca!), including this mod canvas that I thought would be perfect.  I am loving spring green with bright pinks lately- perhaps my friend Kristen’s wedding colors are bleeding into my palette awareness. 

Hooray, I finished something!  More cooking/reviewing to come later this week.  Happy MLK day! 

punkin

the pumpkin farm, a photo essay.  note: i don’t know why zander had his tongue sticking out the entire day.  it shall remain a mystery of the pumpkin farm. 

the loo and the stu…

the stu, dio.  first the bathroom, though, which is was remodeled at some point using the “I’d Do Just About ANYthing For A Window Here” school of design.  it’s shaped like a tetris block:

 

the amount of room in between the tub and the wall here is very narrow- so narrow that when i kneel to wash the kids’ hair, i can’t flatten my feet.  they hit the wall.  but, it has a window!  that’s all that matters! 

and now, the moment we’ve all been waiting for: the studio!  where all the magic happens! 

it’s really a closet.  and the floor slopes so much that i have to keep my feet firmly planted to avoid careening into the fabric storage boxes when i sit in the chair.  it’s a mess, too, as you can see.  i’m for realism, remember?  soon there will be a tall table for cutting and layout type things, with a smaller table for the sewing machine tucked in next to it.  then there are the boards:

brimming with ideas…

and, here’s the not so pretty part of the room, the storage part.  i got really inspired by sarah’s craft room fabric storage, but i didn’t get enough.  heaven forbid i plan ahead and calculate before going to the store. 

so, yeah, work in progress here.  consider these the ‘before’.  i was thrilled (doesn’t take much) to discover that my little yard sale german hospital cart was great for ribbon storage:

oh, and to give credit where it is due, my mom made those pretty yellow curtains in the year 47 AD.  ok, maybe it was 1979, close enough.  thanks, mom! 

the room for living

next stop on the tour, the room of living.  this is on the front of the house, that’s the front door there…

how bout that couch cover?  i heart you, ikea.  the big piece on the left is also from ikea, but handed down (free!) from my sis.   i heart you, sis.  rug from my mom (i think it’s from ollie’s), chair from my mom, hastily covered by me and sage last week.  it has teddy bears under that blue fabric.  my dad made the cd shelf, and the mirrors and memo strip (25 cents!) are from, you guessed it, ikea. 

from the front door looking back:

i don’t tidy before i take photos, if i took time for that, there would be no time for the posting… sage has been playing dress-up in here this afternoon while i make circles for some new projects.  here you can see the other couch and the wall color- two walls are lime green, while the long wall that runs into the dining room is yellow.  luckily, my giant painting fits in with both:

geez, it looks so crooked in this shot, i need to get out my level… anyways, that’s the room we live in.  come and see us sometime!  more house to come this week…

a career in collage

so.  i have had a little box, sitting in my basement neatly labeled, “h’s school stuff” for 2 years.  each time i looked at it, i wanted to de-clutter it right out of my life, but when i opened it, something stopped me from pitching the contents.   i did this 4 or 5 times before i finally thought of what to do with it all. 

the box was full of lesson plan books, photos, and student work from my 7 years of teaching.  i enjoyed looking through it, and yet it wasn’t anything anyone else would find interesting.  i was conflicted over what to do with all that paper.  it came to me all at once, i don’t know from where, but come it did.  i went out, got the supplies, and got to it.  i finished in one week. 

supplies:

• one giant warped canvas, rescued from the trash
• lesson plan books, student papers, photos, saved from the trash
• mod podge (purchased)
• acrylic paints (purchased)
• paint brushes, swiped from the kids art box

in the beginning, there was canvas. 

the canvas was sad, droopy, and headed for the trash.  it was a very large canvas.  it sat in my living room, behind the bookcase, for months and months, wondering when its time would come. 

there were photos, and lesson plans. 

and, there was a woman with a mission…  (me).  first, i cut/tore the more interesting and meaningful pages out of the books, and decoupaged (can that be a verb?) them onto the canvas. 

next, i added the photos, then i began to paint over it all with the acrylics.  i should say here that i’ve never done anything like this before.  i’ve never painted, or decoupaged.  i just sort of stumbled through, and did what i felt worked.  i went in chronological order from the top left to the bottom right, ending in the corner with the surprise birth of my daughter at 30 weeks gestation.  her photos are displayed on the page from my lesson plan book from the day she was born.  as i painted, i went with my color instincts, and ended up with a rainbow effect, with some female, animal, and flower forms floating around.  here’s the finished product:

and some detail shots:

i’m entering this in whiplash this month- the theme is recycled craft. 

ode to color

the yarn harlot today has written what i feel about color and art in my everyday life.  thanks, stephanie, now i can be lazy.  seriously, though, i feel like a nut sometimes when it comes to color.  i am always drawn to the most ____ (fill in the blank- suggestions: bright, muted, variant, etc.) colors in textiles, furniture, clothing, and pretty much anything.  i just love color with an undying passion.  there, i’ve said it. 

this weekend in atlanta, before our conference began in earnest, we hopped the MARTA over to the High Museum, to take in the visiting exhibit from the Louvre.  of course, no photos were allowed, but here’s the outside view of the banner advertising the show:

i had allocated about $30 to invest in something from the museum shop that inspired me.  i ended up with a small Matisse print, a wipe-off  board printed with van gough’s irises, and these magnets:

 sorry, i had no idea how impossible it would be to get a decent photo of these- they’re glass circles. 

i stuck them on the fridge for the time being, until my big bedroom/studio inspiration board is ready for them.  the amount of pure joy i feel as i walk by and see them is worth so much more to me than the $4 i paid for them.  and, one more color love item before we end today- check out this awesome present sage received from grandmommy at christmas:

crayon stands!  oh, how i love them…

i have been hard at work in my makeshift studio this week, working on many different projects, and all will be revealed this week! 

self-portrait with foam plate, 2007