1-1-11

Inevitably a new year!  All those ones.  Welcome to 2011 and happy new year to all of you my blogger friends.  You inspire me daily, and I get excited when I find someone new to follow.  Today was a quiet day.  I played with my cat Bailey whose favorite game is "hide the cat in the bag."

He likes to hang out inside the bag, only parts of him sticking out.  A gentle poke with my toe on his hip makes him crazy as he scrambles to turn around in the bag to swat at me.  Usually my toe is long gone by then.  :)  He knows that... the crackling sound of the bag is what's music to his ears, go figure.  He also has a catnip ball that he loves, and if you toss that into the bag with him, he gets lively.  Mostly though, he's a super laid-back dude, like the Dude, minus the dope... :)

I made veggie soup for dinner with black-eyed peas.  Yummy, and I loved the colors!

 

It had red cabbage, onions, celery, garlic, parsley, balck-eyed peas, olive oil, and seasoning.

Then I finished a shadow box project that I've had sitting around for such a long time it had a 1/4" of dust on it.  I used an old hook rack that I painted and distressed, then filled with meaningful words and symbols.  Hearts are close to my heart, and also anything natural, like the outdoors.  I had glued on some bought eggs in the nest of Spanish Moss, but they were too big so I had to make some polymer clay eggs that I painted robin's egg blue with brown spatters. 

Happiness is NOW, look within for peace and love. (Rather than the outside where it doesn't exist.)

 I had a red plastic heart that I covered with paper from a paperback I wrote myself then glued inspirational words like "live your bliss" and "choose joy."  It is a choice, either we decide to dig for that good feeling inside or we spend the day being negative.  Gratitude is a good path toward feeling joy!  The twigs are from outside where there is no shortage of those! :)

 Nature has a thing or two to teach us, so I like to include natural elements to honor that.  I'm grateful that I live in the midst of glorious nature!

The whole piece is about 16" inches long and 8" high.  Lots of fun to make!

Bailey now fell asleep next to me.  He's dreaming and twitching.  I wonder what he thinks he's catching...  He was not happy during the fireworks last night.  It sounded like they were setting off bombs in the neighborhood...

Do you know what you want to accomplish this year?  On a physical level I'm sure what I want.  I know what I love to do-art and writing.  On a spiritual level, I want to follow my Inner Voice more closely and also find the bliss in every situation.  I don't want to waste any more time on letting things "happen" to me, or to wallow in pity parties, or dwell on the horrendous things we do to each other and Nature.  If I can be an inspiration for upliftment, I'm one less problem in this world!  So, I wish all of that for you too, savoring living in the moment and looking toward things that uplift you and make you happy!  Happy people make good choices that are good for everyone.  Happy people spread the happy bug around!  You know what I mean! ;-D

I wish you a GREAT creative year!  

2010 is almost done!

I can't complain about 2010.  I've had better years, but it was a creative year though I spend more time writing than making art.  Very cerebral, not colorful and hands-on, though the fingers fly nimbly across the keyboard.  Had a creative spurt lately in the winter gloom.  It has been too cold to do anything but hunker down in my studio and create.  Also, knitting is a cold weather hobby so I made another knitted and felted purse, more like a tote bag really.  I found some great frames to embellish with my polymer clay mosaic tiles, so here they are, among other things. 

 

Making polymer clay tiles is addictive.  You roll out the clay, stamp, bake, and paint.  A colorful meditation when things are going well.  Sometimes the pieces come together really fast on the frame, and sometimes I really have to dig deep for the perfect pieces to fit together.  Always a happy ending, though... :)

One of those boxes that you've seen many examples of.  I made a bunch of new ones.

Just want to wish you HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

'Tis the season as they say!  I wish you peace, joy, and a stress free Christmas and a great new year. 

Let some music into your life!  :)

Where have I been??

That's a good question... I got away from blogging and blog cruising for a while.  I miss it!  I've been making some things, but mostly polymer clay mosaics, so those types you have already seen.  Though, I have a couple of things that are a bit different, a large star box, and a mirror that promotes PEACE!  I thought that was a worthy thing to be reminded of while looking into a mirror.  Peace begins within, with us.  When there's peace within, there will be peace all across the world! 

I've been selling some art pieces and there's a demand on the polymer clay mosaics, so here is the "how to" for the star box I made.  It'll appear in my etsy shop pretty soon.  I'm mostly selling locally, but you never know...

 

The stamped and painted tiles for the star box.

 

I painted the lid black to conceal any cracks showing between the tiles, and also to seal the wood.

 

Trial and error.  The star shape is a challenge!

Voila!  Laid out and glued down.  Yay!  Where there's no space for tiles, I glue down glass beads.

I decided to paint the box itself red.  It was spray painted gold inside and on the bottom.  The inside of the lid is a bright turquoise.

Angel wishes...  BELIEVE they can come true!

I like loud color combinations!  Finished. 

The Peace mirror!  Available in my etsy shop now.  It's difficult to take pictures of mirrors without the camera showing, hands, or inside ceilings.  Did you ever encounter that?  Those trees are some live oaks in my yard.

Giving Thanks and Black Friday...

Somehow those two words don't really go together, Thanks and Black, but that may just be a personal opinion . . .  I have so many things to be thankful for, one, living in a peaceful place, a great roof over my head, lovely neighbors, sweet animals, friends . . . food on my table every day, and plenty of it.  No turkey though as I'm a vegetarian.  My friends usually wish me Happy Tofurky Day, but to be honest, I've never had tofurky.  I am grateful for family but they don't celebrate Thanksgiving as they live overseas. 

Black Friday sounds like something dire out of history, like the Black Plague, and for some, this particular friday could be considered a hazard to your health . . . throngs, traffic, rabid shoppers, sleep deprived shoppers as the stores open at 3 am.  How nuts is that?  Anyway, I won't be joining the throngs.  I might just go for the handmade gifts.  So, if you're into handmade and you like my things at etsy or artfire, I'm offering 25% off on everything in both shops, starting Black Friday and ending at midnight on Cyber Monday.  The etsy shop takes the 25% right off the price at checkout with code blackfri51, but you'll have to convo me on artfire.

Click on the links in the sidebar to get to my shops.

HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY THANKSGIVING dear blog family!

The theme is RED!

If you check out June's blog, A Creative Dream you'll find a creative prompt for November and it's RED.  She has all the rules on her site and it looks like fun!  Here's something red for you. :)  A trip down memory lane for me...  We're not supposed to post this until Monday, but I might not have the time then.

 

This is an old painting of mine RED HOT! that I sold on ebay some years back.  My, has my style changed!  I used some really heavy texture in this piece.

Very cosmic, and undoubtably some red though you can count all the primary colors in this one. The ole Black Hole.

I actually ended up gesso-ing this piece.  It's all white now, with very heavy texture.  Looks like something from the 60s, don't you think.  What was I thinking...?  I don't know what to do with it.

 

This was a mixed media.  The flowers and the fence are cut from paper that I painstakingly glued onto the canvas.  I wonder where it is now.  Sold thru ebay years ago.

And yes, the reddish purse...  I use it all the time when I'm not using the blue one.  As you can see it was for sale at a local store, but nobody bought it, so I brought it home and put it into my purse stable. ;)

I'm more of a BLUE Green person, but red is one of those colors that makes you get up and GO!

10 great things about (my) life right now...

I can only see my life from my perspective, but I know we can all relate to the same ideas. This morning I was petting my cat, Bailey, and I had an idea for a blog post.  Why not focus on the positive?  :)  It gives me a lot more joy than being down in the dumps. Joy lasts through the day if we let it...

1)  It makes me happy to slowly pull my hand down Bailey's incredibly soft, newly grown winter fur.  (Yes, they grow winter fur in FL too.)

2)  After six weeks of drought, it rained for two days!  All of nature is smiling around me, and the fresh scent is so intoxicating.

3)  I got a set of almost new Maytag washer and dryer for FREE!

4)  My computer geek friend fixed an ongoing online problem in an hour for FREE and speeded up my computer!

5)  A horse and two goats next door remind me to be grounded every time I walk by (often with slices of bread, which they love.)

6)  I have fabulous friends.  A friend of mine had a scary mammagram result, and she said "I'm amazed at how many friends I have."  I said, "That's because you're such a good friend to others."  (I think she'll be okay.)

7)  Learning new things...

8)  Amazingly beautiful Morning Glories growing on the old wood pile (they are late this year.)

9)  My Vitamix blender that makes great green smoothies, and just about everything else.

10)  People stopping me at the grocery store and asking when the next collage class is happening. :)